Chapter 5: Countdown Day

 Creamy :o

ConCraft is lively against the dappled rays through Conwoods, just like all other summer mornings.

Creamy is inside, watching the parrots dance against the tall birch trees. Where's Appa...she should have arrived by now... 

Othr went out to the plaza to do something since dawn and still hasn't returned yet, which wasn't like him at all. That plus the fact that Appa still hasn't arrived yet had made Creamy worry all morning. 

"Let all members of ConCraft gather beneath the Great Fallen Tree for a town meeting!" Mayor Conhadda announced from the distance. Good, Creamy needed something to distract himself with. 

The Great Fallen Tree didn't have any complicated history. When Conhadda founded ConCraft he'd simply chopped it down and decided to give it a dramatic name. 

Creamy joined Blue and Unikern closest to the Great Fallen Tree. That's the spots reserved for the town veterans. Once he settled, Conhadda surveyed the ConCraft glade. "We are missing quite some people."

"Sorry, I'm late!" Creamy recognized Pleebs' voice through the trees as she skidded to a halt inside the clearing. "Minji and I were practicing."

"Understandable." Conhadda nodded. "We can start now."

Of course, everyone knew what this meeting was about: the simulation. ConCraft had a tradition of celebrating before the day of the simulation - called the Countdown Day by many. Shame that Othr can't participate. 

Conhadda hadn't allowed Othr to live in ConCraft, but Creamy snuck him in. It was simple since while ConCraft is a community, its members did many different things. In fact, some of them, such as Pleebs and Scissors, don't even live in ConCraft.

"Now as we all know, tomorrow the simulation starts. I'm proud to say that many of our amazing ConCraft members are participating, including myself. As a ConCraft tradition tonight we will feast. While I am gone, Emberz will be acting mayor."

Creamy glanced towards the half-penguin, who looked proud. "There is a high chance that a ConCrafter will become a part of the Selected Team, and if so, I wish them good luck." Conhadda paused. "We've always lived in secret, but slowly more people seemed to come to Conwoods. I worry someday ConCraft may be discovered."

"We just won't let them." Blue spoke up. 

"I wish it was that easy." Conhadda sighed. "But for now, the meeting is over."

Creamy returned back to his secluded home, quite far away from the glade. He made sure it was like this so that Othr wouldn't be discovered. To his relief, Appa was sitting on his desk when he returned. 

Appalachia is his lime-green parrot. Well, not exactly his. She had her own family to take care of and a big flock she was a part of. He'd met her in the Conwoods a really, really long time ago. That was when ConCraft was barely a thing. 

"Where have you been?" Creamy asked.

Appa chirped.

"Well, have you seen Othr?"

Appa nodded. 

"Good, where is he?" Creamy asked. "Lead me to him."

Appa fluttered out the window, and once Creamy was outside, he couldn't find her at all. Of course, he knew it was all just a trick. Appa is too lime to blend in with the darker birch leaves. There you are. He saw her, circling overhead. "Come on, we go the secret way."

He and Othr had marked that way so that Othr could come in without noticing. He almost hardly ever uses the actual main entrance to ConCraft. 

The secret path led out to the Spawn Plaza, where several of the ship captains seemed to be watching over a training session. Creamy took one look and continued following Appa. They passed the plaza and into the castle gates, where he finally did see Othr, sitting on the bridge across one of the streams. 

"Uh," Creamy glanced at Appa, who settled on Othr's shoulder and screeched. 

"What?" Othr looked up, "ugh, Creamy, you need to get rid of this pesky thing."

"She's not a pesky thing." Creamy replied, "what are you doing here anyway?"

"I'm in the middle of a thinking session," Othr answered, annoyed.

"Wow, you have those?"

"Yes, I had a complicated question in my mind and you ruined it."

"Tomorrow is the simulation. We should do some practicing."

"We did a lot of practicing." 

"Well, we should go back to ConCraft for now. I'll sneak something out for you tonight." Creamy winked. 

"Alright..."

"Appa, lead the way!" Creamy called, and Appa happily agreed. 

"You know she'll have to leave you soon, right?" Othr whispered.

"Hmm?" 

"It's summer right now. Once winter comes she'll have to leave for the warmer districts."

Creamy shuddered. "Right. Of course."

-; Conhadda ;-

"Come in," Conhadda said, although he was too busy to look at the door.

"I've done a ton of practicing." Omega closed the door behind him. He held his diamond axe closely, glinting in the mostly dark room.

"Good, I have too." Conhadda paused, looking at Omega's diamond axe, "are you sure you can bring that into the simulation?"

"Doubtful, but I might be able to sneak it in. I won't be the only one trying." Omega stood next to Conhadda, glancing at the contestant list, which he is studying, "You're still looking at that list?"

"Yes, I'm picking out names I should look out for. Pizzas, Blue, Hack, and Pixel are the ones I've caught so far. Pizzas for being a Helper, Blue because I know my fellow ConCrafter well, Hack because that whole door behind the throne thing, and Pixel because he's so good at fighting."

"I for one think the notable ones are TGT for his pro-gamer skills, Webby for his spider power, Shatadru for their navigation abilities, and uh- yeah, that's probably it."

Conhadda nodded, "but overall, none of them we know is super overpowered. We should take this pretty easily."

"Con," Omega said, "what if I told you someone who won the global Hunger Games twice in a row is participating in this?"

"That's just gonna be unfortunate for us." Conhadda shrugged. Has someone ever won the global Hunger Games twice in a row? He couldn't remember. Normally he never paid any attention to the Hunger Games. "Wait, there isn't actually someone who did, right?"

"Well...do you remember who won last year?" Omega asked.

"Not us."

"True, yeah, just don't worry about it." 

Conhadda nodded. "Out of all the ConCrafters participating, we should be among the top."

Omega seemed to agree, although Conhadda could see something behind his eyes. "Okay, what are you worried about?"

_-Omega-_

Now how would he explain this? Person who won the global twice in a row who will probably completely obliterate everyone is apparently in the simulation? Why though? It's the Hive's selection process. 

Conhadda was still waiting for an answer. "Don't worry about it." Omega finally said.

"Okay, but I want to know why you brought up winning the global twice in a row randomly. Now that I think about it, there was someone who did that, I'm pretty sure."

There's so many things Omega had to worry about, "there is someone here that has absolutely no reason to be here, I need to find out why he's here." 

"Okay, go ask him."

If only it was that easy. Omega sighed. "What's for the feast tonight?"

His attempt at changing the topic was successful. "Honestly I don't know. Scissors is in charge of the food. He said he's going to get something delicious, but his definition of delicious might be different than ours."

Omega hardly listened. I should go talk to him before tomorrow. 

~Ari~

It's another normal day at Lovely Velvet. Ari sat at her desk, looking over the designs for the autumn Hive hoodies.

"Ari, how are the Halloween hoodies going?"

Looking up, Ari saw Pizzas, just walking into the shop. "Oh, I was just looking over it! I'm going to have a red leaf design, a sunset one, possibly a skeleton one, but I don't want to scare the children."

"Ah." Pizzas nodded. "Hardworking as always, despite what's happening tomorrow."

"Oh dear, I almost forgot, tomorrow is the simulation!"

"Relatable. The Helpers just had a meeting in the door behind the throne, and I almost forgot too." He leaned in and whispered, "they think you'll make a good Helper."

"What? No way."

"Yeah, speaking of which, who's your teammate?"

"Pixel." Ari suddenly remembered, "he said he wanted me to meet him at the birch forest."

"Where?" 

"Uh...now."

"Well, you better run!" Pizzas called, making way for her.

"Look over the shop while I'm gone, will you?" Ari called back.

"Of course!" Pizzas answered. 

--Unikern--

"This is Conwoods." Uni flicked over the bushes that covered up the main path to ConCraft. "You might not want to go in there. Conhadda doesn't like strangers in his town."

"Ah, what's it like in there?" Ryan asked, peeking into the main path.

"Well, most days are beautiful with dappled sunshine on the houses. The birch forest has dark-colored leaves that fit the sunlight perfectly. Conhadda announces stuff on the Great Fallen Tree. Sometimes deputy mayor Omega says stuff on it too. I'm one of the veteran residents along with Creamy and Blue. There's a lot more, but that's pretty much life in ConCraft." Uni glanced at the sun. "We have a feast tonight."

"That's really soon, you should go," Ryan answered.

Uni nodded. "See you tomorrow morning at the docks?"

"Yup, bye Uni, love ya!" Ryan called, leaving slowly.

Having a grandpa like Ryan could be hard sometimes, but at the end of the day Uni loved him as well.

Uni stepped into the main path, relishing in the sunlight and taking his time. He should probably be training with Ryan, but he didn't want to work Ryan up and he didn't want to tryhard. He mostly just wanted to do the simulation for fun. 

A shadow was ahead of him. He tensed. But it wasn't a shadow, just someone with dark hair who's wearing dark. "Ari?" He recognized the owner of Lovely Velvet, the one who designed the first Hive hoodies - which is pretty much something every Hive resident has heard about now.

"Hey Uni, have you seen Pixel?" 

Uni squinted to remember the former ConCraft resident. "I was just outside, so I don't know. He might be visiting."

Sure enough, Uni did see Pixel talking to Conhadda next to the Confire - yes, that's what Conhadda called the ConCraft shared campfire. "Ah, Ari!" Conhadda called after noticing them approaching the glade. "Why don't you and Pixel stay for the feast tonight?"

"Great idea, isn't it?" Pixel asked.

Ari nodded. 

"And afterward, all ConCraft members should have a training session together along with Pixel and Ari. We could even invite some others who are also participating in the simulation." Blue suggested. 

"Amazing. Now we just wait for Scissors to return with the food." Conhadda looked towards the main entrance, "speaking of Scissors, here he comes."

Scissors was holding something behind his back. "What is that?" Pixel asked.

"Tada!" It was fish. "I caught all of them in Jay Blossom's very own Lake Creative!"

"Ew, what is wrong with you?" Blue asked, frowning. Uni had to agree with Blue on that.

"I promise they'll taste good when they're cooked." Scissors said, "for now, we should start preparing the feast! Everyone, get busy!" 

~-Brialgic-~

Brialgic had almost forgotten about the ConCraft feast. When he finally bursted into the glade, night has fallen and the feast had already started a while ago. "If it isn't Brialgic, always late." Blue said in his usual sarcastic tone.

"Well, at least I remembered. What's on the menu?" Brialgic didn't need to wait for an answer.

"Fish." Pixel held up his share of Scissors' pile, looking delicious under the Confire.

"Come take your share," Scissors called on top of the scaffolding used to reach the tip of the Confire. "Catch."

Brialgic caught the cooked fish that he threw just as Conhadda said, "we are going to have a training session after this. Soccer is currently delivering invitations to some non-ConCrafter contestants."

"Me and Minji are going to lead it." Pleebs said from the back, "we've been practicing since before the registration."

"Nice. Victory is still going to be me and Omega's though." Conhadda said. 

"It's probably going to be me and TGT who wins." Brialgic had his support from the command blocks.

"It's me and Blaze, SMH my head." Potato said. 

"Probably none of us." Omega looked lost in thought. 

Brialgic sat down next to Pixel, who suddenly looked up, "say, has anyone seen Creamy?"

"Yes, Creamy has arrived." Creamy called, almost appearing out of nowhere.

Blue had keener eyes. "Why were you on a tree?"

"Practicing for the simulation. It's probably going to have some trees in there." Creamy answered, "also, does it really have to be fish that you bring?" He looked towards Scissors. 

"What, you want us to eat ice cream instead?" Scissors winked.

"Nope, no, nuh-uh, not my ice cream brothers." Creamy shook his head.

The rest of the feast is filled with happiness and laughter, and Brialgic knew he got this.

Creamy :o

The training session had started. Many, possibly all non-ConCrafters contestants had arrived, as well as Centuria, Cyclosword, and Leo, who had also came to watch. "Thank me," Soccer had been breathless after bringing them back, "and let me sleep."

Othr finally had a reason to come out into the glade, which Creamy was glad about. He's with him now, under the Great Fallen Tree, which Conhadda had given Pleebs permission to use. "Everyone, find your teammates!" She announced from the top. Minji stood next to her, surveying the contestants.

Everything went on as normal. Sometime during the middle, when Pleebs had announced a break, Appa came and stood on Creamy's shoulders. 

"Do you think we'll win?" Othr asked, sitting down next to him. 

"Probably not." Creamy tapped Appa on the head, and she chirped happily.

"Who will?" 

"No idea." 

On top of the Great Fallen Tree, Pleebs and Minji each held out many bows and quivers of arrows. "Conhadda suggested we go out to the beachside to practice bowing against the drowneds."

Underwater mob spawning is one of the few things the Hive still hasn't controlled yet. Personally Creamy didn't think it was much of a problem. After all, no one goes swimming at night. 

"We're going now, everyone follow Pleebs and I'll bring up the rear!" Minji threw down some bows and arrows. 

o: Othr

The beach at Hive Island was relaxing and calm at night. Othr sat down on a rock along with Creamy, scanning the waves for the dangerous underwater mobs. 

There seemed to be none, and after a while, he relaxed, occasionally elbowing Creamy just for the fun of it. 

Creamy was tending to his parrot - Appalachia or something - that Othr was honestly pretty annoyed with. He'd put up with that pesky thing though, just for Creamy. 

A few adventurous contestants, namely Brialgic, Sterloin, and Chip, ventured to the edge of the waves, where Chip was testing the water. Almost suddenly in slow motion, Chip's shriek split the air as a trident flew out of the water to strike him down. The beach erupted into chaos. 

Othr jumped down and onto the edge of the water, and he could feel Creamy's footsteps behind him. He could see it now, the drowned mobs rising out of the ghostly water. He bowed a couple down, and was quickly targetted by the drowneds. He guess they deemed him capable. Creamy knocked down a trident that was coming his way. "Thanks," he muttered.

"Eh, just paying you back," Creamy said, standing next to him.

Othr hadn't expected Creamy to remember, but he supposed he should be glad that he did.

"It's getting out of control!" Pleebs yelled through the battle. "The Hive District never controlled this because they didn't think it was serious enough!"

"Big mistake," that was Sterloin, through clenched teeth.

Behind the drowneds Othr could see more vicious, bloodthirsty eyes. Guardians. More trouble. 

The good thing about this fight was that the enemies were defenseless on land. Their stinging rays and tridents and fishing rods were still very difficult to deal with though. Othr felt almost paralyzed as some of the Guardians fixed their eyes on him. "Get in the back," Creamy said.

"Is that an order?"

"Yes." 

Othr smiled and made his way to the back, where he watched the fight happen in front of him. Adept stood beside him, and they face each other simultaneously. "What even is happening," Adept said.

"I don't have a clue." Othr shook his head.

"It's getting out of hand!" That was Minji's voice, high over bowshots and trident strikes. 

Almost abruptly, something had snapped. The clear sky darkened and a lightning falls into the water in front of Othr, so close. Was that even lightning? It was so...slow. The thunder rumbled just after. 

And when it stopped, everything was calm.

There was a trident, a special trident powered with electricity, splitting a rock in half. Waves washed over the rock, but the trident was unfazed.

"Don't touch it." Pleebs ordered. Not like anyone is going to. 

Othr blinked. He'd seen a flash just before the lightning. "Someone threw the trident."

"Duh, did you think the trident threw itself?" Creamy was beside him again.

Othr turned around and gazed into the spiral hills surrounding Hive District's main island. Had someone been there? 

"Uh...we should go back." Minji broke the silence.

"Yes. ConCrafters follow me!" Conhadda called to his town residents.

"Linger back a bit," Creamy whispered before joining the ConCrafters.

Othr was only half-listening. He had to find out who in the name of Peace Garden possessed such a strong weapon.

It was probably just a Channeling trident, but Othr knows enough about the art of weapons to know that to strike a lightning that strong, it would have to be a weapon wielded by someone powerful. 

He turned around halfway up the hill, seeing the dead bodies of the sea ceatures rising above the surface, painting the clear water red.

It doesn't have Loyalty on it, I...don't think. From above the hill, Othr glanced at the trident again. It had stopped frizzling with electricity by now. The wielder would have to come back to retrieve it.

Othr would do anything to satisfy his curiosity about that trident, but Creamy would get worried about him. He stood there, thinking, and decided that Creamy was more important.