Chapter Text
There is no doubt Grian has had a fairly traumatic life.
Of course, nobody knew any slight details besides one of his closest friends. And everyone knew who that was.
Yup, the redstone maniac himself, Mumbo Jumbolio.
It was just like any other day on Hermitcraft. Grian dreaded at the thought of finishing his base, and he would do anything other than finish it. So he was digging through his chest monster to find some diamonds for his shopping spree at the shopping district.
It was also no doubt that the server he has been on for a good amount of time has had some experience with his kind.
Or the watchers.
And it is very scary that they all hold a grudge against them.
And as soon as Grian stepped out of his base he was met with a poster. A fairly worrying one. The big words "ANTI-WATCHER GROUP" practically covered the entire paper.
Grian isn't entirely filled in, but he knows that fellow hermits in the past were taken by the watchers, but that must have been a while ago, right? Surely people wouldn't be fighting back years after the incident?
Were there even more disappearances? Watcher sightings?
Did they know?
That one Grian was most worried about.
Maybe that was selfish but it was true. The thought of the server finding out his origins sent shivers down his spine. Grian knew how far the hermits will go in honor of others.
Was this poster only in front of his house? If so why only his?! There was no way anyone found out nobody even knows anything besides Mumbo! And even Mumbo knows the smallest amount.
He dropped his diamond filled shulker box and began speed walking to Mumbo's base.
He would fly but his wings are still rather small. They grew a bit over the past week but they for sure are not as large as they were before. Nobody knew exactly what happened to his wings. He went on to EVO with huge, beautiful parrot wings, red, yellow, then blue feathers. But when he came to hermitcraft, those wings were basically gone, only his feathered ears gave a slight clue that he was an avian.
Tons of people asked what had happened to his wings, but he only responded with a shrug when brought up.
Even though he was panicking like it was the end of the world, he was swiftly and quietly slipping through the jungle, the only noise he made was the crinkling of the poster in his hands.
"Uh.. I'm sure it's nothing! Maybe these are just old posters!" Mumbo tried to reason with Grian, but Grian was already too lost in panic.
Eventually he arrived, he never expected to, but he did.
Grian scrambled around Mumbo's base, his eyes wide with sight.
His small wings were puffed with a mix of worry and fear, and his feathered ears twitched constantly.
"Grian?" The avian jumped and turned quickly, gaze fixed on the mustached man in front of him.
"Grian why are you digging through my base?" Mumbo glared at the shorter avian, lifting one brow while waiting for an answer.
Grian pulled his foot closer to the other, looking off to the side. "Did you also get this poster?" He lifted up the anti watcher poster. Mumbo eyed it, studying the words. "You know what, I got something fairly similar.." He muttered, digging through his inventory. Grian watched his friend pull out a poster similar in size, the watcher symbol with a cross running through it was the main design.
"Yeah! Like that!" Grian shivered, his small wings were still puffed up. "Do you have any idea what it's all about?!" His voice went up in octave half way through that sentence.
"I dunno! Maybe it's just a mistake? Old posters that needed to go somewhere?" Mumbo was clearly trying to calm the avian but the winged creature was already pacing back and forth.
"Now now G," Grian shuttered, turning his attention to the worried man behind him. "No need to get all worked up, I'm sure we can get an explanation for this." Grian sighed, glancing at the poster in between his fingers. The smaller, fine print in the corner raised Grain's feathers.
'Please speak to Ren for details.'
Grian squinted. "Ren has the details." Grian spoke aloud. "I see.." Mumbo's mutter was almost silenced by the low rumble of thunder in the sky.
Looking up, Grian noticed the dark clouds rolling in at a quick pace. "Looks like it's about to storm.. G, stay here, I'm gonna get to the bottom of this." The avian only nodded, more focused on the mesmerizing clouds falling into his line of vision.
Mumbo softly patted Grian's back, getting a small flinch in return. "I will be back, alright?" Grian only nodded again.
____
Mumbo stumbled through the jungle, messily tripping over almost everything.
He could feel the soft water drops on his freshly clean shirt. But he could hear more than he felt. Looking up, he noticed the jungle trees catching most of the water, only to throw them off when the leaves ended.
He could only hope he made it to Rens before the storm got worse.
Finally, he felt his skin warming, and the rain slowly becoming somewhat warm. This is what happens when you approach Rens base while its raining. It still rains there, its just really, really hot.
Still, for G's sake, Mumbo continued his walk, until he finally felt his foot hit blackstone. It was hot. Really hot. He felt like he was stepping onto the sand at a beach on a really hot day.
Continuing he walk, he spotted Ren. He seemed to be working on something at his base, as he was placing blocks and stopping to only check it out.
Mumbo was shocked to say the least. The base was large, blackstone bricks colliding with the bright red made the place really stick out.
"Mumbo?"
Mumbo jumped, realizing Ren had glided off of his base and was now beside the mustached man. "Ren! Nice to see you man!" Mumbo stumbled over his words out of shock.
Ren tipped his head. "What is it that you're holding?" Mumbo chuckled and handed the paper to Ren. "I came to ask about this." Mumbo explained quickly.
Ren analyzed the poster for a moment before smiling. "You're interested in the Anti-Watcher group?" You could hear the smile in his voice. "Ah, no, only here for details. A.. Friend wants them but is far to busy." Ren nodded, opening his mouth to speak.
"You see, recently, there have been watcher sightings. Well, we think there are. People have reported tall figures with long white robes and large white wings that fade to purple all around the shopping district. This happened before, and that was before hermits started to be taken by them. So, this group was made to keep hermits safe from those monsters." Ren breathed, clearly have wasted his breath on his paragraph.
"We can't have monsters like watchers taking our friends again." He finished.
Mumbo only stood there, stiff and fighting the urge to drop his jaw. "Sightings?" The redstoner spoke after what felt like a decade of silence.
Ren responded with a nod. "The movement have been there for a while, it's just becoming active again for the servers safety." Mumbo internally shuttered. "Well, I will make sure to tell my friend that." He awkwardly chuckled before buckling the straps on his elytra. "See ya again soon!" Mumbo said.
Before Ren could say his goodbyes, Mumbo quickly fumbled and launched his rockets, flying out to his base.
Come to think of it, why didn't he just fly to Ren's base? It would have been far more quicker. Maybe the rain would have messed with his balance. The rain seemed to have lightened up, it was now only softly sprinkling, becoming less and less noticable.
He was hoping Grian was alright.
_________
Grian was not alright.
His wings were puffed with fear as he looked at his comms. So the posters were in fact not just some old advertisements. Messages from Doc that showed up every ten minutes or so just advertised the group.
Grian shivered, his wings were messy and covered in leaves. The rain outside was barley able to be heard. He was gonna die this way. He knows what some of these Hermits will do for revenge. No matter what the avian says, they wont listen. He is gonna die.
This is the end for him.