Under The Helmet || Hermitcraft AU

Chapter 12

POV: Grian
Word Count: 1150
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"How long has that been there?" Asked Iskall, pointing at the ruined remains of the original shopping district portal.

"Uhm," Grian replied, "Weeks, I'm pretty sure"

"Well, that gotta go," Said Iskall pulling out a pickaxe and hacking at the obsidian ruins, still attached to the bedrock.

"Iskall!" Grian said, snatching the pickaxe out of his hands, "Distractions, Distractions, DISTRACTIONS! Don't get distracted!"

"Oh, and you've put MORE Mumbo for Mayor posters on the portal?" Iskall said, disgusted.

"Iskall..!" Said Grian, now starting to get a little antsy.

"Right," Iskall said, looking over his shoulder at the ruins of the original portal, as Grian dragged him into the swirling substance of the townhall portal.

"Ok," Grian said, triple-checking his inventory a few minutes later, "My inventory is empty, apart from my invisibility potion, just so I won't lose anything in case something bad happens. You all prepared?" He added, facing towards Iskall.

"Um... ya," Iskall said nervously, a pickaxe in one hand and 32 obsidian in the other.

Because Grian had no elytra equipped, they walked silently over to the concrete shop. Grian chugged his invisibility potion, pulling a face.

"Disgusting," He said, dropping the empty bottle on the ground, "Fermented spider eyes"

As the two entered the large warehouse, Grian sighed in amazement. The large block palette and the assorted staircases, shelves, platforms and floors made the place look very interesting. He marvelled at the sheer size of the building and the trucks parked in the unloading room, made so precisely and with so much detail.

"To be quite frank," Grian stated, making Iskall jump beside him, "I think this is cooler than any other shop currently on the server,"

"What about the Red Zone?" Asked Iskall, "Or your Barge?"

"You know what I meant," Grian replied, rolling his eyes. Of course, he was invisible so Iskall didn't see.

Sure enough, when they arrived at the store they could see Xisuma preparing and restocking the concrete shelves. Out from his inventory, he pulled a shulker box, clearly full of some lime concrete. He emptied the contents of the box into the chest, humming a tune. 

"What a nice colour," Iskall said looking towards the box Xisuma was holding.

"Shut up!" Grian hissed.

Because the area was so large, the duo decided to wait it out until Xisuma was restocking his honey shop. The honey pot has only one exit and is easier to corner someone in. As Grian nervously stepped inside, thunder boomed in the distance and rain started to fall.

The tension is real, Grian thought as he lowered himself into a shadowy corner of the honey pot. The underfoot squelching of mycelium could be heard outside. A tall figure stood in the opening of the building, casting a shadow into the small interior. Grian's heart was thumping painfully fast in his chest as he silently stood up. 

Iskall quickly bordered the entrance with obsidian. Grian silently freaked out as Xisuma turned toward the entranceway, but calmed down again as he continued to fill up his chests. How did he not notice the obsidian being placed? Grian thought as he inched over to stand behind Xisuma.

Xisuma had a bottle of honey in each hand as he nudged the lid of the chest open. A little intimidated by his height, Grian reached up to unfasten the clip behind the neck of the helmet. As he wrenched the headgear off Xisuma's head, his invisibility faded and he became fully visible again. The shock of suddenly being able to see his arms made him jump.

Xisuma froze and dropped the honey he was holding, the glass bottles shattering as they made smashed against the ground. He spun around on his heels and looked down at Grian, who was standing, frozen with shock. Upon seeing Xisuma's face, not just his expression, which was full of horror, the metal helmet toppled out of his arms and fell to the floor. The purple visor smashed as the two men stared at each other. There was a moment that felt like a lifetime before anyone reacted. 

"YOU!" Xisuma screamed, pulling out his channelling trident and launching himself at Grian.

He swerved out of the way and ran to the obsidian wall, where he pounded on the rock bordering the exit.

"ISKALL!" He screamed kicking at the brittle material with his shoe, "HELP ME OUT!"

I didn't think this through! Grian thought, adrenaline coursing through his body as two blocks of obsidian fell out of the wall. In a blur, he dashed out of the exit and ran behind the Red Zone, where he sat to catch his breath. He saw Iskall promptly fly away from the scene, and back through the portal, presumably back to his base.

He peered around the corner, where he saw Xisuma look around for a few moments, before collapsing to the floor, covering his face with his hands and starting to sob into the mushy mycelium.

Grian genuinely felt horrible. It's one thing barging into someone's personal space and annoying them a bit with a prank or some PVP, but it's a completely different situation making someone feel angry or sad. Especially Xisuma, who was one of the calmest and reasonable people he knew.

After gathering all of his items from his ender chest, he flew back through the portal on autopilot, now pondering over what he saw of Xisuma's face at that moment they stood in the shop together. 

His hair was shoulder-length, extremely messy and a kind of spruce brown. He had what looked like small horns protruding from his mass of hair. His ears were pointy and a huge scar ran down from his forehead to just below his left eye. His teeth were slightly sharp, kind of like a dog's. But it was his eyes that stood out more than any of his other features. They were a bright vivid purple, perhaps explaining the odd colour of his helmet's visor. The pupils were cat-like slits and dark purple instead of black. It kinda reminded him of demons from children's picture books.

Shuddering just at the mere thought of it, he now understood why X never showed his face. Sure, there were a few non-human players on the server, like Cleo, Jevin, Doc and Python, but Xisuma looked so... different.

The flight back to his mansion seemed to take no time at all. The rain ceased as he descended, he stood on top of his newly expanded mansion's roof and buried his head his hands. How would he explain this to the others?  He moaned in frustration and cleared a spot free of snow to calm, sit down and unwind from his task.

Without caring for the rules of Minecraft, (the fact you need a bed to sleep at night) Grian collapsed back into a cold, damp pillow of snow and fell into an uneasy sleep.

._.