Serendipity (Karlnapity Fantasy AU)

Chapter 26

It was the middle of the night when they walked the last steps across the overgrown academy area. They could already smell the various scents of the forest because the cold wind blew gently in their direction. The sky above them was cloudless and sporadic little stars twinkled in the black void above them.

Sapnap walked ahead, the small flames in his hair acting as a source of light in the darkness. Quackity held onto the fabric of the black-haired man's shirt in front of him with his right hand.

He sought the closeness of his boyfriend, not only because he radiated warmth, but also because Quackity was beyond nervous. He tugged twice on the fabric, which elicited a knowing hum from Sapnap.
"Everything is okay, ducky," he muttered.

With a smile, Quackity looked past Sapnap into the forest. It was quite cold, but due to the high body temperature, Sapnap could almost always wear short clothes without any problems. However, if the weather became much too cold and during the short cold periods, a lot of snow fell, one had to be careful that the hybrid did not lose heat too quickly and became hypothermic. Even though snowfall was not a concern at this time, Quackity still had to be prepared for any situation. Only in case of rain do they have to rely on their environment again.

They briskly passed the threshold from the academy area to the forest and the deeper they got into it, the more Quackity relaxed. By now, the dense canopy of trees and brush would make them harder to find. Sapnap grabbed Quackity's hand as he pressed up against his side. They now walked side by side, hand in hand, while on their backs weighed their luggage.

"You know where we have to go, don't you?" asked Sapnap after some time in which they walked silently through the forest. Quackity looked over at him and nodded. They shared a smile and continued walking. Small branches or leaves cracked softly under their feet as the wind passed between the trees, howling softly.

Quackity was about to say something to keep himself from rising discomfort when he heard a loud noise behind him. A hiss and then a faint chirping.
"What the hell?", the boys whirled around at the same time and immediately Sapnap's flaring hair lit up the patch of forest around them.

"Great job. I knew we'd get caught. This was a stupid idea," a voice was heard, clearly frustrated.
"Shut up, maybe they haven't noticed us yet," another voice spoke up. Quackity looked in the direction from which the voices were coming. From behind a large tree, he spotted a tail peeking out. It was thin and black, and there was a white fur ball on the end of it.
With a suppressed laugh, he turned to Sapnap and pointed in the direction of the tree. When the blaze saw it, he let out a laugh. After a few seconds of nervous mumbling, a mop of blond hair emerged from behind the tree.

Tommy fluttered his wings as soon as he saw the two older ones. He twisted his face into a sheepish smile and stepped out from behind the tree. He pulled Ranboo and Tubbo with him, who looked guiltily at the ground. Ranboo stood awkwardly next to Tubbo and Tommy, in an intimidated and hunched posture while his tail twitched back and forth uncontrollably. Tubbo stood built-up next to him, his ears flicking around and pouting in frustration.

"What are you doing here?" asked Sapnap after some time.
"We wanted to follow you," Tubbo replied.
"Not as stalkers, of course. We just wanted to help to save Karl," added Ranboo. Quackity looked to Sapnap. Did he know anything about this? How else would the boys have found out about their plans?

A loud noise behind Quackity and two large hands grabbing him by the shoulders and spinning him around, made the duck hybrid wish he was having a heart attack.
"Hello Quackity!" as the duck hybrid squawked in shock, Wilbur seemed pleased to have arrived at the group. He had built himself up over the duck hybrid and his hair was completely tousled from the flight. He looked like a psychopath.

Except for Tommy, no one was really happy about Wilbur's arrival. The duck staggered away from Wilbur, somewhat dazed from the fright, and bumped into Sapnap. A silence passed, then Quackity noticed Sapnap leaning down to him.
"What now?" he seemed clueless. Quackity would have preferred to give up and go back to the academy, but he couldn't do that to Karl.