The Unseen Beauty of the Ungrateful

Chapter 11: Unconscious Thoughts

"Oh my word, oh Gods, oh shit!"

Mumbo scrambled to his feet, wincing slightly at the pain in his back from landing on the frozen ground. He ran over to Grian and knelt down next to his body.

"Grian?"

No answer.

"Grian? Please, are you ok?"

Silence.

Mumbo ran his hands through his hair in a panic.

Ok ok ok. He's a God, he can't die.

The snow around them began to stain red and Mumbo felt his stomach jolt horribly.

But he can still feel pain!

He reached out a hand to roll him onto his back but froze inches away.

He doesn't like to be touched... I don't have his permission to touch him... but he's hurt...

A rustling in the bushes behind him made Mumbo whip his head around to see a creeper sneaking towards them.

No choice.

"Please forgive me" he whispered as he threw the torch to the ground and scooped the small God unto his arms, pulling him close as he began to run. Mumbo could feel the heat from Grian's blood staining his clothes.

In the utter darkness of the forest, Mumbo couldn't tell where he was going or where they had come from. He just continued to run until his lungs felt as though they were on fire and none of his surroundings looked familiar.

"I'm sorry, I need to put you down ok?"

He laid the still unconscious body in the snow and took a deep breath.

"Ok... we need a place to rest"

Mumbo raised a hand and quickly drew through the air. He snapped his fingers and caught the redstone torch before it hit the ground. The bright red light illuminated the ground around him, doing absolutely nothing to clear up his confusion.

It took twenty minutes before he noticed a small cave buried between the trees.

Better than nothing.

"I found a cave Grian. I think we can probably wait there until morning, ok?"

Of course he didn't get a reply, but he didn't care. Talking to Grian helped to settle his nerves a bit, especially as he lifted the tiny figure up again and he felt Grian's head loll against his neck. Mumbo sucked in a breath and shivered as snow fell from the blond hair and melted down his neck.

Once in the cave, he gently laid Grian on the ground and propped up the torch so it illuminated the small damaged body.

Grian's trousers had holes down the front, mostly on his knees and ankles where large burns were already starting to scab over from the immense cold they had been subjected to. His hands were cut up and bleeding terribly, and from the slight popping sound that could be heard with every rise of his chest, Mumbo suspected he had broken several ribs. What really caught Mumbo's attention however was his face, where the black and white checkered mask he had been wearing was beginning to slide down.

Mumbo's fingers twitched as his desire to check Grian's face for damage and his knowledge that he didn't want his face seen clashed violently in his mind.

There's blood under the mask... but I don't have his permission... but I need to see what I can do to help... but he'd be so angry...

After several minutes of contemplation, Mumbo's curiosity won the battle, and he inched towards the small body.

Lifting Grian's head slightly, he felt something hot and sticky on the back of the blond hair, and lifted his hand to see a pooling of blood in his palm.

He hit the back of his head on the tree...

Mumbo laid Grian's head in his lap, careful to keep pressure on the injury as he resituated himself so that he could lean against the wall of the cave, and shrugged off the cloak to lay it across Grian's body.

After taking a deep breath, Mumbo took the sides of the mask and carefully lifted it from his face.

Grian's eyes were closed, blood dripping onto his cheeks from a wide gash on his forehead.

That, however, was not what made Mumbo's blood run cold.

Deep jagged scars branched across the left side of his face, crossing over his eye and disappearing into his hair. There were scars across the right side as well, but they didn't compare to the severity on the left. Looking closer, he noticed the skin around one of the scars was pinched and denticulated as though someone had tried to sew it up but failed to do so.

Mumbo unconsciously ran a finger across the thickest one, shuddering at the rough texture of the torn skin.

These are not from the creeper...

"I thought injuries fade if you're a God..." he murmured, brushing the blond hair gently with his fingertips. "How did you get these?"

The body beneath him whimpered and shifted slightly as though he had been heard. Mumbo startled badly, his hands flying behind his back as though they had been burned.

Grian thrashed his head back and forth, his fists clenching and unclenching as he cried quietly in his comatose state.

"Grian? Grian what's wrong?" Mumbo whispered.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" Grian babbled, tears streaming down his cheeks, yet very much unconscious. "I'm a good person, I promise I'm good. Please don't leave me. I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm... good..."

His voice died down gradually, his movement stilled, and his tears slowed as Mumbo reached out tentatively to stroke his cheek.

"Shh shh it's ok, it's ok, you're ok, everything's ok" he murmured gently, fighting to keep his voice from shaking. "You're good. You're so good"

After several minutes, Grian once again fell silent and unmoving, and Mumbo relaxed back against the wall.

What happened to you to get those scars? Why are you always alone? Why are you so scared?

"Thank you for protecting me" Mumbo whispered into the silence. "I promise to protect you"

I won't let you be scared.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm sorry it's so short, I'm still in the middle of exams. If you did enjoy, please consider leaving a like and a comment to let me know what you think!