Feathers and Eggs

Chapter Twenty-four

Grian's eyes snapped open at the sound of Iskall's yell. A moment later, the embrace between himself and the NPC loosened. Grian could do nothing but stare in shock as his double hit the floor with a thud, a metal rod sticking out from his back. Doc stood in front of Grian, panting as he stared at the body on the floor. "Wha-? Doc, why did you...?" the shorter man asked, dazed. "You should thank me. You would have been the one on the floor right now if I hadn't stopped him just in time," Doc said as he pointed at the rod. Oh. I should have known better than to trust Npc Grian. Still, I couldn't help but hope...

"Thanks, Doc. He really was a sly thing, wasn't he?" Grian muttered with a sad grin. At that instant, Iskall had finally caught up and was trying to catch his breath. "Grian! Are you- *huff*- alright? *huff* Phew! That really was a close one. You are really fast, Doc!" Iskall wheezed out. Doc shrugged, but his eyes suddenly narrowed as he stared at Grian. The shorter man tilted his head in confusion at the stare. "What's the matter, Doc?"

"Grian... what is that outfit? And those wings..."

Grian froze, his mind racing for some excuse. Oh. Maybe Iskall was right after all about putting on the mask before I came here. What am I supposed to say?

"Is there something wrong with my outfit? So judgmental, Doc. My clothes don't matter. We're here for something way more important. If you want, we can talk about how you led Mumbo here and got him into danger," Grian said sassily.

"That was not what I meant to happen, man. Whatever. Let's just find him and get out of here," Doc grumbled in annoyance. Iskall and Grian both let out silent breaths of relief, exchanging quick glances at one another. He's going to find out. I know it. I'm just not ready since I'm not sure what he'll do. He's unpredictable sometimes. Hopefully fixing this whole mess can make him a bit more lenient.

"Welp, where else are we supposed to look?" Iskall piped up, interrupting the uncomfortable silence that was setting in. Doc shrugged his shoulders. "Outside around the warehouse? If he's inside, I don't know where he would be."

Grian shook his head. "You guys should leave. I'm done with being cautious, so things are going to get risky. Please go," the winged man stated seriously. He started to walk away from the others when a hand tightly gripped his wrist to stop him. "No, I'm not leaving while my friends will be in trouble. Just because you think you're some hero, doesn't mean I have to do what you say, Grian," Doc asserted.

Grian's heart raced. "H-hero? I don't know what you're talking about." Doc gave a deadpanned expression and let go of the other's wrist. "Really? Are you serious, man? I'm not that dumb. You really think I wouldn't know what my number one enemy wears after all this time? Come on. The wings give you away a lot."

Grian's eyebrows furrowed as a perplexed expression set on his face. "Then... why aren't you trying to arrest me or anything? You aren't even yelling at me either."

Doc sighed. "Because this isn't about you right now. It's about Mumbo. I am capable of keeping calm, you know." Iskall snickered from behind the two of them at that. "Yeah sure," he chuckled. "So now that that's out of the way, can we make progress now?" the editor asked.

Grian slowly nodded his head, hesitant to allow them to help further. Hopefully Mumbo can hear this. Here goes nothing! Grian cupped his hands together and shouted Mumbo's name as loudly as he could. "Mumbo! MUMBO!!! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

A long silence followed and no response came. Grian made eye contact with Iskall and Doc, and all three shouted.

"MUMBO! SAY SOMETHING!"

"MUMBO, WHERE ARE YOU, MAN?!"

"OH MUMBO? DO YOU HEAR US?"

Doc suddenly grabbed at his wrist, gritting his teeth in pain. "Gh! Something burns!" Grian and Iskall stopped yelling and helped Doc to stand, as the pain was causing him to sway as though he were going to fall over. "What's wrong? Doc, what happened?" Iskall tried to question. "My wrist is burning and it feels like it's on fire," Doc managed to spit out. Grian grabbed the hand that Doc was using to cover his opposite wrist and yanked as hard as he could. I need to see what's there before I can know how to help him! Doc allowed this, but squeezed his eyes shut to deal with the pain.