The Quiet of a Melancholic Moon

Death

Tempest didn't know how he ended up where he was. Everything had happened too fast for his brain to process it. Even now, as he laid bleeding out on the ground, he wasn't sure what happened. Everything was a blur when Tempest tried to backtrack through his memories. Tempest tried to push past the fog settling in his head but it was becoming increasingly harder. His eyes slid closed as his hand clutched his stomach. Warm blood landed through his gloves. His blood was dripping onto the ground. Tempest exhaled through his nose as the smells in the air clashed together. He vaguely heard yelling. He thought he knew the voice, but he was too far gone to figure it out. Tempest let go of the thread holding him back. Why did he not want to go asleep again? Sleep felt better.

Tempest's eyes shot open as he sat up. Tempest started choking on his spit as he slammed his hand against his stomach. Where was the wound? He had been stabbed in the stomach. There should have been a hole in his stomach or at least stitches. Tempest found a cut in his hero suit, but he didn't even find a splotch of red on his skin. There wasn't a scar or bruise. His gloves and suit were soaked in his blood. It wasn't a dream. Tempest had been stabbed. Tempest had been stabbed because of Eret. The bastard had tricked them. Tempest's face shot up as he remembered there had been a 'them'. Where was Dream?

Tempest realized immediately he wasn't in the same place. He was in the middle of a field. When he was stabbed, Tempest had been in an underground cave. Tempest was laid beside a pillar in the ground. It was a rectangular prism that ended in a pyramid point. It was an black obelisk with ancient runes carved onto the surface. Tempest pressed his hand against the obelisk. The runes began glowing a deep red beneath his touch. Tempest removed his hand to test his theory. Like he suspected, the runes stopped glowing without physical touch. Tempest walked around the obelisk to find similar runes all around it.

Tempest wanted to figure out what the obelisk was, but he decided that he had better things to do. Either the obelisk resurrected Tempest or it was the starting point of the afterlife. Either way, it wouldn't do him any good to stay there for eternity. Tempest looked at the sun for reference of where he was. Since it was nearing the end of the day, Tempest could knew where west was and could piece together the other directions. Tempest used the landforms that he could identify to tell which direction would lead him to L'Manberg central city.

As Tempest walked, he tried to figure out what happened to him. He was on a mission with the Muffinteers (a stupid name for the team comprising George, SapNap, Bad, Dream, and Tommy) along with Eret. It was a mission that they were given by XD personally. He wanted them to investigate illegal mining in eastern L'Manberg. They had been set-up, however. Eret had betrayed them when he set off the bombs that the miners were using on purpose. The reason they survived that was an underground pocket filled with groundwater. Eret's explosives had alerted the miners that someone was in their territory. They had used the special metal they had been mining for to attack the group. One of them had tried stabbing Dream, but Tempest pushed him out of the way to take the hit. That's why Tempest had been stabbed. That was why Tempest should be dead. Tempest still felt alive, though.

Tempest looked down at his uniform. All his injuries were gone, but his hero uniform was riddled with tears. His clothes looked like they had been hit by a freight train, and then Tempest had worn them on a hiking trip. Tempest grit his teeth as he found a trail in the forest he had been wandering through. Tempest pulled off some of his equipment. He removed his mask while rubbing mud on his face to hide his identity. Tempest took a deep breath as he forced tears from his eyes. Tempest ran down the trail. When he saw a couple hiking, he pretended he was looking behind him to run into them.

"Oh, gosh, are you okay?" The woman said as Tempest and the man went down. The man sat up while helping Tempest to his feet. Tempest put his act onto full effect. He began incoherently mumbling between sobs while pointing down the path. The woman was trying to understand him with concerned eyes as the man ran ahead to see what Tempest was concerned about. The man looked back at the woman with a shrug. The woman bit her lip. "How about we try calling someone? Do you know your parent's phone numbers? It's okay if you don't!"

Tempest loathed being treated this way, but it was part of the act. Tempest nodded his head quickly as the woman pulled out her communicator. She unlocked it while pulling up the phoning app. She handed it to Tempest while hovering close to make sure he didn't steal it. At least she wasn't as gullible as Tempest feared. He typed in Dream's number with hesitation like he was trying to remember it. The woman remained encouraging as the man kept looking for something. Tempest put the communicator to his ear. He heard the ringing before someone answered. Before Dream could say anything, Tempest began warbling. "D-Dad? I-I got l-lost! I'm really scared, Dad! P-please come get m-me! I'm a-at th-the park!"

There was a moment of silence before Dream responded. "Uh... there you are... son! Your mom and I have been looking all over for you! I'll head that way immediately! Can you ask the nice person your borrowing the communicator of if they would take you to the park ranger's tower? From there, they can call me again to tell me where to go."

Tempest did not want to continue traveling with this couple acting like a defenseless kid, but it was Dream's instructions so Tempest would bare with it. Tempest finished the call while telling the woman what Dream told him, even though the woman heard it from being so close. She agreed with a kind smile. The woman grabbed Tempest's hand (thank Prime he took his gloves off since she would have grabbed the one soaked in blood). The man walked behind them with his own kind eyes as they lead Tempest to a ranger's tower. When they dropped Tempest off, the woman stayed sat beside him while the man explained the situation to the ranger. Eventually, the ranger told the couple they could go. They seemed hesitant to leave a kid alone, but Tempest gave them a hug that convinced them he would be alright.

"What's your Dad's number, kiddo? We'll call him to tell him where you are!" The park ranger said as he got on his knees to be closer in height with Tempest. The preteen blinked unimpressed as he told the ranger what the number was. The ranger had a short conversation with Dream. In a few minutes, Dream had shown up, pretending to be a caring father. After a brief conversation, Tempest was allowed to go with Dream. Once they were outside, Dream gripped Tempest in a vice-like grip.

"I thought you were dead. It wasn't until Eret explained what had happened that I knew you were safe, but even then, how was I supposed to know where you would be?" Dream said through strained breaths. Tempest slammed Dream's back with his fist to get him to stop suffocating Tempest. Dream pulled back with wide eyes. "Right, you have no idea what happened. XD told Eret to test us. That was why he set off the explosives. He didn't expect the miners to find us. Eret helped us fight them, but you took that hit for me. I was devastated until Eret explained the properties of the metal."

Dream sighed as he rubbed a hand through his hair. Tempest and Dream settled into Dream's car before Dream continued. "A long time ago, there was a hero named Ankh. When he died, his soul transformed into two parts. One part was a metal spike that jutted out of the ground. The other were those metal fragments. Anyone who is killed with the metal is sent to the obelisk, revived and completely healthy. They called the obelisk a Spawn point."

"What will happened with the metal?" Tempest asked as he held the spot where he had been stabbed. A wound wasn't there but phantom pain lingered. Tempest never wanted to experience dying again. He would much rather put the metal to good use.

Eret felt pain swirl his heart as he saw Tempest's new uniform. The vibrant red suit was gone. Now, he wore a black bulletproof vest with glowing red metal weapons like the one that had killed Tempest those few weeks ago.