Inkwhumptobertale 2024

Day Five

Camping - Shivering

Trigger warnings: references to abandonment.

Comments are welcome and appreciated! 

Please enjoy!

~~~~~

The cold had never been a friend. Now, it seemed that fire wasn't too eager to please, either.

Ink breathed out an irritated sigh, tossing his sticks into the woodpile he had already collected. It was ironic - he could create whole universes, but when faced with the challenge of making a simple campfire, he was unable to create a single spark to get things started. It was just like him, really, coming in when he wasn't needed and showing off his power as if it were nothing, but failing to do anything of use when it really mattered. That was why he was here, right? His friends had been urging him to take a vacation for a while, presumably so they could have some time without him; Ink couldn't blame them. He'd fought the suggestion for so long, though - the first mention of it had been well over a year ago. But, eventually, he'd been convinced to take the trip after all, and now he was here.

Here. In the wilderness without a tent, a campfire, or anything to make either. 

Dream had insisted that braving nature without magic was the way to go, but Ink really wasn't so sure; he quite enjoyed having fire. He wished he had fire right now, for example. The wind in this forest gave him chills that didn't go away completely before the next ones came along. Maybe he should have invited Dream and Blue to join him; they would have known how to build a tent and make a fire. Maybe he should have asked how to do those things before he had begrudgingly left; he had asked so many questions, yet the most important ones had eluded him. So he was left to sit on a log in the middle of nowhere, shivering as the cold clawed at his bones. Skeletons didn't typically have the ability to shiver - they weren't made to detect temperature well. They could withstand extremes of both hot and cold and not be bothered too much. Ink had never really envied that before; he had thought it was nicer to be able to feel cold and heat. Maybe still heat - he really wanted some heat right now! Cold..wasn't doing it for him today. He wasn't exactly wearing the warmest clothes in the world; he wished he had brought a parka. He wished he had brought..literally anything to help him? 

He wrapped his scarf around his shoulders, letting out a shaky breath. It was visible in front of him; didn't that mean it was getting really cold?

He just hoped that Dream and Blue would know where to pick him up..maybe he could make an AU about camping to practice! Maybe he would not listen to Dream and decide to keep his magic next time. Although, he didn't really know why a magic suppressor was needed for a camping trip..it was just a trip. Dream would have trusted him if he'd promised not to use his magic except for emergencies, right? But Dream had been really adamant about Ink's getting the authentic experience; maybe he'd just been thinking too much about the fun and not enough about Ink's well-being! Ink did that all the time, after all; it wasn't exactly hard! Ink thought two weeks was a bit long, though..

Hadn't Dream said this would only be a few days?