A Glitch of Magic - a Hermitcraft (and third life?) Fanfiction

Chapter 3

They watched in silence as the hermits saw what he'd done. 

No one suspected it was them. 

Why would they? 

And there was already suspicion spreading. 

The next stage was already in place. 

Everything was going to plan. 

Scar didn't know where it'd come from, or why it was here. All he knew was that there was a book, in his wagon, written in a glitching galactic with changing letters. Black binding covered it, and it hummed with magic. He didn't touch it. He didn't trust it at all. And he knew he should tell someone about it. 

GoodtimewithScar: Cub? 

He waited for a response, glancing back at the book as he did. Jellie padded over to it, sniffed it once, then bounded away. 

GoodtimewithScar: Cub?

He decided to comment again, growing anxious as time passed. Why wasn't his friend answering?! Why did he never answer chat any more? Scar didn't know whether to go and find him, and risk someone else finding the book, or wait here, trusting that Cub would eventually reply. 

'Scar?' 

Freaking out at the sound of Grian's voice, he covered the book with a few shulkers, before jumping down the ladder to greet his friend. 

'Hey Grian!' He hid the worry in his voice. 'What's going on?'

'I just wanted to hang out with you. Is everything alright for you?'

'Yeah!' He lied, not wanting Grian to have any other reasons to be sus of him. 'And you?'

'I'm good.'

A comment buzzed into chat, and Scar dared a glance at it. Grian noticed. 

'Expecting something?' He asked. 

'Oh...uhh... I wanted to talk with Cub about... something.' The tycoon explained. 

'Something.' 

'Yeah... something...'

'We could head to his base now?' 

'Ok.' Scar knew he couldn't refuse without seeming even weirder. 'Let's go.' And, still thinking about the book, he took off after Grian.

'Hey, Doc?' Ren entered the room his friend was in slowly. The charged creeper turned, and tried not to freak out, backing away. 

'Hey... Ren...' 

'I... wanted to actually talk to you.' 

'Ok? Man, I'm sorry about the whole scared-of-you thing. I don't like cats. And now...' 

'It's fine.' Ren lied. 'Anyway, I've been thinking...'

'Thinking?'

'I... think Scar did this.' 

'What? Give Gem the weird magic stuff?'

'Yeah... and I know Scar's my friend, but... he's the one that knows about all the weird magic...' 

'Yeah... I've never seen anything like this magic though. Weirdest thing I've seen. And for me, that's saying something.' 

'Sure is.' Ren agreed. 'Anyway, I wanted to sneak into Scar's base a bit and look around for clues, ya know?'

'You sure we should do that? It's his own stuff. We could just ask him. I mean... I'll come too, but...'

'Can I come too?' Etho jumped down from his hiding place, surprising Ren and Doc. The former hissed furiously, fur fluffed up and claws out. Doc jumped back, tripping and falling over. 

'Jeez, dude, how long have you been here? And... since when did you have a tail?'  

'Not that long.' The ninja admitted. 'And... me and Iskall might've gone on an adventure to Gem's base.' 

Ren didn't seem to hear the answers, entranced by the white floofy tail swishing from side to side. His ear twitched, and he pounced. 

'My tail!' Etho pulled it away just in time. Ren clawed at it, before shaking his head and returning to normal.

'Dang cat instincts!' He burst out. 'I see anything moving, and I want to chase it! We- we need to do something about this!' 

'So... you want to help us figure out and destroy this server-breaking anomaly before it lags this place to death?' Doc changed the subject. Ren raised an eyebrow. 

'Uhh... ya know Doc? It's very hypocritical of you to be the one complaining about server-breaking anomalies if ya ask me...' 

'That's fair.' Etho agreed. 

'Yeah... but it was your idea.' 

'Oh... right.' Ren remembered. 'Let's just go then.' 

Scar's starter base was empty when the trio arrived. Etho climbed up to get a good look in, before declaring the place empty. Ren and Doc followed, trying not to just be impressed by everything. 

There was a chest monster gathering on the top level, and Ren began to look through it. Etho sorted through a mess of stuff in the corner, while Doc just watched, before speaking.

'Is this... right?' He asked. Ren looked over. 

'You want to find the cause of this thing, don't you?' 

'I know... I just don't think it's right to go through all Scar's stuff without asking him. We don't even know if he's actually caused this.'

'There's some cake over here...' Etho called over unhelpfully from beyond the chest pile. 

'Scar wouldn't just leave stuff lying around if it's private, dude.'

'Scar would definitely leave private stuff everywhere.' Doc argued back.

'Come on. He's not here to say we can't, and we want to solve this magic situation, don't we?' Ren sighed, dropping the shulker he was holding. 

'Fine...' Doc walked over to a chest and began sifting through all the stuff inside. Ren returned to the main shulker mess, just as Etho gave the warning.

'Ohh snap. Scar's coming.'

'What?! We need to get out of here, dudes!' Ren closed the chest he was looking through and searched for an emergency exit, just as the sound of Cub, Grian and Scar laughing reached him. 

They were stuck. 

'Scar, why are you a madman?' Grian sighed from halfway up the ladder. 

'I don't know! I just like building massive...' Scar froze at the sight of Doc and Ren, both standing very awkwardly there. Doc let go of the shulker he was holding and it dropped to the ground, sand spilling out. 

'What are you doing here?' Grian asked suspiciously. 

'Uhh... nothing dudes...' Ren replied sheepishly. 'We were just... looking... for... the Tegg.' 

'I won Tegg. It's over.' Cub quickly ruined their alibi. 'Why are you really here?' 

'Look dude, we didn't mean any harm... we were just seeing if there was anything dangerous in here. To do with... Gem. I'm sorry, dudes. That's all we're doing.' 

'Get out.' Scar growled back, shoulders raised, ready to reach for a weapon. 'I didn't do this. Get out.'

'See?' Doc muttered to Ren. 'Told you he wouldn't like it.' 

Just then, there was a crack from behind the chest monster, and a burst of green glitch. Everyone in the room looked at Scar, who stood still for a moment before jumping straight down the ladder as fast as possible, and ran. 

Stuffz be happening...