#producers: great. now put on this horse mask.

[heymeowmao]

大奉打更人 | Guardians of the Dafeng E6 ° Senior Song's work of alchemical genius *:･ﾟ✧

[literally-just-there]

⭒˚.⋆✨️ 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕾𝖊𝖊𝖐𝖊𝖗'𝖘 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖈𝖑𝖊𝖘

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 ɪɪ : 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖑𝖊𝖓 𝕾𝖔𝖚𝖑𝖘

Word count : 3 107

Content warnings : people vanishing I guess ? nothing graphic.

Masterlist || Read on AO3

Author's note : heyyy this is not dead. very much not, actually. just a heads up, I'm basing this story on the "new" incipit of SN, published on yt and all, which was changed back some time ago, which, when I learned about it, while I had finished planning the work, welp. not changing now. okay. here is Confused Seeker who does not know yet she is Seeker :)

The theater house is like an ancient temple laid onto the large square. The white and pale yellow of the walls, illuminated by the faint gold of the street lights, are a stark contrast against the dark night sky. The pools of light are buzzing with life, people converse, feathers and fabric ruffle in the wind, droplets of cold drizzle catch the light on top of hats.

Heads turn when the young woman approaches, fear-filled gasps are heard at the sight of her glowing eyes, booted feet shuffle against the wet pavement, leading the aghast audience out of her path as she comes forward. From their place harnessed at coaches, the horses nonchalantly turn their heads in her direction, inky eyes staring at the strange visitor, unbothered by her eerie appearance. She does not appear to see any of them, humans or animals, and heads straight up the stairs, her vibrant red curls bouncing around her shoulders, her heels hitting the white stone with a sharp sound that echoes in the night, and disappears between the sculpted columns.

She enters the building, glancing up at the large high relief of theater masks at the top of the large staircase at the end of the entrance hall. One is gleeful, the other sorrowful.

The ticket seller awakens with a gasp, noticing a newcomer. She has her back to him, but he puts on a smile nonetheless, as his job requires.

"Good evening miss ! The interval is over but you can slip into the back of the room unnoticed…"

The cheerful young man does not look up at the young woman as he produces a ticket for her.

"Here, it'll be—"

A bloodcurdling scream escapes him as his eyes meet her own glowing ones. The ticket falls from his trembling hand and at her feet. She does not move a single limb. Their eyes stare into each other for what seems like an eternity, an emotionless pit of light facing a glistening gaze full of fear, before she turns away sharply, and walks through the hall and up the stairs. Meanwhile, he leans forward and looks out the window of his booth, watching her leave with an agape mouth and wide eyes, which he rubs with force as if to try and convince himself he is not still asleep.

She arrives on a balcony overlooking the seats, her eyes glowing in the dark, fixed on the magician on stage. His white gloved hands reflect the stage lights as they join in front of him as he seems plunged in deep concentration. A blue light faintly glows from between his palms, and as he suddenly spreads his arms, releasing it, a swarm of red roses erupts around him. Thunderous applause resonates as the flowers fall around the spectators, and several women catch a rose in their hands, grinning giddily as they give a small wave to the handsome magician.

The girl's solar gaze never leaves the man as she walks down the stairs, the spectators blind to the strange individual arriving behind them, in the shadows at the back of the room.

Once again, the magician plunges himself into deep concentration. However, this time the cold blue light goes to his eyes, engulfing his dark irises. As he spreads his arms, the shadow of large hairy spider legs seems to sprout from his back and into the room as he grins widely, letting out a dramatically evil laugh. The spectators clap again, gasping and laughing heartily at the exaggerated display.

And suddenly, a scream.

Had the woman not been already of a great age, her hair would have turned white from the fear of seeing a ghostly, wailing pixie-like blue creature emerge from the untouched green dress of the young woman who had been sitting beside her just a moment ago. Panicked heads turn around the room as a dozen similar pixies replace young women, floating obediently into the glass jar the magician had just conjured in his hands.

As soon as the last creature enters the jar, he briskly closes it, his crooked grin growing at the sight of panicked people running out of the room, only faltering slightly when his vibrant glowing blue eyes meet cold golden ones. However, he quickly regains his composure, and, with a mocking wave at the newcomer, disappears in a swarm of red roses.

The redhead comes forward in the room, her eyes still aglow, stepping on a discarded rose and crushing it in the process. Just then, a man, in his panic, slams into her as he runs out, not looking back, and her shoulder hits a marble bust, which falls down onto the floor with a loud sound, its head crushed to pieces. She leans against the wall as her eyes abruptly stop glowing, and blinks, her breath erratic, wincing as she rubs her sore shoulder.

As she slowly comes back to her senses, looking around the room that is now empty and eerily calm, save for the several grief-stricken people clinging to the clothes of the women who just disappeared. She walks silently between the seats, looking at the scene before her, but the people around do not seem to notice her, too shaken by this turn of events.

She makes her way to the front row, where a young woman is carefully inspecting the green dress left there, the seat, even the shoes on the floor.

“Excuse me…?” she speaks in a tentative voice. “What is going on…?”

The woman's head snaps in her direction. She seems a bit older than her, and her face is pale, making her painted red lips stand out. A little hat covers her short brown ringlets, her beige cape is tied by an elegant bow, and the azure of her dress is only matched by the one of her eyes, which sparkle seems dull.

“You saw what happened…?” she asks in a trembling voice.

The redhead nods before answering. “I did… that man did something… and now all these women are gone…”

“Yes… and that something is soul stealing, I'm sure of it.” the brunette responds, gritting her teeth.

The girl blinks, her gray eyes widening as she attempts to process the words. “What ? You… what ?”

The woman nods and looks down, fiddling with the silver ring on her right index finger.

“This is the first time I ever see this, but there are so many tales about it that is is impossible not to recognize it.”

The redhead mirrors her, nervously tapping the rolled map with her fingers.

“I… look. I don't know about any soul stealing, but… Maybe I could help ?”

The woman's eyes turn to her once more, widening slightly.

“Help ?”

“Yes,” she says, tilting her head in confusion. “Why ?”

The brunette shakes her head, a soft yet incredulous smile tugging at her lips.

“Forgive me, I didn't really expect a stranger to want to help right away. Though, I’m not really sure how you would be able to…”

“Well, I can at least try.”

With these words, the young redhead immediately gets to work, walking around the grand room at a slow, careful, almost relaxed pace. The dim, golden lights from the flower shaped mural lamps are reflected in her eyes, and cast a soft glow over her skin.

There, on the now deserted stage, among the roses petals iridescent with an eerie magic glow, lays a discarded top hat. The gray felt and the red silken ribbon around it catch the light of the spotlights, dust slowly gathering onto the fabric.

She picks up the hat, gently blowing the dust off, before peeking inside cautiously, almost expecting something to surge out from its dark depths.

Then, as she makes her way to the back of the room, she suddenly stops in her tracks as she hears a soft ruffling sound under her foot. She looks down, moving her foot away to reveal a rose. She bends down, and picks up the stem, mindful of its thorns. The crushed dark red petals fall into her palm, traces of magic escaping them in a purplish shimmer. Her eyebrows crease in a thoughtful frown.

How did it end up getting crushed…? The trampling, surely...

She quickly shakes her head, not intent on lingering on such a seemingly trivial detail, and returns to the woman, whose big azure eyes are set on her, curious and perhaps slightly impatient.

The woman stares at the items now gathered in the girl's hands. Her mouth is slightly agape, but no words come out. She faintly shakes her head, bewildered.

“Oh my… You’re a quick one ! I didn't expect—”

They both freeze suddenly as they hear a faint noise. The young redhead whispers.

“What is that ?”

The brunette frowns, listening closely. The noise occurs once again. And once more, small and plaintive.

“Is that…” her eyes widen. “Oh my…”

She rushes towards the noise, gripping her skirts as she runs. The girl follows behind. They go through one of the large blue doors leading backstage, and skip between the wooden and pasteboard sceneries, paint buckets and pegs disappearing under downy boas and sparkling costumes. Under a gilded throne adorned with engravings which coarse nature is visible only up close, is the source of the mysterious sound ; a small, dark furbag, with two tiny dark eyes glistening in the dark space.

“Just what I thought,” she says. “Amelia never leaves her house without Kaitie.”

“Who's Kaitie ?”

“Her dog. She must have ran off in fear...”

The redhead glances at her, and slowly comes forward. She kneels down at the door, not daring approaching the dog and scaring it further. She extends her hand, speaking in a soft voice.

“Hey Kaitie… it's alright little one, come out…”

The little Yorkshire terrier slowly approaches, sniffing her hand tentatively. She cannot help but smile as she feels its cold wet nose brushing her skin, glancing at the little pink bow on its head.

The woman looks at the scene, stunned, and after a moment spent staring, her blue eyes wide, her mouth agape, she exclaims.

“How did you do it ? All of this ?”

“What ?”

“It was as if… as if you simply knew where to look… and here... Kaitie never lets strangers touch her, but... you did...”

“I… suppose I did ?” the girl answers with a shrug, her faint smile masking her own confusion. She gently takes Kaitie into her arms, standing up.

The brunette looks at her for a while, torn between gratefulness and wariness in front of the strange girl.

“You did… Thank you…”

She then blinks suddenly, snapping out of her thoughts, and smiles apologetically.

“Oh my, but I forget my manners with all this ! I'm—”

"Helen ! Where have you been ?! I have been looking for you everywhere, for God's sake ! I thought I lost you in this mad crowd !"

The voice echoes in the empty room, startling the two women. The concerned party rolls her eyes, sighing, before turning to the irritated man. Salt-and-pepper stands escape from his otherwise neatly slicked back hair, his expression worsens the wrinkles on his slender face, and his reddening cheeks, his large front teeth barren and his small quivering moustache make him look as if ready to burst as he takes long, unnerved strides towards them.

"Richard, I am here and well, you needn't worry so much."

"You are my wife, of course I worry about you !"

The redhead looks back and forth between the couple, confused, and shifts Kaitie in her arms, then tentatively raises her free hand, speaking softly to try and calm the man.

“Sir, calm down, your wife is alright, there's no need to shout…”

The man turns to the stranger with a frown, looking at her up and down with a mix of confusion and disdain.

"Who are you ? I do not remember ever seeing you in town before, I would have remembered…"

The man's lips curve into a disapproving scowl, his frowning gaze traveling from the young woman's loose, unruly red hair barely held out of her face by wildflowers, down to her legs clad in loose white trousers, almost completely visible under a dark, worn-out cloak that seemed too big for her, and the thin shimmering layers of her ankle-length dress.

“... a mess of a faun such as you,” he mumbles, adjusting his burgundy satin tie. “What is your name ?”

What is my name ?

“What my husband means to say,” the brunette says, shooting a glare at him, “is that you are dressed quite unusually compared to what we're accustomed to… Anyway, I'm Helen, the mayor's assistant, and this is my husband Richard, he's a… businessman. What's your name, miss ?”

What is my name ?

The girl's mouth opens, then closes, not finding any words to say, any syllables to assemble, any letters to combine to forge the very words that could define her. Richard sneers.

“Well, do not look at me like that, what are you, a fish ? Well, you certainly seem to be out of water…” he sniggers.

Helen frowns at her husband's remark, but the redhead does not seem to pay it any mind, her face frozen in an expression slowly fading from confusion to horror.

“I don't know my name…”

The couple's eyebrows shoot up, Helen's in concern, Richard's in doubt.

“What do you mean ?” Helen asks in a soft voice. “You don't know your name ?”

“N— No…” she stutters, her voice shaky. The dog looks up at her, whimpering softly as it smells her hair, but she does not react to it. “I try to think about my name, where I come from, but nothing comes to mind…”

The couple's eyes widen, and they briefly look at each other before Helen speaks again, her tone suddenly more cautious.

“Wait, wait… What do you mean by where you come from ? Did you come from… outside of Darkwood ?”

“Darkwood… it's this city, right ? I think so ? I have no memory of this place…”

“No memories ? None at all ? Oh my…”

“What is this ?” Richard asks suddenly.

The young woman follows his gaze, looking down at the rolled parchment she is still clutching in her left hand. She does not answer.

“What is this ?” Richard insists. “It looks ancient, is it some kind of artifact…”

As he speaks, he stretches out his arm to seize the parchment, but she briskly steps back, shifting her body as if to shield it. The dog growls and barks at him. Helen puts a hand on her husband's arm, frowning.

“Richard, now is not the time !” she whispers. “You're scaring her !”

“I just want to take a look, nothing else…”

“Sure, sure…”

“I mean it !” he hisses. “I swear it reminds me of something I read about… I cannot quite put my finger on it, but…”

With a thoughtful frown on her face, Helen turns back to the girl.

“If you don't want to give it to Richard, could you give it to me ?”

She extends a hand, waiting for her to hand over the parchment, but the redhead does not budge, switching from frowning at Richard to gazing hesitantly at Helen. The latter, seeing the girl's refusal to cooperate, lowers her hand, sighing.

“Look, miss… if I listened correctly, you have no memories of who you are, you potentially come from outside Darkwood… You have been very helpful, but right now, you also seem very suspicious.”

The redhead softens a bit.

“I don't mean to… I just helped you as much as I could right now, I absolutely mean no harm…”

“I didn't mean to imply this.” Helen says softly. “But in those circumstances, you have to understand our wariness.”

“What circumstances ? What do you mean ?”

Helen bites her lip, hesitant.

“Well, miss, you are—”

“Helen !” Richard whispers, gritting his teeth. “It is probably not safe to tell her everything !”

Helen frowns, and waits, thinking for a moment before speaking.

“Wait for me here, I have to make a phone call.”

She briskly walks out of the room.

꒰ 🧭 ꒱ؘ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

"May I use the phone ?"

The ticket seller jumps in his seat, in a way that would appear almost comical if it were not for the dire situation. His wide eyes lock onto the woman in front of him, before they close as he breathes out in relief, finding the beloved mayor's assistant a much more welcoming sight than any cloaked being with emotionless glowing eyes.

“O— Of course, Mrs Darlington, go ahead…”

She quickly thanks him, and goes to dial a number, the movements of her fingers quick and efficient.

After a short moment, a brief sigh of exhaustion can be heard, followed by the grave voice of a man.

"Hello ?"

She speaks urgently, "Mayor Smallcat, good evening."

"Good evening Helen, what is the matter ? I thought you were at the magic show with Mr Darlington ?"

"I am or, well… the show's been cut short."

"Cut short ? Whatever do you mean ?"

She sighs, "To put it simply, the magician was some kind of… dark sorcerer in disguise. He made several young women disappear, I think he stole their souls…"

"He— Their souls ?!" he cries out. "Dear god, are you alright ?!"

"I am, but Miss Anders was among the victims though… as well as Miss Sharp and Miss Granger, and others I'm not recalling at the moment."

"I am so sorry, Helen…"

"Mayor Smallcat, there is something else."

"What is it ?" he asks. His voice appeared to have aged several years in seconds.

"Right after those events, a young woman showed up. She doesn't seem to remember who she is."

"A young woman ? Do you know her ?"

"No, I don't remember ever seeing her in town either. She has no memory of where she came from and doesn't seem to be from around here."

"So she might come from outside Darkwood… Did you notice anything particularly unusual about her ?"

“Unusual is the right word sir. She is not dressed like a lady at all, and resembles some kind of adventurer. She also carries a roll of parchment with her, and refuses to let go of it.”

"A roll of parchment ? What does it say ?"

"I don't know, but it looks quite ancient, she keeps it closed in her hand, she is almost clinging onto it for dear life."

"I see… anything else?"

"Well, she helped me find a few clues about what happened, she was very good at finding them… Maybe she's an investigator ?"

A pause.

"Good at finding things you say ?" he says with a pensive tone.

"Yes ?"

"Could you bring her to the city hall, please ? I would like to have a word with her."

[makeitmingi]

Cause Baby You're My Muse [Chapter 26]

Genre: Romance, Idol!AU, Music, Slight angst

Pairing: Mingi x Reader (y/n)

Characters: Producer!Reader, IdolLyricist!Mingi, IdolProducer!Hongjoong, Idol!Seonghwa, Idol!Yunho, Idol!Wooyoung, Idol!San, Idol!Yeosang, Idol!Jongho, cameo(s) by other celebrities

Summary: You always preferred producing underground, having an unknown face and governed by your own rules. But when you start freelancing for idol groups, you say goodbye to your lone wolf lifestyle as you learn to work with idol producers and lyricists.

Word count: 3.4K

"Baby? I'm here." Mingi announced as he entered your home. He removed his shoes at the doorway.

"Oh, Mings! You're here." You jumped in shock as you emerged from the living room, intending to place your purse on the dining table so you wouldn't forget it.

"Yeah, I called out to you but you didn't reply." He came over to hug him, kissing your forehead.

"You did? Sorry, I was busy getting ready." You said, fixing your earrings as you walked back to the bedroom to check your reflection. You decided to only wear earrings on your basic lobe piercings, to look more presentable.

"You look great, by the way." Mingi complimented.

"Really? Thank you." Now that brought a smile to your face. It was too hot to wear your leather jacket now since you were having nervous sweats. Tonight, you were going to meet Mingi's mother.

"I got some stuff for your mom, I'm not sure what she likes so..." You said. Mingi's eyes widened at all the gifts on the table.

"Flowers, ginseng, skin care, tea. Baby, this is too much!" Mingi burst out laughing.

"Stop laughing at me! I panic bought them." You whined, slapping his arm. It was cute how you were going above and beyond to impress his mother.

"What time is it now? Are we late?" You asked.

"Not at all. If we go now, we'll be VERY early." Mingi chuckled. You nodded, going to the vanity table in your bedroom to make sure your light make up was still good, that it hadn't melted off from the sweating of you moving around to get ready. Mingi wrapped his arms around your waist from behind.

"Is this our first couple look?" He gestured to the maroon hoodie he was wearing. You snorted as Mingi took his phone out to take a mirror selfie with you.

"We make a cute couple." Mingi grinned.

"Sure..." You laughed. Mingi cupped your cheeks to give you a kiss. When he pulled away, his lips sparkled.

"You got lip gloss on you now." Reaching up, you wiped his bottom lip with your thumb. To show that he didn't care, Mingi dipped you down with the intention to give you another kiss.

"Hold your horses. No more kisses, you're really going to ruin my make up." You put your hands on his chest to hold him away.

"What~?" He whined.

"Don't pout." You chided, walking out of his embrace to go choose a pair of shoes to wear. In the end, you wore a pair of Air Force that was customised by some artist. The spray painted colours were your little pop of colour.

"We shouldn't go too early, I don't want your mum to feel like we're rushing her to get food ready." You thought out loud, looking at the time on your phone.

"Or maybe we can go early and help her with the cooking." You spoke to yourself.

"Baby, first of all, breathe. Secondly, we can go now and just sit for a bit. My omma won't mind." Mingi stroked your hair.

"Okay, let's go now." You said.

Mingi helped you carry the things, mainly because he thought you looked pretty holding the bouquet of flowers, even if it wasn't for you. With masks on, you entered the cab that Mingi called.

"Omma, we're on the way." Mingi said to his mother on the phone. You looked at him expectantly, wanting to know her reaction to you two coming over earlier. Mingi smiled, his free hand grasping yours. He let out a few acknowledgement hums to his mother before hanging up.

"Well?"

"Well what? She just said okay." Mingi spoke through his laughter. You knew Mingi was just having an absolute field day with you being so nervous.

"I'm glad you take joy in my breakdown." You crossed your arms. Mingi smoothed his hand over your thigh.

"You'll be fine, baby. My omma is cool." He wrapped an arm around you to reel you in.

You stayed like that until the cab dropped you off at Mingi's mother's new home. He held your hand as you entered the lift together. You ran through your greetings in your head, making you quiet.

"What's going on in there? You're suddenly awfully quiet." Mingi lightly tapped your head.

You cast him a look, removing your mask and tucking it into your jacket pocket. You wordlessly removed his mask as well, keeping it in your bag for him to use again later. When the lift stopped, you let Mingi walk in front to greet his mother first.

"Omma! We're here!" He called out as he opened the door. You let go of his hand, taking a step back to give the mother and son some space. There was the shuffling of footsteps.

"Oh, my dear son!" Mingi's mother exclaimed as she hugged her son tightly. Mingi laughed, wrapping his long arms around her.

"Where is she?" You heard her ask him.

"Right. Baby, come here." Mingi turned to you and held your hand, tugging you into the house. Mingi's mother's eyes fell on you and she had a soft smile on her face.

"Nice to meet you, omonim. My name is (y/n)." You bowed deeply, greeting her.

"Aigoo, you're such a pretty thing. Come, come!" She held your hands, pulling you in and leaving Mingi at the doorway.

Mingi continued to stand there, frozen in shock. You just revealed your real name. The first time he was hearing your real name was you introducing yourself to his mother for the first time. It never occurred that he didn't know your name prior to this because it never bothered him, and he wasn't going to force you either.

"Mingi ah! Why are you still standing there?" His mother called him.

"C-Coming!" Mingi hid the way his heart was racing and swallowed the lump in his throat as he grabbed the paper bags and went to where you and his mother stood.

"What's all this, dear son?"

"(y/n) bought some gifts for you." Mingi said. Even the way your name rolled off his tongue felt weird to him.

"Yes, these are for you." You handed her the bouquet of flowers you've been carefully cradling in your arms. She received them and glimpsed through the bags that Mingi was carrying.

"Omo, this is more than 'some'! You shouldn't have, (y/n) ah..." She waved her hands.

"You're lucky she didn't buy the whole store." Mingi snorted.

"Mings!" You slapped his arm for exposing you, cheeks warming in embarrassment. You bent down to help her take the things out from the bags for her to properly look at them. Mingi watched in adoration as you went through the gifts.

"I know this moisturiser is very good. I just finished my container." Mingi's mother said.

"I heard from Mings that your knee hurts from standing at the restaurant. The sales lady told me this balm is good for massaging into sore joints." You explained.

"Is that so? I'll definitely try it out. This is all very thoughtful of you, (y/n) ah. Thank you." She stroked your cheek.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you like them." You grinned, mentally relieved.

"Let me go finish dinner and we'll be able to eat soon. Son, put the gifts in my room." Mrs Song instructed before disappearing into the kitchen with you.

"Can I help with anything, omonim?" You offered.

"There's no need, dear. Just go sit, make yourself at home. Mingi ah! When you're done, get your girlfriend something to drink. Be a good host!" She yelled. You giggled, blushing at how she just directly refers to you as Mingi's girlfriend. Mingi came to the kitchen after putting the gifts away.

"Try one of these collagen pouches. They're really good and have probiotics in it." She cut in front of Mingi at the fridge to give you one of the jelly pouches.

"Thank you." You bowed your head.

Even though she didn't let you do any cooking, you still lingered in the kitchen to chat with her and get to know her better.

"Ah, Mingi told me that you're taking care of your little sister on your own, it must not be easy having to work and care for a child when you're so young." She said as she chopped vegetables.

"It wasn't at first but seeing her grow up makes it all worth it. Her name is Haneul." You showed her a picture.

"Aigoo! She's so cute." Mrs Song fangirled over Haneul.

"Do you cook?"

"Yes, I learnt to cook for Haneul. I didn't want her eating too much outside food. Plus, it was cheaper to cook rather than to eat outside or get take out. Now I cook for her and Mingi. Both have similar tastes, both don't like vegetables." You explained with a laugh.

"That's very sensible of you. But that son of mine, he always doesn't like vegetables. Since he was young, I had to hide vegetables in his food." Mrs Song complained.

"I'm right here, you know?" Mingi reminded.

"When we first started going out, I asked him why he doesn't want to cook more with you owning the restaurant." You said.

"Right? Wasted a good opportunity to learn." Mrs Song clicked her tongue and shook her head.

"But Mingi is very good at taking care of me in other ways. He always makes sure I'm eating and sleeping enough since I tend to work late nights." You turned to Mingi, smiling at him softly.

"That's good, that's good. It's always good for a couple to take care of each other. Especially when you eventually get married and have children." Mrs Song nodded in approval.

"Omma! W-What are you talking about?! We only just got together, why are you mentioning marriage and kids?" Mingi exclaimed in shock. You saw Mingi clear his throat, ears going red in embarrassment. You giggled at how flustered he became, refusing to meet your eyes.

"What's wrong? It's normal to talk about marriage and children." Mrs Song scolded.

"Anyway, (y/n) ah, I made somer tonic for you to take home later. It'll give you more energy since you always miss your sleep and you're always working so hard." Mrs Song informed.

"Thank you so much, omonim." You bowed gratefully.

You stepped aside to answer a call from Eden. It also gave Mingi and his mother some privacy since they haven't really spoken with her busy getting to know you.

"You must be tired, omma." You watched as Mingi massaged his mother's shoulders.

"I'm not. I like (y/n), she seems like a nice girl." Mrs Song said.

"I'm glad you like her, your opinion matters to me a lot. Both of you mean the world to me. She takes great care of me. She doesn't want to tell the others yet, she wanted you to be the first to know." Mingi leaned against the counter beside his mother.

"She's a sweet girl, she knows how to think ahead. Her parents raised her well." She complimented. You felt a slight ache in your chest at the mention of your parents.

"Her parents didn't raise her, remember? She's like that because she had to fend for herself and take care of herself." Mingi explained.

"I would have taken her to be my daughter any day. Having a daughter is, they're so gentle and you can dress them up all pretty." Mrs Song laughed.

"Gee, thanks omma." Mingi grumbled.

"Tsk, don't keep pouting, you don't look handsome. And you should know that you and your brother were a handful to care for."

"But you still did it despite dad always being overseas." Mingi shrugged.

Along with the ache in your chest, you felt something else. Was it jealousy? You were envious of the close bond Mingi had with his mother, the conversations and laughter that they shared. You wondered if things were different, could you ever have that relationship with your parents?

"Baby? Everything okay?" You hadn't noticed Mingi coming out to check on you, nearly bumping into you. He didn't know that you were standing there, listening to him and his mother.

"Yeah, I'm fine." You lied.

"You sure? Why did Eden call?" Mingi tilted his head, sensing you were lying with how stiff you were.

"Yeah. He just called about some work stuff regarding the upcoming recording sessions, that's all." You shrugged. Mingi nodded slowly, wrapping an arm around your shoulders.

"Don't worry too much about it, hmm?" He kissed the top of your head, thinking you were just stressed by the upcoming schedules.

"I won't." You assured with a smile, patting his stomach. Suddenly, there was a click. You and Mingi looked up to see his mother holding her phone up in front of her face, having secretly taken a picture of you and Mingi.

"Omma!" Mingi roared, trying to take the phone from her. You smiled as you watched them play around.

"Yah! Don't behave like a child with (y/n) around." She turned it into a lecture just to have the upper hand. She tucked her phone into her pocket and went back to the kitchen.

"Mingi ah, take (y/n) to sit down in the living room." She commanded. Mingi held your hand and led you to the sofa, sitting down with him facing you.

"I told you, there was nothing for you to worry about. See? She likes you even more than me." He stroked your head.

"Yes, there was nothing to worry about. She's lovely." You smiled.

"Now, that aside. And we're alone, tell me what's wrong? I know the upcoming album recording isn't what's bothering you." Mingi held both your hands in his. You opened your mouth but he cut you off.

"And don't lie to me. I know when you're lying." Mingi insisted.

"Seeing you and your mom, I just wondered if there was ever any point where my parents and I could have been like that if things were different. Would I have been able to bring you home to meet them? Have a meal together? I wouldn't say it's jealousy, more envy." You shrugged. Mingi cupped your cheek.

"Oh, baby." He rubbed the back of your hand with his thumbs. You always maintained a stoic front when talking about your parents but Mingi knew you still hoped for a relationship with them.

"Please don't pity me, Mings. It's just something I have to live with. I was the one who decided to get up and leave." You said.

"Don't say that, it's like you're calling yourself a coward. Which you are not." Mingi argued.

You didn't say anything but pursed your lips, an indication that you did think of yourself as such. Mingi pulled you closer to him so you fell against his chest.

"Mings! Your mum could see us and get the wrong idea." You hit his chest.

"I don't care. My pabo girlfriend needs me to comfort her now, that's more important to me." He said. You melted immediately, arms moving the wrap around Mingi's lean torso. He rubbed your back lovingly, kissing your head.

The both of you were in your own bubble that you didn't notice Mingi's mother looking at you the entire time. She smiled softly and went back to the kitchen.

"You've really grown up, Mingi ah." She said softly as she continued her cooking.

"Dinner is done." You and Mingi went to help bring the food out. Mrs Song prepared a feast despite it only being the 3 of you.

"Wow, everything looks so good. Thank you, omonim." You said, nearly salivating at the food.

"It's no problem at all, (y/n) ah. Eat up." She encoraged. Mingi placed your bowl of rice in front of you before taking his seat next to you while Mrs Song sat opposite the two of you.

"Thank you for the food!" You and Mingi chimed and dug in. The food was seriously delicious, unlike anything you've had before. It was next level cooking. While it didn't taste like a Michelin star meal, it was something different. You weren't exaggerating when you said you could taste the homely love in it.

"How is it?" Mrs Song asked expectantly.

"It's good... All of it... It's all really good... I love it." You looked at her with glassy eyes.

"Aigoo, I'm so happy to hear that. Eat as much as you want, my dear." She softened, cooing at you. She grabbed a piece of the stewed fish and placed it onto your bowl.

"Yah, Mingi, how old are you? Sneaking the vegetables onto her bowl. What am I going to do with you?" She scolded Mingi.

"She likes vegetables!" Mingi defended.

After the meal, the three of you shared some fruit that Mingi's mother cut up. She also brewed some tea for all of you to have. It was a nice way to end the meal and the evening. Then it came the typical moments when meeting your partner's family.

"He always cried a lot. I had to pick him up because he cried himself sick." She pointed at a photo of Mingi's face all red from crying with a fever patch on his forehead.

"Aww, look at you." You shook Mingi's sleeve as you swooned over him. Mingi rolled his eyes.

"I think that's enough, omma..." He grumbled.

"But he always loved to dance. You can play any music, he'll start bouncing and wanting to dance. He gets it from his father." She chuckled, ignoring Mingi entirely.

"Even at such a young age, he looked so tall." You pointed to the kindergarten photo.

"Right? He was always the tallest in all of his classes with his long legs and long arms." Mrs Song smiled.

"Your smile in this photo is exactly the same. You haven't changed that much." You looked at Mingi. Mingi smiled sarcastically at you, not appreciating how you were teaming up with his mother. He facepalmed as the two of you continued through Mingi's childhood album. He wanted this to end.

"Okay, this has been fun but we have to work tomorrow. We should go." Mingi wrapped it up. You checked the time and nodded in agreement. You didn't want to overstay too.

"Before you go, could you help me put away the dishes, Mingi ah? I can't reach the top cupboard." Mrs Song requested.

"Of course." Mingi obediently went.

"Thank you for having me over, omonim. It was really great meeting you." You smiled to her.

"Now that I've chased that boy away, I can tell you what I have been wanting to tell you the whole evening." She said. You gulped at her words but nodded.

"I may be Mingi's mother but from today onwards, you're family too, alright? You can come any time, you can call me any time you need a mother's food, love, comfort, anything. I will gladly be your mother too." She stroked your head.

"Omonim..." That was it, the water works came. You wiped your tears and she hugged you tightly.

"Thank you for taking care of my son. He's been through a lot and he's stubborn, always keeping things in his heart. But after today, I'm so grateful he has you with him to give him all the love."

"He's always there for me too, giving me all the love and teaching me to trust the world a little bit more." You smiled through the tears.

"I may not know them personally but I think it's the lost of your parents for not seeing what a great young women their daughter has become." She chuckled.

"Omma! I leave for a few minutes and you make my girlfriend cry?!" Mingi came out, shocked to see you crying and hugging his mother.

"What did you tell her?" Mingi asked as he received you from his mother, tucking you securely under his arm. He held your chin and tilted your head up for him to see. With his sleeves, he gently wiped your cheeks. You still maintained a small smile, assuring Mingi that nothing bad happened.

"It's a secret." She said, not giving anything away.

After Mingi's mother put together the items she wanted you to bring home, you waited at the door, giving Mingi and his mother some privacy to say goodbye to each other.

"Treasure her, Mingi ah. She's a keeper." Mingi's mother said softly, patting Mingi's arm with a smile.

~

Series Masterlist

[antebellumite]

ok it's Been Some Time, but have some possible ring options for ghost king henry clay + what they're based on + backstory potential:

Peppermint. One of Henry Clay's favorite treats when he was alive, and one of the first rings that he made out of the ashes of the soldier who killed him. A simple design, red and white, this ring provides the owner with a spiritually charged broadsword ready for vengeance.

Cranberry. Halfway inside-joke, halfway reminder-of-how-far-we've-come. Cranberries are one of the first trees grown in what would eventually become Prince Hal's City-On-A-Hill. Made from the ashes of a ghost that dared to oppose Clay's city-building efforts. One slightly more sophisticated ring, golden with a red ruby stone carved into a berry shape. This ring provides a long spiritual whip for it's user, capable of great damage.

Hairdo. A simple gold ring because HC's hairstyle is an essential part of him that must be commemorated through jewelry. This ring, formed from one of the first ghosts that HC tried to do some experiments on, produces a beam of harsh light that's able to carve holes in people and buildings alike.

Raccoon. A silver ring with Clay's mascot on it- cunningly made from the ashes of a ghost-political rival of Clay, or perhaps a poor ghost that just upset him in some way or another. Either ways, our favorite ghost king decided to teach them a lesson. This ring turns into a rope, unbreakable, malleable, able to cling to the most unlikely of surfaces!

Quill. This soft ivory ring, with a feather dangling from it to symbolize Henry Clay's skill with writing, debate, lawyering, and oratory, can turn into two poisoned daggers. It was made in the beginning stages of the First Crimson-Golden War, ashes from one of Crimson Sword's followers. Thanks to the endless resentment of the Crimson Sword follower, this ring provides an endless amount of poison for the dagger without any additional spiritual power needed to keep the poison on.

Star. As a reference to the Western Star, Henry Clay's moniker, this star is golden with purple silk inning. This ring can turns into a series of shurikens, also star-shaped, that can be controlled and flown about. They might also be seen-through like drones, hard to say. Born from a ghost killed in the rush to Mt. Tong'lu.

Coins/Cards. A ghost foolishly bet their ashes against Henry Clay in the Gambling Den once, and now he's made into a gold, silver, emerald, and ruby ring that can turn into a flurry of throwable coins and pieces of paper-useful for tracking and hunting down notable ghosts or mortals. Each individual coin has a bit of 'sense' that can be transmitted back to the Ghost King.

Horses. This ring is solid black diamond, depicting some of the horses that Prince Hal breeds. This ring produces a magnificent spirit-horse able to hunt down monster and people alike, as well as doubling as a wagon-pulling beast of burden itself. Yes you can ride it! With permission! Probably made from yet another Crimson Sword follower during the Second War, tbh.

Scroll. Another reminder of Henry Clay's wonderful oratory abilities. Made of pearl and moonstone. This ring causes explosions and burns, made from the ashes of a failed Yong'an Uprising revolutionary.

Smiles. Sapphire and Orange-Crystal, with masks on it to symbolize Clay's Mask of Smiles [ not that anyone will ever know ].... this ring bears some remarkable similarities to a certain other Calamity, but maybe...I must be seeing things, yes. Anyways, this ring turns into a fancy gun with bullets. It also might be Henry Clay's own ashes.

Snuff. Golden Star loves his snuff. Shiny, multi-colored opal ring with a stone of pure black glossy obsidion. This ring makes a spray and/or injectant that can put a man through extreme hallucinations, putting them to sleep, a different reality, see horrific monsters, etc, etc. This ring was formed from a human follower of Golden Star that he made into a ring in order to honor the devotee.

Handshake. Based off HC's notable nature of Compromising and pacificating! An engraved bronze ring/finger guard with striped brown onyx and a wooden fix. Unlike Clay's other spiritual rings, this ring creats a Dome of Protection over an area or person, protecting them from as much harm as the spiritual rings can withstand, as well as safety from any of Golden Star's other spiritual attacks. Also unlike other rings which were made from ghosts, this one is imbued with the essence of a dead god... who isn't actually all that dead... who is up a running even with their ashes in another ghost's hands... a dead god who, as a byproduct of being the one who's ashes are what are guranteeing the Dome of Protection, is himself inherently protected by it for eternity... interesting....

This definately isn't all of Henry Clay's rings ofc: he no doubt has several more with spiritual bo staff/spears/nunchucks/etc as their spiritual outlet! But these are what I've thought of so far.

[cherrycheridarling]

chemistry test | t.h.

tom holland x actress!reader

warnings: fluff and acting..?

summary: you're auditioning for the role of silk in the new marvel film. they've already chosen their spider-man and now it's time to see how much chemistry you two have.

wc: 1.9k

"Hi! I'm here for the Marvel auditions?" you greeted the lady who sat at the front desk.

"Hello! What's your name?"

"Y/N Y/L/N."

Nerves were running through your veins at lightning speed. The lady gave you a kind smile and told you to head to room three hundred and sixteen. You returned the smile before heading to the elevators.

Upon entering, you were faced with at least fifteen other women who were also auditioning. All with black locks and brown eyes. You'd be lying if you said you weren't slightly intimidated. Sure, you had done some small films here and there, but looking at the competition now was frightening. A lady came and handed all of you a small script. At least it was a distraction. You spent the entire time reading your lines and trying your hardest to memorize them.

You sat in the waiting room for at least fourty-five minutes before your name was finally called and you were escorted into another space. Once you entered, your eyes were immediately drawn to the long table where the producers, casting crew and directors - who you've met hundreds of times in your previous auditions - were sat. You shook hands and gave greetings, the usual.

"Y/N, meet our new Spider-Man." Kevin gestured to the brunette boy at the front of the room.

He was cute. Dangerously cute. His small curls that laid messily only seemed to add to his appeal.

You smiled and walked over to him, "Hi. I'm Y/N Y/L/N. It's great to meet you." you offered your hand.

He returned the grin before shaking your hand, "Tom Holland. It's a pleasure." you noticed his British accent and couldn't stop yourself from the confused expression that took over your features.

"You're British?"

He nodded with a smile, "That I am, but," he switched to an American accent, "I can turn it off, too."

Your smile grew, impressed by his ability, "That's so cool. I would try a British accent, but I feel like I might offend you."

He laughed with you for a bit, his hand still holding yours. You both noticed the predicament and quickly withdrew your hands. Sheepish grins showed on both your lips.

Joe Russo cleared his throat, "A little background information in case you're not familiar with Cindy Moon's story."

You silently thanked him for this since you were not at all familiar with whatever the character entailed. Only getting small glimpses of her personality and behaviour before you got thrown into the mix of auditions.

"Cindy and Peter went to the same school and got bitten by the same radioactive spider. A man took Cindy and trained her, but also hid her in a bunker when her powers became too much for her to control. Her Silk Sense – which is her version of a Spider Sense – is incredibly powerful. Stronger than Peter's. In this scene, Peter is saving her from the bunker. Understood?" he spoke so quickly that you nearly didn't catch it all, but nevertheless, you nodded your head.

"Got it." you put the script to the side and took off your jacket.

"Now," Kevin spoke, "Remember, this is a chemistry test. So we want to see – not just how compatible your characters are – but you guys, as well."

Your palms began to sweat. You already knew that they were looking for chemistry, but being put on the spot made your anxiety sky rocket. You nodded again in understanding.

"Sounds good." Tom went to the other side of the room, "Good luck." he sent you another frustratingly attractive smile.

You nodded with your own grin, "Thanks, Spidey."

You spotted a small cot beside you and made your way over, laying with your back to Tom. Ready to start the scene.

"Action!"

Before any lines were given, you lifted your head, but kept it facing the wall. As if you were listening for something, waiting for something.

"Spider- Boy? Guy? Spider-something." you spoke to the wall and a second later, Tom's footsteps were heard behind you.

"I prefer Spider-Man." Tom's voice filled your ears as he leaned against the wall. "Nice to meet you, Cindy Moon."

You held a hand to your head, as if a painful migraine had just arrived. "Your presence is causing me pain. Who-" you looked up at the man, recognition dawning on your features, "Peter."

"W-what? N-n-no, no, no. Who's Peter? I'm Spider-Man." he insisted rather poorly. Deepening his voice.

You turned your body around, hanging your legs off of the cot, "I-I feel it. I remember you. Parker from my science class. Left row, three seats behind me. And my math and history. Front row in history. Middle in math. You always had a new backpack every week."

"Eidetic memory." he mumbled under his breath.

"Hm?" you furrowed your eyebrows.

"Nothing. Never mind. We can discuss this later. You need to get out of here. And I have come to save you from whatever this place is." he eyed the space with disgust.

You eyed him suspiciously, "Is this some Disney movie? Is there a magical horse drawn carriage waiting outside?"

He showed a boyish grin, "I guess you can call me your knight in red and blue spandex."

You scoffed and stood up, "Okay, Parker. How'd you know I was here?"

"Oh! This awesome dude, Tony Stark, he knows, like, everything! A-and he told me that you were here and sent me on a mission– Which is so cool! But yeah, he told me to come and save you. And that is what I am doing." he jumped up and down like an excited child.

You eyed the space around you, "Wait. M-my powers. I can't control them. I-I mean, I'm trying, b-but it's still—"

"—We can focus on that later! Right now, the richest and sickest guy on the planet is requesting you. C'mon." he grabbed your hand and, as scripted, you both locked eyes immediately.

You tried your best to look like you were falling in love. And as you stared into his deep brown eyes, you found that it wasn't that difficult. He stared back into yours. His hand still wrapped around your fingers. Your free hand travelled to his face, as if you were about to pull his mask up. Resting your palm on his jawline. His other hand that wasn't grasping yours, rested on your hip. A light pressure that nearly sent you into a haze. You both began to lean in and it no longer felt like acting until you squeezed your eyes shut, shook your head and pushed him away rather aggressively.

You put a hand on the wall, drawing heavy breaths in and out, "W-what are you doing to me?" you looked at him through heavy eyelids.

Tom was in a similar position, back against the wall, hand over his chest, "Mister Stark said that m-might h-happen." his head was thrown back against the wall, showing off the expanse of his neck as he swallowed. "Something- Something about our senses causes a strong- How do I say this? I-Intimate attraction between us."

Your eyebrows furrowed, eyes narrowing, "A-an attraction? An intimate attraction? To you? Ew."

He pushed himself off the wall, "Glad to see you haven't changed one bit, Moon." he walked away from you, "We really need to get going. You- Oh! I've been wondering this: Where's your webbing?" he looked around as if he was searching for it.

You stuck your hand out and pretended to shoot a string of silk out of your finger and onto the wall. Tom followed your movements with a starstruck expression.

"That's sick! I have to make mine." he frowned, "We got bit by the same fricking spider and yours is in your hands? Let me see!" he came closer and attempted to grab your hand again before you quickly put it behind your back.

"Don't touch me." you spoke slowly, "I-if this attraction is caused by physical touch. Please, do not touch me."

He plastered on a playful smirk, "Oh, it's more than physical, Moon."

You rolled your eyes and stepped away from the wall, "Dream on, Parker. Are we going to this Mister Stank or whatever?" you waved your hand with a limp wrist.

Tom gasped, "He's Iron Man! It's Mister Stark! Stark! Not stank! And you need a suit. Mister Stark has one ready for you at the compound, but you need something to wear on the way there." he looked around for one.

As if it had just dawned on your character that you were finally leaving the bunker, your attitude changed. A smile gracing your lips.

"I think I can do a little something."

You gestured your hands around yourself, pretending to create a suit from your silk. Tom watched with amazement, "Hey, how are you doing that?" he bent down and examined your body from head to toe.

"I had a lot of free time on my hands. Costume on-the-go. You like?" you smirked as you continued your movements.

Tom nodded his head as he came back up to stand beside you, "I could've saved so much time and money by doing that."

You finally completed your gesturing with a grin, "Ta-da! A bit sticky, but I think it'll do." you pretended to stretch around in the costume.

"Okay, let's go, Moon—"

"—Nope. Nuh-uh. When I'm webbed up like this, call me Silk." you smiled triumphantly.

And with that, the scene came to an end. The producers and casting directors all stood and clapped for you and Tom. You smiled widely at how successful it had gone. Before you could even react, Tom pulled you into a hug. Arms wrapped around your waist. Without a second thought, you wrapped yours around his neck with a laugh.

"You were amazing!" Tom praised you with a wide grin.

You couldn't help but to smile, "Thank you! It helps when you have an awesome scene partner."

His cheeks turned a shade of scarlet at your compliment before Anthony Russo spoke, "That was amazing! Thank you, Y/N."

You shook your head, "Thank you for having me."

Joe came and shook your hand, "Expect a call on Monday. Keep your ringer on." he smiled.

"And that wraps up the chemistry tests! Great job, everyone!" Anthony announced as you handed the script back to them and threw your jacket on.

You swung your bag over your shoulder and made your way to the door.

"Wait!" Tom called from behind you.

You stopped in your steps and turned around with a kind smile.

He held out his phone, "Since we're going to be working together, might as well get to know one another." he had a timid grin.

"Don't jinx it, Holland." you let a light chuckle fall from your lips.

He shook his head, "It's not jinxing, it's manifesting and you were by far the best Cindy Moon. You've already got the part." he insisted making you shake your head.

"We'll see about that." you punched in your number and before you could add your name, Tom took his phone back.

"Wait." he quickly typed away.

'silk'

You smiled at the contact name before offering your phone. He typed in his number and took it upon himself to put the name.

'spidey'

"I'll see you around, Y/L/N." he gave you a little salute making you laugh.

You nodded, "Definitely, Holland." you turned around and walked out of the door.

Both of you were so engrossed in your interaction that you didn't notice the producers and casting directors watching from afar. Proud smiles dawning their lips.

They found their Cindy Moon.

[angies-writing-blog]

Edward Nygma / Reader / Jonathan Crane

When we were at war

When we were at war

There everyone thought about their beloved

Frosty wind is forcing its way through the seams of my already tattered protective gear. The breeze gets caught deep in the dense layers of fabric and circles painfully around my body. I conceal the fact that I am succumbing to the icy cold from my two comrades who, with their backs turned to me, are wandering through the empty streets a few meters ahead of me.

By now, I've gotten used to the devastation. Admittedly... In contrast to the crowded chaos that reigns in the metro, the vast emptiness at the surface seems increasingly welcoming to me. I think I could even get used to the cold of this nuclear winter. If it weren't for the fact that a person can't take a single step without a gas mask in this place, I'd be willing to pitch a tent on the spot and huddle into a sleeping bag with my partners. May time stand still for a while.

"Darling," a soft call pulls me back from my reverie to reality, and I turn my gaze to face the man, whose concern I can also see through the narrow viewing window in his mask.

Edward has grown quieter with the years. The man who once lectured nonstop - without dots or commas - no longer speaks in riddles. Rarely does he formulate his sentences as questions. And usually only when he is overcome by melancholy for a moment and rhetoric brings a vibrant shine into his eyes.

"Did you just notice something?" I am asked by him with a faintly serious intonation.

I answer with a silent shake of my head and place my gloved hand in his.

"Empty streets indicate serious danger," Jonathan reminds us of the words of an acquaintance - Colonel Melnik.

Like this man, we are among the few people known as 'stalkers'. Putting our lives on risk, we regularly go on expeditions to the surface; firstly to keep society alive and to gather supplies that cannot be produced underground, and secondly because we cannot feel comfortable in confined spaces. We are looking for freedom. It's as if we are birds trying to break out of a cage where food has been running out.

I turn away from Edward and take a closer look at the professor. Every day anew we are putting him, his knowledge of biochemistry and psychology, at great risk. To dissuade the man from endangering his life is an impossible task. Therefore, it is necessary to protect him in the first place. As well as Edward.

As I rotate my attention between both men, I recognize the Kremlin in the distance, as well as the creatures that are sitting atop its towers.

I’ll set my mind to meet a bullet

I’m only waiting for a sure bullet

To end my suffering and to limit our feud

Edward immediately notices the danger from my fear-driven trembling. Jonathan is following his gaze. Faster than I can process, the latter reaches for his rifle, a model of the Automat Kalashnikov. A volley of blasts urges me to close my eyes and cover my ears with my hands.

Judging by the increasing assault fire, Edward also attacks the demon-like creatures.

Once again, I am overcome by fear that I am incapable of action myself. Being armed and equipped does not mean being able to fight. Until now constantly protected by the two, anger against myself rises increasingly inside of me. Out of my own free will, I have decided to join the 'stalkers'. I owe outrageous luck to being able to have two experienced partners at my side. I do know that this security would not be long-lasting. The only way I could move forward would be to start fighting myself. I wish I could take off the gas mask just for a moment to wipe away the tears that are flooding out of my eyes. I now have to accept the wet face.

When we will be at war,

When we will be at war

I’ll rush ahead to face the bullets, riding my raven horse

And so I force my way through both of them to the front of the line. I reach for my assault rifle, which I used to have hanging improperly over my shoulder, and take a handful of ammunition from a pocket of my jacket, which I insert into the magazine. Along the way, I notice, I seem to have lost a few through a small hole in the fabric. But I don't let that deter me from achieving my goal. The world tries to put more hurdles in my way, which I am prepared to overcome. Unlocking the safety, I shoulder the AK-47 Type II and position myself ready for battle.

The creatures were already defeated by now.

Unexpectedly, I notice gentle laughter behind me. Shortly afterwards, I feel gloved hands on my shoulders, which are supporting me.

The two of them are aware that I am a miserable fighter, and an inexperienced shooter at that. That doesn't stop them from letting me join them on their journey.

Edward smiles at me while Jonathan assures me with a soft voice, "Without your vigilance, we would have missed the chance for the moment of surprise."

In this cruel world devastated by war, something even more powerful than physical strength alone actually does exist.

While Edward scans the area around us, Jonathan guides my movements. He lowers my rifle and assists me in placing it over my shoulder so that it is ready for the next use. Following this, he adjusts my helmet, which has slipped in the wake of my enthusiasm, and closes my suit all the way up again to make sure that a little carelessness would not cost me my life.

We catch up with Edward. The man searches behind himself for weak fingers that wrap themselves around his. No sooner than this happens, we align ourselves to proceed together, hand in hand. Towards our goal: To restore humanity's freedom.

But it seems death is not for me

It seems death is not for me

And once again, my raven steed brings me out of fire

[jmoriarty-221b]

Ok so this idea was inspired by AUs where Tim Drake is a member of the Addams family and thus this cute idea was born

Ok so, Tim’s parents still travel a lot but instead of leaving him alone in a big empty manor they leave him with his aunt and uncle Morticia and Gomez Addams

And Tim is a weird little kid who grows up without fear of the dark figures at night because the boogeyman is actually a pretty nice fellow who was very touched when Tiny Tim gave them a drawing of themselves, the monster in the closet actually gives great fashion advice as well as providing the perfect clothes for playing dress up, and the monsters under his bed are great storytellers and the shadow man gives Tim great advice on how to hide and use shadows to his advantage, etc.

The point is that Timmy grows up under the care of the Addams when his parents have to leave on long business trips or excavation sites and as such, is exposed to Gomez’s great appreciation of swordsmanship and fencing, and the haunted suits of armors are always great at comparing which kind of swords are the best in which kind of combat as well as the the importance of craftsmanship when in relation to having a reliable sword

And then one day Timmy watches the movie ‘The Legend of Zorro’ and becomes absolutely obsessed with learning how to use a sword and fight with it in the way only little kids can become obsessed with something they find completely cool, and Gomez is so excited to be teaching Tim everything he knows and they work together to craft Timmy his very own mini rapier for learning how to fence (swords are heavier so Tim learns those from Gomez when he’s older and can parry more weight)

And Tim becomes very Focused and Serious on learning how to fence and he’s very excited when he manages to finally best his uncle in a fencing duel (not as excited as Gomez tho, “MY CHILD SHALL BECOME THE BEST SWORDSMAN YET MY LOVE, DID YOU SEE HIS TECHNIQUE, HAD I BEEN SLOWER HE WOULD’VE RIPPED OPEN MY THROAT IN ONE SWIPE, I’M SO PROUD” “Our child dear”)

And then the movie ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ comes out and both Tim and Gomez are super fans (as a whole the family’s favorite movies are this one as well as the Legend of Zorro because 1. Revenge is achieved to the improvement of the main character’s well being and 2. The Aesthetic) and Tim just focuses on getting the hang of swords now with Gomez being more than happy to help his darling nephew

So years pass and Tim’s parents have finished one of their most taxing excavation digs so they return to Gotham and Tim has to return too (for the purposes of this AU Janet and Jack actually do give a fuck about their son so they would call him every other night when they’re away and if they can’t then at the very least they would call Tim once a week; they also call Morticia and Gomez at least once a week to check on how Tim is doing and they were also very happy to know that Tim has taken a liking to swords so they try to bring new types of weapons or literature related to weapons from the culture of their latest excavation so Tim can learn how different types of swords are wielded all around the world)

But anyway, Tim is going back to Gotham so he and Gomez work on creating a new sword for him with the family motto carved on the blade “Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc” which translates to “We Gladly Feast on Those Who Would Subdue Us” which is metal as fuck so yeah, and this sword is super durable and strong, inspired by a katana’s durability and a rapier’s gracefulness with a blade that is such a dark purple that it looks black like obsidian and the inscription of the family motto is carved in letters that are ruby red with a black hilt where an image of a drake is engraved in the same ruby red as the family motto (basically it is a Very Deadly Sword that is also Very Pretty with a dark aesthetic)

So Tim gets back to Gotham and one day he’s watching the news and sees The Batman saving the day and what not and sees Robin do a quadruple back flip and figures out their identities and decides that he wants to meet them at some point while on his nightly photography sessions of Gotham architecture; and if he manages to snap a couple of shots of Gotham’s heroes sometimes then that’s a bonus but Tim is mostly focused on capturing the essence of Gotham city (at this point in time when Tim moves back to Gotham he physically looks like 10-12 year old; he did meet Dick at the circus when he looked like he was 4 years old but for the purposes of the timeline Tim, as an Addams, can choose to remain at any age he desires for as long as he wants so while he did appear to be 4 years old at the circus, he had been alive for a couple of years more at this point, this also explains how he can master swords and fencing while physically looking like a 10 year old because he has been practicing for years as well as why he remembers Dick from that night at the circus)

So the timeline continues with Tim figuring out that the Bats are actually his neighbors but instead of staying away from the Waynes, he decides to go ask his parents if he can stay with the neighbors whenever they have to stay later than usual at the company or have to take a short business travel and they talk with Bruce about it and he agrees to take care of Tim, so now Tim has an in to befriend the Waynes and helps smooth out the edges of Dick and Bruce’s relationship so Bruce doesn’t fire Dick from Robin, but rather they talk about their feelings for once and Dick decides he wants to create his own superhero identity and Bruce supports his decision (Tim may or may not have had to talk about how his family happened to be very open about their feelings and worry for one another and how much closer they are due to talking to each other and resolving conflict; Alfred may or may not have been 100% behind Tim every time he made such a conversation) also, Tim is basically a trial run for Dick on becoming a big brother for when Jason arrives

One time Tim asks Dick if he knows how to fence which Dick can’t really answer because technically he knows how to fight with a sword but that’s for vigilante purposes which his civilian self isn’t supposed to know so Dick says that he doesn’t and asks Tim why he wanted to know, Tim proceeds to talk about how his favorite masked hero uses a sword to fight injustice and he has a black cape and a black horse and Bruce comes into the living room they’re in in the middle of Tim’s rambling about his favorite hero using a sword and is Concerned for a hot minute until Tim finishes the rant by saying “. . . and that’s why I like his movie so much, have you seen the Legend of Zorro?” (Cue relief for both Dick and Bruce because for all that they scrambled to put a name to the hero Tim was describing they couldn’t come up with one and were considering the possibility of a new player in the vigilante scene) so then Tim asks Mr. Bruce if he knows how to fence and Bruce says yes and asks if Tim would like to learn cue the “Oh, my uncle taught me how to fence a few years ago and when I lived with them we had a duel at least once a week, it was very fun so I was just wondering if you knew so we could practice if you want to Mr. Bruce”

Dick is 100% on board with this because the idea of Tiny Tim and 6’1” Bruce fencing is hilarious in his mind, Alfred is there to supervise and both Tim and Bruce are provided with the appropriate fencing equipment and protection; Bruce starts off slow and is surprised when Tim manages to beat him before starting to enjoy fencing with someone who can surprisingly keep up with him (Dick is taking pictures because the height difference is just too cute to be ignored and Tiny Tim is adorable in his own mini fencing equipment)

Whenever his parents do have to leave for extended periods of time (any company trip that takes more than 3-5 days qualifies as this) Tim stays with his aunt and uncle, thus starting a fun tradition of having spontaneous fencing duels with his uncle Gomez, basically if one of them is in the library then the other will shout ‘En-garde’ while throwing a sabre towards the other person and engaging in a quick duel; basically, if Tim is reading about the latest poisonous plants produced by Poison Ivy and annotating his research in order to get an idea of what would be a nice gift for his aunt Morticia and Gomez walks into the library then Gomez will grab two of the sabres they have on the wall for this exact purpose while shouting ‘en-garde’ before throwing a sabre at Tim and engaging in a duel, same goes for Tim, it’s almost instinct to the point that Tim has to hold himself back from doing exactly this whenever he sees Bruce in the library of Wayne Manor

Later on, when Jason is already adopted into the Wayne family, Tim still comes over and makes it his sacred mission to teach Jason the art of swords so he has another fencing buddy because “Mr. Bruce isn’t always here and I have decided that we will be friends and you’re pretty cool but knowing how to fight with a sword just ups your coolness level ya know?” So now Jason has smol Tim teaching him how to fence and it’s pretty fun to be able to do a taxing physical activity outside of being Robin with a friend, when Jason gets the hang of fencing Tim decides that he must now advance to the next level: sword fighting (Alfred is always there to supervise and give tips and pointers because he also knows how to fence but chooses to stay in the sidelines and let the young masters have their fun)

The problem with this is that, while the Waynes do have sabres for fencing, they don’t have swords, at least not in their civilian selves, so Tim decides to bring his own swords to teach Jason how to sword fight, Alfred is the first to see Tim’s very own special sword and is both impressed at the craftsmanship and concerned as to why a child has a sword, Jason thinks Tim’s sword is the coolest he has ever seen and Tim is happy to talk about how he made it himself with his uncle’s help when he finally learned all about sword fighting and promises Jason that they can make him his own cool sword when he learns how to sword fight too, Dick also thinks that the sword is a little concerning for a kid to have but he also wants his own cool sword and so now he insists Bruce has to teach him how to sword fight because Tim said he’s not allowed to have his own sword until he learns how to sword fight, Bruce is baffled as to why Tim has a sword, impressed at Tim’s skills in craftsmanship, and a little Concerned as to why Tim’s sword has that Latin inscription on the blade (no Tim, knowing that “we feast in those who would subdue us” is your family motto doesn’t calm me down yet it explains a lot about your mother)

By the time Damian comes along to the family he is very interested in where Jason and Dick got their Very Cool swords from, his father also has one and he wants to have his own Very Cool Sword too, thank you very much, and Tim visits them when Damian is still settling in and asks his customary question of if he knows how to use fence and gets an affirmative answer he asks Bruce if it would be ok for him and Damian to have a fencing duel, Bruce explains the rules to Damian and makes sure that Alfred, Dick, Jason and him are present in order to keep Damian from maiming/killing Tim

The duel does get a little out of hand as Damian gauges that Tim is more skilled than he previously thought so he stops holding back, Tim is positively grinning at this since he always has to hold back with the Waynes in a way that he doesn’t with Uncle Gomez because while an Addams won’t die from a stab to the heart, the same can’t be said for anyone else; the duel ends with Tim winning because he has more experience than Damian but he is positive beaming at how awesome Damian was and how these duels could become a weekly thing before they transition to swords and once Dames graduates from swords he can design his very own sword with Tim’s help as a sort of graduation present for learning how to sword fight and he’s sure that it won’t take too long for Damian to master swordsmanship because he’s basically a natural already and very skilled and this duel was so much fun Damian we have to do this again sometime oh my gosh I want to teach you everything I know it’s gonna be so much fun

And Damian, a poor baby, was mad at having lost to Tim but then Tim hits him with all this excitement and smiles and it’s the promise of getting his own Very Cool Sword is what gets him to agree to learn from Tim, it’s not that he feels warm at getting compliments from someone who also likes swords and knows what he’s doing in a fight, he definitely doesn’t find Tim cool at all, he’s just making use of a resource and he will learn everything Tim has to offer and become better than both Grayson and Todd, that’s all (that’s not all because it turns out that Damian is the younger brother Tim never had and he takes Dami under his wing and helps him adjust to a life outside the League of Assassins and how to find hobbies to enjoy; Damian won’t admit it but he is also Very Attached in to Timothy and feels like he won’t be judged for his past with him and he is also a fellow sword enthusiast so yeah)

Tim decides to do the same thing to Damian and initiating a quick fencing duel whenever he sees that Damian is in the gardens (no fencing inside the Manor on pain of Alfred’s eyebrow of disappointment); this helps Damian with the transition of learning to have fun and also learn to realize that not everybody is an enemy, it also helps keep up his training and burn some energy whenever he gets restless and helps him bond with Tim more

The idea was that Tim and Uncle Gomez would surprise each other with spontaneous fencing duels by shouting ‘en-garde’ at the other person whenever they find one another in the library, and now it turned into a fluff AU where Tim isn’t Robin but he’s still a family friend to the Waynes and an Addams and helps bring the family closer through his love of swords because yes

[magnusmysteries]

Part 3: The Wheel of Fear

The Magnus Archives was a horror podcast. It is now completed. Many of the show’s mysteries were never explained on the show. I intend to explain them. Spoilers for the show, but also spoilers if you wanna solve these mysteries yourself.

In the Architecture of Fear Smirke talks about a great wheel of fear. He talks of the fourteen powers, each with their opposites and their allies. I think Smirke believed the fourteen fears could be arranged in a circle, and that two fears on opposite sides of the circle are opposites. 

In Old Passages there is a circular room with fourteen corridors leading out of it and a datestone that says “Robert Smirke. 1835. Balance and Fear.” I think each corridor represents a fear, with opposing fears placed opposite each other. The building is supposed to balance and thereby neutralize the fears. I think it works to some extent. In End of the Tunnel there is a similar structure. This one was damaged by a bomb during World War 2. This ruined the balance, and the Dark got out.

In Family Business Gerard says some fears really clash with each other, while others can blend together.

I tried to work out how Smirke arranged his fears on the wheel. I looked for episodes where two fears seemed to blend together and put them next to each other. With some fears it is fairly obvious they are neighbors, if you look for the clues. Others connections are harder to spot. I tried a few versions of the wheel that didn’t feel completely right. But then I found a version where suddenly lots of things clicked. It explained why the web table could trap the Not-Then, why Robert Monthauk’s ritual banished the darkness monster and things like that. I think this is the correct wheel:  

Description of image: A circle with 14 spots similar to a clock. On each spot is a number and the name of a power: 1. Corruption. 2. Desolation. 3. Hunt. 4. Slaughter. 5. End. 6. Lonely. 7. Stranger. 8. Flesh. 9. Spiral. 10. Buried. 11. Dark. 12. Vast. 13. Eye. 14. Web.

Here is how powers overlap:

Corruption and Desolation 

Desolation deals with suffering and loss of loved ones, and disease can cause both of those things.

Asag is a god of both fire and disease.

John Amherst is an avatar of both powers. There is fire in every episode he appears. In Taken Ill the old folks home he managed burns. It appears it was burned by Trevor and Julia, but this is misdirection. Amherst burned it himself. In Pest Control Amherst is burned, yet survives. In the Tale of A Field Hospital Jonathan notices the statement is charred. He speculates this happened when Gertrude burned the book. But I think the book spontaneously combusted. In A Cozy Cabin we learn that Gertrude is very much against burning books in the archives, and would have been more careful and not ruined the statement. And in Rotten Core Adelard says he will sit on Amherst’s throne and burn himself and it. I think that was a very bad idea, more on that in a later post.

In Squirm the protagonist, after being infected by worms, burns his own apartment down. He is influenced by Corruption/Desolation.

Desolation and Hunt 

You can run from a hunter and you can run from fire.

Vampires are Hunt, Desolation and Corruption. In Vampire Killer we learn that vampires burn very easily. Because of the Desolation.

Why do vampires have a long bloodsucking tongue? Because the Corruption deals with mosquitoes.

There is a hint about the vampire-mosquito connection in Dead Horse; “That night the mosquitos were out in force, thick with fever, and hungry for our blood. I did my best to simply ignore them, safe as I was in my net. But over in Raleigh’s tent I kept hearing a sporadic thumping, or clapping sound, as if he were killing them with his bare hands. When I asked him about it the next day, he simply told me he had inside him a strong and enduring hatred of bloodsuckers.”

And then later: “Now, he and his crew were pinning the things that looked like men to trees, with long, iron spikes. They thrashed, and struggled, and a long, bulbous tongue hung from their throats, pinned by the iron of von Toll’s men. “I cannot stand bloodsuckers,” Raleigh said approvingly, as he conversed quietly with Baron von Toll in French.”

Also in Vampire Killer, the vampire offers rotten fruit to Trevor. Her house is dusty, a book Trevor picks up is damp and moldy and the bed is musty. 

Hunt and Slaughter 

The similarities are obvious.

Several of the Slaughter episodes have music that makes people go violent: The Piper, Strange Music, Grifter’s Bone, Civilian Casualties, Nemesis.  Total War had singing corpses. Two hunter episodes also had music connection. First Hunt has the werewolf whistling “A-hunting-we-shall go”. Thrill of the Chase had the protagonist tapping her foot as if to music right before the violence started.

Thrill of The Chase is a Hunt/Slaughter episode. The Man in the mask is like a serial killer from a movie, very Slaughter. But it is a wolf mask, very Hunt.

Slaughter and End

People die in war.

Absent Without Leave covers both fears. Slaughter obviously, but it is also about the inevitableness of death.

Many Slaughter episodes deal with the living dead. And they usually seem to have a horrible existence: The guy getting stabbed in the Smell of Blood. All the soldiers fused together that shot Melanie. The dead people in Grifter’s Bone that had to fight each other. The dead woman in Absent without a leave. The corpses in the tunnel in the same episode. This makes people fear death since they don’t wanna end up like that.

The End also has the skin book which similarly makes people live after death, and it is agony. And Oliver Banks was alive after death.

In Total War, a Slaughter episode, the statement giver says he could believe he was dead and in hell. 

End And Lonely 

You’re all alone when you’re dead I guess.

In the episode Alone, the statement giver is almost drawn into an empty grave. Very End. 

There is also a ghost in that episode. So life after death, like with the End and the Slaughter.

The Lucas family only meet for funerals.

From Boatswain’s call, regard Peter Lukas: “His eyes only moved a fraction of an inch to focus on me, but it felt as though the movement had the weight of a heavy stone door. Like a tomb. Don’t know why that’s what popped into my head, but there you go.”

Lonely and Stranger 

If everyone is a stranger to you, you are lonely.

Lost in the Crowd and Monologue are Lonely/Stranger episodes.

Stranger and Flesh 

Stranger deals with objects that behave like people. Flesh deals with thinking people are just flesh, an object.

Anatomy Class is a Stranger/Flesh episode.

Flesh and Spiral 

Thinking you are just meat is a kind of madness.

In Killing Floor the protagonist is lost in a slaughterhouse maze, very Flesh and Spiral. He also walks a spiral staircase at some point.

I think Jared Hopworth is both Flesh and Spiral. Many reasons for him being Spiral: First: He prays on people with mental problems, body dysmorphia, anorexia etc.

Second: In The Butcher’s Window he twists a bone into a spiral and inserts it in himself.

Third: The book The Boneturner's Tale makes nearby books bleed. I think objects that bleed, that should not have blood, is a sign of the Spiral. The door handle in a Sturdy Lock bled. The tree in Burned Out bled. I think the tree is Spiral, much more on that in another post. Books, door handles and trees that bleed are all impossible, madness. Some might object that blood also fits with the Flesh, but the Flesh is actually fairly into cleanliness. I’ll explain why below.  

Fourth: when Michael Crew is tormented by the Spiral he tries to escape by using the Boneturner’s Tale. “...but when I tried to shift the bits of myself I thought might set me free, the only shapes I could form with them were laced with that horrid, hunting fractal.” You can’t escape from the Spiral by using a book of the Spiral.

Mary Keay seems to think the book that drops bones is of the Flesh “Just a bit of viscera. Poems about dying animals...” The book is part Flesh, hence the dying animals, but is also Spiral. If you see a book producing bones you’d think you’d gone mad right? 

Also in Old Passages, the bone book is stored in the room corresponding to the Spiral. The floor of that room’s corridor apparently bleeds. “I put my hand onto the floor to push myself up, and it came away faintly tinged with red.” There is a mummified hand in the Spiral room, hands are often an element with the Spiral. Think of the Distortion’s hands, or the Worker-in-Clay’s weird hands, or the hands coming out of the pot in Lost and Found. After entering the room, the statement giver gets very confused. He says his memories start to blur, and he ends up apparently taking the wrong door several times. That’s the Spiral messing with his mind and making him lost.

The demon In Confession and Desecrated Host might be of Spiral/Flesh. Or it might be the two Fears working together. More on that in a later post.

Spiral and Buried 

Strong claustrophobia can be irrational, a mental problem. The Spiral includes the fear of getting lost, and you can get lost in a cave.

The Distortion has a yellow door that is a portal to impossible places. The Coffin is yellow and is a portal to an impossible place.

Held in Customs is Buried/Spiral. Time behaved differently for the protagonist, typically Spiral. John says the protagonist got Alzheimer, but it is the Spiral messing with his memories.

Lost Johns’ Cave is Buried/Spiral/Dark. The protagonist's memories are all wrong, the Spiral has changed them. And the cave is a maze. Mazes are spiral. The statement giver is a big fan of darkness.

Buried and Dark 

Caves are dark and cramped. The ocean is dark and choking.

Lights Out is Buried/Dark. Quote: “I was in the Sandman’s sack. (...) The darkness pressed in, and seemed to fill my mouth, my nose.” Also the Sandman spills sand from his mouth, similar to how people chocked on sand in Dust to Dust and how the man spit out mud in We All Ignore The Pit.

Submerged is Buried/Dark. The protagonist is in danger of drowning but there are lots of references to darkness: The lights at the lawyer office don't work because the lightbulb is filled with water. There is thunder but no lightning, that is there are no lights in the sky. There are no street lights or lights on in the other houses. Water is described as dark and murky. The lights of the cars come on, to show dark shapes moving in the water. Quote about the water: "It would wrap itself around me, reach down my throat and fill me with its choking darkness." The water is murky. Dark water is also in several Dark episodes: a Father Love, Nightfall, Tucked In and the Movement of the Heavens. 

Dark and Vast 

The ocean is dark and vast. Space is dark and vast.

High Pressure is a Dark/Vast/Buried episode. The space the protagonist enters seems too dark. The vastness of the underwater space and the size of the creature is Vast. The enormous pressure is Buried.

In Big Picture we learned that Hailey, of the Dark, helped make the diving bell for the Vast ritual.

In Old Passages the first corridor the statement giver is in, is of the Buried. He keeps thinking the corridor is getting narrower. When he gets to the circular room he looks down the other doorways. One makes him feel like he’s gonna fall into it. One is exceptionally dark. It’s the corridors of the Vast and the Dark. They would be the corridors next to the Buried, the first doorways the statement giver would look into.

Vast and Eye 

From The Coming Storm, Mike Crew discussing the Vast and the Eye: “We have a lot in common, really. After all, what, what good’s the height, the terrifying draw of gravity, unless you, unless you really know the scale of what you’re facing?”

In The Architecture of Fear an enormous Eye fills the sky.

In Twice as Bright Jude says of Michael Crew “...he’s closer to your lot than mine.” Meaning the Vast is closer to the Eye than the Desolation.

Quote from Jurgen Leitner: “Imagine, you are an ant, and you have never before seen a human. Then one day, into your colony, a huge fingernail is thrust, scraping and digging. You flee to another entrance, only to be confronted by a staring eye gazing at you. You climb to the top, trying to find escape and, above you, can see the vast dark shadow of a boot falling upon you. Would that ant be able to construct these things into the form of a single human being? Or would it believe itself to be under attack by three different, equally terrible, but very distinct assailants?”

Jurgen is referencing four powers here, the eye is the Eye. The boot is the Vast and the Dark. The digging fingernail is the Buried. And these four powers are next to each other, so in a way they are the same.

When Jurgen said this he was compelled by John. John did not know that he was compelling Jurgen, but Jurgen did know. Jurgen seemed to not want to give too much information. He was perhaps worried John would learn that destroying the archives would kill John. That Leitner, indirectly, was planning to kill John. So Leitner talked in riddles. That way he could give into the compulsion without John getting wiser.

Eye and Web

Both powers can seem passive, waiting and watching. Spiders have eight eyes.

The Book A Guest for Mister Spider is part Eye. Mr. Spider has eight eyes of all shapes and sizes.

Archivists are Eye/Web. First, the way they compel people to speak is very Web. 

Second, the ancient archivist in Alexandria had long spindly fingers. Like spider legs. In Web Development Annabelle Cane is also described as having long spindly fingers. In Thought For The Day Annabelle moves her fingers along the wall, “...like a spider”.

Third, In Doomed Voyage, after John takes Floyd’s statement, Floyd seems confused. John tried to soothe him. Then John says “It’s alright, Floyd. You just need a break.” Floyd says “Yeah. Sure”. I think John was mind controlling Floyd. I think there is a little static when John speaks. Static on the tape often indicates that something magic is happening.  

In Heavy Goods John tells Breekon “Stop”. Breekon is upset. Then John extracts a statement from Breekon’s mind. I think John mind controlled Breekon to stand still. There’s definitely a lot of static.

In Infectious Doubts Gertrude tells Arthur that he can try to leave. It seems he tries but is unable to. I think Gertrude is mind controlling him to stay. 

Web and Corruption 

Insects and spiders are similar. Probably many people afraid of one of them are also afraid of the other.

In Hive Jane Prentiss talks about the song of the hive that affects her. She says webs has a song as well.

Each fear has an opposite:

The Corruption vs. The Flesh 

Because rot harms meat.

The Flesh tends to be very clean. The student in Anatomy Class cleaned up all the blood they spilled. The slaughterhouse maze in killing Floor was very clean. This is to combat the Corruption.

The Man Upstairs was about a Flesh avatar being attacked by the corruption.

I think Blood Bag was also about the Corruption versus the Flesh. More on than in a later post.

The Desolation vs. The Spiral

I’ll explain why they are opposed in a later post, when I get to Hill Top Road.

The Hunt vs. The Buried

The Hunt is a lot about running from a predator. Can’t run in a cramped space.

When Daisy was in the Buried she was freed from the Hunt. It could not reach her there, because it was an opposite force.

The Slaughter vs. The Dark

I’ll explain why they are opposites in the next post.

In The Piper the Slaughter kills Jonathan Rayner of the Dark.

In A Father’s Love the father performs a ritual that involves killing many people. The ritual destroys the darkness monster that is coming for his daughter. I think this worked because it was a ritual of the Slaughter, the opposite of the Dark. The father is chanting as he stabs the human heart. The Slaughter is often associated with music. 

The End vs. The Vast

From Dead Woman Walking, Georgie talking about the End: “The promise of a cold and lonely eternity in the grave would have been a mercy; at least it would be eternal. But everything ends, even the universe, even time. (...) ...the monumental realization of the scale we existed on. Not the meaningless vastness of the universe, but the… the smallness of it.” Sounds like the opposite of the Vast.

I think the Vast also deals with the fear of eternity. First: notice how Georgie said eternity would be a mercy. 

Second: notice how old Simon Fairchild was.

Third: In Submerged we learn that Gertrude threw Jan Kilbride’s body into the pit to disrupt the Buried ritual. John says “But Gertrude also realized that the body need not be alive. Or in one piece. She thought it was a mercy. It wasn’t.” I think this means she chopped up the body, but Jan was still alive. Jan was touched by the Vast. I think this had made him immortal, to make him fear eternity. 

Fourth: In Personal Space a door in password to the door is E109GHT8. Someone on the Magnus subreddit figured out what it means. It refers to the three fears that owned the space station, the Lonely, the Dark and the Vast. For the Lonely, the 10 should be read like lo, and the beginning of the nine as n, giving is elon, sounding like alone. For the Dark, the 9 sounds like ni, making 9GHT sound like night. For the Vast, the 8 sideways is an infinity symbol 

Fifth: in Freefall, when the guy is falling through infinite sky, his watch has stopped and he doesn’t know how long he has fallen. It feels like hours or days. But when he returns it has not been that long. The spiral messes with time to make people doubt their sanity. The Vast does it to make people fear eternity. 

Sixth, quote from A Matter of Perspective: “I don’t know how long I was floating for. I know it was less than a billion years, which is barely a heartbeat in the life of the universe, so how can it really be said to matter? The stars began to wink out, one by one, and I thought – perhaps for a second, perhaps for a hundred years…”

I believe the immortal gamblers from Cheating Death, Section 31 and Burial rites, were not of the End, like John thought, but of the Vast. They didn’t want to die at first, hence they gambled for life. That is the choice they made to embrace the Vast. But later they become afraid not of death, but the opposite, of not dying. The mummy in the pyramid tried to stab itself to death. The gambler in Section 31 tried to shoot himself. There is a symbol of infinity on the pyramid. 

In High Pressure, the statement begins and ends with the statement giver saying she should be dead. She didn’t die because she was touched by the Vast.

The Stranger vs The Web 

The Stranger makes dolls, puppets etc. into living things. The Web does the opposite, makes living people into puppets.

In Heavy Goods Breekon says of the Spider “It knows too much to truly be a stranger.” The Stranger has the Unknowing, a ritual based on not knowing things.  

The Web table trapped a creature of the Stranger. Quote from Jonathan after he smashed the table: “Smash the table, kill the monster, stupid! Lazy, sloppy assumption. Of course the table was binding it. The table is webs and spiders. Spiders are something else. They don’t help each other, they oppose, they… they weaken.”

In Nightfall Officer Musterman tells John he doesn’t know who is listening to the tapes, but that he doesn’t like it. The tapes are Web and Mustermann is Stranger.

In Angler Fish, the Stranger targets smokers. Smokers, like other addicts, are weak to the Web. So the Stranger isn’t just getting victims, it is fighting the Web.

The Eye vs. The Lonely 

Because if you’re watched you’re not alone.

In Personal Space, there is a camera apparently recording the lonely astronaut. But then he finds out the wires of the camera were severed from the start. So it is scary for the astronaut that no-one was watching him, the opposite of the Eye.

But if every fear has an opposite, what about the Extinction? Find out next post.

[photolover82]

The Masked Singer Season 6 Episode 3: Time to meet Group B! (Commentary & Guesses)

Hello fellow humans! Welcome (or welcome back) to Ana’s Masked Singer recap, where I recap and talk about this show called The Masked Singer if you wanna stick around for that. So, this time around, we get to meet the other group, Group B, who we might not see again for 2 weeks, since we are going to see group A perform again this upcoming week with a new wildcard, Pepper. Anyways, let’s get started with the recap:

Group B was introduced and they consisted of Dalmatian 🐶, Queen of Hearts 🫀, Mallard 🦆, Cupcake 🧁, and Banana Split 🍌🍦. They performed, and one was eliminated unfortunately, let’s start with that…

So the contestant that was eliminated/revealed first in Group B was:

Dalmatian 🐶

Performance Commentary: ok, so I wasn’t super surprised by this elimination honestly, I expected it since he was the weakest vocally of this group. He sang Beautiful by Snoop Dogg ft Pharrell Williams and I gotta give him props for actually singing when most rappers just decide to only rap and not sing at all on this show. However, he did sound a bit like they put way too much of that auto tune stuff on his voice so it sounded like a robot him singing, which kinda made him the weakest link. However, his rapping was awesome (duh because that’s what he does professionally… and btw not spoiling who he is with that comment because when you hear the performance, you’ll know 100% it’s a rapper)

And he was revealed to be…

*DRUMROLL PLEASE*

Tyga

Omg I knew it!! Thank you Twitter for helping me out, y’all are the best. I thought at first it might have been Chance the Rapper but then people started saying Tyga and I was like hmmm lemme see the clues, yup makes sense, well great segue (segway) Ana because imma show you some of the clues you might have missed:

Scream Poster= he was in the Scream series

Cat Doll= play on words because his name is Tyga (like Tiger… man these producers are really into puns, it’s kinda clever tho)

Was discovered by a big player= in 2007, he started doing mixtapes and he was discovered by Travie McCoy who offered him a record deal

Now, that we have that out of the way, let’s get into our remaining contestants (big warning: this group has left me all types of confused when it comes to guesses so I apologize if my arguments aren’t perfect with some of these):

1. Cupcake 🧁

Performance: This performance is so confusing to me. Idk if this is a man or woman, sometimes I think woman with deep voice and other times I am like no that’s a man. So I don’t know about this one, it’s a very good performance of Heat Wave by Martha and the Vandellas but I need to hear more because I am confused. I am in between a specific man or a specific woman but I am not sure so unfortunately for this one I don’t have a guess

Sorry y’all no guess for this one :(… hopefully, next time they perform I will have a better idea*

*(I will say the guess I am leaning towards that a few people have said *just in case the cupcake leaves next* is Ruth Pointer from the Pointer Sisters because there were supposed to be multiple cupcakes and not just one, and in the PKG, cupcake said they were used to being in a group)

2. Banana Split 🍌🍦

Performance: They were 1000% my favorite performance of the night even though only Split/Ice Cream sang A Million Dreams from the Greatest Showman. She is amazing, I absolutely love her, she has that iconic Broadway sound that I absolutely adore. Just her singing this makes me so confident on who she is omg I’m stoked!

Having said that, I am so positive, like way too certain none of y’all will convince me otherwise like Todrick level confidence they are…

Katherine McPhee and David Foster

Ok, so you guys are probably like “Ana, how can you be so sure if the damn banana didn’t even sing a note, he just played the piano?!” Well, my friends, you have a point, but I know who she is and honestly I don’t even care if I am wrong ab him (I won’t know for sure until he sings a note) but HER I am absolutely positive….and they are a married couple and the banana has heart eyes so in my head it makes sense with the clues too, but before I go to the clues, I have a funny story on how I know who Ms. Katherine McPhee is… so like I was watching this performance and was like omg her voice Sound so familiar! Where have I heard her before?! This is driving me nuts… And then I saw people on YouTube saying that it’s them and I was like wait Katherine McPhee that name sounds so familiar. Then I looked her up and I found out that I knew who she was because I randomly watched a show on Netflix called Country Comfort (which side note: LeAnn Rimes or the Sun from Season 4 guest starred on that show and LeAnn’s husband stars in it… so connection there?), which to explain the show briefly it’s literally the Nanny but with country music and in Tennessee instead of NY. Anyways, she sang a lot on that show and it clicked, I was like BINGO OMG THAT IS HER IT CANNOT BE ANYONE ELSE (similar to how I felt about Todrick being the bull when I saw that damn sneak peak performance). Anyway ya, that was unnecessarily long, now onto the clues:

She left school to move to the city= she attended Boston Conservatory for 3 semesters and left to move to LA to try out for TV pilots

Thought she got her big break, but it wasn’t it= she got an MTV soap opera plot but it never made it to air

Collaborator who sticks with me through sweet and sour= they have known each other ever since she was on the 5th season of American Idol in 2006 and their collaboration is that he is a music producer and she sings (on American Idol, he would play the piano while she sang… does this sound familiar to you guys yet? Ringing any bells? If not, rewatch the performance Banana Split did)

3. Queen of Hearts 🫀

Performance: She sang Born This Way by Lady Gaga and I already knew she was going to be good, but this was like Black Swan all over again. This beginning song wasn’t the best for her voice, but she had fun and she did the damn thing. Closest Lady Gaga singing impression I’ve seen, but I am positive it ain’t Lady Gaga. Also, she slayed that ending.

Ok, so I am not too sure about this guess but after a bit of research and voice matching, I think it might be…

Jewel (the singer, not an actual jewel)

Again I say, with a bit of research, I feel like she’s the closest guess I can give you guys especially matching the singing voices, but let’s look at the clues:

Grew up in a house that lacked warmth= she grew up in Alaska (born in Utah)

Tin man from Wizard of Oz= she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True in 1995

Hilary Swank photo= Swank has a dog named Jewel (when I read this I laughed, wow Masked Singer really?! 😂😂)

4. Mallard 🦆

Performance: This performance was not my cup of tea tbh, it was real deep country which is not my jam at all. The song title says it all: Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) by Big & Rich. Like it was great no lie, but like I just don’t really enjoy that kinda music so it wasn’t for me.

Again, this one is a shot in the dark guess but I am gonna stick with it and it is the one I am leaning towards voice wise:

Willie Robinson (yes the guy from Duck Dynasty)

Ok, so again hear me out, this might sound stupid (and half of me thinks it is) but it kinda makes sense in a strange way especially looking at the clues:

Surrounded by dollar bills= Duck Dynasty merch raised a ton of bills

Photo of Chris Pratt= they worked together and became friends filming Jurassic World in 2014

Platinum Album= Has a certified platinum album “Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas” (I can’t believe this one, I was pretty surprised)

Anyways, that’s it! I can’t wait to see Group A next week.. again yeah but with Pepper this time so woohoo another Wildcard. I just hope we can see more of Group B too because it feels like too much of Group A is being seen. Anyways, see y’all next week with the recap for tomorrow’s episode! Bye guys! Remember to do all the social media things! Like, comment, follow me for more, all of that 👋🏼

[tabloidtoc]

OK, March 15

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Britney Spears' revenge

Page 1: Big Pic -- Melissa and Joe Gorga during a beach day in Miami

Page 2: Contents

Page 3: Contents

Page 4: Tiger Woods on the mend -- Tiger is counting his blessings as he recovers from a terrifying car crash

Page 6: Queen Elizabeth announced in a statement that her grandson Prince Harry and his pregnant wife Meghan Markle wouldn't be returning as working royals, noting that it was no longer possible for them to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service, and almost immediately, Harry and Meghan shot back with a seemingly rude reply, saying we can all live a life of service and service is universal -- no one was more disappointed in Harry's response than his brother Prince William and William finds this behavior both baffling and sickening and he can't get his head around it and William feels the family has been understanding and fair while Harry and Meghan continue to sit on their high horse flinging insults and from William's perspective there is simply no excuse for snide and ego-driven swipes made towards the queen -- especially right now, since three days prior to Her Majesty's statement, Prince Philip was rushed to a London hospital and the queen's been worried sick about her husband and should not be dealing with this added stress -- the whole situation has left William feeling hopeless and he fears Harry is too wrapped up in his own self-importance to see the hurt he's caused and that is unforgivable in William's eyes

Page 7: As Soleil Moon Frye's messy divorce drags on, a loyal pal from the past is providing a shoulder to cry on in Brian Austin Green who she reconnected with while shooting her upcoming documentary Kid 90 -- Brian can feel her pain because he's still hashing out his split from Megan Fox so he knows exactly what Soleil is going through -- they've been friends for more than 30 years and they're going to see each other through this tough time

* Tom Cruise got all pumped up for Mission: Impossible 7, but now that filming has wrapped, he's desperate to stay in fighting shape for the next installment -- Tom was thrown for a loop when the studio postponed filming M:I 8 instead of shooting the movies back-to-back so now he's putting himself through the wringer doing crunches, pullups, squats and weights but Tom's brutal, military-style workouts have friends and loved ones, including his rumored new girlfriend, M:I7 costar Hayley Atwell, worried that he could be pushing himself to the breaking point and everyone wants him to take it down a notch, but he won't listen -- physically, Tom still thinks he's invincible, but the fact is he'll be turning 60 in less than two years and if he keeps going at this pace, there's a big change he's going to do some serious damage

* Life has been twice as nice for Christine Quinn since she found out she was expecting -- the Selling Sunset star, who's pregnant with her and businessman husband Christian Richard's first child, isn't holding back when it comes to treating herself -- the famously free-spending realtor has been splurging on designer maternity clothes and lingerie to lounge around in at her L.A. mansion and she has flowers delivered daily for every room in the house

Page 10: Red Hot on the Red Carpet -- stars rock statement-making halter dresses -- Lili Reinhart, Camila Morrone, Brie Larson

Page 11: Chrishell Stause, Naomi Campbell, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Page 12: Who Wore It Better? Uzo Aduba vs. Drew Barrymore, Charlize Theron vs. Kaia Gerber, Bella Hadid vs. Naomi Scott

Page 14: News in Photos -- Steve Martin did what he does best while filming scenes of his upcoming mystery-comedy series Only Murders in the Building in NYC

Page 16: Nicole Scherzinger stepped out for lunch with beau Thom Evans in West Hollywood, a casually dressed Reese Witherspoon matched her shirt to her Draper James canvas tote while boarding a private plane in L.A., Paris Hilton and Carter Reum

Page 17: Rebel Wilson stopped by the gas station to fill up her car in L.A., Mariska Hargitay took a selfie while shooting Law & Order: Organized Crime in NYC

Page 18: Sarah Jessica Parker assisted customers at her eponymous shoe line's store in NYC, Chrissy Teigen at lunch at Wolfgang Puck in L.A., Naomi Osaka with her trophy for winning the Australian Open in Melbourne

Page 20: The Masked Singer panelist Jenny McCarthy in a golden tiara and caped dress before taping a new episode, for a recent date night Outer Banks stars Chase Stokes and Madelyn Cline whipped up a cozy plant-based dinner in L.A., Jason Sudeikis filled up on a sandwich on the set of Ted Lasso

Page 22: Bella Hadid strutting around Manhattan, Helena Christensen and her dog Kuma in NYC

Page 23: In partnership with Ziploc Janel Parrish created the Hot Mess Makeup Line in Vancouver, Cara Delevingne in Puma's new eco-friendly line

Page 24: Usher stopped by the dry cleaners West Hollywood, Padma Lakshmi and her pooch braved the cold weather in stylish jackets in NYC

Page 25: Tia Mowry for Late July Tortilla chips, four days before filing for divorce from her husband Kanye West of nearly seven years Kim Kardashian looked somber while out and about in L.A., during a stroll Busy Philipps stopped to check out something on her phone in NYC

Page 26: Scott Disick matched his 'do to his drink at the Sugar Factory in Miami, Justin Long stocked up on groceries in L.A., new couple Mod Sun and Avril Lavigne were inseparable after a date night in L.A.

Page 28: Inside My Home -- Claire Holt's airy abode

Page 30: Zooey Deschanel and Jonathan Scott have taken the next step in their almost two-year relationship: they've secretly tied the knot -- they've been talking about getting married for about a year and just decided to go for it and the intimate ceremony took place in front of a few family members at Jonathan's Las Vegas home on Valentine's Day and it was spur of the moment, but that's how Zooey likes to do things and now Jonathan too and they put it together in a matter of days and everyone got a verbal invite to come -- Zooey wore a Bohemian-inspired gown and flowers in her hair while Jonathan wore an all-white suit and Zooey serenaded Jonathan with a love song she had written -- guests including Jonathan's twin brother Drew Scott and sister-in-law Linda Phan were treated to a gourmet buffet and video and arcade games -- now the couple's eager to grow their family and Jonathan will be a great stepdad to Zooey's children Elsie and Charlie but he's been saying for months that he can't wait to have kids of his own and they've already started trying

Page 31: Blake Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds are one of the most charitable couples in Hollywood and now the big-hearted duo are ready to take the next step by adopting a baby in need -- Blake and Ryan who share daughters James, Inez and Betty have donated millions of dollars to organizations working to protect the rights of immigrant children separated from their families and awaiting deportation -- day by day they've been warming up to the idea of providing an orphan with a forever home -- Ryan jokes that Blake is a baby machine who would have no trouble getting pregnant again, but their hearts really go out to these kids

* Ever since Bridgerton became a monster hit, the sizzling chemistry between Rege-Jean Page and costar Phoebe Dynevor has fans convinced that they're an offscreen item as well, but Rege-Jean's girlfriend Emily Brown is fed up with keeping their real-life romance under wraps and she's starting to feel like Rege's dirty little secret -- Emily has been dating Rege for two years and shares a home with him in East London -- the show's producers have been happy to let the rumors about Rege and Phoebe fly because it made their steamy sex scenes that much more believable -- Emily, a part-time soccer player and copywriter from Manchester, loves to go to pubs and party, which she and Rege used to do before the show came out -- Rege insists that keeping their relationship on the down-low is no big deal, but Emily wants everyone to know that the hunky Duke of Hastings is spoken for

* Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have got the parenting thing down pat, and they're ready to share their know-how by penning a how-to manual -- their friends have been begging them for advice for years and Mila and Ashton make having kids look like a fun adventure and for them, it really is -- now that Ashton has wrapped up shooting his new thriller Vengeance, he and Mila finally have a little downtime and the handbook will include the duo's dos and don'ts for raising their children Wyatt and Dimitri like they never argue in front of the kids and make sure to treat them equally -- Mila's the stricter one and Ashton's the softie, but it's a team effort and it works and they admit it can get a bit chaotic, but they don't sweat the small stuff

Page 32: New parents Kit Harington and Rose Leslie may be in baby heaven, but they're dealing with the home renovation from hell -- the Game of Thrones alums, who recently welcomed their first child, have been up to their ears fixing up their 15th-century country manor, which is turning out to be a huge money pit -- Kit and Rose bought the $2.4 million spread shortly before tying the knot in 2018 and had no idea what they were getting into and the couple got hit by sticker shock when they finally got their plans approved to put in a new kitchen, master bath, pipes and flooring and it's going to cost them an extra half a million at least -- they still think it's the perfect place to raise a family, but overseeing an army of builders and designers with a newborn at home is leading to some serious sleep deprivation

* As Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles' romance heats up, the couple is planning a heart-to-heart with her ex-fiance Jason Sudeikis -- after filming wrapped on their movie Don't Worry (for the love of all that's holy, please put in a comma) Darling, the lovebirds flew to London to meet with Jason, who's been on the set of Ted Lasso in England because Olivia, who shares two kids with Jason, wants to clear the air and have a calm conversation about how everyone moves forward from here, and she wants Jason to realize that Harry is here to stay and Olivia needs Jason to understand this is a serious relationship, whether he likes it or not

* Baby Boom -- these celebs recently welcomed little ones -- Wilmer Valderrama and fiancee Amanda Pacheco welcomed a baby girl, Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahones and fiancee Brittany Matthews welcomed a daughter named Sterling Skye, Mandy Moore and Taylor Goldsmith welcomed a son named August Harrison

Page 34: Cover Story -- Britney Spears fights back -- she is ready to reclaim her life and she's looking to take down anyone who stands in her way, starting with her father, Jamie Spears

Page 36: In the wake of the #FreeBritney movement, Justin Timberlake who dated Britney Spears from 1999-2002, and publicly insinuated her cheating ruined their relationship, took to Instagram to offer a mea culpa, saying he wanted to apologize to Britney who he cares for and respects and he knows he failed -- he also contacted Britney directly to express his regrets over how he handled their breakup because he wanted to do the right thing and Britney accepted his apology and she was touched by the gesture and thought it was absolutely sincere and they had a nice little chat and it made Justin feel better knowing that Britney didn't hold any grudges

Page 38: They're So Grown Up -- the kids of some of Hollywood's biggest celebs are striking out on their own -- Ava Sambora is the daughter of Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora, Maya Hawke is the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, Damian Hurley is the son of Elizabeth Hurley and Steve Bing

Page 39: Lily Sheen is the daughter of Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen, Jack Depp is the son of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, Lola Consuelos is the daughter of Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos

Page 40: Interview -- Dwayne Johnson -- with a new TV sitcom based on his early years, The Rock reveals all about his rollicking adventures growing up

Page 42: Slim Down for Spring -- how these stars got their best bodies ever just in time for the warmer weather

Page 46: Style Week -- Sara Sampaio is fronting Michael Kors' new campaign for its latest perfume, Gorgeous

Page 48: What's Hot Right Now -- break a sweat stylishly in LoveShackFancy X Beach Riot's limited-edition collection -- Nina Agdal

Page 49: Preppy Tennis Fashion -- Lele Sadoughi turns to '70s and '80s country club looks for its spring/summer 21 accessories

Page 50: Gift Guide -- self-care session -- pampering gifts that benefit body and mind because, hey, there's never been a better time to treat yourself -- Miranda Kerr

Page 52: Chrissy Teigen is a fan of affordable de-puffing and brightening holographic foil eye masks

Page 58: Buzz -- costars reunited -- Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay for Law & Order: Organized Crime, 13 Going on 30's Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner reconnected on the set of their upcoming movie The Adam Project

Page 59: Rachel Bilson shared a snap of herself with O.C. costar Melinda Clarke, Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel who played a beloved couple on Boy Meets World starred in Panera Bread's new commercial for Valentine's Day, Rebel Wilson and Adam Devine of Pitch Perfect met up during Super Bowl LV game in early February

Page 60: Sound Bites -- Jennifer Love Hewitt on her night out with Betty White, Henry Golding on expecting his first child, Drew Barrymore on never going under the knife, Salma Hayek discussing billionaire husband Francois-Henri Pinault

Page 61: Tiffany Haddish on taking a chill day, Colin Jost on letting Scarlett Johansson plan their wedding, Cameron Diaz on whether she plans to return to Hollywood, Kehlani on feeling sexier as a mom

Page 62: Horoscope -- Pisces Connie Britton turned 54 on March 6

Page 64: By the Numbers -- Ana de Armas

[happymetalgirl]

October 2020

Six Feet Under - Nightmares of the Decomposed

I wrote a full-length review of this disaster of an album earlier in the month, and yeah, wow. Between the phoned-in performances from the instrumentalists who have proven themselves far above this joke of a band and the half-assed production this would have been a pretty crappy album even without Chris Barnes’ milk-aged vocals. But he’s here, and he’s managed to actually get worse too, gasping his way through the whole album and littering it with these ludicrous “high” squeals that would make Smeagol sound like a more competent death metal vocalist. It’s the worst thing I’ve heard all year, and what’s worse, I don’t think Six Feet Under is stopping.

1/10

With that out of the way, let’s cleanse the pallet right away with some really good shit.

Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God

Ever reliable in his artistically integrity, explosive former Dillinger Escape Plan frontman, Greg Puciato, has been pretty sonically and artistically adventurous since the honorable dissolution of the iconic mathcore outfit, his most notable music project being the ethereal, synth-heavy The Black Queen. This year, however, Puciato has gone fully solo for a full-length project, and something told me to get ready for a wild ride, and boy was I right on that hunch. Borne out of an exponentiated process of songwriting that produced songs Puciato deemed unfitting for any of his current projects, what was planned as a small release to ship these songs out of the writing room eventually spiraled into a full-blown debut solo album clocking in at over an hour. A lot of solo projects play like clearly indulgent amateur hour sessions from an artist whose ego has been boosted pretty well from significant success from their main project, leading them to overconfidently try their hand at music they have no business trying it at. And it’s often approached under the understanding that it is a victory lap, more or less, and a satisfaction of creative impulses for the sake of it. Sometimes the resultant material is clearly inspired and showcases a side of an artist that certainly deserves some spotlight. Other times it feels like being trapped in an awkward situation with an acquaintance where they just show you all their newest pedals and production software and you’re just stuck there watching them fiddle around while you nod along and offer the occasional “wow, that’s pretty crazy” every now and then while they don’t pick up on the obvious cues that you are just waiting for them to finish playing with their toys. While Puciato was open about this album being borne from the very creatively borderless mindset that so often damns solo projects, Child Soldier: Creator of God is an actual realization of the type of grand, genre-spanning album that so many solo artists envision themselves making and set out to create, and it’s hardly a whimsical, amateurish crack at the styles within either. Puciato’s foray into sludge metal, industrial rock, harsh noise, darkwave, synthwave, and shoegaze, (1) makes for a hell of a dynamic and exciting track list, and (2) shows a much deeper than average respect for and relationship with the styles being played here. This isn’t some frontman thinking his charisma can carry him through a whole rap solo album; this is a well-rounded artist (also a hell of a frontman, no denying that) giving the most comprehensive look yet into his creative mind. The album leaps around in patches of different styles, strung together mostly by ambient connective tissue of various types, all with a great attention to detail paid to both texture and progression. We get early patches of smooth ambiance, but also aggressive industrial and sludge metal, eventually moving to more soothing and meditative synthy stuff around the middle, finishing with some serene, Have a Nice Life-esque shoegaze. But really there’s no way to sum up this album stylistically without breaking down every single song on here, and that would just ruin the fun and the experience. You really just have to experience it for yourself.

9/10

DevilDriver - Dealing with Demons I

Embarking on a conceptual double-album, Dez Fafara and DevilDriver’s first installment in the pair is a scoop of the, indeed, slightly above average, but unfortunately still plain and predictable modern groove metal they always offer up. I’ll give the band credit for keeping the pace up and clearly putting substantial energy into the performances on this album, while also trying to squeeze in a few shake-ups to their sound, like the clear Gojira-inspired riffage on the opening track. The album loses steam, unfortunately, as its punches lose their impact as it goes on.

6/10

Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment

While certainly cultivating a unique sound, Anaal Nathrakh’s unholy fusion of nasty modern blackened grindcore with sweeter metalcore and melodic death metal elements has its mixed results. And while that might at first sound like a relatively critical assessment of the Brits’ eleventh album, I’d say that there is actually a lot to enjoy and take in for at least the interesting mix of styles, most of which are hits rather than misses as well.

7/10

Enslaved - Utgard

Having been a fan of a good amount of their recent output, especially 2015’s In Times, I came out of Utgard moderately disappointed with how infrequently Enslaved galvanized their potent brand of Viking folky, progressive black metal effectively; the few moments the band do channel their strengths cohesively and purposefully left me wanting more rather than savoring those moments.

6/10

In Cauda Venenum - G.O.H.E.

It’s hard to, and indeed seems kind of in just to, sum up a heaping prog metal serving like G.O.H.E., comprised of two 22-minute halves, in a capsule review, but that is kind of the format my current busy circumstances have forced me into. French outfit In Cauda Venenum made a self-titled debut in similar two-long-track fashion back in 2015, and the band’s gothic and somewhat theatrical brand of atmospheric post-black-metal is continued on their sophomore effort here, drawing the obvious comparisons to Opeth and Katatonia, as well as Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Numenorean, and Sólstafir, and apart from the more frequent sample usage and extra drawn-out songs, there really isn’t that much to differentiate In Cauda Venenum stylistically. The band’s second album, unfortunately, resembles so many others in the field with big aspirations and the same inadequate means of getting there.

5/10

Apparition - Granular Transformation

A much more bite-sized early two-track offering, Apparition’s debut EP offers a more promising glimpse into a heady, atmospheric, yet still visceral manipulation of modern death metal that I would be curious to hear in a more long-form format. In a genre as extreme as death metal in recent years has been, finding artists effective at working with negative space can be difficult, but the two songs on Granular Transformation showcase a formidable dexterity from Apparition that I think can take them places.

6/10

Molasses - Through the Hollow

While indeed marred by some rough performances on songs with sometimes more desert to cross than water to make it there, there’s an undeniable occult hypnotism about the Dio-era-esque doom metal hollow that Molasses ritualize their way through.

7/10

Death Angel - Under Pressure

While certainly an odd choice on the surface, Death Angel’s acoustic EP and cover of the famous Queen song actually comes out pretty alright. The acoustic version of Act III’s “A Room with a View” comes off with the energy of something like Rush whenever they went acoustic, and the original acoustic cut, “Faded Remains” isn’t too bad either. The acoustic format did not, however, mask the drabness of “Revelation Song” from last year’s overall disappointment, Humanicide.

6/10

Necrophobic - Dawn of the Damned

The Swedes’ melodic brand of blackened death metal is nothing if not thorough on the quintet’s ninth full-length, Dawn of the Damned, covering all the ground that their fans expect their style to cover and doing so with more compositional and performative stamina than their average contemporary. While the band’s broader compositional approach is akin to the beating of a dead horse, I can’t deny it produces some tasty motifs in the process.

7/10

Bloodbather - Silence

After coming onto the blossoming metallic hardcore scene in 2018 with a standard, but potent enough 14-minute EP, Pressure, Bloodbather are back with another 14 minutes of similar, yet less promising material, doing little to set themselves apart from or on the same level of the likes of Jesus Piece, Vein, Knocked Loose, or Harm’s Way.

5/10

Infera Bruo - Rites of the Nameless

The Bostonians’ fourth full-length is, at the very least, a rather well-executed forty minutes of modern black metal a la Craft or Watain, but beneath the seams the band’s progressive tendencies twist what would otherwise be a fresh, but standard, slab of black metal into a more head-turning offering of the usual shrieks and blast beats.

7/10

Touché Amoré - Lament

While somewhat shaky in their compositional exploration in their fifth LP, the firmness of their emotive post-hardcore foundation allows for Touché Amoré to build upwards relatively steadily without losing that raw vulnerability that has made them so captivating to begin with.

7/10

Gargoyl - Gargoyl

This is the self-titled debut from Bostonian four-piece Gargoyl; a novel blend of dirty nineties grunge and gothic prog metal, Gargoyl come through with one of the more impressive genre fusions of the year, meeting the lofty sufficiency for dexterity with excessive vocal harmonies in a manner so uncanny that would make habe to Layne Stayley proud. While there is the expected room for improvement on the compositional end that many debut projects come with, Gargoyl have laid the groundwork for themselves fantastically and started off on a good foot.

7/10

Crippled Black Phoenix - Ellengæst

Through creative gothic flair and full-bodied guest vocal contributions that bolster the somber atmosphere beyond the typical post-metal album, the UK band’s most recent offering of “endtime ballads”, despite its few low points that undo its otherwise immersive atmosphere, serves as one of the more engaging releases under the broader post-metal umbrella of the past year.

7/10

Wayfarer - A Romance with Violence

The Denver-based quartet follow up 2018’s strong emotive case for the potential for evoking cathartic power of the atmospheric black metal which has so saturated the American scene to the point of numbness, their Americana-tinged third LP, World’s Blood, unfortunately, with a fourth LP whose compositional homogeneity and mere few intermittent bursts of enthralling atmospheric instrumentation more represent, rather than advocate the merit of, the saturation of the American atmospheric black metal scene.

6/10

Armored Saint - Punching the Sky

Though I think the structural homogeneity and John Bush’s similarly limited vocal delivery holds it back, with crunchy bangers like “Do Wrong to None” and “My Jurisdiction” alongside more tempered tracks the clearly grunge-influenced “Lone Wolf”, Bush and company provide a relatively stylistically diverse traditional heavy metal album for an age that could use more contemporary representation of classic styles (beyond the entire stoner metal genre LARPing as Black Sabbath too).

7/10

Spirit Adrift - Enlightened in Eternity

But it's not just the old guard representing their era of classic heavy metal robustly; a year and a half after their energetically melodic third album, Divided by Darkness, which took a triumphant melodic approach to classic heavy metal and doom metal similar to that of Khemmis on their excellent third album, Spirit Adrift ease up a bit on the hyper-soulful approach to guitar melody that had led me (and others I'm sure) to draw the comparison to Khemmis, and instead dive deeper into the headspace of the genre's earliest progenitors to achieve that unabashedly glorious rallying cry that is evoked by the very front cover of Enlightened in Eternity. While I am personally pretty partial to the very vulnerable and heartfelt melodic approach that characterized Divided by Darkness, the effectiveness with which Spirit Adrift are able to wield the sometimes Maiden-esque, sometimes Testament-esque sounds of the 80’s on this album is undeniably impressive.

8/10

Fever 333 - Wrong Generation

Providing the correction to this generation’s answer to Rage Against the Machine (after Prophets of Rage’s insufficient attempted revival) Fever 333 follow up last year’s debut of heavy, fired-up and modern take on rapcore with another 14 minutes of righteous anti-racist hardcore anger that’s attuned to the issues to a level that I wish more artists would at least express in their art. While the EP is 18 minutes long, the last two songs, “The Last Time” and “Supremacy”, don’t match the sonic energy of the first six tracks. The somber piano-led snippet-length ballad, “The Last Time”, should have been the conclusion of the album, but the closing track, “Supremacy”, while as conscious as the tracks before it, is basically a late-stage formulaic Linkin Park track that flatters neither of the two bands. Despite botching the landing though, Wrong Generation is a ripping batch of songs that well represent the current unrest and provide a positive hypothetical idea of what it might be like if Rage Against the Machine were in their prime and active today.

7/10

Mörk Gryning - Hinsides Vrede

The Swedes return from their 15-year disillusioned absence from the studio with a concise and clearly renewed enthusiasm for the energetic black metal that they put forth on Hinsides Vrede. Dynamically bolstered by folk-metal compositional tendencies and more than a dash of that famed Gothenburg melodicism (I know they’re from Stockholm and in fact their melodic approach often does heaven to that of their close neighbors from Uppsala, Watain), Mörk Gryning’s seamless return to music finds them jumping into the modern black metal scene’s advanced compositional rubric with relative ease.

7/10

Zeal & Ardor - Wake of a Nation

Having covered their output since their debut and being a big fan of Manuel Gagneux’ project, it pains me to say, especially given the noble pretext and occasional momentary flashes of sobering messaging, that this six-song mini release really doesn’t capture the unique sonic pallet that has made Zeal & Ardor such an interesting act to listen to for the past few years in the most flattering light. The title track is possibly the least of the offenders here, but all the songs here function by taking a little snippet of sound that samples Zeal & Ardor’s broader stylistic range, and drawing it out across these short, but all too minimally composed tracks in such a way that they lose their momentum very quickly. Like I said, I wholeheartedly appreciate, sympathize with, and support what Manuel Gagneux is doing to lend his band’s platform to the addressing of the dire issue of today’s racism through musical means with this project, and when its social motivation is at the forefront, it’s at its most potent, but musically, unfortunately, it’s just desperately underwritten in a way that doesn’t fairly represent how accomplished Zeal & Ardor really are with their sound.

5/10

Sevendust - Blood & Stone

The flashes of crushing grooves reminiscent of their earlier work on Blood & Stone that highlight how well Sevendust can harness nu/alternative metal to execute pummeling attacks with the right crunchy guitar tone, unfortunately, don’t come frequently enough on their twelfth LP to mirage the exhaustion that has come of the band’s writing process after such frequent, unrelenting output and the all too apparent desperate need for a recalibrating, refreshing break, which they certainly deserve for their tenacity.

5/10

Undeath - Lesions of a Different Kind

In one of those cases where the ridiculously gratuitous album cover actually represents the album’s sound quite well, Rochester, New York five-piece, Undeath mince neither words nor sounds on their debut LP in their 100% upfront, no-nonsense, and wonderfully nasty delivery of death metal. Eschewing even the slightest sense of snobbery or pretense for aimless ambition, the band simply compile the genre’s tried and true elements of bellowing growls, filthy riffs, mean-ass down-tuned chugging, and blood-pumping double-bass with blast beats into an addictive slab of raw, uncured death metal that serves as a testament to the merit of not overthinking shit.

8/10

Griffon - Ὸ Θεός Ὸ Βασιλεύς

On their sophomore LP, Parisian quintet Griffon channel the world innovative ethos that has become rather prominent in their scene into a somewhat short, but definitely sweet offering of modestly ambitious black metal that captures much more effectively than most albums of similar style and lesser imagination, the divine grandeur that the genre so often tries and fails to embody.

8/10

Bring Me the Horizon - Post-Human: Survival Horror

After taking the hard left into current pop music trends very transparently on their controversial, which was at least partially intentional on their part, and ultimately really patchy, but not wholly awful, 2019 album, amo, Oli Sykes and co. walk it back substantially for this smaller release here, back to That's the Spirit, even Sempiternal, a prospect that might get a lot of the band's more long-time, metalcore-centric fans excited, but I would suggest those fans temper their expectations of Post-Human: Survival Horror. The band reunite with the anthemic metalcore/deathcore that put them on the map for a good chunk of this album, and the intro track, "Dear Diary,", might even give some false hope of the prodigal sons returning home. But songs like the cookie-cutter single, "Teardrops", provide strong evidence that, while the band have re-embraced their old aesthetic, they have not kicked the pop vocal or compositional habits. And the project really does run out of energy in its final third because of this compositional homogeneity. I do want to highlight the song, "Kingslayer", which features a very in-form Babymetal (I loved their album last year), because their fun, not-so-serious approach to the crossing of J-pop and metal music in their feature on this track among the other songs around it provides a contrast to the more formulaic, disinterested radio pop swagger that Bring Me the Horizon have been trying to jam into their sound that could perhaps inform Bring Me the Horizon's artistic approach to integrating pop music if they really are so hellbent on doing so. Ultimately though, as much as they want to move into newer territory, this trajectory-revising release shows just how much more solid Bring Me the Horizon are in their metalcore territory than they were on amo. It had its predictable hiccups, but this thing wasn't too bad.

7/10

Pallbearer - Forgotten Days

With the slow, sludgy, down-tuned riffing of the menacing opening title track and the similar chug of “Vengeance & Ruination” being the sole exceptions, the remainder of Pallbearer’s fouth full-length largely sees them operating in the same niche they have in their three previous albums. And while this could invoke accusations of playing it safe, the brimming heartfelt sorrow and resistance to succumbing to despair across Forgotten Days is enough to wave that away, as Pallbearer showcase just how emotive doom metal can be.

8/10

Bleeding Out - Lifelong Death Fantasy

The very new act and fresh Profound Lore signing, Bleeding Out, certainly display more dynamic capability than your average local grindcore scene’s biggest names here on their 18-minute debut for the label, but as of now it is still just a glimpse of potential for more effective future implementation. It’s a good start, though, and I’ll be looking forward to a more long-form project from these guys.

6/10

Evildead - United States of Anarchy

Every year we get the resurrection of some long-inactive old-school band who seem to have found that missing spark at last; we’ve seen the return of smaller bands to the studio like Angel Witch or Sorcerer and long-awaited revivals of iconic acts like Possessed. This year, Los Angeles’ Evildead has seen fit to make their commentary on the massive ongoing sociopolitical upheaval. Despite my love for the 80’s thrash scene they were born out of, the combination of the utterly lame band name, logo, and covers for either their ‘89 or ‘91 albums never really made me want to check them out, but seeing the horridly cheesy and incoherent cover of United States of Anarchy (I mean how much more on-the-nose can you get), my morbid curiosity got the best of me. Maybe I’d be wrong to have judged them by their cover, plenty of my favorite 80’s albums have particularly goofy cover art. So what do we get from Evildead in 2020 with this fucking album? Well, it’s not as poorly performed as the past few Anvil albums I’ve had to review have been, but Jesus the lyricism is similarly cheesy 5th-grade-level stuff and smacks of silly political incoherence that essentially boils down to “enlightened centrism” with mix of that good ol’ Illuminati-conspiracy-theory belief that no political thrash album is apparently complete without. I mean there’s just basic acknowledgment of the prominent problems of the day and the fact that both major political parties are bad and that corruption is rampant all throughout DC, but Evildead not only barely scratch the surface, they apply the same level cynicism to the “both sides” they criticize with no substantiation to their criticism despite that mindset being a big reason for our being where we are right now, mixed in with the occasional conspiracy-paranoia about the shadowy underworld running everything, so no real solutions or even proper addressing of these problems. Like, the same level of criticism is levied at right-wingers and communists, like communists are at all why this country has gone to shit. And the generic Anthrax/Megadeth type of thrash instrumentation, while rumbly and mixed well to highlight its bass heaviness, doesn’t exactly make it easy to get past the commentary deficiencies on here.

4/10

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Rounding off their year (at least I think), with a long-teased collaboration with Emma Ruth Rundle, Thou finally present their massive sludge-doom sound in a much more flattering light than the previous cover albums this year did. Thou's original material continues to highlight just why their relatively stiff sound is much more cut out for that, original material, than for trying to bend beyond its flexibility to tribute grunge songs. And while Thou being back in their more effective department, Emma Ruth Rundle's contributions, beyond just her gorgeous and ethereally haunting vocals, to the album's atmosphere, dynamic, and structuring really take the collaboration to the next level. Not to say that Thou are completely overshadowed and relegated to the background on this record or that they don't contribute to a fair share of the legwork here; the workload is shared pretty equally, and both collaborators have their moments of prominence, but Emma Ruth Rundle's ever-present gothic/folky influence really directs the music in a way that plays to Thou's strengths in a way I'm not sure they would have been able to on their own. It's great work from both of them, and I'd be eager to hear Thou find more collaborations like this in the future that push them into doing more interesting things with their crushing doom sound, as opposed to the rather tepid collaborations with The Body.

8/10

Auðn - Vökudraumsins Fangi

Sadly, three albums in, Auðn have only barely exceeded the bare minimum for naturalistic atmospheric black metal, with no signs of significant improvement to be found. The Icelandic band earn points for their earnest delivery, but they never seem to fully make it out of the rut that the genre’s many contemporary acts have dug.

5/10

Botanist - Photosynthesis

The black metal traditionalists might have had to accept that the floodgates to bright ambience and serene shoegaze in the genre have been opened and that there's no going back now, but even as an avid Deafheaven fan, I'm sometimes momentarily surprised at just how heavenly some black metal has gotten lately, and this new album from Botanist is one of those albums. And while it sometimes slips into some of the current wave's typical ruts, the sheer blindingly illuminating aura of this album when it reaches those high points (and it does so frequently) is enough to pull it out from those gutters and high into the cosmos. Yeah, another splendid offering of nature worship from Botanist.

8/10

Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo

Making their return after over a decade, Mike Patton recruits both Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian for the long-awaited fourth Mr. Bungle album, which is titled in homage to the first Mr. Bungle demo which it is comprised largely of much clearer re-recordings of. Ever impressive, Mike Patton balances aggression and eccentricity like a tightrope walker on this project too, while his bandmates do the same with thrash metal’s natural adrenaline rush while pushing the genre into new compositional and stylistic territory without sacrificing that crucial whiplash. It’s a great time, and definitely one of the year’s best thrash albums.

8/10

Carcass - Despicable

While they've been much less prolific since their reboot than they were prior, Liverpool's melodic death metal pioneers simply continue to demonstrate their excellence in this seemingly effortless four-track appetizer to next year's Torn Arteries. Anyone familiar with the band's brutal form of melodic death metal will certainly be pleased with the four quite sufficiently pulverizing cuts here; those who may only be familiar with some of the band's many less muscular imitators might be surprised, and pleasantly so, with the Englanders' ability to lay on the infectious guitar melody without sacrificing an ounce of force.

8/10

[iam-kenough]

Will you ever notice me? Arthur Morgan x Original Female Character

Summary: During they wandering in deep snowstorm, man from van der Linde gang found odd looking girl and Dutch decides to take her to camp to see if she can be any use, leading life of outlaw with them. Quickly, new girl develops feelings towards Arthur, but he sees her just as a kid...and she won't take that! It's an original character story that starts in the place where Arthur, Dutch and Micah were supposed to first meet with Sadie. Instead she's already with them. Author’s notes: Hi, I’m new to all that stuff but I tried to write a story and keep this romance slow burning. Also, if the grammar is weird sometimes it’s because english is my second language. ^^ Hope you gonna enjoy it and get back and be ready for drama.

Words count: 2790 Chapter 1 Iris heard gunshots sounds coming from the outside and she curled even more, hidden behind big wooden table with rock in her hand. She did not have any plan, she just imagined that if anyone will come here, she will tear them apart. Her knuckles became white as she grasped cold, uneaven ans sharp surface of a rock. Local gang, O'Driscolls have taken everything from her. They murdered her only brother, the only provider of their household and then this bizzare blizzard happened. Gang searched home for food and all she had left in the end was pack of oatcakes. At first she tried to hunt something using a gun or a bow but she didn't posses enough amo for more than one attempt. So she was sitting there, for almost a week without food and water she needed she drank by eating snow. The O'Driscolls killed her brother and would probably kill her but she was small enough to hide in one of kitchen cabinets. Iris was listening in terror as one of Colm's man slaughter her older brother, Olgierd and she couldn't do anything at this moment - all she possessed then was her night gown, wet from sweat she produced in this stressful moment, sticking to her body. All she could do was to not get killed. She wasn't some kid but her small, petite almost elvish frame and big eyes in bright, toxic green color made her look like one. Or at least younger than she really was. Door to her cabin opened and she saw pair of high boots but owner of boots didn't saw her. Good. It was dark and howling of the wind masked sound of her breathing. Iris waited till he turned around to search thru cabinet. She jumped, he screamed and fall on the floor unconscious. - Micah?! - Dutch furrowed his brows - Arthur, come on, we need to check on him. - Sure - outlaw murmured. If it was for him, he wouldn't check if Micah Bell is safe. He would even make sure that whatever put Micah in danger would kill him. Iris grabbed Micah's guns. She wasn't some Missy who couldn't hold weapon properly. Olgier tought her how to shoot. If this weather wasn't so wild and the amount of amo so short she would be prospering much better now. - Miss? Hey! - Dutch tried to use his charming tone and put his hand in the air. So did Arthur, his emerald eyes piercing thru silhouette in front of them. It was a girl, pale and freckeled, with long black hair that was tangled, her green eyes looking in their direction with fear. Arthur saw one more thing in those odd eyes - fury. - Take him and go away, please! - Iris tightened her grip around guns - I have no interest in harming you - her voice was soothing and sad and she tried to ignore the fact it sounded ridiculous. She reminded Arthur of some kind of magic dryad. - You look like you couldn't harm anyone, miss - Dutch grinned and without any waring he catched her in his arms. Iris dropped one of the guns, the other one was fired in the wooden floor. - GO AWAY! - she screamed at the top of her lungs - LEAVE ME BE! I HAVE NOTHING! - Jesus, girl - Arthur chuckled while he was checking on Micah. Idiot was knocked out but throwing him right in the snow will wake him up - Life wasn't best for you so far, wasn't it? - I have nothing - she sobbed, dangling in Dutch's arms like she was toy made from rags - I have only pack of oatcakes...You can have them if you want...but it's already opened - tone of her voice changed. Iris realised that those man will take these oatcakes and will probably rape and kill her. It will be at least quicker death than starvation. Dutch put her on the floor and with quick, swift move he took away another of Micah's guns. Iris eyes was wandering from Dutch to Arthur to Micah on the floor. -I'm sorry for your friend - she murmured and blushed, looking directly at her dirty feet and bruised knees - I wanted to tell him I'm here but he didn't notice me at first and started lurking. I thought that he gonna shoot me if I would make any sound. - You got him right, haven't you - Arthur chuckled and casually grabbed one of oatcakes. Iris moaned in disappointment, she offered them those cookies just because it was right thing to do. They looked like bounty hunters or something worse, but they didn't seem so wild and dirty as O'Driscolls. They didn't kill her so far too. - You seem like you could use warmer clothes and a plate of hot soup, Miss... - Dutch said, waiting for her name. - I'm Iris, sir. My brother Olgierd was murdered by O'Driscolls few days ago and I have no ammunition nor arrows to hunt. If you could just give me that much I won't bother you - she looked eagerly towards Micah's guns that Dutch was holding. - I'm sorry, you've been offered help and food and you turn it down? Jesus, woman - Arthur rolled his eyes and lit a cigarette. It was second time he spoke this way towards her. Iris examined his apparition. He was big, seemed even bigger because of winter clothes. His face was scarred but handsome as hell and he had the deepest voice she ever heard. But her face didn't show any admiration, she wasn't some stupid Juliet waiting for Romeo to save her. Then she looked at other man. Dutch seemed like some sort of uncle to her, his eyes was warm and he was smiling despite he was even bigger and even more intimidating than Arthur. Then she looked at the guy on the floor and sighed.   - I wanna go with you. Even if you gonna murder me in few minutes, that's still better than starving and freezing to death - her sarcasm was sharp even though everyone in room saw emptiness and fear hidden deep in green eyes. She was put on a horse by outlaw's strong hands. He even gave her his coat, navy blue one with nice, tickling fur inside. Her feet still was freezing but she was greatful. She curled her arms around man's body to get even more warmer during trip. He didn't say nothing but he was nicely surprised with her touch, 'cause no woman who just met him would throw her all over him like she just did. Figuratively. - And what's your name? - she asked innocently, making his ear warm with her breath. -Arthur Morgan, miss - he chuckled and clicked his tongue at his horse. FEW DAYS LATER It's been some time since Iris've been rescued. She seemed genuinely happy and she smilled a lot towards others. She proved she can cook better than Mr Pearson and that she could hunt and use guns properly. At first she felt like outsider but Mary-Beth lacked friendship of someone similar to her so badly she basically adopted Iris. She quickly discovered that new girl can read and that they could talk about books and fantasize about fictional romances. That was Iris's face she was showing towards woman in the camp. But she was reserved when it was coming to Micah. He was still throwing daggers with his eyes. - Look, I'm sorry I've hurt you, okay? I won't say it again- Iris said with iritated tone of voice. She has hidden away from everybody and tried to enjoy plate of stew when Micah came, sat in front of her and also was eating but looking right into Iris's face to intimidate her. He was looking like that at her for days, touching bandage wrapped around his head. - I don't accept this apology. I'm gonna stare at you and follow you 'till you gonna lose your appetite and you gonna feel stalked and uncomfortable - and it's gonna be me who's gonna stalk you until you gonna leave the camp. Iris rolled her eyes and breathed havily. - I don't even know why Dutch did bring you - he said with venom on his tongue and then looked at Arthur who joined both of you. - Is he bothering you again, Miss? - he sat next to her. Arthur was eating rather loudly but girl didn't mind. It was slow, weird feeling in her stomach that made her accepting Arthur's weirdness right away. - I'm okay. I guess we gonna have this hate relationship for a long time - she was smiling sarcastically and looking into her plate. - I'm gonna be your nightmare, Iris. - If you fancy me, you should ask me out properly  - she showed him her tongue and left both man. Micah was still furious and was following her with his eyes. Arthur chuckled. - She's something, isn't she. If she wasn't, Dutch wouldn't keep her. We already have too much mouths to feed. - Listen, cowpoke, it's not just about taking her with us. You both took her with us after she knocked me out with a fuckin' rock. She's mental. Arthur didn't say nothing. It wasn't his fight and he didn't like taking to Micah. He knew that as long Iris is part of a family because of Dutch's saying so, she was safe even when Micah threated her like this. She was good kid, too, already helping everyone around. He also liked her cooking for the camp, it was nice change comparing to Pearson's skills. - Iris, Iris! - Abigail ran towards new girl. Her eyes was red and she said something to Iris that Arthur couldn't hear. So he got up and come to listen. - He...he's been missing for two days. Everyone here ignores me and says "it's John" but he has me and he has Jack, he needs to be back! - Shhh... - Iris cuddled Abigail like a bear even though she was smaller than her - I will go and search for him, okay? Brother thought me how to track. Arthur's brows furrowed. - You ain't going nowhere, kid. Not alone. - Arthur, go with her then, I know you two will find him! Please, please find him! Outlaw nodded his head without saying anything. He knew that Abigail won't leave him untill he'll find that idiot husban of hers,  Marston. There wasn't any words that would calm Abigail when John was missing anyway. Iris was following Arthur, both on their horses. She noticed so far that he didn't talk much and he was rather quiet and shy men, writing or sketching in his journal while he wasn't running errands for Dutch. She was a little bit behind him, enough to examine him without being noticed or considered nosy. He was big and tall and had nice, sun-kissed face. He must be from different parts of country then, she told herself. His beard was freshly trimmed and Iris saw few scars on his face, noticing especially one of them, on Arthur's chin while he was looking around for any tracks. - We gonna go on foot from now, horses won't do here. John's close I think- he wasn't looking at her when he's talking. He seemed occupied with everything around him, but Iris. She didn't know he was just shy, because if it come to woman Arthur was always sure they are laughing at him. Girl just thought she's not much of company. But that was kind of good. This way Iris could admire him for a little longer, he wouldn't notice it. That wasn't like she hadn't love interests  before or that she was a hopeless romantic either. But that weird feeling in her stomach was saying "you fancy him, you do". But he won't know it anyway, it's Arthur she was thinking about, the most a-romantic person in the camp. She looked at him even when they were dragging John towards horses. Not constantly, but she peeked every few seconds. His brows were furrowed and he looked rather angry. Well, he was really angry when in no time he had to shoot few wolves. He asked Iris if she's fine with warmth in his voice, ignoring John and his moans of pain completely. When those two returned to camp, Abigail started yelling at John almost immediately she saw him. They were cute, Iris thought. FEW DAYS AFTER Dutch finally decided they gonna have camp in different, warmer place. Snow begin to thawn and the whole bunch of changes coming made everybody excited. They packed everything they had and jumped on their wagon. Iris noticed that Arthur is sitting alone in the last of them and smiled under her breath. There wasn't place next to other girls anyway.-Can I sit here, Mr Morgan? - she asked shyly looking into his eyes. It made her blush a little bit and she put hair behind her ear. She was the only girl in camp having loose hair and it complemented her little face because of deep, black color of them. - Sure, kid - he murmured. Wasn't looking at her either, he refused to notice her rosy cheeks. In fact, when Iris heard being called "kid" something heavy dropped in her stomach.  He sees me like someone immature, she murmured to herself. Girl took a place next to him anyway and the ride begin.Arthur wasn't much of a talker and she started worrying he simply doesn't like her. It was almost a month since she joined the gang and Arthur always seemed cold or not interested when he was sharing tasks with her. So she needed to ask but not too quickly so it won't be creepy. - Are you hungry, Mr Morgan? - she chirped, smiling at him. He looked at her surprised. - And what do you have, kid? Ugh. And ouch. - I have beef jerky I made few days ago with Mr Pearson. Everyone already ate them but I have plenty left. Do you want some? He almost blushed. This girl was so kind to him since her first day and Arthur couldn't figure out why. Normally woman treated him like he was air or creep. But she was no woman, she was young girl, Arthur thought, she will learn someday how to pity man like him. - If you want to share it with me - he smirked. - Why not? You are so nice - Iris saw his hands were occupied. She blinked and came with an idea. It will be even more better than just sharing. Her slender fingers slowly put a piece of dried beef to his mouth and he looked at her surprised. Her cheeks flushed and she brushed his lower lip by accident. With any other man it would be clear, she was sweet on him, but he just chuckled and started looking at road again. Was something wrong with her? It has to be my face that's wrong. No way he didn't notice that! If only I could be a little bit seductive - she breathed out with visible irritation. - Y'kay there, kid? - Yeah. Just thinking. - Oh, I get that. Dutch gave us plenty reasons to think, eh? You sure you want to rob that train with us? I know he told you to, but look at you! She did, actually. Her eyes looked at her slender body and stopped on her cleavage. Hm, that might be one of the problems, I'm flat as hell. She was obviously still thinking about what could put Arthur away. He wasn't. - And what do you mean by that, Mr Morgan? He furrowed. Looked like he's searching for right words. - You know, you look so fragile a-and pale. Sure you don't want to stay in camp and cook or read a book with other girls?  - he seemed awkward, like he didn't feel good when commenting on Iris. - I will make you sure I am made for those things - she chuckled but it didn't sound iritated, just sweet as always - I am no kid, Mr Morgan, just woman in her twenties. Tilly is younger than me. - But she's different case. Just sayin'. I don't wanna bother you - Arthur's voice was kind and shy as always. It has to be breasts then. Or maybe... maybe he doesn't like short girls? Maybe I should do something with my hair, like all mature woman does? Or is it the fact I didn't wear a dress yet? God, tell me how to make him notice me - she was thinking.

[erindoodless]

author: @plaindaii

beta: @rainbow-phan​

artist: @softphiily​

word count: 26894

note: hello this is my art for the @phandombigbang! i am posting the fic as well on here on behalf of the author. special shoutout to the beta and the author for being a great team <3

Prologue

Dan hurried through the crowded forest, stumbling over rocks and roots in the darkness. The moon was masked by thick cloud, only the slightest glow making it through. He navigated mostly by touch, all the while keeping an ear out for the sound of beating wings above the canopy. It was raining hard, droplets pattering against wilted leaves and trickling along the faint dirt path. His clothing was soaked and clung tightly against his pale skin, sucking any remnants of warmth from his body. At least it should hide his scent, he'd be safe once he made it out of the valley. From then on it was only a half hour walk to Nyth, he’d be safe once he made it to the city. 

He began to climb upwards, trees thinning out as the terrain grew steeper and rougher. He had to scale a small, rocky ridge before he could join the road to the city. Up there he would be visible and therefore vulnerable, so he best not dawdle. He pulled up his hood, hoping it would conceal him better against the barren stone, cringing as it sent a cascade of cold water down his already sodden back. Damn this rain. He pulled his bag close to him, feeling the weight of the precious cargo inside, putting his arms around it protectively. He couldn't afford to damage them, else all of this would have been for nothing.

He quickly reached the tree line, pausing for a moment in nervous apprehension. He scanned the cloudy sky for any sign of movement, and upon seeing nothing bar a few insects battered by the rain, scampered quickly towards the rock. He was tired, cold and to be honest a little bit scared but he damn well wasn't going to give up yet. With a few nimble jumps, he made it to the peak of the ridge. He couldn't help but turn and cast his eyes over the valley, blood turning cold as a dark shape swooped over the trees. It glided softly on the cool night breeze, silent despite its enormous size. 

He held his breath, heart beating a steady tempo as it threatened to burst from his chest in fear. He imagined it turning to face him, glowing eyes fixating on him as he stood helpless atop the valley wall. Jaws lined with kitchen knife teeth closing around his neck or cutlass claws ripping through his torso. Thankfully, however, it continued on its journey, unaware of the human that it would soon come to despise, descending carefully below the canopy and disappearing from view. 

He allowed himself a moment to calm down before quickly joining onto the main road. It was still a dangerous place to be at night, but this was human territory now. He allowed himself to relax ever so slightly as the flickering torches of Nyth came into view. A flash of lightning streaked across the slowly brightening sky as morning approached, and the thunderous rumble that followed was almost enough to mask the sickening roar of anguish which echoed eerily from the valley behind him.

Part 1

There was a loud knock on the door, ripping Dan from unconsciousness and sending his thoughts haywire. His eyes darted around the room, squinting in the bright sunlight, heart racing. It took a moment for his mind to clear and for him to force out a hoarse reply.

"Yes?”

He shifted uncomfortably in clothes that were still damp from the previous night's escapades. Why hadn't he changed out of them when he got in? When had he got in? It was all a bit of a blur,

"It's almost midday dear,” replied a friendly female voice, “I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to vacate your room. I have guest waiting to check-in." 

"Shit, sorry," he said loudly, scrambling out of bed. "I'll be out in ten minutes," 

"Ok, thank you dear."

Dan listened as her footsteps retreated down the hall, hurrying to his bags and tipping them out in search of fresh clothes. Whilst finding a shirt and trousers he could pull on, he travelled light and he cursed himself for running one of the few outfits he owned. He was going to have to deal with wet shoes for the next few days it seemed, although he had had the foresight to hang up his coat by the window to dry. Scanning over it, he felt his stomach sink when his eyes met a large hole in the left coattail where a decent amount of fabric had been torn off.

His coat was one of the few possessions he had that he actually cared about. Sure, the thick black fabric was far too hot in the summer and it was prone to a good soaking, but it had served him well over the years. It was smart and stylish whilst remaining practical and good for hiding in dark places, something like that was hard to find. He’d stitched on a hood when he first acquired it, and a few of the buttons had been replaced over the years, but other than that he’d kept it well. With the amount of damage he didn’t dare fix it himself, although, with the sale he was about to make, he wasn’t going to have to worry about doing anything himself for a little while.

Wait, shit, the sale. He swiped his satchel off the bed and peered inside, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw that the contents were untouched. He fought the urge to reach in and inspect them properly, knowing he was short on time. If it was nearly midday then he had to be across the city in a little under an hour for a meeting with his customer, and his customers didn’t typically like to be kept waiting.

Within minutes every possession he owned was hastily stuffed into his bag and the room was cleared. He was used to this by now with all the travelling he did, but it didn’t make it any less depressing to see his entire life shoved messily into a medium-sized travel pack. It was something he didn’t want to think about, but wormed its way into his head nevertheless as all bad thoughts tend to do. Sliding his feet hesitantly into wet shoes and pulling on his coat, he left the room, messing with his hair in the reflections of the glass protected paintings that lined the walls as he went.

Having tossed the key to the inn-keeper, who almost didn’t catch it which would have been very awkward indeed, he emerged onto the busy streets of Nyth. Market stalls lined the road, horses and carriages fighting their way through the crowds of people who stopped to look over the produce or wears. A fruit vendor called out the price of apples and pears, and a baker waved enticing treats into the faces of potential customers. Dan could feel his stomach growling, but focused his thoughts onto getting his upcoming meeting over.

Whilst the meetings were something necessary to his survival, they weren't something he was particularly fond of. They were stressful and rather boring. His customers often had expectations he could never hope to meet and rejection was something he was all too familiar with. He’d rather just avoid all human contact whatsoever but unfortunately as much as he tried, it just didn’t seem possible.

As his journey took him further and further into the Northern part of the city, the scene around him began to change. The bustling crowds dispersed and the streets widened, filled with lavish carriages transporting the city's riches. No stall dared set up shop here, not that the residents would ever be seen buying from one. The houses became more dispersed and greenery lined the roads. Ever in the flat light of an overcast day, Dan couldn’t help but admire it. If he were to ever make his fortune, this was where he might want to live. Although, settling down had never really seemed like an option for him. 

He soon came to one of the grandest houses in the city, its intimidating stone walls rising above him as he made his way down the driveway. He paused at the door, but before he could even knock it swung open and he was met by a smartly dressed butler. The butler plastered on a fake smile and ushered him in. 

"Mr. Mras said you'd be here soon sir, he's anxious to see you. I'll show you to the drawing-room," he said politely, although as he examined their guest, it was clear he couldn’t hide the disapproval on his face.

Dan stepped back slightly in surprise but did as he was told, following the servant into the grand entry hall, walls lined with golden wallpaper and delicate carvings. He felt vastly out of place here with his wet shoes and ripped coat, like the people in the gold-framed portraits were watching him with judging eyes. He was led through a heavy wooden door on the right into what seemed to be a drawing-room.

"Ah, Daniel, my favourite scavenger! Glad to see you alive, I was beginning to get worried you'd had an unfortunate accident.”

The man who greeted him was heavyset and adored in an ornate green suit. His thinning white hair was in deep contrast to his dark skin. He had a certain aura of power about him, one that made Dan a little uncomfortable.

In response, Dan forced a wide smile onto his face, one he only used when conversing with customers. He had to be confident in himself, even when all he wanted to do was run a mile. 

"Ah, you know me Mras, I always come through in the end,” he replied, trying to match the other man's cheerful tone. Mras clapped his hands together eagerly.

“So, did you find that nest I told you about? I do hope it wasn't a wasted trip.”

 Mras settled down into a great green armchair, gesturing for Dan to take the seat opposite him. In between them was a small wooden table for Dan to display his goods. He pulled his satchel onto his lap and began uploading its contents.

“Your intel is always right Mras. I never thought I’d see a nest so close to a city, but there’s a first time for everything. It was fairly new though, they haven’t been there for more than a few months.”

Mras’s face fell slightly, 

"So you didn't find much?" he replied, enthusiasm dulled slightly. Dan's lips curled into a sly grin. 

Dragons were rare and elusive creatures. The information on them varied from culture to culture, but one thing remained consistent. They were a symbol of an ancient time, of magic, but most importantly of power. Power was something that always attracted the rich and ambitious of the world. That meant, to these people, owning remnants or artefacts from these creatures represented their own power.

Mras was an avid collector. He wanted anything to do with dragons and he had the money to fuel that obsession. He’d been a customer of Dan’s for years, and that meant he knew his methods. When Dan located a nest and searched it he might come across some shed scales or teeth, a broken claw if he was lucky. The older the nest, the more he found, the more Mras could buy. That being said, he’d never found an egg before.

“Ah ah ah,” he replied loudly, “I didn’t say that. You’ll have to wait and see.”

He first pulled out his usual findings, a group of six scales ranging from the size of a playing card to a book page. They varied in colour from sky blue to a dark midnight blue, with a few being inky black. They were some of the nicest he’d seen, and if he had lost all sense of self-preservation that night he might have wanted to wait until daylight to see the creature that shed them. Mras seemed pleased, examining them against the candlelight, attempting to polish one off with his sleeve.

Next were a few teeth. They were long and sharp, more akin to ivory in texture than a smaller tooth. He had found a particularly large one as well, an incisor he guessed. It was just over the length of his hand but fairly straight as dragon teeth went. Whilst it would fetch a fair price, he had decided to keep it, vowing to have it turned into a dagger at some point.

Finally, it was time for the main event.

"I've never seen you look so pleased Daniel, it does worry me," Mras said jokingly. Dan smirked. 

"There is a reason for me to be pleased, and I hope you will be too," he said confidently, reaching into his bag and closing his hands around a large object within, He pulled it out with some effort and placed it carefully on the table. 

Mras’s eyes went wide and he froze as if in shock. He reached forward as if to touch it, but his nerves failed him and he pulled away quickly. Eventually, he composed himself enough to force out a sentence. 

"Is that what I think it is?" he asked breathlessly. Dan nodded, also unable to look away, fascinated. 

On the table sat a large, round object, about the size of a particularly stocky sheep's skull. It was oval in shape and looked almost as if it were made of solid obsidian, but with streaks of sapphire, ruby and opal running through it. When touching it, however, it felt more like bone; there was a strange sense of fragility surrounding it.

"You know it's odd," the older man murmured a few minutes later, having examined the egg with a face of what could only be described as awe, "Most reptile eggs are soft, like leather. I never thought I'd see a dragon egg, I always thought they'd be like that too. How did you get these? A mother never leaves their eggs unattended," 

Dan reached into his satchel and pulled out a second, almost identical egg. He could see Mras quickly losing his mind.

“I’m good at what I do,” he said simply, and whilst not entirely a lie, on this occasion he’d simply gotten lucky.

"I want 15,000 for the eggs, each. 2,000 in cash now and the rest in my vault by the end of the week. You can have everything else for 100," he said curtly, quickly tiring of the social interaction.

Although part of him did long to keep the eggs, he knew it could never happen. The sooner they were someone else's responsibility and his pockets were lined with gold the better. 

Mras pursed his lips. "That's steep," he sighed, "But fair. You know I would never turn down something like this."

He barked a few orders to the butler who had been loitering nearby, eager to get a look at his employer's new purchase. He nodded and scurried out of the room, returning a few minutes later with two huge bags of gold. Dan hauled them up into his satchel and got to his feet, he was not going to stand around and count it when he could be on his way, besides which Mras was an honest man. 

“Well, it’s been good doing business with you, I hope our paths meet again soon,” he said, swinging the satchel over his shoulder and revelling in the sound of all that gold inside.

 Mras nodded, although he seemed unable to tear his gaze away from the eggs, completely fascinated by them. “Of course,” he murmured, “I’m always looking to expand my collection. Although I don’t expect to be in Nyth for a while. The city is no place to harbour dragon eggs.”

Dan nodded, he didn't really care, and bid him farewell, a great deal of relief flowing over him as he left the house with gold in hand. He couldn’t help the smile that came to his face, 30,000 was enough to keep him going for months or even years. He could get a horse, live in luxury for a little while, and all because of a lucky break.

He should leave Nyth now, he’d heard of rumours of a forest in the far west that was ripe for the picking with all kinds of magical items, but it was a long trek. Now he had the coin, he could afford to properly stock up. 

He headed to the market, looking through the selections of salted meats and carefully wrapped cheeses, picking out some that looked the least repulsive. He took his coat to the tailors and had them sew on a patch to hide to hole, wandering around the other clothing stalls as they did so.

He came to a jeweller’s stall, running his hands over the pretty bracelets and necklaces. He liked how they glittered in the sun, he could see why they were so tempting.

“Looking for something for your lady, are you sir?” came a voice from behind the stand and Dan jerked his hand away immediately. He shook his head with an awkward smile.

“No, just curious,” he said in a strangled voice, cursing himself for his social ineptness. The jeweller gave him a strange look before going back to his work and Dan swallowed thickly.

He headed for the best inn in the city, purchasing the nicest room he dared. The innkeeper seemed a little perturbed by his arrival, he didn’t exactly look like her usual clientele, but once he produced the money it morphed into a friendly smile. He dumped his things, trusting they would be safe, and headed for the nearest tavern. He didn’t usually frequent such places, but today was a day for celebration and forcibly forgetting his troubles.

Despite the alcohol relaxing his mind, he could still feel that something was off; he felt like he was being watched. Well, he was sure he was in the tavern, locals didn’t tend to like new faces, but this was different. He’d felt it since the market, and it was becoming more and more intolerable. Perhaps if he just had one more drink it would go away.

Part 2

He felt like he’d been beaten over the head with a hammer when he came around the next morning. TImmediately the bright light streaming in through the windows was enough to immediately spark a fire in his brain and he let out a deep groan, turning over to push his face into his pillow and hinde from the world. His mouth was dry and foul-tasting, and he prayed he hadn’t vomited over any of the room's expensive furniture. He tried to push down the nausea that had settled in his stomach.

He was so stupid, he was going to feel like crap for days. At least he’d had the sense to take off his shirt, the feeling of cool sheeits against his clammy skin was a welcome change to the previous morning's damp shirt. Maybe if he just closed his eyes and went to sleep, he'd feel a little better when he woke. He wondered briefly if he shouted loud enough, he could get a member of staff to bring him some water, but making any sort of noise seemed far beyond his energy levels. He was about to drift off to sleep when he heard a cough.

His eyes shotbolted open and he bolted uprightsat up quickly, immediately feeling a horrible wave of nausea. He managed to resist the urge to heave and his eyes locked on to a man sitting in a shadowed corner of the room. For a moment it seemed as though his eyes were silver, like those of a cat when caught in candlelight, but as he blinked, they turned into a brilliant blue. He felt his blood run cold. Oh god, he hadn’t, had he? No, he wouldn’t have been that reckless, he couldn’t have been.

He made eye contact with the man, and they just sat there staring at each other for a little while. Dan was completely dumbfounded, what should he do? The man looked completely unfazed by Dan’s panic, seemingly waiting for him to make the first move. What did Dan say? Was he about to get murdered?

“What the fuck are you doing in my room?” he exclaimed, the effort causing his head to throb painfully, “Oh shit, I didn’t umm, you know, with you, did I?”

The man frowned, tilting his head slightly.

“I had to take you up to bed last night before you got yourself hurt, you were very drunk,” the man replied sounding slightly confused, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean about that last part.” 

Dan let out a sigh of relief, thank god. The man had a nice voice, it was warm and friendly. Unfortunately, that didn’t make Dan feel any better as to why there was a stranger in his room, one who had apparently been there for quite some time.

“You did what? What the fuck are people going to think,” hHe groaned in response, lying back against the covers in an effort to stop his head from spinning., “Why are you still here?”

The man shifted awkwardly,

“Because I needed to talk to you. I’ve been following you for a while, I was going to try last night but by the time I got to you, well you were too far gone. You have a few things of mine, and I’d like them back,” hHe spoke in an almost apologetic tone, eyes boring into Dan. 

Dan groaned again, he knew he was being followed, but what could he want?

“Are you trying to rob me?” he said suddenly, the realisation coming over him. If this stranger was some kind of burglar, well to put it nicely he wasn't a very good one, but he’d still rather not have him be there. The man sat back, looking slightly offended.,

“What, no, the eggs. They were in my care and I know you took them. If anything you were the one that robbed me,” came his irritated replyhe replied irritatedly, a mixture of taken -a-back and firm. Dan felt his heart stutter,

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” hHe replied shakily, voice clearly giving him away. 

The man stood up, rooting around in the many pockets of his coat, an old and battered thing, clearly too big for his lanky frame. He let out a frustrated sigh as he came up short on the first few, finally pulling out a long strip of black fabric with a triumphant flourish.

“This is from your coat!” he exclaimed with a smirk, “And was also snagged on a rock pretty close to where they went missing. I watched you get it patched up. Look, I know you have them, just hand them over and I can be on my way,”

For someone who had been stolen from, he seemed to be acting pretty reasonable. Maybe there was an easy way around this.,

“And what if I don't want to hand them over?” he snapped in reply.

The man took a step forward, presence suddenly becoming incredibly intimidating. For a brief moment, his eyes seemed to glow red and teeth became sharpened and long. Dan gasped, scrambling backwards but when he looked back again it had faded, the man having closed his eyes in an effort to remain calm.,

“I really, really do not want to hurt you, Dan,” he retorted, this time tone harsh, “But you have taken something from me, and you have a duty to return it. Give. Them. Back.” 

He spat out the last three words with such focused fury that Dan thought he might snap and kill him in that moment. What was he going to do, he didn't even have the eggs anymore. And what had he just witnessed, did this man just go all werewolf on him or something, or was it just his terrible hangover? Also how the fuck did this complete stranger know his name, it wasn’t exactly something he tossed about.

“I can’t, I’ve already sold them,” he exclaimed desperately. The man raised an eyebrow at him, glaring at him is disbelief.,

“You sold them? Would you sell a baby?” hHe cried out, letting out a long groan., “Humans, all you think about is gold, I thought that was supposed to be our thing.,” 

Dan swallowed thickly. ,

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know they belonged to anyone. That was a dragons nest, it’s fair game.,”

The man threw his hands up into the air dramatically. ,

“Exactly, that nest belonged to a dragon, as did everything in it.,”

Dan frowned. ,

“First of all, how can they belong to you if they belong to the dragon, because I hate to break it to you, but you are  human, secondly stop referring to me as ‘human’ it’s weird, and thirdly, why the hell do you know my name?”

The man paused for a moment, thinking intensely.,

“I . . . work for the dragon?” he said slowly, before nodding firmly, “Yes, I am in employment with the dragon and they have asked me to retrieve them. Also, I don’t think you’re really in any position to be demanding anything since you’re in the wrong here. I only know your name because you wouldn’t stop introducing yourself to me last night. I didn’t even have to go out of my way to find you, you wouldn’t leave me alone.,”

Dan's face flushed hot. He couldn’t blame himself, the man was clearly attractive, but he needed to keep that sort of behaviour to a minimum if he was going to survive. He had a few issues with the first bit of that story, it didn’t exactly sound the most believable. Perhaps he had seen Dan on the road with the eggs and was looking to make some quick cash, then again, he had the torn bit of fabric which was left either in the nest or close to it.

“Tell me then, how does one enter into employment with an enormous magical reptile. I’m sure they don’t speak the common tongue,” Dan replied sharply. 

The man shrugged. ,

“I speak all sorts of tongues,” the man replied indignantly. 

Dan raised an eyebrow. ,

“Prove it.,”

The man huffed loudly, but walked over to the window and swung it open. He let out a quiet cooing sound and a small white and brown pigeon flew in and landed deftly on his hand. 

“This is Steve,” he said matter of factly, “Steve please can you spin around for our dear friend Dan here,”

Much to Dan’s surprise the pigeon did a clumsy spin on the man's hand before letting out another coo and flying out of the window, leaving behind a lovely reminder of its presence on the curtain. Dan sat there for a moment, mouth agape,

“How do I know you hadn’t planned this scenario in advance and had a trained pigeon on standby?” He replied finally, crossing his arms firmly, knowing full well he was clutching at straws. The man’s pleased expression fell and was replaced by a frustrated frown.

“I can call in every pigeon in the city if you’d like, perhaps a few rats as well. You can try and explain that to the inn-keeper,” The man snapped. Dan straightened out suddenly, holding his hands out in defence,

“Ok, fine, I believe you. But what do you want me to do about it? I don’t have the eggs anymore,”

The man rolled his eyes,

“You can take me to the person you sold them to, now,” He ordered, tapping his foot impatiently.

Dan let out a deep sigh, Mras was not going to be pleased with him. Still, if this man really was in league with a dragon then he really didn’t want to piss him off,

“Fine, but he won’t want to sell them back. You’re going to have to come up with one hell of an argument.

“Don’t worry,” he replied darkly, “I will,”

 Dan rolled his eyes but quickly got dressed, ushering the man out of his room as he found a shirt, it was clear he wasn’t going to on his own. He felt like shit, but he did manage to convince the man to fetch him a just of water to clean himself up in. The headache was starting to fade ever so slightly but with every demand of the man to hurry up he felt more and more like straight-up committing murder. 

It was still early, to the point where the sky was only a pale blue and the streets of Nyth remained almost empty. Chickens roamed the cobbles, pecking at the trampled hay and manure that lined them. The baker's ovens were alight but the sign on the door read closed and the market stalls were yet to be occupied. He reluctantly handed the key back to the inn-keeper, deciding not to mention the pigeon crap on the curtains.

“If you know my name I think it’s only right that I should know yours,” He said with a sigh as they headed down the deserted high street. The man tilted his head slightly,

“It’s, um, Phil,” he replied, the name sounding completely foreign to him. Dan raised an eyebrow at him,

“Are you telling the truth, or have you never introduced yourself to anyone before,” he said sharply. Phil shook his head,

“It is my name, I’m just not used to saying it with this tongue,” he said quietly.

Dan decided not to question it. It was clear by now that Phil was a pretty strange guy. He might have been more put off by his company if he wasn’t so pleasant to look at. In the sunlight, he could see just how pale Phil was. You didn’t stay that pale whilst working on a farm or travelling in the sun. Either he was very rich or a complete hermit, judging from his apparent lack of social skills Dan was betting on the latter. 

It contrasted starkly with his hair which was dark and swept up into a messy quiff. There seemed to be the odd stick or leaf poking out of it, something that Dan decided he wasn’t going to mention. What he was going to mention however was Phil’s lack of footwear.

"Eww, that's disgusting. You're just stepping in horse shit barefoot. Why aren't you wearing shoes?" he exclaimed, grimacing at a pair of long, bony feet covered in a variety of appealing substances.

Phil looked down in surprise as if he hadn't noticed, 

"It will wipe off," he said simply, "And watch your language. There might be babies listening," 

Eventually, they came to a familiar house. It was still quiet, although the odd servant scurried around in the gardens, picking weeds or trimming the heads of dead flowers. He approached the door cautiously, knocking a few times as loudly as he dared. Phil was looking about himself nervously. The door finally swung open and they were met by a familiar-looking servant. Dan cleared his throat,

"I need to speak to my client," he said quickly, trying his best to convey a sense of urgency. 

The butler looked him up and down, much as he had done yesterday, except this time without his master to hold him back, an unimpressed sneer lurking on his face, 

"It’s a little early for that. Besides, I'm afraid Mr Mras is not here, he left early last night. If you wish to speak with him I suggest visiting his representatives in Northguard, else I cannot help you," he said in an irritatingly calm voice. 

Dan gritted his teeth, fuck, he should have seen this coming. Of course, Mras said he was leaving. He just hadn't expected it to be so soon. Now what was he going to do, he was going to end up being roasted in Dragonfire. That wasn’t a pleasant way to go.

"Can't you tell me where he's going?" he replied desperately. The butler shook his head, 

"That is not my information to give," the man said curtly, "I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Have a good day," 

With that, the door was slammed in his face and he was left standing there unsure of what to do. He knocked a few more times but was repeatedly ignored. Shit, what was he going to do now? 

"I guess we're going to Northguard," Phil said quietly, voice surprisingly steady. "Come, I'm not waiting for you to let those eggs slip out of my grasp again," 

Dan stood back and shook his head, 

"No, I'm not coming with you. Northguard is a five days walk east and I need to be heading west. I've done all I can," 

Phil's peaceful demeanour suddenly became very threatening once again, blue eyes shining red, teeth growing pointed. Dan squeaked in shock, but before he had time to comprehend what was happening Phil was back to normal again, or at least what was normal for Phil. 

"I am not asking you to come with me, I am telling you. You took something from me and now you are repaying your debt. Until that debt is replayed you do as I say," the strange man said through gritted teeth. Dan swallowed thickly, 

"Yeah and what are you going to do if I don't go with you? You clearly need me if you're so desperate for me to join you," he hissed back. Phil stamped his food in frustration, 

"I don't need you, not anymore. Having you there would make it easier sure, but that's not why I'm making you come. I am trying to give you the chance to redeem yourself. If you don’t come, then you can’t be redeemed, and if you can’t be redeemed, you can’t live," he sighed. 

“What sort of logic is that,” Dan snapped back in reply, quickly feeling overwhelmed.

“The logic of a dragon, it’s the law. If you commit a crime you must do all you can to rectify the problems you have caused, or pay for it with your life,” Phil replied quietly. Dan stepped back,

“I only took a couple of eggs,” he returned helplessly, voice growing weaker.

“Each of those eggs will soon hatch into children, children that must be cared for by one of their own kind and not a human. You might not have realised it at the time, but what you did has put them in danger, serious danger. As far as dragons go, that is not a crime to be taken lightly,” Phil said gently. Dan nodded and sniffed quietly,

“But if I go with you and we recover the eggs?”

“Then all of this will be forgotten,” Phil said firmly, “You can go back to living your life having learned a valuable lesson. Dan nodded,

“Right, ok, I will help you. I have a few ideas on what we could do. 

Phil smiled, looking pleased.

“Go ahead, you know this world better than I do,” 

Dan paused to think for a moment, where would Mras have gone?

"Right, we should hire some horses and set off down the southern road. Chances are he's heading to a summer house in the country. If we're fast enough we might catch him up," he said quickly, doing his best to keep his head in order. Phil frowned, 

"Yes, but where's Northguard? That's where that servant said we should go. They might be able to tell us where he is," 

"Northguard is to the East, but if we go all the way there and find he'd travelled south then the journey would have been for nothing. We might as well check the southern road first," 

"And if we travel south and don’t find him then we'll have wasted a lot of time," Phil exclaimed, his voice becoming higher as he fought back the urge to yell. 

"Look, we agreed I know this place better, let's head south first. If we stop in and ask about him at the inns and carriage houses along the way then we'll know for certain if he's gone that way. Mras does not travel lightly," Dan returned confidently, "Come on, let's find a stable," 

In reality, Northguard would probably be the best option for actually locating the eggs, but Dan wanted to avoid it as best as he could. He prayed they would find the merchant on the southern road, else he might not only face the wrath of Phil but have some things to answer for elsewhere. How had he gotten himself into this mess?

Part 3

Unfortunately, they seemed destined to fail from the start. They had finally found somebody willing to lend out some horses to them which hadn’t been easy. People were reluctant to trust the two strangers to the city, it probably didn’t help that Phil seemed to be completely incapable of holding a normal conversation for more than a few minutes. They were fine horses, slim and built for speed. They would have been perfect if not for one major issue, Phil was completely terrified of them. 

Dan was by no means an avid equestrian but he knew the basics, Phil, however, looked as though he'd never even seen a horse before, let alone ridden one. Dan felt like screaming into the sky.

"You know you could have told me earlier that you couldn't ride," He groaned, knowing the last hour or searching had all been for nothing. Phil shook his head, 

"No, it's not that," he replied with a sigh, "I thought it would be OK," 

Dan rolled his eyes, 

"That what would be OK?" 

Phil stepped forward towards the horse as if going to mount it, but as he drew closer the horse became nervous. It shifted restlessly, letting out the occasionally frightened whinney and pulling away from its rope. It wasn't until Phil rested his hand on its shoulder in an effort to calm it however, that it completely lost control. 

It reared up, head yanked downwards by the rope that still tied it in place and let out a horrible cry. Phil stepped back quickly in order to avoid its flailing legs and the horse tugged desperately on the rope, almost throwing itself onto the floor in fear. It's breathing became more and more laboured as froth began to appear at the mouth and the whites of its eyes were clearly visible and it struggled relentlessly. Dan's eyes went wide, he'd never seen a reaction like it. 

"What the hell did you do?" he exclaimed. Phil shrugged helplessly, 

"I didn't mean to," he said timidly, “It just happens,”

"Is it going to be like that with every horse?" Dan sighed. Phil nodded dejectedly, 

“Can’t to talk to it, tell it everything is going to be ok,”

Phil bit his lip sheepishly,

“I don’t speak horse,” he said quietly

“Why the fuck would you learn to speak pigeon and not horse,” Dan groaned, burning is head in his hands in frustration. Phil shrugged,

“Pigeons always look like they’ve got something nice to say, horses are evil, I don’t trust their legs,”

Dan sighed in defeat, he would never understand this man. There was only one thing for it.

"Well, I guess we're going on foot then," 

Dan knew that their chances of catching up with Mras on without horses were slim, but he still had a little hope, at the start at least. It didn’t help their chances that the road was busy at this time of year,  busy enough for even someone fairly rich to go unnoticed. They checked in with inns and watch-posts along the way, but none could either confirm or deny that their target had passed by. Either they had been paid off to keep Mras’s travels a secret or simply didn’t care enough to notice the comings and goings of others.  Dan insisted on continuing, He did not want to end up in Northguard.

Each night they slept a little way from the roadside. It was cold and uncomfortable but Phil was determined to keep moving as much as they could, which meant staying at an inn or carriage house would just be impractical. It wasn’t something Dan was unused to, but he didn’t find it pleasant. He only had one sleeping sack, so Phil slept without, although the cold didn’t really seem to bother him. Still, Dan couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. If there weren’t so many people around then he might have suggested to share.

With no confirmation that they were making progress, frustration grew, and Dan found himself finding it harder and harder to make up excuses for continuing. They would have to travel all the way back to Nyth and take the Eastern road. Phil was right, this had all been for nothing.

“This has been a waste of time,” Phil sighed, “It’s been three days. We’re going to have to go all the way back to Nyth before we can even head to Northguard. If we’d just done what I suggested then we would have been almost there by now,”

He didn’t sound angry, or resentful as Dan had feared. A little irritated perhaps, but overwhelmingly worried for the most part. The younger man could feel the guilt rising in his chest,

“Ok, let’s head back. I’m sorry, I really thought we might find him,” he said softly. Phil nodded,

“It’s ok, I know you are trying your best,” he said with a smile. That only made Dan feel worse.

They talked the whole time they walked, it helped break up the hopelessness and pointlessness of it all, although it was, of course, all Dan’s fault. Phil seemed reluctant to answer questions about himself, often reflecting them back at Dan. He could understand why, sometimes there were things you wouldn’t want to talk about to a stranger, he had plenty of those of his own. He was happy to talk about his life for the most part, as long as certain topics were avoided.

He had lived a very interesting life, that was hard to deny. He had travelled to almost every part of the globe, met a thousand different people, done things most wouldn’t even dream off. He had seen dragons, fairies, mermaids, climbed the highest mountains and traversed the greatest lakes. He had had adventure after adventure, then why did it all seem so empty? It wasn’t he was talking about the time he fished on the Great Southern Reef that Phil finally piped up.

"I miss the sea, I wish I could go back," he said wistfully. Dan cocked his head, urging him to elaborate. Phil noticed it, raising an eyebrow at him, but dong as requested.

"I used to live on the coast. It was beautiful. On nice days the water would glitter under the sun and you could stare at it for hours. Even when the weather turned foul, safely hidden away the crashing waves were always a comforting sound," a small smile tugged at his lips as he spoke, quickly returning to neutral as more unpleasant thoughts worked their way in.

"Why did you leave, it sounds like you loved it there," Dan replied quietly. Phil nodded, 

"I did," he said solemnly, "But it was ruined by the same thing everything else is, humans. First, it was just one house, then two, then three. Suddenly there's a hundred and they really don't want you there," 

Dan didn't reply, he didn't know how to. How old was Phil? He didn’t look to be older than in his late twenties or early thirties, although there was a certain aura around him that made it quite hard to tell. Why would the people of this new village or town that popped up in his lifetime, questionable in itself, want him out? The way he used the word humans made him uncomfortable, why did he always seem to be implying he wasn’t one. He shook off those thoughts and soon Nyth came back into view after almost six days of solid walking. He couldn’t say he was glad to see it.

Dan put his foot down on sleeping outdoors that night. It was dangerous in such a large city and they needed to spend time gathering to gather supplies for the trip anyway. After a few hours of wandering around, they finally managed to find a guest house with room available. The landlord had given them both a strange look when they agreed to take it even when there was only one bed, but they were too tired to try and explain the situation. Dan was anxious at his scrutiny but Phil didn’t seem to care. Either he was completely unaware of the connotations behind it or he was simply too aloof to be bothered. 

It seemed walking long distances was not something Phil was entirely used to. Whilst he was absolutely determined to carry on at all costs, it was clear he was exhausted. The moment Dan opened the door to the room, the other man had thrown himself into bed and was snoring softly within minutes. Dan almost didn’t mind, he looked sweet whilst sleeping, hair messily askew, faced relaxed. He swallowed thickly, he couldn’t have those thoughts.

It wasn’t only the distance that they had walked which was affecting Phil, it was clear his lack of shoes was not boding well. He trod tenderly, and by the time the fourth day passed they were raw and swollen. Dan wondered how he’d gone about without them before. Sure, maybe he was used to walking on soft dirt paths, and not the hard stone of the road, but even as they left the road to sleep he still seemed uncomfortable. He’d asked, but only got a grumbled reply of something along the lines of ‘I don’t like these feet’, which he blamed on them both being pretty worn out.

It was only late afternoon and the markets were still open. Whilst what Dan wanted most in the world right now was to flop down beside Phil and sleep for a hundred years, he’d probably do better getting a head start on the supplies. He was annoyed that he had spent so much on food only a few days ago and had so little left to show for it, but he was travelling with a companion who it seemed, didn’t like to plan ahead. He wondered if Phil would have eaten at all, had he not offered. He really was very strange.

After browsing through the stalls, picking out food and other bits and bobs, he headed over to the apparel section. He picked out a large bag for Phil, so far they had just been taking it, in turn, carrying the supplies and it would be much more efficient if the other man just had one of his own, and a sleeping sack of his own as well. Hed said he wasn’t bothered by the cold, but Dan wasn’t going to let him catch pneumonia. Once again his eyes caught the jeweller's stand. It seemed diamonds and rubies were in fashion at the moment, personally he’d always preferred darker gems like jet or sapphire. Then again he couldn’t exactly be seen wearing things like that without attracting some unwanted attention so it didn’t really matter.

Finally, he came to the shoemakers. Usually, he would have a pair custom made for such a long journey, but they weren’t for him and he didn’t think Phil would deal well in such a busy environment. Therefore he would rather just pick out a pair that would be the most likely to fit his companion and hope for the best. He finally settled on a set of sturdy leather boots, they were crudely made and clearly second hand but like Dan, Phil was taller than average, so things in his size were harder to come by.

He was excited to show his purchases to Phil, he hoped he’d be pleased. On the way back to the guest house however, something occurred to him. If he were to just leave, right now, would  Phil ever find him? Sure he’d been sussed after escaping the nest, but he’d made it too easy. He’d left evidence, he’d hung around too long. If he just paid off a few guards and covered his tracks right, he’d be halfway across the continent before Phil had even an inkling of where he was heading. Realistically how long would Phil actually search for him? Eventually, he’d just give up and go after the eggs himself. 

It would be so easy, and yet he didn’t really want to go. It was stressful and exhausting, and at the end, he was going to be forced to have a very worrying conversation with Mras, but it was something he felt like he needed to do. He regretted taking those eggs, and not just because he’d been caught. He could see how desperate Phil was to get them back, and even if he was just working on behalf of someone... something else, it showed how much of an impact he’d had on other people's lives.

As much as he denied it, he’d always wanted to be liked, and being so disliked, or at least resented, for something he’d done weighed heavily on him. Phil was a little irritating at times and his thought process was something Dan would never understand, but Dan liked him. He didn’t have any friends, he travelled alone, Phil was a companion that he desperately needed. Even if he was only with him through force. Dan craved his approval, and maybe if he finished what they started, Phil would give it to him.

He was embarrassed to think about it, and a little ashamed. He didn’t usually attach himself to people so quickly, but when he did it always ended up in disappointment. He was beginning to think that his attraction to Phil was more than what was... acceptable. Sure, their conversations were easy and they seemed to click right, and if circumstances were different they would probably make great friends, but it was more than that. Dan liked being near him, it was comforting in a way. He liked the way Phil spoke, he liked how it felt when he gave him a friendly touch, or how he always seemed to listen to Dan like he was the most interesting thing in the world. If he was already so far gone after only a few days… Well, it didn’t bode thinking about.

Phil had not moved an inch, he didn’t even stir when Dan slammed the door shut behind him upon returning. Dan had been sat organising their supplies for the last hour hoping the other man would wake up on his own, but it clearly wasn’t going to happen. As much as he didn’t want to wake the other man, he did need to see if the boots fit so he could exchange them before the markets closed if they were unwearable. That and Phil was also somehow sprawled across the whole bed. Dan was not going to spend another night sleeping on the floor, not even for Phil.

“Phil wake up, I got something for you,” he said loudly, shaking the other man roughly.

Phil jolted awake with a gasp and no amount of grace. He looked startled for a moment but groaned once his eyes came to rest on Dan, throwing his arm over his eyes and pressing his face into the duvet. Dan tried his best not to feel offended.

“Let me sleep,” he sighed, yawning loudly. The younger man rolled his eyes,

“In a minute, I need you to try something on,”

Phil lowered his arm, looking curious. Dan held up the shoes and a small appeared on Phil’s lips,

“You bought me shoes?” he said softly, smile growing brighter. Dan handed them over and the other man pulled them on, clumsily doing up the laces.

“Do they fit?” Dan asked tiredly, fully ready to collapse into bed. Phil nodded looking pleased, tapping his feet against the hardwood floor,

“Yes, this is much better. Thank you Dan!” Phil exclaimed happily, pulling him into a tight hug. Dan froze and Phil pulled away upon noticing it, looking slightly disappointed and embarrassed,

“Sorry, but I do mean it. Thank you,”

Dan shrugged,

“It’s ok, I know you needed them. I’ve got you some other things as well. We might as well be prepared for the journey this time,” He said with a quiet, forced laugh, “Now let’s get some rest, I might end up asleep on my feet if I’m not in bed in the next five minutes,” 

He tried to use a playful tone, but it fell a bit flat. He had to stifle a yawn, stretching his aching legs. Phil nodded, taking off the boots. If he'd noticed Dan’s strange behaviour he wasn’t going to mention it, shuffling over so that there was plenty of space on the bed.

“I’ll wake you up in the morning,” he yawned, turning over to face the wall rather than the rest of the bed, probably more for Dan’s comfort than his, “Night,”

 Dan swallowed thickly, staring hard at the wall. His body was exhausted, but his mind was racing. He’d pleased Phil, he'd done something thoughtful and received praise for it, then what was wrong? Maybe buying someone the same gift doesn’t bring with it the same reward when you use the money you got from selling something very dear to them to get it.

Part 4

Dan woke with a start, sharp pain in his cheek. He looked up to see Phil hovering over him, finger outstretched, having just poked him with a suspiciously sharp fingernail.

“What the fuck Phil,” he groaned. Phil bit his lip and stood back sheepishly,

“Sorry, I just needed to wake you up. We should get going,”

Dan held his hand up to his cheek, which still stung a fair bit despite Phil’s touch having been relatively light.

“Why didn’t you shout at me, or shake me? You don’t poke someone in the face to wake them up,” he muttered groggily, quickly sitting up, “And you really need to cut your fingernails,"

Phil flipped his hand round to examine his nails and Dan frowned, seeing them to be fairly well trimmed. Why had it felt like being pricked by a needle? They stood in silence for a moment, either really knowing what to say, before Phil finally clapped his hands together loudly, 

"Right, off we go then," 

 . . .

“How long will it take up to get to Northguard?” Phil asked as they left Nyth for a second time. He was trying his best to remain upbeat, but Dan could tell he was anxious. Dan shrugged,

“It depends on how fast we walk. Four days? Probably five? Then of course we still have to get to where Mras is staying and god knows where that is,”

Phil bit his lip, 

“This is a real nightmare isn’t it. I feel like we’re on a mad goose chase,”

Dan tried to suppress the influx of guilt he felt. They’d only traveled South because of his own selfish desires to avoid Northguard and now they were paying for it, or more specifically Phil was.

“What’s the rush? I know Mras, he will do everything in his power to keep those eggs safe,” Dan said softly, “He’s my best customer, he will buy anything to do with dragons for his collection. I don’t think there is a single thing I’ve sold him that he’s lost,” He continued carefully in a bid to calm the other man's obvious nerves. Phil’s head whipped around,

“Oh, so this is a regular occurrence for you then?” he snapped suddenly, anger rising sharply. Dan shook his head desperately, taking a hasty step back,

“No, I swear I’ve never taken an egg before. I just go into any nests I find and look for scales and stuff. I’ve hadn’t even seen an egg before last week, and I wouldn't have taken it unless I knew there was a buyer nearby who could have taken care of it,”

Phil’s harsh expression softened but he let out a deep breath,

“So that’s why I couldn’t find anything,” He sighed, mostly to himself. Dan frowned,

“What do you mean?” 

“I needed a scale or tooth or claw, anything embedded with dragon blood for something. I thought it was odd that I couldn't find any back at the cave. Let me guess, you sold them too?”

Dan nodded sheepishly,

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. What did you need them for anyway?”

Phil rolled his eyes and pressed his lips together,

“It doesn’t matter. As long as I get those eggs back it should be fine,”

Dan put a hand awkwardly on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him,

“Don’t worry, we will get them back,” he said gently. Phil turned to look at him with a hard, scrutinizing gaze,

“We better,” he said coldly.

The road seemed to go on forever, endlessly stretching into the distance. The occasional cart trundled down it’s bumpy track and the trees on each side were beginning to close in on them. The sky was grey and gloomy, the recent storm still not having completely dissipated. Dan Hadn’t been this way in a long time, he had always hoped he’d never have to.

“You never answered, what's the rush?” he said quietly, anything to distract him from the monotonous trek thay had ahead. Phil bowed his head, looking uncomfortable,

“The eggs are due to hatch soon, and I need them to hatch with me and not with some human  who doesn’t know what to do with them,” he said quietly.

“Mras was quite the dragon enthusiast, I’m sure he’ll know what to do,”

Phil shook his head, giving Dan a curious look,

“Dragons are not the simple creatures you think they are Dan,” He murmured, “That is something you ought to think about. They are children, if not raised by their parents they should at least be raised by one of their own kind,”

Dan frowned,

“But you aren’t one of their own kind, you’re human too,”

Phil didn’t answer, something that made Dan feel very uncomfortable.

Maybe he was a witch. Dan hadn’t heard much of witches, but he knew they were peculiar beings, and could confer with the magical creatures of the world which seemed to fit his new companion perfectly. He thought back to the time when he had seen Phil change, the beast with red eyes and pointed teeth, had that been some sort of magic? Then again, witches were supposed to be ugly or unpleasant, and Phil was definitely neither of those things. 

After Phil’s bad mood had subsided and his anxiety was dulled slightly by their progress, he became more playful and teasing rather than intimidating and his quirks were more endearing than unsettling. He seemed unsure of talking about himself, instead encouraging Dan to open up. Dan had been quite pleased to eat first, he didn’t get the chance to talk about his adventures or share his stories nearly as much as he would like to. Who would he tell them too? He didn’t have anyone constant in his life besides his buyers and they hardly wanted a biography with every sale. It became more of a problem though as the questions grew more personal.

He didn’t want to talk about his childhood or family, they had always been difficult topics, and as much he was growing to appreciate Phil’s company, it wasn’t for him to know. For all he knew Phil could still have malicious intentions for him, and his sweet but admittedly erratic demeanour was just a plot to get him away from the city where Dan could be brutally murdered without hope of his attacker ever being caught.

“How did you come to be in the employment of a dragon Phil?” Dan said finally, sick of being interrogated. Phil paused and shrugged,

“It just happened I suppose,” he said vaguely. 

“How does that just happen?” Dan said loudly, “Did you just waltz into a dragon cave one day and hand them your CV?

Phil frowned,

“What's a waltz, or a CV?” 

Dan rolled his eyes at the obvious attempt to change the topic, but decided to indulge him nethertheless.

“A waltz is a dance, and a CV is like a document that contains all of your skills, education and past work experience for when you apply for a job,”

Phil scrunched up his nose,

“Oh, that CV thing sounds boring, but I’ve always wanted to try out a dance. How does a waltz go?”

Dan shrugged,

“I don’t know how to describe it. We used have a dance in my village at the summer solstice, my mum taught me one year,” He said absentmindedly, “I’m sure i could remember it if I were to actually do it,”

Phil cocked his head,

“Then do it with me,” he said holding out his arms. Dan stepped away quickly,

“No, I can’t do it with you,” he said with a slightly forced laugh. Phil shrugged,

“Why not?”

Dan let out a deep sigh,

“Because there are people around and if they see me dancing randomly with another guy on the side of the road, not only will they think I’m completely crazy, but also that it isn’t right. You should be dancing with a woman,”

Phil stuck his bottom lip out, looking disappointed,

“Why? Does the dance require the use of something only a woman has?”

Dan let out a short, slightly awkward laugh,

“No, I’m afraid you must be thinking of a different type of dance there Phil. It’s just how it is,”

Phil crossed arms, looking unsatisfied with the answer,

“Well neither of us is a woman and I want to know how it goes so I’m sure there is nothing wrong with us trying it,” he said quietly. Dan looked around, making sure there was nobody close by,

“You can’t just do the dance, we don’t have any music. A dance looks silly without any music,” he said, a certain fondness to his voice that worried him.

Phil smirked,

“I think you’re just making excuses,”

Dan rolled his eyes,

“I’m not, you need it to keep rhythm and stuff. How about this, if we end up in a place where music is playing and there’s nobody around, I’ll teach you how to waltz,” he sighed. Phil smiled brightly and nodded, seemingly pleased with the conversation in which he had not only managed to avoid the original question but also got something out of it as well. The cheeky bugger.

. . .

“Dan, what are your goals in life?” Phil asked softly as they stared up at the stars.

The sky had cleared for the first time in weeks as they settled down for the night. Whilst the bright, twinkling lights above made pleasant company, the absence of cloud had caused the temperature to drop significantly. Phil had by some miracle managed to get a fire going on the damp earth but the cheap sleeping sacks Dan had bought alongside Phil’s boots back in Nyth where doing little to keep in the warmth. He shivered in response, letting out a deep sigh,

“I don’t know, what are your goals supposed to be? To start a family, have children? I don’t think it’s for me, maybe I just want to survive,” He replied tiredly.

How depressing was that, his only goal was to live, but what did he have to live for? He had to shake the thoughts from his head,

“What about you Phil, what is your big dream?”

The other man shrugged, eyes still scanning the sky above,

“Maybe I’ll be a parent, if we manage to get the eggs back,” he said with a small laugh, “Otherwise I don’t know either I guess. Maybe I should get a mate . . . partner, but it just seems like too much hard work. I think I just want to go home and stay there. Where’s your home?”

“I don’t have a home, I move around a lot,” Dan murmured in response, trying his best not to delve too deep into Phils . . . odd choice of words.

“Then don’t you ever dream of having a home?”

Dan pursed his lips,

“If you have a home, there are expectations placed on you, expectations I will never be able to fill,”

Phil frowned,

“Like what,”

Dan felt like letting out a disbelieving laugh. Of course, he’d almost forgotten what a mysterious hermit Phil was,

“You have to get married, you have to have children, you have to have a regular job,”

Phil cooked his head again,

“What’s so hard about that? I’m sure you could find someone to marry and have children with. Maybe you could sell flowers, I think you’d make a good florist,”

Dan raised an eyebrow at him,

“Why would I make a good florist?”

Phil shrugged,

“Because flowers are pretty,” he said absentmindedly,

“And?”

Phil looked at him carefully for a moment and Dan almost jumped. His eyes where doing the odd cat thing again, the firelight reflected back in small silver disks,

“You’re pretty too,” he said firmly, “It would be a good match,”

Dan’s throat tightened,

“You can’t just say that Phil,” he said firmly, voice strangled slightly. The complement caused warmth to flood through his chest, but the connotations of it left a bitter taste in his mouth. Phil cocked his head,

“Why not?”

His tone wasn’t malicious, more curious, but it sent a flash of anger through Dan.

“I don’t know what backwater place you come from Phil, or if this is just some cruel joke, but the dance thing, and now this. You need to keep your mouth shut or we’ll both be done for,” he hissed in response, “Just go to sleep,”

He rolled over so he was facing away from Phil, a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. He could feel the other man's eyes on him, burning into the back of his neck. His gaze felt confused above all else which only made things worse. 

How could he not know that what he was doing was wrong? How could he be so naive. Before it had been friendly teasing, but now it was getting closer and closer to flirting. Dan had been too lenient, an unfortunate side effect of his growing affections for the other man and now it was going to happen all over again. All this talk of family and expercations, it was like Phil was just trying to remind him of all the things he couldn’t have.

He wanted desperately to turn back and apologize, but at the same time he wanted to get up and walk away. He didn’t want to go back to Northguard. He didn’t care that he’d brought this upon himself or that he had some sort of duty to help Phil, that place held deep, best forgotten memories he’d rather just ignore. For now though, he just wanted to sleep and forget the world for a little bit.

Part 5

By the time morning came, Dan didn’t want to move, not now, not ever. Phil had gone about diligently packing up their camp as the other man lay curled up in his sleeping bag. He had days like that sometimes, when nothing felt worth doing and he couldn’t muster any energy at all. Usually, he would be left to himself and could force him to sleep until it passed. It did nothing to help in the long run, but it made the episodes more bearable in the long run. This time, however, Phil was not going to let them wait around while Dan got himself together. He was on a mission, and the more they dithered, the more restless he became.

The clear skies of last night were once again shrouded by cloud and everything just felt so miserable. They had spent almost a week on the Southern road in vain and it was all his fault and now they were going to spend four more night on another road which would not even lead them towards their final destination. His body was tired and overworked, but worst was his mind. Why was he doing this, why was he doing anything to help this man? All it was going to cause him with pain, especially as his thoughts on him fought definitely against the cage in his mind that they were locked do firmly into.

“Are you ok? Phil asked softly, falling to the floor crossed legged by Dan’s head. Dan Didn’t answer, staring ahead blankly into the abyss of the forest. Phil examined him carefully, browning deeply.

“Is this . . . is this about last night?” he said somewhat awkwardly, “Because I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable I swear. I’m just . . . not good with people,”

Dan shook his head with a sigh. He didn’t like how Phil was looking at him like felt as though he had done something wrong. He hadn’t done anything wrong at all, or at least nothing that ought to be wrong.

“It’s not that Phil, I just feel like this sometimes,” he muttered. 

“Feel like what?” Phil asked quietly, shuffling forward ever so slightly as if wanting to comfort him, but decided otherwise. Dan shrugged,

“I don’t know, like nothing I guess. Everything just seems so pointless and bleak. What if we never find those damn eggs, and what does it matter if we do or don't," he replied dully. Phil looked taken aback, unsure of how to respond. 

"It matters to me," he said quietly. Dan scoffed. 

"It might matter now, but what about in a hundred years when we're all dead and nobody remembers us, then what will it matter?"  he snapped, immediately feeling guilty. 

"Dragons live for thousands of years, it will matter to them," Phil replied desperately. 

"Does the time frame really matter that much? You're missing my point completely!" Dan groaned. 

"I know that," Phil replied loudly, before letting out a deep sigh and trying to calm himself down. "I just don't know what else to say. I want to help you, but I don't know what to do. I don't understand these things; I don't know how to make you feel better. I can't force you to come but I need you, and I need to go. I have two children out there who's wellbeing and even possibly lives depend on me, on us. We need to help them!" 

Dan pressed his lips together firmly, remaining silent. He didn't want to disappoint Phil. The other man was genuinely upset, and it had all been Dan's fault, but he just didn't have the energy. He wasn't in the right sort of mind to be walking all day, especially to a destination he really didn't want to go in the first place. He wanted to scream, more than anything, and yet even that seemed so far from what he could bring himself to do. 

He was expecting Phil to shout at him, to get angry, or at least make some snarky remark, but instead, he just sat by his side, waiting. They must have sat for nearly an hour, Phil picking quietly at the dirt and as Dan thought. He thought of how lonely he was, how unfulfilling his life was. He didn't have a home, he didn't have a family, and he never could. He didn't even have any friends, except maybe he did. Phil was his friend, and Phil needed help. He thought about that for a long time, until eventually, he cleared his throat, 

"Are we friends Phil?" he said quietly. Phil tilted his head slightly, 

"I see no reason why we shouldn't," he replied with a soft smile. It made Dan's insides curl but in a nice way. 

"Even though I stole your eggs, well not your eggs, your 'employers' eggs. Oh, and the scales and all that crap," 

Phil sighed, 

"Yes, even though you did all that. You didn't know any better. You'd never do it again; would you?" he said gently. Dan huffed, 

"You've got that right, this has been an absolute nightmare," he muttered. Phil raised an eyebrow at him and Dan held his hands up defensively, 

"And it's morally wrong and was an inconsiderate and crappy thing to do I get it," 

They sat in silence for a little while longer before Dan took a deep breath and sat up with a groan. He slipped out of his sleeping sack and rolled it up, stuffing it into his bag. Phil gave him a warm smile as well as some bread and dried meat which he took wearily. He still didn't feel like eating, or doing anything, but had by now mustered the energy to begin their arduous trek. He ate in tiny bites, feeling as though it were merely a pointless chore despite its importance in fueling his journey. 

"I think I'm ready to go,” he said finally, picking himself up and dusting himself off.

A look of relief flooded over Phil’s face, but it was still mixed with scepticism,

“Are you sure? We can stay for a little while longer if we need to. Dan shook his head firmly,

“No, I’m ready to go. We need to go and get your eggs back,”

He tried to ignore the strangeness of that sentence and they set off again down the long road. 

Phil was quieter this time, more reserved. He seemed to be walking gon eggshells and Dan couldn’t help but feel that it was his fault. He’d let himself get worked up last night, too caught up in his own head.

“Phil, what are you going to do once we get the eggs back?” He asked quietly, anything to avoid the tense silence that had quickly developed between them. 

“Well, I guess I’ll go home,” he murmured, “After I’ve delivered the eggs back to the dragon of course,”

“And where is home for you?”

Phil shrugged and let out a small laugh,

“Wherever humans aren’t,”

Dan bit his lip, he wished he could do that. Just live the rest of his life hiding from the world,

“How do you do that? I don’t mean to be rude but you don’t exactly strike me as being someone who can rough it in the wild,”

Phil held his hand to his heart, feigning offence,

“How dare you, I am the toughest man you will ever see,”

Da rolled his eyes fondly,

“Sure you are, but seriously, how do you do it. You must have lived quite close to Nyth else you wouldn’t have found me. Do you have a house in the valley?”

Phil shrugged,

“It’s complicated, and believe me I won’t be staying near a city again. I thought it would be safe but I was wrong. Being near people, it never ends well with me,”

“Once we go our separate ways, will I ever be able to see you again?” Dan said quietly, looking down at his feet.

Phil gave him a sympathetic smile,

“I don’t know Dan; I’m not sure that it would be such a good idea. I might not even stay on the continent for much longer”

Dan frowned deeply,

“Where else would you go?”

Phil shrugged, looking up at the murky sky,

“Over the sea, I’ll keep going until I find a place where no one has ever been before, where I can make it my own,” he sighed, a slight smile coming over his face at the thought.

“Won’t you be lonely?” Dan asked in a time voice. Phil only shrugged,

“I’ve been alone for a long time, besides I won’t be alone,”

“Who will go with you?”

Phil didn’t reply, and Dan made the decision not to push. Maybe Phil had someone else, someone to share his life with. He seemed like the type of person who would casually forget to mention something like than unless directly asked, and Dan wasn’t going to do that. Then again, it didn’t matter. Dan was only staying with him until they got the eggs back, then Phil was free to bugger off with who he liked.

As they drew closer to Northguard, the surrounding got more familiar, and Dan became more and more on edge. There was like a cloud of nervous energy surrounding him, enveloping anyone who happened to get so close. Phil, who was already nervous around other people in any social capacity whatsoever, was beginning to get quite agitated by it.

“Is there a reason I should be afraid of this place?” He asked in a hushed wisher, eyeing up their fellow travellers wearily. Dan closed his eyes, swallowing thickly in an effort to calm down,

“No, there is absolutely no reason to be nervous. I’ve just not been here in a long time and it’s a place I’d much rather forget,”

This only resulted in Phil’s expression becoming a little more panicked,

“Not because anything bad happened,” he exclaimed, rather unconvincingly, “It’s just a bit of a dump,”

That seemed to calm Phil down a little but Dan knew he wasn’t helping the chances of them having an uneventful visit. They just needed to get in, talk with Mras’s representative, and get out. Then they could get those eggs back and both be on their very separate way with Phil leaving the landmass and Dan wandering around the kingdom aimlessly wondering if his only source income was morally irreprehensible or not. 

He didn’t know what he was getting so worked up about the idea of Phil leaving, a few days he’d hated the guy, and a few days before that they’d never even met. Dan had stolen and Phil was only here to get the stolen items back, they may have become sort of friends, but they weren’t exactly going to have a lifelong bond. What had Dan been expecting?

“Right you keep telling me everything is fine, but you’re staring at that tree like you want it to burst into flames,” Phil said with an awkward laugh.

“I do want it to burst into flames, then maybe it will fall and crush me,” Dan spat dejectedly. 

“Why would you want it to crush you?” Phil asked, voice laced with worry. Dan threw his hands up in the air,

“Because I hate Northguard, my feet are sore and I like being dramatic,” he snapped.

Phil shrunk in on himself, eyeing up his surroundings with a concerned expression. 

"Honestly it's not that bad, there are just some people there who I don't really like. But I haven't been here in years and they might not even still be here so I'm worrying over nothing," Dan sighed heavily. 

"I don't want you to be worried about anything," Phil replied softly, "If anything happens I'll protect you," 

Dan snorted, 

"Phil, you couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag, but I appreciate the sentiment," 

Phil crossed his arms indignantly, 

"I told you before, I'm tough," 

Dan gave him an exaggerated pat on the back, 

"Sure you are bud," 

As they grew closer to the city, the road became busier. Dan pulled his hood up over his head, letting it cast dark shadows over his face. The touches danced over the city walls, their flickering flame like the raging fires of hell. He didn't remember Northguard being so big. The rows of hastily built houses spilt from the historic confines of the city and even as the hour grew late people wandered along the cobbled streets. 

The inns and drinking houses were overflowing with drunks and travellers, energetic cheering which would morph into pained groans when morning came. It had changed so much even in the relatively short time he had been away. Hopefully so had the people. 

They slipped past the crowds like foxes in the night, remaining quiet and quick as Dan led them from street to street. Eventually they got to a quieter area where an Inn stood on its own, sign swinging pathetically in the wind. The bar was still occupied by a number of burly looking but it was nowhere near the hub of activity they had seen a while back. 

"Are there any rooms available?" Dan asked quietly to the haggard Inn keeper. She looked him up and down lips pursed, eventually nodding, 

"Ay, we've got a fair few. You only looking for one?" she murmured, eyes flicking to Phil. 

"Have you any with two beds?" Dan asked quickly. The keeper hummed thoughtfully, 

"I believe so, would you be wanting that one then?" 

"Yes, that would be great," 

They were tossed a key and ordered upstairs to unpack, if only for the night. The room was dim and damp, with two batter bed frames squeezed into the cramped space,"

"Why did you ask for a room with two beds, it would have been cheaper to just go for one. We shared in Nyth," 

Dan shook his head firmly, shivering slightly, 

"She would have gotten the wrong idea Phil, I'd rather just stay on the down low whilst we're here," he replied in a hushed tone. 

Phil frowned, 

"Are you going to tell me what happened here or not, because it's clearly bothering you," he said softly. 

Dan sighed, tossing his pack onto the rough, straw bed. 

"I'd rather not talk about it, but it wasn't good," he muttered, "We just need to wake up early tomorrow and find our guy, then we can be out of here and on our way to those eggs," 

"Are you sure you're alright?" Phil murmured, eyes brimming with concen, something that tightened Dan's stomach. 

"I'm just worried, I knew people here who did some pretty shitty things. I just hope that I don't see them," he sighed. Phil gave him a sympathetic smile. 

"Just know, whatever happens, I'll be there for you," 

Dan swallowed thickly, 

"Thanks Phil, I appreciate that," 

Phil flopped himself down onto the hard mattress without a second thought, barely having had time to kick his shoes off before he was unconscious. Dan could feel the weight of several days walking sitting on his shoulders like a pile of bricks, but he wasn't ready to sleep yet. He had thinking to do.

Why had he gotten so upset at the idea of never seeing Phil again? Why should it matter to him. Sure Phil was basically the only friend he'd had in ten years and he was really growing attached to the guy, but the only reason they were even travelling together was to help retrieve something he had stolen. Why were those pesky feelings of loss and longing plaguing his mind where they had no right to be there? 

Perhaps he wished they could have stayed together a little while, that for once he could have a friend, or maybe more than that. He wished the thoughts would go away, but the more he paid attention to them, the more the answer became clearer. An answer that would cause him nothing but pain, but was most definitely the truth. He had feelings for Phil. 

Part 6

When Dan awoke the next morning, he was crying, although he had no idea why. Foul thoughts danced briefly in his mind, before dissipating into the darkest depths of his brain as he was dragged forcefully from his restless slumber. Phil was standing over him, brow scrunched in needless worry. 

"Are you OK Dan?" he asked quietly, voice heavy and deep with sleep. Dan wallowed in the sound, letting it wash over him like a cool wave on a hot day, 

"Why wouldn't I be," Dan replied groggily. 

Phil reached forward, swiping his thumb across Dan's cheek so lightly he barely noticed, taking with it a single salty tear, holding it on his finger to show Dan.

"I think I was having a dream," he continued dismissively, "I've forgotten it now, it doesn't matter," 

“Are you sure?” Phil asked softly. Dan swallowed thickly,

“Come on, let’s go,” 

They left the inn, heading down the dim highstreet. The sun was rising on the horizon, but the streets were already busy. Dan’s eyes flicked from one person to another in the crowds, dreading that he might recognise one of them. He was being ridiculous, Northguard was one of the biggest cities this side of the silver sea, and it had grown enormously in the relatively short time he was gone. The chance he’d ever be recognised was incredibly slim.

“Do you know where we’re heading?” Phil asked, stopping and looking around at the numerous shop fronts that lined the streets.

Shit, of course Phil didn’t know where he could find the person they were looking for, Dan didn’t even know and he was the one pally with Mras.

“I kind of just assumed we’d be able to find them when we got here,” He said sheepishly, “Mras is a pretty influential guy though, it can’t be too hard to find his representative,”

“How about you just go wait back by the inn, and I’ll try and get some information?”

Dan snorted,

“Are you really sure that’s a good idea, you aren’t exactly the most socially adept,”

Phil rolled his eyes,

“Do you want to do it then?” 

“No, no, sorry. Don’t be too long, I’ll be waiting by the bar,”

Phil nodded and they quickly parted ways. Dan murmured a small prayer under his breath that Phil wouldn’t do anything that got himself hurt. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust him, it's more like he didn’t trust the people here to be very understanding of his eccentricity.

The bar was quiet, as it should be at the break of dawn. There was a passed out drunk in the corner and a few exhausted-looking travellers picking at a loaf of stale bread. The innkeeper frowned at him, he had only just left after all,

“Can I help you,” she asked coldly.

“I’m just waiting for my friend,” he said carefully, “Have you got anything non-alcoholic?”

“Water,” she replied stiffly.

“I’ll have a glass of water then,”

He must have been there for about an hour before Phil finally returned. A few people had come in and out, he had tried to strike up a conversation with the innkeeper once or twice, but apparently it was too early for anyone to be in a good mood.

“Thank god, did you find our guy?” he groaned, eager to leave this miserable place.

“Girl not guy, and yes. They have an office by the main market, it should be open by now,”

“Good, let’s go,” Dan replied, trying to push down the lump in his throat that formed when he thought of the market.

He was forced to squint as they emerged back into the city, sun having risen significantly in the hour he had spent uncomfortably nursing his glass of water.

“He led Phil towards the market through the twists and turns of labyrinth-like streets. They were deep into the old city now and stone buildings towered above them, casting them in shadow and giving Dan a comforting sense of enclosure and safety. Phil appeared to be a little more put off by it,

“Doesn’t it feel very claustrophobic to you? I mean I usually like clutter, but they could do with opening things out a bit,”

“Don’t worry, we’re almost at the market,”

Just as he got those words out, they turned a corner and the tight alleyways expanding out into a sprawling square, filled with colourful tents and shouting vendors. Tables were piled with everything from potatoes and apples to sparkling dresses and bundles of wool. Horses were lined up alongside them, tethered to a long fence dotted with troughs and bushels of straw for them to eat at. Each one was ladened with empty saddlebags, ready to be filled up with unsold produce once their masters decided to return home after a long day of vending.

“It’s a shame we can’t just nick a pair of those and be out of here,“ Dan sighed, nodding towards the horses.

“Haven’t you learned you’re lesson about stealing things,” Phil sighed. 

“I was only joking,”

They edged their way around the outskirts of the market, Phil eying the horses wearily as they snuck past. Eventually, they came to the correct building, knocking firmly on the door.

It was opened by a tall, dark-haired lady dressed in a smart shirt and trousers. She looked him up and down, pursing her lips,

“Can I help you?”

“We’re looking for Mras’s representative,” Dan replied quickly.

“Well, that would be me,” the women said, forcing out a small smile, “My name is Mrs Amble, you can call me just that. Do you have an appointment?”

“No, but it won’t take long,”

“That may be so, but I operate only by appointment,” she said firmly.

“We just need to know where Mras is,” Dan exclaimed, an unflattering amount of desperation creeping into his voice, “He’s a regular customer of mine, and I believe I have some items that he will be very interested in. I was told I could find is the current location here,”

Mrs Amble sighed,

“What’s the name,” she asked tartly,

“Daniel, Daniel Howell,”

She hummed thoughtfully.

“Howell? That name is quite familiar. You don’t have family around here by any chance?”

Dan shook his head firmly,

“No, it must be a coincidence. Can you give us the information we need or not,”

The woman held up her hands in defence,

“Alright, alright, give me a minute. I just have to make sure you’re on his approval list,”

Dan raised an eyebrow at her,

“He has an approval list?”

“Of course he does, he doesn’t want to be found by just anyone,” she replied, as though it were the most normal thing in the world.

She opened up a large book scanning the list of names,

“Ah, here we go. Daniel Howell, tall, brown hair, pretentious as hell,”

Phil giggled behind him,

“Seems about right,”

“He’s at his property on Enyer Island. I can arrange passage down to the coast, then you’ll have to get a ship over,” she said boredly. Phil let out a small groan,

“How long will that take?”

“Well we have a convoy leaving early tomorrow morning, then it’s a days journey to the beach, and around a day by boat if the wind is good,”

“Is there any way of getting there quicker?” Dan sighed, he didn’t like the idea of staying in Northguard for another night.

Mrs Amble shrugged,

“Not unless you can fly,” she said with a short laugh, “I can’t guarantee you’ll be able to get a boat unless you go with the envoy so I think that’d be your best bet. You can’t be that desperate to make your sale.

 Dan was about to open his mouth when Phil stepped forward,

“That sounds great, where do we meet?”

“Here will be fine, see you then,” the woman replied quickly, ushering them out, “Don’t be late,”

The door was closed and they were both left standing gout on the street,

“Why the hell did you agree to that?” Dan hissed.

“You heard what she said, it’s the quickest way,” Phil replied, frowning, “Why shouldn’t have we agreed,”

“Yes, I know,” Dan sighed, ”I just don’t want to spend another night in the city,”

“We’ll just go right back to the inn and stay in the room. What could possibly happen?”

Dan shuffled uncomfortably. He wanted to protest, but Phil looked exhausted. He had already caused enough delays to their plan. He let out a long groan,

“Fine, let’s go,”

They returned back to the inn they had spent the previous night, explaining to the long suffering that they would like another room. She handed over the key with a certain amount of trepidation and up they went.

Phil flopped down on the bed with a long sigh,

“Lord I can’t wait until this is all over,”

Dan hovered by the window, peeking out at the street below,

“It’s not been all bad, you like me right?” he replied with a slightly forced smile.

“Of course,” Phil said softly, “I’m just not used to all this. Besides, my feet hurt. Don’t yours?”

Dan shrugged,

“I’m used to it, if I wasn’t with I’d probably be on the other side of the kingdom by now,”

Phil grimaced,

“That sounds like too much work for me, once I’ve got those eggs back I’m going to sleep for like an entire week,”

They sat in silence for a little while, Dan drifting off into a daydream. His eyes became unfocused, but he didn’t feel like concentrating enough to resolve it. Besides, he was quite enjoying the beautiful blur that surrounded him. Eventually he yawned, the action causing his eyes to lock onto Phil.

The other man was looking at him with a soft expression on his face. He didn’t necessarily seem to be focused either, but it was still a little on. He straightened up, frowning. Phil flinched, as though coming back to reality,

“Sorry, I wasn’t creeping on you I swear,” he said jokingly. Dan shrugged,

“It wouldn’t be so bad if you were,” he sighed, almost to himself.

“Well, if that’s the case, I guess I was looking at you. I like your hair,”

Dan snorted, raising an eyebrow at him. He should be used to this by now, although he appreciated the complement. 

“Thanks I guess? What do you like about it?”

“It’s wavy, I wish my hair was wavy, and it matches your eyes,” he said softly.

Dan turned to face him properly. He didn’t know how to reply. What did Phil even mean by that? Usually he would have scoffed and shot him down. He was handsome, and he knew it, but he didn’t like being told it by others. It only made him anxious, but when Phil did it he didn’t mind so much.

“That’s not necessarily a good thing,” he said quietly, “I’d much rather have blue eyes, like yours,”

Phil shrugged,

“I think brown eyes are pretty, and they suit you,”

Dan tried to hide the smile that was tugging at his lips,

“Thanks,” he replied quietly, unsure of what else to say. Phil smiled in response and they slipped back into their respective daydreams.

Phil left not long after that to get them some dinner, Dan looking after him with an embarrassing amount of longing as he left. He didn’t like being left alone, especially here, and Phil brought him a certain amount of comfort. Soon the gentle chatter of people on the street outside softened and the sky grew red. It was replaced by the soft sound of music drifting up from the bar below. The melody was unfamiliar to him, played carefully on a slightly out of tune Vielle. He hadn’t heard music in so long.

He closed his eyes, humming along as soon as he got a feeling for the chorus. He almost didn’t notice Phil's return. He stood at the door looking slightly disheveled, but proudly brandishing two small pies. Dan frowned,

“Phil what did you do?”

“Nothing, I just tried to talk to the seller and he didn’t appreciate it. Apparently people don’t like outsiders around here, even if they are buying their food,”

Dan picked up the pie, cherishing its warmth.

“Some people just don’t like change,” he sighed.

"Do you know this song?" Phil asked absentmindedly. Dan shook his head with a small laugh, 

"No, I was just humming what I assumed the melody was going to be. It is nice though," 

Phil hummed in agreement, before his face lit up. 

"Wait, there's music!" he exclaimed. Dan frowned, 

"So?" 

"We're alone…" 

"Phil what's your point?" Dan groaned, taking a mouthful of overdone pastry. 

"Your promise. You said you would teach me how to dance if we were alone and there was music," he replied excitedly. 

Dan felt his stomach drop, 

"Phil I don't think that's a good idea," 

The other man's face fell, his happy grin replaced with a deep frown. It made Dan's stomach twist, he didn't like to see him look so sad. No, it was stupid. That promise was a joke, Phil had no right to look like Dan had just stabbed his puppy.

"Oh, OK," Phil replied quietly, sensing it was something that he shouldn't push. 

Dan's resolve lasted all of five minutes. He couldn't bare to see Phil disappointed. 

"Fine, I will teach you, but you have to remember that I'm not very good,"

Phil jumped to his feel, grin plastered onto his face, 

"That's fine, I wouldn't be able to tell anyway," he giggled, "What do I need to do," 

"You just stand there, I'll lead," 

For a moment Phil looked as though he wanted to object but he remained quite. 

Dan stepped forward, taking a deep breath. He placed his hand on Phil's waist, guiding his hand to his shoulder. 

"This feels weird," Phil whispered. Dan smirked, 

"Why, do you not like being touched?" 

Phil shook his head, 

"No, I'm just not used to it," 

"What about if I do this," Dan replied with a smirk, digging his hand into Phil's ribs. 

Phil squeaked in surprise, jumping away like a startled rabbit, 

"You're horrible," he exclaimed dramatically. 

"I was only messing," Dan giggled, gesturing for Phil to return back to the proper position, which he did only after ensuring he wasn't going to get poked again. 

Dan waited a moment for a new song to start, counting out the beats in his head. It was hard to concentrate with Phil so close. He could feel the other man's warm breath on his neck, and was acutely aware of how much he was sweating. His hands had grown clammy and he wanted desperately to wipe them off on his trousers. 

"Right when I tell you to, step back and I'll step forward. Then we have to move around in kind of a square pattern," Dan said nervously, quickly realising that he was in no way qualified to be teaching this. 

They got the first part right, but after that it was nearly impossible to coordinate together. Phil couldn't seem to get his lefts and rights worked out, and on the rare occasions he did get it right, his timing was all off. Dan must have stood on his toes twenty times before he gave up, and Phil vice versa. That being said, it wasn't as miserable as Dan had expected. 

Phil did not seem in the least bit dissuaded by his complete lack of skill, in fact he seemed almost delighted with it. There was a smile stretched across his face and he had taken to randomly twirling Dan around despite the other man's insistence that it had nothing to do with what he was trying to teach. Usually it would have annoyed Dan, that he wasn’t taking it seriously, but he could only find it endearing.

It wasn’t as though he wasn’t enjoying it as well. He hadn’t laughed this much in years. His grip on Phil became tighter, and he relaxed into his touch. Phil was warm, and he smelled good. Dan was tired, but he didn’t want to stop or leg go, he wouldn’t have an opportunity to be close to him like this ever again. The thought sent a sense of dread through him, their time together was coming to an end, but he wasn’t ready for that. He didn’t want to let go, he finally had a friend.

Part 7

Phil woke with probably the worst headache he had ever had in his life. Every movement sent spasms of pain through his body and the world around him was fuzzy and dark. It took him a while to realise he was on the hard wooden floor rather than the bed he was sure he'd gone to sleep in. Had he fallen out of bed and hit his head maybe. He brought his hand up to his head, finding it matted with a dark, metallic smelling substance which he assumed to be blood. Suddenly he jumped up, Dan! 

The human was nowhere to be seen, his bed empty, the duvet cast aside and one of the pillows in tatters. He stumbled over to it, vision foggy. Feathers littered the floor, spilling out of the cotton case. It had been sliced, not ripped, who could have done that? He remembered going to sleep, and at some point was awoken, but nothing after that. He hoped Dan was safe, he needed to find him! Fuck he should have listened. Dan didn't want to stay in Northguard for a reason, Phil had just been too selfish to see the danger. 

Unless...  could Dan have done this? No, he didn’t seem like the type.  Phil didn’t remember doing anything that might initiate a fight. He’d been so comfortable last night, maybe Phil had gone a bit too far again. He liked Dan, he wanted to be close to him, but that seemed to scare the human. Perhaps he’d done something wrong, perhaps this was all his fault.

It took him a moment to compose himself. The cut on his head stung like hell and the throbbing was so bad it was almost blinding. It had been a long time since he'd been able to get seriously hurt, he forgot how much it sucked. Eventually, he was able to take a deep breath, leaning out of the window and whistling. There was a flap of wings and almost immediately a pigeon came to land on the window sill next to him. It was scruffy and skinny, not like the plump, cheerful birds he was used back home. Still, it was worth a shot.

He tossed it a dried hunk of bread which it dove into with intense vigour, 

"Did you see anything strange last night?” He murmured in his best pigeon. The bird cooed in confusion.

“Did anybody come into this room late at night, or did someone leave?”

The pigeon thought for a moment, they weren’t all that bright so Phil waited quietly as not to scare it off. Finally, it cooed excitedly. 

Ok, so it wasn’t Dan. Someone was here. Why hadn’t they been stopped by the inn-keeper or even another guest? It must have been quite a racket. 

“Did you see where they went?”

The pigeon hopped up and down eagerly. Phil threw it the rest of the bread and rushed back to the bed, picking up both is and Dan’s bag. It was odd that they’d both been left behind, if it had been a robbery then they would have been taken surely?

He left as quietly as possible, not even bothering to return the keys. He kept his eyes down, emerging into the street, fear actually beginning to set in. What if Dan was hurt? Oh God, it would be all his fault. The pigeon flew from windowsill to windowsill, waiting until Phil got close before moving to the next one. Occasionally it flew over to other birds before making its decision. Hah, and Dan thought this skill was useless.

His eyes focused briefly on the darkened sky. It wasn’t long before the envoy would leave, and they were going to miss it, but in a way, he didn’t care. Of course, he needed to get those eggs back, as soon as possible, but he wasn’t going to abandon Dan. He’d grown attached to the human, a lot more than he should. It was going to be hard saying goodbye, not yet though.

Phil’s dread grew the further they got. Eventually, they got out of the inner city and the houses were beginning to thin. The pigeon went from branch to branch rather than window to window, chirping impatient as Phil hung back nervously. His eyes scanned the woodlands. He should be used to it, but these eyes were terrible. Everything was black, the dim moonlight which would have once guided his way could barely break through the canopy. It made him jumpy.

It took him a while to realise they were actually following a path. Soon a flickering light came into view. He thanked the pigeon and crept closer, realising that it was a small house. The walls were of rough grey stone with a straw roof. There was a small pen with a pig laying in the mud and a stack of firewood next to the door. Why would they have taken Dan there? It looked fairly harmless. Maybe hs informant had gotten it wrong?

He considered briefly simply knocking on the door, but he didn’t imagine it would go well. If Dan wasn’t there then he’d just be bothering a random family in the early hours of the morning and if he was, well they weren’t exactly going to admit it were they? He moved quietly around the side of the house, trying to see if there was anywhere he could peek in. There was light in the window, and he jumped back upon seeing movement.

He dropped down onto his hands and knees behind a bush, looking through the leaves as if he would be able to see anything at all. What was he going to do? He wasn’t used to this, he couldn’t deal with people at all. That was why he’d brought Dan with him in the first place. What if he fucked everything up, what if he got Dan killed, what if he got himself killed? He should have protected Dan, how could he have let this happen.

Eventually, he managed to build up the confidence to get closer to the house, peeking in through the window. At first, it seemed pretty ordinary. There were three people milling around the small room and a fire flickering comfortingly in the corner. They seemed to be deep in conversation although Phil couldn’t work out what they were saying.

He pressed his ear to the hard stone as if it would help anything at all. Upon realising that he was just being stupid, he decided it would be more helpful to try the next window. The leaves rustled and cracked beneath his feet, but one particular step the sound was different, more hollow perhaps. He frowned, bending down and carefully brushing the leaves aside, finding beneath it a small metal grating. 

It must look into a cellar of some sorts, and as he peeked in, staring back up at him was a familiar pair of warm blue eyes. Dan! Dan’s eyes went wide as if in shock, followed immediately by a flood of relief.

“How did you find me,” Dan hissed, looking about himself wearily. Phil shrugged,

“Doesn’t matter, only matters that we can get you out,”

Dan brought up his arms to show off his bindings, thick rope wound tightly around his arms and legs.

“Maybe if I can pull this grating off I’ll be able to hoist you up,” Phil whispered.

Dan shook his head,

“It’s too small of a gap. You’ll have to go in the front, maybe they’ll leave soon,”

Suddenly there was a crack of broken twigs behind him and before Phil could so much as turn around there was a cold blade pressed to his neck. Shit.

“Come to save your boyfriend have you?” A deep voice sneered. Phil swallowed thickly. They hadn’t killed him before, hopefully, they wouldn’t now.

“No Markus, don’t hurt him. I’m only travelling with him because I owe him a debt, let him go,” Dan exclaimed desperately,

“I gave him his chance,” The man hissed, “Get up, come with me or I’ll slit your throat,”

Phil got shakily to his feet and was pulled back round to the front of the horse. The door was thrown open and he was yanked inside. Without even a word to the other residents, he took Phil down to the cellar, binding his hands and pushing him down next to dan.

“There we go, reunited at last. Don’t cause any trouble, we’ve got to figure out what to do with you,”

Phil waited until the man had left, frozen with cold fear.

“Dan, who are these people? Why did they take you, what did they want?”

Dan didn’t look at him, eyes focussed on his feet, lids heavy. There was bruising on his face and all song his arms. Phil wanted desperately to vanish them away, tell him everything was going to be fine. He’d never seen the other man look so defeated.

“These,” Dan said with a heavy sigh, “Are my family or at least some of them. They threw me out when I was a teenager, said I was a disgrace. They warned me, they warned me and I should have listened. They said if I ever came back they’d find me and I’d regret the day I was born and look where we are now,”

“I’m so sorry,” Phil murmured, “I didn’t know, I should have listened. We wouldn’t have even come here if it weren’t for me,”

Dan shook his head slowly,

“It’s ok, we had a task to do, you couldn’t have known,” His voice was tired and raspy,, as though he’d been screaming for hours.

“Have they hurt you,” Phil asked worriedly.

“No, well nothing but these,” he replied, gesturing to his bruises, “But they will. You shouldn’t have come looking for me, you should have just left me behind and gone with the envoy,”

Phil frowned deeply,

“I couldn’t have done that, you’re my friend. I care about you,”

Dan laughed coldly,

“You barely know me, and after all this, you’re just going to bugger off and abandon me like everyone else so why does it matter,”

“You don’t want me to leave?”

Dan sniffed softly, leaning over to rest his head on Phil’s shoulder,

“Of course not. You’re the only friend I’ve had since I was a kid. You’re just so nice, why don’t you hate me. We only met because I screwed you over, well your boss I guess,”

“You didn’t know what you were doing,” Phil replied softly, “I shouldn’t have made you come, but I am glad we met,”

Dan sighed.

“Yeah, me too. Even if we are about to die,” he said with a pained laugh.

“I’m sure it won’t come to that, we can figure something out,”

The door to the cellar swung open and two men marched down the stairs, one taking Dan the other Phil. They were pushed up into the main living area.

“Daniel, aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend,” One of the men exclaimed, voice frighteningly light. Dan shuffled uncomfortable next to him, eyes darting around the room. The man’s amused grin morphed into more of a glower and he repeated the question,

“Did you know just hear what I said boy, tell us who the scrawny lad is or I’ll force it out of you,”

“He’s just Phil,” Dan replied, voice timid and terrified, “I nicked something off his boss and he’s just here to get it back. Let him go, this is none of his business,”

One of the men scoffed,

“Really, well you two seemed to be very chummy earlier,”

He turned to look a Phil, examining him in the flickering firelight,

“Tell me ‘Phil’, do you know why Danny here isn’t welcome in this city?” he sneered. Phil shook his head, cringing away as his face drew closer. What could he have possibly done to warrant all of this?

“He is the work of the devil, a tempter, an abomination,”

He turned back to Dan, eyes dark,

“Do you remember that young man you were so fond of, the blacksmith’s son? He’s married now to a wonderful woman, they have two lovely children. I always knew you were the one that led him astray. I bet his memories of you are field with disgust,”

Phil frowned,

“Let me get this straight. You kidnapped him in the middle of the night, dragged him all the way out here, and plan to do lord know’s what, all because he was a little too fond of a guy when he was a kid,”

The man growled,

“He brought shame to our family! Why do you think we live out here? People think we harbour heretics and evil, and it’s all because of him! We were too kind on you Daniel, we only cast you out. We should have cut you down where you stood. We won’t make the same mistake,”

Phil could feel his blood boiling. This was ridiculous. Humans and there messed up beliefs. He wasn’t going to let them hurt Dan, his Dan. How could they? The fire that smouldered behind them began to blaze a little brighter. He closed his eyes, letting out a long breath. He had to concentrate.

Soon he felt his binding disintegrate into ashes, floating softly to the floor behind him, glowing orange with heat. The man stepped back,

“How the hell did you do that? Demon,”

Phil took in a deep breath, fire turning now into a raging inferno, spewing out from the fireplace and igniting the soft straw bedding that surrounded it. 

Dan was looking at him with wide frightened eyes, but Phil didn’t have time to apologise or explain, he grabbed the younger man and ran. Their kidnappers were two reoccupied with trying to dampen the fire to pursue. The burning house illuminated the forest, casting dark shadows amongst the blazing red.

Even as they drew closer to the city, they could see the smoke rising up from the treetops. Phil felt a cold wash of dread come over him. Oh God, what had he done?

Part 8

Dan’s breathing was ragged and harsh as they pulled into a dark alleyway, confident that they had not been followed. The faint smell of smoke clung to their costs and images of dancing flames played in his mind. He looked down at his wrists and ankles, which by all logic should still have been bound, but were instead moving freely. There was a ring of white ash where the rope had once been but only the slightest feeling of warmth against his skin.

“What the fuck,” he muttered, looking about himself in a state of panic. Phil was looking back at him with those big blue adorable eyes, but the expression of triumph he might have expected given their miraculous escape wasn’t there. Instead, he had gone very pale, lips pressed into a tight line. 

Dan's breathing hitched, because it wasn't miraculous, Phil had made it happen. How had he done that, how had he burned down a fucking house? Dan's mind flashed back to back at the house, how the once seemingly harmless man's eyes had glowed ember red. What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck.

They stood in a shocked silence, both staring intensely at each other for a good few minutes. Dan searched Phil’s face again for any signs of the beast he’d sworn he’d seen, but there was nothing. His skin was a soft peach, cheeks just a hint of pink from the running. His soft hair was tousled and messy, and dan thought about how much calmer he’d be if he could just run his hands through it.

“You saved me?” he said, voice full of uncertainty. Phil nodded slowly, eyeing Dan as though he were a rabbit about to bolt. 

“But how? How did you do that?” he muttered, backing away ever so slightly. "What happened to you?"

"I didn't do anything, we just got lucky, " Phil murmured . Dan gritted his teeth, 

"Don't lie to my Phil," he exclaimed angrily, although it was more fearful than anything else, "I've had a shit enough day as it is, tell me what you did. Ropes don't just disappear, houses don't just burst into flames, eyes don't randomly turn red," 

"That was probably just the light playing tricks on you," Phil said solemnly, as if he knew it was useless. 

"I know what I saw," 

Phil let out a deep sigh,

“Think about it Dan,” he said softly, "Just think about it, and please don't freak out. I'm not going to hurt you, I'd never hurt you, " 

Dan recoiled as Phil reached out to comfort him, the gears in his brain whirring so loud he swore they were physically audible. What the fuck was he supposed to think? So was he magic, could he somehow control fire? Maybe he was a witch, he'd suspected it before. Would that explain the weird eyes though? He should have known something was wrong. All that stuff with the calling him 'human', the general weirdness, it was obvious. Why would a dragon hire a human anyway? That was so obviously a lie, he should have trusted his instinct. Why would he be so desperate to get the eggs back though. Unless… 

He swallowed thickly, eyes blowing wide. No, that was impossible. 

“Phil, are you a dragon?” he said quietly, voice just barely above a whisper.

Phil took his lip between his teeth. Dan felt his eyes drawn to it, immediately pulling them away when he realised what he was doing. 

“No, of course not, I’m human,” He murmured, eyes flicking down to his feet, “Well I am now,”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dan almost yelled, "You need to tell me the truth right now or I swear to god I'm going to ram a curtain pole so far up your ass you can taste it!" 

He was breathing heavily and clenching his teeth so hard he thought they might crack.. Why could nobody ever tell him the truth, as if he hadn't gone through enough shit today. A flash of gut shot through him, however briefly and he closed his eyes trying to calm down. Phil had just saved his life, he should be pulling him into a big hug and thanking  him with all his heart, not shouting at him. Then again it was only going after Phil's bloody eggs that had taken them here in the first place. But, if he himself hadn't gotten greedy, then there would be no need to go after the eggs. 

“When you stole my eggs, I used some very old magic that I shouldn’t have done. I made myself human so I could find you and get them back. I’m sorry I should have told you. I never expected that I’d be like this for very long, I never expected to get so . . . close. I didn't want you to be afraid of me,”

There was a forlorn look on his face, and he seemed to shrink in on himself.

Dan's eyes lingered on him, mind racing. It was very hard to picture the generally bouncy but timid Phil as a great big lizard. He didn't think they would be smart enough to talk or express emotion, but it was very clear in this moment that Phil was extremely distressed. 

“Can you change back?” Dan asked quietly, unsure of what else to say. 

Phil nodded, 

“Yes, but I need something to help me with it, like a scale or claw. I think the eggs could work as well. If you hadn’t cleared out my nest I probably could have just flown to Eyer and I’d be back home by tomorrow,” He sighed with a harsh, clearly forced laugh. 

Dan swallowed thickly, picturing in his mind the slightly singed bag that Phil had managed to grab on the way out of the house and the contents within. He could tell him, he could tell him and It would solve all of Phil’s problems. But then Phil would leave him, and Dan wasn’t ready to let go.

“So they’re your eggs, your children?” He said suddenly, trying to distract himself but feeling sick to the stomach. Phil shuffled uncomfortably on the spot.

“Not quite, they belonged to a friend of mine,” he sniffed softly, “Unfortunately, she strayed too close to the human world and suffered for it. I took them on, I promised I’d take care of them,” He had to stop, voice faltering.

“I’m so sorry,” Dan murmured, tears pricking in his eyes. Phil shook his head,

“We’ve been through this, you didn’t know. Let’s just get them back yeah?” He replied quickly, handing Dan his bag. Dan took it quickly, wanting nothing more than to turn and launch it into the nearest wall. 

"You think I'm still going with you?" 

Phil's frown deepened. 

"Look, I'm not who I said I was, but it's not like I'm a different person," 

Dan crossed his arms tightly, tears forming in his eyes. He was so overwhelmed. Why was this happening to him. What had he ever done to deserve this.

"How do I know you're even telling me the truth. Is this just one great big practical joke? Was that why you forced me to come here? So that my fucking family could torment me one last time," he spat, desperately wiping at his eyes to stop those tears from flowing. 

Phil looked hurt, eyes wide and forlorn. 

"This is the truth, why would I ever do anything to hurt you. You're my friend,"

"How can I be your friend, you aren't even fucking human," Dan hissed. Phil straightened up, clearly trying his best to stay calm. 

"Well I am now thanks to you. I still have feelings and thoughts you know. Humans aren't that unique. Please, come with me. I need you. I like you Dan, you're funny and sweet, and I'm sorry so many shitty things have happened to you," 

Dan swallowed thickly, 

"You aren't just using me to get to Mras?" he said quietly. Phil shook his head, 

"No, absolutely not. I want you to come, truly," 

Dan made up his mind far quicker than he dared to voice it. If Phil hadn't just saved his life, if Dan didn't have a daunting and mind consuming crush on him, things might have been different. But he did, so the answer of the question 'will you come with me?' was a certain and resounding yes. 

He nodded and Phil's face was flooded with relief. He picked his own bag gingerly, as if any sudden mood would spook the human and send him fleeing. In all honesty Dan thought it might. 

The sun was slowly beginning to rise as they headed through the streets towards the meeting spot. Dan was beginning to calm down by now, guilt weighing heavy on his chest. It wasn't like he was wrong. Finding out your friend and traveling companion is a dragon is of course no small matter, and all that crap with his family was obviously going to scramble his head, but he still felt like he had been far too harsh. 

“Thank you again for coming to rescue me, Phil,” he said eventually, swallowing his pride and leaning in for a friendly shoulder bump. Phil turned to him and smiled weakly, “Yeah well you needed rescuing didn’t you,”  

“I’m sure I could have gotten out on my own,” Dan replied, feigning offence in an attempt to lighten the mood. Phil scoffed,

“No, you couldn’t, you needed me to come and save you,” he replied with a small grin. It stayed only briefly however before Phil forcibly returned his lips into a pressed line, as though the act of smiling was in some way inappropriate. 

“I’m sorry your family was so awful,” he said quietly, “You didn’t deserve that,”

Dan nodded slowly. This was the first time he had seen them in years, they had been willing to kill him. That was no family. For so long he had held their beliefs to heart, he wouldn't let them control him anymore, he couldn't. 

“I've always known they were crazy," he said with a strained laugh, "But I think I need to get it in my head that what they thought of me was crazy too. I won't believe them anymore," 

Phil wrapped his arm around him hesitantly, squeezing comfortingly. Dan almost melted, relishing in the warmth. His first reaction was to pull away, looking about himself in a panic, but he fought it, letting himself relax into Phil’s arms. Maybe one day he wouldn't feel so nervous. 

They arrived in the main square to a group of carriages and a slightly pissed off Mrs Amble tapping her foot impatiently. 

“I thought you were never going to show,” she announced, frowning when she spotted the state they were in. Dan became suddenly aware of the sharp stinging on his cheek, not helped by salty tears, raising his hand up to his face and hissing when it came into contact with swollen skin. Phil frowned, pressing his hand to the wound. Dan closed his eyes, expecting pain, but instead found himself humming softly as it dissipated slightly.

They perched onto the back of a goods cart, trying to ignore the strange look the driver was giving them as the horses shied desperately away from Phil. And with that they were off. 

Phil sighed deeply,

“I miss flying,” he groaned, “It’s so much easier than this crap,”

He was studying Dan as if to gauge his reaction. The human did his best to remain indifferent, but on the other hand he felt guilt flash through him.

He was deeply conflicted. On one hand if he gave Phil the tooth, he'd be off and Dan would be free, on the other hand, well, Phil would be off and Dan would be alone. Even in his fear he hadn't wanted to give Phil the means to abandon him, because deep down even then he'd known he didn't want Phil to go. 

Besides, it might end up better anyway. If he could convince Phil to stick with him, he might be able to convince Mras to hand over the eggs peacefully. Yes, it was defiantly5 for the best that Phil remained as a human. Besides, maybe if they spent enough time together, Phil wouldn’t want to fly off and leave him all alone.

“I can’t believe I never figured out you’re a dragon,” He announced, much louder than he needed to in an effort to curb his racing thoughts. Not that it really mattered, everyone was going to think they were a bunch of looneys anyway, “When do dragons just go around hiring people?” 

Phil grinned,

“I must have been doing an excellent job at pretending to be human then,” he said smugly,

“You weren’t,” Dan replied fondly, his attempt at exasperation falling flat on its face.

Phil turned to face him, eyes soft. Dan was transfixed.

“You’re taking this quite well,” he murmured softly. Dan shrugged.

In all honestly, he was finding it kind of hard to deal with. He’d known Phil was a little odd, he should have figured this out way sooner. Maybe it was the way he always felt warm and safe when they were together, how he enjoyed their conversations and Phil’s quirky personality. Maybe that’s why he didn’t want to turn and flee.  

“It does suck a little,” he said eventually, “I kind of wish I could have come and lived with you in the forest, away from everyone else,”

“You still could,” Phil said quietly. Dan gave him a strange look,

“Well not if you were a dragon all the time,” he said with a forced laugh, "I'd go mad just talking to myself," 

“I wouldn’t have to be a dragon all the time,” Phil said absentmindedly, “I could still take some time for you, in this form I mean, ”

Dan’s eyes went wide,

“Really?”

“Yeah, of course, you’re my friend,” Phil smiled, leaning into Dan’s shoulder, “Maybe I could turn you into a dragon,”

Dan wrinkled his nose,

“What? A great big, flying magical reptile?"

He paused. 

Actually that does sound pretty cool,” he muttered after a moment of concideration. 

Phil laughed softly,

“I don’t think that would be a very good idea, imagine how clumsy you would be,”

Dan rolled his eyes,

“If you could fly then so could I, you have absolutely no coordination whatsoever, "

Phil crossed his arms, giving Dan a look which was obviously supposed to come off as unimpressed, but instead was stomach churningly fond. Dan had to turn away for a moment, taking a deep breath. 

"Of course I'm not very coordinated. I'm in the wrong body. That's not my fault," 

Dan shrugged in defeat, laughing softly. 

"What is this body then, how did you get it? Like did you steal someone else's or create it from scratch," he asked curiously. If he had just nicked it then he'd certainly made a good choice. 

Phil shrugged, 

"I don't really know, I think it's just what popped into my head when I thought 'human'. I do like it though," 

Dan nodded in agreement, smile tugging at his lips. 

"I do to," 

Part 9

It didn't take long to reach the coast. Dan was dozing off in the back of the cart, sun warm on his face. He had stretched out across the hard wooden planks, legs swung over Phil's thighs. It was a bold move, but one he was willing to risk. Phil was staring straight ahead, lost in a daydream, occasionally brushing his fingers across Dan's calves. The air grew crisper, the wind stronger, leaving the faintest traces of salt across his drying lips. 

They joined the road that ran along the tops of the harsh cliffs, vegetation morphing from tall forests to tough and sparsely scattered grass. Dan was captivated by the rolling hills that had become so clear in the distance now that they were free from obstruction. He imagined standing at the top, bracing against the wind and looking down on the world below. That was the closest he'd ever get to flying. What drew the most attention, however, was Phil. 

He was looking longingly over at the sparkling blue water and it stood eerily still, despite the rough sea breeze. It sparkled with every disturbance, hinting at what lay in the depths below. Dan shuddered, it was always his fear that he’d be swimming out in the open ocean and his foot would touch something rather worrying. He hoped to god his feet could stay firmly in a dry, buoyant boat and not be plunged into the pleasant, but cold looking water beneath.

He wondered if they would live somewhere like this, slough far away from civilisation, once all this was over. If Phil was being serious that is. Dan wanted so much to believe that the future was set in stone, and not instead faintly imprinted onto the thick fleece of a sheep. Prone to disappear at the faintest ruffle, or in fact be shorn off altogether should the weather change too much.

“What do you think Mras is going to say?” Phil murmured, “About giving the eggs back I mean?”

Dan shrugged,

“He won’t be happy. You should have seen his eyes when I gave them to him, it was as though they were the largest jewels in the world,”

“More precious than any jewel,” Phil sighed.

“What if he doesn’t give them back?”

Phil shrugged,

“Then we make him, I don’t want it to come to that but I will do anything I can to get them back,”

Dan swallowed thickly, images of dancing flames playing behind his eyelids.

“I’m sure we can convince him to hand them over peacefully, I’m quite the charmer,” He said with a wink. Phil rolled his eyes, looking unconvinced,

“Sure you are,”

Eventually, the cart rolled into a small port town and they were ordered off. The houses that surrounded them were light sandstone rather than the harsh grey rock back in Northguard. The feeling was brighter, airier, Dan was almost sad they had to leave. Before he had much time for admiring they were herded onto a somewhat lopsided pier and into a fairly large wooden sailing boat with a great canvas sail. Dan looked up at it in awe. He’d never been on one of these before.

Phil sat uneasily on one of the long wooden benches, peering over the edge as water lapped softly against the hull.

“You don’t like it?” Dan asked, striding around the deck to pull at the various bits of rope that hung down from the mast.

“I’m just not used to it,” Phil said quietly. 

“Yeah well neither am I and I don’t look terrified. Surely this isn’t any worse than flying?”

Phil shrugged.

“I trust my own wings, I know they will not falter unless I falter myself. I feel like this thing could tip at any time and I would be in the mercy of the ocean,”

“Look, this ship has probably sailed this route a hundred times before, and it’s still in one piece. There’s nothing to worry about,”

He gingerly took Phil’s hand in his, squeezing gently. After a moment the let his own hand slacken, expecting Phil to pull his away. Instead, they remained interlocked, albeit loosely. Dan suddenly became hyper aware of the sailors that milled about the deck around, but tried to push those thoughts down. Phil needed comfort and he was going to give it to him. Internal fears be damned.

Unfortunately, however, it seemed that Dan had been wrong, and Phil did have something to worry about.

Almost as soon as they got into open water, and the once seemingly still water became rougher and rougher, Phil’s already pale complexion turned a sickly green. His head was resting on the outer edge of the hull, eyes pressed shut. He already emptied the contents of his stomach overboard and looked as though he was planning to do the same with his wearied body.

“How are you not dying,” he groaned, peaking an eye open to look at Dan. Dan laughed softly,

“I don’t know, maybe because I don’t get seasick. It happens with some people. Besides, they said we’d be there before tomorrow morning. The wind is in our favour thank God, it’s the only thing that ever is,”

“Don’t laugh at me, it’s not funny. You’re just lucky,” Phil sighed.

Dan shook his head fondly, giving his shoulders a quick squeeze. He might have gone in for a full hug if the other man didn’t smell vaguely of vomit.

When they arrived at the island, they were whisked away almost immediately. The house sat high on the island, overlooking the barren, windswept slopes below. A wide, winding path led up to a pair of impressive gates which they were unceremoniously shoved through. Why anyone would decide to build a holiday home here was beyond Dan.

“Finally, " Phil muttered, looking up at the house with pursed lips."It's a pretty nice, I hope I don't have to burn it down," 

They were led through the front doors after a quick and awkward frisk by one of the many guards. Actually, there seemed to be guards all over the place, he couldn't imagine why such a remote area would have to be so heavily fortified? Maybe Mras was more paranoid than he thought. They were greeted by a butler almost as soon as their feet crossed the hearth. 

"We have informed the master of your arrival, he is quite perplexed. He'll be waiting for you in the study," he said sternly. 

Dan nodded with a slight smile, but hung back, leaning in close to Phil. 

"Let me do the talking. If everything goes to shit you grab the eggs and I'll deal with Mras OK?" He whispered, eyes darting around the grand entrance hall.

Phil nodded hesitantly, face going blank as he tried to put on his best 'serious business' expression.  I wasn’t that convincing but Dan appreciated the effort. 

The butler turned, giving them a warning look.

Mras’s study was like nothing Dan had ever seen before, and he’d been forced to observe many collections in his time as the supplier of them. The room was as large as a house, open and uninterrupted by columns or walls. The ceiling was high, supported by thick, strong wooden beams embedded into the hard stone walls. Bookcases lined the walls, but instead of books, there were bottles and vials or small glass chests fastened with brass locks. In the centre, there was an enormous tree, its leaves a fiery red.

Whilst Dan gaped as the vast number of items that lined the walls, Phil’s eyes were locked on two items in particular. Specifically the two perfect blck eggs, propped up on soft silk cushions by the fire. Mras eyed him wearily, putting himself between Phil and the eggs. Phil let out an almost audible growl of annoyance.

“Why are you here Dan? Are you going to show me your new inventory or what? And who’s your friend?”

Dan turned sharply,

“I lied, I don’t have anything to sell you, rather I want to buy something back,”

Mars pursed his lips, quickly growing tense,

“I don’t appreciate being misled, nor will I indulge you by hearing you out. Get out,” 

He spoke calmly, but the undertone to his voice was deep and dangerous. Dan swallowed thickly,

“The eggs, I need them back. I will return your gold in full and you never have to see me again,”

Mras shook his head, face becoming increasingly red,

“I will not hear of it, they are my most prized possessions, I should have known nobody could give them up so easily,”

“You are right, I should not have given them up so easily, but only because they weren’t mine to sell. I must return them to their original guardian,” Dan replied calmly, fear beginning to creep up his spine. Fuck, why couldn’t something just go right for once,

“Well tough, they’re mine now,” The wealthy man stated, not raising his voice despite the veins growing ever more present on his face. He stepped forwards suddenly, grabbing Dan by his wrist and hauling him towards the door with a surprising amount of strength. He was pushed to the floor, scrambling to get up before the butler, who had been looming ever closer throughout their conversation, got his hands on him.

Phil pulled him to his feet, ushering him away from both men. Dan wasn't one to cower in a fight, but Phil would protect him,  and he was far more capable in this situation than Dan could ever be now the talking was done. He kept behind him, one hand twisted in the fabric of his shirt in both fear of being separated and the desire to let Phil know that everything was going to be okay.

"Those eggs are mine," Phil said firmly, "You can't keep them,"

Mras scoffed, 

"Called dibs on them did you? I bought them for a fair price, where they came from before that has nothing to do with me,"

"You cannot possibly care for them when they hatch, what are you going to do then," 

Mras splayed his hands, looking around his collection in all its splendor,

"Look about you boy, I am one of the wealthiest men in the known world. Who else would be in a better position to raise them, even to feed them alone would bancrupt most. They shall be my loyal beasts, a teatime to my success," he exclaimed almost joyfully. 

Phil groaned in a foul mix of frustration and distaste, 

"They aren't beasts, they are children. They belong with one of their own,"  

"And I'm supposed to trust that you will deliver them to one? For all I know you've simply found a higher bidder, and your friend here regrets being so hasty in selling them to me," 

"I do regret it, but that isn't the reason," Dan grumbled, earning a light 'shut up' nudge from Phil. 

"I have no interest in money, I just want to get those eggs back where they belong, and you aren't going to stop me," 

"Those eggs belong here, with me, and they are never leaving," Mras spat, hovering over them possessively.

Phil closed his eyes and Dan braced, moving himself away from the fire. The flames once again began to jump, but Phil hesitated, letting them settle once more. 

" What are you doing? Start the fire, " Dan murmured. 

Phil shook his head, 

"I can't, the eggs are too close,"

Dan groaned, 

"Are you telling me dragon eggs aren't immune to fire? Phil they're dragon eggs. Isn't fire your whole shtick?" 

 "Yes but I can still burn in this body, who's going to grab them when they're engulfed in flames, you?" 

Mras stepped back fearfully, 

"What are you? Never mind, I'll have you both killed for this. You come into my home under false pretences, you threaten to take my possessions, and now you threaten me. I won't stand this sort of disrespect. I have treated you well scavenger, and this is how you repay me?"

Phils hand moved down until it was finally grasped firmly around Dan's wrist, 

"I think we need to leave, right now," 

"But your eggs," Dan hissed. 

"We can deal with that later, but for now I really don't want you killed," 

They rushed past the butler who made an attempt to grab them, hand gripping at the fabric of Dan's shirt but ultimately failing to hold on. 

Mras shouted for the guards but they were already out of the door and halfway up the drive before any of them understood what was going on. A few made a feeble attempt to chance but they were weighed down by heavy armour. Besides it wasn't like they had anywhere to go. They were trapped on the island and there was no way they would get down to the Dock in time before the alarm was sounded. 

"Fuck Phil, what do we do?"

Phil groaned in frustration, 

"I don't know, there must be somewhere we can hide and wait this out, let's just be glad they don't have bows," 

Almost as if on cue an arrow whizzed past Dan's head, sticking firmly into the ground ahead, their run became more desperate as they regaled how out in the open they were. A few more hit the earth with loud thumps around them before they were able to get to the edge of the cliff, flinging themselves down the steep and poorly kept track for cover. 

They ran along the beach for a little while, arriving in a cave gasping for breath.

"I don't know how that could have gone any worse," Dan gasped. Phil placed his finger to his lips, listening intently. At first only the crashing of the waves could be heard, thunderous against the rocky beach, but slowly the sound of clanking armour and shouts became clearer. 

"They're going to find us eventually, and we'll be slaughtered," Phil murmured. 

Slowly dread began to take hold of Dan. He never thought this was going to happen, was he really going to die. Surely Mras had some humanity, or had his obsession over those damn eggs stripped it all away? 

Phil stepped forward, bringing him into a strong hug. Dan buried his face in the dragons chest, relishing in his warmth. 

"I won't let them harm you Dan, even with a sword though my heart I'd stand for you. Don't cry, please don't cry it's all going to be okay," 

There was nothing he could do, Dan knew that, but it didn't stop the words from bringing comfort to him. 

"If we get out I'm going to come and live with you, I hope you meant it seriously when you said I could. We can have a nice house by the sea, so far away we'll never be bothered by anyone else," 

Phil smiled, holding him tighter still, 

"Yes we will," 

"I like you Phil, like I like. I don't care that you aren't human, or if you don't feel the same, I just think you ought to know," 

Phil placed a kiss on top of his head, 

"I like you to," he said with a grin, "If only we weren't having this revelation in such a dire circumstance," 

"I know," Dan groaned, giggling slightly , "Such a cliche."

In that moment he almost didn't care that they were about to be murdered. And then he realised he didn't have to. The tooth. 

Part 10

"Phil please listen, and don't be mad," Dan said suddenly. Phil pulled back, looking concerned. 

"I think I have a way out of this. How long does it take you to complete the spell that turns you back into a dragon?" 

Phil shrugged, 

"A couple of minutes, don't need much for the reversal. I don't have anything relating to my past self though, nothing I can use to complete it. Else I would have done it a long time ago don't you think," 

Dan but his lip, trying to push down the guilt that was steadily rising in his stomach. Maybe it was just best to die with the knowledge that he might have had a chance with Phil, rather than ruin it all so soon after it had begun. Then again that would also lead to Phil's death and that simply wasn't fair. Besides he didn't want to die,  it now he had hope for the future. 

"I'm sorry, I lied to you as well, I didn't want you to just leave. Please you're the only friend I've had in years," he said quietly, words sticking in his throat, thickening into a vile sludge that choked him. Phil frowned, 

"What are you on about?" 

Dan let out of drawn out sigh, 

"I didn't sell everything, I kept a tooth. I thought if I gave it to you, you'd abandon me. I'm sorry," 

Phil stood mouth agape, 

"What the fuck Dan, we could have saved so much time. I would have taken you with me anyway you idiot. Give it here," 

Dan handed it over, resisting the urge to grovel at Phil feet for fear of wasting time. 

"You stay here, find somewhere to hide, lie down and don't move until I come and get you," Phil said sternly, storming out of the cave, tooth clutched in hand. 

Where was he going, he was going to get himself shot. Dna began to run after him, hesitating by the opening in the rock. It was all going to be OK, everything was going to be fine. It had to be. God this was all such a mess. 

Suddenly the crashing of waves was smothered by a terrifying cry, deafening and inhuman. He recognised it deep in his heart, it was the same awful noise he'd heard all those nights ago when he thought it would be a good idea to pluck two eggs from the safety of their nest. 

So Phil had done it, he was a dragon again. That meant they'd be safe, right. Almost immediately after that thought flashed across his mind an arrows slammed into the rock a foot or so from his head, splintering upon impact and sending shards of wood pattering onto the stony floor. Fuck, he should have been hiding. 

He ducked behind the opening, contemplating his options. Either he waits in here for someone to come in here and slaughter him like a pig in a pen, or he makes a break for it and hopes for the best. If there's an enormous dragon flying overhead surely he isn't going to be top priority? It didn't take him long to make up his mind. 

He darted out of the cave, quickly taking shelter behind some nearby rocks. There were two guards hovering on the beach, occasionally looking fearfully to the sky. Their bows were drawn, ready to hit anything that moved. Dan could sense their fear from here, in the way they held themselves and their quick movements. He imagined they would not be in the best state for making good shots, but then again he didn't really want to risk it. He cowered behind the rock, praying they had not seen him leave the cave. 

They continued to approach the entrance, repeatedly detracted by the cacophony of noise sounding from the cliff above. There were shouts of orders, crashes that shook the very earth he stood on, punctured every now and again by that awful roar. It left his ears ringing, yet he had yet to lay eyes on the creature who made it. 

A man appeared on the edge of the cliff, calling down to the two guards, gesturing for them to come up. They nodded in agreement, drawing their swords, and sticking their heads through the opening of the cave, reading to cut the throat of anyone hiding within. Upon seeing that it was empty, they turned and began to scramble up the steep grass track to join the rest of their squad. Dan let out a long sigh of relief.

He sat there for a little longer, until the cacophony became muffled and the ground stilled. Had Phil won, what was going on? What if they'd killed him, oh god what if he was dead. The fear continued to creep through him as he forced himself to wait, eventually becoming too much. He stood up, legs cracking after so long crouched in the same position and crept towards the path. 

Eventually he was able to stick his head over the edge of the cliff, nostrils filled with the stench of smoke. The house was aflame, the study gone, reduced to rubble. There were burnt patches in the grass covering the island, although thankfully it appeared to be free from casualties. The soldiers huddled in a small cluster, Mras at their centre, and towering above them was a magnificent blue dragon. 

His scales shimmered water under a bright sun, eyes a flaming red. It did not seem however that he had gone completely untouched by the fight, arrows pierced the thin membrane of his wings, a few others were still lodged into his legs and belly, wedged between scales. Dan watched as one by one the guard's nerves failed, fleeing the group until only Mras remained, carrying in his arms the two eggs. 

Dan got up from his position, moving towards the dragon and his target. Perhaps he would be able to convince Mras to stand down. Phil had clearly avoided hurting anyone, had he willed it the earth would have been littered with corpses. It wasn't like the rich man had any other choice, he had to see hy now that he couldn't hold onto those eggs for much longer. 

"Mras give up," Dan exclaimed, stumbling over the rough, charred ground. 

"This was your doing?" the merchant sneered. 

"Does it matter? Hand over the eggs and we'll let you go," 

Mras shook his head desperately, 

"I can't, I need them. I will only spend the rest of my life dreaming of them if I give them up. Don't you see, I am their guardian now, " 

Phil growled, wings flaring, silhouette blocking out the dimming sun and casting them both into shadow. 

"No you aren't, you never were and you never will be. We don't want to hurt you Mras but you must give them back to us," 

"Never," Mras growled, clutching onto his precious cargo with such fervent possession that Dan worried he might crush them under his grip. 

Suddenly there was a searing pain in Dan’s foot and he let out a strangled cry. He looked down with horror to find an arrow sticking out from his foot, having hit with such force that it had gone all the way through and embedded firmly into the soil beneath. A frightened guard hovered on the fringe on the field, darting away as Phil turned to face him, teeth bared. 

Mras took his opportunity to run, as if it would do him any good. He made it maybe ten feet before being  engulfed in flame. Dan might have screamed in horror as the man collapsed to his knees, grieving for a life he did not necessarily like but ought to be there just the same. Instead he fell to his own knees, vision going foggy as the pain in his leg became unbearable.

He could feel every pulse of his heart, his boot was quickly becoming sodden with a steady stream of warm blood. He lifted his foot, snapping off the arrowhead which sent a wave of agony throughout his entire body. Then he grasped the wooden shaft, yanking it out in one quick movevent. He’d hoped that once it was gone the pain would ease, but blood only continued to flow. He was quickly becoming weaker and weaker. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the great blue dragon approaching. Maybe he’d be put out of his misery.

When Dan woke, it was with the worst headache he’d ever had to endure. He felt like he’d been out drinking for seven consecutive nights and every hangover and rolled into one. The surface on which he lay was cold and flat, although a thin blanket had been wrapped tightly around him. He tried to sit up, immediately letting out a long groan as his head turned fuzzy. There was a sligh grunt to his side and he turned to see Phil lying next to him, looking equally awful, although surprisingly in his human form. 

“Shhh, don’t try to get up, you lost a lot of blood,” he murmured, voice hoarse.

Dan looked down to see his foot tightly wound in strips of cloth, already soaked with blood. He grabbed his forehead, desperate to stop the pounding in his skull,

“What happened, where are we?”

Phil shrugged,

“I don’t know. You fainted and I didn't know what to do. There were so many guards still around, I just picked you up and flew as far as I could. I took a quick look round, there isn’t anybody for miles and miles,”

Dan nodded slowly. They were close o a beach, he could taste it on his lips, and the sun was bright and warm as it shone down through the canopy of the trees above. The trees were strange, with broad leaves and thick, fibrous trunks. He could see fruit on some of them, flowers on others. It was a beautiful sight.

“I’d take you back to the mainland, but I'm too weak to fly right now. You don’t mind waiting do you?” Phil yawned. Dan frowned,

“No, I don’t want to go back, I want to stay here with you. You said I could, you promised,”

Phil’s eyes were on the floor, shoulders hunched,

“You saw me kill someone Dan, you watched me burn someone alive and you still want to be with me?” He said softly. Dan shrugged, but in his kind he hesitated.

Ok, so Phil had murdered Mras, a long time customer and seeming okay guy, but it hadn't been without reason. The merchant had ordered their deaths, he was the reason Dan was shot.

“To be fair I was quite distracted,” he replied with a forced laugh, gesting down to his bandaged foot. Phil gave him a look that pierced Dan right through his soul,

“You didn’t have a choice, and what’s done is done,” He said softly.

Pil nodded slowly, still looking unconvinced.

“What do we do now then?” he asked quietly. Dan shrugged.

“You’re the one who knows how to live it out here rough, I have no idea about all this surval crap,”

Phil rolled his eyes fondly,

“I can sort all that out, I meant what do we do about us? Do you still . . . like me?”

A grin spread across Dan’s face, despite how crappy he felt.

“Of course I do, you just saved my life for a second time, how could I resist such a hero?” He exclaimed dramatically, although completely sincerely.

Phil smiled brightly,

“Really? Well, I like you too,” he smirked. Dan yawned, laying his head down onto the compact earth of the forest floor,

“Haven't we been through all of this before?”

Phil nodded,

“Yeah but I was just making sure. Everything is changing so fast, we only met two weeks ago but it feels like months,”

Dan sighed, 

“I know, it’s been mad. Are the eggs safe?”

Phil nodded with a smile.

“I won’t steal them this time,” Dan said weakly, earning a light and joking slap from Phil,

“Don’t you even dare. I just need to sleep,” he groaned.

“God what a mistake that was,” Dan sighed. 

“Not that much of a mistake, you got me afterall,” Phil replied with a wink. Dan rolled his eyes,

“Not so hung up on it now that they’re back are you,”

“Shut up, I’m making the best of a bad situation,”

“You’re ridiculous did you know that?” Dan yawned, feeling his eyelids growing heavy.

“Well you better get used to it,” Phil smirked. Dan hummed in agreement. Yes, he probably would.

Epilogue 

The sky was blue and clear, the air humid but not so much that it was oppressive. Dan sat on the beach, the soothing crashing of the waves washing over him as he absorbed the warmth of the summer sun. His hair blew in the wind, falling down into his eyes. He should probably ask Phil to cut it for him, or maybe not. He didn't exactly trust the man with anything sharp, especially so close to his face. He remembered when he would have had to visit a barber, or sit in front of the mirror in a dank old Inn room. He didn’t miss those days.

Curled in his lap was a bundle of red scales, tail twisted tightly around his thigh, sister bounding about by the sea, dipping her little claws into the swash and flicking the water back onto the sand. They'd hatched not long ago, in fact they didn't even have names yet. Dan kept suggesting them but Phil wasn't all that impressed, apparently simply calling them Red and Blue wasn't good enough. They'd figure them out on their own soon is what Phil kept saying. Dan wished that humans could choose their own name, although he dreaded to think what he would have called himself in his teenage years. 

Speaking of Phil, he was off hunting, which was why Dan was babysitting. Dan had tried a few times, but had always returned empty handed, or empty clawed he supposed. Evidently it was going to take him more than a few months to figure out all the intricacies of occupying a body with a y-axis. So for now he let Phil deal with it. 

Suddenly an unexpectedly large wave crashed against the beach, soaking the sister and sending water so far up the beach it almost wet Dan's trousers. She squealed in horror, scampering over to Dan sand hiding her head beneath his arm. Dan cooed, picking her up and rubbing her gently. They hadn't gotten their flame yet, it was very important to keep them warm. 

The sound of flapping wings came behind them, kicking up sand which swirled into the air like it had just been hit by a tornado. Before Dan could even turn around, Phil was in his human form, standing over the enormous fish he had just plucked from the sea. Dan grimaced, admittedly the food out here wasn't great, but he could live with it of it meant his family's safety, 

"Well done, successful trip," Dan smiled, giving Phil a quick peck on the cheek. Phil grinned, 

"Indeed," he exclaimed happily, sinking down onto the sand next to his mate. 

The sister joyfully leaped into Phil's lap, settling comfortably against her guardian. They preferred him in his dragon state, but were slowly getting used to him staying as a human more and more. It was only temporary of course, once Dan got more comfortable in his other body they would split the time in each form more evenly, but Phil was understanding in time it might take. A lot had changed for Dan. 

The sun slowly began to set on the horizon, bathing them both in its orange glow. He wondered how many more sunsets he would watch from this beach, thousands almost certainly, even millions if he was very, very lucky. He didn't mind that. The children would grow, eventually leaving to make lives of their own, but with Phil's magic Dan would not whither as a human would. Then it was only the case of what to do next. He had a long time to figure that out however, and a thousand sunsets to watch in the meantime. Whatever the future had planned for him, he didn't care. As long as he had Phil by his side, every sunset would be as beautiful as this one. 

[atreya300]

Slenderman and Creating Real Tulpas

I remember a couple of years ago finding out about Slenderman.  It was so creepy that I looked into it a lot, especially when I heard the theory about Slenderman being a Tulpa.  As if he wasn’t creepy enough just by being a made up story on the Internet, kids were killing other kids, or stabbing other kids, in order to “please Slenderman”.  Clearly a game that they had invented and taken deadly seriously.

A Tulpa is an intended hallucination which can be sentient and have its own thoughts and personality.  It is (according to the Tulpa Community, but not, I may add, folkloric legend) only seen by the person who created it, who has done so by prolonged periods of thinking solely about what the tulpa looks like, talks like, moves like etc, thus developing, in essence, another person who is sharing their body and mind, but functions as a separate personality.  We know of lucid dreaming, as I have often done it myself.  We’re aware that our brains are more than capable of producing extremely real and vivid hallucinations.  

So is it entirely impossible that if enough people all put enough thought power into the creation of the same, singular individual, that a tulpa could be formed which could break free of the constraints of individual minds and be a person all of its own, with its own free will and the power to manipulate others?  I believe it is possible.  Call me crazy.  My tin foil hat is firmly in place.  It’s hilarious really when you consider that I laughed down the Flat Earthers, yet here I am saying that it’s possible to create an imaginary friend who can turn into a mind-bending, master manipulator.

I didn’t have many friends growing up.  So I was one of the kids who didn’t mind admitting that I had invented an imaginary friend.  His name was Bill and he was based off of Bill from ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ because I was obsessed with that movie.  I would talk to him whilst walking home from school alone, ask him what he would do in my place during different situations that I was struggling with and he always had an answer that I imagined.  I would say, “Bill, do you think [insert boyfriend name here] is a dick?” and in my head he would instantly say, “Hell yeah he is, you need to dump his ass!”.  Of course, I never once thought that I had created another person.  It was my imaginary friend.  In my head.  Made up by me.  Well, me and Alex Winter.  His instant “responses” was just my own subconscious mind telling me what I really, truly felt, without having to consciously think about it.

Having perused the Tulpa Community it seems to be an extremely dangerous rabbit hole.  For one, what they are describing as “tulpas”, at best, mostly seem to be an adult version of an imaginary friend and at worst, a real mental health issue, possibly Dissociative Identity Disorder which is incredibly serious and is being passed off as something that is perfectly normal and almost a uncommon achievement to be able to create a tulpa, rather than the reality which is that there is real medical and psychological help out there for cases such as DID and it should certainly not be explained away as a deliberately induced imaginary friend who will solve all your problems for you.  Passing it off as such could potentially make the case even worse.  I’m not a psychologist.  I’m just using common sense. If you cultivate something, it grows.

So.  I have made a decision that I don’t buy into the Tulpa Community.  There are also a lot of comments on YouTube videos and forums that are quite blatantly people who are full of absolute shit and others who are just clearly attention seeking.  I thoroughly enjoyed the brilliant sarcastic responses to those comments.

Now let’s get serious (ish).  Bear with me.  Let’s get back to the theory of many people being able to collectively produce a tulpa.

As I said before, I became obsessed with Slenderman.  I watched videos (all of Marble Hornets), read newspaper articles, looked at pictures, read stories, until he became my every waking thought.  After a week and a half I developed sensations such as paranoia, racing heart, dizziness and the feeling of constantly being watched by something just out of the corner of my eye.  I began having horrific nightmares and would wake up drenched in sweat.  I stopped being able to lucid dream and wake myself up and was forced to play out the nightmares, helpless.  It got to the point where I didn’t want to sleep.  The times that my boyfriend had blessedly snored loudly enough to wake my conscious brain, I sat up in bed, exhausted, trying desperately to keep my eyes open and not fall back to sleep.  Every shadow in the bedroom seemed to resemble Slenderman and I was convinced that as soon as the lights got dim or it was dark, he was there in the shadows waiting.  I stopped going to bed before my boyfriend.  I didn’t want to be in the house alone.

Looking back, naturally it all seems totally stupid.  Me, a grown 35 year old, scaring myself silly because of a kids’ story on the internet.  But what if it really is possible to create a tulpa by using enough collective subconscious power?  Thousands of people in the world at the time were reading those same stories and scaring themselves silly like I was.  If it was possible to create a tulpa, Slenderman and his fame would most certainly warrant it.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the 80’s movie ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, the main bad guy/killer is Freddy Kruger, a demon (who was a bloke who killed kids and then got burned in a fire by their fucked-off parents, then he came back from the dead in peoples’ dreams, as a...you know what, I don’t fucking actually really know what kind of thing Freddy is) who kills people in their dreams.  Enough people get to know about him and he suddenly can break free of only being in their dreams and can exist in the real world, killing whomever he chooses in reality.  Freddy, is a tulpa.  He existed in reality, purely because all the kids talked about him, described him to each other, then dreamed about him, which cemented him more in their brains, until he became a reality.  By what was, if I remember correctly, the 407th film featuring Freddy, ‘Freddy vs Jason’ the townsfolk had worked out that the only way to defeat Freddy, was to pretend he didn’t exist.  No one was allowed to talk about him, no one could mention his name, and anyone who dreamed about him was given dream suppression pills so they ceased dreaming altogether (boy didn’t I crave Hypnocil during my Slenderman nights).  In this way, Freddy became weak and the town was safe (for a while - Stage Right - freaky hockey-mask-wearing-dude-with-mommy-issues).

My point is that from my personal point of view, the Tulpa Community are people who have really good imaginations, like myself and are doing nothing more than imagining another person.  They are not “creating” a tulpa.  Not in the sense that I think they think they are anyway.  I sort of feel like a tulpa is akin to a golem who is created to protect someone or something and is capable of physical destruction in the real world.

I digress.  Touching on Slendy for the podcast is something I’ve wanted to do for a while now, but I’ve hummed and hawed because, let’s face it, I’m scared.  Slenderman did become a bit too real for me, even if it was in my head and my mind playing tricks on me, but it put me through sheer terror, I was legitimately scared of my own shadow so opening this can of worms is a big deal for me, even if it seems utterly stupid for a grown woman to feel that way.  If two young girls can pretend that killing their friend as a “sacrifice to Slenderman” is real, then who’s to say if enough people genuinely hallucinated Slendy and his creepy, murderous personality, that other people could not be compelled to kill?  He would become his own person. I’m a tin-foil hat wearing silly girl who believes a lot of ridiculous things (except Flat Earth, you guys are wrong - just saying), but from a mass hallucination point of view, I do genuinely think this could be plausible.  And by delving back into this research, not only am I opening up the likelihood of scaring myself silly, into seeing shit that isn’t there, I would also have to be held (partially) responsible for creating the master Slenderman that wipes out the world by making people kill each other.  Hmph.  And Ted Bundy thought he had some great ideas.

Also, “Tulpamancy” is a thing.  Although not according to the Tibetians, where the tulpa originated.  Funny that.  Almost as if it’s a made up word.  (It is.  By the Tulpa Community.)

As for the pretend “Tulpa Community”?  Some of these people envision their tulpas as characters from ‘My Little Pony’.  Make of that what you will.  I wouldn’t personally be taking career and life advice off of a fucking horse.  All I’m saying.

[lucarioisinthevoid]

Wait if Old Sports a furry then what's his fursona?

Old Sport grinned. “Well, that’s easy! Like EVERY respectable person here, my fursona is golden. I am the secret third member, golden Foxy!” “There ain’t no golden foxy.” Dave suddenly spoke up, his smile a bit slimmer than usually. “Yes, there is. It’s me. I ALWAYS was there, but have been PURGED from the company hist-“ “No.” Dave said again, even more irritated. “There ain’t no secret third member. Fredbear was Henry’s, Springbonnie was mine. There were only two- ONLY two.” Slightly taken aback, Old Sport raised an eyebrow. “Sure, there was, fine. I didn’t mean to say anything else. But we could MAKE a golden Foxy, right?” “No. No, we ain’t going to make a golden suit, Sportsy. You may not mean it, but it’s gonna come across like you’re trying to wiggle your way into a place you don’t belong. I hate imposter.” Old Sport was actually frozen for a moment, not having been prepared for that type of reaction. Finally Dave relaxed a bit. “See, Sportsy, it would be a LOT different if it would be back then, right now. If we knew each other back then, you could have had a thousand golden Foxy strippers! But ya know- that time is over. There wasn’t any other golden suit produced and that’s ‘cause I made sure that wouldn’t happen. It’s still MY factory after all.” The last part was more of a mumble. Slowly Old Sport shook his head. “... okay. But then I’ll- my fursona will probably be a guard dog!” “Eh, that’s already Mikey’s fursona.” “A little birdie?” “Jerry called dibs on that one.” “Goddammit- owl?” “That’s phoney.” “Let me guess, I can’t be a bat either, right?” “Well-“ “FINE. Uh- I will be either a moth or a horse. The horse mask I already have, so just wait, I’ll come into work tomorrow wearing that and nobody can stop me.” “I think horses are GREAT!” Dave put an arm around him. “Good job! If it’s not a golden one.” “It’s going to be orange.” “Well, then why aren’t ya taking the fox thought?” “Wait, didn’t you say-“ “I only complained about GOLDEN foxes. Ya really need to listen sometimes, Sportsy, you’re-“ Out on nowhere the Orange Guy had grabbed a horse mask and shoved it over Dave’s face, the wrong way around. “S-Sportsy?! Sportsy, why-!?” But Old Sport was already leaving. God, all this drama in the furry community. That’s why he never wanted to REALLY be part of it. Shouldn’t thinking that anthropomorphic foxes are hot be enough to make you a furry? Do you NEED a fursona?! Bleh. Oh well, he could be a non-furry furry. What are they gonna do? Arrest him? For furry crimes? Don’t think so.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Smokey brand Reviews: Academy Life

I am aware of The Umbrella Academy through social osmosis. It never really piqued my interest enough to get me into the narrative, but i respected what it was doing. I’m a sucker for that misfit, out-of-place, X-Men-esque, narrative. A more apt description of this particular group would probably be Doom Patrol, but the sentiment is the same. I understood it to be excellent specifically because it came out of Dark Horse. Those cats are the A24 of the comics industry and i respect the f*ck out of them. Dark Horse was the first publisher, stateside, that gave manga a chance. The first Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell adaptions i owned came out of that publishing house. They gave us some of the best Alien and Predator stories to every make the fandom, on top of unique characters like The Mask, Empowered, Hellboy, and Usagi Yojimbo.

The pedigree of the company in which The Umbrella Academy stands is unassailable, especially with that deliciously sublime design of The White Violin, i just didn’t get into it during it’s original run. Or when the first season the show was announced. Now, that the second is set to drop in a few days, i figure this would be the best time to check it out. I’m curious if the hype is legitimate or if it’ll fall short because, holy sh*t, that climax to the first arc was spectacular.

The Good

I have to say, this cast feels like a family. They’re so broken and awkward and haphazard but you can sense that underlying love. It feels organic and real. That type of energy is very hard to capture but, surprisingly, this show does so with rather effortless aplomb.

The narrative of this series is actually pretty spectacular. I was thoroughly surprised by how everything unfolded, particularly the more eccentric elements. There are things that had to be changed for the sake of the media but

Look, i just have to say, i love the music in this thing. The choices are exceptional, easily the best I've seen in any Netflix production. I mean, who the f*ck sets a brutal ass fight scene, in a rundown diner, between secret government commandos and a time hopping, 53-year-old teenager, to Istanbul by They Might Be Giants? What mad man hears that song, for that scene? I appreciate the deep cuts.

This show is f*cking gorgeous. Netflix really but their best foot forward for this one. The Umbrella Academy can give the Marvel Netflix collabs a run for their money. It’s not Daredevil, but it’s close. I mean, some of the CG can be a little wonky, (Pogo, I'm looking at you) but that can be excused by how much detail is captured in every other aspect n this production. I mean, Vanya's White Violin transformation is f*cking spectacular.

I’m a little bit surprised by how great these performances are. The entire cast is spectacular. I can’t say they are comic accurate like the MCU, but from the standpoint as a show, absolutely excellent. I'd speak on each, individual, cast members and how great they are in their respective roles but I'd be here forever gushing. No, I'll reserve one entry for the standout and just heap a massive amount of general praise on everyone in this show. It's f*cking performed to perfection. Especially Number Five.

Ellen Page deserved all of the awards for her performance as Vanya. Holy sh*t, this is some great acting, man. Somehow, Page is able to capture all of that frailty, all of that melancholy, perfectly. She's supposed to be emotionless in the book, and her emotions definitely come across as muted, but I think this is a far more realistic interpretation. That said, when she lets go? Holy Sh*t!

The Bad

The pacing in this thing can be a little hectic at times. I was surprised by how many times momentum was stalled for a flashback or a weird narrative choice. It was very jarring at times. Ultimately, I think this thing could have shaved an entire  episode worth of fat to make the viewing experience more palatable but it's not a huge detractor from the overall quality.

I spoke earlier about how dope the soundtrack is in this thing. All of these songs are great. Very recognizable, very powerful, perfectly paired with each scene. However, to fit those scenes, they have to be edited. Chopped up basically. That mess is VERY apparent, especially when you have to butcher Queen. I appreciate the music, don’t get me wrong, but, I mean, it’s Queen! You don't censor f*cking Queen!

The Verdict

I adore this show, man. I feel bad for sleeping on it for so long. I really should have jumped right in when it was originally released but a ten hour commitment seemed like way too much. Now that the world has stopped and i have all the time in the world, that ten hours breezed by at a ridiculous pace. I’m kind of glad to have waited, mostly because the gap between seasons is so short now. I’m hooked. The Umbrella academy is a rich, expansive, story told with respect and love. It’s chock full of great dialogue, realistic familial relations, and organic interactions, which is saying a lot when one of these kids can f*cking time travel. How do you ground that in reality so easily? I loved the narrative. I loved the characters. This is easily the best X-Men anything since Days of Futures Past. I'm kidding, but it's not too far off to say this is the best adaption of The Dark Phoenix saga ever put to film. In all seriousness, I loved the look, the feel, the palpable chemistry between the cast. The Umbrella Academy season one, is truly one of the best shows Netflix has ever produced.