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

Chapter 41: God, Why Can't He Dye?

Sorry this took so long, our saved version got deleted 👀

The sun streamed through the windows of the house as you sat at Schlatt's desk, scribbling down signatures and notes on stacks of paperwork. Across the room, a sleeping Schlatt was still conked out, his chair still where you had shoved it. After a lengthy but important conversation about Tubbo, the mayor had fallen asleep, leaving you to deal with all of the filing.

How much sleep had you gotten?

...Don't worry about it.

Finishing one document with a flourished signature, you tossed it into the pile and stretched your arms over your head, deciding to take a break and a walk to clear your head. Walking quietly so as to not wake your friend, you grabbed your bag and slung it over your shoulder. The sound of crackling paper from within it reminded you about the list Wilbur had given you and the fact that you hadn't looked at it yet. Yet another thing to do.

Outside, Manburg was strangely quiet and still today. No one was out enjoying the cool air or strolling along the Prime Path together. Even the wildlife seemed to have vanished, no birds flying from branch to branch or soaring above your head. A comforting peace, yes, but the silence was what you hated.

After walking a little way away from the house, you sat down against one of the numerous oak trees amid the clumps of flowers. The list felt fragile in your hands as you unfolded it, staring at the words written in Wilbur's hasty and yet elegant script. 

-𝑅𝑒𝒹, 𝒷𝓁𝓊𝑒, 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓉𝑒, 𝑔𝓇𝑒𝑒𝓃, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒷𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝒹𝓎𝑒𝓈

-𝒯𝒽𝓇𝑒𝑒 𝒹𝑜𝓏𝑒𝓃 𝑒𝑔𝑔𝓈

-𝒯𝓌𝑜 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝒸𝓀𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝓅𝒶𝓅𝑒𝓇

-𝒮𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝒸𝓀𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝑔𝓊𝓃𝓅𝑜𝓌𝒹𝑒𝓇

-𝒮𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃𝓉𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓃𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒶𝑔𝓈

-𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂'𝓈 𝒸𝓇𝑜𝓈𝓈𝒷𝑜𝓌

You nearly choaked at the last one. Dream's crossbow? Wilbur's gone crazy. Doesn't he know just how much that bitch values that thing? What does he want me to do, steal it? Dream would rather die than let me have that thing.

The other stuff was do-able, even the nametags. You recognized the majority of the items as ingredients for fireworks, which was... interesting. To each his own, however. Whatever Wilbur wanted fireworks for was up to him.

You knew Niki had an egg farm by her house for her bakery, and Tubbo had massive amounts of flowers stored up. Schlatt had the paper and Fundy had nametags. There was a community creeper farm quite a way away from Manburg, but you could take H/N there and back. That left only one thing: the crossbow.

As you stole flowers from Tubbo, you thought about how to retrieve the item. There were multiple ways: Theft, murder, asking politely, distraction, mugging, giving Wilbur a fake, swapping the real for the fake, just not giving Wilbur the crossbow- but most of those were more dangerous than you liked and pointed back to your betrayal of both sides in favor of the other. 

Putting it out of your mind, you spend the day distracting yourself by collection various items on the list around Manburg. You couldn't find the nametags, but everything else was taken care of- mostly. 

You entered the mayoral house again, not surprised to see Schlatt still asleep. As you descended the glowstone-lit stairs to the basement, you got the prickling feeling that you were not alone. It was different from the way-too-quiet feeling you'd been having all day- no, this was the feeling of someone else nearby, not wanting to be seen or heard. 

You tried to ignore it, dumping various flowers into the mortar and pestle located in the top of a crafting table and mashing the red flowers into dye, but as you scooped out the dye, you couldn't help but think that it stained your hands and gloves like blood. 

Flower after flower went into the stone bowl and came out as dye. You were grinding up the dandelions when there was a small noise behind you. Just a soft whisper, like air blowing a curtain, but enough to make you hesitate for a second. The hairs on your neck rose and you felt for Orphan Slayer, careful to not notify anyone around that you were armed. Slowly, you scooped the yellow dye out of the bowl, then swung around abruptly, sword slashing.

Dream stood behind you, looking annoyingly calm despite the sword at this throat. Scowling, you sheathed Orphan Slayer. 

"What do you want?" you snapped.

He held out a piece of paper. "Found this out by Niki's house. You must've dropped it."

It was Wilbur's list, the last line glaring at you like an accusation. You restrained yourself against the feeling to check the pocket where the paper had been kept. 

You snatched the paper out of his hands, growling slightly. "This isn't min-"

"Save the bullshit, Shadow." Dream interrupted you. "You're spying for Pogtopia. Now, what you need to do is give me a reason why I shouldn't tell Schlat-"

Now it was your turn to interrupt. "Schlatt already knows," you lied. "I'm spying on them for him, not the other way around."

"Then what about the list?" Dream pressed.

You snorted, trying to sell the lie more. "That's my cover, genius. I pretend to run errands for Wilbur so I have an excuse to leave Pogtopia and report to our beloved mayor." He shifted slightly and you detected that you were convincing him slowly. "Now, if you've nothing else to say, get out of my way- and my business, and my life, if you can." You tried to step around him, but he blocked your path.

"I'll make you a deal, Shadow," he started, but you shoved past him.

"Don't care," you spat, but he grabbed your wrist.

"Shadow- or Y/N." You froze momentarily, surprised by his knowledge of your real name. "You can have my crossbow for Wilbur."

"What's the catch?" you asked suspiciously. 

"Take me to Wilbur."

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