Chapter Text
It’s a cold wind, out here in the woods.
Tommy hasn’t had a home for six months now, and that would be fine, but it’s so awfully cold. Winter, once his favorite season, is a dark cloud on the horizon of this little life Tommy’s carved out for himself here in these woods.
If he’s going to survive the winter, he’s going to need to find a home.
Tommy doesn’t have a family. He used to have a friend. But Tubbo went missing six months ago. His home used to be Tubbo’s, or rather his home was a flimsy cot shoved into the corner of Tubbo’s room. When Tubbo disappeared though, Tubbo’s father didn’t see a reason to keep Tommy around.
He’s not too upset about that. Schlatt’s home always smelled like smoke. He would’ve gotten sick of it sooner or later anyway.
It sucks not having a home though. Not all the time. There are certainly some fun days. Days that he dreamed of, when he was younger. No supervision. No adults hovering around him. Tommy’s a big kid, he can handle himself now. Hell, he’s going to be a teenager next year! He’s barely a kid at all now!
Those fun days are usually when Tommy has gotten a stockpile of food. When he knows where he’s going to sleep next. When he’s not close to collapsing from exhaustion.
Those days will be few and far between come winter. That’s why Tommy needs a home. Because making sure he has shelter each night is going to be a much more daunting task. And hunting? Growing food? Forget about it.
At first, Tommy tries to build himself a home. With a hefty swing of his axe he begins to chop down a tree for wood. He’s gotten used to the weight of the axe by now. He’s gotten so much stronger. Even so, it’s hard for him to haul all the wood he needs to the clearing he chose to make his home in.
So he tries to build the shelter right there, and it goes… well, it goes.
Tommy’s venture lasts a few days before he finally gives up. He tried his best to build a house, but it was never good enough. Could never stand on its own. A harsh wind would blow it down, or it’d collapse if Tommy bumped into it. One time, a fox darted into it and accidentally knocked one of the pillars loose. It was then that Tommy gave up.
Now, he’s out of a home and some valuable days preparing for winter. What he needs is to find something that’s already there. He needs to find life.
There are two places he knows of that contain life in this area. Or at least used to contain life, could still sustain it. The homes on the slopes of the mountain.
The forest he’s lived in for the past few months is nestled in the valley beneath a huge mountain. A mountain so tall that the peak is obscured in fog. Tommy tried to climb it once. Didn’t make a lick of progress. Some of the other mountains in the range are scalable, but not this one. At least not right now, maybe if Tommy practiced, then one day he could do it.
He’s explored the lower cliffs of it though. It has two main sides because of the way it’s shaped. Instead of a perfect cone, it’s more like a triangular prism tipped on its side. Two of the faces ascend at a steady pace. Those were the sides Tommy tried to climb. The other slopes are much steeper. On some of those cliffs, if you fell, you’d plummet straight to the ground without even hitting the mountain itself.
So Tommy always travels around the mountain. Never across it. He’s explored both of its sides, and so he vaguely knows that each side holds at least one household. The eastern side has a small stone cottage, nothing fancy. The western side has a much larger, prettier log cabin on it.
Tommy’s seen both from afar, but he never approached either of them. What if their inhabitants were weirdos who wanted to kidnap him? Well, there’s nobody to kidnap him from. What if they wanted to eat him though? There are people who eat other people. At least according to Tubbo.
It’s worth a shot now though. Tommy needs someplace to stay, sooner or later. Hopefully one of those buildings will be empty. If not, well, he’ll try to be friendly to the people who live there. He’s charming enough, he can earn a spot to stay.
He’ll start with the east side. That one looks a bit more abandoned, better chance of him scoring a house to himself there. And if that doesn’t work out, he’ll try the west.
So Tommy goes hunting, gathering enough rabbit meat to last himself a couple days in case his journey takes longer than expected. He fills his bottle up with water from the stream. Then, after a good night’s sleep, he heads off.
Somebody lives in the cottage on the east side.
Tommy can tell because he sees smoke rising from just about that direction.
Well, it could be a forest fire. Shit, wait, it really could be a forest fire. Tommy’s first thought was a campfire. What if it is a forest fire? He’ll go and see. He can always run away if it does turn out to be dangerous.
He approaches, and soon enough, the source of the fire becomes apparent. Luckily, it’s under control. A simple bonfire.
Unluckily though, the reason for the fire is also apparent. In the form of a man sitting on a tree stump, poking the fire with a long metal stick.
Tommy ducks behind a tree, and just barely pokes his head out so he can see the man he presumes to be the owner of the cottage.
He’s dressed simply, in seemingly handmade clothing. If it were the spring, or perhaps summer, he’d blend right into the woods. He’s decked head to toe in forest green. A similar color to Tubbo’s old favorite shirt. Tommy can’t see his face from here, so he decides to chance a closer look.
That turns out to be a bad idea. Immediately he steps upon a twig, and the man’s head snaps up.
And- oh. His face isn’t even visible. He’s wearing a weird stark white mask.
“Who’s there?” the man calls, and Tommy freezes.
The man rises from his tree stump, setting the poker down on the rocks next to the fire pit. He takes a step towards Tommy. Tommy ducks behind another tree, but in doing so he only makes more noise.
“Sapnap? Is it you? George? Stop hiding, you know I’ll find you.”
Thinking fast, Tommy replies, “Um, yeah, it’s Sapnap! Hey!”
It seemed like a good idea in his head. He didn’t exactly think it through, didn’t realize that the man would be able to quickly realize he isn’t Sapnap.
“... Sapnap doesn’t sound like that, doesn’t sound so British. Are you pulling some trick on me, George?”
“Uh- Yes! It’s me, George! You got me.”
That version of the ruse is up even quicker, as the man quickly makes his way through the woods and finds Tommy. Tommy tries to back up but the tree is right there. He just ends up hitting his head.
“You’re not George,” the man says, simply.
“You don’t know that,” Tommy replies. “I’m not your George. But what if my name is George? It’s a common name.”
“Well is it?”
“No.”
“Then what is it?”
“You’re a stranger, I’m not telling you my name.”
“Why are you in my yard if you’re not going to even tell me your name?”
The stranger has a point. Damn it.
“What’s yours?” Tommy asks instead of giving his.
“Dream.”
“Dream? That’s a word, not a name.”
“Why can’t a word be a name?”
“When all your friends have a dream, do they just think of you?” Tommy asks. “Do you like- own the word?”
That seems to confuse Dream, even though it’s a fair question. “Um… I haven’t thought of that. I’ll ask them next time they come over here. But no, I don’t think I own the word dream. It’s just my name. Some people’s names are words. Like - Lily can be a name. Or Summer.”
“My name’s Tommy. My name is normal.”
Dream laughs. “I guess that is a pretty normal name. So who are you, Tommy? Why are you in my woods, pretending to be my friends?”
“It’s going to be winter soon. I need a place to stay.”
“Well, where are your parents?”
“I don’t have any.”
“Oh- I’m- I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“I didn’t lose them,” Tommy says. “It’s a common assumption, but they didn’t die. I didn’t have any. I escaped a lab, that’s how I was born.”
“... Okay then. Well, who takes care of you?”
“Nobody,” Tommy answers. Why isn’t Dream getting it? It’s pretty simple, he’s alone and he needs a place to stay.
“Um, well… know what, come sit with me by the fire. I was just fixing myself lunch, I can make you something as well. And you can tell me who you are.”
Tommy nods, and doesn’t point out the fact that he’s already told Dream who he is. He’s a pretty simple person, when you get down to it.
It turns out, Dream’s cooking a chicken. Tommy asks him where the hell he found a chicken up on the mountain. Dream answers that he raised it himself.
“You saw it being birthed, and you’re just fucking murdering it?”
“That’s some harsh language. Aren’t you like- nine?”
Tommy bristles. “I’m twelve! Almost thirteen.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, um, yeah. I raised it. I had to kill it in the end. I need to eat somehow. She was getting to be an old chicken anyway, it was best to put her out of her misery.”
“But she could’ve kept living.”
“Yeah, but would it have been a good life?” Dream uses the poker to turn the chicken over a bit. “I was just making sure she had a good run. Anyway - we’re supposed to be talking about you. And who the hell you are.”
Tommy doesn’t have much to tell him. He ends up telling him about Tubbo and Schlatt and all the various drugs stashed in that house. Dream seems weirdly confused by the drugs. Those were the most normal part of that home. Upon some thought Tommy tells Dream about some of his hobbies, likes, and dislikes. How he loves dogs and cats are shit. How he loves this one song he used to play on an old record player.
“You hate cats?”
“They are the inferior pet in every conceivable way.”
“You don’t have any taste. Once you meet Patches you’ll change your mind.”
“Patches?”
“You’ll see her once you come in.”
They eat. The chicken looks bland but Dream pulls out these containers of weird grounded powder. He has salt and pepper, just like Schlatt did, but he has so much more. Tommy ends up dumping half of them on his chicken and it ends up being the most flavorful thing he’s ever put in his mouth. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing is… debatable.
Then when his wooden plate is empty, Dream leads him up to his cottage. Closer now, Tommy can see the small barn attached to the back. When Dream pushes open the door, a small speckled brown cat sidles up to Dream’s leg. She makes a soft, high pitched noise, and Dream leans down to run his hands through her fur.
“Would you like to pet her?”
“How?”
“Just like this, like I’m doing right now.”
Tommy leans down, and softly pats the cat just as Dream had been doing moments before. And damn- he likes dogs more, but she’s so soft! And that little meow of hers! It’s just- it’s for lack of a better word, cute.
“So, Tommy, you don’t have anywhere to stay?”
Tommy startles up. “Um, no. Not for the winter.”
“Where have you been staying? Where do you live?”
Tommy points out the window.
“What?”
“I live out there. In the woods, big man.”
“You… you just live in the woods? For how long?”
Tommy explains what happened with Tubbo. How he disappeared without a trace. How he and Schlatt spent days looking for him, but there was nothing. No clues, no direction to follow. Not a single footprint.
“You’re twelve years old and you’ve been living alone, homeless, in the woods for six months?”
Tommy nods. “It’s kinda fun! But it’s cold and I forgot my jacket at Schlatt’s house.”
“How the hell have you survived?”
Tommy doesn’t waste a second before saying, “Spite.”
“... Fair enough, I guess. Well. I can’t in good conscience leave you alone out there. Come on, I have a guest room in this house. It’s usually where Sapnap and George sleep when they come to visit. But you can have it now, just until we find you a better place.”
“Works for me,” Tommy says. If Dream doesn’t want him around very long, he’ll just go out and check that house on the other side of the mountain.
Dream takes him down the hall, where there are two doors. Dream opens the slightly misshapen one and gestures into it. “This is the guest room. The other one is mine.”
Tommy steps in, and takes a moment to look around.
It’s like Tubbo’s room in Schlatt’s place. It has that feel. Homey, with warm colored walls and hefty blankets piled onto the bed. The only furniture is the bed and a small wardrobe, though there is a mirror hung on the wall as well. The bed is slightly undone, as if Dream hasn’t bothered to make it since George or Sapnap last visited.
“I can really stay here?”
“... I guess you can. But I want to work on finding you a more permanent home. You can’t stay here forever.”
“But for the winter?”
Dream nods. “Of course. For the winter. I wouldn’t kick a poor kid out into the snow.”
“I’m not a kid!”
“You’re a kid compared to me.”
“You don’t sound that old.”
“I’m older than you.”
“Well everyone’s older than me. Even Tubbo’s older than me.”
“So you admit that you’re young?”
“Hey!”
It’s quite easy to settle into this place. Tommy dumps his pack out onto the bed. He throws his extra pair of clothes and his night things into the wardrobe, keeps a couple things at the end of his bed, then he puts all the food and a few trinkets back in the bag.
It’s then he realizes that he has nothing to do. He’s bored.
He’s so rarely bored out in the woods. There’s always a tree he can go whack with his axe. Or a wild animal he can chase. Really, it’s a luxury to feel bored. He’s only bored when he’s gotten everything else done.
What really makes him bored is not having a friend around. He still misses Tubbo. It’s gotten better, over the months, but he still wants his friend back. He really wonders where he’s gone. He has to be out there, somewhere. Tommy supposes that death is a thing but Tubbo is too stubborn to die. The only thing he could ever die of is tuberculosis because it sounds like his name so there’s something funny about that so that could happen. Dying of anything else? Tommy simply won’t let him. He’ll will it to not happen, even if he can’t be there to protect Tubbo himself.
The thought occurs to him to go talk to Dream again, but he can’t think of anything he’d like to say. His feet aren’t yet tired, he can still go on.
Although it’d be a better idea to wait until the next day, Tommy decides to embark on his journey to the other house right then and there.
“Where are you going?” Dream asks on Tommy’s way out the door.
Tommy explains the other house that he’s going to go investigate.
“Oh- Okay. Just remember that you can come back here at the end of the day.”
“I know, and I will. See ya.”
With that Tommy takes off, ready for yet another long journey. Through the trees he easily weaves, jumping up on rocks to keep himself entertained. Whistling a familiar tune, Tommy gets lost in the walk.
After reaching the other side of the mountain, he rests. The sun is starting to lower, but Tommy doesn’t worry. He’ll get back in time, surely. He makes his break short, and continues on.
For the rest of the journey, Tommy doesn’t notice how close the sun creeps to the horizon.
When the spacious cabin is in sight, Tommy breaks out into a run. He’s almost there!
Just like Dream’s cottage, it soon becomes apparent that he is not the only person in this neck of the woods.
“Hey, you, in the woods!”
Tommy turns towards the voice. “Hello?”
Leaves crunch as the person attached to the voice steps forward. A tall man breaks through the trees, stopping a few feet away from Tommy. He’s tall, taller than Dream and Dream wasn’t exactly short.
There’s something about his face that makes Tommy just stare. His brows are naturally downturned in an odd fashion that makes him look almost sad. His lips are caught in something like a sneer, but not quite malicious. Tommy holds the eye contact he has with this odd man, even as he begins to talk to Tommy.
“This isn’t free land, just so you know.” The man says. “It’s private property.”
“Who lives there? Just you?”
“I don’t see how that’s your business, but no. It’s me and my father. And a friend of his.”
“Take me there,” Tommy demands.
“What?”
“Take me to the house. Take me to see them.”
“Who even are you?”
“I’m Tommy.” He goes on to give the man the entire spiel. Everything he told Dream, because now he knows what to say when somebody asks him who he is. When he’s done the stranger has no reason to deny him. They’re not strangers anymore.
“... Well I’m Wilbur.”
“Wilbur,” Tommy nods, committing the name to memory. “Okay, Wilbur, take me to your house.”
“Look, I’m sorry all of this has happened to you. It sounds like a tough life.”
“It’s actually pretty fun.”
“Well- I’m still sorry about what happened with that friend of yours. But you have to understand, you’re a stranger. And you’re on our property. Why do you want to come into a stranger’s home?”
Tommy grinds his teeth. He’s already explained, why doesn’t Wilbur understand? “Because-”
Why is he so desperate to see Wilbur’s home? He already has Dream’s to stay at.
“Because, you’re really cool.”
“I am, am I?”
“Mhm.” Tommy nods his head vigorously, and bounces on the balls of his feet. Wilbur is interesting, with his tall stature and yellow sweater. “And it’s going to get dark out soon, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get back to the cottage on the other side of the mountain.”
“Oh, so you’re guilting me?”
Tommy’s mouth falls open. “Um, no-”
“Come on,” Wilbur sighs, beckoning Tommy with his hand. “Only because it’s dark out.”
“Will I get to see your dad and his friend?”
“Hopefully not. They won’t be very happy that you’re here.”
He follows Wilbur to the home, and Wilbur leads him around to the back of his house. They enter through the back door, and Wilbur whispers to him to be quiet. Tommy tries his best to, but the floorboards are creaky and apparently his breath is too loud. What is he supposed to do, not breathe?
“Who is that?”
The voice is monotone, a lot more emotionless than a man who just found a stranger in his home should be.
Wilbur freezes, and slowly turns around. “Um…”
Tommy spins on his heel and sees that the new stranger is even weirder than Wilbur. While not as tall, this man is burly, shoulders wide as a doorway. Hanging from those shoulders is a floor length red cloak on top of a frilly, fancy white tunic. And most striking is the man’s head, the head of a boar. His eyes are oddly human, but the rest of him is entirely not.
Tommy never believed he’d see a piglin hybrid in the flesh. He takes a moment to stare, taking the man in.
“Wilbur, who is that?”:
“I’m Tommy,” Tommy says. “I can give you the whole story if you want.”
The piglin man looks to Wilbur, face contorting in what must be the piglin version of confusion. “And he’s here because…”
“It’s late, and he just needs to stay the night,” Wilbur says. “It’s just one night. You know how dangerous these woods get at night.”
Dangerous? Tommy wouldn’t exactly describe these woods as dangerous. The worst thing he’s run into at night were a couple wild wolves.
“Ask Phil,” the stranger says.
“Phil’s going to say no. ‘No strange creatures in the house, Wilbur. First a fish, now a fox, you can’t bring living things in the house Wilbur. Better not be a child next time.’”
“I see you listen well,” the piglin man replies, and Wilbur groans.
“Just- it’s only for a night. I’ll tell you what: I’ll help out on your potato farm for a day if you let him stay.”
“Make it a week.”
“A week? Fuck no, you’re crazy Technoblade.”
Technoblade? That’s an even odder name than Dream!
This “Technoblade” person clicks his tongue. “Well, then he can find somewhere else to stay-”
“Fine, a week. But give me a couple breaks, will you?”
Technoblade nods. “I’ll keep Phil busy for a little bit.”
“Thank you so much,” Wilbur says. Then he grabs Tommy’s arm and pulls him up the stairs.
Tommy giggles a little bit to himself. He knew he’d be able to get what he wanted eventually.
The room Wilbur leads him to is large yet still homely. A bit more pristine than the room in Dream’s house. There’s a fireplace on the wall, a large bed, and just as many blankets as the bed in Dream’s place.
“I haven’t laid in a bed for six months,” Tommy comments as he collapses down on it. “Wow- this is too soft, I won’t be able to sleep on the ground again after this. Gonna be dreaming of this bed.” Immediately upon saying the word “Dreaming” he thinks of Dream himself.
“It’s been that long?”
“It’s also been that long since I’ve slept indoors,” Tommy says, and Wilbur looks like he just told him the sky is a bright shade of lime green.
Wilbur leans against the doorway as he says, “Well, um, I hope you have a nice rest.”
“Thank you,” Tommy says gruffly before untucking the mass of covers to bury himself in their warmth. Wilbur leaves, and Tommy’s left alone.
It doesn’t take long for him to fall asleep. He’ll make it through the winter now, that’s for sure.
After that? He’s not sure. It’s… it’s going to come around eventually, and he’ll face it eventually. Maybe he’ll keep living in the woods for the rest of his life, that’s surely a possibility. He’s proven he can do it at least for the summer months.
Those worries are for another day though. For now, he knows he’s going to make it to next spring.
He rests easy, uncaring of tomorrow.
Dawn comes with new challenges, as each day does, and Tommy stares down that challenge with a wide smirk.
Wilbur’s father doesn’t look very much like him. He’s shorter, wears plainer clothes. But what really sets Phil apart is his wings. Massive crow wings wrapping themselves around Phil’s back. Phil moves slowly, more carefully, and that makes sense because those wings must weigh a ton.
First Tommy meets a piglin hybrid. And now a real avian! How Wilbur is related to Phil is still a mystery to him, but that’s okay. He’s more caught up in the wonder of this man.
Well, right now he’s quite caught up in the man’s ire for him. It’s the next morning, and the cabin is oddly chilly. Tommy trotted down the stairs when he woke up to find a box of matches, so he could light the fireplace in his room. After that, his plan was going to be to go back to sleep for a couple more hours. That bed? He never wanted to leave it. He’d never slept better in his life.
All he wanted was a box of matches and instead he happened to walk straight into Wilbur’s father.
There were the usual questions - yes, Tommy is a poor “Orphan” boy, no he’s not really an orphan but it’s complicated, and he had nowhere else to stay. Yes, he did have Wilbur’s permission to come in. No, he wasn’t going to stay here long.
But this Phil person seems particularly pressed about the fact that Tommy is in the house.
“We’re very private people, mate. I understand Wilbur let you in but you think it’s proper to approach a random stranger in the woods and ask for a place to stay?”
“I’ve done it before,” Tommy says. Technically only once but Phil doesn’t need to know that.
“What kind of a kid are you? Why aren’t you in an orphanage? Don’t you have somebody to take care of you?”
He’s so tired of this. “I’m a big man, I’m not a kid! Look I just wanted somewhere to stay, I’ll leave right now if you want me to.”
“Please do,” Phil says.
Fine then. Tommy doesn’t take long in gathering his things. He doesn’t have much after all. But he does slip a couple trinkets in his bag. An empty picture frame. A couple coins he finds under the bed. A book. The book and the picture frame look valuable. Tommy doesn’t know who he’d sell these to, but he’s going to rejoin civilization at some point. It’ll be good to have a collection of this type of thing.
He’s about to leave through the back door when Wilbur calls his name.
“Tommy? Phil’s making you leave?”
“Yeah, big man. Your father’s a bit rude, isn’t he? I’m an honored guest and he’s kicking me out!”
Wilbur hesitates at that. “Well, I don’t know if I’d call you an ‘honored guest’ when you weren’t even supposed to be with me.”
“Well, it was an honor for me to even grace this place with my presence. You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone, big man.”
Wilbur laughs. “I’ll miss you?”
“Yep! You’ll be so sad you’ll never hear from that mysterious stranger with a dark past again.”
“You make yourself sound like the cold-hearted protagonist of a creepy story,” Wilbur says.
“Well maybe I am.”
“I don’t think most of those protagonists are just kids.”
“Hey! I’m not a kid, I’m a man! The biggest of men!”
Tommy wants to wipe Wilbur’s smug look off his face when he says, “Sure you are.”
“Well, I do guess I have to go now. I’ll be back.” Tommy turns around and waves to Wilbur over his shoulder, stepping out the door.
“You’ll be back?”
“Yep. Soon you’ll see.”
With that Tommy takes a step outside and slams the door shut behind him. He embarks on his trip back to Dream’s cottage, whistling a tune as he walks.
Wilbur was fun. His family doesn’t seem to care for Tommy that much, but that’s okay. They’ll come around.
For now, Tommy will reside with Dream. That’s the easiest solution. Dream was nice, and he doubts Phil will appreciate Tommy hanging around there too much.
He’ll come back to talk to Wilbur though, for sure.
He set out to find a home for winter, and now he effectively has two. Neither very secure, but it’s more than he could’ve hoped for.
Strangers really can be trusted. He doesn’t know what the big deal was about avoiding them.
He thinks he’s going to enjoy the winter.
At least as much as he can enjoy life.