𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕣𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝔼𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕊𝕠𝕠𝕟 𝔹𝕖 𝔸𝕤𝕙𝕖𝕤

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟾

As soon as Peony had finished making her point, the room erupted with voices of protest from all different directions, and Fang almost felt overwhelmed by the sudden noise, wishing he could bite them all to shut them up. But he didn't have to as Fright was quick to silence them with that cold and unwavering gaze of his.

"Alright, alright. One at a time." His menacing silver eyes met the creature right next to the cave spider, Grunt the Council's pig representative. "You seem like you have something particularly critical to say to that."

"He always looks like that." Elegance mewed, twitching her whiskers slightly as she nodded toward the pink creature. "I've never seen him not grumpy and depressed all the time." She flicked her calico tail behind her pointedly.

"I disagree." The pig grumbled, confirming Fright's speculations.

"Wow, that's surprising," came a sarcastic voice from across the table, but Fang didn't get the chance to see who exactly said it.

Grunt let out an irritated snort before he continued with his argument. "I disagree because we've been through this same thing before when they lived here previously. History is bound to repeat itself at some point. They were kicked out for a reason."

"They deserve a second chance!" Peony argued. "It's been years! Things have changed, and if they do end up making the same mistakes, I'll take the blame, and you can kick them out again. But that's only if there's no other choice left. They deserve as much of a second chance as any other creature would."

"You aren't in the position to make orders like that, Council member or not." Grunt snapped back, and Fang could tell now that as long as both the swine representative and Peony participated in their meetings simultaneously, both of them were bound to start arguments one way or another.

"Sounds fair enough to me," The panda, Beaming, put in. "Now that Peony's in the Council, it only makes sense to allow the humans back. And if they do cause trouble again, we send them back to the End just as she said. It's as simple as that."

No other creature argued against the suggestion, and although Fang was tempted to come up with something in agreement to Grunt, he didn't know what to say. What could he say to convince the others that this was a bad idea? The majority of them already didn't seem to mind Peony joining the Council. There was no way he could do anything to change their minds.

"Okay, I suppose that's fine." Fright said. "Elegance," his attention snapped to the calico feline, "you mentioned the war in the Nether ended?" Fang wasn't sure if he was trying to change the subject since it was so controversial, or if the vex genuinely didn't care about the topic.

"I mean, not really what I said," she gave one of her front paws a few licks, drawing it over her ears and partially over her face before continuing, "but sure, something like that, yes."

"Should we send someone out to check?" Peony asked, looking doubtful of Elegance's claim. "It sure didn't look like the war was coming to an end while we were out there."

"Yes, that would likely be our best option," Fright sped toward the back of the room and toward the dispenser used to determine who would be sent to collect materials.

"Wait, what happened to not choosing innocent creatures to carry out such dangerous tasks?" Fang didn't have to look across the table at him to know it was Ethereal who spoke up. "It should be one of us who looks."

"I know, I know. Calm down," the vex settled on top of the contraption, his wings folding neatly across his back. He was so small he had to stomp on the stone button for it to register that it had been pressed. A small slip of paper was sent spewing out and drifting gently to the birch floor. Fright snatched it with his tiny hands and looked over it before announcing, "some random spider, which meeeans..." his voice trailed as his silver eyes directly met Fang.

An odd shuddering sensation washed over him, trickling uneasily through his spindly legs. Fang wasn't scared though... was he? No, that couldn't be. 'Scared' was something Fang didn't feel anymore.

He maintained the most impassive demeanor he could possibly show in his face. Perhaps Elegance was right. The war was probably officially over and Fang would arrive there, confirm that, and get on with the rest of his life. Surely, it couldn't get any more difficult than that.

Fang didn't even give the vex so much as a nod. Instead, he turned away with a sigh, the words "whatever" being muttered beneath his breath, not loud enough for any creature to hear besides Grunt and the turtle representative Scute who flanked him.

He found Ethereal staring at him with some sort of worried, yet somber expression crossing his heavily-scarred face. But when Fang met his line of sight, he quickly ducked his head and glanced away. "I could lead you to the portal's location after this meeting if you would like, Fang." Fright offered, fluttering back to the large, round table.

"I'm fine, thanks," Fang said. He knew where the portal was. Well, he knew it was somewhere on the mushroom island at least, but he could figure out exactly where it was. He wasn't some helpless spiderling.

"Very well," Fright landed in the center of the table once again, letting his silvery wings relax. "Just be sure to report your findings during our next meeting. You're usually here, so I'm not worried about your attendance. If you somehow can't make it however, just make it here to give me an update whenever you get the chance."

Fang didn't even give a nod in reply. He was the slightest bit tempted to roll his eyes at Fright as a response so long as he kept pestering Fang about the subject. But he refrained from it. He had seen Fright get angry before and it was definitely something he didn't want to see again if he could help it.

To Fang's relief, the Council meeting wrapped up not too long after their discussion about travelling to the Nether. He usually stayed behind and left after everyone else, as he was doing now. Years before, when he had been a newly-appointed council member, he would have booked it out of that mansion as fast as possible. But he learned early on that doing so only lead him to get wrapped up in another creature's conversations or get asked sudden questions that he either wasn't prepared or didn't want to answer.

Even Fright often left before most of the other Council representatives did, and it was common for Fang to have the entire room to himself for a few minutes before he left the place entirely.

This time in particular though, he let his curiosity drive him to the dispenser behind Forge, the slip of paper still resting near its mouth where it had come from. He scanned the inscribed ink letters. He knew only a few other spiders, and he also knew that the chances of him recognizing the creature mentioned on the scrap were very slim, but it still couldn't hurt to take a look.

𝓥𝓮𝓷𝓸𝓶

It read in clunky, uneven letters, and beneath it, in smaller text:

𝓒𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓢𝓹𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓻