#AND HAVE YOU SEEN GRIAN!! THAT MAN MADE A SUMMONING CIRCLE FOR MUMBO BECAUSE HE MISSED HIM

[stiffyck]

OFMD AU! HEAR ME OUT! HEAR ME OUT!

SCAR IS STEDE

MUMBO IS BLACKBEARD

GRIAN IS IZZY

PLEASE TELL ME YOU GUYS SEE IT

[quartz-slab]

Respawn

Word count: 6.5k 

@nb-sponge and @mincecruft helped me write this because they’re awesome

This is part of @ask-elementalhermitcraft‘s au, so if you want more context about this universe, go check out their blog!

"Grian."

"Yes?" he answered in his most innocent tone of voice.

"Is that a chicken on my base?" Mumbo demanded, pointing down at the top of his spherical base.

Grian squinted in the direction he was pointing, but they were a little too high up for him to see it. "I don't know, maybe? Why would there be a chicken on your base?"

The unimpressed look Mumbo gave him at that suggested he wasn't buying it at all, but before Grian could defend himself further, Mumbo was swooping down to get a closer look. With a twitch of his wings, Grian followed him down.

Since Mumbo was slightly in front of him, he got a perfect view of his friend botching the landing and tumbling head over heels along the top of his base before skidding to a stop in an annoyed heap. The sight made him laugh hard enough that his own landing was a little awkward, sending him stumbling forward several steps before he managed to stop himself.

"Nice landing," he teased.

"Oh, shut up." Mumbo tried to sit up, but the fall had knocked his elytra loose and one of the straps was wrapped around his arm, trapping it to his body. "Um. A little help, please?"

Grian shook his head, still giggling, and went over to free his friend. It took a bit of tugging from both of them, and some awkward wiggling from Mumbo, but eventually they managed to get the elytra off him. He scrambled to his feet, brushing away the wrinkles from his suit and doing his best to look dignified. His cheeks were red enough that it was hard to see his freckles.

"Thanks. Now, where did that chicken go?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mumbo. Why on Earth would there be a chicken in your base?"

"Well, maybe because a certain friend of mine keeps throwing eggs everywhere!" Mumbo threw his arms out, gesturing at the expanse of biomes below them.

Grian hummed, acting thoughtful. "Do you mean Iskall? It is pretty suspicious that we never see him and Poultryman in the same place, really."

"I saw you here yesterday with an armful of eggs, Grian."

"It wasn't me, it was the man in the chicken costume!" he insisted, playfully shoving at Mumbo's shoulder.

Mumbo took half a step back to brace himself, but his shoe landed on the discarded elytra and skidded. Grian had half a second to process the shocked look on his friend's face - and then Mumbo was falling off the side of his base with a shout of surprise. The next few seconds felt like an eternity while Grian realized what happened:

Mumbo was falling.

Mumbo wasn't wearing his elytra.

Mumbo was going to die and it was all Grian's fault, which meant -

Mumbo wouldn't respawn from this.

He shook himself out of his shock and sprinted forward, diving off after his friend, wings tucked as close to his back as they could go to help him fall faster. Below him, Mumbo was tumbling through the air, flailing out his arms like it would somehow help him slow down. Grian reached down, trying to catch him, but they were too far apart. The wind whipped around him in an attempt to slow down their fall, but it wasn't enough. The ground was approaching too fast, and he couldn't dive fast enough to beat it.

His view started to blur with tears, brought on by a mixture of fear and the rush of air against his eyes. If he could just fly a little faster, or if he'd moved a little faster, he'd be able to save Mumbo, but he'd just stood there like an idiot instead of reacting and there wasn't enough time.

Mumbo hit the ground with a sound that Grian knew he would hear in his nightmares forever, and vanished, leaving his items scattered over the ground.

Choking on a sob, he pulled out of the dive, wings pumping desperately as he tried to stop himself from experiencing the same impact. The wind, apparently not in the mood to mess with him right now, helped slow him down enough that the landing was only painful, rather than lethal. He still ended up rolling a couple of feet, in just the same way as he'd made fun of Mumbo for doing only a few minutes ago.

He slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position, but couldn't make himself move any further than that. For a long moment, he just sat where he'd fallen, wrapping his wings around himself in an instinctive attempt to hide from what had just happened. Falling damage on its own wasn't permanently lethal, but Grian was the one who had pushed him. Did that mean Mumbo was just - dead? For real? He shook his head desperately, even though he knew he was just fooling himself.

Still, he made himself stand up. If Mumbo was respawning at all, he would respawn in his base, right? In which case he'd probably want Grian to bring his stuff up there. He moved to go collect it, and winced. The fall had left scrapes and bruises all over him, and now that some time had passed he was becoming painfully aware of all of them. One of his ankles ached every time he stepped on it, but he forced himself to ignore it and started collecting Mumbo's scattered items.

There were too many of them to fit in his inventory, but he managed to find a few shulker boxes that weren't completely full, so he shoved all the leftovers into them. It was all a complete mess, but he could take the time to sort it out later. Right now he had to go check Mumbo's bed.

The wind was howling in response to his emotions, tugging at his clothes and whipping up the sand, but it didn't stop him from taking off. It knew when things were too important to mess with him. But even without the wind messing with him, his flying was so erratic that he almost slammed into the side of the base before landing correctly on one of the pathways. He barely slowed down when he hit the ground, letting his momentum push him forward into a run. There were a few stray shulker boxes in his way, but he vaulted over them instead of taking the time to dodge, spreading his wings to give him the extra height he needed.

He skidded to a stop next to Mumbo's bed, looking around frantically for some sign of his friend. But Mumbo was nowhere to be seen, and the sheets were just as neat as he usually left them, suggesting that he hadn't been here recently. Grian whirled around, trying to scan every part of the base for a tall, black-suited figure, but he couldn't see anything He quickly messaged Mumbo, but got no immediate response.

Mumbo hadn't respawned here. Which meant -.

Grian pressed both hands against his mouth, dropping his communicator onto the bed as the tears he'd been trying to hold back finally poured loose. His best friend was dead and it was all his fault, because he was too slow and too stupid to react in time. What was he supposed to do now? His breath hitched, coming out in frantic gasps. There had to be something he could do, but the only thing he could think was Mumbo's dead he's dead he'sdeadhe'sdead.

The wind picked up even more, approaching gale force as he panicked, whipping in fierce circles around him like it was trying to keep him safe from whatever was upsetting him. "I can't - I can't -." He wasn't even sure what he was trying to say. He needed to think, needed to figure out what to do, but the horror creeping up his throat was threatening to choke him and he couldn't think through it.

He started to back away from the empty bed, then turned to run, launching himself into the air with no thought to where he was going. The wind snatched at his wings and tossed him higher, too frenzied with his emotions to even notice that he was there anymore. Suddenly a thought managed to break through his panic: Xisuma. If X rewound time, he could catch Mumbo, or stop him from falling in the first place.

Clinging to that desperate thought, he flew off into the storm.

----

Mumbo sat up with a gasp. For a moment, he couldn't see anything as his head swirled with the vertigo that always came with dying and respawning. After a few seconds his vision cleared, and he started looking around to try and figure out where he'd respawned. This wasn't his base. Where was he?

It took him a moment before he remembered: this was the mining mesa. He'd been mining terracotta yesterday, and slept because it was getting dark. He must have forgotten to break the bed before he left.

Groaning, he stood up. Without any items, it was going to take him forever to get back to his base. Hopefully Grian wasn't too freaked out; he'd looked pretty scared while he was trying to catch Mumbo. It'd probably be best to hurry, just in case.

This time he made very certain to break the bed. There were a few chests near the beanstalk, and he dug through them quickly to see if he could find anything useful. Most of it was junk, but he found a mostly intact stone sword and a few uncooked potatoes. No one would mind if he took those. He would have preferred some redstone, but if he really had to, he could summon some from the ground. Not that he was expecting to; if he hurried, he could be back to his base before it got dark. He jogged over to the beanstalk and stepped into the water elevator, letting it propel him up to the nether portal. When he appeared in the nether, he mentally thanked Joe once again for marking the path back to the shopping district and set off at a run.

About halfway back, he slowed down to a walking pace to check his communicator. He had one message from Grian, which read “where are you?” He responded with “Respawned at the mesa, on my way back.” He shoved the device back into his pocket and continued running.

By the time he reached the shopping district portal he was too winded to run anymore, but he made himself keep moving anyway, stumbling through the portal. If he could find an ender chest, he was pretty sure he had a spare elytra that he could use to get home.

Barely two steps out of the portal, the wind hit him hard enough that he staggered and nearly fell over. He hadn't seen wind this hard in - ever, actually. It tore at his clothes, knocking over signs and sending dirt and leaves whirling through the air. He dug his shoes into the ground to brace himself and held up a hand to shield his eyes.

This obviously wasn't natural weather; it had to be because of Grian. Mumbo needed to get to him right now.

There was no way he could fly in this weather, but he started off in the direction of iTrade anyway to get his spare elytra, just in case the wind calmed down at any point. Getting there felt like it took twice as long as it should have, with the wind pushing him off balance every few steps so he had to concentrate on staying standing more than where he was going.

Half-blinded by the wind and not paying enough attention to what was happening around him, Mumbo ran straight into Iskall as the other man was coming out of iTrade.

"Whoa, you okay, dude?" Iskall asked, grabbing onto Mumbo's arm to steady them both.

"I'm fine, I just - I'm sorry, I have to hurry, I need my elytra." Pushing away from Iskall, he stumbled over to the nearby ender chest. The large building it sat next to helped block some of the wind so he could actually move without needing to brace himself.

"Why? There's no way you're gonna be able to fly in this weather." Iskall followed him toward the chest, tucking himself against the building to hide from the wind. "Do you have any idea what's going on with Grian?"

Did he leave his elytra in the blue shulker box or the green one? Mumbo dug through the stacks of random items he had stored in his chest, grabbing some spare armor and supplies while he was at it. After a moment, it registered that Iskall was talking to him. "What?"

"Grian. The weather was just fine half an hour ago, and now the wind is going absolutely insane and he's not answering any of our messages. I think something might be wrong.”

"I think something might be -

"I think something -

"I think -.”

Iskall's words suddenly stuttered, looping back on themselves several times. The lid of the ender chest, which Mumbo had just closed, was suddenly open again. He let go and flinched back in surprise, narrowly avoiding having his fingers crushed as it swung shut.

"What was that?" he asked. Just in case it happened again, he moved slowly as he stood up, but time seemed to be moving normally now.

“I dunno, man.”

"Right. Anyway... Yeah, something is definitely wrong. We were on top of my base, and he tried to catch me but couldn't, and I think it really scared him. He didn't mean to, of course, but he's obviously really freaking out about it." He started to strap on his elytra, then stopped when he realized that it would be nearly impossible to fly in this weather. Instead, he tossed it into his inventory.

"That...didn't make any sense, Mumbo," Iskall said. "Slow down and explain it to me again."

Mumbo took a deep breath. He was practically vibrating with the urge to run off and find Grian, but he made himself calm down somewhat so he could explain what was going on. "I fell off my base and died, and Grian's really freaked out about it, as you can tell."

"Oh, yeah, I saw the message. But what's the big deal? All of us fall off things all the time."

"I don't know? I guess because he tried to catch me and couldn't?" Mumbo shrugged helplessly. "Does it matter? We need to find him and calm him down."

"You're right. Okay, you go see if he's still where you died, and I'll get - get the others to help look for him."

"Thanks, Iskall!" Mumbo started to rush off, stopped, and turned around. "Um... Do you have a spare boat?”

----

Grian hovered over Xisuma's base, trying to see if he was there. It was hard to tell with how much he was being jostled around by the wind and the fact that everything was still blurred by tears, but he was pretty sure he could see someone moving around at the bottom of the giant square hole. Tucking in his wings, he dove down to land right in front of him.

Ignoring the other man's noise of surprise, Grian lunged forward to grab his green hoodie with both hands and drag him down to eye level. "X, you have to help me! Mumbo - I pushed him, I didn't mean to, he wasn't wearing his elytra and he - he." Grian choked on the next few words, unable to force them out.

"What? Are you crying? What are you talking about?" The taller man tried to pull back, but Grian stubbornly clung on.

"Mumbo's dead," he burst out. "Because I - because I killed him."

Xisuma made a noise like he'd been punched in the gut and roughly shoved Grian away, stumbling back several steps to brace himself against a chest. "No. No, no, no."

"I'm sorry." He swiped the sleeve of his sweater across his eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to - you have to rewind, right now."

"You." Xisuma reached up to tug at his hair. He was shaking hard enough that Grian could see it from several feet away. "Why." It wasn't a question.

"I didn't mean to! We were just joking and I pushed him and he fell and I couldn't catch him and he didn't respawn." Grian took a step toward Xisuma. "Please, you have to rewind -."

Grian took a step toward -

Grian took a step -

Grian -

The world stuttered and jumped like a scratched record, and then he ran into a chest that was suddenly much closer than it had been a second ago. "What was that?"

"I can't. Not anymore."

"X, please."

"I can't!" Xisuma shouted. "Time fucking abandoned me and all I have is this!"

He flung out his arm, and the stacks of chests around them abruptly jerked closer. Grian dodged out of the way as the chest next to him toppled over onto the floor with a crash, spilling out a pile of iron and gold ingots. Heart pounding, he looked closer at the other man, taking in all the details he'd been too panicked to notice before.

There were far more scars criss crossing his exposed skin then there should have been. The set of his mouth was harsher, even when he wasn't shouting at Grian because he'd just killed his best friend. And the eyes currently glaring at him were bright red instead of brown.

"Oh," he said. Then, "Where's X? I have to find him before it's too late to rewind!"

"Are you actually this stupid, or did killing your friend also kill your brain?" Evil X snapped. "He can't help you with this any more than I can."

Grian shook his head desperately. "No, he just needs to rewind - there's still some time, right? I've seen him go back half a day, this is nothing."

"Dead is dead, idiot! As in permanent, never coming back. Even he can't fix that."

"But - no, he rewound last week when Ren fell into lava and lost all his stuff," Grian protested, wings fluttering anxiously.

Evil X made an aggravated noise and dragged a hand through his hair, making it even messier than it already was. The motion seemed to skip back half a second and repeat slightly, then continued normally. "Ren wasn't actually dead. He fell into lava because he wasn't paying attention, not because someone pushed him." The disgusted glare he sent Grian at that had the smaller man's wings flinching in front of him in an instinctive attempt to hide from it. "Have you ever seen him rewind for someone who hadn't already respawned to go whine at him?"

"No," Grian whispered. The air around him started to swirl faster, responding to his growing dread by trying to push everything away from him.

"Exactly. As long as they respawn, he can rewind as much as he likes. If they don't -" another record-scratch jump had the same gust of wind tousling his hair three times before Evil X continued, tone forced flat in a way that was almost eerie compared to how agitated he'd been earlier. "If they don't, it means the universe has decided they're really, permanently dead. And it won't let anyone change that."

Grian balled his hands into fists. "I don't believe you! You never liked any of us; you probably don't even care that Mumbo's -" he swallowed down the catch in his throat and stubbornly kept talking. "That Mumbo's dead. You're just trying to stop me from going to X because you don't want him to fix it!"

The world jerked around him, skipping so quickly that everything turned into a series of still images, repeating at random with a suddenness that almost made him nauseous. He shut his eyes to block it out, and then shut them again because the movement couldn't seem to stick.

"So why are you still here?" Boots scuffed against the ground, and when Grian cracked his eyes open again, Evil X had moved a few steps closer to him. He smiled mockingly, but there wasn't a trace of humor in his eyes. "You could go find him right now, instead of standing here and crying to me."

"I," Grian started, but he didn't know what to say. Evil X wasn't wrong and he knew it, but if he accepted that, he would have to accept that there was nothing he could do to fix this.

"Go on, go tell him what you did." He pitched his voice upward into a bad imitation of Grian. "X, please, you've gotta rewind for me because I murdered my friend."

"Stop! I didn't - it was an accident, I didn't mean to!"

"Oh? Well then, that just makes it all better. Make sure you mention that when you ask him."

"Stop, stop, stop." He wrapped his arms tightly around himself, squeezing handfuls of his sweater sleeves. "What am I supposed to do?"

Evil X scoffed and turned away. "Don't ask me."

"But -." Before Grian could finish the sentence, Evil X was gone, like he'd simply blinked out of existence. The sight made his heart race for a moment, even though he'd seen him teleport before.

And then he was alone, with only the howling wind for company. For a moment, he just stood there. Then he slowly sank down to the ground, curling up into a ball and pulling his wings close around him to block out the world.

There wasn't anything he could do to fix this, but at least he could put off seeing the way everyone would look at him when they realized what he'd done. At least for a little while, he could pretend he wasn't going to end up alone again.

----

The surface of the sea had turned choppy from the storm, sending large waves crashing into the beach. Mumbo really wasn’t looking forward to rowing in that, but there was no time to wait it out. He set his boat down, trying to avoid the water as much as possible, and started to jump in -

Everything stuttered, waves jumping from one spot to another like a bad stop motion animation. The sounds of the wind and the water looped back over themselves in a discordant mess, stopping and starting apparently at random. Mumbo couldn’t figure out if he was standing or leaning on the boat - none of the movements he made seemed to make any -

The side of the boat disappeared from under his hands, and he fell in the water with a splash as time abruptly became linear again.

Dropping into the cold water was a nasty shock, but even worse was the sudden lack of energy as the water wiped away the small redstone charge he normally carried. Fumbling back to his feet as quickly as possible, he searched frantically for the suddenly missing boat. After a few seconds, he spotted it bobbing wildly several feet away and hurriedly splashed toward it. The water was shallow enough to walk in, but he still took a few waves to the face before he managed to pull himself into the boat.

It rocked wildly when he flopped down, but didn’t capsize, so Mumbo ignored it and tried to catch his breath. The taste of salt lingered on his tongue from the bits of seawater that had gotten in his mouth. He spat a few times, unsuccessfully trying to get rid of it.

Right now he wanted nothing more than to curl up and take a nap, or at the very least find a circuit to recharge with until he felt less like passing out. But there wasn’t any time for that right now, so he forced himself to sit up and reach for the oars.

The wind only seemed to get worse as he rowed. He only made it as far as Grian’s base before his arms started to shake from the effort, so he landed his boat against the pathway and climbed out to stretch. Keeping one eye on it to make sure it didn’t float away again, he pulled his communicator from his pocket to check if Grian had responded yet. His little dip earlier hadn’t done the device any harm; they seemed to be nearly indestructible, even able to follow the hermits when they respawned.

There were nothing from Grian, but the group chat was full of confused messages from the other hermits. Reading through them, Mumbo realized that they were responding to...whatever it was that had happened earlier.

[FalseSymmetry] what was that??

[docm77] i’m not sure, but i think it broke my redstone

[xisumavoid] oh no

[xisumavoid] i’ll deal with it, try not to do anything dangerous in the meantime

That was apparently all Xisuma had to say, despite several more messages asking him to explain what “it” was. If Mumbo had to guess, there was probably something going on with his powers, since the weird stutters seemed to be messing with time more than anything else. That was a little concerning, but it sounded like he knew how to fix it, so Mumbo wasn’t going to worry about it right now.

He tried sending another message to Grian, but there was still no response. After waiting a few seconds, fingers drumming anxiously against the communicator’s case, he gave up and dropped it back into his pocket. It wasn’t entirely unusual for Grian to ignore messages, but he’d picked a really bad time to do it.

It didn’t look like the wind was easing up at all, but Mumbo felt a little better after his break. He got back in the boat, managing not to fall in the ocean this time, and continued in the direction of his base. The longer half of the journey was already over; it didn’t take long for the giant sphere to come into view.

He jumped out onto the shore as soon as he got back to his base, leaving his boat behind. He made his way up the beach, wet shoes squishing with every step. The wind was throwing sand into the air, stinging his eyes and sticking to his wet skin. When he reached the top of the hill, he took a moment to look around for his stuff as he walked toward his base. It was hard to tell exactly where he’d fallen, since he’d been a little preoccupied at the time, but he had a general idea. There didn’t seem to be anything there at first glance, and it didn’t look like Grian was there either. Deciding to leave it for later, he made a beeline for his bubble elevator to check the rest of his base.

The first thing he saw when he arrived at the top was his bed. There was something laying on top of it - a communicator, he realized as he got closer. It was Grian’s, judging by the amount of stickers on the back. They were layered over each other to the point that some of them were almost completely obscured, but he could still make out multiple chicken and egg themed ones near the top.

Grian himself wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Mumbo turned in a slow circle, but his friend didn’t seem to be anywhere in the base. He picked up the abandoned communicator and went to check down the pathways, just in case. Along the way, he stopped and pressed his hand against one of the redstone lamps. It flickered out briefly as he drew the power out of it and into himself. The comforting surge of energy immediately had him perking up, freckles regaining their normal glow.

A quick search of his base confirmed that Grian definitely wasn’t there. At least now he knew why his friend wasn’t answering, but this was going to make finding him a little more difficult. He pocketed Grian’s communicator and pulled out his own to type out a message.

[MumboJumbo] has anyone seen grian? i really need to find him

Several moments passed, and then his screen lit up with a new notification.

[xisumavoid] he’s over here at my base

[xisumavoid] you might want to hurry

----

Feeling someone other than himself messing with time was an extremely unsettling feeling, like expecting to step on solid ground and finding air instead. It didn’t help that the jumps were messy and badly done, snarling time into a knot rather than neatly looping it back on itself. The lava directly below the narrow path he stood on made it especially frightening. Now was probably not the safest time to be in the nether.

Xisuma quickly flew toward the nearest piece of solid ground, managing to land just before another glitch sent time twisting around itself again. For a moment, he assumed that his alternate self had decided to start messing with him. Evil X had said he would be taking a break at his base, but perhaps that was just a ruse. With a groan of frustration, he set out towards his base, mentally preparing himself for a heated encounter with his evil counterpart.

However, instead of encountering Evil X upon returning to the overworld, he was greeted by a large gust of wind slamming into him that caused him to almost stumble back through the portal. Steadying himself, he took a moment to ponder the situation. Winds this strong could only be caused by Grian when he was very upset, which wasn’t a good sign. Typically when someone this distressed came to him, it meant something had gone very wrong, and they wanted him to roll back time to fix it. He wondered about what could’ve happened as he slowly moved forward through the billowing winds.

As Xisuma moved towards the center of his base, he made out the figure of Grian curled up in a corner. He called out to Grian, but he either couldn't hear him, or he was ignoring him. He called out again, and this time Grian slowly lifted his head in response, though he kept his eyes locked on the floor.

“Haven’t you said enough?” His voice was hoarse, as if he’d been crying.

Xisuma frowned, confused. He hadn’t talked to Grian in a few days. “What do you mean?”

“Or do you want to tell me some more about what a horrible person I am? Believe me, I already know.”

“What? Grian, what’s going on?”

Grian looked up at him. He looked like he was about to say something, but the expression on his face quickly changed to one of confusion, then fear. “Wait, you’re not -.” He cut himself off by bringing his hand up to his mouth.

“It’s just me,” Xisuma said soothingly, trying to calm Grian down. “You can talk to me, it’s okay.”

“No, I can’t! Just - leave me alone!” He lifted one hand and shot a large gust of wind at Xisuma.

It only managed to shove him back a few steps before he stopped himself by grabbing onto the edge of a crafting table. No thanks, he thought. He wasn’t just going to leave Grian to have some kind of breakdown in the middle of his base.

“Not until you tell me what’s going on. Whatever it is, I’m sure we can fix it somehow.”

“He said it’s impossible. That there’s some stuff even you can’t rewind,” Grian said, voice hitching.

“Who said that?” Xisuma asked. He took a few steps closer, moving slowly so as not to startle him.

“The other you, the one with the red eyes. Dead is dead, he told me. You can’t fix that.”

Xisuma felt his blood run cold. “Someone’s dead?” He’d never had to find this out for himself, but according to Evil X, that was the one thing that could stop him from rewinding.

Grian seemed to brace himself for a moment, then burst out, “Mumbo’s dead, okay? He’s dead and I’m the one that pushed him off!” Another powerful gust of wind followed his words, but this time it was strong enough to send Xisuma stumbling back into the portal.

He fell through into the nether and landed on the ground, too surprised by the sudden teleportation to catch himself. Composing himself quickly, he tapped a button on his helmet to bring up the chat screen, intending to message Mumbo. Before he could, a message appeared.

[MumboJumbo] has anyone seen grian? i really need to find him

A feeling of relief washed over him, and he took a moment to calm down before sending a reply.

[xisumavoid] he’s over here at my base

[xisumavoid] you might want to hurry

----

After reading the messages, Mumbo got halfway to the beach before realizing that he could get to Xisuma’s base much faster if he went through the nether. Scolding himself for not thinking of that before, he switched directions and hurried toward the building that housed his portal. It was a short journey, since their bases were somewhat close already, so it wasn’t long before he reached the right portal. Xisuma was standing in front of it, leaning back against the obsidian, but he perked up when he spotted Mumbo.

“There you are! You should hurry through and talk to Grian; he’s pretty upset. But I expect an explanation when you’re through!”

“Right, of course. Thanks for finding him,” Mumbo said, stepping past Xisuma into the portal.

The wind hit him as soon as he appeared on the other side, hard enough to knock him off balance and almost send him stumbling right back into the portal. He’d known to expect it, but this was much worse than he’d thought.

It took him a few moments to locate Grian. His friend was curled up in one corner of the base, wings pulled around himself so that the only thing Mumbo could see of him was a tuft of light brown hair.

“Grian?” he called, raising his voice to be audible over the wind. There was no response, so he moved a little closer and tried again. When there was still no answer, Mumbo moved closer again, almost right next to Grian at this point. He crouched down, trying to get his friend to look at him with a gentle tap on his wing.

His wings twitched suddenly, knocking Mumbo’s hand away, and his head finally shot up. For a moment, everything was quiet as the wind died down for a second. A look of shock and disbelief was etched across his face. Suddenly, the wind picked back up, harsher than before, pushing Mumbo away slightly as Grian covered his eyes and started to shake his head. “No, no, no - stop it, you’re dead, you can’t be here - no nonoNO!”

“Grian, it’s okay! I’m fine, I’m right here, see?”

He held his arms in front of his face to protect his eyes from the wind, and started to move closer to his distraught friend. Trudging against the wind was difficult, but he was determined. As soon as he was close enough, he dropped down to his knees and wrapped his arms around Grian.

The wind abruptly halted. For a few moments it was dead quiet, but the sound of quiet sobs broke through the silence.

Grian sat up slightly so he could wrap his arms around Mumbo and bury his face against his shoulder. “I thought you were gone for good,” he said, his shaky voice muffled by Mumbo’s jacket. “You didn’t show up at your base, and I thought I -.”

“Shh, it’s okay. I just respawned at the mining mesa. I’m sorry that I scared you so much.”

“It seems kind of stupid now,” he mumbled. “But I thought maybe it counted as a permanent death because I pushed you.”

“You didn’t really push me off, I slipped. Even if that was your fault - which it wasn’t - it wouldn’t have counted as you killing me, right? The fall was what killed me, not you.”

“I…” Grian sniffled and pulled back slightly to look at Mumbo. “I’m just glad you’re okay.” He leaned back in to hug him tighter.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, just happy to be back together. Eventually, Mumbo pulled away and stood up. He held out his hand, and Grian happily took it, pulling himself to his feet.

“Let’s head back to my base - I’ll make you some cookies.”

----

Over the next few days, if anyone ran into Mumbo, they ran into Grian as well. The winged hermit was practically glued to him, seemingly afraid that Mumbo might disappear if he didn’t keep an eye on him at all times. Grian’s sudden clinginess was slightly off-putting, but he didn’t mind, because it seemed to be helping his friend feel better.

Some time later, Grian sat on the ground in Mumbo’s base, watching him work on a bit of redstone for some kind of farm. His friend was talking about something that had happened the last time he went shopping, but it was a little hard to keep track of, because Grian kept zoning out. Every five minutes or so, he would start to nod off before jerking himself awake again and trying to figure out what he’d missed.

“...and then it turned out his horse had actually wandered into Tango’s shop and - Grian?”

He sat up quickly and blinked a few times, trying to make his eyes focus on Mumbo’s face. “Yeah? Sorry, I’m listening.”

“You know, maybe I should tell you later. Why don’t you go take a nap? You look exhausted.”

“I’m fine, I’ve probably just been sitting for too long.” He smiled brightly and bounced to his feet, only to stumble as the sudden movement made his head spin.

“Grian, you’ve hardly slept at all for the past few days. Go back to your base and get some rest.” When he hesitated, Mumbo added “Seriously, I’ll be fine on my own for a few hours. Promise.”

Grian paused for a second and sighed, but responded with “Okay, fiiiiiine. See you later!” Mumbo turned away as he moved towards the edge of the building they were standing on and got ready to take off, but then he got an idea. He slowly crept up on Mumbo, and when he was close enough, he threw an egg directly at the back of his head.

“Ow! What the..” Mumbo trailed off as Grian laughed and ran away to the edge. “Grian!”

“It wasn’t me, it was the man in the chicken costume!” he called over his shoulder. He took off gracefully and soared away, leaving Mumbo to chuckle at his antics. Mumbo smiled as he put his redstone supplies back into his shulker box, and started to walk back into the main part of his base. He’d have to clean the egg out of his hair now, but he was happy to see that his friend was back to his normal self.