The others had been gone a while. Etho knew this. He also knew where they were and that he could easily get there with the same method he used when travelling to his singleplayer worlds.
He was too scared to go. What if Joel didn't remember him? He would be heartbroken. He couldn't risk it.
For a long while, the cryptid just sat in his house, doing nothing. He wanted to go, he really did, but all the "what ifs" circling his mind made it hard.
However, there was no harm in checking it out. Etho still had the compass, after all. He could easily go see how they had all gone.
See, Etho was the type of person who simply wouldn't do something he didn't want to, meaning he would sometimes have to force himself to do something. This usually took a fair amount of energy to do, which was why you would rarely see the cryptid doing something he wouldn't normally do. His current situation was more difficult. He didn't want to go because he was scared, but if he did go there was a chance of him seeing Joel again.
Etho forced himself up and walked over to his door, standing there for a few moments of hesitation. Was this really something that he wanted to risk? Was the possibility of a negative outcome a reason not to go? It was then Etho remembered something that Xisuma had said to him once. "Saying you'll do something is easy, but you will never know what will happen unless you take action. If something turns out bad, then at least you had the confidence to try."
The thing was, Etho was not confident; not now at least, not about this, but there was still a part of his brain that wanted him to try. The cryptid walked through his door and up the steps, emerging at the bottom of Bdubs' monolith. Compass in hand, the man was off.
He was led to what he assumed was Grian's base. The assumption being made due to the robot in the cave. The robot in question spat out a piece of paper the simply read "Wait."
So, Etho listened. He waited. He didn't know how long he did. It must have been a few days at least, but he waited. That whole time he didn't move, didn't blink, just kept his eyes staring at the purple portal.
He kept waiting as people began to come out of the portal. Hermits. They didn't notice him. Etho stayed still but was beginning to lose hope. He was losing hope until Grian came through and mentioned that "They said something about following us."
Etho didn't know who this "they" was that he was talking about, but he waited nonetheless.
More people came through. Some Etho knew, others he didn't. He stared and stared at that portal.
His face lit up as he watched Joel, who was, for some reason, dressed up like a Greek god. Their eyes met and the next moment they were running to each other, Etho still going unnoticed to everyone else and Joel being ignored due the the chaos around them.
Neither one in the pair was much of a hugger, but despite that, it felt right for them. No words had to be spoken to know that they deeply and truly loved eachother.
Joel was the one to break up the hug and, without hesitation, he kissed Etho. He didn't care that the mask was in the way. He didn't care that other people had started to notice that the pair was there. All he cared about was himself and his partner.
When they broke apart Joel found himself staring into Etho's eyes. Then he was enveloped in another hug from the cryptid.
"I missed you."
Three words. Three simple words that normally wouldn't mean much, but for Joel, it was enough.
They were home.
They were together, so they were home, and nothing could take that away from them.