ChromaTober | 2023 FMS Writing Challenge

-| Day 28: Awaken |-

AU: Ancient Roots (Sabre has existed in the Realm for much, much longer, having been alive even before SL and used to be what the Steves called a "miracle outlier". He could create small things that he gave to the Steves to help them, but couldn't do anything large-scale like any of the Creators. He could make bigger things, yes, but those would take a lot of energy and trying to go too far would result in the thing failing to be created and Sabre's power out of commission for at least a week. Unfortunately, he was put into basically a magic nightmare-filled coma on account of Dread being a little sheetwipe and none of the Creators were able to really fix it, so they just removed the 'nightmares' part and that was all they could do. Something like that is a very stubborn magic, so even after Dread was killed it still took a very long time to wear off. The people still respected him and treated his small area (a lush cave grove with a crystalline pool in the middle with a little bridge leading to a podium in the pool's center, him usually on the podium) with care and kept it from crumbling away, however they all believed that he wouldn't wake up again. Plot, of course, demands otherwise.)

Context: A very shocked and internally freaking out Red Steve is right there when Sabre awakens again :>

Whoops I forgot to publish this earlier- sorry- I thought I posted it at night like I normally do-

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[Sabre's POV]

...

...Something has changed.

Everything doesn't seem as hazy as it did a moment ago. I can sort of feel something coiling around me, but it still feels... fuzzy. Like something is trying to pull me into unconsciousness, but with every pull it gets weaker. It's going to fail soon.

Was I asleep? That's not right, I... I was fighting with that new enemy, the one that was causing so much fear around the Realm. I can't remember his name at the moment... but I believe he got the better of me, considering my current situation. He had to, or why would I have been sleeping? He messes with the mind, sort of similar to Dream, so did he put me into some kind of trance? Or is this different?

The lulling pull is getting weaker and weaker, and I can now sort of make sense of what's clinging to me, despite an extreme dazed feeling making itself known. These are... vines of some sort, wrapping themselves around me. Did Genesis do this? He might have arrived just as the odd being I was fighting got me. I do remember him talking about he and Dream having to battle with him.

I finally focus enough to open my eyes, and everything is so... different. My little cove is overgrown with glow berry vines, azalea, and moss, I can only see small bits of rock between the foliage. My clear little pool around the podium still glows because of the crystal beneath the water, but the glowing is partially hidden by lily pads and algae. I'm sitting down on the podium, the vines covering me seeming to have come down from the ceiling.

The walkway to my podium is somehow still pristine, I can see where vines and moss have been recently trimmed to stay off it, and the edges of the cut stone near the moss still have small bits of dirt as if recently cleaned of it, and standing on the walkway in front of me is...

A Red Steve.

He looks like he's just seen a ghost, but he's not terrified. He looks amazed. He just stares up at me, his hands shaking. He keeps looking like he's about to say something, but always stops himself before he does, trying to find the words to speak.