Chapter Text
"Wemmbu.. I don't think this is a good idea"
"Shhh, this idea is briliant," The dragon hybrid glanced over his shoulder towards the angel behind him
"Dont worry, this'll be like a- one time occurance," Wemmbu shook his head "now cmon before the others wake up"
"alright bro, but if we get caught, you're taking the blame.." Wemmbu responded with a distant "yeah yeah, just hurry up."
-
Eggchan can confirm, that the "one time occurance," would not happen just "one time," but he couldn't blame Wemmbu, the overworld was fascinating. Their portal had spat them out in a large but, compressed jungle biome. Egg had read about these biomes and wanted to visit there one day, that day was not intended to be so soon, however he didn't mind. After their 'one time' excursion, they had started going every month, then every week, sneaking out at night, going to a secluded spot and opening the a portal. But this night was different, despite the late hour, Egg felt like there was someone watching them, and Wemmbu felt it too. He was unusually quite tonight, watching the tree's with wary eyes,
"Hey Egg.. do you feel like… there is someone watching us?"
"Yeah I do."
Wemmbu hummed in thought "I think we should leave early," He tilted his head towards Egg "if that's alright with you?"
"Yeah bro I am chill with that, we can go right now." Eggchan stood up, bundling his fishing rod up and swinging it behind his back, then giving a very tense Wemmbu a thumbs up before following him back to their usual portal spot. Here, Wemmbu stopped glancing around with his eyed narrowed.
"Hey bro, you good-" Eggchan watched confusion as Wemmbu leaped into one of the tree's, slamming into a shadow that was defiantly not a shadow. The two landed on the ground with a rough thump, scratching and hissing at eachother, clods of moss were thrown up into the air and into each others faces. Eggchan stood there, frozen, as the two broke apart,
"Bro what the hell is your problem?" The stranger spat angrily
"What the- Bro what the hell is YOUR problem"
"Mine?? You attacked me randomly"
"Yeah well you were stalking us, all night"
Eggchan shook himself then stepped between the two
"Yo can we all calm down, and talk this out?"
The stranger, a tiger/netherling hybrid by the looks of it, stared at Egg, than glanced at Wemmbu
"Bro, did this giant eyeball just.. talk?"
-
Eggchan had to hold Wemmbu back to prevent him from attacking
"Yo- yo, wemmbu calm down-"
"Call him a giant eyeball again and I swear I'll-"
"Wemmbu chill, its not that deep"
"Yeah Wembyew, its not that deep"
Eggchan glared at the stranger as Wemmbu's mouth became full of colorful insults, painting the silence of the night into an adverb of aggression.
Minutes later, the trio were sitting on the mossy ground, Wemmbu intarogating the tiger hybrid, Flame, and Eggchan attempting to eat a fruit called a "Mango". Flame watched in pain as the 'floating eyeball', who had turned a more human form in order to eat, gnawed on the mangos skin.
"Bro how do you eat this-!"
A chunk of the skin got torn off and he spat it out, more interested in the sweet smelling fuit held within.
"Bro are you even listening"
"Huh?"
Wemmbu sighed and rubbed his temples
"I said, why were you stalking us and for how long"
Flame grummbled before saying "I've only been 'stalking' you for two days.. its not like it was intentional, I was hanging out at the pond one night and saw you guys coming from nowhere. If your worried, I only followed you past the pond tonight.." He scratched the back of his head "As for my reason of following you…" looking away, he said "There aren't a lot of kids my age who want to hang out in the jungle for fun, and when there was… his- their parents usally take them away, Mane said its cause they sometimes find hybrids… scary. So when I saw you two I… I duno I guess I was just.. a little- uh- curious cause you know, you're not- I don't, uh see you around often.." he ended weakly.
Eggchan looked at Flame in sympathy while Wemmbu started cackling in laughter
"Bro I was trying to be open here" Flame snorted
"Yeah yeah I get it bro" Wemmbu wiped a tear from his eye then glanced at Egg "if ya want, we could be your friends?"
"Huh? Really?" Flame perked up, his tail flicking
"I mean-" Wemmbu and Egg glanced at eachother again then shrugged "-yeah, its not like anyone would miss us, if we snuck out at night.. just prolly not every night, that'd be weird"
Flame didn't seem to hear them, he bouncing towards them and invelopoing the duo, now trio, in a hug
"Yeah yeah don't get all sappy" Wemmbu said, tipping his head from the netherlings steaming breath and batting him slightly with a free hand, but eggchan didn't miss the slight flush of his cheeks, seeing his new friend so happy, and he certainly didn't miss the bounce in his step as the walked back to the portal spot. The only request they asked of flame was for him to "Not under any circumstances, tell anyone about me or Egg or follow us when we left." Flame had agreed, a little begrudgingly, but waved cheerily when they left.
-
They had been going to the jungle for months now, it had almost been a full year, and the 'break' inbetween each visit had been getting shorter. Not that Egg was complaining but, he had felt the eyes on Wemmbu after he dozed off for the second time during archery practice, the others were getting suspicious.
"Hey wemmbu, I think we should… take a break" Eggchan said one sunny day
"Huh? Take a break from what?"
"The uh.. you know.. the portal"
"Huh really w-" Wemmbu yawned then rubbed his eyes "-Why?"
"Becuase of exactly that, they're gonna get suspicious- no they already are" Eggchan pleaded
Wemmbu stared at Egg before rubbing his chin in thought
"I guess we should slow down the visits… though I don't see how my sleep, or lack there of, would cause any suspicion"
"Bro, it's cause you sleep like a baby, even through probably the loudest events that could possible happen"
"Dalrightt, how does it sound if we visit the jungle tonight, just to tell flame we'll be gone for a little while, then we take our.. break"
"Yeah that sounds good to me, just don't say it too loud" Eggchan gently slapped Wemmbu, who giggled maniacally.
.
.
.
That night, Wemmbu and Eggchan performed the same routine they had performed countless nights before and, unsurprisingly, slipped into the overworld without so much as a feather on their elders head disturbed.
"Flamm!"
"Wemmbu!"
The two boys punced eachther lightly, and shortly started wrestling violently on the jungle floor.
"Good to see you bro" Flame waved at Eggchan, still panting
"You too" Egg waved back and his head wings twitched
Soon, the trio sat around the lake, laughing and kicking water at eachother (mostly wemmbu kicking water at flame and Eggchan trying to stay out of the crossfire)
"Bro like-" Flame coughed as wemmbu kept splashing him "Bro stop, lemme talk-" Flame wheezed up more water before looking at wemmbu "bro why don't you take your cloak off like, at all? Like I get it looks cool and all to aura farm in but like, don't you ever get hot under it? Especially in the jungle, it'd be impossible not to."
Wemmbu shrugged "well yeah but I've become more accustomed to the heat, the elders also don't want me taking it off, for whatever reason" He glanced at Egg for what felt like the millionth time, then continued "Plus I feel naked without the cloak."
"Ohh okay, that makes sense, kinda but not really- uhm- you sure you aren't hiding anything underneath it?" Flame pounced at Wemmbu's cloak, trying to lift it
"Hey- hey stop, Ill get in trouble by the elders if you take it off-" Wemmbu jumped onto a log and wobbled violently as Flame chased after
"Seriously Flame, Ill get in trouble and- and we need to talk to you about something.."
Flame stopped his chase and tilted his head "uh yeah what is it?"
Eggchan sighed "Flame we- we're technically not supposed to.. be out here, we'll get in buckets of trouble if out elders or anybody found out. We've been sneaking away at night to go hang out with you but, that just jocks up our sleep cycle, and- and although my sleep schedule is already pretty jacked up, Wemmbu's is beyond perfect-" Wemmbu snorted at that "- and he as been falling asleep during training and practicing guitar, we're afraid it'll make others and the elders suspicious.."
Flame blinked a couple of times, taking it all in before saying "and so?"
"And so we are gonna take a.. break from visiting the overworld, not too long, just long enough so that we can drain the suspicion, so to speak"
"Oh.." Flame drooped a little before perking back up "You're- you're gonna come back right?"
"Yeah bro, its not like we'd abandon you" Wemmbu nudged Flame and grinned "anyway, I think it'd be best if we right now, the sooner the better!"
"Alright bro! See you soon"
-
Flame knew he shouldnt, he had infact, promised not to follow or tell anyone about the duo he had found wandering the woods at night. HE had already, technically broken one of the rules (Telling Manepear after his older brother kept asking about the dark circles under his eyes. What was he supposed to do? Lie? No way!) But still the alore of unknown mysteries, such as, Wemmbu's cloak or where they both came from? Too great for Flame to leave unsolved for void know how long. So of course he followed them, quieter and from a farther distance than last times fail, and to his surprise, he didn't know the friends he had hung out with for the past, almost a year, were mages and portal openers.
-
Flame held a and over his mouth to quench the gasp from escaping. He couldn't believe it, a portal to, what looked to be, the ather? The thing told in storybooks? The MYTH? No way, no way, no way, no way.
"There is absolutely no possibility that this is real" Flame said in a whisper so quite it could be mistaken for a whisper as two ENORMOUS winged eyeballs came out of the portal, glaring at Wemmbu and Eggchan
"Wemmbu… Eggchan…" The one dressed in all blue said"I don't seem to remeber Gibran you permission or access to the overworld"
"E-elder, I swear, this was- this was a one time occurrence" Wemmbu took a small step back
"Dont lie to your elders child, especially the one whom raised you"
"Elder, we're sorry for-"
"Tell me children, who's idea was this, and were you seen?"
"N-no my elder, we weren't, and it was-"
"IT WAS MY IDEA" Wemmbu said in a rush, putting himself infront of Egg "I-i just dragged egg into it"
The elder snorted "seems on track" then with a brisk clap of their hand, turned around and shredded the duo
"We'll adress your punishment when we get back home wemmbu, Eggchan.." They turned to face him "You may come along"
"Y-yes elder,," the Two said in unison and marched into the gaping portal, where others could be seen galking out at the forest. The elder was the last to leave, sweeping their enormous eye across the the trees and foliage before leaving and closing the portal.
Flame slid down the trunk of the tree, still holding his hand to his mouth and gasping slightly. He looked up at the distant stars and thanked both the void and the neather that he wasn't found, he didn't know what might of happened if he was but he was fairly sure it teetered somewhere along the lines of "maiming" and "death". So fun.
It took until the sun came up for Flame to finally move, his body stiff and tired, but he managed to get back to the tree house before Mane awoke and colapsed into his bed with a "whoosh." Then he sat there, thinking and hoping. Thinking about the strange portal, the elder and the angles, and how, wouldn't that mean he was freinds with an angle? Maybe two? Did wemmbu count as one.. he had the wings but the horns hinted towards demon. And hoping, hoping to see his friends one day, perferable soon, but one day would work too. And he hoped that they would be alright, and maybe, they could meet back at the small pond and share stories about life, stories that made Flame laugh and smile, like he had never before.
"Yeah.. one day.. one day soon" then he was out like a candle, smothered by the wind.