ruffled feathers

a helping hand

grian stared at the small note placed on a fence post.

he snatched it off the wood and hurriedly opened it. fingers fumbling at his urgency.

you have two options:

1. fix the machine you broke.
2. defeat the wither.

-mumbo

sighing grian left his fellow hermit's base he couldn't remake the machine. even mumbo knew that, so instead he would have to fight the wither.  grian huffed loudly, he hated the nether, it was so unbelievably hot. not to mention blazes would often set his wings on fire. that was as uncomfortable as it sounded.

he grabbed a few golden apples and some potions of fire resistance. and dragged his feet to the nether portal. this was gonna suck.

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it took him two days to get all the skulls even with a looting three sword. he was tired, hot, sticky, slightly crispy and dehydrated. but he kept pushing on. he flopped out of the nether portal and just lay there for a while, exhausted.

then with a lot of effort he staggered off the ground and took a deep breath of the clear air.
his throat felt like sand paper, grian clicked his tongue, it was dry and felt heavy.

grian longed to lie down in his soft bed, he felt like he could sleep forever. he sighed exasperatedly, he just wanted to get this challenge done with.

grian pushed onwards, luckily he already had a chamber to kill withers in.

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it took him half the day to get to his wither chamber, he refused to stop and pushed his health out of the equation.
when he finally flopped into the dark room his eyes caught on a small hamper basket, it had a small red bow wrapped tightly around it. warily he creeped over to in and lifted the lid tentatively, fearing for one of scars notorious and infamous pranks. fully expecting the hamper to explode or send slime everywhere.

it didn't and a small smile weaved it's way onto his face.

inside lay four bottles of water that were cool to the touch, some  chicken and salad sandwiches- diagonally cut, the way grian likes them- three shiny green apples- grians favourite- a pillow, a blanket and a small note tucked into the side.

he unfolded the paper and smiled wider as he read it.

grian, you have been gone a few days, knowing you i'm guessing you went straight here instead of sleeping. i packed you a few things. sleep.

-mumbo

it warmed grains heart when he saw the note and that mumbo remember his favourite apples, his stomach sunk at the idea of sleeping, he rubbed his eyes a little, chugged three of the four bottles and a bite of sandwich before preparing to fight the wither.

of course grian would do anything to sleep right now, but he needed to finish this dare. he HAD to, grian stood, netherite sword clasped in his hand along with a golden apple. he finally finished setting everything up, he quickly tucked the hamper out of harms way and refocused on the challenge he had her to do.

he placed the final head on the looming figure  and stepped back, the form of the beast soon arose. harrowing sounds bellowed out it's mouth, it scanned the area, eyes landing on grian.

the wither let out a screech and spat explosives at grians feet, he dodged nimbly, the tip of his wing seared in pain as the explosion hit it.
he winced and bit back a yelp. he tucked his wings in tighter and willed himself not to cry out.

grian took a strong stance and lunged at the monster, slashing one head from its neck.
the beast reeled back before attacking stronger than before. grian rolled to behind a pillar and panted heavily.
he rubbed his hands frantically over his face.
holding his breath he leapt back out, charging at the monster he yelled as he ran, fury and sadness seeping out of his cries.

he lunged, blocked, rolled and slashed at the monster, desperately trying to wear it down.
the monster sent a shot straight as grians legs, the white hot  pain blossomed from his thigh and he couldn't stop himself yelling in agony. he managed to cut of the second head, grians features were taunt and scrunched up from the pain. he took a glance at his legs, black blood boiled around it gagging slightly grian turned his attention back to the task at hand.

he kept getting hit,  his fighting became sloppy as did his evading tactics. his energy began to run low as he fought. finally with one last ditch effort grian leapt up, beating his damaged wings and cut the final head clean of.  grian staggered on his feet.

he cheered in triumph as the now lifeless body fell to the ground. his victory didn't last long as the adrenalin soon wore off and his vision began to get hazy, his entire body screamed at him to stop but he stood frozen in place, his body wracked with exhaustion and pain. grian slowly began falling to the floor, welcoming it with open arms.

but it never came, strong arms wrapped around him and carried him bridal style, like an angel. grian reached up to touch his hero's face, huh- didn't know angels had stubble.

"oh grian, you're such a spoon"

everything went black.

sorrry haven't updated in a while, tryna update other books. won't happen again... maybe.