The Kingdom in the Mirror // DreamNotFound

Chapter 11

Dream pumped his wings, gaining altitude before he shot off into a random direction, stumbling in the air. He clasped the smaller boy in his grasp as he flew, ignoring the pain as the brunette's body pressed against his open cuts.

He felt lightheaded as the wind brushed his hair out of his face, allowing him to see the destination he had randomly set for them.

The beach.

One last pump of his strong wings and Dream had had enough, he plummeted to the sandy ground 20 or so feet away from them. And as he hit the hard ground, he covered George's fragile frame, taking the brunt of the blow himself, before he rolled to a stop, George slipping out of his grasp as he finally was forced to black out.

–

George held himself up by his elbows on the cold, damp sand, shaking his head to clear his mind as he recovered from the fall. The full reality of their situation hitting him like a brick wall.

He had killed Karl, the island was saved. Dream-

"Dream!" George gasped, struggling to his feet as he rushed up to the fallen blonde, lying unconscious on the beach, his huge wings bent beneath him at an awkward angle.

George fell to his knees beside Dream and surveyed the damage. It was bad, real bad. He had never seen so much blood in his entire life, and he felt a bit queasy as he realized he had no idea how to even begin cleaning up the blonde.

He started by rolling Dream off his wings and spreading them out on either side of him, as he fixed the out of place feathers carefully. He winced at the bloody stems of the torn out ones, he could do nothing for those.

After the wings were cleaned up as well as he could do with his experience, George leaned back. He had no water to clean up Dream's wounds and the ocean water certainly wouldn't do.

Exasperated, George ran his hands down his face, before he turned to scan the ocean cliffs surrounding the island like a natural wall.

He could die. But for Dream's sake, he would risk anything.

The brit took a deep shuddering breath before leaning down to smooth Dream's blonde locks out of his bruised face. He stared fondly down at the taller man for a few moments and then pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead.

George stood up and turned to the cliffs as the sun began to rise seemingly from under the water behind him. And with purposeful steps, began his journey to get fresh water to save Dream's very life.

–

Turns out, climbing was a little harder than it looked. George had barely made it halfway up, and his arms already felt like giving out.

The warmth of the sun from its place high in the sky kept a permanent reminder of how much time he had spent trying to climb with half strength on his sore back.

He reached up to grab a higher hand hold and pulled himself up, but it suddenly crumbled beneath his grasp and he lost his grip. He banged the cliffside with the side of his body before he hung for a few moments by one arm, gritting his teeth as he strained his arm to pull himself up.

He dared not look down.

As George reached three quarters of the way up, a horrible thought struck him. Even if he made it up, how would he carry water down? It was hard enough to get up with two hands, and if he dampened his shirt and climbed down, the water would be all dried up by the time he reached Dream.

He screamed in frustration as he laid his forehead against the rough wall. He wasn't even sure Dream would still be alive by the time he did get water, if it was even possible.

The brunette blinked back stressed and angry tears as he looked up to calculate how much more he would have to climb. Maybe he would be able to find a vine or steal a rope from the village to help him down. Yeah, that would work.

With newfound hope in his heart, George began to climb once again. But as he grasped another unstable handhold and began to pull himself up, he slipped. And this time, he wasn't able to hang on.

George fell backwards off the cliff, so close to safety and yet so near death from the fall below. And it seemed life had chosen for him.

The brunette blindly and desperately reached for anything to save himself, but it was all in vain as he plummeted to the hard, sandy ground, a sure end to his life. The wind forced tears out of his eyes and he closed them as he waited for the impact of hitting the earth.

But it never came.

A pair of strong arms swooped under him and George was scooped up out of the path of death and wrapped into a ball of feathers as he somersaulted to the ground and for a few long moments before they came to a stop.

He heard Dream groan from beside him and George struggled to catch his breath from the near death experience and the feeling of his heart in his throat.

"What, what were you thinking?!?" Dream gasped out, lying on his side, George pressed against his chest in his arms.

The brunette finally managed to take in a breath, "What do you mean what was I thinking? I was going to save you!" He replied indignantly, looking up into Dream's worried gaze.

"Well it looks like I just saved you! Again!" Dream said, letting go of George to painfully get to his feet. He tiredly retracted his wings, relieving his sore back of the weight. George scrambled to his feet beside him, brushing off the wet sand from his hopelessly dirtied clothes.

"Well, I was trying to get fresh water to wash the blood all off you." George said, tears from the stress of the entire ordeal they had gone through beginning to spill in that moment.

Dream's worried face melted into one of gratefulness and in one swift motion he pulled the sobbing brunette into his arms. "Shh, shh. You're fine, I'm not mad, I was just worried." He comforted as George cried into his stained more red than green hoodie. Dream smoothed his hand through the brunette's brown locks as he hugged him with the other.

Even though Dream was still in very much pain and still bleeding from some injuries, he sacrificed it all to make sure George was okay. He waited for almost 10 minutes as he pulled the brunette to the ground to make it more comfortable as he wept.

"I killed Karl. I killed him. I killed him." George gasped out between sobs, Dream knowingly nodded, "I know, he was a bad person, George. He deserved to die." He said, but George only sobbed harder.

"But I killed someone. I've never done that! And now I'm crying over someone who almost killed you! What kind of sick person am I?"

Dream understood George's conflict, killing someone, even someone who deserved it, didn't always feel right, and the guilt of that would probably always be on George's undeserving soul.

Dream wished he had been the one to take on the weight of guilt in his stead, he had killed many before, and honestly he had really wanted to kill the man who had murdered his father.

But all that really mattered right then, was that they were both safe, and Karl was dead.

After 4 years of captivity, Kinoko could finally be free. 

It's not over. 

Don't leave yet, so many unanswered questions. 

Speaking of questions, anyone confused on anything?

I literally wanna marry this chapter, I feel like I depicted it so well. :D

Why sad? Happy. -G