The Watchers' Call

Chapter 5

Grian found himself heading towards another stronghold.

This time, it was one he'd been to. He found himself in the stronghold he and Scar had used to go end-busting early in the season.

He stopped himself.

Do I really want to go to the End?

This strange feeling couldn't be natural. If it wanted him to go to the End, maybe he should be more scared to go to the other dimension.

I'll be okay, I brought real gear this time, I'm prepared to fight Shulkers, Endermen,or the Ender Dragon. I have plenty of resources this time. And this feeling isn't going to go away...

Grian stepped through the portal. 

At first, he saw nothing unusual on the other side of it. The Ender Dragon was dead, there were remnants of someone else's battle with it strewn about in the form of some stray blocks, mist obscured the view off of the main island. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

But that quickly changed.

Out of the mist came a winged figure. It was immediately clear that they weren't a hermit. 

Not only were they far too big, but their giant wings flapped. Elytra didn't flap. As far as Grian knew, he was the only hermit with actual wings, so this figure clearly wasn't anyone he knew. It stopped and hovered in the air about thirty meters ahead of him.

"Hello, Grian..." the figure sneered.

Grian started walking away from it, spiraling inwards toward the portal.

"Oh no you don't," it said. The portal was encased in a purple glow and then it was unlit. Now Grian began to panic. The portal shouldn't have closed... He couldn't open it again without the Ender Dragon, and he hadn't brought any End Crystals to revive it.

Then the purple magic encased Grian too, and he was lifted off his feet to follow the figure to.. nowhere good.

Grian had no measure of how long had passed during the journey from the main island. Eventually, he saw a collection of towers, made of obsidian and- was that bedrock?

The magic surrounding Grian vanished, and he fell to the ground.

Getting up, he looked around. More winged figures, similar to the one who had captured him, were standing (or hovering) around, watching him. They all had huge wings in various shades of purple, strange masks covering their eyes, and wore long black robes. They were various sizes, but they were big. The smallest was twice Grian's size, and the largest was about four times his size. The one who had captured Grian was about two and a half times his size, on the smaller side compared to the others.

Before Grian could do anything, the one who had captured him said, "Come."

"I'm not going a-anywhere with you," Grian said.

"Your fear and my magic would disagree," it replied.

"W-where am I?" he asked it.

"That's not important. Come," it answered.

"No," he told it.

"Fine, then, we'll do this the hard way."

The purple magic encased him, but this time, instead of lifting him off the ground, it dragged Grian along it. He cried out in pain as it scraped his wings and back.

"Oh, you're that fragile? This will be so easy for the Master," it commented.

After that, Grian held back his cries even as the rock dug into the cuts, scoring them deeper and deeper.

Luckily, it wasn't long before they arrived at the tallest tower in the collection. Inside, the thing released him. He turned to where they'd come, but the entrance had vanished.

"Now will you come?" it asked.

Reluctantly, Grian followed. It would do no good to fight this creature.

It led him up a long stairway to the top floor of the tower. It was a large room with four pillars supporting it. It was bare of furniture save one thing.

Upon an obsidian throne sat the biggest figure Grian had seen yet. Five or six times his size, with enormous violet wings, it was clearly powerful. An aura of power radiated off of it.

"Welcome, Grian, to the city of the Watchers."