The rift sent False tumbling into a hilly plain. She got up, trying to shake off the goosebumps she got from passing through the rift. She looked around. Where is everyone? False assessed the situation. She was alone, with no tools or supplies, which was not good.
From the position of the sun, she could tell it was early morning, so that meant at least she had plenty of time to collect supplies and maybe build a shelter. First, she needed to go and punch a tree. She found one nearby. A lot of them, actually. There was a whole mangrove swamp within walking distance to her right. False dove into it.
The swamp enveloped her quickly, so quick it was almost ethereal. She was surrounded by fog and trees and leaves and mud and dirty water and so much of it all that she could hardly get her bearings. With so many things blocking her path, False could only see a foot in front of her; in all practicality she was blinded.
Which way was the correct way to go? Which lead out of the swamp?? It was stiflingly hot in the swamp, meaning that the sun was shining bright overhead, but False couldn't really see proof of that with her eyes; the thick canopy overhead filtered it out, meaning that the jungle floor was full of shadow. Shadows that could protect mobs who wanted to hide from the sun.
False grabbed some sturdy twigs and wedge-shaped rocks, then, pulling vines from the treetops, she tied the stones to the sticks to craft some tools and weapons. She had a stone dagger now, and an ax. They were crude and covered in grime and mud, but they were tools that would last the inventor for now.
Trekking through the thick mud and murky water that was as see-through as the rest of the jungle, False nearly got into an accident with an alligator napping in the shade, but her resourcefulness saved her. Grabbing a strong vine, she climbed up it like a monkey and dropped her ax on the reptile's head, distracting it long enough for her to swing away.
It turned out swinging through the jungle was a lot more efficient than wandering around on foot, and plenty more fun. False was just getting the hang of grabbing vines and reaching for another in a steady, repetitive rhythm when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw smoke.
It looked like it was coming from a controlled fire, which meant human settlement. False made a split second decision and let go of the vine she was hanging from, dropping down to the ground below in a not-so-expert fashion; nearly spraining her ankle and slipping to fall in the mud. Okay, I'm glad no one saw that. False got up and didn't even try to get rid of the mud that was staining her clothes. It was too messy in the swamp to try cleaning up so soon.
Instead she headed toward where she saw the smoke, penetrating through the leaves. Soon False found herself walking out of the dense jungle like leaving a room and entering another. It was quite startling. One second she'd been surrounded by nothing but thick foliage, and the next she was seeing houses in a wide clearing. But they were very odd houses.
Wooden shacks made of such dark-colored wood that they would have blended into the shadows, contrasting with how lit up they were on the inside, with bright yellow light streaming out of their thick paned windows. Their deep purple and maroon roofs were floppy-looking, almost droopy, like an old and ratty hat that you'd find in an attic.
Seventeen different kinds of vines and foliage grew up and over the houses, spreading like wildfire, like the jungle was trying to reclaim the cleared land. Glowberries lit up the area from where they hung; from wide and curving tree branches and the eaves of tall and crooked buildings.
Tiny lanterns, of the regular and soul variety, did the same thing, sitting on fence posts, on doorsteps, hanging from a bit of roof that stuck out too much, floating on a pond nearby that had surprisingly clear water in it. Even more surprising was the building that looked like it was built inside a giant purple mushroom, and what appeared to be a giant cauldron bubbling with boiling neon green slime standing next to it. That was where the smoke came from.
False was confused and a little apprehensive. The place looked like a witch's settlement; she'd heard that they sometimes lived in small shacks, hidden away from the world in swamps like the one she'd just come out of. The cauldron definitely looked like it belonged to a wicked witch. False was debating whether to retreat back into the jungle again when two figures walked out from behind one of the droopy-roofed houses.
One of them was definitely the witch who lived here; she had a flappy green witch hat that was shaped like the roofs of the village, and she held a similarly-colored wand in her hand. The second figure she recognized. He had icy blue eyes and fiery cyan-colored pointy hair, with pale skin that contrasted with the dark robe he wore. "Tango!"
"False!" Tango said happily, running toward her, nearly tripping on the hem of his robe and falling into the mud. "When all the hermits got scattered I was so worried something happened!" "Well, this is why we shouldn't mess around with portals," False said, hugging him.
"I haven't seen the others though, I hope they're okay." "I'm pretty sure they're fine," The witch said. "Oh, this is Shelby," Tango said quickly. "She's been telling me about the danger of the fog!" "Yeah, the fog in the swamp eats souls," Shelby added. "You just came out of there, I'm glad you're okay." Eats souls? False shuddered. What kind of universe did we go to?
"We should go looking for the other hermits," False told Tango. "Oh, I can help look for your friends!" Shelby volunteered. "Come on, I'll take you to my nether portal. Me and all my friends have got a system that links our portals to the nether roof; if they've seen your friends we can assemble a meeting up there and you guys can all reunite." False whistled.
"Wow, that's actually a good idea. I'll try that when I get home." "You haven't set up your portal yet, False?" Shelby asked, confused. "I'm pretty sure I saw your portal when I went to Cogsmeade." False blinked. "What? What's Cogsmeade? And I just got here; I haven't made a portal yet!" Shelby just looked even more confused.
---
False woke up late. Very late. She'd had another dream. Again. She couldn't remember what it was, though. But the tinkerer could still feel the rush of adrenaline that she had from it. False got up, tired and sore. It was like she hadn't just been sleeping for fifteen hours straight. Sighing, she went to the kitchen and found a batch of fluffy white pancakes on the table. Next to it was a note from Jimena.
"Went to see Jimmy. Here's some pancakes for you so you don't have to make those eggs." False read, and made a face. Does she have to remind me about those eggs all the time?! Argh, I wish I won that food contest; that would've shown her.
When she finished the pancakes, False went outside to do her chores. But as soon as she left the safety of her house, she found the mysterious signs again. It was only one this time, and it had an equally simple message written on it. "They are here?" False read in confusion. Who's here? I'm alone, aren't I? She looked around, but saw no one, not even Pumpkin Jack. But that seemed scarier than someone strange standing there. Because it was like they were there, just out of sight.
False preferred her enemies in plain sight. Shuddering, she didn't feel like doing her chores in Cogsmeade anymore. So she got into her truck and drove to spawn, remembering her plan to check on the rift. She wasn't sure what she was going to do when she got there, though. What am I going to do? Look at it?
When she arrived at spawn, she found someone people there. People she felt like she should recognize. "Oh, hi, False!" Oli said, for some reason standing on a tree. The people he'd just been talking to turned around to see her. One was wearing a red jumper, the other wore a black shirt with a yellow 'i' printed on it. They waved to her, and False waved back awkwardly. Do I know them?
"Hi, False," The man in the black shirt said. "You know this bard?" "Uh, yeah," False said. "I see you've had an outfit change too," The other noted. False didn't know what to say. Why would he know about my clothes? She decided to stop talking and just check on the rift like she'd planned. So she did, but she didn't expect it to look the way it did.
The last time she'd seen it, it was glowing and purple. Now the rift was dark and empty, like it had gone dormant. False stared, unsure. What happened? She cautiously picked a pebble off the ground and lobbed it at the rift. It bounced off like it had struck a wall, not a portal. It's... closed. "Yeah, us going through it might have broken it," The man in the red jumper said, flying and landing next to her. False backed away from him. She didn't know who he was, and she wasn't sure if he could be trusted.
---
It turned out Shelby was right. When False, Tango, and the witch went through her portal to the nether roof, they found a lot of people there; some they knew, and some they didn't. False was pleased to find a lot of hermits there, mostly unscathed. They introduced her and Tango to some emperors that they'd met after being scattered across this world. Apparently, in this world, different biomes were ruled by different emperors who governed empires and had different exports and stuff. It was very different from Hermitcraft.
Suddenly, as False met an emperor with cyan and silver armor and a striking scar over his eye, he said, "False, what happened to the clothes you got from a dead person?" False blinked, looking down at her clothes. "What are you talking about? Why would you know anything about my outfit?" The emperor, whose name was Sausage, tilted his head at her. A look of knowing flickered across his face. "You're not her, are you?" Who's 'her'? False wondered, when a chilling thought entered her mind. Oh no. This is the same dimension I sent her to.
She silently cursed. Out of all the worlds in the multiverse the rift could have sent them to, they were now in the one world where she was. What were the infinitesimally small chances of it happening, and yet it actually happened. This is not good.
---
Grian frowned. False was acting strange, staring at the rift and not really talking to him or Impulse. She acted distant with them, like she didn't know them. But she's our friend. She's been a hermit for how long now? And yet... Grian felt like there was something strange going on here. Then he noticed something.
"False, why are you taller than me?!" False blinked at him. Grian groaned. Every single emperor he'd met, they were all taller than the hermits. He had no idea why all the hermits were shorter than them, but that had happened, somehow. He blamed the rift. Then a thought occurred to him. If the rift made them short, why would it leave False out? What if... it didn't?
A theory started to form in his mind. What if this wasn't the False the hermits knew? What if this world had another version of False in it? It would explain why she was... different. Grian watched False again, the careful way she moved, the way she kept him and Impulse at figurative arm's length.
She looked the same as the False from Hermitcraft. But she didn't act like the False from Hermitcraft. Grian chuckled to himself. False, your last name is so fitting for this situation. Now there's two of you, and even though you look the same, you're not symmetrical at all. False symmetry.