Chapter Text
Saps genuinely couldn’t believe it. Despite the fact he’d evaded patrols for hours now, the loss of his kingdom, his people, the server…it didn’t seem real. And now? Now Saparata was being run down in a snowy taiga outside of spawn.
Well, using the word run was a bit generous. As wounded as Saps was, leaking blood behind him that stained the pristine white of the snow slowing his escape, he was easy prey. Imagine that, Saparata de Theria, horribly wounded in a snow biome in a hardcore server. Heh, he could hardly believe it himself! In the next second Saps’ face twisted into a snarl. Or at least, it tried to. Whatever, he’d managed to barely outsmart General X2 plenty during the civil war. He’d get out this one just fine! After all, didn’t ParrotX2 always seem so pissed whenever he did? That alone made this all worth it. Saps smiled, but it was weak, a fragile thing on a tear-stained face, though he refused to acknowledge that.
Some former king he was. Saparata wasn’t supposed to be this pathetic. He could feel a growl making a home in his throat, distracting him from the hidden terrain below.
The fallen angel stumbled slightly against some blanketed rocks, a hand falling through the snow when he tried to catch himself. Saps wheezed, the wound in his abdomen making itself known again. His other hand pressed against it as he huffed. He’d forgotten how much fighting could hurt. Saps wanted to laugh, but even the wheezing had hurt like he’d been stabbed all over again. All he wanted to do was lay here, but he’d die if he did. Saparata wasn’t one to give up, goddammit he had a vision! If only X2 had stayed away for just a little longer. However, beyond the bounds of the trees that boxed him in, howls filled the air and he stiffened.
Oh Notch.
Saps’ eyes widened in something he wouldn’t couldn’t call fear as the sound of wolves echoed through the trees. He didn’t know how the hell X2 had managed to get wild wolves, instead of those feral descendants of dogs that roamed the server; he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know. Saps had to get out, now.
He rushed to his feet hissing in pain, stumbling and struggling. He started to walk, ‘running’ as fast as he could.
His heaving, shaken breaths whispered through the night air, wheezing in the cold.
If he could just make it a little farther…
…by the admins he could hardly breathe.
…
Saparata could hear the pack again.
He limped forward, near-hyperventilating as his eyes bounced from tree to tree. They could be anywhere here and he wouldn’t know it. Sometimes he thought he saw a tail or a snout, but his vision was too blurry to tell. When had he started to cry again? Fuck, everything hurt. Even with the new rush of adrenaline, his injuries burned in the cold air.
Honestly, he wasn’t even sure how he managed to escape Spawn in the first place. All he could remember was the General of Cindercrest’s mocking laughter, his smile as he declared his victory to the server. The rage and pain in his veins made everything blurry.
He missed his friends
Why—? He’d done his best, hadn’t he!? Parrot had ruined everything! Saparata heaved as he slammed into the side of a tree, everything spinning around him. He staggered back, head wings shaking violently. Huh—was that?! No, no, he had to keep going. He couldn’t die here, hand dragging over his face. Saps couldn’t breathe, shadows creeping in on him from all sides except
Except for forward…was he?
Was he being herded?
Nonetheless, he ran, sprinted through the forest as best he could, slipping on the snow beneath him. Saparata’s blood continued to marr the white of both himself and the tracks left behind. Notch, everything hurt, he was so very tired, he just—
He just—
His knees buckled, and Saps toppled over.
“Help, please.”
He shook in the snow as he laid there, blood pooling around him, wings open to the elements, face smushed against a rock he’d hit on his way down. Saparata’s vision swam, tears running down his face in soft rivulets. He almost seemed to blend into the lovely white cradling him, and what did he give it back?
Don’t answer that. He shuddered as pain rocked through him. Saps groaned as the adrenaline continuously seeped out of him leaving him to face his injuries alone.
Saparata struggled to turn himself over, breathing quickly becoming uncomfortable as he used the last of his strength to end up on his back. Unfortunately, he’d ended up squishing his wings between him and ground, their coal-black color stark against the snow. His shaking hand reached for his blood stained chest as the wet patch grew larger. Oh admins—fuck it hurt, everything hurt. It felt like something was dragging claws through his organs, like his body was rebelling against him. He wanted to throw up, he wanted to rip out his ribs—how could adrenaline possibly have cloaked this suffering of his?
Even if he wanted too he couldn’t scream.
Everything was so much harder now.
He could see them just outside the clearing he fell in, the wolves, the pack. They circled him like ravens to a slaughtered corpse. Saparata—even through the all-encompassing agony—could see that they were far larger than they appeared. Far more imposing than the dogs FlameFrags carried around. What could he do but watch as they stalked closer and closer, blurring together with each other, the snow, and the sky. They shouldn’t have looked so beautifully terrifying in the sunset. It seemed to fit the pack of hunters and even their avian leader, wherever he happened to be.
Saparata felt his consciousness slip away as he heard footsteps, but whether it was into sleep or death, he didn’t know.
—————
A long red cape dragged through the wintery biome, furred on all edges and heavy. Its wearer, a slim but tall man, put his claws to his lips and whistled. One of the wolves surrounding the prone angel laid in the snow bounded up to its prized owner, sat at attention.
“Thank you, Palintonos.” The colorful avian-hybrid smiles. “You’ve all done well.”
The wolf’s tail wagged in the snow, clearly pleased with itself.
“Sir…?” One of the soldiers behind Parrot started to speak, but quickly stopped as the general-turned-king stares into him.
“Head back. I’ll join you all momentarily. After all, the capture of the traitorous former king should be celebrated, no?”
It’s not a question, nor a request.
The patrol turned to leave, even Reina joining up with them, something of a malicious laugh in her blank eyes. After a couple of minutes, it was just Parrot, his wolves, and his prey.
Prey nearing death, it seemed.
He strode forward, confidence in every movement, every thought. The new king approached his rival, a colored wing covering the shivering body as snow started to fall from a bleak night sky.
Of course, Parrot couldn’t leave his the little angel like this, now could he? The macaw rummaged through his inventory, eventually finding a healing potion. He dropped over the wound without a care in the world, but he watched the wound close up like a hawk, despite such a low-level potion’s slow acting nature.
As Parrot waited, his claws slowly pet the head of the long dead wolf situated over his shoulders, its white and black eyes glassy.
Despite the potion, he knew Saparata would be asleep for a while, especially when one considered all the fight he’d put up this past day.
Admins, something about him looked beautiful like this. Parrot thought there was something almost poetic in how the blood of an angel, even a fallen one, could stain something so pristinely pure as snow. It was like the winter had been painted with the sins of the server, all condensed into one man. Saparata really wasn’t fit to be a king, was he?
Parrot smiled, red eyes gazing down towards his defeated rival and his head wings fluffed up in excitement. He threw off his cloak, placing it gently over Saparata. He tucked in the fallen angel securely into his arms, and chirped at the pack. All the wolves ears stood up, and so did they.
They followed their master back through the hundreds of blocks to his castle—now with his enemy encased in his grasp.
He’d meant it when he said Saparata would not escape so easily.
Parrot have would make sure he’d never think to do so again.