Zombie Fungus (Hermitcraft AU)

Chapter 5

(1849 words)

Scar sat, admiring the night sky through the window of one of the houses in his village. The bed he was sitting on was rumored to be haunted in some way, as no one had ever been able to fall asleep in it, but he didn't care. He doubted he'd be able to sleep even if he wanted to.

There it was, Leo. He made out the familiar constellation in the sky, then looked down at his own arm, tracing the shape across freckles positioned identically to the stars. His whole life he had seen it as an unlikely coincidence, something by chance. Until four months ago, when his brother revealed that it was a trait possessed by wizards alone.

When was he going to tell the other Hermits? How was he going to tell the other Hermits? He repeatedly traced the pattern on his forearm, but it did little to calm him. His breath quickened with his rising anxiety. What if they don't react well? What if... What if Xisuma sent him away? He dared not think of the possibility. Xisuma wouldn't do that... would he?

A loud meow captured Scar's attention as Jellie leapt up next to him and began kneading the blanket. He picked up the cat and stroked her silver fur as she purred contentedly in his lap.

"You don't think I'm dangerous, do you, Jellie?" She looked up and meowed, which wasn't much of an answer, but the most you could expect from a cat, before curling up into a little loaf of fur.

<~~~>

Bdubs yawned and squinted at the rising sun. He would have much rather been sleeping, but False had insisted on him, Impulse, and Tango coming to redo a previous BOOMers job. Why she had chosen early morning was a question he was too tired to try and figure out.

Fixing his red bandana, he picked up a shulker box full of TNT and rocketed up to the contraptions they had built above the large pit of False's base. The three men filled the dispensers with TNT and flicked a lever, sending the explosives down, destroying the large "VOTE SCAP" they had made the last time False had asked them to blow up the ground.

Suddenly, Tango and Impulse leapt off the TNT dropper and gilded towards the ground. Bdubs blinked tiredly. What were they doing?

The sound of hissing caused him to turn and see a lit block of TNT fall from a dispenser and land right in front of him.

Yelling in surprise and terror, he jumped off the edge, launched forward by the explosion. He spun through the air like a starfish for a few seconds, too dazed to activate his elytra, before Impulse flew by, grabbing Bdubs' arms and practically dropping him next to Tango upon reaching the ground.

"Hey Bdubs, you ok?"

"Yeah, thanks for catching me."

Tango punched him in the arm. "Jeez dude, don't scare us like that!"

"Ow."

<~~~>

Scar looked around the spawn island. Xisuma had called a server-wide meeting and said it was the most central area other than the Shopping District. It was a wonder how most of them fit on the small island. There was the usual chaos before a server meeting: Ren had a baby mooshroom with him, which Stress was fawning over, Cleo and Joe were sitting in a boat playing Go-Fish, occasionally tipping the other out of the boat and into the water(Scar was fairly certain that wasn't in the rules for the game), and Tango was trying desperately to steal Bdubs' bandana without the man noticing. The only Hermit absent was Etho, who was currently lost in a cave somewhere.

Xisuma stood up on the large rock in the middle of the island and waved his arms for silence. Conversations bubbled down as the Hermits directed their attention to their admin.