Missing (Third in An Old Friend Series) //Hermitcraft & Yhs Crossover\\

5

Mumbo had needed advice on a part of Sahara he kept getting stumped on from Iskall. His worry for his friend, however, grew the more messages sent to him went unanswered until finally, he made the trek to his mushroom island. It seemed quiet, as usual, but something sinister hung in the air as he stepped out of the portal. His footsteps were the only sound on the whole island, except for the churning of waves crashing against the edges of the rock and the breeze floating freely through the atmosphere. Mumbo looked into the various empty buildings along the path until finally, there was only one building left. The moment he walked by the entrance, he could see the prone body of his friend surrounded by viscous red liquid. Mumbo ran over to him quickly, kneeling down and putting his head onto his chest to see if he was breathing. Iskall's chest raised up and down very slightly, and Mumbo breathed a sigh of relief. He whipped his communicator out and messaged Grian.

Grian had been sitting in his base, thinking about everything that was going on when his communicator went off, stating simply,

        "Get Stress and come to Iskall's Mushroom Island. Quickly. And bring medical supplies." Grian flew as fast as he could, searching everywhere for Stress. As he raced through the shopping district, he saw no sign of her, and instead ran into Ren. 

        "Woah, what's going on?" He asked once he saw Grian's panicked facial expression and walking speed. 

        "It's nothing." He brushed him off like he usually did and tried to walk away, but Ren grabbed his arm before he got too far. Grian instinctively flinched, and Ren instantly let go.

        "Sorry. But we're in this together. You don't have to hide anything from me. What's going on?" He asked again, calmer this time and Grian breathed shakily. 

        "I got a message from Mumbo saying to bring Stress to Iskall's Mushroom Island with medical supplies but I can't find her anywhere and what if Iskall is dying and I can't find Stress to help him and-" He began to get overwhelmed, and Ren jumped in. 

        "Hey hey, if you can't find Stress, I'll go. The Ren-Diggity-Dog knows his way around an injury and I know where to get some medical stuff." He reassured and Grian nodded. They finally arrived at the island and saw Mumbo down the path waving them down to come quick. They ran to the building and saw the same sight Mumbo had earlier, a prone Iskall surrounded by a pool of his own blood. 

        "What happened?!" Grian asked as he and Ren ran over to their bleeding friend. 

        "I don't know! I just found him like this!" Mumbo admitted, standing nervously behind them. 

        "Ok, sit him up against that shulker box. Lift up his hoodie and put pressure onto the wound, right here." Ren pointed to the darkest red stain on Iskall's green hoodie and turned to open his first aid kit. Grian propped up Iskall's unconscious body and did as Ren had instructed, noticing Iskall's puffy and discolored hand as he did. 

        "Um, Ren, what's wrong with his hand?" Grian asked hesitantly, and Ren looked over it from the bottle of rubbing alcohol he was opening. 

        "Looks broken to me. What the hell happened here?" He asked, to no one in particular, before Mumbo saw it. 

        "Grian..." He said quietly, and Grian raised his head to look at him. "Look at his neck." Grian glanced at Iskall's neck and saw something all too familiar. A small, red dot, left by what he knew only to be a syringe. 

Impulse and the rest of the missing hermits had gone to sleep after hearing False, in what little energy she had left, explain everything about Grian and Sam to them. They all had the same reaction as the other hermits, slight confusion but pity for Grian and the other Sahara boys. But Impulse had a hard time falling asleep. His body, no matter how tired he was, would not let his eyes stay closed for very long. He listened to his friend's slight snores, jealous of their rest but happy at least they were able to sleep at a time like this. He had begun to quietly pace out of boredom, thinking about everything False had told them when he heard the door open slowly. He backed from it, nervous about who else had been taken and about to be locked in wherever they were. But, standing slightly hunched over in the dim doorway, stood only the person that had brought them all there. 

        "Do you know how to sew?" They asked plainly, and Impulse nodded slightly. They grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of the room, closing and locking the door behind them. Impulse had hoped he would figure out where they were by leaving that room but instead was greeted by the fact that everything around them was eerily quiet and wooden. He was led into a smaller room with only a needle, some thread, and a rag in it. The figure pressed onto Impulse's shoulder, signaling for him to sit down. He did, and she sat next to him. He was confused for a moment before suddenly, he could feel the cold tip of a knife right above his Adam's apple. He gulped and the figure kept her hand steady at first.

        "Try anything, and I'll kill you before you even realize I moved." She said, dropping the fake deep voice for the first time in front of him. The knife at his neck wavered slightly before she hissed in pain and put her arm down, grabbing her shoulder. That's when he realized the bloodstain around her shoulder. He went to go reach for it, and she raised the knife again instinctively, causing Impulse to stop and raise his hands in surrender.

        "I can't fix you if you don't let me see what's wrong." He said matter of factly, his fear for some reason pushed far from his brain. She lowered the knife once again and pulled her cloak down enough for him to see the rapidly bleeding hole in her shoulder. Impulse grabbed the rag and began to soak up the blood, which seemed to have been slowing by the time he threaded the needle. "What happened?" He asked hesitantly and she huffed. 

        "That prick in the green hoodie fought back. He knicked me right in the shoulder just before I got him down." She admitted angrily and Impulse thought for a second. 

        "Iskall?"

        "Sure, if that's his name. I don't care." She finished, but Impulse's curiosity overpowered his fear of her as he said,

        "Can I just ask one thing?" Impulse held the needle up, ready to begin physically but not mentally. "You're doing this because of Grian, right? But what did he do to you? Does it have to do with that Sam guy?" As Impulse said his name, the figure picked her knife back up again, ready to use it.

        "Don't you dare say his name! You don't deserve to." Impulse's fear picked up again as she yelled.  "And Grian... Grian's the one who took him away from me. He stole my everything. And for that, he must pay. If not with his own life, than the life of the ones he loves." She stated coldly, and Impulse backed down. "If I were you, I would start sewing." She threatened and Impulse took a deep breath before putting the needle close to her open wound. 

        "You ready?" He asked, and she sighed.

        "Just do it already. If I had known you were going to take this long I would have woken up someone else." He began to slowly stitch her shoulder, her wincing and sucking in air through her teeth, her only recognition of the pain. Once he was done, she threw Impulse back into his room, where the rest of his hermits, assumingly woken up by her outburst, sat in wait for him to return and tell of what had just happened.  

So yeah, as a bunch of you guys guessed, it's Yuki. Good job to the people that theorized that from day 1. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. I'm really getting excited about this book again, as you can tell by how soon this chapter came out compared to the last one, plus this one is much longer than the last. Thank you for reading and sticking around for this long, I hope you have a good day/night, and you are lovely.