Hels Rebellion

Chapter 2: The Grian Part

Much like many of the other hermits, Grian had not slept in at least three days.

It had started a week ago, when Mumbo and Iskall had stopped by his base on their way to do something with redstone and the three of them had gotten into an argument.

It wasn't something that happened very often, in fact - it was only the second time the man had argued with Mumbo and the first time he'd ever argued with Iskall. He was dreadfully embarrassed about it.

He had been the one to start the conflict - asking about why they'd be starting a new business project without him when Sahara had been so "successful." Mumbo had joked with him about throwing that stupid potato into the machinery, something he joked about often, but for some reason it felt like a personal attack on Grian's character.

"Of course!" He had yelled back, "Notch forbid I ever go anywhere around redstone again! Since my mere presence seems to just make every tech within a 50 meter radius want to hunt me down! It was, literally, ONE time, Mumbo, I don't know why you insist on bringing it up every time we have a fu- every time we have a conversation!" He bit back a swear, thrusting his finger into the taller man's chest.

Mumbo had clearly not been expecting an aggressive response, and he remained silent, his mouth slightly open as he stared at the builder. Iskall had been the one to step in, clearly upset that Grian had raised his voice with seemingly no trigger.

"What's wrong with you, man?" He snapped, "You can't just let us joke about that for a year and then suddenly get all defensive about it! You're not the one who had to spend over a day fixing it!"

Grian felt bad, he knew he had during the fight - and even worse now that he was looking back. But Iskall had fought back, and that only made him angrier. What did Iskall know?

"Oh yeah, cause redstone is just SO difficult to fix when you've done it before!" The sarcasm was like venom and the smaller man couldnt stop it, "Not as hard as doing literally everything else that that stupid company needed. The builds, the products, the adverts, but no! Let's make redstone as complex as possible and then become upset when it obviously gets messed with!"

Now Iskall was on the receiving end, and Grian felt a rage bubble in his chest as the man narrowed his eyes at him, crossing his arm and looking down defensively. "What is your problem, Grian? You're being a sort of..."

"Prick," Mumbo finished for him, and both men looked at him. "I am not arguing with you," Mumbo said flatly, his voice more disappointed than angry.

"There's no winning with you. You're always right." His eyes were narrowed, even though they showed sadness, "Everyone else is always at fault."

Grian huffed, his desire to argue only becoming more inflamed at the comment, "Of course you don't want to argue," his voice was tight, his wings flared;

"I don't know what I'd do if you ever actually tried to defend your point of view, Mumbo. Maybe you'd be able to actually string together a coherent sentence and pull together those two last brain cells you have. Or maybe, just maybe, you'd give up and walk off with your tail between your legs like a coward with no ability to defend himself."

Mumbo's fists tightened and Iskall stepped between them, his eyes glaring cold daggers into Grian's indignant stare. "Dude, stop."

Grian scoffed, "Whatever. You two go do whatever stupid redstone thing you techs do. Don't get caught in a machine." He turned around quickly, spamming rockets and taking off over his mansion. Mumbo and Iskall both looked on, confused at the sudden outburst from their normally cheery friend.

They shared a look, tenseness still between them as Grian disappeared behind his mansion.

Embarrassment flooded Grian as he laid down on the stone in the middle of his mansion, looking up into the inky black ceiling of his unfinished build.