Hidden Powers

Sky City

"Finally! You're home!" Rueben's voice berated Iskall's ears, reminding him that he was the only one who couldn't hear oinks. If he and Mumbo held the Overworld stone at the same time, Mumbo could understand the pig too.

"Yeah, sorry it took so long." Iskall rubbed his head as the rest of the group scattered to their various bases to get supplied for the next trip. Grian looked at Iskall with a strange look in his eye.

"Why are you oinking?"

"Oh, that," Iskall realized that Grian didn't know he was a linguist or a protector. "I'm a linguist."

"A pretty good one at that." Mumbo agreed. Only the architechs, Tango and Rueben remained at the base. They awaited the others to journey to the Aether. Xisuma was off getting the dimension stone.

"So how long are we going to be Netherites?" Grian shifted uncomfortably, tucking his wings behind his back. "It's kind of cold here."

Tango laughed a little before handing him a lava cake designed to keep the Netherites warm when in other dimensions. "I told you before, you will be a Netherite for a couple of days, if not more."

Mumbo turned and accidentally knocked over a chest with his tail, making it spill its contents everywhere. "Will the Elthers like us?"

Tango looked at Mumbo with apprehension as he replied. "Lets just say that our last king made the relationship between the Nether and Aether dimension, rocky."

"Oh for goodness sake."

Iskall turned in surprise as he looked at Rueben. Pointing a finger he exclaimed, "This pig stole my line!"

Mumbo raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything. He was too busy trying not to destroy his carefully placed redstone.

"Well, Zedaph surely could help us, right?" Grian tried, shifting a little. He didn't knock anything over because he didn't have a tail.

"That all depends." Tango narrowed his eyes and stared off into the distance. He was the only one who wasn't fidgety, but then again, he wasn't transformed into something else.

"So I heard that you are phoenix, Tango." Iskall said to the Netherite. "What's it like? And why don't you have a tail?"

Tango twisted his head to try to see past his wings. Snapping his fingers, Tango brought the tail out of hiding. It was magnificent, and seemed to glow. "I needed the Nether stone back in order to transform." Tango seemed to relish the feeling of his tail back. "It is very nice to be a phoenix." Tango turned his luminous red eyes and locked them with Iskall's mismatched ones.

Mumbo gave up on standing and sat down, tucking his wings and tail behind himself. "I guess we just wait for the others then?"

"Or you can die." A voice hissed from the shadows. The figure floated out revealing a spectator, Jumbo, now controlled by the poison.

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Zedaph glided around his quaint town, waiting for his wife, Layla, to come out of the cottage. They lived a simple life, not usual for the Elthers. Layla was making sure her sister was okay with watching the kids while they went off the the capital city, Ryeliion.

"How does it look up there?"

Zedaph paused in the air, flapping his cream colored wings. Turning, he dove back down to the ground. "All the more lovely with you here."

Layla was beautiful, more than the usually pretty Elther. Her beauty was natural in the way her wavy hazel hair was tucked artfully behind her perfectly pointed ears and her pale skin had a natural glow. If he looked closely, the little specks of gold in her chocolate-colored iris's twinkled. Her wings were a pretty silver, tiny dots of sapphire peeked through when she shifted the feathers.