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Dark clouds approached overhead as Clown watched. In the distance, he could see the blurr of a rainfront obscuring the horizon. It growled loud enough to be heard even here.
"We should get home quick", Rekrap said. Clown glanced over at his serious tone. His face was drawn in a concentrated frown, his dark purple eyes slightly pinched. Rekrap looked out into the distance, surely seeing what Clown, too, had noticed.
A thunderstorm.
Mobs.
Getting home to sleep really was the best idea, and the storm didn't seem to cross their path, at elast from what Clown could tell.
Beneath his feet, the burning mansion crackled on. Another reason to leave, and hurry with it.
"Well, then let's go", Wunba said and jumped of, quickly followed by 4C, then the rest of them. Clown took of into a sprint as the first flame's ate through the roof. The wind rushed up his body as he fell, then pushed him upwards as his elytra snapped open.
He lit a rocket and heard Rekrap do the same next to him, the silhouettes of their teammates further ahead.
The same winds pushing the storm also pulled at Clown, trying to pusb him of course. Sparks burned his fingertips as he lit another rocket to correct his flight. It was his last. When had they gotten so low?
Thunder rumbled too close for Clown's comfort. "Rek!", he yelled. Rekrap's head turned around. "What?", his responding yell sounded over the rushing wind. Clown gesticulated towards the forest below, which he was sinking closer and closer to. "We need to land!" Not much of his words would arrive over the noise, but it was worth a try at least.
Rekrap seemed to understand enough of Clown's charade to shout back "Okay!" And turn his homeward glide into a soft downward spiral. Clown breathed out. If Rekrap hadn't heard him... Clown didn't want to imagine staying out alone throughout the storm, certainly not with the increased mob cap.
Their lessened speed meant that Clown actually had a chance of being understood. "I'm out of rockets!"
Apparently not a good enough chance. "What?", Rek yelled back again. Already, Clown started feeling an itch in his throat from the screaming and heard that same raspy quality in Rek's voice.
"Out. Of. Rockets!", Clown screamed. "Ah!" Rek shouted back again. The forest was only ten or so blocks below them, now. Clown motioned towards a particularly tall tree a little to west, where the sun was slowly starting to set. Not good.
Then the first raindrop landed cold and wet on Clown's neck. A second one, a third, then uncountable many more, until the rain hammered onto Clown's back. The storm had caught up to them. It must have changed direction at some point. Now they truly needed to hurry.
Clown's feet touched down first on suitably steady branch, then Rekrap on one a few feet higher up. Lightining flashed. It illuminated Rek's silhouette in blinding white, then vanished. Except now. It faded, a flickering orange glow taking its place. Fire. "Down, Rek!", Clown yelled, this time a little panicked, "Fire!"
Clown followed his own advice and scrambled turned the tree trunk. A tree would be good against mibs but it wouldn't do anything to help when it crashed onto them. Or broke below them. Or they burned to death.
Above, Rekap jumped of the tree and glid down the fifteen or so blocks to the ground, almost crashing into Clown as he landed with the clattering of armour. Their shoulders brushed as Rek turned himself out of the way at the last moment before stumbling and falling over right into the quickly forming mud.
Clown chuckled as he offered him a hand, heard Rekrap laugh with him. But Rekrap didn't take it. And, Clown realized looking down, it wasn't Rekrap who laughed. Over the rain, it had been hard to make out the voice, but with the way Rek trembled on the ground... His face tinged green as lighting flashed, unfocused eyes as he slowly sat up. The pained look on his face. A witch. Of course, it had been the potion that shattered. They weren't wearing armour.
Darkness had set in quickly once the storm reached them. Only when lightning flashed could Clown see his surroundingd in any detail. Not ideal, when trying to find something. "Can you stand?", he asked Rek. This was very bad. "Yeah", Rek answered, but started caughing immediately. Clown could hear his teeth start to clatter.
Perhaps the tree was still better than being out in the open, Cliwn thought as he just barely dodged a whistling arrow. "We gotta run", he told Rek. He wouldn't lose another teammate here, not if he could help it. Grabbing one of Rekrap's hands, Clown started running. Normally, Rek was the faster one between them, but now he was stumbling, his weight pulling at Clown as he tripped over rolts of even his own feet. Witches were bad enough when you helaed on your own, now... Seeing Rek so uncoordinated was just wrong. Wrong in a way that made Clown's brain itch to fix it, wrong in a way that made his alarm bells ring. He was getting really worried.
A Zombie groaned on their right, so Clown dodged left, feeling Rekrap dragging behind as he fell once more. "Let go, Clown", Rek ordered, calm and certian though his teeth clattered and his words were slurred. "You'll make it", 'and I won't', was left unspoken.
"I don't give a crap, Rek", Clown bit back. They were getting out of here together or not at all. Clown would carry Rek the entire way if that was what he needed to do. But Clown wouldn't say that, Rek was in no state to argue, but he would argue with Clown. Rek could really stand to be a little more selfish. Another comment Clown resisted only by biting his tongue.
"And anyway", Clown continued, "You have our only rockets." That could be his excuse for now, though even Clown himself didn't believe his attempt at a nonchalant tone. Rek wouldn't buy it either, no matter how out of it he was.
Despite Clown's best attempts, Rekrap slowed even further. Every step seemed to be an impossible task, there was no rythm to his gait anymore. Clown glanced over his shoulder to find Rek's eyes shut. Focusing all his energy on staiyng upright. And, a voice in Clown tugged on his heartstrings, trusting Clown to lead the way.
"We're gonna make it", Clown said. "I promise", his voice cracked. For who the reassurances were meant, Clown didn't know. But in that moment, he didn't care that he really couldn't know, really couldn't promise that at all, just wanted it to be true. Wanted it more than anything.
"Yeah", Rekrap answered between his panting, heavy breaths "We're gonna make it, Clown."
And this reassurance, Clown knew with certainty, was meant for him. "We're gonna make it", Rekrap repeated again. "Yeah", Clown agreed. He wondered if either of them thought it to be the truth.
He squeezed Rek's hand tighter. It was cold, cold and wet, almsot slipping out of Clown's grasp everytime Rek stumbled. But Clown wouldn't let go until they were safe and sound, far, far away from here. Once they were home and safe and Rek drunk some milk and his wounds were patched and he was safe and warm and safe. Clown wouldn't lose another teamamte here. Couldn't. "We're gonna make it", he echoed more firmly. "We're making it home, Rek, you hear me?" Clown put all the conviction he could scrunge up into his words.
"I hear you", Rek replied, quiet and hoarse. Clown couldn't bear the thought of never hearing that voice again. Then, even quieter, "Clown, I can't."
"You can", Clown ordered. The felt tears well up in his eyes. Was this really hopeless? Clown looked up from his search for shelter to scan the sky, but found no sign of of where the clouds ended. Only and endless expanse of black. "You fucking can, Rekrap", Clown's voice broke. "You can, and you damn well will!"
Rek didn't reply, except for trying to pull his hand out of Clown's grip. He almost suceeded, too, but Clown only held on even more tightly. "I'll carry you if I have to", Clown choked out through a sob building in his chest, "but I won't leave you alone."
"Please, Clown", Rekrap sounded so exhausted. Their run was little more than a walk, Rek seeming to knock into every tree they walked past, trip over every root on the muddy ground.
"No", Clown growled. Rek could never seem to stop sacrificing himself. But Clown could stop him, and he would, each every single damn time.
With the next flash of lighting, Clown saw a hill. A hill with a small cave in the side. He swerved on his heel and pulled Rekrap into it with him, then blicke dof the entrance with Cobblestone as Rek pulled a torch from his inventory that had miraculously manged to stay dry. He held with trembling hands for Clown to light, then leaned it against the back wall of their nook and slid down himself. Inside, the Cave had only a good six blocks of room and damp from rain the wind had pushed in and that Clown and Rek were dripping with all over the floor.
"How low did you get?", Clown asked from his spot leaneing on the wall opposite Rek.
Rek looked up, then glanced away again, hugging his knees to his chest. "I'm on two. And out of like stew. And stuff." Rek smiled nervously as he met Clown's eyes again.
Two hearts. "Living on the edge, hmm?" Rek burst out in a short breath of laughter. High-pitched and a little hysterical. Beautiful. Clown wondered how he could ever have confused that sound with a witch.
"Well. There's one problem-", Rekrap said. Clown disagreed. Rek was still shaking like a leaf in autumn, they were both out of helaing items, there was still a thunderstorm outside and night must have fallen at this point—
"- do you know where we are? I don't know where we are."
Oh. No indeed. That was a problem too. A problem that, just like all of the others, Clown couldn't solve. But now that Rek wasn't trying to run of and die alone, Clown found it much easier to act confidant.
"We'll figure it out", he said, "We're good at this game."
The stone floor was cold as Clown sat down next to Rek. His clothes clung to his body, his hair to his face and neck. "You look cold. Come here."
Fore a moment, Rek hesitated. "You don't have to", he said, yet was already climbing onto Clown's lap and settling into his open arms. That alone told Clown how muserable Rek was feeling.
Now, they were in for a long night. Clown pushed his nose deep into Rek's wet curls and breathed in, tughtening his arms around the shivering form in his arms, cold as ice, and so, so, so dear to Clown's heart.
"We're gonna make it", he repeated again.