#my sibling was panicking with me because I had the good elytra on me

[tiredgatt0]

A big fan of elytras and the End but the scariest minecraft experience is flying in the end and all of a sudden there is just nothing.

No big islands.

No small islands.

No chorus plants.

No cities.

Just emptiness

And me flying very fast through it realizing that there is no sun or anything to orient by and I have no idea if I'm flying up or down

[zallano]

The HereAfter, Chapter 4

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, read on AO3!

Full Chapter under the cut

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 A few days had passed since Mumbo arrived in hermitcraft. He settled down on one of the islands and made some sort of “tree house”.

The tree house wasn’t bad for his first build but each time he looked over at the massive base next to his island, he would feel inspired to build a base just as big. The only issue was that he had no idea how.

Mumbo sat against the tree’s trunk and watched the sunset. Xisuma told him that if he slept frequently he wouldn’t have to deal with phantoms. Although, he didn’t know how frequently that was. Though, Mumbo felt safe. He had placed down way too many torches around the island than what was required to keep mobs from spawning. He assumed that Phantoms spawned like other mobs.

The sun set quickly and Mumbo still hadn’t yet found a crafting recipe for a bed. He held a torch in his hand. The small flame illuminated his face and kept him warm. He heard a familiar gurgle come from the water a couple of blocks away, but he wasn’t concerned. He learned that the water zombies couldn’t get you if you were on land- if they didn’t have a trident that is.

Mumbo sat against the tree for a couple of moments. He closed his eyes at one point, trying to get himself to fall asleep again. He wasn’t successful. It didn’t take long for the effects of going a couple of days without sleep to kick in. He held the torch closer to his chest, his eyes struggling to stay open though he knew once he closed them, he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway.

It took another minute or two until Mumbo heard a terrifying screech. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He placed the torch down next to another. “I have torches everywhere!” He yelled at the few Phantoms that were already beginning to swarm. Not nearly enough as there were on his first night, but still enough to scare him.

Mumbo stood and climbed up the ladders to his treehouse to take shelter. He watched the Phantoms circle in confusion, wondering where he had gone. “Ha! Stupid sky-demons!” He yelled.

A Phantom must have heard him. The swarm immediately turned around and began swooping down at the tree house, trying to find a way in. Unfortunately for Mumbo, he had left a giant gaping hole in the house and the mobs were able to get in. They snapped and bit at Mumbo as he struggled to get back down his ladder. Possibly a staircase would’ve been easier.

Mumbo looked around, trying to find a way to escape or take shelter. His eyes laid upon the ocean. Surely Phantoms couldn’t swim. He dashed toward the water and dived in. He had to be safe in the water. He was wrong.

A Phantom dived in after him and was making its way over to attack him. Mumbo panicked, he nearly inhaled water once again. More phantoms flew into the water, their glowing green teeth only inches away from his face- that is, until Mumbo saw a quick glance of aqua zooming past his face and hitting one of the Phantoms, knocking it dead.

It was a trident.

The trident launched itself back into the air and then came speeding back down, hitting two other Phantoms in the process. Soon, all the Phantoms were gone. Mumbo swam back to the surface to breathe and saw the beholder of the trident.

A man with red and blue wings was flying in the air. He shouted something before heading down, landing on top of the treehouse. Mumbo swam to the island and walked over, curious but also Cautious. The stranger peeked over the edge of leaves.

“Hey, new Hermit! Thought you needed some help,” he spun the trident in his hands. The guy had two heterochromatic eyes, left one red, the other blue. The wings- or ‘elytra’, was different from any of the other hermits Mumbo has seen. Instead of purple-ish grey, it was blue and red. He had what appeared to be an iron hand. And finally, the man had an identical clock necklace like the one Mumbo had.

“Uh- thanks?” Mumbo knitted his eyebrows in confusion. “Who are you?” He asked. The other put the trident away and jumped down. “Oh! Right! I’m-“ he was cut off the moment his feet touched the ground. The sun on his clock spun around and ticked louder than Mumbo had ever heard his clock tick before. It took a few seconds before his clock did the same. “What-“

Both of their clock’s suns spun in unison. Mumbo could barely keep count at how many times it went full circle. It appeared to get faster. Mumbo went to grab his own clock to get a better look at it but the metal burned at the touch. He immediately pulled his hand away and watched as his clock blared nonsensical noise. No longer was it fast pace ticking- it was clinking and clanking, sparking and whirring. The other clock did the same. The two exchanged a glance with each other and began to back away slowly.

With step away from the other, the clocks would seem to calm down a bit more. They were back to normal once the stranger was back on top of the tree house again. Mumbo went to touch the clock and it was ice cold. No longer did it feel like it was going to melt his fingers off. “Uhh-“ Mumbo began, looking up at the other. “I guess our clocks don’t like each other!” The guy exclaimed. Mumbo chuckled slightly. “I suppose not.”

“As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by our clocks, my name is Grian,” he smiled. “Oh, hello Grian, I’m Mumbo.” Mumbo introduced himself. “Oh, I know who you are, Mumbo Jumbo.” Grain swung his legs over the edge of the tree branches and kicked involuntarily.

“You’re the talk of the town. Every hermit won’t stop babbling on about you and where you came from in the chat,” he pulled a small black device out of his pocket. It had sloppy white words on the side, labeling it ‘T-Chat’. “Did you get one of these?” He asked and Mumbo shook his head. Grian tossed the T-Chat to Mumbo. It crashed into the sand next to him.

“You can have it. I don’t need one.” Grian pointed to his blue eye. Mumbo picked up the device. It appeared that all the hermits were talking in there. Xisuma asked something along the lines if someone could sleep and then five other hermits replied that they couldn’t. All of those were sent a few moments ago. He shoved the T-Chat into his own pocket.

“I’ve noticed you’ve set up base next to mine.” He gestured to the massive building. “No way-“ Mumbo looked over at the base he had been admiring for a few days. “Is that building yours?” He asked. Grian nodded. “I spent months on that project,” he continued to kick his legs. “I don’t mind you being here. I was never probably going to use these islands anyway,” he shrugged.

“Another thing is that I couldn’t help but notice that you came from the past,” he stated. Mumbo froze for a second, before speaking. “I guess so?” He shrugged. “Not completely sure though.” He continued. Grian nodded and then glanced down at his own clock. “Yeah..” he frowned slightly then shook his head as if to clear his mind from a particularly painful memory. Mumbo didn’t notice.

“Anyway, Mumbo Jumbo, I've brought you a ‘New Hermit Gift’ because you’re the new hermit and I’m no longer the new hermit and I thank you for that,” he was about to jump back down but stopped himself. “Er- hold on a second.” He pulled some sort of red torch out of his inventory and held it near the clock. Nothing seemed to happen. Grian jumped down and surprisingly, the clocks didn’t begin screaming at each other.

“What did you do?” Mumbo asked and Grian shrugged. “I have no idea, it just works. Redstone is weird.” He laughed. Mumbo frowned slightly ‘Redstone?’ He thought. Grian pulled one of those weird shulker box things and placed it on the floor. “Voilà,” he smiled and opened it. Mumbo stared at an entire inventory worth of eggs. “What-“ he began but Grian shook his head. “It’s your new hermit gift,” he grabbed a few eggs and tossed them to Mumbo. Mumbo panicked, not really understanding what they were, and didn’t catch them. Sixteen eggs fell on the floor and two baby chickens spawned. “Oh my goodness- there are baby versions?”

“Do you not know what eggs are?” Grian laughed. Mumbo, still confused, shrugged. “I’m not sure I understand,” he chuckled. Grian grabbed a few more stacks of eggs and threw them on the ground. He wasn’t as lucky with the chicks. “There’s a small chance a baby chicken will come out of eggs when thrown,” he explained. “That doesn’t sound very good for the chicken.. forced to be born and all,“ Mumbo pointed out and Grian just shrugged and continued to throw eggs around. Mumbo took a few stacks of eggs and carefully dropped them on the floor.

Grian threw an egg at Mumbo when he wasn’t looking and it hit his face. Raw egg dripped down his forehead and down the side of his face. “Gross-!” Mumbo laughed and threw one at Grian. A chicken spawned in Grian’s arms. “I’m a father!” He exclaimed. The baby chick flapped its wings and tried to get out of Grian’s grasp. “What does that make me? I’m the one who threw the egg,” Mumbo pointed out, laughing. Grain looked over at Mumbo for a few moments before breaking down laughing, dropping the chicken in the process. The chick fluttered down, clucked at the two idiots, and ran away to join their two siblings.

The two newest hermits continued throwing eggs around the island until the sun was rising in the distance. Maybe it was lack of sleep talking, but Mumbo found himself laughing at whatever silly thing Grian would say or do. They were currently on the top of the treehouse, throwing the last remaining eggs onto the beach below.

“Why’d you come over here? Surely it wasn’t just to conveniently save me and give me a bunch of eggs” Mumbo asked. “Well, we’re the newbies here, right? Even though I’ve been here for quite a few months- but that’s besides the point. We gotta stick together.” He placed an egg on a few leaves for Mumbo to grab.

Mumbo modded, agreeing. He picked up the egg and threw it somewhere, not watching if it spawned a chicken or not. Grian threw the last egg on the grass directly below the treehouse and amazingly, a baby chicken emerged. There were a lot of baby chickens running around the small island. Though, Mumbo didn’t care. He was happy he was able to make a friend so quickly.

“Speaking of being new, how did you arrive here?” He asked. Grain’s smile faltered slightly and mumbo worried if he said something wrong. “I think..” Grian paused, thinking over the next sentence he was about to say.

“The same way you did.”