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He’d not realized when he helped Wilbur that it would end in the man’s death, and how could he have known?
Wilbur had pulled him aside once, after Techno had tried to teach Tommy how to properly use a crossbow. All he had said was “Techno, if they kill us, if they kill Tommy and me, make those motherfuckers hurt, alright?” there had been a wild sort of look in his eye, Techno could see it now, but that didn't really matter did it?
Because all he had said was “I would”.
It was a promise.
And Wilbur had smiled wide.
He should have known.
The snow drifts softly to the ground as Techno gazes into the deep dark of the woods. Her woods, or so Phil had whispered to him one bright morning.
Phil had stood on the sturdy wooden porch he had built, leaning forward on the railing as he peered out at the trees, like he wanted to jump over it and run to the tree line.
Techno was sure it would not have been the first time he’d done so.
He didn't ask who she is, or was, Phil had said it like it was pulled out of him without his knowledge, and Techno didn't need to know everything.
Right now the woods are dark, though the moon tries its best to bounce light off the snow, when it's allowed to breathe through the rolling clouds.
He knows that if he were to turn around, his home wouldn't even be a spark in this darkness, fires all coaxed to rest.
He’ll only be gone for a day or so. There will be plenty of time before Phil will be back, time for Techno to wake up the hearth and home, or at least he hopes so. He’d left a letter just in case.
Carl gives a shake of his head, dislodging crystals of snow that had started to gather, and the rattling clack of the reins cuts through the lazy sweep of wind and flake. The sound of it startles him, though he shows it only in the twitch of a finger.
A frigid breeze tugs the end of his cloak as he looks out for a second longer at the blanket of white, snow piling on the branches, and as he does, it feels like the woods look back.
Somehow, it's not unnerving. But it feels like a push, when he urges Carl forward he feels something settle near his heart, certainty, reassurance.
He gives a nod to the pines, and wonders if she is wishing him luck.
Carl walks, hooves crunching the snow below and filling the deathly silence.
The travel was never this slow before, but the snowy woods embrace of pine eventually falls away to warmer though far less comforting oak, the rush of ocean waves meet them as they make it past the trees.
Carl’s ears pull back.
All Techno has are rumors, and a strong suspicion Dream is the killer.
The smell of TNT hits him and he thinks his suspicion is proving true.
When Carl steps carefully around the first crater he thinks over his promise, he will never be able to avenge Wilbur, but maybe, he could do this.
Then he sees a tower, made of cobblestone, worked into being by loneliness.
It will be the only promise he’s ever broken.
It already is.
It already was.
The failure burns.
His promise broken, his promise to Phil’s son, the one Techno considered a piece of his family.
Gone, his last chance to make good on that promise, to at least have it be half fulfilled, gone.
What is he meant to do?
He steps down from the saddle, and walks to the tower, he’d always found the kid’s propensity for cobble annoying. Looking at this, all he feels is the burning.
He stares out at the water, and makes a new promise to Wilbur.
He wonders if it will be enough.