Chapter Text
Gavin could not believe the week he had been having. All he wanted to do was dig some sand for a project but he hadn’t even been half way through the forest before he had been chased by a pack of wolves that had gnawed at one of his heels as he ran away. Then he had tumbled down a mountain, losing his birth bow. Falling down the mountain had made his sense of direction flip flop and he had accepted he was lost. And to top it all off for the past three nights, zombies had continuously chased him. He was hungry, sore and nostalgic in the worst possible way. Below him was the first memorable landmark he had seen in days. The large hole below him was the one his parents created years ago. He limped as fast as he could away from the hole but before he could leave he heard an audible gasp.
“What the bloody hell was that? Who’s there?” Gavin had learned to trust no creature of the forest in the years after his parents passing.
His hissing lured the creature from hiding and Gavin was surprised that it wasa person. More than that, it was one of the men that Gavin had spent much of his free time watching. Gavin watched in shock as the man tried talking with him. The man raised his art-covered arms, finally a gesture that Gavin understood, and began walking towards him. The man’s eyes were locked on Gavin and he took a few steps forward.
“Uhh… excuse me,” Gavin said looking down at the large hole, literally below the man’s feet. “You should really stop because of the hole. What’s your word for it…” Gavin mused and the man had obviously made it his goal to be in the hole when he suddenly ran into it. The man screamed in a pitch compared to a ghast causing the creeperboy to freeze. Gavin felt his face crack into a smile and began laughing for the first time in too long.
“I can’t believe…” Gavin wheezed and tried to hold his sides to try and stop the pain. He hadn’t laughed like this in years and damn did it feel good.
The man in the hole rolled his eyes and started yelling at the creeperboy. “….help” was the only thing the creeperboy caught and it hit hard.
“Help.” Gavin muttered. The blood rushed from his face as his mind was bombarded with old memories of his friend Dan; the tree falling, Dan screaming and Gavin being chased by a hoard of zombies. Gavin could still feel the hot sting in his ear of his only friends screaming.
The creeperboy pulled the blue dirt mover and began to dig the man out. “Not this time.” was his mantra. The man started to scream again. Is he injured? The creeperboy thought. He looked into the hole and saw the man dusting the dirt out of his eyes. The creeperboy rolled his eyes. “More of a baby than I thought.” Gavin muttered and continued to dig.
He finally dug the man out of the hole and at first the man was relieved but then he started to complain about something, which ended with ‘help’.
Is he really injured? The creeperboy said looking over the man more carefully. He leaned closer to see if he colorful arms were scratched or broken and that’s when he caught the scent.
“It can’t be.” The creeperboy said leaning closer to the man. Gavin looked up to the man in front of him. The man looks confused before taking IT out from his shirt pouch. A cookie. Gavin is sucked into his memories about Dan for the second time but this time it’s about the better one; milking cows and then trying to ride them, chasing chickens until they would pop eggs out in fright, just him and Dan climbing to the top of the tree and watching the sun move in the sky.
The trance is broken when the man raises his cookie filled hand. The creeperboy blinks and slowly raises his hand. He’s giving it to me? The creeperboy always thought that all the men that he watched were selfish. Pushing each other off ledges, killing their pets, sabotaging the others creations, all for a simple golden tower.
The creeperboy licks the cookies. He had to makes sure it was the real thing. And it was. The sweet chocolate touched his tongue in the first time in years and it was welcome there. His mind buzzed and the greed overtook him and he engulfed the entire cookie.
His mouth begs for more and tries to peer into the man’s pocket. The man seems uncomfortable but Gavin ignores him. It had been the first food he had in days and to Nether to him if he wasn’t hungry. The man gestures ‘follow me’ and thinks for a moment. He had been watching these men for years and they didn’t seem dangerous, at least if he didn’t stand between them and the tower. The creeperboy leans in for one more glance and the man pushes the creeperboy away. The creeperboy returns the shove and breaks off into a run but all he can muster is a few steps. He rolls himself into a ball and hopes that the man doesn’t break anything too crucial.
Gavin hisses an obscenity. Of course it had been a trap. They likely hadn’t appreciated the fact that someone had been watching them in their private affairs. “Please leave me alone, I promise I wont watch you anymore.” The man hears the terror in the creeperboy’s clicking and hissing. Gavin flinches when the man’s hand edges closer to him. But the man doesn’t hit him. Instead, the man rubs his shoulder soothingly. The creeperboy looks up at the man and feels the trust begin to grow when he hears a third voice. And the creeperboy bolts with the aid of the cookie’s energy.
“He was waiting for reinforcement.” Huffed Gavin when felt he was a safe distance away. He limps his way to his underwater cave and eats his last, thankfully dry, piece of bread before being dragged into uncomfortable sleep.
Gavin wakes up feeling a bit better than the night before. His ankles aren’t sore and he isn’t near starving but he knows he needs to get more food. So begrudgingly, he gets out of bed and reaches for his birth bow. He grabs empty air and remembers that he lost it falling down a mountain. The creeperboy huffs and leaves his cave, hoping he won’t run into the man from yesterday.
While running through the forest a cookie collides with his head.“Ow” The creeperboy nurses his head with one hand and picks the cookie up with the other. “Who would throw a perfectly good cookie at someone?” he creeps his way towards the direction of where the cookie came from, and when he got too close he realizes that this could be a trap to lure him there. He sees the two younger member of the human pack getting yelled at by the man he saw yesterday.
He breathes a sigh of relief and says, “Good. They can’t see me.” but they could obviously hear the creeperboy because all three of them begin to frantically look around. The bear of the group must have caught a glimpse of him because he starts running in his direction. “They’re going to kill me!” Gavin screeched before booking it in the opposite direction. The bear screams at him and the creeperboy refuses to look back.
The chase seemed to take forever and when the energy from the bread the night before was at it end the creeperboy looked back to a red faced and then shocked looking bear.
The creeperboy had enough time to turn his head to realize that he was running right off a cliff. He looked down and saw the water to the right of him and he aimed his fall hoping that he wouldn’t be landing on any rocks.
Splash. The creeperboy burst from the water and swam to shore and limped to the woods hoping to evade the threat.
~~~
The creeperboy groaned from on top of the bear. He couldn’t out run the uninjured bear and the art-covered man and the two of them had caught him quickly, so he tried to out think them. He thought if he collapsed then they would just leave. Nope. The art-covered man had forced the bear to carry the creeperboy after applying some cloth on a cut on his arm. Just what are they going to do to me? The creeperboy’s thoughts were cut off when he saw the huge cave in the distance. It was so tall it must have touched the sky, the creeperboy mused. How on earth do they all live in a place so big? When they go closer he caught a glimpse of two wooden caves and two dirt ones but before he could see any details he was carried into the house.
The bear dropped Gavin on the bed near the far wall and the man with art of his arms began to look the creeperboy over. Gavin stayed tense and watched the man in front of him pace. the man abruptly stopped and ran towards a storage box and pulled out a arm full of cookies. The man ran back to the creeperboy and dropped the bunch of cookies into the creeperboy’s lap. The creeperboy stared at the pile and the idea crept into his head that these people weren’t trying to hurt him.
The man had grown inpatient and grabbed one of the cookies to try and feed Gavin. Gavin snorted and snatched the cookies from the man’s hand with his teeth. The man pulled his hand back and chuckled after checking to makes sure he had all his fingers. Gavin was still enjoying the cookie when he heard the door open. He glanced over expecting the lithe bear; instead he saw a wall of a man.
Gavin felt his eyes go wide as the man approached. “ Geoff…” the man said towards the art-covered man. Gavin had heard the bear call him that several times as well. Maybe that was his name…
The new man abruptly sat down beside Gavin and began to pull the cloth off Gavin’s arm. The man looked towards Gavin and said, “I’m Ryan” and began tending to Gavin’s wound. He was gentle yet quick to the point and Gavin could appreciate that but when ever Gavin would hiss in pain Ryan would chuckle.
The creeperboy tried to pay attention to how the two men were communicating to each other, noticing how nothing was aggressive, but his concentration broke when a man with a rose in his pocket came running in screaming. The creeperboy jumped and banged his arms corner.
Then the bear came in and the four men began to chat happily. The tension from before had all but disappeared and when Ryan had prompted the creeperboy to take off his cloak, he allowed it.
The bear looked over to him and said something that Gavin couldn’t really understand but he did hear the concern in his voice. And the next thing he knew, the rose man had shoved cooked meat into his hands. The creeperboy took it, appreciating something different than cookies. The creeperboy looked up into the rose-man’s eyes and tried to convey his appreciation and the rose-man seemed to understand.
They all seemed happy just chatting and the creeperboy felt the safest he had in a while. He looked out side and saw the setting sun and knew he wouldn’t have to worry about creatures attacking. He wiggled in his bed and he was just about comfortable when the last man of the pack barged in.
He was angry to say the least. He looked towards Gavin then started to talk at Geoff and he turned to the creeperboy and started talking at him. Gavin had no idea what to do and just listened to the large bearded man like he understood. The tactic didn’t work and the bearded man just looked at Geoff and began talking and getting increasingly annoyed.
The creeperboy knew that he was in a tight spot when the bearded man pointed to him and the door. Gavin knew he had to do something. And Gavin knew exactly what to do.
He got up off the bed and got the attention of everyone. He limped over to Geoff and gently tugged on his sleeve. The man looked down at his wide green eyes. The entire room when silent and this was Gavin’s moment.
“Geoff, thanks” The creeperboy said hoping that he was saying everything right. It had the desired effect and Geoff basically swooned. He looked at the bearded man and Gavin was happy to hear Geoff call him the same thing twice, Jack. The creeperboy internally chuckled; this really was going too well.
Gavin forced his eyes to water a bit, and looked towards Jack and said, “please, Jack” Gavin knew he did well with Geoff going over the top, Jack shrugging, Ryan and Ray smiling. When Gavin looked at the bear he was amused to see his mouth open in shock. He smirked and took a few steps towards the bed and ate a handful of cookies thinking that he was going to stick around for a bit longer.