Chapter Text
Snowflakes swirled down from the sky, gently making their way down to the ground.
Sharp winter winds howled through the pine trees, dislodging huge clumps of snow that had collected over the bitterly cold winter. Mountains covered the horizon, steep valleys barely visible around the trees and snow.
Tommy trudged up the cliff, not daring to look back at the huge drop he’d take if he were to fall backward.
He shivered, wrapping his arms around himself as his teeth chattered. His limbs felt frozen solid, fingers and toes completely numb.
A crow cawed somewhere off in the distance, only making him shiver more.
He didn’t know how long he’d been lost for. Tommy had no idea where his camp was. Where the familiar tents and campfire were. He didn’t know where his foster family was, only that he’d wandered too far from their campsite.
He felt like crying, but he didn’t have the energy to. The only thing he could do was keep walking.
Snow crunched under his feet as a strong gust of wind whipped through the trees. It knocked him over, sending him falling down into the snow.
Tommy heard a crow caw again as he lay in the snow, not having the energy to get back up.
He didn’t know if he’d survive this. He didn’t know why he’d been such an idiot, leaving the campground without telling anyone, going off into the wilderness when it was well below zero outside, and when he’d been told that this area was mostly unexplored.
Tommy forced himself back to his feet after a few moments, despite having very little energy left. He stumbled forward, barely able to keep himself upright.
After a few steps, he saw a strange tree come into view.
Tommy squinted, not sure he wasn’t just seeing things.
It was a short tree, with light brown bark sticking out among the darker colors of the other nearby pine and spruce trees. Bright pink flowers were nestled in between bright green leaves, waving in the wind. The weirdest part was that whenever even a single snowflake landed on it, it would instantly melt.
Tommy laughed, the sound coming out quiet and wheezing.
He was going fucking insane. Trees don’t grow flowers in the winter, and they definitely can’t instantly melt snow when it lands on them.
But the closer he got to it, the more real it looked.
Bright orange berries hung off the lower branches, seeming to almost glow with how much they contrasted the surrounding scenery.
Tommy curiously stumbled closer. He was so sure that he had to be hallucinating. This had to be fake somehow.
Maybe he already fucking died when he fell over earlier. It would be an unfortunate way to die, knocked over by a gust of wind and getting hypothermia, but it wasn’t an impossible thing to have happened.
He felt a bit bad for his foster family though.
What would they think when they found out that Tommy had gone missing? How would they react once he’s proclaimed dead?
They hadn’t been a bad family, all things considered. They’d fed him, clothed him, given him basic necessities, which was worlds better than some foster families. The only issue was that they didn’t really love him. None of his foster families really ever had.
It was a shame that Tommy would be dying without ever getting a family.
His legs were unsteady, vision blurry, as he stumbled closer to the tree. The wind almost seemed to get gentler the closer he got to it, the temperature seeming to warm up.
Just as he got close enough to touch the tree, reaching out a shaking hand to touch the bark, Tommy heard a sickening crack beneath him.
That was the only warning he got before the ground beneath him caved in and forced him into freefall.
Tommy screamed, darkness engulfing him as wind roared in his ears. He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the impact once he hit the ground.
He heard a loud thump, mixed with another cracking noise, before everything went black.
———
“-waking up-“
“-from the overworld-
“-almost frozen-“
Bits of speech floated into Tommy’s ears as he slowly regained consciousness.
Everything hurt and his head felt like it going to explode. His ears were ringing loudly and if it hadn’t been for the bits of conversation he could hear, he’d have thought he was dead.
With a quiet groan, Tommy forced his eyes open. His vision was blurry and unfocused, all he could make out was the blur of two people standing on either side of him. Their words had gotten more frantic when Tommy had opened his eyes.
“Are you alright, kid?” A gruff, monotone voice said from somewhere off to Tommy’s left. “Can you hear us?”
Tommy groaned again, blinking rapidly in order to force his eyes to focus. He nodded slowly in response to the man’s words, the motion already making Tommy feel like he was going to throw up.
“Thank fuck you’re alive.” Another voice said, obvious emotion leaking into the words. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you died.”
Tommy flinched as someone gently grabbed him, helping him into a sitting position, Tommy’s back leaning against what he assumed was a pillow.
When his vision finally focused, Tommy’s first thought was; ‘what the fuck.’
Two people stood on either side of whatever soft surface Tommy was laying on. They both looked fairly normal at first glance, but on closer inspection, they looked really fucking weird.
One was tall, with curly brown hair and brown eyes, but his appearance stopped being normal after that. A mixture of aquamarine scales and golden feathers dotted his cheeks, and his ears seemed to be entirely made of feathers. What seemed to be two massive fucking golden wings sat on the man’s back, shimmering in the light.
The other man was tall, but not as tall as the first. His hair was long, light pink and wavy, while his eyes were so bright red they almost seemed to glow. A similar mixture of scales and feathers dotted his cheeks and feathers covered his ears, although his scales were dark pink, almost red, and his feathers were dark grey. He also sported the same large wings on his back that the other man did.
“Are you feeling alright, kid?” The pink haired man asked. “That was a nasty fall you had back there.”
“What- the fuck.” Tommy choked out, his voice rough and throat stinging.
To his surprise, the brown haired man laughed. “Yeah, should’ve expected that. Most overworlders don’t know what to think when they see us.”
The man’s words only made Tommy even more confused. Overworlders? What the hell did that mean? Where was he?
In order to answer at least one his previous questions, Tommy looked away from the people standing by him, instead focusing on the area around them.
He was sitting on what at first glance looked like a normal bed, but on closer inspection, the texture of everything just felt slightly… off. Tommy couldn’t place what exactly was wrong with it, other than the material definitely wasn’t something he’d seen before.
Walls of stone surrounded whatever room they were in, vines creeping down through cracks that snaked up to the ceiling.
The ceiling was covered in soft looking, light green moss. Bright orange berries, the exact same ones Tommy had seen hanging from the tree, hung from the moss. The berries themselves almost seemed to glow, providing light to the room.
Lower down, the stone transitioned into long, dark spruce logs. There was a door across the room from him, made out of similarly colored wood, unfamiliar symbols carved carefully into it.
“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” The brown haired man said, drawing Tommy’s gaze away from his surroundings. “I suppose you probably haven’t seen anything like this before, huh?”
Tommy nodded slowly. “Wh-Where am I?” He questioned, trying to stop his voice from shaking. “And who the hell are you guys?”
“Oh uh- I’m Wilbur.” The brown haired man answered.
“I’m Techno.” The pink haired man introduced himself, voice still monotone and unreadable. “You fell into the otherside.”
Tommy just stared at Techno for a moment, eyebrows furrowing. “I have no idea what that means. What the fuck is the ‘otherside?’”
Techno shrugged. “The caves underneath these mountains. The caves that we live in, like this one. Our entire society.”
Tommy’s eyes widened. “Wait- there’s an entire society just like- underneath the mountains?!”
Wilbur laughed. “Yep, pretty much. It’s kind of a surprise no overworlders have really found us. Aside from you, and a few others of course.”
“Can I see it?” Tommy asked, about ninety percent sure he was fucking hallucinating currently, and choosing to just go with it. “Like- all the other caves and shit.”
Wilbur grinned. “Sure. But not yet, you should still rest for a few days. Then we’ll take you on a tour before we return you to the surface.”
“But only if you swear an oath to never tell anyone about this place.” Techno cut in gruffly, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Tommy couldn’t help but shiver under Techno’s stare. “I won’t tell anyone.” Tommy said quietly. “It’s not like anyone would believe me anyway.”
———
Something he’d shockingly failed to notice when he’d first woken up was how warm it was.
The temperatures in the caves seemed almost reminiscent of summer. Tommy wasn’t sure how it managed to stay so warm down here when there was a raging snowstorm above them.
Tommy eventually decided just to not question it. He was half convinced he was either dead, or unconscious and hallucinating at this point.
He was laying on the bed they’d given him, feeling extremely bored.
The foreign scenery has been cool to look at when he first got here, but now that Tommy had been stuck in the same room for three days, it was beginning to become more familiar.
Tommy wasn’t even in pain anymore, but Wilbur and Techno wouldn’t listen. They kept pretending to be ‘worried about Tommy’, which didn’t make any sense considering nobody had ever given a fuck about Tommy before this.
Just as Tommy was beginning to consider forcing his way out of the room because of how bored he was, the door opened, revealing Wilbur.
Wilbur closed the door behind him, walking towards the bed. He stood awkwardly to the side, practically towering over Tommy with how tall he was- and the fact that Tommy was sitting down.
“Am I finally allowed to fuckin’ leave this room?” Tommy asked, crossing his arms.
Wilbur laughed, a playful smile taking over his face. “Actually yeah, that was what I was going to ask you about. Do you want to finally take a tour today?”
Tommy smiled. “Hell yeah, bitch! I’ve been wanting to leave this place for fucking forever!”
Wilbur sighed. “Yeah, I know. We just had to make sure you weren’t gonna get sick, and hadn’t broken anything.” He walked towards the door, motioning for Tommy to follow. “Before Techno and I give you the tour, you uh- need to take an oath. It’s just like- a basic thing so we know you won’t tell anyone about us when you return to the surface.”
“Alright.” Tommy nodded, getting up from the bed. “I’m ready.”
Together, they exited the room.