Wilting Marigolds (dreamxreader)

Who Lives

TW: SWEARING, YELLING, BLOOD, VIOLENCE, CRYING

A/N: 6000 words long sorry guys you'll be here for a hot minute:P

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The cool air and dark night and trickling water of the river surround me. The light breeze nips at my exposed hand as it dances gracefully with a pencil across the once blank page. I sniff and tense my muscles to warm them a little. The rock I'm sitting on is cold and the grass around me is beginning to frost in the darkness. I shift the lantern closer to the flower I was sketching, it was my only source of light out here. My axe sat reassuringly next to me, if the demons found me they wouldn't last long. 

The little blue flowers swayed occasionally in the wind like they were complaining of the cold weather as well. I smiled at the thought and looked at my sketch of the forget-me-nots I had found. It was a miracle they were still open since it was so cold and they were definitely not in season. It was a rough sketch but I'd fix it later, after the war, once I'd returned to Dream's base. That was my plan anyway. Tomorrow we went to war, I should have been sleeping but not even Niki could calm me down. She'd become my roommate permanently as it turns out Techno found other accommodation and shared a room with Wilbur now. 

I'd missed drawing a lot, it's been a long time since I sat and drew anything. I was glad I had brought my journal back to Pogtopia from the Dream Team house. I closed my eyes and took myself away from the miserable place I was. Back to when we'd go to the beach together, all four of us, or when we'd train and have mini competitions. My favourite memories were when we'd all sing together in the living room with the guitar. Silly songs they'd heard of or sea shanties from a sailor that had come in on the SMP docks that morning. 

I missed playing guitar loads too, but there was no way I was going to bring it back to such a forsaken place like this. I sighed and closed my journal and watched the river. The water on the edges would likely be a little frozen in the morning, it was so close to winter now. The water was black and no doubt would kill me if I were to jump in. I would drown, get hypothermia or be attacked by demons that lurked beneath the surface. 

I heard a little squeak from beside me and looked at the little fox I had on a lead. She was very timid but also very calm and accustomed to people. I fed her a little bit of ham that I had snagged from a Manberg butcher. 

I'd been in Manberg all day scouting and watching guard schedules to find our best point of entry. I was on the docks when I remembered Niki's old bakery was nearby. I decided to walk down. It had been fixed, by who I had no idea. The door simply had a cute closed sign on it, nothing indicating that it had shut down. Schlatt must be trying to keep the people calm. Outside the front door, there was a sleeping fox. It startled when I got close but I quickly calmed her down by giving her a few bits of salami from the sandwich I had. I noticed there was a tag tied to the lead that she was on. It read, Mushroom is for Niki and was from Antfrost. I knew Antfrost was close with Dream's government but I didn't know that he was also close with Niki. No doubt he heard that her old fox Fungi had gotten caught in one of the Pet wars.

Antfrost must not have known that Niki was now living in Pogtopia permanently. I took Mushroom back to Pogtopia, on our way we happened to pass a butcher where I get her some ham. 

A whisper in the back of my brain caused me to shiver. I took a deep breath and forced it away. I'd become very good at suppressing the voices, so good they barely bothered me anymore. Techno and I had spent a lot of time together trying to work out what makes them go away for me. An obvious one was Dream, and from there we worked out that the voices rose when I was stressed. So to stop the voices we found things that stopped me from stressing out, animals, music, drawing and being with good company being amongst them. The wind blew making my hair wave in the breeze and another shiver run up my spine. I gasped slightly and pulled my cloak tighter around my body. It was the cloak Wilbur gave me. I don't know why I still wore it.