Don't worry, this whole "watching" thing won't last long, only until the chapter equivalent of Session 5. Hang in there until then.

-Indigo

~~~

The next morning, the Southlands arranged a meeting. Grian suggested that they would pass a life around the circle and if any of them ran away with it, they would be deemed untrustworthy and be exiled. It wasn't a perfect system, but it worked.

Mumbo started it and passed the life to Impulse, who passed it to Martyn.

Martyn ran.

Then he came back. The others laughed, relieved.

Martyn passed it to Grian, who also pretended to run away. Then Grian passed it to Jimmy, who passed it back to Mumbo. Mumbo also ran away.

Mumbo ran back. "Wait, that was my life!"

"Kind of hard to steal a life when t it's yours," Grian laughed.

About the time they finished that, another Boogeyman was about to be chosen. They stared into each other's eyes and waited.

3...

2...

1...

I didn't have any warning instincts. The Southlands was safe. Probably.

But the ideas unfortunately didn't stop at life passing.

Grian also placed a chest and said that anyone who said "AH-HA" without a good reason would have to put something valuable in the box. They called it the "AH-HA JA-HAR" and Mumbo, who had come up with the name, had to put his spyglass inside. Jimmy, who had mined all the copper and amethyst for the spyglasses, was not very happy.

I went to check on Ren. He was at his tower, preparing to go on some adventure. Once he was apparently ready, he went to his Nether Portal and went into the fiery dimension.

My ghostly watch buzzed. A lot of people were going to the Nether at once. That couldn't be good. I used Ren's portal to follow them.

While Grian was nowhere to be found, the other Southlanders were gathered at a bastion remnant. They went inside after arguing about how, and then started the raid.

They mined the gold from the walls and looted the chests. Then the Piglins got angry. And disaster struck.

Mumbo accidentally trapped himself in a room with a Piglin Brute. The Brute hit him into a small pool of lava. Jimmy, panicking, accidentally blocked his escape.

Mumbo Jumbo tried to swim in lava

Hold on... Mumbo Jumbo? That was the other name that had been on Pix's suspicious document, along with Impulse's. I decided that if I ever got home, I would get Pix trapped in a corner and demand answers.

The Southlanders, excluding Grian of course, went home.

I didn't, though. I headed to find him.

Grian was on a very narrow bridge that made me nervous. He ran across it towards a portal, where Etho and Bdubs were.

Was he helping them after what had happened when Bdubs was the Boogeyman? No, because as soon as he got within shouting range, he reminded Bdubs of his grudge.

Etho, despite that, gave Grian some news - Scar was probably the Boogeyman. He had tried to kill both of them right at that spot. Grian thanked them for the information as they disappeared through the portal.

My instincts confirmed that Scar was the Boogeyman, but something felt missing, too. I felt like... Joel? Maybe?

"Hello?" called a deep, confused voice.

"Scar?" Grian said back.

"Grian!"

"Where are you?"

"I don't know! I need help!"

It was obviously a trap.

Grian pillared up towards the roof of the Nether. Scar continued to talk so that Grian could hear his voice getting louder if he went in the right direction. His voice got louder as I ascended above Grian, proving that he was on a higher level of the Nether.

When I got to him, I dreaded Grian's arrival because Scar had The Glow that had been around Bdubs a few days ago. And I had the same bad feeling I had had with Bdubs.

Grian joined Scar at the top.

"I can't find the portal," Scar said sheepishly.

Grian facepalmed. "Scar, it's literally right below us."

"Really?"

That was followed by an awkward moment where both of them tried to stand on Grian's meter-by-meter pillar. Eventually they succeeded and Scar started destroying the pillar under their feet. The red glow around him intensified.

It looked very dangerous, and it didn't help that even though Scar and Grian were nowhere near allies, Grian clung to Scar and constantly complained about the danger. It was valid, though, because if Scar was the Boogeyman, all he needed to do was push Grian off the pillar and then he was cured.

He didn't, though, and as they reached the ground, I breathed a sigh of relief, but didn't relax. The fact that The Glow had faded on Bdubs as he killed Grian probably meant that it indicated a Boogeyman. That, coupled with my bad feeling about Scar, didn't bode well.

The two of them headed through the portal together. I followed them.

The portal led to a spot near the dirt hut-topped mountain that Scar lived on. They climbed the mountain together and stood at the tip, talking and keeping a lookout for the other Southlanders. I was tense the entire time, but Scar didn't attempt to kill Grian.

Eventually, Grian called out in excitement, "Friends!" and ran down the hill.

I followed his gaze to where Mumbo (now light green), Impulse, Martyn, and Jimmy were coming through the forest towards Magical Mountain.

"My friends! My friends! 'Bye, Scar, I found my friends!" Grian yelled.

He sounded about six years old.

"Okay, yeah, just leave me here, alone!" Scar called back. The Glow dimmed.

Grian ignored him and ran down to meet his fellow Southlanders. I had to glide pretty fast to keep up with him.

They greeted him with enthusiasm, if they were a little surprised to see him there. It turned out they were trying to steal the enchanting table, which Scar had taken from Spawn the other day. I really wished these people would just leave things where they were and not try to take them and make other people pay to use something that was intended for everyone, like a certain two people had tried to do with a certain forest.

Yeah, I was still a little bitter about that.

Joel, a light green life, came out of his little cave on the side of Magical Mountain and invited them inside, saying that the enchantment table was inside the cave.

I hoped it actually was and that it wasn't a trap, because Joel also had the Glow. If he and Scar were both Boogeymen like I suspected, this was going to get chaotic very fast.

Grian ran in before everyone else, eager to take the magic for the Southlands. He found a lever inside, said, "there's a lever here, what does it do, Joel?" and then pulled it without waiting for an answer. A deep pit opened over the area where he had been running only a moment before.

The Southlanders and Joel stopped and stared down into the pit.

"Uhh..." Joel said.

"Okay, this is a clear Boogeyman!" Grian yelled, pointing at Joel.

"Who's the Boogeyman?" Scar, who had just come into the cave, said.

The Southlanders stared at Joel. Then, in a jumble of bodies and sharp objects, they attacked him. In the chaos, Scar got hit into the hole, but someone gave him some water to catch him before he died. Grian jumped over Scar and the pit and ran after his allies.

Joel, who was confirmed to be the Boogeyman, turned around and tried to hit a few of the Southerners, but they were all moving too much for him to kill any of them. Finally, Mumbo got one last hit.

Joel Smallbeans was slain by Mumbo Jumbo

I was filled with dread as Scar crept up behind Mumbo, who was reveling in his victory. Scar dumped lava at Mumbo's feet.

Mumbo Jumbo tried to swim in lava to escape Scar Goodtimes

Scar's Glow faded. He was cured.

But Joel was still a Boogeyman.

Speaking of him, he came out of the cave (still with the Glow), saw the lava that had burned both his and Mumbo's things, and yelled, "MY STUFF! SCAR!"

That was followed by a shouting match, mostly directed at Scar.

"You killed Mumbo!"

"My stuff!

"There were two Boogeymen?!"

"Joel's still Boogeyman!"

"Yes, I am! And I might kill Scar, because he killed all my items!"

"Where is the Enchanter, really?"

"You tried to kill all of us!"

"Okay, yes, I was the Boogeyman," Scar said, grinning. "And I am terribly sorry. I feel much better now. Now, calm down and sing the song with me."

"Boogey, boogey," Jimmy sang.

"Boogeyboogeyboogey," Scar chanted.

"Boogey, boogey," Martyn and Jimmy sang in harmony.

"He's the Boogeyman!" Scar finished.

It was pretty impressive, considering the fact that all three of them had completely improvised.

Everyone laughed. Scar had a way of distracting people and getting them to do what he said just by talking to them. It was probably more dangerous than any combat skills.

The Southlanders went home after that. Or started to, but then they stopped not too far from Magical Mountain because they found Mumbo. Ren, who had come to investigate the murders, was with when they found him and listened in silently, but then left after they paid no attention to him.

Well, most of them paid no attention to him. Martyn went down the small hill to stand next to him, and then the sky seemed to get darker as a voice rang across the landscape.

Sacrifice those that land. Lessons acknowledged can claim flags among ashes. Help another, never doubt. When in need, traverse each route.

The sky lightened like nothing had ever happened.

I sucked in my breath and waited for everyone's reactions. But nobody did. They couldn't hear it.

Except Martyn...

While everyone else continued chatting and horsing around, Martyn pursed his lips, glanced up at the sky, and slipped a nether wart into Ren's pocket when he wasn't looking. Nether warts were probably some of the most valuable resources here, because there was such a limited supply but people needed them for potions. Only a few people had them.

So why was Martyn giving one to Ren, who wasn't anywhere near allies with the Southlands. Unless I had missed something... I knew that Ren and Martyn had been the closest of friends in Third Life, but now, when everyone seemed to have forgotten their previous alliances? There was something that the voice was saying that I didn't understand, but Martyn did.

I followed Ren back to his tower, since I hadn't seen him in a few days. He started packing his things up, to my surprise. I wasn't sure why or where he was going. While emptying his pockets, he discovered the Nether wart. He slipped it back into his pocket for safekeeping before he left.

During his travels, he came across a very abnormal shape of rock that was actually an octopus. I only knew the name of it because Lizzie the ocean queen had given me a lecture on them back at Empires, when I mistakes them for a squid.

Not only was there a giant octopus, but there was also a Tango.

He and Skiz apparently lived at the octopus, which they had built out of stone and named the Roctopus. Skiz was there, but he was in a hurry and left pretty quickly, but not before telling Ren that he held nothing but respect for the werewolf.

Then, somewhere on the other side of the world, Joel finally got a kill.

Scott Major was slain by Joel Smallbeans

I gasped. Scott and Joel were allies. Orz they were supposed to be. They were in the Empires. But it didn't end there; it was followed by Pearl avenging her friend.

Joel Smallbeans was slain by Pearlescent Moon

Joel was the first red.

Ren and Tango gasped. "Lizzie literally JUST came over to bet a life on Joel," Tango said.

"Lizzie?" Ren said.

"Yeah, she just barely came over, gave me a life, said, 'I would like to bet on Joel Smallbeans,' and then like TWO MINUTES LATER, Joel died! Hold on, I have to give her the lives." He started chanting the spell to give lives.

"How many?"

"Four."

"Four?!"

Lizzy would be attracting a lot of attention from yellow and red names. Scar was going out of business.

"Four people entered You Bet Your Life."

"Also, one more thing... who's Lizzie?"

"She lives in the Fairy Fort in the dark oak forest, south of here. It's kind of hard to find, but you'll figure it out. Why?"

"Thanks, bye!"

"Wait-"

But Ren was already running south at a full sprint.

It took him half a day to get to the edge of the forest, and another hour after that to find the entrance to the Fairy Fort. But he made it eventually, and found Lizzie, Scott, and Pearl negotiating for something. Pearl slipped Lizzie something and then she and Scott left after glancing suspiciously at Ren.

Wait... hadn't Scott been yellow before?

Lizzie might have already gotten some customers.

Ren stared at them until they left, then turned to Lizzie and bowed as if to a queen, which I guess she was.

"Shadow Queen, I will be your loyal servant for all of Last Life or until one of us turns red, if only you would give me a single life," Ren said as soon as they left. I burst out laughing because it was so unexpected and nobody could hear me, anyway.

Lizzie, visibly confused and trying not to laugh herself, replied, "Well, you've definitely got the dramatic flair I'm looking for."

"Life? Please?" Ren begged.

"You swear yourself to me?"

"You have my will and sword, Queen of Shadows."

Lizzie glanced around, as if making sure that no one else was here to witness the strange event. But no one was, which might have been a good thing.

Tango had told me in Third Life that this was just how Ren was. So all he got from me were laughs and eye rolls that of course he couldn't see or hear. But Lizzie, who had never met Ren before but probably knew of him from Joel, was taken by surprise.

"Well then," she said to herself, then to Ren, trying to match his dramatic tone, "Rise, my vassal, and accept your... life." She couldn't come up with a fancier word. Neither could I. Ren probably could.

Lizzie chanted the spell. The yellow heart on Ren's sleeve turned lime green.

I thought that it was a completely idiotic move to swear all of your lives to someone in exchange for one. But If I had to swear myself to anybody, it would be Lizzie. She was more level headed than most of the people here, which of course wasn't saying much.

The two of them started talking about building a military tower that overlooked the Fairy Fort. Ren started preparing to leave the Fairy Fort to go back to his tower, where he would take anything of value and then start construction on his base.

I did one last check on the Southlanders to make sure that the Towers weren't in ruins from some trap that one of them had accidentally set off. But what I saw was four of them setting up smoke signals to call Impulse back to the Southlands, then rolling out their sleeping bags on the cold stone floor of the central keep and Grian giving some sort of presentation about the events of the past few days. It was past midnight when they finally got to sleep.

Night was very boring for me, because as a ghost I didn't sleep. I drifted around the tiny world, checking out what people had built. Scar still had a dirt hut on top of a mountain. Joel had started work on a house that hung over a dry riverbed and was way too cute for his red name status. Etho and Bdubs had managed to stay together, and they had made the walls of a snow castle to protect their small cobblestone hut. Tango and Skiz had the Roctopus. Lizzie had the Fairy Fort. Ren had his tower. Cleo and Bigb were making a castle on top of a mountain near the Fairy Fort. Scott and Pearl had a cottage near Magical Mountain and Ren's tower.

In the morning, The Southlanders discussed yesterday and played with the idea of including Scar in their alliance, because Joel was red now. Since some of them were for and others were against the idea, they settled on giving Scar a spyglass and seeing what he did with it.

They tracked him down and tossed him the spyglass. He looked through it, and the Southlanders stared at him hopefully.

When he didn't do anything else, Grian said, "Okay, he failed," and walked away. The others followed close behind, after Jimmy demanded the spyglass back.

That pretty much summed up their entire day.

The next morning, Grian and Mumbo both went mining, although in different places. They started strip mines and ran into each other while searching for diamonds.

"There's just none!" Grian complained.

"Well, watch this!" Mumbo said, digging into the wall and of course, finding nothing.

"Did you really think..." Grian laughed.

"No, I was just really hoping... BUT IT GETS GOOD HERE!" Mumbo stared longingly into his new hole in the wall before trying again.

"Oh yeah? Well, watch this!" Grian plunged his pickaxe into the wall opposite Mumbo's hole.

Believe me, I was.

"You'd best be watching!" Mumbo yelled as he and Grian dug into the same wall right next to each other.

"Well, my diamonds are over here!"

"Okay, I've been storing mine over here!"

"MY diamonds are -" Grian started digging in one direction, then turned around and dug into the opposite wall "- OVER HERE!" he mined right into Mumbo's tunnel, right where he was digging.

"Well, it seems we've stored them in a SIMILAR PLACE!"

"We've been looking in the wrong area this whole time, when they're really... UP HERE! WHERE ARE THE DIAMONDS?!"

They found a cave and started exploring it, randomly mining into the walls as if they were trying to take the diamonds off guard.

"Okay, Mumbo, I've been pranking you this whole time, come with me," Grian said.

He ran up into a tunnel.

"I've been pranking you this whole time," he repeated, "When they've been OVER HERE this whole time!"

They shared a laugh before going separate ways at a fork, but they still stayed in earshot.

"You know, I'm starting to consider giving up," Mumbo said.

"I WILL GIVE UP WHEN I DIE OR FIND DIAMONDS!" Grian said as he mined. "AND I WILL FIND SOME RIGHT-"

"Every time I think it's about to stop, it doesn't, because MY DIAMONDS-" Mumbo didn't even finish before they both burst out laughing.

They mined in silence until Mumbo suddenly cried out, "OH! I FOUND SOME!"

"You didn't say it!" Grian said, running to find him.

"I didn't!" Mumbo mourned.

A few minutes later, Grian found some as well. He didn't say it either, but he yelled in victory.

All Mumbo said was, "You didn't say it either!"

"I don't care, we have diamonds, let's get out of here!"

It was night when they came up, so they brushed the dust off of their clothes and went to bed.

The first traces of dawn were beginning to light the sky when my vision suddenly went black. I sucked in my breath and waited for the inevitable voice in the darkness.

I did not consider that watching would allow you to see more.

The voice was not the Watcher. It was very distinctly female.

The red Glow does indeed indicate a Boogeyman. But before you see the Glow, follow your instincts. They will tell you who can hurt the ones you support, as much as we do not like those ones.

"Who are you?"

The voice laughed.

You have met my companion before. He is Watcher One. I am Watcher Two.

"What? THERE'S MORE THAN ONE?"

Many more, Watcher Two said, amused. But you will likely never meet them. And I sense you do not want to.

"What were you saying about the Boogeyman?"

You will see what others can't, but you may only watch. Do not interfere, or you will join them.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Goodbye for now, Bluemoon Tay.

"Hey!"

Then I was back in Last Life.