Chapter Text
Tommy sat on the top of the dirt tower, built as high as he could. He gazed over the remains of his exile spot, Logtedshire, and he pondered something. Why was he still here, it’s not like he plans on going back to L’manburg, they were the ones who exiled him after all. And when he thought about it more, he realised he really didn’t have to stay. The regulations for his exile was that he could not step foot on L’manburg or the Greater Smp, nothing was ever stated that he couldn’t go farther, away from everything. And at that moment, that sounded exactly what Tommy wanted, to start over. Within these past few weeks, the young avian has been more quiet and reserved. So starting over with people not knowing him for his past loud and boisterous self, sounded like the life Tommy wanted.
He had made up his mind, he was going to leave and start a new life. It would be great, he could hopefully even heal from all the trauma this server gave him. He would be leaving everyone who wronged him, especially Dream.
But.. Dream’s his friend.
And so was Tubbo, and look where that got us.
But Dream isn’t like Tubbo, he’s-
Dream is worse than Tubbo, he’s only pretending to be Tommy’s friend.
No, no he’s not pretending. He’s only trying to help.
I’m sorry, but he’s not, he’s manipulating Tommy.
He..Is?
Yeah, so it’s best if Tommy leaves.
Oh..
ℸ ̣ 𝙹ᒲᒲ|| ||𝙹⚍ ᒲ⚍ᓭℸ ̣ ꖎᒷᔑ⍊
And with that, the young phoenix finally decided what to do, he was going to leave. He still had time before Dream came back, he could hopefully get far away before Dream noticed he left. He used his damaged wings to glide down the tower, although it was painful, it was the best way to get down safely. As soon as he was on the ground, he immediately started packing what he could. Tommy was surprised with how much actually survived the explosion, but it was only enough to last barely a week. He found some half rotten carrots, a stone pickaxe, and some dirt covered bandages. He wasted no time cleaning the bandages the best he could in the ocean, and applying them to his most severe wounds. He found a chain and attached it to his ‘Your Tubbo’ compass, he would use it so he never accidentally goes towards the Smp.
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Tommy has been traveling for, what he thinks is a month now, Dream has to know he’s gone by now. “I wonder if anyone is looking for me, or if anyone except for Dream knows I left,” he thought to himself. He’s tired and limping, he wants to stop but he doesn’t in fear Dream will catch up. He knows for a fact that if he stops to rest for even a day, there’s the inevitable possibility Dream is going to catch up to him. And if Dream catches up, Tommy knows for sure that Dream will not hesitate to take his last life for running away.
So he kept going, trying his best to not trip over himself. For a minute he thinks he’s hallucinating, because in the distance he spots a village. Upon closer inspection he can see that it's rather small and fully abandoned. Before he can think about it, he’s running as fast as he can, which is probably not the best choice he could have made, hopeful to find at least something useful.
He wandered the village, and to his luck some of the crops were still there. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anything else, but at least he got food, which he really needed. He found a total of twelve potatoes, fifteen carrots, and five hay bales, which he immediately turned into wheat and then into bread. He searched the village for more and couldn’t find anything else, so he figured to just leave and keep going.
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Tommy traveled for longer, having lost track of time and what the date was. When it was dark he would find a cave and shelter there for a few hours until he deemed it safe enough to continue. It was around noon, and Tommy has now been traveling for what he thinks is three weeks after he found the village, and he’s currently trekking his way through a spruce forest. Unfortunately for him, he had lost his shoes completely after a run-in with a drowned when he was crossing a river a while back. So he had to walk barefoot, causing the pines and leaves and twigs on the ground to dig into his feet, giving him splinters and small cuts all over the bottom of his already bruised feet.
He’d been walking through the forest for hours, the taiga stretching for longer than Tommy thought. He was close to passing out due to exhaustion, eyes drooping frequently, until he was suddenly startled by a fairly loud wail. The blonde looked around frantically, trying to pinpoint where the sound came from. He wanted to figure out what- or maybe who was making that noise, he couldn’t pinpoint the direction until he heard the wailing again. It came from his left, deep in a set of bushes, so he went in that direction.
As it turns out, the noise was in fact made by a who, more specifically a baby spider hybrid Tommy could only guess was a month old. So now, here he was, cradling a baby on the ground, trying to calm him down, Tommy had figured out the baby was a boy. It worked surprisingly well and now said baby was soundly asleep in Tommy’s arms. The teen had no ideas as to what to do, but he knew he couldn’t just leave the baby all alone, especially with night arriving soon. So, he did what anyone with a heart would do, and brought the child along with him on his escape.
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The avian has been traveling with Shroud, the baby spider hybrid Tommy decided to name ‘cause he can’t just go around calling him ‘The baby’ or ‘the child’, for about three months now, and to say it was easy would only be half right. While Tommy did have experience caring for babies, from helping Wilbur raise Fundy sometimes, and Shroud was a good kid, he was still a baby. The blonde had managed to get some cloth for diapers and milk, which was really good for him. But traveling with a baby was definitely not the easiest thing, Tommy could tell you that for sure. Luckily for Tommy though, was that because Shroud was a hybrid, he didn’t get hostile during the night, and Tommy was very thankful for that.
They made it out of the taiga to Tommy’s relief, and right now they were camping in a cave for the night. It’s been weeks since Tommy got actual rest, but he didn’t want to sleep because he now had two fears, Dream catching up, and something happening to Shroud. The three month old baby was currently sleeping against a very exhausted Tommy, whose eyes were once again threatening to close. But he couldn’t sleep, he had to watch over Shroud, make sure nothing happened to the two. But his exhaustion got the best of him, and he eventually fell asleep with Shroud in his arm.
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Unbeknownst to the avian, a village hunter was near the cave, and got curious of the light and went to check it out. The hunter found the two asleep near the entrance and saw the state the older was in, so he decided to take them to his village so his sister could heal the older and make sure the pair was okay.
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When Tommy woke up he noticed he wasn’t in a cave anymore, instead he was in a fairly comfortable bed. The next thing he noticed once he was more awake, was that Shroud was no longer in his now bandaged arms. He frantically looked around and also took in his surroundings more. He was in a cozy looking room, the walls were cobblestone, the flooring was oak and the ceiling was stripped oak logs, there was birch furniture and the whole place was decorated with flowers. After not finding Shroud in the room he woke up in, he bolted out of the room, ignoring the pain sent to his ankles and feet as he did so, he found stairs and when he reached them he could hear faint cries he instantly recognized as Shrouds. He rushed down the stairs and ran towards the cries, not bothering to look at his surroundings thoroughly, only making sure he didn't fall. When he reached what he assumed was the living room, he saw a woman that was easily distinguishable as a bee hybrid, holding a still crying Shroud.
Tommy paused for a moment then rushed over and took his baby from her, and calmed him down, as well as calming himself down. “Ah, you’re awake, that's good. I’ve been trying to calm him down the whole time you were unconscious,” the woman said. Tommy looked at her while securely holding Shroud, “Where am I and who are you?” He asked, opting to get answers right away. “My name is Mishka Grace, and you are in my house,” she chuckled. “No shit I’m your house” Tommy thought, before actually saying, “I meant what town or region am I in.” The lady chuckled again, “Right, You are in the village Queensville of the Delphinium region.” Tommy was honestly shocked, he had actually left the Essempe region, and if he was correct, he was at least two regions away from Essempe. And he got here by foot! But then that makes him question, how long has he been traveling? “Uhm..Do you know the date, by any chance,” He hesitantly asked. The woman- Mishka, thought for a second, “It’s April 14th, why do you ask?”
Tommy froze, he missed his birthday, he was seventeen, did anyone celebrate his birthday, did Tubbo? “Kid? You alright?” Mishka questioned. Tommy had sat down on a nearby chair, Shroud sitting quietly in his lap playing with the blonde's hair, it having grown a bit past his shoulders during his travels. “I missed my birthday.. How did that happen?” He muttered how, but still loud enough for Mishka to hear. “Your birthday? When was it?” She asked, Tommy looked back at her. “It was the 9th, I’m seventeen now.” She looked like she wanted to ask more, but decided to save most for later, “Oh, well happy late-birthday er- I never got your name,” She laughed nervously. That made Tommy think, he didn’t really want to give his real name, so he just gave her the first thing that came to mind, “Theseus, my name's Theseus.”