Pix landed next to Oli, laughing as the blonde let out a startled shriek, shouting something indiscernible. The bard only calmed down remotely when he realised who it was, but Oli still shoved Pix lamely, pulling his tongue at the brunette as he continued to laugh. "Shut up! Its not funny!"

"It is- pretty funny." His gaze flicked to the shovel in Oli's hands. "Didn't we both come to the conclusion that using a shovel was a very ineffective way of removing sculk?" Pix added skeptically, and Oli rolled his eyes.

"Well- I- I'm sure- I was just-" The blonde dropped the shovel immediately, shrugging. "Shut up." He repeated again, although there was no heat or real anger behind his words. "What are you here for anyway? Do you have any news about Shelby, or are you just here to make fun of me?"

"No! Not at all!" Pix amended hastily. "I wish I had news about Shelby, but nobody's seen anything of her. I just wanted to- uh- give you. Something. I just- found it when I was looking through a dungeon with Joey, who dragged me along with him to 'plunder' the dungeon, and I... thought you might like it?"

The brunette reached into his pockets, producing a necklace with a silver chain that had a somewhat translucent amethyst crystal attached to it. The crystal was chipped in places, but otherwise it was in pretty good shape.

Oli blinked. "Uh- is that... for me?" He asked slowly, squinting at it suspiciously as if he would suddenly get shot or something if he picked it up.

"Yes, it's for you. I just thought you'd like it. I can- you don't have to take it if you don't-" Pix broke off as Oli quietly took the necklace off of him, slipping the necklace over his head and smiling slightly as the amethyst hit his chest lightly with a barely noticeable thud.

"No, I'll- take it. Thanks." The blonde added, shooting Pix a slightly uncharacteristically gentle smile and hugging him quickly before stepping away. Pix felt his face go slightly red (or incredibly red, he couldn't quite tell) as he smiled back, and maybe it was the lighting, or maybe he'd seen it wrong, but Oli's face looked slightly red as well. There was a small awkward silence before Oli spoke again. "So- has more sculk been appearing in your empire? Or does Shelby just hate me and Sausage specifically?"

Pix for some reason felt a slight twinge of disappointment, pausing before responding. "No, it's not just you." He said with a laugh. "It's been all over my empire. Too bad I don't have Joe to help me clean it up now- although there is noticeably less holes in my path now. There's some in Tumble Town and Animalia as well, but I haven't been to any other empires since then." The brunette added with a shrug. "I was gonna head to Chromia after this to check, actually- you wanna come with me? Or are you gonna spend another three hours digging up sculk with a shovel?" Pix added, grinning as Oli shoved him again with a cross huff.

"I will come with you. But not because I'm bored of digging up sculk!" Oli added.

"I'd be more concerned if you were enjoying digging up sculk." Pix said wryly, earning himself a poorly aimed kick from Oli, who promptly fell as he unbalanced himself, using Pix to steady himself before straightening.

"Don't you dare laugh!" The bard protested hastily, and Pix barely held back laughter as Oli stumbled away. "Let me go get my elytra real quick! Don't leave without me!" The blonde added sharply.

——

Pix bit back a joking comment as Oli practically crashed into a building, getting to his feet swiftly. Oli glanced around, pulling a face. "Oh, wow, there is a lot of sculk here-" The blonde lamely kicked a vine that had begun to wrap around his ankle.

"Yeah... a concerning amount, actually." Pix added, sucking in a breath through his teeth and wincing slightly. "The only other place I've seen with this much is the Evermoore."

"Well that implies something not very good. Where the hell is Scott anyway? He stole something from me and I want it back." Oli added.

"Oh, good luck getting that back. When he stole something from me, he wouldn't even admit that he'd stolen it." Pix said with a snort of laughter, glancing around. "No idea where Scott is, admittedly." The brunette added, looking around again anxiously. He felt incredibly uneasy- the whole empire just didn't seem right.

The two froze slightly at the sound of mildly irritated laughter from behind them. "Oh- Pix! And Oli. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Although Scott's voice still sounded as playful and light-hearted as it usually was, it also simultaneously sounded rather blank and emotionless as well, similar to Shelby's.

Pix stared as he turned around. It can infect more than one person? That's not good. Scott, like Shelby, had glowing vines coiled around random parts of his outfit, and his eyes were also completely dark.

Oli let out an alarmed shriek. "WHAT- YOU- AND- HUH?!" The blonde reached for his rockets, swearing under his breath as he dropped them and diving for them quickly.

"Why are you leaving?" Scott pouted, pulling a sad face that was incredibly hard to believe. "You just got here. And according to Shelby, you have some incredibly wrong views on the sculk- but I'm sure I can change your mind if you just give me about five minutes of your time." The cyan haired man added with a slightly psychotic grin as Oli scrambled to his feet.

Pix reached for his sword, swiftly slicing through a vine that had been slowly reaching for his neck and letting out a nervous laugh. "Uh- I just remembered, I have to go do... something. Yep, something, that is- what I have to do." He said awkwardly, and Oli nodded vigorously.

Pix barely heard Scott's protests as the two flew away as quickly as possible. For some reason, the only part he heard (even when he was out of earshot) was Scott saying, "I know what you're doing."

"You'll regret trying to stop the sculk."

Oop Scott's infected-

I'm not really sure how to describe how the sculk infection thing works, so if you're up to date with Wings of Fire, it works in a similar way to the breath of evil and the Othermind's control.

The only difference is that instead of ingesting the sculk or breathing in smoke from the sculk to become infected, you literally just have to be around the sculk for a bit too long and suddenly you're infected.

Anyways Pix gave Oli a necklace, cool.