Volume I: Forged

Chapter 20: Promises and Pain

"Techno, we've been tracking this thing for an hour."

"And?"

"Can we not?"

"Getting tired?"

A snort. "No."

"Then shut up."

Dream rolled his eyes, but kept up with Techno with ease through the trees. Techno may have been bigger, but his steps were just as light. The two were shadows, a breath upon the breeze.

"What even it is?" Dream asked.

Techno's eyes were fixed on the ground, frowning. "I don't know. The tracks are all messed up—there's no clear steps."

"So we could be tracking some stray skeleton?"

"Perhaps."

"Fantastic."

...

"You have to be kidding me," Dream hissed, gripping his tree-branch with white-knuckled fingers. "This is madness."

"This is interesting," Techno whispered back, grip much more relaxed as he inspected what was below them.

"That's a Nether-loving Ender!"

A low hiss, scared and threatening, rattled through the trees. Techno glared at Dream for his outburst, turning his attention back to the Ender.

"Not a full one—" Techno said, the creature curling up tightly against the roots of their tree. The kid had black and white skin. Splattered and spotted—even his hair was split black and white. "Ghast, maybe?"

"Why in Ancient's name would a ghast have a kid with an Ender? Or manifest one?" Dream asked. The hybrid let out a low warble, his nails scrabbling at the tree and forest floor as he tried to curl up in a tighter ball.

"He's human." Techno threw that monkey wrench in there, and Dream's blank mask whipped to face him.

Techno chuckled. "You really should have read that anatomy book."

"I'm not a nerd."

Techno ignored that comment. "He's too short for an Ender, even for a juvenile, and he has human ears. Enders and ghasts don't have hair either—they have tails and horns."

Dream's mask made a movement that had Techno thinking he was rolling his eyes. "So what do you think happened, genius?"

Techno eased back on his branch, noting the Ender twitch at the creak of the wood. "My guess is an Ender had a kid with a human, and a ghast manifested."

"I thought dual hybrids were impossible."

"Improbable," Techno corrected. "The big issue is—where's this kid's tribe?"

"Abandoned?" Dream offered.

Techno bit his lip. "Enders are usually possessive—especially of babies."

"Every last creature on this Ancient-forsaken planet is possessive of their young, Techno, and yet here Oreo sits, obviously alone," Dream said, exasperated. "Step up your game."

Techno gave Dream a side-eye before dropping from the tree, lithe as a cat.

The Ender spat and immediately staggered to his feet, ready to defend his pathetic tree, but he posed no threat to a piglin and a kid who could take said piglin on.

In seconds, Techno had the kid pinned to the ground with a hand on his chest and a shoulder and a knee in his stomach. Dream dodged a slash from the frantically-swiping claws, and held down his wrists.