From the Gallows | Wilbur Soot

Act One: The Heavens

"Technoblade, my friend, you know I perceive you as that of a brother," spoke Dream soberly, earning an inquisitive glance from his pink haired friend beside him.

"What do you imply?"

"It is with this that I feel I must confess I haven't been so honest with you recently, my brother," said Dream. "I've had an impending thought looming overhead that I feel I must finally share."

"Well do so then, I haven't got all day," Technoblade impatiently urged.

Dream sighed, looking out across the land. He cursed himself for tarnishing the blissful atmosphere that had settled in. There he sat atop the hill beneath a willow tree with his best friend, basking in the colors emitted from the sun's setting.

A dull breeze lessened the summer night's heat, causing Techno's long, strawberry blonde locks to sway gently. Foolishly, Dream had always envied his best friend's confidence to grow his hair as such. As shallow as it sounded, he just didn't feel as if he could pull it off as well as Technoblade, and therefore never bothered to grow it past the base of his neck.

"I want more than what our lives have offered us," he finally said.

"Enlighten me, my brother. What do you wish for?"

"I wish to create a land of my own. I wish to have citizens of my own. I wish not to spend the rest of my dullfull years tending to rich men's shoes and polishing the pearls of their wives."

Dream felt gratitude for having an occupation while so many others did not, allowing him to help with paying off the debts his mother struggled with from day to day. But even the most humble of men would gripe and moan about the duties placed on the lower class citizen.

Unlike his friend, when Technoblade had escaped to the normal world away from his gruesome childhood, he and his older brother had been lucky enough to stumble upon a luxurious mansion that happened to be vacant. Because of this, he could not empathize with Dream's struggles with fortune at that moment. However, Technoblade was no stranger when it came to hardship and suffering, so he found it easy to empathize with his friend in that regard.

"We cannot wish for what we know to be impossible," said Technoblade curtly, relaying his friend the harsh truth.

"Impossible? Oh do not be so pessimistic, Techno," scoffed Dream. "How do you fathom that royal lineages have started? They all start from nothing. Who's to say we cannot start one ourselves?"

"Logic is to say that, my brother. We are only children. Do not be so irrational."

Technoblade's tone seized the conversation, leaving Dream with a burn on his cheeks and dread in his stomach. Of all people to believe in him, Techno would be the one, but even he felt Dream as a fool.

Darkness settled in, and the two friends knew they soon ought to part ways for the night. The ten minute walk that separated Technoblade's manor from Dream's shack was nothing for the two friends. Living so close to each other for the past four years had allowed for a brotherly relationship to form, thus creating them to be nearly inseparable. Of course, Dream could never be truly certain what it was like to have a brother, seeing as he was an only child.

Oppositely, Technoblade had grown up in the shadow of his older brother, Philza. Although, the shadow seemed to lessen as the years went on and he grew more and more into his older brother's petrifying image. Presumably, being raised by an older brother that you constantly compare yourself to would take a toll on one's self confidence, but if it did, Techno never let it show.

A beam of light crossed the sky as a star shot by, and Dream found himself subconsciously wishing upon it that his fantasy of creating a kingdom would one day come true. He knew that he should listen to his friend; it was silly to think that he could create a dynasty of his own from empty pockets and his starving body, but the boy at the young age of thirteen with an active imagination couldn't help but hope.