Welsknight and Jevin arrived not on horseback (as would fit Welsknight's aesthetic), but instead from the sky with the smell of gunpowder. They descended carefully, one as regal as an enormous bird of prey and another like a blue-tinted flying slime. They chattered, commenting politely and complimenting the various builds about the valley. In the setting sunlight, Wels' armour glimmered as if on fire.
"Mumbo, how is he so…" Impulse said, his words trialing off as he exhaled shakily. "Just- so dreamy?"
"I don't know, mate," Mumbo agreed, recognizing his voice as being a tad shrill. "He just is."
Xisuma stood at the front of the meeting room. It felt like ages ago, he had gathered his hermits off the coast of the Big Eye shopping district to first broach the topic of Scout. Now, everyone gathered once more for his new declaration.
Information had been provided on an as-needed basis, yet this couldn't last any longer. New revelations had changed his preferred strategy.
"Hello everyone," Xisuma greeted warmly, drumming his fingers on the top of the nearest wooden table. The surface had been well maintained, Keralis had done a wonderful job.
A chorus of greetings rang back at him. Some louder than others. Many eyes were tossed towards one table in particular, where Mumbo K. Jumbo looked absolutely miserable.
"I wish I had asked you all to attend for something fun, but, well it seems I've made a bit of a pattern as of recent."
A few eyes glanced around, nervous or curious. Pearl stood with her jaw tight, eyes daring anyone to say anything. Impulse shrugged slightly, avoiding Tango and Zed's open concern. Scar sat, petting Jellie who curled in his lap blissfully unaware.
"Yeah, but that's not your fault, X!" Joe said, smiling warmly. "It's nice to see everyone, even if just for this."
Cleo sniffed, rolling her eyes. She muttered something under her breath, sounding suspiciously like 'kiss up' to which False smiled slightly.
Xisuma nodded. He folded his hands in front of him, then, after a moment of thought he wilted dramatically. Guiltily, he faced his friends and confessed: "I made a mistake."
Multiple people blinked in confusion, some exchanging small broken words, unable to even process what the man meant.
"Uh, we may need a little more to go off of here, X," Tango said, voice straining high as he tried to hide his clear anxiety.
Xisuma nodded. "A…while ago, I lowered the server's firewalls to allow two guests to visit from a different server. They stayed only a short period of time before leaving."
"Yeah, I remember them," Tango said, voice still shrill. He shifted his weight, gnawing on one lip with very pointy teeth. "Was that…a bad thing?"
"Normally, no," Xisuma stated. "Unfortunately, I have reason to suspect that the moment our firewalls were down, we were hit with corruption."
Joe coughed, hacking violently. Cleo pounded his chest with one of her hands, helping him through his sudden asphyxiation on spit. Cub's jaw had dropped, stunned silent for words. The others began to mutter- Stress turning to Iskal with confusion and worry. Iskall on the other hand, had a stony expression that spoke of former experience.
"Corruption, ay?" Iskall asked rhetorically. "What sort? Can't we just…delete the infected chunks?"
"Xisuma would have already done it," Cub said automatically. The man tilted his head, eyes sharp and nearly glowing. "It's something else, isn't it? Outside of admin abilities?"
"Nonsense," Doc sneered, stamping one foot for emphasis. "There is no way a hacker could have done that much damage in so short a time!"
"Do we gotta do something?" Bdubs asked, snapping his head around to look for Etho. "Etho! Get your lazy butt over here! You gotta beat someone up for us!"
"Eh? Why me?"
"Because you're being lazy and-."
Xisuma clapped his hands. The noise settled, eyes back on him. Xisuma cleared his throat, wet his lips and said as calmly as he could: "the corruption has occurred outside of my abilities. I firmly believe that only a Developer at this point can stop it."
"A Dev?" Doc gasped, shaking his head. "No way, man. It takes months to get in contact with them."
"Yeah, I'm with Doc on this one," Iskall agreed. "Like, most people can't even find a Dev. Doc's a freak to even have met one before-."
Xisuma nodded, waving his hand. Once again the volume settled. Keralis looked at Xisuma with open worry, eyes round and somewhat glassy. The man was far too emotional, or maybe he simply had a soft spot for Xisuma.
"It was Impulse that noticed the problem," Xisuma said, beckoning towards the somber quiet man. "In his words, moon big."
"Moon…big?" Bdubs squawked, blinking rapidly. "What the heck does that mean?"
"X, surely you don't mean tha' moon is gettin' bigger," Stress said, placing her hands on her hips. "I mean, it's a stinkin' moon! You can't change that- that's just toxic behaviour!"
"Moon big," Zed repeated, looking flummoxed. "How do you even make a moon big?"
"Oh," Doc said. He stared blankly, and stated damningly: "It would only look bigger if it's coming closer."
"Eh?" Stress yowled, waving her arms frantically. "I don't wanna get hit by the moon!"
"How much time do we have? How does this even happen?"
"What sort of hacker could pull that off?"
"Are we changing servers then? Is there one set up?"
Xisuma waited until the various noises and conversations settled. All eyes once more turned to him, occasionally flickering to the silent Pearl, Impulse, Scar, and Mumbo. It was very obvious that the Boatem crew had come to some sort of realisation, one the others had yet to know.
"The easiest way to avoid this, is to simply change seasons early," Xisuma stated. Thankfully, nobody argued outright. They were hermits- they were used to travelling and restarting anew in a different land. That wasn't a problem.
"So…what's the issue then, X?" Doc asked, lifting both eyebrows.
Xisuma said: "I don't believe Scout, or Grian as we have discovered, can come with us."
XBCrafted jolted, standing abruptly. iJevin nearly fell as the man bumped his leg, so abrupt the slime couldn't quite catch himself.
"Xisuma, I'm staying then," XB stated boldly. His voice was quiet and calm, but resolute.
"XB," Keralis gasped, reaching out with one arm although not far enough to actually touch. "No! The moon, you cannot fight the moon!"
"Oh, I get it now," Tango said slowly, rotating his head to look at Impulse. " We all can leave, but Scouty can't. Wow, that hacker must have really had it out for him."
Absolute silence. Slowly, the hermits realised the gravity of the situation.
There was only one thing in existence that would despise Scout's continued survival- one which had enormous abilities to not only destroy a server, but the track record proving that it could.
"Ah, shit," Cub said, swearing for the first time in what felt like ages. "Well, this is a crappy situation."
Gem tossed her head, visibly anxious. "So…what? We just leave the server? And then Scout gets stuck here and the moon…"
"Will result in a permadeath," Xisuma stated.
The hermits mumbled, speaking amongst one another. Worried faces all around, nerves and tension at a record high.
"I understand that this situation is not optimal," Xisuma stated, elevating his voice so all could hear him. "I have already found the next server for our new season. I haven't yet mapped it, so you'd be heading into it blind, but any hermit who does not want to stay is more than welcome to move on."
"Bah, don't be so silly, Shashwammy," Keralis scoffed, flinging one arm around his armoured friend's shoulders. "I'm staying here! We're a family, no? We will stay and help!"
"Just say the word, X," Joe agreed, bobbing his head with clear determination. "What do you need us to do?"
Xisuma gazed around the room, slightly overwhelmed and greatly touched. He knew his hermits well, each unique and special in a way he couldn't describe. Even his hermits who had not yet come into direct contact with Scout stood firm in their opinion, for he was now something they all unanimously agreed upon: family.
"Do we have to stay in the overworld?" Cub asked, arching both his thick eyebrows with an impish suspicious grin. "I mean, last time I checked there isn't any moon in the void."
Cleo cracked her fingers, a rather unsettling habit in lieu of cracking her knuckles. "I mean, I know that I've done it before. Staying in the void for a long time isn't exactly…pleasant."
"No no- that's what they want," Pearl very hastily shouted. Waving her arms for emphasis, she drew Xisuma's eye and pleaded. "Don't do that! They're likely just waiting to snatch him!"
"Don't worry about that, I won't let it happen," Xisuma assured her. Behind his visor, he smiled simply. "You'll find that those unfriendly-folk aren't the only ones experienced in the void."
"Ooh, Shashwammy is taking off his big-boy-pants," Keralis giggled, squeezing his friend's shoulder with a wide toothy grin. "Oh, I am excited to see this!"
Xisuma huffed, his shoulders shaking slightly in gentle laughter. He shook his head fondly, trying to assure the group of both curious hermits and resigned friends. "Ah, no. Nothing too crazy. I'm thinking of creating a firewall in the void, just around the main island. It'll cut down on our movements for a while so no End-Raiding."
"That's fine," Cub stated rather dismissively. "I don't think anyone needs any elytra."
"Who needs elytra," Bdubs muttered jokingly, sparing a fond glance towards his horse, tied up to a nearby post.
"Mm, I just want to see you get all squishy," Keralis crooned, giggling mischievously. "It's been so long, Sashwammy!"
"I you- well- I'm not squishy," Xisuma defended, looking adorably baffled and a tad embarrassed. "I just, you know…oh stop laughing already!"
The end portal was not in close proximity to Boatem. This wouldn't be a problem since almost everyone traveled great distances by flying, nether portal, or on horseback.
All three of those options of travel had great problems with them. Scout had yet to actually fly, and at this point many people were skeptic he even could. Scout was made of very flammable feathers and had yet to demonstrate any sort of awareness of potential hazards. Scout was much too large to sit on a horse, and there was some concern the great creature would try to eat it.
Mumbo adored Scout with all his heart, but he was not quite willing to put his prized motorized donkey in the same room as a creature who had eaten twelve melons in a matter of minutes.
Transporting Scout wasn't as simple as just…coaxing him with a pile of shiny blocks or glistening diamonds. At times, Scout operated with a scary level of intelligence, capable of building with an ornate level of detail. Impulse confessed that sometimes Scout created beyond what even he could make, venturing closer into territory of Pearl, Scar, or Bdubs.
And then, there were days where Scout was simply a creature. No thoughts, all instinctive reactions and odd chirps and chattering noises that the parrots of Mumbo's megabuild all responded to. There was no pattern to the shift, some days were good days and some days were not. When Scout was intelligent and patient with a gentle compassion, Mumbo brightened until he radiated joy and happiness. On days when Scout could not recognize one face from another, Mumbo crawled into his bed in a horrible depressive state and Scar occupied hours of his day to tend to Scout as if he were a hurt wild cat. Vex were generally cruel mobs to players, but a simple knack for animals came naturally to the man.
They could spend hours working on creating a safe nether tunnel towards the end portal, but in the nether even the smallest things could spark a flame. Feathers were simply too big a risk until Scout was able to carefully and rationally navigate the dangerous realm. Even on his good days, there was no promise he wouldn't simply revert once panic struck. False admitted that her avian brain struggled at times when in close quarters with magma blocks or open fires, and she had only one set of wings to use.
"What if we put a lead on him?" Impulse asked one night when some of the group had gathered below the darkened sky. Since learning Scout tended to creep out from the shelter of his cave only when night fell, they had gathered daily to both survey the moon and see the state of their friend. Today was a good day, and Scout had been gazing skywards with all wings partially spread. Occasional phantom shrieked in the sky, swooping with no specific target. Occasionally, Scout tilted his head and echoed an admirable mimicking cry. A few phantoms squawked in open surprise, before chattering amongst themselves perplexed.
Scar gave Impulse an expression of devious delight. "A lead, you say? Well, I would hardly say no to such a fine opportunity!"
"Oi, no stealing my favourite bird," Pearl teased, watching Scout lumber awkwardly across the soft grass. "I don't think he'd be up for it, he'd run off and you'd be dragged behind him."
Impulse considered the idea. Leads weren't necessarily to restrain, they simply were meant to guide. Most animals didn't know where they were going, but some animals like llamas would follow their own. Scout was much more intelligent than a llama, he would surely be able to follow them if not for his aversion to the sun.
"Well, how about we ask him?" Impulse said, cupping both hands around his mouth. "Scout! Can you come over here for a minute?"
Scout's upper body snapped around, the two lateral pairs of wings on the side of his head flared outwards like an axolotl before the creature began to haul himself awkwardly over the distance. He hadn't yet quite figured out how to crawl, he was much better climbing on vertical rock faces or cavern roofs.
Pearl mumbled something to herself, clearly not expecting Scout to listen or even understand. Scar made a little hum, whistling a jolly little tune. Mumbo, presumably, snored somewhere inside where he had gone to bed.
"Hey there, buddy," Impulse greeted the large feathery monstrosity. He outstretched one well muscled arm, letting Scout stare at it and process something. After a long pause, Scout twitched and unleashed an absolutely deafening cry identical to a phantom amplified by four. Scraaa!
Impulse jumped, Scar cried out a delightful little noise of shock. Pearl cursed something layered thick by her accent. Scout's little wings flapped, folding back against his skull as he vibrated in open silent amusement.
"You're such a little prankster," Impulse said with a fond little smile, going so far as to ruffle the tips of the little wings that permanently covered Scout's actual face, Grian's face. "So we were thinking. We want to get you somewhere else, if we put a lead on you, would you follow?"
Scout remained still, frozen as he attempted to process. Clearly this was too much to ask for, and after a moment of pause Scout warbled something like an unhappy bird. Impulse rubbed the back of his neck, disappointed at their new challenge.
"What if we just put it on him?" Scar asked. Slowly, the man rose to his feet and drew a leash from his bag- one of the many he used on Jellie or other livestock he had gathered over the many months. With little care or pause, he created a loop and tossed it expertly over Scout's head. It rested low, where humanoid scapular blades and the base of the first largest set of wings sprouted, nowhere close to a choking hazard.
Scout didn't look down. A strange prickling anxiety overtook them all, Pearl shuddering bodily and slumping against the ground with open fear. Impulse held steady, slowly adapting as Scar simply trembled as he stood. Scout slowly opened wings along his body, further back and even further to where the most hindquarters pair spread open like a peacock. In the darkness, Impulse swore he could see the glow of a hundred blinking eyes.
Then, it faded and Scout huffed bodily. He jerked away from Scar, dragging him across the ground. Helpless to stop him, Scout carried on bodily dragging Scar until he realised he was dragging the man- at which point he assuredly began clambering quicker and caused Scar to scream. Soon, it appeared more that Scout was leading Scar, with a bit more screaming than expected. In fact, the man bore resemblance to a rather loud kite.
"Yeah, that plan didn't work," Pearl muttered glumly, shuddering still on the ground. "I hate Watchers."
There were various factors to consider in operation Get-Scout-To-The-End. One main limitation was Scout himself, who had an aversion to the sun or an odd allergic reaction the others had never heard of before. The other limitation was the end portal itself, which had been carefully and lovingly transformed by Jevin and Welsknight.
Jevin had interacted on occasion with the Boatem crew, always polite albeit a bit slimy and damp. The man was pleasant although always a bit nasally when speaking due to the huge quantities of slime pressing on his poor sinuses. Jevin didn't have many bones in his body, but almost everyone knew that he hadn't a mean one. He was a bit of a prankster, a unique personality that many people came to love over time.
Welsknight on the other hand had the strong steady personality of a gentle king. His trademark armour had evolved over time, but notably included the silver gleam. Originally, it had been silver leaf painted onto armour with awkward brushstrokes. As his skill improved, it elevated into iron plating, then borders or inlay made from awkwardly hammered fuller grooves. Welsknight now of course was more than a young experimental man toying with ideas and fantasies of precious metal.
Truthfully, Impulse and Mumbo had brainstormed multiple times as to how the man had accomplished it. Netherite was incredibly difficult substances to work with, most hermits went without using the difficult metal in their traditional gear. Some hermits wore diamond armour to avoid the challenge of smithing the metal. Creating netherite ingots alone was a pain, but incorporating each ingot into their armour? Some hermits avoided using armour entirely (Scar) and others preferred lighter more comfortable forms of wear (Bdubs).
Welsknight of course entirely contradicted this. How the man had figured out how to permanently stain netherite silver, even Doc couldn't fathom how.
Initially, Impulse wasn't so sure how to broach the subject to both Jevin and Wels. It was Pearl who rather abruptly plucked his communicator and sent a direct message to both men. She brazenly plowed through his reluctance, and led to the eventual meeting that had been slowly approaching.
The slowly increasing dread only heightened as the moon seemingly appeared larger, and Boatem grew more busy. The original picnic spot outside what had been deemed ' Scout's Cave' had slowly transformed into more of an outdoor patio. Permanent chairs were constructed in a circle, capable of viewing any of the Boatem monuments. A large firepit with a few metal accessories rested above the ashes, still smelling of recently grilled lamb and fish. The blanket-covered slime lawn had been disassembled to avoid ruining the blankets themselves when it rained. Easy to reassemble, depending on what audience would be present for moon-gazing and interacting with Scout.
Mumbo could recognize that realistically, there was nothing to be nervous about. He wasn't not friendly with Wels, but quite honestly hadn't interacted much with the man. The man in question was simply so… respectable, it made Mumbo want to make sure the night was absolutely splendid. Impulse shared his anxieties, going about with far too much care whilst plucking dead leaves and wilting flowers from the various scattered pots. Scar hadn't an idea why the two were so nervous, but gleefully leapt into planting and decorating even more. Pearl did none of this but did supply plenty of food, half of which were baked potatoes stolen from Mumbo's storage.
Welsknight and Jevin arrived not on horseback (as would fit Welsknight's aesthetic), but instead from the sky with the smell of gunpowder. They descended carefully, one as regal as an enormous bird of prey and another like a blue-tinted flying slime. They chattered, commenting politely and complimenting the various builds about the valley. In the setting sunlight, Wels' armour glimmered as if on fire.
"Mumbo, how is he so…" Impulse said, his words trialing off as he exhaled shakily. "Just- so dreamy?"
"I don't know, mate," Mumbo agreed, recognizing his voice as being a tad shrill. "He just is."
Wels removed his helmet, setting it politely on the side table Pearl walked the two towards. Jevin, rather polite, thanked her for the warm invitation. Wels smiled, his expression soft and lovely. Impulse nearly swooned.
"Ah, hello Impulse, Mumbo," Wels greeted the two. He smiled politely once more, offering one outstretched arm to shake. His accent, similar to Impulse's, rounded slightly more on each accent and entirely changed the way he spoke into something hypnotizing. "Thanks so much for inviting us over. Pearl explained the situation a little, do you mind giving us a refresher? Xisuma explained a little during our last meeting but I'd hate to be on the wrong page."
Scar made a little eep, sitting heavily into the chair nearby. Wels glanced at him with open worry, Mumbo swore he saw Scar's eyes twinkle wetly.
"Ah- no no, thanks so much for coming by," Impulse hastily explained. He waved his arms just a little bit more than necessary, accidentally smacking wetly into Jevin. The smile watched the entire situation with open amusement, nearly laughing at the predictable response.
"Simp," Jevin said under his breath, coughing with a squelch to hide his words.
Mumbo spluttered, not accomplishing anything within the English language. Impulse flushed hotly, but didn't act on it or acknowledge Jevin's snickers.
Welsknight settled himself into one of the proffered chairs, gently shifting a nearby lantern so that he could remove some of his vambraces and set those aside as well. Below his shimmering armour, he wore something akin to a shimmery cashmere material. Silk, for all its luxury, was a fabric capable of stopping an arrowhead.
"If I may be so bold," Wels said politely. "Are we meeting at dusk because we may have Scout join us as well?"
"Yes- well, er, maybe?" Mumbo said quite weakly. He found himself stumbling over his words, hastily drinking some cold water offered in large audible gulps. Scar had mercy on him, although the teasing light of his natural vex heritage glimmered in his eyes.
"Yep! We're trying to figure out how to move him to the void," Scar stated quite cheerily. "I tried to use a lead, but he's a little too big for my little ole' self."
Wels hummed at that, tapping his fingers across the wooden arms of his chair. "I see, you're hoping to use the end portal that Jevin and I built?"
"Well, we didn't make the portal, but we did pimp it out," Jevin stated quite bluntly. "We don't really have a nether-path to get there."
"We aren't taking him to the nether, no way," Impulse said with a visible shudder. "It's far too much fire for all the feathers. Not Scar-safe, not Scout-safe."
"Scout-safe," Welsknight repeated with audible amusement in his voice. His lips quivered, eyes glittering with laughter. "That's a new one."
Jevin chuckled, the movement rippling the exposed soft blue slime of his body. Both men were in good humour, kind and curious as they settled in the various chairs. Scar started a fire, feeding it kindling and larger branches until a healthy campfire blazed brightly. Phantoms swooped above, calling to one another without desire to attack the group of well-rested friends.
The moon indeed, was getting larger. Pearl watched Wels stare at it with a sombre expression, sighing softly into the dark. Jevin made no indication that it bothered him, however the man made no movement to look upwards into the twinkling darkness of space.
"There are multiple stops along the way to get to where we have the portal," Jevin explained. He toyed with a cork in one hand, absorbing it and rejecting it from his squishy skin. "I'm sure you could use Tango's cave again, but after that you'll have to make little spots to rest for the night. Maybe Bdub's horse course has something?"
"We're all going to be travelling on foot for this," Wels murmured quietly. "It'll slow us further than you think, Jevin."
The man visibly wilted, reconsidering his plan. Getting to Fifi's cave in one night already was pushing it without the aid of wings or horses. Scout was becoming bolder in his actions, but had yet to attempt to use the feathery appendages beyond the fateful wither-incident.
"What about my Swaggon?" Scar asked thoughtfully. "I mean, some of them are a bit cluttered but I could easily make space. The path Bdubs made is a bit bumpy but could work."
They all exchanged looks, then slowly turned to Mumbo. The man spluttered, moustache quivering. "What on- why on earth are you all looking at me!"
"You're the man with super-speedy donkeys!" Scar addressed, a small grin twisting his face. "Come on, don't you want to go for an adventure?"
"With you? Surely not!"
"It is a good idea," Wels stated. He redirected them back to the topic at hand, sharing a look with Jevin. "We would have to create some sort of ramp to lower into the end fortress-."
"Oh, don't worry about that. Scout is an avid cave-climber," Impulse corrected them. "He'll easily get into the pit. We just need to actually encourage him to do that."
"You still can't talk with him?" Jevin asked with morbid curiosity. "I thought X said he had removed some sort of language block. He doesn't know words?"
Awkwardly, Mumbo shifted. Pearl's expression darkened, her grip curling into fists. She stated coolly: "It changes based on the day."
"Huh," Jevin responded, blinking twice. "That's…too bad."
The fire dwindled and Welsknight helpfully tossed another log on. Little sparks burst forth, trailing upwards in dynamic alternating movements. The shadows of phantoms drifted between the lazy sparks as the ascended high into unknown territory. A phantom shrieked, and a responding noise called from the ground.
"Ah, the sleepy bird has woken up," Scar announced unnecessarily. There was no dramatic arrival, no sudden explosion of movement. The group gazed towards the opening of Scout's Cave expectantly.
In the darkness, it was hard to see anything different. Perhaps something moved or changed, or maybe it was a figment of their imagination. The transition existed in two facts: Scout had left his cave, and Scout had crept towards the group.
A hideously nauseous weight appeared. Jevin wilted, blue skin tinting to something akin to olive. The man shuddered, queasy and overwhelmed as anxiety burst forth and transformed his world to something dull and vapid. Welsknight shivered, his armour rattling with a musical tremor as he too felt the insidious plague. The man squeezed his eyes shut, stiffened his jaw and forced himself to endure. Between carefully forced breaths, Welsknight stood on frozen legs.
Above the others, he peered into the darkness with a battle-ready intensity. In the faint darkness occluded by the night, he perceived what seemed to be dozens of misshapen glowing eyes.
Cats held eyes that glowed, a membrane within their eye structure itself that reflected light to provide better vision in the dark. It was eerie enough with only one feline creeping about, but Scout held eyes too numerous to count. All affixed and blinking with an arrhythmic timing that turned the bravest man to a trembling child.
Then, it lifted. Sudden panic left them all with a cold barren awareness of what had been. Jevin wilted, losing height and resembling a cube for mere moments before he reappeared in true shape. Welsknight closed his eyes and allowed himself a moment of relief before he too, returned to normal appearance.
"God, that was horrible," Jevin moaned bitterly. He shivered, his entire body rippling. "Man, I can't believe how bad that was."
"You kinda get used to it," Impulse said weakly, offering little bottles of water. Jevin accepted his quickly, Wels declined his with a small wave of his hand.
"That was…" Welsknight trailed off quietly, staring into the fire with a distant expression of thought. "How…sad."
"Sad?" Scar asked, voice quirking in surprise. "Why would that be sad?"
"Well, it's quite hard to make friends when meeting them leads to that," Wels stated quietly. "It's…cruel, isn't it? You'd scare every person you meet. It must be such a lonely existence, to be a Watcher."
Pearl twitched. For the briefest of moments, she appeared ready to argue. Wels looked at her with a soft sincerity that melted her quiet rage. He clarified with a gentle voice of someone thoughtful of others. "From what I have heard, Watchers are not born but made. And I did wonder why any person would stay with others who are supposedly so cruel and vicious. I know there is likely more to this story, but there is always a perspective in every battle that we are not privileged to know."
"Well said," Mumbo spoke under his breath, holding his empty bottle of juice quite tightly. "Grian was- is- well…he is a prankster, but he isn't cruel."
"I never believed otherwise," Wels said warmly.
Scout did linger around the fire. He preoccupied himself with other things, appearing on occasion as the group spoke logistics. On one occasion, Scout returned and entered the perimeter of orange light, providing Wels and Jevin an approximate idea of his true size. Jevin's eyes bulged, Wels stilled himself quietly. Scout had crawled his way closer, playfully thwacking Mumbo's back with one enormous feathery wing. The man stumbled and fallen from his chair, only to stand and scold the enormous beast. Scout chirruped something similar to a parrot, then mimicked Mumbo's voice with uncomfortable accuracy. "Scout, no, naughty, you!"
Mumbo ran one hand through his hair. "I- alright listen here. It's not polite to knock a bloke over like that! I could have fallen into the fire! It's not funny if that happens!"
Scout chattered, then echoed in broken words: "funny if that happens!"
"No it isn't!"
"Fallen bloke over here. Funny if happens!"
Mumbo groaned, slapping his forehead. With an expression of suffering, he gestured to Scout with both arms and tiredly glanced at Jevin and Welsknight. "You see what I have to deal with? And he used to live in my ceiling! A true pest!"
"Pest," Scout replicated fondly, wings fluttering a bit, stirring up a small wind. It whipped against Pearl's hair, tossing her braid upwards before it knocked back down against her shoulders. Scar blinked quickly, eyes tearing up briefly at the gust. Jevin's form ripples slightly, as if someone had given a curious slime a firm pat on the head.
"You are no pest, my friend," Welsknight said quite courtly, He smiled, standing from his wooden chair with a single stately movement. With one arm, he braced it across his chest and clattered small bracelets against the metallic shine of his breastplate. The man bowed his head politely, offering a kind smile. "In fact, it is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Welsknight, It's an honour to be here."
Scout rotated his upper body, bending sideways to tilt towards the group. The fire had dwindled down from its former hearty blaze, leaving reddish embers and coals. It was enough light to see Scout in all his glory, but not enough to silence all doubt and dread from growing. In the darkness, Scout was an imposing form with a truly scary ability to leave most men sobbing with fear.
With a small flap of little wings on the outer edges of Scout's face- reminiscent of an elephant's movement, Scout chirruped a little babble. A cacophony of noises unlike any bird or phantom or song Wels had heard before. It was primitive and wild, a construct of syllables and broken whispers of perhaps thoughts trapped behind a broken skull.
Welsknight waited patiently, like he would for a startled horse. Eventually, Scout approached with one front limb dragging an enormous avian talon. It stirred the dirt, piercing through cloth and splintering wood. Longer than a Raveger's tusk, those talons looked able to pierce diamonds.
"Hello," Welsknight repeated himself politely. He still stood, allowing Scout to have some semblance of who was addressing him. Wels wondered if perhaps Scout, for all his many eyes, had terrible vision when not surveying the world around him.
Scout grumbled a little, wings flapping about. Mumbo bent and ran, avoiding one set from knocking him askew. Impulse waved at the birdlike beast, Pearl captured Scar in a conversation although the two watched with a cautious sort of protectiveness. Jevin, capable of maneuvering his body into many shapes, resembled a small cube of nervous tension.
Scout slicked his tongue or unseen beak, echoing that of a large bird. After a moment of feathery movements, potentially coming to terms with an unknown trail of thought, the creature settled more comfortably and spoke with a raspy uncertain timber to his voice: "hello."
Pearl's head snapped about, recognizing the different voice. Welsknight didn't understand the significance, but he could identify the voice not belonging to any hermits sitting within the circle.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Welsknight continued, allowing time to stretch as the beast struggled to understand. It bobbed oddly, head lowering almost to the floor before lifting tall. After a moment of small utterly nonsensical noises, Scout said with strangled curiosity: "You. Sh- hiss- h ssss."
Scout paused, freezing before he began to hiss. Odd noises dropping as it struggled through some sort of turmoil. It mimicked the noise of creeper on last moments before detonation, then the high whine of some sort of cat. It bounced between different noises, patching them together like an ancient quilt implying something significant. " Hsss , riiiii, nuh, m'reee."
Welsknight hadn't the sort of knowledge to understand what Scout had tried to say. Instead, it was Jevin who reformed with a visible head and barked a single wet noise of amusement. "Yeah, you got that right big guy. Wels' is always shiny, I don't think I've ever seen him without armour."
'Ah, he was saying shiny,' Welsknight realised with a fond sort of endearment. He was smiling, aware of the inlay of metal and precious stones across his chestplate.
Scout appeared pleased, settling himself and gazing around. He looked at Jevin for a moment then lost interest, potentially dismissing him as a slime and not a player.
"Shiny," Scar repeated, marveling over the conversation. "Well, consider me impressed! This is one of his bad days, you know? Sometimes we get whole sentences- but look! He came up with a word all on his own!"
"This is a bad day?" Jevin asked, shock easily read across his expression. "But- but he like… talks?"
"He's a real chatterbox," Scar explained unhelpfully. The vex stood up, stretching wide with a dramatic yawn. Then, looking at Scout he lifted both arms wide and stretched and called out. "Yoo-hoo! Scoutie! Can you do big-bird? Stretch real big- oh aren't you just lovely-."
And to both Jevin and Welsknight's surprise, Scout did just that. Scout squawked slightly before obliging and spreading all his wings far out until they trembled. The furthest set of feathers which Welsknight had presumed to be tailfeathers like a peacock spread open. A horrible placement, potentially vestigial wings, but sure enough they moved independently. Each set spread wide open, revealing what seemed to be the visage of a horribly thin male torso poorly covered by a very filthy reddish scrap of fabric. Scar explained something- potentially the origin of the oddly constructed toga of a covering, but Wels instead tried to understand the anatomy. Some areas were bruised and battered, joints in places that looked painful whereas others had moved to something better. The back of the sadly atrophied arms had thick scars suggesting they had been stuck to the largest set of wings.
"We're planning to go to the End?" Welsknight asked rhetorically. He knew the plan well, he was simply trying to understand how it would help. The End had little gravity, a tad disorienting if you were not quite used to it. With the thin sickness and protruding bones across Scout's body, it was a marvel the creature was capable of moving so quickly at all. Welsknight understood now why he couldn't fly, but perhaps in a world where each step was a leap to a different island, Scout could finally ascend.
"I think I'm going to have to work on the portal room, make it a bit bigger," Jevin stated. Scout lowered his wings, satisfied with Scar's attention and compliments. Welsknight still felt lost in thought, overwhelmed by all the information before him. He had been to a hundred different worlds, bound by limits and abilities far beyond Hermitcraft. He had been to servers with creatures and pixelmon, to worlds entirely in rock with no sky at all. He had seen things and explored new terrain- and if he didn't know which world he stood in, he would have imagined Scout the victim of a cruel curse.
"He's a player," Mumbo told Welsknight, reading the horror and deep sense of pain on the man's face. "Xisuma ran all the checks, and at times he's not…like this."
"He was your friend," Welsknight said, barely remembering the scraps of information he had been fed before arriving.
"He is my friend," Mumbo corrected him sternly. "He's just…a bit lost right now."
"As are you," Wels confided. "You are a brave man, perhaps one of the bravest men I've ever known to help someone without recognizing the pain you subject yourself to."
Mumbo watched Scout, exploring off into the darkness. It was simple, mindless. It hurt on a level deeper than any sword or axe could cut.
"It's not that bad," Mumbo lied.
Welsknight shook his head, clasping Mumbo on his shoulder with one calloused hand and a firm grip. "It is okay to grieve, my friend. He is still here, but you have lost something important as well."