Awesamdream - His Beloved Warden [Fic 1]

24. Found

When Dream reached Las Nevadas, he found Punz near the space needle with Fran. Fran was agitated, pacing and pawing at the ground.

"He's underground," Punz said. "I thought it'd be best if you were the first one he saw."

Dream smiled at him. "Thanks. Let everyone know we found him. Did Fran help you?"

"She did. I went and got her after you went to talk to Quackity. She was very helpful." Punz sent a message to the global chat.

"Good girl," Dream said to Fran, petting her.

Fran didn't respond to the petting, still trying to dig to her owner.

"Do we dig down?" Dream asked and Punz shook his head.

"We can go inside, there's a basement with an obsidian floor, we can mine through that to get to Sam."

Dream agreed and they went into the structure. They had searched it at one point, but he hadn't seen the basement then. It must have been hidden.

Fran ran in with them, barking as they made their way down to the basement. As they walked, Punz gave Dream Sam's communicator, which he put in his pocket to give to him later. Punz showed Dream to a particular spot where some blocks had already been mined out, and Dream got out his pickaxe and kept going.

It didn't take long to break through and reveal a tightly spiraling staircase. Dream hurried down and saw Sam with his back pressed to a wall, iron bars surrounding him, shaking slightly.

He looked a little rough but not too bad, and Dream quickly rushed to the bars.

"Sammy!" he called.

"Dream?" Sam blinked slowly at him, seeming dazed. He tried to move and Dream felt a flare of anger when he saw Sam's arms seemed to be tied behind his back, with his ankles tied as well. Sam didn't like being restrained.

"Yeah, it's me. Are you okay?"

Sam just kept looking at him, ears slowly moving up, then dropping. "Y-yeah. I'm... good."

Dream frowned at the hesitance. "Are you sure? You sound off."

"Do I?" Sam looked confused. Dream was worried about him.

Then there was a click and Dream flinched back as a dispenser in the ceiling shot a potion down at Sam. Sam made no attempt to avoid it, though he did grunt when it hit him, looking up at the ceiling.

"Ugh. How many of those are in there?"

"What's..." Dream caught a musty smell and made a face. "Weakness? Has Quackity been using Weakness?!"

Sam started to answer, then groaned and slumped over for a few moments.

"Sam!" Dream shouted while Fran whined.

"Quackity's probably keeping him subdued with those, he'd have them on a timer," Punz said. "Repeated exposure is only gonna make him more sensitive to it. Get him out of there."

Dream broke the bars down with his pickaxe and went into the cage, untying Sam's wrists and hissing when he saw the way the rope had cut into already-scarred skin. He swiftly cut away the ropes at his ankles too, glad that Sam's pant legs had protected him from those, but they had still been tight.

Sam made a soft noise, eyelids flickering. Dream dragged him from the cage, lowering him to his back and watching him closely.

"Do you have milk?" Dream asked Punz.

"No. But one of the others might, or I can milk a cow," Punz said.

"Please, go get me a milk bucket. I don't know how long this'll last otherwise," Dream said.