the hunt (dreamnotfound)

Chapter 7

Karl took George back to the cell where the others were waiting anxiously for him. Bad gasped when he caught sight of George as Tommy said, "What the fuck did you do to him?!"

Karl opened the cage door saying, "I'm sorry Sap can get carried away," he gently set George down on the only bed in the cell. "I should've stuck with him to make sure he didn't go too far-"

"Why the fuck didn't you?" Tommy said, getting as close to the two of them as possible.

"If you would let me explain, I would tell you. first, though, I think we should focus on helping George." Karl said, moving George, so there was room on the bed to sit down while still making sure that George was comfortable. "Now, the two of you are mages, right?"

Bad nodded while Tubbo said, "Yes, but I'm still in training."

"Doesn't matter. Can you perform healing spells?" Karl asked. Tubbo nodded as Karl sighed in relief, saying, "Good, now both of you come here." The two of them hesitantly made their way over to where Karl was. Karl motioned for them to take a seat on the bed, which they did as Karl ran a nervous hand through his hair, saying, "Ok, here's what will happen, alright? I'm going to remove your collars. However, it is only to have you heal him. You try anything funny, and there will be consequences, got it?"

Both Bad and Tubbo nodded as Karl unlocked the collars around their necks. Bad said, "we won't be able to heal him fully. However, with the two of us combined, we should mainly be pulling from our energy sources, so we should be able to heal the worst of it," Then he turned to Tubbo, saying, "Have you learned energy-storing yet?"

"Yes, it was one of the first things I learned," Tubbo said excitedly.

"Good, then, I won't have to use too much of my own, which is good considering I just did this spell yesterday," Bad said, grabbing Tubbo's hand.

Tubbo removed his hand from Bad's, saying worriedly, "No! you can't perform this spell. It would be best if you still rested; you know that. Your energy hasn't fully replenished yet. You could kill yourself if you do."

"That's why we will mainly be drawing from you, Tubbo," Bad said, grabbing his hand. "Now listen closely, alright? I'll be the one performing the spell. However, this spell is a combination of three different spells and will drain you of all your energy. Then it will go from you to me, then George himself, alright. That means you will get the brunt of this, ok?" Tubbo nodded as Bad said, "Are you ready?" Tubbo took a deep breath, preparing himself for the drain before nodding. Bad then hovered his free hand over George's body, muttering under his breath as his hands both began to glow a bright red color. Tubbo winced slightly but started muttering himself, and the hand connected to Bad started glowing a honey yellow color.

The other two in the room watched in awe as the bruises on George's body began to fade. The cuts started to knit themselves back together, healing over. this continued for a while before Tubbo's hand stopped glowing. He passed out, nearly falling to the ground; however, Karl was faster, catching him before hitting the ground, then immediately handing him over to Tommy, who gently took him in his arms, cradling his head as he laid him down. Bad continued now with both hands over George. Beads of sweat started appearing on the mage's forehead before the glow from his hands faded into nothingness. Bad fell backward into Karl, who quickly caught him as he said, "That's.... all we can do..... now all we can do is......wait." before he passed out. Karl laid him down on the ground as he stood up, grabbing the two metal collars.

"You're not going to put those things back on them, are you?" Tommy said, glaring at the guard.

"I have to," Karl said quietly,

"Can't you wait until they wake up?"

Karl shook his head, saying, "I wasn't supposed to take them off in the first place. The only reason I did was so they could help George." Tommy was silent, allowing Karl to put the collars back on the two exhausted mages.

As soon as he finished, Tommy spoke, "so why didn't you stay with George while 'Sap' beat him up or whatever?"

Karl took a deep breath before saying, "Well, here's the thing. I have a hard time with violence-"

"The FUCK?!" Tommy yelled, making Tubbo squirm in his sleep. Tommy immediately quieted himself, hissing, "You're a fucking royal guard, and you can't handle violence?"

"That's not what I was saying," Karl hissed, trying hard to keep his voice down so he didn't wake the sleeping mages. "If you would let me finish, I'd explain." Tommy glared at him but didn't say anything, so Karl continued, "I have a hard time with violence that isn't deserved, and honestly, George didn't deserve any of this. Even if what Sap said was true, he shouldn't have taken it out on George," Karl shook his head, saying, "Anyway, I stood outside the door of the torture room, then when George started screaming, I had to move further down the hallway to get away from it. I guess I lost track of time. I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you need to apologize to." Tommy snarled, "Though a simple sorry won't fix what you allowed to happen."

"I know," Karl said quietly, looking down in shame. "What else can I do, though? There's not a lot I can do without breaking the rules. Heck, I'm technically breaking the rules just by talking to you."

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Tommy said as he started stroking Tubbo's hair.

Karl walked out of the cell at that point, saying, "I'll be back later with some food." with that, he left sight of the cell, leaving Tommy alone with his thoughts.

Tommy glanced over at George, sighing before saying, "We need to get out of here." before leaning his head against the wall closing his eyes, and falling asleep.