howdy, this is my third time trying to write this chapter and author note. I've also drawn the picture above three times since I cannot find one that looks good enough compared to the other chapter arts.

took me like a million years just to write this one chapter because i don't really write chapters like this. ANYWAYS! I'm now officially working on an animatic about this fanfiction, I know, pretty dumb to have the author make an animatic about their own story but idrc. Trying to figure out how to edit it rn since I don't have a good non-water marked editor... anyways, enjoy the chapter! :D

Grian has been missing for three days now, no trace of his existence other than his buildings were there to signify he even was on hermitcraft to begin with. Mumbo and Iskall were some of the main worried hermits, who sat inside the sahara meeting room, Mumbo pacing on the side of the table. Iskall sat in the middle of the table, shuffling the leftover deck in their hands, carefully glancing away once and a while to see their deer friend.

Mumbo stopped suddenly, walking over to the table and jump-sitting onto the side of it and laying down across the platform. Iskall shifted themselves to face Mumbo's form, still shuffling the deck.

"W-what if something bad happened to him?!" Mumbo rambled, Iskall muted most of his rambles before they were pulled out of it by their friend shaking them with his hands on their shoulder. "Iskall, where is he?!". The hybrid looked at their friend, noticing small glints of shine across his eyes, they moved their arm around his shoulder. The deer gave out a small squeak then his form melted down, Iskall heard his small gasps for air, being a bit muffled.

Iskall placed their hand onto Mumbo's head, rubbing the top for comfort. "I'm sure Grians just fine, M". They only gained small mutter from their deer friend, after a few minutes Iskall felt his body grow limp, signifying that he'd fallen asleep.

The hybrid looked up to the ceiling, pulling their friend closer to themselves, holding him closer. 'Grian has to be out there... and I bet he's okay...'

———

2 Days previously....

———

Grian felt the cold floor underneath him, finally opening his eyes to see the empty room. The first thing he felt other than the floor was the wires... oh those familiar wires wrapped around his bird wings and his neck, dragging against his ankles and wrists.

He pulled his foot, only to get spiked by the wires cutting into his skin. Grian hissed our in pain, his hand retracting to his chest causing more pain, the red wearing hermit tried his best to not move. A door opened from some direction in the room, he heard the empty footsteps of a watcher's shoes.

He tried his best to look up to them, seeing an old 'friend' looking down at him. What I mean by 'old friend' is that they were a head watcher, someone who was very close to Grian while he was here as a watcher. "Salutations Xel, I see you've... figured out about those wires, ey?" Their voice echoed quite a bit, hinting obvious sarcasm laced in their words.

Grian gave a small grunt at them, giving himself a loud laugh from his old friend. They stopped, leaning down with a twisted smirk stretched onto his face. "Why are you here you might ask... well Xelqua, your powers and abilities are some of the best we've ever seen here... we need you to join us, to take over and run the worlds with our own hands!" The watcher raised their hand dramatically "Say, You'd be able to run hermitcraft and evolutions side by side... with your own rules and your own control.".

The hermit bared his teeth, hissing out to him and letting the wires dig farther into his skin "I'll never join you all, you twisted birdbrained entities!". The friend frowned fakely, growing their grin back but giving a much bigger length "oh what a shame... you refused... well, you won't go that easily like last time, maybe after a while of us, you'll reconsider".

The watcher walked away from him before pulling out a lever from inside their robe. they placed the lever just out of reach of him then flicked it up, causing dangerous bolts of electricity to surge through Grian, he let out a pained scream as he held himself close; ignoring the seering pain of the wires cutting him.

The watcher just gave out a cold, twisted laugh before flicking down the lever. Grian's body fell onto the cold ground, his body convulsing for a bit before stopping. By now, most of the wires had dug into his skin causing amounts of blood to seep out, he groaned quietly in pain and watched his old friend smile at him. "Not enough, hun? Maybe more will help~" They spoke then walked out, slamming the door behind them.

Grian felt his feet and hands slowly become numb, that feeling growing slowly throughout his body, soon enough, his body went limp and he fell into unconsciousness...

those treatments came again hours later, repeating throughout the day, soon it melted into the next day and then to the next. Most of the pain caused by the wires digging into his skin had become normal, jolts to his ankles had also became pretty normal.

All birdboy wanted was to be freed, to be outside, to be out of here...

with them...

but he couldn't....

they were always watching...