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Don’t Tell Me How We’ve Grown From Having Loved a Little While

Hello My Old Heart - The Oh Hellos EP - The Oh Hellos

Chapter 7 of Cracking like a dry branch in a westward wind, in which Tango and Martyn get a somewhat belated invite from everyone’s favorite, completely sane florida man. Or bat, in this case. Everyone shows up to Grian’s party, mostly by ship, partly by [REDACTED BY ORDER OF COMMANDER X]. Some very, very old friends are introduced, alongside some new technology. Pearl and Grian get ready to do violence.

Available on AO3 here.

Martyn was actually quite comfortable given the circumstances.

When Tango had been transferring the grounded parrot from Blackbone Hospital to Glowhorn Spires (which turned out to be an astrological observation facility), he’d neglected to mention that there were no horses or donkeys to ride. Rather, Martyn had been fastened to the head, or maybe the back, of a two-legged, lizard-looking, slightly feathered, mushroom-gobbling thing called a strider. That walked on lava.

At least the things were vegetarian.

“Over there are the Warped Towers, where most of the mushrooms are grown.” Tango said as his strider walked, pointing at a set of ominous towers glowing a radioactive blue. “And over there are the Ribcage Arches, where basalt is farmed. Oh! You can see the Soulsand Bridges right up ahead! We won’t be walking on them, though, cause the ignaduct hasn’t been extended far enough. Do you like the word ‘ignaduct’? I made it up myself!”

Martyn couldn’t do much but nod along, smiling occasionally and asking the rare question, such as “What exactly are crimson stems?” or “How does one farm lava, exactly?”. This time, he nodded.

Upon arriving at the Glowhorn Spires, Martyn had been shown to a very nice, if slightly off, set of living quarters. The bed was a bit too wide and the mattress a bit too long for a normal person, but it seemed to accommodate his injured wing quite well while also being very comfortable. The water closet was very dark, and had a redstone light set into the floor rather than the ceiling. The only window was a stained glass affair, bringing back some less than welcome memories, but it was very pretty. And the area rug was bright aqua.

Martyn had fallen into an odd sort of routine during his recovery. Wake up, carefully stretch his injuries, wander about for a bit, find breakfast somewhere (usually under the delightfully named Bloodstar Dome), and continue to wander the Neverglades until Tango inevitably called for him, either in person or via a skeleton, usually one named Logan or Evan. He’d then spend most of the day in the king’s Blackstone Throne Room, answering questions and standing awkwardly next to a gaggle of witch advisors, his bright green wings somehow fitting in with the reds and blues that accented the black everything.

This routine was by no means set, and would get disrupted nearly weekly by random construction projects or Tango wanting some ‘overlander advice’ at awful times of night. So he wasn’t exactly surprised by the king’s bursting into his room at 4 am.

“Martyn?! Maaartyn?! I’m sorry to wake you up, but someone’s asking after you.”

The bird jolted upright, a motion made easier by the lack of chest restraints this time. “BWHA! Ah, Tango, you spooked me. Someone’s asking after me?”

Tango nodded, his hair sparking with excitement. “Yep! They’re a bird-person too, I think. Got wings at the very least. Says their name is ‘unimportant’, and that ‘Sitter Sunset has an important message for you’, and that ‘you’re his best method of communication with this king’. I think he means me, right?”

Martyn stared for a second, before shaking his hair out of his face. “O-Okay, uh, give me a few minutes. Where are they waiting?”

“Alright! They’re at the peak of the Burniron Bridge. Said they wanted ‘a clear method of escape’. In all honesty, I can’t blame them!”

Martyn stumbled out of Glowhorn with his hair only half-bound by his headband and a mushroom omelette(?) stuffed into his mouth, sprinting as fast as his cast let him. Burniron wasn’t too far away, but the thing was several stories tall and his legs weren’t the strongest. He was only lightly panting upon reaching the pinnacle of the bridge.

He didn’t recognize the bird, but he did immediately notice that they weren’t a parrot. In fact, they weren’t a bird at all. Martyn didn’t quite know how Tango could mistake the large-eared, dark-coated, yellow-eyed mammal for any type of avian. But with the Basalt King, you really couldn’t be sure…

“Oh! You must be Martyn Viri—“

“JUNGLEWOOD! I-It’s Junglewood, actually. And you are?”

The bat-folk smiled. “Hypno. Hypno Tized, mercenary. Sitter Sunset hired me to get a message to you, since none of the parrots seemed to want to visit the Neverglades.”

“I wonder why.”

The smile widened into a full grin, showing off sharp teeth. “Indeed. Anyway, the Sitter wanted to tell you to try and get King Tek to visit the Coast this Eversun. He’s doing a reception-thing with as many rulers as he can convince to come, and since you’ve got this whole thing going with Tek, he’d like you to try and get him down there.”

Martyn blinked. “That’s it?”

Hypno shrugged. “Yep. Why, were you expecting more?”

“With Grian, honestly, yes. He’s usually very long winded.”

“Well, this time, that’s it. You got any other questions? Cause if not, the job’s done.”

“Oh, no. You can go, uh, Hypno.”

The bat nodded, before pulling something out of his pocket and flipping it at Martyn. The parrot caught it, and saw that it was a coin, gold and stamped with strange lettering.

“My calling card. Cast a little bit of comms magic with it, and you can hire me. See you whenever.”

Hypno suddenly snapped out a very large set of wings from under his coat, dark and patterned with yellow tattoos. He dove off the bridge, and flew off with a light jangling of metal. Martyn stared after him for a moment, before turning his violet eyes back to Glowhorn Spires.

He found Tango sitting under the Bloodstar Dome, munching on a large, raw chunk of crimson mushroom. The king stood up and waved as Martyn approached him, tossing the mushroom to a nearby strider that was just… there.

“How’d it go, Martyn? Did the maybe-bird, uh, deliver a good message?”

The parrot couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Well, yes. He did give me a good message. Hs name is Hypno, by the way, and he’s a bat, not a bird.”

Tango lightly tapped his fist into his other hand’s palm with a look of realization. “A bat-folk! No wonder he’s got such large ears!”

Martyn laughed again. “Yes, his ears are large. But his message from Grian concerns you as well, Tango.”

“It does?”

“Yes. Grian asked me to officially invite you to visit the Sunset Coast this Eversun.”

The king’s face lit up with a wide smile. “Really?! He’s inviting me? I think that’s a first! Of course I’ll come. And you’ll be going too, right? Since Grian and his people are also your people, right?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I?”

Grian, for once, got up with the sunrise.

Wings of red and yellow and blue snapped open as the sitter rolled upright, stretching to the ceiling in a routine that (somehow) hadn’t been broken for a week straight. Clawed hands rubbed violet eyes, and clawed feet didn’t stumble for once as their owner tugged on his day clothes. Grian’s face broke into an open grin as he looked out into the first light of Eversun.

“Goooooood morning, for once!” He called into the open air, voice unhindered by any glass. “Good morning sea, good morning sky, good morning random plant we effectively kidnapped from the jungle! Plant-knapped? Plant-knapped!”

With a whoop, the bird launched himself from the ledge and through the gate, air whistling through his ears as he soared away from the mostly finished Stratus Tower. That one was a mostly white affair, with streaks of orange and gold. Grian hoped it would be the first of a series of cloud-themed towers, if he ever got around to planning and finishing the others. But it was a different tower that he was heading for that morning.

Grian banked towards the sunrise, riding the cool winds that only rose during the edges of the day and night past the more complete towers. Reflection Spire glinted at him from the right, the smaller Brazen Spire nearly lost in the glare. He glided close enough to Aura Highrise’s side to brush the vines hanging off its gates, before rolling and doing the same to the bamboo within the planters of Summer Heights.

At last, he came to the structure closest to Climbing Spires, the most polished and largest one yet built. Flare Tower was hexagonal in shape, with six waterfalls and six intake pipes arranged in a stair-step pattern on its exterior. The wide planes of glass cut through the concrete walls, which themselves had a gradient from deep teal at the bottom to creamy white at the top. It was crowned by a twisting, arcing affair of gold and copper, shapes spilling like liquid sunlight from the asymmetrical spire. But most striking of all were the six massive gates cut into the walls at varying heights, empty space that allowed for the free movement of air and those that ride it. Grian dove for the uppermost of these gates, gliding through the central hole cut through the tower’s six floors to land softly on a moss carpet.

Almost immediately, the sitter was absorbed into the organized chaos of the Eversun preparations. A group of waitstaff-in-training, who were probably farmers with crops out-of-season, swept him up in their carefully measured steps. Grian cracked a few jokes and tasted a few fruits before spinning off into a circle of table-setting birds who were vigorously polishing a seemingly infinite number of forks and spoons and blunt knives and chopsticks. Where the latter pieces of cutlery had come from, Grian wasn’t entirely sure, other than that Cub had sourced them from somewhere. How one ate with sticks was something he still hadn’t figured out.

“Sir Sitter! Sir Sitter!”

Grian sleeked down in surprise, before he saw who was calling his name. “Oh, Mini! I didn’t know you’d be here.”

The grey-and-gold parrot smiled, a bit bashfully. “Well, I had some time off from directing the construction of Pegasus, and I wasn’t that far away, so…”

“You don’t need an excuse to be here, mate! Goodness knows you’re welcome anywhere. How goes the construction of—“ Grian lowered his voice conspiratorially “—project Evolution?”

“Good enough, I guess. It’s harder than you’d think to source obsidian around here. Cub’s got a chokehold on farming the stuff, but he uses it all for building. I was able to weasel some out of his head engineer, but not nearly enough to build the whole, uh, mainframe.” The technomancer looked unhappy using the code word, since he was used to dealing with absolute truths.

“Well, if you can stick around, there just might be a chance to weasel some obsidian out of the Basalt King, since he’ll be here later today!”

Mini Muka blanched quite considerably at the suggestion. “Me, talk to a king? To get stuff for Evolution? Isn’t he, like, famously from the, uh, second dimension? I-I don’t know, uh, isn’t Martyn close with the King Tek? Can’t he just ask for it?”

“Well, from what he’s told me over the past few months, Tango would question him if he so much as asked for a candle. In a well meaning way, apparently. If he asked for obsidian, he’d get suspicious for sure. But he’s also a, er, an eccentric, who I suspect would be sympathetic to the plight of a technomancer such as yourself!”

“O-Oh, fine. It’s not like I’ve got anything else on my schedule…”

“Land— er, uh, Sunset Coast in sight!”

The cry from the deer in the crow’s nest soon spread throughout the ship, and reached Queen Gemini’s ears within moments.

“We’re here? We’re here! Miss, could you go call Pan up from his berth? We’re about to dock!”

The fae-deer clambered out of her own cabin, hastily pulling the Crown of Needles around her antlers and smoothing out the nonexistent wrinkles on her dress. She’d adapted to ship life quickly, and now swayed with the movement of the deck like a natural-born sailor. Upon making topside, she nearly froze in place at the sight of the Sunset Coast’s silhouettes in the midday sunlight that reflected off the sea.

She flicked her ears in excitement as she took in the sight. “Oh wow! Towers, waterfalls, pipes of copper and planes of glass as far as the eye can see! Sitter Sunset, you wrote the truth!”

Suddenly, three shapes broke off from the nearest tower, streaks of color that dove straight down before skimming over the water towards the Pride of the Pines. All three circled the ship’s central mast a few times before landing on the deck.

“My lady, be you the Queen Gemini Taylor of Evergreen?”

The queen in question couldn’t help but preen a bit at the formal greeting, having gotten so used to being familiar with her subjects. “Why, yes. I am the Queen of the Crown of Needles. Be you representatives of the Sitter Grian Sunset?”

The lead parrot, a red-and-yellow-and-blue, nodded. “Yes, majesty. I am called Tomo Hawk. These—“ he gestured to the two others: a grey-and-gold and a blue-and-gold “—are Netty Play, and Big B. Stat. We are here to guide your ship into the dock at Flare Tower. Netty will stay with your helmsperson, and Big with your sail-riggers. I will be in the sky.”

“Aye, sir Hawk. Lead the way.”

Upon docking, Gem noticed that she was not the first ruler to arrive at Flare Tower. In fact, she was the third.

“Sovereign Cub? I should’ve expected you to get here first.”

The half-vex blushed, or at least seemed to. At any rate, his cheeks turned lightly translucent. “You know me too well, Queen Gem. But I didn’t actually get here first. Two people beat me.”

“Despite you living literally next door to the Sitter? Who could’ve gotten here faster?”

Cub shrugged, and gestured to a small alcove where two figures were speaking with each other behind a curtain of vines. “They did.”

As Gem approached, she exclaimed in surprise as the first exited the alcove. “Commander X? I had no clue that you were coming, or that the Sitter even knew you existed!”

That dragon-skull helmet laughed a bit, a light and gentle sound. “Oh, hello Queen Gem! For the record, I didn’t know you were coming either. And I was quite surprised to receive an invitation myself!”

“Hey, hey, don’t forget that I’m here too.” The other person ducked out from behind the greenery, and Gem gasped in recognition.

“Etho?!”

The canid visibly grinned beneath his mask. “Yup. The one and only. Oh, and before you ask, I just happened to be in Dragon’s Spine when X got the invite, and when the commander asked me if I’d like to tag along, I agreed. After all, there’s no quicker way to get from the north to the south than—“

X rounded on Etho. “That’s still a secret! Don’t go spilling what few I have left!”

He threw up his hands. “Alright, alright! I just thought that was common knowledge, y’know?”

As the two kept on bantering, Gem returned to Cub’s side. “Why do you think the commander’s here? And why did he bring the wanderer?”

“When has X’s intentions ever been clear? The fellow’s a literal black box. And Etho’s no better. Last time he was down in Spires, he got into a rather heated argument with Zedaph, who also happened to be here.”

“Ooh, bad luck.”

“That’s an understatement. I had to rebuild three whole hallways after that… situation.”

Just then, a set of very fast and very excited footsteps ran into the foyer where the three rulers and one Etho were, followed by a much lighter and rather bouncy set.

“WOW! Look at all this concrete! Did you cast it all at once! And these plants! They’re a bit yellow, but getting them to grow at all is amazing! Oh, hello, Sovereign Voidstars, Queen Gemini— AH! Commander X! A-And Etho! Fancy seeing you here!”

X started chuckling again. “Hello, King Tango Tek. And you must be Martyn Junglewood.”

The green parrot flushed something fierce. “Y-Yes, sir! Martyn Junglewood, diplomat!”

He stuck out a hand, and X’s gauntlet shook it. Judging from the look on his face, Martyn wasn’t expecting the strength in the commander’s grip.

“It is nice to meet you, Martyn. Tango has written rather frequently about you, and the things you have taught him about the Lands of the Sunrise.”

At this, Tango flushed, blue color rushing to his cheeks. “X! Those letters were written in confidence!”

As the blue-tinted King of the Basalt Throne joined in the joking verbal warfare, Gem realized that Pan was no longer next to her. Come to think of it, Martyn wasn’t anywhere in sight, either…

“Thanks for getting me away from them…” Pan stuttered, paws tapping nervously on the moss carpet.

“No problem, mate. I know firsthand how overwhelming Tango can be, and judging from what little I’ve seen of her, your queen seems to be much the same way.”

“Indeed. Queen Gemini can be very… familiar, I suppose.”

As they walked down the corridor, Martyn eyed the map-lord’s antlers. “So, uh, I don’t want to be rude or anything, but are you a jackalope?”

“Hm? Oh, yes, well, no, uh, it’s complicated. Mom’s a chicken-folk, dad’s a proper jackalope, so that technically means that I’m a wolpertinger. But my wings are stunted, and I don’t like having them out, so most people think I’m a jackalope.”

“Huh, I see.”

Suddenly, a group of parrots wheeled in from one of the glassless windows that lined the hallway, laughing and smiling. They tumbled to a stop upon catching sight of Martyn first, and immediately rushed over to hug Martyn.

“Oh! Hi, Netty! I, uh, wasn’t expecting to run into you here!”

The parrot in question detangled herself and smiled. “I wasn’t expecting to find you here either, dear! Who’s you friend?”

Pan blushed. “I-I’m Pan, ma’am, Pan Climbing-Moss. I’m here with Queen Gemini’s delegation, f-for the Eversun celebrations. Nice to meet you, uh—“

“Netty! Netty Play,” she responded with a smile, “and I’m so glad you’ve already met Martyn! He can be a bit shy, you see—“

“Honey! I am not shy.”

“Are too. Anyone who isn’t an avian makes you all flustered. And speaking of not avians, how do you get along with that King Tek? He seems to be a really nice person.”

Pan turned away as the couple continued to happily argue over Martyn’s sociability, and was promptly drawn into conversation with the other parrots who had flown in with Netty.

“Oh, hello, are you a jackalope? Or a calygreyhound? Or a chimera? Name’s System, by the way. System Zee, with two e’s.” was the greeting of a wide-eyed, goggle-wearing grey-and-gold.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a rabbit-folk until now! I’m Tomo Hawk, and it’s nice to meet you, Pan!” said a red-and-yellow-and-blue with a shaved head and two trailing streamer feathers.

“Guys, don’t overwhelm him! Pleased to make your acquaintance, Pan. Big B. Stat.” interjected a curly haired blue-and-gold, as he (unsuccessfully) tried to stop the other two from shoving their faces in Pan’s.

In rapid succession, the map-lord had shaken three offered hands and accepted three offered hugs that involved wings. It seemed to him that parrot-folk were very touchy-feely in general.

All of a sudden, Netty jumped up with a flap of her wings, startling Martyn into stumbling back. She pressed a hand onto her ear while speaking. “Go ahead! Oh, okay! Guys, we’ve got the next ship to guide in! It seems li— wait, Joeyish, calm down! I can’t hear you and Salem at the same time! Calm down! Correction, we’ve got several ships to guide in! Two outriggers and three… uh, galleons? The big ones with really big sail— no, correction again, kinda small ones with relatively big sails.”

Pan managed to extricate himself from the other three parrots and half-hopped his way to Netty’s side. “Uh, if you don’t mind, but what colors are they flying? I-If you can find that out, of course.”

“Oh, no problem! You get that, Joeyish? Uh huh… yep, okay, thanks! He says that the outriggers are flying a green-and-lighter-green-and-yellow flag with a geometric maze-like pattern. And the small galleons are flying a grey-and-green-and-black-and-slightly-teal flag with four stripes of the green. Sound familiar?”

“Yes, yes. The outriggers must be from the Labyrinth, and the pattern confirms it. The small galleons, on the other hand, have to be from the Tangle.”

Netty was hopping up and down with anticipation at this point, leaning in to hug Pan quickly before jumping towards the window. “Thanks, Pan Climbing-Moss! I hope to see you later!”

She dove out into the afternoon sky, and was swiftly followed by the rest of the birds, each of whom waved before leaving. Once they were gone, Martyn sighed.

“Sorry if they overwhelmed you. Even back in the Emerald Lands, the Evo crew was know for being a bit… foreword.”

Pan flicked his ears in surprise, eliciting a jangle from his earrings. “Oh! They are foreword, certainly, but they’re also very nice. What’d you call them? The Evo crew?”

“Uh… yeah. It was an old acronym we made up as kids. Stood for ‘Emerald Vivid Ocean’, which we tried to make into a slang term for the tree canopy. It, uh, never caught on.”

Netty glided through the air, happily riding the thermals as she followed Joeyish and Salem’s directions to the incoming ships. The connection was getting spotty the further she strayed from Flare Tower’s Shrieker, but hey, that’s just the price of wireless communication. She quickly spotted the outriggers, and motioned for System to follow her. They broke off from Tomo and Big, who kept on soaring straight for the galleons.

The crow’s nest keeper quickly spotted the two parrots with a shout, and an official-looking fellow with an absolutely massive sword on his back stepped out of the shelter on deck. Even from in the sky, System could see him smile. It was an expression that completely suited the ocelot’s kind face.

“Hail, Luck of our Lady! Permission to land?”

The smiling ocelot waved them down. “Permission granted, parrot-folk!”

Netty and System twisted around the mast and came to a stop in front of the ocelot. Upon closer examination, he was quite clearly the Emperor of the Labyrinth. His robe was embroidered with a maze-like pattern, a looping thing that confused the eyes, done up all in green and gold and black. In contrast, his face was warm and simple, one that would seem wrong without smile lines and gentle crow’s feet.

“Hello, parrot-folk! I am Impulse Esvee, Emperor of the Emerald Throne! Be you representatives of the Sitter Grian Sunset?”

System responded. “Yes, we represent the Sitter of the Dusk Throne. I am called System Zee, and she is called Netty Play. We are here to guide your ships to dock at the Flare Tower. Netty shall guide your helmsperson, and I shall be in the sky.”

“Very well, System. I am glad for your help, for these waters are not familiar to me. Lead the way!”

A strangely colored red-and-black parrot had her eyes screwed shut, desperately feeling out through the Sensors to guide System away from any whirlpools or rogue waves. One toe on one clawed foot was locked in a rhythm that was unconscious to her now, as steady as any pendulum’s swing. After fifteen stressful minutes of audio-visual navigation, she sighed in relief as the Luck of our Lady slid into port.

“I really don’t know why you even bothered to learn the Sensors, Salem.”

Salem Lady shot her co-worker and friend a sharp look. “Joeyish, I don’t know why you haven’t learned the Sensors yet. You know the Shrieker, and it honestly isn’t that different.”

Joeyish Taurtis threw up his hands and odd blue-and-red wings in a plain expression of exasperation. “How many times do I have to tell you?! The Sensors mess with your brain, mate! They screw up all your neural pathways! I swear you’ve changed since you started operating large boards, Salem.”

“I started operating large boards at fifteen, Joeyish. Name one person who didn’t change after age fifteen.”

“Easy. Oli of the Crown of Grasses.”

“Wha— actually, no, that’s vaild. Honestly, he’s only gotten more like he was at fifteen, if memory serves.”

A voice suddenly crackled over the Shrieker system, distorted slightly by the distance and the medium. “Big to shrieker mainframe, acknowledge!”

Joeyish leaned over to his amethyst receiver. “Joeyish here, go ahead.”

“Aye! Both Luck of our Lady and Undertow are docked with their respective escorts! Got any more ships for us?”

Salem grasped her crystal and closed her eyes. “Salem here. Don’t think so… wait! I’ve got a real fast clipper racing up from the coast near Climbing Spires! I-I think it’s a brigantine? It’s got magic shoving it onwards, that’s for sure. Seems warm and kinda fiery… animal, I reckon. Tomo, you’re closest. Can you get eyes on it? The magic’s messing up my visual.”

A different voice came through the system in response. “Tomo here, on it! Seems like they’re flying a mostly orange and brown flag with a yellow center and some green elements in the background. That good?”

“Salem, aye. I think that’s Great Acacia, y’know, the nation of farmer monks and artisan nuns? The Sovereign Voidstars sent them a message, right?”

“Big here, and yes, Voidstars sent a invite. Acacia is also allied with the Labyrinth, so it’s safe to say that the Emperor would have told them about his invite.”

“Salem, gotcha. We can assume this ship is heading for Flare Tower, then. Tomo, Big, could you go escort them in? Joeyish’ll have to help you, since the Sensor is all jammed up.” The other parrot gave her a side eye before turning back to his console.

As Big and Tomo soared towards the speeding clipper, both immediately began to feel the magic that surrounded it. Salem was right; it was animal magic, warm and blazing and alive. And it was strong, far stronger than anything they’d seen outside of duels. Like a tame inferno, it pushed at the sails and tugged at the bow of the brigantine vessel. Tomo was unsure as to how they were supposed to land on the racing ship, but when he asked Big, the blue-and-gold just shrugged.

“Magic, right? Dive-bomb it comet style after we get permission. The real problem is getting permission.”

“I think I’ve got an idea for that.”

Brother Reginald flinched away from the sudden bright light that flashed from behind the sails of the Budding Leaves. It felt like animal magic, but he didn’t recognize the exact feeling it gave off; the light was somehow cooler than his own magic, and somehow felt humid. One look at at Brother Michael told the horse-folk that his elder agreed.

Suddenly, Sister Harmony pointed at the source of the light. “Brothers, there are parrots above us!”

Both monks’ heads snapped back to the light, which had lessened somewhat. Sure enough, two parrots, a blue-and-gold and a red-and-yellow-and-blue, were flying alongside the ship. The latter was the source of the light, as they grasped some sort of brightly colored conduit in their hand.

The blue-and-gold cupped their hands around their mouth and shouted. “Hail, Budding Leaves! We be the representatives of the Sitter Grian Sunset! Permission to land?”

The three hoof-folk shared a look, and came to a conclusion.

“Permission granted!”

Pearl jumped at the sudden thump of something on the deck above, snatching up her scythe reflexively. She forced herself to calm down before ascending topside. There she found a pair of unknown, armed, rather nervous looking parrots explaining something to Brother Michael.

“See, we could have just dive-bombed through your aura, but that would’ve stripped some of our own. So to preserve some of our energy, since it’s a decent flight back and we don’t have any rockets yet, we had to comet-bomb to get in here mostly unscathed. It’s a very strong aura though, so a little bit got shaved off the top anyw—“

With a start, the blue-and-gold noticed Pearl’s approach and nudged the other parrot, who immediately clammed up. Both hastily bowed to Brother Michael and turned with a smart salute to Pearl.

“Hail, High Priestess of Great Blackwood Pearl Moon! I am Big B. Stat, and this is Tomo Hawk! We be representatives of the Sitter of the Dusk Throne. We are to guide you into port at the Flare Tower. If it pleases you, I shall fly ahead while Tomo stays with your helmsperson.”

Pearl considered denying their help for a moment, not wanting to get into Grian’s debt anymore than she already had. But she reasoned that it would be best to stay civil until she could confront the bird herself.

“Aye. Lead the way, Stat.”

At this point, everyone aboard the Soaring Dream was thoroughly lost. The waters of the Sunset Coast were full of towers, each of which looked extremely similar to the others in Scar’s eyes. Mumbo was no help; he was thoroughly seasick and viciously uncomfortable near so much salt water. And the helmswoman had barely any experience dodging whirlpools.

As the light frigate hopelessly swirled about in the afternoon sunlight, Mumbo, who had stuck his head out of one of the portholes, suddenly gave a shout. “Duke Scar?! Duke Scar?! D-Do you see that?”

The half-elf leaned over the railing to stare at his engineer. “What is it, Mumbo? Do I see what?”

“Birds! Er, bird-people! Over there! They’re flying at us!”

“Oh! They are! I hope they know how to get to Fang Tower.”

“Flare Tower, sir duke. Flare Tower.”

“Tomo here. Salem, who’s that?”

The black-and-red gave a small yawn before answering. Hey, it had been a long day. “Salem, eye. Who’s who?”

“The little frigate over here! Real bright flag, blue on two different colors of green on orange with a tiny bit of yellow.”

“Uh… that’s Technicolor City. Grian sent their duke an invite, right?”

“Seems like it. But if the duke’s on this Soaring Dream, he’s in the wrong place. They’re all the way over by Ruby Skytouch.”

“Jeez, do they not have a navigator? Guide them over here, would you?”

“Tomo, on it.”

“Hail, Soaring Dream! Permission to land?”

“Oh, hello there! Yes, yes, permission to land!”

Tomo and Netty descended slowly to the frigate’s deck, the ship having drifted to a stop a while ago. What little crew Scar had brought were all waiting for the two parrots, looking rather windswept and hungry. Mumbo stumbled out of the captain’s cabin behind the duke, vines hanging limp and leaves wilting with seasickness.

“Hail, Duke of Colors! We be the representatives of Sitter Grian Sunset. I am Netty Play, and he is Tomo Hawk. We are to guide you to the Flare Tower. I shall stay with your helmsperson, and Tomo will fly ahead, if that pleases you.”

“Oh, yes, thank you! Thank you! I, uh, if you can’t tell, we’re hopelessly lost. Again, thank you!”

Grian cautiously felt through the Sensor system to take count of who had come. Gemini was standing off to one side with the wolf-fox fellow, Etho, was it? The strange Commander X with his dragon helmet was speaking with Cub, while the latest arrival, the Emperor Impulse, was talking with King Tango and Martyn.

With a sigh, Grian straightened from his personal console and sighed. He slicked his wing feathers before walking off the balcony and into the central atrium. He descended slowly, and everyone who was in the room caught sight of the sitter before he landed with a small flourish.

“Hello, honored guests, and welcome to the Sunset Coast! I apologize for my small absence; there was an issue with the security system that demanded my attention. I do hope you enjoy the food and entertainment this afternoon.”

With a (hopefully) dazzling smile, Grian was only barely able to snatch up a glass of glowberry juice before getting accosted by the very enthusiastic pair of Queen Gemini and King Tango.

The deer-like fae managed to get in a greeting first. “It is great to finally meet you, Sitter Sunset! I am Queen Gemini Taylor of the Crown of Needles; but you already know that! Your buildings are really incredible, with so much concrete and glass! Do you produce the materials here?”

Tango quickly interjected as soon as the queen had finished. “King Tango Tek of the Neverglades, sitter. Thank you so much for sending Martyn Junglewood over! He has been teaching me so much about you parrot-folk! And I concur with Queen Gem on the topic of construction materials. Do you produce the concrete yourself?”

Grian shook both their hands, his smile turning slightly sheepish. “It is truly great to meet you both, Queen Gemini, King Tango. And yes, we do produce concrete here. Lots of sand and gravel had to be dredged from the sea to build these towers, and Flare alone got us many tens of barges worth! If you’re ever in need of concrete, the Coast has you covered!”

As the three chattered away and bonded over their shared interest in complex building materials, Cub was still speaking with Commander X. The half-vex had correctly guessed that Grian was duly intimidated by the tall something in bone white armor, so he was trying to melt a little of the ice preemptively.

“Grian’s quite the character, if I do say so myself. He’s very fun when it comes to things he is interested in, like designing buildings, but he has no proper understanding of redstone whatsoever. There’s… something I would really like to hear your opinion on, but I don’t know if Grian is willing to share it yet. He’s kinda like you in that way.”

Despite the lack of outward facial expressions, it was obvious that X was smiling. “Oh, really? Well, there isn’t a lot that I haven’t seen at this point. Regardless, I do think I’ll like this parrot!”

In another shallow corner of the hexagonal room, Impulse was talking with Martyn and Pan on the topic of the Emeraldians‘ culture being so similar to that of the Labyrinth. Though the green parrot had been slightly standoffish (mostly due to Tango being an unreliable narrator), the Emperor’s extremely kind demeanor quickly won him and Pan both over.

“See? Our scrollwork is usually much more intricate, but the forms themselves are quite similar. Even your ships are similar to ours, just with equally sized canoes lashed together rather than a small outrigger and a larger vessel.”

“I see! It really is odd how similar they seem.”

“It makes one think of… oh, nevermind.”

“What, Pan? Don’t worry, nothing really surprises me anymore. Mini’s made sure of that.”

“Oh, well, it’s nearly a conspiracy theory, but, well, what if either the people of the Labyrinth or the people of the Emerald Lands came from the other? Perhaps there was some falling-out between the parrots and the ocelots, and one set out to live somewhere else?"

"Huh… sounds oddly plausible."

Suddenly, Grian jerked straight upright in seeming surprise. He pressed one finger to where his ear was hidden by his hair, and began frantically whispering into his wrist.

"What? What do you mean she's here already? Are you completely sure? Oh goodness…"

With a sigh, he rubbed his eyes before addressing the other people in the room. "I apologize for the interruption, folks. Two more rulers have just arrived, and though I have no objections to the presence of the Duke of Colors, the presence of the High Priestess of Great Blackwood will cause some issues. I have no wish to drag you into my personal battles, so if you would like to leave, you may do so now. And a warning to those who stay: this will get violent."

Tango looked on in confusion as the jovial and joking man he had been speaking to began checking his weaponry. "Uh, Sitter? I-If I may ask, what exactly is wrong with the High Priestess Pearl being here?"

The red-and-yellow-and-blue slid a potion back into its holster before turning to Tango, a somewhat sad expression on his face. "It's a long and rather boring story, but the short of it is… Pearl hates me because she owes me a debt that I extracted from her somewhat unfairly. And she's here to rectify that issue in some way, probably with a duel."

Gem suddenly popped into the conversation with a look of astonishment. "A duel?! Like, to the death?"

"Not to the death, but to humiliation. To surrender. If I surrender, she has no more debt to me. If she surrenders, she had more debt to me."

At that moment, Mini Muka burst into the atrium, followed by a rather confused looking Joeyish and Salem, each of whom had bundles of something in their arms. “Grian! I got what you wanted, and then some!”

The sitter smiled his wide smile, tinged with a little bit of viciousness. “I can always rely on you, Mafia. Thanks, and please get out of here.”

The grey-and-gold grinned back as he handed over the bundle. ”Of course, Empire. Just don’t hurt the mainframe.”

“Ha! I’ll try not to.”

“Mother Pearl! Are you sure about this?”

The high priestess looked back at Sister Harmony and Brother Michael, as Brother Reginald had decided to stay with the ship. “I am sure, younger sister. Great Blackwood and Great Blueskin are with me. I’ll either walk out of here myself, or you’re going to have to drag me out.”

“Uh, I’m sorry, Duke Scar, but, uh, I can’t let you off the ship.”

“Why not, Tomo? I don’t see anything on fire, or actively exploding, so it must be safe!”

“You’re staying too, Etho?”

“Yup. Don’t have anything else going on, and besides, I always love a good scuffle.”

Ren was crouched in the storage hull of the Undertow, desperately straining to hear what was happening outside. Everyone had known that he was on board, but didn’t want to ruin his mood.

Grian had barely finished hiding his new gear when Pearl marched into the room. Despite the moss carpet, her hooves clacked alongside her scythe. Her bright wool dress was hiked up to the knees, revealing strong leather armor on her legs. Matching guards covered her arms, neck, and chest, and for once, she wasn’t wearing her cowl. The colors of her clothes were made even more vibrant by the blazing magic aura that surrounded her.

“Sitter on the Dusk Throne, Grian Sunset,” she said, her face a mask, “or should I say, Grian Virida. I see you.”

Pearl barely recognized the bird who stood in front of her as the tiny noble boy she’d fought twelve years ago. He was taller now, but still lean and small, with even larger wings and longer legs. He’d tied back the long sleeves of his bright red robes with broad yellow ribbons, exposing flexible wood arm guards that had to have knives or needles or something else nasty hidden in them. His long belt was laden with even more weapons than before; knives, potions, darts, sticks of explosive and a flint-and-steel to light them.

She saw the parrot’s mouth contort into a mocking smile as he heard his real name. “Oh, that takes me back! Pearl Moon, Child of Great Blackwood. I see you.”

The priestess twirled her scythe into a fighting pose. “I challenge you to an honor-duel, to settle my debt to you, acquired twelve years previous.”

The sitter mirrored her, sinking into a crouch with wings splayed and cutlass drawn without a sound. “And I accept your challenge. No holding back.”

“No holding back.”

#horizon to horizon au #hermitcraft au #empires au #life series au #fanfic #fanfiction #hermitcraft #get ready for some violence next chapter!#im really not very good at writing action from first person perspectives #so itll mostly be from the other rulers perspectives #and etho too #oh wait #evo smp au #those fellows are here now too #i really just wanted an excuse to shove netty into the story so i just went #evo smp #because why not

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