Purpled in Hermitcraft

Chapter 44

The group waited in bated silence for Ant to come back. They waited for seven minutes, but Ant never returned. Purpled looked at everyone gathered about and saw that they looked as nervous as he felt. "Do we try to look for Ant?" Purpled asked, breaking the silence that was being held. Nobody made any suggestion for a few seconds, but Phil then said, "Yes, but we need to do it as a whole group."

The hermits were silent as they let the group figure out what to do. It was decided that everyone would go in the direction Ant went and that they were holding onto someone at the same time as if they were a human train. Techno was at the head of the group and Phil was taking up the back.

They ventured into the trees in silence and looked over each other's shoulders. They saw the same trampled grass that Ant did. It was silent until there was a screech from Eret. Suddenly, Eret disappeared from sight leaving everyone in a panic. Quackity and Foolish, who were the ones holding his hands, looked everywhere, but there wasn't a trace of him.

Purpled was just about to ask what the hell was going on when there was another shout, closer to him this time. It was from George, who also then disappeared. By now, several people had gotten out their swords and were ready for a fight. They didn't know what was happening, but they were prepared.

Purpled felt himself falling suddenly and he looked over to where Ponk was, but the space was empty. Puffy just barely managed to catch him before he hit the ground. "Thank you," Purpled muttered, getting back to his feet and leaning on Puffy now. Puffy nodded her head, which then whipped around to the source of another yell.

The group was dropping like flies, but they couldn't find out what was actually the cause of it. Purpled felt the hairs on thee back of his neck rise and he whipped his head around, startling Puffy. He saw a hand reach out from the shadow trying to grab him before it resorted to grabbing Puffy.

With his support gone again, he resorted to standing on one foot. "Guys, it's something in the shadows," Purpled yelled to those that were still left. Everyone immediately focused on the shadows and they saw the hands reaching out from the shadows, but that didn't help them. Now, they could see when they were taken, but couldn't stop it.

Purpled couldn't do much to defend himself, so it was no surprise that he was taken quite easily. He didn't know what to expect on the other side, but it definitely wasn't this. He saw all of the Dreamsmp that had been taken before him gathered in a circle a bit away from him.

Ant noticed him balancing on one first and went to support him. The group was silent as Ant led Purpled over to them. Most of them had their swords out and had their backs to each other covering all the blindspots. The group separated to let Ant and Purpled into the middle of the circle.

Little by little the entire Dreamsmp was gathered with the hermits still on the other side of the line. Everybody was on their guard as they waited for the assailant to show themselves. Purpled was peeking through heads to see what was happening on the outside.

Purpled could feel the tension rising in the room until it was enough to cut with a knife. Suddenly, a figure walked out of the shadows. However, this person didn't seem confident, but tired and exhausted. Purpled could feel the tension rise even more as the figure started to walk into the light.

Purpled felt himself stumble back a little at the person's face, even with a broken leg. It was Badboyhalo, but it looked like he was back to normal. He was red instead of white and he just seemed a lot nicer than he was before with the egg. He could feel Ant hand him off to somebody else as he stepped forward through the crowd.

The crowd was still in shock, so they just let him pass. Skeppy was the first one to snap out of his shock because he said, "Wait, Ant stop. Stay where you are." Ant either didn't hear him or ignored him. Instead he closed the distance between him and Bad and gave Bad a hug.