Something Wrong? (Skepnoblade)

Chapter 7

It really was Skeppy's fault. He was the one who found the tree. 

He was walking through the forest bordering the castle, and saw it. Crystal-like sap dripped from the branches, and it smelled like sugar and mint. He broke the tip off one the icicles and licked it. Just as he had envisioned, it tasted like sugar, with a light lemon-minty taste with a hint of... was that cinnamon? Or nutmeg?

Skeppy had never payed much attention in food-tasting class.

He stuffed a couple pieces in his pocket, and ran back, crashing into Techno, who was swinging his sword at the dummies. Techno twisted, his sword flying from one hand to the other, tripping Skeppy with his right foot.

Techno looked down at Skeppy, his sword touching his neck, hands up as if to say 'I give up!'

He rolled his eyes, reaching out a hand, other one shoving the sword into the scabbard hanging from his back.

"Seriously, Skeppy, what were you doing running from the forest like from a crowd of purple-fanged daemonic cobra-unicorns?"

"May I bring upon my self to promise to you that there were no purple-fanged daemonic cobra-unicorns chasing me? Because there really weren't."

"And that, I assume, is only a blue-fanged daemonic cobra-unicorn?" Techno deadpanned.

Skeppy whirled around, leaping into the air, all while jumping straight onto Techno. 

There were no cobra-unicorns there, blue-fanged or otherwise.

Techno collapsed. His laughs made his body convulse on the ground because "DID YOU SEE YOUR FACE?! I WISH YOU COULD'VE SAW YOUR FACE!!!"

Skeppy glared at the laughing boy, crossing his arms. "Cobra-unicorns are no laughing matter."

A couple minutes later, Techno was still laughing. "I know they aren't! But your face - *wheeze HAHA snort* was!"

Gasping for air and clutching his chest, he sat up. Techno's cheeks were bright pink, and his eyes were sparkling from somewhere deep down, somewhere where Skeppy could swear he only saw on day 1. 

"Oh! There was a reason I came running! I want to show you this." he fished out the pale yellow sugar-sap. "Here, it's edible."

Techno stared with wide eyes at it. "Oh dear. You - you're in big trouble." Yet, as if an unknown force was pulling him, he carefully took the piece of sap in his fingers, watching it glint in tiny flashes under the sun. 

He gave it a tiny lick, eyes fluttering shut, and softly groaned, and Skeppy could watch his face relax into an expression of pure bliss. "It still tastes like my memories - sugar, lemon, mint, and ginger. How I missed this..."

He's kinda cute... ... ... ... WHAT?!

Wait. Thought Skeppy. I can think someone's cute without attaching romantic feelings to the sight. Yeah. 

And then Techno's eyes flickered open, and all of Skeppy's thoughts fell off a cliff and got smushed by a much scarier thought, one that came directly from the sight in front of him.

Techno's eyes were glowing a pale yellow.

He licked the sap crystal again, and the glow intensified. The light around them seemed to darken slightly to make way for the soft light of his eyes, and deep in the library, Wilbur lifted his head.
A shadow had fallen over the library, over the lands beyond the window.
Usually Wilbur would shrug it off as a cloud stealing the sun's rays... But the sky today was a deep blue, and not a trace of white marred its sapphire surface.

Who is it this time?!

His gaze searched the room. Who found the tree?

Tommy was right there, reading a book in the shadowed part of the library, and had not noticed the shift in the light.

The clanging of pots down below told of Philza's busy kitchen projects.

That left one person.

One person who could've found the sugar-sap. 

Technoblade. 

Skeppy is in danger. 

Wilbur launched himself out of the window, intent on getting to the duo before horrors befell the diamond-blue boy.

Shards of glass accompanied the falling boy as he grabbed onto a vine flying by him.

A scream of bloody murder shattered the honeyed stillness, and Wilbur became a blur, throwing himself at the next vine, one more - and his feet hit the grass.

Time is of essence!

Wilbur was but a few meters away when Techno raised the crystal to his mouth one more time, and his eyes darkened the surrounding air one more time, shining a pure gold. He raised the now glowing crystal and Wilbur was thrown back by the flash that emanated from the sparkling substance.

Too late. Again.

He could only watch in horror as Techno advanced on the wide-eyed Skeppy, nowhere for him to run, kept in by the gold forcefield sustained by the crystal. 

He sobbed, tear after tear flowing down his cheeks, onto the blood-stained grass he was lying on.

Too late.