Chapter Text
“Spoke?” Mapicc cuffed his hands around his mouth, looking around and squinting into the forest. The snow was falling heavier now, it was only steps away from a blizzard.
Zam looked around, watering up trees to gain a higher vantage point, but to no avail.
All it had taken was Zam tripping into the snow for Spoke to completely vanish ahead of them, tunnel visioned to their calls in search of a way out of the storm. Mapicc turned in a wide 360: nothing. As he walked out farther into the forest, but the snow covered any footsteps in front of him and all behind.
The search was useless and he knew that, if Spoke had found a way out of the storm he would’ve realized they weren’t with him and came back, wouldn’t he?
Mapicc wasn’t sure he knew anymore.
“Come down, I don’t think we’ll have any luck.” Mapicc took one last look into the direction where Spoke disappeared before focusing his mind. He started talking again when Zam dropped down. “We’re going to have to wait out the storm,” He could already feel the cold wind breaking through his sweater. “There was a river near here, right?”
Zam nodded.
“Can you go find gravel for a flint and steel?” Mapicc checked his inventory. “I think I already have iron.”
“Alright.” He was already shivering, his knees muddy and boots clumped with ice and snow.
“Mark your path, it’s clearly easy to get lost in here.” Mapicc called after him, placing his E-chest. He frowned at the lack of iron; had he given it to Spoke for some elaborate trap? TNT minecarts maybe, an anvil or two?
Mapicc groomed a hand through his hair, already disturbed by the lack of feeling in them. He’d have to spark the flint against his axe or something. He busied himself chopping wood and cutting brush to fuel the planned fire while waiting for Zam, all of it was wet to some degree and would make horrible fuel, but it was all the resources he could find.
He had a decent amount of fire wood tucked under his arm when he was starting to get worried; it didn’t take nearly this long to get a single piece of flint. He moved slowly through the woods, following Zam’s trail, careful to reserve his hunger.
“Zam?” he yelled as he approached the riverbank. It was already starting to freeze at the edges, its muddy torrent breaking down any ice that attempted to grow near the center.
“Yeah?” Zam stood up, wiping his nose with a sleeve. He’d stopped shivering, but was clearly trying to hide how cold he actually was.
“Are you okay?” Mapicc placed the wood in his inventory, walking over and pausing when his hand grazed Zam’s arm. “Dude… you’re really cold.”
“I’m fine, I actually feel pretty warm if I’m being so honest; it’s kinda weird, really.”
Mapicc stared at him. He wasn’t sure if that was a good sign, though eventually chalked it up to Zam working. “Did you get the flint?”
Zam didn’t respond right away, his eyes looked vacant, like he was looking straight through him.
“Are you there?” He waved a hand in front of Zam’s face.
Mapicc was pushed back by some sort of extra force, a rain of crackling confetti showered and disappeared around Zam as the prince collapsed onto his knees. Mapicc’s eyes widened, and he walked straight back to Zam, whose eyes were screwed tightly shut and teeth grit.
“Yo—are you okay? Zam? Can you hear me?” He tried to shake Zam’s shoulder, but his body was swelteringly hot, so he instinctively took a step back.
“Yeah I’m—“ Zam let out a pained gasp, “I’m fine.” He shakily got to his feet, hands clenched so tight his knuckles whitened. “I got the flint,” he seemed to want to say more, but could bring himself to talk.
Mapicc took off his hoodie, a thin black ribbed turtleneck underneath it, and shoved it into Zam’s hands.
“What?” Zam blinked foggily, confusion clear in his voice.
“You need it more than me.” Mapicc pressed it closer to him.
“Oh.” Zam put it on, the sweater wasn’t much but it could break the wind, and handed Mapicc the flint.
They returned to the original spot, deep in the forest where there would be more objects to break up the draft and pause the snow; it was the best they could get besides a cave. Mapicc had ordered Zam to sit and wait as he started a fire, who agreed without protest.
His numb fingers made the task much harder than it normally would be, so the fire was barely flickering, the constant snow dwarfing its potential. Mapicc crouched and stared at the flame, wishing he’d taken more time to learn such a novel skill.
“All we can do now is wait, huh?” Zam muttered, staring at the fire with mirrored disappointment to Mapicc.
He nodded, sitting with his hands near the flame to reheat. Mapicc was shivering but only just, the heat from the fire barely radiating enough to help either of them. His body must’ve realized at some point that there was no way for him to exit the cold, so instead of freezing he just felt numb and detached.
Neither of them talked, only moving to brush off the compiling snow or fix the fire.
Mapicc was left alone with his thoughts, the only entertainment to watch the dying flame or count the flurries. He figured Spoke would end up being fine in this temperature, or simply just alive at the least.
It was a disturbing thought, wondering how alive his friend might end up being at the end of the storm. Mapicc got back up, he knew he should move around or maybe just pace to make sure blood would still flow to his limbs, even in its desperate retreat to his vital organs and away from everything else. He’d prefer it if he didn’t have to amputate a lifeless arm. He turned to Zam, who looked half dead, and forcefully pulled him to his feet.
“You need to move around, Zam.” Mapicc insisted as Zam groaned, he was so cold. “Not too close to the fire, I don’t want it to go out.” Zam didn’t move out of his grip, and Mapicc’s hands were getting colder just by being in contact with his skin.
“I know that, genius.” Zam snarked, attempting to move but only uselessly falling onto him.
“Dude,” Mapicc moved him back, keeping him standing. He wasn’t sure if he should let go or not, since he didn’t really want Zam to fall over, but his own decreasing temperature was worrying.
“I actually can’t move my legs, should I be worried about that?”
“Yes! Yes bro you should be worried about that??” Mapicc stared at him in exasperation. “If you told me you were on death's door I probably could’ve helped sooner?”
“Well obviously I didn’t realize I couldn’t move until you picked me up.” he grumbled.
Mapicc rotated and placed Zam closer to the fire. He was beginning to doubt how plausible waiting out this storm could be, it didn’t seem like it was going to end anytime soon.
“I think we should move soon, ‘cause being stationary clearly isn’t going to pay off.”
“I think leaving our warm, warm fire is a horrible idea.” Zam huffed, his teeth were starting to chatter now that he was exposed to the warmth and his body realized he actually had the ability to gain heat.
“Well the storm obviously isn’t going to lay off, so unless you have any better ideas than sitting here waiting to freeze to death, be my guest.” Mapicc glared.
“I’d rather sit here and freeze to death than sit over there and freeze to death.”
Mapicc sighed heavily, clearly frustrated but he wasn’t just going to leave Zam here. The least he could do was stay, and anyway, Zam still had his sweater.
He crouched next to the fire to reheat his hands, starting to see reason through Zam’s sarcasm even if either was too stubborn to admit anything.
They settled into silence again, though it was more uncomfortable and charged than before. Mapicc poked at the fire with a stick, hoping to encourage the snuffling flame into something better than… whatever this was. If Spoke was here he’d probably say something along the lines of: “So… what was our entire thought process here?” Then laugh and fix his horrible job.
Mapicc laughed somewhere between a bemused huff and a sad snicker, ignoring when Zam looked at him curiously and tunnelvisioning on the fire. Genuine heat was beginning to finally radiate off it as Mapicc paid attention to it, a good amount of smoke rising lazily through the cold air.
Snow melted into tiny droplets of water as it neared the flame, quenching it faster than it could grow. Mapicc stared at it in mild frustration, though it wasn’t like this sort of thing couldn’t be expected. Something that surely wasn’t was the boughs of the trees above creaking with the weight of snow they weren’t used to holding up; melting droplets raining down spontaneously in large bursts of freezing water.
He looked up a little too late, just as Zam opened his mouth to point out the same abnormality. The oak branch nearest to them began to bend downwards, snow slipping off its crisped leaves in sheets and tumbling towards the fire.
Mapicc stared as the slushed snow effectively snuffed out the fire within seconds, mute with shock.
“Well.” Zam seemed to be pondering more to say, but surely thought better of adding layers to their new situation.
If Spoke was here he’d probably only say: “Oh.”
Mapicc didn’t laugh at the thought this time, only left to listen as the branch eased back into place, as if it hadn’t destroyed their only source of salvation and written off their certain or near-death.
“Come on bro.” Mapicc sighed, running both hands through his hair as he stood up. “Out of everything that could’ve happened here.” He nudged the snow where the fire used to be with one foot. He was both fully ready and yet too petty to give into defeat, but as the seconds passed he could already feel his fingers deadening again, soon to a point of disuse.
Zam got up and patted him on the back. “On the upside, we could’ve already been dead right now instead of in the near future.” He must’ve rethought the staying silent thing.
“That isn’t helpful.” Mapicc moved away, pacing around their campsite, even tossing a few long looks in the direction that Spoke had disappeared in originally.
He was dully aware of Zam clearing off the snow and trying his best to light a fire, though the guy didn’t even make a bird's nest first. Mapicc didn’t bother saying anything about it, just sitting down again a ways away in the snow and staring vacantly into the forest. So much for waiting out the storm.
Zam seemed to give up on the whole fire thing after a while, only a tiny flame clinging desperately to the wet logs. He doubted it would stay lit for long.
“Why have you stayed with Spoke so long?” Zam asked after the silence deepened, his voice dull with defeat.
Mapicc turned his head towards him. Zam was crouching closer to the fire, milking any warmth it could offer.
He stared wordlessly, expression blank yet mildly annoyed.
“I mean— don’t get me wrong, I love Spoke, he’s a nice guy but… you know.”
“He’s my friend.” He wasn’t sure if that was really the right answer to the question. Things had felt pretty off since the Mafia and his whole disappearing act.
“He’s really reliant on you. Did you know that? After you went off with Jamato he made me send this weird letter to Lettuce.” Zam paused. “He was going to bomb Capitol City because he thought Leo took you.”
Mapicc blinked twice. “He what?”
“Well, I’m not sure if I should’ve really read it or not, but he was sending me to Lettuce. Me, a fugitive and the genuine leader of the Law do not mix, so I was pretty curious what could possibly be so important.”
“Oh.” He wondered what this could imply. Spoke had seemed more protective recently, in a sense; looking behind them more, buffering the moment Mapicc was out of sight. What mused him the most was how not surprised he was, he didn’t even doubt if Zam’s words were false.
“I did try to tell him you’d be fine.” Zam assured, a note of worry hinting at his voice, as if he wasn’t supposed to say what he had. “But I’m sure you, of all people, know how he gets.”
“Yeah. I guess.” He looked back out into the forest.
Silence again—Both left to their own thoughts. Sometimes solitude comes in its worst form around company, the cold widening the cracks and remaking old scars raw.
Mapicc and Zam had a lot of history, and there really wasn’t any reason why they shouldn’t be at each other's throats right now. Maybe it was their ever changing mindsets, maybe it could be Spoke; since there truly were only a few.
New smoke wafted into the air, too weak to trigger the delicate snare of snow that the branch had set. Mapicc wondered if the smog was enough to signal to any living thing that there were others out here.
It fortunately(and unfortunately)only took a lot of shivering and many attempts to make the fire bigger without the tree dunking them in snow for that theory to be put to the test.
“I could’ve sworn I just heard someone walking…” Zam mumbled, though he was basically delirious now, despite Mapicc’s attempts to keep them both somewhat sane.
“You’ve been hearing people walking for like the past thirty minutes.”
“That's because there's people walking. I wouldn't hear them otherwise.” He attempted to sneer, but his words just ended up slurring together.
“Uh huh.” Mapicc had looked around, with both precaution and hope, the first few times, but it was starting to become a trend of Zam’s brain just making up familiar noises from the blur.
He knew he should probably try to make the fire bigger, but if the tree dropped all the snow it was holding onto now, they’d be worse than square one.
“No like, actually.” He tried to sit up, but only managed to prop himself up with his elbows.
“Mm.” Mapicc was still, which was quite the more concerning than if he’d been shivering in this weather. He glanced around, though he knew it was barely anything more than a fool's hope now. He sighed, his eyes moving back towards the fire after(not surprisingly)seeing nothing.
He barely believed his own ears when he heard footsteps as well; the fact that Zam didn’t mention any this time wasn’t reassurance to both the belief that they were real and that they were not. He’d chalked it up to auditory hallucination, up until they got louder, accompanied by the sharp panting breaths of someone running.
A figure emerged from the fog and snow, following the smoke if he had to guess. The person was closer than he’d expected, now walking at a fast pace.
It took Mapicc a few mute moments to realize who it was.
“Mapicc?” He slowed and stopped to stare down at him. “What are you doing here—why is Zam with you…?”
“Minute?” Mapicc tried to get up, wincing and barely being able to move his limbs before just giving up and remaining seated. “Spoke broke him and Wemmbu out of the Law jail.”
Minute nodded, walking over and nudging a scarcely moving Zam with his hand. “He’s almost unresponsive. How are you guys still alive?”
Minute was either the best or worst person to find them, considering what Spoke had pulled in the end. Mapicc’s only redemption for the event was messaging Minute “Sorry” split seconds before he fell through the portal and landed back in the over-world with Spoke. He didn’t seem upset with him, which was the closest to a good sign that he could get.
“I would love to be able to answer that question.” Mapicc sighed, watching as Minute picked up Zam and basically slung him over his shoulder.
“Can you walk?”
“Don’t think so.”
“Should I make the fire bigger?”
Mapicc stared accusingly at the small flame along with the branch above it. “If it gets too big then all that snow will just fall right on top of it.” He pointed with his eyes.
“Ah.” Minute crouched to grab his arm and lift him to a stand. “I guess you’re going to have to walk.”
Mapicc wobbled on his feet, hardly registering feeling in them. “Yeah.” He’d only just begun walking before he almost fell face down into the snow, the only thing keeping him upright being Minute’s hand.
They slowly made their way through the forest, taking frequent breaks at Mapicc’s request, which Minute used to check Zam’s pulse and to make sure the guy was still breathing.
“The upside is if he goes into cardiac arrest it’ll last two times longer before he dies so we can actually try to help them.” Minute randomly provided the morbid fact during one of said breaks. “It’s because of the cold.”
“Oh.” Mapicc panted. It didn’t feel like he was getting any progress towards being able to regain feeling. “Minute,” he started to ask.
“Yeah?”
“Spoke got lost in the storm way earlier.” Minute pulled him to a stand and they started to “walk” again. “Can you look for him after you get Zam safe?”
Minute went silent, thinking, for what felt like too long, before speaking. “You know why I can’t do that.”
“Why not? You’re just going to let him die in the snow?” Mapicc stumbled.
“He could’ve gotten out of the storm. Spoke can take care of himself; either that or he can set up a pretty good bluff.”
“And if he didn’t? What then?”
Minute sighed.
“Please, bro. Once he can walk, if you find him, we’ll leave, okay? I wouldn’t wish what I just experienced on my worst enemy, let alone Spoke.” he paused, panting from talking. “I know he’s not dead; we would’ve seen the message. But Zam had a fire, and look where he is.”
“I’ll look for him, alright? But there's no guarantee I’ll even find him. You guys are lucky that your fire gave off enough smoke to be even semi seeable.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m only doing this for you, Mapicc.” Minute stared ahead, tired white eyes illuminating their path.
Just like Spoke’s did in the dark.
After finally reaching their destination, Minute mined open the entrance and led them down. He rested Zam down on top of a quilt and lit a fire in the makeshift hearth before turning his attention to his supplies. He split a stack of blankets between him and Zam, and began boiling some water.
Minute handed Mapicc a mug of steaming tea. “Here, it won’t help the process but it’ll null the pain.” He placed two God Apples in his hand. “Give one to Zam if he wakes up before I’m back.”
Mapicc nodded, watching Minute go with a sort of melancholy. Their arrival had been fast paced, but at least Minute understood that if Spoke was still in the snow the situation would be pretty dire.
He’d fallen asleep and woken up twice(once by Zam, who he gave the other God Apple to)by the time Minute returned with Spoke stumbling behind him. “Spoke?” Mapicc placed down his cup, only able to articulate the one word before Spoke barreled into him, trapping him with a hug.
“Missed you too.” A smile leeched into his voice. He held Spoke slightly away from him by the arms, blinking. “Why are you bone cold and covered in blood…?” His brows creased and he glanced towards Minute, who was turned away, rifling through his chests.
“I got attacked by some dead player's dog.” Mapicc noticed a hint of strained pain in his voice.
He nodded, concern playing in his mind.
“Why is Zam wearing your hoodie?”
Mapicc caught a flash of red while he talked. “His totem popped. Turns out his frilly blouse doesn’t keep warmth that well.” he snorted, lightening what actually happened. “It’s fine. I’m probably more used to snow than him.” He really wasn’t.
Mapicc noticed how zoned out Spoke was as he nodded, worry became apparent in his eyes.
“What?” Spoke’s hands had clasped one of the blankets, like it was his only tether to the world.
“Dude, why are your teeth covered in blood?” He realized when Spoke talked again, glancing from his canine-like teeth to the scabbed wound on his arm.
“I passed out on my arm. I was uh, bleeding a lot.” Spoke laughed weakly, fidgeting.
Mapicc nodded, looking towards the crackling fire in thought.
“You probably need to get cleaned up, Spoke. Come over here.” Minute beckoned.
Spoke looked from Minute to Mapicc, hesitating before following Minute to an offshoot room. Mapicc’s eyes followed him with worry.
There was a long moment of silence, Mapicc only catching muffled conversation before hearing bits and pieces of Spoke’s voice. “Yes!”…“I killed it, okay?!”
He turned his head towards the room at the last sentence; unsure what to make of that without outside context. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a lot of time to think about it before Spoke’s hysterical laugh erupted from the room.
Minute walked back out soon after.
Mapicc didn’t know what to think. “What happened?”
“He’s being stubborn.”
Mapicc scoffed, bemused. “Isn’t he always?” Sarcasm hinted at his tone. “…what actually happened, Minute?” He squinted at him. “Spoke doesn’t just act like…that for no reason.”
“I’m pretty sure that bite mark he has is because he couldn’t deal with the cold and did it himself.” Mapicc would’ve thought he was joking had it not been for the critical expression in his eyes.
“Are you serious?”
“You find Spoke laying in a pool of his own blood with his head in his arms, not to mention his teeth are also covered in blood. What would you have thought happened, Mapicc?”
“Spoke wouldn’t do that.” A tired voice interjected. Zam was staring at them, bleary but sentient.
The conversation went back and forth for a while, somewhere along the way Zam gained some paper and a box of crayons, and Mapicc had bargained his sweater back.
Spoke talked out of nowhere, leaning over Zam and gazing at his drawing. “Is that your empire?”
Mapicc turned his head in their direction.
Zam looked up, surprised. “Oh, hi Spoke. Uhm, I guess, yeah. I don’t really remember the streets anymore.”
Minute looked over, staring at Spoke before walking away.
Mapicc saw him feign an interested nod. “Sorry about blowing it up a while ago.” He patted one of Zam’s shoulders. Then, walking around the prince, he sat on a pile of blankets that was on the other side of Mapicc, closest to the fire.
“It was mostly Wemmbu, anyway.” Zam muttered with reserved bitterness.
“Are you good?” Mapicc asked.
Zam looked at him with concern, but Spoke notably ignored him. “I am now.”
He leaned over, grabbing Spoke’s jaw and prying open his mouth like one would for a dog. Spoke’s teeth were clean again, aside from the stray bit of dried blood. He let go.
“What was that for?” Spoke rubbed his jaw with a fake pout.
“I was making sure you cleaned your teeth.” he paused, a smile playing on his lips. “It was about time, your breath was starting to get bad—“
“Okaaay.” Spoke interrupted, smiling.
“Really bro, I almost went all the way to the markets just to get you colgate.”
He snickered. “And risked our location? I thought you knew the law had a monopoly on toothpaste…” he played along.
Mapicc dramatically fell over. “Woe is me.”
They bickered back and forth like this until Minute offered them food, which Mapicc thankfully accepted, even as Spoke refused. He was eventually too tired to continue talking.
Spoke sighed and leaned over into Mapicc’s side, head on his shoulder. Mapicc blinked, he’d been thinking about Minute’s earlier words. He patted Spoke’s back, whose skin was still quite freezing.
Mapicc was restless, and he knew he’d probably get little sleep, sometimes seeing Spoke’s eyes flutter open and closed at random intervals. He could hear his own heartbeat in his ears from Spoke leaning into his chest.
Mapicc slowly eased away from Spoke a little past midnight, only up for a few seconds to grab water when he heard Spoke bolt up. He turned, Spoke was looking around rapidly, his breath quick and frantic, wide eyes slightly illuminating the dark around him.
“Are you okay?” He whispered as he walked back over, careful not to spill the water on himself.
Spoke looked at him, both shocked and relieved. Mapicc could never tell what was running through his mind. “Yeah,” he swallowed. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
Spoke didn’t sound the “fine” that he was suggesting, but Mapicc wasn’t going to press him if he didn’t want to say anything. “Alright. You should go back to bed, then.” He wasn’t going to hide the worry from his voice, though.
“Good idea.” Spoke feigned a yawn, resting back on Mapicc when he sat down again.