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Dream was not a good fighter.
Holding his blade, staring down the bounty hunter after them with only himself standing between their blade and George, he was very starkly reminded of this. He’d never been good at close combat. Sure, he could hunt with a bow and arrow, but that was different. That was so different.
If anything, one would think George had more combat training. After all, he was a prince, wasn’t he? But nope, George’s siblings seemed to have taken precedence there and apparently George wasn’t a good fighter and Dream was really regretting leaving his bow behind but it wasn’t like they had really had time to pack he’d just seen the bruises and then knew they had to leave—
Swallowing, Dream stared down the hunter opposite him. He knew who this was. If George’s parents, if the king and queen, had really sent this man after them…well, maybe fighting wasn’t the best response. No. No, we can’t go back there. George can’t go back there. They’ll kill him.
But if we stay, Technoblade will kill us.
The hunter straightened up, ornate skull mask pulled down over his face. Despite the majority of his hair being tied back in its usual braid, some of the shorter strands framing his face were being blown to the side by the mountain breeze. In the best of circumstances, with the sunlight shining down on an enchanted, intricately runed diamond blade, sparking along the armour settled on Techno’s shoulders and chest, highlighting the pinks of his hair and the bright reds in his cloak, it would be an awe-inspiring, even terrifying sight. On the other side of the blade, however, with it being levelled at his chest, the only thing Dream could think was, I need to give George time to run.
“Prince George, commoner boy, put down the weapons.” Techno mused in a dry tone, no emotion coming through his voice. “We don’t need to have any bloodshed unless you force my hand. We can go back to the castle all nice and—”
“We’re never going back there.” Dream forced out, tightening his grip on the sword he had. They’d stolen it, sort of. Well, really, George had found it somehow and Dream hadn’t asked, strapped the scabbard to his belt as they rode out on an also-stolen horse. They didn’t have a choice.
They didn’t have a choice.
They couldn’t go back with Techno.
Sighing, Techno shook his head. “I hate to break it to you, but you are going back. Even if that means you as a corpse and him in chains.” He gestured to Dream first with the tip of his sword, then George. Instinctively, George shrank back, and Dream straightened up a little more.
“You—are—not—touching—him.” Techno didn’t seem moved in the slightest. The wind rushed by them, drifting down into the ravine to their right. It was a steep drop, if either of them fell it would kill them immediately.
Somewhere above them, a bird passed over the sun, shadow darting over the rocks.
It was a sunny day. The sky was a clear blue. Except, as George’s breathing quickened behind him, Dream noticed small, dark silver clouds forming within moments. The wind kicked up. We need to keep this quick. Get out of here before Techno realises what’s actually going on. Glancing back, he smiled reassuringly. “It’ll be fine, George.” He whispered.
Nodding, George shrank back a little bit. The clouds began to grow, sprinklings of rain dusting the rocks around them. Alright. Probably should start this.
“Please just drop the sword and come with us. It’ll be easier that way.” Techno sighed, and Dream turned to look back at him. Dark green feathers, iridescent like the shells of the beetles that appeared during the summer, drifted down around them. Dream ignored it, focusing more on the current threat. “You’ll make this so much easier.”
“We’re not going with you!” George forced out, voice cracking. Head tipping back, Techno murmured something that Dream had a feeling was an evocation of some sort. Then, shaking his head, the hunter looked to them.
“Fine. We’ll do this the hard way.” One of his feet slid in the dirt, which was quickly beginning to turn to mud. Pebbles skidded down the slope of the ravine, and Dream took a breath.
Maybe sword fighting was easier than it looked?
Techno lunged in, and immediately Dream knew that no, sword fighting was not as easy as it looked. With a quick twist of his blade, Techno knocked Dream’s from his hand. Then, the hunter was behind him, and a foot was planted in his back. He was shoved forwards. Flailing, he hit the mud, felt some of it press into his face.
No. No, no, no nononono this isn’t happening this can’tbehappening—the sword clattered down out of reach and disappeared into the ravine. Straightening up, he turned and saw Techno walking towards George. The prince was backing away. Above them, the storm rattled and grumbled, thunder rolling around the valley.
“Come on, Your Highness—” Techno cut off with a grunt as Dream tackled him from behind. Maybe sword fighting wasn’t Dream’s strong suit, but when Sapnap had still been around they’d fought and wrestled plenty of times. “What the—get off of me!”
Clinging to the hunter’s back like a bear cub to a tree, arms wrapped around his neck tightly, Dream kicked at the back of the other man’s legs. With another sound of shock, Techno dropped to one knee and then slammed his back into the mountainside, and Dream with it.
“Dream!” George yelled.
“Seriously?” Grabbing his arm, Techno flipped Dream into the dirt again, twisting so that the joint was nearly dislocated. “Come on, boy. Don’t make me hurt you. I really don’t want to.”
Teeth gritted, Dream stared up at him. “You’re not touching him. I won’t let you.”
“You don’t get the choice.” Huffing, Dream twisted, kicked the side of Techno’s knee again. Something shifted, and the man went down with a yell. Unfortunately, he landed on top of Dream, but within a few seconds Dream had him smashed into the ground. The rain had strengthened, pounding down around them now and plastering Dream’s bangs to his forehead. “Will you calm down?”
Looking up, Dream met George’s gaze. Then, he shouted, “George, run!” Techno’s fingers locked in his jaw, dragged him to the side. Still, he got a glimpse of George turning and running. Face smushed into the mud, he laughed weakly.
“I told you to calm down!” Techno yelled, and Dream kicked him in the ribs as best as he could. The hunter decked him in the jaw once, and for a second a little spurt of satisfaction that he’d managed to anger the so-called “Blood God” enough to show emotion flared up in Dream’s chest. “Enough of this.” Grabbing Dream by the hair, Techno slammed his head into the ground.
For a moment, he had to lie there, ears ringing and vision swirling dizzily as Techno stalked off.
George must have stopped, because Dream could hear him screaming nearby. Too nearby. I told him to run! Slowly, Dream rolled onto his side, coughed at the wave of dizziness, and shook his head to clear it.
Slowly, he tried to get up. His legs failed him, sending him to the mud. During the fight, he must have gotten more injuries than he thought—his ribs were bruised at the least. (He wasn’t dumb, he’d fallen out of plenty of trees to know when they were hurt and this was definitely that.) Sucking in a breath, he looked up.
Techno was approaching George.
“Don’t touch him!” Dream screamed, hauling himself across the mud. Pebbles scraped against his palms. His ribs ground together. Aches and pains flared up along his body, but he gritted his teeth and kept going anyways. Even if he had a choice—which he didn’t—he would have done the same.
This man was not touching George.
Grabbing Techno’s ankle, Dream jerked to the side and then hauled himself on top of his opponent. Beneath him, Techno swore, grabbed at his face. Dream punched him twice—in the jaw, then the neck. The world flipped and his back slammed into the ground. Kicking at Techno’s stomach, he kept fighting. He couldn’t let him get to George, whatever he did.
Techno was talking to him. Whatever was being said, he didn’t care. Couldn’t bring himself to. Fingers wrapped around his throat. Kicking up, Dream felt his heel crack against hard iron armour. “Calm down!” Techno roared.
“Dream!” George screamed. The world flashed, thunder cracking with a loud roar across everything as lightning split the sky in two. Everything went white for a split second, and Dream rolled to the side with his hands clamped over his ears. It hurt it hurt it hurt he couldn’t hear he couldn’t hear George needed him but he couldn’t move everything was ringing—
“…alright?” Slowly, things came back to him. He was lying on his side in the mud still, ears ringing and hands still clasped over them. Blinking, he cracked his eyes open to see someone crouched beside him. A man, with blond hair and kind blue eyes, iridescent green wings fanned out around them to add shade.
No.
Philza.
Gasping, Dream jolted upright and scrambled away. Holding his arms up, wincing at the newly reignited pain flaring along his body, he sucked in a few breaths. “Please—please—we can’t stay. We can’t stay, we can’t stay they’ll kill him. They’ll kill him. You can take me—” Hands wrapped around his wrists. “You can take me but just let him go just let him go please they’ll kill him—”
“Whoa, whoa, it’s…not going to hurt you.” Sound kept cutting in and out, and Dream sucked in a few breaths before glancing around. George was a few paces away, watching him with a worried expression while…someone else held him back? A really tall brunet guy, with a hat and glasses. Speaking in a soft tone, he glanced over at Dream and smiled before dipping his head a little bit. “…scare you there. Sorry.” Philza laughed, and Dream swallowed before tearing his gaze from George’s to look up at the winged man.
“What?” Dream flinched away when Philza crouched in front of him, touching the side of his head. There was a jolt of pain and he cried out.
“Dream!” George brushed by the brunet man holding him back. Racing over, he grabbed Dream’s hand, looked him over. “Are you alright? I didn’t mean to hit you with that I was really only aiming for Techno I thought he was going to hurt you but he wasn’t and it turns out these people are really nice and—”
George was talking so fast and his head was hurting so much it took a solid sixteen seconds before Dream’s brain registered anything that was said and the fact that he could hear it without the weird fading in and out.
Slowly, Philza and George helped him upright. He stumbled on the first step. Without another word, George ducked under his arm and pressed into his side, holding him up so he could limp over to a rock and sit down. A little blond kid started treating his injuries, chatting amicably. “Tubbo, where’s Tommy?”
Shrugging, Tubbo replied, “With Techno.” Philza’s expression shifted to worry in a moment.
“Who are you people?” Dream asked, looking at them. “I thought you were Technoblade and Philza?”
Philza glanced at him and smiled softly. “We are.” Dream and George exchanged a glance.
Biting his lower lip, George smiled sheepishly and shifted the new jacket on his shoulders somewhat. “Yeah…we had an understandable response, considering that Techno and Phil were hired by my parents, but…”
“We decided not to stick with it.” Techno mused, striding up with a kid clinging to his back. Staring at Dream with wide blue eyes, the kid (who Dream assumed was Tommy) grinned wickedly. If he had to guess, he’d probably assume Tommy and Tubbo were about twelve or so, so Phil and the others couldn’t be there to kill them. Unless they were fine with murdering in front of children. Which Dream was pretty sure they weren’t. Right?
“Oh. Sorry for…trying to kill you. I guess.” Tubbo laughed lightly and then wrapped Dream’s ribs a bit. On his other side, George was pressing into him. “I guess that we probably could have reacted better.”
“Yeah, you could have. But it’s not like we exactly…advertise the fact we pick and choose which bounties we take and fulfil.” Techno cleared his throat, and Phil tipped his head to the side to look at him. Gesturing to George and Dream, Techno made a “heh” noise and they both shared a conversation without passing a single word. “Oh, right. Dream, George, we’re going to need your clothes.”
That took a second to process.
“What?” Making an expression that could only be described as the facial version of waving his hand from side to side, Phil explained.
“So, the story that Wilbur,” Phil gestured back to the brunet, who had to be Dream and George’s age now that he thought about it, and then added, “came up with was that George fell off the ravine and we managed to grab part of your shirt.” He indicated George, who nodded, “and then we killed you,” he indicated Dream there, “and then left your body to be eaten by animals. Very clean, we just need to use the blood from any animals we hunt for dinner tonight to splash it on your clothes and then get you some more…winter-appropriate stuff. Because, no offense, but the two of you?” Gesturing to their outfits, he swallowed.
Techno jumped in critically, “You’re both screwed if you try to go through the mountains like this. You’re unprepared, you can’t use a sword, and if your approach to every fight is just tackling them then you’re dead.”
Nodding, Dream mused, “Fair.” He reached up, rubbed the back of his neck, then mused, “I’m good with a bow. We just…had to escape before I could bring my things with me. Didn’t have the chance or time to pack. And I haven’t really sparred with anyone in a while, after Sap left—”
“Wait, Sap?” Tommy jumped forwards, eyes brightening in the sunlight. “You mean like Sapnap Sap? We know him!”
Huffing, George mused, “Small world, huh?” Smiling, Phil shrugged, wings fluffing out with the movement.
“Why don’t we get you some clean clothes, and then we’ll get you to our base? We’ll help you out, get you over the ridge to the Safe Haven. It’ll be fun.”
“Sure. Like we’re not leaving everything.” George chuckled, and Dream glanced over to him and smiled gently. Their gazes met and softened, and Tommy made a noise. As a result, both of them glared at him, and he ran off with Tubbo cackling. “So I’m guessing you have some part of the Safe Haven, then?”
Smiling, Phil and Techno looked at one another and replied, “Sure. You could say that.”