"Oh that's horrid." Xisuma wrinkled his nose after taking the first sip, holding his arms out immediately to get the cup away from his face.

Ren tried it, taking a much more cautious sip after Xisuma's distaste of it. "Eh, it's not good, but-" Ren paused to take another sip. "I wouldn't call it that bad." he took another tiny sip. "Has an interesting aftertaste to it."

"Nope nope nope-" Cleo spat it out on the ground. "This is dirt; poison leaves and dirt and bitter."

Stress more politely held it away from herself. "Maybe if we added honey to it?" She offered, "A lot of honey." She mumbled the second part, getting a chuckle from False next to her who heard it.

Wels cracked a grin, the mastermind behind it all- sort of. It wasn't his fault they had so blindly drank it, but he may have encouraged it a bit too much. He wasn't a plant expert or anything, but Hels and his friends had pulled the same thing on him a number of months ago, and it would be a waste to not repay the prank along. In short- he knew it tasted like bitter dirt. And let them all suffer like he did before.

Others tried it too, really for the heck of it after they all knew it was bad, and it was a pretty clear decision to deem it horrible. Well, there were a few exceptions to that agreement.

"I'm not sure what has you all hatin' this so much," Scar said, taking another small sip. "It's not that bad in small sips."

"Yeah, it has a cool aftertaste! Like I said before!" Ren agreed, taking a longer sip, only to show off to the hermits gagging at him.

"Scar, Ren, you are both madmen." Grian said simply. "And that's coming from me!"

"I think we've had enough of a debate about this." False said. "This is bad, and only all of the honey in the world to drown out the taste could solve that. Scar and Ren, Grian is right."

"Aww Falsie! Don't you like adventures? This is like an adventure, but for our taste buds!"

False scowled at him, not really how to make a logical claim agaisnt that stupid of a statement.

"Disscussin' is over folks. Checking the sun, the only true way to tell the time, it's time to start dinner." Joe announced, once again ringing his triangle to get everyone to shut up.

"Ok ok we get it! Just shut up with that thing!" Cleo growled, directing a glare towards Joe, who held it up proudly, dinging it once more with a smug grin as he made eye contact with the raging zombie.

He had been doing it all day, poking the bear with a stick, or in this case, annoying the zombie queen Cleo by ringing that next to her ears the whole time. It wasn't frequent enough to make a scene, but it all piled up, and...

"Ok that's it-"

"Beef grab her!" Ren yelled out in warning, somewhere from the crowd.

"Why me?!"

Before he could explain, Beef did so anyway, and xB jumped up next to him to help.

"I'll kill that smug little-" Cleo started, reaching towards Joe violently as xB and Beef held her back as well as they could.

Joe started ringing it loudly again, just to prove a point, until an annoyed Falsesymmetry marched over and grabbed the triangle to stop the noise.

Xisuma stepped in before anything could escalate more.

"Ok! Dinner time!" He announced loudly. "Wels, watch the fire. Ren, grab more wood from the pile to start it up more. Hypno, Grian, Zed, help grab cans of soup to heat up." He paused, and looked towards Beed and xB who had now let go of Cleo, but were still hovering over her in case she tried to lunge again. "And Cleo, don't kill Joe please. Or anyone else for that matter."

She huffed a little, rolling her eyes and shooting one last glare towards Joe, who looked just as smug as before. False still had the triangle, for safekeeping. As in, keeping him and anyone else safe from Cleo if she got annoyed again.

Joe was a madman, really.

Xisuma looked over at everyone again, making sure everything was in order. Everyone that had tried the fern tea was now going off to do their own things or help out with dinner, and no one looked in any danger, so he let himself relax a little. Everyone was fine.

X was tired, but in a good way, and after a calm, full night's rest, he'd be energized and awake for the lake day! It seemed like the hermits he had out in charge were handling the food pretty well, so he collapsed onto one of the logs near the fire, putting his hand in his hands with a sigh in relaxation.

"Shhh sweety, I'm opening the can right now ok?"

"Meowwww..."

"No no no no." Scar whispered, putting his finger to her lips to tell her to keep quiet, which was promptly swatted at with a clawed paw. He recoiled his hand quickly and shook off the quick sting.

"Ouch!" He said quietly, right as the zipper to the tent opened.

Before he could panic, he recognized it as Cub sticking his head through, and felt a wave of relief. If that had been any other hermit, he would've been caught with Jellie on the spot, and they would tell Xisuma, and-....well Scar didn't even want to think about how mad X would be.

"You ok Scar? I heard you-"

"Yeah yeah, I'm ok." Scar assured him quickly. It hadn't even drawn blood. "She's just mad I didn't feed her earlier. I didn't expect us to stay at the waterfall so long!" Scar explained.

"Well feed her and keep it down a little. They're making the soup now, but once it's done, people are gonna wonder where you are." Cub said, keeping his voice to a whisper.

Scar popped open the can and gave it to her as is. He didn't have room to bring a bowl for food as well as the water he already brought, so she would have to deal with the less than princess perfect set up.

"I'll be out in a few minutes I promise, just gotta make sure she has everything she needs."

"Ok." Cub sighed a little, smiling under his breath as he left the tent and zipped it back up. He knew this was a bad idea from the start, but knowing his friend was happier with her here was enough to convince him to help keep it a secret. Scar was handling it pretty well surprisingly, actually, huh.

Cub walked back over to camp and no one suspected a thing.

"So uh, when do the flowers glow?" Doc whispered, glancing to the side as Gem looked up at him. They were closer to the woods, away from the group so it was a private conversation.

She chuckled softly, not in a condescending way, and put her arm on his shoulder. "Probably an hour or two is when they'll start from what I know, but it'll last all night and easily into the morning. All you have to do is meet me over there before the sun rises in the morning and I'll show you where they are, ok?"

"Thanks." He nodded.

"But really, you should just tell him."

"And ruin our friendship? Bringing him a glowing bouquet of flowers is safer." Doc said, eyes slightly going wide as he realized his mistake.

"Well I wouldn't say there are enough for a full bouquet here, but just one should do the trick for the love potion." Gem said casually, and Doc would've relaxed that she didn't notice, but...

"Love- what?!" He whipped his head back to her in surprise, face twisting in confusion.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Gem cackled, still only sorta of whispering. "You should've seen your face!"

When she was done laughing and Doc was done scowling, she looked up at him sincerely.

"Shake those nerves off before you sleep, and you'll be fine ok?"

"Ok, thanks Gem, see you in the morning." He said, only half lying, and she nodded.

"I'm gonna get some soup, see you around!"

He waved away, and took a glance at the woods. It wasn't totally dark yet, but it wasn't exactly light either. They were going to need more flashlights than he anticipated. 

This was a good idea, right?

Etho glanced over at Doc, who was still standing next to the forest as Gem walked away. They had a plan, a way to get Bdubs to join, and everything else prepared, but Etho had an itch of a suspicion that Doc had an alternative motive for this.

It didn't quite look like Gem was in on the plan with her oblivious smile, unless she was an incredible actor, in which case, she would be a helpful ally or dangerous enemy in the world of pranks.

Etho tucked the thought away for later and decided to focus on the second step of this ordeal: Bdubs.

He wouldn't deny a small part of him was doing all of this to rebel, sneak out at night and make memories of running in the woods, and he was just as excited as Beef and Doc even if he was more subtle about it. But he knew it wouldn't be complete unless Bdubs was there too. nHo, all together again with a new adventure.

Etho grabbed a bowl of soup and bent down towards the cooler for drinks. Almost all of it was soda of some sort, so he opted for a water bottle insead (his personal water bottle, with the smashed ice from earlier completely melted, was in his tent. Too far to walk.) and took a seat on one of the logs around the campfire.

Oh, look at that, he was next to Bdubs.

Keralis was still by the food area, talking excitedly with xB, which worked just fine for now, unless Bdubs said no.

"Hey Bdubs,"

"Oh hey Etho! You're not here to brainwash me into doing that supid thing again are you?" Bdubs asked.

Ok, so that plan was out the window already.

"No no, just wanna see how you're doing after the walk back."

"Hmm, why?"

"Because your legs are so short, I would assume you had to work double time to keep up, Double-O."

"Oh HA HA!" Bdubs frowned, glaring at Etho. "Is that it, you just wanna make fun of me?"

"Well yeah," Etho admitted, and Bdubs rolled his eyes, "But I also wanna just chat."

"I heard someone was making fun of Bdubs height?" Scar poked in from the side.

Etho nodded, gesturing the seat next to Bdubs to invite Scar in on the conversation.

"No, we are not doing that!"

Scar chuckled, and shrugged his shoulders as he sat down. He completely still planned to at some point. It was just so fun to rile up Bdubs.

"Hey where have you been, Scar? I swear you disappeared for a few minutes." Bdubs mentioned.

Scar froze. "Oh uh- you must've just missed me. Big crowd you know?"

Now Etho, he was good at reading people, and Scar was practically an open book at the moment. He was hiding something, clear as glass, and Etho was just a little bit inclined to figure it out. First priority thought was the night ahead, he could figure out Scar's secret tomorrow.

"S'MORES!" Grian yelled, making Etho pause and look up at the chaos instead.

Ren was triumphantly holding up a bag of marshmallows above his head, and Mumbo was sort of awkwardly holding the chocolate like he didn't know where he was supposed to go. Iskall came over more calmly with the graham crackers, making a little station to the side of the logs and away from the fire with a mini pop up table.

Bdubs jumped up and grinned. "D'you guys want s'mores? I'm gonna grab a few marshmallows."

"Ooh yes!" Scar said gleefully, perking up a lot on the log he was sitting on.

"Yeah sure," Etho said more casually.

Bdubs nodded and walked around the fire to get to where they were passing out skewers and marshmallows. Etho would have another chance to convince him to join their little nightly adventure, but first, s'mores.

------ 

(2042 words!)

Oof- the end just cuts off pretty weird huh? Well I had to split this chapter into two, and didn't really have an ending for this one so.... Here's your breadcrumbs! Thanks for reading, and maybe vote or comment if ya liked it?

Also! My sibling is writing a hermitcraft book with the same plot points as this one that I think I've mentioned in an earlier chapter, and you should go read it and give it some love because it's really good and isn't getting as much attention. It's much shorter, but has just as much fun!

Have a great day or night all of you! (and don't sneak out in the night like these idiots are planning, it won't end well I promise!)

Real big addition!! Fanart!! 

Made by:  InsectoidIdiot

its from the scene where Joe is ringing the triangle to annoy Cleo, and wonderfully done! (even if wattpad's quality with photos is unkind)