A Faithful Memory

Wilbur's First Test

Wilbur did not know what had passed between his father, Techno and Kai, only that Technoblade was having nightmares again. He vaguely remembered his brother having them when Wilbur was a small child, but that hadn't been for years. Now, hearing his oldest brother struggling in his room at night, Wilbur made sure to stay in his own bed, trusting his dad to find out what was happening. When the morning came, Techno was normal again.

Wilbur wanted to help out his brother, but in a safe way. Something that wouldn't mean going into Techno's room at night. So, reaching back into his memories, Wilbur came up with an idea, and he started off towards the town with it in mind. He told no one where he was going but Tommy, for the lad followed him everywhere and it gave Wilbur a sense of importance to have an accomplice. Tommy, of course, knew nothing about Techno's nightmares, and had met the hybrid too late in his life to understand Wilbur's project very well, but he tagged along anyway, loudly declaring that he and Wilbur were on a secret mission. Phil let them go with a grin, only making them promise to stay within sight of Ranboo.

So Ranboo had to be let in on the secret. The boys waited until their house was far behind them before Wilbur turned to his brother. "Hey, Ranboo! I need to talk to you about something. C'mere."

The Enderman hybrid sauntered over, his fluffy tail swishing from side to side nonchalantly. "Yeah?" The sunlight glinted off his sunglasses, making Tommy grin. He thought Ranboo looked so cool in those glasses.

The two small boys crowded around Ranboo closely. "We have a plan." Wilbur began.

"Oh." Ranboo replied. He laughed nervously. "Would Dad like it?"

Tommy nodded before Wilbur could answer, jumping up and down and crying, "Both our Dads would like it. Come on, Ranboo, come with us, it'll be great and you're a rotten egg if you don't!"

"Hang on, Tommy." Wilbur chided. "I gotta tell him what's up first." He turned back to Ranboo. "Remember how Techno and me used to play on instruments when I was a kid?"

Ranboo tapped his little brother's forehead. "Well,first off, it's Techno and I." He corrected. "And yeah, I do."

"Well," said Wilbur, speaking very quickly, "Tommy and I are going into town to get Techno an instrument." He waited for Ranboo's reaction.

The hybrid touched the rim of his glasses with a black forefinger. "Huh. You guys have that kind of money?" He asked skeptically.

Tommy snorted. "Of course! We have twenty dollars, all told, an' nothin' costs more than that!" Proudly he stuck his hand in his pocket and brought out the cash, waving it at Ranboo.

The Enderman hybrid coughed. "Yeah. Sure. I bet you'll get twenty instruments for all that. Yeah." Looking in the direction of the town, Ranboo said, "Y'know what, let's try it. Let's try it. What could go wrong?"

The two younger boys cheered and began to race down the path. Ranboo grinned mischievously and waved his hand once. Little purple sparkles flashed and swirled around him, and suddenly his body rushed forwards, faster than either of the children could keep up with or see, and then he seemed to reappear ahead of them. "Catch me if you can!"

Tommy instantly took off after him, giggling breathlessly. In a moment Wilbur was right behind him, pushing to get ahead. No matter how they ran, Ranboo was always teleporting ahead of them, always letting them get within arm's length of him, and then suddenly whisking away again. Tommy was the first to start complaining about it. "Ranbooooo! Wait up! Not fair! Why're you teleporting, that's not fair!" He stopped, breathing hard. "You have to let us catch you!"

They arrived at the town breathless, dusty from their run and very leg-weary. But the boys were determined to get what they came for, so they started looking for people who were selling instruments. It wasn't easy, for they mostly window-shopped going by what they saw instead of going into the stores to browse. Ranboo walked behind them, doing his own looking around.