#leafsheep.write

[theleafsheep]

The Unraveling of Holimae

The cold wind blew through the Kingdom of Holimae causing the fuzz on Silverr’s neck to stand up. His emerald cloak almost blew off his head, but he held onto it desperate to keep hidden in the night. As he was getting closer to the colossal walls that encased his home, the castle, he took off his golden crown and stuffed it into the satchel. Thankfully the guards had predictable movements, especially with his insider information, so he easily snuck pass the gates and into the rest of the kingdom. He had meticulously planned out his escape from the palace so it to go well was exhilarating.

He had reached the edges of the kingdom and therefore had reached the location of the Fireworks Inn that he had planned to meet up with the rest of the members of Selenia at. He greeted Marcus at the counter and signed in as the fourth person in room 029. Each room only had one key, so he had to knock on the door to be let in.

Davie welcomed him with a hug and sighed with great reief, “Oh my god dude we almost thought you weren’t going to make it.”

“Of course, I made it. I’m not that incompetent,” Silverr responded shoving Davie off him.

Mustard butted in, “I would like to argue that but that’s beside the point. We got a hacksaw!” he proudly showed off the saw to Silverr.

Silver was perplexed, “And why would we need that?” he grabbed it from Mustard’s hand and brought it across the room to sit on the bed.

“We all agreed you need to look less recognizable, right? Your horns are the most recognizable part about you, so we thought about trying to shave them off,” Emerald supplied the answer as he sat down besides Silverr.

“I don’t think you guys thought about the logistics of that. My horns have literally grown out right besides my eyes! Do you think it’d be okay putting a hacksaw right by my eyes?” he was frustrated to say the least.

“We could at least try shaving them shorter like some of the villagers have around here. Huge horns are a sign a wealth and royalty and we can’t afford people asking questions like that,” Davie reasoned.

Silverr let out a great sigh, “Fine but if that thing gets anywhere close to my eyes I will start screaming,” he gave them a glare before putting his head in Emerald’s lap, “Just get this over with.”

Before Emerald started the process Davie and Mustard had sat down on the same bed huddling around Silverr placing their hands on him. Overall, the process didn’t hurt but it was slow and Emerald would occasionally nick his face with the hacksaw.

“We should probably stop,” Emerald halted at those words, “if we cut them too short, I can get sick and I doubt you want to deal with dying prince.”

“Hey, you aren’t a prince anymore, remember? You’re now officially a mercenary and one of the four members of Selenia,” Mustard claimed.

Silverr retorted, “Doesn’t change the fact that if I was sick, I would be a pain.”

He got up and walked towards the small window of the inn room where he left his satchel by. He opened it and pulled out the golden crown. Silverr knew he should have left it behind, but he just couldn’t do it no matter how much he debated about it. It was such an easily recognizable object, but it was his connection to his family and most importantly, his brother.

“I’m assuming we can’t just leave that thing behind,” Davie said referring to the crown.

“It’d be wise not to leave it in this room because then it’ll be easily tracked back to us though if needed, we can always pawn it off. That’s a desperate measure though, got it?” Silverr’s resolve evident in his voice.

“Yes, your highness,” Mustard jokingly responded kneeling down to mimic how people greeted the royalty.

“I will murder you,” Silverr tackled Mustard to the ground.

The four boys had passed out spread across the tiny inn room; they slept either on the floor or the two beds that barely fit in the room. It wasn’t until the morning where they got their first jobs as a mercenary troupe. A raven sat at the window with a letter laced around its neck with a purple was seal.

Davie snatched the letter of the raven and read it before relaying the information to the other boys, “The master wants us to eliminate Geosquare of Graendam,” he raised his voice at every word.

Emerald looked at Davie puzzled, “Who hires rookies, who have never even been on a mission as a four before, to murder a prince?”

“It’s not our job to question it, it’s just our job to complete it and give proof so we can get our sweet profit,” Davie responded while looking at Silverr to gauge his reaction.

Silverr was barely awake when the news of the job broke but now he was very much awake. He had just been absentmindedly flipping his dagger when he asked, “So how much is the job for anyway?”

“Two thousand six hundred and ninety-four emeralds,” Davie stated as he pocketed the letter for later, “Let’s get around boys! We need to get breakfast before we head off and we only paid for the one night.”

It was a shock to Selenia to see two other groups having breakfast in the inn’s common area taking into account how secluded the inn was from everywhere else.

“Hey, did you hear about the missing prince?” one of the inn-goers asked.

“Yeah, some people are even saying he was murdered in the night. No matter what happened the royal family is in mourning,” the other responded.

Selenia awkwardly took a seat at the table farthest away from the other inn-goers as they pretended to know nothing about the runaway prince.

Mustard talked in a hushed voice as the members got their food, “I did not think news would travel that fast. We are practically on the other side of the kingdom.”

“When the news involves the royal family, everyone knows within days so I can’t say I’m surprised,” Silverr added as he ate the piece of toast he grabbed.

Davie suggested, “We better head out of here as soon as possible then. We don’t want them tightening up border security on us before we have a chance to leave. The first place they’ll start looking is here in Holimae.”

The group got up abruptly and left their half-eaten food on the table to go and clean up their room and leave. The fixed up the beds and grabbed their bags before putting on their cloaks, leaving the hoods down until they went outside. Only Silverr had his hood on because that was how he arrived to the inn anyway and his identity was the most important to keep hidden. Silverr checked that the crown was still in the bag when he grabbed it. They could not afford to leave any signs that possibly hinted at the missing prince of Holimae having stayed there. Davie locked the door behind them as they left and handed it to Marcus as they left.

“Have a good day!” Marucs cheerfully said as they left before picking up a cat off the counter and putting it behind the desk.

The group had been trying to not be too obvious that they were in a rush but once they got outside they all put up their hoods and burst into a sprint. The running didn’t last too long because shortly they neared the border which had stone walls surrounding it with guards patrolling it. They had to put on a calm exterior before they reached the guards who would no doubt interrogate them.

“Remember to do whatever they stay and don’t forget our story, just incase if they ask,” Emerald reminded them.

“We are orphan boys who are looking for better work in Graendam!” Mustard exclaimed.

Davie responded, “Its barely a lie, we’re just leaving out most of the details. Not like they need to know those anyways. They just need to make sure we aren’t criminals which we aren’t, yet.”

The boys snickered and continued walking towards the gates with the guards. They each put up a façade of calmness but inside most were worried. What if they got arrested and thrown into jail? What would happen if they recognized Silverr straight away? They had to push down the worries and continue on.

Once they got close enough one of the guards shouted, “Who are you and what’s your purpose of crossing the border?”

Davie stepped forward and gave the answer, “We’re just poor orphan boys who are looking for better work in Graendam. We’re hard workers and no work was open in Holimae, at least no work that would accept us.”

Both guards looked at each other before nodding, “We’ll let you in if you remove your hoods.”

The members of Selenia looked at each other with a sense before nodding and pulling down their hoods for the guards. They looked at the boys for a few moments before opening the gate and letting them through. They hurried through the gate and heard it close behind them.

“Next time we have to cross a border we are not doing that,” Mustard discussed, “because that was absolutely terrifying.”

“Good news is that they didn’t recognize me even with my hood off. Bad news is that now my heart is beating out of my chest from the fear they instilled in me. All I could think of was us getting caught straight away,” Silverr supplied.

Emerald processed what they had told him and responded, “Okay so no border crossing in broad daylight but at least now we know Silverr’s disguise works. Also, we should work on a better story just in case. I can’t believe they just let us in without much though let me tell you it won’t always be that easy.”

They continued walking along the distressed path until they reached the city where they would be staying. This city was as close as they could get to the palace without being suspicious. They signed into the new in and got to planning. Geosquare must go down and they can’t be caught, not yet.

Once the night came and the moon was high in the sky, they left for the pub nearby. Technically they couldn’t drink but the pub didn’t know that. They never checked ages anyways. They pretended to drink copious amounts of alcohol throughout the night and be rowdy. Everyone there noticed that they were there and after a couple of hours they through the back door and into the alley pretending to almost fall over to sell their drunkenness. Just in case, now they had an alibi.

As soon as they got outside, they cut the act and stood upright and pulled their hoods up before climbing up the ladder to the roof of the pub. The giant frame of the castle was visible all throughout the city and the dark fame only made it more intimidating. They ran and jumped across the rooftops to quickly reach the gates of the castle. Graendam had always been criticized for their lack of security, but it only made their job easier. For the most part little to no crime existed in the kingdom so why would they need security.

They hooked a rope on one of the battlements and got to climbing the wall so they could have access to the rest of the palace. The master had given the members of Selenia all the information they had which included where the prince snuck off to on nights like this with the moon visible and stars spotting the sky. Instead of sleeping he would be at the palace’s observatory usually with his right-hand men, Eleventy and Matthew Bolan, keeping watch for him.

It was obvious where in the palace the observatory was due to the spherical shape, but they had to enter a few rooms down because there were no easy access points to the observatory. Davie looked around the corner and then signaled for the rest of them to follow. The second turn wasn’t as easy though because just like the master said Eleventy was there keeping watch for the prince. For a split second he turned his back to the hall to check on Geosquare and in that second Emerald ran down the hall. He took he took Eleventy’s neck into his elbows and snapped his necks. He never even got a chance to mutter any calls for help. Emerald was just too good.

The others snuck down the hall careful not to make any sound as they reached Emerald at the door to the observatory. The door slid open and they took a step into the pitch black room that was inform of them. In the middle of the room they could faintly make out the shape that was Geosquare. They could mainly see his pure white eyes as the rest of his body was pitch black but with occasional stars dotting it.

The members of Selenia spread out across the back wall careful not to make a sound while Geosquare still looked at the stars and sometimes looked back to the paper where he was tracking the stars. They had planned out for Mustard to stab the prince in the back of his neck with a dagger, if done correctly it should be lethal.

A pen dropped causing the silence to be broken as Geosquare whipped his head around and immediately spotted the four boys.

“Eleventy, help!” he shouted but Davie went in and kicked him down taking the air out of him and knocking his silver crown to the floor. Mustard then came up behind him and stabbed right where they had planned. There they had to wait for a few moments for it could be confirmed that he was dead.

By the time they had left it was still very dark out with only the moon to guide their way. The glow of the moon couldn’t help but remind Silverr of Geosquare’s eyes, but he quickly pushed the thought aside. He had to keep going because Selenia were his friends, and it was what gave him freedom from the stuffy castle he used to be couped up in.

Emerald was the first to comment about the mission, “I swear we didn’t make a sound so why did he turn around so suddenly? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Eleventy probably had a code to signal him every time they checked on him, but Emerald killed him before he could do that. Maybe I missed that information when reading the letter,” Davie responded.

“So how do we notify the master?” Silverr asked.

Davie took the letter out of his pocket before answering, “Simple, we just send the letter back and the news will reach them. We just need to remember to rent a messenger bird before we leave.”

When they got back to the city they put back on their drunk act. They would take a few steps before pretending to wobble and almost fall all the way until they reached their inn room. Silverr barely got changed before flopping on the bed and promptly falling asleep.

His sleep was abruptly interrupted by Mustard jumping on him to cause him to wake up.

When he groaned about being woken, Mustard complained, “You took up the whole bed when you fell asleep, so I had to sleep on the floors. Let me tell you that these floors aren’t warm or comfortable.”

Silverr just sighed and shoved Mustard off of him so that he could get up and changed. They had to send the messenger bird and get to a different city if not a different kingdom. All the members got around, changed, and grabbed what little they carried on them before leaving for the post office.

When they went out, they saw people posting wanted posters of the mercenary known as Fruitberries. According to the posters he was the one suspected of the murder of Prince Geosquare.

Emerald commented, “They think Fruit did this? He never leaves a body behind, they’re that good.”

The townspeople were now freaking out even more than they had been back in the Kingdom of Holimae due to the fact that now two princes were thought to be dead. The royal bloodline was dying out in front of their eyes. There were only two princes left, Nerdi of Barasilla Kingdom and Kayfour the eldest prince of the Kingdom of Holimae.

Emerald exchanged money at the desk for the messenger bird and then sealed the note that the master had sent them. He then let the bird go and it flew off to find the master that had hired Selenia.

“We really should get heading out of here. Rule number one of being a mercenary is don’t stay in one place too long and the borders are going to get stricter now with the murder of the prince. Our best bet is leaving at night, so we won’t be seen crossing the border,” Davie whispered as they continued their walk around the town.

There were many families running around the beaten trails of the town and others trying to sell the food that they had grown. Some of the stalls were hastily boarded up saying that the owners wouldn’t be back for a while. They made sure as they wandered to make their way away from the town they had previously been staying in and instead towards Barasila. The night soon fell, and the boys could only see their way due to the moon and stars illuminating the way for them. As they reached the border the smell of smoke became prominent, the smell of a fire lit by the guards at the border to keep warm and give more light.

[theleafsheep]

What it Means to be Human

Kayfour had spent most of their time as a god living up high in the clouds. They were one of the many gods of the land and had all the powers that typically came with it. They even had a golden glow to themselves that all the gods had though theirs had started to fade. After the many years spent in solitude that was expected of them, they started to question their worth as a god. Did they deserve to have all the knowledge in the world? Did they deserve being all powerful? Not to mention being a god required that they were alone and had no worldly attachments, but they couldn’t help but long to have contact with the people below.

He would watch as the people below him that called themselves ‘HBG’ hung out and enjoyed the company of everyone. They also went on speedrunning adventures often and spent any other time in Kayfour’s world. Oh, how he wished he had what HBG had. Instead, he continued to spend months alone and looking over the world. Watching as his godly glow faded with every passing moment.

Then one day the glow stopped and Kayfour found themselves plummeting from the sky, they had realizing immediately that they had lost their godhood. Whilst they were falling, they grabbed onto a tree branch so they wouldn’t sustain an injury from the impact. The Kayfour let go of the branch and landed on the ground. The ground was covered in flowers, flowers they had previously only been able to see up above like their favorite sunflowers. There they laid for days without moving or getting up, forgetting their new human needs. This is when the sunflowers grew throughout Kayfour’s hair and one where they had no eye. The missing eye had been completely corrupted, so they had to get rid of it while their remaining eye was only partially corrupted. Being on the ground with the humans was all that they had dreamt of, so they had to soak it in.

After those days had past, he decided to wander into the nearby village that was occupied by players instead of villagers. There were many players wandering around from hybrids to humans to a literal cactus. Kayfour knew that he looked weird to the players as he looked around the village in amazement.

Someone tapped them on the should causing Kayfour to jerk back, “Hey sorry about that but what exactly are you doing here? Not that you don’t seem friendly but we’re kind of not looking for new members,” the man was blonde and clad in purple robes.

They thought about calling themselves a god but then remembered that they were no longer one, “I’m Kayfour. Sorry I was just passing through,” then their stomach growled.

The man responded to this by offering him mushroom stew made by Couriway and introducing himself as Nerdi.

The members who were previously wandering around the village started to gather around a pot of what Kayfour assumed was the soup in the middle of the village. The man stirring the pot had large golden wings and wore a crown, Couriway they assumed.

“There are more of us by the way just most of them are out speedrunning in other worlds, you might be able to meet them one day.” Kayfour responded by nodding contently towards the man, “Hey everyone! This is Kayfour and they’ll be joining us for dinner,” Nerdi shouted to the other members.

Couriway served the soup to all the member before they all sat on the logs surrounding the pot of soup and continued talking whether it be about their resent speedrunning ventures or friends arguing. Kayfour decided to not talk and instead take it all in.

The sun was slowly setting leaving the land in an ever-familiar golden glow. Familiar, that was nice. They continued listening to the babble of the members before everyone decided to head in for some sleep or alone time.

“You can stay here for the night if you like? I don’t think Nerdi expected it to go this late. You see that house over there? It should be empty,” the ender dragon hybrid told him.

They nodded before getting up and heading towards the house. It was small with barely any room for anything other than a bed, but it was comfortable. They gladly took the opportunity to sleep in a bed as the flowers that had taken residence in their body as draining their energy and they had been sleeping on the ground for multiple days.

The flowers never did go away, instead they kept growing and taking away Kayfour’s energy no matter what he did to try and prevent it. The only time he felt fine was when he were hanging with HBG, whether it be just chatting or going on speedruns with each other. Yeah, they never left the village and no one bothered to comment on it, just accepting them as a member. Sometimes they wished someone asked questions because then he could get everything off his chest but instead it stayed inside Kayfour’s head. All his self-doubts just building up in their head as they continued to feel weaker and weaker.

Kayfour offered to make dinner for the group that was currently hanging around the village.  It had started out as them making the soup alone, adding mushrooms and dandelions while routinely stirring it. Then Fyroah came and decided to cause the fire the soup was heating on to rise to extreme heats and burn too large and bright. So, there they were with a burnt soup and the rest of the members laughing at them.

“Hey, it’s cool, we can just eat some bread or some shit,” Dylan tried to comfort them.

“Not like we haven’t done that before. Especially when Couri isn’t here,” Fulham responded.

In those moments Kayfour didn’t feel the weakness eating away at them. As cliché as it sounded, HBG made them feel so much better and for once their thoughts weren’t eating at them. A smile ran across Kayfour’s face as Silverr and Mustard playfully fought with each other. They could get used to this.

It didn’t last long at all. In the following days Kayfour got worse, enough that the members of HBG started to take notice. They would let Kayfour sleep in and stopped occasionally asking him to make dinner. In turn that made Kayfour feel isolated and their thoughts of being unworthy to be a god returned. They knew the members were just trying to help because they thought it was just a cold, but Kayfour knew it was more.

Kayfour had been lying in bed for the most part for the past few days. They had no motivation and no energy to do so anymore.

Then came a knock, “Hey, I know you haven’t been feeling well lately but we wanted to know if you’d like to at least watch us play soccer,” it was Mustard’s voice.

Kayfour got up from their bed and opened the door, “I’d like that,” he smiled, and Mustard returned it.

They walked out to the fields that the soccer games were going to take place and sat down under the ginormous tree with the rest of the members who weren’t participating. Kayfour was letting the land consume them as they watched the match. Kayfour knew they were dying, and they couldn’t stop it. HBG soon noticed something was off and stopped the game. All the members were surrounding them and asking questions that Kayfour couldn’t make out.

“Go away, its not like you can stop it anyways,” Kayfour complained with pain evident in his voice. Their vision started gaining black spots that wouldn’t go away.

“Kayfour you’ll be okay, alright?” someone said, their voice laced with worry.

Kayfour could no longer ignore the sounds around them as the members erupted in tears. They could make out a blurred figure that was Switch handing them a potion for them to take. As they took the potion all the members hugged them tightly hoping that the potion would save their friend. Kayfour’s body then started glowing like it had when they were a god.

Some may say that the potion is what saved Kayfour that day, but he knew that it was his friends. They weren’t only saved from death, but they were also given their godhood back. Though this time they could stay with their friends and still remain a god but Kayfour would have given that up in a heartbeat so that they could be with their friends.

[theleafsheep]

Of Axolotl Bandages

Mustard was always covered in scars and bruises, that was plain fact. To be fair he didn’t know where most of them came from but they were always prominent on his body and covered in awkwardly placed bandages. The members of HBG had started buying him bandages with characters on them like ducks and axolotls because they knew just how many of them he went through in a day. Realistically he didn’t need to place bandages in the scars anymore but it made him feel better.

—————

He knew Silverr hadn’t meant to cut him with the sword but that didn’t change the fact that it still fucking hurt. The cut was right on the bridge of his nose and way too close to his eyes for comfort. Again, he couldn’t blame Silverr as he could only imagine how difficult training with a sword and limited vision was.

He was quickly sat down and told to not move as he was given a cloth to put pressure on the bleeding area. Silverr came back with rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, and axolotl printed bandages. Without warning, he put rubbing alcohol on the wound causing Mustard to hiss in pain. Then gently placed, atop what would likely become a scar, a blue axolotl bandaid. He would then be left there alone on the hay bails and would soon fall asleep as Silverr continued training.

—————

The one thing he knew he shouldn’t do in the End was to touch the dragon’s breath but when it comes to executing that idea it was much more difficult. Of course, he didn’t mean to touch it. Why would he ever want to feel that type of pain? A pain that shoots up your spine and leaves you feeling like your burning from the inside. Not to mention the nasty burn he got across his shin because of the stupid dragon’s breath.

When he got back to HBG’s island home, of course, he got scolded for ignoring the injury. Illumina fussed about trying to find the things from the first aid kit he needed. They didn’t have a great way of treating the burns that dragon’s breath caused, right now all they knew how to do was put ointment on it and wrap it up. Mustard joking made a dissatisfied noise at the fact that the bandages wrapped around his shin didn’t have any characters on it. Illumina walked away and came back to place a Hello Kitty bandage on top of the wrap that had already been done. Once again Mustard was left alone to his own devices.

—————

He knew Twitch Rivals had the potential to be dangerous when he signed up with Davie, Silverr, and nEmerald but he was still shocked when the moment came. When going through one of the levels of the last game his elytra didn’t properly work and sent him tumbling down towards the rocks. Thankfully, the nearest rocks weren’t too far down so he only got a cut on his arm. The pain was easily ignored due to the adrenaline rush that winning the event had caused. Overall HBG had taken home so much money from the event and they were all over the moon.

They got brought back to Earth when they had to deal with treating Mustard’s newly sustained cut on his arm. It wasn’t deep enough to cause much concern from others but they knew it had to be dealt with. The two bandages that had been placed in the cut had various rainbows printed on them. The team then parted ways to get a well-deserved rest for the day of speedrunning most of them had ahead of them.

—————

Mustard had always loved the Nether even when other members weren’t so keen on it. He couldn’t tell you what exactly enticed him about the realm, but it did. What he didn’t enjoy was being hit around by piglins when he was trying to route a bastion. Ultimately it came with the job of being a speedrunner but that didn’t erase the pain it caused him. The run ultimately wasn’t viable, so he went back to HBG’s server to nurse his newly found wounds.

They ran out of character bandages, so he had to settle for the basic ones to treat his wounds. He really didn’t need to treat them; they were only minor and he was used to them. He still continued doing it though as it reminded him of the other members who weren’t there. Almost all the members were off the serving leaving him alone to his own devices. It might have been unnecessary, but it had been necessary to him.

—————

As a speedrunner, he had many instances where he would be in trees, usually during the stronghold triangulation process. He was hanging out in a tree talking to the other members of HBG when he fell out of it. One of the few times he was in a tree purely on his own accord, he fell out of it. Just his luck. Marcus and Fulham who he had been previously talking to started laughing at him for it. He laughed it off with them. Even though his cheek got cut by a stone that was poking out of the ground, he didn’t get a bandage to put on it. The presence of his friends made up what the bandages usually did.

[theleafsheep]

You’ll Grow Into Them

Recently Silverr’s horns had started to bother him as they had begun to obstruct most of his vision. He was used to having the horns as he was born with them but they had grown a huge amount in the past few weeks. The large horns combined with his scruffy hair had combined to make Silverr one of the most accident-prone people in HBG. He had been perfectly fine before he just hadn’t had enough time to get adjusted to the new size of his horns.

HBG had just reached a new world in hopes of settling there as a permanent home so they all had a place to be when they weren’t off exploring new worlds and defeating the enderdragon. The new horns and the new environment did not help Silverr’s new situation. He had to almost solely rely on all his sense besides sight.

He knew his adjustment to the new world would be easier if he just told the other members about his newly founded vision problem but he couldn’t. The irrational part of his brain kept telling him that they’d think he was weak, that he needed to be watched over and worst of all they would pity him and that’s exactly what he didn’t want. He was his own independent person and no one could take that from him.

And then he ran into a tree because of course he did. Everyone else was getting wood perfectly fine and here he was running into a tree.

“Nice going Silverr!” Mustard jokingly said towards him.

“Oh fuck off,” he responded.

He regathered himself and started punching the tree he had just run into as to make a boat and sail to the other island where most of the members were going to be settling. Once he got enough wood he made said boat and sailed off in the direction he believed the island to be. In all honesty, he was guessing at where the island was but he thankfully got it right. Once he got out of the boat he heard someone yell at him.

“Hey Silverr,” he heard Feinberg call out towards him. “It’s getting dark out, you might want to get in the cave with the rest of us.”

“Oh okay, sure,” everyone knew Silverr wasn’t one for small talk but even then he felt bad when he only responded in short sentences.

He should have noticed the changing in the light but he wasn’t paying close enough attention. He should have figured out where Feinberg was based on where his voice was coming from. He should have been able to find where the cave Fein mentioned was. He should have, he should have, he should have.

Instead, he fumbled around trying to find the cave where some of the HBG members were laughing at his fumbling and failed attempt trying to find the cave.

Suddenly he felt someone grab his hand and drag him off, “It’s over here silly,” oh it was Marcus.

Marcus dragged him over to an opening he figured from his limited sight was the cave along with the sudden dampness surrounding him.

“We don’t have enough beds so we just have to wait out the night,” Reignex proclaimed.

“For speedrunners, you’d think we could get beds in time for a night cycle but apparently not,” Feinberg commented.

“We want this world to last, for it to be our permanent home and that can’t happen if we treat it like a speedrun world,” Silverr responded.

Silverr felt around until he found a rock to sit on and took it as his place in the cave. Almost everyone was gathered in a vague circle shape happily chatting to each other and joking around. Eventually, the voices became like white noise and Silverr fell asleep.

Waking up because your head started to fall from the wall it rested on was a very disorienting way to wake up Silverr decided. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and could tell that everyone in the cave the previous night had already left.

“I swear this slow pace world will be the death of me,” he muttered to himself while leaving to find a place to settle down. “If not for these stupid horns I could be off killing the enderdragon but no biology hates me. I will just have to get used to them before I can go off on my own.”

He spent the rest of the night mining into the cliffside to create himself a home, occasionally having conversations with the members who were passing by. He could feel their eyes linger on him and he knew why. He knew he was acting strange and he knew they were pitying him. He could take anything but not their pity.

If he spent all his time alone then there was no way they could pity him or think of him as weak, at least that’s what his brain told him. So he isolated himself from others, interacting as little as possible, but doing the same thing over and over again didn’t help him adjust to his horns. And of course, him isolating himself just made the members even more confused and concerned about him.

Many days went by before Illumina’s shadow appeared outside Silverr’s new home. His silhouette loomed over the cliffside hole as it included his horns and dragon wings

“You do know everyone is concerned about you right? You literally stopped responding to everyone who tried messaging you, we barely knew that you were still in this world,” Illumina confronted him.

Silverr couldn’t meet Illumina’s eyes, instead looking at the floor. Even if he wanted to explain, he couldn’t get the words out. Instead, he sputtered out random sounds that could not make up a coherent sentence.

Illumina looked him up and down then something seemed to click in his eyes. Illumina grabbed Silverr and brought him further into his house.

“What happened to your horns?” Illumina asked with concern laced in his voice.

Silverr looked at him puzzled then dragged his hand across his horns where he felt multiple cracks and one horn had the tip broken off.

“Huh, I guess I didn’t notice,” Silverr responded. He really hadn’t noticed but it made sense because he kept running into the stone walls of his home while digging it out and even now as he hadn’t gotten used to the layout.

Silverr could feel Illumina’s eyes back on him and linger but he kept looking down. Even though he didn’t have much of his vision, he just couldn’t make eye contact.

“How do you even see with your horns and your fringe?” it was a rhetorical question.

“I don’t, at least not very well,” Silverr stated matter of factly.

Illumina let out a deep sighed and ran his hands through his hair, “sh- shouldn’t I bandage you up or something?”

“I thought someone with horns would understand that bandages are useless.”

“W-well you have ram horns and I have dragon horns they aren’t exactly the same thing so I thought maybe—,” Illumina rambled. “You do know the other members would be willing to help you with the vision thing, right?”

Silverr mumbled a response, “I just don’t want them to think I’m weak.”

“Trust me they won’t think that, they’re just very concerned because you cut contact with everyone for like too many days,” Illumina tried to comfort him.

“I just need to get used to them and I’ll be fine. I’m always fine alone,” clear distress could be heard in Silverr’s voice.

“You’ll grow into your horns but maybe having people to help you while you get used to them will help. Come on, let’s go meet up with the others,” Illumina left, leaving Silverr to begrudgingly follow him.

Maybe he’ll be fine in time.