The Watchers' Call

Chapter 14

To explain: Grian's wings heal extremely fast, they healed in a week after he was rescued, but they are taking longer to heal the second time because they've been damaged again while they were still not fully back to normal. They almost were, but they were still more fragile than usual, so it'll take longer to heal now.

----| Mumbo's POV |----

It had been two weeks since Mumbo and Grian had been rescued from the Watchers, yet Mumbo was still worried.

Grian didn't seem to be recovering well mentally. His wounds had healed and he was okay physically, but he was secluded and reluctant to engage in any social activities. To top it all off, just yesterday Scar had told Mumbo about how he'd found Grian nearly dead at the hands of a swarm of phantoms and an army of mobs.

Mumbo had undergone torture at the hands of the Watchers. He was still a bit jumpy, although not too badly. He could only imagine what Grian was going through.

A voice spoke up, jerking Mumbo out of his thoughts. "Nice melon farm."

"Oh, hi X, didn't see you there." Xisuma was standing below him on one of the few blocks of concrete that didn't have redstone on it- it was one that had a redstone torch on the side, so the top was free- for Xisuma to stand on, apparently.

"Sorry, just coming to check on you, thought you might want some company. I know you're worried about Grian," Xisuma said.

"Yeah..." Mumbo put away his redstone, then added, "Let's get out of the redstone to talk."

Xisuma followed Mumbo out onto the large field Mumbo's farms were built in. 

"So... have we talked about attacking the Watchers?" Mumbo asked.

Xisuma suddenly tensed up. "Attacking the- no! No! Goodness me, are people planning that? Who? I must-"

"Whoa, X, slow down," Mumbo told him.

"Alright. It's just that we can't attack the Watchers. They're far too powerful," Xisuma pulled out his rockets. "Sorry to leave so quickly, but I need to check on some things."

"Okay, X, see you around." Mumbo watched Xisuma fly off, then decided to head to the Shopping District to get some more redstone supplies. He headed over to the Nether portal and stepped through.

----| Grian's POV |----

Grian sat in his diamond throne, relishing the feel of his hard-earned diamonds. Stress had let him go home after just a day of keeping him in the Shopping District. His wings were still not healed. Best case scenario, it would be another two weeks until he could fly again. Worst-case, it could be a few months. They had been broken twice in the last month, abused, and beaten up. The rest of Grian wasn't in much better shape.

Grian didn't want to tell anyone, but he was terrified that he would once again be lured to the Watchers' city. His confidence was shattered and his once cheery and happy personality was buried beneath fear and anxiety. 

He didn't stay still for long. He sat in his throne for a few minutes before the paranoia began to kick in. He had to keep working or the memories would come back. Work, work, work, and they wouldn't get him.

It was hard when he couldn't fly, but he managed. He headed down the long flight of stairs, up onto the balcony, and then through his Nether portal, then set off towards the portal that would take him to the desert.

(Time skip - a week)

The hours blurred in Grian's mind. Sand... gravel... barge... mansion... sand... nether hub... everything blended together into a haze of exhaustion. But Grian couldn't sleep. No, sleeping would mean dreams, which meant nightmares, which meant Watchers.

So he kept working... until he couldn't anymore. Suddenly, he just couldn't stay awake any longer... but he managed to tunnel into the side of the sand dune he was excavating, quickly put sandstone over his head before the sand above could fall. He crawled into the one-block hole beneath the sandstone, placed the last block plunging him into darkness, curled himself into a tiny ball, and passed out.

Like he'd predicted, the dreams came. The Watchers taunted him again, tortured him, laughed at him. The magic burned, the pain came back.... Grian awoke and cried silently within his tiny, one-block hideaway, too exhausted to move and too scared to sleep.

----| Xisuma's POV |----

"Mumbo, I'm sure it's not the Watchers," Xisuma told Mumbo for the two hundredth time.

"How do you know? Can you see him? Where is he? Take us to him! Tell me! Is he ok-" Mumbo was panicking next to Xisuma.

"Mumbo, he's fine! I can see his coordinates, he's just in the desert," Xisuma reassured him

"But it's been a week! And this is the fourth? Fifth? I don't even know anymore- time he's disappeared for a week and every time, we find him nearly dead and why can't he look after himself! and he's my best friend and I have to protect him-"

Xisuma cut Mumbo off. "Mumbo, he's fine, I'm sure, there has been nothing unusual about his coordinates lately. He's been going to all the usual places. The Nether, his barge, his mansion, his desert, the mines- nowhere unusual. Not even anyone's base. Nothing's wrong and I'm not going to go bug him, he's paranoid enough without thinking I'm watching him."

Mumbo sighed. "I know, I need to calm down. I'm just... scared. That one of these times I'll find him and instead of being near-dead, he'll actually be dead, and... I will have failed him. He's so sweet and innocent... he doesn't deserve what's happened to him."

"I agree, Mumbo. Hey, why don't you go see Scar? If anything has happened to Grian, he'll be able to tell you. And if anything has happened to him, come get me and we'll make them regret messing with us," Xisuma said.

"Okay. Maybe we can bring False to murder them?" Mumbo suggested.

Xisuma chuckled. "Off you go."

Mumbo took off and headed towards Scar's base. Once he was out of sight, Xisuma checked Grian's coordinates again. The same spot... Grian had been in his desert for way too long. Yes, grinding took a while, but he hadn't moved a single block for about five hours. Grian was so fidgety lately that this was actually extremely worrying.

Xisuma headed off towards his Nether portal.