At last.
Finally, after hours of watching and waiting, of studying Grian build his manor and gather resources.
He finally slipped up.

Honestly, how did Scar not notice it before? It seemed so obvious now that he knew.
Grians ears were pointed.

The wizard saw them as he watched Grian push his hair off his face, tired from digging up gravel in the mountains.
Maybe the angle was just right, or the wind blew the right way at the right time. Maybe it was luck.

But it didn't change the fact that Scar saw. He saw, clear as day, that Grians ears ended in a neat point, small enough that his hair could hide it.

He let out a gasp before his hand flew to cover his mouth- afraid that the faerie would see him now.
And Grian's head did snap in Scars direction, but the wizard was already gone, climbed down from the hill and took off running towards Larry.

Granted it was a long run, and in the moment he forgot that nether portals existed, but he wasn't going back now.

As the sun rose, Scar kept walking towards his giant snail, reaching his destination around noon. And while he wanted to do nothing more than fall asleep, he had work to do.

So the little red book came out of the shelves again. Call it a theory, but those runes were important for making this plan work. Yes, following unknown runes in a book was a bad idea, but it was all Scar had. So he'd take it.

Without a second thought, he grabbed a piece of red chalk and the leather armour and snuck his way into Grian's base.

It was easy to draw the odd runes. A practiced hand made the task nice and easy, standing up and pocketing the chalk quickly, walking around to ensure that everything was set. Grian shouldn't notice the giant magic circle on his floor that looked more like a cult summoning circle than....whatever these runes were. Well. He shouldn't notice the runes because they were red. And runes don't make noise so they should stay hidden. Like any red inanimate object. Seriously, Grian had lost his sweater more times than he could count- and now Scar knew why.

Professor Beak started chirping at the sound of familiar footsteps and Scar panicked before squishing himself inside the body of the grandfather clock and prayed it wouldn't wack him with the pendulum.
Listen. He wasn't the smartest when it came to hiding places.

Twisting around awkwardly, the wizard pulled out his phone, sending Mumbo a message telling him to activate the trap. While wearing red, of course.

And barely five minutes later, Mumbo was sneaking through Grian's base in full leather armour as the prankster was there, sorting his chests. Props to him and all for establishing a sorting system , but Mumbo was slightly more worried about being seen.

He carefully made his way to his machine, breaking the line of redstone dust rather than flipping the lever like he had initially planned to do. Grian would definitely hear the click of a lever through the floorboards. He may have not been a good mole last time during the Civil War, but this time he was physically crawling in the dirt. That had to count for something.

He sighed softly, taking out his phone to message Scar before deciding against it. The wizard might not have silenced his phone- and that would definitely alert Grian. So Mumbo crawled in the dirt some more until he found himself outside by a lake and made his way back to find and tell Scar the trap was primed.

And honestly, finding the wizard curled up in the grandfather clock was a weird sight but he seemed happy that Mumbo was there.

Mumbo, on the other hand, was not happy to be covered in dirt and pebbles from sneaking out from underneath Grian's floor. But all the same, he pointed to the bed and nodded at Scar with a thumbs up, wordlessly telling him that it was set.

It was still early afternoon, and both Scar and Mumbo sighed in relief when Grian finally left, muttering something about needing more materials. The tension in the room immediately disappeared, and Mumbo instantly addressed the elephant in the room.

"Why are you inside a clock."

Scar gave a small, embarrassed chuckle, wiggling out of his cramped position. "I Uhh..panicked. It seemed like the best hiding spot."

"Riiiigt. Well anyway, it's primed, and I don't know about you, but I think we should make a proper place to hole up rather than hide inside the clock." Mumbo suggested, already starting to dig behind the nether portal so any noises they made would be drowned out by the obnoxious sounds spewing from said portal.

"I wholeheartedly agree." He smiled, grabbing his own pickaxe and set to work next to Mumbo, blocking up the entrance behind them so nothing looked out of place. "And now, we wait."

Mumbo nodded, "And now we wait."