Wilted Petals | A Hermitcraft Story |

A Conversation

Grian sat himself down onto his office chair, ready to join Hermitcraft once again. The last time he had been on the server, he had set up an amazing prank for Scar. He had left a charged creeper inside of a large replica of a chest, and left a note for Scar saying, "Unburied Treasure. Please Open!"

Of course Grian knew Scar, and knew his interest would be peaked. Now Grian was eager to see the result of the prank, or better yet, see the prank in action!

Once Minecraft had finished loading, Grian smiled to himself, a mischievous smile knowing that he had most likely caused a lot of chaos.

Before Grian did anything, however, he joined the Hermit's discord call. This call allowed him to use the Proximity Chat mod, which was perfect for hearing his friend's reaction to the ticking time bomb he'd been gifted.

Grian took note of the fact that almost all of the Hermits were online and in the call.

"Huh," he said to himself, "Wonder what's going on."

Grian entered the game and exited his base, his rockets and elytra shooting him into the sky. He glided over the server, searching for the rest of his friends. His first instinct was to check Scar's base, knowing that if his "present" had really gone off, it would have attracted a crowd. Sure enough, gliding closer showed his friends talking in a circle surrounding a crater. A crater Grian was almost one hundred percent sure he caused.

However, Grian wasn't just going to land right in the center of their conversation. That would be just rude! And besides, he wanted a genuine reaction, and that meant one that he wasn't involved in. So Grian decided the only logical option was to eavesdrop on his friends. Luckily, there was a good hiding spot right by where the crater sat. Grian had really thought of everything!

Well, almost everything.

What he hadn't been expecting was the Hermit's conversation, one that would result in more damage than Grian's prank.

He landed quietly, and made sure to stay perfectly silent. If he made a sound, the Hermit's would hear it over their Proximity Chat, and that would ruin the fun.

Grian sat waiting, eager to hear the Hermit's reaction.

"These pranks have got to stop," he heard Cleo say, "At this point, these have gone from amusing to annoying."

"Yeah, at this point Grian's status as prankster has evolved to nuisance," Ren added.

Grian sat there, confused. Did they really feel this way? Were they actually that annoyed with him? It had just been a harmless prank.

"I lost half of my things in this explosion!" Scar exclaimed, "That's, like, an hour of work down the drain."

Now Grian just felt bad. His harmless prank had done more harm than he had expected. He decided he was just going to come out and apologize, and hopefully reimburse Scar of all the things Grian had unknowingly destroyed. But before he had the opportunity to, he was stopped in his tracks by the next sentence that was said.

"Grian is just being a pain at this point."

Wow, that hurt.

"I wish he would just buzz off for a bit and stop messing things up."

Okay, that really hurt.

"All he's been doing is causing problems. At this point, it'd be better if he just stayed off the server."

Okay, that REALLY hurt.

At this point, Grian's confusion grew into sadness. He didn't know that he'd been causing so many problems. Every time he'd done something or pulled a joke, his friends would respond with amusement. Had he really been this much of a nuisance?

Grian just decided it'd be better if he flew off and left his friends alone for a bit. If they even were his friends at this point. They sounded pretty much done with him.

As Grian launched himself into the sky, he didn't even care if the other Hermits heard him. Unfortunately, Grian's early departure meant he didn't hear one last thing.

"Come on, you guys don't mean any of that," Mumbo said, "You guys know Grian is a valued part of the server and he obviously didn't mean any harm with this prank."

The other Hermits all nodded and agreed. But right after, they heard a rocket go off.

Scar looked around, and asked, "You guys don't think that was-"

Mumbo checked the player list, and confirmed, "Grian."

The other Hermits exchanged concerned glances, knowing that they all had just screwed up. Royally screwed up, that is.

...

Grian pulled away from his desk, feeling upset and hurt. "Well alright then," he said to himself, "If they don't want me there, then alright. I just won't join back."

He felt tears sting his eyes. The conversation between the Hermits played back repeatedly in his mind. Grian felt so many things, guilty, betrayed, and just sad. Suddenly, he felt a cough building in his throat. He grabbed the glass of water on his desk and began to drink, a small feeling of relief washing over him as the urge to cough dissipated.

That is, for about five seconds.

Suddenly, the cough sprouted up again, twice as bad as it had first felt.

Grian coughed, using his elbow to cover it. His eyes glanced back onto the monitor, where a new Discord message had appeared from Mumbo Jumbo.

'Hey, are you okay?'

Grian felt his anxiety spike, thinking that he had realized that Grian was listening in to their conversation. This fear was quickly put out once he received Mumbo's next message.

'Your mic is on and I can hear you coughing'

Grian sighed in relief, only for this to send him into another coughing fit. He replied, with some difficulty considering his eyes were full of tears, both because of his cough and his emotions, with:

'Yeah, just a cough. It'll probably go away soon.'

'Alright, take care of yourself :)'

Grian made sure to leave the call, then said to himself, "Yeah. Sure."

Another round of coughing sent Grian to the sink, where he began to cough more violently than before. It felt almost like he had something stuck in his throat. Grian continued coughing until finally he felt something come up.

In the sink sat a single red rose petal sprinkled in blood.

Well that cannot possibly be good.