icey forcing me against my will

1 - Lost - Grian and Bdubs

KEEP IN MIND THIS IS PLATONIC. ALSO IG IF YOU SQUINT IT CAN BE INTERPRETED DIFFERENTLY I'M SORRY THAT WAS FOR YOU ICEY-

I kinda messed with the timeline but y'know

if you don't like it the door is to the right

Bdubs leaned forward on the neck of his horse, squeezing with his ankles as he urged the stallion to go faster. The creature strained against its bit, hooves thundering as the two neared the end goal: a piece of string lazily settled across their path. The tripwire would pull tight, de-activating some redstone, and give Bdubs a measurement for the speed of his newest horse.

Bdubs admitted that this horse had been a wild one, but he ran like the wind. DoubleO still wasn't sure how much he had managed to tame him, but he had gotten a saddle on him and that was enough to try him out.

The stallion's front hoof landed on the tripwire, giving off a click that made Bdubs smile. It meant his machine had worked, and the hermit tugged on his horse's reins to guide him over to the hopper he had set up.

The horse kept going.

Bdubs's eyes widened and he tried again to steer the stallion over, but the horse let out a grating whinny and yanked his head in the other direction.

Bdubs let out a yelp as the ground rushed by under his feet, unable to dismount for fear of being trampled or hurt. His heart pounded as he kept trying to turn the horse or slow it down, but every time he attempted it the stallion tossed his head defiantly and put on another burst of speed.

'Get ahold of yourself, c'mon, figure something out.'

The stallion begged to differ, stating his opinion by hurtling into the forest and pounding away, Bdubs clinging to the saddle with white knuckles.

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Grian sighed, sitting with his back to the center of the roof he was sitting on. The sun beat down, warming the shingles and making Grian wish he had picked somewhere more comfortable. There was a house not too far away that looked shady. . . but if the hermit moved, he risked discovery.

Who was he hiding from, exactly? Well, he preferred to think of it as intelligently avoiding being found. His main reason for being here wasn't hide-and-seek, he was simply trying to get Bdubs's mask.

It was simple. Once you killed a hermit in pvp, they would drop a mask that resembled their face. Sure, you might be able to obtain it from stalker villagers who collected that kind of item, but Grian liked doing it this way.

The short hermit welcomed the gentle breeze that billowed against his face, then turned to peer over the tent of the roof.

Bdubs was racing yet another horse. Grian internally groaned, smacking his forehead lightly against the surface under him. He needed to strike at the exact right moment, which seemed to be taking its sweet time to present itself.

A yelp echoed up from below, and Grian jumped a foot in the air before ducking. He shook his head in exasperation as he realized that had been the perfect way for Bdubs to spot him.

"He saw me, didn't he? Arghhh, stupid. . ." he growled as he shrank against the roof to maybe, possibly avoid being found.

After a few seconds, when he didn't hear the sound of an elytra activating, he bit his lip and stuck the top of his head over the peak of the roof. What he saw surprised him, to say the least.

All he could do was spread his elytra and soar after the panicked Bdubs.

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Bdubs shut his eyes as branches whipped against his face and arms, letting out a cry of pain as a thorn dug into his shoulder. 'How do I manage to get hurt in these ways?' he thought incredulously.

It seemed to go on forever. Harsh wind against his cheeks, grit blowing under his eyelids, the pain in his shoulder, the chilling, heavy clatter of horse hooves when they struck stones at random intervals. He wished he had his elytra equipped, as he could just whoosh away into the sky and leave the stupid stallion behind. Alas, it was in his inventory backpack, and he was too busy trying to survive to let go of the reins and reach for his bag.

Then there was a thump. Bdubs didn't open his eyes to investigate, reasoning that his crazy horse could deal with it if it was a threat. It was all the stallion's fault, so why should he help? Maybe it was even the stallion giving up, though he thought the horse would make a different sound if that was the case.

If he had cracked his eyes open, he would have seen a flash of purple and a coil of rope, and a hermit snatching the bridle of the horse and deftly knotting the lead on. He didn't need to open his eyes, however, to feel the stallion being yanked around in a large arc as the horse tried to keep galloping. The horse was stopped by the lead tied to a tree, handiwork of Grian.

Bdubs gasped as the horse reared, sliding off the saddle backwards and scrambling to the side to avoid the sharp hooves that might collide with him. Once he was a distance away, he lay on the ground panting, looking up at his rescuer. Grian was at the top of his vision, which made him appear upside-down for Bdubs, so he flipped over onto his side and stood up.

He opened his mouth to speak, so he paused when Grian spoke.

"What on earth?" the hermit spoke, but there was a spark of amusement at the back of his eyes.

After a moment, Bdubs absolutely exploded. "Well I was riding my HORSE, no problem there right? And then it decided, oh lookie here! I can take this annoying hermit at the speed of light into a bunch of wood!"

Grian snickered, moving to look at the shoulder Bdubs was applying pressure to, his expression changing to concern.

"You'll need to get that patched up. Why don't we go back to your base and. . ." Grian paused, hallways turned around with his eyebrows scrunched together. "Your base. . . over there, right?" He pointed in the direction of a cluster of bushes in the complete opposite direction of where Bdubs's base was.

Bdubs let out a chuckle and shook his head, jabbing his thumb in a different direction. Grian blinked, frown growing on his face.

"That's where the horse was going, DoubleO."

Bdubs froze, blinked, and turned his head to see if Grian was right. Yep, the irritating steed was clomping his front hooves and tugging forward on the lead, struggling to get away with a roll of his sharp eyes.

Grian sighed, shuffling his feet. "So, we're lost."

Bdubs paused, then pointed at the elytra hanging off Grian's shoulders. "You have that gliding machine!" he exclaimed. "Just fly up and boom! Find the way to my base!"

At this, Grian smiled guiltily. "About that. . . I possibly, kind of, might have broken it." At Bdubs's bewildered expression, he held up his hands in defense as he pleaded his case. "To be fair, I was flying after you, trying to figure out how to best help you, when it broke. I just managed to pull off an amazing superhero landing and rescue by chance and my amazingly good looks."

Bdubs huffed, rolling his eyes. "Don't brag," he muttered.

"Oh, so you're not denying it?" Grian laughed as Bdubs punched him.

The two of them started to argue about the best way to get back, with many complaints from both of them, but in the end, they realized that the stallion had left a very clear path of crushed branches and foliage. They both sheepishly shuffled along the path, Bdubs with his hands in his pockets very carefully observing the forest instead of the other hermit. Grian was muttering something about extra elytras and kicking every stray twig that got in his path.

As they both finally reached the last hill, peeking over the top to see Bdubs's base spreading before them, Grian turned to Bdubs as if having an afterthought.

"Hey, can I take your face?"