Chapter Text
The wind battered at Grian as he taunted his best friend.
"C'mon, Mumbo! Go to the edge!"
They stood on Free Man's Bluff, a craggy cliff that started wide, with a solid base, but thinned to a point with nothing beneath it, only its connection to the rest of the bluff supporting it.
"No, Grian! It's too dangerous, I'll fall!" Mumbo stood firmly away from any edges.
Grian rolled his eyes, laughing. "It's not that dangerous, look!" Grian sauntered to the edge - not to the point where there was no support, just the edge. "And anyways, if you fell, I'd just catch you, so you're a coward."
"A coward!" Mumbo gasped, offended.
"Yeah, a coward." Grian smirked.
"I am no coward!" Mumbo began marching forward, along the centre of the cliff. "Do you know how not a coward I am? Watch this!" Mumbo walked straight, all the way up to the point, so he couldn't even put both feet side by side. "See? See?" Mumbo began to turn. "No one does this, so clearly I'm no-"
The cracks started quiet, but Grian could hear them - he could hear everything.
He lunged forward, spreading his wings, but the cliff was already broken, and Mumbo was already falling, falling, falling.
Grian leapt from the cliff, desperate to get his friend.
Their fingertips brushed.
Grian's wings caught an updraft, and suddenly the crashing of the waves against the base of Free Man's Bluff was mixing with the splash from Mumbo's body hitting the water.
~*~
A man in black stood at the front of the church.
"Mumbo Jumbo was a beloved member of our community-"
And now he's dead.
"-And his death was a tragic accident-"
No, it was your fault.
"-We shall greatly miss him-"
Your fault.
Your fault.
Your fault. Your fault. Your fault.
Yourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyour-
Grian stood abruptly, and the man in black stopped speaking. Grian realised all the eyes were on him now.
He fled. He left, he ran, he couldn't stay, not there, not when it was his fault.
Grian just wanted to get a long, long way away from the chapel where his best friend's funeral was being held.
He didn't manage a long, long way. He ran down the path leading up to the church, took a left and ran, following the path, but not paying much attention to anything until he ran directly into the town notice board and found himself face-to-face with the funeral announcement for Mumbo.
The universe itself hated him for what he'd done, didn't it?
He pulled the paper off the board, drawing it close. He'd screwed up so, so bad.
Then he caught sight of the flyer beneath.
It read:
Final sign-up sheet for the Tournament of Death's Mercy.
Once every hundred years, Death herself runs this tournament, and the winner will be allowed to have one loved one brought back from the dead-
Grian didn't read the rest of it. He grabbed a pencil from the base of the board to write his name on the sheet. He could right his mistake, and the only person he would have to leave behind, now that Mumbo was gone was-
"What are you doing?"
Grian just about jumped out of his skin, turning around.
Think of the devil, and she shall come.
Pearl, his sister, crossed her arms. "Why did you leave? What is this?" She gestured to the flyer.
"I'm gonna get Mumbo back." He lifted his chin.
"Oh, no you're not," Pearl said, and Grian's heart sank. If she tried to stop him, there would be nothing he could do. "Not without me, anyway."
Pearl took the pencil from his hand and wrote her name in brackets beside his. "It says that each contestant can have an aid, so that's going to be me." She turned to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm not letting you do this alone."
"Then I guess we should go get ready." Grian had been prepared to do this alone, but he was glad he wouldn't have to.