Cidagor's Visitor from Belen
~ Approximately One Year After The End Of TRTE ~
“I think it’s time for a break,” Mumbo sighed, practically prying Grian away from his desk, “It’s hardly even noon and yet we’ve been awake for nearly seven hours now, why don’t we go have lunch with Scar?” He offered gently. The king of course was having none of that, eyes still boring holes into the letters that were strewn about all across his desk.
“But I need to finish these and get these sent out!” Grian protested somewhat weakly. Mumbo just rolled his eyes and slotted his arms under Grian’s and lifting him out of the chair. Grian groaned but he didn’t bother fighting against Mumbo as he lifted him up and set him on the floor.
“Come on, you know you want to take a break and see your knight boyfriend because I want the same thing, let’s go.” Grian trudged to Scar’s office with Mumbo close behind, not even trying to listen in and see if a meeting was going on before loudly barging into Scar’s office.
Then he stopped dead in his tracks.
“Who the hell are you?!” He demanded, staring at the man sitting in Scar’s chair. He looked like Scar to a certain degree, but he was also distinctly different. His hair was black, his eyes were more blue than green, he seemed to be a bit shorter and stouter, and his skin was paler and noticeably not covered in scars. The man sitting in Scar’s chair looked back and forth between the two before answering.
“Umm… Scar?” He offered, not sounding sure of himself.
“You are most definitely not,” Mumbo pointed out.
“Yeah I know,” He sighed, opening the drawer of Scar’s desk and pulling out a pair of glasses, “But Scar seems to think that since we pulled that trick on our parents it’ll work on anyone.” He stood from the chair and walked towards Grian and Mumbo, extending a hand to them, “My name is Cub, I’m Scar’s twin brother, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Where’s Scar?” Grian asked worriedly.
“Well he said he wanted to swap places for a bit to see how many people we could trick, so if I had to guess he’s probably in Belen right now,” Cub said. He was lying through his teeth but they didn’t need to know that.
“Belen? Isn’t your family from Ebbin?” Mumbo asked.
“We are, but I’m the Ebbin ambassador to Belen so I stay there most of the time. I’d say I’m surprised Scar hasn’t told you, but honestly our family isn’t much to talk about,” Cub just shrugged. He would have explained more if they had asked him to, but Grian just turned to Mumbo.
“Let’s go find BigB, I want to know what in the world is going on in that man’s head.” Mumbo just nodded and began to lead Grian out of the room. Cub, not really knowing what to do, stayed back for a moment, “Come with us, we need to let him know that the jig is up.”
“You really want your boyfriend back huh?” Cub teased, Grian and Mumbp both felt their faces flushing red. It wasn’t like they tried to keep the relationship a secret, but it really wasn’t something that they had made public yet.
“How did you know about that?” Grian asked.
“Scar told me, we’re the only family we’ve got as far as we’re concerned so we like to keep in touch.” He shrugged, “That and Scar can’t keep a secret to save his life. I have a letter from him when you guys stopped in Ebbin for what was meant to be Gem and Pearl’s wedding where he was just gushing about the two guys he slept with in Galant.” It didn’t seem possible, but Grian and Mumbo’s faces got even redder, Grian’s nearly matching the red color of his shirt.
“I’m starting to see the family resemblance.” Mumbo noted dryly, leading the way up the stairs to the tower where BigB had set up shop after graduating. He knocked on his office door first but to no avail, so he turned to BigB’s room.
Still no response.
“Come on BigB! Now is not the time to be making out with your boyfriend, this is important!” Grian shouted, pushing past Mumbo and knocking on the door much louder.
BigB opened the door a few minutes later, looking mildly annoyed. Back in the room the trio could see Skizz sitting on BigB’s bed looking slightly pouty.
“Hey Skizz,” Cub said with a small wave.
“Hey Cub!” Skizz shouted eagerly, waving back.
“You know each other?” Mumbo asked.
“We’re both nobles from Ebbin whose brothers were on the same team of knights, of course we know each other.”
“BigB I need you to call Tango, apparently Scar and his brother thought it would be funny to try to pull a fast one on us by swapping places.” Grian explained.
“And this couldn’t have waited?” BigB noted.
“No.” BigB didn’t bother arguing, letting the trio into his room and to the mirror. Normally he would use the one in his office but at that point he really wanted to be done with Grian’s antics as quickly as possible. Grian and Mumbo followed him to the mirror while Cub pulled a chair up next to the bed and struck up a conversation with Skizz.
BigB whispered a short incantation and watched as the mirror swirled yellow and red before Tango eventually popped up on the screen with a bright smile.
“Hey B! To what do I owe the pleasure?” He asked.
“Have you noticed anything weird about the Ebbin ambassador?” BigB asked in a near deadpan.
“Not really, though now that you mention it I haven’t seen Cub for a few days now.” Tango simply shrugged.
“Can you find Jimmy, we need to talk to him.” Grian asked. Tango nodded and the picture became blurred as the mirror in Tango’s hand shook as he ran around looking for his husband.
“Oh speak of the devil, there’s Jimmy… and Scar?” Tango muttered before shouting at Jimmy. “Jimmy! I have Grian and Mumbo on the mirror! They want to talk to you!”
“Talk to me?” Jimmy laughed awkwardly, “What could they want to talk to me for?” The fact he was trying to hide something was evident in his tone, and the fact that Scar was doing the best to hide his face behind a fake pair of glasses.
“Cub and Scar swapped places and we want Scar back,” Grian said firmly, ignoring the blush that crept onto his face, Jimmy laughed awkwardly once more.
“What? That’s impossible, I’ve been in meetings with Cub all day and I think I would notice if the guy I was on a team with for three years suddenly showed up pretending to be him.” Jimmy protested dumbly.
“Jimmy they already know!” Cub shouted before quickly returning to his conversation with Skizz.
“Aww fiddlesticks.” Jimmy sighed.
“Scar! Why did you leave?!” Grian asked. Tango turned the mirror so Scar couldn’t hide from its gaze.
“Just wanted to see if we could fool ya, but I guess now that you know I should be on my way home,” Scar sighed. “Tell Cub he can stay in my room, it’s not like I use it that often anyway.” Cub gave a thumbs up in the background.
“How long will it take you to get back?”
“Like three days avoiding portal travel, and the ferry between Belen and Ebbin only comes a few times each day so I’ve got to time that right.” Scar shrugged. “Anyway I’ll see you in three days, love you!” Scar ended the call before Grian or Mumbo could even get a word out.
“I guess it’s back to work then.”
“No way Grian, you still need to eat something.”
“Okay, the next ferry comes in six hours, so I guess we better speed things up.” Scar sighed, turning to Jimmy. “Now, where was that metalworkers shop you wanted to show me, the one that made the ring you gave to Tango.”