Bad End Friends

Warmth

He struggles to remember sometimes, the reason why he keeps running.

As he sits down beside a dead pine tree, he shivers in contemplation. He remembers faces, sounds and smells but they all feel distant. Blurred somehow, like they were memories of someone else. Some days they feel real, real enough that the thought of warmth does not make his skin crawl in disgust.

Most of the time though, he feels cold. Cold and hollow and sad. The fact that he had spent his time running from something, avoiding anything that moves in fear of... of... He couldn't remember. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, subconsciously curling into himself in order to remember. It was almost there!

He—he remembers... There was a dog and he— no wait it was a monster that nearly killed his family?  but he was my best friend and—! What was...? A laugh, that was a laugh, his brother's! No wait, he was crying. Why was he crying? A-a woman—? She looks so tired and worn, I—I should... help? Then there was—

There was the cold. 

The rush of half remembered memories of friends and family flashed through his mind's eye too fast for him to comprehend, it felt like a splitting migraine. He felt like a bucket over flowing with water that it could barely contain. The memories of seeing his best friend turning into the frightening monster haunts his dreams but nearly killing his family with his own hands burden him more.

He hears the soft plinks of ice hitting the rocks at the base of the dead pine and the sound of someone crying, he scanned the area that was suspiciously blurry before he realises that the cause of both was him. His tears were freezing to his face near instantly before they break off and hit the ground. He was sobbing, after years (was it years? He couldn't recall) of suppressing these emotions, he had finally snapped and he could barely breath.

Soon enough, he heard them again. These insidious voices inside his head, voices of the frost, voices from the crown.

"Do not fret, Child of Snow," they whispered. "We share your sorrow, we share your misery. You have us, you need only us."

"Only us."

He ate up these words like a starving man in a banquet, and in turn he followed Them with blind faith and unquestioning obedience. They were always there for him after all, They served as his companions when his loneliness was at his highest, comforted him, cared for him and protected him. They gave him power, strength and ice. They chose him.

"Leave this place and cease your weeping." They commanded, he nodded at nothing and stood up to wander into the woods.

He was grateful for Them but he cannot help but feel trapped, trapped from Their voices, Their limits, it might've been the influx of memories and emotions but he cannot hold back his loneliness any longer. He needed physical company. He wanted—needed—to feel warmth again.

And as if summoned, there was a glimpse of light in the otherwise dark forest and the frigid temperature that always surrounded him ebbed a little. Ice blue eyes widened in wonder, forgetting his tears and weariness he followed the light with something resembling hope grew within him.

Heat, its been so long since—

He felt sharp pain in his head as if stabbed, he groaned and clutched his head with his human arm as his metal one grabbed a tree to steady himself. He could hear Them and They weren't happy at all.

"You do not need this, Ice Child. Stop seeking poison and cease this rebellion," They say. "You only need us. No other." 

He bit back a groan as he struggled to stand as the pain intensified until he could barely see straight but he refused to give up. He needed to find the warmth, the light. He needed it with desperate fervour, he was so tired of being cold. He would not give up. He—

"STOP THIS NONSENSE CHI—!"

The child stopped his train of thought as the silence resounded in his head. The sudden silence shocked him but what froze his movement was the sudden increase in temperature. This was— this was heat! He was feeling heat for the first time in... in...

The sound of rustling clothing and the slight tweak of a lantern and the feel of warm hands supporting his weight snapped him out of his head. He looked up at the stranger in wonder. A young man with horns a top of his head and concentric multi-colored eyes that reflected concern. But the child continued staring in awe, barely caring for his appearance as he marvels something else.

"You're cold as ice!" The lantern bearer exclaimed, the temperature increased even more but curiously, the child did not feel uncomfortably hot or burned, in fact he felt... safe.

"What are you doing here? Are you lost or perhaps in search of something?" he continued, but the child barely heard him and continued his staring. The lantern bearer, aptly guessing that the child was in shock, gently shook him on the shoulder.

"Are you alright?" he asked but he got a whisper in reply. With a huff, the stranger asked him to speak up.

"I feel warm."

The lantern bearer looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, the child's lips twitched upwards in what might've been a smile. 

"Yes, I know," he deadpanned before furrowing his brow in mild concern. "You need to be warmer, your temperature is unhealthy. Stay here for a moment." He moved to leave and grab a blanket from the Old Grist Mill nearby but the child grabbed the edge of his tattered navy blue cape halting his movement, the lantern bearer was met with the saddest puppydog eyes he has ever encountered. The child uttered one word that was enough to melt the stranger's heart of stone.

"Stay..."

Kneeling to his height the stranger, he placed a hand on the child's shoulder. "Okay," he said. "I am Wirt, the guardian of these woods, the Unknown."

"Who are you?"

The child hesitated, he barely remembered his name but the odd silence that befell the crown since this stranger appeared helped him recall easier than before.

"I... I am Finn..."

"Nice to meet you Finn."

{A few days (months? years? Time was always hard to measure in the Unknown) another boy appeared this one would be Bipper and with this addition, Wirt's routine life and Finn's loneliness disappeared without any hope of getting it back.

That should be the last of these unless I get motivated to write about their misadventures.

Hope you enjoyed this little three-shot,

RS out!}