Chapter Text
Things were hard, starting again especially, but that didn't bother him as much, well obviously it bothered him to some extent, starting again and leaving everything behind was obviously hard, but Grian knew by now that that's what the hermits did, it wasn’t necessarily bad, just something he wasn’t used to yet, but... The thought of once again not being able to use his wings, his real wings, hurt. Grian honestly wishes he had told them all from the start. Maybe then it wouldn't be so hard. Then again, when were things not hard for Grian? After everything he's been through, he honestly just wanted a break. Everything he's been through… the thought struck him as odd.
Honestly, he couldn't remember much of what happened. He only remembered waking up in an unfamiliar place and then being taken in by the other Hermits, which felt so long ago now. He was now friends with everyone and living amongst the hermits, tagging along with their usual chill yet chaotic antics. He felt close to everyone, so close in fact that he did want to tell them, the thought had crossed his mind multiple times. 'What if I just told them casually, like I was bragging and just pulled them out? How would they react?' he had thought on many occasions.
But so long has passed that now he has convinced himself that it's too late for him, and if they found out now, they would hate him for hiding such a big secret for so long. He yearned to tell someone, anyone. But he was scared. Scared he would be treated as some science experiment or be cast out of the group altogether, Grian couldn't bear those thoughts and shook himself entirely, bringing his attention back to reality and back to the group that surrounded him. Everyone was listening to Xisuma, who was happily explaining everything to prep everyone to set off on their adventures, seeming excited himself.
"I wish everyone luck, I'm off!" He said with a wave before jumping into his boat and paddling away, everyone dispersing and doing a similar thing. Grian decided it was time to go, and so he took his leave to start his brand-new adventure. As upset as he was, he was still excited to see where this season would go. Who knew what fun and exciting things would happen? He pushed away his dark thoughts, took a deep breath, and started paddling his boat.
*
Grian now found himself in a jungle, talking to a bird of all things, 'ironic' he thought to himself. He accidentally came upon him, and the thought struck him immediately: Grian needed a friend. Now, don't get him wrong, his real friends were nice and all, but sometimes people got a bit overwhelming, to say the least. This way, Grian could have company that didn't stress him out too much, but still didn't feel lonely. Besides, as an Avian, he had some understanding of birds, I mean, they were similar, right? So far, though, his idea was failing as this situation was becoming the opposite of stress-free because no matter how many seeds he gave this small ball of blue feathers, it refused to love him.
"Nonono," Grian said as the remainder of his seeds entered the bird's mouth, showing no sign of giving in anytime soon. He quickly stooped down to the ground, collecting more seeds. "Mr. Parrot, we are going to be best friends, and we're gonna be best friends forever."
So, he fed the parrot more seeds, and more seeds, and even more seeds.
"What do you want?! More seeds?!" The bird seemed to be bored with Grian's antics and started to prepare itself to take off. "Nonono, I'm going to force-feed you seeds until you love me," Grian said, sounding a little more intimidating than he wanted to, holding out a handful of seeds to the bird. He glared at it with hope.
The bird eventually complied, not seeming happy about it, but at least it was getting food, so it stayed with Grian. Grian, on the other hand, was incredibly happy and proud that he had managed to 'tame' the stubborn bird. He scooped the bird up immediately, and it squawked at him in surprise.
"I'm going to call you... Professor Beak!" Grian smiled happily at the bird as it struggled in his grasp. He eventually let it go, gently placing it on his shoulder. "Now let's go find a place to make a home, shall we, Professor Beak?" The bird imitated a zombie noise, and Grian laughed, interpreting that as the bird was bored or fed up with him. "We're going to get along greatly, Professor Beak."
*
Not much time passed before Grian found a good spot he decided would be where his starter base was built. He decided to make a hobbit hole of sorts, as no creative ideas stuck out to him at the moment. He was done enough that he could start moving some of his stuff in and put a bed down for the night. He, for some reason, was still not tired in the slightest. It was a problem for most hermits, insomnia that is. Grian had always had this problem for as long as he could remember, so most nights he would get something done or let his wings out to breathe for a bit. It hurt to keep them in for so long, but he honestly didn't have a choice most of the time.
He pulled out his communicator that he hadn't bothered to touch all day. He just wanted to get work done, and he did. He caught himself up on some of what was happening through vague messages in the chat before checking the tab list to see who was awake and who wasn't. Everyone but three names were greyed out, meaning they were asleep, or at least inactive. The three not greyed out names were Mumbo's, Ren's, and Scar's. He hadn't encountered anyone yet, and he doubted that anyone was going to be stopping by his base anytime soon, so he thought this was the perfect opportunity to take his wings out and possibly go for a quick fly. He knew it was risky, but he couldn’t help himself.
He put his communicator back into his inventory and removed the chest plate he had made earlier to protect himself from any random monsters. He then removed his Iconic red sweater, so he was just left in a simple white open-back tank top. He had cut the back out himself a long time ago. It made things a lot easier so he could sprout and retract his wings faster, and so he wasn't ruining his clothes all the time. He had done that a few times to some of his sweaters when his Elytra had broken midair... He took one final glance around his base to make sure no one was around before going back inside and sitting down on his temporarily placed bed. He sighed and closed his eyes; it had been a while since he last took out his wings, and he was really looking forward to it.
He focused for a moment, and in no time, his wings suddenly popped out of his back. It actually surprised him a bit. It surprised him even more when he accidentally knocked a chest over with his wings. "Oops..." His eyes opened, and he mumbled to himself, bringing his wings in closer to himself. He needed to make this place a little bigger if he wanted to fit his eleven-foot wingspan in here. He folded his wings against his back and stood from his bed, quickly lifting the chest back onto its proper side and throwing the random assortment of objects that had fallen out of it back into it.
He stood to his full height and walked to the back of his base, where he dug out a small tunnel that led to an overgrown area. He thought it was cool and probably big enough to contain his wings. He stretched them out to their full length and rolled them, popping some of the joints. It helped release the pain that had built up for so long. At last, he felt at peace for a moment, having them out like this felt so nice, feeling the gentle breeze that reached him go through his feathers was amazing.
He glanced over at his red, yellow, and blue wings, noting that they really needed to be preened. It had been at least a couple of months since he last did it. He never had time, or he ended up putting it off because self-care was just far too much effort sometimes. He decided he would preen them a bit after a quick flight. He jumped up to a nearby tree and climbed it until he was at the highest branch that would hold his weight.
He took a deep breath before jumping and spreading his wings. Quickly, he flapped them until they brought him higher. It took him a moment to get the hang of it because once again, it had been a while since he last used them, but in no time, the man was soaring through the sky with great speed. He laughed, excitement rushing through his entire body as he flew over the jungle. He decided to go higher, and so he did.
It felt so refreshing and freeing to be up here again. He closed his eyes and brought his wings in close to him, practically wrapping them around himself. As he plummeted, he spun around in the air before spreading his wings out again and catching himself before hitting the top of a tree, rising back up into the air again. Giddy laughter filled his chest, a bright and wide smile on his face. He genuinely loved it up here.
As much as he loved it, though, he should get back in case anyone sees him and get back to preening his wings. He landed gracefully in the overgrown patch behind his base onto a thick branch in the tree he had been in before. He took a seat and brought one of his wings closer to him, deciding to start. He carefully ran his fingers through his feathers, grabbing lightly at the loose feathers and straightening the rest as he went. The process always took a long time, which was why he always put it off, not to mention he could never reach the back on his own. He just sighed. One day, he could have someone do the back of his wings, but for now, it was just him and himself.
An hour had passed, and he was still nowhere near done with his wings. He had finished the first and wasn't even a quarter of the way through the second. He sighed in frustration, his wings puffing up with his emotions. He genuinely hated doing this. It took too long, and they were just going to get messed up again anyway. What was the point? Before he could continue his thoughts or what he was doing, a voice rang out from inside his base. "Griaaaan?? Are you home? I know this is your base. You have a very distinct building style."
Grian flinched. That was Scar's voice. Oh, this was some bad timing. He quickly retracted his wings after a couple of seconds of struggling before calling out to Scar. "Yeah, I'm back here!" Grian wondered what the other man was doing here and how he even found this place, and why he was here so late in the night. He decided he would ask those questions once Scar was closer. Scar wheeled in happily on his wheelchair, and Grians was sure that if the man had the energy, he’d be skipping in instead.
He looked around for a second before spotting Grian. "Oh, there you are, what are you doing up in a tree?" Grian cringed a little at the question, trying to produce an excuse. "Just enjoying the fresh air?" It sounded more like a question than an answer. "Oh, that's nice, nature is very refreshing, isn’t it? Anyways, I thought I'd stop by! I accidentally spotted your base earlier, and I was meaning to come over here and tell you we're neighbors!" Scar smiled brightly. Well, that answered two of his questions.
"Oh, really? That's great, Scar, but uh, why so late at night?" Grian asked curiously, not exactly annoyed by Scar’s surprise late-night visit, just confused. "Well, I saw that you were still awake, and I had been busy all day-” Scar cuts himself off as he now tilts his head, eyeing something on the ground. “Say what's with all the feathers?" Grian cringed again. He had hoped that it was dark enough that he couldn't see them, but then again, the vibrant colors did stick out a bit.
"Oh- those. There were a lot of parrots back here, so I had to shoo them off because they were being so noisy, y'know how those pesky birds can be." Grian said, the lie slipping from his lips like second nature by this point. "Those are rather large feathers." Scar said as he scooped up a feather, now examining the large, vibrant feather. "They were, uh- Really large birds. mhm." Grian was sweating. He felt very exposed in this moment, and he did not like how this was going.
"Now, Grian, you wouldn't be lying to me, would you?" Scar asks as he now looks back up at him. Grian's heart stopped. Was this it? Was this how they were going to find out? And on the first day of the season, no, no, this was so bad. But then, suddenly, Scar laughed. "I'm just messing with you, I believe you, Grian." Grian let out a long, silent sigh of relief. "But..." Grian tensed again. Was Scar trying to torture him? "You know you can talk to me, right, Grian?" did- did Scar know?
"About what?" Grian laughed nervously. No, there was no conceivable way he knew. Grian had hidden it so well. Scar shrugged, "I Dunno about anything, you look tense, buddy thought something was bothering you." Oh. He didn't know that was good. Grian sighed again, but this time not as silently, maybe... maybe he did want to vent a little. "W-well, now that you mention it." Scar perked up a little, ready to give Grian his full and undivided attention. Grian was one of Scar's closest friends, and he was always willing to help his friends, even if that just meant lending an ear for a bit.
Grian slides off the branch, now landing on the ground and walking over to Scar before sitting down in front of the man on his knees "I- I mean I have a friend who-" Grian starts, but Scar innocently cuts him off, "Ooh, do I know this friend?" the other man asked happily with a small smile on his innocent face. "Uh- yes, you do know this friend- but I probably shouldn't tell you who they are!" Grian quickly says, averting his gaze. Scar pouts but concedes. "Aw, okay, that's fine."
"U-Uhm, anyway. I have this friend who has this secret. He's had this secret for a very long time, but he uh- he doesn't know how to tell people because he's scared that they'll hate him." Grian almost mutters, trying to keep his voice level as he speaks. He was being far too obvious. He knew that, but he couldn’t help himself. He hadn’t talked to anyone about this before.
"Well, you know the secret, and you don't hate him, do you?" Scar asked, tilting his head a little. "Well- no- but that's different, you see, because- uh-" Grian sputtered before he stopped, seeing Scar give him a certain look, a look of knowing. "Grian... Whatever it is, I promise no one is going to hate you- I mean, your friend. For it. Okay? We're all friends here in Hermitcraft, and nothing you- I mean he says could make us hate him." Grian smiled a little, looking down at his hands that were tightly intertwined with themselves. He was glad that Scar was playing along for his sake.
"Thanks, Scar, I re-I'm sure he'll really appreciate that," Grian says quietly but genuinely. "Of course, and you tell that friend of yours that whenever he's ready, he can come and tell me what's up," Scar responded, his smile never faltering.
Grian nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I will- I mean I will tell him you said that."