The next morning, Iskall got a serious lecture about sleeping on the job, and the group collected their stuff and headed to the mainland.

Scar was still busy packing his extra blank blueprints when Ren walked up to him and began a conversation with him.

The conversation ended abruptly when Ren asked the very triggering question: "Do you know a Ex?"

Scar very quickly cut off the conversation, fighting against the tears. Ren realized he had hit a triggering subject and rewinded, jumping to a happier subject: How Jellie was doing.

But the thought never left Scars head. It lingered, shoving at him, taunting him. How could he forget about the one ray of sunlight in all of his years of being imprisoned? Ex...

They had spent hours chatting about names. What they would be named if they ever escaped. They had settled on using the abbreviations, and Scar went with Goodtimeswith {insert name}, and Ex with EthanX.

Even as he began terraforming his volcano base, his mind kept going back to the sarcastic immortal that was Ex.

Oh how he missed him... His best friend in those years of pain and misery. The other prisoners either pitied Scar or hated him.

Why did they hate him? He wasn't quite sure. He never was sure why the other prisoners did anything. For awhile, a long while, he didn't know why they used names. Until his other cell neighbor explained the meaning of a name.

Names... Not only do they give players a thing to call one another, but a thing for the coding to recognize them by as well. The complex, intriguing, coding.

Scar snapped out of his daydream when he ran out of supplies. A curse on the tip of his tongue, he darted off to dig up some more.

A few days later, and Scar was the proud owner of a massive volcano. Sure, it wasn't a actual volcano, but it played the part quite well.

Jellie absolutely loved the inside, and was constantly pouncing around, catching mice, birds, and the occasional bat.

And he was now trying to cook. Cub told him to just give up on cooking, but he was stubborn and wanted to make his own meals instead of living on carrots until someone makes a food-based shop.

As he was standing in the kitchen, trying to make what resembled brains but was actually bread, Jellie decided that yes, she would jump on his head, and yes it would be a good idea.

It was confusing and odd to cook with a cat on your head, but mostly confusing.

As he finished with the unnatural looking bread, he had the natural impulse NOT to eat it.

After staring down the bread for five minutes later, he decided to prank Cleo with it. Jamming the oversized loafs into a basket, he unfurled the sail of his small sailboat and set out in the waves.

As the ship flew across the waves thanks to the strong wind, Scar kept a sharp eye on the strength of the sail and the sunset. If the sail's thread snapped, he would be stranded.

And if he was out here past sunset, the drowned would come from the bottom of the ocean and try and pull him out of his boat. He didn't want to drown today.

Drowning wasn't fun. At all. Especially when you didn't want to drown at the current moment. Scar still had the scars from that one time... Stupid Watchers and their stupid experiments.

Wow that took a dark turn quickly. (Stop breaking the fourth wall! To fixing this thing! #TEAMDUCKTAPE )

A snarl broke him out of his trance. A drown was clinging to the side of the boat.

Eyes flying to the horizon, he saw the sun wasn't down quite yet. "What the fu-" The boat capsized, and the drowned yanked him into the water.

He realized why it wasn't burned by the suns when he realized its arms were still human. What were his chances? Manages to run into the one drown that can pull someone out of a boat in the day...

Scars thoughts were abruptly cut off by the feeling of incredible pressure. Oh. Oh yeah. He was getting pulled underwater by a drown. 'Stop thinking about your luck Scar, and focus on the problem on hand!'

He scolded himself in his head before beginning to fight against the drowned. Pulling his dagger out of the sheath, he attempted to plunge it into the drowns skull. It missed and lodged itself in the drowns shoulder. A greenish blood floated from the wound, but the drown was unaffected.

It grabbed him by the leg again, and continued yanking him down. Scar continued to thrash, the claws of the drown digging into his leg as the thing dragged him towards the ocean floor.

Blood drifted past Scar, and he didn't have to look twice to know it was his. I mean, only Cub had the same silvery blood as Scar. The perks of being a Vex, people knew when you had been murdered.

Clenching his teeth, Scar felt as his lungs begged for oxygen. The suffocating urge to breath in grew stronger and stronger, the misery of the unbearable pain generating from his chest, and he finally gave in.

inhale. The feeling of a liquid rushing into his lungs, and the world faded from his view.

Next thing he knew, he was coughing up water on a ship deck, and Cleo was standing over him, her face a flushed lime from worry. "Oh my nether gods! Scar! I saw the drown snatch you from the boat and I thought you would be okay until I realized you weren't coming up, so I jumped in. Then I saw you inhale the water and-Scar, it was so close!"

Scar coughed up a bit extra water. "Ergh... Th-thanks C-cleo... You k-know h-h-how much I hate d-d-d-d-drowning.."

"Of course. It's the first way you died, after all. Its traumatizing to have that happen. Drowning, of all things... Want some hot chocolate?"

Not even waiting for Scar to answer, Cleo helped Scar up and wrapped him in a weighed blanket before dragging him into the cabin.

Curiously, he watched as she brewed the hot chocolate. Sprinkling some cinnamon in it, Cleo stirred the hot milk and handed it to him.

"Try it. I've been specializing this recipe for a long time." Shakily, Scar took it and sipped at it. He immediately burnt his tongue, but it was well worth it when he felt the warmth spread across his body.

"Wh-wh-whoa... D-d-did you i-infuse this w-w-with magic or s-something?"

Cackling, Cleo pored herself a cup. "Thanks, but no. It's 100% organic... Don't tell anyone about this, I have a reputation to uphold you know."

A smile eased its way onto Scars face. He felt.. Comfortable. "S-sure."

Cleo suddenly asked "What where you doing out at this time anyways? You know it's dangerous."

"W-well-I-I was going to prank you with this bread I made. It looked like brains."

Staring at him blankly for a full thirty seconds, Scar was worried he had angered her until she burst into hysterical laughter.

"That's hilarious! Did you loose the bread?"

"Well duh. My boat capsized, do you think I stuck them in the nether or something?" A grin was spreading across his face, and Cleo took this as a mission accomplished.

Now that Scar had fully forgotten the fear of drowning, Cleo told him he could stay the night. Because it would be cruel to send him home after sunset, especially with Scar's lighting habits.

She ended up hauling him to the guest room and insisted he slept, especially after she saw the phantoms and was 100% sure she had slept last night.

As she watched him pass out from the door, a whisper of the night hit her ears. "..Miss you..."

Without a tick of hesitation, Cleo whipped around. And made eye contact with a player sitting on the mast. HER mast.

A snarl left her lungs, and she whisper yelled "What do you want?! Who are you?! How did you get on the server?! Why-" The player cut her off by swiftly jumping off the mast, landing with a impossibly quiet thud.

Looking at his feet, it became obvious why he was so quiet. His boots where made out of some impossibly soft and sturdy fabric. "I don't want anything, I go by Ex, and I'm a native. That answer your questions?"

Cleo had a suspicious glare, and her hand didn't move a inch from her sword. "Why should I trust you?"

Ex chuckled at the question. "Guess I can't give you a decent reason for that... Oi! Rover! Get down from there!"

Looking up, Cleo saw a large lizard climbing up the pole. It was roughly two feet long (0.6096 meters) and Cleo couldn't identify the species. It immediately skittered down and climbed up to Ex's shoulders.

A soft laugh came from Ex's lungs, and Cleo knew if it was Xisuma standing in her place, he would immediately melt. This teen was adorable. But Cleo didn't drop her guard.

"Have you talked to anyone else on the server?"

Ex smirked as the lizard clambered onto his head "Yeah, Ren. Listen, I need to sleep. Just tell Scar a old friend dropped by, but he was sleeping." Without waiting for a response, Ex ran over to the edge of the boat, grabbed the lizard and tucked her under his arm, and lunged off the railing.

He shot up seconds later, a firework boosting his escape.

Cleo watched him disappear, and pondered whether she should tell Scar. Maybe she should.

But at the same time, she couldn't trust this player.

What to do?

Well. That was interesting.

Sorry for ending this chapter in practically the same way as last time. I promise next chapter will be different! I'm just trying to show some of what Ex is as a character!

Every player has their first death btw, and its usually tramatizing. But especially so for people who were killed by drowning, lava, etc.

Bye costumers!