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His dreams were haunted by... strange images... images of people he had never met but seemed so... familiar...
A tall blond man, with wings as pitch black as the void itself, a kind smile on his face contrasting the harsh blackness of the wings sitting on his back and the razor sharp talons that were his feet. This man's hand was extended towards him... as if beckoning the brunet to join him... his dreams were also haunted by two other individuals.
A young blond boy with raccoon ears, a matching tail, and a mischievous gleam to his stark blue eyes, stolen items and trinkets held tight in his hands as he grinned at the brunet with a brotherly affection... and a man with bright pink hair, almost blood red eyes, and a warm smile that showed off his pig-like tusks and seemed to be something for him alone, a harsh contrast to the brutish pig-man form he took when defending his loved ones, a battle scene where the two of them were fighting alongside one another playing alongside that dream. Who were these people...? And why were they in his dreams...?
Well, that's something Wilbur Soot, a young 25 year old man, was going to find out. He was tired of fleeting dreams passing by, feeling a longing for people he didn't even know were real. He knew magical beings were real; his two closest friends happened to be magical creatures as well. His friend Tubbo, a saytr, his friend Ranboo, who... well, not even he knew what magical being he was. Tall, void-like black fur covered the right half of his body while the other half was pale, almost bleach white, a pair of heterochromic eyes almost glowing with a green and unnatural red, horns protruding from his forehead.
Wilbur definitely wouldn't tell the boy to his face that looking him in the eyes also made the human's head feel all strangely fuzzy. It felt like TV static flooded his mind.
Wilbur had packed his things, enough for a good week's journey, and headed out of his home, where Tubbo and Ranboo were waiting, chatting with each other while waiting for the human to come outside.
"... people he's talking about make me think of them. It has to be! The way Wil describes them from his dreams? It must be them!"
"And aren't they looking for their lost family member? He was, like, kidnapped or something a while ago, and they haven't stopped looking for him. I think it was before we showed up." Wilbur heard Tubbo and Ranboo say as he approached, the boy's goat ear flicking at the sound of his approaching footsteps and a grin stretching across his face.
"Took ya long enough, Boss Man! Let's go! Ranboo and I think we may have figured out who the people in your dreams are!" Wilbur felt a grin stretch across his face at the boy's words, excitement bubbling in his chest. He was gonna finally solve this strange mystery that was dropped on him.
"Well? Come on! Let's go!" Wilbur said, his child-like excitement radiating off of him in waves, causing Tubbo and Ranboo to chuckle at the human's antics, heading off towards a nearby forest where a few wild animals were seen prancing about in the outskirts. Wilbur had always wondered why people never entered this forest. They all said it was cursed, or haunted, or infested with wild beasts and even monsters. That never stopped him from exploring it as a young and rebellious teen, much to the disappointment and fear of his adoptive parents. They always desperately tried to keep him from those woods, or he would disappear forever, as they constantly told him. While that did scare him at first, he met Tubbo and Ranboo in those woods, and they didn't hurt him in any way.
So, the trio ventured into the woods, spirits high and voices filled with cheer. Though Tubbo stopped abruptly next to a tree, causing an unknowing Wilbur to crash into the shorter satyr.
"Hey! What the fuck, why'd we stop?" His question was met with a wide grin.
"Well, we're here, Boss Man!" At Wilbur's rather confused expression, the short brunet started knocking an... oddly familiar rhythm onto the tree's trunk. Where had Wilbur heard that rhythm before...? After he stopped, there was silence for a few moments before the tree started to rumble and shake. The bark started to shake and peel away from the tree, revealing a colorfully swirling portal underneath, mixed shades of green and brown swirling in a dazzling display. Tubbo and Ranboo grinned widely at each other before leaping in with a cheer from Tubbo, not an ounce of hesitation in their movements. Wilbur hesitated for a moment, but only a moment. A wild grin stretched across his face as the brunet threw himself into the portal after his friends. They wouldn't trick him! He's known them since he was a young teen, exploring the woods!
Bright swirls of colors flew past Wilbur as he felt himself floating and falling at the same time. The sensations assaulting his body felt... almost familiar... as he saw a bright light start forming, his form drifting into that warm, welcoming light. When he opened his eyes again, he was shocked to see a massive tree-bound village, bridges connecting houses held high on the sturdy redwood trees. Some homes were made of stone, others seemed to be made of wood, but were... flooded? Others still were built out of a gorgeous red wood, probably harvested from fallen redwood trees much deeper into the woods.
Suddenly, Wilbur felt a heavy weight on his back. Startled, Wilbur fumbled backwards and fell onto his ass with a loud oof. He glanced over his shoulders, shocked into a stunned silence at the sight of almost pitch black wings sprouting from his back. He went to go touch a wing when he noticed that his nails had sharpened, the webbing between them now stretched a little further up his fingers in a way an aquatic creature would use to swim. Wilbur's amber eyes swiftly started darting around to look for Tubbo and Ranboo, hoping to find them before he slipped into a panic attack.
He soon spotted Tubbo and Ranboo animatedly chatting with a woman with what looked like massive fins where her ears should be, her cherry blossom pink hair shining in the light of this realm he found himself in. Tubbo pointed towards him and the woman made eye contact, ocean blue eyes wide with shock at the sight of the brunet. Tubbo and Ranboo, when they looked at Wilbur after pointing him out to the pinkette, seemed shocked to see his appearance changed.
"... Wil...?" The soft, shaking voice leaving her lips sounded so familiar... when it suddenly hit him... like a fog lifting from his mind... that was Niki!!! His best friend from his childhood before he was abandoned and adopted by his human parents!!! A grin stretched across his face as memories of playing with her at the old creek deeper in the woods, acting out many fun stories that filled their youthful minds. He stood up, albeit very wobbly due to adjusting to the weight of wings on his back.
"Niki!!!" Wilbur shouted before sprinting to his friend, embracing her in a tight hug and spinning her around, their laughter echoing around the nearby trees and alerting other people to the brunet's arrival. Shouts from other people started echoing around the village, alerting anyone who hadn't initially heard the brunet and the mermaid's reunion. Happy tears started to flow down his cheeks, a grin unwavering from his face. "I thought I'd never see you again..."
"Me too, Wil! I thought you were gone forever after those awful humans kidnapped you!!!" At those words, his eyebrows furrowed with confusion.
"I... I wasn't kidnapped... I was adopted by them..." At his words, Niki shook her head and sighed, smiling sadly.
"They really did a number on ya, huh Wil?" Before she could speak any further, he felt a sudden wave of heat and a tight embrace from his left side, loud whooping heard from his left as he swiftly made eye contact with a red eye and a blue eye, a wide grin, and flaming rods floating around another familiar face.
"Wil!!! You're back!!!" The male said, recognition entering Wilbur's eyes as he remembered his other childhood best friend, Jack Manifold, the half blaze that would play those imaginary games with himself and Niki by that old creek. A grin stretched across his face as he wraps his friend in a tight hug, their laughs now echoing around the trees.
Soon, countless other people he had forgotten take their turns embracing him and welcoming him home: Quackity, the avian who always identified himself as a half duck because of his golden wings that Wilbur used to have a massive crush on at one point, Karl, the changeling who was in a loving polyam relationship with the half duck and Sapnap, a half demon from the same hellish realm Jack had come from, Sapnap's father Bad, a sweetheart that completely contrasted his demonic nature and would always yell at the younger magical creatures for swearing, his diamond encrusted husband Skeppy, a loud and energetic prankster who subtly encouraged the swearing to 'troll' his husband, hell, even George, the mushroom fae that was usually sleeping, emerged from his mushroom home and welcomed Wilbur home.
A grin stretched across his face as memories locked behind some strange fog resurfaced, one after the other. Though... that grin soon faltered as he started looking through the crowd for the three people from his dreams and didn't spot them. Tubbo noticed his distress and grinned knowingly.
"If you're looking for the people from your dream, Wilbur, I can go get them! They all live in that big tree there!" Almost as if on cue, the door burst open from that treehouse, three pairs of eyes staring at Wilbur's in mixed variants of disbelief, relief, and shock: bright blue, filled with mischief... a deeper blue, wise, caring, and filled with a fatherly love and tears of joy... and those piercing red eyes that seemed to hold a warmth reserved for only him... it was the three people from his dreams. The young blond was the first to move, a grin splitting his face wide as he leapt from the high tree, landing solidly on his feet before break neck sprinting towards the brunet.
"WILBURRRRRRRRR!!!" The young boy screamed, tackling the, barely, taller man to the ground with a hug so tight Wilbur would have sworn ribs could have broken. Memories flooded his mind at the blond's touch, holding the blond as a baby, watching him grow into a strong young boy before he was whisked away. Tears filled his amber brown eyes as he returned the bone crushing hug, his wings wrapping around the two of them in a protective way only a brother would do with the young blond, the only person Tommy would ever allow to hold him that protectively.
"Tommy... oh I've fucking missed you, big man..." Wilbur whispered into the blond's hair, feeling the younger's shoulders shaking from tears that were long held back, resting his chin on his little brother's head as tears flowed freely from his eyes. He heard the flapping of wings and opened his instinctively to see the older blond and the pinkette staring at him in shock, unshed tears pooling in their eyes.
"Wil...?" The pink haired man whispered, his eyes shining with unshed tears, which Wilbur instinctively knew wasn't normal for him. Tommy grinned and moved to the right, using his arm to roughly wipe the tears away and give the man some room to drop to his knees and hug Wilbur even tighter than Tommy had, a trademark Techno bone crushing hug. Of course, he returned it as tightly as he could, though he could never rival the piglin shifter's strength.
"Ayup, Tech. How's my barely older twin been while I've been gone?" Wilbur asked, a warm smile on his face that Techno immediately returns, knowing that him showing emotion like this is rare, and it shouldn't be pointed out or the piglin shifter would immediately shrink back into his shell. Said piglin shifter smiled that warm smile reserved only for him as he moved to the brunet's left, letting the last of the three, the older blond avian, kneel in front of the three boys, staring into Wilbur's amber brown eyes with deep blue eyes filled with nothing but fatherly affection, pure love, and warmth that he knew was meant for him.
"Ayup, mate..." He said softly, reaching forward and gently cupping the brunet avian-siren's cheek, Wilbur closing his eyes and leaning into his father's touch.
"Ayup, Phil..." He replied, opening his arms for a hug that Phil immediately dived in for, hugging his family that was whisked away from him by humans that didn't know better, tears of joy being shed at the happy reunion... how he forgot them, Wilbur will never know. Nor did he care to find out, already finding a slight burning hatred in his gut towards his 'parents'. But he knew one thing for sure: his dreams weren't gonna be haunted by those three fantastical people any longer.
Because they would always be one call away.