Chapter Text
Taunting was what she did best. Stealing, breaking, shoving and pulling. Nothing too extreme, it was all just fun and games. That’s all she grew up doing and no one ever scolded her for it.
Well except her elder brother but he stopped bothering to deal her and Dream at a certain point. That always left the two tiny imps to their own devices. Nether-borns always seemed to keep to their own, never straying from their respective groups. After all, such a dangerous dimension required that every member of their group work and communicate. Not imps tho.
Drista’s earliest memory was one of Dream’s antics. As scrawny and small as he was, he would insist traveling to fortresses. Covering hundreds of blocks of netherack just it see one. For Drista, it was either that or stay in whatever hole XD had dug out and sleep. XD never wanted anything to do with them and wouldn’t even notice when they had left. So she would follow her older brother to the further ends in drowning heat. That when they saw from a distance: a fortress. But not just any fortress, it had been built in a crimson forest. Drista didn’t think anything of it when Dream had pointed it out with such glee.
“Cmon, I wanna show you something cool!” He whispered, pulling something out of his pocket. A golden ingot.
“Oh bartering,” She responded and they both sneaked into the forest. “Yeah I know that. They also get mad if you take their gold they bury in the ground. I learned that the hard way,” she sheepishly added before Dream snapped his head back.
“Not that!” He quietly growled. “It’s something way cooler!” He then whistled over a few Piglins. They all loaded their crossbows, raised their sword and axes. It seemed a whole tribe had heard his call and circled the tiny imps, ready to strike them down if they tried anything funny. That’s when he held up the ingot and their ears wiggled with excitement, snorting at one another in cheers. One took the ingot and gave back but a clump of soul sand. Dream didn’t seem too interested in the trade as he immediately dropped it.
She tried to keep herself firm giggling when her brother cleared his throat and began to snort as well. It wasn’t in a mocking manner, the tribe had even exchanged surprised snorts before patting the boy in his back. They seem to have asked something before Dream pointed to the tallest point of the fortress. The tribe then went marching into the nearest entrance they could find rather quickly.
“What did you do?”
“I told them there’s gold at the top of that tower,” he grinned. He offered his hand and they both went running after the determined piglins.
“Why would you tell them that?”
“Because something cool happens when they get there,” Drista never liked the tone Dream’s voice carried. Always so gleeful and every end to a sentence sounded like either a question or a sort of taunt. Maybe that’s where his seemingly irresistible charm stemmed from. She certainly never understood why people fell so quickly for his facade. Especially after what she had seen when they reached the tower.
Piglins were opening chests as other monitored corners, crossbows ready to fire at anyone who dare interrupt their hunt for gold. Drista laid flat on the cooling surface of the nether brick roof, tired and panting from having to pull and push Dream to the roof. He was never good at balancing with his tail or using it as a safety measure. He was a rather bad imp. XD would laugh at him when he would plummet from the end of cliff side and straight into a shallow lava pool.
“Poor little Dreamer,” he’d cackle, “Half imp, half Magma cube! All you’re good for is jumping and falling!” Although she had had noted that he’s yet to fall to his death. They watch below as the Piglins would raid chests and throw out anything that wasn’t gold. Bones, string, saddles, diamonds.
“Do you think you can reach those bones down there?” Dream asked her. A few femurs had landed on the steps of the a staircase that led nowhere. She nodded in determination as he lifted one of brick fencing that made up the roof. She wrapped her tail around one of the fences nearby and sprung down to grab a few bones before bouncing back up. He had that same wicked grin on his face as he took the bones from her. Even as a small child, his deadly addiction to thrills and mischief shined through.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m gonna teach you to speak a bit of Skeleton,” he tapped the bones together in a rhythmic way. Not one of music or a song but something that mimicked the sound of wither skeletons stomping down the corridors of their homes. She beamed with excitement, leaning closer to him.
“Really?!”
“Yeah, it’s not that hard. I can teach you all sorts of cool tricks,” His eyes squinted as he kept his grin up. “But you have to listen to me,” Drista innocently nodded, having no clue what she was exactly going to communicate to the guardians of the loot. She just hung upside down from the roof in the midst of a crowd of wither skeletons. She would click the bones together in the same manner that Dream had taught her minutes ago. Whatever she said, the wither skeletons raised their stone swords and rushed down the hallway towards the raiding Piglins. Drista swayed in confusion before being pulled up by her brother and being tugged to the other side of the fortress once again. Dream had already mined out a 4x4 hole in the roof to get a better view of the scene below. The withers were horrified to see their precious loot scattered about on the floor by these hideous intruders. The Piglins did not take kindly to the threatening stone swords being swung at them, more so that their gold rush had been interrupted. An arrow fired and shattered a skeleton on impact and that’s all it took for the entire floor to erupt in battle cries and chaos. While the Piglins outnumbered and decimated the group of withers that had gathered, the nasty fumes they admitted had began to spread amongst the tribe. Many dropped dead on the spot, others ran away whilst taking damage from the nasty fumes. Much of the gold they had gathered was left behind. Drista stared in horror of the gruesome scene that played out below, something she unknowingly started. To Dream, it was all too comical! He belly laughed as he rolled around the ground and pointed to the dead Piglins and piles of charcoal bones.
“I can’t believe it! Those idiots believed in me!” He finally managed to gasp out in his fit of intense laughter.
“Well of course they did! You spoke their language and told them there was gold here,”
“Well I didn’t lie,” he reasoned to the lip-quivering imp. “I said there’s tons of it but I didn’t say they’d leave alive,”
“Then why would you send them up here?”
“Because I knew I could,” The last of the Piglins managed to escape the fortress but it was clear that they had fewer members than they entered with. “I knew they can’t resist gold so why not lead them to it?”
“This wasn’t as fun as you promised it would be,” She pouted, trying not to break into a sobbing mess. She’s been scolded one too many times about her crying fits over dead mobs. Besides, her tears would burn up in her eyes. It seemed Dream felt a twinge of pity and sighed.
“Gee okay, I won’t bring you along next time then,” he extended his hand once more and she took it. The two childish imp stood up and started making their way to the nearest edge that would hopefully lead them to land. “I just didn’t want you being shut in with XD this whole time,”
“Is he in a bad mood again?”
“Eh, more or less. But like, when is he never?” He giggled. Drista swung her way down to the balcony of a lower floor and began to place netherack blocks down for him to jump down easier.
I did it because I knew I could
That stuck with Drista the entire walk home. The long and painfully long walk home. There was never a comfortable spot waiting for her at the end. Just a rock solid, humid, poorly dug out burrow. But at least Ghasts couldn’t see them in the tight spot they rested in and the chatter of pigmen was less. Dream had grossly downplayed XD’s mood. When they climbed over ledge of their resting spot, three endermen circled the masked imp, growling and screeching in his ears. He just laid there, chin resting in his arm as he faced a blackstone wall with his tail flicking in annoyance. The two siblings didn’t bother saying hello or making any noise that they had arrived. Not that greeting each other was routine, XD rarely knew when his siblings would be back or that they had even left at all. If anything, he silently hoped they’d get lost. Yet he’d always leave cooked pork chops and steamed shrooms in their burrow in a chest. Drista always imagined that it was XD’s very distant and cold manner of showing he still cared. She would thank him from the burrow before tearing into the meat. Dream on the other hand, never thanked him and took more than he needed. He knew that XD dug out the burrow for himself. That he placed the food there for himself. That the two of them were lucky he still stuck around and tolerated them. Right now, XD wasn’t sleepy so him and Drista could have their few hours of sleep before he would decide to kick them out.
Of course, she didn’t need to know that. All she knew was she wasn’t starving for the time being and all that walking made her tired. She and her brother would curl up into each other, resting their heads on each other’s backs as it was the only form of a pillow they had. XD could always tell when they had just bickered or were angry with each other as they would not curl up together in their sleep. They’d both wake up with sore necks and clear exhaustion on their faces. It seemed when they did bicker, he’d suddenly decided the area they’ve been resting in is no longer safe and they need to move.
I did it because I knew I could.
Drista would go to sleep thinking about what had happened earlier that day. Hearing that chilling phrase echo in her head. What other things did Dream do just because he could? Had he done something like that before? Is that how he knew the wither skeletons would attack the Piglins? How long before he ends up killing himself with these stupid antics?
She glanced over at his sleeping head nuzzled on top of her side. Was he just sleeping next to her because he just could? Was he doing this out of a need for comfort or because it was just something he could do? Was this embrace meaningless or did he really enjoy her presence? Either way, Drista didn’t question it. A question would lead to an argument. An argument would lead to a sore neck. She simply closed her eyes and fell asleep on top of her brother’s leg. She would forget about it when they woke up once again anyways. After all, it was just a one time thing. Dream was all for thrills and mischief but he would grow out of it eventually. Right?