Things That Need To Pass (passerine!Technoblade x OC) {COMPLETED}

Oh, You Of Little Faith

(3rd person POV)

"What if he's... What if it's kinder to him?" For a moment, the king was a child again—clumsy and terrified. Every shadow was an enemy and every heartbeat his last. "What if it's better than this?"

And the god looked up at the blue-and-purple sky, stars chasing each other through the dark like a billion wayward children, with only the distant snow-capped mountains in the horizon as a reminder of his earth-bound fate. 

With the sweet air in his lungs and the steady trot of his steed, the god could almost see himself drifting between galaxies, wandering but, for once, not alone.

"Wilbur," said the god, "there's nothing better than this."

And they rode on.

The days turned into weeks, and Philza watched from the skies as the tundra changed from alpine to polar. Green to white. Grass to snow. Cold to colder.

They were getting close, and it was getting harder to breathe.

Wilbur and Techno had let their horses go the moment the ground turned slippery, and were now slowly making their way through the frozen wasteland, with Wilbur bundled in fur and fleece. Eryn rode a distance away from the two.

It became clear immediately that Wilbur was going to slow them down. He staggered after Techno, who stopped every few miles to let the young king catch up before he moved again. Left to their own devices, Philza knew he and Techno could finish the journey faster—but if Phil knew that, then surely Wilbur did, too. 

And although this angry, grieving man was almost a stranger to him, Philza could almost picture Wilbur gritting his teeth as he forced himself to walk faster, walk further—driven by the same stubbornness and frustrated perfectionism that he employed into everything he'd ever done as a boy.

Philza followed them closely, flying lower and lower. If either of them asked, he would tell them it was because the air was getting thinner as they headed further north. But neither of them did, saving Phil the trouble of lying through his teeth.

He'd lost count of how many times he'd caught himself looking at Wilbur, taking in his confident gait and his mess of brown curls and the dark lines under his eyes. He wished Wilbur would look back at least once, even if his stare was cold and hateful, just so Philza knew Wilbur could still see him.

Most days, it felt as if he was mourning two dead sons instead of one.

Techno was already a pink speck in the distance. He'd only just stopped to wait for Wilbur when it happened.

There was a loud crack that reminded Philza of breaking bones, and he looked down just in time to watch in horror as Wilbur fell through snow and ice, disappearing into the freezing waters that waited below.

Phil didn't think. One moment, he was in the sky, and the next he was hurtling towards the earth, crashing through the break in the ice that Wilbur had been standing on just a second before.

 He felt the cold water envelop him, cold as death itself, but he was already searching the darkness for his son. His hands searched, desperate and clawing, following an instinct Philza thought he'd forfeited long ago.

Please, he begged, the chill digging its cruel talons into his skin, please, please, please, not him, too—

Phil's fingers closed around a wrist, then a forearm, and then he was swimming upwards towards the faint light above. But Wilbur was so heavy, weighed down by his bulky clothes, and the water was so cold, and Phil was reaching and reaching, and there was no air left in his lungs...