Grian's POV

                                                                  ________________________

"Okay, so!"

The sun was brighter than perhaps it had ever been, The world, blanketed in warm light held endless possibilities, things that could be achieved through pure imagination. Even the shadows, dim and dark as they were, held promise. But what was promise without passion? The world had astounding capabilities and just needed a catalyst to let them free. And that the world had-- three catalysts who regularly pushed the world's promise to its limits inhabited the land. Just three was all that it needed; it had been these three for six months, maybe forever.

"First rule is that you can't touch the ground," continued a rather high-pitched person named Grian. Next to him stood a lizard-cyborg-creature, who was currently giving him an extremely dirty look. The two stood on a tall platform, very far off the ground. In fact, it was so far up that Grian couldn't see the ground. Of course, he designed it this way, so this didn't come as much of a surprise. The platform was composed entirely of wood, and an intricate pattern adorned the floor. Not that anyone noticed.

Grian's companion rolled his eyes. "Okay, Mr. I-have-never-taken-off-my-elytra. You tell me how easy it is to fly," he grumbled, and Grian gasped, feigning offense. "Just get on with the rest of the rules," he demanded, standing at the edge of the platform impatiently. After a moment, the cyborg-- his name was Doc-- relented. After a long and very overly dramatic sigh, he smirked. "Please."

"That was very nice of you," Grian grinned. Ah yes, the rules. The rules of the game Grian had somehow managed to rope his friends into playing. It was simple, really. The main idea of the game was to fly through various rings that Grian had set up in the shortest amount of time possible without hitting the rings, touching the ground, or dying. Why did he build it? Grian honestly did not know. He had just felt like making a game, and almost by instinct, he had begun to make this. It was almost like muscle memory, the ease that he did it with. Grian had not actually tested this course before inviting his friends over. This would be fun. "The next ru-"

Unfortunately, he was very rudely cut off by another person. "Rule number two, there are no more rules," said a third person, who had previously been standing behind Grian and Doc, very matter-of-factly as she stepped up to Doc and pushed him off. "Good luck!" She called down after him with a sing-songy, mocking tone. After three seconds, she turned back to Grian with a winning smile. The girl had greenish skin and her bright orange hair was adorned with leaves and blue flowers. Her emerald eyes glinted mischievously as she reasoned, "He should've seen that coming."

Grian sighed. Would Cleo ever let him do something without pushing Doc off of some form of high object? "All you've done is give him a head start," he warned. This did not seem to concern Cleo in the slightest, however. "You do realize he's good with elytras, right?" The gremlin pressed. This sort of thing happened constantly; Cleo messed with Doc, Doc swore revenge on her, and then they'd spend the next week trying to inconvenience each other, more often than not getting Grian caught in the crossfire. It was exceedingly amusing, though, so Grian didn't quite mind.

"Pfft, only if he's been given eight hours to prepare beforehand," Cleo retorted. The zombie-girl pulled out some rockets and backed up to the side of the platform. "See ya at the end, cod boy." Grian opened his mouth to refute that absolutely heinous nickname, but his companion had already jumped off and was flying away before he could.

Oh, well. It was too bad that Grian never told them where exactly the course started. The brit chuckled, shaking his head. The three hung out frequently, given that they were the only three people here. Maybe there were more people elsewhere, maybe not. Grian had no idea. Did it get lonely? Sometimes. But it didn't bother him. After all, this was the only life that he had ever known. He was content here. Actually, he was better than content. He was happy. And so was everyone else. Occasionally, they'd get into an argument, but what of it? That didn't mean they weren't still friends.

Oh, right, he was supposed to be racing. Grian jumped off of the ledge and activated his elytra, swooping back up with overdramatic flair. Now, where was that first ring again? He found it soon enough, hidden in the leaves of a suspiciously-tall tree. It was pretty wide, allowing Grian ample room to soar through without hitting the side. Unfortunately, the other ones weren't as simple, and Grian was soon holding his breath as he went barreling at them at high speeds, hoping not to experience too much kinetic energy. Perhaps he should've tested the course before challenging his friends. That may have been smart.

Speaking of, the definitely-not-a-cod-boy was surprised at the lack of dings from his trusty communicator. The bracelet-like device had remained silent. Since when could Cleo and Doc clear an elytra course perfectly? Grian was even having a bit of a hard time, and he built the thing! Not to say anything bad about his dear friends, but it was a shock that they were still alive.

And so, it shouldn't have come as a surprise when Grian spotted two familiar figures sitting on the top of a tree, eating soup. "We got bored," explained Cleo as she unceremoniously shoved a piece of bread into her half-empty bowl. It was one course. One singular elytra course, and these two could not even do that. It wasn't even that long-- five minutes at most. How short of attention spans did these two have...? The brit felt a jab on his shoulder. It was a bowl. "Soup?"

Grian now sat behind the two, grumpily drinking savory rabbit soup. "You do realize you haven't reached the finish line," he pointed out, swirling a piece of slightly-stale bread around in the soup. And it was such a nice day, too. So many hours were put into this only to be utterly wasted... okay maybe only three hours. But that was beside the point.

"Well, neither have you," Cleo countered through a mouth full of bread. Leaves rustled as she turned around to face the gremlin, raising an eyebrow expectantly. "What do you say to that?" Doc shifted as well, quiet for once as he waited for Grian's retort.

Grian definitely had something to say. "I made it?!" He screeched incredulously. This was so very pleasing to Cleo, apparently, as she burst into laughter. Wow, what amazing friends he had. "Fine," he grumbled as he set down his bowl, beginning to type out a command on his communicator. "I'll reach the finish line." As he gave the two a pointed stare, he clicked one last key on his communicator and suddenly... he was there, at the finish line. The world shifted, combing in on itself with astounding speeds. The leafy surface Grian stood on fell away, making room for a concrete floor. When his vision cleared, the admin of this world stood at the end of his elytra course, smiling smugly to himself.

He wasn't abusing his powers. Definitely not.

Grian quickly returned to his friends' folded arms and judging scowls. Cleo rolled her eyes, but ultimately her face gave way to a good-natured taunt. "Okay, no one said you could teleport over there, Mr. All-powerful-admin," she complained, punching Grian lightly in the shoulder. And by lightly, she punched him lightly relative to normal. It still hurt. "Show off," Cleo added. Doc was still silent, his expression slightly distant.

This didn't unsettle Grian, however, and he focused on Cleo, who was still very clearly judging him for his cheating. "Hey," he said. "I've offered several times to make you and Doc admins, but you guys have always refused, so I don't want to hear it." This was true. The red-sweatered brit often felt guilty that he was the only one with all the knowledge and power, and routinely offered to give his friends adminship, but every time they had always given him the answer of 'no'. He did, however, make sure to bring them up to speed on everything that he knew or learned. Something inside him told him that this was the best course of action; Grian wasn't sure why he knew that, but he did. And so he did. Still, neither of his friends wanted to be admins.

"It's just so much responsibility. And work," Cleo whined, rocking back and forth on her feet. She patted Grian on the back, grinning. "And you do it so well! Just because I don't want to be one doesn't mean I can't complain about it," she reasoned. The zombie-girl took another contented sip of her soup.

"I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it means, Cleo." Grian sighed and turned to Doc, who was still uncharacteristically quiet. "Hey, Doc, what's up with you? Not much like you to actually shut up for once," he teased, only meaning it a little bit.

To Grian's slight disappointment, Doc didn't react at all to his tease, though a muffled snicker very clearly came from Cleo. After a moment, Doc took a breath and placed down his bowl of soup. Straightening again, he looked Grian in the eyes and said, "Grian, I want to be an admin." Woah. Okay. That was not what Grian was expecting him to say.

Cleo was clearly not expecting this either, as her eyes became saucers. She flipped over to Doc, whacking Grian in the face with her hair in the process, and sending her own bowl flying off of the tree. "Doc-?" Without any further explanation, the girl dragged him off the top of the tree onto another one, and the two began to speak in hushed tones.

What was going on? The gremlin was now thoroughly confused. Since when was Grian kept out of the loop on something?

After a minute or so, Doc and Cleo returned, clearly more relaxed. "Sorry, I've actually changed my mind," the cyborg said casually, shrugging.

"It's...okay...?" It was painstakingly obvious how utterly confused Grian was at that moment. What just happened? Doc suddenly wanted to be an admin-- which would've been perfectly fine-- then Cleo dragged him away, and now Doc no longer wanted to be an admin. It was entirely uncommon for the admin to be completely clueless... odd.

But, honestly, was it his business? Not especially. If they wanted to tell him, they could. So, Grian tried his best to push it out of his mind.

It turned out that Grian did not have to try for long, though, as Cleo, seemingly having noticed the odd look on the gremlin's face, spoke up, a bit of sheepishness hidden in her voice. "You're confused, aren't you," she observed. Wow, how could she tell? "And the truth is, well... Doc, you wanna tell him?"

Grian turned to the cyborg, who nodded. "You see, Grian, I promised Cleo that the moment I became an admin-" It appeared that Cleo did not, actually, have the intention of letting Doc explain, as she jumped right in. Her green eyes glimmered with passion, more passion than Grian could ever remember seeing before.

"He'd get me out of here. Oh, no offense, of course," she added in response to Grian's horrified look. That was not the problem, though! Get out of here? To the other worlds? Grian had no way of confirming there were any more, let alone figure out a way to travel to them. Had he tried? Well, not exactly. To be honest, the brit had never really come across the temptation to escape this world. He was content here. But, apparently, the others were not. Why hadn't they mentioned this before? At least they were telling him now. "The three of us here... It's cozy, but what if there were more people out there? More people like us?" And this was where Cleo left the present, leaving starry, wistful eyes in her wake. "Imagine: We get up to shenanigans here, but what if we had two more friends, or three, maybe even more than that?

"Don't tell me you've never wondered-- wondered about the worlds outside ours. Surely we can't be the only ones like this. In our own little world, just the three of us." Light, dreamy, ambling legs took the usually spirited being to the edge of the tree, her gaze fixated on a point in the distance as if she were staring into the fantasies she imagined. "There have to be others out there; we could find them. We could join them. Heck, we could band together and find all the people!" Eyes now gleaming excitedly, Cleo whipped back around. "What do you think?"

This was a lot to take in. Was this how Doc felt as well? The gremlin turned to his friend, but he seemed a lot less enthused than Cleo. "I think we need to learn more about these powers before we do anything drastic," he explained calmly. "It could be dangerous."

"Ugh," the zombie-girl groaned. "But how are we supposed to 'learn anything' if we don't explore it?" She shot a pointed look at Grian, whose hands raised instinctively.

"Hey," the gremlin said. "I am not part of this argument at all." Well, technically, he was now. But what side did Grian take? That was a tricky question. One one hand, he agreed with Doc; Grian would be distraught if he accidentally did something resulting in anything bad happening to his friends. On the other hand, though, Cleo's spiel was rather persuasive; maybe the three would benefit from going out, finding other people, seeing what lies outside their little world. He was conflicted.

Cleo opened her mouth to argue more, but Doc cut in. "Whatever the case, it doesn't matter right now. I don't want to be an admin," he remarked to Cleo's obvious disappointment. For just a moment, he faltered, before sighing and adding, in a softer tone, "If you guys want to go, go ahead. I'm staying here... at least for now."

"Hang on, who said we'd leave you here?" Cleo barked, putting her hands on her hips. Her gloomy demeanor dissipated, the girl rolled her eyes, exasperated. "You're so dramatic, moron. If you really thought I'd, for a second, consider just up and leaving ya' here, you're even more stupid than I thought," she teased, kicking him in the shin.

"Ow..." he grumbled, but his face held an unmistakably relieved smile.

"Wimp."

"Meanie." Cleo stuck her tongue out at his retort. Doc rolled his eyes in return.

Well. Grian was still not completely sure what just happened, but he was glad that it had a pleasant resolution. He just wondered how long this had been simmering. Clearly, it had been a little bit, considering that Cleo had time to make an entire speech-- unless she was just really good at improv, that is.

He was brought back to reality from a "Well," from Doc. The gremlin turned to his friend, who had reattached his elytra and was holding rockets in his hands. "I'm going to go finish Grian's elytra course." He laughed, raising an eyebrow at Cleo. "It's too bad you're going to be last." Completely ignoring a retort from the zombie-girl, Doc flung himself off of the tree, immediately swerving back up into the air, performing a perfect spiral.

And he called Grian a show-off.

In the corner of his eye, the brit saw Cleo grumbling as she pulled out her own rockets, no doubt to try and beat the cyborg. But something happened. Instead of disappearing into the woods, Doc faltered. He seemingly lost his balance, and his one hand went right to his shoulder. And then... he swerved and crashed into the brushes below.

"Doc-!" Grian and Cleo jumped off the tree themselves and glided swiftly over to their friend, who was clutching his one shoulder tightly, the rest of his body stiff. He seemed to be hardly hurt otherwise, though. Two minutes passed, and the two just stood there, until Doc relaxed and, eventually, sat up.

He gave a lopsided grin. "How's the view from up there?" Cleo chuckled, and Grian helped Doc up. "Must be that time of day."

"Already?" Cleo glanced up, and, sure enough, the sun was beginning its descent. "Dang, time flies." She scowled at the cyborg. "Maybe don't decide to be fifty feet off the ground next time, you scared us." It was only something that Grian noticed because he knew what to look for, but Cleo's hand twitched ever-so-slightly in the direction of her forearm. That's where her scar was, after all.

Doc's was on his shoulder. None of them knew how they obtained them. All they knew was that, at a specific time in the day, they would hurt. They would hurt a lot. Worse than any other pain-- and the three of them routinely caught fire, fell into endless voids, and died of pufferfish poisoning. They ran deep, and, when it was that time of day, they were a hideous shade of glowing white.

Cleo's was on her forearm.

Doc's was on his shoulder.

Grian's were all over his body.

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                                                                        -(Author's Rambling)-

I hope you missed me, lovelies! What? I was only gone for two weeks? Oh, hush, I missed you all too much! Anyway... Welcome back! It's so nice to have you here. What is this, where we are picking back up? What could have possibly happened to everyone else? What will happen next? 

Who knows?

Oh right. I do.

It's been lovely having you back, and, as always, I'll see you in the next one, my little Readers!

Promise out!