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The only thing Tommy can see is fire. It builds around him. The smoke chokes him and the heat makes his skin tingle. He quickly sprints out of his alleyway, away from his home. He jumps over a small flaming wall and onto the streets. That's when he sees them. Men in shiny purple armor. There were at least five of them. All carrying weapons and nets. Tommy knows he’s screwed, because those are hunters and he left his cape in the alleyway. He’s frozen still as he watches one of the hunters turn and green eyes meet blue.
“There's one up here” the hunter yells. Tommy breaks off into a sprint. As yells sound from behind him.
Tommy beats his wings, but they do little without their flight feathers. He’s supposed to get his flight feathers at sixteen, so right now they're just an annoying target on his back. And right now he has 3 crossbows pointed at those targets.
Sering pain sends shock waves throughout his arm as an arrow embeds itself in Tommy’s shoulder. He can’t stop running though. He’s made it 15 years without getting caught, eight of which he did alone. He can’t break that streak now. He can’t let these bitches get him.
So he sprints throughout the burning village. Twisting and turning, trying to throw them off his trail. Tommy risks a glance back, only to see his method is working! He’s lost two of the hunters. If he continues this he’ll be able to make a quick getaway into the forest and lose these pricks in the foliage.
Tommy makes a quick turn down an alleyway and smacks straight into someone. The other hunters. He collapsed on the ashy gravel. He tries to scramble back onto his feet only to have a weighted net tossed over his head. Ceasing his attempt as it starts. Tommy struggles trying to kick the net off himself. His plan; however, was foiled when he was pinned down by one of the hunters. So Tommy does the next best thing and screeches at the top of his lungs. It came out more of a squawk than Tommy would like to admit.
“Holy shit that's awful. Sapnap grab the blindfold and hurry. I wanna shut this thing up as fast as possible” The one pinning Tommy down calls. What are they going to do, put Tommy in a blindfold and throw him over his shoulders like Santa Claws? Maybe it might be easier to get away from these people than Tommy originally thought.
Suddenly Tommy's head is thrust up and a blindfold is tightly tied around his head. Darkness envelopes him and he goes silent.
He hears a chuckle from above him. “Just like the animal it is,” The same voice says. “Come on let's load it into the wagon” Suddenly Tommy feels hands grab onto him. They tie ropes around his wrist and ankles. Tommy tries to fight, but his mind feels fuzzy. All he can do is let out quiet distressed chirps. His calls fall on deaf ears as he is quickly picked up and harshly thrown into a cage. Tommy’s cage is then lifted up onto a wagon and they set off.
Tommy had no clue where they were going. The stupid blindfold was cuting of all of his senses. It was like they drugged him. He felt loopy the whole time it was on. It was as if Tommy was floating in space, unanchored to the ground.
He had no clue how long it had been, but eventually they stopped. Tommy’s cage was picked up and carried into what he assumed was a building. He heard a metal door screech open and he was thrown out of his cage onto cold concrete. He’s shoulder hit hard on the ground and he yelled out in pain.
Tommy’s hinder brain was in full blast at this point, so it was almost impossible to stop the distressed chirps from spilling out. But he was not about to start calling for a parent like some baby bird. So in order to stop the chirps from coming out Tommy clamped his jaw onto his arm. As much as it hurt it was better than calling for his dead parents. That was how he stayed biting down harder as the urge grew more desperate, until the blindfold was ripped off his head.
“Alright let's see what we got here” The man who took off the blindfold said. He appeared to be the leader of the group. He had blond hair and the ugliest highlighter green hoodie Tommy has ever seen.
Tommy looked around the room, trying to figure out where he was. It was obviously some sort of cell. Its walls consisted of concrete blocks. Except for the one in front of Tommy, that the other four hunters lingered behind, that one was made of metal bars.
“I got twenty bucks it's a chicken avian. You see those tiny wings it could barely get two inches off the ground” a man with dark hair and a headband exclaimed rudely. It wasn’t Tommys fault he wasn’t fully grown. Even if he was fully grown they still would be small, because Tommys diet doesn’t have a lot of food in it. They were only small because Tommy was malnourished. He can’t wait till he breaks out of here and shows this bitch what his tiny wings can do.
“I’ll take that bet,'' a man with brown hair replied. He was mostly normal looking except for these weird clunky white glasses he wore. “Karl, can you check its feathers? See if you can find out anything from there” He finished.
“Yeah, sure” a man in a multi-colored hoodie walks into the cell. As soon as he gets close enough, Tommy attacks. He launches at the man and bites down on his arm. The man screams and tries to throw Tommy off. This plan however backfires as it just causes Tommy to bite down harder. He didn’t let go until another hunter physically unclamps his jaw and throws him down, hard. While Tommy was recovering from that blow, another one kicked him in the stomach. Soon all of them are ganging up on Tommy, punching, kicking, and hitting him till he’s black and blue.
“Hopefully that will teach the feral little thing” headband man says. Tommy now sits, muzzled and tied to a pole, completely and utterly humiliated. Who do these people think they are ruining Tommy's big man reputation like this.
“Now Karl I don’t think the shit can do anything now. So if you don’t mind checking I wanna see who won” Glasses asked.
Tommy could do nothing as he felt hands run down his wings. Slowly the man ripped out his down feathers, taking them away. Tears welled up in his eyes as he watched the man study his wings. When the man stepped back he had taken at least ten of Tommys feathers. He could feel blood start to leak from some of those places.
“I have good news Dream--” Karl announced. “--we got another elytrian, and a baby one at that” He finished. What do they mean another one? There can’t be another elytrian here, Tommy hasn’t seen another one of his kind since his parents died.
With the news that another one of his kind might be here, Tommy lets his instincts take over. Desperate chirps poor from his mouth like a waterfall. Trying to see if it was true. If there really was another elytra here there would at least respond. Elytrians are very protective of their young Tommy remembers, so this one would have to respond.
A loud bang sounds from above along with reassuring chirps. There really was another elytra here! They weren’t lying! Tommy doesn’t have to be alone anymore. Lost in his instincts now Tommy tries desperately to chirp louder, asking for help, for comfort. A slam sounds from above and he hears metal snap.
“Holy shit, shut that thing up now!” The fifth hunter says. The one in the green hoodie comes up and punches Tommy in the face; however, this has the opposite effect of what the hunters wanted. It sends Tommy even deeper into his instinct. His calls get louder and more frantic.
Then Tommy sees him. An elytra with dirty blond hair and huge dark wings burst from upstairs. He takes little time in wiping out the hunters, before running over to pick up Tommy. As soon as he unties Tommy from the wall he bursts outside and flies as fast as he could away from the hunters.
Quiet comforting coos are the only noise the other makes as Tommy hides himself in the others chest. Both still deep in their instincts, Tommy is rocked to sleep.
When Tommy wakes up the only thing proving that yesterday wasn’t a nightmare is the fact that he's still wrapped up in the other's arms in an unfamiliar nest. Tommy tries to wiggle out of his arms without waking the other up, and fails miserably. The other is up the second Tommy moves quickly checking for any danger ,before his eye zero in on Tommy.
“Hey big man, do you mind letting me go?” Tommy asks. The other immediately lets go and scooches a bit back.
“Sorry about that mate, I didn’t mean to hold you hostage there” The man awkwardly says with a chuckle. “My names Phil by the way”
“I’m Tommy, and do you mind telling me where the fuck we are” Tommy yells.
“Well mate, you're in the Origin smp” Phil states. Tommys mouth falls open, because obviously Tommys heard about the myth of Origin smp. But he thought it was just that, a myth! I mean it's a little ridiculous to think there could be a safe place for hybrids.
Phil laughs at Tommy’s reaction before saying “Why don’t you look out the window” And so Tommy got up to do just that. Sure enough outside was the definition of a paradise. He was high in the clouds, down below sat a lake where he saw a mer talking to a blaze. Up higher he saw a starborne and a fox casually talking. All of them proudly showing off their hybrid status.
“This is real?” Tommy hesitantly asks. Scared that it all might disappear.
“Yeah it’s real mate” Phil says. Tommy can’t help the wide grin that grows on his face. “Do you want to grab something to eat from the Pub(e)? I can’t help but notice you look a bit like a walking skeleton” Phil asks. Tommy mutely nods. Still a bit too shocked to give a verbal answer.
The Pub(e) is amazing. There was a way for everyone to get in and don’t even get Tommy started about the food. There was so much of it and so many different times. Tommy sat down shoving a piece down his throat when Phil started to talk.
“So Tommy, I was wondering if you had anyone back at your home” Tommy choked down the rest of the bread before answering.
“Phil big man, I don’t even have a home let alone people there” Tommy really should think before he speaks more often, he thinks as he sees surprise wash over Phils face.
“Oh that's great mate!” Phil counters. Now its Tommys turn to be surprised, because what the fuck…
“I was a bit scared to ask you this, but would you like to live with me here?” Phil asks. That was not what Tommy was expecting. Phil wants him to stay? Not only that, he wants Tommy to live with him.
It seems Phil took Tommys silence as an answer, because he’s smile slowly is turning into a frown. So Tommy frantically nods his head.
“That would… that would be amazing” Tommy responds as he’s face breaks into a huge smile. Phil is quick to copy.
“It will be won’t it--” Phil states “--hold on I’ll tell everyone” he says as he pulls out a strange black box. He pokes at it for a second, and soon the Pub(e) is filled with people introducing themselves to Tommy.
Tommys smile grows more than he thought was possible, as he thinks he can’t wait for this to be his everyday.