It stared at him. He stared back.

A tiny blue bird let out a tweet of anger and blinked, looking away.

"Yes! I won! In your face, Professor Beak!" Grian shouted loudly, pumping his fist and rattling the circular windows of his tiny hobbit hole.

The little parrot gave another indignant squawk, and hopped to Grian's shoulder, giving him a tiny nip of affection. Grian poured a handful of seeds into the bird's enclosure, and the feathery pet eagerly flapped back over to gobble them up. Grian straightened. It was odd, being back here. It had been a while. He had come here to deposit some more doors and to check up on Professor beak, and all seemed to be in order.

His footsteps padded out of the doorless entrance. He absentmindedly began to kick along a piece of birch left on the floor, the only remnant of the wooden doors that once stood there.

A warm, humid breeze tugged at his cloak as he swep outside. Equipping his elytra awkwardly over his wings, he leaped off the ground. A small flash lit up the jungle as he fired off a rocket, propelling him through the leafy canopy. As he glided over the jungle landscape, he had an idea. He should go visit Mumbo! However, as he approached, he had an gut feeling that Mumbo wouldn't be there. He checked his communicator, and a new message from Scar glowed on the screen. He alighted upon the top of a tree and read it. Grinning, he turned back towards his base. It was time.

Once he arrived, he searched through the chests, finally finding what he was looking for. In his hand he held a clear flask with a bent neck. It was filled with a pearlescent, almost metallic-looking liquid. It was an odd shade of cloudy indigo. As Grian held it, the glow from his hand made it look like the smoke from the crater. Grian took off again, tucking the bottle into his inventory.

He would watch them from the shadows, invisibly.

~ ⬩ ⎓∷𝙹ᒲ ⬩ ~

Scar had just alighted upon the roof of the townhouse. He folded his elytra, and inspected his work. The townhouse was magnificent, overlooking the entire shopping district. He jumped down, and looked at the massive tower of glittering gems, refracting light into rainbows that were crawling along the walls. The Diamond Throne was many times taller than him. He sighed, wondering who would eventually get to sit upon such a glorious throne.

He turned, and that's when he noticed the tower. It was spooky, and gave off the same vibe as the ones he had seen out the window on the day the world broke. He glided down, tripping as he landed, and inspected the building curiously. It rose out of the water just off the shore of the shopping district. It was dark, foreboding, and eerie. Scar didn't want to enter alone.

"What is this?" He asked himself aloud.

Sitting on the shore of the island, he typed out a message on his communicator.

ᐸGoodTimeWithScarᐳ Guys I found something.
ᐸGoodTimeWithScarᐳ Come to the shopping district.

After a few minutes, Mumbo arrived, along with Ren. They alighted next to Scar.

"It's over there- see it in the water?" He asked them, pointing towards the massive structure.

The three hermits stood for a moment, staring at the imposing column of stone.

"Well what're we waiting for? Let's go!" Exclaimed Ren, cracking a smile, "I'll race ya!"

With that, they all rushed down to the entrance of the temple, the shadow of the huge obsidian arch casting an ominous shadow over them. Tall purple glass windows let an eerie purple glow seep across the sandstone floors.

"I wonder who made this?" Whispered Scar curiously as he took a step forward.

Ren stepped forward too, glancing about with interest, "Dunno man. This is creepy."

"Be careful!" Admonished Mumbo as Scar reached out to touch the glass, "Remember what happened to Keralis?"

Scar quickly drew back his hand.

"Well," He mentioned quietly, "we don't know for sure that this was made by... whatever did the other thing."

Ren, who had moved farther into the temple by now, called them forward eagerly, "Would ya look at this? There's a riddle..."

Scar hopped up alongside his friend, brimming with curiosity, and read the signs on the wall.

"Oh! I think that part is about my big dig!" He exclaimed, pointing at one of the verses, "Grian lent me some TNT for that, he said he has a lot."

"Land of snow? There's a snow biome?" Inquired Mumbo.

Ren crouched, preparing to fly off.

"Well, let's find out! Anyhoosie, I'm interested in these 'great rewards', aren't ya?" He grinned, retrieving a rocket from his inventory.

Scar chortled in amusement at Ren's remark, and produced some rockets of his own. Soaring into the sky, he tried to do a small loop-dee-doo, before giving up and gliding in lazy circles, waiting for his friends' company. The other two hermits blasted into the sky after him, and they resumed chatting, filling the heavens with the sound of their merriment.

Unbeknownst to the three buddies, someone had been hidden nearby. A sudden gust of wind was stirred up as a fourth hermit silently followed them into the icy blue sky.

~ ⬩ ℸ ̣⍑ᒷ ⬩ ~

They had arrived at the Big Dig. The gaping wound in the earth opened up before them, messy outcroppings of stone protruding out at odd angles. A massive circular wall composed of white concrete outlined the hole, providing a neat frame to the messy pit. The charred rocks bore a layer of dust, the powdered remains of the rock that had once been there.

"Aaand that's where I died..." Sighed Scar, pointing at a smaller, more charred crater in a small cranny of the rock.

Mumbo stifled a chuckle, and absentmindedly kicked a rock into the pit, sending it clicking and clacking down the stony slopes.

"Sooooo it said to go West, right?" Asked Ren, spinning this way and that, holding his communicator in front of him. He pushed a few buttons, and after a moment The display now showed their current coordinates, biome, direction facing, and more info that Ren didn't really care about at the moment.

"Yeah... that way! I think?" Said Mumbo with uncertainty, now also holding his communicator in front of his face. The light from the screen made his already pale skin look a drained, deathly shade of white. Scar pushed past both of them, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" and with that Scar took off.

Mumbo paused, watching the wizard wing away, "so, um...uh..." He stammered.

"Yeah we should probably tell him..." Ren said, his eyes twinkling with glee.

He and Mumbo watched Scar glide away for a second, struggling against their own exuberance. Mumbo typed two small words into his communicator. Ren's communicator buzzed softly.

ᐸMumbo Jumboᐳ That's South.

~ ⬩ ᔑᓭ⍑ᒷᓭ ⬩ ~

They had finally found it. All three of them were covered in dust and bits of snow from the long dig downwards. Mumbo had thought they had the wrong place because they had had to mine downwards so far, but Ren had been sure. Just as the moustached man was about to concede, he had found himself falling into an eerie chamber. Once he had regained his bearings, he called up to the others with triumph, and they soon followed, tumbling down next to him into the massive underground tunnel. It was huge, arching pillars of chalky sandstone rising up the sides of the wall. The group of friends moved forwards slowly. Small torches, aflame and imprisoned behind purple glass danced in their brackets. The fire cast a flickering purple light around the spooky tunnel, and obsidian mingled with bedrock on the floor.

After a short stroll, Stairs led them upwards. Scar started off first, and gasped as he reached the top. Emerging in step with Ren, Mumbo also gaped in awe at what he saw before him. A massive wall of twisting purple glass blocked their way. A pattern of glowstone set into the ceiling shone a nearly blinding violet light into the cave. With only three blocks of space, the floor was carpeted with pressure plates. Stone, iron, gold, and all of the wood variants mingled together in strange patterns on the floor. Scar started sprinting forward.

"What are you doin', Scar?" Ren inquired, a slight note of worry in his voice.

"It's just a trick guys!" He sang happily. "No-one has that much TNT!"

"Scar..." Mumbo started worriedly.

"Cmon its totally sa—"

Tss...

Scar was abruptly cut off by the hiss of an explosive being lit. The ground he was standing on began to fall out beneath him. He cried out as he slipped down. The others watched helplessly from the edge of the plates, unable to assist as their friend fell towards his demise. Scar's yells abruptly cut off as an explosion shook the walls, dust raining down on them from the ceiling. Ren and Mumbo's communicators buzzed, and they both winced at the message displayed.

Goodtimewithscar blew up

"Oh Scar..." both hermits sighed in unison, and they chuckled dully while they waited for their wizard companion to return.

~ ⬩ 𝙹⎓ ⬩ ~

"NO NO NOT THAT ONE!" Hollered Ren just before Mumbo's foot touched down, "look at the ceiling!"

Mumbo quickly slid his foot back. Scar had only just returned, after having set off the TNT under one of the many, many pressure plates carpeting the floor. They had puzzled out that the lights at the very roof of the cavern made a safe path. It was like an invisible, deadly maze. The pressure plates sat on top of sand that was held up by tnt. Once the TNT is ignited, however, the sand is free to cave in and fall, and the one who occupied the area will plummet to their death.

"Alright, ya need to take a step to the right—no, left—yeah that's it." Ren coached him along carefully.

Mumbo took a risk, and sprinted to the safety of the pale yellow stone, the end of the pressure plate maze. The plate he had just ran over quickly sunk into the floor, and another loud shockwave echoed dully through the ground. He sighed in relief as he touched down, and Ren and Scar cheered from the other side of the puzzle. Suddenly, Mumbo spun on his heel. He could have sworn he had just heard a pressure plate click behind him. Shrugging it off, he reached out to touch the chest. As he did, a small flicker of movement caught his eye. He whirled again.

"Everything alright over there?" Asked Scar, his face bearing a worried expression.

"Y-yeah..." Stuttered Mumbo with mild distress. After one last nervous glance about, he opened the chest. His eyebrows raised as he eyed the contents.
That must've taken ages to mine. He thought.

He quickly grasped the items, and made his way cautiously back through the maze.

Click.

There it was again. There was someone, something else here with them. Mumbo called to his waiting buddies fearfully. "I think there's someone here!"

"Ya just need to go straight!" Hollered Ren, having completely misheard what Mumbo said. Mumbo tried to punch the air a few times, but when he hit nothing, he figured he was simply making himself look like a fool. He could hear Scar struggling to restrain his laughter as Mumbo struck out at the air around him. The redstoner decided to forget it for the time being, and rushed over the final few plates.

However, as he showed his friends his findings, he couldn't shake off a terrible, spine-chilling feeling.

The feeling that he was being watched.

...

I don't think even votes can save Scar from himself... but leave one anyway, ok?
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