The Lost Watcher

Flight Lesson

Grian squinted, the light from the rising sun pouring in as it peaked from behind a few clouds. He held a hand to his face in an attempt to provide slight protection for his eyes.

“How you feeling, kid?” Xisuma asked from beside him. He looked over at Grian with a kind smile. “You ready?”

Grian nodded quietly. Xisuma gave him an encouraging thumbs up and pulled the purple visor of his helmet over his eyes. “Alright, step one," he began, " You’re gonna wanna tighten the straps. Don’t break your shoulders, but tighten them enough so that you won’t plummet to the ground mid-flight.”

Quietly, Grian obliged and tightened the straps of his elytra, wincing at the pain of it pressing his wings tightly into his back. Xisuma gave him a concerned glance. “You alright, kid?”

Grian quickly nodded, feeling a flair of nervousness swell inside him. "Yeah, just.. slept wrong, I suppose," he said dismissively. Xisuma nodded, although he still felt a bit of worry inside him.

It was strange how things had changed since the day that Grian had first arrived on the server. When he had, Xisuma felt nothing but suspicion towards the young boy. The circumstances that had brought Grian there in the first place left Xisuma to feel little other than suspicion, honestly.

When Xisuma was faced by a worried, rain-soaked Scar with the young, dirty boy in tow, he was near speechless. The absolute recklessness that Scar displayed bringing a stranger to their server, leaving his guard down, and risking his own safety and the safety of the Server!

Well, let's just say Xisuma was far from pleased.

And he had been absolutely dripping with skepticism of the newcomer. What was even more was that Scar had hardly allowed Xisuma to talk to Grian when he'd arrived. Scar had become incredibly protective of him almost instantly, and he insisted that X had to wait, on account of the fact that he, "might scare the poor kid."

And Scar's words did hold some truth to them. In all honesty, Grian was very scared to be around X. After the night Scar had spoken to him, Grian felt nervous being around him. He felt Xisuma was suspicious of him, and it was only a matter of time until he figured out what Grian was and sent him away. And Grian wanted to prolong that terrible moment for as long as he possibly could.

After all, he’d finally begun to have friends here, and a home, and a life. Grian had finally begun to be heard again, finally growing to be more than just a whisper passing by. He couldn’t possibly risk it all now, when the Admin of all people was onto him. So his best solution was to just avoid Xisuma at all costs.

Xisuma, meanwhile, had begun to feel a bit guilty for his quick judgment, and so he made his best attempts at getting closer with Grian. It was quite the challenge, however, since Grian seemed to be near terrified anytime he came around. Anytime Xisuma came near, Grian would flee straight back to Scar.

Scar, now often being met by an anxious Grian, could tell just how nervous he got around X. He made his best attempts to reassure Grian that Xisuma was in reality incredibly nice, but Grian didn’t seem willing to take that chance.

One day, Scar paid a visit to the Admin to discuss the current situation.

“He’s afraid you’re going to send him away, X,” Scar confided, "He thinks that you don’t like him here. Grian has convinced himself that we’ll just send him back out into the cold.”

Xisuma frowned. “Well now, that isn’t good, is it,” he commented. He thought quietly for a moment. “Well,” he began, “How about I just spend some time with him? Prove that I can be trusted at least somewhat.”

Scar met the idea with a nervousness. "Oh, I'm not so sure, Suma," he said worriedly, "I mean, he hardly trusts you when you're on the other end of the server itself. I'm not sure how easy it'd be to get him to be within 10 blocks of you, alone no less."