Red Flowers //Hermitcraft & Evo\\

1

        "Let's go Grian, or we'll miss it!" Taurtis smiled as Grian slowly sauntered up to the portal.

        "We're not going to miss it. You go first, I'll make sure it closes behind us." Grian commanded, and Taurtis nodded. 

        "See you on the other side!" He mused as he stepped through the portal. Something inside of Grian screamed at him to stop Taurtis, or to actually say goodbye, but he just stood and rolled his eyes at his friend. Taurtis disappeared into the mass of purple wavering energy and as Grian walked up to the portal next, he turned back for a moment. He looked behind him at the glorious builds and memories made on the little server. He looked back at his happiest of times, before he stepped through the portal, joining his friends in the purple mass of energy. He stepped out of the other side of the portal and took a breath of the open air. He turned, shut the portal behind him, and looked around again, expecting to see his friends waiting for him. Instead, he was alone on an island, far from any other land or people. Concerned, he turned back to the portal and re-lit it. It wasn't until he had already done it that he realized the difference in portal. This one didn't have any missing blocks or mystery to it, it was just a regular portal, that now had a gaggle of people pouring out of it. Grian watched as the last of them stepped out of the portal and extinguish itself behind them. 

Grian woke with a start, sitting up in his bed breathing heavily. He had had that dream almost every night since he had arrived in Hermitcraft, never able to change or influence it in any way. He felt a few tears fall as he thought of his friend, whom he hadn't seen in almost 2 years. He laid back down in his bed, sleepless for the rest of the night until the sunrise bathed him in pale yellow light. 

He stood, took a deep breath, and walked to the trapdoor in the corner of his base, and descended the ladder beneath it. He placed his foot onto the soft dirt, careful to step around the countless red poppies planted into the ground. He went to the chest at the front of the room, off to the side of the large face built at the front. Grian looked at it for a moment before grabbing a new poppy, digging a small hole, and planting the flower in it. He walked back to the back of the room and realized he was running out of room. His eyes began to tear up again as he realized he had tried to bring him back so many times, but it never worked. He thought, hard and long about his friend, desperately hoping it would work. After waiting there for a while, he gave up, went back up the ladder and walked out onto the glass bridge of his base. 

        "Please. I just want to see him again." He sighed to himself, breathing in the cold morning air. It filled his lungs uncomfortably, as if it wasn't the air he was supposed to be breathing, but he continued breathing anyways. Mumbo watched him from afar, looking from the top of his base at his lonely friend. He flew over to him, landing softly in front of him.

        "Hey, Grian!" Grian looked up at him, quickly wiping the sadness off of his face.

        "Hi Mumbo. What are you up to today?" Grian asked, his mind far but desperately trying to reign his thoughts back in. 

        "I was going to go collect sand for Sahara's concrete maker. Wanna come and help? I found a desert right next to a gravel mountain." He suggested and Grian sighed before looking up at him happily. 

        "Yeah, sure. Let's go." They flew off together, and as Grian dug shulker boxes full of gravel, he continued to think about his life before Hermitcraft. Mumbo could tell Grian's thoughts were miles away, so once they were done digging, they met back up in between the two biomes. 

        "Hey, you ok man?" He asked and Grian shrugged.

        "What do you mean?" 

        "I don't know, you've had this distressed and almost regretful look on your face the whole time we've been here." 

        "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm just tired." Grian lied and Mumbo took it as a reasonable answer. They flew home, putting the newly acquired shulker boxes at the machine for Iskall to refill. Just as they were about to part ways, Mumbo stopped him.

        "Hey, you're coming to X's party this weekend, right?" Grian thought back on the party celebrating the 2 year anniversary of Hermitcraft 6. He was repulsed by the thought of celebrating the 2 year anniversary of losing Taurtis, but knew the other Hermits would start asking questions if he didn't go.

        "Yup, I'll be there." He replied quietly before waving goodbye to Mumbo and flying back to his base, sad and alone.