Unreachable

~Chapter Eight~

Grian’s POV
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Joe (very calmly) clasped his hands together and asked, "What in the Nether are you doing here?" 

Gem, unfazed, took another bite of her raw beef. Grian grimaced; Weren't deer herbivores? "Ask Grian," she said, pointing at him. Wow, way to throw him under the bus. Joe followed her direction and looked at the gremlin, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, I'm looking for my friends," Grian explained, raising his hands defensively. "I wound up out of our world and I'm trying to make my way back….-" he glanced around at the unfamiliar scenery- "...though I guess this one isn't it." That was the simplest way he could explain his ordeal. Now that he said it out loud, this task seemed much more outlandish. How was he supposed to get back to the one world he needed out of hundreds, maybe thousands of them? What are the chances that he might be able to stumble upon the right one at random? Was his mission even possible? 

Joe nodded slowly. "So there are more worlds; I guess I owe Iskall some diamonds," he mused. Grian, brought out of his worry session, thought he heard a spot of bitterness in his voice and chuckled quietly. 'Some' diamonds must've been an understatement. "Wait here," Joe continued. "I'll grab Iskall and Keralis and I'll be right back." And with a few seconds of typing on his communicator, Joe disappeared into thin air.

That definitely could've gone worse, Grian decided. Those names, Joe, Iskall, Keralis, they all seemed familiar. He whispered them under his breath, and they felt natural coming out, like he had said them time and time again. Well, they'd arrive back soon and Grian might figure everything out. 

…

Grian and Joe must have very different definitions of 'soon'. Grian, Pearl, and Gem had plenty of time to improve upon their shack, adding a porch and ladder and basic necessities,and fight off night monsters before they burned to a crisp come morning. And Joe still hadn't returned. For three people whose sole jobs are (or 'were', in Grian's case) just surveying players and learning their opinions for hours on end, they got bored very easily. So, they did the only thing that anyone in their situation would do. They sat in a circle and played cards for two hours.

"Hmm…" Pearl stared at her cards intently, then said, "Grian, do you have a creeper?"

"Nope, go fish."

"Aww man." Pearl drew a card from the center pile and added it to her increasing hand. This was the only game that Gem and Grian agreed to play; Pearl had way too much of an advantage with her memory to play most other games. At least in this one the two G's had a fighting chance.

"My turn," Grian mumbled, and took a look at his cards. Zombie, skeleton, sheep, and… the next card's design blurred from a splotch of water. "Hm-?" And then another. And another. "Oh, crap," Grian hissed as he looked up to see the leaves above them glistening with raindrops. The trees were not doing a very good job of sheltering them from the oncoming storm.

"Ahh! Clean up before it gets heavier," Gem yelled, stuffing her cards into her inventory. She grabbed Grian's and Pearl's as well. "Why didn't we make a roof?!" That was a definite design flaw, and one that Pearl was desperately trying to fix as they spoke. And it was a good thing too, because the rain just got heavier and heavier. A dense mist formed from the downpour, so much even that Grian could hardly see in front of him. 

Grian felt a yank on his collar and stumbled back, now under the newly-made awning. "Do you want to be all wet?" Pearl asked incredulously. It took considerable strength to pry her hand off of his collar. She balled up her fists and shook one in front of Grian’s face threateningly. "Because I can push you back out there if that's what you want." She snickered. Rude. Grian calmly thanked her for pulling him out of the rain, then walked deeper into the shack and- nope! He actually shoved Pearl out from under the awning into the rain. The latter's eyes darkened and she grinned wide. "Oh, you've done it now!"