Chapter Text
Avery was slowly slipping out of the sweet hold of sleep. He turned onto the other side, mumbling something incoherently. Maybe he could sleep just a little longer. Maybe just a minute or two. And then he remembered—he was deep underground in the abandoned village. His eyes shot open, he immediately sat up and looked to his left, looking for a certain someone who appeared to already be gone from his own bed.
“D3rlord?” His eyes scanned the room in search of the knight. The house seemed eerily quiet, but it wasn’t exactly out of character for some empty abandoned village, he supposed. Avery looked all around him with no luck until he heard a familiar voice clear his throat and speak.
“Goodmorning.” D3rlord spoke. Avery jumped at that, his head snapped right to the source of the sound. D3rlord got up from a chair in another corner of the room, Avery didn’t notice the man because of his previous lack of any sign of life and due to the fact that the chair was situated in a notably less visible spot.
“Dude! Were you practicing becoming one with the shadows, or what?” Avery complained, his voice reaching a higher pitch than usual. And after D3rlord’s lack of response he grunted “Did you even sleep?”
“I had enough rest.” D3rlord crossed his arms and kept his serious gaze on Avery (or so thought Avery, it was hard to figure out what D3rlord was looking at from behind his helm).
Avery tried to not lose this fight of wits and stared back but after a very intense moment of eye contact (at the very least one sided eye contact) he could not bear the awkwardness of the situation anymore so he just gave up. Opting to avert his gaze and attempt to ease his anxiety by trying to fill in the silence with some form of small talk instead. “Sooo, what were you doing just now?”
“Observing.” D3rlord replied simply, his tone flat.
“Observing what, exactly? Y’know there isn’t really much to look at here. Unless you were staring at spider webs, ‘cause I’ve already seen my fair share of them and I swear if I see an actual alive spider I might just—”
“You.” The knight interrupted Avery’s rambling which was quite frankly getting way off topic.
“Me? Me what?” Avery pointed a finger at himself and tilted his head in confusion, completely forgetting the question he asked beforehand.
“I was observing you, Avery.” D3rlord elaborated with a hint of vexation in his words.
“Huh.” Was all Avery could muster as his brain attempted to process what was just said, his cheeks were turning half-a-shade darker. The moment elongated for multiple seconds, then Avery finally managed to get back his composure. He briefly shook his head and then looked at the knight in confusion as he spoke once more, “Why—” His voice cracked, ‘God, could this get any more awkward?’, he cleared his throat and started again “Why were you observing me?”
“The last two times you woke up you were under The King’s control and you tried to attack me, it’s only logical that I keep a watch on you.” D3rlord stepped a few meters towards Avery and visibly started eyeing him even closer, “I wouldn’t want to end up with a knife in my back, you know. It’s not really part of the list of things I’d like to experience in life.”
“Oh, right.” Avery stared off at the floor, deciding to instead distract himself with a one specific wooden plank, that was a part of the checkered floor, it was partially sticking out at an awkward angle. He felt a pang of hurt at the thought that D3rlord feels unsafe around Avery, at least in some way. He looked up at the knight in question with guilt painted on his face. “Sorry for that.”
D3rlord sighed and positioned his head towards one of the windows in the house, though the landscape outside wasn’t all that pleasant. “It’s fine, Avery. You were controlled by It, so it’s not your fault.”
“But y’know, still. I feel kinda bad about that.” Avery rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes deciding to jump around the room in search of something to anchor his gaze on.
“Of course you do.” D3rlord muttered. Avery’s eyes rested on him again, he turned his head back towards the slime. “I’m going to look through the houses in search of some resources soon,” he announced. Avery started to regain his spirits as he listened. “I’m assuming you want to tag along?”
“Anything but having to stay still in this house.” Avery affirmed, then he finally stood up and stretched his arms as he added “At least I’ll get to move a bit.”
“Alright. But I suggest you eat something first.” D3rlord walked away from Avery and to a repurposed old bookshelf. He rummaged through it for a moment as Avery observed him in curiosity. Then he returned holding a fairly large brown rock on his outstretched hand, seemingly offering it to Avery.
The slime eyed the object in confusion and spoke “What? What is that? Am I supposed to eat that? That’s just some rock, y’know. Maybe The King really messed with your head badly, dude.”
The knight sighed, and then said “That’s a loaf of bread, Avery.” The man in question looked at him as though he was crazy but stayed quiet and let him continue. “You were so eager to eat it last time. What has changed since then?”
“Man, I think I might’ve been still under The King’s influence, ‘cause no way I’d eat that voluntarily.” Avery scrunched his jelly face at the loaf as if it was something so utterly disgusting and unappetizing that its stench was impossible to bear. In reality, though, the bread didn’t even have any distinct smell.
“Avery, it’s just bread, albeit stale it’s still bread. Stop acting like a child, you need to eat to survive.” D3rlord lectured Avery. The latter just stuck out his tongue and made an even more disgusted expression as he leaned away from the still held out gloved hand with rock-looking bread. And then as though on cue Avery’s stomach grumbled, stopping him in his tracks as he visibly got caught off guard by that. The knight’s helmet looked disappointed by the motion.
“That!” Avery straightened himself and gestured with his hands as he attempted to cover up for that, “Was the rocks from the cave sliding down!”
“No, it was not. Now eat the bread.” D3rlord shoved the loaf into Avery’s arms sternly.
“Or what?” Avery challenged, still he held onto the bread.
“Or you’re staying here. And I might tie you to a chair again.” D3rlord replied in a very straight forward manner.
“What are you, my mom? You’re not grounding me.” Avery snickered, “ ‘Sides, I’m too fast for you to catch me.”
“Last time I checked, you were the one who had to be carried because of the lack of the ability to run.” D3rlord shot back.
“Pfft, I was on the verge of dying then.” Avery waved it off, “Now I’m back at my best.”
“Just eat the bread, Avery.” D3rlord sighed.
“Or what?” Avery challenged once more, “Why do you even care if I eat or not? It’s none of your business.”
“Or I’ll have to knock you out, tie you to the chair and force feed you while you’re unconscious.” D3rlord grunted, choosing to answer just one of the questions.
“I’m quite sure that’s a threat, but sure, I’ll eat this disgusting rock that you got the audacity to call a loaf of bread.” Avery finally surrendered and bit into the bread. He made sure to make the most irrationally disgusted expressions he could while doing so. And after swallowing the last of the crumbs he prompted “But you still didn’t answer my other question. Why do you even care if I eat or not?”
“You’re currently a host to an ancient, malicious being. If you are to have any chance to fight It off you need to be in a good condition. Which, along with many others, means being properly fed.” D3rlord plainly explained.
“Oh, yeah right, whatever.” Avery said, and then added with a smirk “So now I have a private dietetician, eh? I might just start eating my veggies if the threat still applies.” He snickered.
“Alright, now let’s get to work, shall we?” D3rlord completely ignored the remark and started exiting the house.
“Yes, sir!” Avery mock saluted, then after that got no reaction from the knight, who was already in the doorframe, he ran after him and yelled “Wait up!”
Avery bumped into D3rlord as he tried to come to a halt beside him which earned him an annoyed groan, so he just half-heartedly apologized “Oops, my bad.”
D3rlord just mumbled back something akin to ‘it’s fine’ and continued to walk towards the main part of the underground village. Avery kept up the, rather hurried, pace of his companion well as the small rocks beneath their feet rustled with each step they took. They walked in silence for a moment, the village becoming bigger as they neared the center of the cave, until the quiet started to become a bit too crushing for him. He looked at the man next to him—he seemed very focused on the village. Avery decided to strike up a conversation, “Sooo, how do you even eat with that helmet?”
That successfully grabbed the knight’s attention as he turned his head to Avery, and then sighed, “Normally.”
That answer, naturally, was not enough for Avery so he prodded further. “What’s that even mean? The weird stripey, long hole on your helmet is not big enough for anything to fit through. So, do you just blend everything together and then drink it with a straw, or what?”
“What?” D3rlord muttered.
“So can you eat cupcakes? Can you eat anything solid?” Avery stuck with his weird line of questioning.
D3rlord just stared at the slime in disbelief without a word. His legs continued walking as he listened to the, still flowing, questions.
“Are you bound to eating just soups and smoothies?” Avery wondered out loud.
“What?” D3rlord repeated himself, and then added “Why do you care so much about whether I can eat solid food or not?”
“Because if you can’t, then that means that you can’t eat potatoes. And that’d be horrible!” Avery exclaimed dramatically.
“Avery, I obviously can eat solid food. How else would I have survived stuck here so far? We have just bread, and last time I checked, bread is not any form of liquid.”
“But how! Does it just phase through your helmet or do you have to eat it in extra small bits?” Avery grabbed his own head as he thought out loud.
“What?” D3rlord repeated himself once more, “I obviously can’t eat in my helmet, I have to take it off.”
Avery stopped and stared at the man with his jaw on the floor.
“What now?” D3rlord turned to look at him, audibly getting tired of Avery’s antics.
“YOU CAN TAKE IT OFF?!” Avery shouted, baffled.
“Obviously, what did you think?” Now it was D3rlord’s turn to be baffled.
“That—, I don’t know! That you’re like, bound to that armor and you can never take it off?!”
“Now where did you get that from?”
“I don’t know! I’ve never once seen you without it!”
D3rlord just sighed and started walking again. They were about ten meters away from the closest house now. The ground beneath them turning into a mix of moss, grass, dirt and pebbles. Avery swiftly caught up to him again and immediately jumped back into his questioning “So why do you never take it off? I’m quite sure I saw you sleep in it. That can’t be comfortable.”
“It’s none of your business, now come on. We have houses to inspect.” D3rlord bluntly answered.
“Rude, but sure.” Avery followed D3rlord as he entered the closest house. It had the same checkered floor pattern as the one they were staying at. It was in ruin, the ceiling was partially on the floor revealing the attic. The area of it that they walked into had a little table situated in the middle with some missing chairs, there were some cabinets and chests on the walls as well. Avery stepped carefully to not impale his feet through his flip-flops.
“So what are we exactly looking for?” Avery began as he looked all around himself.
“Resources, food, drinkable water, tools. Anything that could prove itself useful.” D3rlord was already peeking into every cabinet he could find.
“Uh-huh. Alright, gotcha.” Avery walked up to a chest and pulled it open, and then eyed the contents which turned out to be dust, some pebbles, and a (luckily for Avery) empty spider web.
They looked through the whole first floor with no success at finding anything of any use, and so they made their way to the ladder. It was in surprisingly good condition in comparison to the rest of the house. D3rlord climbed first, Avery followed suit not long after.
“Man, they really didn’t take care of this place, huh?” Avery looked at all the things lying on the half collapsed floor of the attic. There were a couple shattered empty plant pots, and a lot of rubble from the roof scattered all around. There was a bed in the corner of the room and a few more drawers.
“It’s been left for a long time, it is to be expected.” D3rlord said, and then began looking through the next set of cabinets.
“Soooo, do you wear the helmet all the time ‘cause you’re insecure or somethin’?” Avery asked, “Y’know, I won’t judge.”
“Could you please just stay silent for the time being, Avery? It’s hard to think with your constant blabbering.” D3rlord hissed in annoyance.
“Sheeesh, alright, fine!” Avery threw his hands in the air in defense.
|--+--|
They searched through a couple houses with no luck. Surprisingly enough Avery heeded D3rlord’s request the entire time, even though it made him nearly go insane. He decided to just focus on looking. They were now in yet another house, Avery looked inside of a bookshelf. It was mostly empty, save for some weird crumpled paper. He picked it up to look at it and carefully straightened it to read whatever could be written on it. What he saw was no language he could recognise, it was a bunch of short lines and dots placed in some sort of order, a pattern maybe. It made no sense to Avery, though. He stared at it for a moment longer until he deemed it useless to try to make something out of it anymore. So he placed it back in the bookshelf and moved onto a nearby cabinet and rummaged through it. And then he saw it, a small brown sack at the bottom next to some more pebbles. He picked it up and turned it over in his hands.
“Hey, dude? I think I found something.” He shouted loosely without turning his gaze away from the little bag, it rustled as he moved it around.
He heard footsteps approaching and soon enough D3rlord appeared right next to him, “Could I have a look?” D3rlord extended his hand and Avery placed the sack on it.
D3rlord carefully shook the sack, listening to the sounds it made. And then he opened it slowly and looked inside, “Hmm.”
“What is it?” Avery tried peeking over D3rlord’s arms to get a glance at the contents of the bag.
“Seeds.”
“Really?! That’s perfect!” Avery livened up. “What seeds are those?”
“Carrots. I’m quite sure.” D3rlord delicately took a few out and closely looked at them, “We should check whether they’re still viable, after all they could’ve been here for years.”
“Yeah, that’s true. But how exactly can we check it?”
“Check if they will germinate, simple as that.” D3rlord stated bluntly.
“Uh-huh, yeah, sure. Germination, yeah, I totally know what you mean, man.” Avery did not in fact know what germination was.
D3rlord sighed, “I’ll just take care of it. For now let’s see if we can find anything else that could be of use.” He stashed the little bag into one of his pouches and turned back around to continue the search.
“Oookayy.” Avery stood still for a moment before reanimating and going to look again.
Not long after that as he was peeking into another empty chest he decided that he should strike up some conversation because the quiet seemed not that welcoming and he supposed that D3rlord’s request wasn’t on board anymore since they talked. “So will I ever get to see your face or are you just gonna be so mysterious all the time?”
“Why do you even care so much about what I look like?” D3rlord’s tone seemed to get slightly more strained again.
“I dunno, I guess I’m curious and just like to know who I’m talking to.” Avery shrugged and then after a moment of thought he added “Plus it’s kinda weird to think about the fact that you know everything about me and I don’t even know how you look.”
Avery got no response. And when he turned to D3rlord he noticed the other’s posture tense. Reading the room Avery decided to drop the topic and swerve the conversation somewhere else because he still wasn’t going to let silence fall.
“Soo, since you said the thing before me, are you also possessed, or what?”
“The thing? Oh, you mean the spell.” D3rlord answered himself, and then turned towards the slime, “No, I suppose not.”
“Hmm, well then are you actually fine now?” Avery asked.
“Avery, my mind is all scrambled. How could I possibly be ‘all fine’?” D3rlord huffed.
“Well then, are you, y’know, worse than before?”
D3rlord pondered on it for a moment and then said “Maybe, my mind seems more hazy than earlier. But I suppose that could still be one of the consequences of lacking proper rest.”
Avery hummed in response. And then added, still refusing the conversation to die out, “So what can we even do about me being able to probably be possessed any second? ‘Cause the idea of just blacking out by your punches every now and then doesn’t seem all that pleasant, y’know” He chuckled awkwardly.
D3rlord fell silent again and chose to move toward the doorframe, he picked up a few planks and some used wooden axe he found previously and placed them in his bag. Avery watched and after he realised that D3rlord was about to just walk out of the conversation he quickly caught up to him and said “Dude, are you just gonna give me the silent treatment?” And after that did not, in fact, earn him a response he said with a disappointed face, “Really?” Still he stayed by the knight’s side as they walked by the weird fountain and in the direction of the shack on the outskirts.
Not even five minutes later Avery was done with it and started bothering D3rlord all over again, “Hey, dude. Dude. Buddy. Hey. Hey, buddy. Buddy, dude. Hey, hey. Hey dude, buddy. Hey, bu—”
D3rlord abruptly turned to Avery and spat through gritted teeth, “What.”
Avery was taken aback by the suddenness of the action and just stared at the other for a moment before smirking and saying “Chicken butt.”
“Avery.” The knight glared daggers at him.
“Geez! Fine, fine! But I did want to say something, I swear!” The slime started defending himself.
“Then what is it?” D3rlord grunted in exasperation.
“Well, uh—” Avery stammered, “First of all! Why are you so mad?”
D3rlord looked at him in disbelief, groaned, ran his hand down his helmet and then, finally, he bellowed “Are you kidding me?!”
“Whuh—” Avery stood there dumbfounded, even more shocked by the actions of the other. After a moment he answered, still confused, “No?”
“I swear to— Ugh!”
“Oh c’mon! Why are you so mad?” Avery asked once more while trying to remain calm.
“Why am I so mad? Really?!” D3rlord groaned again and then enraged he began listing “You were just uselessly distracting me while I’m trying to help us out, you weren’t really looking for anything in the houses—I saw, you keep on blabbering about some random shit instead of focusing, you went to find me and then took that damn book and invoked that stupid spell despite my warnings, and on top of that—” D3rlord took a deep breath and then huffed out, “You aren’t taking any of this seriously! We’re probably in deep danger but instead of actually trying to help me get us out of this you’re just worrying about how I look! For crying out loud, Avery!” His arms flailed helplessly by his sides.
Avery shrunk in on himself and then decided to try to deescalate the situation the best he could, “I’m sorry?” He squealed.
“I—” D3rlord was probably attempting to scold Avery more, but he cut himself short and then took a deep breath to seemingly ground himself, “It’s… fine, just— please, take this seriously.” His voice came out weak and after that he just began moving towards the house again. They weren’t all that far from it anymore.
Avery kept perfectly quiet throughout the rest of their walk. He felt guilty for being a problem to D3rlord. He really wasn’t taking any of it seriously, he desperately didn’t want to take any of this seriously, to stand face with the fact that he really messed things up back in the cathedral, he didn’t want to stand face with the fact that he could probably do some horrid stuff and then not even remember it, that he could just stop being himself. Maybe D3rlord was right, maybe he should’ve never tried to play the hero, maybe he should’ve just let D3rlord do it on his own… No. That would mean giving up. Avery wasn’t about giving up, he came so far and he wasn’t going to just give D3rlord up like that. He saved D3rlord from probably death at the cost of his own sentience, that much he knew. But he would find a way to free them both from The King’s grasp, once and for all, even if it took his life…
But wasn’t that what D3rlord was trying to do?—what Avery stopped him from doing? He didn’t want to dwell on that any longer. For now all he could try to do was help D3rlord, so for now he was going to focus on that.
Through all his pondering Avery didn’t notice that they were already right before the house. He nearly bumped right into D3rlord, who notably slowed down. Avery felt a strong urge to fill the silence again but instead he decided to closely observe D3rlord without a word. The other was still visibly tense, not as much as before, but still. More than ever Avery wished that he could see his face now, he wondered what he could be thinking about and if he might be still angry with him.
They went right inside through the doorframe of the house. D3rlord approached one of the bookshelves and took out some old book. Avery followed behind him on instinct. The knight ripped one blank page out of the book carefully and then after a couple of seconds of looking through his bag he took out the familiar little brown sack and a water canteen. Avery watched cautiously as he took a few of the small seeds out and placed them on the paper. He then proceeded to wet the whole contraption with water from his canteen.
D3rlord took the paper and placed it on one of the shelves, “Now we have to wait.” His voice made Avery jump slightly as the slime had already gotten used to the silence. D3rlord then turned around to face him. The former, suddenly realising how closely he’s been hovering behind the knight, quickly stepped back, his face involuntarily getting a shade darker.
He tried to somehow conceal the embarrassing change on his face so while still stepping backwards he decided to attempt talking with D3rlord again , “Soo, can you maybe tell me something about yourself? Y’know, it is still kinda weird with all your knowledge etc. etc.” He felt that one stubborn floorboard he saw before that he also just backed onto dig into the sole of his flip-flop so he swiftly side stepped and as he noticed the knight’s fists clench at his sides he quickly added “But only if you want? I’m taking this seriously now! I swear!” He let out a puff of air, “Look, I wanna help, really. But it just feels kinda silly that you won’t talk to me and I’m guessing we’re gonna be stuck together for at least the next two days or so. So… Could we have a little ice-breaker, please? Even if it’s gonna be one-sided.”
D3rlord stared at him for a moment before releasing his breath and the tension in his posture, “Fine.” Avery was about to legitimately punch his fist in the air in triumph but then D3rlord added “But we’re doing this on my rules.”
“Alright! Lay it on me!” Avery said, a bit less enthusiastically.
“I may give you some information about me after, and only after, you help me out with a task of my choice.” D3rlord declared. “Got it?”
“Uh-huh! Got it!” affirmed Avery, more reluctantly than before but still in high spirits. After all, he just got an occasion to finally get to know the mysterious knight some more!
The knight in question sighed at the show and then said “Alright, come help me fix up the walls, at least in the slightest.”
“On it!” Avery exclaimed and walked to D3rlord again.
Silence fell and they started working on patching up the house’s interior side of the walls. The only words that were spoken were short instructions and orders from D3rlord. They worked like that in silence for some time, their teamwork wasn’t exactly ideal as they bumped into and interrupted each other multiple times but they somehow made it work. The structure of the house was starting to look more secure now, more proper.
Avery, obviously, was getting really tired of the silence and was really itching to just finish it up and be able to ask his question. He wasn’t even yet sure what he was gonna ask about, there were way too many things that he didn’t know. He was sure he could count all the things he knew about D3rlord on the fingers of his two hands! And that was a ridiculous amount of lack of information. So the only thing that kept him quiet through the process was making a mental list of things he’d like to ask D3rlord. For one, of course, he wanted to ask the man to take his helmet off, but he knew that he should probably avoid that topic for now as the other seemed weirdly sensitive when it came to that. So he moved onto other things he’d like to ask. Like what’s D3rlord’s favourite color? That’s something important. Or what’s his favourite season, or if he likes and knows how to make muffins? Or maybe if he feels the crushing feeling of existential dread and not belonging? Or maybe whether D3rlord likes potatoes? Those are some things he should probably ask. And then as Avery mused on some more questions he was brought back to reality by D3rlord’s voice.
“We’re done.” The sudden sound made Avery jump. But D3rlord was right, they were, in fact, done. So lost in thought, Avery didn’t even notice when he helped place the last plank. He looked over their work, it didn’t look the best but he hoped it’d do just fine. Suddenly the knight turned to Avery, “So what is your question?”
“OH! Right! Yeah! Uh—” Avery stammered, trying to find his words. And before he could properly think over what he should say he said “What are your favourite potatoes?” He didn’t mean to ask that, oh what a fool he made of himself. Instead of asking a proper question he mashed two into one. He might not get another chance to know more about the mystery man and the question he asked was so stupid. Way to go, Avery.
The knight seemed confused by the choice of question as well, still he answered “I suppose I don’t have any favourite.”
“Great, ‘cause I totally wanted to ask about that,” Avery chuckled awkwardly.
“Alright.” Was all the response Avery got before D3rlord moved to one of the empty bookshelves on the side, took out the wooden axe he previously acquired and began wiping it with some cloth.
Avery fidgeted with his hands, trying to calm himself after such a horrible mistake. His eyes darted around the room. They stayed in silence until Avery noticed something which gave him a wonderful idea which he immediately had to express to D3rlord.
“Could I maybe clean up around here as a task so that I can ask another question? Please?” Avery’s voice made the knight raise his head up from his axe, “I know it was supposed to be a task of your choice but this is a suggestion, so yeah. Pleaseeee!”
After that only silence followed, and so Avery was about to just give up until about a minute later.
D3rlord decided to answer after a brief exhale, “Alright but you’re gonna have to clean the attic.”
Avery couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “Just the attic?!” This was probably the first time he was ever excited to be cleaning.
“I wouldn’t be that happy about it if I were you. Have you even seen how the attic looks?”
“Uhhh, I mean it’s just some attic.” Avery shrugged, “How bad can it be?”
|--+--|
“Okaaay, it appears to be worse than I thought. But! It’s not that bad.” It was, in fact, that bad. But Avery was not about to show weakness, he needed to just do it. That’s all, just do it! Simple as that. Remember Avery, forget about the really not amused figure that’s very much judging every single one of your moves and just do it! Yeah!
After about an hour Avery was finished. He was finished with cleaning, that is, he didn’t want to do it anymore. So, naturally, he gave up. What he managed to accomplish is dust a few of the surfaces he could and get rid of some of the dirt on the floor. The attic was still really messy and now it had an additional stain on the floor, a slime laying face down from exhaustion.
From behind him he heard a sigh, “I don’t think this is really worthy of you getting your question.” Said the knight as he reminded Avery of his presence.
“Awwhhhhh. Nawhh…” The muffled cry rose through the room.
“You can try again later if you want. But now, I’d recommend you to go and have a nap in your bed and not on the dirty floor.” And with that D3rlord left, the only indicator of that was hearing the near silent rustling of his cape slowly get quieter and more distant.
Avery plopped onto his back, scoffing to himself “This is stupid. Why is cleaning this so hard? And why is the attic this dirty in the first place?” He stared at the ceiling for a moment contemplating whether he should actually go to his ‘bed’ or is napping here on the floor just fine. He was quite tired, that he had to admit. So, surely, just having a quick nap here wouldn’t be that bad, right? I mean, what could—
Avery’s eyes shot wide open. Oh no. Oh no no no. A small silky thread was slowly lowering itself towards his face. At the end of it sat a truly horrifying monstrous creature. Its tens of unsettling eyes staring right into his soul. His immediate instinct was to swiftly get up and dash out of the attic, but the spider was already too close to his face. He needed to think, and quickly. But how could he think with a threat in such proximity!? He could try attacking it before it attacks him… but there’s a risk that it would just stick to him and that would be horrible! Maybe he could try rolling or crawling away? No, it’s too close, it’d just land on him faster! The distance between the spider and his face was about 10 centimetres away from him now. And then he got the perfect idea! Just scoot over and away while making as little movement as he can.
Scooot— NO.
A high-pitched scream echoed through the house. “NOO! GET OFF! Shit—” Avery was frantically clawing at his own face trying to get the spider off. “HELP! GET OOOOOOFF— AGHHH!”
Through his feverish attempts at getting the spider off he didn’t notice D3rlord approach and swiftly but carefully and precisely pick the spider up and place it on his own hand while placing the other on the still panicked slime.
“Could you calm down? It’s just a spider.” He looked disappointed but not surprised.
Avery finally stopped, trying to regain his composure. And then took a few steps away from the knight and pointed an accusatory finger at the little critter on his palm. “THAT DISGUSTING MONSTER TRIED TO DESTROY ME! EAT ME ALIVE!”
D3rlord sighed, “I’m just going to ignore your foolish remark and carry the spider outside.”
“How can you be so calm around that bloodthirsty beast!?” Avery screeched but followed D3rlord anyways.
“How can you be so scared of a little bug? If anything it’s more likely to be the one harmed by you, than you are by it.” D3rlord mused out loud.
They walked outside of the house and D3rlord bent down to place the little spider on a nearby rock. Avery stood a few metres away, deciding to keep the distance as he observed warily.
Suddenly Avery heard something, a voice. But it sounded distorted, it sounded… wrong. Attack. He heard it like a murmur right in his ear but when he looked around he saw nothing, just the cold walls of the cavern. With it came buzzing, rapidly increasing in volume. He felt like his head was gonna explode any second. More voices appeared, or rather more of the same voice appeared, they were overlapping, all of them whispering the same command. Attack. His vision started to get blurry, it darkened and became somewhat more… yellow? The buzzing, the voices, it was all too much. He couldn’t take it anymore, his body was feeling lighter. The last thing he noticed was D3rlord turning around and saying something like “Are you alright?” It was hard to make out through all the noise. He felt himself slip away…
Attack.