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Boomie was running out of time.
This wasn’t new to him. He’s known about the looming deadline on his life, the target placed on his back.
Only now, Boomie had a feeling their impending demise was right on their tail.
They wanted to believe Parrot could help them. He truly did, with how passionate Parrot seemed to be about rescuing Boomie and protecting him from that Lobster Man kid. But despite it all…
“It won’t matter,” Boomie muttered, staring off into the endless expanse of the ocean as Parrot continued to row their boat. “It’d just be better if I left.”
The avian scoffed in disbelief. “Bro, we saved you from that prison,” He went on smoothly, as if he was just comforting someone sad or scared instead of trying to help someone doomed to die within the next day. No, within the next few hours. “Once we get this treasure, we can go back to spawn, go back to Capital City! We can help people, we can get you your new start…”
Parrot didn’t get it. Of course he didn’t, he didn’t know Boomie’s whole story. The idea of someone trying to defend him was nice and all, but Parrot couldn’t protect him. Parrot couldn’t save Boomie from their fate.
He wanted to laugh. Go back to Capital City? Get him his new start? Did Parrot genuinely not know who he was? For someone who apparently lived in Capital City, he sure must have not been around recently, to hear of Boomie’s affiliation with the bandits who waged war upon the city. To hear of the defeat of those bandits, of how most were dead now, at the hands of the city’s most recent hero.
Most, but not all.
Boomie was one of the only two who made it out of that battle alive. Boomie shuddered at the thought. Those purple wings, that terrifying mace…
“If only it was that easy,” The cervid smiled sadly. “I just don’t…”
He paused, watching the waves as the boat rocked against the ocean’s currents. He thought about what he could say, what he couldn’t say, what he was sure he’d never get the chance to say.
“I don’t have time.”
Parrot didn’t understand that either. He hesitated briefly, but continued rowing their boat without responding, leaving the two in silence.
Boomie didn’t know what was worse.
The fact that he knew he was going to die today…
Or the fact that he couldn’t tell anyone.
Boomie had grown accustomed to running away, but they could never seem to run fast enough. Far enough.
He thought that he wouldn’t get found out here, in the Great Sea, but… he was wrong. He had seen them. That invisible player, clad in polished armor with a long cape and that silver veil, a trail of sparkling invisibility potion residue left in their wake.
The Invisible Knight, as most people called them.
Or, as Boomie knew them…
Wemmbu.
It wasn’t fair to Parrot. He was spending so much time trying to care for Boomie when he was too much of a coward to tell him how pointless it was. How Boomie wasn’t the player the avian thought they were. How one of the most powerful players on the entire server was hunting them down. How Boomie had already accepted that, the moment that winged voidling found him, he was dead. How Wemmbu was already in the Great Sea.
Boomie stared off at the ocean behind them. He couldn’t tell if he was just paranoid, but he could swear he could see something past the waves and clouds, deep into the night. It was raining lightly, not enough to be a full blown storm, but enough to give Boomie a sense of looming dread deep in his chest.
The Invisible Knight was near, they had to be.
Boomie’s time was running out.
He turned to Parrot again, wiping away at his eyes before they could betray the way he felt. Not that the rain would make it particularly easy to tell anyway. He was going to die today, he knew he was. Was this really how it was going to end? They didn’t know what else they could do. He couldn’t talk about it, he couldn’t tell anyone. He couldn’t even tell Parrot, who put everything on the line to protect him. How was he going to react when he found out it was all for nothing?
“There! This is it!”
Parrot’s voice grew excited as he pointed at the shadows of underwater buildings deep in the water. It was impossible to see the details, but the slightest glow from below the surface was enough to prove that something existed down there.
Boomie didn’t reciprocate the enthusiasm as they landed on a nearby island. He could barely hear what Parrot was saying, as Boomie felt the earth beneath his feet for what could possibly be the last time.
Every instinct in his body told him to run. He needed to keep moving, keep running. Every second he spent standing still was another second Wemmbu was spending catching up to him.
Parrot was rummaging through his supplies, oblivious to the rising anxiety clogging Boomie’s throat. He fidgeted uncomfortably, glancing at the water from time to time as Parrot mumbled things about trying to find a way to explore the underwater ruins without drowning. “Th-This is cool and all,” Boomie muttered, “But I really, really don’t like standing still.”
“What?” Parrot absently turned up from where he was digging through supplies, so blissfully unaware. Boomie was almost jealous.
“I-I just… how do I put it… I just don’t feel safe,” They went on. “I guess that’s why I’ve been running. I want to keep moving, I-I—”
“Boomie, Boomie,” Parrot cut him off. His eyes were soft, far too kind. Far too hopeful for such a hopeless fate. He stopped briefly, before reaching towards one of his wings and plucking off a single feather. Parrot gently placed the feather in Boomie’s hands, a light smile across his face as he took a step back. “I promise you that things will be okay. There’s a reason I didn’t leave you there, Boomie. I am here to protect you.”
Boomie couldn’t stop the tears.
Trust. Companionship. Boomie understood the significance of gifting a feather amongst avian culture, maybe not as much as another avian would, but they understood what Parrot was trying to tell them. They wanted to believe him. He so, so badly did. He wanted to trust Parrot, he wanted to believe that everything would be okay. They wanted to believe that they could be saved, that Parrot could save them. He wanted to believe that he wasn’t going to die today.
But everything grew still as a figure emerged from the water behind Parrot.
Boomie couldn’t breathe.
It was almost ethereal, the way the invisible figure stepped out onto the sand, water sliding off of their enchanted armor and patterned clothing. They almost seemed to glow, that shining silvery blue armor and smooth white cloak as bright as the moon. Their veil swayed in the light wind, feeling all too calm and serene for the circumstance. They seemed eerily angelic.
It was Wemmbu. An angel of death, come to claim another life.
“Got it?”
Parrot’s voice barely managed to reach Boomie, and he most certainly couldn’t move enough to formulate some kind of response.
He was frozen in place, a deer in the headlights. His chest felt tight and painful as the Invisible Knight slowly approached from behind Parrot, the avian entirely unaware of their presence.
A silence drew on for what felt like an eternity.
Boomie wanted to laugh. Maybe cry. They wanted to run away and hide. They wanted to wail into someone’s arms, maybe Parrot’s, and apologize, they wanted to do something…
But he was stuck in place. Eyes wide with the pain and grief and sorrow and understanding of someone who knew he was going to die, and had known for a long time now.
Boomie ran out of time.
Maybe if he had just a second longer, he could have laughed at the irony of it all.
⠀
boomie_ blew up