Not My Pyre (A Pearl-Centric Double Life FanFic)

Chapter Eighteen: Ocean's Interlude

"It's time." Bdubs said, punctual as ever.

"I don't see anyone. Pearl, do you really think this is going to work?" Jimmy asked, turning to her.

She didn't. "Yeah. There were so many people there, there's bound to be someone crazy enough to join us. And, if not, we can always go on to the next town. No one's gonna find us in the Woods."

Jimmy glanced away, back towards the town. "Alright."

They waited.

And waited.

And waited.

The sky had gotten dark and the stars were coming out.

Ren sighed. "I don't think anyone's-"

"Hello? Is this where we're supposed to be for the revolution?"

Pearl turned to the sound of the voice.

There were a bunch of people gathered, coming from along the treeline. At the front, there was a man with brown hair, a short beard, and a scar over one eye. He was leading a horse that was dragging a bunch of wood with a dog sitting on top of it. He laughed. "Sorry we're late. We got a little turned around, because there's this other place in the Border Woods that's really close to town, and we tried going in, but it was scary so we left, and, long story short, we're late, but we made it. I'm Mythical J. Sausage, the J is silent and most people just call me Sausage, a carpenter, that dog is my girl Bubbles, this horse is House Horse, and I'm sure everyone else here can introduce themselves."

The woman with cat ears and overalls that Pearl had spoken to stepped up. "I'm Katherine, I'm a baker."

Another woman, one with a black bob, stood beside her. "I'm her girlfriend Shelby, I'm sort of a medic."

Around seven other people stepped up to introduce themselves, including the blonde with the diamond sword from the town, named False.

They'd brought with them a varied assortment of supplies, including food, medicinal stuff, camping gear, wood, and a handful of shabby weapons. The best thing there was definitely False's sword, which she wouldn't let anyone else touch.

"Alright! We're very glad to have you all here," Scott spoke in a loud voice. "Now, start setting up camp, but make sure you can take it down quickly. We're headed to the next town in the morning."

Pearl smiled, feeling a whole lot better about this whole revolution thing.

~*~

He woke up at the bottom of the ocean. He almost inhaled, but stopped himself. That was not an instinctive reaction he needed to follow.

A school of fish swam past as he started digging through his Cloak's pockets - because it had pockets. If you're going to have a magical article of clothing that your very soul was tied to, it was going to have pockets.

Maybe there were too many pockets. He was having trouble holding his breath long enough to find the Mask in all the pockets.

No, there weren't too many pockets. The problem here was that the Cloak was at the bottom of the ocean. Seriously, who put it there? And why?

... They had probably realised what it was and what it could do - really, if They were who he thought They were, then they had Respawn Anchor Cloaks too, and would definitely know that perma-death doesn't work when you have one.

Finally! He pulled his Mask out of his pocket and put it on. Even though it was made of a solid porcelain-like material and had no holes in it, he could still see. It only covered down to the tip of his nose, with spikes trailing down to his jawline, but allowed him to breathe as though he were above the water. Its creation was quite a feat of magic, no matter how common others of its kind were.