The Chained Watcher

The box

Everything hurt.

Blearily returning to consciousness, the first thought in Grian's mind was, 'That hurt more than last time.'

He blinked, pushing himself up into a sitting position. His wings slowly unwrapped from their tight cocoon, and he focused on the newest pair. They were several feet larger than his previous largest wingspan, and their purple was a shade deeper than before as well.

The darkening of a Watcher's magic was an incredibly rare phenomenon, only occurring during the forming of new wings, and even then only if the Watcher had put an incredible strain on their magic somewhat recently. He examined the new wings in wonder, though he supposed that given the amount of strain caused by the magic-stealing chains an improvement wasn't unthinkable.

His senses were slowly extended as his headache faded, revealing the over-saturated obsidian with purple streaks running through it. Apparently several nearby ore deposits had changed as well, forming a metallic shell around magic-carrying crystals. (Yes, they look like Crying Obsidian and Amethyst, but they're not the same. Rather than whatever makes the normal blocks work how they do, these look-alikes are practically oozing with Watcher magic.)

Uh oh.

Somewhere above him on the surface, he could sense two people. They were starting to dig down. There was no time to get rid of the magic items. Mumbo was not going to be happy to hear about this little slip-up. The people were getting closer now, looks like it was those two he had met here previously. This was a bit of a problem.

Grian's magic was still quite depleted and rather unstable from growing a new pair of wings, so anything complex would be a no-go before that straightened itself out. Maybe an illusion? Invisibility! He had to stop forgetting invis existed!

He crowded himself into a corner, wrapping his wings around like a blanket of feathers before pulling on just enough magic to make himself invisible. Ouch. His headache returned with a vengeance at the use of magic, warning him that magic usage was out of the question until he had recovered.

Not a moment too soon, as faint voices could be heard through the obsidian box. "Mate, I'm telling you, I felt something."

"You sure? This is awfully far from base to have felt something."

"Nah, I know what I felt. Besides, the stone around here recently got blasted with magic. Just look at it! It's got purple streaks running through it!" Oh, that was a bit more dramatic than intended.

"Should you really be digging down towards it then? What if whatever caused this hurts you?"

"It should be long gone by now, and besides, I've never met anyone with a stronger ability to sense hostility than you. You could probably find a mosquito through its intent alone!" Mildly terrifying, but since his only plan was to wait for them to leave it should be fine.

"...Fine. But you have to be careful, okay?"

"I'll be careful, don't wo- what's that? Is that crying obsidian?"

"It looks like it, but... It feels weird."

"Yeah, the amount of magic in it is crazy! How much of it do you think there is?"

The sound of digging is the only noise as they spend an entire minute digging around Grian's cube.

"It's a cube."

"What do you think is inside? Ooh, maybe it's someone's secret vault or something!"

"Phil, remem-"

"Yeah, I'll be careful. But still, how are we supposed to figure out what's inside if we don't open it?" So much for hoping they'd leave...

"Fine, but if this goes wrong I'll never let you live this down."

The sound of pickaxe on obsidian filled his box, and Grian made sure he was on the exact opposite side from where they were breaking in. Torch light gleamed through the new hole as Philza broke one of the pieces of obsidian forming the cube.

"Wow, the magic is even more heavily concentrated in here!" Another piece is broken, and the bird man cautiously walks in. "Mate, look at the obsidian!" He lays a hand on it as the pigman enters the room behind him. "It's technically normal obsidian, but there's so much magic infused into it that it's got veins of purple."

Techno looked around the room with sharp eyes. "Curiosity appeased yet? Can we go home now? This place is giving me bad vibes." Of course he's got some kind of sixth sense.

"C'mon, wouldn't this make a great building block? I'm sure we could find some way to use it." Philza started slowly trailing his hand across the wall as he walked around the room. Uh oh. "Even if we can't build with it, who else can claim to have magic obsidian?"

Philza is getting closer to Grian's little corner with every step, but he can't move without giving away his position. Why would that give away his position? Because Techno is already on alert. The sound of rustling feathers alone might give him away if he tried to move.

He's right in front of him now, but seems to pause. Philza backs up, tilts his head, then checks the other wall. What? Techno seems confused too. Now he's trailing his hand across the other wall in much the same way he did for the first two. Getting closer, he slows down again. Philza couldn't actually sense him standing here... right? 

As if the universe itself wanted to spite him, the confused bird man slowly reached towards the corner while seeming rather hesitant. Grian wished his magic was settled so he could just teleport out. The chances of being recognized as the person who the two had met in the past was low, but if rumors of a Watcher on Hypixel start to spread...

Grian tensed slightly as Philza reached closer, tightening the wrapped wings as much as he could. Techno's ear twitched, and he fixed his gaze on the corner. Just how sensitive was- Ah, his feathers touched the man's hand. Time to run.

Brushing past Philza, Grian bolted for the hole in the obsidian cube as Techno dashed forwards at the movement. The winged man had recoiled the moment he felt feathers, leaving barely enough room to slip past with minimal contact. On the other hand, Techno seemed rather intent on getting in between the movement and Philza, so there was a clear shot to the outside.

Grian almost got stuck in the two block wide hole, what with the large size of his Watcher form and larger bulk of his wings. He managed to force himself out, quickly escaping into a nearby ravine. And of course now is when his magic finally decides it's stable enough for use again. Hopefully the two Arctic inhabitants don't realize just what they found in that box...