The Crossover (A Hermitcraft Story)

Part 9

Drip. Drip. Splash.

Never before had Grian saw his friend weep like this, fists clenched and tears flooding the quartz floor. Always so preoccupied with work that it seamt that he wasn't even emotionally sentient, he... he always was strong, he kept together the Architechs even at their darkest moments. Seeing him now, on the floor, weeping as if there was no tomorrow... it broke him.

"I... Mumbo, I..." Grian started to whisper in his friend's ear, not expecting a result from his emotionally torn friend. "I just wanted to say..."

"Stop- Don't - I know, I know - It's all my fault - I know, I know-"

"No, no, no, Mumbo! None of this is your fault, he would have eventually got it anyways-"

Mumbo laughed maniacally, turning to face his friend who was kneeling over him, hands in search of a golden apple. "Grian, you really are the angel I don't deserve. For millenia, the scroll - that scroll - it has been defended from every strike our opponents make - shielded, with ingenuity, with passion, with - with life - and I? It was I, out of everyone, that lost the scroll. I..." He laughed again, redstone appearing in his hand and wiped out in seconds by his tears, dissolving in the salty substance that now asserted dominance in the room.

Grian stared at Mumbo, his eyes locking onto the black, silky hair, the sleek nose, the penetrating eyes, the glorious moustache. He stared at his friend, feeling hurt more than anyone, even Mumbo himself. After feeling centuries of pain... Grian knew well the art of hiding your pain.

"Mumbo," Grian cooed softly, holding Mumbo's cheeks in his hands. "Listen. You're my best friend. I - I honestly can't ask for anything more, I - You're as perfect as anyone could be, Mumbo. Perfection lies inside you, no matter how hard you try to deny it. I- Mumbo - I can't lose you too -you're all I have-"

Grian did not realize his voice crack in the midst of his monologue, as a tear slowly weaved it's from the bottom of the eye, cutting a trail in the dust that covered Grian's face, curving down his neck and landing, with a plip, insignificant and gone, drowned in the ground, tears and quartz which resembled a greater force. 

Oh, the irony, Grian thought to himself, as Mumbo choked and sobbed in the background, though significantly less. Aren't I always the last, the least loved, the one who isn't taken seriously? Aren't I the most annoying useless creature to ever set foot on this earth? I wish my friends would come back. The bunny-eared one, I remember - what was his name? I know I wasn't supposed to remember, but I guess the odds were in my favour when - when he pushed - pushed me into this world...

Slowly, the memories of his past life pulled him into a vortex of reminiscence and nostalgia, ascending him to a new plane of existence.

"Grian! Why - no, no - Sam, calm down, both of you-"

"I've had enough of him, Taurtis! The only reason he comes over is to destroy everything!"

Grian saw little to nothing from his position on the floor, but he could only barely make out a destroyed pot and grey ash shattered across the red woven carpet. Grian looked up at 'Sam', hatred boiling in his juvenile brown eyes, standing several feet shorter than his towering friend, both wielded the same same amount of chaotic and furious energy, driven by anger - and, perhaps - fear, for the other one? Taurtis frantically tried to smooth things over, his diplomatic voice changing to threatening ones, then to pleading ones, then to sobbing ones. The two competitors took no notice of their third friend, Grian too young to understand anything else than fear, 'Sam' too wracked with anger at the smaller one for his clumsiness and eventual breakage of his relative's remains. The two threw out verbal insulations, Grian's ones obviously more childish and straight-forward. Slowly but surely, the two reached a point where their anger was absolute. 

Sam bodily picked up a thrashing Grian, ignoring the pleads and protests of Taurtis and the thrashing movements of his victim. He carried him out of the house, out of the gardens, and when Grian made even a slight move, he was quickly silenced.

He always knew, deep inside, that 'Sam' had problems. Deep, intricate problems. Hate for Grian, for his clumsiness. They would never even have been friends if Taurtis, bless his heart, forced him to. Sam... he just hated Grian, with every fiber of his body.

Grian never got to find out why.