Found

Awaken

It had been years since Grian had thought about the Watchers. They seemed like a distant memory, a bad dream that he couldn't quite place, and he was ok with that. If other hermits ever asked about his family or his upbringing, he would give vague answers and switch topics, until eventually they stopped asking. Everything was fine, Grian was safe.

Until he felt the stares.

Grian woke in his bed, chills running through his body. He blinked away the fuzziness in his eyes and squinted up at the open sky. For a moment, the stars had looked like eyes, thousands of them. Grian felt uneasy, suddenly vulnerable under his covers. He shuddered and turned over, trying to get back to sleep, but the moment he closed his eyes, he felt it again, that chill up his spine and into his chest. Something told him sleep would be impossible tonight.

Sighing, he stood from his bed and stretched out his wings, the reds and yellows of his feathers dull in the moonlight. He was on a platform of his G-Train, as he had been stocking chests late into the evening.

With a rush of air, Grian was pushed upwards, soaring into the cool night sky. The stars loomed ever more threatening from here, Grian could almost imagine them blinking.

He landed gently next to the boatem pole, and sat at the edge of the pit, his legs dangling down. He sat with a bowed head, eyes squeezed shut, trying to place the odd feeling of dread and melancholy stirring up within him, when a voice interrupted.

"Hey, G, what are you doing up this late?"

Grin jumped to his feet, almost toppling back into the boatem hole, but Pearlescent Moon, who had snuck silently up to him, grabbed his wrist and pulled him back.

"Jumpy tonight, eh?" She chuckled.

"Oh my- Pearl! You scared me!" Grian gasped, plopping back down to were he sat before. Pearl joined him, leaning back and kicking her legs in the empty air of the boatem hole.

"Sorry, Grian. Saw you fly over here and just wondered what was up." Pearl shrugged and smiled at him expectantly.

"Uh, well," Grian said uneasily, debating weather or not he should tell Pearl. He stalled for a moment, biting the inside of his lip, but decided to tell her.

"Well to be honest, I got woken up by... something. Couldn't fall back asleep. I'm just worried it's this one particular thing that could be really bad," He admitted, and it was true.

The feeling of dread that had started to rise had called Grian's mind back to distant memories, ones he had hoped never to think about again. If his newfound suspicions were correct, it could mean trouble for the whole server.

"Aw, that sucks man," Pearl sympathized, "What is this 'really bad thing,' if I dare ask?"

Grian shook his head.

"I can't tell you that. Besides, it might just be nothing." He smiled back at the curios face she was making, "It probably is nothing. Anyway! Pearl, why are you up?"

Pearl chuckled lightly and gestured to the moon above them.

"Hey, they call me Pearlescent Moon for a reason!"

"And that reason is..."

"Insomniac"

They both laughed, then sat comfortably in the silence it left behind. Pearl had become one of Grian's closest friends after she joined the server, as they bonded over their ability to fly without elytra, due to Pearl's delicate brown moth wings. They helped each other with builds, played pranks on the other boatem members, and on nights like this, held conversations under the stars.

They stayed there for a few minutes more, before Grian stood.

"It was nice talking to you, Pearl, but I really should try and get back to sleep."

Pearl wished him goodnight and he took off, back to his base. He went back to his bed on the G-train, but sleeping out in the open air still felt too unsafe. He headed into his midnight alley, and ducked into one of his fake shops, one that displayed beds stacked on top of each other.

Grian picked a bed and laid in it, nestling under the covers and squeezing his eyes shut. It took longer than expected for him to fall asleep, as for several long hours, all Grian could think about were those eyes, waiting and watching, and worse, what they could mean for Hermitcraft.