Chapter Text
Jimmy wasn’t sure what happened. One minute, he was organizing his chests in Tumble Town, a purring Norman rubbing against his ankles. The next minute, his vision was white, his ears were ringing, and his body felt like it was slowly and painlessly disintegrating, like his limbs were floating away from him. There was, expectedly, a moment of panic that came along with this sensation. The panic quickly vanished into some sort of tranquility - this wasn’t pain, after all, and he quite enjoyed this lovely, weightless sensation…
WHAM . Jimmy’s back landed on something soft, but after the floating sensation it might as well have been concrete. The breath was knocked out of his lungs and colors sparked behind closed eyelids as he wheezed for breath. Around the sound of the blood rushing in his ears, he heard more muffled thumps and a chorus of surprised yelps, wheezes, and groans. So he wasn’t the only one this had happened to, then.
Jimmy groaned, eyes still closed, shakily sitting upright and rubbing the back of his aching neck. That , whatever that was, was some sort of freaky magic. Jimmy wasn’t sure who to blame for that - maybe Joel, flexing whatever god magic he had, or perhaps Sausage? The lore had always been strong with him…
No , no more likely it was one of the hermits that had come to visit them lately. In fact, the more Jimmy thought about it, the higher the possibility it was a hermit. That group could definitely be strange at times… not to mention powerful .
“Hey… hey, wait a second !” The loud voice cut through Jimmy’s monologue and the avian’s eyes snapped open, wincing as they were flooded with sunlight. They focused on Bdubs, who was also sitting upright a little ways away, head swiveling like a top as he looked around with huge brown eyes. The glowstone on the glare hybrid’s cloak flickered like gold. “Where the heck are we?”
What? Jimmy looked around as well, catching glimpses of other players, but mostly focusing on the surroundings. He gaped in shock as he realized that the birch forest they were sitting in wasn’t a part of an empire, but was completely unrecognizable. What was this?!
“Oy! Grian!” Jimmy’s head swiveled around (a little too quickly, ow…) at the sound of Joel’s voice. He spotted his fellow emperor a little ways away, shakily getting to his feet. Despite being dressed in his usual godly tunic, Joel was normally sized. Jimmy wanted to snicker at that (eleven feet indeed ) but then he realized that he was back to his normal size as well, the effects of the lore potion that kept him shrunk nowhere to be found. So whatever had caused them to end up here had stripped away lore magic. Interesting.
Grian was spinning in a circle, viewing the surrounding forest with a look of utter bewilderment. The red-yellow-blue feathers on his ears were trembling. Jimmy clambered to his feet, about to approach his fellow avian, but Joel got there first. The god - former god - got up in Grian’s face, snapping the hermit out of his confusion. “ Hello? Grian, where the heck are we?”
“How would I know?” Grian snapped back in confusion. “What makes you think I did this?”
Joel rolled his eyes in annoyance. “I don’t know, maybe ‘cause you have a history of picking people up and throwing them into different worlds?!”
“With consent .” Grian stressed. “I know those games don’t always end up the best but you all agree to do them, at least! I didn’t make a random life server and put you in it without your knowledge, I promise.”
“Oh, yes, because that’s super convincing.” Joel said, words practically dripping with sarcasm. The man stalked off with a huff of frustration.
Jimmy took a moment to deeply breathe in the sweet forest air and take stock of who was all there with them. Joel was on the other side of the clearing, looking at the birch trees like they were secretly made of something toxic and disgusting. Bdubs had gotten to his feet and was talking animatedly to Cleo and - Jimmy’s eyes widened - was that Etho ? As far as Jimmy had been told, Etho had been taking some time away from the more crowded servers, lately. The white-haired man looked uneasy and tense, probably from being scooped up from whatever private world he’d been on.
Further across the small forest clearing, Jimmy spotted Impulse, Tango, and another man with blonde hair and purple eyes. The three were huddled together, a natural trio. Tango glanced up to meet Jimmy’s eyes and gave him a toothy grin and a little wave, only the weaving of his tail betraying the fact that he was nervous. Jimmy waved in return, heart growing warm. He noticed that the glamour Tango had been wearing to match his new icy aesthetic had been stripped away as well, leaving the man looking quite out of place in his dark, winter-themed outfit.
Finally, Jimmy spotted the last group of people. He recognized Ren, looking around with ears pricked and alert, Scar, who was picking flowers and looking without a doubt the cheeriest out of all of them, and - Keralis? Jimmy stared in surprise. He’d recognize those big eyes anywhere!
Twelve players in all. He wondered if that was significant.
“Hey, you good?” Jimmy let out a startled squawk as Tango suddenly appeared at his side, the shorter man looking up at him in concern. One of his wings clipped the netherborn in the chest as they flailed open and Tango was sent sprawling onto the grass with a startled laugh.
“Sorry!” Jimmy reached down to pull Tango to his feet, very conscious of the ever-so-comfortable heat that emanated off his former-soulmate in waves. Tango chuckled and waved the incident off, “You’re so tense!”
“Well, yeah .” Jimmy gave Tango a lopsided grin. “We were just picked up an’ thrown into a different world! Who wouldn’t be?”
“Fair, fair.” Tango hummed, looking around at their group. “Odd group to pick, though. I mean We have a lot of Life gamers in here for sure but we’re also missing a ton, and then Zedaph and Keralis have never done anything like that -”
“Zedaph?” Jimmy frowned. “He’s another hermit, right? But he didn’t come with you through the rift.”
“Nah, and Etho didn’t either. Which means there are shenanigans afoot.” Tango’s ears flicked and his face twisted into a little scowl, the one that signaled he was thinking quite hard about something, the one that flashed just a hint of fang, and Jimmy felt his heart melting all over again at how cute it was.
Jimmy didn’t think it would surprise anyone to find out that he still had feelings for Tango after Double Life ended. Unlike with Scott, the feelings he had experienced during the game hadn’t felt like a roleplay, or a product of fear and a desire to stick together. He and Tango hadn’t known each other beforehand, at least not in any way that counted. It wasn’t a partnership out of convenience or familiarity.
No, instead, Jimmy and Tango had been thrown into the mix together at random, and Jimmy had never been more thankful that they had. Tango never failed to make him smile or laugh. His soulmate was dependable, trustworthy, kind, and so, so loving. The spark that sprang up between them hadn’t died when the soul-link was broken, even though those first few weeks of no-contact had been quite difficult. Jimmy had clung to that spark like a lifeline.
Then, out of the blue, Tango had appeared on Empires with the rest of the hermits. Jimmy had a bit of hope that Tango shared some of the same feelings, after all this time.
Void , he hoped.
“Guys?” The sound of Etho’s voice breaking out across the clearing captured everyone’s attention; Etho wasn’t known for being loud. The man was standing behind Impulse with his hands on the man’s shoulders. Impulse, Jimmy noticed immediately, looked remarkably anxious.
“What is it?” Grian frowned. The group gathered to come look, Zedaph and Tango at the forefront. Etho motioned for Impulse to spin around, which the other man did, albeit a bit hesitantly. Then, murmuring a slight apology, Etho reached and tugged on Impulse’s shirt a bit, so the nape of his neck was visible.
Oh .
Jimmy’s mouth dropped open in shock. There at the very base of Impulse’s neck, invisible under the neckline of his shirt, were four green hearts. They all, Jimmy was sure, knew immediately what that meant.
“Do we all have four?” Scar’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet, the wizard no longer cheery. Jimmy blanched, remembering how in Last Life they had a differing number of lives. Everyone else went silent as they recognized this.
Then, in a flurry of movement, everybody was checking the person closest to them. Tango let out a slight yelp as Jimmy’s presumably cold fingers gently touched the back of his neck, and Jimmy murmured a “sorry” as he peeked past the netherborn’s dungeon master coat and black sweater. Four green hearts gleamed out at him against Tango’s smooth skin, and Jimmy let out a sigh of relief. “Four hearts.”
“Just four?” Tango’s voice sounded oddly hopeful, and Jimmy frowned in confusion as he pulled away. “Yeah.”
“Good.” Tango breathed out, then spun around to look up at him. “Alright. Your turn, mister.” Jimmy chuckled and turned, crouching a little so Tango could reach his neck more easily. He tried to suppress a shudder as he suddenly felt Tango’s warmth trickling along his spine, seeping into his feathers. He definitely couldn’t quite suppress one when he felt the netherborn’s hot breath ghost across the back of his neck, or when warm, slender fingers gently touched his skin, and oh void Jimmy was going to melt into the floor because of how warm he suddenly felt -
“Four hearts.” Tango’s voice was so close behind him that he almost jumped, and he swore he heard the gentle rumble of a purr in his friend’s laugh as he pulled away. Jimmy took a minute to compose himself as he straightened, swearing that his face must have been tomato red. He clearly didn’t do it well enough because the first thing he saw when he turned back around was Joel shooting him a smug look from across the clearing. The sheriff scowled back, all Joel did was snort and look away with an amused grin.
“We’ve all got four hearts.” Grian gave a sigh when they’d all finished checking one another. “I guess that’s good, so nobody can monopolize, ey Scar?”
The taller man, who was casually propped against a tree and weaving what looked like some sort of flower crown, flashed a seemingly innocent smile back in Grian’s direction. “I guess you’re right! And there’s definitely no reason to steal any lives if we all have the same amount, ey Grian ?” There was a collective ohhh and a few laughs as Grian blushed, scowling.
“So, four hearts.” Impulse mused. “And they’re all green. I mean, that has to signal a life game, right? What else could it be?” Eleven pairs of eyes fixed on Grian at that, none of which looked very amused. The avian proceeded to blush even deeper.
“Well, you said you didn’t make another life game, Grian.” Joel said hotly, cocking an eyebrow. “How do you explain this then? Seems like another life game to me!”
“I didn’t make it!” Grian squawked, wings flaring in agitation and raising his hands in a surrendering gesture. “I swear I didn’t! I don’t know what this is!”
“Well if you didn’t make it, who did?” Keralis asked in confusion, looking around at all of them. “Did I miss a memo or something? I didn’t sign up for any games!”
“Well me neither, yet here we are, Keralis.” Zedaph sighed.
“ None of us signed up for this.” Cleo’s angry voice made all of them tense. None of them liked to be in the path of Cleo when she was upset. Thankfully, it only seemed to be aimed at Grian. “You say you didn’t make this Grian, but you’re the only one who’s done anything like this before. I suggest you explain .”
Grian looked on the verge of throwing some sort of fit, and the avian actually stomped his foot before glaring at his zombie friend. “What am I supposed to say that will convince you!? I didn’t make this one! And besides, the only reason I made the other ones was because -” Suddenly, Grian stopped talking. Jimmy watched in alarm as his friend grew deathly pale.
Scar saw it too, the man moving over to Grian’s side in the span of a heartbeat, pink and purple flowers wreathing his brown hair. “Grian? You okay?” Other hermits echoed the sentiment, anger fading into concern.
“Yeah, I just…” Grian gulped, and Jimmy’s heart pounded in his chest as the avian’s dark eyes landed on him. “Jimmy… do you think…?”
Jimmy stared at him in confusion, aware that the others were watching them, when suddenly, he understood.
He didn’t want to, but he did.
“It can’t be.” Jimmy whispered. Then, more loudly, “T-they’ve left us alone since Evo, right!? That’s what you said!”
“Who are ‘ they ?’” Impulse asked in confusion.
“I lied.” Grian whimpered, not even seeming to hear Impulse’s question. “They’ve been the ones instigating the life games. I’m sorry, I didn’t know they’d start doing it without talking to me first -“
“Wait a sec, you lied about this!?” Jimmy found himself getting angry, and before he knew it he was stalking over to Grian, wings spread wide, seething. He vaguely saw a few of the hermits backing away, unused to this sort of anger from him. “You lied about them !? Grian, do you know how dangerous that is?”
“Well, what was I supposed to do!?” Grian snapped back, his own wings unfurling dangerously. Despite their differences in height, it was an oddly even match; Jimmy was taller and broader than Grian by quite a lot, but Grian’s wings were longer and stronger than Jimmy’s, making them quite formidable. “I knew I couldn’t tell you; you’d freak out! And the life games weren’t that bad, cause we all respawned home anyways -“
“Not that bad , Tango still has nightmares about -“
“-you’re not the only one who’s seen people suffer because of those games, Tim -“
“You two SHUT UP!! ” The two avians actually jumped back, wings flapping in shock, as Bdubs’ voice rang out at a startling volume into the clearing. All the players turned to face Bdubs in shock. The glare’s fists were balled up and his shoulders were tense as he stared down the two avians, face twisted into an expression of surprising anger. “I don’t know what you two are blabbing about but it would be nice if you would let us in on it! We’re in a weird place far from home - the last thing we need is secret keeping, okay!?” Bdubs was practically breathing smoke. Even Etho, who had known Bdubs the longest, seemed surprised. The taller man stepped forward to put a hand on his friend’s shoulder, but Bdubs shook it off, continuing to stare Grian and Jimmy down. “Well? Spill it! We’re all freaking listening!”
Jimmy was at a loss for words, unsure what to do, when he noticed that Bdubs’ shoulders were shaking. Guilt immediately began to creep in: Bdubs was scared. He was scared, and all of Jimmy and Grian’s secretive fighting was only making it worse. It wasn’t exactly a secret that as loud as Bdubs could be, the man was quite sensitive. No wonder this was getting to him.
“Bdubs, I’m sorry.” Jimmy said, seeing that Grian was a bit tongue-tied, still dealing with the magnitude of their sudden realization. He cast the other avian a look and, when he didn’t get resistance, muscled forward. “Grian and I… we just realized that the reason we’re here is because of The Watchers.”
That got everybody’s attention. There was an audible gasp from several of the players, and Grian briefly shut his eyes. Scar looked confused, looking back and forth between the two avians. “Watchers? But I thought they were a myth.”
“They’re no myth.” Grian said tiredly. “Though they’d probably like it if people thought of them that way. It gives them more freedom to cause mischief.”
“Are they like voidkind?” Zedaph cautiously asked, standing close to Impulse’s side. “You know - all seeing, all powerful, etc etc?”
“Pretty much.” Jimmy said flatly. “Definitely the all-seeing part. They’re called Watchers for a reason.” He turned to Grian. “You’ve contacted them before, right? And what’s this about them causing the life games?”
“Yeah, what the heck is that about?” Ren demanded. “Jeeze, Grian - I thought you were making those yourself just for fun! Even when they didn’t always end up so fun, I thought -“
“What, you thought that I was making them like that on purpose?” Grian demanded. When he was met with silence, the avian sighed, ear-feathers drooping. “I guess that makes sense. The Watchers and I… have an interesting history. They’re the ones that wanted me to make the games. ‘Just for fun,’ they said. They mostly just wanted to, well, watch . But sometimes…” Grian trailed off, then looked at Jimmy with one of the most guilty expressions the sheriff had ever seen. “There’s a reason you always die first, Jimmy.”
Jimmy was so taken aback by Grian’s use of his real name that he missed the larger admission. Tango, on the other hand, didn’t.
“GRIAN.” Tango gave a snarl in a voice that didn’t sound quite right, and somebody let out an “oh, boy” as the netherborn strode across the clearing. Jimmy gulped at the sight of Tango’s flaming tail scorching the grass in his path, and the active bonfire that was now his former soulmate’s hair. “You knew this whole time, and you didn’t tell him? You let him think he was cursed!? How could you!?”
“Tango-“ Jimmy took a step forward but Impulse got there first, laying a gentle hand on his friend’s shoulder. The blazeborn wasn’t actively raging, not yet, but this was the closest Jimmy had seen him since the ranch. Tango ignored the hand but didn’t push it any further, glowing crimson eyes locked on Grian’s face, demanding an answer. The avian, to his credit, didn’t cower or move away, but his face was pale and his feathers were shivering at the blazing heat no doubt being blasted their way, threatening to burn.
“I’m sorry, Tango -“ Grian started but Tango cut him off. “ I’m not the one you need to apologize to.” Grian winced, then turned to face Jimmy again. “I’m sorry, Ti- Jimmy ,” The avian corrected, Tango’s burning tail flicking dangerously close to his leg. “You don’t deserve to think you’re cursed.”
Jimmy was at a loss for words, reeling not only with this information that he was not cursed , and that it was the Watchers who’d been doing this to him for so long… but also that Tango had defended him. Not even that, he’d threatened Grian for him. At the sound of Grian’s apology Tango took a step back, letting Impulse guide him away even as the flames in his hair and tail died to a smolder, smoke wreathing around his head. When the netherborn came to stand by Jimmy’s side, the sheriff simply reached down to take his hand - hot to the touch, even through his gloves - and squeezed, giving Grian an acknowledging nod. He didn’t trust himself to speak, not when there was a lump of emotion welling up in his throat and his eyes were burning.
“Alright.” Joel had been quiet since the mention of the Watchers, and when he spoke now he sounded tired. “So, the Watchers took us all and dumped us on a random server with no clear way to leave, is that about right? And we have life game mechanisms in place.”
“Sounds about right.” Grian nodded wearily.
“Well, fine. All we need to do is be careful and not die, yeah? Seems simple enough. Just focus on staying safe, gearing up, and trying to get home. And the admins will surely be looking for us.”
Grian looked around at the birch clearing, then up at the sky, sun blazing overhead. “I mean, it sounds fine in theory… but these are the Watchers we’re talking about. Who knows why they sent us here. And surely they have some sort of trick up their sleeve. ”
“Well we’ll deal with that when we come to it!” Scar said brightly. The vex hybrid was patrolling the edges of the clearing, at least two more flower crowns balanced on his head to accompany the third one he’d already made. Jimmy did a double take when he noticed that the flowers he had in his hands didn’t match any of the flowers currently found in the clearing, and that Scar’s outfit had transformed from his old-timey Victorian suit to something resembling a jungle adventurer, much like he’d worn in Double Life. The only difference was that Jellie was nowhere to be found. Maybe whatever the Watchers had used to strip away their magic was preventing him from transporting her, although it certainly hadn’t put a stop to Scar’s peculiar brand of vex-powered wizard glamour.
“I say we team up and start working on making this land our own! Think of it as a fun little getaway.” Scar slung an arm over the closest person to him, which happened to be Ren, and panned a flower-crown-holding hand across sky. “We can explore and build all sorts of cool stuff! As long as we don’t get down to red, we’ll be fine!”
Ren snorted and rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses, but as it often did with Scar, the mood in the clearing was sufficiently lightened. Jimmy could already hear some of the others start to talk about gearing up and getting ready to explore.
“Sorry for losing my temper.” Tango said from beside him, giving him an apologetic look. “I know you can defend yourself. It just made me so mad that he wouldn’t tell you about the Watchers - I know how much you were beating yourself up over that so-called curse , and if I knew about that, then he certainly did.”
“I appreciated it.” Jimmy said with a smile, and he meant it. “It’s not every day somebody does that for me, ya know?”
“They should.” Tango said earnestly, and something warm sparked up in Jimmy’s chest, spreading down to the tips of his fingers, wings, and toes. It seemed like Tango could make him feel warm, no matter what he did.
And thinking of warmth, Jimmy glanced down to see that he and Tango were still holding hands from when Jimmy had grabbed him earlier… and Tango hadn’t pulled away .
Jimmy felt a hot, unwelcome blush start to spread across his cheeks. What was he supposed to do with this man when he was so… so…
“You good, darlin’?” Tango asked, grinned his sharp-toothed smile ear to ear, and something in Jimmy’s brain positively short-circuited. Stammering something about going to talk to Joel, Jimmy hurriedly disconnected his hand and stumbled off, Tango’s little cackle following him.
For a few blessedly quiet moments, the hermits focused on gathering resources. Grian still didn’t trust that the Watchers hadn’t set up some sort of boogeyman-esque surprise for them, so they stuck together and paid close attention to their communicators as they gathered wood and stone and searched for sheep in the woods. Jimmy teamed up with Joel since he’d given that as his excuse to Tango, which meant he had to listen to his friend’s non-stop ribbing about the two of them as they hacked away at trees. In the background, Scar’s deep voice warbled some song about birch, and Bdubs yelled at him to stop because birch “is disgusting!” Jimmy almost felt like it was a normal day, starting off some sort of new server with friends.
Then, in a heartbeat, it ended.
The scream got everyone’s attention. Scar had just been going on about “the beauty of birch” when there was a sharp crack and his voice rose in a sudden, high-pitched shriek. Jimmy spun around, feathers standing on end; he was no stranger to strange Scar noises but that was a sound of absolute agony.
At first glance, it looked like Scar had slipped into some sort of hole in the ground, buried in grass up to his knees. But Scar had dropped his flower crowns and was clutching at his legs in a way that screamed of intense pain, eyes wide in terror. Even as Jimmy watched in shock, the ground around his legs moved and he dropped another few inches into the ground, another crack tearing more shrieks of pain from the wizard’s mouth.
“Scar!” Grian screamed, and then they were all running. This wasn’t a typical Scar death that they all laughed at. Whatever this was, they had never seen it before, and it was hurting him in a way that was slow and painful and cruel. Etho and Keralis got there first, reaching out to grab Scar’s arms and tug him from whatever he was sinking into. Scar shrieked again as they tugged, gasping out “W-wait! W-wait!” Before they could ask what he meant, the ground opened up to reveal a gaping maw and several rows of sharp teeth, stained red with Scar’s blood. In one sudden, savage movement, the creature - who was perfectly camouflaged into the green grass - lunged upwards. Before anyone could stop it, the monster snapped its teeth shut around Scar’s upper chest. There was a collective scream of horror at the audible snapping of ribs. Scar’s face went deathly pale and he let out a gurgle, blood trickling from his parted lips. Then, with one more lunging movement even as Etho and Keralis yelled and struggled and tried to hang on, the creature fully consumed Scar’s body before sinking back into the ground. Their communicators all dinged a moment later, and even as Etho, Keralis, Tango, and Ren rushed forward to finish the creature that had so savagely killed their friend, Jimmy glanced down to see the death message.
GoodTimesWithScar (4) was eaten by The Great Hunger
What? !
Somebody shoved past him, and Jimmy spun at the movement to see Grian streak away on foot towards where they had spawned. Immediately Jimmy took off after him, taking advantage of his smaller wingspan to take to the air between the trees. He heard several pairs of footsteps following behind, and the foreign, agonized cry as the creature took its final breath.
Scar was back in the clearing where they had spawned, and Jimmy’s heart ached for the man going through what looked like quite a difficult respawn. The vex hybrid was laying flat on his back, muscles twitching and spasming as they adjusted, chest heaving for air and eyes still widened in shock and terror. Jimmy flew swiftly to the man’s side, landing lightly in the grass (and coming to the sudden, horrifying realization that he would no longer be able to trust that it was ground he was landing on) before coming to kneel next to his deputy.
“It’s okay Scar,” Jimmy soothed, somewhat awkwardly drawing the man up to lean against his chest, trying to keep him secure and steady. “Breathe with me. I know it hurts, but you’re okay.” He inhaled and exhaled deeply, hoping the other man would be aware enough to follow along.
Grian came into the clearing a few minutes later, eyes frantically flicking around before landing on the pair of them. The smaller avian immediately planted himself close to the two of them, gently running his shaking hands through Scar’s hair in what Jimmy recognized as a preening gesture. The sensation seemed to relax Scar, and the man’s breathing started to come easier and slower, the shaking beginning to fade. Slowly the others came into the clearing, concern clear and horror clear on their face, taking up positions around the trio to keep an eye out for any other frightening creatures. After a few more minutes of controlled breathing and preening, Scar finally croaked out, “Grian? J-jimmy?”
“We’re here Scar.” Grian choked out. There were tears in his eyes - Jimmy guessed that the sudden, unexplained death had shaken him more than any of them had expected. “You’re okay.”
“W-what…?”
“I don’t know.” Jimmy said quietly. He wanted to freak out - now that the adrenaline was fading and Scar was looking to be relatively okay, the realization of what had just happened was starting to sink in. The ground… no, a creature in the ground had eaten Scar . No mob that Jimmy had ever encountered had eaten another player. What the hell was going on?!
“It’s fine.” Scar breathed. He still sounded shell-shocked, but he managed a slight chuckle, pushing himself upright so he was sitting on his own. “First death… guess I should have expected it, right?” From somewhere behind them, Bdubs let out a slightly hysterical laugh.
“I don’t know what this is.” Grian whispered, hands still slightly reaching out as if to assure himself that Scar was still there. Seeing this, Scar shifted sideways so Grian could reach him, and the avian’s hands curled in the folds of his jacket. “I-I don’t know what this is. Where did the Watchers take us?!”
“Someplace with creatures we’ve never seen before.” Etho said grimly, coming to stand behind Grian. He gave Scar a once-over, shoulders stiff and what looked like regret and guilt in his mismatched eyes. “I think we found your missing element of mischief, Grian.”
“That’s okay!” Scar was still trying to be positive, and Jimmy found himself shaking his head in amazement. “It just means we’ll have to be a little more careful, right guys?” He started to stand on shaky legs, and Etho was there before either Jimmy or Grian could help, easing him upright.
“That’s right, Scar.” Jimmy tried to latch onto the wizard’s enthusiasm. The others smiled a little or voiced their own bits of optimism, but the smile on Grian’s face was hollow, and an invisible fear hung over the group like a cloud.
In a place like this, they’d do their best to stay happy and alive, but how long would it last when they didn’t even know what they were up against?
What was going to happen to them?