Hello y'all I usually don't make Authors notes before continuing the story so you could read the book back to back without continuity issues.
But this art is too good not to share.
The awesome sketch above was made by a friend of mine.
It's based on the description of my design of the watchers.
It's honestly pretty close to what I had in mind.
A little monstrous but also mysterious and a bit sinister.
Love it.
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Grian awoke alone in his bed.
Scars warmth was gone as the night break was almost over.
He sat up and stretched his wings and body.
He look the side to check on the other.
In the first bed next to him slept Joel, Lizzie cuddling onto him, her head on his chest.
The bed furthest from his was occupied by a sleeping Tim.
He could tell that Tim was about to wake up, his arms were moving a bit.
One arm dangling off the edge of the bed, the other under his pillow.
Tim's sleeping positions had always been strange but seeing as both legs were also spread widely underneath the blanket was just funny.
He walked over the chests and grabbed a water bottle, drinking it in one go.
He thought about what had happened during the Night break.
He kissed Scar...
And he like It...
He knew that he would never be able to do something to Scar, he'd rather throw himself off of a cliff.
But knowing that there was a possibility of finding Scars dead body somewhere made him sick.
He snapped back to reality when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
The hand was far too small for Tim or Joel.
He turned around and saw Lizzie.
Grian didn't know what to say. He knew that Lizzie had barely an hour left to live with the rest of the break and her Time.
"Grian... Can you promise me something?"
Lizzie asked, fidgeting with her fingers.
"What is it ?"
Grian responded as Lizzie stood beside him.
"Could you look out for Joel when I'm gone ?
He tends to.. not deal with loss very well."
Lizzie said, she almost cried.
She was definitely scared.
"I'll do my best, he's my friend."
Grian answered softly but sincerely.
They stood beside eachother for a while before Lizzie broke the silence again.
"Grian.... I wanna thank you for saving us all so many times.
You were a high ranking watcher and threw it all away for us...
Thank you"
Lizzie cried, she looked down to the floor as tears rolled down her rosy cheeks.
"And I'd do it again.."
Grian concluded, assuring Lizzie that he had no regrets in making her and the others life's just a bit better.
Lizzie smiled at this, lending Grian a bit of bread, seemingly knowing that he was a bit hungry.
He gladly took it.
The two stood there in silence afterwards, comfortable silence.
Lizzie was someone that anyone could be comfortable with no matter what condition they were in.
He admired her for that.
"Do you have feelings for Scar ?"
Lizzie asked seemingly out of the blue, tho Grian wasn't exactly surprised.
Grian could've answered in a multitude of ways but decided to tell the truth.
"I've always had a soft spot for him...", Grian started tapping his foot nervously,
"Scar is someone that has always stood out to me in the other games.
I took one look at him and I fell for him.
Sure he is a bit naive sometimes and definitely a big goofball but I feel like that should be a goal and not something to avoid."
Grian explained, smiling subconsciously as he talked about Scar.
Lizzie looked at Grian and couldn't help but be in awe of what Grian said.
This man was closer to an actual god then a human and yet he had fallen for the biggest Goofball and patented loveable idiot in this world.
"I'm happy for you, just be careful.
Scar isn't the best at this game so he'll probably be out pretty soon.."
Lizzie warned, knowing that Grian likely knew this.
They stood there next to eachother quietly for a while when Tim suddenly popped up next to Grian.
"Good morning guys."
He greeted grabbing a water bottle before Lizzie lend him a piece of bread as well.
"What's the plan for today ?"
Tim asked, blissfully unaware of the conversation that took place before he took his place next to Grian.
"We're gonna stay at the base for a little, letting Joel say goodbye to Lizzie. Then we're gonna go on Skynet and get ourselves some time back."
Grian stated, his eyes flashing up purple in determination.
He knew that both Tim and Joel were on the edge of turning red, there wasn't much time left and he desperately wanted them to survive, even if that meant that he would have to throw himself in front of them as a shield.
"Sounds like a plan"
Tim said, a bitter undertone in his voice.
They waited for Joel to wake up and started brewing some tea.
They all sat down in a circle on the floor as the timer began ticking again.
Joel seemed more and more distant with each minute desperately clinging onto Lizzie.
They kept talking to each other, trying to lighten the mood but it just didn't work.
There was this dreadful knowledge of Lizzie's death in the air and there was no doubt that she was scared, no, terrified.
They were all so desperately trying to forget what was about to happen when suddenly a loud beeping was heard from Lizzie's clock.
Her Timer had reached zero.
Lizzie got up, gasping in a great shock.
"It's ok Lizzie, come here..."
Joel almost begged, ingulfing her in a big and close hug.
As they hugged, Lizzie's body went limp.
"Joel, it started, you have to leave her alone now, or you'll be hit aswell!"
Tim almost shouted.
He took Joel's hand, helping lay Lizzie down.
She was still alive, just paralyzed by something that was injected to her via the clock.
Joel was almost sobbing as he watched tears roll down Lizzie's face.
She began to hyperventilate, panicking as her breathing began to form irregular patterns.
Then the inevitable happened.
Electricity, so intens that it formed a lightning bolt shot out of the sky straight down at her.
Her body tensed up, the paralysis wearing off, her hands clawing at the floor.
Suddenly the lighting stopped, her body going limp.
Her hands were bloody as a couple of her nails had cracked off while she dug them into the floor.
Her head was tilted sideways, unmoving.
Tim had previously held Joel back so that he wouldn't hurt himself trying to save Lizzie.
But now...
He let go.
Joel sprinted to Lizzie, checking if she was breathing, checking her pulse and her clock.
But as his movements slowed he seemed to realise that she was gone.
He sat in front of her dead body, silent tears making their way down his face.
Suddenly he balled his fists, tears dieing out.
You could then see a change in his posture, his body language.
Something in him had snapped.
His shoulders relaxed and the sobbing stopped from one second to the other.
He stood up tall and looked over.
The shine in his eyes, the joy.
It was gone.
It was replaced by an emptiness, a rage, a sadness.
Neither him nor Grian had remembered seeing him like that.
He bowed down and picked Lizzie up, a tear still dwelled in his eyes.
He put Lizzie down on a bed, standing in front of it afterwards.
After a few minutes Grian hesitantly went to stand beside Joel.
Lizzie's pale dead body layed on the bed.
She looked peaceful with the exception of her eyebrows still looking like they were slightly furrowed.
Joel didn't move, he just stood there looking down at her.
Grian put a hand on his shoulder wanting to comfort his friend.
"You'll see her again, always remember that, she'll be ok..."
Grian said softly.
He took the blanket that was pushed down to the floor and put it over Lizzie, covering her entire body.
"We'll avange her, we'll win for her!"
Grian comforted.
Suddenly Joel turned around marching over to the ladder going up to their Skynet.
Tim and Grian looked at eachother for a moment, following after Joel barely a second later.
~~~~~~~~~ Up on Skynet ~~~~~~~~~
Joel and Grian were crafting up TNT minecarts to roll off of Skynet to gain more time effectively.
Tim was walking around on the platforms, looking for people who were just walking around or meeting up with others in one spot.
Grian was nervous working around Joel at the moment.
He knew something was wrong.
"Are you ok Joel ?..."
He asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"Yeah, i just wanna start getting time back, I'll be fine, I just want y'all to be safe"
Joel answered.
His answer seemed truthful but yet so...
Dishonest.
Like something wasn't right.
Grian was sure that Joel was on the edge of insanity.
He had to be careful with his words and actions as to not push him into madness by accident.
The two finished crafting up all the remaining things they had into TNT, potions, food and TNT minecarts to push over the edge of Skynet.
Then they walked over to Tim and started preparing a plan.
"Ok.. I don't think we have enough TNT to get enough time back..."
Grian admitted.
The three lingered in silence for a moment thinking for solutions.
"Me and Tim could just use our Enderpearls and surprise them.
Would make an easy kill."
Joel concluded looking at an Enderpearl in his hand.
"That, could work"
Tim admitted.
"Ok idk if I'm supposed to be able to do this but I have a plan.
You both teleport down there with the Enderpearl. You get your time back and then you shoot me a message so I can teleport you back on here.
I'll be going for some Gunpowder in the meantime."
Grian stated, typing something on his clock.
"Alright, deal"
Joel said cheerfully.
And it was done just like that, Joel and Tim teleported away, leaving Grian to gather Gunpowder.
~~~~~~~~~~ On a field ~~~~~~~~~~~
Grian was killing creepers, looting all the chests he could get and even stealing from some people's chests.
What he didn't expect was to see Scar again.
They weren't close by each other and he somewhat hid from Scar to not stay somewhere for too long and potentially make both of them vulnerable.
Grian kept thinking about Tim and Joel, occasionally Scar.
These were people he desperately wanted to survive.
His thoughts spiraled, rethinking and evaluating his experiences in this current game.
His thoughts immediately went to Martyn.
Which was, odd.
He didn't share too many connections with him, at least none he could remember.
Was he still missing part of his memory?
Afterall, he was turned into a watcher, he wasn't born as one.
That was likely the reason why he felt something like sympathy for humans, or feel human emotions at all.
Were watchers even capable of feeling and recognising normal emotions?
He was drifting off.
Martyn's face still lingered in his mind, like a picture.
He remembered feeling strange in his company.
He felt as though Martyn could hear his very thoughts.
He had felt his hands tickling when Martyn was really close to him, his throat had almost burned at Martyn's touch.
That can't be normal, he thought.
It probably has something to do with the fact that he's a Watcher.
Whatever it was that was happening with Martyn, he wasn't an ordinary person.
Suddenly Grian was pulled out of his thoughts by an arrow just barely missing his head.
He looked up to see a new face.
The man he saw had pastel blue hair and a few freckles dotted around his face, his eyes were a burning red, explaining why he attacked Grian who had just barely yellow eyes, tho they were fading into orange.
He had coral stick to his blue button up shirt, concealing the white shirt underneath the open button up, he looked like he had just come out of the ocean.
Neither of the two moved, he seemed irritated.
Grian could barely guess the emotions behind his until he openly asked a question;
"You aren't running?"
He sounded confused, almost offended.
He had an unbelievably thick Scottish accent, something melodramatic was in his voice, the avian couldn't tell if that was his usual tho.
Instead of staying silent like he usually would he just acted on his feelings, saying what he thought.
"Because I am not scared Scott"
Grian said in a sassy tone.
He didn't know where exactly he had gotten his name from, until he did.
Scott had won another before, this guy had been a winner, that's why everyone had a lot of respect for him and was sort of intimidated by him.
Grian wasn't and that was the truth, catching Scott of guard.
He let his bow down, thinking for a moment before reaching for another arrow.
Grian couldn't help but smirk, he could use some time after all.
Grian grabbed his sword out of its holster and waited for Scott to shoot the arrow, letting him start the battle.
He smiled at Scott, the sadistic grin not leaving the watchers face as Scott began to doubt his actions.
The suspense build up until Scott suddenly let the arrow fly.
Grian was laser focused on the arrow and suddenly cut it in half with one motion of his sword.
Scott could barely react, when Grian dashed forward with his wings fastening his sprint, even flying for a short amount of time.
He send Scott crashing to the ground, pressing his sword down into the direction of his chest.
Scot held the sword away with his bow, struggling.
He certainly didn't expect the small man on top of him to be strong enough to pull a stunt like this.
Grian could feel the strength in Scott's arms slowly dimming as the sword got closer and closer to the man's chest.
Then Grian pressed down with all the strength he had.
He felt the blade entering Scott's body, who gasped in pain.
Grian leaned down forward Infront of Scott's face, he could hear the man's heartbeat slowing as he looked him in the eyes.
Then it stopped, his hand dropping into the grass.
Suddenly Grian gasped, his view had been tinted purple and he hadn't noticed.
He only saw it when his vision returned to normal.
He looked back at Scott's corpse, who's clock began to loose time rapidly.
His own was getting time added to it.
The sword was all the way pushed through Scott's body, even hitting the grass floor beneath.
Grian walked over, recovering the blade.
He needed to go.
Now.
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