Hermitcraft Oneshots

The Book Heist - Watcher Grian

Hiiiiii again, sorry it's been so long I've just been really busy lol. Anyway word count for this is 3000 ish. Enjoy!

Grian fiddled with his fingers as he sat on the chest outside Xisuma's base. It was nearly three thirty now, and to be half an hour late was unusual for the admin, but the afternoon was providing a pleasant temperature and attention from the sun so he had no real complaints. It was a nice chance to relax without feeling like he ought to be doing something else.

Another ten minutes passed, narrated by birdsong, before his communicator buzzed to let him know that "Xisuma has joined the game", and another five passed before he heard rockets.

"Oh, Grian, I am so sorry." The admin said as he landed.

"Woah, what happened to you?" Grian replied, taking him in. He looked worried about something.

"I just, I've been running around all morning, well," he checked his watch, "afternoon, day, even, looking for some books but..." he shook his head.

"Some books?"

"Yeah. I got asked to give a talk in two days about quite a, an outlandish topic," he explained. Grian tilted his head curiously. "It's, well, in coding there's always a possibility of a scenario where-"

"Oh no, stop right there, I'm not a code nerd like you." Grian interrupted, realising that he wasn't curious after all. Xisuma hesitated and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Aren't you an admin?"

"Well, yeah, but I only know the bare minimum."

"Oh," Xisuma chuckled, "still though. I just don't know what to do. I need to research this because, I mean, I have to do this talk. Some really important people are attending, and I just..."

"I understand." Grian assured him.

"But I've looked everywhere. I think I'll need to cancel this meeting, I'm really sorry to've made you wait, time just got away from me." Xisuma said worriedly.

"Don't worry, the Permit Office can wait. Did you try the AdAs library?"

"Yep."

"And the UA's?"

"Yep."

"Have you asked-"

"Every soul under the sun? Yes." Xisuma said, sounding annoyed. "Sorry. I just really need this. Maybe I should just break into the Desa Library at this point." He joked. Grian hesitated.

"I could take you there."

Xisuma chuckled and looked down.

"No, really." Grian said, and Xisuma glanced at him. "I... have a friend who's a Watcher, so I'm allowed in the End. I could sneak you in."

Xisuma looked at him doubtfully.

***

The admin walked nervously behind Grian, still in shock about the whole situation. The Desa Library was one of the biggest non-fiction focussed libraries around, so if there was anywhere he'd find resources about such an obscure topic, it would be there, even though only a quarter of the books there were in English. But it belonged to the Watchers, it was located in practically the centre of the Watcher capital in the End, and to top it all off it was named after and owned by Doxi Desa, the Highest and leader of the Watchers.

He took a deep breath, reminiscing on his decisions. Somehow, Grian's confidence about the whole thing had convinced him that it was worth the risk. Now that he was here, he felt less sure.

Grian had told him to dress in black and purple, and when they met up again to leave, he'd given him a black cloak to wear. He didn't have a mask, so he was just wearing the hood as low as possible and hoping that no one would look at him too closely. His heart was beating in his chest; he was absolutely terrified. Why was he doing this? And how was Grian so unaffected? The hermit walked in front of him, looking as cool as a cucumber as he lead them to the End portal. He was wearing his usual clothes because it would be okay for the Watchers to recognise him. Xisuma was fairly sure that the logic was that the Watchers would see them and assume that Grian was just hanging out with his Watcher friend. It all rather relied on no one looking too closely.