Obey Me! [Hermitcraft AU | Book 1]

Chapter Five: Don't You Wanna Know?

(The secrets we're hiding. The violence we're stifling)
<TW> Blood, indifference, discomfort, possession, fear

<CW>Fluff, low-key angst

[MAIN PLOT BY Roxy-Rox0 ]

Zedaph quickly wrapped his arms around Doc, glad to be back in the library. "Yeah, thank you, Doc."
  Xisuma let Zedaph and Doc have their moment before becoming apart of it by asking Zedaph a question.

"What happened? Are you okay now?" Xisuma asked. Zedaph let go of Doc and took multiple deep breaths to keep his breathing steady. Then he rubbed his oozing eye and looked at the admin and creeper hybrid.

"I was reading, then I thought I heard Impulse, then I saw the Entity, then everything hurt and I felt strange." Zedaph summarised in a jumbled rush before adding, "And then you guys saved me."

  Xisuma slowly nodded at the explanation and patted Zedaph's shoulder comfortingly because the hybrid was still trembling.
"The 'Entity' being the thing that's taken control of Grian, Etho, Mumbo, and Impulse. Correct?" Doc questioned. Zedaph nodded and took another deep breath. He rubbed his aching horns and looked at Doc and Xisuma tiredly.

✦ ✦ ∴⍑|| ✦ ✦

Etho woke up with a start, his breathing fast and heavy. Yet, he couldn't remember why his dream was so stressful. He quickly scanned his surroundings and saw that Impulse was up and yawning, staring at Grian and Mumbo's figures sleeping next to each other.

Grian's wings twitched every now and then, hitting Mumbo every time, and causing the moustached hermit to stir and shift positions. Impulse had a tired yet amused expression as he viewed the cycle. Etho came up behind him and chuckled when Grian shifted and his wings twitched at the same time, whacking Mumbo in the face and making the raven haired hermit sit up frantically.

Mumbo blinked multiple times in an almost comical way and Impulse yelped and jumped forward, making Etho laugh harder. Mumbo looked at the fuming and red Impulse, and the laughing and coughing Etho.
"What happened?" Mumbo asked.

Etho wiped his mouth and grimaced at the blood staining his hand, but he answered. "I laughed at you and Grian, and Impulse didn't know I was there, so he got scared." Impulse scoffed and crossed his arms, embarrassment still burning at his ears.

Mumbo gave Etho a bemused look and stood to get out of the range of Grian's twitching wings. "Why were you laughing at us?" Mumbo questioned. Etho chuckled softly— to avoid coughing blood again— and Impulse grinned along with his white haired friend. Neither of them planned on telling Mumbo the truth.

Mumbo frowned at the two and Impulse stretched his legs out. He leaned back and Grian stirred a bit. "I'm tired," Impulse whined, dragging out the "r."

Etho nodded, "Aren't we all?" he said in response.

✦ ✦ ↸𝙹リ'ℸ ̣ ✦ ✦

  Meanwhile, the surface realm was a strange chaos. Most hermits didn't leave their—or Xisuma's—base. The Entity roaming the Overworld with the ones they'd taken control of. Grian often flew around on green wings, spying from a bird's eye view to spot stray hermits under the Entity's orders. Mumbo wandered during the night time, Etho entered builds and bases at random to search them, and Impulse walked around during the day—usually when Etho was out.

  So far the hermits have successfully managed to avoid running into the four green-eyed hermits under control. Some are trying to help Xisuma with the situation; for example Iskall, Cub, Gem, Doc, BDubs, and even Scar came by to help sometimes. Although, he was more of an emotional support than actual support.

Their progress was slow, Cub worked with potions—Scar usually stuck by him, occasionally communicating in his potion knowledge with Cub. Gem wasn't ever seen far from Cub and Scar, she would mess with their already made potions and such, mixing in her witch magic. BDubs stuck around to share as much information that he found when he would go out to check on the hermits that didn't seek refuge in Xisuma's base—Pearl, Tango, Ren, etc..—because the admin couldn't. Xisuma often was enveloped with the code and protection around the server, trying to see if he could drive the Being out. Doc and Iskall hung around him to make sure he got enough sleep, and was protected when he entered the code.

The group worked hard, BDubs being one of the only ones getting proper sleep, and they desperately looked for a cure, or a solution to their green problem.

Of course, none of them let Zedaph stay alone for too long. Usually Scar or Doc was sent to check on him, usually finding him in the library or in a fitful sleep in a guest bed with yellow sheets. Zedaph often had headaches and his eye always stung, the green ooze greatly annoying him now.

"Hello Zedaph!" Scar said enthusiastically, dragging out the "o" in "hello." Zedaph looked up from his book and rubbed at his right eye, he stared up at the slightly out of breath Scar in front of him from where he sat on the floor. Scar punched upwards in the air happily and plopped down beside Zedaph.
"First try! I have a Zedaph sense, I knew you were in the library!" Scar announced cheerily to the ram hybrid beside him.

"Good job, Scar," Zedaph congratulated his friend. Scar's cat ran into the room, she was probably accidentally left behind by Scar in his rush to get to Zedaph. The cat jumped into Scar's lap and he instantly started petting her, ranting on to Zedaph about a potion fail that happened earlier that day—because of Scar.

Zedaph let a small smile reach his face as he looked at the cat loving hermit as he rambled on and on beside him. He wasn't fully paying attention, but the fact that Scar always came to look for him and kept him company made Zedaph happy. In that moment he knew he never wanted Scar, or any more of the hermits, to be hurt because of this strange situation that the server had become apart of.

In that moment a seed appeared in Zedaph's head, a new idea, perhaps a deal he could make.

Well, or it could've just been the headache that formed when some insistent whispers from the Entity had pushed through to the surface and made sure that they were known. Zedaph shook his head to make the noise go away and Scar stopped talking. Jellie meowed.

Six words stuck out in his jumbled head then, and he was genuinely confused about whether Scar, Jellie, or the Entity had said them. Zedaph blinked and rubbed at his eye to clear his head but failed again. Scar grew more concerned and Jellie mewed.

"There is no escape from this."

1132 words

Sorry this took some time, but it's here now! :D

We're getting to the good part.. :]