After a series of unfortunate events took place in the family's life, one person has been ripped away from them. Now it is Jay's mission to find his husband whom he hurt so much.
Will he manage to find Notch again? Or is he forever lost to the unfo...
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The next few days were uneventful. We packed up, moved onwards until the late evening before setting down our tents, eating and sleeping so we could repeat the same thing over and over again. Today however was different. We wandered the woods as usual, being forced to let Xander roam freely since we couldn't carry him all the time. That guy was heavy and I'm pretty sure all of our legs are slowly but surely killing us. Rations were starting to run out, so we were forced to hunt more often that we'd appreciate. Usually however Nightmare and me took that over, mainly because we had the most experience. Jura would however join us every once in a while, usually when Centi needs to take a walk around. The small one had impressive stamina. At some point I looked up to see where the sun was in order to figure out what time it was. That made me realize that were were much less leaves in my way than during the last few days, which was great news. "Guys!" Jay turned to me. "What's wrong?", he asked me in a slight bit of confusion. I pointed upwards to the sky. "It seems as if we're slowly getting to the edge, the sky is more visible now.", I explained. Zeph let out a loud sigh of relief. "Thank god, my legs are killing me...", he muttered. The others seemed happy about that too, but got even happier when Nightmare announced that now it would only roughly take one day until they fully arrive at the edge of the forest. That happiness however quickly changed to worry when Jub let out a raspy cough. He's been looking really pale since a few days, and his temperature isn't fine anymore either. All because a damn skeleton managed to shoot him in the shoulder during a nightshift he pulled with Jay. Nighty worriedly went to him and put his hand on his forehead. "Jub, this isn't okay anymore...", he mumbled. "Are you sure you don't want to go to Jerry and the kids? Your fever is getting too high and your condition is crap." Jub just shook his head. "No, it's fine. We'll get through this, the way back would take significantly longer...", he muttered. Nighty looked like he was really close to sending him back, but just let out a weak sigh. "Jubilea, only because we're almost out of here, doesn't mean the rest of the way won't get worse and worse.", Jay tried to convince him. "And who knows if there is someone out there that can heal you." Jub however stayed stubborn and insisted on coming with us for some reason. I only rolled my eyes, too lazy to tell him no. "I'll be fine...", he mumbled. "Now stop trying to baby me, I was in worse conditions before." We eventually just agreed and continued our way. "Nightmare?", I asked. He hummed and stepped over a rock. "Why aren't we just teleporting?" "Since we're so close to the edge of like every hole you can fall into in the Farlands, it would become inevitable loosing one of you through fall damage. I might know the Farlands pretty damn well, but not well enough to know what area is safe to teleport to as a group.", he explained. I nodded. "Understandable. Seems there are many reasons." "Yeah... Too many...", he mumbled, sighing. "Ranging from the Entity family over fall damage all the way to my old dragon roaming that area." I paused a bit. "Dragon?", I asked. He chuckled. "Yup. Riota, a black and white thornback dragon. Surprisingly gentle to play with as a friend, but extremely aggressive towards newcomers. Not exactly the best problem when we are on a mission as hard as this one, especially if we already have someone that's injured.", he explained on the side, letting out a small sigh near the end. This really seemed to mess with him... I reached up and patted his back in a comforting way. Weird, it felt... More boney than usual. "Hold on, why are you that thin?", I asked. Nighty gave no reply, just continuing on his way. "Nighty, answer. Otherwise I'm gonna ask Zephyr.", I repeated a bit sharper. Nighty sighed deeply. "I gave part of my rations to Xander so you won't leave him starving. Besides, he needs this strength, because something is horribly wrong. This isn't Xander, something else is keeping him under control... During the nightshifts I often heard him whimper or cry... Struggling against something we can't see.", he mumbled. I sighed weakly, not sure if I should be made or not. "I know... I heard that too while we were on our nightshift. It's awful, but since we don't know what is currently causing this, we can't let him roam at night.", I explained. "Besides, you're also still weakened. You shouldn't just hand over your rations, but you can ask me if I can maybe make another one for him too. It shouldn't be a problem if you bring that to him since when we tried he'd always refuse." Nighty sighed deeply and rubbed over the back of his neck. "I suppose we could... attempt this at least. The problem would be that then you'd have more work, and I don't want to force that onto you, Hero." "It's not a problem for me to make another portion, as long as he doesn't waste it. We're already tight on rations, any waste and we might not have enough. But we'll need everyone's help. Yours, Jubileas'... Most likely Xander's as well. Which is why we need to try and figure out why this is currently happening, and you need to stop giving away your food." Nighty agreed eventually in a rather uneasy manner. This seemed to mess with him... I sighed and fell back to Red, taking his hand. "What's wrong Hero? You seem upset.", he asked me, soft as ever. My grip around his hand tightened a bit when Xander walked past us, heading straight to Nighty and talking to him. As if he was gossiping about me or something... Since I was so focused on him, I barely noticed that Reddie was talking to me until he gently flicked my ear. With a yelp I turned to him again. "Why??", I whined. He pouted slightly. "Because you didn't listen to me. I asked if it's because of Xander's behavior.", he repeated, visibly unhappy. I rubbed my ear, glancing away. "Sorry, babe... Yeah, it's about Xander. Nighty is starting to get really worried...", I explained, telling him what we talked about. He listened closely, keeping my hand close. Eventually I finished and he sighed deeply. "You can tell me immediately, Hero. But I'm starting to get a feeling that we'll meet the reason for this soon." "I hope not, Reddie... I hope not..."
(I think I have to take a break from writing to plan, this is getting harder and harder-)
