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Grian was running. He didn’t know how long he had been running, nor how far he had run, he only knew that he had to get away, get as far away as he could from the mean men.
It had started off as a normal day for Grian. His mother had woken him up, breakfast already on the table, and his father had told him that they would be heading to the Main Hub for some shopping, and if he was good and stayed close to them then he would get a new plushie; this was the normal arrangement, though the reward usually changed with each outing, as Grian had a bad habit of getting distracted and wandering away from his parents leading to him getting lost and then his parents worrying about him, until he is eventually found by either a member of security that wander around the Shopping District of the Main Hub, by a concerned parent who noticed him wandering on his own looking scared, or by his parents themselves.
Typically, when Grian wandered off, he would be scolded for not asking one of his parents if they could come with him to look at whatever it was that had caught his interest, but they always gave him hugs and kisses when he was found, and the scolding came from their worry that they had lost him, so the reward system had been put in place, and, so far, Grian had only wandered away from his parents twice since the system had been put in place, which was significantly better than him wandering away just about every time the family of three went out shopping.
Once breakfast had been finished, Grian grabbed both his mother and father’s hands, swinging them happily as he was led to the portal that would bring them to the Main Hub, following his mother through the portal, his father following behind him.
***
Grian didn’t really know what happened next. He was hugging his blue macaw plushie, his reward for not wandering off (affectionately named Professor Beak), holding onto his mother’s hand as his father had the bags filled with what they had bought. They had been walking past the Hall of Abandoned World Portals, where all of the portals of worlds that had been destroyed but the portals remained, had been abandoned, or the players all died resided (the Elder Admins moving them to this hall if they couldn’t be destroyed or the land repurposed) when someone grabbed onto his mother’s other arm, pulling her into the seemingly abandoned hall, dragging Grian with her.
His father had followed, not about to let something happen to his wife and only child, only for a sinister chuckle to ring out the moment the family of three were hidden from view from the rest of the Main Hub.
“Well, well, well. Would you look at that! Two scarlet macaw hybrids and a child. We haven’t seen hybrids like you in a long time,” a man’s voice rang out, appearing from the shadows as he spoke, a smirk on his face as his eyes raked over the three lingering on the wins that adorned all three of their backs.
“W-What do you want?” Grian’s mother asked, pulling Grian close to her side and shielding him with her wing.
“Why, your wings of course. And the child. His wings aren’t large enough to sell yet, though, if we train him well enough, we could just sell him. Would make more money that way,” the man smirked, his voice trailing off as he mused to himself what he could do with Grian.
At those words, Grian’s father stepped in front of his wife, wings spread slightly in an attempt to intimidate the man; this also served to let his wife pull Grian behind her, hiding him with her wings, just in case he had to run.
“Absolutely not. You’re not touching either of them!” He shouted, only for the man to roll his eyes and snap his fingers, causing three more men to appear from the shadows, two of them grabbing Grian’s father, and one of them grabbing his mother.
“I don’t have time for this. Cut off their wings, and someone grab the child,” the man ordered, and before Grian knew what was happening, his mother screamed in pain as the man holding her grabbed out a sword from his inventory and sliced her right wing clean off, exposing him to the hybrid parts dealers.
He remained frozen in place for a moment, before his mother choked out for him to run, the pain and blood loss clear in her voice, and Grian didn’t hesitate to obey her order, turning on his heel, catching a brief glimpse of his father’s bleeding and wingless figure crumpled on the floor, before bolting, running as fast as his legs would take him out of the Abandoned Portal Hall, and towards the active portals, praying that he could find one that he could enter and hide in.
***
The longer Grian ran, passing portals that only had a padlock visible to him signifying that he was unable to enter the world due to said world either being someone’s private world or the whitelist doesn't allow anyone else to enter (there are a few cases where there is a whitelist on a world, but it allows those who are in desperate need of shelter in- signified by an unlocked padlock symbol).
His legs were burning, as were his lungs and side. At this point, he was debating whether or not he should just hide behind one of the portals and pray that the men he could hear chasing him would overlook him, but, when he could hear one of them yelling, he tossed that idea out of his mind for the moment, and, Professor Beak still clutched to his chest, forced himself to keep running, now praying that he could find his home portal or a safe place to hide.
***
Just as he was about to give up, to go with his idea of hiding behind a portal and praying, his eyes finally landed on a portal with an unlocked padlock on it, causing him to choke on a sob of relief. He could hear the men gaining on him, so he used the last of his energy to push him the final stretch to the portal that would hopefully lead him to safety.
Just as he was about to step in, he felt someone grab his wing, pulling him back harshly. With a scream laced with pain and fear, Grian fought against his captor, dislocating his wing in the process, though the jolt in his wing from it being pulled out of its socket was enough for the person who was holding him to lose their grip on him, allowing Grian to be swept away by the portal and out of their reach.
***
Stress was laughing with Iskall, both having spent the past month on Vault Hunters just having fun and searching vaults and dungeons for treasure. They were on their way back to Hermitcraft now, needing to be back in time for the meeting the next day, when their communicators pinged with a join message, causing Stress to furrow her eyebrows in confusion; no one has said anything about popping into the world on their chat like they normally would, so both she and Iskall were confused as to why there would be a join notification right then.
Pulling out her comm, Stress stared at the unknown name, worry filling her, causing her to pick up her pace towards the portal, Iskall hot on her heels.
***
It didn’t take the pair long to reach the portal, especially since they were already heading that way, but they weren’t expecting the sight that greeted them.
Curled up on the ground in a small shaking ball was a child, a tiny child with bright scarlet macaw wings, one of them hanging limply off of his back, wearing a red jumper, holes cut specifically for his wings, and what appeared to be khaki shorts.
Stress cooed softly, slowly approaching the child. When she was only a few steps away, they jolted, pushing themselves to sit up and, once they noticed her, pushed themselves back against the portal frame, whimpering in pain as they leaned against their wings but making no move to get off of them.
“Oh, it’s okay little one. I promise I won’t hurt you,” Stress murmured, but the child remained where they were, eyes full of terror as they clutched the macaw plush, that she could now see, closer to their chest.
“That’s a very pretty macaw plush. Do you have a name for them?” Stress asked, deciding to change tactics a bit.
The child stared at her for a moment, before a very small and scared voice said, “Professor Beak,” before falling silent once more.
“Professor Beak? That’s a lovely name for him. May I ask what your name is and how you got here sweetheart?”
The child hesitated, clearly unsure, but it seemed like her asking about Professor Beak had eased some of his fear, if just enough for them to squeak out a very small, “Grian.”
“That’s a beautiful name, Grian,” she said, daring to inch slightly closer to Grian, smiling a bit when he didn’t flinch back from her, “would you like to tell me what brought you here?”
“I-It was unlocked,” Grian whispered, clutching Professor Beak impossibly closer to himself.
“Unlocked? Oh! The whitelist!” Iskall spoke up, starling Grian so bad that he pressed himself further into the portal frame, only to cry out in pain as he pressed against his damaged wing even more, causing Stress to shoot Iskall a scathing glare.
“What about your parents, darling? Where are they? Are they looking for you?” Stress wondered, only to blink in shock when Grian burst into tears, sobs shaking his frame once more.
“Gone-the-the man-” Grian tries to get out between his sobs, only to give up, curling in on himself.
Stress coos at him once more, taking a risk in scooting closer and gathering the small child up into her arms, humming a lullaby that she remembered her mom singing to her when she was little and had a nightmare, rocking them gently back and forth to help calm him down even more.
***
It took more than a few minutes, but by the time Stress realised that Grian’s sobs had died down, she notices that it’s because he had fallen asleep on her, one hand still holding Professor Beak, and the other clutching onto her top causing her to smile.
Turning to Iskall as she stood up, Grian held securely to her chest, she spoke, “he’s coming with us.”
“Uh, not to try and dissuade you or anything, but is that really a good idea?” Iskall asked, moving to stand next to her side.
“We don’t really have any other choice at the moment. From what I could get out of him his parents are gone and it had to do with a man of some kind. Plus, his wing is injured, and I don’t have the things I need to fix it here, but I do at Hermitcraft.”
Iskall just sighed, “fine, but you’re going to have to tell Xisuma.”
Stress smirked at them, “no I think you’re going to have to do that considering I’m holding Grian.”
Iskall just glared at her, before they pulled out their comm, intent on messaging Hermitcraft’s Admin once they had left Vault Hunters.
***
Nothing could go to plan though, as the moment Stress and Iskall exited the portal so they could return to Hermitcraft, they were attacked by three men, all three of them splattered in blood.
Stress tried to take a step back, holding Grian close, only to bump into Iskall.
“Well, well. Seems like we’ve found the child after all. Howsabout you hand him over, lady, and no one will have to get hurt,” one of the men, the one covered in the most blood, spoke, holding out his hands expectantly as if Stress was just going to hand Grian over to them.
Baring her teeth, Stress growled out, “not on your life,” her stance shifting so she could bolt as soon as the moment arose.
The man who spoke sighed, “well, I didn’t want to have to kill anyone else today, but we really need that kid.” Drawing out his sword, his companions following the motion, Stress and Iskall realised that they were going to have to fight to be able to get free, as their way out was being blocked by the three men, not to mention that if they went back into Vault Hunters the men would just stay outside of the portal and potentially put even more people into danger.
“Stress, as soon as you can, run,” Iskall hissed, and while Stress wanted to argue, wanted to fight back and say that she could help, she knew that protecting Grian should be her first priority, especially since he was who the men wanted, so she just nodded minutely, eyes darting between the men so find her best escape route.
“Fine, but you be careful!” She hissed back, getting a breathy laugh from Iskall.
“I’ll be as careful as I can be, now run!” Iskall promised, before shoving her to the left, towards the opening that had just been made when that man moved to lunge at her and Iskall.
Not daring to look back, Stress bolted towards Hermitcraft, praying that Iskall had managed to message any of the Hermits about the situation the pair had found themselves in, holding Grian closer to herself.
If she strained her ears, she could hear someone in pursuit of her, obviously after Grian, however, she let out a sigh of relief as she spotted Hermitcraft’s portal, quickly stepping inside, and, the moment she was safe in Hermitcraft, shifted Grian to one arm and pulled out her own comm, shooting of a general message to the Hermits to let them know that Iskall probably needed help, immediately getting responses that people were on their way.
She did get a message from Xisuma asking who Grian was, so she just responded that she was on the way to his base to explain, but she needed to make a stop by her base first to grab a few things, getting an okay from Xisuma.
***
Getting Grian to her base was easy enough, and the message letting everyone know that Iskall had returned, and that he wasn’t badly injured, eased some of the tension that had been lining her body since she ran. Now all that was left for her to to before heading to Xisuma’s base to let him who just what had happened, if Iskall hadn’t already started explaining by the time she got there, was to relocate Grian’s wing, and she had a feeling that it wasn’t going to go well.
Carefully opening her door and making her way to her medical room, she set Grian down on one of the beds there, before gently shaking him awake.
The immediate panic when he woke up was to be expected, so she was already prepared to calm him down, managing to get his breathing to a somewhat normal pace in just a few minutes.
Of course, when she told him what she had to do to relocate his wing, he panicked all over again, but Stress didn’t mind, calming him down once more before talking to him while she was getting ready to relocate his wing, holding him close to her when she had finished her job, soothing him and telling him that he had done a very good job of staying still for her and letting her get the wing back in its socket.
She sat there with Grian in her lap for just under an hour, and it was only when Xisuma messaged her, asking where she was, did she reluctantly get up, still holding Grian, and grabbed him a strawberry lollipop for being so good, before heading to her Admin’s base, hoping that he wouldn’t have to send Grian away.
***
Entering Xisuma’s base, Grian once again sound asleep against her chest, Stress was greeted by, not only Xisuma but also Iskall.
“Iskall’s filled me in on most of it, but I need to know what happened from you as well,” Xisuma started, pausing for only a second when he saw Grian.
Stress sighed, sitting down next to Iskall, and shifting Grian so he could be lying down, his head on her lap.
“Right, well, Iskall and I were coming back after the month in Vault Hunters, as you know, when there was a join notification letting us know that this little bundle of joy had joined the world. He was sobbing, had a dislocated wing, which was what took me so long to get here, and was terrified. I managed to get his name, it’s Grian by the way, and the name of his plush blue macaw, Professor Beak, before he broke down when I asked about his parents. Considering the men who were waiting outside of the portal and the fact that they were covered in blood and mentioning something about not having planned on killing more people when I refused to hand Grian over to them, I have a strong feeling that they killed his parents.”
It was here when Iskall cut in. “Doc, Etho, Gem and I figured out they were hybrid parts dealers.”
Both Stress and Xisuma hissed in a breath of air.
“Yeah, definitely killed,” Stress whispered, horror flooding her body as he looked down at the sleeping child.
“Nowhere to go then,” X mused, eyes locked on Grian. “How old is he?”
“Uhhh, I may have forgotten to ask?” Stress said, voice an octave higher than normal, getting a fond shake of the head from Xisuma.
“That’s fine, just keep him with you for now as he seems to be closest with you, but bring him by later on when he’s awake again so I can look through his code, alright?”
Stress nodded, gathering Grian back up into her arms.
With a quick goodbye, Stress started the trip back to her base, mentally planning out a room for Grian to stay in while he was with her.
***
Grian never ended up leaving, both due to the fact that there were hybrid parts dealers looking for him, and due to the fact that he clung onto Stress, calling her Mom after a month of being on Hermitcraft.
Stress had never been happier than when she was with her new son. While there was a lot of trial and error when it came to taking care of Grian, especially when she found out that, while he may not have seen his parents die, he had been there when both his mother and father had at least one wing cut off, not to mention the chase that happened after that.
However, that didn’t change anything for Stress. She made sure she had everything she needed to help Grian when he panicked, and took things slow with him, but they were family and nothing would change that for them.