Chapter Text
Parrot wipes his tears. He didn’t feel like flying, just in case anybody spotted him.
He just wants to find Theo. He just wants to find Reina. He just wants peace.
He sighs, watching off in the distance, looking at the gradient of blue, yellow and orange in the sky over the hills of trees and tiny castles in the distance.
He sits down, the sound of the grass below him ruffling as soon as his puffed wings brushes against them. He brings his knees to his chest, listening to the silence.
What now? Saparata has taken over his civilization and Parrot’s head hurts way too much to think of a plan to get everybody back.
He’s lost everybody. Why… just why?
Maybe it’s really his fault.
Tears cascade down his red cheeks, hiding his face with his wings. Despite occasional sniffs and tiny hiccups, he still pays attention to the silence around him. It’s been a while since he has heard of this silence. But his heart still aches at the thought of losing everybody.
It’s impossible to stop thinking about it.
That moment when the players – the same players that Parrot promised eternal peace – all pointed their swords to the avian and he held his shield up. It took him a moment to process what Saps had said to his people. That next moment when he tried to escape them all, still comprehending why his own subjects would go after him.
Maybe it hurt a lot when Saps told him to run.
Just a few days ago, Parrot was reassuring himself that he will get his kingdom back, but now he’s lost hope for once.
His prideful optimism just vanished. Because he has no plan.
The great, smart King Parrot has no plan.
He continues to sob, sitting on the grass until the sun would say goodbye in the horizon.
But as he watches the sun set, he hears a zombie groan. Followed by a cry, ‘Watch out!’
Parrot turns around in one swift motion, only to immediately see a zombie nearby get pierced with a sword. It falls with a large gasp as Parrot takes a step back, wiping remnants of tears hanging on his eyes.
The player kicks the dead zombie on the ground as it turns into dust.
The same player looks at Parrot as he fixes his messy black hair, he takes notice of Parrot’s thoughtless stare.
“Are you okay?” The black haired asks, taking a few steps close.
Parrot processes the question for a split second late and replies, “Yeah. Don’t worry, I can handle myself.” He gives a weak, reassuring smile. His voice is so shaky, is it too obvious? He hasn’t seen this face before and clearly, this person doesn’t recognise him. “Are you a new player?”
The other person looks down at the sword he is holding, wiping off the zombie flesh and blood off it. “Yep. I have had a fresh start. I haven’t seen much people around though…”
“Ah…” Parrot nods. His eyes trails down, but he glances at the stained bandage on the person’s right shoulder. “Oh, you’re hurt.”
The person follows Parrot’s gaze before turning back to him, “That’s just some skeleton madness during cave exploration! It aches like hell though… Who are you though?”
“I’m Parrot.”
“Parrot?”
“Yeah?”
“...Just… Parrot?”
“...I’m half-parrot.”
“I know, I know. Just… Parrot? Like… the bird?”
“What’s your name if you’re speaking?”
“You can just call me Flux. Now, are we just going to let the sun set and monsters come ambush us? My shield is about to break from those creepers.”
Flux holds out his shield as Parrot silently analyses the damages. Just a few burnt spots and splintered wood.
“You can take mine…” Parrot holds out his shield, quietly sighing as he lets Flux take it. Flux puts down the old shield as he holds Parrot’s shield, seeing a few slashes and stains of blood on it.
“This looks really miserable,” He comments before accepting it, “Better quality than mine, thanks! How about you?”
“I’m fine, new players are more vulnerable. Maybe… we should go somewhere, it’s getting dark...” Parrot turns around from the orange skies as he starts walking into the woods, going down the hill. Flux follows from behind, watching the bright-feathered continue without ever looking behind.
Flux clicks his tongue, moving some branches aside, “I’m assuming that people like me aren’t welcome here?”
“It’s quite obvious.”
“I could tell… I prefer not to get blood on my clothes when half the people I’ve met attempted to murder me,” Flux points a finger at himself, fixing his shirt, “But, don’t mind me, I’m just curious. How about you? I certainly hope that you aren’t leading me to my doom, considering I saved you.”
Parrot chuckles quietly although it comes out a little bit hoarse, “I didn’t… expect to find anyone here.” He adjusts his bag, “You’re lucky, because they started putting on spawn traps that kill you immediately the moment you join.”
Flux’s face scrunched up, “That’s horrifying, I was always curious about the immediate deaths here… I guess I’m lucky I got here before that…” He takes a sharp breath. “So, what happened?”
Parrot sighs, turning his head to look at Flux before looking forward, “There’s this faction… Cindercrest. This server has limited resources for a world that is supposed to be infinite– can we talk about this later?” Parrot spots a small group of players running around some plains down the hill. Parrot ducks behind a tree as Flux immediately reads the air and crouches behind a tree trunk. Parrot brings out his spyglass, looking outwards – these people must be going back to spawn. None seem to have the intention to look for Parrot.
“Parrot…” Flux whispers, “Do you know anywhere we could go? We’re nearby spawn, aren’t we? So we should head somewhere where we probably wouldn’t get targeted."
The avian blinks, Flux is right but there’s absolutely no place on Unstable where he would be safe. Who knows if a player is going to come across them again?
“Do you have an invis potion?” Flux crosses his arms as he leans against the tree, Parrot puts aside his spyglass as he searches around his bag. Flux turns his gaze down the hill, watching the final group of players move out of their sight as he lights up a torch.
“No…” He shakes his head.
“Do you have anyone we could trust to hide in their base?”
“Uhm… no…” Parrot’s wings twitch, the ones beside his ears slightly curl up to cover his cheeks. “Just us…”
Flux remains a blank face, watching Parrot’s sheepish expression as his verdant feathers puff up. “Are you a criminal?”
Parrot blinks at the question, he definitely expected at some point for Flux to ask him. A man smart enough would eventually ask this question. It was suspicious enough that he’s avoiding everyone – he hardly looks like a new player. Flux had great instincts, socially aware even, and he’s probably debating whether Parrot was telling the truth about Cindercrest.
Asking a question here now, at the dead of night, in the middle of the woods, Parrot stares at Flux, his mind goes blank for a moment, contemplating on what to say.
Would he tell the truth? He’s technically not a criminal, but the whole entire server absolutely despises the avian.
“Uhm…” Parrot whispers underneath his breath, letting out a quiet chirp of nervousness. “Yeah… you could say I am.” He nods, hinting shame in his voice, he hadn’t realised that he was gripping his sleeve so tightly to the point his talons are forcing tears onto the fabric.
Flux crosses his arms, letting out a soft chuckle, “I see… I have a bit of trust in you. Now we got that out of the way, I understand things more better now. I’m outgeared, so there isn’t any point in stabbing you in the back.”
Parrot scoffs, “Trust me… you’ll have many opportunities to do so.”
“Parrot,” Flux calls his name, just to snap out of the avian’s pessimism. “I’m trusting what you say about this Cindercrest nation is true. Because I’m not willing to risk getting jumped by players that I’m outgeared to.”
Parrot stays silent. Flux lays his hand on his shoulder, a soft touch. “Both you and I have nobody to turn to, right?”
Parrot feels some sort of lingering emotion that never seems to sit right with him. Flux has a way with words. For some reason, it seems like the gods keep sending saviours in Parrot’s way. Or just some vicious mockery for every predicament he’s ever been in from the start.
“Let’s… go…” Parrot turns on his heel, stuttering for a moment. Facing away from Flux, he feels like the weights on his shoulders have been lifted up – even if it’s just a small weight, he has a little bit of hope. He just has to make sure he isn’t blindly trusting the wrong people again.
The two begin to walk down the hill, sliding down through steep slopes and walking by the safe land. Even with a glowing torch, both of them still need to stay on high alert just in case a player spots them. Parrot yawns, a restless chirp escaping from his mouth as Flux snickers to himself from behind.
Still, despite how the two are travelling, half-asleep and with heavy eyes, they continue pursuing their adventure to who-knows-where until the sunrise on the East.
Morning arrives just a few hours later, when Parrot and Flux had walked up to about a few thousands of blocks before both finally agreeing to camp in a cave until the sun rose – but Parrot knew this would be risky considering how much players would be awake at daylight.
It’s been quite a long time since Parrot has slept like this before. On the cold, hard surface of the cave. With his own bag as a pillow. Conveniently, as a bird, he could use his wings as some sort of blanket. As for Flux, it wasn’t much of a comfortable night for him, at least he carried around some makeshift mattress that he stole from a village way before he met Parrot.
He kind of spent at least two hours staring at the ceiling and rolling around as Parrot was curled up into a puffy ball snoring softly.
It was kind of annoying to hear that repetitive squeaking noise, even Flux spent at least 20 minutes covering his ears before giving up trying to do so.
“Flux?” That’s the first thing he wakes up to. Parrot already wide awake, noticeably better than yesterday.
“Mm?” Flux groans as he sits up, adjusting on the mattress, “Morning?” He rubs his eyes, he never expected to see Parrot a little bit too enthusiastic in the morning. “I assume that you’re a morning bird?”
Parrot stands up with one swift motion, “Do you have food?” He asks, holding out a piece of bread – although looking quite stale.
The black-haired fixes the laurel hairclip on his hair before he opens the satchel beside him, looking at the food options, he sighs. “Kind of? Meat, apples, bread…” He takes out an apple as he starts munching on it in tiny nibbles. “Although, I don’t think it’s enough for the week…” He says, mouth still full.
Parrot also takes bites off his own bread as he turns towards the exit of the cave, which was blocked out for the night until he mined it back open once he woke up. He swallows. Then says, “I have some food to share, just in case.”
“When are we hitting the road?” Flux asks, before taking another bite off the apple with a crunch.
“Maybe we should sit in here for a bit more, it’s showering hard out there,” The avian points out to the entrance where light seeps in before he walks back down to the spot he was sleeping in last night. He sits down, cross-legged as he fixes his feathers, plucking the ones standing up.
Flux watches, continuing to finish his apple whilst Parrot keeps preening his wings, letting the feathers lie on the ground.
“Can I ask about Cindercrest nation?” He throws the apple core aside, leaning against the cave wall. Parrot’s hand stills at the mention of that faction’s name, he really wants to forget about it. But it’s impossible to ignore the fact that he lost everything to Cindercrest.
It’s not like those proclaimed ‘impossible to escape’ prisons he used to do, these are real people with real emotions who can easily be pawns in others’ hands.
“...Go ahead.”
Flux nods, “Just to be sure we’re on the same page here: Cindercrest sets up spawn kill traps, hence that’s why there’s so many immediate deaths… Cindercrest doesn’t like new players…” The avian nods in each detail he lists, his face visibly painted with guilt.
“They believe that the new players have been taking up too much of the server’s resources…” Parrot sighs miserably, “Which leads to food shortages for old players… and that’s why they started killing new players.”
Flux grimaces at the statement, imagining how brutal it is, “Geopolitics, one rich side and one poor side…”
“Yep… This server…” Parrot sighs, he feels tears forming on his own eyes and immediately averts his gaze to the black-haired, “...was meant to be infinite. Everyone could’ve lived in peace without having to start wars and conflicts.”
Flux sees how hard Parrot is trying not to cry, just now only realising how loud the rain is as well.
“...I lost my kingdom – everybody. My royal army, my friends…” He says so quietly, Flux could barely hear it but he looks at Parrot, quite astonished.
“Your kingdom?” He repeats.
Parrot nods. “I lead my royal army against a Civil War. But they destroyed a lot of our food sources. People from my side started moving to his side. That’s how… I got exiled by this player named Saparata.”
He says it so quickly, he didn’t give the other time to process that he was the former king of the server. It doesn’t matter, it’s not like it changes anything now.
Flux doesn’t move but he blinks slowly, his hand curls up into a fist on his lap. He visibly lets out a breath, “Saparata?”
“You know him?” Parrot’s wings slightly perk up, although a few feathers fall loose. However, he didn’t think that Flux knew anybody on the server.
“Not exactly,” He felt a little bit sorry for getting the avian’s hopes high based on the sudden reaction. Flux stares at the ground, “The name… rings a bell. Can’t say I’ve met him before.”
His ears feel like ringing as the rain starts getting louder – he isn’t sure if it’s actually happening or if it’s just in his head.
The stone behind him has gone cold… maybe wet.
Where did he hear that name before?
He blinks.
Flux hears a squelch of soil – he snaps out of his trance, first noticing Parrot’s concerned expression. Without warning, a flash of movement from the corner of their eyes made them get up on their feet as they both grabbed their weapons.
A player, in netherite armour with the familiar redstone trims, Parrot immediately fires an arrow, causing the anonymous player to bounce back upon impact. Flux runs towards them lunging with his sword towards them before the person brings out their shield to knock him back.
Parrot shoots another arrow and then swiftly jumps a few steps closer, delivering a few more shots of rapid arrows.
The player steps back once Parrot was about two metres close, they quickly place a block of obsidian as the avian’s eyes widens upon seeing it. He jumps, letting himself fly back to where Flux was, pushing him away before they both hear an explosion and shards shattering – both of them get pushed back from the explosion.
Flux saw the familiar shape of some orbiting violet shape before it shattered, “CRYSTAL?” Flux exclaims, voice cracking as he assesses any wounds. He probably should get a shield soon – explosions in this server are terrifying.
“We have to run,” Parrot watches the player run towards them, sword swinging towards their body as Flux makes a run for it, grabbing his satchel on the way.
Parrot pushes the player away once they are close enough and then flies out of the tunnel, immediately spotting Flux still running away in the rain. He dives down towards the speck of black in the plains below, remaining a distance from the ground.
“Flux, we should find a Nether portal…” Parrot says whilst the other continues running. He looks behind, through the heavy droplets of rain and thick fog, any sight of the Netherite armour player.
“Lucky for you, you can fly…” Flux sighs, “Where should we run to?”
“Probably that forest across the river ahead,” Parrot points out in the distance, the two can see a hill of trees on the horizon as the black-haired nods. Parrot keeps looking back and forth, although there’s this lingering feeling that they’re still being followed. “...I’ll check, just hide in the forest shade.”
The winged player swifts a bit high up, then back to the direction in which they ran from, he sees nobody, but it’s better to still be cautious. They can’t be followed, even a careless mistake can get both of them banned from the server.
He takes out his spyglass, continuing to slowly fly in circles. Although, due to the rain, his wings are starting to feel heavy – it’s only a matter of time for him to go down and into the woods where Flux awaits his arrival.
He sees no one, and after a few minutes he decides to turn back to the woods, noticing how badly his back is aching and how off balance he feels. He lands on a tree as it shakes around feebly against the cold wind. Parrot exhales, cautiously climbing off the branches and checking each one if they could handle his weight.
“Flux?” He calls, looking at the ground before he hops down with a graceful landing. There isn’t a response that follows as he starts walking further down the woods, “Flux!”
He still doesn’t hear a voice, just the sound of rain pouring, the trees shaking against one another and the squelch of dirt underneath his boots.
Until–
Cough cough…
Parrot’s wings perk up as he turns to the direction of the coughing sound. He is about to say something but the familiar voice calls his name, “Parrot?”
Flux appears from behind a birch tree, walking over to Parrot. “This weather is making me sick…” He says hoarsely, he immediately notices Parrot’s headwings before laughing, pointing a finger towards the avian, “Haha! Wow! I’ve never seen a wet bird before!”
Parrot frowns, rolling his eyes at the other’s sudden switch up. “Okaayy… Shut up.” His wings flaps around, water droplets hanging off each drenched feather. Flux coughs once more, blending in with a laugh.
It only takes him one second to stop laughing, just ending it with a smile. Weird…
Something feels like a tug at the back of his mind.
Flux says, “Uhhh… where to now? We’ve been running in many directions, far from spawn or any other major civilisations, I’m assuming. We’re still getting hunted down. I’d say that our best bet is to find an ender portal and travel up on the roof…” He sneezes after.
“Bless you…” Parrot answers with a soft voice, he turns his head to look behind before continuing onto the forest. “Look for an open cave, they’re likely to have lava and water…”
The other one nods, following his lead as they continue into the rain, with the leaves of the trees acting like minimal shade for the two. Flux holds out his shield cautiously, staying aware of not just players, but hostile mobs such as skeletons or zombies. He doesn’t want to keep relying on Parrot to save him just because he’s in half diamond-half iron armour.
For about half an hour, the Flux feels his eyelids heavy as he continues following the bright shade of green and blue he can see.
His arms feel heavy as he mindlessly walks, until he feels a wing against his chest as he halts in his tracks.
“Huh?” He blinks, eyeing the drenched wing in front of him. He is about to complain about how water is soaking through his clothes, but would rather not bother about it.
The moment his eyes look down, he takes a step backwards after seeing the darkness below them in a ravine.
Parrot scans down, carefully analysing any trace of evidence that someone might’ve been down there before. No torches, cobblestone pillars or anything like that – there’s still an abundance of ores and he could see a lava pool down below.
“How good are you at water bucket clutching?” Parrot enquires as he extends his wings, turning his body towards Flux – who blinks.
Flux smugly grins, “Yeah, pretty well!” He says before Parrot shoves a bucket of water to his chest as Flux wraps his arms around the bucket with water sloshing around. “Careful! My clothes are already drenched from this rain… It’s even getting me sick.”
Parrot rolls his eyes sarcastically before jumping into the ravine, Flux sees the bright-winged avian from the corner of his eyes as he looks down at the ravine, seeing Parrot fly in circles until he lands on the deepslate floor.
‘Okay, I got aired…’’ Flux coughs into his sleeve as his other arm holds onto the bucket tight – faint water ripples disorientate his own reflection.
He braces, crouching down a bit before jumping off the edge, into the ravine as he grabs tightly onto the bucket, finally landing the clutch.
He exhales, chest puffing up and down as he turns his head above, staring at the cloudy skies at the above as rain droplets cascade down his rosy cheeks.
“Do you have any torches?” Parrot approaches him, as Flux directs his attention to him.
He shakes his wings, letting water droplets fly off him.
“Yeah, not much left though,” Flux remembers checking his torches in the morning, knowing that he has barely enough for a cave adventure unless he finds coal down here. “Does coal spawn at this y-level?” He asks.
“No, I think we’re too deep below…” Parrot replies, he walks to the lava pool, emitting light in the darkness as bats fly around in circles, squeaking. Parrot shifts his wings, “Do you want to go mining?” He tilts his head.”
“Yeah, I figured we can get… diamonds, if we’re not in a hurry…” Flux walks towards the avian, coughing into his sleeve as he approaches. The two weren’t getting chased, that’s one thing for sure, and no one is hunting for the two specifically. Parrot’s priority is getting the two of them away from spawn as far as possible.
Flux kneels down beside the lava pool as he dips the tip of his torch on it.
He drags it out, watching the fire slowly increasing brightly.
Parrot crosses his arms, silently devising a plan.
Nether bastions – as much to his awareness, only Treasure Room, Housing and Hoglin Stables are the only bastion variants to have chances of diamonds in the chests. However, considering how much resources has been taken from the Nether dimension as well, it would be insanely rare to find an unlooted bastion.
The cave that he and Flux had found, it seems untouched for an open wide cave in a forest that’s at least 10 thousand blocks away from spawn.
Maybe it is possible to find diamonds deep below.
“Yeah, sure…” He reluctantly nods as he steps away from the lava pool, searching his bag for a pickaxe. “Do you want to take that back cave and we can meet up here in an hour?” He glances up at the sky, where the sun is moving bit by bit.
Flux shows a thumbs up as he takes out an iron pickaxe, swinging it on top of his shoulder. “Yep. 1 hour.”
He turns around, approaching the cave that Parrot pointed at, before he enters the darkness, he glances to the other, moving further to a different cave whilst his wings brush against the cold stone.
Flux huffs, “He’s too…” He trails off, something never sat right with him from the moment he started out on the server. He coughs once more.
People are apparently killing newcoming players and the person he randomly allied so happen to be a former king, in a server entitled ‘the largest server ever’. It doesn’t make sense. But he’ll continue to follow, it’s better than having no one.
Flux puts on his newly-crafted helmet with a prideful smirk. The two managed to find a few diamonds, enough to replace some equipment that were nearing their end.
“Do you have anything to light the portal?” Parrot asks, placing the last few obsidian to shape a rectangle.
The black-haired takes a piece of flint from his satchel pocket, “I found one from a broken portal… the fire striker is somewhere…” He mutters, looking through his pockets and satchel. His fingers brush against the cold rough surface of the thin fire striker at the corner, pulling it out whilst he walks towards the bright-winged avian, holding out the materials.
Parrot accepts it, using it to light up the portal. Once the spark hits the portal, it lights up with a layer of purple swirls.
“It’s been ages since I’ve been to the Nether,” Flux chuckles as Parrot hands him back the flint and steel.
“Let’s hop in,” Parrot jumps into the portal with Flux following behind, closing his eyes as he listens to the distorted noises.
Once he opens his eyes, he can feel the heat immediately hit him as he looks at the surface from the frame of the portal. He steps off the portal, stepping closer to the ledge as he stares at the lava below. It’s a far distance and Flux definitely does not have any potions if he ever makes a slip. Maybe he’s grateful that he’s rarely clumsy.
He turns his head around, his eyes searching for his vibrant companion, “Parrot?”
The first thing that his eyes catch is the immediate shatter of the portal, making a sound like glass. Flux’s heart jumps but his eyes travel to the avian beside the portal, holding a pickaxe.
“What was that for?”
Parrot puts his pickaxe back into his inventory in silence as Flux tentatively takes a step closer. There’s absolutely no way they were getting chased back there. They were in the caves for at least an hour.
“I didn’t want us getting chased, sorry if that scared you,” He attempts to reassure the raven-haired boy, noticing the slight panic in his eyes. “I’m just trying to clear any traces of us.”
“We’re not even criminals on the run, you’re just exiled…” Flux sighs, crossing his arms, “Is everything okay? I’m not a child, you don’t have to sugarcoat anything.”
Parrot’s hand brushes his front hair, wiping off the sweat. Whilst his wings twitch slightly, his feathers ruffling against the heat of the nether.
Parrot wanted to say out loud, ‘I’m not used to running away like this…’ But that would be so pathetic of him.
“Sorry, it must be silly,” He forces a quiet laugh, he doesn’t intend to comfort Flux with that laugh, “Maybe we can light this portal again… if we ever need it.” He adds.
Flux frowns, “But that’s not gonna happen.”
He just wants to trust the bird.
The two stand there. The sound of lava bubbling from below and the fire crackling in the distance. A ghast shrieks in the distance, echoing through the valley as Flux speaks first, “Can we be honest to each other?”
Parrot nods. “Sure–”
A piercing shriek cuts through the air as the two turn their heads in sync to the direction it came from. A fireball hurls towards their direction as Flux holds out his shield, deflecting it away.
“This is horrible timing, we should run…” Flux immediately runs, Parrot following him on wings. “It’s fine, they’re slow anyway…” He says, reassuring himself, before jumping off a ledge, landing a few metres before. “Is it gone?”
Parrot looks at the distance from where they came, “Yeah.” He stifles a laugh whilst he pulls out his spyglass, taking a closer look at their surroundings.
Nobody is finding them in the middle of nowhere.
The two are beside a warped forest, they agreed to walk through it – although they don’t expect anything.
Flux sees a flash of purple at the corner of his eye. Was it an enderman?
“How long have you been on Unstable?” The question came from nowhere, but Flux could see that the avian was just trying to pass the time.
“About… Two weeks ago?” The black-haired shrugs, “Maybe less.” He lets out a heavy sigh, “I wasn’t on often, I just explored by myself. I saw people in netherite armour running around with blood on their swords. I hid. I guess it was only now that I realised they were Cindercrest and…”
He didn’t bother continuing. But Parrot gave him an impressed look, no one survives alone in this server, at least that’s what he thought.
“I’ve met a lot of players like you…” He laughs, “Resilient… strong-willed… brave…” His feathers ruffle against the vines as he unwraps his red scarf. Parrot liked the nether, it was warm, although not humid. He felt cold most of the time, which is why he’d wear so many layers.
Sometimes he’d wish that he was an actual bird, his wings were the only things that felt warm to him – it’s because of his feathers.
“I don’t know why I joined Unstable…” Flux trails off, shoving his hands in his pocket. “I don’t know why I stayed either.”
“But you’re alive now…” Parrot speaks up, “Right now, thousands of people are being killed every single day. It’s… so messed up… and I cannot do anything about it right now.”
“Do you have a plan?”
Parrot halts, no, he still has no plan. It’s been, how many days? At least 4 days since he left the kingdom. How many people have died in the hands of Cindercrest so far?
He hates being reminded of it, but at the same time, he shouldn’t ignore it.
Meanwhile, Flux looks around the forest again, noticing the striders in the distance and wondering where the enderman went. They teleport all of the time, lazing around the nether for no reason until someone tries to kill them or stare at them.
“Can you… even fight?” Parrot enquires, pulling out golden carrots from his bag, “This is a large army we’re dealing with…”
Flux walks beside him, his hands reaching down to grab the hilt of his sword before unsheathing it from its scabbard.
“Fighting isn’t my greatest area…” Flux admits, tightening his grip around the handle, whilst he takes a few steps away from Parrot, “But I can handle a duel…”
Before Parrot can respond, Flux locks his eyes onto something lurking behind the warped trees – something he’s been looking at for quite a long time. An enderman.
It doesn’t notice his gaze yet, Flux moves first, rushing towards it as he swings the sword across its abdomen. The enderman disappears, leaving purple particles with a screech as he immediately turns around to block its aggressive attack.
The force pushes him backwards, as he lets out a cry.
Parrot watches, munching on the carrots. He isn’t sure when to interfere.
Flux is fast – he can agree. His reactions are sharp. However, his techniques are rough. But that can be fixed.
But even one person on their side won’t change their chances. They’re still heavily outnumbered.
All the plans he thought of are stupid, they would all end up failing.
“There’s two now?!” Flux’s voice snaps Parrot out of his trance as his eyes notice two endermen crowding the raven-haired boy.
Parrot discards his food as his hands instantly reach behind for his bow. Before he can get an arrow, something flies past him.
It pierces the second enderman’s head, causing it to take a few steps backwards whilst Flux focuses on the other, taking another hit with his sword.
Both endermen disintegrate into purple particles, both leaving only a shiny pearl.
“Thanks, Pa–”
“That wasn’t me…”
Parrot lowers his bow, letting an arrow rest on the string as his wings tense. His head turns to the direction the projectile came from.
The wings on his head perks up upon hearing a familiar voice echoing with a chuckle.
“I knew I recognised that voice!”
Parrot freezes as he watches the figure in netherite flying towards him with open arms.
“You’re safe! I am so relieved to see you bro!” The person pulls him into a tight hug, as the bright-winged avian lets out a soft chirp.
“...THEO?” He gasps once he recognises the yellow-grey wings.
“Yes! It’s me!” Theo pulls back, giving his friend a wide smile. “I’ve been here this whole time. I genuinely thought you died to Saps… Dude, I’m so happy!”
Flux watches the two birds relishing their reunion as he awkwardly puts his sword back into its scabbard. He’s also relieved that they weren’t being attacked in the nether.
This new guy’s entrance was… amusingly unexpected.
“Right… sorry,” Parrot steps back as he glances back at Flux, “Theo, this is Flux.”
Theo glances at the new face with a grin, “A new friend?” He approaches.
“Fluixon… Flux for short,” He holds out a hand, as the other doesn’t hesitate to reach out and shake hands. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too! Thanks for being Parrot’s buddy, I hear birds don’t do well when they’re separated from their flock,” Theo makes a light-hearted joke, letting go of the other’s hand as Parrot rolls his eyes from behind. Flux stifles a laugh. The cockatiel turns back to Flux, “Cool leaf though, is it pure gold?”
“I don’t think so,” Flux fixes the laurel on the side of his hair, he almost forgot it was there.
“What have you been up to this whole entire time?” Parrot asks.
Theo’s smile falters a bit, “Well… I didn’t know if you were alive, but I tried looking for Reina…” He hesitates, “I still haven’t found her yet.” The other bird frowns, crossing his arms. Theo pats his shoulder, “But you’re here, that’s something…”
He steps back, getting the two to look at him, “You two, come. I’ll show you my temporary home.”
He leads the two through the warped forest, the three travels through a few hundred blocks until Theo stops by another warped forest, pushing the growing vines away. He gestures to the two to enter first.
The tunnel is small, with a few chests, furnaces and a brewing stand – another corner has a rough, wooden table, good for four. At the side wall, there’s a lit nether portal. Theo finally enters, “Make yourself at home! It doesn’t look too… home-y, but we can talk here, by the table.” He gestures by the table.
Flux looks around the hidden base, then at both avians.
“Wait…I have a plan,” Flux speaks up.
Theo and Parrot exchange glances before walking to the table. Parrot pulls out a chair, sitting down on it.
“What do you mean you have a plan?” Parrot asks as Theo places down some food for the two.
“You’re going to hate it but…”
The rain taps on the window as the drops cascade, Saps looks out at the window as he puts out the fireplace.
After the war, he still had so many things to do: make speeches, help with the farms, repair the houses, army training, manage the businesses. It is as expected when he took on the role as the king of the server.
He walks to his chambers, closing the door behind him with a click. He ambles towards his desk, taking off his crown and placing it on the tabletop with care – right beside the golden wreath he used to wear ever since he first joined Unstable.
His thumb traces over the rubies on his crown as he stares at both headpieces before sitting down on his bed. He’s going to ignore the reports that are at least 2 days old, that’s going to be tomorrow’s problem as well.
His hand brushes through his hair, undoing the knots and braids, although his hands struggle undoing the knots.
Tomorrow, at dawn, it’ll be a new day where the world awaits for their king.