Trust

Chapter 5

Grian was quite surprised at how much the hermits had managed to pull off in the past two days. They had decided to set up everything in the shopping district and they did not let Grian help set up, they actually didn't let him anywhere near the shopping district so he couldn't see what they were doing. The only thing he really did was give Xisuma Astaria's code identification, which was just her name, which she did tell him but Grian had also remembered it from the alternate reality. If Grian really wanted to, all he would have to do is close his eyes and use his watcher vision to see what was being done, but since the hermits had been working hard he didn't want to ruin the surprise that they were making for him.

When Grian was allowed to come and see what was there a big smile appeared on his face. The hermits had hung up rainbow bunting along some of the shop's roofs and also noticed that a few of the triangle banners had the letters to spell out 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' on them. There were several tables of food ranging from different flavours of potato chips to a few pizzas of different flavours, including hawaiian which was his favourite, and they looked like they came from Café De La Lune. All the hermits were there in front of him when he arrived with big smiles on their faces and they all shouted out a mixture of differently worded 'Happy Birthday' messages. Astaria was also there in her player form, it took him a few moments for him to remember who she was. He did remember her player form from the alternate reality but it was still very weird not seeing her with her long white hair and large purple wings.

"Happy Birthday G!" Mumbo said as he hugged his friend.

"Yeah, happy birthday G!" Scar said, joining in on the hug.

"Thanks, guys, everything looks so amazing," Grian said, smiling back with a huge grin.

"We're glad you like it, we tried to get some of your favourites. Your friend who lives in the Main World brought the pizzas from that café you liked that we went to," Mumbo said.
"Have you guys talked to Astaria?" Grian asked, curious to see if any of the hermits approached the new person on their server.

"Not really, she said hello when she first joined but you weren't far away from coming so we didn't get a chance to but she seems nice," Scar explained.

"I can introduce you if you want," Grian said.

Both hermits wanted to meet Grian's friend from the Main World so they nodded and Grian led them over to where Astaria was.

Astaria didn't know what to do, she had come because Grian had asked her and because she wanted to check out how the server was coping after the alternate reality. She didn't know anyone, she had of course met versions of the hermits in the alternate reality but now they didn't know her and she didn't know how similar they were to the versions that he met. She had planned to stay there until Grian came over to talk to her but she didn't need to wait for him, the admin of the server Xisuma came over instead. "You're Astaria right?" Xisuma asked, pulling up a chair.

Astaria turned her head so she was facing him, "Yes I am, Xisuma Void right?" she said.

"Yes, it's nice to meet you, Grian mentioned that you were an admin," Xisuma stated.

Grian and Astaria had agreed to tell the hermits that she was an admin, it would make sure that even if there was any footage of Astaria sending back the 600-700-year-old attacks they would assume that it was some sort of coincidence. Xisuma then continued, "Do you currently have any servers?"

"Not currently, right now I'm doing an in-depth study on the world's code," Astaria said.
"That must be quite interesting. I did a small study on it at one point but it wasn't really for me, I prefer having a server," Xisuma stated.

Grian, Mumbo and Scar came over just as Astaria and Xisuma were finishing their conversation, "Hi Astaria," Grian said, greeting his friend.

"Hi Grian, Happy birthday," She said, turning her head to face him.

"Happy Birthday G," Xisuma said standing up, "It was nice talking to you Astaria,"

Xisuma waved goodbye and went over to talk to Wels and Joe. "Astaria, meet Mumbo and Scar," Grian said, pointing to the two hermits respectively.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you both," She said, turning her face towards them and giving them a small nod.

"It's nice to meet you as well Astaria,"

"It's nice to meet you, Grian has told us pretty much nothing about you," Scar said with a smile.

"I'd say I know a bit more about you, masters of redstone and terraforming as I have been told," Astaria said.
"I think Grian has embellished it quite a bit," Mumbo said.

The four continued talking for a while, multiple hermits popped in to say a quick happy birthday to Grian and ask how he was doing, it was good talking to some he hadn't seen in a while with everything going on. After a while longer conversations, it was time for cake. Xisuma came out with the cake, they had kept it hidden and Grian once again didn't go out looking for it. It was a big cake, it would need to be so each hermit got a slice if they wanted one. It was chocolate cake, that was his favourite, and it had chocolate icing as well. There was a picture of Grian dancing with his pesky bird printed on top of it with edible paper, at the time he hadn't known that Mumbo had taken that picture but it was one of his favourites, which is why the hermits had placed it on top. The picture earned a chuckle from most of the hermits, it was a funny photo after all. Astaria could tell that there was a picture on the cake, she could see the divide between the icing and the edible sheet the picture was on, but she had no idea what it was, magic could only do so much for her sight but she could tell by the laughs around her that they found it funny.

As the day shifted later into the night the festivities slowly came to an end, most of the hermits gave Grian his gifts and made their way back to their own bases. The last ones remaining were Grian, Mumbo, Scar, Xisuma and Astaria. "It was nice meeting you," Astaria said to the hermits before turning to Grian, "Happy birthday again G. I'll see you next time you are in the Main World,"

"It was nice meeting you too," Xisuma said, Mumbo and Scar both flashed a smile back to her.

"Thanks for coming to Astaria, see you around," Grian said as Astaria left the server.

"I'll probably head back to the mansion now," Grian said turning to his friends, "Thanks for everything,"

"You're welcome G," Xisuma said.

"Hope you enjoyed it," Scar added

"I did thanks," Grian said, as he got he started making his way towards the nether portal.

Some quick byes were exchanged and Grian was on his way home, he had fun and he wished that every day would be just as nice.

WC~ 1242

A/N: Surprise chapter! I thought it would be fun to have the chapter that I had made for my story's Grian come out on his actual birthday! So enjoy the chapter and see you next Sunday/Monday depending on your timezone!