Chapter Text
It was a quiet morning in Snowchester and Michael sat in his room drawing on the ground, alone, he did not mind being alone, he had spent most of his life alone and it had only been the most recent month where he felt important, and cared for, so he did not mind spending hours alone in his room, a place he could feel safe and loved which made his chest warm and he had never felt so happy.
Even though he had to admit the change was scary at first, his new home and the barron lands of the nether where worlds apart, literally, he had grown accustomed to fending off for his life and doing that alone, he however was not a big fighter and would run from place to place hiding in one location for long periods before he could no longer hide in which he would run to find a new place to hide.
Now, he didnt need to hide, but it was difficult to stop constantly moving, staying too long in one place would freak out the small boy and he would have to move,
But today was different,
He woke up under the sheets of his warm bed and crawled out, pressing his face against the window to see the white dust slowly falling, the nether had something similar but breathing it in would hurt his lungs and eyes so he tried to avoid it, but this white dust was cold and harmless,
Sitting at the window and watching the white dust gently landing on the window sill and lightly dusting the window brought a sense of calm that he hadnt been able to feel in his whole life.
After a bit he crawled out of bed, pulling out his art supply and setting it up on the floor. Laying on the floor he mindlessly scratched dye into loose pieces of paper, drawing him and his dads in the snow, he was really proud of himself and he tucked it under his bed so he could show it to his dads when they returned.
He then walked over to the book shelf and mindlessly pulled a book from the shelf, he couldnt read but there were pictures of animals and slumping down he went through them one by one, the creatures of this world seemed so much more nicer and friendlier than the ones in the nether, he lingered on a small white creature and found that he couldnt stop smiling, he hugged the book and looked at the picture, he couldnt read the words, but he traced the words with his finger, the language had a lot of curly parts and he enjoyed tracing them.
Thats when he heard the front door open and close and the realisation hit him,
Dad was home!
Sitting up he held the book close to his chest and ran to the door to greet his father, it didnt take long for the trap door to open and he was greeted by the face of his tall father smiling at him, jumping into his arms he was embraced by his father and his chest warmed up and once again he couldnt stop smiling, and his hands couldnt stop shaking ,but he wasnt scared? He was infact really happy to see his father but he couldnt stop shaking and he didnt want to stop it, he reached up and loosely grabbed at his father's crown and he laughed, saying something he dint quite understand but it was the same noise they would make when addressing him so it had to be good, he looked up at his dad and showed him the book with the small creature.
He smiled and ruffled his hair saying something he didnt understand again but he didnt care just being there made michael the happiest little boy in the whole world, his father smile slowly turned into a worried expression and sighed, before gently smiling and putting michael down on the edge of his bed, Michael was confused so he tried giving him the book, he really wanted his father to read to him, even though he didnt understand the words he liked the sound of the language, the language of piglins and pigman was harsh and made his ears hurt with its hard syllables and long vowels but with this new language it was very short and gentle, to the point and he liked to hear it even though he didnt understand it.
His father sighed and gently pushed the book back and shook his head, which made the little boys ears droop in disappointment, his father brushed his ears and smiled, giving the gesture for “soon”, he didnt know a lot of the language but in the meantime his fathers taught him a few signs so they could do basic communication.
He nodded slowly admitably sad to see his father go so soon.
He sat on his bed as he watched his dad go back down the trap door, waving before disappearing downstairs, allowing the book to fall off his lap and on the floor he frantically crawled across his bed to his window pressing his face against it to see his dad leave, and he waved to desperately catch his attention before leaving again, he caught his attention and he waved back which made him smile, he felt so loved, and watching him disappear around the building made him very sad, he pressed his face against the cold window and he let out a small whimper, looking out the window and back the trapdoor, how long until he would come back? Not for a couple more hours.
Helplessly the small child slumped back into the folds of their bed and pouted,
Thats when they remembered the picture!
He forgot to show his dad the picture he worked all morning on, frantically he crawled to the edge and slowly climbed off scavenging for the picture under his bed, he held it like if he was holding the last gold and he knew he had to get this picture to his dad.
But how would he get out? The trap door was way too heavy , he looked back at the window and got an idea.
Crawling back to the windowsill he pushed and pushed until it finally opened causing him to stumble onto the cold windowsill, it was a long drop and he had to admit he was kinda scared, but this mission was important and so fulled with determination, he folded the drawing neatly and tucked it away neatly in his skull, carefully climbing out he skimmed the building until he could see he could safely jump out into snow which he did, taking little to no damage and covered in the cold white dust, he was impressed with himself but there was time to play later, he stood up and started to follow the tracks left behind by his dad.