Mini Stories

Bent at the knee

Prompt: Rowan gets blindsided by Fundy

Warnings: Blood, angst, character death

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He stumbles back, collapsing to his knees immediately after. He starts coughing—no, choking on his own blood. A hand presses into his stomach, harsh, to try and quell the flow of crimson. He knows respawn works, he does, but something tells him to hold on. Something tells him that if he doesn't, he'd come back just as Wilbur and Schlatt did.

Golden eyes look up through blurry vision at his attacker. His attacker. Fuck—he shouldn't've trusted the sly fox. It'd been almost a month since the failed revolution. He thought things were doing better!

Rowan had received the letter of invitation from his attacker not two days ago. The other had asked to be taught how to better fire a crossbow. He'd sounded so—so kind! So willing to learn from the winged male! There had been no malice or inkling that the other was still holding a grudge! Or maybe there had been.

Maybe there had been between words written from a pen gripped in a white knuckled hand. Maybe there had been amongst the happy words and willingness to learn. Maybe there had been in the way the seal on the envelope had been stamped perhaps a bit too hard.

None of it matters though because right now he's bleeding out from a sword wound. Right now he was dying and he needed help.

He chokes up more crimson, free hand coming up to cover his mouth and avoid staining the grass further. He has to sit back on his heels so he doesn't collapse onto his front. He winces, eyes squeezing shut. It hurts, fuck—it hurts. He'd been stabbed before, been wounded so heavily, but something about this hurts worse.

Rowan managed to open his eyes to look at his attacker. The other nonchalantly takes out a cloth and begins to wipe off the blood from his sword. He seems so calm, tail swishing behind him, ears giving the occasional flick. His eyes are half lidded and he looks like he didn't just stab someone.

"You're so gullible, Rowan." Fundy finally speaks. He tosses the now stained cloth on the floor and lights it with a flint n steel. The fire flickers, slowly burning away the evidence of his actions. He stands back up and returns the blade back to the sheath at his hip with a sigh. Brown eyes examine the other, watches as he chokes into his own hand. The red seeping through his fingers make the fox's tail swish just a bit quicker.

Rowan's eyes narrow in a glare as he removes his hand from his mouth. There's no point in continuing to try and hide the blood. It was doing him no good. So instead he uses it to hold himself upright, or so it seems. His free hand had pulled up the chat, hologram keyboard just barely out of his attacker's sight.

His fingers click away, desperately hoping he wouldn't mistype. It could mean the end, truly, for him. He watches with narrowed eyes as the other moves to set down a single stair before sitting on it. Rowan wants to ask what he's doing before realizing.

Fundy wanted to watch him bleed to death.

Rowan snarls, long canines barred in anger at the realization. He calms himself, knowing getting furious wouldn't help him. So he focuses half his attention back on typing and half on Fundy.

"You know," Fundy starts and Rowan's wings nearly fluff up. He manages to compose himself quickly enough. "—they said you're a hard man to kill. Your power is matched with Techno's in pvp, after all. But look at you." He grins, wide and sharp, the type of grin only a fox can achieve. "Downed by a single stab to the gut"

Rowan hits enter once he's sure he's type it out.

You whisper to Technoblade: I need your help Fundys just stabbed me im by the north end of the castle please hurry

He's internally grateful the only thing Fundy would be able to see is the hologram keyboard and not his chat. Had he, the foxy might've been inclined to quicken his death.

Fundy stands and walks over, silent. "You just had to be stabbed once. Just once!" He laughs, crazed and maniacal and murderous. He runs a hand over his face, snickering. "The one other person on here, aside from Dream, that was matched in skill to Techno went down with a single stab wound!"

He walks away a moment and steps onto the stair he set down. "Now!" He spins on one foot to face Rowan. "What does that say about Techno?" He asks and steps off the stair to take a seat. He thinks for a moment before grinning madly. "Does this mean I could kill Techno too?!"

In an instant he's sprung up, the speed making Rowan flinch. "Ohoh! What if I get him the same way I did you?" Fundy paces, nodding wildly. He glances to Rowan before noticing the other was starting to go. He walks over and roughly grabs Rowan's crimson stained jaw. "You're going to die and no one will know who did it. You'll be forgotten."

He tossed Rowan to the side before turning and heading off. He had to be quick lest someone stumble upon the two and realize what was happening.

Rowan coughed, letting the hand at his wound fall slack. He watched Fundy go with a weak glare. How could he have let himself be blindsided by the fox? He internally curses himself for putting so much faith in the other.

A moment passes before he hears someone calling out his name. They sound so close yet so distant, so familiar yet so foreign. Who...? The nametag briefly runs passed his vision and he whines, quiet and weak. "Tech—no..." He doesn't think the other hears. Until the nametag returns to his line of sight.

"Te-..." He's cut off by a wince of pain and it takes him a full minute to regain his breath. "Tech—no!" Comes the weak cry. It's the last thing he can say, truly, before he relaxes. He just barely catches sight of the familiar red cloak before his eyes shut, gold hidden away once more.

FeatheredGold has died

He nearly trips as he rushes into the clearing. Techno realizes he hadn't been mistaken when he heard his name being called. The sight of Rowan laying on the ground, a pool of crimson around him, makes him freeze. His body moved before his mind had caught up, immediately collapsing beside the other.

Hands that shake for the first time in a long while move to reach out, pulling the winged other close. "R-Rowan...?" His voice sounds like it's underwater, his mind feels the same. He holds the other close to his chest, protective and gentle. He looks at his hand and the fear that hits at the sight of red staining it makes him freeze.

Black eyes watch the other carefully. "Rowan—?" He asks again but the only reply is silence. He trembles, eyes wide in fear and realization.

The scream that tears through him leaves him breathless, his throat raw. It's guttural and anyone nearby would think he was getting killed. And maybe he is. Maybe he's gone down with Rowan. He's not sure when he stops but when he does, his vision is blurred with tears.

Techno wasn't one for emotions, having always been detached from his own. That didn't mean he didn't have any. It simply meant he could pull away from them at the flick of a sword. But in this moment, as he clings so desperately to Rowan, in this moment he wears his heart on his sleeve.