Not My Pyre (A Pearl-Centric Double Life FanFic)

Chapter Four: Not Right, But Nothing to be Done

"Scar, I need you to look at me. Directly at me." Grian said.

"Okay." Scar nodded.

Grian raised his pickaxe and broke away the block holding up the dripstone - and Scar looked away at the pandas. Grian flinched, feeling the pain as the dripstone hit Scar's head, but Scar was distracted.

Scar laughed. "Aren't they just so cute? Oh, sorry. I'm paying attention."

Grian was at a loss for words. "I- You didn't notice? Wh- Seriously?"

"Notice what?" Scar blinked, and Grian groaned.

"Right, I can only do this one more time, so you better pay attention this time." Grian reset the dripstone.

"Okay, I will!" Scar smiled.

Grian still loved his smile.

Grian dropped the dripstone on Scar's head a second time, and this time Scar saw.

His eyes widened, then he sighed. "Oh my God. This whole time? We've been parading around the server, and you knew this whole time? When did you find out?"

"When I met you, in the river, with Joel and Etho, remember when I screamed 'no' at the top of my lungs?"

"Okay... And what was the 'no' for?" Scar tilted his head.

How oblivious was he? Grian sighed. "No reason. Anyways, that's when I figured it out."

"So... We're soulbounds, then." Scar smiled. "That's great!"

Grian tried to smile. Hopefully, it was convincing. "Yep. I've started work on a base over there, if you wanna come."

"Can the Jellie Pandas come?"

"Scar! No!"

~*~

It turned out that the Jellie Pandas could come, whether Grian liked it or not.

"Grian?"

He sighed. "Yes, Scar?"

"Can the Jellie Pandas come in the Spikey Fort?"

"No! There will not be any pandas in the Spikey Fort! And please be careful, they can kill you."

Why did Grian have to be paired with Scar? It was so many flavours of frustrating and scary. Grian didn't want to risk killing him again, but also didn't want to watch him die, and also didn't want to have to deal with pandas in his fort! Pizza wasn't bad, just one llama, but there were so many pandas!

If only he'd done what he was told and just watched.

~*~

"I think we probably need more coal and iron, don't you agree, Tilly?" Pearl asked.

Tilly barked, and she took it as confirmation.

"To the mines I go!"

And to the mines she went. While she was carving through the stone, searching for any ores or interesting things, she heard... something. She froze.

There was someone else down there, mining away close by.

She didn't know who it was, but no one was Red yet, so she was safe. They didn't have the boogeyman this season. She hefted her pickaxe and started mining in the direction of the other person.

She broke through the wall, and the mysterious other person cried out.

"Who's there?"

"It's just me, Joel." Pearl smiled and adjusted her cloak. It was weird. Overnight, the hoodie had transformed. Now it was a red, hooded cloak. It had actually happened in Last Life as well, since the arena masters thought it fit better into their Games like that.