Jimmy tried not to think about what would happen in two days as he worked on his railway tracks. He'd already given up on it, but he still kept working. Even though he was resigned to the fact that the railroad would probably never be finished, he just wanted a distraction from thinking about the Watchers. Working was a good distraction. Especially when he didn't pay enough attention to where he was putting the hammer down and hammered his own finger.
"Ow!" Jimmy yelled, dropping the hammer and it somehow landed even more painfully on his foot. "Ow!" He shouted again, jumping on one toe and sucking his thumb. Being human again was exhilarating but he'd forgotten how much more things hurt when his body wasn't made of wood. Glaring at the offending hammer he almost kicked it with his other foot but decided against it in time; he didn't really need both feet bruised and throbbing right then and there.
Then again, it would be a good distraction. But causing oneself physical pain was probably not prudent when in two days' time the Watchers would attack this world and start a war that he, the sheriff, was supposed to be fighting in. With a sigh Jimmy sank down to the warm sandy ground and leaned back against the railway. Bad idea; the sun was baking the iron tracks incredibly hot. The sheriff shrieked for the third time that minute and jumped a foot in the air, landing painfully on his bruised foot.
As Jimmy hobbled about wondering if he had any ice to help soothe the pain, Scar came out of the saloon with an ice pack that he'd gotten from somewhere. "Are you okay, sheriff?" He asked. "You screamed like three times in one minute." "So what does that tell you about my physical health?!" Jimmy snarled at him, squeezing his foot tightly in an attempt to relieve the pain.
Scar didn't even flinch at his harsh tone. Jimmy softened. "Sorry, Scar, I'm just really stressed right now." "Yeah, aren't we all." Scar said, humming softly to himself as he pulled a chair out from somewhere and set it down by the sheriff. "Sit down; I'll take care of you." Jimmy obediently sat and watched as Scar pulled his boot off, then took a roll of clean white bandages and began to wrap the ice pack around his bare foot.
"You're actually really good at this." Jimmy commented. Scar hummed in reply. "I hurt myself a lot so I had to learn first aid somehow." The sheriff chuckled. Scar was the most accident prone person he knew that wasn't him so it made a lot of sense.
Scar double checked that he'd tied the bandage properly then stood up in satisfaction when his inspection proved good enough for him. "Okay, you can take it off when either the ice melts or your foot stops hurting. Just take it off after whichever comes first. Sheriff, why were you playing with hammers?" Jimmy, who had been nodding along to Scar's doctor-like orders and advice, suddenly shot him a double take.
"Scar, how did you know it was a hammer?" He asked. Scar suddenly looked incredibly suspicious and looked away, whistling like he was the most innocent thing in the world. "Scar..." Jimmy started. "Sheriff, can you not ask?" Scar asked hopefully. Jimmy rolled his eyes but smiled. "Okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt this time."
Scar grinned. "Thanks, sheriff! But what were you doing with a hammer, anyway?" Jimmy sighed and pointed to the unfinished railway tracks that would now forever be unfinished. "You're still working on that?" Scar asked. "But we can't really get that finished anymore." The sheriff sighed. "I know, it's just that I wanted something to distract me from... you know."
Scar nodded in patient understanding. "Yeah, and it sure looked like you were pretty distracted." Jimmy laughed; he really had been. "Maybe we should try a different distraction." Scar mused. "Like what?" The sheriff asked. Scar turned to him and looked serious enough to impart some great wisdom upon him.
"Friends." He said simply. Just one word. But with enough force behind it to make the sheriff rethink his whole plans for the day. If the Watchers were going to attack in two days... they were probably going to lose some friends... he needed to spend enough time with all of them as possible before that just in case... Jimmy shook his head roughly to dispel the scary thoughts away.
"What do you think we should do?" The sheriff asked Scar, who grinned. "Work on the railway, of course." He said toothily. Now Jimmy was just plain confused. "But you just said to-" "Yeah, but you keep on saying that whenever you work on the railway someone comes along to disrupt your work so if we work on the railroad tracks now a friend will come by!" Scar said, pleased with his own logic.
Jimmy had to admit it actually made some sense to him. Or maybe he was just going crazy from having Scar as one of his only friends that constantly visited him. "Okay, let's work on it then." He said, carefully avoiding the offensive hammer that was still lying in a small indention in the sand to instead pick up some anvils. Scar grinned and picked up the hammer instead.
A short while later of hammering and welding anvils into place, they heard the sound of rockets and elytras and looked up to see Scott and Grian flying toward them. "Yes!" Scar cheered, dropping the hammer that he held. "It worked!" "What worked?" Scott asked as he landed. "Oh, hello, Jimmy." He added.
Jimmy, who'd immediately jumped three feet away when he spotted Scar dropping the hammer, awkwardly waved to the Chromian and sheepishly walked over to the group. "Yeah, what worked, Timmy?" Grian asked. "Every time we try to improve the railway system someone comes and interrupts our work so we decided to work on it to summon friends to talk to and distract us from our inevitable doom in two days!" Scar said with glee.
Everyone slowly turned their heads to look at the scarred hermit but he seemed blissfully oblivious to their judgmental looks with a wide, sort of psychotic yet still wholesome grin on his face. Jimmy wondered how Scar could be so... well... Scar all the time and how he even managed it in the first place without even trying. "Uh... okay." Scott said, shrugging off all of his questions.
"Why did you guys come over to Tumble Town?" Jimmy asked. "Because you summoned us, Lord Timothy," Grian said mockingly, and he bowed low before the rather short sheriff. Jimmy rolled his eyes as everyone else around him chuckled. "Okay, Grian, be serious, why are you guys here?" He asked. Grian stood up again and looked sober. "Well, we wanted to see you before... you know."
No one even mentioned the Watchers. "Yeah, we only have two more days." Jimmy sighed. "Okay, uh, Scott, how's Chromia doing?" "Owen is a surprisingly good military leader." Scott said with clashing awkward expressions flashing across his face. "I don't know how he got that kind of military training and I do not want to know. But anyway, he's taught the other llamas and now I think Chromia is safe for now."
"You think?" Scar asked, but unlike when other people said it, he wasn't being sarcastic. Instead he was questioning why Scott had said the word 'think'. "Well, I'm just worried about Owen doing something when I'm not around." Scott said, shuddering. Jimmy likewise shuddered as he remembered all the shenanigans the llama had gotten into that one day he became a real boy for twenty four hours.
"Hermitopia's doing okay too." Grian said with a distant look on his face. "We've increased the defenses and Mumbo's getting better at pvp." "That's good." Scott nodded. "They're probably going to attack spawn." "Yeah." Grian said even more distantly. "They did that last time."
Jimmy sighed as he recalled the damaged and overgrown state of spawn after the group had come back from that strange fight with the ender dragon and shuddered to think it happening in this world. Not again. I'm not going to let my world be destroyed again! It's happened too many times now!
Scar noticed how stressed the sheriff looked and immediately changed the subject. "Uh, we were supposed to be distracting each other." He said. "How about we go on a picnic?" Everyone looked at him. Then everyone's mouths fell open when Scar produced a fully-stocked picnic basket out of somewhere.
"Where did you- what?" Jimmy stammered, pointing at the basket. "Uh, don't ask." Scar shrugged. "Come on, there's this little wood we can go and have a picnic in." Everyone looked at each other and decided that it couldn't really hurt. So they all went to the little wood that Scar showed them the way to and began to have their little picnic in a cozy clearing.
"This is nice." Grian said, biting into a sandwich, but Jimmy got the feeling he wasn't talking about the food. "Yeah, even if we're gods it's always good to stop and smell the roses." Scott agreed. Then he winked slyly at Jimmy. "Or poppies." Jimmy went red and everyone laughed. The picnic was going so well and everything was just so peaceful.
Until Scott noticed someone spying on them. "Come out; I can see you." He said. Everyone stood up in confusion. For a few seconds there was no reply, but then Martyn slowly stepped out into the clearing. "Martyn!" Jimmy rushed forward and hugged him. He hesitated but hugged the sheriff back.
"What are you doing here?" Grian asked. "Cogsmeade is literally over that ridge; it's not really that far away." Martyn said, pointing to a nearby mountain that was practically next to the clearing. Everyone looked at it and then at Scar, who immediately started whistling like he was perfectly innocent and didn't just manipulate everyone into meeting in this little wood.
"But why are you here?" Scott asked, getting straight to the point. Martyn sighed. "I just wanted to see you guys, okay?" He snapped. "False's old security systems told us that you guys were nearby and I just- I don't know." "Security systems?" Jimmy asked. Martyn just pointed at a nearby tree and everyone glanced up to notice a small camera hidden in between the leaves.
"Uh... how long was that there?" Jimmy asked. Martyn shrugged. "False said something about that being there ever since she'd established Cogsmeade or something. She's paranoid enough for this kind of stuff." Everyone slowly nodded and then furtively glanced around at the other trees just in case there were more hidden cameras or worse. Jimmy shuddered as he recalled the trap that had just nearly taken his life not so long ago.
"You guys should go now." Martyn said abruptly. He pushed Jimmy away and began to back up. "But Martyn!" Jimmy protested. "Go!" Martyn shouted, a lone tear rolling down his cheek. "They're going to make me do stuff to you guys- just leave!" "Martyn, you don't have to listen to the Watchers." Scott said evenly.
"I don't?!" Martyn suddenly snapped. "Well, I'm sorry if it's easier for you, Scott; you've always been so rebellious against the Watchers! But you don't understand-" "I know about whatever threats they could've told you." Scott replied. He reached out to the skittish lifer. "But I know you don't want to do this. We can help you."
"Of course I don't want to do this!" Martyn shouted. "But it's just impossible choice after impossible choice, isn't it?! I hurt you so they don't hurt me and you or I don't hurt you and they'll hurt all of us!" He angrily punched a tree. "Why do I have to be their puppet?! Why do all of us have to be their puppets?!"
"Martyn, they're still hurting us anyway." Grian said. "Timmy's got the canary curse. We're in the life games. They're going to destroy this world." "Yeah, through me!" Martyn shouted. "And they want to see us fight each other! Don't give them that pleasure!" Grian shouted back. Martyn angrily pulled out his sword and waved it threateningly at them. Everyone jumped backward in shock.
"It's all just another game!" Martyn yelled. "Just a game!" Angrily, he stabbed the sword back into its sheath and he stormed back up the mountain to Cogsmeade. Jimmy tried to follow him but Scott grabbed his arm. "Don't bother." He said quietly. "He's not in a good place right now. But he'll come around."
Jimmy protested but all the same no one did anything but watch Martyn run away from them. With a subdued mood, Scar packed up the remains of the picnic into his basket that then mysteriously disappeared afterward. Then everyone headed back home and said nothing about the failed distraction.