Happier chapter!

Grian and Mumbo spent the next week never leaving each other's sides.

Grian would go caving with Mumbo, and Mumbo would go on walks with Grian.

They watched movies late at night together, they played video games, went shopping, cooking, baking, they really did all kinds of things. It didn't matter what they did though, they just wanted to be together.

They knew the Hermit year would be ending soon, and they would start all over once again, but they were looking forward to it this time. They were excited to do things together, live together again, and see what the new year would bring for them.

A month later, the year was coming to an end. Everyone gathered around a blue portal surrounded by pink swirls.

"Now, before we head over, there's some exciting news we have for everyone!" Xisuma stood in front of everyone, with a wide smile on his face. "We have two new people joining us! GeminiTay and PearlescentMoon! Or, Gem and Pearl for short! Please make the two feel very welcomed! As well as one other announcement..."

He paused for a minute, making sure he had absolutely everyone's attention.

"This year, we are going to be LIVE to the outside world!"

Everyone looked at Xisuma oddly.

"Once a day, a few of you will be live in front of the outside world. There won't be a consistent schedule for who goes when, so you'll always end up with someone different."

Nobody seemed very excited. In fact, they seemed scared.

"It's nothing to be afraid of, just have fun with things! Do what you normally would do! You'll only be live for about an hour, anyways."

Some people seemed to feel a little better, but most were still scared or not happy about it.

"Well, that's it! Everyone, through the portal!"

Everyone slowly started to go through. Xisuma pulled Grian aside.

"I'm sure you and Mumbo are most worried about this, especially with your incident with Elise. We are watching everyone, and know that Elise currently is banned from being on any online accounts. You two should be safe."

Grian nodded, then followed Mumbo through the portal.

"What was that about?"

"Elise."

"What about her?"

"Just that we're safe from her. She won't be able to see with of us live."

"Oh, okay. Well good."

They didn't like the idea of being live in front of a world they had tried to forget about, but they couldn't do anything to stop it.

The first day started with Grian, Xisuma, Beef, Cleo, Gem, Cub, Bdubs, and Iskall.

Everyone who wasn't a part of the live channel went off on their own to get started, while the group of 8 began to introduce themselves and go out together.

"Well, welcome to HermitWorld! This is a very special world, where a handful of people get together and have fun! My name is Xisuma, and I am the leader of HermitWorld!"

"Hello everyone, my name is Grian! I'm very excited for everyone to see the kinds of things I get up to!"

"Hi, I'm Gem! I'm brand new here this year, and I'm looking forward to starting here!"

"Hey, I'm Cleo. I'm ecstatic to be showing you all what I do!"

"Hey there, folks. I'm Beef! I hope you don't mind being sidetracked, it tends to happen a lot for me."

"I'm Bdubs, night scared me so I sleep."

"Hallo! I am Iskall, looking forward to another good year, and very excited to try this live thing!"

"Hi I'm Cub. Looking forward to this year!"

After everyone introduced themselves, they ran off on their own.

Grian was running around, punching trees, working on getting tools already.

By the time the hour of live time was over, Grian had picked up tons of wood, managed to find a decent amount of diamonds, and had iron armour already made.

He messaged Mumbo and asked where he was. He just wanted to see his love again.

Mumbo messaged back shortly after, saying he would meet Grian at the portal. Grian ran as fast as he could, and Mumbo was already there.

"I figured I wouldn't go too far, seeing as you probably wouldn't want to have to find me somewhere far away after you first day of live."

Grian just jumped into Mumbo's arms. "Mumby I missed you!"

"Awe, Gri, I missed you too! Here, get on my back and I'll carry you over to our base. It's currently a bit small, so don't be too surprised. It needs work yet."

Grian hopped on Mumbo's back, and Mumbo began walking. He was really not that far from the portal at all; in fact he was just over a small mountain on the other side.

The base was fairly small and simple; it was just a small house which is what either of them would usually build on day one.

Grian thought the house to be really cute. It was a nice house.

Mumbo carried him inside, placing him on the bed.

It didn't take long for Grian to kick off his shoes and curl up into bed, not even bothering to change. He really was exhausted.

As it was only the middle of the day, Mumbo had planned to let Grian sleep and go work on gathering many more resources for the two of them.

Grian had other plans.

"Mumbyyyy come lay with meeeee" he whined, reaching for his love.

"But Gri there's still work that needs to be done! I wanted to go get some more supplies and stuff for us."

"Nooooo I wanna sleep and I want you here beside me... Please..?" Grian used the ever popular puppy dog face on Mumbo, knowing as always he wouldn't be able to resist.

"Fine..." Unsurprisingly, Mumbo gave in. "But only for a little bit, just until you fall asleep."

"Whatever, you'll probably fall asleep too."

Mumbo knew Grian was right. It probably would happen. He crawled into the bed, cuddling up to his boyfriend, and the two soon fell asleep in each other's arms.

It wasn't until four hours later that both of them woke up together.

"What time is it?"

"1 pm..."

"Wow, we slept a long time."

Grian yawned and stretched, slowly getting out of bed. Mumbo was quicker, having jumped right up.

"Do you know when your first live day is yet?" Grian smiled.

"No, like they've announced we don't really have any particular schedule. I'm not sure when it'll be my turn, nor who I'll be with."

"Right, I forgot about that... You know, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. It was kind of fun. I mean really, all I did was my usual shenanigans pretending no one was there."

"Yeah, I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what it's like!" Mumbo kissed Grian on the forehead, grabbed his hand and brought him outside. "Now, you made me sleep for four hours so you get to help collect things. What do you want to create our base out of this year?"

"I want a really big castle! Like a medical one. So lots of stone and cobblestone, copper, rustic things like that. Make it seem really cool, you know?"

"Okay. Here's some picaxes, go get stone."

"You're not coming with me?"

"Of course I am! I'm right behind you."

Grian started walking away, off to a nearby tunnel that had been started, and was mining away at stone. Mumbo was close behind, but started mining in the other direction to make things more efficient.

They mined until the sun was setting, headed back home, and decided to go to sleep for the night.

---

{Outside world}

"AAGH!" Merylin fell flat on her face. She had vague memory of what happened to her. The most vivid thing was Grian and Mumbo.

She knew she needed to get them back, she just wasn't sure how.

She wanted them to hurt 'exactly how she did', even though she cause them more pain than they did her.

Merylin was sick and tired of her life being the way it was.

She turned on her tv, plopping herself on the couch, trying to get her mind off of things. She scrolled through channels until she noticed something new.

The channel was called HermitWorld.

Immediately, her interest was peaked in the idea of a new channel, and she clicked on it to see what it was about.

"Well, welcome to HermitWorld!This is a very special world, where a handful of people get together and have fun! My name is Xisuma, and I am the leader of HermitWorld!"

"Hello everyone, my name is Grian! I'm very excited for everyone to see the kinds of things I get up to!"

"Hi, I'm Gem! I'm brand new here this year, and I'm looking forward to starting here!"

"Hey, I'm Cleo. I'm ecstatic to be showing you all what I do!"

"Hey there, folks. I'm Beef! I hope you don't mind being sidetracked, it tends to happen a lot for me."

"I'm Bdubs, night scared me so I sleep."

"Hallo! I am Iskall, looking forward to another good year, and very excited to try this live thing!"

"Hi I'm Cub. Looking forward to this year!"

It was exactly what she was looking for.

Xisuma explained how they would go live once daily for an hour, with different people everyday.

This was the perfect opportunity to keep her eye on Grian and Mumbo until she could find a way to get back.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!!! I've been having some writer's block lately so I hope this was okay!!

The story is now going to involve a bit more of the "outside world" with Elise/Merylin, in case you couldn't tell.

My oneshots book has been recently updated, if you want to go check it out!

Love you all, bye for now!!! ♥️