The lies behind their masks - A(nother) Hermitcraft and Evo AU fanfiction.

Chapter 2

The wings were small, and a pastel blue colour, the same colour as a vex. Scar observed them as much as he could, confused. Where had they come from? Why did he have them? The only person he knew with wings was Grian, and he hated talking about it. 

Scar pulled off his brown jacket, and looked closer at them. He flapped them uncertainly, pleased that he figured out moving them fast. He couldn't fly with them - they were only a foot long each - so he decided to hide them. The other hermits had enough to worry about  without the mystery of him now having wings. And to be on the safe side, he grabbed some rope and tied them firmly. Now they wouldn't randomly spring up. It was uncomfortable, but nescessary. It would also ensure that he could properly wear his elytra without it falling off. Loosing an elytra and falling to your death wasn't fun. He knew from experience it wasn't. 

He slipped on his jacket over top, hoping no one would question the tearing, and his elytra over the top of that, before flying off to see if there was anything else he could quickly improve in his base. 

Xisuma was having a bad day. 

There had been several more incidents with the glitching in the couple of days since the meeting, some even ending death, and/or items despawning. The shopping district was a death trap. He needed to figure out what was going on, and stop it before anything even worse happened to any of the other hermits. There weren't any clues at all as to what could be causing it. At least, none that he could find. 

He sat down at his desk and sighed, pulling off his helmet. His hair was messier than normal, and was falling out of the ponytail he'd tied it in. His purple eyes stared blankly at the pinboard of thoughts in front of him. He needed something else to happen, something that could make it clearer what was causing this. It wasn't normal. That much was clear. Something was causing it. If they were within the world, another player, it would come up. It was something external, messing with them... 

Xisuma groaned, head on the desk. He was getting nowhere. None of this was helping... he couldn't evacuate Hermitcraft... he had nowhere to go. Leaving would put everyone at even more risk. But what would happen if they stayed? Would it get worse? Yes. Would hermits die...

'Xisuma? Are you ok?' 

A German-sounding voice woke him from his thoughts. He looked up, glancing around for his helmet and pulling it quickly on before turning to face Doc, who was watching him from the doorway. 

'Come in...' 

The German entered, sitting down and glancing around. 

'You look stressed.' He began sympathetically. 

'Yeah... did you want something?'

'I wanted to see how you were doing. Because I haven't seen you around very much and I was getting worried...'

'Worried? About me?'

'Yes. Is everything alright.'

'Except for the fact that there's dangerous amounts of lag, everything's fine...'

'Can I help you find what's going on?'

'If I can't find anything, I doubt that you'll be able to. No offence.'

'2 minds are better than one. What have you checked so far?'

'For anything out of place on the whitelist.'

'You think someone's breaking in?'

'Well, that's one theory.'

'What other theories do you have?'

'Not much... I looked to see if there were any bugs that need fixing, but I couldn't find anything.'

'Take a break. You look exhausted.'

'But, if I rest, something bad might happen, and I'll miss it, and we'll still be struggling to find what's happening and-' 

'Let me take over for a bit while you get some sleep, and do something for yourself.'

'Fine...'

Allow player DocM77 access to settings. 

'Don't do anything stupid.'

'I won't. You have the Goat's word.'

'One of the goats...'

'Shut up!' Doc replied, still grumpy at how the Goatmother had chosen Cub as a worthy Goat. Xisuma laughed. 

'I'll come back later.' 

'Bye, X. Now, rest!'

'Bye, Doc!' Xisuma stated, before leaving the room. 

Jevin stared again at the symbol on the wall of his base.

It was on a bit of the end stone, carved in precisely. He held a couple of books on ancient symbols in his arms, hoping they would help him discover what it was. 

The slime sat down, opening up the first book and looking through it for some kind of answer, an image of the symbol, or anything else that would help him discover what was going on. He took out a piece of paper with a whole lot of scrawled notes and flicked through the book. seeing nothing useful, and placed it to one side. He opened the other one, and found the same amount of success. With a sigh, he stared up at the symbol again. 

'What are you?' He asked, not expecting an answer. 'Why are you here?'

He did a more thorough search of the books, hoping he missed something, and he had. 

One page had the symbol at the top, and a few lines of text underneath. Jevin hastily read it. 

This symbol is a sign of evolution, but has barely been seen anywhere. The last place of origin was a world of the same name that was found in ruins a couple of years ago. There were no seen survivors, but observations showed that there were severe glitches in the last days of the world.

Jevin scrambled for his paper, writing down what he could. He glanced back at the book, but frowned as he saw the words had changed. 

Congratulations. You have found our darkest secret. The world we raised and looked after to the end. But there's a reason it's a secret.

Look behind, Jevin.

The slime stood up slowly, trembling, and turned around. 

He barely had time to scream.