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A soft breeze brushed against Tommy’s skin as he pulled on his friend’s floppy, threadbare, sleeve.
“Come on! It’s not that far now!”
“Where are we even going? We’re all the way in the fourth ring!” Tubbo said, jumping over a dip in the road, Tommy had insisted on showing him a ‘very cool and important secret’ after school that day but wouldn’t explain a single thing else.
“You’ll see- now come on! You’re so slow!”
Tommy missed Tubbo’s eye roll and tried to urge him along, hoping to avoid the more dodgy areas Phil warned him about years ago.
He led them past Skeppy’s shack, past the dilapidated buildings, and towards the fence. They ended up close to the gap that Tommy had followed Techno through a few weeks earlier.
Tommy ducked behind a house, motioning dramatically for Tubbo to follow, Tommy looking for the telltale willow tree vines that hid the gap, ignoring Tubbo’s questions.
“There it is!” He started to run but skidded to a halt, cautiously checking the area, then crept forwards, waving for Tubbo to join him.
He peeled back the gangly green vines and looked to Tubbo for a reaction.
“What- what is this?”
“The forest outside the rings!”
“Well obviously- how did you find it?”
“That’s not important,” Tommy grinned, “What is important is that we have access to the outside world.”
“What are we even gonna do with this?”
“Well- I don’t know- it’s- it’s cool! It’s just cool-” He paused, “Not like you would get cool.”
Tubbo nodded, taking a step closer to the fence, “What do you think is out there?”
“Nothing we can’t handle! Come on- it’ll be fun! We can do anything we want!” And without waiting for a response Tommy marched in, Tubbo sighed before trailing behind.
The edge of the forest looked worse than the last time Tommy had seen it, more litter was scattered in the foliage and trees, the thickets were sharper and pulled at already thin clothing and pricked his skin but that didn’t stop him.
“Do you even know where you’re going?”
“Of course! I’ve been here loads of times!” Tommy jabbed a thumb at his own chest proudly.
“How many times?”
“Uh- too many to count!” Tommy stammered, scrambling over a mossy log, intentionally crunching on the leaves. “Just know that I am a professional!”
Tubbo snorted, optioning to crouch under the log instead.
They continued deeper into the woods, soft sunlight dappling through the canopy of leaves, emerald green grass brushing against their ankles, the chittering of nearby animals filled their ears.
“Do you think there are bees in here?”
“Of course- there have to be!”
“I’d like to see them- I’ve only seen a few in the rings…”
“Hell yeah! Let’s go find us some bees! There are probably some close by!”
The pair bounced through the woods, crossing little creeks and streams, hopping from rock to rock and trying to swing on the low hanging weak vines on the trees.
Tommy had tried a particularly weak one, slipped, and landed flat on his back.
They happened upon a little flower patch, immediately taking notice of the buzzing coming from the vibrant flowers, a few yellow specks fluttering about.
Tommy watched as Tubbo crouched down and inched closer, biting his lip to stop from laughing.
“Ya know Tubbo- I don’t really get why you like those things.”
“I don’t know why either, I just think they’re neat, come and watch them.”
“No- that sounds boring.” Tommy said as he shuffled closer to Tubbo, who was poking tentatively at the bees. “Moths are better.”
“No they’re not,”
“Yes they are!”
“If they are so much better then where are they?”
“They-they’re not out right now- because-” Tommy trailed off briefly.
“‘Cause they’d get eaten.” Tubbo filled in nonchalantly, not bothering to look up.
Tommy shrieked, “Aw no! That’s sick- that’s so sick! You’re so twisted!”
“I’m not twisted- that’s just how nature works-”
“Nature is stupid!”
“You’re stupid-”
They bickered back and forth for a moment before the argument dissolved and they sat in a not awkward but not comfortable silence.
Tubbo broke it, rubbing a soft yellow flower petal between his fingers, “I wonder what type of flower this is- the bees seem to really like it.”
Tommy looked up, briefly stopping from pulling up grass, “They’re buttercups.” He said simply.
“You answered that fast.” Tubbo teased, watching Tommy’s head shoot up.
“Well- well yeah! Because I’m so smart I just know these things!”
Tubbo laughed, plucking a bee free buttercup from the ground and laying it across Tommy’s busted up shoes.
“Sure big man.”
In turn Tommy took it and tried to weave it between the laces, after he mangled the steam just enough to get it to stay he picked a buttercup of his own and stuck it in a free button gap on Tubbo’s shirt.
They grinned at each for a moment before Tommy cleared his throat and looked over at the bees, “Hm, they aren’t so bad.”
“They’re great- at least they actually do things for the environment- unlike moths!”
“I’m tired of your shit! Moths are great and it’s not my fault that you’re too stupid to see that!”
The banter continued until they heard the bushes rustle and froze, it was too strong and too loud for it to be a small animal. Tommy put up a hand and crept forwards, taking care to not step on anything that could alert the thing of his presence.
He stood on his tiptoes and looked out to see something slinking forwards, hissing softly, not in his direction, it almost blended in with forest as it.
He wasn’t able to recognize it but knew it was bad news, just looking at the monster’s bend form sent sharp shivers down his back.
Tommy let out a shaky breath and took a step back, he had heard Techno say there were monsters in the forest before but he thought Techno was just trying to scare him.
He tried to rationalize to himself, it was fine, the monster didn’t even know he was there, they just had to sneak away- which was totally doable!
Tommy took a one cautious step backwards, still keeping his eyes locked on the monster. He took another, didn’t make a sound, and the monster's head snapped to the side, zeroing in on him.
It’s eyes narrowed and it let out a sharp, grading, cry before charging forwards at full speed.
Tommy shrieked and ran towards Tubbo, grabbing his arm in an attempt to pull him up, babbling about a ‘something big something bad- monster- run run run ’.
They rushed through the trees, trying to stick close to one another without tripping, jumping over large roots and avoiding vines they didn’t dare bother to look back.
“We need to move around more- so we’re harder to follow!” Tubbo called to him, Tommy shook his head.
“No! We could get lost- besides we can out run that bastard!”
The land started to look a little familiar, the trees started thinning and the chitters of the animals were dying down.
Tommy dared to look behind him and skidded to a halt, chest heaving, he didn’t see the monster behind him and flopped on the ground, trying desperately to suck down as much air as possible.
He heard Tubbo stop too, looking over to see him leaning against a tree, sweat dripping down his forehead.
“So- besides- besides the monster- I think that went pretty well.”
Tubbo gave him a look before laughing, “Yeah- yeah it did.”
They waited for a few moments, trying to get their breathing back under control, Tommy took to breaking a twig into smaller pieces while Tubbo fiddled with the flower still stuck in his shirt.
After a while Tommy sat up, immediately regretting it as all the blood rushed from his head, tossing the shredded twig bits aside.
“We should probably get back home,”
Tubbo nodded as Tommy climbed to his feet then rushed over and grabbed Tubbo’s shoulders.
“You can’t tell anyone about any of this, okay Tubbo? It has to be a complete secret.”
Tubbo nodded again, putting his hands on top of Tommy’s, “Got it!”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Okay- now let's get out of here.” They walked to the edge of the forest and after making sure the coast was clear ran over and ducked back through the fence, pushing the swaying willow vines away.
The fourth circle was quiet, the cracked cobble brick roads were barren, the sun was just starting to set so they picked up the pace.
They couldn’t have gotten three houses down the road until they ran into Technoblade, he barely spared them a passing glance, in favor of messing with a hole in his sleeve.
“There you guys are.” He said, “Knew you were out here.”
“What- how?”
“It’s a sense- I can tell when you’re doing something stupid.”
“That’s rude- I don’t do stupid things-”
“Sure Tommy, now lets get home.” Techno had already turned to walk away.
“Get home?”
“Yes.” He looked over his shoulder, “You have people who worry about your wellbeing you know.”
‘I don’t think you know that.’ Tommy wanted to retort but kept his mouth shut, trailing behind Techno who didn’t seem to understand there wasn’t a rush to get home and there was no need for him to walk that fast.
The walk back was mostly silence saved for a few questions about the weekend's homework. The trio eventually reached the rusty metal stairs, Techno turned to Tubbo.
“Can you make it back to your place okay?”
Tubbo nodded, “Yeah, I’ll be fine, see you later.” He waved and continued down the street.
They watched him leave and Tommy felt his nerves settle just a little bit when;
“You were in the forest.” It wasn’t a question.
“Uh-”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Tommy froze, not sure of what to do, was Techno mad at him or just annoyed? He could never tell.
“You’re not hurt, are you?” Techno sighed, Tommy shook his head.
“Nope.”
“Didn’t see anything weird in there?”
“Nope.” Tommy felt like it was probably better if Techno didn’t know about the monster even if it didn’t get that close- better safe than sorry.
Techno eyed him up and down. “Okay you’re definitely lying.”
“What! No I’m not- you stupid-”
“Yeah yeah- just get upstairs.” Techno sighed again, nudging Tommy towards the stairs.
Tommy stuck his tongue out but headed up towards the apartment anyways, grinning when he looked down and noticed the buttercup still wrapped in between his shoe laces.
It was busted up and missing a few petals but was still soft between his fingertips and glowed softly in the dim light of his room.
He put it in a little glass of water on his desk for a reminder of his adventure with his friend.