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The hills rolled endlessly beneath the afternoon sun, painted in impossible shades of green that almost looked artificial beneath the light. Wildflowers bent softly with every passing gust of wind, patches of yellow and white scattered across the fields like careless brushstrokes.
Above them, the sky stretched open and enormous without a single wall or structure to interrupt it. Just clouds. Birds gliding lazily overhead. Trails of white streaking across blue.
Parrot walked a few steps behind the others with his hands shoved into his pockets, wings tucked tightly against his back to avoid brushing against the taller grass. The wind kept catching the ends of his scarf and tossing it over his shoulder. Ahead of him, Spoke was talking loudly about something completely incomprehensible while walking backwards down the slope like he lacked any survival instinct whatsoever.
Spoke was already halfway up a hill for absolutely no reason other than the fact that he physically could not walk normally. The voidling balanced along a fallen log with his arms stretched dramatically outward like some kind of performer.
“I’m basically an acrobat,” he announced proudly.
“You’re gonna eat shit,” Flame replied instantly.
Wemmbu snorted beside him, hood fluttering lightly in the breeze. “Nah. If Spoke falls, the ground’s probably gonna apologize to him.”
“Exactly,” Spoke said, pointing at him. “Wemmbu gets me.”
“No he does not bro.”
Flame laughed quietly under his breath while Spoke clutched his chest in fake offense, stumbling backward through the grass like he’d just been mortally wounded.
Parrot watched the interaction with tired amusement lingering behind his expression. Despite their nature as of right now—they’d all survived every war thrown at them. Spoke’s inability to shut up being one of them.
The hill dipped lower beneath their feet, grass brushing against their boots as they walked. Wind swept endlessly around the group, carrying warmth from the sun despite the occasional colder breeze drifting through. Somewhere nearby, birds scattered suddenly into the air after Spoke yelled something unintelligible at Flame again. Something about… living in cities? Who knows, really. Their little group just talked about anything at this point.
“Parrot bro,” Flame suddenly called. “Back me up here. There’s no way this dude can survive in a civilization.”
“Hey—I survived the End!” Spoke argued.
“Yeah, barely.”
The exploiter began snickering childishly before even getting his words out. “I survived your cooking too.”
Flame practically choked on his own breath, baffled that the other even had the gall to say that to him. Well, it was Spoke after all. “Okay— THAT was one time bro!”
“One time?” Wemmbu repeated, horrified. “Dawg your food literally moved.”
“It was still edible!”
“Dude, it was SENTIENT.”
Spoke doubled over laughing while Flame looked moments away from committing actual murder. Parrot sighed through his nose, though warmth still lingered annoyingly in his chest.
Wemmbu, too, barked out a laugh at that while Flame visibly fought back a smile beside him. Parrot noticed it immediately.
Flame had always been surprisingly easy to read once you knew what to look for. Not expressions—those barely changed. It was smaller things. The slight twitch of his striped orange tail, the way his shoulders loosened compared to the usual tense stature, and even how his ears flicked downward whenever he tried hiding amusement.
Inbetween Parrot’s thinking, the colorful pair suddenly broke out into a sprint—presumably a race—up the slightly large hill.
“What are these kids doing bro.” Flame muttered. Whether it was to himself or to Parrot, he couldn’t tell. Spoke laughed loud enough for dark birds overhead to scatter again.
Now that he realized it… this was pretty peaceful, huh? The sight reminded him of normal teenagers running through fields beneath the sun like they had nowhere else to be. Like this was where they should be.
Parrot’s chest tightened unexpectedly at the thought. He hated that moments like this felt temporary now. Like the world would eventually remember what they all were and come dragging them back into reality by the throat.
But today hadn’t done that yet.
So he stayed quiet.
Nearing the top, Parrot and Flame spotted the other two chaotic idiots gasping for air like their lives depended on it.
Flame sighed deeply through his nose like a man enduring immense suffering. “You both are actual children bro.”
“And yet you stick with us.” The avian pointed out, cracking a slight grin in amusement.
Flame looked personally offended by the observation. “Bro—“
Spoke cut him off again. “Aww, Flame cares!”
“Bro- no way I’d care about any of you. And especially not Spoke.” The voidling let out a fake offended gasp. But it was quite obvious he didn’t actually care…
“Nah you totally do,” Wemmbu snickered.
Flame reached over like he was about to shove him away, but Wemmbu dodged instantly with a laugh that came easier than usual. The sound carried into the open air without restraint, warm and unguarded.
Wemmbu didn’t seem to realize it. Or maybe he did and chose to ignore it. He just continued grinning while adjusting one of the straps hanging loose from his shoulder. Spoke recovered first, obviously.
Once at the top, it seemed as if the view had directed all of their attentions to the sunset, leaving some stunned in awe. Even Spoke went quiet.
“…Whoa,” he breathed.
The four of them settled near the cliff edge almost naturally, Flame dropping onto the grass first with an exhausted groan. “Finally.”
“You’ve literally done nothing,” Parrot said.
“I walked.”
“That’s normal.”
“For YOU maybe.”
Wemmbu laughed quietly under his breath before sitting beside Flame, knees pulled loosely toward his chest. The wind caught in his violet hair immediately, tossing strands across his face while his wings shifted lazily behind him.
Spoke flopped down dramatically beside them a second later. Parrot remained standing for a moment longer.
“You’re doing the thinking thing again,” Spoke said suddenly.
Parrot blinked, taken out of his thoughts. “…What?” Was he that obvious?
“The staring dramatically into the distance thing.”
“That is not a thing bro.”
“It absolutely is,” Wemmbu added.
Flame pointed lazily without opening his eyes. “You get this look like you’re about to narrate somebody’s tragic backstory.”
Parrot stared at all three of them. “…I hate you guys.”
“Nahh you love us,” Spoke said, certain.
A breeze swept across the cliffside again, cooler this time. Grass rustled softly around them while the ocean crashed far below in slow rhythmic waves.
For a little while, nobody spoke. Not because something was wrong. Just because they didn’t need to.
Spoke absentmindedly braided pieces of grass together beside Flame’s leg. Flame leaned back against the hill with his arms folded behind his head, tail flicking lazily every now and then. Wemmbu tilted his face toward the sky with his eyes half-lidded shut, sunlight warming the sharp edges of his features.
“You know,” Spoke said after a while, breaking the silence. “if someone saw us right now they’d probably think we were normal.”
Flame barked out a laugh. “That ship sailed years ago.”
“Nah but seriously,” Spoke continued, “Like look at us. We’re literally hanging out on a hill.”
“We’ve fought in wars bro,” The purple blob added.
“Exactly! And now we’re like- going on sightseeing trips, dude!”
“…Yeah.” Parrot replied with an unreadable expression on his face, though his tone said enough.
As soon as the conversation ended, Wemmbu went straight to laying in the grass squinting up at clouds like he didn’t carry half the server’s nightmares on his shoulders.
“…That one looks like a creeper.” he said suddenly.
Flame looked upward immediately, intrigued.
“Where?”
“The uhh, big one.”
Parrot redirected his vision to the sky, expression turning to one of confusion as he looked harder at the supposed ‘creeper’ cloud. “Bro. That looks NOTHING like a creeper.”
“You just don’t see the vision bro.”
Spoke gasped dramatically. “Wait I lowkey see it.”
Parrot rubbed a hand over his face. Unbelievable… the strongest players alive, everyone. Reduced to little kids by simple cloud watching. And somehow… somehow this felt more important than half the battles they’d survived. The thought sat strangely in his chest, which he decided to rub away. Beside him, Wemmbu suddenly snorted quietly to himself.
Here they were, four idiots sitting in the grass trying desperately—quietly—to remember how to exist as people outside of violence. The sun drifted lower overhead, painting gold across the horizon.
Spoke eventually collapsed backward into the grass with a dramatic sigh. “I think if we stay here long enough society legally can’t perceive us anymore.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not how society works bro.” As usual, Flame basically crushed his hopes and dreams. Unlucky for him, the exploiter was known for being stubborn.
“Can we test it?”
“No.”
Wemmbu grinned lazily. “Heh, coward.”
Flame kicked him lightly without opening his eyes in retort, eliciting a chuckle from the mace user. Wemmbu then dropped backward onto the ground beside them without warning.
And somewhere beneath all the noise, all the teasing, all the stupid arguments, something soft settled between us.
None of us dared to speak up on the fact.
For now, we were here.
Together.