How to train your hoglin

Discovery

Trigger warning: drowning, derealization, ect. Please be cautious.

Foolish kept disappearing.

Phil didn't think anything of it. Not at first. He had a whole kingdom to take care of.
But he would occasionally just vanish. Phil knew better than anyone how palaces had secret hallways and rooms.
Maybe Foolish was going into secret hallways to spy on them. Or maybe he was just slipping away.
From what little Phil remembered, the Totem liked to watch and listen.
Still, Phil decided to stay alert. He didn't want to be surprised by anything.

He advised Ranboo to stay on his toes as well, but the enderman just shrugged it off, defending Foolish.

The servants began to give Phil strange glances. Phil made up his mind to ask Alyssa.

"Oh, we don't have visitors often." She laughed.
Phil shrugged, giving a smile.
"When are you leaving?" Alyssa asked, changing the subject.
"I don't know." Phil said. "Foolish said he would lead us to the Astrals."
"Maybe you should leave soon. After all, the wither knights could be coming."
"Trying to get rid of us?" Phil asked humorously.
She laughed. "Just saying."
Phil nodded.

It was strange that she wanted to get rid of them. Although she could actually be worried about wither knights.
Phil decided he should talk to Foolish about leaving. They could also discuss his concerns about Ranboo.

But he couldn't find Foolish anywhere. He looked around, but the Totem was nowhere to be found.
The horses were all accounted for. The chariots and other methods of travel were untouched.
The servants said Foolish hadn't gone on a walk. He was in the palace.

So where was he?

Phil walked through the halls for a long time, his staff clicking on the floor.

After a long time, he found a side corridor with a mechanism in the wall. A mechanism he remembered. A hidden one most wouldn't notice.
He pulled the hidden lever and the wall slid open.

Down stairs he went, crouching, keeping to the shadows, cautious.

He entered a massive room bathed in gold and jewels. Emerald, carnelian, and lapis covered the walls.
In the center of the room was a massive pool of glowing silvery water. Reflected in it, Phil could see images, but from his vantage he couldn't tell what they were.
Foolish knelt in front of the pool, his head bowed, his hands raised above his head, forming an S like figure.
All over the walls were hieroglyphics. Most glowed gold, but the ones directly above and around the pool shone white.
Phil waited for a long moment, but Foolish didn't move.

Slowly, Phil left the room. He had a bad feeling about it, and over the centuries he'd learned to trust his instincts.
The crows were shrieking as well, yelling something about a plan, and a traitor.

Phil didn't understand the message, which only aggrivated them more. Maybe if he could understand all of what they were saying, he could piece it together. But it seemed as though some of their words were bleeped out, garbled.
As though something was somehow interfereing with how Phil understood the crows.

Phil sat in his room, thinking. What had Foolish been doing?
He had to get another look at the room. He knew Foolish slept deeply, so he would have to move at night.

He was nervous for dinner, but couldn't let anyone realize anything was unusual.

Ranboo was chatty, as normal. Phil had no idea how he didn't choke on all the food he was vacuuming down.
Foolish was quiet, only speaking up occasionally.
Phil tried to stay calm and act normally, but he was nervous.

After dinner, he walked back to his room and waited.
He wanted to be sure that Foolish would be asleep.
Finally, he slipped out of his room and walked down the halls, leaning against the walls so his staff wouldn't click on the polished ground.

Soon he was opening the secret door and walking down the stairs.

The room dripped with gold and jewels. The pool in the center of the room wasn't glowing anymore, but in it was a massive white smiley face.
It looked almost like a mask.
Phil looked closer, wanting to see if it was reflected or if it was the floor of the pool.
But as he gazed in, suddenly it turned into a void, and he was sucked in.

Voices screamed around him. Crows flapped and screeched. He saw purple particles flashing, green lights floating at the edges of his vision.

A massive smiley faced mask loomed in front of him, and suddenly he was falling.
He couldn't breathe.
He flapped his wings, ignoring the twinges of pain from his still damaged wings.
It only pulled him deeper. He heard echoes around him, sounding almost like garbled speech.

⟟ ⍙⟟⌰⌰ ⍙⟟⋏
☊⏃⋏'⏁ ⌇⎍⍀⎐⟟⎐⟒
⍀⟒⎐⟟⎐⟒ ⊑⟟⋔
⏁⊑⟒ ☍⟟⋏☌ ⍙⍜⋏'⏁
⎅⟒⏃⎅ ⌇⊑⏃⌰⌰ ⋏⟒⎐⟒⍀ ⍀⟟⌇⟒

Phil sank deeper and deeper, thrashing against the pull.

But he couldn't escape.

Oooh I wonder what'll happen next?
Anyway, the reason Phil has trouble understanding the crows is because there's a filter for any kind of 'chat'.
This applies to Ranboo's particles, Phil's crows, Techno's voices, ect.
It was created by someone not even the ⏃⋏☊⟟⟒⋏⏁⌇ remember, to prevent the chaos of having too much information, as the 'chat' can view pretty much whatever they want too.

That's my idea anyway. More world building!