Dawn danced across the briney waves like crystalline jewels in torchlight. It was a pleasant, easy morning, Pearl thought. A good morning for exploring. The summer was warm and the air was fresh- everything was fresh, on a world this new. It was fresh enough that the world was still young and pure and largely unexplored- she had not explored most of it, till very recently. Pearl had indeed spent the last night-and-a-half wandering the forests and mountains and hunting what endermen she could find. She now sported the spoils of her hunt in her pockets- four whole enderpearls, her namesake. It’d been a good hunt- while others had spent their morning dying to vexes and vindicators trying to do whatever the Bad Boys were trying to do in the mansion, she’d avoided death and grievous injury, and she came out of it richer than she’d been before.

After parting with the first three letters of Team TIES, Pearl tied her coat around her waist and dove into the crisp, blue sea. There was another settlement on the horizon, a man-made island close to the border, and she was almost certain it was where Scott was. The build had Scott’s name written all over it- lush and homey and easily set on fire. Pearl hadn’t seen Scott since the beginning of the world, he must’ve spent his first few days building his little island recluse. Something drew her closer to him, some kind of tie- like the tie they’d had last time? The unbreakable bond that he broke? She wasn’t exactly certain, but she still wanted to see him. Maybe, he’d want to see her too. She hoped so. She hoped he wouldn’t abandon her.

Like he had before. And before.

Pearl washed up onto Scott’s shore a sputtering mess, tangled in the sugarcane that bordered his island.

“Oh, Pearl’s here, let’s get Pearl’s opinion,” Said Scott, to someone who wasn’t her. Pearl couldn’t see either of them, the saltwater still in her eyes blurring her vision. She failed around, trying to free herself from the reedy snare that’d caught her, until she caught the grasp of a firm hand that hoisted her out.

Pearl wiped the water from her eyes and found it was Scott that had saved her. Martyn was there, too, a bit behind him. Pearl’s heart jumped for a moment when she saw him, but- of course, he wasn’t a threat anymore. He’d cleansed himself of his curse, through cruel violence. She had to remember that. She knew how it felt, she knew he wasn’t a threat. Yet, his gaze, his presence, still scared her.

What scared her more, and more irrationally, was Scott’s presence. She feared him, and she didn’t know why she feared him so. It was that she didn’t know, that made her fear him. He wasn’t a threat, and he’d never threatened her, yet- why did she fear him? He was everything, and he was nothing, and she could almost, almost remember something he’d done to make her feel that way, but she couldn’t grasp it. The memory of him frayed and scattered in the wind. If she tried to focus on it, the only thing she could feel were the ringing in her ears. The blood and gunpowder on her lips. The searing, piercing pain in the core of her stomach.

Pearl shook her head, to rid herself of these awful thoughts and the water in her hair. She refocused herself on the conversation happening without her.

“Pearl, what were you doing in the water?” Martyn was asking. “Sugarcane calling your name?”

“Just thought it was a nice day for a swim.” Pearl forced a laugh as she wrung out her wet hair.

“You could’ve used my door.” Scott grumbled, and cast a forlorn gaze to the dark oak door he’d set up in a gap in the sugarcane ring.

“Oh. Didn’t see it.” Pearl confessed, sparing only a quick glance to Scott’s sad, unused door. “Anyways, what did’ya need my opinion on?”

“We’re drafting names for people that live on this island,” Martyn said, and took a moment to dramatically gesture at the currently very barren island, “and our contenders, as of right now, are Mean Gills, or H2Bros.”

Pearl thought on this very serious and important question for a moment. “I like Mean Gills better, it’s kinda cute. It fits Scott.”

“Well, it was the reference of ‘Mean Girls,’ so,” Scott shrugged. “But H2bros is cool as well.”

“Yeah, but then it sounds like…” Pearl looked off into the distance. “Bad Boys, almost.”

Scott and Martyn laughed, and bickered on for a moment about which name to use. While they laughed, Pearl looked around the island. Outside of the terrible sugarcane ring, it was mostly dirt, with a line of funraces and chest serving a base in the center. It looked sad, more than anything.

“Scott, I can’t help but notice you have a lack of grass,” She commented, and dug around her pockets to confirm what she knew was there- two grassblocks from last night’s enderman hunt.

“Yeah, it’s coming. It’s on it’s way.” He sighed. “It’s slow, though.”

“Is it?” Pearl said, and took out one of her grass blocks-

-just as Martyn handed one to Scott.

“Oh. I guess you’re sorted then, I don’t need to use these.” She shrugged.

“Oh- whoa, no, hold on a minute,” Martyn interrupted with a laugh, as Pearl feigned backing away. “No, no, no, no!”

“What do you need?” Scott approached her, and Pearl’s heart skipped for just a moment. She feigned nonchalance. “I could use more grass. It would spread quicker. Do you need bamboo, Pearl?”

“No, I’m actually set on bamboo,” Pearl hummed. If she played her cards right, she could come out of this deal with far more than whatever two grass blocks was worth.

“What about two emeralds?” Scott suggested, just as Martyn was saying, “Here’s something you can’t beat, what about a magma cream?”

“Well, you know what,” Pearl stepped closer to them- stepped closer to Martyn. Something cruel twisted in her heart, some ghost of pain she’d once felt and forgotten. Except, she had not forgotten this. She couldn’t have. “This question’s specifically for Martyn.”

Martyn flinched, and eyed her up in down in the way he once had before. “Uh-huh.”

“You got Tilly, Martyn?” She lowered her body, so she was looking up, at him. “Y’know, after you took her away last time? You got Tilly?”

Martyn’s eyebrows lifted. “Do I have Tilly?”

“Yeah, do you have her?” Pearl cocked her head to the side. Did Martyn know what she was saying? Did he understand it, could he fathom that pain? There wasn’t a dog on the island, not one Pearl could see-

“Yeah, I cremated her.” Martyn said. He dropped some gunpowder on the floor.

Pearl choked, not on the smell of sea or salt that graced the summer winds. She choked on the rot that permeated her memories, the singed flesh and blood she could not escape. She felt too hot. She felt as if she could not breathe. Was she supposed to carry on, like this?

The gunpowder remained on the floor, until Martyn scooped it up into his hands. Pearl turned tail, and headed out the ring of sugarcane she’d come through. “I’m leaving.” She declared, before plunging into the cold water. “There’s not even- no chance.”

Scott and Martyn bickered still as Pearl swam away from them. She could hear them even from below the waves. She didn’t care. The water was cold, and it pulled her mind away from the heat of her rage and fear. The water was cold, and it helped her forget all the pain that her mind could not smother. She wanted to drown in it, relinquish all her self to the cold mercilessness of its waves, but she was too smart for that. It wouldn’t be a long respite, anyways.

Days, weeks, sometime later, it was night. Pearl was alone in the night, trampling through the underbrush between the sea and the mountains. Except, she wasn’t alone, because there was someone else following her.

Pearl raised her sword at the rustling. “Who’s there?”

“It’s just me, Pearl.” A familiar voice said from the bushes. Scott stepped into the faint torchlight, with his arms raised in surrender. He was yellow now, but she was too. They all were.

“Ah, good to see you.” Pearl nodded. “Sorry I threatened you there.”

“It’s understandable.” Scott shrugged. “You can never be too safe at night. Speaking of, we should probably get somewhere safe soon.”

“Should we? I thought it was the time of yellow peace.”

“It is…” Scott looked into the great, starless distance above them. There was a clearing in the dark oak trees just large enough that one could see the sky. “But Skizz and Scar are going to turn red any minute now. I’d rather not be caught off guard unprepared.”

“True. I’m just out here hunting spiders.” Pearl said, and skewered one of the oversized, leggy beasts, to prove her point. Scott said nothing, and she said nothing, and an uneasy silence fell over them.

They hadn’t been alone together in… ever, Pearl supposed, yet her memories told her otherwise. His presence was not welcome. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her- Scott was too rational for that, yet-

“Are you okay, Pearl?” Scott tilted his head to the side.

“What?” Pearl snapped to him. He startled.

“You just look- upset…” Scott backed away from her. Suddenly, Pearl became aware of just how afraid he was. Of her.

“I’m- no, I’m fine.” Pearl shook her head. Could she confide in Scott? “I just… keep having these weird memories, is all. It’s nothing.”

“Weird memories? What sort of memories?” Scott asked, as if he hadn’t gotten the message she didn’t want to talk more.

“Just- pssh. Stuff.” Pearl grumbled, and tried to look anywhere but in Scott’s direction. But she couldn’t avoid it. The summer night was so much like then. It was hot and dense, like it had been then. They were alone, so alone. The moon illuminated him in just the same way it had been before- it was full, it was shining. It washed out all his color.

They could’ve been back then.

And then, they were. Pearl wasn’t aware of when her grief took her over, but it suddenly did. All her fear, all her hatred. It’d been gnawing on her leg this entire time, but now- it bit, its teeth sinking into her flesh. She screamed, and let her bloody body fall to the bloody floor. Where were her dogs? Where was her axe? Everything was so wrong, but she was there. She’d never left.

“Pearl!” Scott shouted, and rushed to her. Pearl didn’t register his voice, but scrambled away when she felt his touch.

“Get away from me!” She shouted, and tumbled into the underbrush. Twigs scraped her bare skin, bugs crawled on and away from her. Her body still ached from the wounds that, somehow, hadn’t torn her apart. Was there no mercy to this pain? Why was she still there?

Scott advanced. In the moonlight, his visage was clear. His crown of corals was gone, it hadn’t been there in the first place. He was a walking corpse, his clothes heavy with the weight of his blood and hers. His face- terrible and grotesque, torn by the blast- she could not look at, so she looked at his hands. One held a flint, ready to light. The other held a stick of TnT. “Pearl, please calm down,” He said, and his voice did not match his face.

“What are you- Scott, leave me alone!” Pearl rushed to her feet, though her body screamed at her in pain. She clutched her abdomen and braced herself on a tree.

“Pearl, I’m trying to help!” He was afraid- but then why was his face so cruel? Why was he reaching to light the fuse?

“Scott, you’re supposed to be dead!” Pearl cried. She tried to move away from him, but she could not. Her injured body would not permit her. “You’re supposed to be dead! I saw you die! You-”

Scott did not listen to her, or let her finish. He reached out for her arm and pulled her suddenly close to him, he put his bloody hand over her bloody hair. “Shh. Whatever you’re remembering, it happened a while ago. I died, but I still have about four-or-so more hours until I turn red. And you know those clocks run slowly. I’m not going to hurt you, Pearl.”

Pearl stifled her sobbing. She did not want to humiliate herself by crying into Scott’s arms and staining his shirt with her tears. She did not know what had become of her. She did not know why her pain didn’t stop. Wasn’t this supposed to be knew? Wasn’t she supposed to have forgotten? The pain she barely understood still haunted her like a sick, terrible storm. She felt as if she might retch, but that would probably make Scott reconsider the embrace, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave it yet.

“Let’s get you back to your home. BigB will take care of you.” Scott said, and Pearl knew she wasn’t expected to reply. He helped her up, and let her drape her body over his shoulder. “I’ll make it up to you, and get you some string. You’re in no fit state to hunt spiders now.”

Pearl said nothing, and closed her eyes. She tried to leave moonlit nights behind her.

Even at her home, Pearl could not rest.

BigB had taken care of her, good care. He’d cleaned her scrape wounds and made her soup, and he slept soundly in the bed across the room from hers. But Pearl did not sleep. She couldn’t.

She tossed and turned restlessly in her bed, unable to find a way to lay where her body could relax. She wrapped herself up in her blankets, then tossed them all onto the floor in a hot fury. She got up, then layed down, then paced around the room as quietly as she could, to not wake BigB.

The world was too quiet, and yet everything within her was too loud. Too many times did she contemplate tossing herself out the tower window and falling to the stony earth below, but then BigB and her beloved Froggie would be without her, and she would not be alone again.

Pearl fell back onto her bed, and put her hands over her eyes. She cried, her whimpers hushed and her tears warm on her palms and cheeks. She could not stop.

And then, she became aware of someone listening to her sobs and whimpers. Someone, ever so gently, taking lifting her up from her bed. Someone reassuring her that she could rest now. It would be okay, if not for forever, for now.

respose in your respite, lone wolf, and breathe while you can, they said, and Pearl did as they said.