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

Chapter 37: Manburg Manhunt

MMMmmmmm Ranboo song playlists, my beloved.

You ended up not sleeping that night. You weren't tired. Your brain was buzzing, buzzing, buzzing around and around in circles as you watched the moon ascend through the sky. Thoughts and memories filled your head like the smoke which pressed against the outside of your tightly shut windows, begging to be let in. You tried to distract yourself by filling glass bottles with gasoline for Tnt for Schlatt, but it didn't work. Around four in the morning, the room became too stuffy and you opened the skylight on your roof. After sliding a chair over, you pushed yourself up through the skylight and found yourself sitting on a cool roof far above the smoldering coals which glowed like stars. Smoke and ash attempted to float above the roof but the strong breeze buffeted them down and away.

The moon fell towards the horizon in front of you and pale-yellow sunbeams swept over your head and through the smoke to light up the tips of the trees like fire. Below you, the whole of Manburg had awoken and heard about the flag by now; streams of people flooded out of houses and balconies to survey the damage. The sky was filled with smoke and charred pieces of cloth, stinging the eyes if you looked too far up, so you could comfortably sit on the roof and watch people without having to worry about them spotting you.

Niki's eyes were as red as the sunrise and puffy, as though she'd been crying all night. Fundy looked proud but distantly sad as well. Hbomb seemed more surprised than sad or angry while Tubbo had his mouth hanging open in terrified shock. Eret, walking through the streets in a beautiful green dress, was more concerned about the houses which had been damaged by the flames and making sure everyone was okay. Damn it, Eret. How were you supposed to still hate him when he could be so nice sometimes?

There was a knock on the wall below you and you looked through the skylight to see Punz stand beneath it, holding a coffee cup and looking expectantly at you. "Are you planning on sitting up there all day?"

"No, fuck off. I'm not."

He raised his eyebrows. "Alright then. Are you planning on training?"

"Yes." You leaned down and grabbed the coffee cup from him. "Thank you."

"That was... Nevermind. Hop on down here, will you?" You slid over to the hole and dropped through, landing neatly on the ground and sipping your coffee. "Thank you," Punz said.

And then pulled out his sword.

"AYO BRO WHAT THE FUCK" you screamed, jumping backwards.

Punz sighed, rolling his eyes. "Today's lesson, fool. You're going to learn what to do when someone attacks you and you don't have a weapon."

"This sounds strangely like murder." You realized that there was a window right behind you. "Hold on, am I allowed to break anything?"

He nodded. "Knock yourself."

"Aight, thanks!" then you wheeled around, charged towards the window, and dived through. Glass shattered and rained around you like sharp, translucent snow. Your room was on the second floor but there was a tree almost directly underneath the window. Grabbing onto a branch as you fell, you managed to slow your descent as to not break five fingers and a leg.

Frozen grass and glass crunched beneath your feet as you landed and took off. Behind you, Punz had landed on the ground and was running after you. He might be an assassin, but you had experience running from angry pillagers through tough and difficult terrain and were steadily stretching the distance between you. Then Punz pulled out a gray-purple bottle.

And disappeared.

Fuck. Invisibility pots. You reached the hill and slid down, pushing off of the rocks at the bottom. You winced in pain as the stiches Niki had put in your side the other day for your chest wound stretched. Suddenly, you regretted not sleeping last night.

Eret was walking past right when you darted onto the path, nearly running into you. "Fuck," you gasped, losing your momentum. "Sorry, Eret," which was probably the last time you'd ever apologize to him, "I gotta go. Punz- training- it's a whole thing," you explained, waving your hands vaguely. Eret seemed to understand.

"Wait," he said suddenly. "Here, take this," he said, pressing something smooth and cold into your hand. "Fuck him up, Shadow." Then you heard Punz's footsteps behind you and took off running, not even saying goodbye to Eret. You glanced at what he'd given you.

A speed potion. Eret, you lovely, lovely man. You popped the cork, narrowly avoided a tree, and chugged the whole thing. Light and space seemed to bend slightly around you and you started sprinting again. You didn't seem to move any faster, but the background slid past you more quickly than normal.

The air turned blistering hot and you realized that you were running on the charred, smoldering remains of the L'manburg flag. Whoooo, poetic justice. Running over the burned scraps of a rebellion. Heh. You glanced behind you. Punz's invis potion had worn off and he was hot on your tail. Well fuck. Then you glanced at the ground again. "Alright, time you did something good for me," you muttered, then grabbed one of the glass bottles of gasoline that you'd made earlier from your backpack. This cost you valuable time and Punz was charging towards you. You wheeled around, threw the bottle down and ran.

The heat was intense. Behind you, fire erupted as the smoldering coals ignited the gasoline. You spotted Punz staggering back but didn't have any more time to look as a tree decided to exist. You ran straight into it, getting knocked to the ground. The world started spinning, and it wasn't because your speed pot had worn out.

A sword appeared at your throat and Punz leaned over you, grinning. "Nice chase. But I win." He stood back and helped you up, handing you a potion of regen. You chugged it, gagging slightly at the sour taste, but immediately started feeling better. Even your chest wound started to disappear. "You gave me a scare with that bomb thing, not going to lie," Punz admitted, gesturing to where the flames had started to die down. People were poking their heads out of doorways to see what was going on, but when they spotted you and him, they seemed to understand.

"Sheesh, I thought I was supposed to fight you, not run," you joked.

Punz smiled. "Well, fight or flight, you know?" you laughed. "By the way, you are going to pay me, right?"

You groaned. "Oh shit, I forgot about that. Yeah, I'll go mining today."

"Good. I don't teach for free, you know," he teased.

"Not even for a frieeeeeeend?" you over-enunciated enthusiastically.

Punz laughed. "Ha. Very funny. Have fun mining."

"Fuck off, bitch!" you called after him as he left.

------------

1167 words

------------

Mel has dubbed the Punz-Y/N duo as the 'Gold Duo'.

Do with that what you will.

I am now trying to figure out how to deliver on the Patches content I promised you XD

TA TE CHILDREN!