#bc i was gonna maybe edit it into somethign longer?

[convexicalcrow]

Cub admired the skulk spreading across the land surrounding his base. It sung softly, contentedly, eager to be given so much food. There was also a note of mourning, given it was outside and in the sunshine, and away from the protection of the Warden, its one and only defense mechanism. Ahh well. Can't be helped. Not that Cub wanted Wardens spawning all over his base though. He could easily live without that. The mobs and phantoms were more than enough for him to deal with, thank you very much.

He did find it strange no one had really confronted him about it though, given his history. Surely at least some Hermits might be a little concerned to see him spreading skulk everywhere, but no! Not even Scar seemed to care anymore. He was glad to help it spread! It led to Cub feeling a little on edge, half expecting someone to call him out on it, but no one ever did. He often wondered why.

Not that he had much time to spare worrying about these things. He was way too busy with the fireworks factory. There was so much to do, so many fireworks to produce. So much skulk to harvest and bring to the surface. So many goat horns to send out to people through the mail. What other Hermits thought about the skulk wasn't his problem. If Scar didn't care, then he was happy enough.

He did wonder a little about how far this might go. This seemed… more intense than his previous encounters with the skulk. This wasn't just hiding catalysts all over the place and hoping for the best. This was literally ripping up the grass and putting skulk there instead. Tearing apart the natural landscape to corrupt it instead. He kept on going, though. Every time he went to harvest it from the ancient city, he felt the skulk's eagerness as much as their sadness. There was no life down here. But up there, above, on the surface? Where mobs still came and died and could feed them so well? Yes, that's where the skulk needed to be. Right there, where the food was.

Cub often found himself dazzled by the light from the blocks at night. The sparking stars were so hypnotic. He would gaze across the landscape and see nothing but skulk and it mesmerised him. It was that moment when he felt the skulk's mind touching his own. A whispered, 'thank you', a small tendril brushing his leg softly. Things that left him staring oddly into the distance, as if in a stupor he needed to be woken from.

He gazed at the soul flames dancing in the night air as they lined sections of the new pathways. He loved the colour of them, loved how brightly they shone even though they emitted less light than regular torches. If he was feeling brave, he swiped his fingers through them, a silly magic trick that was meant to prove his fearlessness over fire.

Scar laughed it off. Scar always did. He didn't care about the skulk spreading. Didn't care that Cub sometimes seemed a little distant. Didn't care about the stains on his fingers because the man was positively covered in dyes to begin with. If there was real skulk there, Scar wouldn't have seen it.

It wasn't difficult to goad Scar into a death loop, either. The number of times they simply messed around with loaded crossbows filled with fireworks, shooting at each other making both a huge mess as well as dying repeatedly, the skulk loved it. Cub could always tell. There was this soft singing he heard that he could never quite identify. Something soft, but otherworldly. Something joyful. The skulk liked it when they died, so of course they kept doing it.

Death after death after death, fireworks shimmering and breaking all over the place, respawns kicking their butts as they kept coming back only to die all over again. It was a lot, but it was working. And it was fun! The skulk spread happily, almost independent from Cub's efforts now. In his head, Cub had an idea of how far the skulk should spread, but that was out of his hands now, and he was sort of quietly aware of that. It wasn't up to him now, it was all down to the skulk and what they wanted.

And if they wanted a home of their own, if they wanted to take over a dark cave somewhere, well. Cub wasn't about to stop them. That would be counter productive. The skulk must spread, after all.