PHOENIX

Chapter Four: Broken Bonds

"Nix, where is Fundy?" Wilbur demanded.

"I-I don't know" I stuttered, still in shock after how close we came to losing our trees. I never thought our dumb prank would get us into this much trouble, but I shouldn't make excuses. This was Fundy and I's fault, and we needed to fix things immediately.

Snapping myself back to reality, I faced Wilbur with a determined look.

"He walked over this way, but then he saw the dream team here and left in that direction" I said, pointing to one of the paths. "After that I don't know where he went"

"Nix and I will go find him, the rest of you should stay here and make sure there aren't any fires spreading suspiciously near our redwoods" Wilbur commanded.

"Yes sir" Tubbo replied, saluting him.

Wilbur and I set off in the direction Fundy had gone, with an uncomfortable silence. I knew we had disappointed him, and I felt horrible.

Hopefully, we could still save the day by getting Dream his stuff in time. We continued down the path until we ended up at Fundy's house, praying that he hadn't run off somewhere else.

Fortunately for us, Fundy wasn't dumb. He knew why Dream was here and had already pulled the bags out from wherever they had been hiding.
"That is everything we took from them" Fundy called out, and my head swiveled to look towards where he was leaning against the wall, with his arms crossed. He looked extremely upset, and was glaring at Wilbur. Why would he be mad at Wilbur?

"Fundy......" Wilbur started softly, cutting himself off and looking away from us both "Fundy, why would you do this?" I don't think Fundy noticed Wilbur had forgotten me, actually I think they both had forgotten about me as an argument broke out.

"Why do you think I did it?" Fundy raised his voice, uncrossing his arms "Huh, Wilbur?"

"I don't know! Maybe for fun? Or maybe for your own amusement? Those are your only motives right?" Wilbur cut back, his voice matching Fundy's.

"No! you know what? Fuck you" Fundy spat.
"Don't talk to me that way" Wilbur's voice suddenly went hollow, no warmth or emotion to be found. It threw me off guard, I had never heard Wilbur sound so cold.

"Or what? You're gonna ground me?" Fundy ridiculed, rolling his eyes.

Wilbur didn't make a sound, he just stood across from Fundy, staring at the floor with a blank expression on his face. He inhaled deeply, and met Fundy's glare head on.

"Why did you do it?" Wilbur asked again, his voice so low, I almost had to get closer to them to hear what he said.

"Maybe you should figure it out yourself. I obviously wasn't thinking it would cause this much trouble" Fundy stated. Wilbur and Fundy had a staring contest, both of them unmoving. Putting two and two together, it dawned on me what Fundy was getting at. Fundy just wanted to finally be acknowledged as an adult, not a child. He did this to prove to his dad that he was capable of being grown up. Maybe that's why he makes all these elaborate pranks, just to be noticed, to be seen by his father. But it always falls flat.

"Fundy, I want to make it very clear with you. You will not engage in any affairs concerning the dream team unless I allow you too. That means staying inside the walls, no pranks, no communication with them whatsoever. You will be assigned a job and that's all you will do from when you wake up until you go to bed" Wilbur declared, no warmth in his voice.

"So you really are grounding me? Thats so dumb" Fundy huffed, looking away. It seemed that after he had hinted at Wilbur's not so great parenting skills, he had become less angry, and just a little more depressed and sullen.