"Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"Bad choice Grian, Mumbo does the worst dares - trust me."

"I dare you to persuade Xisuma to take his helmet off."

"Hang on a minute- Mumbo you can't ask him to do that!"

"I think I just did."

Xisuma let out a resigned sigh, turning to Grian and raising an eyebrow.

"A dare's a dare, sorry X. Take it off or I'll throw eggs at you." Everyone burst into laughter except Xisuma who just groaned, but he didn't take it off.

"I kinda need it to breathe Grian."

"Do you forfeit the dare Grian?"

"No- I- Yes," Grian said reluctantly, sinking back in his chair.

"Go on then, eat that rotten flesh." Grian groaned, plugging his nose as he pulled a single piece out, feeling sick as he bit into it. After about 30 seconds the nausea went away, and Grian stumbled into his chair, glaring at Mumbo.

"I hate you now," he grumbled, narrowing his eyes jokingly.

"Your turn to pick someone," Etho said, grinning in a way that made Grian think he had an idea.

"Ummm, Scar, truth or dare?"

"Truth," Scar said hastily.

"What's your favourite film?" Mumbo shot him a look. "What? I'm not that great with stuff like that."

"I dunno, Star Wars I guess?" Scar shrugged, a relieved look flashing across his face when he realised it wasn't very good.

"Alright Mumbo, truth or da-"

Suddenly the door slammed open, Grian's hand twitching towards his sword, prepared to fight if necessary. The door slammed shut, and a familiar blonde-haired figure was leaning against the wall, clasping a disk and panting against the wall.

"False, what the heck were you even doing out there?" Xisuma hissed, pulling shut the bolts to prevent the mobs from getting in. His face was filled with concern and worry as he placed a couple of wooden blocks against the door, fumbling with the blocks. False opened her mouth to speak, wincing slightly as she opened a cut on her face, presumably from a sword or something. Xisuma winced as he pulled an arrow out of her side, tossing it to the ground only for Grian to pick it up, inspecting the purply tint before pushing it into his inventory.

"I just saw that a skeleton had shot a creeper outside," False said, pausing as she coughed, wiping some blood onto her leggings. "And the creeper dropped a music disk - I was just gonna grab it and run, but then I realised we needed some wood." Her voice was rough, but she didn't seem to be too injured other than the obvious sword and arrow wound, and the arrow seemed to have lost a lot of momentum by the time it hit her, and the sword wound was fairly shallow.

"Why would we need wood?" Grian asked, picking up the music disk False had just thrown on the ground.

"We haven't got any wood, and we need wood and a diamond to craft a jukebox, and I knew we already had diamonds but no wood," False said, coughing slightly as Grian threw the disk back to her.

"Why do we need a jukebox?" Grian asked, the scoff in his voice evident, masking the familiar worry he'd felt last time, and realising with a slight feeling of dread that he'd grown attached to them, and the possibility of one of them perma-dying scared him.

"More importantly, WHY THE HELL DID YOU DECIDE TO RISK YOUR LIFE FOR JUST A JUKEBOX?!" Xisuma shouted, but everyone could tell that his shouting was just him trying to hide how worried and scared he was. Grian understood that, as he could probably tell how high the stakes were here, and he desperately wished the final couple weeks until they could move on would speed up so they could get out.

"Xisuma, even if I did die, which I didn't, I'd just respawn here - it's not a big deal. Worst case scenario I lose all my stuff and it hurts like heck, and that's my fault if that happens." Grian wanted to argue about how wrong she was, but held back, knowing that would only make everyone more nervous. 

"I'm not saying it's not your fault," Xisuma agreed. "In fact I'd say it's 100% your fault." False sighed, opening a chest and pulling out a diamond, placing it in the centre of the crafting table and surrounding it with wood. Grian tilted his head when he saw it formed a jukebox, as while they'd been in this world for a while, he'd never used them, as he'd never seen the point. He'd tried it once, but no music had played; he remembered being slightly irritated that he'd spent a diamond on it before realised it made a good decoration. 

"Do you know how dangerous that was?" Grian asked her, glancing out of the window nervously. "I know everyone's getting a bit bored, but that doesn't mean you should start taking insane risks." False rolled her eyes.

"I think you're both overreacting - I didn't die, so stop acting like it's the end of the world." Grian and Xisuma glanced at each other, and Grian sighed before relenting. 

"How does it even work?" Grian asked, inspecting it as False placed it on the ground. The Hermits all looked at him, and he shrugged innocently, getting the feeling they knew something he didn't.

"You have to put a music disk in it," False explained, holding the greenish disk in her left hand and slotting it into the gap in the wood, and to Grian's surprise it started playing music. He smiled as he sat back into his chair, finding the music relaxing, for the first time since they'd fought the ender dragon able to forget what happened, if only for a few seconds.

They wouldn't be here much longer.

Only a couple more weeks.