Predator (DWT x OC)

1

The shadows of the walls loom over me, swallowing me in darkness. A breeze sweeps through, fluttering the leaves on trees and creating ripples in the clear water. I sit lazily on the grass, grateful for the respite from the blazing sun, an apple in hand. A man strolls out of the nearby shack in the centre of our country, tall and proud, with soft curly brown hair hanging over one eye and a smile of his face. Wilbur, the president of L'manburg.

I smile and wave cheerily at him, Wilbur quickly returning the gesture before walking out of sight. I lay back and close my eyes, lulled by the swooshing of the leaves and lapping of the lake.

"Oi Rosemary check this out!"

My peace was instantly disrupted by a loud blonde boy marching towards me. He was tall and lanky, with fluffy blonde hair and blue eyes. Tommy, the Vice President. Trailing behind him was his best friend and right hand man, Tubbo, a lot shorter, with blonde hair that hid his eyes. I squint in their direction then sigh.

"What Tommy?"

He smiles a mischievous smile at me before leaping onto a pillar. 

"Tommy what are you doing?" I say, panicked at the glint in his eye. Tubbo, standing beside me, seems very much unfazed. Tommy flashes an impish look at me before lunging forward and leaping off the platform of the pillar. I stand horrified, watching as he plummets towards the lake, but he just effortlessly dives in, splashing both me and Tubbo. His head pops back up, and he's laughing as he swims around.

"See Rose, I'm fine, you won't have to fix me this time!"

"That was so stupid! I cannot believe you just did that!" I scoff, heart still racing from watching him almost fall to his death. Tubbo shakes his head and rubs my shoulder. 

"It's ok Rosie he didn't hurt himself."

 I smile appreciatively at Tubbo before turning back to my spot and lying down. I hear Tommy and Tubbo's laughter as they splash around in the lake, the distant voice of Fundy, the fox like son of Wilbur, chatting with the deep voice of Eret, another member of L'manburg. The breeze flutters over my face, and all too soon I find myself drifting off again.

It's easy to let the peace of these moments swallow me whole. It's easy to forget the world around us. L'manburg is not an isolated oasis, not in the centre of the Greater SMP. Our existence is an insult, and driving wedge between the innocent people of our lands and the dictator of those outside the borders. 

There's a reason we felt like those lines had to be drawn. 

The smell of smoke is what eventually opens my eyes. It was faint, but the fumes increase, acrid, enough to burn the inside of my nose. The moment I do, the moment my eyes adjust to the sun, I see them, the thick plumes of grey rising up against the blue sky. 

Tommy's cries hit me at the same time as the heat. Tree tops engulfed in so much fire it looks like the entire world is burning. I leap to my feet, sprinting to grab the buckets by the lake. Wilbur's there when I reach it, directing frantic people to areas that need attention. 

It's relentless. The heat. The smoke. A shirt pulled over my face does little to prevent it choking me. Spot fires pop up the moment another one is extinguished. I stamp out embers of a charred log, drowning it with water for good measure. The entire area around me is unrecognisable, smouldering black stumps, scorched bushes. The green has been erased, leaving the colourless husks of the forest behind it. 

I'm exhausted. The man beside me sinks to his haunches, coughing violently. I feel the itchiness of the ash smeared across my face, the fatigue in my arms. My fingers are numb, dropping the empty metal bucket, which rolls across the ground. I can vaguely hear shouts coming from all different directions, but the heat, the noise, has dissipated, and I know the worst is over. 

I stumble back to the lake with the coughing man, barely able to pick my feet up. The air is still heavy, choking, smoke and ash lingering. The buildings are untouched, but the borders we can see are barely intact, the burned evidence of the tendrils of fire that crept across. 

The exhaustion and realisation paint the ash lined faces of everyone around me. My friends. Strangers. The population is small, but everyone here has no where else to go, and this land, this country, means freedom and safety from those outside of us. 

The people who most certainly lit those fires. 

The people who burned so many villages before us. 

The only thing special about us is that we took his land first. 

Never mind most can't go back to homes under his control. Never mind their families and livelihoods and communities that have been erased for factories and farms and land to control. 

I was lucky. My family split apart on its own accord. Illness, anger. We didn't have a psychopath driving that wedge. 

Wilbur stares off at the lake, contemplation deep in his eyes. I leave the others to stand next to him on the shoreline.

"It was them, wasn't it?" I ask. I know the truth, but I need him to confirm it. 

He nods stiffly. "Our presence has officially been noted."

The only reason we're still alive is the fact that we weren't even big enough to threaten anything Dream had been doing. We were the smallest of fish in the great big ocean of the Greater SMP, barely a register on his radar. 

But there's only so much you can flaunt in his face. 

It's pretty much a death sentence. Disband or die. That was a warning. A threat. 

"Where can we go?" Fleeing is a temporary stay of execution. We can run, but the expansion of his empire is fast and brutal and there's no guarantee towns will accept those displaced to begin with. 

"We're not going anywhere." Wilbur's voice doesn't shake, and I envy his resolve.

"If we stay, he'll retaliate."

"We'll declare independence, officially. We can't outrun him. Someone has to take a stand."

"It'll be suicide." I state the fact because someone has to say the truth out loud. I glance back at the people gathered on the shoreline. A few hundred, at most. Not fighters. Not rebels. Our tiny hospital wing barely has the beds for ten people. 

"What else do we have?" Wil lets out a shuddering sigh. "This is our home."

"This will become a war Wil, and we can't win."

He steels himself, shoulders back, mouth pressed into a firm line. I see the fear in the whites of his eyes, but there's nothing but resolve in the tension of his muscles. 

"Someone has to take a stand."

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A/N Ok! Just a little introduction to the characters and the world. From this chapter it's going to get intense very quickly, and I might just slightly go over some of the other instigating events of the war, not as in detail as I did with the fire. 

I wanted to start the story with a Rosemary without Dream even being involved because as we'll find out, Rosemary is a bad bitch who don't need no man. Her character will be explored a lot more. but this chapter was mainly for everyone to get used to the world and how I've translated it from Minecraft to reality. 

Edited 6/1/25: a little slower paced and a lot more realistic. Let's build up the tension a little bit!

Anywho I hoped you enjoyed!

Love Oopises x