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“Dum-Dee-Dum-Dee-Dum…” Wirt could hear Greg humming to himself in the car. They had been driving for the passed 4 hours, taking multiple stops along the way. Arcadia. Arcadia. It has a nice ring to it, he did have to admit. Though the name sounded a lot nicer than actually going there. Wirt wasn’t much of a traveler; he liked to stay indoors, where it was familiar. The only reason he was off to a city he didn’t know, was that his step-dad had a great job opportunity, and that meant staying there for a couple of weeks. Luckily it was already summer, so he wouldn’t have to worry about an over abundance of make-up homework to do.
Before even going though, he had questioned his mom multiple times.
—-
“Why do I have to go? It’s his job.”
“Wirt, there is no way I’m leaving you by yourself for weeks at a time.”
“But I’ll have Greg! And plus, I’m almost an adult!”
“You’re 16.”
“Almost.”
“Oh Wirt, It’ll be fun! A nice time to get away from it all.”
“But I’m having a nice time here. Can we just… I dont… I don’t know… get a babysitter or something?”
“You really want a babysitter?”
“…”
“No.”
—-
It seemed fruitless. Stuck in a place he didn’t know, surrounded by people he’ll know nothing about. Just great.
——————
The car slowly came to a stop, and Wirt, along with the rest of his family, went to check into the hotel. They slowly made it up to their separate bedroom, where it was just the two brothers. His mom was nice enough to give them their space.
“Woo-hooh!” Greg went to jump on the bed. Wirt let out a slight laugh at his antic, and started unpacking both of their things. After putting most of it away, Greg broke the silence.
“Hey Wirt!”
“Yes, Greg?”
“Wanna go explore? I heard there’s a really cool museum downtown!”
Wirt furrowed his eyebrows. “You like to go to museums?”
“Nope! Just thought you might want to go out or something.” Greg kept himself cheery throughout their entire conversation. That was one thing about Greg that Wirt thought was nice; he always saw the good in something.
He thought about it for a moment, and decided to do it. “I guess it would be nice to kinda… get out and explore… I guess. I’ll go tell mom.”
“Okie-Dokie!”
——————
So there they were. Wirt, Greg, Jason Funderburker.
Oh ya, the frog.
“Greg, why did you bring Jason Funderburker?”
“I wasn’t going to leave him all alone at the hotel! He needs this adventure as much as us!”
“… Right.”
Outside the museum doors, slowly but surely, they made their way up the steps. It was already a bit dark out, so Wirt had wanted his brother (and frog) to not go anywhere too far.
“Ok, so the museum closes in about an hour. Let’s meet back here by then, alright?”
“Alrighty!” Greg then ran off to who knows where.
“Wait! Greg-“ But Wirt’s sentence was cut short due him running off. He knew he should’ve probably gone with him, but he wanted to give Greg his own space to have fun, without being the annoying older sibling to keep watch. And even then, he knew that his brother wouldn’t do anything drastic, after having gone through the Unknown.
So, he wandered. Looking at all the artifacts bored the tall boy, and so he made his way though the building to find Greg. ‘He might’ve found something cool.’ He thought to himself.
And as a matter a of fact he did, just not in the way he thought. Turning the corner to a closed off exhibit, he saw Greg chasing after something. Whatever it was, it was cool, because the next thing Wirt knew was that Greg was out the back door and running off into the streets.
“Greg!” Wirt ran after his little brother, pushing passed the door and trying to catch up to him. They ran for a couple minutes; Wirt’s legs were starting to give out, but apparently Greg’s weren’t. “Greg wait! Stop!” He kept shouting at the younger, but nothing would stop him. Finally, when the creature ran into a darkened alleyway did Greg stop in his tracks, and allowed Wirt to catch up to him.
“Greg!…” He panted out. “You need to… stop doing that. Now let’s go home…” He straightened his posture a bit and picked up Greg, tucking him under his arm like a basketball “Mom and Jack are probably worried.” He started to head back to where the hotel was, when a faint sound was made in the alleyway. Being so focused on getting home, Wirt nor Greg noticed the animal was actually something else, and the only one who saw it was Jason Funderburker, who was stuck in the back of Greg’s overalls.
——————
“A goblin?!”
“Rwaorhrr.”
Greg gasped. Jason Funderburker just told him that the the thing they were chasing wasn’t some green cat, but a goblin-like creature. Frogs man.
“Are you sure, Jason Funderburker? It could’ve been a green kitty.” Greg put his hand on his chin, thinking intensely.
Jason Funderburker once again let out a ribbit, letting the boy know that it was in fact a monster. Just as the boy was going to ask the frog another question, Wirt walked out the bathroom in his pajamas, and went to sit in the bed that the other two were on. “What are you both on about?”
“Oh! Jason Funderburker said that the animal I was chasing was actually a goblin!” Wirt choked on his saliva a bit, before regaining his composure. “Uh.. goblin?” He eyed Greg.
“Yep! Though I don’t know if it’s true, but Jason Funderburker wouldn’t lie. Right Jason Funderburker?”
“Rwaorhrr”
Greg giggled at the frog, and went to tuck both of themselves in. Wirt did the same, still with a look of worry on his face. “Goblins… what?” He murmured to himself.
“I’m sure it’s ok, Wirt.” Greg pulled the covers up to his chin.
Wirt turn to face his back to Greg, staring at the wall. A pause of silence surrounded the room, but it was broken by the older boy’s question.
“Greg, do you think that… that the thing you saw was from the unknown?”
“Hmm…” Greg thought to himself. “Maybe. But we’ve been through that bad place before and made it out all dandy! I’m sure it’s probably ok.”
Wirt kept overthinking to himself unfortunately, before finally letting himself get some rest. Pulling up the covers to his chin, he wished Greg a good night sleep.
“…Good night Greg.”
“Good night Wirt.”
——————
Wirt woke to someone jumping on his side of the bed. He lazily opened his eyes to see Greg shaking him. “Wirt! Get up!“ He shouted in his brother’s ear. Said boy groaned, slowly sitting up against the head rest, watching Greg run around the room. Wirt couldn’t understand how he was already up and so energetic.
“What’s up Greg? Are we going home?” Wirt rubbed his eyes.
“No Wirt! We’re going to get pancakes!” His brother exclaimed. Wirt simply hummed at his answer, slowly getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom. “Hurry up!” He heard from behind him. He all but nodded, and started to get ready for the day.
——————
The pancakes weren’t all that bad in Wirt’s opinion. He and his family had decided to go to a nearby diner in the city, especially since it was nearby some shops. While his mom wanted to go sightseeing and window shopping, she thankfully allowed Wirt and Greg to wander in their own, unknowing about the incident that happened the night before.
After the few extra minutes of waiting to pay for the bill, the family finally headed out the door.
“Alright. Remember, Wirt, Greg. Stay out of trouble, and be back at the hotel by around 9. And if anything happens, text me.” Their mother repeated the same stuff she usually said whenever they went somewhere new. Be safe, be back at a certain time, and if anything bad happens, let her know.
“Okie-dokie!” Greg grabbed Wirt’s wrist and dragged him off to one of the clothing stores. “Let’s go Wirt!”
“Wait Greg-“ And they’re off. He’s not sure where Greg is actually taking him, but he hopes for the best. And to his surprise, it wasn’t anything bad. He was expecting a toy store, or maybe going to a playground, but it wasn’t either of those things.
“Here we are!” Greg shouted, dragging Wirt inside the Petco.
A pet store. Not that surprising, but it still caught the boy off guard.
“Why are we here?” Wirt looked around the store cautiously. “Because Wirt,” Greg pulled Jason Funderburker up to the taller boy’s face. “We need to get him some new clothes.” Wirt simply sighed at his antic, pulled out twenty dollars from his pocket, and spoke. “Ok. I only have this, so… let’s not try to get something super expensive.”
“Got it!” Greg was hoping to find some overalls for Jason Funderburker, to match with him. Going down the aisles, Wirt started walking on autopilot, scanning mindlessly through the stuff on the shelves. Unfortunately for him, not only did he lose Greg doing this, but he also ran into someone. He snapped out of his trance, shaking his head slightly.
“Oh my gosh! I-I’m so sorry. Are you alright?” Wirt panicked. God, why was he so awkward. To his luck fortunately, the person didn’t seemed that bothered but him. “Oh, no, it’s alright. Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.” Wirt was about to go on about how it was actually his fault, but Greg ran down the aisle and cut him off.
“Wirt!” He dragged out the vowel. Said boy jumped slightly, turning around to face the younger. “Uh… yes, Greg?”
“So, I wasn’t able to find the clothes, but I found a foam microphone! Jason Funderburker could use this to sing!”
“Greg, it’s foam. I don’t think he’ll be able to actually use it as one.”
“Not with that attitude!” Greg stood proudly. He then looked at who was behind Wirt, and looked back at his brother.
“Wirt! You didn’t tell me you already had a friend!” Greg walked passed his brother and looked up towards the girl. “Hello! I’m Greg.” Wirt panicked, not even knowing the girl herself. He quickly grabbed Greg and moved the shorter behind himself, putting a distance between the two.
“I’m sorry!” He sputtered out. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about…” He had a slight blush from the embarrassment that was happening.
The girl simply let out a slight laugh, calming him down. “No no! It’s alright.”
“Uh… ya. Well, we’ll just be heading off now haha. Been nice seeing you and…” He cut himself off, running out the door.
“My microphone!”
——————
Wirt paced around the bench near the fountain that they were at. He groaned to himself. “Greg, why did you have to do that?” He put his head in his hands.
“What do you mean?” Greg looked up from where he was trying to teach Jason Funderburker a hand shake.
“What do I mean?! You just embarrassed me in front of that girl! Why would I know her when we just got here? Oh my gosh, she’s probably gossiping to her friends right now about how embarrassing I was…” Wirt started overthinking, mumbling meaningless scenarios out loud.
As he did that, Greg looked over at him. The little brother couldn’t ever understand why the older was always so stressed. “I’m sure it’s ok Wirt. Oh hey! Look!” Wirt looked to wear Greg was pointing. It looked like a creature similar to what Greg had seen from before, but this one wasn’t a goblin. It looked like some sort of gnome.
“Hey! It’s a mini you!” Greg exclaimed. Wirt would’ve been fine with just that, but no. Greg suddenly got up and starting chasing it, once again, and ran off. Both the gnome and Wirt were in a panic, though for different reasons.
“Greg! Wait! No!” Wirt tried getting his attention, but it inevitably failed. He grumbled to himself, and started a chase after the chaser. He quickly texted his mom, saying they were gong to stay out a bit longer and to not worry. He silently thanked his mom for not being shaken up whenever they were gone in their own.
It felt like they were running for hours. Heading towards the canal, Wirt started running out of energy. He didn’t even have enough breath to yell at Greg to stop, so he just followed. It wasn’t until they were there that he realized they weren’t anywhere near the hotel.
“Greg…” Wirt put his hand on his knees. “Let it go… let’s just head back…”
“Wirt look!” The brother looked to see that the gnome was running into the sewers. Wirt grained arching his back. “Cmon, you scared it away. Let’s go back to the hotel.” The taller tired to coax the shorter into going back to where they were staying but all thought was gone when they heard an animalistic roar in the sewers. This scared the both of them.
Greg gasped. “The gnome! He’s in danger!”
“Greg! No! Wait-“ And the next thing he knew, Greg was going into the sewers. Wirt slapped his hand over his face. “What did I do to deserve this…” The chase continued.
——————
“Gnome! Mini Wirt! Are you ok?!” Greg shouted through the sewers, it echoing off of the walls. The smell wasn’t as bad as the two expected, but it was still unpleasant.
“Greg, can we please just go? I’m sure the gnome is fine…”
“But what if the gnome is in trouble? I have to make sure it’s alright.” Wirt sighed and continued following Greg. They walked and walked, Wirt attempting to check his phone, yet there was no service. He was for sure they were lost, but he knew that Greg wouldn’t give up until they made sure that creature was alright.
Just as Greg thought there was a dead end, he found something on the ground. It shined bright, causing the young boy to pick it up. “Woah…” He mumbled.
“Wirt! Look!” The boy brought the shiny item up to the boy’s face. It was a weird type of a stone. It shined a burning orange, and was hot to the touch.
“That’s uh… huh. Weird.” Wirt eyed the object in his brother’s hand. He was about to take it in his own and get a closer look, when they heard a sound come from ahead of of the darkened way. While Wirt was scared, and jumped at the sound, his brother was all but curious.
“Gnome-“
“Greg, no.” Wirt put his foot down. Seeing Greg’s saddened face, he let up a bit. “I… I really don’t think we should be doing this Greg. Let’s go before-“
“Hmm. How about you stay here and I go up ahead?”
“What? No! It could be dangerous.”
“But we don’t know for sure.”
“Greg please…”
“You stay here. I’ll got up ahead.”
“Greg. Wait. Wait! I said wait!” Wirt threw a mini tantrum at where he was stood. Looking back at where he was talking to his brother, there was no one there. He gasped, picking up speed and heading through the sewers once again. He eventually came up at a three-way path, stopping in his tracks. His thoughts ran through his mind fast, thinking about which one to go into.
“Wirt!” He heard Greg shout from one of the ways. Beginning to run again, he ran into the right one, stumbling upon something he didn’t think he’d ever see.
“Greg! Are you!…” Wirt’s sentence faded out as he processing what he was seeing.
The gnome, to which Greg was holding, the girl he saw from the store earlier, and… a beast in some sort of armor. Though to his luck, the monster wasn’t harming Greg or the girl; if anything he was just as starstruck as he was. Calming himself down, he spoke again.
“Uh… Greg…” His voice cracked. He cleared his throat. “…Welp! Now you know the gnomes fine. Let’s head back now.” He rubbed his hand on his neck. He wasn’t scared if anything; the monster seemed to not want to harm anyone. He was only nervous. Wirt thought that the last he’d see of any sort of weird creature was in the Unknown, but he guessed he thought wrong.
Greg turned around to look at his brother. “Hmm. I guess so..” He set the gnome back down. He went to look back up, his eyes catching onto the girl. “Hey wait! You’re from the pet store!” Greg exclaimed. Wirt caught ahold of this, looking at the girl as well. He has a slight blush instantly, caused from embarrassment.
“Oh! Uh… Hi again…” Wirt cleared his throat. “And uh…” He looked over at the monster. “…you.”
The creature stared at him, wide eyed. A silence was casted over the area for a few seconds, making the situation more awkward.The creature turned to look at the girl, then back at Wirt, replying.
“You’re not… uh…” He fumbled with his words. “Hi.”
“Hello!” Greg butted in. The others all looked towards him, as he continued speaking. “Jason Funderburker also says hello.”
“Rwoahrrr”
The beast looked down at the frog. “And hello to you, Jason.”
“…You’re not scared of this, are you?”
Wirt’s eyes widened. “…Uhh…What?”
The girl repeated herself. “You’re not scared.?”
“Uh… no! Not really, I mean… I’ve seen crazier stuff than a gnome and giant monster… but uhh… ya…”
The girl nodded her head. “Well, I’m Claire, and this is Jim.” She pointed her thumb at said boy. “And I’m not sure how to really explain all of ‘this’, without telling the whole story, but… promise not to tell anyone?”
“Ya! I mean I get it… Greg and I went though a place called the Unknown and-“
“It was super scary! But Wirt and I were tough and got out alright!” Greg cut his brother off.
The older brother only smiled , ruffling his younger brother’s hair a bit. “Yep. Alright.”
“I’m glad. And sorry about scaring you guys at all. I’m still not super used to this um… whole… look.” Jim motioned at himself.
“Nono! It’s alright!” Wirt reassured him. “I mean… I don’t get it, but you don’t seem bad so there’s no reason to be scared, right?”
“Ya,” Jim smiled, “I guess.”
Greg’s stomach then interrupted the quiet interaction happening. “Shhh!” Greg put a finger over his mouth.
“Welp, I better get us two back to our hotel, but it was nice meeting you guys, and clearing this up.” Wirt picked up Greg.
“You too, and hey, maybe we’ll see you again.” Claire offered.
“Ya, maybe.”
—————— ~long ass time skip mwahahaha ~ ——————
The days spent in Arcadia turned out to be a lot better then Wirt expected, and all because of a few friends he made. Jim, Claire, Toby. Nice names.
While riding home, he thought back to all the things they did, like when Jim tried to teach him about sword fighting, or when they almost got caught by Wirt and Greg’s mother, who was worried out of her mind when they showed up to the hotel at midnight. He smiled to himself, leaning his head on his hand against the car door. He hoped to see them again sometime; he was sure that Greg would want to. Seeing his brother excited about all the new things they saw made him happy. He was disappointed to an extent though, and worried at the same time. Jim had told him about a ‘final battle’ that was going to happen, and while he thought the troll was joking, he could see the worry in his face.
Nevermind that. What’s nice is he was able to get their phone numbers, so that they’d stay in contact. Greg begged Wirt to let him call them the moment they set up their phones, the ringing noise of each other’s devices so close hurting their ears.
Wirt had been glad to make a friend, and a few at that. Even with the horns and blue skin, knowing that he was a boy just like himself, Wirt felt comfortable.
‘I wonder when we’ll be back…’