Cub must've been dreaming--False was goofing around with Stress, Grian was out of his treehouse, and Doc had just played a prank on him.
He was just minding his own business, absentmindedly playing with a piston, when he heard a loud hiss behind him. He jumped and turned out to see Doc grinning.
"Why, you--!"
Doc chuckled. "Didn't know I could do that until recently."
"You scared me half to death! I thought you were a real Creeper!"
"I've been doing that to everyone," Doc said, looking rather proud of himself. "False punched me in the face. Zed got startled and pushed Tango into the water. I didn't know Bdubs could scream that high."
"You're so mean."
Doc's eyes scanned their group. "Who should I get next? Cleo or Grian?"
"Grian just started getting better two days ago. Leave him alone."
"What's that? I go prank Grian? Man, Cub, you're so mean. He just came out of his treehouse two days ago. Well, whatever you say, bro."
"Doc, don't be a jerk..."
But it was too late. Doc--literally--crept around to where Grian and Mumbo were hanging out. Grian was on his swing, and Mumbo was sitting on a mossy log nearby. Cub could only watch as Doc hissed loudly, causing Mumbo to fall of his log. Grian whipped around and got tangled in his swing.
"Doc, you bit--"
Doc hissed again, tuning the rest of Grian's sentence out.
He plucked a petal off a poppy as he passed by, then went back to Cub with a wide grin. Plopping the petal into his mouth, he said, "Who next?"
Cub just stared at him.
"What?"
"You just ate a poppy."
Doc grimaced as he chewed the petal. "Jevin said they taste good." He swallowed it with difficulty. "He's wrong."
"Doc...you know that poppy petals are poisonous, right?"
Doc stopped mid-chew. "...What?"
"Don't ask me how I know."
He spat out the remains of the petal out of his mouth. "Never again."
A small smile pricked on the edge of Cub's mouth. "That's your fault."
From across the clearing, Cleo watched everything unfold distractedly. It was a common sight to see her hunched over a piece of paper, holding her blue quill tightly as she scribbled down the next theory she had about how all the portals were connected.
As time went on, her guesses had gotten more and more desperate. She had stooped as low as "Part of some conspiracy theory cult" or "Big powerful god playing a huge joke on us". This had to make sense somehow--it couldn't just be random.
The area around her was filled with crumpled-up pieces of paper, spilled bottles of ink, and the occasional colored quill. Right now, Cleo was writing in a hastily-bound journal. The spine could be seen, and she rubbed her finger over the torn pieces of paper she'd ripped out in a fit.
She'd done everything from pestering Stress about the types of magic she'd learned about to interviewing Cub about the levels of logic involved in this. Stress hadn't been helpful, and even Cub didn't see a pattern in when people arrived, where they came from, the type of portal, and even who showed up. It was all random.
"Stupid--Portal--Theory--"
Cleo crumpled up her paper and threw her quill across the clearing.
Joe watched her idly nearby, sitting in the shadows and writing leisurely in a leather-bound book. "You sure you don't want to take a break?"
"I'm close to a breakthrough," Cleo said, tugging at her orange curls irritatedly. "I'm sure of it."
Joe added another tally to a page in his journal. "That's the eighth time you've said that. Then there's five for 'If I just had this piece of info' and sixteen for 'I'M DONE, I GIVE UP', then plopping yourself onto the ground and screaming into the grass."
Cleo picked up a purple quill and drowned it in an ink bottle, then started scribbling down desperate ideas. "Maybe we're in some sort of interdimensional loop, that would explain how Zed, Tango, and X got here. But what about Grian, Mumbo, and Stress? Oh, this doesn't make sense..."
"How about this." Joe picked up his black quill and waved it in the air. "Instead of focusing on the portals themselves, what about the stories on how everyone got here?"
Cleo bit her lip. "Wait, that could be it!" She started writing down how everyone had appeared, then looked back at the list and groaned. "No, no, no. It's so unpredictable. X came from the End. Grian came from a different world. Stress and Wels came from a kingdom Notch knows where. There's got to be some sort of hidden connection."
Joe quietly added another tally to his page.
"Will you stop that!?"
Cleo started pacing. "These stories on how we arrived are crucial somehow, I'm sure of it. Everyone has some sort of complex way of getting here--Doc was a science experiment. Cub learned about a new kind of magic. Bdubs and False pulled an Icarus and fell from the sky. I literally died and lost my ship."
Joe set his quill down and listened. "Go on."
"These are more than just backstories. They're the start of how we got here, the root of this world, the beginning of something new, they're--"
Cleo stopped, having come up with a word.
"Origins."
(WC: 894)
YOU ARE READING
Hermitcraft: Origins
Fanfiction"Each world has its own story. Even if you tried to get a story from me, I wouldn't be able to tell you half of it. There is so much life in each build and block, and each event has told their own tale. But it has to start somewhere." Fate has the o...
