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Sometimes deaths after deaths make someone feel… small. Not in size, but younger. More playful.
Maybe it was from the days in season 8, getting used to respawning as a child, but after so many hours setting up for hanging over the void, the moment Zedaph died from the lightning bolt had tipped him over the edge.
So now he was sleeping with his cat, Santa Paws, who was a lovely little cat if he did say so himself. But as he woke up, Zedaph decided he felt ready to do something. Something maybe not as big as usual, but still fun.
He could do that. He could come up with a fun challenge!
He flipped through pages of ideas for Zedvancements, landing on the incomplete one titled “I Try I Spy”. He nodded his head as he looked at it. He could do this! He could sneak up on people like the really amazing spy he was and they’d never see him!
The little smiled to himself as he got together his super-sneaky-and-comfy costumes.
“There’s my target,” he whispered to himself, looking over the edge of the water where Beef was. The area was flat and difficult to hide in, but Zedaph had yet to be spotted, luckily remembering to take his potion.
“And zoom. And SNAP! Picture!” He almost laughed loudly, though having to remind himself to be super sneaky or else this all would have been in vain.
Luckily Beef didn’t notice Zedaph’s less than sneakiness in some moments, and Zedaph made it out of there with a success of one new photo to add to his collection.
It took Zedaph far longer to find where Grian’s base was. Well… he found the base itself, but he figured Grian would be with Grumbot and his super fancy rift. He’d only heard stories of the place, never going there himself. For fair reason, as when he did find it, he realized it was far down and a drop would be painful.
The place was made mostly of stone, meaning if he wore his stone costume, he could hide in the walls and never ever be spotted! A brilliant idea, really.
The stone costume wasn’t as comfortable as his Wormman one. It was a bit tight on him, scratchy at the seams, and really an overall bland costume to come by. But he looked like he was stone, and that’s what mattered.
Carefully he glided down to the floor, unspotted. Grian was running around the area, as to be expected, not knowing that he was being watched . Zedaph gave a small evily giggle to himself as he set up the spy-glass-camera mechanism. “And a small zoom in… just a bit more… no! It’s blurry now! ... shhh… I have to be quiet so he doesn’t spot me!”
He poked out around the side of the crevice he was hidden in, and with enough patience, he got the perfect picture ! And he was unspotted!
Success!
Now to just… get out of here.
…wait, where was the exit?
Well, he flew in through the top, so maybe…? But no, there must be a door somewhere! Right? Some fun way to get out, because everyone needed a fun way to exit their base!
Flying was fun, sure, but not that fun!
He crossed his arms, a bit frustrated that he couldn’t just freely roam around in search of an exit. And the costume was quite scratchy and annoying and he just wanted to whine at it, but Grian would spot him if he did that.
In the end (after one minute), Zedaph tried to walk around sneakily, keeping still when Grian turned around.
It was going fine at first, but then…
“Who’s there?” Grian squinted at him. “Zed? Is that you?”
He stayed frozen. He wasn’t moving. Grian couldn’t possibly see him.
“You know I can see you, right?”
He frowned at the floor. “How do you leave this area?” Zedaph asked quietly, not addressing the fact that he was in a stone costume. There were weirder situations to get yourself in.
“Why are you in my base?”
“I was trying to take a picture of you without you knowing. How do you leave?” He knew that his voice was easily wavering, sounding very high pitched and small and not just Zedaph’s cover would be blown. (Zedaph didn’t need anyone worrying about taking care of him! This was the fun in being small! He could run around and do whatever he wanted, like sneaking into people’s bases and taking pictures of them!)
“Same way you came in. Just fly out.”
“...oh.”
“You could’ve just asked to take a picture with me?”
“That’s not the challenge. I was trying to take one without you knowing and I couldn’t get out and I got such a good picture but now you know and so I’ll have to do it again. ” Overdramatics got in the way as feelings clouded logic and he felt like crying about being spotted in a stone costume of all things.
“Zedaph? Are you okay?”
He didn’t need to know. He didn’t need to know.
Zedaph was fine. He just wanted to take a fun picture and go about his day. Nothing more.
“‘m fine,” he mumbled, fumbling with a rocket.
He tried to boost off, hearing a comment of “That was weird” from Grian, then he fell back to the floor, got back up again, and flew away for good.
Never again would they speak of this encounter.
Once Zedaph found his dignity again, he decided to try on a more comfy costume. He had one of a cow! And he was really, really good at impressions, especially ones of moo moos.
But no matter how comfortable or silly the costume, Zedaph didn’t know how being a cow would help him take a picture.
“...hmmmm. Maybe xB can help me get Keralis back?”
And so the brainstorming began, where Zedaph did a full set-up of a cake-making game and hid himself in a pen full of cows. It was perfect! And xB said he and Keralis were in the area already, so he would just stop by, giving Zedaph the perfect opportunity for a picture!
It was great. He’d win the game of I spy, though he failed the first time.
Of course, it was difficult to see above the cows. He was trying to stay unspottable while still seeing those ahead of him, meaning his task was very difficult. Keralis was distracted though, and didn’t hear Zedaph’s little mumbles to himself every time he failed at this photography challenge.
But when Keralis came running up to him, Zedaph got the perfect shot, and then hid amidst the cows. And with his new picture, he was very happy. Even if he didn’t get three pictures, he got two .
Now… he just had to wait for the two to leave.
Which actually managed to take a while, because Keralis had it in his mind that he was going to bake a cake properly, after many failed attempts. That meant Zedaph was to stay in his pen for another while.
It took so long, that he ended up cuddling up to the cows. The creatures all sat down around him, laying a head on his chest or acting as a pillow. Lovely creatures, indeed.
Though some gave a few huffs at him, others chewed at his hair (getting a whine in response). “No bite,” he told them very seriously before pulling back on the hood of his cow costume. “You wouldn’t bite another moo moo would you? Didn’t think so.” He stuck out his tongue, annoyed for only but a moment.
He was tired, really, and Keralis and xB wouldn’t leave.
He was so tired that he fell asleep against the cows.
“Is that a tiny Zeddy I see?” Keralis asked, peaking over the pen. “He’s so sleepy!”
Zedaph blinked up at him, fighting first and foremost, his exhaustion, then fighting his sadness to the fact that he was spotted. “You… found me.” He frowned a little, looking away from Keralis.
“Were you trying to get a sneaky picture of me?”
Zedaph nodded.
“Well, you did an amazing job staying sneaky. But little hermits can not hide from me for long!” He gave his gremlin-like giggle, jumping the fence so as to help Zedaph up. When helping Zedaph up, he found the younger to be actually, properly sad at being discovered.
“First I- I couldn’t get Gri-an and now– now I can’t get you!”
With help from xB, Keralis lifted Zedaph up and out of the cow pen. After the task was accomplished, he attended to the problem at hand. “Oh, it’s okay. It’s all okay. You can always try again tomorrow. And we can help you get some different hermits you haven’t caught yet.” He pulled Zedaph into a hug, xB joining in to squeeze all the air out of Zedaph.
“Cow costume’s really cool,” xB told him.
At the small distraction, Zedaph perked up. “You like?”
“Yep.”
“Cow costume’s super fluffy,” he told the other. “Much better than my stone one.”
“You dressed up as a stone ?” xB asked with enthusiasm and much surprise. He pulled it off so well that Zedaph ended up in a fit of giggles.
“Yep! The costume… it rocked! You like my joke?” He grinned up at the two.
“You’re very silly, Zedaph,” Keralis told him, taking his hand and leading his steps to home without Zedaph’s realizing.
The walk back was much more fun with Keralis and xB to entertain him, and very quick too. By the time they’d gotten back though, he was struggling to stay alert. Keralis noticed this in a matter of seconds, and gently guided him over to the small bed where Santa Paws was waiting for him.
Dawned in his cute cow costume, Zedaph fell asleep rather quickly, with a kitty cat in his arms and a couple of amazing friends surrounding him.