Grian hugged Mumbo tightly as they both went back and forth, telling their kids various stories about the other person.

The hours passed, and after a while, the two had spent the entire day talking with their robot children (with breaks for food, of course).

As the sun set, Grian got quieter. He had promised that he would tell Mumbo everything now, but he was starting to regret it.

Mumbo noticed his friend was talking less and less. He looked up at him and put a hand on Grian's cheek. "Everything alright?"

The bird nodded and rested his forehead on Mumbo's shoulder.

Jrumbot spoke up. "Hey Papa! Wasn't Daddy gonna tewll you somefing tonight?"

Grian looked up at his baby boy. He was wearing the Mumbo for Mayor t-shirt that Bdubs had made for Grian, since G couldn't really wear it himself. Mumbo nodded and glanced at his partner, who seemed tired.

His buddy shrunk back down to his normal size with Mumbo still on his lap.

"Will you four be all good here alone?" Grian asked the robots.

"We'll be fine, Father." Amelia smiled and pet Gellie, who was being held hostage by Jrum. Grumbot gave a thumbs up and Circuit nodded.

"Okay then." Grian stood, picking Mumbo up and setting him down on the way.

"Let's go to your pillars. They seem nice and...private." The bird suggested.

Mumbo pulled out his elytra and some rockets. Grian looked tired, so Mumbo decided that he should let him rest and not have to carry him.

Grian noticed this.

It made him smile.

Mumbo took G's hand as the bird raised his wings. The redstone man launched the two of them off with a rocket.

They soared through the air, Mumbo with his rockets, Grian flapping his wings.

Grian held Mumbo's hand so that his wings wouldn't take him too fast. That way, hopefully he wouldn't be noticed.

The night sky was cool and calm. The stars were bright, and the moon shone in the horizon.

The two of them swooped down onto the top of one of Mumbo's skyscraping pillars. Grian sat down on the edge of it and looked down. He'd never been afraid of heights, and he had no reason to be afraid since he had wings. But for some reason, when he looked off the tower, he felt a pit in his stomach. He quickly turned his attention away from the ground.

Mumbo kept his elytra on and sat down next to Grian.

He didn't waste any time.

"So...what's all this about a Thunderbird? Aren't they just mythical beasts?"

Grian sighed and looked into the sky. "A lot of mythical beasts are real, but they're good at hiding. A few people see them, tell stories, make up reasons why they exist, and they become myths. That's probably how Thunderbirds came to be called 'mythical'....but they're real. They're ginormous black birds that can create lightning storms. I've had more than one close encounter with one." He paused for a moment.

Mumbo patiently waited for him to continue.

"Back in high school, my friend Taurtis and I would often take trips to places that were kind of...'magical', in a sense.. They were usually places that were rumoured to be haunted, or rumoured to be harbouring ancient wizard artifacts, and stuff like that. Of course, almost always, it turned out to be fake.

We knew that though. We weren't really going there for the rumours. We were going because it was fun, and we liked to pretend."

Grian sighed and paused again for a few moments.

"There were a few rare times when the rumours turned out to be true. I won't go into too much detail, but two of those times involved a Thunderbird. The first time, we hid before it saw us, so neither of us got hurt. Because of that, we tried to be more careful around that place, but of course we went back to see it again. We got spotted, and made a run for it. We escaped.

The third time we encountered one was how I got this scar." Grian motioned towards his right shoulder. Mumbo looked at the scar as Grian continued.

"This was a few years ago. It was a few months before I joined Hermitcraft. Taurtis and I were in a jungle, climbing trees. We weren't super close to the Thunderbirds' home, but we were still near it. I told him to be careful since we were pretty high up, and we didn't have any sort of safety device, but then I challenged him to a race to the top of the tree. He was above me, and I couldn't really see him behind the leaves, but then...he fell.

I caught him though! As he was recovering from that shock, we heard a screech and we both knew what made it. That's when we saw the bird, and it-"

Grian stopped. He looked straight ahead, blinking back tears. His breathing was shaky and his heart was pounding as the image of the bird flew around in his head.

"Grian? We can take a break if it's too much for you right now." Mumbo softly set his hand on Grian's.

The birdman shook his head. "No, I...I need to do this now."

Grian waited another moment, and resumed the story. "The bird swooped at us. I don't know what it wanted, but it kept circling back and trying to grab me and Taurtis. We were on the same branch, and I was holding him since I had just caught him from falling, but he jumped out of my arms to try and hit the bird.

Stupid move, right? I jumped up to stop him, but the Thunderbird grabbed him in its talons...

I tried to save him. The bird got me pretty good."

He paused yet again, and then put his hand on his scarred arm.

"I jumped at the bird as it started to carry him away, but it shook me off and, well...I fell.

And that's how I died." He laughed nervously.

"I'm kidding, of course... I would have died. But...Xisuma saved me." Grian looked down at his hands.

"So, unless by some miracle Taurtis was able to escape-" He choked back tears, but it was useless. He started to sob, prompting Mumbo to hug him.

Grian turned towards Mumbo and cried on his shoulder.

The two sat like this for a few minutes before Grian sat back and wiped his eyes. He sniffed and looked at Mumbo, who gave him a sympathetic look.

"Now you know why I hate birds."

Mumbo glanced at Grian's wings.

"You said that Thunderbirds have black feathers, right?" Mumbo asked.

Grian nodded.

"And you said that you were turning into one, right?"

G nodded again.

"But...your wings aren't black. They're purple-y."

Grian faltered for a second. "I...I don't know why they're like that." He admitted. "See, if it were just the wings, the whole Thunderbird attack wouldn't be so much of a big deal. It's because I can change size and zap people. Xisuma's the one who told me the connection."

It was silent for a moment. A bit of wind slowly pushed past the two hermits.

"Do you think you'll become, like, a full bird?" Mumbo spoke up.

Grian tensed up. "I don't wanna."

The redstone man could tell how uncomfortable the topic made his friend, so he decided not to push it.

It was silent again until Grian whispered to himself, "I wish this could all be over."

Mumbo took Grian's hand. "Maybe we should go back, or talk about something else."

G nodded and leaned his head against Mumbo's arm.

"╎ ⍑𝙹!¡ᒷ ||𝙹⚍ ꖌリ𝙹∴ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑℸ ̣ i ∴𝙹⚍ꖎ↸ ᓭℸ ̣ ╎ꖎꖎ ꖎ𝙹⍊ᒷ ||𝙹⚍, ᒷ⍊ᒷリ ╎⎓ ||𝙹⚍ ʖᒷᓵᔑᒲᒷ ᔑ ⊣╎ᔑリℸ ̣ ʖ╎∷↸." Mumbo spoke the End language, his eyes glowing slightly purple.

Grian thought for a moment, trying his best to use what X taught him to figure out the words.

"╎ ꖌリ𝙹∴. ╎ ↸𝙹リ'ℸ ̣ ꖎ𝙹⍊ᒷ ᒲᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑𝙹⚍⊣⍑." Grian slowly replied, his wings shimmering and his own eyes glowing.

"Then I'll help you figure out how." Mumbo said in English.

"Good luck with that." Grian joked.

"I'm serious."

Grian pulled away from Mumbo's arm. "What do you mean?"

Mumbo ran a hand through his hair. "I want to help you see how great you are. It's hard to watch you be so hard on yourself. The reason I got so excited about Jrum's superhero comment was because, well, I think that could really help you feel more confident."

"You really think so?"

Mumbo nodded and gave Grian a smile.

"I'll do it then, if you want me to." G finally gave in. "Just for the record, I'm only doing this because you and Jrum want me to. I'm not doing it for me and my confidence."

Mumbo chuckled. "I figured that would be the case."

Grian looked back over the edge, and felt that strange rush of acrophobia run over him.

"Were you scared?" He asked Mumbo.

The engineer cocked his head to the side. "Was I scared?"

"When...when you fell of the pillar."

Mumbo thought for a second. "No."

Grian gave him a doubtful look. "You were about to die, why weren't you scared?"

"Because I knew you would catch me."

Grian let out an anxious chirp. "But what if I couldn't?!"

Mumbo chuckled softly. "That doesn't matter. What does matter is that I trusted you, and you caught me."

G was confused.

"I knew you wouldn't let me fall."

Grian froze. He thought back to when he caught Taurtis.

Taurtis trusted him.

He knew that Grian would catch him, so he wasn't scared.

He knew that Grian wouldn't let him fall.

"But I let you down in the end." Grian mumbled, staring off into space.

"Wha-...No, you didn't." Mumbo turned to his friend.

"I couldn't save you in the end." Grian didn't seem to be aware of what was going on.

Mumbo touched Grian's arm. "I'm still here. You did save me."

Grian started to laugh sadly. His laughs turned into sobs as he stared straight in front of him. Little sparks started to zip off of him, shooting in random directions.

Mumbo jumped back in surprise. "Grian, it's okay!"

Grian couldn't hear him. He was too focused on his failure as a friend.

The electricity grew stronger as Mumbo came closer.

"I am still here. You saved me, and you are nothing like those terrible birds." He tried to reassure his buddy.

Grian heard the words, but not in Mumbo's voice. It was Taurtis' voice.

In disbelief, Grian opened his eyes and turned to face the source of the words. His eyes glowed pure white and his tears were evaporating before they had a chance to get down his cheeks.

Mumbo sharply inhaled at the sight, but continued.

"You're going to be okay!"

Grian reached a charged hand towards Mumbo, hesitant to touch him in fear that he wasn't real.

"T-taurtis?"

Mumbo blinked and shook his head. "N-no, Grian, it's me. Mumbo." He tried to keep a steady voice.

Grian pulled his hand back. "Where's Taurtis then?"

Mumbo didn't know how to answer.

"He's gone, Grian. You need to be able to let him go." Mumbo tried getting through to him.

Poor choice of words.

"I can't let him go. I can't do it. I can't let him fall. I can't let him fall down. I need to catch him. I need to save him. I gotta fix my mistake." Grian started to ramble.

Mumbo suddenly got a stupid idea. He hesitated for a second, but then unequipped his elytra. He stood up, teetering on the edge.

"Alright G, I trust you."

Mumbo jumped off the pillar.

He kept his eyes closed, starting to regret not keeping his elytra on as a backup plan. The wind rushed past him as he quickly started to approach the earth.

"Grian!" He called out.

He was going to hit the ground.

But moments before he would have met his demise, a screech rang through the air. Mumbo opened his eyes just in time to see a giant bird with opal-like feathers swoop down and catch him in its talons. The bird flew up towards the pillar and set Mumbo down.

The bird hovered over the pillar for a moment before it started to change form. It shrunk down until Mumbo saw Grian in the air. He seemed unconscious, and he started to fall out the air.

Mumbo quickly stood and caught him in his arms.

His friend was passed out, his breathing slow.

Mumbo shakily sat down away from the edge with Grian in his arms. He examined his sleeping buddy in concern and awe.

Grian really was becoming a bird