~The First Step~ a Hermitcraft AU

Chapter 21 (Always Grian When Will it Not be Grian)

wc: 989

tw: injury

do you ever just like hate a chapter with a burning passion but can't do anything to fix it? yeah thats this one. Thats why it took so long for me to get it out, sorry :(

also i participated in techno's discord server's pride sticker contest! It's the chapter art :D i know i won't win but it was so much fun drawing it ^^

anyway, enjoy the chapter, even if I didnt lol

Mayhem ensued.

Mumbo's body quickly dissipated, leaving his items on the floor. The Southlanders all booked it, running to safety from the bridge.

"Were you both boogeys?!" Grian cried, holding his shield in front of him and his teammates.

"It's not that big of a deal, Grian," Martyn reassured him. "Mumbo still's on his yellow life, and Scar doesn't have the curse anymore. It's just Joel, he still needs a kill."

Grian nodded, lowering his shield. "Let's go check up on Mumbo," he said.

They all made to leave, and Scar caught Grian's arm.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. "I don't really... know what actually happened..."

A little started, Grian raised his eyes to meet Scar's, who looked guilty, devoid of the strange purple that used to swirl in them. 

"I... I'll look into some things," Grian said vaguely before running off, leaving Scar behind.

~~~

Grian ran through the broken doors ahead of the others. Mumbo was crouched over in his bunker, his face pale.

"Mumbo." Grian quickly went over and put his hand on Mumbo's shoulder. "Mumbo, talk to me."

Mumbo coughed and looked up. There was pain evident in his eyes. Two deaths in close proximity must have taken its toll.

Grian quickly adjusted Mumbo to lie down against the wall. He could hear the other Southlanders coming. 

"In here!" he called.

Martyn burst in first, then Impulse and Jimmy. Mumbo made a stifled noise of pain when he attempted to bend his leg. Impulse, who was a bit better at healing, quickly took his place.

"Where does it hurt?" he whispered quickly. Mumbo gestured towards his lower legs. 

"Do you have a knife on you?" Impulse whispered under his breath. Grian passed over an iron dagger and Impulse quickly cut off the lower legs of Mumbo's fancy pants. Mumbo whimpered.

Long, angry burns went down the length of Mumbo's lower legs, probably from the lava bucket that Scar had used. Injuries never carried over in an infinite life world, and they didn't bleed or hurt either. Mumbo didn't seem very used to the idea of feeling pain.

"I doubt that we have ice, huh," Impulse said. 

"I mean we could go out and try to find some or trade for some, but... cold water is all we have," Martyn told him.

Grian considered the options. Jimmy had gone to get some water as Impulse gave Mumbo a healing potion, knowing very well that the man was on full health and just wishing that it would provide some peace of mind or do something for the burn.

Saying nothing, he reached out and placed a finger on one of the burns. Mumbo flinched. 

"Grian, what are you doing?" Impulse cried, reaching forward to take his hand away.

Grian closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, concentrating. His magic stirred inside him once again, swirling up through his veins and into his hand, flowing into the wound.

Impulse froze and watched as violet twined around Mumbo's legs, skin healing wherever the magic touched. It fizzled away to silence.

"Grian..." Martyn began.

"I'm sorry!" Grian cried, clasping his hands together. "I swear I didn't leave on purpose, they forced me, I never agreed, they lied to me, and then they made me into this awful mess and I swore I'd never use the magic but I can't keep that promise and I was worried about Mumbo since we don't have many healing items and-"

"Woah, slow down!" Martyn interrupted, holding his hands up. Grian quieted, looking to the side with an embarrassed expression. "Nobody really believed that you left on purpose, you were always a good admin, and..." he trailed off.

Jimmy returned with a bucket of water. He blinked at Mumbo's healed legs. "Have I missed something?"

Grian sighed. "What happened exactly after I got taken?" he asked.

Martyn thought a bit. "We got back to the entire server looking all aged and some signs. There were these people called Listeners-"

Grian jolted. "Listeners?!"

Martyn nodded with a confused expression. 

"Sorry, continue," Grian muttered. His mind raced. The Listeners contacted them? That makes me feel so much better. Oh gosh. 

"Well, first, apparently I'm part forest elf," Martin said, gesturing to his ears. "Second, the server was destroyed."

Grian flinched at the pure bluntness of the statement. "Is there anything left?"

Jimmy shook his head. "We all parted ways after, so it'd be harder for the Watchers to find us and to find you."

"Do you guys know where everybody is?" Grian asked expectantly. An image of headphones flashed in his mind.

They shook their head sadly. "When we left, our communicators disappeared, so..."

Mumbo spoke up for the first time. "Should I... still be here?"

They looked at him sitting in the dirt, and their first reaction was to burst out laughing.

~~~

"Let's play a game."

The five were sitting around a fire roasting meat and chatting. 

"What game?" Grian asked.

"Skeletons in the closet!" Jimmy suggested. "It's just where you go around saying secrets, or something most people don't know about you, if you don't feel comfortable."

"I'll go first!" Mumbo chirruped. He had been strangely hyper after the healing. Perhaps Grian had put too much magic in him.

"Uhhhh..." Mumbo thought, twiddling with his mustache. "I play the cello! Or I used to."

Grian blinked, trying to imagine the clumsy, always abashed man playing something as elegant as the cello.

"Where'd you learn?" Jimmy asked.

"Back in a hub city," Mumbo said. "My mum got me this private teacher. I wasn't that good at it though, I think. I still play it now and then."

His eyes traveled around the group and landed on Grian. "Grian! You go next."

Grian thought back to Evo. To the Watchers, to the blood and the agony. To the voices and the longing and the guilt. To his dead parents and his meaningless childhood, his prime years spent acting in a show called Yandere High School. To the countless days he spent curled up, tears pouring from his eyes.

"My mother was part Enderian," he said instead, even though he had no idea what she truly was as she died before he could ask.

yeah... okay i know it was bad and seemed low effort T^T but i tried my best since my brain has just been working for 23 hours a day on the LAST PART and my actual current writing is like being ignored

so yeah thats that

thank you for reading! have a good day or night, wherever you are!

-Ete