The Watchers' Revenge

Chapter 6: A Grim Turn

four random and disconnected notes:you will be happy to hear i now have motivation for this book. :)Btw, i'm curious if anyone knows what the name "the Taken" is from? (hint: it's a kid's book and it's not very well known)does this chapter name make you nervous? if so, i have succeeded. In case you can't tell, I like to make things fast-paced. (i started this book off SO SLOWLY, it'll definitely speed up from here.)

Continuing from where Chapter 5 left off, at the meeting.

Mumbo glanced down at Grian. He was starting to stir. The others had been discussing traps and ideas for a while now. Traps weren't really Mumbo's thing, so he was staying quiet and watchful. One remark, however, stood out to Mumbo.

"We should go to that dark oak forest, X."

Mumbo looked up and pinpointed the speaker; False.

"We should know what we're up against. It would probably be helpful to know why they went to the dark oak forest, of all places," False continued.

"'Know thine enemy!'" Wels commented.

"Alright, I think we should be okay with all of us," Xisuma agreed.

Mumbo saw Grian sit up. Grian glanced around quickly and nervously. His eyes began to fill with tears, but he quickly calmed a bit and stood up.

No one spoke. Then, Cleo broke the silence.

"We'll all help you rebuild it, if that's what you'd like. We'll even do it without your help if you don't want to-"

"No, thank you Cleo, but- maybe, just-" Grian stammered. No one pushed him to say anything else. Tango walked to the doorway and gestured with his head to the sky before taking off.

Doc, Impulse, Bdubs, Keralis, and Wels followed suit. The others stayed behind for a minute. Grian walked over to the door, spread his wings, and shot upwards.

"Poor Grian," said Scar before he could help himself. "Oh- sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, we know what you meant," Cleo assured him.

Scar smiled weakly before flying off after the others, leaving False, Cleo, Mumbo, Xisuma, and Ren standing in the town hall. Ren awkwardly turned and left the others behind.

"I'm so scared for him," Mumbo confessed.

"Yeah," Xisuma said.

"He'll be okay, we're all going to protect him," False said menacingly.

"We're all on guard, nothing will happen to him. He's been through enough already," Cleo added.

"Still, what if-" Mumbo began to say.

"Let me stop you right there," Cleo cut him off. "Calm down." And with that, she and False rocketed out of the building.

Xisuma stood there for a minute before taking Mumbo's wrist. "Don't worry about him too much. He's probably the most safe of all of us, everyone's looking out for him now."

He dragged Mumbo out of the building and took off. Mumbo trailed behind him and they quickly caught up to the others.

They arrived at the edge of the dark oak forest fairly quickly. Mumbo saw everyone else already there and waiting as he landed.

Several hours later, they emerged from the forest. No one had found anything or seen anyone. It was starting to get dark, and the hermits agreed that they should head back to the relative safety of the Shopping District, especially because it was getting dark.

Before they could leave, Mumbo heard a rustle in the leaves. Probably just a squirrel, right?

A few seconds later, he realized that it was definitely not a squirrel as Iskall and Etho jumped from the trees.

"Hello," Iskall said robotically.

"Iskall!" cried Mumbo.

Iskall snapped their head towards Mumbo. "I do not answer to you, only to the Watchers."

"What have they done to you?" Mumbo wondered aloud.

"Silence," Etho told him, grabbing Mumbo by the neck.

False lept into action, quickly twisting Etho's arm so hard he let go of Mumbo. Mumbo ran back towards the other hermits, who had gathered in a group facing the trees.

"You have friends, you have numbers. But this time, we've brought our own friends," Iskall smiled creepily and raised his hands up. Mumbo had a vague thought that Iskall looked like they were trying to do the Y in YMCA, but didn't voice it.

From the shadows of the forest emerged nine figures.

"Stress!"

"Cub!"

"Jevin!"

"Beef!"

"Joe!"

"Zed!"

Voices rang out around Mumbo, calling to their friends, but it quickly became clear that their 'friends' were not themselves as they stalked closer with vicious looks in their purple eyes.

Fighting broke out all around as the Taken attacked. Mumbo saw the others struggling to fight, not because they were incompetent, but because they didn't want to hurt their friends.

"EVERYONE, ATTACK THEM AND DON'T HESITATE! THEY'LL RESPAWN!" Cleo yelled from the other side of the field.

Mumbo was left attacking Beef. It was unnerving seeing the hermit fighting so fiercely, he was usually so quiet and peaceful. Mumbo managed to scare him off by slicing open his arm. "Sorry, Beef," Mumbo muttered as Beef ran off to fight Scar.

Mumbo turned in time to see Iskall stab Grian in the side with one of his daggers. Grian gasped and fell to his knees.

"GRIAN!" Mumbo screamed, running as fast as he could to get to the scene.

Most of the fighting hermits, even the Taken, turned at Mumbo's scream.

All sense of reason was gone from Mumbo's mind as he furiously slashed and stabbed at Iskall, the person who had stabbed his best friend. Iskall was nothing more anymore.

Iskall easily parried all of Mumbo's attacks before ducking low and cutting Mumbo's ankle. Mumbo let out a cry of pain and fell over.

Iskall smirked knowingly; it was a coward's move to cripple your opponent like that rather than fight back.

Xisuma turned at the sound of Mumbo's yell and watched Mumbo attack Iskall, clearly blinded by rage. Iskall sliced open Mumbo's ankle as Xisuma rushed over. Iskall grabbed Grian's wrist and began dragging his body off. Xisuma could tell that Grian wasn't dead, but he was close to it, and who knew whether those blades had been enchanted.

Xisuma lunged towards Grian, but was blocked by Stress and Cub, who kept him from reaching Iskall as Iskall took Grian away.

The other hermits tried to get to Grian, but the Taken blocked their way.

Cleo was fighting fiercely against Jevin, trying to get to Grian, when Joe appeared. Cleo hesitated for a moment, and that split-second of hesitation gave Jevin his chance. Cleo felt chains snake around her ankles and wrists in a flash, then she tripped over the chains on her ankles and was dragged away.

"No!" Cleo heard False's cry. False desperately fought to get to Cleo, but it was no use. It took Jevin, Zedaph, and Beef, but False was held back as Cleo was Taken.

Once Cleo and Grian were captured, the rest of the Taken slipped away into the night, leaving the remaining hermits to stand in stunned silence- except for Mumbo.

"Grian! No! Come back! Iskall, you TRAITOR! GRIAN!" Mumbo yelled. He eventually gave up and laid down to cry. His ankle was hurt and his best friend was gone, everything had gone wrong.

Thoughts? Ideas?How do you think the hermits will save the Taken? (I have a plan for this, so guess away! - I might even change my plan if I see a really good idea, but we'll see)