Another future - Dreamtale AU Fanfic (On Hold)

Chapter 1 - Storm

Tw: Panic attacks, self-disrespect

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...A skeleton, who was so bruised and exhausted that he couldn't heal himself, was sitting under one of the trees in the big, dark forest he found himself in. The monster was breathing heavily, despite the pain in his ribs. He was wearing a pastel-yellow withered coat and with tips of dark-Cyan. Under that coat was an outfit of black-stocking like pants (which also had a lot of cuts, too). Our heros yellow boots and gloves, along with his black leggings on the soulders, were attached with dark-cyan belts. He was wearing a similar belt on his waist, but it was thicker and had a golden buckle with the letters "DS" on it. On top that he wore a yellow, golden-like hood with orange stripes. A shining gold, yet old circlet was resting on the skeletons aching skull, shining in the dark.

"Calm down, Dream! You have to be calm! C'mon, breath in, and out... Breath in... Breath out...". He remembered the sight of Blue instructing him how to breath. It was sometimes annoying that his friend was always nannying him like he's some sort of "babybones" - but he couldn't be mad at Blue for it. After all, Dream would cause the multiverse collapse if he died from a heart attack! Not that he has a human heart, considering he's a skeleton. If he had one, thought, it would be trying to break out of his ribcage right now. Dream didn't remember the last time he was ACTUALLY calm, without the fear of failing his task of being a guardian again...

He remembers what happened, thought. His twin suddenly attacked a peaceful AU. Dream was fighting against his brother, Blue was distracting Killer, and Ink was busy arguing with the destroyer about his favorite TV show (Under-novel? He wasn't sure) instead of helping Dream. (Typical Ink, if you ask Dream, but couldn't he maybe help him with fighting the monster that is deadly for the guardian? Because Ink's a god, maybe???)
Anyhow, Dream was injured more then usual - Dream felt Blue's concern on a mile's radius - and Dream finally saw with the corner of his eye socket that Core evacuated the last remaining inhabitant. Dream screamed that they're retreating. The guardian made a yellow, shiny portal, and was about to go through it, but in the middle of his jump the destroyer... Error was his name, Dream believed, tried to create a portal, too. But his glitching portal and Dreams kind of... Bumped into eachother and created a new, unstable portal?.. Dream cursed in his mind and hoped he'd be able to just go home already while he was sucked into the strangely "merged" portal. While teleporting, he felt an incredible wave of PAIN go through his whole body... And after another fragment of a second, he fell from the portal on the ground and hit his head. The portal closed before Dream even hit the grass, and the skeleton lost consciousness...

And now he found himself in this endless forest. Dream tried to summon his bag already, but was too weak for that. He hoped Blue was okay... The guardian walked a couple miles by now, but he didn't see the end of the forest yet. The hero was starting to slowly lose his confidence... "C'mon, STOP PANICKING, DREAM! If Core didn't come to rescue you by now it means that they're either busy with the survivors of the AU (thought, it's usually not too much of a hassle), or they think that you're gonna be fine by yourself! You're going to be fine! It's fine! Everything's fine...". With a sight, the guardian looked at the sky. Well, the trees, more correctly speaking - the guardian barely identified that those were blocking the view in the dark (if you can call a lot of thick, grey clouds a view). The hero felt a couple of raindrops falling on his skull. It was going to rain soon. Dream was still in pain, so he decided to loosen his belts that were now painfully holding his fists. The guardian usually liked how tense those belts were - it felt refreshing. The pain from them would usually be a guide, telling him if he's awake or is under his twin's sadistic hypnosis, but right now the pain was making his already exhausted from the bruises and walking body feel only worse.

After loosing the belts, Dream finally felt a little relief. The raindrops were peacefully falling on the sitting skeleton. The guardian was visibly calming down. "Guess Blue was right about me worrying too much, huh. Everything's going to be fine! Everyone is fine... Oh, I just hope that Blue can heal by himself after the fight with Nightm-"

Dream's thought was cut off by a spark of light. And a familiar, LOUD roar right after it. Dream screamed from the sudden sound, and instinctively tried to get up. Bad choice. The guardian immediately fell to the ground, his bones radiating pain. Dream, shaking, tried to get up again as heavy raindrops were hitting his skull. He could only lift up his skull, so exhausted and wounded the hero was. Tears were urging to stream from the guardians eye sockets - so helpless he felt. "It's alright Dream, it's just thunder! Calm down, calm down, CALM DOWN-" Dream cried in his mind. The guardian tried to check his stats and check his HP, couldn't. It was getting hard to stay awake... "Someone, h-help..."

...A cat, wet from head to toe, was running through the thick, dark forest. "You're such a genius, Neil!" - He mumbled to himself - "You just had to fall asleep while searching for supplies! Your prise - no meal! Great." He was about to continue pouting when suddenly, some loud scream made him freeze and stop cursing under his breath. Neil strained his ears. He could've sworn he heard something. Maybe some kid got lost? But no villager was ever going this deep into the forest... Especially on such a weather! Yeah, right. The cat's mind must've started playing tricks on him... (Like the nightmares of his family weren't enough...) Well, he should get going. He has to get into his cave or else he'll catch a co-

"Someone, h-help...". Neil freezed like a statue. The whisper was so quiet and fragile that no one else would've heard it so far away with the pouring rain, but Neil could've sworn on his cat ears that this wasn't a hallucation. Without thinking, Neil ran to the direction he heard the whisper from. "Hello! Hey! Can you hear me?! Are you there, hello?!" Neil screamed. No answer was found. After a couple minutes of searching, Neil was about to give up, when he suddenly saw a light in the dark bushes. The light was golden. Was it?.. a golden crown?! "Dream?!" Neil desperately shouted. He immediately ran towards the body. To his fear, he saw a skeleton. Neil started shaking the skeleton, telling him to wake up. The monster wasn't waking up. Oh, when Neil finds out who's fault is it he'll- Suddenly. Neil froze. He didn't know Dream had a change of clothes. And height. This skeleton was much larger then Dream! This guy was pretty much the same height as Neil himself, while Dream was a foot shorter! But... If this isn't Dream...
Then why does he looks almost like him?..

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Summary:
Our bruised guardian teleports into an AU with a storm and got scared, falling asleep. Lucky for him, Neil found him! But... Neil didn't recognize him?..

Authors note: Sorry if the end is rushed a bit🥲
(Btw, I'm not gonna post here for a bit, since I want to start some other fanfics. Don't worry, I'll get back to this story soon! ^^)

Date of publish: 15th October, 2022

1288 words