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Life was normal and Egg was by himself. He was used to being alone, he enjoyed the solace that allowed him to enter a state of deep focus when reviewing his many, many books. But alone didn't actually mean alone. He was always surrounded by people or things, whether it was Minute, Wemmbu or one of Wemmbu's things he'd occasionally lend him. Not that it was often, Wemmbu was pretty protective over his things, always was and always had been.
So when Flame walked through the end portal, in the middle of the night at that, things felt different. The air had shifted. He didn't look happy, sad, or even angry.. just blank.
He didn't seem to come looking for a fight, and after a seemingly tedious exchange of words between the two, that same blank expression was now plastered onto Minute's face, as if it were contagious.
And then Egg saw it, he rubbed his eyeball because he must've seen wrong. Flame pulled out something and handed the crown, Wemmbu's crown over with reluctance, almost care. Egg found it hard to tell from the interference caused by the gray stained glass pane two stories above.
Maybe Wemmbu just dropped it
Egg tried to tear his eyes away, his body wouldn't let him. Wemmbu had already been gone for two days.
It's just a joke, one of his typical unfunny jokes
Because Wemmbu couldn't be dead. It would make no sense. From his perspective, from the endless encounters Wemmbu had saved him from, he'd framed him as invincible, formed him as someone practically unshakable.
If anything they'd always joked Egg would be the first to die. Sure it was a dark thought but if being on this server had taught him anything, it was that it could very well become his reality. But it was always meant to be him, not Wemmbu, never Wemmbu. Because Wemmbu didn't fall when he was struck down, didn't die when he was supposed to, that's just.. who he was.
But seeing the crown, the one Wemmbu never departed with. The one he held enormous pride over, in Flame's hand. A hand Egg knew, Wemmbu would've never allowed to have touched, if he had anything to say about it.
Then the knock came, Flame had disappeared from the ground, dawn began to crawl through the window with it's lacklustre light and a figure stepped into Egg's room.
At first Minute didn't say anything, clutching Wemmbu's crown deathly tight. But he eventually eased up and set it aside.
"Minute?"
"Egg, Jesus, how am I even supposed to say this-" Minute leaned on the door for support.
"Wemmbu's dead isn't he?"
The reply seemed to catch Minute off guard, Egg would usually find it amusing, but right now, he found it anything but.
Minute seemed to be relieved, it'd probably be bad if Egg started crying. Sad people weren't good at comforting other sad people.
"Yea" Minute breathed out shakily
Egg kept waiting for someone to wake him up, for Wemmbu to come up behind and say it was all just a joke and that Egg was so gullible to believe something so preposterous. But it never came and Egg was left standing in the place, in the same position he'd been in for the hours leading up to this conversation as Minute gently closed the door on his way out.
When the door handle clicked back into it's prior position, Egg didn't crack, break or cry. He just stood there.. and stared and kept standing. Looking at the framed photo on his desk. A screenshot of Egg's first day on Unstable. Wemmbu was grinning widely while forcing Egg into the frame.
It was a great photo. He'd probably use it at Wemmbu's funeral.
When Flame came back, it was the next morning or the next week, Egg really didn't know.
He passed him in the hallway. A flash of guilt instantly emerged on Flame's face. Egg could only suppress what was trying to rise. He was the calm to Wemmbu's wild. The rational to his irrational.
"How'd this even happen" Egg blurted out
Flame stopped and turned around to face Egg
"I mean I don't know what you want me to say. We ran into each other. We started fighting. He.."
Was it regret in Flame's eyes? Egg's mind wasn't allowing him to take in any information other than the fact that Wemmbu was dead, a cold and harsh certain fact that felt new every time he thought about it.
"He majorly messed up one of his elytra moves, popped his totem on the ground and.." Flame took a deep breath in before continuing.
"..He dropped from the next hit of my sword"
"So you fought him when he was down" Egg frowned
"Well yea. What am I supposed to do? Let him recover" Flame countered
Flame was right, it was the reasonable thing to do in that situation. It was Unstable, people died all the time on this server, it was expected and Egg knew it within himself, yet still the words brought no relief and only managed to crush his entire being. An endless weight dropped onto him that he wasn't strong enough to carry. He wasn't strong like Wemmbu was…had been.
"How'd it feel?" Egg spat, fists clenched. his whole body rigid.
Flame stumbled over his words trying to answer him and then completely stopped
"To kill him?" Egg clarified
"I mean, it was ok. But I didn't mean to-"
Egg didn't think the consequences of his next action. His hand just seemed to connect with Flame's face without him realizing. Maybe his body had tried to provoke Flame hoping he might kill him too.
"I hope it was worth it then."
No matter if Flame had meant to or not, he'd taken away something Egg couldn't get back. Wemmbu wasn't a book he could rewrite, an artwork he could re-paint or an object he could re-craft. Wemmbu was hope, at least Egg's hope, when there was none. He was the humor in dire situations that should've been reserved far away from.
The best friend Egg could've ever asked for.
Flame didn't retaliate. Egg watched his fingers graze over the burning mark he'd gifted him.
His anger simmered and then festered into something much worse.
A hole opened up in him, everywhere, all at once, trying to swallow him as he was. His mind, his emotions, his body.
Egg collapsed and Flame leaned over, extending his arm but Egg was quick to shove him away
"I don't need your help" He hissed
He shakily forced himself up and began headed for outside. Only five people circled around the gravestone that didn't even contain a body, just two maces that were the sole proof of Wemmbu's existence. Evidence he had once too, played on this server.
Flame
Mane
Parrot
Minute
and of course Egg
Nobody wanted Wemmbu for Wemmbu. That's what Wemmbu had always told him anyway. He hadn't believed him at first, he sounded ridiculous initially, because he couldn't understand why they'd see Wemmbu for anything other than he was. However now Egg could see it.
Flame saw Wemmbu only as a rival to be defeated
Mane saw Wemmbu only as a replacement for Flame
Parrot saw Wemmbu only as someone he could label as bad so his own actions didn't seem so on par
Minute was complicated, he loved Wemmbu, that was obvious but in a way only a grieving father could. When Spoke had left and Wemmbu had showed up in his stead. What a beautiful coincidence it had been.
And then, that only left him. Egg only took Wemmbu for who he was and had never wanted anything. Wemmbu just always seemed to keep giving him things, safety, protection, friendship.
Egg hated that he had taken it for granted, that it had just become expected. Life had become expected.
He should've told Wemmbu to stay home that day. Wemmbu had been tired but insisted on going. He promised Egg he'd return soon and then they'd go fishing together. So Egg didn't bother arguing further when he should've.
The eye bags on Wemmbu's face now appeared so vividly in his mind. The slight rasp of his voice when he had spoken, desperately hinted at exhaustion, begging for rest.
When the ceremony ended, they all tried to talk to him, give him their apologies he never asked for. 'Sorry' might've kept Wemmbu alive but it couldn't bring him back from the dead.
Nothing was real right now, or maybe everything was too real right now.
He blocked out everyone, he held grave distaste for them all. An ugly, raw and unprocessed feeling announced itself. These people had no right to be here, telling the small gathering of people about Wemmbu's achievements that they never watched him struggle to obtain. They talked about Wemmbu as a person when they didn't even know him.
They didn't know Wemmbu walked through the forest at night when overbearing doubt crept past his defenses, which was most nights. That he was often haunted by irksome possibilities he had never bothered to specify to Egg about the future. They had no idea Wemmbu had a certain way of laughing whenever he became nervous. They had no understanding that Wemmbu just wanted to be wanted.
And Egg knew him well enough that Wemmbu wouldn't have liked any of that information to be shared, even at his own funeral. So he didn't share anything. He listened and let the burning rage rot and wither silently from within.
It didn't take much thinking for him to decide to leave the end. When he did so, the Overworld was even more devoid of colour than the End somehow. It occurred to him that it didn't really matter if someone killed him, not that anyone would try. He was now just a worthless possession with no prize attached.
"Why are you leaving?" Minute had asked
"Why are you staying?" Egg had replied
Because the world continued even if your own world was falling apart. Minute still had his duties to tend to, like guarding the end. Flame no doubt was continuing to climb the ranks of combat, Parrot was busy trying to make the server a better place and Egg had.. nothing.
Nothing to do, or look forward for. If he stayed in the end. He'd forever be waiting for Wemmbu to walk into his room, haunted by echoes of Wemmbu's footsteps and the remnants of his contagious laughter, even out here, he swore he heard residues of it, hanging in the air next to him, a shadow of Wemmbu's existence following him.
His feet hurt, aching beyond belief and the sight in front allowed him to stop and breath properly, in he wasn't sure how long. The serene blue of the water softly crashed along the bed of sand that was mesmerizingly silky smooth.
Egg let his feet sink into the sand, coddling him. He watched the sun rise and set as his hunger bar slowly depleted, but there was no discomfort in his stomach telling him he was hungry. He didn't feel as though he needed sustenance, in fact he was sure he didn't need anything anymore.
Egg sat down, fishing rod in hand watching another spiral of the vibrant orange, pink and purple mix into the sky. The sunsets were always prettier along the waterfront.
He sat silently wondering that maybe if he fished enough, Wemmbu would suddenly appear next to him like he had in that prison they'd been trapped in together.
"Dragging me into this stupid server just for you to get yourself killed" Egg bitterly muttered.
Right now, Egg would've done anything to be back in that prison, given anything to hear Wemmbu complain about something again. Without it, his world felt too silent and so empty, as if the world had really stopped.
Egg knew better, but he wished he didn't.
The splinters were etched into his palms now. It was the first fishing trip he'd done alone. He'd gotten god knows how many enchanting books and saddles, a lot of them. He felt a smile tug on his lips as he leaned over to compare his loot with the air beside him and the fishing rod grew just that little bit heavier.
Every time the feeling seemed to worsen, the hole ripped open slightly larger each time. Egg knew if he didn't find his footing soon, he'd be dragged down into the overwhelming darkness.
"It's really not that bad" A voice. But Egg was alone. He was sure of this.
"Wemmbu?" Egg felt his face light up, the warmth of the colours returning to his world. But the figure was too pale, and his eyes were all wrong. His whole appearance was too white, too ghostly for Wemmbu who was always way too loud and effortlessly enticing. The world reverted back to as it had initially been, dull and washed dry.
"You're hungry dumb ass, that's why you're seeing me" Egg looked down at his hunger bar, one.
Egg finally heard the low grumble of his stomach.
How long has that been going on for?
"Oh. Right"
He wanted to try return to what he was doing, but he couldn't. Even if it wasn't real and just a vision. Wemmbu, or some version of him was standing right in front of Egg right now, not even a meter apart. He was so close to reaching him, he thought he could practically feel the heat of another body. Egg still had so many things he wanted to do with Wemmbu and say to him but first, all he really wanted to do was-
Egg went in to hug him. He phased right through and the figure lost it's shape, leaving Egg tasting the sand seeping into the small gaps of each tooth and Wemmbu gone, turned into wisp.
Egg went to cough out the sand, but the wind only decided to blow it back into his eyeball. He winced from the pain, he tried to get up. His body was too weak, too frail and he was stuck laying on the floor clutching the fishing rod shivering.
The black began to flow around his body, covering, his eyes, holding his hand. The touch was chilling, so very cold but it was comforting. It wrapped him in a blanket of illusion and Egg let himself fade into it.
An agitating thump was vibrating throughout his chest and Egg couldn't take it anymore it was so god damn annoying. By some miracle Egg's eyes shot up on two hearts and an empty hunger bar, the steak screamed at him to keep living, to keep going.
It's what Wemmbu would've wanted
Egg didn't usually let the words or wishes of dead people guilt trip him into doing things, but because it was Wemmbu, he did cave. He snatched it, and greedily munched on it.
The pounding of his heart ceased.
At first he was slightly disappointed death had failed to take him. The second thing he noticed was strange was being able to sleep out in the open and not be kidnapped.
It was probably a first. A tinge of sadness washed over him, realizing that he might be having a lot more firsts without Wemmbu by his side.
Egg visited the oak tree. Not just any one. The one in the back ground of the photo they'd first taken. Egg sat silently by the wood with his fishing rod sprawled on his lap alongside the chest full of items he'd obtained from the estuary not far away.
"Guess I'll always be better than you when it come to fishing huh"
The piece of cobble stone didn't give him a reply. Egg placed and sign next to it.
'Wemmbu.
A good person and a good friend'
Egg fiddled with the gold crown before slowly pushing himself up from the grass.
"I miss you. Who knows maybe one day I'll even kill someone all by myself"
Egg lightly chuckled and began walking away, he didn't fight against the wind, he let it take it wherever it wanted him to go. He had no sense of direction anyway.
He let himself believe it was Wemmbu's last way of guiding him before they said goodbye for good. Egg tucked the crown inside the safety of his pocket. He wasn't ready to let go of all of Wemmbu just yet, although he probably never would be, and he knew Wemmbu hated people touching his things without permission.