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Things were going so well... Sausage, or the Creaking King, whatever one would want to call it, had finally been defeated... but of course, there's no such thing as a painless happy ending.
Scott stood there as Nom explained what the Creaking King had told him. He was going to die soon and no magic seemed to do anything to help. It was far too cruel.
As he walked with Nom and 4C towards the cliff, he tried to ask something. "Do you really think... there's no way we can fix this?"
His voice was more shaky than he intended for it to be.
"I can't say I knew what I was getting into when I made the deal... but I don't think there's a way to reverse it. Don't blame yourself, Scott. It's not your fault. It will never be your fault." Nom replied, his voice slightly more broken than before, like he was somewhat struggling to speak.
Scott could somewhat feel the creaking part of his friend. It was a similar feeling to a dead tree, similar to the Creaking King's but also different. He knew plants. This one just felt wrong. He could feel it expanding, taking over.
Wait. Was Nom fully turning into a creaking? Was that what was killing him? Scott thought back at all the creakings he had seen, maybe there was something he missed, some way for him to save Nom... there had to be something...
Creaking Hearts.
He thought back at all the creakings in the dungeon... they were immediately killed if a creaking heart was destroyed. It was basically what was keeping them alive... but they had destroyed all creaking hearts to defeat the Creaking King, there was no way he could just... find one to save Nom. Or could he?
Scott knew plants. He even subconsciously made plants grow. There had to be a way he could use that to his advantage; creaking hearts are still plants, in a way. If he could grow one...
As he was thinking, they had finally reached the cliff. Scott, 4C, Katie and Nom were just standing there, none of them seemed to dare break the silence for a bit, but then Scott decided to speak. "Nom, you're turning into a creaking, aren't you?"
Nom looked at him with those weird, somewhat messed up eyes that Scott struggled to consider his friend's. Those unreadable, empty eyes. They didn't fit Nom at all. It was no surprise that Katie barely looked at his face; it didn't look like him. Nom's eyes were always very expressive, which made his new appearance look even more off to those that cared about him.
Since he didn't reply... Scott decided to continue. "Maybe there's something I can do. Maybe-"
Nom interrupted him. "Scott, please, I know you want to help, but I don't want you to hurt yourself or get false hope-"
"I know what I'm doing" Scott said. He could've sounded annoyed if he wasn't so desperate. "Let me try. Please."
Nom just stared at him, and honestly, Katie and 4C were doing the same; they almost looked hopeful, though. He had to do it for them too. He couldn't fail now.
Scott focused on his magic, trying to figure out how to exactly grow a creaking heart, and also make it both healthy enough to work and not big enough to actually accidentally summon more creakings or something like that. He clenched his staff for dear life, or well, he looked like he was doing that, and focused. It was still a plant, he had to grow it. He could do it.
Abnormal roots started to grow into the soil, a greyish sprout growing from the ground. Its branches twisted and warped around a pulsing amber core, a distorted shape somewhat resembling an anatomical heart made of bark and resin growing out of the ground of the cliff.
It looked... wrong. Unsettling. It gave off the same uncomfortable feeling as the hearts found in the dungeon, but to a lower degree.
Nom's face was very expressionless because of the bark, so Scott couldn't tell what he was thinking, but 4C and Katie... they looked horrified. And honestly, who could blame them? Scott literally grew a creaking heart. That is not something easy to accomplish nor something one would imagine him ever doing.
"Creakings die without a creaking heart, so I thought..." Scott started to say, but 4C interrupted him. "Scott, you're a genius..." if it wasn't for his still somewhat freaked out expression, one would say he could've been proud. Or maybe just 'hey look at this insane genius, he scares me' type of vibe. Who knows.
"I..." Nom looked at the creaking heart. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he said. With how intensely he was staring at it, he either thought if he looked away it would vanish or wanted to destroy it with his gaze.
"I can keep it in check, I grew it after all" Scott replied. As much as it wasn't like the usual plants he grew, it was still his creation. If he wanted to, he could destroy it. And if it didn't work it would be terribly easy to destroy it, too.
Nom looked back at everyone else. "Just in case that doesn't work... but even if it works..." he started to say, his voice even more struggling to come out of his throat. It was almost painful to hear.
He started to carefully remove his armour the best he could; his limbs were stiff, and he was clearly struggling. When she realised what he was doing, Katie immediately went to help him. Together it was way easier for them to remove his armour, leaving Nom in the chainmail and cloth that he wore underneath.
"You can keep it... it was mom's anyway..." Nom said, putting the armour in Katie's arms. "But-" she tried to talk, but he interrupted her. "Even if I survive, I won't need it. You can put it to much better use. And there's also a book for you... under my bed, in the Well Well Well"
She nodded, tears in her eyes, and Nom approached 4C.
He just put his mace in the arms of the one he saw as a brother; then he grabbed a bunch of swirling orbs of wind out of the satchel on his belt, and gave these too to 4C. "You could use this better than anyone else here" was all he said. His friend, no, his brother, nodded.
Nom turned to Scott. "I know you know where my secret stash is, in the Well Well Well. It's yours now" he said. He was really starting to sound like talking was a painful chore, like every word was trying really hard to die in his throat.
Everyone was crying now, except for Nom, and it was hard to tell if he was keeping it together like he said, or he just physically couldn't cry anymore. They all hugged, and then Nom turned back to look at the sea in front of them.
"Do you want to be alone?" Scott asked.
"If I actually do die... I don't want to die alone..." Nom replied "But if I survive... I don't know if I want you guys to see me"
"Why not?" asked Katie, confused.
"Because... well, eheh... I won't really look like me, even more than now" he replied.
"Well... if you want for us to leave now, then... well, we can come back later, and uhm..." 4C tried to say.
"Maybe that's the best option. I have faith in Scott, so... I love you guys, okay? I don't think I ever said this enough times"
And with Nom's final words, his family left him alone to gaze at the sun.
Even if he were to survive, he would still be tied to where the heart is, so he could never really travel... but he would still be near the sea, at least.
------------- time skip by a lil but like. A few hours? Gang decided to not tell anyone what Scott did unless it actually did work. -----------------
As Katie and 4C were busy talking to everyone that was going to leave, Scott went back to where they had left Nom. He hoped the heart did work and Nom survived. When he reached the cliff, the heart was still there, softly glowing in it's heartbeat, but he couldn't see Nom. He could, however, feel him. Creakings just felt in such a specific way compared to other plants or plant-like lifeforms that he could always feel them. He followed the feeling until he found a creaking nearby; it was looking ahead, facing the opposite direction as Scott.
"Nom?" he asked. The creaking didn't move a single inch. It took him a second to remember that creakings couldn't move if someone was staring at them, the sole exception having been the Creaking King, but maybe the fact that Nom wasn't moving was a good sign. It meant that at least, the Creaking King was for sure dead. He closed his eyes for a second or two, and when he opened them again, the creaking was staring at him, unmoving.
There were still some humanoid features in the creaking; anyone who knew Nom well just needed to look hard enough to recognise him. But there was still that uncomfortable feeling that all creakings brought, but well... at least he was alive, wasn't he?
"Nom? Are you there?" Scott tried again. The creaking didn't speak. Creakings can't speak. They don't have a mouth.
Maybe he could still communicate like plants do... Scott had never tried to use his plant communication on a creaking, but...
The first thing he heard was what he could best describe as the instinctual voice. It's the sound of what keeps us alive, the sound of our subconscious telling us what to do. And that one... it was serpentine, low-pitched, near whispering, and a constant sound. "Can't move can't move can't move can't move can't move can't move can't move..."
It was unbearable. Scott had to stop listening to it near-immediately, it could drive anyone insane.
When he tried again, he decided to focus on Nom. Try to hear Nom. He's in there, you must hear him. That's what he was repeating to himself when trying again... and when he finally managed to shut out the unceasing sound of not being able to move, he could finally hear his friend.
And that's when he started regretting his decision.
It was Nom's voice, he was sure of it, but it sounded so panicked... he had never heard him panic like that. It was desperately trying to stop, to control his body, but it was trapped. And it was screaming. The scream of someone afraid of what they might do, of someone who is in pain but also scared of possibly causing pain to others and someone so utterly terrified they couldn't calm down, they couldn't reason.
Nom was scared. Terrified. So afraid that it was hard to say that it was him.
Behind that emotionless gaze of a monster was the soul of someone, trapped, unable to do anything, being tortured merely by existing at that point.
And it was Scott's fault.