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The stomping of horses, though muffled by the thick coat of snow on the road, disturbed the peaceful white plains. These parts didn’t seem to know this many riders on these barely maintained roads: maybe only a few carts pulled by donkeys, not the king with a small convoy of soldiers. They rode fast, barely registering the changing scenery as the fields started growing more and more spruces, dark green against the bright porcelain of snow. Technoblade noticed someone walking by the road and pulled the reins. The horse neighed and reared up, causing the people on the roadside to back away, almost frightened.
“Your Majesty.” It was a plainly-dressed woman with a kid clinging to her hand. She fell on her knees and the kid hesitantly did too, after being pulled down by her. Now they seemed even smaller compared to Techno, who towered over them on his pompous white horse.
“Hello,” he said, “You may speak.”
“Thank God the capital got our message, Your Majesty,” she raised her head and he got to see glistening trails of tears on her face. “The wicked wizard is destroying our village. We were the last to flee, but our house got burned, my husband-” she got too choked up to speak.
“I’ll kill the wizard before the sun sets.”
“We are lucky to have you as our protector, Your Majesty,” she said in a quiet and trembling voice, bowing again.
Techno didn’t respond and urged on the horse, leaving them behind. He never knew what to say in such situations, never knew how to play a kind and benevolent comforter. It seemed excessive: he already knew how to kill monsters who wronged his people, and really, it should be enough.
They rode more slowly this time and soon saw the village: right where the real dark spruce forest began, there were small and cosy huts huddled together. A few of them were burning out, fire still dancing in the broken windows and eating what was left of the collapsed wooden roof. The houses close to them seemed to have suffered too: their walls were charred, but they were probably saved by the wet weather. Techno dismounted and ordered his men to stay back and wait for him: those wizards could do mind games sometimes, no need risking his soldiers turning on him.
He bared his sword and walked. The village was indeed abandoned - everyone ran to save themselves from the chaos. Barrels lay broken, barns crumbled, chicken escaped and wondered around, eating the grain from the ripped bags.
Techno heard subtle ringing behind his back and turned around, taking a fighting stance. There was a weird animal, kind of like a sheep with a long neck, coming from behind the building, ringing the small bells on its colorful blanket. Techno approached it carefully. It seemed harmless, chewing on something and looking at him with its round black eye. No sign of an amulet, since the wizards usually had those to power their magic. Techno knew - he had the collection of the ones he broke.
“So, are you the wizard, or?..” he said to himself.
The animal looked at him for a bit and then spat on him. Right on his snout.
“Am I bullied by a sheep now, what is this?” he wiped the saliva off with his sleeve, “All right. I’m taking you hostage.”
He grabbed the ears of the animal and pulled it towards himself, raising the sword.
“Come out, wizard, or your messed up sheep dies.”
“Don’t touch my travelling companion, you!
My llama’s harmless as a shoe!”
He let the animal go, and it ran in the opposite direction, as if sensing how dangerous the situation was. The wizard wore a colourful coat with a hood and - who would've guessed - a green crystal amulet glowing on his chest. The moment he saw Techno, he smirked and said with that weird song-like tone:
“Fearless warrior and fearsome king,
What news did you decide to bring?”
“I heard you were abusing my subjects. Only I am allowed to do that. Just go back to wherever you came from and I will spare you.”
The guy laughed: “Is this mercy that I hear?
Really? I don’t trust my ear!”
“What is this? Do you have to come up with bad rhymes for everything- You know what, I don’t care. Are you leaving my kingdom forever or am I chopping your head off?”
“You foolish king! To finish me
From hopes and dreams you must be free!”
After that, Techno had to dodge a fireball. He negated the second one with his sword and rushed to the wizard before he could gather his strength for another magic attack. He tried to flee by jumping high and floating, but Techno caught his ankle and brought him down violently, slammed him on the ground and ripped the amulet off the golden chain. The wizard immediately disappeared in thin air with a quiet puff.
This was when the real battle would usually begin. The amulets had defences and summoned powerful monsters to fight on their behalf: mostly dragons and such, so Techno threw the amulet, stood back and readied his sword. The crystal glew and emitted blinding rays of magic light, its silhouette reshaping and growing, changing into something… humanoid, by the looks of it?
The greenish smoke surrounded the person - it was definitely a person - standing inside of the cloud. Techno heard him coughing and saying: “What?.. What the hell?”
He recognised the voice even before the smoke fell. It was Dream.
“Are you as heartless as they say,” - spoke the wizard’s disembodied and disappearing voice, - “To kill the man you love today?”
The last words were very quiet, but you could still hear them. Techno clenched his jaw. Bloody mind games. The crystal looked into his head and pulled something-
“You should’ve chosen someone I actually care about, like Phil or Wilbur,” he said with a habitual fake confidence, referring to the thin air. “Or Tommy. Though killing him would be kind of therapeutic, not gonna lie.”
“Technoblade? What’s happening?” Dream stepped out of the smoke. He looked just like he remembered: the stupid endearing mask, the green tunic. Unarmed, which is interesting.
Now. There were two options. The first was that this “Dream” was a fake, created by the amulet; the second - the magic pulled the real Dream here and used him as a meat shield. But what choice did Techno have? The wizard must be stopped. If anyone was qualified to kill someone they lo- someone they didn’t want to kill for the good of all people, it had to be him.
“How am I here? And what was that voice?” Dream came up to him, unaware of what Techno had to do, trusting him, opening himself like that to a man standing there with a weapon at the ready.
Techno had to act quickly, before any more thoughts crept into his mind. He swung the sword.
“Wow! Wait!”
Of course, Dream managed to dodge that undodgeable attack. Of course.
Dream hurried behind a barrel and kicked it towards him, winning a few seconds for himself to run. Techno followed him, his sword always just a few inches away from the target. Dream ran inside one of the houses, slammed the door in front of his nose and held it.
“Why are you trying to kill me again? I thought we were-”
The sword broke the wooden planks. He was close to straight up impaling Dream, and Dream had to back away. The door flung open from Techno’s kick, and he immediately received a clay plate flying to his head, as it broke in half from landing right on his forehead. Oh, that little-
“The voice said though-” Dream took a pause to throw another plate at him, and then another, and then another. Techno broke them with a sword on the fly, and shards fell on the floor with loud clanking. “And it seems you have to kill me- Wait, did the voice say you love me?”
“Don’t let that go to your head,” Techno said and attacked again.
He only managed to tear the tunic and draw a little blood - only a scratch, maybe a scar. Dream went for the window and climbed out, pulling himself up to the roof. Was he always gonna do the “climb up to escape the fight” strategy? Techno groaned. He wasn’t as hulking as he seemed, just couldn’t do the nimble stunt Dream did, so he had to walk out to find his way up.
Dream was looking around and realising he couldn’t jump to another building like he’d likely planned - the near houses were the burnt down ones. Techno stepped on the roof and the planks squeeked dangerously.
"Please!" pleaded Dream, "Just tell me what the hell is going on."
But this house also suffered from the fire - Techno couldn’t make even three steps as the weak wood under him crackled, and the roof collapsed with a loud rumble.
The ceiling wasn’t very high, and he landed on the table, breaking it and hitting his back. Dream fell too, sliding off the wooden planks and, as much as Techno didn’t want to admit it, his first instinct was to let the sword go and catch Dream as he was falling. He landed right in his arms.
Dream wheezed and laughed with his whole body, and didn’t hurry to get up.
“You are so fat! You made the whole roof collapse!” he said, pitting his hand on the high collar of Techno’s uniform. Kind of hugging him. Kind of getting even closer to him.
“It was all part of the plan. I’ve caught you,” he said automatically. He was holding Dream on his lap- No. “Get up,” he pushed him away and grabbed the sword again, standing up, already feeling the pain in his back.
“Hey,” Dream also got on his feet and said seriously: “Was it true then, what the voice said?”
“It’s true that I have to kill you.”
“Listen, you don’t have to- Ugh,” Dream stopped himself to take the mask off and fixed his hair in that annoyingly dashing manner.
Now, this was simply not fair. Did he really have to see the awkward freckles, the out of color eyelashes, the dimple on the cheek which was only on one side - did he really have to see all this on the face of a person dying from his hand?
“Whatever is going on here,” continued Dream, stepping closer to him. Techno staggered back. “I’m happy to see you. I mean, it’s been so long, I thought I would never see you again, and... Never get to fight you again,” he smiled, showing his slightly chipped tooth, “But to be fair, I’d rather have a sword with me next time.”
Did he really have to do this. Why did he have to do this. Why it had to be him, always him, fighting the dragons, the witches, the wizards, the venomous court, the treacherous nobles, sacrificing those he cared about, sacrificing his own hopes… and dreams.
“Come on, just explain to me what’s going on, and I’ll help you! We can get out of this together, whatever this is. Is this some kind of a magic curse thing? I am not very experienced with those, true, but I am smart, you know, we can-”
How tempting it was to say yes. Perhaps a bit too tempting. Something out of a daydream, really - them working together, him smiling, maybe even taking Techno's hand when he helps him to stand up, if he dares to even think about such things.
“Okay," sighed Dream, not hearing any answer. He lowered the tone and said: "I’m not stupid, you know, I-” Dream got even closer, now having to look up at him slightly, “I mean, the way you held me back then…”
Techno gently put the hand on the back of Dream’s head and pulled him into a hug. He rested his snout on the shoulder and ran fingers through the dim golden hair. This felt as good as he imagined it would. Dream was warm, and smelled of campfire, and returned the hug, wrapping his hands around Techno’s wide figure. Techno nuzzled Dream's neck, and he chuckled, amused by the sensation. It was so calming, so exciting at the same time - to feel his breathing, his heartbeat, him pressed against the chest, him slightly reaching up, standing on his toes. Dream pet the aching back, as if consoling him about something, as if about something Techno was about to do.
Just like that lunatic said - you must be free from hopes and dreams.
Techno inhaled sharply, made Dream snuggle his nose up to him tightly, and pierced his stomach with the sword. He continued holding him as the hands on his back grew weak, as he heard him choking on blood and felt him trembling, convulsively grabbing the sleeves of the red uniform.
He carefully laid him down and saw his face - swiftly paling, glass-like eyes wide open in horror, string of blood running down the chin. Dream didn’t even try to say anything. His body went limp and his head fell to the side.
He turned into green smoke, dissolving in Techno’s hands in a matter of seconds. The only thing left was the heavy amulet lying in his palm, now with a big crack running through the middle of the crystal. The blood on the sword disappeared too, which may be a good sign, but Techno was too exhausted to be optimistic.
He returned to his men in the silence of the winter plain, shivering even in his warm military coat.
The soldiers were noisy, though.
“What’s going on?” asked Techno, hearing himself sound even more tired than usual.
“The boy, Your Majesty. Ran away from his poor mother all the way up to here. Says he wanted to help you defeat the wizard.”
The soldiers made way for him to see the kid. The kid lowered his head and looked at his boots, but didn’t kneel.
“Here, take this,” Techno said, holding out the amulet. The kid raised his big scared eyes and took it hesitantly. “Give it to your mother. She can sell it, it’s pretty valuable.” “Invaluable” would be a better word for this kind of artifact, but the boy got the message.
Techno hurried to mount the horse and spurred it without saying a word. He rode the long way to the capital, leaving his men behind, urging the horse to go faster and faster, concentrating only on the melodic stomping of hooves raising chunks of wet snow and the cold wind whistling in his ears.