↚The Pig's Shadow | Dream x Reader | Slowburn ↛

Chapter 22: Denounce the Fox and Get a Face Full of Snow!

When you woke up the next morning, Dream and Sapnap were having some furious discussion involving a lot of iron doors. You decided to not get caught up in that, instead, you went to continue work on the stage, which had turned into your pet project. By nightfall, you had around a fourth of the log-frame filled in with planks and your gloves with a few tears from splinters.

As you sat on your cot, mending the holes, you realized that the election was only ten, well, soon to be nine, days away. You were worried that Schlatt wouldn't win after all. The man had barely shown his face around L'manburg! How did he expect the whole country to vote for him over the people who led them through war?

The next day, you decided to take a break from the stage and help George pick mushrooms. Why he wanted them, you had no idea. Oh, and only the red mushrooms. The brown ones were left for dust. By noon, you had exhausted every available red mushroom nearby and left George to go think up another plan to get more.

As you passed along the plank road, you noticed Sapnap talking to Tommy. Frowning, you snuck closer until you could hear them.

"-anything that would make you vote for us? Come on, Sapnap, we're old friends!" Tommy pled. Your eyebrows rose. If Tommy could convince Sapnap to vote for him, that would influence a great many of the server members into following suit.

"Well..." Sapnap paused. "Publicly denounce Fundy," he said suddenly. You flinched, surprised. Why would Sapnap want Fundy out of POG2020? Turning, you left the two to their arguing and went to find the fox in question. He turned out to be visiting Niki's bakery and looked up as you came in.

"Hi Shadow!" he said, taking another bite of cake. "What's up?"

"Fundy, Tommy's going to publicly denounce you in favor of Sapnap."

That got his attention.

He shot to his feet, tail bushed, ears flattened in anger. "What the HELL?" he shouted.

"Calm down, Fundy!" Niki cried, placing her hand on his shoulder. "We'll figure something out." Turning to you, she gave you a small, sad, tight smile. "Can you give us some time?"

You nodded, murmuring goodbyes to both of them before leaving and going for a walk along the river. It was colder outside than it had been yesterday, even though the wind had died down and the air was still and dry. You sat on the riverbank, staring at the water swirled around the rocks. Salmon jumped out of the water, landing with a splash that sent droplets flying onto you, sparkling like diamonds. The sky was almost entirely clear of clouds except to the north, where they gathered in thick droves like sheep wool.

You stayed by the river until it was dark, sometimes trailing your fingers through the icy water slowly, other times meticulously picking plants to shreds. When the moon rose, you stayed as long as you dared, dreading to go back into the walls, back to the people who kept you away from everyone you truly loved.

Finally, you stood, staring at the north where home, family, and friends lay. A breeze whispered through the leaves and around your shoulders, almost feeling like ghostly fingers on your shoulder. Hugging yourself with one arm, you slowly headed towards your tent and lay on the cot, a hollow feeling in your stomach and tears trailing down your face.

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The next day, you woke up to snowflakes drifting down from the sky. You stepped outside of your tent to have your clothes, face, and hair dotted with the tiny frosty flakes. They swirled around you, reminding you of Techno's ermine-edged cape when he turned. As you approached L'manburg, Tommy ran by, throwing something hard and white against your chest. You gapped as the snowball burst, sending clusters of ice sailing down your shirt. Tommy started laughing but abruptly stopped as he realized you were gathering snow as fast as you could.

"IT'S ON, BLOND BOY TOMCAT!" you shouted, packing it into a ball. Tommy yelped and started running away, slipping a few times on the ice on Prime Path. You charged after him, bowled him over, and smashed the snowball on his face. "HA!" you shouted, standing up. Tommy wiped the snow off his face and glared at you.

"You f***ed up, b****," he spat, snatching an icicle off of a roof and charging at you with it. Your eyes widened and you squealed as he jabbed you with it. You spotted Fundy coming up behind Tommy and he stopped for a second, confused, before a wicked grin spread across his face. He bent down, pinched up a small bit of snow, and nimbly tucked it down Tommy's back. The blond boy hissed and whipped around, smashing a snowball into Fundy's face.

The day dissolved into gradually growing snowball fights until it was ultimately you, Fundy, and Quackity verses Tommy, Tubbo, and Karl. You ducked behind the pile of snow your team had built, narrowly avoiding a snowball to the face. Beside you, Fundy neatly leapt over the wall, sliding down and packing another snowball. You glanced at him, a plan formulating in your mind.

"Fundy!" You whisper-hissed. "I'm going to turn your tail into a mace!" Fundy looked very alarmed as you began packing snow into the fluffy orange tail.

"Holy SH**, that's cold!" he cursed, shivering violently. You laughed softly as you finished the first crust of ice and began on the second. Your plan was fairly simple: You would draw all the fire away from Fundy, who would charge the other team and use his fox tail, well, snow-fox tail now, as a weapon of mass destruction.

It was a beautiful, dignified mess.

The moment you popped your head out from the base, they began raining an icy hell down on your head. You'd managed to completely distract them while Fundy started sneaking towards them. The plan started derailing when Karl noticed Fundy and warned the Tubbo, who broke off his assault to attack Fundy while Karl and Tommy continued pelting you.

The thing is, all of you had forgotten about Quackity.

He had snuck all the way around to the back of Tommy's team and had somehow acquired a wheelbarrow, which he filled with snow and pushed all the way up to the building behind them, where he dumped it over.

The good news was that Tommy's team looked like snowmen. The bad news was that you and Fundy were quite snow-crusted as well. Both teams ended up sitting on the half-built stage sipping hot cocoa and eating cookies. As you watched L'manburg slowly become covered in snow, you were stabbed with a pang of homesickness.

The first time you'd ever seen snow was three or four months after Techno had technically adopted you. The two of you had found yourselves in a vast mountain range completely covered in snow. Techno had shown you how to build and igloo for warmth and you built a small, very lopsided snowman outside the igloo's entrance. By evening, you were so cold that you started shivering violently. Eventually, Techno wrapped his cape around you, even though it was way too big for you.

It was the first time he'd ever really shown some sign of fatherly care towards you.

In the following years, you'd seen snow a few more times, but not any snow near the amount of that day. Each time, Techno would build an igloo and you'd affectionately make yet another crooked snowman. By now, you could probably make snowmen in your sleep.

But this time, there was no igloo, and there was no Techno.

You rolled snow into three small balls, setting them purposefully crooked on top of each other and held the small snowman in your hand. You didn't even notice you'd been crying until Fundy worriedly asked if you were okay.

You shrugged, standing up and walking away towards one of the hills, where you bent down and set the little bent snowman on the top. Then sighing and wiping your tears away, you went back down to your friends.

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1375 words

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I felt like writing yet again more depressing stuff.

Yay.

I have noticed that so freaking many of my chapters end with us crying.

Seriously

This is a problem.

NO MORE CRYING

YA HEAR?

Okay yaya :D

TA TE CHILDREN