Chapter Text
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“--hear us?”
“Give him time. I… I don’t even know if it worked. But, even if it did, it will take time for his code to settle.”
“It’ll work.”
“You sound very sure of yourself.”
“I am sure of all of you. X and Doc are excellent coders. And with a bit of guidance from Etho’s framework, it all worked out. He’ll wake up when he’s ready.”
“You’re too kind, Scott.”
“Speaking of Etho, I should wake him up. Beta Override. Passcode 02371894. User command. Begin Start-up Override 21360. Accept.”
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“How are you feeling, Etho?”
“Fine, Doc. Quit your hovering, I’m not fragile.”
“You are still recovering from that surprise shut down, I just want to be sure–”
“I know, I know. … I appreciate it, really, but I’m okay. How’d it go with the patient?”
“We’ll know if he wakes up.”
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“Should we let them in?”
“Probably. It’s never wise to keep vex waiting.”
BANG!
“Wels!?”
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“Is he alright? Did you fix him?”
“Easy, brother. Be patient.”
“It’s been almost two weeks of being patient!”
“Scar…”
“Cub.”
“Both of you, calm down. Xisuma and Doc took care of everything and I added a little magic touch. Wels should be up in a few hours.”
“A few hours?”
“No need to whine, Scar. Thank you, to all of you.”
“No trouble. I’ve never had the pleasure to work on an NPC before and it was quite enlightening.”
“Doc…”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything with my notes. … Yet.”
“How’re your friends doing?”
“Ren’s with Iskall. He’s… as to be expected.”
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01000001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101110 00001010 he…
01000001 01101110 01100100 00001010 then he…
And then he…
He couldn’t remember.
It was an odd sensation.
It was dark, with just voices talking for quite a while. And then, the darkness started to turn to gray, which turned to white, and then the white began to shrink back into color.
And then there was a ceiling.
White. With bright, bright light, lined in almost tubes. A very strange torch.
The voices were around. They had retreated to a further distance, leaving him just staring at a ceiling. He tried to say something, but his mouth remained shut.
His voice lines were not working.
Why were they not working?
There must be an error– where even were the voice lines? He couldn’t find them?
And his inventory? It was empty. Why was it empty? He must be suffering from a major glitch, he would need a full reset–
His back felt weird. Kind of like pain. Did he have pain again? If he did, it was much smaller pain than his arm pain. If it was pain, it was… tingly? That was a word, right? He wasn’t sure what it felt like but he had heard Scar talk about it when the blood flow to his legs ceased for a bit. Scar had described it like pricks of a needle.
It kind of felt like that… probably. He had watched a lot of needles as they distributed the cure to the glitched players. He was not sure how needles actually would feel.
His body did a kind of jerk without warning. It was probably from the weird needles in his back, but he was not sure why. The movement was small, but allowed him to see that his armor was gone. Instead, he had on some kind of green dress? He was not sure.
His database was not identifying it, another sign of a major glitch.
“Wels? You awake?”
Scar. Or his voice, at least. He couldn’t move his head or even his eyes to look at his friend. But Scar was close.
His voice lines were not working, why were they not working–?
“It might take a bit, Scar.”
One of the unknown voices. He could not see the player which meant he had no way of identifying them.
“It’s just… odd. Seeing his eyes open like that…”
“Ah.”
The sounds of movement. A figure came into view, mostly backlit by the fluorescent lights behind them. But Wels could make out light teal hair. He also noted the practically glowing eyes, one yellow and one the same teal color as the hair.
“It would probably be better for his eyes to be closed anyway,” the stranger said.
He saw fingers and then everything went dark.
Why was it dark? It was never dark, he could always see things–
“There,” the stranger said. “All better.”
No, not all better. Something was wrong with him.
Something was definitely wrong with him.
His stomach was hurting.
Or at least, he thought it was. It was a different hurt than his arm. The hurt arm had made itself known a lot more than his stomach was.
No, his stomach was just hurting every so often and in no pattern he could distinguish.
At least, he didn’t think he could distinguish it. His timer was gone– yet another glitch to be fixed.
“Wels?”
Scar.
“Scar, it’s only been a day.”
Cub.
“Yeah but… I thought I saw him twitch.”
Footsteps. Someone poked his arm.
Wels wanted to move. He really did. But his programs were not working–
“Wels?”
He needed to run a diagnostic and fix himself but the program wasn’t opening and he’d been trying for what he estimated to be hours but it wasn’t working and it was…
Was…?
What was the word?
“Wels?”
“Wels, can you hear us?”
Yes, he could, but he couldn’t speak
“Get Doc.”
Doc? Why would he need a doctor? He needed a programmer.
Footsteps, door opening.
“Wels?”
That was Cub talking.
“Wels, can you hear me?”
Yes, he could hear. He just couldn’t talk.
“...Wels?”
Why was Cub just saying his name?
The door opened again.
“Cub?”
“Doc, he’s making a noise. Is that… good?”
Noise?
Wels didn’t have access to his voice lines, how could he be making a noise?
Something was poking at him. “...Wels?”
He didn’t know that voice. Or at least, he was not sure who was speaking. Hardly a surprise seeing as he hadn’t seen the speaker and his mainframe could not identify without seeing the player.
But he still wanted to talk.
“Wels, can you hear us?”
This was…
Something.
What was that word that Scar always used? He said it a lot back in the Kingdom of Wels during his visits. Particularly when he was talking about his bad days and how they were…
Annoying. That was the word.
The door opened again. More footsteps now.
“X, I’m pretty sure he’s awake but he isn’t moving.”
“Is the code glitched?”
“Not as far as I can tell. It looks normal.”
It wasn’t normal! His database was gone! How was he supposed to speak, let alone move!?
“Mh.” Someone was poking at his arm.
He didn’t like it.
“Etho?”
That was Scar talking.
“...I want to try something.”
“Okay? What is it?”
There was a pause.
And then Wels felt someone shove at his arm and he tumbled off whatever he was laying on, hitting the ground with a thud.
And there was pain.
But… Wels mouth moved. He had felt it open and some kind of sound had happened. It hadn’t been a word, but it had been a noise. Along with that, but the fall had somehow knocked his eyes open and Wels could suddenly see the glass floor below.
That led to the literal void apparently. That thought made him jerk back, slamming his side into the table. Another sound, this one louder than the first came out and Wels grabbed his ribs–
–where was his armor?
“Wels!”
“What the heck, Etho!?”
“Hey, it got him moving, didn’t it?”
Scar was suddenly on the ground next to him. He looked worried. “Wels? Can you hear me?”
Wels still couldn’t find his voice lines. But, he could move now (somehow) so he nodded.
“Thank the Great Ones,” Scar gripped Wel’s arm.
His fingers hurt where they pressed into his arm. That hadn’t happened before why–
His armor.
Where was his armor?
Wels looked around the room to scan it–
–only to have nothing pop up.
Wels blinked.
Nope, he was still looking at a blank hud. Not even the labels over the materials– was that stone? It looked darker…
“--Wels!”
Wels gaze snapped back to Scar. The man looked worried. “Hey, can you say something?”
How was he supposed to speak when his voice lines were down?
Also, when had Wels sat down? He thought he’d been standing. But now, he was sitting on some kind of table made out of something in a room with wooden boxes in one corner and some kind of screen in another. There was even some kind of glass tube with something or other lining it and there were tools along the wall–
“Xisuma?” It sounded like a question that Cub asked but Wels wasn’t sure what a “Xisuma” was.
“He should be able to talk.”
Wels looked at the speaker and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
His identificator was also broken?
The speaker shifted in place. “...Why is he looking at me like that?”
“Hey, Wels?”
Wels turned and found another new face. Unidentified. Although, that might be because of the half-mask covering his nose and mouth.
The stranger got closer, sitting down next to him on the table. “Can you open your mouth?”
Wels complied. It felt odd, opening his jaw for no reason.
“Great,” the man sounded cheerful. Wels had no idea why. “Now close it.”
Wels did so.
“Okay, do that again.”
“Etho, what are you–?”
“Just trust me on this,” the masked one said, interrupting the other speaker that Wels turned to look at–
–and immediately fell backwards because how did a creeper get in here?!
“There’s a noise!”
“Not a good one!” Scar protested. “Wels, don’t worry, this is Doc. He’s a creeper-hybrid. Cool, right?”
Creeper-hybrid?
Was that a thing?
He didn’t know. His database was blank along with his inventory and his armor was gone—
“I think we broke him,” Cub said.
The masked one was in Wels face again. “Keep opening your mouth and closing it. You got this.”
Wels did not “have this” whatever that meant.
“Here,” the masked stranger reached up and pulled the mask down.
Wels blinked.
He was… pretty sure that was metal sticking out from under the skin of the jaw. Did players have metal jaws? And was that their blood flowing through some kind of tube thing?
“We really should fix that,” the creeper muttered.
The stranger opened their mouth, then closed it. “Follow me.”
Wels didn’t know why this stranger wanted him to open and close his mouth in rapid succession, but he did as he was told.
He wasn’t sure how long they did that, but it was long enough that his face was beginning to hurt.
The stranger’s mouth was moving again– only it was not just up and down. Lips moved forward and back as the noise came out, “Okay, now try and say something.”
He didn’t have voice lines.
“Wels. Can you say Wels?”
Wels frowned. He had no voice lines, how was he supposed to say anything–?
“You moved your jaw. Now move the rest of your mouth. Do what I’m doing. Wels. Wels. Wels. Wels.”
Wels studied a moment, then did as he was told.
Nothing happened.
“Okay, now do that but with air getting pushed out.”
Air?
He didn’t have air…
Wait.
Wels pressed a hand against his chest and felt it expand and shrink as he… breathed?
He didn’t breathe.
Why was he breathing?
“–Wels, keep breathing, focus on it, come on–”
“This isn’t working, we need a different approach.”
“Oh, and how would you do it?”
Wels didn’t…
He didn’t know what was happening anymore.
Scar was suddenly there, his hand squeezing Wels arm tightly. He looked… sad? Afraid? Wels wasn’t sure. But, his grip got tighter and he gave Wels a pained look. “Sorry, Wels.”
Wels wanted to ask why Scar was sorry (but of course he couldn’t).
Scar looked him squarely in the eyes and spoke. His voice… sounded different. Louder, except Wels was pretty sure Scar had not raised his voice. But the words echoed in his mind, bouncing around and refusing to leave.
“Welsknight, tell me what is on your mind.”
Wels felt his mouth open and suddenly there was his voice. “My voice lines are gone.”
Scar blinked. “Your… voice lines?”
“Everything you ever said was pre-programmed?” Cub demanded. He looked annoyed about something, but Wels was not sure what.
“What else is on your mind?” Scar asked.
Wels stared at him.
How… how had he spoken that first time? He didn’t–
Scar winced. “Welsknight, what else is on your mind?”
“My voice lines are gone,” Wels repeated. Something cold was climbing up his throat, perhaps another glitch. “My hud is down. I cannot identify anything or any player. I am glitching. I need repairs. I need– I need– I need–” Wels gripped his arms with his hands, kind of like a hug, “My armor, my armor, where’s my armor, my inventory is empty, I don’t have my database, I’m broken, I need fixing, I can’t feel the server, I don’t–”
“You don’t have those things,” the stranger with a mask said, voice quiet. “...Not anymore.”
“You’re… well, you’re a regular human now. Not an NPC,” Scar said softly. “We… We didn't know what else to do and Doc said it was the best option for you to live.”
Wels…
Wels didn’t understand.
He didn’t understand.
The strangers, Scar, and Cub, took him out of the weird basem*nt at the bottom of the world up to some kind of tavern (Wels was told it was a bar, which are apparently different although he didn’t see the difference).
The strangers had introduced themselves but the only one Wels could remember was Doc the creeper-hybrid. The rest of their names wouldn’t stick in his head, no matter how many times it was repeated.
The blue-haired one explained it as Wels not having to retain information by himself (what did that mean, where was his database?) and most likely only remembering the Kingdomcrafter names that he came to the world with.
This theory was proven when Ren stopped by and asked Wels if he had seen what had happened to Ash or Stress.
Stress, Wels remembered. But Ash?
“Adyun Ash,” Ren pressed. “She was the leader of my pack.”
Wels kind of remembered someone in charge of Ren’s pack, but the most he could recall was a soft voice and light brown hair.
It was… weird. Or at least, that was what Scar said it was. Doc and the helmeted stranger said it was unsurprising because a player’s hud was different than a NPC’s.
Whatever that meant.
Cub and helmet stranger were talking.
They had been talking for over an hour while the party and a bunch of other strangers that Wels couldn’t keep straight just sat and… mostly watched.
Sure, a side comment was said or someone whispered in the background but it had mostly been just the two talking.
And they still were talking.
Wels was not just confused, now, but also… empty?
He felt… tired? That didn’t seem right. He didn’t want to lie down or feel like his eyes were trying to close on their own. But he had listened to this conversation on a loop for hours. Even without his dialogue logs, he knew that most of the conversation had been just repeating the same lines back and forth, with slight revisions here and there.
For what purpose? Wels had no idea.
Some of the strangers were not even paying attention anymore. Scar was playing with the flower on the table, someone in a blue shirt was scribbling into a notebook, a young man in a suit was fiddling with redstone dust, a blond-haired woman was sharpening a knife, a zombified woman was sketching something on a napkin, just little movements here and there.
Wels was not exactly sure what was happening, but the conversation reminded him of some quests that adventurers liked to know every detail of before accepting. The reward, the danger, the experience points, any lore about it, all the details.
Only instead of those things, Cub and helmet stranger were talking about a server, security, and some kind of deal.
And it seemed like it finally came to an end.
“I think we’re ready,” Cub announced, loud enough to make a stir. He glared at Scar for some reason, then sighed. “Come here.”
Scar got up and made his way over to the pair.
Cub held an arm out to the helmeted stranger. “Grab my forearm.”
The helmeted stranger did so. It looked almost like a handshake, but instead of hands, they grasped the inside of their arms…
For some reason.
Cub took a deep breath and closed his eyes. A light blue light began to glow around his arm, enveloping the helmeted stranger’s arm as well. When Cub opened his eyes again, they were glowing the same color. His voice seemed… sharper. Like when Scar got Wels to somehow talk only a few hours (wait, how long had it been? Hours? Days? Years?) ago.
“Xisuma, Last of the Voidwalkers,” Cub’s voice was loud. “I offer you a deal.”
The helmeted stranger didn’t say anything, but they certainly looked uncomfortable.
“I offer you the protection of the Vex, from myself and my manor,” Cub glanced at Scar. At the look, Scar’s eyes and hands began to glow the same light blue. He took his hands and stuck them out straight, one hovering over Cub and the stranger’s arms, the other under.
Scar was biting his lower lip, either in pain or fear, but there was a determination in his eyes.
“In exchange for our protection,” Cub continued, “You will give my manor sanctuary of your own and you will help my manor when called upon.”
The blue was getting brighter with each word.
“If you fail to provide or refuse to provide the terms of this deal, then you will face the wrath of a scorned manor–”
Wels felt something in his chest twist at that. He looked down and felt his mouth open and some kind of sound came out.
There was a blue light coming out of his chest.
That wasn’t normal.
That definitely wasn’t normal but also none of this was “normal.” What was happening–?
Iskall was suddenly there, hands gripping Wels’ shoulders. “You’re okay, Wels. It’s okay, see I got one too–”
And sure enough, Iskall had his own blue light, only this one was coming from his mechanical eyes and Ren’s silver pendant was glowing too for some reason–
“We’re the manor,” Iskall said gently. “Cub and Scar needed more people for their side of this deal, so we’re the manor. Scar told you this, remember?”
No.
No, he didn’t remember–
Cub’s voice rang loudly in Wels ears, “Do we have a deal, Xisuma, Last of the Voidwalkers?”
The helmeted stranger’s voice sounded weak compared to Cub’s. “Yes.”
“The manor witnesses,” Cub looked at Scar.
Scar took his hands and grasped them around the two’s wrists. His hands glowed brightly and there was a flash of blue light that temporarily blinded Wels.
When the light cleared, Cub and Scar were both staring at their hands with… surprise? Their eyes were still glowing blue and Cub began to… giggle?
The helmeted stranger looked very concerned at that. “Um… Cub?”
“Give them a bit,” the blue-haired man with two different colored eyes said from behind the bar. “When Vex make a deal they get kind of a magic… high? They’ll be fine in a few hours.”
Scar was now giggling, a sharp smile stretching across both his and Cub’s faces.
The blue-haired man rolled his eyes, “But seeing as I don’t want property damage done to my bar…” he waved his hands, and suddenly Cub and Scar were just… gone.
Iskall was no longer with Wels now and was charging across the room at the barkeep, only to be intercepted by another stranger (with… mouse ears?). “Easy, pal– Scott just teleported them to a random section of the woods a few thousand blocks away. They’ll cool off and they’ll be back by morning.”
“A warning would have been nice!” Ren snapped.
Wels had no idea what was going on.
“Here, you’re probably starving.”
Wels stared at the plate of food in front of him. What… what was he supposed to do with this?
The barkeep tilted his head. “Do you not like soup?”
Wels shrugged.
The man with mouse ears frowned. “Scott! Do we have something that isn’t soup?”
A voice Wels had managed to connect to the man with blue hair called from somewhere in the back, “Owen, this isn’t a restaurant. It’s soup tonight!”
“Yeah, but I don’t think our knight likes soup.”
There was a pause. Then the blue-haired man stuck his head out from the door to the kitchen. He looked… angry? No, he looked like Cub did when Scar insisted on something or other. “Owen… he’s never eaten anything before.”
Wels blinked. Eat? Like the adventurers did?
“I’m an idiot,” mouse-eared man facepalmed. “I knew that.”
“Where’s Etho?”
“Doc’s checking out his systems again, despite Etho’s protests.”
“And the rest of the Hermits?”
“Xisuma and Joe are prepping their next world, Jevin is showing Tango, Umbara, Skizz, and Impulse around our Hunter Operations since they weren’t here during all that, xB is taking the time to stop by his Pod, TFC took Mumbo mining to keep his thoughts off of the Evolutionists, the vex brothers are still cooling off, and Iskall ran off about an hour ago with Ren on his tail– probably distressed about his sister still.”
Those were a lot of names that Wels didn’t recognize.
The blue-haired man looked annoyed. “And none of them… never mind. Wels–”
Wels straightened up.
“You know what food is, right?”
Wels nodded.
“Okay, great,” the man came around the bar and took the seat next to Wels. “I’m going to eat with you.”
Another bowl of soup was placed on the counter in front of him and his mouse-eared companion excused himself to the back room to prepare for “rush hour”. Whatever that meant.
“Alright so pick up your spoon with whichever hand feels more comfortable to you,” the blue-haired man explained. He demonstrated how to hold the spoon and Wels tried to copy it.
The utensil felt weird in his hand.
“Alright, now we are going to scoop a bit out of the bowl,” the blue-haired man said. “Let’s start with just some broth.” He dipped the spoon into the liquid and pulled it up without any of the chicken or rice inside of the spoon. Just a light brown liquid.
Wels copied him again, still confused as to why.
“Alright, now blow on it a bit. We don’t want you burning your tongue.”
How… how would you burn your tongue? This liquid was not fire. It was “soup”. But Wels copied his companion and tried to blow on the liquid. He ended up blowing a bit too hard, sloshing the soup back into the bowl, leaving only a little left.
“That’s fine,” the blue-haired man reassured. “Now we put it in our mouth and then we swallow it.” He demonstrated, sticking the spoon and liquid in his mouth, then did something with his throat that when he opened his mouth again, it was empty. “Now you try.”
This was much harder than the other steps. The first time, Wels ended up spilling the liquid down his chin. The second time, he spat it out because of something (pain?) not liking the feeling in his mouth (“You forgot to blow that time.”). The third time, the warm liquid just sat in his mouth, and… he didn’t really know how to swallow it.
And the blue-haired man didn’t know how to explain it, other than to grab Wels hand and put it on his own throat and feel how the stranger swallowed, then try to replicate the action. It took a bit, but Wels was able to do it, although he ended up coughing it up the first time, making quite a mess.
“It’s okay,” the blue-haired man smiled. “You’re doing great. Now on to chewing!”
The soup was… good. Despite how long it took to eat it properly, Wels enjoyed the warmth of it, along with what the blue-haired man described as “flavor”. It was good.
And his stomach stopped hurting after eating the entire bowl, so that was nice as well.
“What… what’s your name?” Wels forced his mouth to move, making the words come out.
The blue-haired man smiled, “I’m Scott. Scott Smajor. And this is my bar.”
“Scott,” Wels repeated. The word felt weird in his mouth, but he was determined to remember it. “Scott.”
“If you forget, it’s okay,” Scott assured him. “But know that you’re always welcome here, Welsknight.”
Wels smiled.
He decided he liked Scott. The bar owner was very nice.
“I’ve got a bit of a show going on tonight,” Scott said gently. “It’s going to be very loud and very crowded. I can have Owen show you where your friends have been staying if you would like.”
“Show?” Wels asked.
“It’s like a performance,” Scott explained. “There will be some entertainment, both good and bad.” Scott made a face, “It’s open mic night so prepare for gremlins.”
Wels didn’t know what that meant but he was intrigued. “Can I…” his throat closed up, not knowing the words.
“Would you like to stay?” Scott asked.
Wels nodded eagerly.
Scott thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Let’s set you up in a corner booth though, just in case. If you need to leave, feel free to exit through the back, okay?”
Wels nodded his agreement.
Scott had not been lying about the noise level.
The bar had gone from empty to packed in about an hour, according to the clock on the wall. All kinds of players arrived in waves, from avians to piglin-hybrids to enderians to mob hybrids; the list went on and on.
Wels was left mostly alone, with two exceptions. The first was Scott bringing over a plate of something called nachos and something called soda. Scott showed Wels how to eat the nachos and that Wels could come to find him if he had any questions.
The second was a stranger. Wels had seen him come in. The only reason he remembered him was because the man was wearing a green hoodie and a smooth porcelain mask over his face which was different from anyone he could recall.
Wels had been eating his nachos, waiting patiently for this “open-mic night” to start, when the man walked up to the booth table. He introduced himself (and Wels immediately forgot the name) and asked to see Wels' hand.
Wels didn’t see the harm in it, so he held out his hand to the stranger.
Said stranger took it firmly, then reached up with his free hand and lifted the mask down just enough that Wels could see his eyes.
They were green and glowing.
The only way Wels could describe the sensation was like a tingle, rushing through his body from his hand, spreading out to every limb.
And then it was like something in Wels's head flipped on.
Why was he holding a stranger’s hand? That didn’t seem like a good idea. He didn’t even know this person and he hadn’t even questioned the action. It was weird!
Wels yanked his hand back and stared up at the stranger, feeling a bit panicked, a bit confused, and perhaps a bit embarrassed.
“There you go,” the stranger said gently, putting his mask back in place. “Scott asked me to take a look at your code. He thought you could use an… Admin’s touch.” The guy sounded… regretful. “Doc and X did a good job but there were some… conflicting lines, we’ll say. I just smoothed them out. You should be able to process emotions and thoughts a little better now.”
“...Oh,” Wels looked at the nachos, suddenly not hungry (that was the word– hungry). “I… I should thank you?” It was phrased as a question. Because, honestly? He wasn’t sure if ‘thank you’ was the right term.
“Don’t,” the man said. “You want to thank me? Don’t tell anyone about this.” And with that, the stranger left, returning to his group of friends he’d arrived with. Wels could distantly hear the two asking him where he’d gone off to, but the man waved them off, moving his mask up a little to down one of the drinks on the table.
Wels honestly didn’t know what to make of the guy. But before he could dwell on it too long, there was applause and cheers as Scott climbed up on the stage. Scott waved, grabbing the… microphone.
Wels frowned. He was pretty sure he hadn’t known that word two seconds ago.
“Hello, and welcome back to open-mic night!” Scott grinned as the cheers from the bar grew just a tad louder, then went back to manageable levels. “I know, I know– it’s been a while.”
“You got that right!” someone shouted from the crowd.
Scott rolled his eyes, “No one asked your opinion, Tubbo.”
A squawk of indignation followed by the sound of some scuffling came from the crowd. Wels watched a blonde teen be dragged back to a corner by a man with brown hair, red sunglasses, and wearing a suit. No one else seemed concerned, with most everyone ignoring the teen's cries of protest and a few of his more colorful insults slung at his probable guardian, who slapped his hand over the teen’s mouth to muffle the profanities. “Language!” His guardian scolded.
“Here, here!” a demon called, holding up a cup of soda in agreement.
His friend, some kind of fae with skin made of diamond, knocked back something that was not soda. “Oh, shut up, Bad.”
See? Loud.
The chaos continued as the night went on.
Open Mic Night was apparently some kind of gathering where people… shared things. There were some… speeches? Wels assumed they were funny or something because there would be moments when the speaker would pause and everyone would burst out in peels of laughter.
He didn’t see how it was funny (although he had enjoyed the pretty impressive impression of a creeper sneaking up behind an unsuspecting player).
Two groups got up and performed some kind of scene that told a story (two teenagers dragged up the brown–haired guardian from before and forced him to do a poor reenactment of a battle scene from something, with the boys shouting their lines at the top of their lungs and the man appearing bored to be there).
There was also just… talking. Only… prettier? Wels didn’t understand half the words, even with his sudden more expanded understanding of the world. But it was a nice… tune. (That was the word, right?)
Wels had heard some music with Ren’s pack. But all of their songs had been sung without instruments, purely using their voices, and hadn’t been quite… in tune. Also, Wels was usually patrolling on the wall so he only heard a few notes on the wind so this was his first real interaction with music up close.
The rest of the night went much the same, with more music and a few… whatever those speeches were. But Wels liked the musical performances best.
He sat in his seat the entire night.
Or, he would have, if Scott hadn’t come over and shaken him awake around three in the morning. Apparently, he had fallen asleep.
Wels didn’t know he could do that.
Scott had politely led him to a room in the back (“Owen uses it when I can’t get him to leave but he’s home tonight and won’t mind”) and Wels had found the bed the most comfortable thing in the world.
“Just shout if you need anything,” Scott smiled, then closed the door, leaving Wels with the memories of melodies.
The next morning, Wels wasn’t sure what to do.
He had woken up slowly, still not used to the sensations of… well, anything. He managed to sit up on his own, his legs hanging loosely over the side. He gripped the loose shirt and pants that had been provided earlier.
He wanted his armor. It felt wrong to not have it.
Could he ask for it? It had to be somewhere, right? Maybe he could look around? No, no, Scott had been kind to him, Wels shouldn’t go where he wasn’t allowed.
Wels frowned. Should he leave the room? Or did he need to wait for Scott to come get him? Wels… wasn’t sure.
He carefully stood up. His feet felt wobbly. Wels carefully made his way to the door, pausing with a hand on the handle. He creaked the door open a crack and peered out in the hallway.
No one was there, but he could hear some distant voices.
One of those voices was definitely Scott’s. The other sounded… maybe familiar? He wasn’t sure.
The hallway was quite plain. Just wooden floors and stone walls, leading along the back wall of the bar. There was a painting on one wall, a faded landscape of an orange tree in a field. But other than a few spare lanterns, there was nothing. Wels was quite happy about that, since there was only one door which led into the kitchen, and that led back into the bar area.
Scott stood at the counter, talking with one of the…
What were they called again?
Wels couldn't remember.
But the stranger was a slime. And blue.
“Hey, Wels!” Scott called. He held up a plate of something. “I have breakfast for you!” He put the plate down on the counter, in front of the seat next to the blue slime man.
Blue slime man gave a kind wave and maybe a smile? It was hard to tell with the slime face. “Hey! We were wondering where you had gone off to!”
Wels shuffled forward to the barstool with his food. His stomach was definitely hungry. And food in his mouth meant he didn’t have to try and talk to the blue slime man.
Blue slime man did not seem to notice. “Did you sleep well, Wels?”
Wels nodded. He sat down and stared down at the plate, frowning slightly.
Scott leaned over and pointed at things on the plate, “These are pancakes. You can put this syrup on it. These yellow lumps are scrambled eggs.”
Wels picked up the fork and tried to pick up the entire pancake.
Scott stopped him and handed him a butter knife. “Cut it down or you will choke.”
Wels did as he was told.
Scott turned to look at the blue slime man. “Have you heard from X yet?”
Blue slime man checked his com. “He checked in with all of us this morning. Doc’s joining him and Joe this afternoon before fetching the vex boys. But the world should be up by late tonight and we’re heading out tomorrow morning.”
Scott let out a whistle. “I have to hand it to X. He works fast.”
Wels finally took a bite of the pancakes. He paused, and stared down at the plate. He wasn’t sure how to describe exactly what it tasted like. Last night's stew was warm and meaty. This was also warm, but it was… softer?
He liked it though.
“Speaking of the vex boys,” the slime’s head tilted to the side. “Have you checked on them at all?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got an eye on them. I think the initial wave is almost up so they should crash by tonight and wake up tomorrow a little tingly, but fine.”
“Good to hear,” the slime patted Wel’s shoulder and gave him what was probably a smile. “Anything you need before we head out, Wels?”
The words came unbidden and without really thinking. “My armor?”
The slime frowned. “Armor? That’ll be gathered in the new world.”
“I think our knight friend has never been this unprotected in his life,” Scott said gently. He caught Wels eye and gave a little nod. “I’ll see what I can do. Come find me before dinner and I’ll have at least an answer.”
Wels nodded and returned to his pancakes.
He decided he really liked breakfast.
Scott did, indeed, have Wels armor waiting, along with some new clothes to wear underneath. “I pulled some strings. The armor should stay with you when you spawn into other worlds and servers.”
Wels didn’t know what that meant, but he eagerly strapped the familiar pieces on. The weight was comforting, with a feeling of… security.
He would admit it did feel a bit… heavier, though.
Scar had a cat.
“Her name is Jellie!”
Wels just stared at the gray and white cat in response.
Cub leaned over to Wels and gave a shrug. “Honestly, I don’t know either. We just kind of woke up in the forest and she was just there, curled up on Scar’s chest.”
“She’s got magic!” Scar grinned, rubbing his hand behind Jellie’s ears. “And I think it’s… my magic? Hard to tell but it certainly feels familiar.”
Scott looked between amused and annoyed. “Of course the one time I let a vex make a deal on my server–” He pressed his hands together, breathed in, then breathed out. “In your magic madness spell, your magic collided with Jellie, who was probably just minding her own business. Her code was altered in a way that I’ve never seen which… isn’t something I’m used to, I’ll be honest. So I’m just as clueless as you– which is extremely annoying.” Scott certainly sounded annoyed. “You Hermits, I swear–”
“Well, I think she’s cute!” Scar snuggled up to the cat, who began to purr happily.
Wels wasn’t quite sure why Scott stomped away, muttering angrily under his breath.
Scar looked quite happy about his new cat, so what was the problem?
No one else said anything about it, so Wels went back to waiting for the rest of the Hermits to arrive at spawn, with the rest of the Kingdomcrafters.
Wels wasn’t sure what to do.
He had been given something called a “com” and then told to put in a series of numbers. Then it was a rather frightening experience of turning into lines of code then suddenly becoming solid again in an unknown location.
The semi-familiar strangers were present, along with his party. The helmeted-stranger said something about starting over and explained security protocols. He talked for a bit, before “releasing them”.
Then there was a mad dash away, leaving Wels alone.
And he didn’t know what to do.
So he just stood there, unsure of what was going on, where he was, or if he was supposed to be doing anything.
Back in his armor was comforting, at least. He really needed to thank Scott for that in the future.
…How was he supposed to find Scott now, anyway?
There he stood, watching the sun burn overhead sink lower and lower into the sky, until it was barely visible on the horizon. Wels back felt stiff and his feet were in pain. Again, not as bad as his arm’s pain from earlier, but still.
Then, and only then, did someone reappear. “What are you still doing out here? It’s late!”
Wels blinked at the semi-familiar stranger. He didn’t remember the name, but the white beard and hair stuck out in his memory.
The older gentleman was leaning on a pickaxe and was wearing a simple shirt and jeans. He had some stone dust clinging to his hair and he was frowning at Wels. “Mobs are going to start coming out. Do you have a hut to hide out in?”
Wels didn’t know what that meant, so he shook his head in a negative answer.
“Well, come on then!” the old gentleman waved for Wels to follow him.
And so he did.
The two wandered, not far, into a little hole in the ground. The ladders led downward into what looked to be some kind of mine. It was small, but Wels could see the glint of some ores down the long hall. There were torches set evenly down the halls, lighting up what would have been a dreary atmosphere.
“It’s not much, but it’ll do for shelter,” the old gentleman kind of grunted. He sat himself down on a bed in the corner. The pickaxe was put up against the wall. “You got any food?”
Wels shook his head.
The old gentleman raised an eyebrow. “Any supplies at all?”
Wels shook his head.
The old gentleman was quiet, but he appeared… confused? Maybe surprised? Wels wasn’t sure. Without a word, he pulled out some cooked pork and handed it over. “It’s not much, but it will tide you through the night.” The old gentleman sat down, scraping against the rough stone and to the ground with a loud thump. It looked like it might have been painful, but the gentleman didn’t appear to notice or care. Wels wasn’t sure which.
After a few minutes of silence, the gentleman gestured to the ground. “Have a seat. No bed to sleep away on tonight.”
Wels did as he was told. After another minute or so, he began to eat the pork. It was not as good as pancakes, but he didn’t hate the taste. Can’t say he loved it, but it would do for the evening.
“Your name is… Wels, right?”
Wels nodded. “‘Welsknight’ is my designation, yes.”
“I’m Tinfoil Chef. But most call me TFC.” He gestured at his shirt, the initials emblazoned in red on it.
Well, that helped Wels tremendously. “TFC,” Wels repeated, more to himself than anything else.
Names were hard.
“How much do you know about resource gathering and the like?” TFC asked.
Wels shrugged. He didn’t know anything, honestly. Mostly words and some context for the words. But outside of that, the world was still… strange. Confusing. Big.
TFC smiled. “Alright. Sleep for now. We’ll start in the morning.”
“Start what?” Wels couldn’t stop himself from asking.
TFC put his pickaxe aside, leaning back against the wall, eyes closed. “Well… I suppose what I was made to do.”
Wels didn’t know what that meant, but seeing the old gentleman going to sleep, he felt required to follow suit.
“First thing you get on any world is wood,” TFC explained the following morning. The two had left the mines shortly after the sun rose, where TFC had led Wels to a little batch of trees. “Wood makes planks, which makes a crafting bench. Planks also make sticks, which can make the most basic of tools.”
Wels frowned. “Tools?”
“The pickaxe is my personal favorite. It is also your method to upgrade.”
“Upgrade?”
TFC shook his head and smiled. “This takes me back to the old days.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing. Come on, let me show you how to make a pickaxe.”
The week had passed rather quickly. Wels had spent most of that week down in the mines with TFC. His new friend knew a lot about mining. It took a bit of time for Wels to retain that information, but he got there in the end.
Early on the morning of the “Hermit Dinner”, TFC had Wels help him throw up a temporary structure. No walls, but a roof to protect from any rain. There were several tables and chairs set up (albeit, they were a bit crude in the carving) and TFC messaged the group about bringing food for an “Outdoor cookout.”
“Thanks for your help, Wels,” TFC said, after he had declared the build finished. “It usually takes much longer to set all this up.”
“You’re welcome,” Wels smiled. “I’m glad I could help you like you’ve helped me.”
TFC smiled in response.
The Hermits started showing up a short time later and Wels quickly retreated to a lone chair at a lone table. There were so many faces and not enough familiar ones. He’d just sit and eat away from everyone. Maybe head down to the mines as soon as he had eaten his fill.
That plan was abruptly cut off when TFC suddenly appeared with the helmet person. “Wels, do you remember Xisuma?”
Wels tilted his head at the helmeted person. He remembered them. Not the name or anything important, but he did know the helmeted person was some kind of guild leader or something similar.
The helmeted stranger gave a little wave and was probably smiling through the helmet. Probably. It was hard to tell. “Hello! How are you liking the server?”
Wels thought for a moment. “TFC has been very helpful.”
“...I see.”
TFC muttered, “I told you,” at the helmeted stranger.
The helmeted stranger gave TFC a look Wels wasn’t quite able to read. Maybe annoyed? But that didn’t make any sense. Helpful was not an annoying quality. Or at least, Wels didn’t think it was.
His head was starting to hurt.
“--Wels?”
Wels blinked, his focus returning back to the helmeted stranger. “What?”
“Is that okay?”
“Is what okay?” Wels made a face. “Sorry. I blanked out. Or, that’s what TFC calls it.” Wels still didn’t understand what “blanking out” meant.
“That’s fine,” the helmeted stranger said. He sounded nice, so that was good. “I was just asking if it was okay for you to join me at my base this week.”
Wels…
Didn’t know?
“Why?” A difficult question, but one that TFC had been encouraging him to ask whenever he was confused.
“TFC thought it would be good for you to get out of the mines,” the helmeted stranger provided. “Maybe teach you a bit about building and the world above the caves.”
“I could do it,” TFC said with a smile. “But I’m not exactly spry anymore. Nor am I an expert on anything outside of stone dust and diamonds. Plus, it’s a good way for you to meet some people. You can always come visit me whenever you want and tell me all about what you’ve learned. Does that sound good to you?”
Wels frowned. He hadn’t done anything wrong, right? He didn’t think he had. And TFC said he was welcome back so the old gentleman must like him. But TFC also wanted him to… build? Wels wasn’t sure why that was important, but if TFC thought it would be good for him, then it would be.
“Okay,” Wels nodded.
“Excellent,” the helmeted stranger patted Wels on the shoulder. “Grab any supplies you’d like to bring and I’ll show you the way when the dinner is over.”
Wels nodded (again. He did a lot of nodding. Was that good?).
“Alrighty,” the helmeted stranger nodded. “I will meet you then.” Then he wandered off to talk to some of the other strangers.
TFC sat down next to Wels. “If you ever need to talk, just let me know in chat.”
“I will,” Wels easily agreed.
“Because we’re friends now. And friends help friends.”
Wels nodded.
He wondered why Scar wasn’t at the dinner.
Or Cub.
Or Iskall.
Or Ren.
The helmeted stranger was different.
TFC had explained what he was doing as he did it. When they were just mining or gathering supplies, the older gentleman would hum softly. Maybe make a comment about the ore quality he found.
The helmeted stranger didn’t say much. He asked Wels if he had a bed (“I wasn’t aware I needed to bring one.” “It’s fine. I’ll craft you one.”) and then directed him to a place he could sleep.
It was just a little room filled with chests. Perhaps a storage room? Or the beginnings of one. But the helmeted stranger gave him a bed then left him there, saying something about seeing Wels in the morning.
The storage room was quiet. Other than a few random night sounds of wolves in the distance and the wind rushing past, there was nothing. It was… strange. Wels had grown accustomed to the distant chipping and humming from TFC (he didn’t sleep much apparently. Something about Prime Coding?).
Wels placed the bed in the corner and curled up in it, facing the wall. The only light came from a torch on the other wall, which at least was familiar to him. The mine's only light had come from torches and lava pockets.
Wels wondered if the helmeted stranger didn’t sleep either.
He eventually drifted off, the combination of flickering light and wind lulling him to sleep instead of humming and chipping of rock.
The helmeted stranger (Wels really needed to get his name down) really liked building.
Or at least, Wels thought he did. Maybe. It was hard to tell.
The guy kept putting up walls then tearing them down without rhyme or reason. Wels acted more as a supply gatherer than a student. First the helmeted stranger had wanted spruce wood. Then he wanted stone. Then it was stone bricks. Then it was just straight up bricks.
Finally, the helmeted stranger had declared he didn’t want to build in this location anymore and packed up a bunch of supplies, then wandered off into the unknown, with Wels close behind.
They set up another temporary little storage hut and Wels, once again, slept in the corner while the helmeted stranger did something else. What? Wels didn’t know and he wasn’t sure how to ask.
More supply gathering. More putting up walls. More tearing them down. The helmeted stranger just gave Wels a lot of orders and not a lot of explanation.
After two more days and three more walls put up, then torn down, Wels finally asked, “Why?”
The helmeted stranger looked confused. “Why what?”
“Why are you tearing them down?” Wels gestured at the sandstone walls. “I think it looks nice.”
The helmeted stranger looked away. “I just don’t like it.”
“Why?”
“I just don’t!”
Wels flinched a bit at the snapped tone. It reminded him of those angry players that would try and attack him when they didn’t like their reward for a quest. He quickly cleared the last blocks of the wall and hurried to put them away in the storage hut.
Unsure of what to do, Wels sat down on his bed. He removed his helmet (it was heavier than he remembered) and wiped the sweat away. He probably needed to clean it soon.
“Wels?”
Wels looked over at the door and found the helmeted stranger. “Yes?”
“...Sorry I snapped,” the helmeted stranger said. “I’m just… a little tense at the moment.”
“It is fine,” Wels said. “I’ve had worse.”
That did not appear to comfort the helmeted stranger. “That doesn’t mean I should take my anger out on you.”
“I’m used to it,” Wels shrugged.
“That’s not–” the helmeted stranger sighed. He entered the hut and closed the door behind him. Wels watched as he reached up and unclasped the helmet, then removed it.
Wels wasn’t sure what to expect, but coming from a Fantasy server, he wasn’t too thrown by the gray skin and stark white hair. The helmeted stranger had purple eyes and a deep scar slashed over his face in an ‘x’ shape. He looked uncomfortable, shifting his footing. “How about we start over?”
Wels frowned. “What?”
The now non-helmeted stranger came over and sat down on the bed. He put the helmet on the floor then held out his hand. “I’m Xisuma. Most people call me X.”
Wels looked at the ‘x’ scar. That should be easy enough to remember. “Hello, X.” Wels shook X’s hand.
“Now you introduce yourself,” X said.
Wels frowned. “But why?”
X smiled. It was a small smile. And it looked… sad. “Never mind.”
Wels pointed at the helmet. “Why do you wear that?”
“I need it to breathe.”
Wels frowned. “Then why did you take it off?”
“It doesn’t kill me instantly,” X huffed. “I get a few minutes before things start to go fuzzy.”
Wels shook his head. “You should wear the helmet. It’s good for you.”
Something in X’s face shifted. He looked… upset? Angry? Annoyed? Wels wasn’t sure. But he didn’t reach for his helmet, whatever the emotion was. “How are you liking Hermitcraft?”
“I like TFC,” Wels decided. “And Scar. And Cub. And Ren. And Iskall.”
“Have you spoken to them since the start?”
Wels shook his head. “I don’t know where they are.”
“There’s a chat function on your com unit that you can use to message them directly.” X leaned over and tapped on the band around Wels wrist. “I can show you how to use it, if you’d like.”
Wels nodded. “That would be nice. I miss talking to Scar.”
“Mhh…” X nodded. He seemed slower. More sluggish. His head came and rested on Wels' shoulder for some reason. The breathing was becoming more ragged.
“You should put your helmet back on,” Wels said.
X shrugged. “I’ll be fine. Respawn and all that.”
“TFC said that respawn should be avoided when possible. It’s not a pleasant experience.”
Another shrug.
“But–”
“I’ll be fine.”
Wels doubted that.
X didn’t move from his shoulder. The breathing got worse until it eventually just… stopped.
Then there was a blur of particles and X was standing by the bed, helmet magically back on his head. “See?” X gestured at himself. “I’m fine.”
Wels nodded slowly, but was still frowning.
This didn’t… seem right. But Wels wasn’t sure. X looked fine. That was certainly true.
They went back to building walls after that. There was one more pallet thrown up then torn down, leaving the building
When the sun went down, Wels returned to the hut and crawled into bed. But the events of today kept him from finding any kind of sleep.
After an hour or so, Wels gave up. He grabbed his sword and decided to go out and kill any mobs that were lurking in the area. Wels had barely made it a step outside when he froze in place.
X was sitting on the ground, leaning against a bed he must have placed. His helmet was tossed carelessly aside and his breathing was just as shallow as earlier. Wels watched with a sinking feeling in his stomach as X disappeared in a shred of particles.
The second he respawned, the man unclipped his helmet and chucked it towards the tree line, then sat back down against the bed.
Wels stood frozen.
There was something wrong with this picture. He just…
He didn’t understand. He didn’t understand .
TFC said respawn was a painful experience. And not breathing didn’t sound like a great feeling either. So why would someone want to feel all that pain? Wels didn’t like pain. It hurt. It made him want to hide and go back to not feeling pain.
Wels watched another respawn. And another. And another.
There was something else wrong with this. Wels thought and thought, trying to remember what else TFC had said about respawn.
Something… there had been something good about respawn. Or something that TFC had assured Wels about. Something about… people would know?
His com.
Wels pushed at a few buttons until he got the server chat up.
The most recent message had been from a “joehillssays”, wishing the server a goodnight. The most recent death message was from Scar, over two hours ago.
Wels watched X disappear in particles and reappear. There should have been a message. Right?
Wels closed his com. He walked forward, stopping just behind the bed. “Where’s your death messages?”
He must have startled X because instead of throwing his helmet he dropped it and whirled around. X looked scared. “What?”
“TFC said you have death messages when you respawn. You haven’t had any since I came out here. Or earlier.” Wels frowned. “Why?”
X looked at the ground for some reason. Wels followed his gaze but didn’t see anything.
“It’s nothing to worry about.”
“But–”
“I appreciate the concern, Wels,” X cut in. “But everything is under control. I’m fine.”
Wels frowned, but didn’t protest. Maybe “fine” did not mean what he thought it meant? He moved on to his next question. “Why do you keep taking off your helmet?”
“Wels…” X sighed. He looked up at the stars. “You should be asleep.”
“I don’t like pain. Why do you want pain?” Wels co*cked his head sideways and waited.
X looked at Wels, startled for some reason. “I…” X’s eyes shut, “I don’t… want it.” His breathing was getting sharp again, the time limit shrinking. “I just… deserve it.”
“Why?”
“Nothing for you to concern yourself with,” X told Wels with a smile. The smile looked… wrong. Too sharp. Or maybe not sharp enough. Wels wasn’t sure.
X gripped his chest and sank to a knee. “You should go back inside. Get some rest,” X gritted through his teeth.
Wels thought for a moment. TFC had told him that sometimes respawn was inevitable. Poison, withering effect, that kind of thing. And sometimes, accidents happened. Horrible accidents, like the one that took TFC’s leg. The best thing to do then, was to just be there.
And Wels was a knight. Knights are supposed to serve and protect the city and its people. Hermitcraft was Wels’ new city. He had a duty to it.
Wels took up a guard position at the foot of the bed, standing at a parade rest, hands resting on his sword hilt. The point sank into the ground, but not too far to make it hard to lift.
“What are you doing?” X asked.
“Standing guard,” Wels supplied.
X coughed. “I’m fine. The areas lit up enough. Mobs aren’t a problem.”
Wels didn’t move.
“Wels–” more coughing. “I’m fine.”
“Okay.”
“...”
Wels heard, rather than saw the respawn particles that time.
“Wels, you need sleep.”
“Didn’t need it before. I can go without one night.” Wels was not sure he actually could do that. His eyes were already starting to feel heavy. But someone needed to be here for his servermate. X was in pain, after all. And TFC had said Wels should be there for painful respawns.
“Wels–”
“I’ll stand guard. You do whatever it is you think you need to.”
It was quiet. Then there was some footsteps and X was suddenly standing in front of Wels. He took his helmet off and dropped it on the ground. The wheezing breaths were becoming familiar now.
X stood there, just staring back at Wels, each breath becoming more shallow and rough than the last. He began to sway and Wels quickly put his sword away. Wels caught X and gently lowered the both of them to the ground.
X leaned into the touch, arms coming up in a kind of hug around Wels.
There was a kind of cry that X let out. Followed by another. It took a moment for Wels to identify the sounds as sobs. X’s grip grew weaker as his air supply lessened.
“It’s my fault–” he choked out, with no build up. “It should have been me.”
Wels didn’t know what that meant, but decided to just tighten the hug.
The respawn left Wels just gripping air. He wasn’t sure what to do until X slammed into him from behind, now fully crying, arms wrapped tightly in a desperate hug.
Wels returned the grip.
The two sat on the grass in this uncomfortable position for… well, Wels wasn’t sure how long.
Wels just woke up the next morning, laying in the grass, X’s hand gripping his wrist, helmet on and snoring softly.
Wels didn’t move. X probably needed the sleep. And he could lay there for the day.
It wasn’t like he knew what else to do.
The rest of the week went by without any more helmet incidents, as Wels mentally referred to them.
X had finally decided on a wall material and had shown Wels how to build a simple house. He didn’t mention that night, nor acknowledge the breakdown the rest of the week.
Then it was off to the Hermit Weekly Dinner again (this time hosted by the “@” shirt man).
TFC greeted them both with a smile and firm handshake. “How’d it go?”
“Good?” Wels frowned. “I think?”
“It was good,” X agreed. “It was… nice to have company.”
“Glad to hear it,” TFC smiled. “Now let’s go see about some food.”
Wels hadn’t planned on talking to anyone, but the zombie-hybrid and “@” shirt man had approached him with smiles and introductions. Wels was able to cement “@” shirt man as “Joe Hills” but was having difficulty with the zombie-hybrid, much to his shame.
“It’s fine,” the zombie-hybrid smiled gently. “You’re good.”
Wels frowned. “Isn’t “fine” bad?”
Joe Hills frowned. “Why would “fine” be bad?”
“X said he was fine. He didn’t look good when he said it.”
Joe Hills and the zombie-hybrid shared a look.
“Why didn’t he look good?” the zombie-hybrid asked.
Wels pointed at his head. “He didn’t want to wear his helmet and kept respawning because he couldn’t breathe. He said it was fine.”
Both of them looked remarkably white, all of a sudden. The next fifteen minutes was Wels getting asked a bunch of questions about what else had happened and if X had said anything else. Wels had filled them in to the best of his memory, not sure why the two were so interested in the fine details.
All he knew was that the zombie-hybrid made a beeline for X while Joe Hills left and returned with a young man in a suit. “This is Mumbo. He’s going to teach you redstone basics this week.”
The young man in the suit did not look happy about this statement.
“X said he was going to–” Wels began, only for Joe Hills to gently, but firmly cut him off.
“X is going to be… busy. Mumbo will teach you just as much as X can. Is that okay?”
Wels nodded, but frowned. “Is X going to be okay without me?”
“Don’t worry,” Joe Hills patted Wels shoulder. “Cleo and I will keep him company for… well, for however long he needs it. You just worry about redstone.”
“Okay,” Wels agreed.
And with that, Wels was left with yet another new stranger.
The young man in the suit glared at Wels. He huffed, “Come on. Dinner’s ruined now, anyway.”
“Why?” Wels frowned.
The young man in a suit gestured at the small crowd that was now huddled around X for some reason. “Why do you think?”
“I don’t know.”
The young man in a suit sighed. “This is going to be a long week…”
“No, no, no, no!” the young man in the suit marches over to the redstone line Wels had been making. “You’ve made it too long! The signal can’t travel that far!”
“Sorry,” Wels apologized for the twenty-second time that day. Yes, he counted them. No, he wasn’t sure why he was counting them.
The young man in the suit huffed and pinched his nose. “Just clean it up.” Then he marched off, back down the line to mess with some observers.
The young man in the suit hadn’t explained what they were making. Wels had asked, but he had just huffed and marched off without answering.
That had been yesterday and Wels wasn’t sure if he should ask again.
He cleaned up the redstone line, returning the excess redstone to a chest. Wels looked around at the machine and tried to make sense of any of it. Nothing really clicked. But at least he knew what redstone was now. Whenever X had brought it up, it had been in passing, but he hadn’t explained what it was.
Speaking of X, Wels should message him. X had shown him how to work his com to message Scar and the others shortly before the dinner. But anytime Wels had opened it up to send something to his old servermates… he’d drawn a blank.
But he could message X.
Maybe.
…
Probably.
Wels flipped open his com and followed X’s instructions on how to make a private message chat, adding ‘Xisumavoid’ to the chat.
It asked for a title for some reason.
Wels thought about it for a minute or two. Why would a chat need a title? X hadn’t explained that.
“Hey!”
Wels snapped around to find the young man in the suit glaring at him.
“What are you doing?” the young man in the suit demanded. Before Wels could even try and explain, the young man in the suit marched up to him and yanked his arm, glaring down at the chat log. He shoved the com unit away, looking very annoyed. “You’re supposed to be paying attention. Come on.”
“But–”
“You can talk with all your friends later,” the young man in the suit snapped. “Come on.”
Wels was yanked back towards the redstone machine, leaving the com unit conversation until later.
The rest of the day was much the same as it was before. With the young man in the suit doing things with the mysterious redstone, but not explaining what the machine did or how it worked. Wels found it extremely… annoying?
That seemed like the right word.
He’d just have to message X before bed tonight.
Chat Log: why do chat logs need a title
>Welsknight added Xisumavoid to the chat<
Welsknight: hello X how are you
Welsknight: the young man in the suit has shown me what redstone is
Welsknight: he is very different from you
Welsknight: i hope Joe Hills and the zombie-hybrid are being good guards for you
Welsknight: i miss being your guard
Welsknight: but the man in the suit is not too bad
Welsknight: he has not tried to hit me once
Welsknight: so he is better than most of the players on Kingdomcraft
Welsknight: is this how messaging works
Welsknight: am i doing it right
Welsknight: i think i am
Welsknight: X
Welsknight: hello
Welsknight: maybe you are asleep
Welsknight: i will let you sleep
Welsknight: goodnight X
The young man in the suit was angry again.
Wels wasn’t sure why. Again. He didn’t think it was his fault though.
The young man in the suit never explained anything! He was just putting things down in places and seemed to expect Wels to just figure it out.
So no, Wels did not know what the difference between an observer and a dropper was. And he didn’t understand why the young man in the suit was yelling about it.
“It’s not that hard!” the young man in the suit shouted for perhaps the thousandth time in the past three days. “It’s quite simple! How can you not get that!?”
Wels felt something in his chest burning. It had been building over the past few days and he didn’t know what it was. But it seemed to grow every time the young man in the suit yelled at him. It seemed to grow every time Wels sent a message to X and got nothing in return.
And the young man in the suit shouting the same thing again seemed to tip it over into something else.
It felt like something broke. Wels mouth was moving faster than his brain.
“How could I understand it!? You’ve explained nothing about it!” Wels surprised himself at how loud his voice suddenly got. He was so surprised, he put his hands over his mouth, eyes wide at the sudden shout.
The young man in the suit looked just as surprised as Wels felt. In fact, he appeared as if he had been slapped.
Wels quietly lowered his hands. His voice was quiet again, more of a whisper now. “I… I don’t know why I did that.”
The young man in the suit’s face went from shocked to angry again. “How do you not know why–?”
“I DON’T KNOW!” Wels felt horrified and… annoyed? It seemed stronger than annoyed. What was the word–?
“Well, what do you know?” the young man in the suit snapped back. Any shock was now completely gone, replaced with the familiar expression of annoyance and…
Anger.
That was the word.
Wels was angry.
He didn’t know he could get angry.
The young man in the suit took Wels' stunned silence as the answer. “How can you not know what you know!? You have to know something!”
Wels did know things. He knew how to mine properly, thanks to TFC. He knew some block names and uses, thanks to the weird guy in the smiley mask and glowing green eyes. He knew the basics of putting up walls and roofs and knew the importance of storage, thanks to X.
The young man in the suit hadn’t explained anything about this redstone stuff. How was he supposed to know anything!?
Wels wanted to yell just that at the young man in the suit, but couldn’t quite find the…
What was the word? Anger? No, that wasn’t it. Maybe the will? Ugh, stupid vocabulary.
He just didn’t want to yell at the young man any more. Or even be around him, really. So, instead of responding, Wels marched away, returning to his small cave, just a chunk away from where they had started building whatever this redstone monstrosity was.
The young man in the suit didn’t follow. And Wels didn’t see him for the rest of the day or evening.
He just sat in his room and stared at the wall.
X still hadn’t messaged him back.
He hadn’t seen any of the Kingdomcrafters at the Hermit Dinners, which meant he hadn’t seen them since they spawned in.
And now the young man in the suit was angry at him.
…
Maybe he was doing something wrong?
Wels just didn’t know.
He laid down and curled up on his simple bed. Not knowing was a common theme for him now.
He didn’t like not knowing.
The next morning, the young man in the suit said nothing about the previous day. He came and got Wels as he usually did and the two went back to working on the giant redstone contraption that Wels had no hope of understanding.
Within an hour, the young man in the suit was back to be angry and lashing out with words.
Wels shuddered. He was glad the young man in the suit didn’t try and swipe at him with a sword or anything. He had experienced his first death and respawn via a skeleton who had gotten a hold of TFC’s sword and he had no desire to go through that again.
When lunch came, it was a relief. Wels retreated back to his little cave and nibbled on the steak that the young man in the suit gave him. Wels relished in the quiet and not being yelled at.
…
He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t like being yelled at. He hadn’t liked it when he was back in the Kingdom of Wels either. But he didn’t think that yelling back would help either.
So what exactly was he supposed to do?
Chat Log: why do chat logs need a title
Welsknight: what are you supposed to do when people yell at you?
Chat Log: what am i supposed to put here
>Welsknight added TinfoilChef to the chat<
Welsknight: did i do something wrong
TinfoilChef: What do you mean?
Welsknight: X showed me how chats work
Welsknight: but he has not answered any of my messages
Welsknight: did i not get the title right
Welsknight: did i say something wrong
TinfoilChef: No, you did nothing wrong
TinfoilChef: He’s just angry
Welsknight: then i did do something wrong
TinfoilChef: No, you didn’t
TinfoilChef: Xisuma just wants to think you did
Welsknight: what does that mean
Welsknight: i don’t understand
Welsknight: and i cannot ask the young man in the suit
TinfoilChef: You mean Mumbo?
Welsknight: i do not know
Welsknight: but he hates me
Welsknight: i keep messing up the redstone
Welsknight: i am really trying but it does not make any sense
Welsknight: can i come back to the mines
TinfoilChef: How about I talk to Mumbo for you
TinfoilChef: And I’ll see about you coming back underground for a day
TinfoilChef: Does that sound good?
Welsknight: I think so
TinfoilChef: Oh, and Wels
TinfoilChef: The chat titles are just to help organize all the different chats
TinfoilChef: For instance
>TinfoilChef has renamed the Chat Log to “Knight Miners”<
TinfoilChef: Now we both know that you and myself are in this chat
TinfoilChef: You can make it a pun or a joke
TinfoilChef: Or you can just say “Xisuma and Wels”
TinfoilChef: That’s all the titles are for
Welsknight: i see
Welsknight: thank you for explaining, TFC
TinfoilChef: Anytime
TFC sent Wels ahead to the mines (“You know how to get there, right?”) and remained back to speak with the young man in the suit.
Wels ended up mining by himself for over two hours before TFC returned, a sad smile on his face. “Mumbo will be better tomorrow. If you’re willing to give him a chance?”
Wels nodded eagerly. “As long as he does not yell.”
TFC looked pained for some reason.
The young man in the suit was very quiet when he came by the next morning to grab Wels. His eyes were locked on the ground and he mumbled his hello’s– almost too soft to hear.
TFC squeezed Wel’s shoulder reassuringly. “You have any questions, you can com me.”
Wels agreed easily. He then followed the young man in the suit back to the giant redstone monstrosity. It had gotten bigger since Wels had seen it. The young man in the suit must have worked on it at night.
Wels expected to be climbing up the side of the giant machine, but the young man in the suit led him past the machine. There was a small clearing that had been flattened out. It was not very large, especially when compared with the machine. In the middle of the space was a single chest. The young man in the suit gestured at it and Wels opened it.
It was full of redstone components.
“I, uh…” the young man in the suit scratched the back of his neck and still wasn’t looking at Wels. But those words seemed to unleash a torrent and the young man in the suit began to babble. “I have a friend. And he’s… well, he’s done something stupid. Really stupid. And I’m really mad at him.”
Wels frowned. He had no idea what any of that had to do with him but he continued to listen to the young man in the suit.
“But since I can’t really take my anger out on him… I lashed out at you. Which wasn’t fair.”
Oh.
The young man in the suit pushed on, words beginning to slur together. “I don’t expect you to forgive me because I know that I wouldn’t want to forgive me but I hope that I can make up for it by actually explaining and then you can hopefully learn redstone but if you’d rather learn from someone else that’s fine too–”
“I would love to learn from you,” Wels cut in.
The young man in the suit looked shocked. “You would?!”
“You clearly know what you are doing,” Wels gestured at the giant machine. “Why would I not want to learn from you?”
The young man in the suit looked confused now. “Why… I was horrible to you!”
“You did not hit me,” Wels shrugged.
The young man in the suit gaped at him, clearly horrified. “That– Who’s been hitting you!?”
“Residents of the Kingdom of Wels,” Wels replied easily. “It did not hurt. But they would be frustrated by their rewards sometimes and swing their swords at me. I was programmed to not feel pain or take damage so I was fine.”
The young man in the suit was still staring at him, mouth hanging open in shock.
Wels was not sure what he said that caused this reaction, but he would take it over yelling.
He did not like yelling.
The remaining days with Mumbo (Wels finally got the name down the day before the Hermit Dinner) were… good?
They were not bad, that was for sure.
Mumbo did not yell at Wels, or even raise his voice. Actually, he explained the basics of redstone and had Wels mess around with it by himself for a few hours while Mumbo worked on the giant machine thing (which turned out to be something called an item sorter).
During his alone time, Wels was able to figure out strength signal, tick speed, and delay. Mumbo showed Wels some of the main components that went into certain machines (like the “Etho Hopper Clock”) and by the end of the week, Wels had gotten a loose understanding of the red dust.
Was he an expert? Absolutely not. But he definitely knew more than he had before Mumbo.
And then it was back to the weekly Hermit Dinner.
“Ren! Iskall!” Wels sprinted up to his fellow Kingdomcrafters as soon as he caught sight of them. He managed to (barely) not run into them, but gave them both a big grin. “You’re here!”
“Yeah!” Ren smiled back. He clasped a hand on Wels shoulder. “Sorry we weren’t here earlier. We’ve been… busy.”
Iskall didn’t say anything. He just huffed and turned to the buffet table. “I’m getting food. We’re leaving when I’m done.”
Wels watched him wander off, before turning to look around the rest of the Hermits. “Is Cub and Scar here?”
Ren’s expression fell a little. “I think they’re still recovering from that deal they made. The last time I saw Scar he tried to turn me into a cat.” Ren made a face. “Or at least joked about it. Although Jellie seems to be helping him keep calm. Cub on the other hand–” Ren shuddered. “There’s a reason Vex and Players don’t usually get along.”
Wels frowned. “But aren’t Cub and Scar players?”
“Not in the traditional sense,” Ren smiled. “What have you been up to?”
Wels launched into a description of the past three weeks, telling Ren all about the things he’s learned from TFC, X, and Mumbo. Ren guided them over to the table and encouraged Wels to eat, but other than that, listened attentively. He would comment here or ask a question there, which made Wels smile.
The two sat by Iskall, who was already half-way through his plate (albeit he was eating rather slowly). Wels continued to tell stories and Ren chimed in with a few of his own.
During one of Ren’s stories, Wels saw X enter the house with Joe Hills and the zombie-hybrid. He gave a wave and was a little confused when X did not wave back, but grabbed some food and then left, being followed by Joe Hills and the zombie-hybrid.
Wels frowned. Ren noticed.
“Is something wrong, Wels?”
“X is… ignoring me. I think. I don’t know why,” Wels picked at the mashed potatoes on the plate. Suddenly, he wasn’t very hungry. “I don’t think people like me here.”
“Oh, that’s not true,” Ren reached over and gripped Wels hand. “TFC likes you. And so do Scar and Cub. And of course myself and Iskall.”
Iskall gave a kind of grunt, shoveling the last of his steak into his mouth. Still chewing he stood up and picked his plate up to drop it off at the sink. “Ren.”
“Hang on, Iskall,” Ren gave Wels a smile. “How about you come stay with me this week, Wels?”
“Can I?” Wels felt his heart soar at the thought of spending time with his old servermates. The thrill was immediately stalled at a thought. Wels frowned. “Mumbo was going to teach me some more redstone.”
“Oh, Iskall can do that. Right, Iskall?” Ren asked Iskall. The question sounded… different? Almost forced, or perhaps it was just the pronunciation.
Iskall and Ren made faces at one another. Faces that Wels was only able to figure out a few of them. The main one was anger which… did not help Wels’ emotions.
“I can just go with Mumbo,” Wels tried to assure.
Ren shook his head. “Nope. Iskall could use a project. Let Mumbo know and meet us outside. Do you need to get anything from Mumbo’s place?”
“Ummm…” Wels tried to think of anything he might need in his little cave.
Ren waved his hand, dismissively, “We’ll stop by on our way back home. It will be fun!”
Iskall sighed, clearly annoyed, but he nodded his assent. “Meet you outside.” And then Iskall left.
Ren watched him go, the smile on his face crumbling ever so much. “Maybe we can cheer him up together, eh Wels?”
“I… I can try?”
“Great!” Ren finished up the last of his dinner and stood. “You tell Mumbo and finish your dinner. No rush. Iskall can survive being around the Hermits for another thirty minutes.”
And with that, Wels was left alone at the table. He hesitated, seeing Mumbo speaking to a guy in a black t-shirt and decided to finish his dinner before speaking to his…
Friend?
Was Mumbo his friend?
He thought X had been his friend but that didn’t appear to be the case anymore…
“Hey Wels, ready to go?”
Wels looked up and found Mumbo, who was smiling at him. It wasn’t a big smile, but it was a smile.
Or at least Wels thought it was a smile.
“Ren and Iskall invited me to join them at their island this week. Is that okay?”
Mumbo blinked at Wels, like the words were taking a second to process. Wels understood that. He had done it as an NPC and he still did it as a regular Player.
“Oh!” Mumbo shook his head, clearing whatever thoughts had jammed his words up. “Uh, yeah! Of course!” Mumbo looked down at his hands, which were fidgeting quite a bit. “I, uh, I hope you have fun!”
“I hope I do to,” Wels replied. He wasn’t sure what else to say and since his plate was now empty, he stood up. Before he could move away, Mumbo stood up and grabbed Wels by the wrist.
“I, uh…” Mumbo’s cheeks were turning red. “I wanted to apologize. Properly this time because I didn’t actually apologize about my poor attitude. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have treated you like that.You’re not my friend that I’m mad at and lashing out at you wasn’t right.” Mumbo sighed. “He… also nagged me about redstone and I just…” Mumbo trailed off. “I’m sorry. Truly. And it won’t happen again.”
Wels wasn’t sure what to make of that, but he gently patted Mumbo on the shoulder. “It’s okay. I am glad you do not hate me.”
That didn’t seem to be the right thing to say based on Mumbo’s face, but Wels wasn’t sure what else to say. He thought for a moment, then gave Mumbo a little smile. “I hope you and your friend figure things out!”
That seemed even worse to say, as Mumbo’s smile crumbled. But he quickly replaced it with a half smile. “Yeah… Me too.” And with that, Mumbo left, leaving Wels to clean up before finding Ren and Iskall outside.
That went well.
…
Right?
Wels wasn’t completely sure, but he was pretty sure Mumbo and him were friends now. So that was good.
Ren showed Wels where he could sleep before giving him a quick tour around his little base. He was actually close to Xisuma, which Wels wasn’t sure how to feel about that. After the tour, Ren led Wels to the storage room because he needed to sort his stuff.
It was at this point that Ren informed Wels that they’d be at Iskall’s most of the time this week.
For some reason.
Wels didn’t know why (as usual).
But this time, he actually found the words to ask Ren, “Why are we going to Iskall’s?”
“He needs the company,” Ren replied. “Company keeps you occupied.”
“Why does he need to be occupied?”
Ren paused in his rummaging through his storage. He slowly turned to Wels, his expression unusually blank. “...Wels, what do you remember about Kingdomcraft going down?”
Wels frowned. “I remember the earth quakes and the forest fire. I remember Scar asking me to grab something. And then everything went dark.”
“Okay,” Ren sat down on top of a closed chest. “Do you know what happened to Stress?”
Wels nodded. “She’s gone.”
Ren’s face was still blank of emotion. It looked weird. Wels was used to the smiles and expressive looks from the storyteller.
“That’s right,” Ren said slowly. “Do you know what that means?”
Wels frowned more. “I… I don’t know?”
“Okay,” Ren reached up and ran his fingers through his hair. “Do… do you know what it means when someone dies?”
Wels knew that word. It was a common word in many of the flavor text of quests. But when it came to the definition, Wels was never sure what it truly meant. “I know it has to do with when people leave and don’t come back.”
Ren stared at him for a long moment before nodding slowly. “I suppose that is one way of defining it.” Ren straightened up a little, “Sometimes death comes slowly and expected. A lot of people who are older or sick for a long time are expected to die. It is sad to see them go, don’t get me wrong, but usually such circ*mstances give their loved ones time to prepare and adjust to what their reality will be. Does that make sense?”
Wels thought about it. “I think so.”
“Okay, good,” Ren chewed on his lower lip for a moment, thinking about something. “Sometimes, when people die, it is sudden and there is no warning. Maybe there is an accident or they just suddenly fall over. There is no time for goodbyes or well wishes. One minute they are there, the next they are gone. When that happens, there is no time to prepare and the loss can be… difficult for the loved ones left behind. For some, it is hard to even accept or acknowledge.” Ren tilted his head. “Does that make sense?”
Wels thought again. “Yes, I can see why that would be hard.”
“Alrighty,” Ren stood up and walked over to Wels, grasping his shoulder. “So, you see Wels, Iskall is having some difficulty with Stress’... death. He didn’t get to say goodbye or try and bring her with us. There was no warning. One minute she was with him, the next she was gone.”
Wels nodded slowly. “So we’re never going to see Stress again?” He frowned and felt a sharp pain in his chest area. He had liked the only woman in their party. She had told funny jokes and had helped Wels when he experienced pain for the first time. Wels was… sad that he wouldn’t get to see her again.
Ren seemed to struggle to breathe for a minute. His voice came out more like a croak, sounding strained for some reason. “...No, Wels. W– we’re not.” His eyes seemed to shine for a moment and Ren took in a deep breath. “And Iskall is her brother. So you can imagine how much he misses her.”
Wels frowned. He knew what siblings were– but he’d never really had one. But he knew that siblings usually loved each other very much. Wels thought about Scar and how sad he’d be if Scar suddenly left without saying goodbye. His chest hurt again, only this time it felt worse.
And if Wels felt this badly about Scar, then Iskall must be feeling a lot worse.
“Can’t we get her back?” Wels asked. “Like a retrieval quest or something?”
Ren laughed. It sounded half-choked for some reason. “I’m afraid not, Wels. Stress is gone. And she’s not coming back.”
“...Oh.”
“That’s why we’re going to Iskall’s,” Ren said. “We’re the distractions so that Iskall doesn’t have to think about his sister for just a moment of the day.”
“But…” Wels frowned. “Why would he want to forget her?”
“That’s…” Ren’s grip on Wels shoulder tightened. His other hand came up to the other shoulder and Ren forced Wels to look him in the eyes. “He’s not forgetting her. Not for a second. We go to make him smile at least once a day. We go to be a shoulder to cry on. We go to be someone to talk to if he wants to talk about her. We go because we’re his family now.” Ren paused. “Does… does that make sense?”
Wels nodded slowly. “I… I think so.”
“If you have any questions, just ask me,” Ren smiled. “I’m more than happy to answer them.”
Ren began to shuffle through his chests again, looking for something that Wels had definitely forgotten about by now.
Although… Wels was remembering something else. “You… you mentioned a leader of yours also being gone.”
Ren froze in place. He didn’t turn around or say anything, which Wels took as permission to continue.
“Are they also dead?”
Silence. Silence for a minute, then two.
“...Yes,” Ren said, voice almost a whisper.
“Oh,” Wels frowned. “... Do you want to talk about them?”
Ren looked back, tears pooling in his eyes. He wiped them away as quickly as they formed. “I, uh…” He cleared his throat loudly, then went back to his chests. “I’m okay.”
Seeing as Ren didn’t say he was “fine”, Wels decided to go to bed and left Ren to his sorting. But he made a mental note to ask Ren again in a few days.
Wels would have to ask Ren if that was the right way to do it, but Ren was okay with questions so he wasn’t too worried about it.
Iskall did not seem to enjoy teaching Wels about redstone. He didn’t yell like Mumbo had and he did explain things as they went along.
Except he was just covering stuff that Mumbo had already taught. And Wels…
Well, he didn’t think Iskall would appreciate him saying, ‘I already know all this.’
Besides, Ren had decided to also join in on the lessons, seeing as he also was not a redstone expert. So the lessons were more for Ren anyway and Wels took the refresher with no complaints.
Besides the redstone lessons, the three of them also worked on the two bases, with Ren suddenly asking if Wels had a place set up at all in the middle of the week.
“Uh, no?” Wels frowned. “Should I?”
And thus the three wandered off from Iskall’s place and Wels was forced to pick a spot to set up a base. He ended up just picking a cliff face along some water and dug into it.
TFC had done it, he didn’t see why he couldn’t?
But the three of them had fun carving out a good area together. It wasn’t the first mining expedition they had gone over– or at least it wasn’t Wels and Iskall’s. Ren had kind of been in prison and they had been digging him out.
So this was much better!
Wels was pretty sure it was, at least.
“See you tomorrow!” Ren waved at Iskall, then began to walk back to his house, Wels right on his heels.
They made it over a hill before Ren gave Wels a kind of confused look. “Aren’t you going to head home? Your home, I mean.”
“...Am I supposed to?” Wels asked.
Ren was quick to assure. “I mean, you can still sleep at my place but we dug out that area and you’ve got a bed there now. Do you not want your own space?”
“I… I don’t know?” Wels frowned. “I’ve never really had my own space.”
Ren laughed. “I can understand that. I grew up sharing a room with my brother and one of my uncles until they got married. But by then, my nephew had been born and my other uncle just became a widower so he joined us.”
“Sounds… exciting?” Wels wasn’t sure if it was but it did sound right.
“It was,” Ren smiled. He looked up at the moon above, reaching up to his neck and pulling out a leather chord. On the end was a kind of silver pendant that he gripped tightly in his hand. Ren sighed. “I miss it sometimes.”
Wels thought for a moment. “Are… are they also ‘gone’?”
“No,” Ren shook his head. “My family’s on a private server. My Uncle and niece who were infected are with the other infected. They’re waiting a year before they rejoin the rest of family– just in case the cure isn't permanent.”
Wels frowned. “Then why are you not with them? Were you not also infected?”
“Yeah, well–” Ren huffed, “I’ve already told Cub and Scar to… handle me if something goes wrong.” He gave Wels a half grin. “I still keep in touch though. Get some cute pictures of the twins. They’re getting close to walking.”
Wels studied Ren’s face. He looked… sad? It was hard to tell since the wolf was smiling but his ears were tilted downward as if sad.
That reminded Wels…
“Um…” he started, “I… I don’t know if I’m supposed to ask this.”
“Go ahead and ask,” Ren assured. “I’ll tell you and I promise I won’t be offended.”
“Okay, um,” Wels looked at Ren. “Well you mentioned your leader who is gone. And you said we’re supposed to listen to people who want to talk about people who are dead if they want to talk about it. So am I supposed to ask if you want to talk about them again or do I wait for you to bring them up?”
Ren stopped walking. His forehead was furrowed in thought. “Wow, uh… You ask some good questions, Wels.”
“Sorry.”
“No, no, no need to apologize!” Ren assured him. “It’s good to ask good questions! Just… give me a minute to think about it.”
The two walked in silence, avoiding a few creepers on the way to Ren’s house. They still hadn’t spoken when they arrived and Ren asked Wels to sit at the table while he heated up some tea. It was another few minutes before Ren finally joined Wels, teapot in one hand and two mugs in the other.
“Okay, so–” Ren began as he put the teabags in the mugs. “It’s not a bad question.”
“You said that.”
“No, I mean it’s not an offensive question,” Ren said gently. “Asking someone if they want to talk about someone they lost is not a bad question. But it is a… sensitive one. So it is a question that you should think about carefully before asking someone it.”
Wels watched Ren pour in the hot water and set a timer. He thought about what Ren said before nodding. “So I shouldn’t always ask it?”
“Exactly.”
Wels looked at Ren. “...Can I ask you?”
Ren did not answer immediately. They waited for the timer to go off and for Ren to finish preparing the tea. He took a few sips before looking up at Wels.
He looked… sad. And it wasn’t a hidden sorrow, like he usually had. No this was on full display, with tears beginning to form in his eyes. “I… I never got to tell her.”
“What do you mean?” Wels was confused. But that seemed to be the right question as Ren continued on.
“Ash and I were pretty close in age. I would never say we were best friends, but we were friends.” Ren gripped his mug in his hands, taking another sip of his tea. He continued, tone soft and… regretful? “I had this reputation when we were teenagers. I liked to… well, flirt, with all the girls. It was just something I thought was fun, I never really meant anything by it.” Ren snorted. “Ash hated it. She got this angry look on her face anytime I did it with her.” He smiled. “One time, she threw her dinner plate at me.”
Wels frowned. “What is… ‘flirting’?”
Ren’s face twisted into something… Wels did not understand. His cheeks turned red and his gaze flicked upward. He muttered something that Wels was only barely able to make out, “Goddess guide me.” Ren clapped his hands together. “Right then!” He basically announced. “So, uh… When someone likes someone…” he paused. “Wait, no that’s confusing. Umm…”
Wels watched Ren fumble for a bit. He would start a sentence, then shake his head and start over. Finally, after several attempts, Ren threw his hands up in the air.
“Do you know what romantic love is?”
Wels thought for a moment. “Is it different from sibling love?”
“Yes,” Ren nodded. “Sibling, or familial love is when you love someone like they are your family. Romantic love is slightly different– but you still love that person. You just want to… uh, do you know what kissing is?”
Wels nodded. He had seen people kiss back at his post at the Kingdom of Wels.
“Okay, that’s romantic love,” Ren settled on. “So flirting is when you say something to someone you want to kiss– usually. I didn’t necessarily want to do that, I was just having fun and messing around.”
“So you were… pretending to like them?”
Ren made a face. “I… suppose? But all the girls knew I was… pretending.”
“Okay. That makes sense.”
Ren looked relieved. “Alright. Well, I flirted with Ash for years. And then… we were probably close to eighteen and one day I realized that… the flirting wasn’t for fun anymore.”
Wels frowned. “You loved her for real?”
“Love is a… strong word for it, but I at least had a crush,” Ren chuckled awkwardly. “At that point we were good enough friends that she was used to the flirting and… I just never told her.” He shrugged, half-heartedly. “But by then, I valued our friendship more than anything else. And, with time, that little crush faded to nothing more than a faint memory.” Ren shook his head sadly. “But… back in the cell… with death right in front of us… I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you say anything then?”
Ren let out a bitter chuckle. “I don’t think death is really the best time to say, ‘hey, I had a crush on you when we were kids and I never fully got over it.’ And I know for a fact Ash never felt that way about me. But now… that she’s gone…” Ren looked up with a sad smile. “I don’t know. Maybe I should have said something?” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now. She was my friend, no matter what. We were going to lead the pack together no matter my feelings, if the world had been kinder. And… I’m sad we’ll never have that chance.”
Wels watched Ren slowly drink the rest of his tea. He realized he hadn’t touched his own mug and quickly picked it up and swallowed it.
His throat burned, which meant he probably should have blown on the hot tea beforehand. Oh well.
At least it tasted nice.
Iskall was staring at his com again.
Wels had noticed he’d been doing that a lot, especially the past few days. He had asked Ren about it, but he hadn’t known what it was about either. But, Ren hadn’t asked about it.
Yet.
And since Ren hadn’t asked, Wels decided not to ask either.
Besides, the three of them were currently busy chopping trees for some project or other. And if Iskall needed to take a break for a minute, then Wels wouldn’t judge him. Mojang knew that Wels had taken more breaks than Ren and Iskall combined.
It was hard going from infinite stamina to… well having stamina.
Wels was in the middle of one of his breaks when he heard a noise he… wasn’t quite able to place.
It kind of sounded like a scream, but… it was pretty muffled. And the sound was followed by a loud, ‘THUNK’ as something slammed into wood.
“Woah, Iskall!” that was Ren’s voice.
Which meant that Iskall was probably the one who made the weird muffled scream sound.
Wels stood up and came around the clearing that Ren and Iskall were in. Iskall’s ax was embedded in the trunk of a dark oak tree– definitely the source of the ‘thunk’. Iskall was leaning against a different tree, head resting against his arm.
Ren was standing next to him, his hand resting on Iskall’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“... Dawn finally got back to me.” Iskall’s words were tilted, on the verge of anger and yet still held a tone of sorrow. “She… she had little to say.”
Wels drew a bit closer, but kept quiet, unsure of if there was something he was supposed to do.
“Who’s Dawn?” Ren gently asked.
Iskall’s voice grew softer. “...Her sister.”
He didn’t say who. But Wels assumed it was Stress’s sister.
“What did she say?”
“That…” Iskall’s voice broke, then came back, forced and gritted. “It wasn’t my fault. There was nothing I could do.”
“That’s true,” Ren said. “Did… did she want to see you?”
“I… I don’t know,” Iskall said quietly. “But I don’t think I want to see her.”
“Iskall–”
“I want to be alone for a bit.”
Ren was quiet. He patted Iskall on the back in a silent, ‘okay’. He turned around and saw Wels, but didn’t look surprised. Ren waved for Wels to follow him and the two went back to chopping trees, a short distance away.
Neither of them saw Iskall for the rest of the day.
It had been Ren’s idea.
Heck, he’d even taken the time to ask around, find a willing individual, and walk Wels over two hours after the Weekly Hermit Dinner, which made it the first time Wels could actually pack properly before moving in with a new Hermit.
But the blonde-scary-woman didn’t seem to mind.
Why was she scary? Wels…
Didn’t know.
Which, while definitely common enough for him, was strange this time around.
She hadn’t yelled, she hadn’t seemed annoyed, she had been nothing but polite and kind since Mumbo had introduced both Ren and Wels to her. No, this was something else. It felt like an alarm in the back of Wels’ head that this woman, while nice, was also scary.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Ren had purposely wanted Wels to “learn to fight.”
Which Wels thought was stupid. Yeah, he said it. It was stupid. He knew how to fight! It was the one thing he did know! He was a knight of the Kingdom of Wels! But Wels hadn’t known how to tell Ren that and so he had agreed to go with a “PvP expert” for the week.
“We start at 0600,” the scary-blonde-woman told him before heading to bed.
Wels followed suit, sleeping in the basem*nt of the scary-blonde-woman’s base.
At precisely 0600, Wels came up the stairs to the first floor.
The scary-blonde-woman stood by the door, two wooden swords in hand. She looked happy to see Wels, giving him a nod. “You’re punctual. Good.” And with that she went out the front door. Wels followed behind.
The two didn’t go far, just onto the front lawn. The scary-blonde-woman threw Wels one of the wooden swords, then settled into a ready position. “We’ll start by seeing where you’re at. Try and hit me.”
Wels nodded his agreement. He held his sword up in a salute, then fell into his own ready position.
The motion seemed to catch the scary-blonde-woman by surprise, as she frowned and changed her stance, ever so much. Then she nodded at Wels, “Begin.”
Wels did not attack immediately, taking a moment to study the scary-blond-woman’s stance. It was firm, but not a traditional dueling stance. Or at least, not a proper one. So not traditionally trained in sword-fighting.
Then again, he wasn’t exactly “trained” in it either.
Wels took three swings, two overhead, one under, then attempted a lunge. The scary-blonde-woman parried the first three, then stepped back from the lunge. She did not wait for Wels to attack, instead swiping her sword up to try and hit his sword arm. Wels caught the swing and parried it back, swinging down on the return.
The scary-blonde-woman caught it, then pushed back, stepping away, but keeping her sword up. “I thought you didn’t know how to fight.”
“Ren thinks I don’t know how to fight,” Wels corrected. “Sword-fighting was the one program my NPC brain decided to retain.”
“Interesting,” the scary-blonde-woman circled slowly to the right, watching Wels match the footwork with a smile. “The only NPC’s I saw were some experimental ones on my old server.” She shrugged. “They definitely couldn’t fight.”
“I was a city guard in emergencies.”
“That would do it,” the scary-blonde-woman lunged forward, attempting a stab. Wels managed to dodge it, then whacked his sword down on hers. She disengaged, then advanced, using overhead cuts and forcing Wels back as he blocked each one until he was directly to the back of a tree.
She swung downward, forcing Wels to catch the swing and lock their blades for a minute. The scary-blonde-woman grinned, “I’m guessing no one taught you how to fight dirty.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
She laughed. “That’s definitely a yes.” The scary-blonde-woman suddenly stepped back, making Wels stumble. He had no time to correct it as the scary-blonde-woman ducked down, spinning around and kicking Wels legs out from under him.
Wels blinked and found himself on his back, the scary-blonde-woman pinning him to the ground, his sword gone.
She smiled, “You’re good. I’ll give you that. But–” the scary-blonde-woman got up, holding a hand out to help Wels up. “--well, you didn’t grow up in an eternal war.”
Wels didn’t have an argument against that. He took her hand and she helped pull him up from the ground.
“Seeing as you’ve got the basics though,” the scary-blonde-woman grinned, “We can get to the fun stuff.”
Wels frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means you’re going to learn how to fight dirty,” the scary-blonde-woman smiled. “Any other questions?”
Wels thought for a moment. “What’s your name again? Sorry, I’m not good at remembering so I might have to ask again.”
“You’re good,” the woman smiled. “Names can be tricky. But I’m False. False Symmetry.”
Wels stood up a bit straighter, falling into a stiff salute. “Welsknight, reporting for training, ma’am.”
“Don’t call me ma’am, False is fine,” False laughed. “As for training… let’s stretch a bit and take a few laps around my yard. Then we’ll get to the fun stuff.”
Wels found he liked training with False. There was something comforting about having a set schedule.
It reminded him of the Kingdom of Wels, with his programmed steps and places he went. Albeit, this schedule was better, in the sense that he wasn’t just standing around doing nothing all day.
Mornings consisted of stretching, laps, and a few other light exercises. They’d break for breakfast and spend the hour, mostly in silence. False liked reading a book and Wels soon followed her example (and found he quite enjoyed reading). Then it was warm-ups again and then sparring for the next two to three hours. Lunch was another hour and the afternoon was working on building projects– usually either False or Wel’s bases. Then it was dinner, followed by a final sparring session that went until one person yielded.
False usually won, but Wels was getting better.
“You’ll be beating me before you know it,” False told him. “You’re already a better sword-fighter than me.”
“But…” Wels frowned. “But you win?”
“Yeah,” False snorted, “Because I’m more experienced and fight dirty. You want to be a good soldier? Then you do what you have to to win the fight.”
Wels frowned. “Is winning really that important?”
False made a face that Wels didn’t recognize. It looked kind of sad, but also… angry? Maybe just annoyed. “With this group, right now? … Yes.” False looked at Wels, eyes determined. “We need to be in top shape for… whatever is coming.”
“What is coming?”
False shook her head, “That is the question on everyone’s minds.”
She never said more about it and Wels never asked. He was content with just training and learning how to fight.
At the end of the week, False declared one more sparring match between them, just before the Hermit Dinner.
And this one was a test.
“Your goal is to get to the Hermit Dinner location without me catching or killing you,” False explained. She pulled up the map of the server and pointed at a spot. “This is where we are meeting this week: Cleo’s. We’re here,” False pointed at a different spot. “I’ll give you a thirty second head start.”
Wels frowned. “I thought we were going to be fighting.”
“Oh,” False smiled. It didn’t quite reach her eyes. “We are.” She drew her sword and began examining it. “You might want to start running.”
“But–”
“Twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven–”
Wels decided it would be in his best interest to start running. He took off south, in what he hoped was the right direction, trying to get as much distance between himself and False.
In the thirty seconds allotted to him, Wels managed to cross the river that ran east to west, separating False’s base from the main spawn mesa area. The crossing consisted mostly of him finding the shallowest section, jumping in and sinking to the bottom, then praying he could climb up the other side.
This was successful, but slow, seeing as he had just crossed the river when False came bolting down the hill from her base.
It was at this moment that Wels knew he had given her a proper title in “blonde-scary-woman”. False moved fast and with purpose, sword glinting in the sun, and eyes shining with a hunger that made Wels hair stand up.
Time to go.
Wels turned and ran, grateful for the mostly flat terrain but wishing for trees. There was no cover to hide behind so it was just sprinting as fast as he could.
So that’s why False had him running laps…
Wels heard the now familiar thud of a pearl hitting the ground to his right and rolled instinctively, just avoiding False’s sword and losing his head. He drew his sword and met her next swing, glaring at her. “You’re cheating!”
“It’s not cheating. It’s using your resources!” False grinned.
Swipe, parry, lunge, swipe, block, intercept, swing, swing, swing, the sword fight continued and Wels quickly realized if he kept fighting he wouldn’t have the energy to run.
Well, False did say it was allowed.
Kind of.
Wels parried the next swing, stepping forward and shoving False down, then throwing a lava bucket at her.
Without waiting to see her reaction, he took off again, trying to get as much space between him and her as possible. He did hear her curse, which meant he either startled her or burned her.
He hoped he hadn’t burned her.
Nowhere to hide, just sprinting across the badlands as fast as he could go: it was quite a test.
Speaking of tests–
Wels caught sight of a figure, who he was approaching fast. One of the hermits, definitely. Wels didn’t recognize him though, but he did know two things for a fact.
One, the Hermit was headed to the Hermit Dinner.
Two, he was right in Wels path.
Well, based on the pearl noise, Wels did not have time to deviate. Instead, he yelled a very loud, “Watch out!” and kept sprinting, feeling the swish of a sword miss the back of his neck by that much.
The man in a black t-shirt turned just in time to see Wels barreling towards him. He yelped, “What the Hels!” and barely managed to dodge out of the way of the charging knight.
Wels called a very apologetic, “Sorry!” at the man.
False, apparently, had not had the same luck as her pearl landed her directly in behind the man and she had been running, which meant the two became a pile of limbs on the ground.
“False?!”
“Sorry! Didn’t see you!”
“My redstone…”
Wels did not stop to help, but continued sprinting, his lungs burning. He estimated he was about half-way there (his destination was on the other side of the badlands).
He could make it.
He could make it.
Another pearl noise and False was suddenly in front of Wels. He had no time to react as False grabbed him around the waist, lifted up, then slammed them both on the ground. The wind was knocked out of his lungs, but he still shoved back.
Wels managed to rip False’s sword out of her hand, then throw it somewhere out of reach. His own sword had been put away before he almost ran into the black t-shirt stranger because… well, he didn’t want to stab someone by accident.
False didn’t care or mind. She got up, sitting on his chest and pulling a knife from her belt. She attempted to stab downward, but missed (barely), nicking Wels helmet. But that gave Wels time to catch his breath again, then hurl False off and scramble to his feet. He got into a fighting position, fists up.
False got up as well, wiping the dirt off her face. She smirked, matching Wels position.
And thus the match began.
False immediately went on the offensive, punching and attempting to kick at Wels. Wels was able to block most of the blows with his arms and jumped back to avoid the kicks. Wels tried to move backwards, towards his destination, but found his progress halted by a prickly cactus. Which meant he was forced to go on the offensive.
Wels dodged the next punch, then ducked low and punched at False’s stomach. He managed contact, but False jumped back at the same time, making it a glancing blow. The space allowed Wels to no longer be pinned against a cactus, and then it was back to just blocking False’s punches and kicks as best he could.
Mojang, he was tired.
“Uh…”
Wels was barely able to glance at the man in the black t-shirt. He had to focus on the incoming punches and block them.
False, apparently, did not need to focus as much. “Can we help you?” False attempted a sidekick, but Wels caught it and held. False was now on one foot, but she seemed unconcerned, twisting up and somehow kicking with her other leg up towards Wels head, forcing him to let go and try and block.
False hit the ground, rolled away, then was up and punching again.
“Should… should I be concerned?” the man in the black t-shirt asked.
False shook her head. “Nope.”
Wels decided he had enough of a defense and lunged at False. His arms wrapped around her waist and he repeated the move she had performed earlier on him, slamming the both of them to the ground. Unlike him, False did not have a helmet, meaning she was not only out of breath, but dazed.
Wels got up and ran towards the dinner hall again, leaving a very confused man in a black t-shirt and False forcing herself up again.
And then it was more running.
A lot of running.
Since False hadn’t thrown any more pearls, it meant she either was out or only had one left.
Wels was so tired.
But, he could now see his destination. Which meant he was almost there, he just had to make it a few more chunks.
Wels could see several Hermits outside, setting up tables and chairs. Mumbo was talking to Iskall and Ren, not far at all. In fact, Wels was so tempted to shout their names, if only to let them know he was there.
And then he heard the last ender pearl.
False appeared just above and in front of Wels, an ax in hand. She swung down, quick and hard– the metal slamming into Wels armored shoulder. He cried out, spinning sideways, on to his hands. The ground hurt on his right wrist in particular, but Wels was right there–
He couldn’t give up.
Wels raised his arm up, as False swung down with her ax. His shield materialized, blocking the strike, which he parried back. It was an awkward stumble up to his feet, but he somehow managed.
Then it was just shielding each of False’s unyielding blows. Wels heard some surprised shouts from behind him, which he assumed was the Hermits finally seeing…
Well, whatever they thought this was.
Wels pushed back again on a hit, making False stumble. It allowed him to turn and sprint one final time towards the group.
There was one last attempt from False as she threw her ax at Wels back, but he anticipated it correctly, rolling into the picnic area as the ax spun over his body and slammed into one of the picnic tables.
Wels was out of breath, exhausted, and parts of him were in pain.
But he had made it.
Barely.
False followed Wels example and collapsed on the ground where she stood, back on the ground, gaze up at the sky. “Great… job… Wels–” False gasped through her, probably, burning lungs and throat.
Wels just gave her a thumbs up in response, still gasping too much to properly speak.
“Did… Did Wels steal something from you or something?” Mumbo was suddenly there, standing beside Wels, but his question was definitely directed at False.
“Nope–” False grunted, turning on her side. “Test… Fun…” She grinned a sharp grin before falling back on her back, gasping for air.
Mumbo looked down at Wels, the worry on his face very prominent. “That true?”
Wels could only grin and nod.
It was fun.
He wondered if False would keep sparring with him after this week.
He certainly hoped so.
Wels returned to Iskall and Ren for a week of recovery and working on his own base.
Mumbo stopped by once with several stacks of steak for them. False swung by twice and Wels was more than happy to spar each time. TFC didn’t come by, but he was messaging Wels almost every night, asking about what he had done that day. Wels was more than happy to give a play by play of the day, and TFC didn’t seem to mind, often chiming in with his own accomplishments of the day (usually the number of ore he’d mined).
Wels was pretty confident he knew how the world worked now. Or at least, the important bits of it.
Ren didn’t seem to agree with that. “Wels! I got some great news!”
Wels looked up from his wheat farm he’d been attempting to put together. It wasn’t automatic or anything, but it did the job. “What?”
“You’re going to go on an adventure!” Ren announced, appearing quite pleased.
Wels frowned. “I thought we were on an adventure.”
“Well… yes, I suppose we are,” Ren looked thoughtful, but he quickly shook his head and chased whatever he was thinking about away. “But you’re going to go out exploring! That’s part of the fun of a new world!”
“Oh,” Wels thought for a moment. He thought they had explored the world. But apparently not well enough. “When do we leave?”
“Ah. Yes. About that…” Ren looked a little uncomfortable. “Iskall and I won’t be coming with you.” He was quick to continue, as if to assure Wels. “Not that I didn’t want to come! It’s just Iskall’s being stubborn about the whole thing and I thought it would be good for him to get out of the house but–” Ren looked very frustrated for a moment. It cleared quickly to an encouraging smile. “But I know the perfect dude to accompany you! I’ll introduce you at the Hermit Dinner.” Ren paused. “If that’s okay with you, of course. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to but I thought it’d be fun for you to just… explore.”
Wels looked out at the now very familiar landscape surrounding his base. He could see the appeal in finding new places and going out of his comfort zone. It was an adventure, as Ren said. Like a quest! And Wels always wanted to go on quests in the Kingdom of Wels. Seeing as he never fully accomplished one…
This could be the way to do just that. In a sense.
“It sounds like fun, Ren. I’d love to.”
“Great!” Ren looked relieved and very pleased with himself. “I’ll introduce you to xB at the dinner.”
“xB,” Wels repeated, more to himself than anything. If he had the name memorized before he met the person, then maybe he’d remember it better. “xB.”
“See ya, Wels!”
“Bye, Ren!”
Turns out memorizing the name before meeting the person did help.
Wels was so excited about that discovery, he almost forgot to be excited about the adventure the two were going on.
xB and Wels slept at xB’s base the first night.
“It’s late to get a start,” xB had explained after the dinner was over. “But we’ll head out in the morning.”
The next morning, xB had Wels pack up some tools, a bed, food, and a stack of wood. He then had Wels pick a random direction and they began to walk.
“How will we get home?” Wels asked.
xB just smiled. “That’s part of the journey.”
As they walked, xB would talk about things they passed, stories that came to mind, and ask Wels questions. The topics were as broad as they were random.
“Poppies make me think of home.”
“Do you have a favorite color, Wels?”
“Once, I was stranded in a cave for three days because it wouldn’t stop raining outside. Eventually, I had to try and mine my way home. Almost died at least a dozen times from creepers sneaking up on me.”
“What’s been your favorite thing about Hermitcraft so far?”
Wels answered the questions the best he could. He tried to comment on every story or fact, but it was difficult to say something new every time. Eventually, he settled into the TFC method of mostly listening, but commenting on a simple word or asking a clarifying question whenever Wels felt it was necessary.
xB didn’t seem to mind.
They climbed over mountains, followed rivers to dead ends, poked around in some surface caves. Then they came to a large ocean.
xB didn’t appear bothered. “You know how to craft a boat?”
Wels shook his head.
“Alright.”
The rest of the day was working on a boat for Wels and a chest. Wels asked xB how he would fit, but the man had just laughed. “I’ll be fine.”
Wels actually believed that statement this time.
They slept under the stars and woke up with the sun the following morning. Then, xB piled all of the supplies they had gathered as they walked into the chest, along with most of his supplies, leaving him with some cooked fish and a sword. “Hop in the boat.”
Wels did as he was told and xB pushed the boat from the sand into the water. He kept pushing before it got deep enough for him to duck completely under the water.
Wels… wasn’t quite sure how to explain it. The change was quick, with xB ducking under the waves, then emerging with turquoise eyes, backed by yellow instead of the usual white. His ears were now fins and Wels could see gills on his neck.
“You’re a guardian-hybrid!” Wels exclaimed.
xB just shrugged. “I thought you knew until yesterday.”
Wels tried to recall if anyone had said anything, but came up blank. That didn’t really mean anything, but… oh well.
“Hold on!” xB pushed on the back of the boat, then began to swim forward. Wels watched with fascination as the guardian tail began to pump up and down. The boat quickly picked up speed and off the two of them went.
The ocean turned out to be quite large, with the land disappearing from view and remaining out of view. xB took breaks from pushing every thirty minutes or so. Wels offered to just row and xB swim beside him, but he had declined. “It’s been a while since I was in this form for longer than a few minutes. I need to stretch out my tail.”
Wels didn’t quite understand, but did not offer again. This day was quieter than the previous, seeing as his companion was underwater for most of the time. Around noon they stopped for a lunch break. Wels got to see first hand how Guardian-hybrids hunted for fresh fish. It was pretty cool, albeit hard to see through the water.
“Can you swim?” xB asked after lunch.
Wels shrugged.
“Do you want to learn?”
Wels nodded.
xB gestured at the armor. “You’ll want to take that off, at least for now. Water weighs you down and we don’t want you sinking to the bottom.”
Wels, reluctantly, removed the armor pieces. Underneath was just a simple cotton tunic and pants. His shoes had to be removed as well, seeing as they were also armored, leaving Wels barefoot. The sea wind was cold, making him shiver.
“Ready?” xB asked.
Wels frowned. “How exactly do I–”
He did not have time to finish the question, seeing as xB just reached up and yanked Wels over the side. The salt water was cold and Wels, although having never swam before, knew well enough to not inhale the water. That didn’t stop the sudden plunge from knocking the air out of his lungs.
But, Wels was not tugged in deep. Actually, xB only pulled enough to get Wels in the water, leaving Wels to the mercy of his skill.
Which turned out to be quite bad, seeing as he sank below the waves immediately.
The water stung Wels eyes and he squeezed them shut. He felt a firm grip around his waist and felt, rather than saw when he was hoisted up above the surface. Wels breathed in the air and gasped, shaking the water from his hair and wiping at his eyes.
xB was still smiling, despite Wels pounding heart. “I got you!”
“A little warning would have been nice,” Wels grumbled.
“Alright, alright,” xB swam Wels over to the side of the boat and had him hold on. “Let’s first get you floating.”
“Floating?” Wels frowned.
“Lay on your back. Focus on keeping your belly up. Waves might sometimes come up and cover your mouth, but just focus on breathing when there is just air. Have your arms out straight from you. It helps with balance.” xB swam back to give Wels some room.
It took a few tries, but eventually, Wels was able to float on his back. He had his eyes squeezed shut because of the sun, but it wasn’t like he could see where he was floating anyway. xB was watching him and would help him back to the boat, if he thought they were getting too far away.
But, Wels was getting tired and xB helped him back into the boat.
“Onward?” xB grinned.
Wels looked out on the open water of the surrounding ocean. The sun was beginning to set, painting the water in pinks and oranges. It was quite beautiful. Wels looked down and gave xB a smile and nod.
“Hang on!”
And then off they went, through the ocean. At some point, Wels laid down in the boat and just watched the stars float by. He must have fallen asleep at some point, but so did xB, based on the fact that Wels woke up the next morning to find a rope tied around xB, who was floating in the water, fast asleep.
Wels would let him sleep as long as xB could. It was the least he could do, seeing as the guardian-hybrid was towing him around the ocean.
They got to the other side of the ocean later that afternoon and xB gave Wels some more swimming lessons.
By the time the sun was going down, Wels was in no danger of drowning, at the very least. He was also exhausted. He thought spars with False were draining. Swimming worked muscles he hadn’t even been aware of.
As the sun began to set, xB dragged himself up on the beach and laid in the sand. He gave Wels a little smile. “You should probably get some firewood. We don’t want to be swarmed.”
Wels hesitated. “You sure? You can’t exactly… uh…”
“Stand?” xB lifted his large fin up a little before plopping it back on the sand. “Give it five minutes and I’ll be fine. And mobs aren’t spawning yet so I should be fine– as long as you get firewood.” That last bit was a little… harsher? No, that wasn’t the word.
Direct.
Wels gave a salute, then marched off to the woods in the distance. They weren’t far, but he would need to hurry to get the work done before the sun set. Chopping wood was now a natural task to perform and before Wels knew it, he had plenty of logs.
And then he remembered that they had wood in their chest by the ocean.
…Which was probably what xB meant when he said to get firewood out.
Wels sheepishly turned and returned to the beach where, sure enough, xB was not only walking around but he had a small fire pit going. Wels could feel his cheeks burning from embarrassment.
xB waved, smile just as it had been the entire trip. “Thanks for getting replacement wood!”
That was certainly not what Wels was doing and he was pretty sure xB knew it. But he appreciated the words, nonetheless.
They cooked some fish over the fire, with xB preparing them on a wooden board with some spices he just… had. They were quite good.
“Avian specialty,” xB explained. “They’re most known for being fierce warriors but they also are experts at growing spices and seasonings.”
“Why?” Wels asked.
xB appeared to think. “I… Well, I suppose it would have to do with them generally settling in jungles. The thick canopy acts as a maze to intruders while they can just fly above. But the region is also quite lush, which allows for excellent plant growth.”
“Have you met any avians?” Wels asked.
“I lived with a flock for sometime,” xB replied. “They are fierce and loyal people.”
Wels nodded. “We had an avian population in Kingdomcraft.”
“Did you ever meet any of them?”
“A few,” Wels shrugged. “Couldn’t exactly talk to them though.”
“Understandable,” xB finished off the last bit of his fish. “Do you mind if I ask you a bit about Kingdomcraft?”
“Sure,” Wels frowned. “But I didn’t see much outside of the Kingdom of Wels.”
“Then tell me about that,” xB smiled. “It doesn’t need to be fancy or life changing. Just tell me about your experience.”
“Okay…”
The rest of the night was xB asking Wels about his old home and position. Wels was more than happy to explain his daily routine and the kinds of quests he handed out. He was also able to recite some of the main historic points of the server, that section of his memory remaining mostly intact. At some point, xB took out a notebook and scribbled away in it, asking clarifying questions.
It was… nice. No one had ever asked Wels about his life story. Well, except Scar. But Scar had never asked what it was like to be updated on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. Scar never asked Wels about his emotions towards players. Scar never asked Wels about the history of the city and how long Wels had stood in that one spot.
The two ended up falling asleep at some point in the middle of their conversation.
That night, Wels dreamed of castle walls and familiar streets surrounding him. And for once, it didn’t feel stifling as he wandered his regular route through the city that had been his home.
xB and Wels climbed a mountain the next two days, with two close calls with a pair of zombies when Wels accidentally fell into a cave. But he had successfully escaped with xB covering him with a bow.
When they reached the top, they looked out across a large dessert, with a village in the distance.
“I vote we camp here for the night and head down in the morning,” xB suggested, and Wels easily agreed.
Camp was much the same, only it was Wels asking xB about growing up under the ocean with his family. xB eagerly answered each question with enthusiasm and expressive hand movements, sometimes acting out stories. It was a lot of fun.
Wels must have dozed off again at some point, as he woke suddenly, finding the fire only embers and the moon high in the sky. He quickly stoked the fire back to life, worried about any wandering mobs.
It was then that he realized xB’s sleeping bag was empty.
Wels stood up and looked around, squinting into the darkness. It took a minute, but he was eventually able to make out a vaguely humanoid shape just down the hill. He lit a torch and grabbed his sword before carefully making his way down.
As he approached he could hear… crying. Or at least, Wels was pretty sure it was crying. But as he drew closer, the sobs stilled and xB quickly wiped at his eyes and nose. He turned and faced Wels with a smile, “Hey!”
“...What is wrong?” Wels asked, a bit hesitant.
xB looked like he was about to deny the question. Then he paused and looked at Wels. Closely. The smile died and xB let out a sigh. “...Just missing someone.”
“Oh,” Wels bit his lip. “Are they… gone?”
“We… don’t know,” xB softly said. “He might be? But…” He sighed. “X is beating himself up for it but it’s not his fault. It’s no one’s fault.”
Wels frowned. “X?”
“Yeah,” xB huffed. “You should know. You saw it first hand.”
Wels thought back on that first week.
“It’s my fault. It should have been me.”
“I just… deserve it.”
Oh.
…
Oh.
“Is that why X hates me?” Wels couldn’t help but ask.
xB blinked. His expression turned even more pained. “Wels, you did the right thing. Telling someone.”
“But…” Wels shook his head, “He won’t talk to me. He won’t even look at me at the dinners.”
“None of that,” xB scolded. “X is just going through some hard things right now and he’s choosing to blame you. But you did nothing wrong. Keralis wouldn’t want X punishing himself for something that was not his fault.” xB took Wels’ hand and squeezed it, reassuringly. “And no matter what X thinks… it was not his fault.”
Wels nodded. “...Okay.”
“He’ll get over it,” xB said. “Eventually. Just give him time.”
“Okay.”
“Come on. It’s late. We should get back to bed.”
It was Wels’ fault.
Or at least, he thought it was his fault.
It was another day later and xB had just been discussing their route back. Wels had been so focused on cooking the steak properly that he didn’t see the skeleton that sneaked up and took a shot.
xB had time to look surprised before disappearing in a flurry of particles and an explosion of items.
Wels drew his bow and shot the skeleton three times before the thing finally fell. Enchanted bow and enchanted pants was not a kind combination. He quickly picked up the items that xB had left behind, then ducked into one of the village houses for the night. He’d just wait for xB to return and then they’d wander off together.
It was only several hours later that Wels realized that, oh yeah, they were almost four days out from the spawn area and neither xB or Wels had looked at the coordinates.
And Wels didn’t actually know how to look at the coordinates.
Oh dear.
Okay, Wels had options.
He could just die and pop back to spawn. It wouldn’t be “pleasant” in any sense of the word (respawn wasn’t pleasant, ever) but it was the easiest thing to do. Problem with that: Wels happened to like these tools and he was pretty sure xB felt the same way about the equipment he left behind on his death. And the last thing Wels wanted to do was force both of them to have to start over.
Second option: he could try and figure his way back to spawn. He certainly knew his way from the desert village to the beach. Problem with that was Wels wasn’t sure if xB had just swam in a straight line or had taken some detours across that giant ocean.
Third option was to stay put and wait for someone to find him. Also not the best option, seeing as he was… well, somewhere. He wasn’t even sure. And if he didn’t know where he was, how was anyone going to find him?
Wels looked over at the bed where the villager was currently sleeping in. He kind of envied the barebones NPC–
They didn’t have to worry about things like getting lost.
The next morning, Wels left the village and began to head back to the beach.
Was it the greatest idea? Probably not. But it seemed like the best idea to get closer to spawn, at the very least.
It was about half-way up the mountain that he realized this was the first time he had been alone since…
Well, he didn’t know. Maybe ever. NPC’s never slept and even on the quest with the group there was usually someone who stayed up late or woke up in the middle of the night from stress or something. And at Scott’s, he had just spent most of his time in the bar.
There was that first day on the server, but it had only been half a day and TFC had kept him company after that. But he had spent the entire night and morning alone.
Should… should he be worried about that? He didn’t think so. To be honest, he was kind of enjoying the hike, all by himself. It gave him some time to just… think. And enjoy the sights and sounds of the world.
There were birds chirping somewhere in the distance. The trees were thick enough to provide some shade, but not thick enough to block out the light. As such, the ground appeared speckled with yellow and green. Whenever Wels paused to drink some water, he’d turn back towards the desert and take in the view of the valley.
From a distance, he could see the shimmering heat reflected off the sand. The wind swirled, carrying a few tumbleweeds across– barely specks in the distance. An iron golem had somehow wandered quite a way from the village, the sun reflecting off its shiny surface.
It was… well, it was amazing. It was beautiful. There were too many words he could use that Wels didn’t know off the tip of his tongue.
He kept climbing.
The wind blew hard enough to keep him cool, but gentle enough that it didn’t feel like he’d be yanked off the mountain. At some point, Wels took his helmet off and just felt the wind blow through his hair.
He never would have appreciated this as an NPC.
The sun was low when he reached the top of the mountain. Wels set up camp at the remains of the old one, laying out his sleeping mat. The fire burned low enough that he could clearly stare up at the sky, decorated in stars. He saw a shooting star, and then another one, then another one.
The night air was cool, especially on top of the mountain. Wels curled up close to the fire and wrapped one of xB’s blankets around him, before falling asleep.
He awoke to the sunrise, watching the hues of the sky turn to pinks, oranges, yellows, and finally blue. For breakfast, he made some pork and eggs– a common enough breakfast with Ren and Iskall. Then he packed up camping, being extra sure that the fire was out, and then it was down the other side of the mountain.
Downhill always goes faster than uphill, which allowed for Wels to make it to the beach several hours before the sun set. He took the time to use xB’s fishing rod to catch some dinner, and spent some time searching the sand for seashells and anything interesting. By sheer circ*mstances he found a buried treasure with some diamonds, gold, and prismarine. He pocketed the items, noting his inventory to be… very full.
Anything he deemed not of current use was piled into the chest boat. Once his inventory was deemed satisfactory, Wels went about cooking dinner and setting up camp, once again. He watched the sunset as he ate his rather plain fish (he was not confident enough in his cooking ability to touch any of xB’s spices, no thank you).
It was around this moment that Wels remembered he had a com unit.
To be fair, Wels had turned off the buzzing notifications several weeks ago, due to some kind of argument in the public chat that Wels had not wanted any part in.
Imagine his surprise when he opened up his com to have 99+ unread chat logs.
…
Wels frowned and scrolled up to the top of the chat, stopping when he found xB’s death message.
Hermitcraft Chat:
xBCrafted was shot by a skeleton
<cubfan135> rip
<GoodTimeWithScar> oof
<xBCrafted> son of a biscuit!
<Renthedog> You alright?
<xBCrafted> peachy
There followed a few random questions of people asking if specific supplies were available, a few questions about the shopping district, and of course, one of Scar’s death loops. Then, sometime around midnight, xB returned to the chat.
Hermitcraft Chat:
<xBCrafted> so I don’t want to alarm anyone
<xBCrafted> but when I died, I got sent back to spawn
<xBCrafted> and Wels is… a few thousand blocks out?
<xBCrafted> he is also not answering his com
<xBCrafted> I’m sure he’s fine, but
<xBCrafted> I’m not sure what to do?
There was no response for several hours, probably due to the lateness of the hour. But, at precisely 3:23 am, someone woke up who was not as polite as xB.
Hermitcraft Chat:
<GoodTimeWithScar> WHAT
<GoodTimeWithScar> WHERE
<GoodTimeWithScar> WELS????
<GoodTimeWithScar> WELS HELLO?
<GoodTimeWithScar> CUB WAKE UP
<GoodTimeWithScar> I’M COMING OVER
The next six or so hours was Scar running around the server and rudely waking anyone up he could find. His behavior spread as Mumbo and TFC joined the waking crusade– albeit, according to the chat, much more polite than barging into rooms and bases, shouting at the top of their lungs.
At this point, Wels exited the main chat and found he had several new chat threads from various people and groups.
Chat Log: Guardians of the Server
>xBCrafted added Welsknight to the chat<
xBCrafted: sorry about that
xBCrafted: skeletons always sneak up on you
xBCrafted: I keep going back and forth on which is worse
xBCrafted: drowned or skeletons
xBCrafted: anyway
xBCrafted: what would you like to do?
xBCrafted: if you just want to shove all our stuff into a chest and go find that skeleton, that’s fine
xBCrafted: we can go get anything we want later
xBCrafted: it might be a little tricky to find, but it can be another adventure
xBCrafted: Wels?
xBCrafted: hello?
xBCrafted: do you know how coms work?
xBCrafted: uh oh
xBCrafted: Wels?
xBCrafted: Wels, if you can see this, there’s a place to type a response below
xBCrafted: it’s just a little gray box
xBCrafted: click on it and then just type
xBCrafted: I’ll wait for a bit for you to figure it out
There was the few hours of silence again and then–
xBCrafted: Wels, if you don’t respond in the next ten minutes I’m telling the server
That was the last message on this particular chat log.
Wels had a sinking feeling he was going to be in trouble. He moved to the next chat log.
Chat Log: Knight Miners
TinfoilChef: Hey Wels
TinfoilChef: You okay?
TinfoilChef: xB just dropped by and said you weren’t answering your com
TinfoilChef: I’m assuming you just forgot about it
TinfoilChef: Just let me know when you see this
TinfoilChef: You’re not in trouble or anything
TinfoilChef: We’re just worried.
This was dated from shortly before xB alerted the server of their predicament.
Okay, so maybe he wasn’t going to be in trouble, but Scar was not going to let him out of his sight for the next three weeks.
Speaking of Scar–
Chat Log: Crafters of the Kingdom
>GoodTimeWithScar added Welsknight to the chat<
>GoodTimeWithScar added cubfan135 to the chat<
>GoodTimeWithScar added iskall85 to the chat<
>GoodTimeWithScar added Renthedog to the chat<
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
GoodTimeWithScar: WAKE UP
Renthedog: Scar it is three in the morning, this better be a good reason
GoodTimeWithScar: WELS IS MISSING
Renthedog: what
Renthedog: iskall
Renthedog: iskall wake up
Renthedog: iskall, I will march over to your house
cubfan135: iskall you better answer
cubfan135: you don’t want to be woken up by Scar slamming your door open and giving you a heart attack
cubfan135: i’m still recovering
GoodTimeWithScar: You’re fine
iskall85: I’m up
iskall85: what
GoodTimeWithScar: WELS IS MISSING
GoodTimeWithScar: Iskall?
GoodTimeWithScar: hello?
Renthedog: Scar, maybe don’t scream that in chat
Renthedog: check the main server chat
GoodTimeWithScar: oh
GoodTimeWithScar: uhhh
GoodTimeWithScar: my bad?
cubfan135: you’re going to have to apologize to xB for setting an angry iskall on him
GoodTimeWithScar: I didn’t know he’d go off on him!
Wels checked the main chat again. And sure enough, there was a giant rant from Iskall, practically screaming at xB about how he could have lost Wels.
And that was pretty much how the next few hours of Wels evening went. He read a chat, jumped to another, jumped back to the main chat, then would go to another one, trying to understand the timeline of events.
Why did he do this instead of responding?
He didn’t think about it until he got a brand new ping.
Chat Log: why do chat logs need a title
Xisumavoid: Wels where are you?
Wels stared at that message. X… was messaging him?
Now?
Was… was he supposed to respond to that? Or maybe he should ignore it (see how he likes it–)?
Wels continued to stare at the screen for… a minute? Two minutes? He wasn’t sure. Then another message popped up.
Xisumavoid: Wels?
Xisumavoid: I know you know how coms work
Xisumavoid: I showed you
Xisumavoid: Can you respond please?
Wels felt a jolt of anger. X wanted him to respond, did he? Maybe he should just keep quiet and sit on the beach to make a point.
Wait, no, people were worried he was gone or something bad had happened.
Okay, he should respond with something.
He clicked on the bar and began to type out, ‘So now you are talking to me,’ only to hesitate on sending it.
xB had mentioned X was going through some hard things right now. And while that didn’t excuse the behavior; it still made Wels hesitate at being angry back. He didn’t like when Mumbo was angry at him. So he probably shouldn’t be that angry back.
Wels deleted the line.
X was still sending messages.
Xisumavoid: Wels?
Xisumavoid: Please?
Xisumavoid: I wanted to have this conversation in person
Xisumavoid: Please don’t make me do this on the chat
Xisumavoid: Wels?
Xisumavoid: I don’t know where you are and you’re not answering your com
Xisumavoid: And I don’t know how to bring you back
Xisumavoid: The server isn’t reading your code correctly
Xisumavoid: Wels, please say something
Wels felt a bit guilty about watching the messages come in and not responding. But he couldn’t help it, watching the lines pop up one after the other.
Xisumavoid: Wels please.
Xisumavoid: I can’t lose anyone else
Xisumavoid: Not now
Xisumavoid: I was going to talk to you at the Hermit dinner this week
Xisumavoid: I’m sorry
Xisumavoid: I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you
Xisumavoid: I’m sorry I got angry
Xisumavoid: I know you just wanted to help
Xisumavoid: And I needed help, I understand that
Xisumavoid: I knew that even then I just didn’t care
Xisumavoid: You didn’t understand things and I took advantage of that
Xisumavoid: That was wrong of me
Xisumavoid: You shouldn’t have had to watch me do that to myself
Xisumavoid: And you were right to tell someone
Xisumavoid: I’m sorry for everything
Xisumavoid: Wels, please
Xisumavoid: Please don’t be dead
Xisumavoid: Please say something
Wels stared at the screen. He didn’t… He wasn’t sure what to say to that. But he did need to say something. X was clearly panicking. But he didn’t know what to say!
After a few minutes, he gave up on guessing and went with the first thing that popped into his head.
Welsknight: Promise you’ll say something back?
Wels blinked and there was a response.
Xisumavoid: Promise
Welsknight: (:
Xisumavoid: Are you okay?
Welsknight: Yes
Xisumavoid: Where are you?
Welsknight: On a beach where xB and I camped a few days ago
Xisumavoid: Why were you not responding to any of our messages?
Welsknight: I may have forgotten about the com
Welsknight: And it also might have been muted
Welsknight: My bad
Xisumavoid: I’ll forgive you if you turn your notifications back on
Xisumavoid: I’m glad you’re okay
Welsknight: I forgive you too
Welsknight: You won’t ignore me anymore?
Xisumavoid: I won’t. Promise.
Welsknight: Great!
Welsknight: What’s a good name for this chat?
Xisumavoid: Uh
Xisumavoid: How about you pick?
Welsknight: Okay!
>Welsknight has renamed the Chat Log to: “Void Knight”<
Welsknight: Is that a good name?
Xisumavoid: It’s
Xisumavoid: It’s a great name
Welsknight: (:
Xisumavoid: Wanna meet up when you’re back?
Welsknight: Sounds good!
Hermitcraft Chat
<Xisumavoid> Wels is fine
<Xisumavoid> He just messaged me
<Xisumavoid> He’s on a beach that xB and him camped on
<Xisumavoid> The reason he didn’t pick up was he forgot about his com unit
<Xisumavoid> He also had his notifications muted
<xBCrafted> Thank Mojang
<GoodTimeWithScar> so are we getting him?
<Welsknight> sorry everyone
<GoodTimeWithScar> WELS
<GoodTimeWithScar> ARE YOU OKAY?
<Welsknight> i am unharmed
<Welsknight> i have enjoyed retracing my steps
<Welsknight> the world is very pretty
<cubfan135> he’s fine
<TinfoilChef> What are your coordinates, Wels?
<Welsknight> I do not know
<FalseSymmetry> Go to the tabs at the top of your com
<FalseSymmetry> One is called F3
<FalseSymmetry> click on that one
<Welsknight> that is a lot of words and numbers I do not understand
<Renthedog> Says everyone who ever touches that tab
<MumboJumbo> What you are looking for three numbers next to three letters
<MumboJumb> X, Y, and Z
<Welsknight> I think I found it!
<GoodTimeWithScar> Great! Tell us and we’ll come rescue you
<Welsknight> I do not require rescuing?
<Welsknight> I am unharmed
<Welsknight> What way is spawn?
<GoodTimeWithScar> You want to walk all the way back to spawn?
<Welsknight> yes
<TinfoilChef> Let him
<TinfoilChef> The worst that can happen is he respawns back at spawn anyway
<Welsknight> I like adventures!
<joehillssays> you heard the man
<joehillssays> the mesa we’re at is X: -1200 Z: 1400
<TinfoilChef> If you need any help, just say
<TinfoilChef> Enjoy your trip home!
<Welsknight> I will!
