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“Parrot. Are you sure this isn’t nothing.”
“I mean, I’m not sure sure, but, like, this could be big-”
“Bro, we don’t have the time. You’re king, you gotta do kingly stuff… like… I dunno, parade around on horses and give people diamonds!”
“Theo,” Parrot giggles, “we barely have diamond armor ourselves. We can hardly do that.”
“Yeah, but, like, you get what I mean!”
“Yeah, yeah, but don’t you understand? This could fix Unstable’s resource shortage. As king, I have to make sure that all of my citizens are happy, and right now my citizens need food and gear to be happy. Like, they’re starving, Theo.”
“Mmmhmm. Parrot, we don’t know if this is-”
“Theo. Please, just listen. It could be the key to solving the resource problem. Please.”
“Oh my god, bro. I genuinely - I can’t.” Theo shakes his head, sighing. He starts to shove steak into a bag.
Parrot takes this as agreement. “Okay, great! I’m going to go get, um, the Happy Ghast.”
“Can’t we use elytras? Or horses? They’re faster. I mean, you’re king and all…”
“We don’t have elytras, and horses get caught in forests. This book says it’s in a forest.”
“Fine. Fine.”
Eight hours later, they’re hovering over a random patch of oak forest, Parrot checking his communicator.
“It should be right here,” Parrot mutters, frowning.
“I don’t see anything,” Theo points out helpfully.
“Maybe it’s in the sky?”
“Parrot, I think we got tri-”
“Just wait, Theo. Wait.” He steers the Happy Ghast towards the sky. Higher, and higher, until Theo gets his hair wet in a cloud. And then it’s lower, down to the depths of the mines, but there’s nothing.
“Parrot, we really got tricked. Like, why are you always randomly trusting people? It’s never going to come out to any good.”
“I really did think-”
“Yes, well you have to learn some suspicion! What are you going to do, hand yourself over to the next group of bandits that comes by? You’re going to die, Parrot!”
“Theo. I’m not going to hand myself over. You know I’m smarter than that. I’m not going to die.”
“You’re too… trusting for your own good! I - I don’t, Parrot. Parrot, you let down your guard as soon as you trust someone, but you always trust them right away! Hell, a chungus could come up to you and ask for help for their base and you would follow them right into a trap!” He gets off the Happy Ghast, hands pulling on his hair.
“Theo, I would know. I’m good at reading people.”
“Maybe you are, Parrot, but what if you meet someone who’s better than you? Who’s good at hiding their emotions? If you keep trusting everyone, you’re going to die!”
“I’m not going to-”
“Aren’t you? Aren’t you always rushing headfirst into a battle you don’t belong in, just to save one person? Always the first to give yourself up? Spending days on a chicken farm, Parrot, you were literally going to pass out from exhaustion! You never, ever think of yourself! Couldn’t you just be a little selfish, for once?”
It stuns him. He’s left sitting there, staring blankly at his best friend, huddling in an endstone box. Be a little selfish, Parrot. Think of yourself. Looking at Wifies’ purple eyes until they disappear under the haze of invisibility. Next to a spruce cabin in the whirling dying screaming wind, click of a fishing rod as his best friend dies in front of his eyes.
Wifies’ beautiful, benign eyes disappearing under the cruel, brutal haze of invisibility. Death in a set of flow-trimmed armor, cold like the snow around them; a corpse.