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At first, Ewron didn't notice anything.
But could anyone really blame him? Everything around him was drowning in chaos—or maybe he himself was the source of it. He could never finish his own tasks because after a few minutes someone would already start talking to him, distract him, or throw another idea into his head. He got sidetracked ridiculously fast. His thoughts raced one after another, each louder than the last. Sitting still was impossible for him, and focusing on a single thing bordered on a miracle.
That's why he didn't even notice that something had stopped being where it belonged.
The Polish Cave had always lived by its own chaotic rhythm.
In the main part of the base, someone was constantly hanging around, yelling, or having loud conversations about things that nobody outside their group would ever understand. Their home had long since stopped being just a base—it had become a gathering place for half the island. People came there without any particular reason: to hang out, laugh, or simply be around others. Nexe often joked that the cave was slowly starting to resemble a brothel.
It was never truly quiet.
The animals they had taken in constantly made some kind of noise, chests slammed open and shut countless times a day, and conversations echoed off the walls from morning to night. The base was alive all the time—loud, chaotic, and surprisingly cozy.
Multi usually stayed inside his reactor beneath the base, completely absorbed in yet another experiment. Everyone secretly admitted that if he spent any more time down there, he'd eventually lose his mind entirely and start having serious conversations with his own dreadlocks.
Graf tried to keep everything in some semblance of order, though he had long since accepted that it was a Sisyphean task. No matter how many times he organized the storage room, by the next day it would already be overflowing with useless items, weird photographs, and random junk that absolutely shouldn't have been there.
Haiper mostly stopped by to learn new Polish words and remind everyone that he had been unofficially adopted by the Poles. As a way of showing his gratitude, he made everyone's beds every morning, despite the fact that nobody had ever asked him to. A small gesture, but one that always brought a genuinely satisfied smile to his face.
Quackity, meanwhile... existed mainly to drag Multi out of the reactor and preserve whatever remained of his sanity. He was genuinely afraid that one day the guy would biologically fuse with uranium or turn into some radioactive version of Shrek.
And Ewron?
Ewron was somehow everywhere and nowhere at once.
One moment he was yelling at someone in the storage room, the next he was accidentally destroying another one of Graf's machines, only to disappear from the cave for several hours immediately afterward. Whenever he came back, he always announced with complete conviction that he had just come up with a brilliant idea and absolutely had to do it right now. Immediately. This instant. Because otherwise the world would literally burst into flames.
Of course, it usually turned out that carrying out that "simple plan" would take him another two weeks.
And somewhere amidst all that chaos, there was Nexe too.
Always laughing. Always making stupid comments. Sometimes quieter than usual, but always there.
Always somewhere nearby.
Maybe not quite as often as everyone liked to think.
He had a habit of disappearing for hours at a time, sometimes even days, wandering around the world and discovering new places. He'd grab a backpack, some food, and simply head off without any specific destination in mind. But he always came back—with new stories, strange objects, and photographs of places nobody had seen before.
So when three days passed and he still hadn't returned, nobody considered it anything unusual.
"He's probably wandering around somewhere again" Multi would say every time someone asked about the dog hybrid.
And usually, that was the end of the discussion.
Because Nexe had a habit of disappearing.
Everyone had gotten used to it.
It had become something normal—just another part of their daily lives.
Which was why nobody made a big deal out of it.
Days passed...
Then weeks.
And all traces of Nexe vanished.
Let's be honest, Ewron was the last person in the entire Polish Hussars to truly notice.
"Hey, where's that bastard Nexe?" he asked one evening as he burst into the main room of the base.
"Still gone" Graf muttered while pouring food for the animals.
"Still?"
"Yep."
"I thought he came back already." Ewron frowned slightly. "Weird."
"I messaged him a few times, but he still hasn't replied." Haiper emerged from behind a wall with his Polish vocabulary notebook in hand. Apparently, he was practicing pronunciation again.
"He's probably avoiding me again." Ewron snorted, saying it half-jokingly. "When he gets back, we'll have to attend another marriage counseling session with Multi." He rolled his eyes, smiling to himself.
Back then, he wasn't worried.
Or at least, that's what he kept telling himself.
But it was only a matter of time.
The first wave of unease came naturally, almost without him noticing.
Ewron always considered himself someone who fell into nostalgia far too easily whenever he had even a moment to think. He was capable of missing things that were still happening, and that was the worst part.
Because right after that longing came another thought.
That one day, whatever "this" was, it would end.
And one day, there would be nothing left but emptiness.
An emptiness that would hurt far more than it should.
He started noticing things he had completely ignored before.
Nexe's bed had remained untouched for over a week.
Granted, Haiper occasionally straightened the pillows and blankets, creating the illusion that someone was still sleeping there.
Why did he do that?
Nobody asked.
There were no more arguments over ridiculous nonsense in the cave. Nobody rolled their eyes at Ewron's stupid jokes anymore. Nobody sighed in exhaustion when, for the hundredth time, he called him "darling" just to annoy him.
He hadn't heard that distinctive laugh in the background of conversations for a long time either. He hadn't seen Nexe's stupidly expressive ears reacting to every emotion, nor the tail that always twitched slightly whenever he saw someone familiar.
He couldn't even remember the last time they had gone outside the cave together.
Just because.
No purpose.
Wandering around for hours, talking about complete nonsense one moment and strangely serious things the next.
Okay. Maybe that was the moment it finally hit him.
Nexe's disappearance had genuinely affected him.
Maybe more than he wanted to admit.
Because the truth was, he himself had neglected those little adventures they used to have together.
There was always something "more important."
Every single time he promised himself that today he would definitely drag Nexe out on another adventure, ten minutes later he'd already have a thousand other things demanding his attention.
And suddenly, there wasn't enough time anymore to grab the dog hybrid by the sleeve and just go somewhere.
The base had become quieter.
And if even Ewron noticed that... Then something was seriously wrong.
[You whisper to Nexe333: NEXE :3]
[You whisper to Nexe333: WHERE ARE YOU?]
[You whisper to Nexe333: wanna explore the Nether with me?]
[You whisper to Nexe333: you bitch stop ignoring me]
[You whisper to Nexe333: hello negze...]
[You whisper to Nexe333: don't tell me you're not looking at chat again]
Then it only got worse.
"Maybe something happened to him?" Ewron muttered, pacing restlessly in circles as if that alone could somehow burn off his emotions... or his ADHD.
"Nexe can handle himself. Besides, he's geared up enough that even an entire pack of monsters wouldn't touch him. He probably found some huge structure and is exploring it right now" Multi replied, leaning against the wall. He watched the boy carefully, as if trying to judge how much longer he could keep it together.
"Yeah... you're probably right."
A brief silence fell between them. An unusual one. Especially for the two of them.
"You look like you're about to crawl out of your own skin. Worried?"
"OF COURSE I'M WORRIED!" Ewron raised his voice almost immediately. "He's my friend. It's been over two weeks. That bastard isn't answering my messages, it's like he vanished off the face of the earth. This isn't normal."
And it really wasn't.
Nexe always came back. So maybe Ewron was the one becoming paranoid?
After a month, he'd had enough.
Nexe's absence had become something more than just an annoying emptiness in his daily life. Finding him had suddenly become a priority. He had to know that everything was alright. That nothing had happened to him.
The problem was, he didn't even know where to start.
The island was enormous.
Nexe could literally be anywhere.
He asked people, but it led nowhere. Nobody had seen him. Nobody had heard from him. It was as if the dog hybrid had simply dissolved into thin air.
As if he had never existed.
It was driving Ewron insane.
He checked every place Nexe liked the most. He searched structures the hybrid had casually mentioned during their countless pointless conversations. He tried to find even the slightest trace of him—a familiar scent, something he'd left behind, anything.
God, in his desperation he had even broken into Multi's reactor while the scientist was away, just to make sure Multi hadn't accidentally used him for one of his insane experiments.
He found nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
And that was when he truly realized that something was very, very wrong.
[you whisper to Nexe333: nexe]
[you whisper to Nexe333: seriously this isn't funny anymore]
[you whisper to Nexe333: people are gonna think I've gone insane]
[you whisper to Nexe333: because I keep asking about you like some lovesick loser]
[you whisper to Nexe333: nexe, everything okay?]
[you whisper to Nexe333: nexe]
[you whisper to Nexe333: nexe]
[you whisper to Nexe333: nexe]
[you whisper to Nexe333: asshole]
[you whisper to Nexe333: answer me.]
After two months, the frustration was literally eating him alive.
He didn't even know who he was angry at anymore—himself, Nexe, or maybe everyone around him. How was it even possible that for two whole months nobody had seen that damn dog hybrid?
Nexe loved people.
He always gravitated toward wherever something was happening. He talked to everyone, showed up everywhere, and was nearly impossible to miss.
So if he had disappeared without a trace...
Oh.
This was bad.
Really bad.
And the rumors spreading around the island weren't helping either. More and more people had started whispering that the Federation might have taken him.
Ewron didn't even want to entertain the thought.
Nexe had never done anything that could've attracted their attention.
At least, that's what he believed.
As far as he knew, his friend had always tried to stay neutral. He avoided conflicts whenever possible. He kept his distance from Federation affairs and made sure not to end up on anyone's side.
And if he had somehow gotten himself into trouble... He would've told him.
They had both agreed once that they trusted each other more than anyone else on the island.
As time passed, things only became worse.
Frustration slowly turned into longing. That was probably what broke Ewron the most.
He missed everything.
Their aimless adventures. Their pointless arguments over absolutely stupid things. His horrible broken English, which sounded so awful that somehow it had become special.
He missed the way Nexe got annoyed whenever Ewron started provoking him or throwing overly sweet nicknames at him just to see his reaction.
He missed his face.
Those ridiculously adorable ears.
The most toxic insults that only came out when he was truly angry.
Oh.
How badly he wanted to hear all those curses directed at him one more time.
How badly he wanted to smell that familiar scent again, mess up his blond hair, and hear the offended complaints right beside him.
And that was when Ewron realized something he had been unwilling to admit before.
Without Nexe, everything felt...
Incomplete.
As if someone had ripped a piece out of his life and left behind an emptiness that nothing else could fill.
[you whisper to Nexe333: I miss you...]
By the third month, he had almost lost hope.
People around him had begun to notice that something inside Ewron had dimmed.
Of course, he was still loud, energetic, and seemingly everywhere at once, but now it felt different. As if all that energy was merely a reflex, an automatic mechanism running on its own while the rest of him was slowly falling apart.
More and more often, he allowed himself to consider the possibility that maybe...
He would never find him again.
Months passed. Too many long, unbearably slow months.
He was tired.
So damn tired.
His mind, usually running at full speed, had become strangely empty. Sometimes he didn't even know what he was feeling anymore.
Was he simply overstimulated after spending the entire day around people?
Or maybe he was overwhelmed by the countless plans and responsibilities piling up one after another until he no longer understood where he was even supposed to begin?
Nexe's absence certainly wasn't helping.
He needed something to occupy his mind.
Anything.
Anything other than thoughts that threatened to tear him apart.
So he finally decided to get moving and finish the interior of his casino.
He went through the list of materials he needed. Most of them could easily be found in the Polish Cave's storage, but one thing was missing.
A sapling. A particularly rare one at that.
Unfortunately for him, he had never even seen that kind of tree before. He was beginning to doubt whether it even existed.
Was his life going to consist of nothing but endless searches from now on?
Sometimes for items.
Sometimes for people.
Whatever.
Focus.
Right now, the most important thing was clearing his mind... and finding that damned sapling.
The journey had taken him far longer than he had expected.
But when he finally arrived, he froze. The forest before him looked... unreal.
Enormous trees stretched high into the sky, their leaves shimmering with a faint violet hue beneath the light of the setting sun, as though someone had scattered stardust between the branches. Their trunks were wide and twisted, covered in pale moss that glowed with a subtle, ghostly radiance.
Dense bushes with white and green leaves spread between them, looking as though someone had carelessly splattered them with paint. Ewron even crouched down and touched one, just to make sure it was real. The leaves felt cool and soft beneath his fingers.
Real.
It was late afternoon. Calm, golden rays of the setting sun filtered through the canopy above, bathing the forest in warm light. Mist hung low over the ground, milky and delicate, drifting slowly between the roots.
The air carried the scent of damp wood, wet earth, and something sweet that Ewron couldn't quite identify. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear the sound of rushing water.
This place was absurdly beautiful.
Ewron would never admit it out loud, but somewhere in the back of his mind, a thought slipped through.
This forest looked more beautiful than "Prawdziwa Polska”.
And maybe that was why he felt strangely at peace here.
He continued walking between the trees, stopping every now and then to admire the plants or the scenery around him. The sound of water grew clearer and clearer.
There was probably a waterfall nearby.
He slowed his pace and looked around more carefully.
And then he noticed something. A small house hidden between the trees and thick bushes.
It was modest, wooden, and blended almost perfectly into its surroundings. Green vines wrapped around the walls, while moss and tiny purple flowers covered part of the roof. It looked so natural, as if it had grown together with the forest itself.
Ewron had almost missed it.
"Beautiful place for a house... but what kind of normal person would live in the middle of nowhere like this?" he muttered under his breath.
Curiosity immediately got the better of him. He wanted to see it up close. To find out who lived there. Maybe even ask for directions—or about that damned sapling.
He slowly made his way forward, unable to take his eyes off his new discovery.
Then he heard rustling.
Soft, barely audible. Coming from behind the thick bushes right beside him.
Ewron immediately stopped and turned toward the sound. His ears twitched beneath his hood, sharpening to catch even the slightest noise.
For a moment, everything was silent.
An animal?
No.
It didn't sound like an animal.
The sound was too heavy, too quick, too uneven. Ewron couldn't match it to any creature he knew.
A person?
Definitely.
More specifically, someone who really didn't want to be noticed.
Despite his impulsive nature, Ewron knew how to be cautious.
He knew about clones, about people disappearing without a trace.
And he knew exactly what someone trying to move quietly sounded like.
The first thought came to him almost automatically.
A spy.
Maybe someone had been following him. Maybe he had accidentally wandered into somebody's territory or interrupted their surveillance.
He took a step back, sharpening his hearing even further.
The rustling came again. A little further away this time.
As though whatever or whoever was hiding nearby was trying to get away.
And then instinct took over.
Without a second thought, he lunged into the bushes.
Branches cracked loudly beneath his weight. Blindly, he grabbed whatever was trying to escape, and the two of them crashed onto the ground together.
Everything happened in a fraction of a second.
Ewron pinned the stranger's wrists to the damp earth, pressing him down with his entire body to make absolutely sure the "spy" wasn't going anywhere.
"Got you, you fucking-"
He stopped.
Oh...
The rest of the sentence never left his lips.
He blinked several times in confusion, as if his own brain still couldn't process who he was looking at.
Familiar green eyes stared back at him from beneath the hood, just as shocked as his own.
The silence between them became almost tangible. Ewron had literally frozen, completely didn't know what to do.
"…Nexe?" he finally stammered, raising his eyebrows in disbelief.
The dog hybrid stared at him blankly, clearly trying to understand what had just happened. Leaves and bits of dirt were tangled in his blond hair. He was breathing quickly after his failed attempt to escape, and his ears had flattened sharply against his head.
"Ewron? What are you do-"
"NEXE! HOLY SHIT, YOU'RE ALIVE?!" It sounded more like an accusation than a question.
Ewron tightened his grip on his wrists and leaned closer, as though trying to make sure this wasn't some damned hallucination. That he really had him right in front of him.
Nexe hissed quietly as the grip tightened. His gaze immediately darted everywhere except toward Ewron's face.
"Ewron, let go of me."
Only after several seconds did the red panda realize what he was actually doing.
He released him immediately and jerked back, as if he himself had just been caught red-handed. Now he was kneeling in complete silence, watching as Nexe sat up, just as stunned as he was.
"NEXE!"
"Ewron, what the hell is wrong with you?!"
"What's wrong with ME?!" he shot back instantly, staring at him like he was insane. "What's wrong with YOU?! You're the one who disappeared for months without a single sign of life!"
"That doesn't mean you can jump on me like some fucking wild animal!"
"I thought you were a spy!" Ewron threw his arms around wildly, either trying to release his frustration... or simply make the situation even more dramatic. "Or some damn clone! Do you have any idea what's been happening? Oh right! Of course you don't! You've been gone for months! I started thinking someone had kidnapped you, or that you were dead! You didn't even answer my messages, and I kept writing to you and-"
"Ewron, what spy? Who would've kidnapped me? What the hell are you even talking about?" Nexe interrupted, frowning.
And suddenly, silence fell.
They stared at each other shocked, angry and completely lost.
Neither of them knew what to say next.
Ewron let out a nervous laugh.
Short and quiet, as though he was trying to ease the tension.
His shoulders slumped helplessly. He simply knelt there in front of the utterly bewildered Nexe, staring at him in silence, as though his brain had just crashed.
Oh.
And then everything came flooding back.
The months of searching.
The nights he couldn't sleep, absentmindedly playing with the backpack buckle Nexe had once made for him.
That stupid feeling of longing he'd buried deep inside himself.
The fear that something had happened to him.
The smile disappeared from Ewron's face as quickly as it had appeared.
Nexe noticed the change immediately.
"You're alive… holy fuck." Ewron's voice had become quieter. He buried his face in his hands.
There was no anger left in it anymore. He let out a breath, as though only now had he truly felt relief. Relief so overwhelming it almost hurt.
Nexe blinked several times, not entirely understanding what he was hearing. He watched as the red panda practically fell apart right in front of him.
He had never seen Ewron like this before and suddenly, an unpleasant weight tightened somewhere deep inside his stomach.
"You… were looking for me?"
Ewron immediately pulled his hands away from his face and looked at him as if he'd just asked the dumbest question imaginable.
"Fuck, what a brilliant question! Of course I was! I looked for you everywhere, idiot!" he spoke rapidly, his tail beginning to move anxiously behind him. "And you know what? There were moments when I seriously started wondering if you even existed! Like maybe you were some kind of schizophrenia-induced hallucination! If it weren't for that damn Haiper asking me every day whether I'd found you yet, I'd have ended up in a straitjacket by now, do you understand?!"
He took a sharp breath.
Nexe had already opened his mouth to say something, but Ewron didn't even let him get a word in.
"What the hell were you thinking, disappearing for three… four months?! I don't even know anymore! Why didn't you reply? Didn't you see any of my four hundred and twenty messages?! Is there no signal in this shitty forest or what the fuck?! Are you sick of all of us? 'Oh look at me, I'm Nexe and I'm gonna ignore the whole world for the rest of my life, HAHA, so funny!' YOU ASSHOLE!"
When he finished, the only sound for a moment was his heavy breathing.
He looked like he'd just poured out every bit of frustration he'd been bottling up for the past months. He lowered his head, frowned, and clenched his hands into fists, trying to calm himself down. His reddish-brown tail kept nervously smacking against the wet leaves, revealing his emotions far more than he would've ever wanted to admit.
He looked like someone who had been holding everything inside for far too long and had finally allowed it all to break apart.
Nexe had never seen him like this before.
Ewron had always been loud, chaotic, and at times unbelievably annoying. Even when the world was collapsing around him, his energy never disappeared. He shouted, dramatized, argued over everything, but always with that characteristic, almost theatrical confidence.
Now he looked completely different. More exhausted than truly angry.
And somehow, that was what hit Nexe the hardest.
He felt an uncomfortable weight tighten somewhere in his stomach.
Only now did it truly sink in what he had done. He had disappeared without a word. Without an explanation. Ignored every single message Ewron had sent him.
And Ewron?
Surprisingly, he had actually searched for him.
He had combed the entire island, questioned people, driven himself half insane with worry, while Nexe had been hiding in the middle of the forest, convincing himself that nobody would even notice his absence.
It was supposed to be his form of therapy.
But he hadn't thought about the price someone else would have to pay for it.
"Ewron…" Nexe murmured quietly.
Ewron didn't even react.
He still sat there with his head lowered, breathing deeply, as though trying to calm himself before his emotions took control again.
Nexe looked at him helplessly. He had no idea how to cheer him up. How to make him stop looking like a man who had just fallen apart.
In a panic, he did the first thing that came to mind.
Slowly and uncertainly, he spread his arms. He wasn't convinced by the idea himself.
Physical contact never come naturally to him. He didn't like being touched, didn't expect it from others, and usually avoided situations where people tried getting closer to him than necessary.
But right now, a completely shattered Ewron was sitting in front of him, and somehow, he needed to put him back together.
He didn't know what else to do, so he simply opened his arms in a quiet, awkward offer.
"Get over here, asshole, before I change my mind" he muttered softly, turning his eyes away.
Ewron remained motionless for a moment, but slowly lifted his head. His eyes widened slightly when he finally understood what Nexe was trying to do.
"Why are you…"
"Just come here. I already feel stupid enough." Nexe still stared off to the side, clearly embarrassed by his own gesture. His dog ears twitched faintly, drooping a little lower. "This is the first and last time."
And that was enough.
A second later, Ewron practically launched himself forward.
Nexe didn't even have time to prepare for the force with which the red panda literally crashed into his arms. The air escaped his lungs as Ewron's weight sent both of them tumbling deeper into the wet leaves and soft earth.
He felt his friend's hair brush against his neck.
Ewron held him tightly, apparently taking the "one time and never again" rule very seriously and trying to make the most out of this opportunity. He buried his face in the crook of Nexe's neck, as though afraid that if he pulled away for even a second, Nexe would disappear again.
"Holy shit, you're heavy" the dog hybrid blurted out, but despite that, he didn't even try to push him away.
After a brief hesitation, Nexe carefully wrapped his arms around him. His movements were awkward and uncertain, as if he had absolutely no idea how these kinds of things were supposed to work. One of his hands hovered in the air for a moment before finally coming to rest on Ewron's back.
And then he felt it.
Ewron was trembling. Barely noticeable, but unmistakable.
It was terrifying. So unlike him that Nexe immediately stiffened, feeling a sharp pang somewhere beneath his ribs.
Slowly, he lifted his hand higher and slid his fingers into the boy's soft hair. He combed through it carefully, somewhat clumsily, like someone comforting another person for the very first time.
"Ewron…" he began quietly.
"Oh, shut the fuck up already" Ewron mumbled into the fabric of his hoodie. He sounded completely exhausted. "Fuck you."
Nexe let out a quiet, nervous snort of laughter.
He felt Ewron hug him even tighter.
The dog hybrid hissed under his breath as the pressure increased.
"Nexe, you're an asshole."
"I know."
A peaceful silence settled between them.
Ewron still had his face buried against his shoulder, apparently completely ignoring the fact that Nexe practically never initiated physical contact.
Or maybe that was exactly why he refused to let go.
Slowly, Nexe rested his cheek on top of his head and closed his eyes.
[ Nexe333 whispers to you: Sorry. ]
Ewron instantly tensed when the notification appeared in his chat. His hands tightened around the fabric of the boy's hoodie. He opened one eye to read the message.
"No 'but' afterwards? Wow. Nexe, you're making progress."
The panda chuckled softly, and almost all the tension left his shoulders.
"Fuck off. Get off me right now" Nexe huffed, trying to sit up and shove the boy off him.
But Ewron only wrapped himself around him even tighter with absurd strength, grinning victoriously when another pained groan escaped the dog hybrid's lips.
He definitely needed to come up with some kind of punishment for the runaway dog later, once they got back to the Polish cave.
[ you whisper to HaiperEXE: Found the dog. He says you should prepare for another Polish lesson. ]
[ you whisper to HaiperEXE: But that's after I physically damage him :3 ]
[ HaiperEXE whispers to you: what? ]