Awakened

On The Hunt

He was leaning on the stem of the fungus, arms and legs crossed boredly as he stared at the portal. It had gone dark a few minutes ago with that weird, warping, shattering sound. The pigs were sticking around, having plugged their nostrils with wads of leather they just kept for whenever traveling over here.

“... Like c'mon, is the smell really that bad to you?” Dust finally snapped, annoyed.
“Yes.” Cross deadpanned, sounding rather stupid with his nose plugged up like that.
“Gag every time I smell it.” Epic groaned. “An’ I stihl can.” He added miserably with a choking noise.

Dust just huffed, arms folding against his chest sulkily. “Whatever.”
“Can you even smell it?” Cross questioned.
“I mean, kinda? It never bothered me. I don't even notice it anymore.” He muttered.
It was quiet for a minute after that, neither party having anything to say.

“... Where.. is that ghast, anyway?” Dust finally asked. The portal was still inactive and unchanged.
Epic took a breath to reply first, but suddenly gagged, coughing off to the side as Cross patted him in sympathy. Dust tried not to scowl at it.
“There's some chambers our mines have broken into. It's actually a fair distance from the bastion at this point, and we have no idea how else to access those systems. We started widening the tunnels, actually.” He coughed abruptly, taking a moment before going on.

“It was mostly because we wanted to lure it closer to get a better look at it, but now we have regular ghasts wandering into the tunnels as well. It should be big enough for the dragon if he wants to follow.. actually, he'd have to fit through the entrance first...” He trailed, brows furrowed in concentration.

“Do you have mines?” Epic had recovered enough to ask, voice now rougher on top of nasally from the plugs.
“Yeah. You wouldn't fit in them, though. Couldn't fit through the door of my place either, actually. Either door. Probably the basement, though. That doesn't really have a door, just a bunch of fences and whatever.” He explained with a wave.
“Don't expect too, heh.”

All three of them froze when a loud crackling and warping blared from the dark portal, light flashing to life before swirling into the familiar purple field.
“...I thought it'd change size.” Dust noted faintly when the sound settled.
Suddenly, a familiar flaming head popped through, a rod joining it to wave at them as Grilby floated through to look at the portal. He was visibly disappointed at the sight of it.

“What're they gonna do now?” Dust asked, a little concerned. He'd seen how big Blue wanted to make it, practically stretching the length of the cliff between wall and stairs. Grilby just tapped a rod to the side and top of the portal and gestured outwards before vanishing through it.

Dust glanced at the pigs, shrugging when he met Cross's gaze.
“Hey uh. I gotta take a breath’ah.” Epic practically pleaded, purple eyes watering. Dust sighed, glancing back in the direction of his home.
“I can get you to my place. It's not in the forest proper, but it's just off the shore.” He gestured.
“Ya just said I don't fit.” The hoglin pointed out.
“It's called teleporting.”

Two pairs of eyes went wide at that.
“You can teleport others with you?” Cross asked.
“Yeah.” He confirmed, pausing when Blue walked through the portal, regarding the obsidian thoughtfully.
“Hey, I'm gonna take these two to my place for a bit.” He announced to the skeleton. Blue glanced over distractedly before replying.
“Are you sure? I thought you wanted to watch the portal.”

“We were expecting it to change or something like that. It doesn't seem to be doing that, and Epic's getting sick.” Cross explained.
“Alright, I won't keep you.” He gestured for them to go. “You don't need to torment yourselves longer than necessary.”