a series of sbi oneshots

Bloodshot

“All shotes will go back to their sounders,” Technoblade growls. He has fought all of these Brutes for the right of command. He has forsaken his own sounder so that none could be said to be above the others, for the sake of the shotes.

It is by his sacrifice that the shotes have been saved.

If the Brutes will not obey him, he will kill them.

“They are unclaimed!” The accused Brute snaps.

Every Brute in earshot stills.

They had not considered the possibility of unclaimed shotes. Traditionally, it would be the right of whoever found them to take them in.

But here, surrounded by so many Brutes, there will no doubt be claims that others found them first and were simply gathering their own sounder’s shotes before laying claim. Already Technoblade can see manes bristling, mouths opening.

“I lay claim to them.”

______________________________________

(this is kinda messily written soo yeah!)

It’s dangerous, having this many Brutes from so many sounders in one place, but not a single sounder would consent to sitting this out. The humans have gone too far.

There’s hardly a sounder in the Bloodwoods untouched by their greed, their cruelty. Dead hunters, dead Brutes, stolen shotes. Not taken honorably through challenge and cared for with love, but ripped from their dens, tormented, killed, in far too many cases. 

Techno rumbles deep in his chest, echoed by an army unlike any other seen in the past century. At his side, Philza ruffles his feathers. Techno wonders if it is eagerness for battle, or fear.

He is surprisingly honorable, for an overworlder, he was the one to show them where the hunters have set up their camp, unlike the human rulers, who have hidden them when the sounders demanded the hunters be given over.

He has even come along to this battle. “Kids are kids, mate,” he’d said, his back straight, his jaw set, as though he thought he were a Brute himself. 

The sounders would hear nothing of it at first, of course. It is their shotes on the line, they will not let a human be the one to rescue them. The Brutes will fulfill their duty.

Philza had insisted that it was his honor on the line, and Technoblade had allowed it. Despite the grumbling of the other Brutes.

Technoblade finds himself fond of the scrappy little bird. If they had met in battle, he might have spared him and kept him, but he is good as an ally too.

Perhaps Techno will still challenge him another day, if he proves himself here.

But first he has shotes to rescue.

***

They all hear it, every last shote stops whatever they’re doing, crying, fighting, it doesn’t matter, all of them fall still.