Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Grian had had a growing unease in the back of his mind for the past week. Almost as if his Watcher magic was warning him. He shook his head, trying to shake the feeling. Maybe I should check on the rift again.

For the past week, since the uneasiness began, the rift had began humming again, as if it had been reactivated. But that’s not possible, he reassured himself. And he flew down to the opening of the cave that held the rift.

Apparently, it very much so was possible. He was at the opening and he already knew something was off. There was a purple glow coming from where the rift was. Grian flew down in a panic, landing in the shadows surrounding Grumbot. To his horror, instead of a purple-blue color, the rift was the magenta-purple of Watcher magic. But what was more horrifying than the rift being active was that there were people in front of the rift, as if they had just come through. He froze. There was a DRAGON standing behind the kids. His hand instinctively moved to clutch his sword to hopefully stab the dragon and save these idiotic children. He started sneaking around back but he was so focused on the dragon’s movement that he didn’t see the step down. He tripped with a thump. The dragon’s head snapped up. “Who am I? Scar?” Grian hissed under his breath. One of the humans leaned into the dragon, whispering something. As if she could speak, and understand it.

What?

The dragon growled something back to her and she tensed, looking over to where Grian was. “Show yourself,” She ordered. Grian stepped out of the shadows. All the kids gasped when they saw his red-yellow-blue macaw wings. “Who- WHAT, are you?” one asked. She had dark hair and it was held up by a once-yellow ribbon. “I’m Grian and-“ Grian took a deep breath. “And I’m a Watcher.”

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“I’m Grian and-“ the person(?) in front of Wren took a deep breath and continued. “And I’m a Watcher.” He looked at them as if he expected them to scream and run. They looked at each other, confused. “What’s a ‘Watcher’?” Daffodil asked. “You don’t know what a Watcher is?” Grian asked, shocked. They looked at each other again. “No… I don’t think so.” Ivy said slowly. Grian let out a sigh of relief. “Why?” Violet asked, suspiciously. Grian didn’t seem to hear her. Grian took a brick looking thing out of his pocket and started tapping it. “Ok, some of my friends are coming here to figure out what is going on. I hope you don’t mind.” ”We don’t mind!” Ivy said, leaning back against Sky. The light orange dragon grumbled something about how cold the stone floor was.

It didn’t take long until two other people arrived, Flying down the same way Grian did. Wren wasn’t even going to question how. The shorter one, “Joe” as Grian called him, wore glasses and a light blue shirt with some sort of symbol on it that looked like an a. The taller one, “Xisuma”, wore green and gray armor that covered his entire body. Only half of his face was visible, and only through a purple visor. They started arguing about something but Wren couldn’t catch what it was about. Finally, Joe pulled out a small book out of his pocket that read, “Types of Magic” and started flipping through it. He stopped on a page labeled “Watcher” and had a symbol on it that looked like a rectangle with broken borders near the corners. He glanced nervously glanced at the face… THING… behind them. “No. Not possible. It won’t happen again.” Grian said firmly. “Sorry to interrupt,” Wren interjected, she needed answers. “Where are we?”

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“Where ARE we?” One of the human children asked somewhat sassily. She had dark, curly hair, and a fierce look in her eyes. Xisuma realized He hadn’t even gotten their names, which, you know, is kinda useful when it comes to being an admin. “Oh! Where are my manners? My name is Xisuma Void, and I am the admin. And this right here,” Xisuma said gesturing to Joe, “Is Joe Hills. What are your names?”

”Wren.”

”Leaf.”

”Ivy.”

“Daffodil.”

”Violet.”

”Sky.”

Xisuma and the other two hermits froze. Had that dragon just spoken English? How? That’s not possible!

Wren looked like she was going to burst out laughing, which she did. “Three moons, Sky! That was perfect! They were even more shocked than Leaf was!” Sky looked very proud of himself for that. “But seriously,” Wren said after controlling her laughter, “Where are we?”

Grian and Joe looked at Xisuma. As the admin, it was his job to explain things, and do the thing he was very well known for across the worlds, Babysitting.

“This is Hermitcraft,” The rehearsed lines coming easily to him, “A safe haven for anyone in danger or in need of a safe place to pause until they continue on their travels. This place is filled with interesting sights, and even more interesting people,” he said, shooting a glance at Grian.

”Oh, okay,” Leaf said, surprisingly calm. “Where are you from?" Sky asked. Xisuma was still extremely confused on how he knew English, but he was going to let them settle in before asking for their life stories. "I'm from the End," Xisuma explained. "The End is another dimension that looks like the moon and outer space. I'm from the void, specifically."

"Is that the space part?"

"Yes."

"Can we leave this hole?"

"Also yes."

As the children hopped onto Sky and lifted off into the air, Xisuma thought about his childhood home in the end, and his brother, and wondered if these children realized just how dangerous stepping through the Rift to Hermitcraft was.

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Tango was standing outside of the Deep Frost Citadel, just enjoying the sight of the gigantic building, and honestly, just taking a break from working on Decked Out for a few minutes. He shivered. It was cold up on the mountain, and it wasn’t helping that he had dropped the heated rocks that he usually kept in his pockets. He sniffed, suddenly alerted by an all too familiar scent. Was it just him or did he smell smoke? He turned, and there! A pillar of smoke was rising from the forest. Uh oh! That’s not good! He thought, launching himself into the air. It only took a few seconds until he was close enough to see what the cause of the fire was. It was a dragon. What kind of dragon is that? It’s not an Ender dragon. “No! No! Stop! Stop burning!” The dragon cried as her tail hit another tree, lighting it ablaze. Hmm. Interesting. It seemed that whatever the dragon touched burst into flame. Well, it’s not like that would hurt him. He was a Netherborn, he couldn’t be hurt by fire. He stepped out into the clearing surrounded by fire. It took the dragon several seconds to notice him, because she was trying to pat out the flames which only made it worse. She sighed in defeat and finally noticed Tango. She took a step back, her flame blue eyes widening and accidentally setting two more trees on fire. “Wait, no! Stay away from me,” she cried, her voice hoarse as her flames spread further. Tango ignored her pleas for him to stay back and walked towards her. “Don’t come any closer! I might accidentally burn you!” She shouted, clearly not expecting him to understand. “I don’t think you will,” he said in dragon. To prove his point, he lit himself on fire. He patted himself down, showing her that he was unscathed. “How?” She whispered. “To put it simply, I’m not human,” He answered, smiling at her. She smiled back. 'You know what? I think this is going to be a great friendship.'