[Grian]

The whole world shattered around me, or that's what it felt like. All I saw was the mask that laid on the white concrete floor. Next to it laid a letter that said:

'We are watching.'

I grabbed the letter with shaky hands. It lit up on flames and the ashes fell on the floor. I watched them fall of the mask in front of me.

"It's not everyday you see a Watcher burning a letter of their own," a raspy, accented voice spoke from above me. I raised my head to see a Watcher with wings black as the darkness of the night.

"W-was it you who did this..?" I called our raising my shaky voice. I didn't know if I even wanted to know the truth behind the action.

"You don't want to know how many graves I had to dig up before finding the right one," they answer. The way they said it was so casual, it was like they didn't see anything wrong with it.

"What do you want from me...? Why are you here...?" I spoke in a tone that was turning hysterical. I was loosing the battle against my emotions and my whole body was shaking violently.

"Well, I don't exactly want anything from you, but my master, in fact, wants you dead. I'm just the messenger, you know," they answered, crouching down on the edge of the upper layer of the building.

"W-what do you mean..?" I whispered, knowing they would hear it.

"I don't know why he wants it, but that's what he wants," they answered. We both knew that they were lying, it was so obvious, but yet, I didn't say anything.

          The silence that had fallen between us was broken by the buzzing of my communicator. I picked it up, keeping my eyes on the Watcher. The look on their face told that they knew what it was about, and I didn't like that, not at all.

¬The Council¬

Spam (Mao)
We have (15.03)
A problem. (15.03)
A Rookie has gone (15.03)
And gotten herself (15.03)
Killed! (15.04)
She and her friends (15.04)
Went to Hypixel (15.04)
After a player (15.05)
Hurried to the lobby (15.05)
And told about (15.05)
An attack. (15.05)

The Bitch (Edita)
They went there without
informing us about it? (15.05)

CoPpEr (Friede)
That's not good.. (15.06)

The Child (Sherenidy)
All Main Admins, Lead Watchers
and Mea, Topi and Lupin! (15.06)
Go to Hypixel! (15.06)
The rest of us will be ready
incase of another attack by
the black winged Watchers! (15.07)

Stop stealing my shit! (Tatton)
I saw some of our spies from
the Watchers' Academy. They said
that the students had started acting
kinda weird. (15.07)

The Evil Twin (Xenex)
The Academy hides a huge
legion of black winged Watchers. (15.08)
The students most likely saw them
getting ready to go out. (15.08)

The Cool Leader (Alden)
We need to be prepared. (15.09)

Bonk with a frying pan (Jaylee)
The Lead Watchers have all left! (15.09)

The Betrayer (In Monopoly) (Leslie)
The asked Rookies have left too! (15.10)

I got a needle and I'll stab you with it (Haylie)
The medical center is ready
incase someone gets injured! (15.10)

          I stood frozen. My heartbeat was fastening and I felt the fear and shock raising. I knew we were in war, but I always kept pushing the thought back, until things started getting serious again.

My eyes raised from the communicator and met the white mask of the Watcher. I stared straight where their eyes were. I didn't need to know what they looked like under the mask to be able to tell where their eyes were and what kind of look was in them.

"You knew what had happened..." I said, knowing that we both had already known that. I was just saying out the obvious things, even if that wouldn't have been that necessary.

"My master has spies everywhere. He knows what's going on. I just happened to know what happened because I was a part of it. I know what's going to happen because I've heard them plan it out. I know where the Watchers will attack," they answered like the thing I had said had been a question.

"Why are you doing this...?" I asked, not knowing what I had exactly meant with that.

"I'm just a messenger, I don't decide what I do. You probably know how slavery works among Watchers, that's how I work," they answered with no emotions. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to leave."

I didn't get a change to say anything before they were already gone, disappeared to the air like ashes to the wind.

I was left alone, with the broken mask in my hands.

[No one]

          "Have you heard about what happened?" Biffa asked, turning to look at the other admins of Hermitcraft.

"Do you mean what happened with the Rookie Admin?" Joe raised his eyebrows and looked up from the book he had been reading.

"Yep, that's what I mean," Biffa nodded and sat down on a chair next to the table they were all by.

"I heard about it. Apparently the Rookie had stormed into the fight without informing the rest of The Council. The Mains and Leads are pretty furious by the action," Xisuma spoke up. He had asked his brother about it and had gotten a small reply, but no bigger details.

"The fight is still going on and Hypixel is closed from outsiders. I bet that the Rookies will get quite a lecture when their seniors come back," Biffa pointed out. "I don't know if it's just me, but do you guys too think that The Council is mainly in the hands of The Mains and Leads?"

"I have to agree with you. For example, the fights never include Rookies," Joe agreed.

"I've spoken to a member of The Council and apparently it's just because The Rookies aren't strong enough yet. The creature they're fighting is really strong and uses deadly spells. It would be a suicide mission for The Rookies," Xisuma answered. That's what he had heard from Xenex, but he wasn't exactly sure if it was true. Sometimes he felt like Xenex wasn't telling the whole truth and that there were way more things hidden.

"Then what's the purpose of The Rookies?" Biffa wondered out loud. "Aren't they supposed to be as equal as the other members?"

"I don't know, but I have to leave now. I promised to go speak with Iskall and Mumbo. They're worried about Grian and want to speak about it with me," Xisuma said. Biffa and Joe nodded, letting him leave the room and take off towards the direction of the shopping district.

         "So, what did you exactly want to talk about?" Xisuma asked as he landed in front of Iskall and Mumbo.

"We wanted to talk about Grian, as you probably already knew. We are worried that there's something going on with him that's he's not telling us," Iskall answered.

"He sometimes acts weird and leaves the server a lot. When he leaves he sometimes doesn't answer our messages and has lately missed a few planned meetings," Mumbo continued.

"Have you asked him if he has another server he goes to?" Xisuma inquired.

"He hasn't said anything about it. That's actually what we wanted to ask from you since you can access the players' files," Iskall admitted, making Xisuma sigh.

"If you want to know something like that, you should ask him. It's personal information that I can't just go handing out like some sort of news paper," the admin answered.

"But X, what if he doesn't have a server and is getting in trouble somewhere?" Mumbo said. "We don't think that he'll tell us, so can you please do it?"

"Fine, I can check out if he has a server, but I won't give you any other kind of information," Xisuma agreed with a sigh and pulled up his admin screen.

"Thank you, X!" Iskall smiled.

"That's weird," the admin muttered after looking at the screen. "Looks like his information is protected by something. Most likely he comes from a server that has a more powerful admin that me," he said.

"So you can't access any information about him?" Mumbo asked in shock.

"Looks like it, but it's not like he's the only one who has this problem. There are other players here too who have come from servers with powerful admins," Xisuma explained. "Incase of an emergency I can ask our Watchers to get an admin from The Council to access the files, but this isn't an emergency, so I can't do that," He continued.

"I guess we just have to go speak to Grian then," Iskall sighed.

"I don't think that he's meaning to avoid you or anything like that. It could be that he just has some drama going on in his life that he doesn't want to drag you into," Xisuma pointed out.

"I think you're right," Mumbo admitted. "Maybe we're just worrying too much."

[No one]

          A Watcher looked at a younger Watcher in front of him. His hidden eyes were full of disgust and annoyance.

"Tell me, my dear, why is he still alive after you visited him?" he asked from them.

"I don't think you asked me to kill him," they answered hesitatedly, but were suddenly doubting themselves.

"Well, I didn't ask you to kill him. I told you to do so!" he exclaimed, making them feel like their life flashed in front of their eyes.

"I'm sorry... I misunderstood.. My bad.." they whispered quietly, knowing that they were in huge trouble.

"An apology won't be enough, you know that, don't you?" he said, taking a step closer to them.

"I'm so sorry!" they exclaimed.

"That's just disrespectful," he warned as he put his hands around their throat.

"╎'ᒲ ᓭ𝙹 ᓭ𝙹∷∷||, ᒲᔑᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ∷ 𝙹リᒷ⚍ᓭ! ╎'ᒲ ᓭ𝙹 ᓭ𝙹∷∷||! !¡ꖎᒷᔑᓭᒷ ⎓𝙹∷⊣╎⍊ᒷ ᒲᒷ, ᒲᔑᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ∷ 𝙹リᒷ⚍ᓭ! ╎'ᒲ ᓭ𝙹 ᓭ𝙹∷∷||!" they screamed before he lifted them up, making them choke.

"It's too late for that," he hummed and ripped the mask off of their face, revealing two black eyes that were full of terror.

He placed his hand on their face and with one movement dug his fingers into their left eye socket, pulling the eye out. They screamed in pain as the bloody eyeball hit the floor.

"That's not enough," he cooed and slammed them against the hard, stone floor.

"ᒲᔑᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ∷ 𝙹リᒷ⚍ᓭ, !¡ꖎᒷᔑᓭᒷ! ╎'ᒲ ᓭ𝙹∷∷||! ╎'ᒲ ᓭ𝙹 ᓭ𝙹∷∷||, !¡ꖎᒷᔑᓭᒷ ⎓𝙹∷⊣╎⍊ᒷ ᒲᒷ!" they screamed, but it was no use as his knife buried into their back, right between their black wings, making the wings useless.

He tossed their almost lifeless body against the wall and turned around.

"You're just wasting my time," he said before walking away.

Words: 1822

[9.2.2022]

(Another birthday! Now it's Leslie's. Today's also my older dog's birthday and tomorrow is the younger's.)

(My drawing skills didn't work today-)

(My guess is that Leslie's 18 now. And my guess was right.)

(5 facts:

1. I drew her as a Lead, even though she's still a Rookie on the moment. She was originally introduced around these times and became a Lead almost immediately. Now she got more time as a Rookie.

2. Her full name is Levana Lakewind.

3. She's from the Original Nether and has Nether burns and Void burns on her skin.

4. She was the first Rookie leader.

5. She's physically strong, but mentally weak, making her easy to manipulate. (If you come from the original books, you know where that references to.))