The Chained Watcher

Hypixel pt 3

He had nearly calmed the storm down when he felt life signs nearby, in the air. That's not good.

From what he could tell, they seemed to be a winged person, and were currently falteringly coasting along the current's of the storm's wind, taking the path of least resistance. They also seemed to be rather battered, possibly because of the hailstones.

Two options presented themselves to him. He could either, one, finish stopping the storm and go on his merry way, pretending it had nothing to do with him. Or two, he could go help the bird person. Not as is, of course. He would have to put his transformation back in place first, but he could go over and help them get out of the grip of the storm.

Sigh...

He started work on fixing his disguise, shrinking down as his wings layered over each other before fusing into a single pair. His outfit shimmered into a red shirt and black shorts, his usual casual wear. The storm was already weak enough that it should peter out on its own, and the hailstones were already significantly smaller.

Gliding over to the storm-tossed bird-man, Grian lined up beside him, shouting to be heard over the roaring of the wind. "You need some help?" The man looks over, stunned that someone else was in this storm, and seemingly untouched by the hailstones being tossed around like pebbles.

Snapping out of his daze, the man nods, shouting as well. "Yeah mate, if you wouldn't mind?"

Grian pulls a little bit ahead of him, using his own slipstream to help guide him out of the grips of the wind. It takes a couple of minutes, but the two eventually find themselves over an ice-swept biome, not a tree in sight. Now that they're out of the storm, Grian finally gets a good look at him, noting the odd clothes he's wearing. He has on a vaguely Japanese looking outfit, one of those ones that looks kinda like a bathrobe but formal, (Yes, I know it has a name, but this is funnier) and a striped hat he had somehow managed to retain despite the wind. 

They land on the nearest snow-free surface, which unfortunately is more ice, just less fluffy ice than snow is. 

The man sits down, exhausted, and pulls out a communicator. They're fancy little gadgets, but no one has figured out how to make them work cross-server yet. Glancing over his shoulder, Grian is amused to see a solid wall of "missed message" notifications on the communicator's screen.

Right on cue, it starts buzzing with a call from someone, prompting a laugh from Grian at the timing. The man excuses himself and walks a decent distance away before answering the call. His efforts are quickly rendered irrelevant, as whoever called him immediately started shouting, loudly asking if he was okay, where he was, did he need to be picked up, and if anyone needed stabbing. That last one was rather concerning, but if push comes to shove fleeing was always an option.

Responding to the barrage of questions, the man uses a single breath for the entire thing. "Yes, don't know, probably, and no, you're not stabbing people." Well, seems like that last one was a rather frequent occurrence then. "As much as it helps, I shouldn't be too far from home." Grian glances over in surprise. "Not a tree in sight, so I'm still in the Arctic at the very least." Did they actually make a base in the Arctic? How did they get wood? And no animals spawned here, either. It seems awfully inconvenient.

He gets snapped out of his thoughts by the man returning and speaking to him. "Thanks for the help mate, name's Philza." (Yes, I'm having interactions with non-hermits, but it's mostly not plot relevant) He held out his hand for a handshake.

Returning the handshake, Grian introduces himself as well, before giving in to curiosity. "Who were you talking with?"

"Oh, that's just Techno. I was sort of supposed to meet up with him at our base about..." He checks his communicator for the time. "Thirty minutes ago" That was a lot of missed messages for thirty minutes. Philza sits back down, looking at Grian. "You want to hang around? Techno should be here fairly soon, but if you've got places to be, don't let me stop you." Well that was rather thoughtful of him.

"I think I'll hang around till your friend shows up, but I can't stay after that" Should he be heading back home by now? Yes. Is he making sure this guy's friend actually gets here before he freezes because he feels a little guilty about the accidental hurricane? Also yes. Luckily, Philza seems pleased to have company, so Grian sits down nearby to wait.

It takes about fifteen minutes before a boat can be seen on the horizon. A vaguely pig-like hybrid is piloting a two-man sail-ship on his own while going at speeds normal sailships couldn't hope to go without tipping over. Philza spots it shortly after and stands up, brushing a light dusting of snow off his outfit before flaring his wings in a "over here" motion. The boat's captain sees this, and lowers the speed of his vessel from "not even flex tape could fix the hole a rock would cause" to a more manageable "some spare wood and a large helping of flex tape could fix it".

Philza glides down from their ice mound they were using as a seat, and Grian follows behind. The look the pig-man gives him is honestly rather threatening, but in a "if you hurt him I will murder you" way rather than a "I'm going to murder you" way. Just as a small precaution, Grian lands nearby instead of right next to Philza.

Taking in the tiredness visible on Philza's face, the pig-man wearing a vaguely familiar red cloak spoke. "What happened?" Huh, same voice as was on the call, so that was Techno?

Philza stretched, grunting "Got caught by a storm, rather violent one at that." He points his thumb in Grian's direction "He found me when the storm was dying down and helped me get out." A thought crossed his mind "How far from base did I end up anyway?"

Techno nodded before saying "About twenty minutes out, but fifteen is doable." He started turning the boat back around and preparing to set sail again, calling to Philza without looking, "Need a ride? Or just gonna fly there?"

"I'll go with you, mate. Storm really took it out of me." Techno nods at this, and Philza hops on the sailship.

He glances over to Grian, and asks "You wanna come visit?"

Grian shakes his head. "Nah, I was planning on heading back home myself." He turned South and crouched, spreading his wings. "See you around!" he called before springing up into the air, wings beating to drive him up even faster. Well that was rather eventful.