Work Text:
“Owwwchhh...” Jimmy grumbles, tossing on his side as he wakes up inside of.. His base’s sugarcane farm...? Jim sits up, his clothes slightly damp, presumably because he fell in at some point last night. What was he doing?
Jimmy peers into his inventory and spots half a stack of sugarcane sitting in it. He comes to the conclusion that he must’ve been collecting some and fell asleep halfway through.
I should probably change.. Jimmy thought to himself. He pulls himself up, stretching his arms out to wake himself fully. Weirdly enough, after doing so he felt a weird sensation on his back. Not the kind you feel after cracking a bone though, it’s different in a way?
Jimmy tries to look over his shoulder, but can’t turn around fully to see if there’s something on it. Did one of his allies prank him? Jimmy uses one of his hands to hover over his back, and to his surprise...
Fluff. He feels something fluffy.
“What in the world..?” Jimmy murmurs in concern. It feels nice, like a comfy blanket.. But he needs to focus on the important part— What the heck is happening?!
Jimmy scrambles out of the sugarcane farm, heading towards his base’s entrance. There stands two of his allies, Martyn and Mumbo, who are conversing about various & non-relevant things. They don’t seem to have noticed the ginormous elephant in the room, which would be Jimmy, standing across the grassy field.
Jim clears his throat, “Ahem..” He coughs, grabbing the attention of Martyn & Mumbo. Their eyes both widen in confusion, causing Jimmy to grow even more concerned on what could possibly have happened to him.
“..Since when did you have an elytr-AHA?” Martyn questions, half-joking. He takes a few steps towards the blond, winged man.
“What.. What do you mean?” Jim replies, scratching the side of his head nervously. While doing this however, he notices MORE fluff beside his ear. What the hell?
“You’ve got wings, dude!” Mumbo chimes in, gesturing over at Jimmy.
His jaw drops in perplexment, “WHAT? No way, let me see!” Jim exclaims in uncertainty & doubt. He spins around multiple times, as if he’s trying to look to see if he ACTUALLY has wings now.
Martyn cracks up, waving his hands around in front of his face. “We’re not joking around, swear! Are they real or..?” He interrogates the bird-like man.
“How should I know?! I just woke up with them, man!” He squalls. “What should I do?” He asks the two men.
“You could try and see if you can fly with them? That’d be sick.” Martyn suggests, to which Mumbo nods in agreement.
“Well, of course— But there’s one problem..” Jimmy says, scratching his chin as if he’s deep in thought.
“Yeah? What’s that?” Mumbo queries.
“I DON’T KNOW HOW TO FLY!” Jim yells, his wings flaring up— as if they’re angry. The two southlanders notice this, and their eyes sparkle with amazement.. As if they haven’t literally had another avian ally for the past season… Speaking of him,
Mumbo replies to Jim's cry, fiddling with his hands.
“Well, how about you go ask Grian for help? He could probably give you some useful tips, especially since he’s had those parrot wings for who knows how long.”
Jim laughs, “Pfft— As if he’d even give the time of day.” He doubts that Grian would take him seriously, Jimmy wouldn’t be surprised if he thought that it was just some stupid prank.
“Dude! Just go ask for help, it’s worth a shot right? Besides, he’s our teammate! Why wouldn’t he want to help an ally out.” Martyn pleads, playfully shoving Jimmy in the direction of the entrance— implying that he should walk out.
Mumbo adds, “Yeah! & if he refuses, we can help you learn the best way we can, alright?”
(they would throw him off a cliff)
Jimmy sighs in an obnoxious volume, putting his head up to the sky. “Okay, fine. I’ll go— But where is he even in the first place?” He asks, looking around in confusion.
Martyn hums, chewing on his fingernail. He remembers that Grian had popped up to tell him & Mumbo that he was going to go do something, but unfortunately doesn’t remember WHAT it was..
Mumbo notices Martyn’s behavior, and decides to help him out. “Gri told us that he was going out on a mining trip a little while ago, so you could probably spot him coming back home if you head out right now.”
Jimmy nods, a hopeful smile on his face. He gives a thumbs up and thanks the two before bolting through the exit, beginning his journey of searching for Grian.
He traverses through the dark oak forest that surrounds him and his team, the Southlanders, but unfortunately cannot spot the parrot anywhere! At some point, Jimmy thinks he sees his friend in between the distant trees, but it ends up just being a pesky skeleton that survived the night..
Just as Jimmy was beginning to think that he’d miss Grian coming back to the base, he bumps into something– or someone..? He instinctively pulls his sword out, immediately assuming that it’s just another hostile mob trying to attack him, but once his eyes finally land on the creature, he realizes that it’s actually the one and only.. Grian!
“GRIAN!– There you are, I’ve been looking EVERYWHERE for you, dude!” Jimmy shouts, dangerously loud for the time of day it is.
“Tim? Why are you out here it’s getting dark—” Grian cuts himself off & stares at Jimmy for a couple of seconds. He doesn’t say anything, just watches.
“..When did those get there?” He asks in a hushed tone, beginning to circle around Jimmy to get a better look at the new wings he’s been given. Grian already knew that this was going to happen, they told him at the end of Third Life.. But he ended up forgetting since he had other things to worry about.
“I woke up with them this morning, Mumbo & Martyn told me to go to you for help.. So, here I am!” Jimmy explains, spinning around with his arms up to show off his wings to Grian.
Grian puts a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder so that he stops moving around & begins inspecting his wings, seeming fascinated by the vibrant yellow color of them.
“Canary wings, huh..” Grian whispers under his breath, before gently poking at a couple of the feathers. Jimmy’s wings react to this, ever so slightly twitching.
“Huh?” Jimmy asks, trying to look over his shoulder and at Grian. He doesn’t respond, & instead continues to examine the winged man in silence.
“..Can we like, go back home so that you don’t get shot by a skeleton while being too busy looking at my wings?” Jim suggests, taking a step forward so that Grian stops intensely staring at them.
“Oh yeah, sure.” He replies, shaking his head to gain focus again.
The pair walk around the dark forest, having no source of light other than the torches that Grian had crafted using the spare coal he’d collected from mining previously. When they make it back home, the base is completely silent, the only noises in the background being from the cows that are kept in a hidden space within the castle walls.
Now that there's an actual source of light where the two are, Grian notices that Jim has a second, mini pair of wings on the sides of his head– kind of like his.
“Hey, would you look at that!” He says, looking up at the miniature wings. He holds a hand up to tap one of them– But Jim steps away in confusion.
“What, is there something on my face?” He asks worriedly, beginning to wipe his face in confusion.
Grian laughs, shaking his head profusely before he gestures to his own little head-wings.
“Nonono.. Theeeseee..” He says, vaguely explaining to Jimmy that he has another set of wings beside his ears.
Jimmy stared at the pointing Grian with wide-eyes, quickly understanding what he was trying to say. He stands still for a moment, & then imitates what Grian does. To nobody’s surprise, there were small & fluffy wings. “Huh.” Jim hums.
“Okay.. first things first, let me teach you how to clean your wings, alright?” Grian sits down on the grass beneath them, patting the floor in front of Jim as a way to invite him to come sit down.
Jim nods & perches down beside Grian, looking around the empty field.
“So, how does this work? Do I clean myself or are you supposed to help me?” Jim questions, being very uneducated on the art of wing-preening.
“Well, it’s easier to get a buddy to help groom your wings for you, Mumbo usually helps me do so when he isn’t busy. But cleaning them yourself is totally possible– I do it myself occasionally!” Grian explains, internally laughing at Jim’s confused look.
“Here, to make it simpler for you to understand.. You basically just need to gently brush & pluck out the feathers that feel ready to fall out, they grow back in later. Since your wings are relatively new they probably won't need much done, but it’s still nice to brush the feathers out a bit. Do you want to try?” Grian asks, tilting his head as he watches Jimmy’s wings flutter nervously. He frowns a bit, knowing that Jim’s probably scared of hurting his wings on the same day that he got them.
“We don’t have to yet if you don’t want to.” Grian adds, to which Jimmy immediately cuts him off.
“NO! You can brush, or preen– whatever it’s called my wings, it's alright!” the canary would assure, his wings rising up.
Grian sighs in relief & nods.
“Alright then, can you turn around? Try to stay still, please.”
“Yep!”
Grian pulls out a small brush from his inventory, gently grazing the feathers on Jimmy’s wings. He and Jim stay relatively silent for most of it, only making occasional comments like,
“Geez Tim, what have you been doing all day– It’s been less than 24 hours and somehow your wings have collected so much dirt and.. Sand.”
“I was resting in the sugarcane farm for some reason, don’t worry about it.. Do we need to wash it off or something?”
“No, most of it will come off after brushing for a bit.. But you could still take a bath to get the rest off if you’d like.”
“Alright!”
Once Grian finishes brushing out Jimmy’s wings, he tucks his brush away and back into his inventory.
“So, typically once you finish preening, you’re supposed to shake your wings to get rid of any excess dust and such.”
Jimmy hums to show his understanding of this, & begins to rapidly flap his wings around. Grian shuffles back a bit, not wanting any of the flying dirt to hit him. Once Jimmy finally stops shaking off, he can’t help but giggle.
“I’m going to be honest, that was actually really fun.” He’d say in between chuckles.
Grian would smile,
“Yeah?” He asks, seeming amused.
“Yeah, dude!” Jim exclaims in reply, his wings fluttering with joy
“Heheh.. Well, if you want to.. Tomorrow I could also help teach you the basics of flying with your new wings! I am an expert after all.” He grins, silently hoping that Jimmy agrees to this.
“REALLY? Oh, of course I want to!” The canary chirps excitedly– Now that Grian’s here to support him, Jim doesn’t even remember why he was so scared of having wings in the first place, this is awesome!
“Perfect. Just come to me whenever during the day and we can get started, alright? But first, you– no, WE should get some rest.. It’s really late now & I don’t wanna keep you.. Or our team up.”
Jimmy nods profusely, still very energized despite it being midnight. He seems ever so slightly upset at Grian’s request of getting some sleep, but he knows that they’ll both need it if they’re gonna do some flight-training tomorrow, so he obliges.
“Alright, ‘Night then G!”
“Night-Night, Tim.”