Y'all already be liking this book?! A... lot? 

That's... unexpected. 

Grian landed smoothly among the group of other hermits, joining most of the other Boatem members. Xisuma paced along the riding trail, with EX trying to calm him down behind. It didn't take long for every hermit - excluding Gem - to be there, and he started to speak. 

'Ok... who's been near Gem recently?' He asked. Grian glanced around at the rest of the group as a few hermits tentatively raised their hands, including all of the big-eye crew. Scar and Grian caught each other's eyes, remembering the party. Bdubs had been there, and he'd been acting weird. Was this some kind of disease? Was it contagious. 

'Was she acting weird when you were there?' 

'She wanted to show us something...' Tango frowned as he tried to remember what it was. 'But I can't seem to...'

'Hello, everyone!' Gem peered out from the birch forest. She didn't look that different, except a bronze crown on her head and plants tangled into her hair. 'What are you all doing here?' 

'What happened? Are you alright?' Xisuma asked back. 'There are weird plants around you base and...'

'You like them? Someone invisible gave me magic powers. And I can give them to other hermits as well! You want to see?'

Gem approached excitedly out of the trees. She was covered in plants, and held a large stick, crawling with vines with a couple of green jewels hanging off different branches. Xisuma stepped away. 

'No, no, let me show you!' 

A burst of glitching green light shot from the stick, straight at X. Doc ran over, shoving him right out of the firing line, taking the blow himself. 

'DOC! NO!' Ren dashed to his friend's side. He was keeled over, and lightning flickered from his fingers, bright blue and deadly. Grian stepped towards him to see, but Mumbo held him back. 

'Wha...what is this stuff?' Doc muttered. 'It's not normal...'

'Are you alright?' Ren asked, quivering. 

'I'm... fine, I think...' 

'See? It's amazing!' Gem giggled. 

'What.' Ren snarled back. 'Did you do?' He was about to attack when Gem shot another burst of her weird magic at him. He whined as it hit him, crouching to the ground, his dog ears and tail turning into that of... a cat?

'RenCat?!' Scar couldn't help but say aloud, unable to hide the hint of chaos-loving happiness at the rebirth of the Convex prank from so long ago. Cub looked over at him, and the two met eyes for a moment, before looking over at Ren. 

Doc hissed, just like a creeper, and scuttled away from his friend. Ren meowed curiously back. 

'Scar, what were you and Cub doing after I'd left the party?!' Grian whispered into his friend's ear. 

'Nothing!'

'I thought RenCat was your doing before...'

'Before, yes. But now? Of course I wouldn't do something like this!' He sounded genuinely hurt at Grian's suspicion.

'Right. Everyone stay away from Gem.' Xisuma decided. 

'Why? I'm not doing any harm!' The join-newest hermit whined back. 'I'm trying to be nice!' 

'Doc's now terrified of his best friend. How is this nice?' Pearl replied coldly. Gem turned to her. 

'See for yourself!' 

There was nothing she could do as the same magic hit her. But there wasn't any evident change at first. The Aussie frowned, mildly amused. 

'Well, clearly it doesn't work on me. Maybe you'll get affected by it, because everything's opposite when it comes to Australians.' Suddenly, she glitched into a kangaroo, then back to her normal self in a matter of seconds.

'See?' 

'Shape...shifting? Huh, I guess you're right. That is pretty cool...' 

'I told you!' 

'Like I was saying, no one is allowed to get near Gem. I have no idea on the range of this thing, so just stay away from this entire area, ok?' Xisuma turned his back on the now-magical hermit, who promptly fired another burst of green at him. 

An axolotl tail appeared behind him, but apart from that, not much changed. Gem laughed at the sight of the admin's new appendage, swishing about behind him. Even EX could barely hold in his humour. 

'This meeting has now ended...' Xisuma sighed. Grian grabbed Scar's hand, and pulled him behind the pass n' gas.

'Alright. What did you do?' 

'W...what?'

'The ability to turn hermits into animals, or give them animally powers? RenCat? The fact that you're one of the only hermits in this world already with magic?'

'I gave it up going into Season 8! I swear!' 

'Yeah, I can tell that from the fact I found your old vex mask in your base.' It was a blow Grian didn't expect to hurt as much as it did. Scar didn't even bother to reply as he flew away, leaving the builder furious and alone. He looked around for someone else he could talk to, running over to Cub, just as he was about to set off.

'Hey, Cub... can I talk to you about something?'

'Sure, what is it?' 

'It's... about Scar.' Cub frowned at his friend's name.

'Go on?'

'I wanted to know if he was acting weird at all after I left the party.' 

'No? He seemed normal. Why are you asking?'

'Because I think he might've caused this.' Grian signalled pathetically over to where Gem was. 

'You thin'?'

'I mean... he likes animals? And he has magic...' even as he spoke, he realised how rubbish it sounded. 'And RenCat.' 

'If it was anything to do with the vexes, he would've told me.' Cub sounded certain, so Grian gave up on the thought, looking around. He noticed Scar watching with an unreadable expression, before he left. Grian spoke again.

'He wants to hang out with you more.' 

'Who? Scar?' 

'Yeah... He messaged you in chat about hanging out.'

'Really? Must've missed it...' 

'Well, I should head back to my base. I've got lots of plans. See you around, Cub.'

'Bye, G,'

'Oh, and well done again for winning Tegg.' Grian added before he flew off. 

Yesterday, me and my Mum were doing an A-Z of shops. 

I said Sahara for S.