...

"GRIAN!!- GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Bdubs shouted, tennis racket in hand as he chased a maniacally laughing Grian- who had eggs in hand... he had a new prank idea, a village-wide prank of egging every house.

Of course, this wasn't abrupt— well, it kind of was, but everyone was expecting it to happen- expecting some sort of prank.

The village had grown used to Grian's mischievous antics over time, but that did not mean they shrugged them off easily. 

In fact, some people- such as Martyn, had taken it upon themselves to devise and pull off their own pranks in response to Grian's. This sparked a sort of prank war between the two, with each trying to outdo the other in terms of creativity and execution... it started a year ago and it's still going on, somehow. That's probably a bad thing.

Meanwhile, others, including Mumbo- who had been missing for too long by now- resorted to hiding their valuable possessions to prevent them from being damaged or tampered with by Grian.

This led to a sense of (good) chaos and uncertainty, as no one knew who would be the next target of Grian's pranks, or if they would be caught in the crossfire of the prank war between him and Martyn.

...

___ Mumbo.. where did you go?

___ oh- Whatever!

Etho held back laughter, watching the scene from outside his window- he personally was rooting for Bdubs, but that's just a personal bias since him and Bdubs were rather close friends, to the point where they felt comfortable jokingly flirting with eachother.

Cleo- who Etho had invited over for the day— came to stand by his side, cup of black coffee in hand as she observed with the white-haired male. "They're still on this whole prank thing?..."

Etho nodded, a slight grin from behind his mask. "Mhm- Grian's egging houses, actually. Who do you bet- I mean, what do you bets gonna happen?"

"Hmm," Cleo paused- thinking for a moment. "Easily Bdubs catches him."

Etho was surprised by this. "Oh?" He started. "Honestly, I think Grian's gonna win- why do you think Bdubs has a chance? Grian literally has wings, he can fly away.."

"Well- for starters, Bdubs could just grab Grian if he tried to fly away... but the main reason I think Bdubs will come out victorious is his unbridled rage. He's always been  one of the shortest here- and he's average sized too, so... basically- He has a right to be mad.. and he can't even fly up to seem taller. " Cleo said, finally finishing her sentence- doing so with a sip of her coffee, laughing as Bdubs threw a dull pencil at Grian— causing Grian to yelp, and him to be caught.

Etho took this into consideration— then, after a long moments silence, nodded. "Huh... that's a fair point. He gets pi-... irritated, easily."

 He had to catch himself on his words- and he was rather thankful he managed to when he saw Cleo's face centimeters away from rage.

It was known that Grian was heavily against swearing, and all that— so people tried to stay away from doing that, in fear of what Grian would do to them. As in, pranks.

Eventually- some people grew that hatred for swearing... so, people had to be incredibly mindful of their language- can't even say hell!

So far, everything was peaceful. Or, as peaceful as it could get on an average day here- never mind the chase going on, that's just normal behavior in Life Village.

Ren smiled— almost putting away his sword, but then remembered.. always on guard- sure, he wasn't FORCED to be the protector; nor did anyone offer the position to him.. but nobody really cared if he did.

Besides- anything could happen, and the dog hybrid figured he would be capable for holding whatever that opposing force was back- until reinforcements came, which he hoped would happen fast if the threat was worse than the average bandit.

Ren did one last listening check— as in, listening for any sound of intruders, and sighed in relief when he heard none... but he'd have to go and check elsewhere, still.

But, before he could even turn around- he heard something, and flinched... something akin to that of a- what was the term...

An end portal? Or an ender pearl- end portal sounded right...

Whirling around, sword gripped tight, Ren saw nobody... and realized the source came from a much further distance- but then how did he hear it? He didn't have THAT good hearing...

Looking outside, he realized that everything seemed silent- before murmurs came along. Had the others heard... whatever that was, aswell?

That made things incredibly weird. 

And concerning— this might be a threat... one that Ren wasn't sure he could handle- without getting hurt badly.

But, nothing had happened in what felt like forever.

So, Ren figured he'd do something dumb- for once in his life here! Just to see what it was, and get a bit of excitement, from his lifestyle.

It wasn't that it was boring, no no no— just that... nothing intense happened. Nobody got injured, nobody invaded it... all that happens is something caused by a resident or Mother Nature! It was boring, and he always wished it wasn't just nature but it was anyways.

...

But, y'know- this time he would prefer Mother Nature was pranking him.

He decided to go check on that sound.. which was somewhere southeast from his current direction. He might need a compass.. no- he'd be fine.

Ren went to the back of his house, and found a single window- the builder didn't really try on the back, clearly.. so the window was loosely fit- and easy to open.

Just as Ren got both his legs dangling off the edge, he paused...

Should he not atleast tell the others he was gonna leave? They'd probably get a bit concerned on where he is—...

No.

They'd chase him if he did.

He doesn't need help- this is probably nothing, anyways. Just a random thing Mother Nature chose to do, for fun...

He kept repeating things similar to that in his mind, as he ran off southeast- unnoticed, thankfully.

For some reason. he had a lingering doubt in the back of his head— maybe  going completely alone isn't the best option for whatever this could be.