#Quest pistols | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

toontails · 2 years ago

Text

Toon Quest

Chapter 12: It's All in Your Head

Y/n fiddled with the bow in her hands, she tightened and fixed the strings, sitting in the bed facing away from everyone. She felt Spunk hop onto the bed and lay down. Panchito was already asleep in her spot—for whatever reason, he would have been up by now, but crazily enough, he was asleep still. And she was certain it was because of the walk to and from their far off location.

Mugman, Felix and Donald left into town to do more work considering Y/n would be going to the town's training this time, she decided not to tag along because of the sick feeling in her stomach. Cuphead had left shortly after to chase the 3 down when he woke up late.

Y/n didn’t bother to wake up Panchito, if he was still asleep then clearly it was for a good reason. She wanted to go trail off to Ruck to talk about the nervous feeling in her chest but she was certain he would either just toss her in the training hall to face the troubles head on, or just simply tell her to suck it up. But she didn’t want to. She held the quiver between her legs as she placed the bow on the bed, and picked up an arrow before picking up the damp towel near her and wiped away the dirt from the arrow. At Least if she planned on using it for archery training today, she might as well have her stuff look presentable. The last time she’s seen her contestee’s they all witness her get beat to bloody mess.

She didn’t want to go back there, the sheer feeling of embarrassment was wavering around in her head like a flag. Even the constructor didn’t like her too much.

She was proud of herself with how many minor achievements she made yesterday, but they would amount to facing the staring eyes when she walks through those doors today. She tried to have that suck it up attitude like Ruck always seemed to give, but it would only last for mere seconds before she would deflate into nothing but anxiety. Her fingertips felt cold as she wiped away the dried mood from the arrow.

The sound of nails scratching against wood caused her to flinch and quickly look over to the floor, but it was only Spunk stretching. His nails accidentally brushed against the wooden floor, creating that familiar scratching sound. Oswald—who was seated on the couch near the door, noticed her sudden frightened movement and looked at her, her back facing him.

“Are you okay?” He asks. Y/n glanced over her shoulder over to Oswald and nodded silently before looking back at her arrow and continued to clean it, it seemed her silent reply wasn’t enough. Oswald slowly stood up from the couch and walked over to Y/n. Walking over to the side, his eyes traveled down and watched as she placed the first arrow back in the quiver and took out another one to clean it. He slowly lowered himself down onto the bed and sat beside her.

“What’s wrong?” He asks. Y/n flickers her gaze to him and deadpans. “Going back to training is going to be so embarrassing.” She responds.

Oswald slowly nods his head—he immediately knew what she was referring to.

“Plus..I’m exhausted. I was going to go help out in town. But—I’m sore, and I gotta go to the training there—not to mention. I don’t even want to go head on with Stinks again. Jeez, that guy has some issues.” She muttered, she placed the arrow back in her quiver and looked at Oswald who was staring at her.

“I dunno..if you ask me you seem paranoid.” Oswald states and Y/n was about to open her mouth to disagree, but she slowly closed it when she thought about it. With recent events, it was understandable that she would be on edge 24/7. Leaving town was already bad enough with the state she was in and her last unfortunate one sided brawl. Only to fall into another one here in the offlands. Which was Stinks.

Having so much responsibility and eyes on her just for being a Vendolez, to getting dragged through the mud by some guy, not once but twice on multiple occasions. Having to make sure things were okay back at home and adapting to this new world. And not only that, adapt to being a hero because the book assigned her to, it was a lot for her to handle.

“I guess I am.”

“Rest then?”

Y/n fell silent and looked at Oswald before smiling.

Panchito wakes up from his sleep and slowly opens his eyes, Spunk had found comfort sleeping near his head. Panchito didn’t mean to fall asleep for so long, but Atleast he felt energized. When his eyes trailed over, he spotted Oswald and Y/n on the couch, they were asleep. The human laid on her side, half off Oswald and half on the couch, her leg over his as she laid on his shoulder. Oswald was fast asleep as well, he had an arm wrapped around her, his fingers gently pressed against her back, his ears hanging off of the couch. A blanket that was tossed over them before was slipping off as Oswald’s other hand was hanging from the couch. The two seemed utterly exhausted.

Panchito sits up from his position and smiles at the two, Spunk waking up soon after, looking up at the rooster who had looked at the two asleep on the couch.

He didn’t wake up the two—as he was certain they certainly needed the rest.

Y/n walked next to Ruck who was silently listening to Y/n speak—who was mainly talking about what different foods she could make if they went shopping, despite her days she’s been through, she’s been starving for a meal, she ate, but she was really looking for some fries, for whatever reason.

Once they reached the training arena, Y/n stared at the entrance where the contestants were walking in, some laughing around and joking around with each other, ready to begin the morning. The small nap Y/n took with Oswald did give her some energy, but that seemed to be quickly drained away when she deadpands at the building and sighed through her nose.

“I was told today you’re going through two courses, archery and the obstacle.” Ruck starts and Y/n turns to look at him, her hands wringing the quiver trap in her hands.

“Right..” she muttered.

“You go below the percentage of 10, you’re kicked.” He adds and Y/n furrowed her eyebrows and glared at him. “You don’t have to be rude about it—“

“Not by me, dumbass. I’m talking about the finale. They cherry pick certain ones to fight in warrior falls.”

Y/n felt her heart sink to her stomach. “What..?”

She glanced back at the building and back at Ruck. “But I can’t—I just started training, if I mess up, I won’t even get a chance to step a toe to the finale stage. All of this would be for nothing if I get kicked out immediately.”

“You’re a fast learner, you adapted pretty well in my eyes.”

Y/n silenced herself for a moment. Her hands become clammy and cold at the thought of failing her only chance. “Ruck, I’m serious. If I go back to everyone and tell them I failed the only objective out for me, I’ll look like an idiot.”

“I think you worry too much about what others think.” Ruck grumbled. Y/n stared at him once more, her eyebrows lifting up ever so slightly.

“You. Go in there. And just do it. The outcome will be what you make it if you keep pondering over it. Now go, I heard they’re giving you your uniform for the contest.”

“What’s the point if some people might get kicked?”

“Don’t ask me that.”

Y/n slowly nods and her eyes flickered back over to the building. Ruck didn’t move from his spot he was standing it was evident that he was planning on staying outside until they actually started training.

Y/n took a step back and turned around and started towards the building, but her feet slowly came to a stop. She eyes the building before looking back at Ruck, who had seemed like he was about to turn to walk off but he stopped in motion when he saw her turn back around.

“Can you come in there with me?” She asks him. Ruck furrowed his eyebrows at her question, Y/n glanced back behind her towards the building and back to Ruck. “I don’t want to get my uniform by myself.”

Ruck sighs and brings a hand up to his eyes to massage them in a frustrated manner.

“Please.”

He heard her add. Ruck removes his hands from his eyes and walks over to Y/n and soon past her. “C’mon. Christ you’re gonna give me a headache..”

“Yes!”

The man at the vendor booth hands out a uniform to one of the contestee’s—with beads and jewels—made with rich fabrics, Y/n stood in line with Ruck, she was looking around at the other contestee’s, their uniforms all were so creative, with designs of tiger stripes and zebra patterns. Y/n couldn’t wait to receive hers, Ruck didn’t say much other than stand beside Y/n and wait in line with her. Once they reached the vendor, the man looked at Y/n and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, hi, haven’t seen you before.” His eyes slowly slid down to the yellow paper on the booth top, looking at the various names of the contestee’s that he knew by heart and not once had he seen Y/n before.

“I’m Y/n.” Y/n responds. Placing her hands on the bar top, rocking back and forth on her feet.

The man silently read over the paper of names, his eyes squinting as he tried to find the name. Y/n seemed to deflate at that, was she not on the list?

“Erica, Nora, Coü, hm…Zazu..”

The man mutters different names as he reads down the list, Y/n eyes kept flickering down to the paper and then at the man and back at the paper and then back at the man until he finally finds her name. “Ah! Here we go, Y/n.” He taps the name where it was placed all the way at the bottom of the paper.

Y/n pressed her lips together. “Great..”

The man turns around and scavenges through a wooden bucket of clothes, moving some stuff out of the way as he sorts through everything. Y/n glanced at Ruck who was busy looking somewhere else to pay attention.

“Here we go.”

Y/n immediately turns back to the man and smiles in excitement to see her costume, but what was placed in front of her, was first a brown shirt—that seemed similar to some sort of tube top—but around the neck to resemble the neck of the shirt was a short brown poncho that was made of a thick fabric, black fringes dangling from it. A hood was attached to the poncho, down the poncho was a black Aztec like pattern.

Unfortunately it was attached to the shoulderless shirt underneath, not that it mattered as the poncho ended right above her ribcage. The pants ended right above her knees and had no design other than the straw like fringed running down the sides of the pants.

Y/n blinks before looking at the man.

“This is it?”

“Yep.”

Y/n brings a hand up and takes the clothes in her arms and nods her head at the man. “Thank you.”

Y/n walks down the hall with Ruck and stares down at the clothes in her hands.

“This looks dumb, everyone else has some cool stuff. I look like some old Wild West character.”

“Everyone’s costume has a meaning because they customize it every year. You get a standard one because you never entered Warrior Falls before.” Ruck informs in an attempt to not hear anymore of Y/n’s ranting.

The two stopped at a door—which was the changing hall, Y/n stood in front of the cobblestone corridor and looked at him. “If I look dumb, I’m not wearing this.”

Ruck raises an eyebrow. “And I would care because..?”

Y/n blinks before walking into the changing room.

Thankfully there was no one in there. Most of the contestee’s had already changed in their uniforms as Y/n was the last one out of everyone in line, she didn’t mind though, she would get peace and quiet to herself until she could mentally get herself together. The changing room looked similar to some High School gym locker room. Minus the lockers.

The wooden benches were laid and separated by some rooms of even more benches, slowly placed her bow and quiver against the wall, And glanced at the mirror on the wall ahead of her. It was like a public bathroom mirror, the room was dim—the sun coming through the tainted blue windows above near the ceiling.

Placing the clothes on the bench, she stared down at them and placed her hands on her hips.

It was the time she had to think, would she spin out and lose this only opportunity? Or actually try out there. She felt confident she would do something right. But that thought in her head kept telling her it would be best to back away and just let the opportunity go. But she couldn’t.

Y/n picked up the poncho and shirt and gazed down at it, clutching the fabric in her hands tightly.

“What seems tiring and impossible right now, will feel like a walk in the park the next day..” she whispered to herself. The assuring words that played in her hands. Closing her eyes she took a big deep breath before exhaling.

“Ruck, look.” Y/n walks out of the dressing room excitedly, her quiver and bow in hand, but she immediately stopped once she saw him standing with the others.

Meek, Don, Felix, Donald, Panchito, Oswald, Cuphead, Mugman, even Bendy and Lucy.

Y/n froze in her motion at the sight of everyone standing there. Lucy looks away from Ruck, who was speaking and turns her gaze to Y/n and immediately smiles.

“Oh! You look wonderful!” She exclaims. In her palms she was holding two wooden boxes, she quickly placed them on the ground and rushed over to Y/n, her hands flying over to Y/n’s poncho and fixing up the neck of the collar and then the hood.

“I knew yours wouldn’t have a meaning to it, that’s why I bought paint!” She starts. Y/n had her mouth open as her eyes flickered to everyone.

“Great…what’s..uh. What’s everyone doing here?” She asks. A hint of nervousness swelling in her chest. The one chance she had to actually make an effort and everyone was there.

“Finale picking. ‘said it was a towns viewing for who’ll be in the finale runner ups for the contest.” Donald informed nonchalantly.

“So this is basically a contest for the ones losing—well—I dunno, a part one from what I’m guessing.” He adds on. Y/n’s heartbeat immediately started hammering in her chest. Her mouth slowly closing at that information.

“Great..” she whispered.

“Oh don’t worry! I’m sure you’ll do great out there, it doesn't matter what happens out there. We’ll be here.” Lucy smiled before she motioned towards the boxes on the ground. “I’ve bought paint so you can customize your uniform.”

Customizing her uniform was the last thing Y/n was thinking about, she was mostly now focused on actually having to try to get some good points up there to make it past this hurdle. She’ll be damned doing all this work just to be tossed out of the game.

“Yeah..” Y/n muttered in a distracted manner.

“I dunno, if you ask me. I think some of them will be disqualified after the first round..” Mugman points out. His gaze fixated on a girl in the training arena struggling to pull the arrow back on her bow, when she did it immediately shot from her weak fingers and the arrow was sent flying lord knows where from his view.

Mugman shakes his head and looks at Y/n. “I believe you’ll do fine.”

“Been trying to tell her that for the last hour.” Ruck pipes up and Don nudges the man. “Give er’ a break. She just got her ass kicked by that skunk fella.”

“Which won’t happen again.” Cuphead quickly says and Donald chuckled. “Where’s the guy by the way?” He asks and Y/n immediately shrugs.

“I dunno. Haven’t seen him, and don’t plan on wanting to.” She grunts, it was clear she was starting to become agitated. Shuffling on her feet before placing her hands on her hips. She felt Lucy’s hand cautiously place on her shoulder—like she didn’t know if she could touch Y/n or not. Y/n turned her gaze and looked at the girl.

“Let’s get you ready for the course, no?” Lucy gives her a smile. “Customizing your uniform is supposed to resemble what you’re fighting for. Many of the contestee’s have different things they’ve added to their name to showcase throughout the contest.”

So that’s why Y/n’s costume was blank. Not that it didn’t look perfectly fine as is.

“Oh that is cute, it is like your own little journal. But you can wear it..in a weird way.” Panchito drawls. Y/n’s eyes flickered down to the small boxes on the ground.

“What’s that?” She asks.

“Paint. I brought it since I have to be here with my father to spectate.” She answered, pulling away from Y/n and moving to pick up the boxes from the ground.

“And the kings here too? Great.” Y/n deadpans.

“Cheer up, like Ruck said. You’ll do great. If not? Oh well! You still went out there and did it.” Meek comforts. And Felix nods soon afterwards. “Yes, it might be uncomfortable now, but we’re here with you, Y/n.”

“Don’t take it personally if I laugh.” Donald pipes up and Oswald silently looks at Donald and furrows his eyebrows at the duck.

“Which he won’t be doing..” The rabbit spoke through his teeth and Donald rolled his eyes silently—clearly understanding Oswald.

Bendy was busy silently leaning on the wall, his hand holding him up as his other was placed on his hip. He watched as Lucy picked up the boxes and turned to Y/n.

“So! What were you looking to add to your uniform?”

Y/n grew silent, she couldn’t think of anything. Most of her mind was focused on what would stir up on the course than customizing some clothes in the moment.

Staring at the boxes In the princesses hand, Y/n’s eyes flickered back to the group. “You said it’s supposed to represent something?” She repeats and Lucy nods.

“I think I may have one thing in mind.“

“This looks magnificent!” Lucy skips around Y/n, they all congregate back in the dressing room, standing in front of the mirror. Y/n glanced down at her uniform. Various hand prints stamped on the pants, and poncho of all her friends. Minus Ruck who didn’t want to get his hands dirty. Black and red paint littering the clothes, and the sight of it made a small smile appear on Y/n’s face.

Panchito placed his hand in the red paint before walking over to Y/n and placing his hand to her shoulder, where he stamped his hand print.

“Stop—swattin’ your hand, you’re flingin’ paint.” Bendy hissed at Cuphead who flickered his hand to get some wet paint off—why he didn’t just wash his hands was beyond everyone.

“Sorry.” Cuphead immediately apologized.

Felix was busy fixing Y/n’s poncho—mainly her hood. She stood still and she felt Lucy place a handprint on her knee, Y/n felt like she was getting ready for prom of some sorts. Staring at herself in the mirror, she actually started to like the uniform a tad bit more, it didn’t have much of a design to it like everyone else. But it was still something.

Felix pulls away from her and moves to walk over to a sink to wash his hands off from the paint that stained his hands.

“Wonderful.” Lucy starts. Standing up from the ground, the palms of her hands were stained in red paint, but she didn’t move to wash her hands yet. Watching Y/n who was busy silently examining the uniform. Lucy couldn’t tell what Y/n was thinking, with how silent she was, not a single thought seemed to cross the mind of Y/n.

“Looks nice.” Ruck broke the silence that he could sense Y/n was giving. She blinks and slowly nods.

“I like it.”

The paint was drying up pretty quickly, thankfully as she needed to be out in the area soon.

Soon Don walks into the dressing room, Ruck turns his head to him and Don nods. “It’s starting, we gotta go get Bendy and Lucy up to the balcony area.” He informs. Lucy looks away from Don and looks back at Y/n who had moved away to saunter over to her bow that was leaning on the wall.

“Okay! This is nice!” Donald outstretched his arms and gave an optimistic smile, his eyes planted on Y/n who tossed the quiver’s strap around her shoulder. She felt her heart beating in her stomach—anxious for the upcoming events.

“You’ll go out there and do great, toots. We’re rooting for ya!” Donald clearly was trying to make shine for some light of motivation as she didn’t seem too good in the face. Y/n’s eyes flickered to Donald and she gave him a single nod. “Yeah..”

Ruck’s first thought was to have a talk with Y/n before leaving out, but he watched as her toon friends slowly gathered closer to her to speak to her themselves, and he waited to see what would happen as Meek and Don left out of the dressing room, Ruck removes himself from the wall and exits the dressing room as well.

Felix placed a hand on Y/n’s shoulder and placed one on Panchito’s shoulder seeing he was standing beside them. The group made a small circle, minus Lucy who took a step back and watched them with a smile.

Mugman stood beside Y/n and she looked at everyone. “Whatever happens out there..” Felix starts, when he started talking she turned her gaze and looked at him.

“All that matters is that you tried. You’ve done wonderful so far. And that’s all that matters.” Felix's words seemed like he was telling her, even if she didn’t make it to the final stage for being in the official Warrior Falls contest, it was okay because she still learned new things in the process. Like archery, and climbing trees and swimming with her breath held for long periods of time.

“Whatever happens. We’re still a family.” Felix smiles at everyone and Panchito smiles widely. “Ooooh, that is very nice! Please, don’t make me cry.” Panchito said dramatically. Y/n cracked a smile before nodding in agreement. The small speech gave her comfort.

“Yeah…”

Y/n fiddled with her bow, tightening the strings on it. She furrowed her eyebrows in concentration, doing the best she could, the other contestee’s were getting ready, some seated under the shade away from the hot sun to speak with their peers. A few others speaking to their families were in the lower parts of the stand in the arena. There were people already pooling in for the first viewing of Warrior Falls. Not entirely a full house but it was far more than enough to have Y/n overwhelmed and thinking about what the actual day would look like.

Many people had their support, wishing them luck, giving them gifts to motivate them. Y/n’s eyes wandered over and landed on Stinks, who was looking up the stands where his family was started.

Stinks gazed up at his mother. She held a calculated expression as she looked down at her son. “That girl.” She starts. Stinks ears perked up and he raised his eyebrows, he immediately knew she was referring to Y/n.

“You know what to do.” She said, Stinks silently nodding his head. “Yes..” he muttered. The mother moved to place her attention on the toddler beside her who climbed to sit in the seat. The child smiled up at her mother before looking over to Stinks, in which she had to stand on the chair and peek over the railing to gaze down at him. “You got this Zazu!” She gives him a thumbs up. Stink’s gives a shirt and quickly smiles before looking back at her mother.

“Mother, I think that she’s not—“

“Hey, Stinks!”

Stinks turns around to see his friends calling out to him. They waved him down and Stinks removed himself from the wall and glanced back at his mother who nodded her head to dismiss him. Stinks sighed through his nose and turned to walk over to his friends, his eyes landed on Y/n, who was looking at him from over her shoulder. Stink furrowed his eyebrows and the two looked away from each other.

Y/n sighed and looked ahead and away from Stinks. She furrowed her eyebrows and shuffled on her feet. Placing the bow back around her.

“I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.” Y/n whispered to herself. She walked over to the benches and sat down. The heat from the wooden bench warmed up her legs as she furrowed her eyebrows. Her eyes looked over to see 5 judges standing over near the stands in a booth, they were speaking to Modi who stood in front of them listening to whatever they were saying.

They held papers in their hands, no doubt some Talley list. Y/n looks away and back to the ground, rubbing her hand to her forehead. She rested her elbows on her knees and sighed heavily. She had the urge to leave, to just walk away, the bubbling hot pot of anxiety was growing worse by the minute. But she didn’t move. She inhaled and rolled her shoulders before looking up.

The..pre contest had started, and Y/n sat on the benches along with the other contestants. Similar to some basketball players waiting to be called onto the court. There were 50 in all and the first round was archery. 10 targets, and all Y/n was thinking on was how badly she would screw up. For contestants who didn’t have a bow—they were given a temporary one for the meantime, it Atleast made Y/n feel good that she had one At Least. She sat lazily on the bench as her eyes watched 4 contestants walk up to the center of the arena. The number of people they picked to walk out to shoot the targets was random, but she couldn’t give a rats ass about the number, she was more so worried that her time was up as she saw the line of who went next get closer to her…and of course. She was at the end of the bench, meaning she went last.

The stands had so many people seated that Y/n got dizzy just gazing at them. Eyes everywhere watching and cheering for their loved ones on the ground to hit the target.

Y/n’s eyes flickered up to the balcony way across the area where she saw her friends.

Donald down at Y/n, his arms resting on the railing. “Geez. She does not look good out there.” Donald says.

“She has stage fright.” Bendy answered and Mugman grunted. “Oh yeah..I know how that feels.”

Panchito waves frantically at Y/n and smiles at her. From afar Y/n raised her hand and waved back at him.

Oswald was leaned back into his seat as his eyes were busy flickering between the contestee’s doing their rounds with archery. Some missing the bullseye and knocking off points. Some getting close to the target and some even missing entirely.

“YOU SUCK!” Cuphead shouts down at the contestant who fired their arrow but missed the entire target. The contestant looks up at the balcony where Cuphead shouted from. The contestee sighs and sulks before turning away and trudging back over to the benches. A whistle went off for them as well, signaling they were disqualified.

“What’s up with the whistle?” Meek asks. Lucy looks away from the game and glances at Meek. “It signals who’s disqualified from the contest, as stated this is the picking of the contestants.”

She points down to the judges in a booth examining the game. “They’re the ones watching and picking.”

“If she gets kicked out from this first game I think I might lose it.” Donald rubs his temple and Felix looks at him. “Donald..” Felix warns.

“What’s important is she’s trying.” Ruck states and Felix nods in agreement.

“Aww..my sweet querida looks like she needs a hug.” Panchito sulks as he frowns and looks down at Y/n.

“And when is she never stressing?” Donald chuckled.

“Is that the guy that was causin’ problems?” Cuphead squinted his eyes as he tried to get a better look at Stinks from afar. Stinks had got up from the benches as he was called out. He was 3 people down from Y/n. She was going to be up soon.

Stinks grabs his bow and walks out to the middle of the arena. The crowd chants and sings his name; ‘Zazu’

Stinks seemed to glance around the arena at everyone as he reached back and grabbed an arrow from his quiver.

Two other contestee’s joined as well. Those were the last two, but Y/n wasn’t called up.

“Why are they letting her go by herself?” Don grunts and Ruck squints his eyes. “Right..” he agreed.

Stinks had hit the target—clearly a bullseye. He did it with such an ease he didn’t even seem like he had to think about it. The other contestants had missed their target, and a whistle blew and the contestant sighed and walked back over to the bench. The other contestant shot the target—but inches away from the red bullseye, but still safe enough for them to stay in the contest.

The constructor motioned Stinks and the other contestee back to the benches, they both turned

and walked back and the constructor landed his eyes on Y/n and his hand motioned to the center of the arena. Some people were removing the last arrows for Y/n. The human blinks owlishly. “Shit..” her fingers felt cold as she felt every bit of knowledge on archery fly out the back door. Why the hell was she going by herself?

“A Vendolez!” One of the announcer's shouted and the crowd shouts and hollers in excitement.

“If you sit at the end of the bench, you’ll go last but you have the risk of finishing the round on your own.” Lucy sighs as she rested her elbow on her knee and placed her face in her hands. How the hell did she forget that one detail!

Felix’s ears flatten. “Okay..maybe on second thought she probably will panic..” he laughs nervously and Donald huffs.

“You think? Look at her!” Donald motioned to Y/n who was walking slowly to the center of the arena. Gripping onto her bow. She had one chance. Or else she was done…

Bendy sighs and closes his eyes in frustration and dissatisfaction before inhaling.

Y/n stared at the target in front of her with furrowed eyebrows.

“Shoot all 10 targets.” The man said before strolling back to give Y/n space. Her eyebrows raised before she looked ahead.

“Shit.” They both said in unison.

Y/n placed an arrow in the bow before aiming at the target. Her heart thumped in her chest. Her pointer finger sticking out to aim at the red dot. Everything became muffled in her ears. The cheering and clapping. The birds, the wind. She zoned in on the target and pulled the arrow back further.

Ruck and everyone in the booth watched Y/n in anticipation, this was either a win or lose moment. Y/n let’s out a shaky breath before releasing the arrow. It shot and hit the bullseye on the target!

“Yes!” Everyone in the booth shouts beside Ruck who lets out a sigh of relief through his nose. Y/n’s sweaty hands distracted her, but she didn’t let that interfere with her. Y/n slowly edged to the other target, reaching into her quicker and grabbing another bow. Loading it, pulling back and releasing, the arrow hits the bullseye yet again, the crowd was stunned—but exhilarated!

Y/n’s eyebrows twitched as she had them furrowed. She edged to the 3rd target. And reached into her quiver and repeated the action.

“¡ir! ¡ir! ¡eres un gran tirador de maravillas!” Panchito shouts proudly down to Y/n. His voice echoed.

Lucy claps, a bright smile on her face!

“Well ain’t that a bitch..” Ruck muttered in surprisement.

Y/n was reaching the last target after hitting the bullseye on the last 8. Some of the contestee’s stood up from their benches in shock. Some yelling in their tongue encouraging statements.

Y/n pulled back once more on the arrow, her breathing echoing in her head. Releasing it. The arrow shot to the target and embedded in the middle of it. A bullseye once more.

“YEAH!” Donald, Cuphead, Mugman and Panchito shouts in excitement—jumping from their seats. Bendy’s shoulders dropped from being tensed. A sigh escaped his mouth. Lucy stands up and claps her hands loudly. Felix smiled as well as Oswald.

Y/n lowered her arms and looked down the row of targets she hit, and glanced up at the balcony and looked at Ruck who was clapping his hands along with everyone. He was clapping for her. A smile appeared on his face as he raised a hand up. Two fingers pointing to his eyes and then at her. Y/n raised her hand, two fingers pointing to her eyes and then back at him.

The crowd chants Y/n’s name as and the conductor nodded at her to return to the benches. She walks back over to the bench, a small smile present in her face and not an ounce of fear in her body. Some of the contestee’s greeted her excitedly, frantically speaking to her she couldn’t even pay attention.

Stinks looks away from Y/n and back to the targets, he..was actually surprised to see what she did. 10 bullseye’s..his eyes landed on his father who was speaking to Modi over by the judges booth. When he met eyes with his son. His fathers eyes hardened, Stinks looks away and back over to the targets.

“Still time to kick the brat out.” Stinks looks over to the boy sitting beside him. He had his foot propped up on the bench with his bow hanging around his shoulder.

“Obstacle course. She failed it last time. She’ll fail again.” The boy chuckled. And the dog toon next to him laughs and nods.

“Right!” He laughs. Stinks leans back, his back against the wall as he sighs. “Don’t lose to her man.” Another contestee’s grumbled and Stinks sneers.

“Listen, shut up. Can I think for a fuckin’ second?” He grumbled. Clearly he wanted peace and quiet.

“I’ll get her..”

Y/n stared at the obstacle and..actually felt pretty good about it. With all the climbing she did yesterday, this obstacle was nothing but a playground in her eyes. This was the last round to see if she could make it into the contest, and she’d be damned if she lost. Only 7 other contestants made it..which was a large chunk chopped off, but. She was glad she was in the runner ups. The obstacle had targets they had to shoot with their arrow and that was the only thing she feared at the moment. As good as she might be shooting the bow stationed..she wasn’t so sure about doing it while running around everywhere.

Stinks walked past her and he didn’t even bid her a glance. Y/n blinks before she glanced over at the booth where the judges are, seated and waiting.

The constructor was at the end of the finish line. Where a flag was. The same exact flag she couldn’t get to before.

Standing at the line. Y/n blankly stared at the obstacle course. Don’t mess up..don’t mess up…don’t mess this up…

Was what she kept repeating in her head over and over again. The constructor raised a hand up in the air, he held a pistol, pulling the trigger, the pop of the bullet echoed, and the face started.

The contestee’s ran into the obstacle, going their own ways either, crawling, climbing or trudging through the mud.

Y/n ran over to the wall and her hands instantly found the dents in the wood for her to climb. She climbed the wall quicker than she did ever, it reminded her of like climbing the branches she had to do so many times. Her muscles were sore from all the training prior but that was the least of her concerns. The wooden plank was before her. She balanced herself across it as she took her bow and loaded her arrow, spotting a target a few feet away. She released the arrow and it hit the target. A bell rang in the air for her hit.

One of the judges added a point to her name. Which was right under Stink’s name. 6 points. Stinks already have 11.

Y/n crossed the plank and quickly placed her bow around her and hopped off the platform, holding on the nylon rope and swinging over to the other side of the platform, she jumped off the rope and landed onto her feet. She heard one of the contestee’s fall from behind her. A whistle shrieks in the air. They were disqualified.

The judge removes the name from the board. Leaving 6 people.

Y/n jumps down the ladder and vaults over a wooden barricade, removing her bow from her she quickly loads it and hits the next target that was a few inches from her.

Felix’s ears perked up when he spotted one of the contestee’s near the human. Y/n in which turns around to see the contestant and moves away from their swing. Y/n quickly rushes away and climbs up a ladder to get to the next platform, when she made it to its surface she saw she had to hop across the gaps—which reminded her of when she was hopping trees yesterday. She hops over the gaps and huffs.

“Ouch!” Two contestee’s ran into each other and fell off the platform and into the mud. The whistle blows twice disqualifying them.

“Come on!” Donald shouts down at Y/n. Mugman frantically shook Donald’s shoulders. “Stop! Don’t distract her!”

Y/n hops over another gap and lands to the other side. The sound of whistles blowing in her ears would have distracted her, but she didn’t take a moment to look back, her foot hops over to a thin pole like platform, big enough for only one foot to stand on. She hops to the other small pole, her arms slightly up as she balances herself to hopping from one pole to the other, if she fell into the mud, it was over with.

“Come on kid..” Ruck whispered to himself as he watched her. “Damn..” Cuphead gazed at her. Mugman rolled his eyes at his brother's dazed expression. Bendy had leaned forward to silently watch Y/n hop to each platform. Felix had his arms behind his back as she anxiously watched her.

Y/n hops onto the wooden platform and takes her bow out before shooting yet another target. They were exactly bullseyes but it was still her hitting the target. She smiled as she saw the end. She hops down from the platform and back onto the ground. Placing the bow back around her as she ran to the flag only a few meters away. This was it!

But she felt someone collide into her. Arms wrapping around her as they tackled her to the ground. Y/n lost her footing and the two went tumbling down to the ground. Y/n’s heart felt like it leapt into her throat. Fear spiked within her. The sounds of the outside world went blank to her. Her eyes clenched closed as she felt like everything had paused and went slow. She slowly fell onto the ground.

Y/n’s chest tightened. Like her body knew exactly what frightened her. She could feel her heart thumping in her ears, shaking her ribcage. Her hands started to sweat as her body went cold. Y/n rolled on the ground, the dirt under her had hardened into what felt like cold concrete. Y/n groans, from her lack of breathing and from the impact from the ground. The cheering echoed in her eyes like a far distance.

Y/n slowly opened her eyes and looked ahead, getting in her hands and knees. Stinks back was turned from her, he was picking himself up from the ground. But as her eyes zoned in on him, her heartbeat picked up. And she lets out a wheezing noise like she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t. Stinks heard the noise she made and turned around to look at her—his motion was slow, Y/n slowly blinked. And standing in front of her. Was what she didn’t know she feared the most until it stood right there. Pib.

Y/n let out an uncomfortable groan as she jumps back.

The sound of a cars honking echoed in her head. But there was none in sight. She knew she was still on the course but her body thought otherwise. Pib turned to look at Y/n.

Y/n’s chest heaved up and down frantically, a hand reaching up to grip at her chest, a loud wheezing sound escaped her mouth. Her eyes blurred as tears formed in her eyes.

The sound of her heavy breathing soon turned into her hyperventilating, unsteady frantic breathing. Her body felt frightened. How was she here?

Y/n struggled to stand herself up, her legs felt weak, like a baby deer learning to walk. A snivel escapes Y/n’s mouth as she takes a step back, away from the finish line.

A tear falls from her face. Pib’s head only moved to follow her movement. But didn’t move to walk towards her, it was almost uncanny. How still it was.

Y/n tried to breathe, but it didn’t matter how much she tried to inhale it seemed like something blocked her from breathing. Her hands clamped at her chest, she never felt her heartbeat so quick in her life, sure she had moments she was afraid, but she never felt her heart beat like that before.

Hands grasp onto her shoulders, and she quickly shouts and whips around. Stumbling, her frantically breathing was heavy.

“Hey! Hey! What’s wrong?” It was Felix. Y/n rapidly blinked when she saw him. The world becoming brighter as it seemed to shade down before. She quickly latched onto him.

“It—she was—i was—I—she—she was right there!” Her words were chopped from her heavy breathing, sniffing her throat felt right, her body tried to breathe, she sounded like a child who cried to themselves so much they would stammer to their parents as they cried trying to explain something. Breaking the rhythm of their breathing.

Lucy quickly rushes over and stands in front of the two. “What’s wrong?!” She asks. As the others had quickly walked over as well.

Stinks held the flag in his head as he stood at the finish line. He won the course, the good thing was Y/n wasn’t disqualified seeing she didn’t touch the mud at all.

Bendy quickly placed a hand on Y/n’s back and looked at her. She closed her eyes and was panting frantically.

“Give her some space! Don’t crowd her.” Ruck quickly tells everyone.

“Is she okay?!” Mugman quickly asks. Felix gently rubbed Y/n’s back when Bendy had pulled away to look at the judges. Her name wasn’t removed from the chart..she was still in the game.

“Hey..it’s okay..no one’s here—“ Felix was caught off by Y/n pulling away from him. “No! I saw her!” She shouts, she accidentally bumped into Oswald who was behind her. He cautiously placed a hand on her arm. “It’s okay Y/n..”

“You need to breathe..” Oswald says. She turns and looks at him and her frustrated expression softened, her chest heaving up and down as she stared at him. Her heart was still beating quickly, but not nearly as fast. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. “Let’s just head back, she needs to sit down.” Oswald says and Felix nods.

Y/n laid in the bed, her eyes glued onto the wall. Not a single sound from her the entire time. Lucy sat on the couch next to Bendy—his eyes were glued on Y/n’s back.

“She seems upset..” Lucy frowns. Cuphead grunts. “I would be too if some bastard tackled me to the ground.” He said and Mugman furrowed his eyebrows.

“That's not the point you nut. She had a panic attack.” Mugman swats Cuphead’s arm and he rolls his eyes.

“Keep her in the bed for the rest of the day.” Donald says and Panchito sighs. “Fellas, please. Let us not talk about her..she does not seem too happy right now.” He says. And Felix nods.

“Panchito’s right..just..give her space.” Felix tells. Ruck, Meek and Don were seated on the couch as well, though they had yet to say anything.

“What happened to her?” Lucy asks slowly—in hopes the group had a thought on what triggered Y/n’s frantic mind.

“Clearly something she doesn't like.” Donald replied—he himself couldn’t latch onto what made Y/n so upset, it could have been something before she met them—or during their small journey.

The sound of the door opening caught the attention of everyone—besides Y/n. A guard walks into the room, his eyes landing on the group.

“Ms. Y/n is qualified for Warrior Falls.”

#toon quest #bendyxreader #cuphead x reader #bendy and the ink machine #oswald the lucky rabbit #felix the cat x reader #panchito pistoles #animaniacs x reader

37 notes · View notes

toontails · 2 years ago

Text

Toon Quest

Chapter 11: Working Hard or Hardly Working

Y/n stared at the tree��aiming the arrow at the trunk—her pointer finger being her line of sight. The sun had set an hour ago but Felix stuck to his word when he said he’ll train Y/n to properly use a bow. Not only that, Y/n also got Ruck to help her train for the contest. Starting tomorrow, she was ready to go. Headstart into the unknown. Killing two birds with one stone.

“You’re doing good.” Y/n heard Felix a few feet away. She released the arrow—watching it fly over to the tree, but it landed at the base. Y/n only made maybe one hit—and she wasn’t satisfied with that. It was like the more she tried to use the bow the more horrible she got at it.

“Dammit..” Y/n muttered.

“You did good, don’t worry too much about it.” He says as Y/n reached back into her quiver for another arrow, which she retrieved and loaded it into the bow, despite still learning to aim and shoot. She was getting better at loading the arrow, after a few stumbles here and there with latching the nock onto the nock point, she was able to load the arrow without looking. Not much but it was something.

Aiming the arrow once more at the tree, Y/n slowly pulled the arrow back and gently squinted her eyes at the tree and stared off at it, she failed way too many times to hit the tree and the arrow either ended up past the tree or right at the base of it. So she became hesitant as she stared at the tree in concentration that soon dwindled off into hesitation. Her grip loosened on the arrow and she slowly lowered her arms before looking over at Felix who was already looking at her, waiting for her to release the arrow to hit the target.

His eyebrows slightly raised in response to her halt in action. Y/n was silent for a moment as she stared at him and then moved her gaze to the tree and then to Felix.

She couldn’t really explain her hesitance. Was it out of embarrassment that she couldn’t even shoot an arrow, or the fact that this is the 100th thing she found out she wasn’t good at? Or was it the fact that earlier encounter with the contestee’s left her in sheer shriveling doubt that she wasn’t good at anything other than probably picking up a controller on some console and playing the day away, or just sitting in bed and taking talleys how long she could sit without getting up and running to the bathroom.

There was a doubt crawling in her head that maybe even with training she wouldn’t do no good to make it to the finals, even make it to the basics of the contest, though Warrior Falls was just one thing on the list that worried her. If she couldn’t surpass that, what the hell good would she even bring to the table? She felt like she repeated this same exact thought in her head countless times and everytime tried to swallow it down with everything being alright and she would be good, but reality had kicked in long ago when the book came into her life. It wasn’t a movie, or a game or anything fanatical that would magically happen. This was something that she had to make due on her own and she couldn’t even shoot an arrow correctly.

“What’s wrong..?” Felix’s voice cut through and Y/n slowly furrowed her eyebrows as she lowered the bow to her side.

“I need help.”

Felix moved to walk over to Y/n and reached over and gently raised the arm that was holding the bow. Resuming her original position. She aimed at the tree, Felix’s hand enclosed hers holding the arrow and he helped her pull back and aim correctly.

“Right there.” He tells her. He moved his hand away and Y/n released the arrow and it flew over to the tree and landed right in the middle of it.

She looks at Felix who smiled at her. “See?”

“You helped me, that’s why.” Y/n deadpans before moving to grab another bow from her quiver and loaded it onto the bow.

“So the arrow can stay right there for you to get a better aim at it.” Felix replied as Y/n aimed towards the tree once more and pulled the arrow back, staring at the tree once more as before she hesitated yet again and her eyebrows slowly stitched together.

“It’s okay to make mistakes, Y/n. It’ll help you learn.” Felix spoke once more and Y/n had grown silent for a moment before releasing the arrow, it shot off towards the tree and landed at the base of the tree—a tad bit higher than before. A difference from what she made for the last hour.

“See? Look at the difference there.” Felix moved to stand beside Y/n who was staring off at the tree. She slowly nodded and glanced at him.

“Yeah.”

The two fell in silence as Felix’s eyes gazed down at the bow in her hand before slowly nodding.

“Want to try again?”

“Yeah.”

For the 3 hours, Y/n would aim and shoot towards the tree to try and land the bow in the same exact place the last bow was that Felix helped her with. Leaving it embedded into the tree to help her everytime she would move to retrieve the arrows to start over again.

With aiming and shooting nonstop she saw some difference, Felix would come in ever so often to redirect her pose correctly or if she was holding the bow the right way—because lord knows the last thing they needed was for her to accidentally shoot someone.

Y/n was silent for the most part until the string would zip back and hit her forearm. She hissed in pain and flinched seeing it hit the same exact spot from last time. Felix placed a hand on her back.

“Remember. You let the bow rest in your hand, you don’t hold tightly onto it.” He reminds her and Y/n slowly nods and sighs through her nose.

Before moving away to go retrieve the arrows that were emptied from her quiver.

“You know, if I can shoot one thing, that would be great.” Y/n tells him.

Felix watched as the human retrieved the arrows stuck in the ground and placed them back in the quiver one by one.

“I’m certain you’ll hit something. It takes time to learn these things, Y/n.” Felix states. She fixes the strap of her quiver on her shoulder and turns to look at Felix slowly walking over to him and standing in front of him, she motions towards the tree.

“I suck at this. It’s been three hours, and I missed like—a hundred times already.” She complained, it was evident the human was becoming agitated and Ruck’s statement about her being patient was starting to become very self explanatory.

“Took me 100 times to tie my shoes once.” Felix states and Y/n gives him a confused expression before a smile cracks onto her face. Felix soon smiled after gently.

“It takes time…”

Y/n stared at him before nodding, her irritation being pushed back once more. She glanced back at the tree where the arrow was embedded in the tree.

“I’ll try again tomorrow.”

Lucy sat next to Bendy at the table watching the priest prance back and forth and about vows, and promises, and proper speech etiquette…the man had been ranting for the last 2 hours and the sun had set some time ago and Bendy was utterly exhausted. Running around doing deeds and other stuff was unbearable, he didn’t expect someone with such a label to do so much damn work..

Lucy seemed half ready to hop out of her seat and just walk away, as much as he wanted to and he hadn’t seen that bored and unamused expression on her face yet, but he was glad the two were on the same page.

She still had an arm intertwined with his and at this point Bendy just got used to it as she never seemed to leave his side.

“And remember, you two are the face of this empire—Especially you Bendy as you are an adventurer!” Exclaims the man and Bendy only blinks slowly before leaning further into his seat, his eyebrows furrowing together in frustration.

“Great…couldn’t be reminded.” Bendy muttered under his breath. As the man spoke Lucy looked at Bendy who was still staring off at the man with a time ticking expression.

“Well..I’m certain it’s time for bed now.“ Lucy starts before she stands from her seat. Bendy’s eyes flicker to Lucy before he stands up as well.

Walking down the hallway, Lucy was busy picking something off her dress—perhaps lint, Bendy walked beside her, he was pretty much just returning her to her room for the night, thankfully for as many times he’s been around the castle he was able to get a layout and properly know his way back to the residence hall where everyone else was. The last thing he needed was to be walking around clueless as hell.

He actually enjoyed the peace and quiet that Lucy gave—he was ready to close his eyes and just drift off into a forever sleep. He's been up since the break of dawn and he could feel his eyelids burning from fatigue, screaming for him to find a bed and quickly go to sleep. The sound of their footsteps hitting the carpeted floor was the only sound up until Bendy surprisingly started to talk.

“So, I see Modi is. You know. The kinda n’ all that. Hadn’t seen the queen yet, where is she?” He asks. Lucy looked away from down the hall she had been watching and glanced at Bendy.

“Oh. I don’t know much about her. She passed away years ago.” Her statement was very..off? All considering the queen had to be her mother. Bendy raises an eyebrow and turns his head to look at her.

Lucy slowly looks away from Bendy and nods once. “I was an orphan. I was brought into this family by my father when I was 3 I believe.”

Bendy’s confused expression flattered when she started to explain, he didn’t expect that at all. It seems to affect the girl though as she still kept her shoulders high while mentioning it.

“Not so many people liked the fact that I was the new face of royalty ever since being picked from the orphanage, I’m quite thankful it happened. I wouldn’t be able to see all the wonderful things I’ve seen so far.” She looked back ahead and smiled and Bendy slowly looked away as well.

“I wanted to prove I can be…which is why I’m glad I ran into you at the time.” Lucy trailed off. Her eyes landed on her room door where Bendy slowly stopped walking. Lucy removed herself from Bendy before placing a hand on the doorknob.

“Because of you, you made everyone give me a second chance..”

“And I thank you for that.” She smiled at Bendy who stared at her for a moment. “Yeah..” his eyes flickered away.

“You know even without me, m’ sure ya’ would have made a change in view.” He starts and Lucy nods.

“Yes, I understand…”

The two silently stood in front of each other, Bendy resting his shoulder onto the wall before Lucy started to speak.

“You know. You have a funny way of talking? Do all adventures talk like that?”

“Like what?”

“Say nothing.”

“Nothin?”

“See?”

Bendy raised an eyebrow at her pointing out his accent—which she somehow didn’t know existed for whatever reason or did she expect him to speak a certain way?

The two soon let out a laugh at that conversation and Lucy twisted the doorknob before opening the door.

“No, really. I had a wonderful day with you, Bendy.”

“Me too. See you in th-“

He was cut off by Lucy wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing a firm kiss to his cheek. Bendy stiffened as stiff as a wooden board. His hands glued to his side, Lucy pulls away and smiles at Bendy’s amazed expression. His mouth opened slightly as he seemed to want to say something but couldn’t seem to find the words.

His eyes flickered away from Lucy and down the hall as if checking to see if anyone was there. Which there wasn’t. He then looks at Lucy before pouncing towards her, his mouth slamming against hers, whereas the two fell into the room and the door slammed shut.

Y/n laid on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling, her head was busy thinking about what tomorrow would hold. Training with Ruck was the biggest thing on the list certainly, everyone was fast asleep in their original spots. Spunk found comfort with sleeping on Donald’s back on the couch. Y/n tried to close her eyes to go to sleep but it seemed every time she tried, her eyes would be ripped right back over.

She heard the door open and looked over to see the yellow light from the hallway spilling into the room, and soon Bendy stepped inside with a tired expression, seemingly ready to collapse on the nearest spot open and just fall to sleep. The sudden feeling of excitement rushed through Y/n when she saw Bendy though. It had been all day since she’s seen him and the events that took place today, she was glad to see he was still alive and kicking while having to spend time trapped with Lucy.

Bendy’s eyes offhandedly trailed over to Y/n when he checked to see if everyone was asleep. When he spotted she was still awake, he turned his head to her and Y/n sat up and smiled, the blankets falling from her shoulders as Bendy quietly walked across the room.

“What’re you still doing up?” He asks her. Y/n yet again couldn’t find an answer for that other than shrugging.

“Not too tired.” She replied. Feeling the bed dip down as Bendy sat next to her, his eyes glued onto her face before they furrowed together.

“What happened to your face?” He asks. Honestly she knew that was coming, out of everyone to question it, Bendy was the one she worried the most about finding her earlier injuries.

“Asking me? The hell happened to you?” Y/n raised an eyebrow and her eyes flickered down to his shirt, where three of his buttons were undone, like they were hastily buttoned back up. Bendy brought his hands up to his shirt to fix it.

“Nothin.” He quickly replied. Y/n was silent for a moment before he moved his gaze back to her. “So. What’s goin’ on with your eye.”

“I fought a dragon. What else you wanna know.”

Bendy squinted his eyes, which it was clear that was a lie. “Don’t lie.”

“Guess that makes two of us.”

Bendy fell into a deep silence before looking away from Y/n and to a wall across the room. The human fixed the blankets to her shoulders and then moved to lay down on her side. Bendy looks back at her when he feels her move to lay down.

“It’s nothing bad. Just a small run in when I was out today.” She soon replied. Closing her eyes in an attempt to get her ready for sleep.

“Who did it?” He asks.

“Some guy. Don’t worry about it.”

“You givin’ me the cold shoulder or somethin?” Bendy asks. Y/n shook her head with a laugh out of her nose.

“No. I need to be up early tomorrow in the morning so I need to sleep. Which you should be too, Mr. Lady’s Man.” Her last statement caused Bendy to deadpan. His eyes flickering over to her form.

“Ha ha. Funny.” He muttered. Y/n slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. In which he was already looking at her. When he looked at her, his eyebrows flickered up and he placed an arm on her arm.

“Get up. Hadn’t spent a minute with you and you’re already tryin to fall asleep on me.” He says before sitting up from the bed. Y/n remained laying down and raised an eyebrow at his sudden bothersome behavior, not that it was really aggravating.

“You mentioned you wanted ta’ show me some of your archery skills.”

Y/n sat up with a grin. “Oh yeah. I got a few tricks or two.”

“Jesus—be careful with that thing.” Bendy flinched away from Y/n’s view as she pointed the arrow at him. Y/n was surprised she could remember the path around the wooded area near Welkin, with how many times she’s been in and out of it with the others, it was no surprise It was new to Bendy, with it already being dark the area was dim, but the moonlight fed some light into the area, who would have knew away from the city you could actually see in the dark with only the moon and stars? No pollution or city lighting from buildings, cars and streetlights. Just the stars in the sky and the moon.

“Looks like you guys been havin’ much more fun without me.” Bendy grunts as he trailed behind Y/n who stepped over a log, she glanced over her shoulder to him and shrugs.

“It was at first till I got my ass kicked earlier today.”

She stopped walking and Bendy slowly stopped behind her. Y/n turned to face him and was met with a concerned expression but he soon chuckled.

“Maybe trainin’ ain’t for you.” He teases and Y/n shrugs.

“Maybe it’s not.” She sat down on the log and Bendy followed after her. Resting his elbows on his knees as he looked at her.

“What was the Loud Adventurous Y/n up to today? Aside from—whateva’ scuffle you had today.”

Y/n thinks back on what happened in the day. Minus Stinks being a small bump in the road. Her earlier run-ins with a mage was another part of it.

“We were catching chickens today and I ran into this witch. And she knew about Hector, and it was so weird. Like she made me see a vision of what happened back then when Hector was alive and he told us to go to this cave or something. Something that would help us, from what I know. He marked it in the book somewhere, so after Warrior Falls we’ll have to check that out.”

Bendy slowly blinked and deadpans. “Fuckin’ hell. So you all really did do some stuff without me.” He muttered. And Y/n let out a soft laugh.

“Well. I miss having you with us. What have you been up to on your side?” Considering Bendy’s role was to do nothing but follow Lucy around, she was certain it was nothing too complicated.

“Beside bein’ dragged around by Lucy. Nothin’ too interesting unlike what you all been up to.”

Y/n smiled before moving her gaze off to the trees. Placing the arrow back into her quiver and placing the arrow around her. She heard the crickets chirping in the air and the cicadas singing. The rustling of the leaves danced in the cool midnight air, the two sat in silence as they stared off into the vass land of trees and nature.

“You know. We should actually take a vacation to the offlands..you know. Not with the whole. Running for our lives situation and all that.” Y/n’s meek voice reached Bendy. He glanced over at her as she continued to stare out into the trees.

“There’s so much stuff here to explore, like who would have known this place existed? I wonder why some people on the mainland haven’t heard of this place.” The human glanced up at the trees reaching out for the sky before glancing back at Bendy who turned his gaze to her. His index finger tapped the log they were sitting on as he gave her a calculated look.

“Let’s hope we don’t get dropped from the face of the earth before then.” He soon responds and Y/n chuckles before nodding in agreement. “Right..”

“Also. What are you doing to have to be up so early?” Bendy asks. Y/n inhales before looking back up at him.

“Training. Had to enter this contest called Warrior Falls.”

“Oh. Yeah, I heard about that. Heard it’s a real big thing for the people in town.”

“Which is what I’m afraid of. The guy I ran into earlier doesn't like Hector. So he doesn't like me. Some family shit, or something like that. Long story short.”

She grimaced and rolled her eyes.

“Nobody likes me. So Ruck’s training me to atleast do something good in the contest, all across the land of the offlands will know us.” She says and Bendy furrowed his eyebrows together.

“Y/n. From what Lucy told me, that contest is a very dangerous thing…you’ve never traveled a day in your life, you’re a mainlands body. You-“

“And you never wore a crown over your head before.”

Bendy silently stared at Y/n when she turned her body to face him on the log. He sighed and furrowed his eyebrows together.

“That makes two of us. We both don’t know anything out here. We’re clearly being chased so lord knows what would happen to us if we don’t do something productive.”

Bendy continued to stare at Y/n with the same expression and Y/n tilted her head. “I'll be fine. If things get too rough. I’ll drop out. But Bendy, I only have 4 days to make a difference for my title, our team for having the view for being voyagers, something clearly grand in the offlands eyes—“

“So…you’ll do what you have to do then..” he finished for her. Y/n slowly opened her mouth and stared at him and she slowly nodded.

“Whoever that guy is. If he causes too much problem, don’t be surprised when I slice his throat.” Bendy sneered and Y/n smiled before clasping her hands together.

“So, you’ll be there to support me even if I’m being beaten to the ground?”

“Have no choice but to be there. The whole town will be at the contest. It’s an annual thing from what I’ve been told.”

Y/n froze for a moment. She knew it was a contest but didn’t expect the entire town to be there. She was going to make a fool out of herself in front of thousands of people…great..

She pinched her lips together and slowly nodded her head. “Great..” she really hoped Ruck could help her. From what he told her, he wasn’t going easy on her.

“Well. Ruck’s helping me so, that’s a good thing. He was there with Hector and clearly Hector’s good. No doubt I’ll be atleast decent.”

“Well if we’re going through with this. How are you feelin’ about it.”

Y/n was silent for moments before looking back at him.

“I trust Ruck. But more so scared what he’s gonna have me do.”

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll do you some good.”

“You tryna say something?” Y/n raised an eyebrow and Bendy let out a chuckle. “Maybe. I think you got a thing for being a target.”

“Says the guy who got his ass kicked multiple times for our first run.”

“And how do you think your run is gonna go?”

“…Hopefully good.”

Y/n felt a nudge to her arm and she squinted her eyes and felt the sleep slowly start to be pushed away at the harsh nudge. Opening her eyes she spotted Ruck standing near the bed with her bookbag in his hands, the others were in the back getting ready as well. Meek and Don surely were already outside waiting. When Ruck saw Y/n open her eyes and slip from her sleep he tossed the heavy book bag at her, the weight of the bag caused her to let out a huff.

“Let’s get a move on kid. We got a long walk.”

Y/n furrowed her eyebrow in irritation from suddenly being woken up, but she really had no reason to be upset as this was the purpose of the whole training.

Sighing she sat up from the bed and looked down at her bag. Placing a hand on her face, she tried to rid the tiredness away but no matter what she couldn’t seem to pull herself from the bed.

The next thing she knew she was walking away from Welkin with everyone? Minus Bendy of course, the quiver was placed inside the bookbag—sticking out for easier access and Y/n had her bow around her, she felt like she was some cargo carrier carrying so much stuff.

They had been walking for over 2 hours and she was sure that they passed up so many cool things but Ruck didn’t stop to take a gander at the stuff. But that was mostly taken over by the fact that wherever Ruck was leading them was way too far out. She couldn’t imagine what the walk back to Welkin would feel like. After an hour of walking with such a heavy bag she felt like her legs would give out.

Felix and Oswald were trailing behind everyone talking with each other, Cuphead and Mugman—as always were walking next to each other, surprisingly this time Cuphead wasn’t bothering the soul out of Mugman which Mugman seemed to appreciate the serene trees that slowly seemed to be disappearing the further they walked. The environment was starting to become dry and much more humid, like the sun got closer to the earth on this side of the Offlands. Y/n had to roll up her sleeves to her button up to get at least a bit more air—but the air was so still and thick it felt like no air at all was cycling.

The straps of the bag rubbing against her shoulders didn’t make it any better. Her scalp felt hot and she just felt like jumping into a pool of water to cool down. The weather felt like one of those horrible sunny summer days where everyone was hot indoor and outside they even a pool or a water park would suffice to their needs of comfort of cooling off,

Y/n felt a tickling sensation crawl down her temple, and lifted a hand up to her temple to wipe the sweat away.

Panchito and Donald were busy comparing the sticks they picked up—they didn’t seem bothered by the heat, not nearly as Y/n did. No one actually did. They walked just fine like it was nothing.

She slowed down and Oswald and Felix walked past her, the two glancing back at her when they spotted her slowing down like a car out of gas. Meek glanced back where they were and looked at Y/n who had let out a heavy huff and soon stopped walking completely.

He turned his head back to Ruck who was walking between him and Don and said something to him. In which Ruck soon spoke up, not even glancing back at Y/n.

“What’re doing Y/n?” He called back.

Panchito and Donald looked back at Y/n to see she was a few feet behind, Cuphead and Mugman slowly stopped walking and stood next to Panchito and Donald to glance back as well. And Oswald and Felix stopped walking as well to check on Y/n.

Y/n slowly sat down on the ground, her legs sprawled out in front of her as she sulked.

“It’s hot.” She whines. She wanted to take a break from walking to cool off just for one second.

Ruck glanced over his shoulder to the human while she turned her head to look at him. “And my legs hurt.”

“You’re gonna end up dead if you don’t start picking yourself up.” He tells her. Y/n stared at him and furrowed her eyebrows and huffs.

“It’s hot.” She repeats.

Ruck looks at Meek and nudges his head forward for them to keep walking, Meek and Don continue walking and Ruck turns around and walks over to Y/n.

“I got her.” Ruck told the toons as he motioned for them to continue walking. They all hesitated before they moved to continue walking.

Y/n side eyes Ruck as he turns away from the others who were walking away. He moved to stand in front of her before kneeling down to her level.

“Come on. Get up.” He moves an arm to slap the side of her arm. Y/n and sulks and sighs heavily.

“But it’s hot—“

“You let something that’s not even physical stopping you from walking to a location, what makes you think you can fight something that’s physically in front of you when you’re sitting here whining about it being hot.” He rested his forearms on his knees and raised an eyebrow. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows, her chest heaving up and down from being tired out.

“It’s only the first day.” He tells her. He placed a hand on her warm head. Her hair brushed between his fingers where he could feel her warm scalp.

“What seems tiring and impossible right now, will feel like a walk in the park the next day.” He gently shook her head and Y/n stared at him—she seemed to be on the fence, she’s never been in a situation where she either chose to just sit, or move.

“Until you learn to stop walking backwards. You’re never gonna see what’s in front of you.”

He could see her pupils dilate, like a match being lit in her, The corner of Y/n’s lip twitched into a frown and Ruck stood up and stood in front of her. Her eyes followed him as he stared down at her.

“Your choice kid. Your journey, not mine.”

He moved and started after everyone else who was still walking. He heard the grass and leaves rustle, and when he turned to look behind him, he saw Y/n pushing herself up from the ground, dusting her pants. She looks at Ruck and he nods silently.

“Let’s go then.” He tells her.

Walking down the now dirt trail, the dirt resembled much like a dried dessert and it was understandable why the heat was so strong. The dried cracked ground was like concrete and there was a meadow of dried grass and some sand. A few trees around the arrow and a lake somewhere in the distance. The sun hadn’t lifted up, and Y/n’s legs felt like they were going to give out on her.

Ruck slowly stops walking as well as everyone else and he glances around the area before glancing back at everyone.

“Here.” He said. Y/n immediately drops the back on the ground near a tree under the sun. Spunk waddles over to the bag and flops on the ground to lay down.

Y/n’s eyes gazed around the area, her chest heaving up and down from the walk. The trees were brittle and dried but seemed tall and healthy. The sand blew in the wind—the air hitting Y/n’s damp forehead, chasing a cool shiver to run up her spine.

“Wonder if you can make a sand castle with some of this sand.” Cuphead pipes up as he hadn’t spoken too much through their short journey to the location.

“I’m sure you probably can’t..” Oswald muttered from the background.

“Put your bookbag back on.” Ruck glanced at Y/n. She looked away from her surroundings and glanced at him before furrowing her eyebrows, she just took it off..

“But—“

“Put it back on.”

Huffing from her nose. She bent down and picked the heavy book bag up and placed it back on her shoulders, her sore shoulders weighing down heavily, she grimaced before fixing the straps and glancing at Ruck and he motioned over to the opening out into the hot sun that was ready to attack her with its spiking heat and devour her whole.

“Walk over to that area over there.” He points way across the way, where some wooded area was located, perhaps the other side of the woods. It had shade, but that seemed like another 20 minute walk!

Y/n flinched back and she grimaced. “What?! I already did all this walking!” She shouts.

“Go.” Ruck orders. Y/n scrunched her nose up in irritation before throwing her head back with a loud shout. She trudged passed everyone out into the sun, spews of shouts and curses escaping from her mouth.

“Dammit!” The human's voice shouts from the background.

“Oh yeah. She needs a lot of work.” Don muttered and Ruck silently nodded as she watched her walk off, still speaking incoherently.

“You know she kinda reminds me of Hector.” Meek adds on before turning his gaze to the toons behind the three. Don and Ruck still staring off at Y/n walking off to the distance.

“I guess in the meantime you guys can train as well! Might motivate her.” He brings up and Donald deadpans. No thank you, he wasn’t going to be walking around for gods know how long.

“We aren’t competing though.” He says.

“Still got a group of goons waiting for you back home though and let’s not forget the fact that you all are fighting against the world, you’d rather procrastinate till deaths in front of you?” Ruck redirected his gaze to the toons and Cuphead snorts.

“I fought death twice.” He boasts.

“No he hasn’t.” Mugman quickly denies.

“Well. Didn’t want to be reminded about that..” Oswald muttered as he rocks back and forth on his feet.

“Then get out there.” Ruck said before walking off to follow Y/n.

Y/n felt her legs shake—something she never felt before, her knees giving up on her, the weight of the bookbag felt like a million anchors were on her back. She was tired. And hot..

Her legs slowly lowered to the ground, her knees gently touching the ground but she fixed the bag on her shoulders and lifted herself up before she could even touch the ground. Straightening her posture as she continued walking and furrowed her eyebrows before her eyes locked on the shade that was only a few feet away.

She lets out another huff before her knees feel weak once more. Repeating the same action as before, she felt like a deer walking for the first time. Scrunching her nose up, she slams her foot on the ground and pushes herself forward, it was like she was fighting for her body to move instead of shutting down.

She was almost there.

Trudging a few feet she tumbled into the shade and fell onto the ground, the lake of water was a few feet ahead near the trees and water randomly laying around never looked so good until now. Y/n heaved and huffed as she rolled onto her back. Facing the leaves of the trees where the sun was peeking out of them.

Ruck soon walks over and looks down at the tired human who seemed just about ready to pass out.

“Good job, kid.”

Y/n heaved and huffed and her eyes followed him as he walked off. She heard Meek call out to Ruck and Don but didn’t care to listen to what they were saying, she was more so focused on getting herself stable.

Felix soon walked over and kneeled down next to Y/n. Placing a hand on her forehead.

“You okay?” He asks and Y/n nods slowly.

“Never been better..” she grumbled. Donald laughs as he walks over. His foot nudged her side.

“You look horrible! Haha!”

“Donald.” Oswald warned before giving the duck a pointed expression. Donald huffs and stops laughing.

“Oh, querida, are you okay?” Panchito sits on the ground near her head and gives her a worried expression.

“God dammit—you fuckin’ mutt—“ Cuphead cursed as he tried to pick up Spunk away from the water the pup for some reason dipped his head in, but when he tried to pick up the pup, Spunk snapped at his hand like some crocodile and dipped his head back in the water and scurrying over to Y/n.

Spunk stops near Y/n’s face and water shoots from his mouth and onto her face. She immediately closed her eyes and grimaced before quickly sitting up.

“Alright, Y/n. Come on, get up.”

Ruck calls out, he looks away from the tree he was looking at and over to Mugman and Cuphead. “You boys know how to shoot?”

Cuphead raises his eyebrows. “Oh most definitely, you know. I knew a few tricks.” His eyes slid over to Y/n and he caught her gaze before winking. Y/n stared at him before looking at Ruck and standing up. Felix and Panchito followed after her as they were kneeled on the ground.

“Great, we’ll get to that later. First thing is. You need to learn how to hold your breath.” Ruck motions over to the lake a few feet away, rocks and trees and sand surrounding the large lake. She could only wonder what it would be like to swim in it.

“Having a bow is precisely about how you aim and shoot. The more you hold your breath the better you can aim at what you’re looking for, but most importantly.” His eyes trailed off to the water.

“It might come in handy for later down the line. You’re a warrior now, you should learn to hold your breath for more than 5 minutes.”

Y/n was silent before her eyes flickered to the water and back to Ruck. “So I get to swim.”

Ruck rolled his eyes. “What did I just say?”

“So swimming it is.”

Wading in the water, Ruck sat on a rock near the lake. He held the bow and was adjusting the string seeing Y/n somehow loosened it up.

Panchito and Donald were busy off near the trees exploring some things—like always. Oswald and Felix were already in the water—mostly because Oswald was complaining about how hot it was and the fact that Cuphead was going to teach her to hold her breath and Felix wanted to make sure the two didn’t die in the process. And Mugman sat near a tree holding the book in his hand reading to pass time until they all would start doing the technical stuff, Ruck wanted to start off slow. For Y/n’s sake.

Cuphead slowly drifted over. His hand rested on the dry ground as he floated near Y/n silently.

“What are we gonna do after this?” Y/n asks.

“Practicing your archery.” Ruck responds before his head flickered to the water— in their direction.

“Go practice until I can get this damned thing fixed that you somehow destroyed.”

Y/n looked at Cuphead who started floating backwards.

“Alright. Come on.” He tells her, Y/n swam after him and gazed down at the water. The lake was actually pretty clean—usually when she saw lakes they were green and murky. But the water was as blue as the ocean.

“I dunno how much of a good trainer you are.” Y/n jokes and Cuphead raised an eyebrow. “I can be a good trainer. What makes you think Mugsy knows how ta’ play the piano so good?”

“I’ve never seen Mugman play a piano before.”

Cuphead grew silent at that statement. “Right..right, yeah.”

The two were silent for a moment and Cuphead’s eyes moved away from the water before opening his mouth to speak but whatever he was about to say he couldn’t seem to get out. Y/n pressed her lips together and Cuphead grimaced.

“Shit…” he muttered under his breath.

“I said don’t make anything awkward.” Y/n lowered her voice to him and he tilted his head and huffed. “Me? I ain’t makin’ anythin’ awkward—“

“You’re a dirty liar.” Y/n furrowed her eyebrows and Cuphead snorted. “Look we’ll talk about this later—“

“No we’re not.” She quickly declines that statement and Cuphead stares at her and blinks. “Yes. We are.”

“We promised it would be under lock and key.”

“Y/n. I’m serious—“

“And I’m serious. You’re gonna teach me to hold my breath underwater or not? Because this is getting real awkward.” Y/n lowered into the water and the water touched her chin and Cuphead slowly sighs.

“Yeah. Just hold your breath.” He deadpans. Y/n stared at him before slowly lowering herself into the water. Cuphead perked up and gasps.

“I was joking! I’ll help!”

“Like this?” Y/n said as she inhaled, her chest heaving up and filling her lungs with air. Cuphead nods as he follows her actions.

“Yeah, like that. It should slow your heart down—“

It took a little over an hour for Cuphead to give Y/n a good rundown on the proper way to hold your breath under water. At first she couldn’t go 3 minutes, but now she could go a good 6 minutes. She sat under water and watched the fishes swim past her, her eyes following them, the air bubbles left Y/n’s nose and she was off in her own little world looking at what the water had to provide. The rocks and fishes of different colors.

Later on. Y/n was standing next to Felix who was speaking to her about how to walk with the bow while aiming at something. She held the bow in her hand as she aimed it at a tree and walked sideways.

“Like this?”

Felix shook his head and pointed to her feet. “Foot over the other.”

She placed her right foot over the left to move and repeated the action as she pulled the arrow back and shot it at the tree. In which it actually hits it! She smiled and quickly looked at Felix who smiled at her.

It was about an hour Felix got to train Y/n with the bow, until Ruck walked over.

“Left.”

Y/n aimed to the left.

“Right.”

She then aimed to the right.

“Left.”

And repeated the action over again. She thought that the training would be horrible but overall. With swimming and getting better at the bow.

But that was quickly ruined.

“Alright. Warm up is over.”

Y/n quickly looks at Ruck as she places the arrow back on her quiver.

“Huh?”

“You’re good with swimming and getting better with the bow. But the contest isn’t relying on those two.” Ruck stands next to some trees that seemed to resemble an aisle, something she hardly noticed.

“It’s based on your strength and agility and obstacles.”

“Oh man. I love obstacles.” Panchito sighs and Ruck nods.

“You guys are doing it too. It’s a race.”

Ruck motions Y/n over to him and she walks over and looks down the aisle of trees that had branches intertwining, vines, rocks and other things that looked like a natural organic obstacle. She blinked owlishly at the view. It seemed fun to explore it; if everything didn’t seem like it would cause her to break an arm. Her eyes slowly moved to Ruck who had his arms crossed over his chest.

“I can’t get past all this shit.” She juts her finger behind her, motioning to the toons behind her.

“They can.”

“Your name’s on that board with Stinks.”

Y/n immediately stopped talking as she stared at him and furrowed her eyebrows.

“What?”

“You’re gonna fight him. Vendolez and a boy who has a chain of annual wins.”

Y/n’s eyes stayed glued on Ruck and her eyes hardened and he slowly nodded once seeing her expression.

“…”

“So it’s your choice. I’m teaching you to take the hits, not punch harder.”

“Guess I’ll bust my ass through this course again.”

Y/n hissed in pain as she trudged back into Welkin. The sun was starting to set, the course was..a pain. At Least she was learning to climb trees more, despite having a few falls and tumbles, the race was nice with her friends. They more so were playing around rather than training but Ruck surprisingly let them, she was certain the training would get harder as days progressed.

Mugman laughs as Donald complains about how he would have won if he didn’t trip over a log—his typical bad luck of course coming in to ruin it for him.

“Oh don’t worry! I think you did wonderful!” Panchito slaps a hand on Donald’s back who grunted in response.

Felix was the one who won the race. No surprise Y/n came in dead last again. “Yeah. I lost.” Y/n said. Her clothes were littered with dirt and grime from the amount of climbing and falling. But that was the least of her worries. She just dreaded having to wake up and be met with a sore body and new obstacles. This was just the tip of the iceberg.

Felix placed a hand on Y/n’s back and smiled at her. “You still did great.” He praised.

“I’m starving..” Oswald mutters and Mugman nods in agreement. With a day's worth of training and running around and walking back for almost 4 hours. Food was the first thing on their mind. And Y/n couldn’t agree more.

Some people in town greeted the group, Atleast one good thing came out of being a Vendolez.

“I’ll get us something to eat.” Meek says before breaking off in a different direction, surely towards a shop, Don followed after him and Y/n spotted some benches with tables and immediately walked over to them and sat down. Panchito had grown distracted with a toy shop that made handmade toys and he was too busy looking at the displays. Y/n saw a paper be placed in front of her, her eyes flickered down at the paper to see it was a flier—in some way to promote the contest.

She saw her name right next to Stinks on the list of names—on who would be going up against each other. Y/n looked over to see Donald who grinned at her.

“So, this is the guy?” He asks. Y/n deadpans before nodding. “Yeah..”

“Stinks? What type of name is that?” He laughed and crumbled up the paper and tossed it behind his back.

Mugman sat down next to Y/n and looked at her. “I’ve seen his dad around the castle. He’s the first in command for their battalion.” Mugman brings up and Y/n could remember Stinks vaguely boasting about that.

“How’d you know that’s his dad?” She asks.

“He was telling me about how his son is the leading winner of these contests.” He then rolled his eyes.

“Sorta bragging about it if you ask me..”

“Where is he? I wanna meet this guy.” Cuphead piped up and crossed his arms. “He got an arm, I got one too.”

“No one’s doing anything to him.” Felix wants as he gives everyone a pointed expression. “I’m sure that his personal vendetta with Y/n is in the rings only.”

“In the rings only? The guy busted her eyebrow open.” Oswald placed a hand on Y/n’s head. Oswald knew Felix didn't believe in what he said either.

“Or..he..probably doesn't like you.” Felix quickly adds in before continuing to speak to push away what he said prior. “But either way. Just stir clear from him.”

“Great advice. I’ll be sure not to run into him when I have to fight him.” Y/n sighs and rubs her forehead.

“Hey guys!”

Looking over. Bendy and Lucy walked over, her arm intertwined with his as always. “Oh god.” Oswald quickly said once seeing Lucy.

Lucy gives Y/n a concerned look when she sees her state. She looked exhausted, beaten and dirty.

“Oh dear. What happened?” She asks before removing herself from Bendy and walking over to the table and pinch at Y/n’s cheek.

“Ow—nothing—I’m fine—ow—“ as Lucy worried about Y/n’s state, Panchito walked over and spotted Bendy before smiling.

“Well. I have not seen you in..hours. You’re still alive, that is a good thing.” He smiled and Bendy hummed in agreement.

“Yeah.” He glanced at everyone. “Looks like you all came back from trainin?”

“She’s a little irritated right now.” Felix informed and glanced at the human show as still being checked up on by Lucy.

“But she did great today.”

Y/n brushed Lucy’s hands away, in which she backed away from Y/n and placed her hands behind her back with a smile.

“Yeah, I'm good. Just a few minor scratches.”

“Minor?” Bendy raised an eyebrow. And Y/n deadpans before grimacing. He then leaned towards Y/n and sniffed her. “You also smell like a wet dog.” He teased and Y/n huffs.

“It’s almost like I wasn’t outside in the heat all day.”

Ruck had walked over but when he spotted Lucy he seemed to be taking a step back to walk away but the girl already caught sight of him and smiled.

“Oh hi!” She quickly says and Ruck deadpans. It was clear he did not want anything to do with Lucy.

“What have you two lovebirds been up to?” Cuphead teased and Bendy looked over Lucy towards him and squinted his eyes.

“Oh nothing. Just doing some duties around the town.” Lucy replied. Felix’s ears perked up and he smiled at Bendy.

“That’s great. We’ve only gotten around to catching chickens.”

“Which is why I brought the offer to the table, she never did much around the town before.” Bendy replied and Mugman raised an eyebrow.

“Since when did you start willingly wanting to help people?”

“Since when did you start askin’ so many questions?” Bendy quickly shot back.

“I’m glad we ran into you all, I wanted to see how your archery skills are.” Lucy looks at Y/n. Y/n blinks and sighs.

“I’m sore.” She muttered before getting up from the bench and stretching. Her muscles and bones popping.

“I’m as stiff as a board I can do this—“

“Jesus christ don’t.” Ruck muttered but Y/n ignored him before stiffly moving her arms like she was mimicking a robot.

Panchito tilts his head. “What—what is that?”

Lucy smiles before letting out a soft laugh at Y/n’s actions.

Donald deadpans and rolls his eyes. “Embarrassing..”

A few ways ahead stood a small group standing near the bulletin board. The dog toon taps Stinks on the shoulder who was busy examining the flier on the board. The classes just let out and everyone was either on their way home or standing around catching up with one another.

Stinks turns and looks at his friends who snickered and points over across the way, where Stink’s eyes landed on Y/n. Who was busy standing with her group—she was doing some odd dance.

The dog mimicked the humans moves goofily and the others in the group laughed except for Stinks who didn’t find it funny at all.

“It’s the Prince.” Someone whispered.

“He’s a demon.”

“There goes that girl.”

“Ay, Stinks.” Stinks looks over to see another contestee leaning on the wall, near their age with toned skin and broad shoulders, he was the second rank in the contest. But as an alumni, even then he couldn’t beat Stink’s score.

The guy pointed to the flier and chuckled.

“That’s that Vendolez?” He asks. The contestee’s either gathered around or were still speaking to their friends. Stinks furrowed his eyebrow and glanced back over at Y/n who was busy speaking to her group.

“Gal clearly is good if she’s gonna go 1 on 1 with the man.”

“Talking that? I’m worried about that demon, you know you can’t trust em.” The dog toon points outs.

Stinks ignored them before he started across the way. A few contestee’s giving hushed whispers when he saw Stinks sauntering over Y/n’s way.

“Oh yeah, I know those. I love those flowers!” Lucy smiled as Y/n was explaining what cool things she saw while they were all out.

“I heard they make you sneeze for eternity.” Mugman pipes up and Lucy quickly smiles and nods in confirmation.

Lucy digs in her dress pocket before looking at Y/n and pulls out a paper. “I made this for you. Bendy told me what happened while you were training. I didn’t have much so I made a drawing.” She smiled and Y/n unfolded the paper and looked down at it to see a smiling sun. ‘Don’t give up!’

It wasn’t much, but it did cause Y/n to smile. “Aw..thanks L—“

“Lucy.”

Y/n turns around to see Stinks had stopped walking and looked at Lucy who raised her eyebrows.

“I didn’t expect you to actually find someone.” His eyes flickered over to Bendy. “Especially a demon. I heard they eat humans.”

“Razor sharp teeth!” Howled one of his friends from the background. Some of the pedestrians had stopped in their duties to place their attention on the group.

“Hey man, if I were you, I would do somethin’ about that.” Cuphead quickly tells Bendy. Bendy only blinked and rolled his eyes.

“Come on, Stinks. It’s not that serious.” Lucy starts. Y/n remained silent as she glanced at Stinks who seemed to completely ignore her, and she was glad in all honesty. She was too tired for anything.

Lucy sighs through her nose and her eyes flickered up to Bendy. Donald had nudged Bendy and shook his head when the demon looked at him.

“That’s enough.”

“And you, you’re on the list with me.” Stinks placed his gaze on Y/n.

“I’ll put you on the front page of every newsletter. I ain’t got nothing to lose.”

Y/n looked at Stinks and she heard some murmurs in the crowd and she only shrugged. “Not fighting you—“

He smacked the paper from her hand and Y/n furrowed her eyebrows before picking up the paper and he yet again knocked it from her grasp.

“What do you have to lose?” Stinks asks. And Y/n huffs before moving to pick the paper up again.

“Okay, Stinks. Leave her alone.”

Ruck shook his head at the group sitting at the bench, he knew they would pounce in whenever but he wanted Y/n to figure her way out of this situation.

When Y/n picked the paper back up, Stinks was about to smack it from her hand again—in an attempt to get her angry, clearly. But Y/n countered that by moving her hand away from his, which he looked at her in surprise—like she wasn’t supposed to do it.

He quickly placed a hand on the side of her face and shoved her to the ground. Y/n fell onto the ground and hissed in pain. Felix slowly stood up from the bench to walk over to her but Ruck placed a hand in front of him and looked back at everyone.

“Don’t move. I need to see what she’ll do.”

“You crazy? She’s getting beat—“ Cuphead quickly objects.

“Stinks! Leave her alone!” Lucy shouts. Stinks turned to walk off—ignoring Lucy. Y/n breathed heavily and she clenched her eyes shut but soon opened her eyes and heaved herself from the ground. Ruck nods as Y/n sheds herself from the bookbag and tosses it to the ground.

Some of the contestee’s made a noise of surprisement which caused Stinks to turn and look back at Y/n to see she was standing up. Y/n sighed and looked at her group of friends.

“This shit about to hurt.” She said and Donald gave her a strained smile. “You’re doing great!”

Stinks raised his eyebrows before motioning Y/n to come closer, beckoning her to do something, she only stared at him before he started to walk over to her first, she immediately threw a punch but he caught her arm and tossed a punch to her abdomen.

Y/n stumbled and he shoved her back causing her to fall back onto the ground. The group chanted in unison but Y/n was mostly focused on finding a way to get out of this without making a fool of herself.

She wheezed and stumbled back up. Stinks didn’t hold his cocky attitude like he did yesterday, he genuinely seemed angry at something.

As he glanced at his friends who were patting the ground towards Y/n’s direction as they spoke to her in humor. Some speaking in some language she’s never heard before.

“Get up!”

“Get him!”

Stinks eyes landed on his father who had come over to see what the suddenly crowded area was for—all considering it was his job. Stinks’s ears perked up when he saw his father there.

“She’s gonna pass out.” Felix says as his eyes were glued on Y/n form who was on her hands and knees wobbling. But before Ruck could say anything, Stinks looked back at Y/n, but was met with her quickly getting up and throwing a stern punch to his face.

He stumbles back but quickly recovers and grabs her shoulders before tossing his knee up and kneeling her in the abdomen, she kneeled over and and met with a punch to the temple.

And then her nose. It was like one blow after the other. Y/n stumbled and her vision blurred but she tossed herself at Stinks with a shout, the two stumbled to the ground and Y/n tossed a punch at him but he caused her wrist, his hands squeezing her knuckles before shoving her off him. He squats above her and with all his might tossed a punch to her temple.

“Möhsha!” Lucy shouts in a different tongue. Stinks pauses when he hears her—it was clear whatever she said, it was a command for him to stop.

“Okay! That’s enough! Get off of her!” Lucy repeats as she quickly walks over and shoves Stinks off Y/n who remained on the ground. Stinks steps back as told and wiped the blood from his mouth and nose. “I’ll see you at the contest.” He spat before turning and walking off.

Y/n stared up at Lucy as she placed a hand on her wrist to sit her up, but the human felt like a log. “Come on. Get up, we’re going home.”

“K.O’d!” Laughed a contestee as they all walked off. The crowd dispersed thanks to the guards doing their job.

Felix kneels beside Lucy and places a hand on the side of Y/n’s face. “Yeah..he knocked her out.” He says before sighing. A wheezing soft escaped Y/n’s mouth, a split from under her eye and chin leaked blood, and he was certain a black eye would start forming soon.

“But she’s still wake?” Donald asks.

“Yes she’s still awake, just in a daze.” Felix replied. Panchito was ranting about something in Spanish in the background and Lucy placed a hand in Y/n’s stomach and leaned down to get a closer look in her eyes.

She saw Y/n’s pupils dilate and her eyes weren't focused on Lucy, it seemed like she was looking past her. “You poor thing..”

“Here. I’ll get her.” Bendy walked over and kneeled down onto the ground and slid his arms under Y/n before picking her up.

Y/n leaned her head on the pillow and slowly blinked as Lucy sat on the bed in front of her. “I apologize for Stinks behavior.” She frowned. Y/n was still very dazed but good enough to understand. Oswald was seated next to the bed and was busy wiping away the dried blood from her face.

“She’s still in a daze I think.”

“I’m fine…” Y/n replied and slowly blinked.

“Told you that shit would hurt….” She muttered.

“You did good, kid don’t worry about it.” Ruck says from across the room. Spunk laid on the bed fast asleep and Y/n’s mouth slowly formed into a smile once hearing his words.

“Look, I’ll handle it next time, just give me the world, I have him high tailin it out of town in no time.” Cuphead walks over and Y/n’s eyes slid over to him. Y/n sighed and frowned. “My eye hurts..” She whispered and Oswald placed a hand on her arm.

“I know. It’s swollen.” He says and Y/n sighs as she felt him place a cool towel on her eye.

“How are you feeling about tomorrow?” Ruck asks. And Y/n moves her gaze to him.

“I’m ready for it.”

“Really now?”

“You saw that punch? I woulda had him down.”

“As if.” Donald laughed and Y/n cracked a smile at his statement. “Maybe. I almost had him, better than last time.”

“I’m sorry…you’re still going to fight him?” Mugman asks in bewilderment and Y/n smiles. “I ain’t got nothing to lose.”

“Oh your determination is so inspiring.” Lucy’s small voice speaks up. Soon Bendy walks over and sighs. “I almost killed the guy.”

“Is it because he called you a human eating demon?” Panchito asks from over by the couch where Felix was sitting beside him. Bendy deadpans.

“Aside from that.”

“I don’t look at you that way.” Lucy says before looking at Bendy, he stops talking and looks down at her before slowly nodding. “Thank you…”

Cuphead whistles and gives Mugman a sideways glance who also looks at him with the same expression.

“Well. You need some rest. You’ve been active all day.” Oswald gains Y/n’s attention again and she turns her gaze to look at him.

“Alright..”

“And tomorrow, we’ll do it all over again. Yeah!” Donald feigned excitement from the background.

“Stand your ground.” Y/n fixed her footing as Ruck stood beside her and slowly extended his left arm. “Twist the back to get a good friction.”

Y/n did as told before extending her arm in a punching motion, ever so slightly twisting her back.

“Good job.” Ruck praised.

Y/n felt the sun beat on her once more and surprisingly the walk to the deserted location wasn’t nearly as tiring as it was yesterday. It was like the debacle from yesterday pushed her more in the direction to get up and make a change, she didn’t complain not once while holding the heavy bag for their walk. Her left eye was sore to the touch, and a nasty colored bruise was forming there. But Y/n still got out of bed and was ready to face the day. Which was a surprise to Ruck.

Ruck was surprised to see even with Y/n covered in bruises and scars, the kid still hopped from bed and walked back outside as if the entire town didn’t just see her get her ass kicked last night, she was like a stubborn bull, at times wanting to do as told but other times backing away and just simply letting her target go, she was always on the fence, but she was starting to get a better understanding of having to move forward. And that was what Ruck was glad to see. It made him wonder how many times did this kid fall and busted her ass for her to finally get the gist that maybe it would be best to atleast teach herself some basic training to defend herself.

Ruck slowly stopped in his motion in teaching her to properly throw a punch as he watched her silently straighten her arms from left to right, following in his actions as he told her. She smiled before she quickly swung her arm over to Ruck to his rib cage, even with him drifting off to his own mind thinking he could see what she planned on doing a mile away. He quickly grabbed her wrist and shoved her to the ground, which she let out a shout and fell onto her back. The dried dirt from under her puffing under her fall and she coughs and lets out a wheeze before squinting up at Ruck. The run casting a shadow over him.

“You tried it.” He says. Usually what would have pissed Y/n off from being knocked to the ground too many times caused a smile to erupt on her face before she lets out a laugh at being caught so quickly. Ruck stared at her for a moment with furrowed eyebrows before the corner of his lips slowly raised and he chuckled softly.

“Come on, get up kid..” he says before reaching an arm down where Y/n took ahold of his hand and heaved herself up from the ground.

Oswald watched from under the tree, mostly because he wanted to sit under the shade. He smiled softly as he watched Y/n return to her position and look at Ruck and he continued to construct her on how to properly hold her ground while fighting.

“You know they seem to be getting a lot more.” Oswald says. Felix and Panchito were standing beside him as they were also watching the two as well.

“Well. I believe it is a good thing. He is her uncle after all.” Panchito agrees.

Cuphead was laying on his back staring off at the sky with a calculated expression, his brother looked at his brother as Panchito, Felix, and Oswald were speaking with each other. Cuphead didn’t nearly seem as active as usual. Usually he would be busy climbing trees and raising havoc to maybe piss off Ruck who was trying to train Y/n. But no. He sulked on the ground instead.

“What’s up with you?” Mugman asks and Cuphead slowly blinks. “Nothin.”

Donald held Spunk before placing the pup on the ground. The pup rolled on the ground and let out a bark.

“Yeah, we’ll just pretend like Felix didn’t almost have a panic attack over Y/n last night.” Donald chuckled and walked over to Oswald, Felix and Panchito standing next to each other as they watched Y/n and Ruck.

“I know you guys have had some run-ins with people but I wasn’t actually there to experience it. I was just worried is all.” Felix says and Cuphead grumbled as he stared out into the sky.

“I’ll blow the guys head off the next time I see him.”

Mugman furrowed his eyebrows. “No you won’t..”

“I’ll make it possible—“

“Shut up—“

Meanwhile, Y/n was invested with Ruck teaching her the basics of fist fighting. The day was going to be king with training, and despite the heat already pounding onto her, she was still ready to face it.

Ruck smacked the back of Y/n’s head as she was busy repeating the actions with punching the air slowly. She flinched and quickly held the back of her head and looked at Ruck.

“I told you to pay attention. The guy got to you because you were focused on him and not his swings.” Ruck said. Y/n rubbed the back of her head and slowly lowered her hands to her side.

“He moves too quickly.” She tells him. Stinks was very quick when it came to him throwing punches, fast enough to where her mind couldn’t latch onto everything at once.

“Then you’ll be quicker.”

Y/n focused on what he said and pressed her lips together in an; ‘alright’ motion.

Ruck lifts an arm up again to hit Y/n’s head, but she quickly flinches away from his arm. Ruck stopped in his motion at the sudden reaction she had, he couldn’t tell if it was because of a reflex or she was learning.

“I was reaching for the arrows on your back, dumbass.”

“What do you expect? You kept hitting me.”

“Get your bow, we’ll start from there.”

The last several hours was spent training, Y/n was busy doing most of the work as her friends sat around, either exploring the area, watching or coming into help every once in a while. But Ruck was actually spending time to help Y/n this time.

At one point she was swimming around in the lake, focusing on holding her breath under the water as Cuphead had once started teaching her before—and no surprise, from his statement yesterday. He was a pretty good teacher. Repeating his steps in her head, she held the stopwatch in her hands. Resting her forearms on the rocks, pieces of grass brushing against her arms, she clicked the button on the stop watch and placed it on the ground before slowly taking a deep breath, her lungs expanding with air and she soon dipped into the water.

Ruck was slowly walking over to the lake where he saw Y/n vanish under the water. Sending her off to work on her breathing skills as yesterday she did good—average for a human to hold their breath underwater, but not good enough. The furthest she went was maybe 5 minutes before the kid came rushing back up for air.

Y/n was under the water gazing upon the fishes in the meantime. Staying completely still, with her being focused on holding her breath, she couldn’t keep track of how much time passed under the water. Her chest tightened to a degree, signaling she was running out of breath. The bubbles left from her nose slowly, her heart rate picking back up, she slowly closed her eyes to focus on her heart rather than focusing on the fishes. Calming herself down, the human furrowed her eyebrows in frustration at the feeling of wanting to get air.

Another 3 minutes passed before she opened her eyes and swam back up to the surface. Slowly taking in the air and filling her lungs with the air she looked over to see Ruck holding the stopwatch. He looked at her when she arises from the water.

“You got to 10.” He tells her. Y/n smiled widely and he chuckled. “Good job kid.”

“Yes!” She hissed in glee and splashed the water.

Later on. Y/n was practicing her archery skills, Mugman stood a few feet away with an apple on top of his head and his arms glued to his side.

“Please! Don’t shoot me.” He quickly warns for the 100th time. Cuphead seemed intrigued and wanted to actually volunteer to shoot the apple from Mugman’s head but Felix wouldn’t let him anywhere near the bow. Cuphead had the tendency to get too carried away.

“You’ll be fine, the best way to teach her to shoot a target is to focus on it.” Ruck was leaning on a tree gazing at Mugman before he looked over at Y/n who was loading the arrow onto the bow.

“You don’t wanna shoot your friend now do you?” Ruck states—in an attempt to further push Y/n to shoot the arrow at the Apple only.

“You shout anywhere else, you’re running the risk of potentially leaving your friend in critical condition—“

“I know. I know.” Y/n groans before lifting her arms up and bringing the arrow back. The string creaking which caused Mugman’s shoulders to tense up.

“I won’t shoot you Mugman, I promise—“

“And when was the last time you made an actual bullseye?! Better yet for a target as small as an apple?!” He shouts over to her. Y/n puckered her lips and raised her eyebrows.

“Or. I could shoot you. We can always go that route too.”

Mugman points a finger at Y/n, the apple wobbling on the rim of his head—how it didn’t fall? No one had a clue.

“Don’t you dare!” He shouts—he was already kicking in frustration and anxiety just by standing there. Donald was busy in the background laughing at Mugman’s tantrum.

“Stand still.” Ruck orders before Mugman quickly stands as stiff as a board. Y/n pulled the arrow back once more, her knuckles brushing her cheek bone. She pointed her index finger out and aimed it above the apple. She was still for a moment debating if it was right to shoot, despite her statement before, she really didn’t want to shoot Mugman.

Furrowing her eyebrows in concentration.

Don’t hit Mugman, Don’t hit Mugman, Don’t hit Mugman!

She released the arrow and it flew off and embedded itself into the apple! The apple falls from Mugman’s head and falls onto the ground and he lets out a heavy sigh of relief. Ruck looks at Y/n and nods in approval.

Y/n gasps before quickly looking at Felix and smiling widely. “I hit something!” She shouts in glee as she prances over to Felix and hopped up and down in front of him in excitement.

“Good job! I knew you could do it.” He laughs.

Later on Y/n was busy trudging up a steep hill that was a few ways from the wooded area. The other stayed back near the woods with Meek and Don to work on their own things, since they were there they might as well be productive and train on their own. Emphasis on the training as it was usually Cuphead using his peashooter to shoot at everyone as they ran away from him and tried to see who could hurdle over stuff the fastest. Deadly to a human, but fun for toons.

Y/n had a harness strapped to her, it reminded her of those harness leashes parents would put on their children out in public, in this case. Ruck had a harness on as well, and there was a Velcro lead that was wrapped from the back of Y/n’s harness and ran about a good 12 feet over to the front of Ruck’s harness.

It was stored in Y/n’s bookbag and Y/n wondered what it was for when she questioned it, and now she wished she didn’t. She had to walk up the steep dried grass hill. While tugging Ruck’s weight. And he felt like he weighed a million tons.

Now that she is getting into the technical part of training after working her way up from the easy stuff this morning, she immediately felt frustration build up in her. Too much work!

Y/n let out a loud strained shout as she fell onto her knees. And clawed at the ground to heave herself up the hill. She couldn’t do it. He was too heavy, he was trudging behind her and was relying on her to walk him up the hill.

Y/n let out a heavy sigh before falling into the ground, landing onto her sore torso. The side of her face pressed onto the dried grass. The harsh grass pricking her skin. Her back heaved up and down frantically and sweat was rolling down her face.

“What’s wrong kid? You were doing just fine earlier this morning. You seemed ready to take on the world.” Ruck remained a few feet behind her. He wasn’t even at the slope of the hill yet and Y/n couldn’t even drag him up there. There was no way she could get the two of them up the entire hill.

“You’re too heavy!” She complained. She clenched her eyes closed at the sore feeling in her legs and chest. Her breathing was rigid and tired, Ruck walks over and squats down. Slapping her back multiple times like he was hitting some machine.

“Of course it’s gonna burn, what you think this was gonna be? Easy?” He placed the palm of her hand on her back, feeling her rapid heart beating through her like drums. She laid on the ground and a whine escaped her mouth.

“I can’t do it..” she whispered. Her lips wavering, every ounce of motivation had quickly vanished in one sitting.

“You gotta get used to the uncomfortable environment, kid. Life’ll sneak up on you and take your dignity—whatever left you got of it that is.” He starts. And Y/n didn’t reply as she was too focused on easing the pain in her legs and the now headache swelling in her head.

“Tryin’ to teach you to push back, the world is going to soon rely on your ability, kid. And it’s up to you to take matters in your own hand.”

Y/n lets out a shaky breath slowly lifting her head to look up the steep hill. Her blurred vision was being blocked by the glossy wet feeling in her eyes. Ruck watched Y/n silently. He waited to see what her next move was. Y/n placed a hand on the ground and heaved herself up from the ground. The string between the two moved up from off the ground as she stumbled slightly upon the steep hill, but soon started to trudged forward, pulling Ruck with her as he trudged after her.

“Good job.”

She heard him mutter from behind her. Y/n lets out a strained groan as she felt like she was tugging with all her might. Bringing a foot forward and digging the sole of her shoes in the ground, her hands latching onto her straps of the harness for tension as she trudged towards the top of the hill with Ruck following behind her.

Ruck slowly nods as Y/n crawls the hill with every strength in her body. Her legs felt sore and weak, yet she continued on, she trudged for a good few minutes, almost reaching the top—one more step to the top, but she grew weaker, as her knees trembled.

“Don’t stop now, you’re almost there.” She heard Ruck quickly shout out. Y/n placed both hands on the flat ground of the hill and tugged herself up, her leg placed on the ground, she squinted her eyes and dug her sore nails into the soil and with one hard tug, she rushed onto the top like a bull running towards a muleta.

“Whoa—“ Ruck stumbles slightly from the sudden surge of energy that possessed the human. He stumbles onto the top of the hill as well and looks at the human who had turned to look at him, her chest heaved up and down heavily from exhaustion. Sweat glistened on her forehead and she jumped up and down with a smile.

“I did it!” She shouts. Her voice echoing in the air from the hill. Ruck raises a hand, and Y/n quickly high gives him.

“Let’s go!”

With newfound confidence, for the last several hours Y/n felt confident in herself. More confident than she felt in weeks.

She had climbed the trees with Felix next.

Falling from the branch and falling onto the ground. Felix’s ears quickly fold back and he gasps.

“Oh my goodness! Are you okay?!” He quickly walked over to Y/n and was about to help her up, but she pounced back up from the ground like it was nothing.

“Sorry, put my foot in the wrong place.” She quickly apologized as Felix took her arm and looked at the small splinter stuck in her arm, he gently picked it out and flicked it away. Y/n wipes her arm on her pants and looks back at the large tree—the one that had the many obstacles that she..failed miserably. But now, she wanted to return to it with open arms.

She bounds back over to the tree and jumps up to the first branch and looks over to the branch diagonal of her that was a few feet above. But also a branch that was above her. She picked the easiest to obtain, which was the branch above her. Jumping up, she grabbed onto the branch and heaved herself up before standing on the branch and placing a hand on the trunk to keep her balance. She looked down to see Felix watching her.

“See? I got it.” She smiled. Felix’s eyes flickered over to the branch diagonal of her. He was supposed to be teaching her to climb the tree in a more agile and helpful manner. Ruck was supposed to be doing it. But he got distracted while helping Mugman and Cuphead aim their peashooters. They had very good aim from what Felix could see and had impeccable reflexes. But lacked in shooting a moving target. Something Y/n would soon dwell in, but for now. Taking baby steps to climb trees would be best.

“Can you get to this branch without falling?” He asks before raising a hand and pointing to the branch. Y/n looks at the branch and eyes it before looking at Felix.

“You grab with your hands first.” Felix adds. Y/n stared at the branch for a tad bit long before hopping from the branch she was standing on. Her arms grabbed onto the branch she was aiming for. And she heaved herself up, despite her sore body, she still used every ounce of energy she could.

Felix smiled up as she was situated herself to stand on the tree. “You’re doing good, Y/n!” Felix praised. Y/n peered down at him and smiled. Repeating her actions before she hopped from one branch to the other, the higher she climbed the more confident she became with climbing the trees, but also the more she climbed up, the more the branches started intertwining.

She placed her foot on the V shape branch and climbed up on the thick branch that could be used for a bridge seeing it was sturdy enough for her to walk upon it. Gazing down at the ground. She felt lightheaded when she saw she was feet away from the ground. She couldn’t tell how far, but it was certainly enough for her to break something internally if she were to fall. She couldn’t see Felix at the base of the tree—which he was there watching her to make sure she didn’t fall off, but alas. She didn’t see him.

Furrowing her eyebrows she squats down and lays on her stomach to gaze down to the ground. Looking under the branch to see if he was on the other side of the tree, she didn’t see anything other than vegetation and other trees.

Standing back up, her shoulders lowered from the tension she didn’t even know she had in them. But the human quickly flinched when she saw a figure standing beside her.

“Shit!” Y/n shouts. Felix takes a step back from her sudden statement, she hardly heard him coming up the tree. In fact she didn’t even know he was climbing it.

“Sorry!” He quickly apologized—clearly he didn’t mean to frighten her. Y/n’s heart rate calmed down seeing it was just Felix and she let out a weak laugh.

“I didn’t know you were up here.”

“I followed so I can show you how to jump from one tree to the other.” He says before walking past her, the branch shaking slightly from the two walking on it, it caused her to pause in walking—hesitant if the branch would fall, but seeing Felix walking with no problem was a good sign that the branch was pretty strong enough for them to walk on it. The further out the branch got, the thinner. Thin enough to where you would have to balance yourself like you were walking a plank. Felix walked past it with. In Fact he didn’t seem like he had to balance himself at all. Y/n placed one foot in front of the other and gently raised her arms to walk across the branch. She glanced up to see Felix turned to look at her, she smiled and walked over to him like some child taking their first steps.

“You know, me personally, I think I’ll make a great Tarzan.” She jokes. Felix chuckled.

“I don’t think you would like sleeping outside for more than a week.”

“True. When we slept in the snow, that was a nightmare.”

She stood next to him and he looked over to the tree across the way. There was a decent sized gap, enough for someone to make a jump, but still risky for anyone new to jumping. Like Y/n. “We’ll jump to this other tree, same as before. Your arms will balance you out. You know, sorta like a plane when they are in the sky.”

Y/n nods at his words. Her optics danced between where they were standing and to the branch across. Felix was still ranting on about the aerodynamics of how the wind travels through your arms when you jump—bad gravity and Newton's law and inertia for some reason?

“Which is why I say, when you just go it, it’ll be so much easier. Just jump to the branch and jump over to the next one.” Felix finally ends before looking at Y/n. Y/n stared at the tree and then looked at Felix.

“Okay so what do I do if I fall? Just asking.”

“Hm.” Felix’s eyes flickered down the ground quickly before it flickered back to Y/n.”It’ll more than likely hurt.”

Y/n deadpans and Felix smiled before he walked ahead and hops over to the other branch like it was no problem.

“Alright! Come on!” He shouts over. He steps back from the edge so Y/n could have room to jump. Y/n walked to the edge of the branch and her eyes immediately looked down to the ground. Feets away from the ground, a tickling shiver crept up her spine and she let out a sigh. Backing away from the branch with one step Felix quickly started to speak before the human could create a cocoon of worries around her head.

“Hey, hey, don’t look down. All you have to do is jump. One big leap. Jump with your knees, keep them straight.” Felix immediately comforts. Y/n looks at him and then back at the ground and then back at him.

“If I jump, I’m falling.”

“Y/n, you did so good climbing the branch’s all the way up here. You even fell and got back up, don’t be afraid to stop now.”

The human shuffles on her feet before slowly edging back to the edge of the branch and looking at the branch on the other side. Felix outstretched his arms to Y/n.

“I’ll catch you.”

That did actually cause comfort to rise in her body. She slowly nods at the thought of that before taking a step back and jumping off of the branch. She felt her stomach sink at the feeling, she landed into Felix’s arms, his hands holding onto her sides for extra cushion. Her feet landed onto the branch and she smiled brightly as Felix looked at her and smiled.

“See? That wasn’t so bad.”

Next, She had practiced yet again with swimming and holding her breath. This time with Mugman. The two weren’t in the water. But sitting on a warm rock as Mugman was teaching her breathing techniques.

“Like, in your chest?” Y/n asks. Mugman shakes his head and points a finger at her xiphoid. “No. Here.” He corrects.

“So what do I do. Breath in until I show my ribs?”

Mugman raises an eyebrow at her sarcasm. “Actually that’s correct so—“

“Alright then.” Y/n inhales heavily. Straightening her back, and lowering her shoulders. Mugman leans over and presses his finger in the same spot.

“You’re still breathing too heavy.”

Sighing to release the air, Y/n was about to say something until Mugman laughed. “Just kiddin!”

Later on. Donald was teaching Y/n to peddle in a more effective way. He was standing outside of the water, swinging his arms in a motion for Y/n to follow—but Y/n was too busy playing in the water.

“Not like that!” Donald shouts. Y/n kicked her feet frantically as she floated and a bright smile littered her face. “Hey this is kinda fun!” She shouts over to Donald who deadpans and shakes his head.

But soon Y/n got back to work and followed his direction. Putting Cuphead and Mugman training into motion, along with Donald swimming techniques, she swam under the water, holding her breath as long as she could. Ruck stared down in the water as he watched her swim around.

Y/n slowly came up from the water yet again and looked up at Ruck and smiled and he gave her a thumbs up proudly.

Next, she returned to the bow an arrow once more. With her targeting becoming more accurate, she gently walked down the trail as she aimed the arrow. She heard a rustle in the bushes and immediately pointed towards it and shot the arrow at it. A hard ‘thunk!’ emits in the air and Panchito dramatically fell from the bush, the arrow sticking in the wooden target he was holding in his hands.

“Oh no! veo la luz! ha llegado mi dia!” He strains before laying on his back and sticks his tongue out as if he died. Y/n lowered her bow and smiled at Panchito’s dramatic acting.

Next, Ruck stood under the tree following along under the branch Y/n was standing on. She was aiming her arrow at a wooden target down on the ground near a tree—Hard from her view but she was sure she could make it.

“Remember. The faster you are. The slower your opponent's brain will react.” Ruck tells the human. The arrow shoots over to the target and embeds into it. The splintering sound of wood breaking echoes in the air. Y/n quickly reaches back to grab another arrow—but before she could get the arrow to the cliff, a decent sized rock hits her hands, the arrow flying from her hand, she hissed in pain and quickly swats her hand to rid the pain.

She looks over to see Ruck wasn’t the one that threw the rock as she suspected. But it was Oswald, who she hardly noticed.

“Dammit.” Y/n grumbled.

Later on, Y/n was holding a rock above her head as she stared at Ruck with a pleading expression. “My arms hurt—can I please take a break?!” Y/n shouts.

Ruck was leaning on a tree with his arms crossed. Under the shade, as Y/n stood out in the hot sun.

“You got 10 more minutes.”

Y/n would have started to bawl her eyes out if she didn’t see Donald standing near another tree teasing her. He stuck his tongue out and then laughed loudly. Y/n rolled her eyes and sighs, she was making a mental reminder to strangle Donald when they get back into town.

Spunk sat next to Ruck’s feet as he watched Y/n as well. Y/n let’s out a heavy sigh and was above to drop the rock—her arms couldn’t take anymore, but Ruck’s voice soon came in.

“If you drop that rock, I swear I’ll have you running tracks around this entire area.” He warns.

Y/n three her head back in a frustrated shout before straightening her arms. She was never making that same mistake again when it’s time for her target practice again.

Later on, Y/n had her arms outstretched in front of her, clenched her hands closed into a tight fist. She stared at Ruck who was speaking to her about properly connecting a punch. He raised both his hands and Y/n slowly moved her fist to collide with his rough hands. He nods and tells her to continue , which she did. Left, right, left. Everytime he ordered which hand to throw a punch, Y/n would follow in order, until he repeated it faster and faster. She smiled as she did so until his hand collided with her temple. She quickly stopped in their exercise and raised a hand to her eye and glared at him.

“Ow! What was that for?” She grumbled. “I said watch your guard.”

And she was back with holding the rock above her head for 20 minutes. It felt like everytime she got; The Rock. It would grow heavier and heavier every time.

Back to climbing trees. She hopped from one branch to the other as Panchito followed after her. He laughs as he hops over to the other branch, which Y/n was already jumping on as well. Causing it to shake and the two to tumble off of it from its vibration. Y/n holds onto the branch below to save her from falling, as well as Panchito. The two didn’t even heave themselves onto the branch fully. Their bodies dangled off before they looked at each other and laughed.

“Oops.” He laughs.

Returning back to swimming. Y/n was busy underwater moving to touch a fish—which it kept swimming away—creating her own game of tag with the fish, she followed after it. The bubbles of air leaving her nose, properly breathing she was able to hold her breath under the water for much longer.

Ruck stared down at the stopwatch.

12 minutes.

Ruck’s eyes flickered up to the water to see if she would come back up, but to his surprise. She didn’t. Sitting on the rock and waiting for her to come back up. He didn’t see her for another 2 minutes.

14 minutes now.

Standing up from the rock and crouching onto the ground and slowly placed his face into the water and opened his eyes. Looking down in the deep part of the water. He could see Y/n chasing a fish. Her hands pushed off of the rocks to fly after it like some predator. A laugh escaped Ruck’s mouth at the scene, it was silent seeing he had his head under the water, the bubbles leaving his mouth. Y/n felt the vibration and looked over to see Ruck looking at her. Pushing her feet from the sandy ground she floated back up to the surface and Ruck removed himself from the water and stood back up. Dusting the sand from his pants. He looked back down at the stop watch and stopped it. 15 minutes.

The trickling of water catches his attention and he sees Y/n sticking her head up from the water.

“15 minutes.”

“Really?” She gasps before immediately crawling out of the water. The sand sticking to her knees and elbows. She grabs the stop watch with her wet hands. Water drilling everywhere.

15.00”

Y/n smiled widely. Her chest heaving up and down, it was clear holding her breath for so long had tired her out.

“Good job, kid.”

Next up, Ruck had taken Y/n over to a patch of grass. Which she didn’t change back into her clothes. She wore her tank top and shorts and left her socks and shoes near the lake, feeling the dirt and grass under her feet as she watched Ruck sit down on the ground and move the grass from the way, Y/n followed after him and watched as he plucked a berry from the ground.

“Been lookin’ everywhere for these. These are called FreezeBerries.” He states. Handing a berry to Y/n. She takes it to see it resembles a strawberry. But with blue seeds. She looked back at Ruck to see him biting into it. Y/n followed after him and bit into the strawberry, it was cold to her teeth. Like a berry that’s been sitting in the freezer, which was odd considering it was scorching hot outside. But it taste delicious, a tangy sweet flavor, she smiled and when she did so, a puff of smoke escaped her mouth, causing her eyes to widen and quickly look at Ruck, which he was blowing smoke from his mouth as well.

“Whoa!” Y/n laughs, putting the entire berry in her mouth and chewing she blew a large puff of smoke from her mouth, Ruck chuckled and followed after her.

Y/n picked at another FreezeBerry and placed another one in her mouth, and turned her head to Ruck and blew the smoke in his face. He squints his eyes before looking at her and blowing the smoke in her face as well. Y/n lets out a laugh, the smoke escaping her nose and mouth. It reminded her of those freeze dried treats you would get from a street vendor.

“I bet I can do a trick.” She said, forming her lips into an O, she lets out a puff of smoke in hopes to form a ring. But failed miserably. Ruck looked at her to see her attempt before he formed his lips into an O as well, and with ease a ring puffs from his mouth.

Y/n huffs.

“What? How.”

Ruck chuckled as he watched Y/n attempt to form the ring again.

Next, Y/n went back into working. Returning her clothes she held the bow in her hand as she shot the arrow off to the target, which it hit the wooden target. Y/n was back to walking on the branch once more, hearing a rustle from below she quickly aimed down, and Donald hops out of the way before the arrow could pierce him, unfortunately he dropped the wooden target in the process. But good thing, was she still hit it.

Hearing footsteps from her left, she continued walking on the branch but aimed her arrow to her left to hit Cuphead holding the wooden target a few feet away—he stopped in his running when he got caught, the arrow hitting the wooden target, Mugman didn’t get too far before the arrow embeds into his target as well.

“Damn..I was hopin’ I would sneak pass you.” Cuphead grunts. Mugman placed the target on the ground before smiling at Y/n proudly.

Meek held onto the wooden target and stood next to Don, they were both standing near a tree, a few feet away. She still had trouble aiming off too far, with two people standing next to each other no less.

“They’re too far.” Y/n tells Ruck as she continues to saunter down the branch. Her eyes glued on Meek and Don.

“Make your hand into a quiver. This is where sharp shooting comes into place.” Ruck states.

Y/n reached back into her quiver and grabs two arrows, placing them both on the ledge and pulling them back, before she could attempt to shoot at Meek and Don, she heard a sound from behind her, at the last minute. Causing her to quickly turn around, but she felt a hand quickly tap her arm, tagging you out.

“Got ya!”

“No!” Y/n shouts in sorrow. Felix lowered the wooden target and Y/n sulks.

“Dammit!” Y/n stomps her foot on the branch.

“Hey, you still did good.” Mugman walks over to the tree and looks up at the two.

“I almost had everyone.” Y/n placed the arrows back in her quiver and looked at Felix. “You walk too quietly.”

“You can’t blame him for not being able to hear him.” Ruck pipes up.

“Hey, cheer up. Soon, you’ll be the best damn sharpshooter in the offlands.” Don states. Y/n nods and sighs.

“Yeah, I mean I guess.”

Panchito sets his target down and Spunk barks before looking up at the sky, Ruck looks at him and knows he was signaling the time.

“Yeah, it’s gettin’ late. Hell. Maybe tomorrow you’ll do great at the training back in town.” Ruck says and Y/n furrowed her eyebrows. “I don’t wanna go back there.”

“Oh cariño, I am sure that with the improvements you made you will be perfect with the others.” Panchito says, him and Oswald walking over from the hiding spot they were at first. Y/n didn’t seem too moved with that statement.

“Tell you what. I’ll give you the day off tomorrow if you go to morning training, the rest of the two days, we’ll train out here.” Ruck brings up. Y/n squints her eyes..she wouldn’t lie she would much rather spend the time back out here training. It was quite relaxing in an odd way.

“Alright, fine.”

Bendy stared down at the ring, examining it in his palms, Lucy sat on the bench as she fiddled with something in her palms. Bendy was sitting beside her, leaning back lazily with his arm tossed on the back of the bench behind Lucy. She was busy twisting the stem of the flowers together to create some sort of bouquet of some sort.

She was humming softly as she did so, the sound of the stems rustling emitting into the air as well.

Bendy looks at the diamond ring once more before placing it in his pocket. Lucy notices the small movement and looks at him before looking back at the white flowers.

Bendy stared out into the courtyard, his eyes bouncing off of the various flowers and bushes, bees and birds flying around and landing on the cobblestone pavement to either peck at the ground or examine a pollinated flower. He felt a strong headache starting to stir in his head, it felt like a heavy bottle of water swaying around with so little movement.

“You’ve been awfully quiet.” Lucy pipes up. Bendy turns his head and looks at her, his eyes traveling down to the flowers in her hands.

“Just lookin’ around s’all.” He responds. Lucy nods once more and returns her gaze back to the flowers.

Returning his gaze back to the courtyard, he was grateful to have the peace and quiet, his head felt like it was going to explode and Lucy wasn’t even the reason for it. Surprisingly.

Lucy then slightly nudged the flowers towards Bendy and looked back at her and back at the flowers. “These are called, Acyndytes.” She starts.

“A-shine-dites?” Bendy repeats and she nodded

“They resemble grief. The color is white because even life after death, there is…life.“

Bendy raises an eyebrow and she continues. “We use these to resemble a new journey for one who has passed.”

“Who passed?” Bendy asks.

“My fathers old friend. He was struck by something our apothecary here in town could figure out. He passed last night.” Lucy stands up from the bench and looks back at Bendy.

“I want to deliver these, my father should be there now.”

Bendy slowly stood up from the bench and nodded. “Sure..”

“Would you stop—“ Mugman shoves Cuphead off him, Cuphead laughs at his brother's agitated response. Y/n was busy thinking of the good sleep she would get when they entered the room—and not to mention, a good shower. Her skin was sticky with sweat, grime and dirt. Her clothes were dirty from dust and dirt from all the training they did. The walk was long, but eventful.

Y/n placed her hands on Ruck’s shoulders and jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck—he stopped walking for a moment at her sudden motion.

“So—how’d I do with my archery skills this time?” She asks. Ruck grumbled and shook his back to shed the girl off him but Y/n was stuck to his back like a leech, she pressed her legs into his side and looked around the town above his head.

“Above average. Now get the hell off me.”

“Oh, look. There’s Lucy and Bendy.” Don points out the two walking in their direction. Lucy held a white bouquet of flowers in her hands, her arm intertwined with Bendy’s as the two walked over to the group.

“Oh I’m so glad to see you all! We were just heading out for a small gathering a few blocks down.” Lucy states. Oswald tilts his head.

“What’s the occasion?” He asks.

“It’s a home going. Wishing a friend farewell.” She replied.

“Who died?” Cuphead says bluntly. Mugman makes a small noise and harshly grabs Cuphead by the arm. Cuphead hisses in pain.

“Oh. I’m so sorry to hear..” Felix adds and Lucy nods. “Yes. Very upsetting. Come! Follow.” She and Bendy walk past the group back in the direction they were just leaving from. Turning around and following Lucy—unfortunately.

Y/n rested her chin on the top of Ruck’s head and closed her eyes. Feeling the wind blow in her air—she cooled off when they started to return back to Welkin. The lukewarm air was comforting and not as scorching hot where they just were.

Ruck turned around to follow after everyone, unwillingly carrying Y/n with him as she didn’t seem to move one bit. It was like a father holding their son up at a baseball game to see the wins, instead it was just a super exhausted uncle carrying around his joke of a niece.

Y/n felt his every footsteps on the ground and smiled silently before placing her hands on either side of his head before straightening her back to look down at him.

“So. If we were travel buddies. And you had to rely on me to finish a mission, you’d think I would do it?” She asks.

“No.” He answered blatantly.

Y/n huffs before placing her hands back on his shoulders.

“I dunno, I think I got some pretty wicked tricks up some sleep.” She brushed off her shoulders dramatically—not that it mattered as Ruck couldn’t even see her.

“Yeah, you do.” Ruck responds. She couldn’t tell if he said it just to push past the topic at hand. Or it was a genuine statement.

She stared down at him and smiled.

“Now get the hell off me. We’re here.”

Y/n stood next to Panchito as the two watched Lucy hand the white bouquet of flowers to Modi. Who was standing next to a toon. The woman had brown curly hair that complimented her fair skin. She was gently patting under her eyes with tissue. Modi was saying something to her but Y/n wasn’t paying too much attention. Her eyes traveled over to the candles on the ground. It’s golden light flickering in the gentle wind. The sun was starting to set, the gradient purple and red, filling the canvas of the sky, as the sun edged near its horizon, bidding everyone farewell for the day.

There was a lake in town that led out of it—everyone stood near the border of town. There were other people there, it seemed like almost half the town with how many people, Y/n was just glad they were able to stand in the front of it all. Y/n could see the guard—Stink’s father—as she presumed seeing he was a skunk and Stinks was standing beside his father. Was also near as well. Though he hadn’t bothered to even glance in Y/n’s direction, his gaze stayed on something in the water. Y/n followed Stink’s gaze and she spotted toon, laying down on what seemed to be a wooden platform. A dark blanket covering their chest, the dog toon had his eyes closed, like he was sleeping. With various flowers surrounding the body, like a bed.

Two other toons stood on either side of the wooden platform, which they seemed to have been crying for days. They were wading in the water.

“Oh man.” Y/n muttered to Panchito, he slowly nodded in agreement. “Yes..It is very unfortunate.” He responds.

“I apologize that we couldn’t find a cure.” Modi tells the woman. She only sniffs and shakes her head.

“No no. No need to apologize…he..is in a better place now.”

Lucy had stepped back away from her father so he could speak to the woman—a small child in the crowd excitedly waved at Lucy in which she smiled and gave a small wave back.

“I thought toons were incapable of dying..” Y/n lowered her voice and looked at Felix. Felix raised his eyebrows and slowly nods at her minor confusion.

“That is..sorta true. Remember, toons can still die—just like humans can—“

“It takes longer?” She finished from what she briefly remembered him stating back in the boat before arriving to the offlands. And Felix nods.

“Yes. Whatever happened to him, I’m sure it was devastating.”

“You kiddin? Wonder what knocked him off the board. Can’t be from old age, that’s for sure.” Cuphead states and Mugman sighs before shoving his elbow into Cuphead’s ribs who flinched at the action.

“One more word from you. And I’m going to deal with you.”

Y/n looked back at the water to the toon, it was odd. Y/n heard distant sounds of voices harmonizing, the candle flickered in the wind. As the crowd solemnly held their own candles of their own. The sun slowly set in the sky, the canvas darkening and the candles being the life of the darkness.

Modi walked past the group, as he walked over to the water, the ripples of the water bouncing as he stood beside the toon.

He had started to speak in a different tongue that Y/n couldn’t tell. But she still paid attention no less. Watching as he gazed down at the body in sorrow, the crowd's once peppy attitude had mourned for the loss of one soul. How did he die?

A toon was a very tough soul to take down. Yet..here they were.

“—The loss of a friend. Where he will be with us. In spirit.” Y/n couldn’t tell she drifted off in her mind. The small platform floated down the stream as everyone watched. The candles in their hands were now the only source of light, the golden light reflecting from everyone, a warm glow to the toon that had drifted further away, where the arm light was nothing but a dot in the distance.

It was sad to see. A few of the people cried at the farewell. As Modi stood in the water, watching the old friend drift off into the night.

#bendyxreader #bendy and the ink machine #toon quest #panchito pistoles #cuphead x reader #mugman x reader #felix the cat x reader

28 notes · View notes