Chapter Text
Grian stirred slowly. His wings fluttered first, gently lifting into the air. His body followed in a lumbering movement. A small torch had been placed in the opposite corner of the room, the only thing allowing Joel to see Grian’s sunken eyes and gaunt cheeks.
The majority of the team had nodded off, Scar and Mumbo leaned against each other on the endstone floor. Joel had fought it though. Every time his mind began to wander, the subtle sounds of the Watchers overhead jolted him back to his gruel reality. His pulse strained against his veins.
“Ugh,” Grian groaned, holding the side of his head.
“You good, Grian?”
“Dreams,” Grian said simply, a silent flood of information flowing between him and Joel.
Grian looked down to Skizz and Impulse, both sound asleep, able to forget of the world they were stuck in. His eyes glazed over them in a way Joel struggled to understand.
Gem was the only one awake. Her sword was drawn, resting on her lap. Her eyes never left Grian’s body, and an expression Joel had rarely seen sat upon her face: fear. Like Joel, her eyes darted upward with every noise, rumble, and shake, but even with Grian’s wake, she herself was silent.
Grian ran his hands along his wings, slowing at his scars. “I overslept,” Grian said, quietly. “I think we should go.”
“Where?”
“Not here. Of course they know I’m hiding. They aren’t here not because they don’t know we’re here but because they’re thinking about what to do with us.”
Gem finally spoke, “Why’d we hide, then?”
“I needed sleep,” Grian laughed slightly. “I mean, I couldn’t exactly sleep well up there.”
Joel pursed his lips. “So they’re basically waiting for us up there? Waiting to strike?”
Grian nodded, cocking his head. He leaned back. The back of his head pressed against the end stone wall. Grian closed his eyes.
Gem and Joel exchanged a look.
“Okay,” Grian murmured. “I hear them overhead. We can’t get back up there without them taking us. And we can’t wait because who knows what they’ll decide to do with us.”
“So, then?” Gem asked.
“We have to go through the void,” Grian’s eyes remained shut and he spoke in a hushed tone. “No elytra. They’re too loud. But we have to be quick before the whole place is in complete lock down.”
Joel nodded slowly. “I trust you, G.”
“Don’t call me G,” Grian snapped. “Sorry, Joel. I just mean… I’m Grian now.”
Joel was tempted to push further, but he bit his tongue. “My bad, Grian.”
Gem got up. “Impulse, Skizz,” she tapped the both of them with her foot. “Get up.”
Impulse and Skizz shot up.
“Don’t worry dudes, I got you,” Skizz said drowsily, sword drawn. He rubbed his eyes. “Wait what? Are we leaving?”
“Shut up, Skizz. Just follow Grian’s lead,” Joel said, already knelt down next to Mumbo and Scar. “Wake up, losers,” he shoved Scar. “We’re leaving.”
Scar and Mumbo jolted awake. Mumbo rubbed his eyes.
Grian got up, keeping a hand pressed against one of the walls. “We’re leaving,” he said simply but still quietly. “Through the void.”
Everyone nodded, wooed by the finality in his voice.
“Let me lay down some ground rules.” Grian began to dig downwards. “The void amplifies sound here. So no speaking, elytra, or unnecessary sound.”
“Can they hear us right now?” Gem asked.
“Do you want to find out?” Grian said, motioning for her to lower her volume. “The less I say, the better.”
Grian’s staircase had spiraled far enough that his voice was scarcely audible.
Joel exchanged looks with the rest of the group, trusting but nevertheless afraid.
Joel was the first to follow. He stepped slowly down the stairs, solely the swing of Grian’s pickaxe breaking the silence. An eerily familiar sensation nagged at Joel yet he struggled to place exactly what he was feeling.
Grian broke the barrier into the void. He motioned for a water bucket, which Impulse swiftly passed over. They all floated down, building a small platform below the end stone island.
It was only when Joel looked down was he able to place what exactly he was feeling.
The void, a pulsing color. Swirling purple coated the infinite fall.
Ba-dum
Ba-dum
Joel turned to Gem. Her eyes were wide.
Grian stopped, he gestured for everyone to take a breath. He blocked out the water, plugging up the hole they had come from.
“Follow me,” Grian whispered, quiet to the point Joel wasn’t sure he really heard it.
Grian moved to the end of the platform. He bent over, and ever so slowly, began to build out. He stopped only after a dozen blocks. He stepped back and closed his eyes.
He shook his head, his eyes still pressed shut.
Too far, Grian mouthed to Joel.
“Stay here,” Grian whispered, his words rushed.
Joel opened his mouth to protest, but before he could react Grian dove off the side of the cobblestone platform.
Joel’s mouth stood agape.
From far beneath them, though, Joel heard a gentle flap, and Grian came swooshing back up. His figure began to disappear as he flew off into the distance.
Joel looked around, what Grian crazy? From the faces of everyone else, he clearly wasn’t the only one thinking it.
Ba-dum
Ba-dum
Joel tried to breathe. He had to trust Grian, it was the least he could do. And it wasn’t like he had an option.
The void was cold and barren. Without Grian it became all the more unfamiliar, too. This world was so different yet so similar to Hermitcraft.
Joel touched his chest. He thought about what the Watchers had told him earlier, what they’d shown him. His past lives. What had they really meant by that? Well, of course he didn’t really believe it initially, but standing here, seeing how foreign and strange this world of Watchers was, he had a nagging feeling that what they were saying was so much more than a scare tactic.