The Price of Power

7 - Walk

Question: Honestly, I like the concept of claims that I..think you made? Idk. I'm guessing that Ink and Error have claims on the Doodle Sphere and the Anti-Void respectively?

Answer: Thank you! As far as I know, I did make the concept, but there are so many different people and fics in this fandom that there's a good chance that someone else has done it already! And, yes, Ink does have a claim on the Doodlesphere, but Error does not have one on the Anti-Void - the Anti-Void doesn't allow them due to its nature as a void. But hardly anyone can enter the Anti-Void anyway, so it isn't a big deal for Error unless someone comes in just to annoy him! And there will be a bit more lore about them in this chapter! 

Comments are welcome and appreciated! 

Please enjoy!

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Dream had been stuck in bed for a week and a half, and it was unbearable. Stitch had come to give him updates on the progress with the outfit every couple days, and Dream had made the most of the visits, but that was the extent of the interesting interactions he had with others. The only other people who had come here had just been here for food-related reasons; Dream couldn't wait until he could do something for himself. This was like torture for him, and Nightmare knew it, didn't he? Nightmare knew that Dream would never be content lying around all day and having others do everything for him; he'd never been able to do that. On the few occasions that Dream had been ill in the past, he'd gone about his daily activities as usual. 

There was only one time that Dream had ever suffered through this torment before, and that had been after Dream's first encounter with the Destroyer of Worlds. It had been two years after Dream had become an adult and Ink had finally let him out of the Doodlesphere to fight against the evils of the multiverse, but Ink had never allowed him to help in a battle against Error, claiming that he and the Destroyer fought on a completely different level than Dream could have ever hoped to achieve..and he was right, of course. Dream had been cocky back then, brushing Ink's warnings off as just simple overprotectiveness, and when the time had come that he'd been present in a universe that Error had decided to attack, he didn't run as Ink had instructed him to; he'd decided to join the fight. Error had just laughed, wrapping the young guardian in his strings and flinging him half a mile away; Dream's spine had snapped on impact with the ground, and he'd been bedridden for a month, forced to let Ink take care of him. Thankfully, he was a guardian and could survive things like that, but he'd definitely learned a valuable lesson that day; Ink was the only one who could reasonably fight Error. 

Of course, a few decades of experience had granted Dream a lot more power and expertise with it, and nowadays, he was capable of assisting Ink in his battles with Error, but..he had always been cautious around Error after that; he didn't let those blue threads anywhere near him, not wanting a similar incident to occur. 

Of course, now, a similar incident was occurring..just not for the same reasons. This incident was occurring because Nightmare didn't like Dream's strong sense of independence. Dream wondered if he had told Nightmare about the previous incident; was that why Nightmare was doing this to him? What else had Dream told Nightmare over the past couple years? Would other things be used against him, too? Dream didn't really want to find out. 

At least there were things to do; Dream could read, draw, and..read..okay, there wasn't much to do without asking for something else, and Dream didn't want to impose upon someone else. 

In the middle of Dream's thoughts, there came a knock at the door, and Dream looked over to it, hoping for some good news. 

"Come in!" Dream called.