The tissue of our dreams

The stomach is cramping with hunger. Dream doesn't know how long he hasn't eaten - there's no such thing as days in the End, only eternal night. There's nothing around but giant obsidian pillars and endermans of the End. Dream knows they have to do something, to try to escape, to find a way out of this cursed place. But the other children are crying, they're weak, and all they do is quietly wait to be rescued, naively believing that they will come back for them. But no one will come. Why else would they close the portal? The children don't listen to him, still crying and waiting for help. Dream wants to yell at them, to make them understand that they're going to die here, but he can't do that to them. They're just as scared as he is, he can't just dump his anger on them like that. If Dream remembers correctly, there were thirty-two of them when they were first brought here. The dragon tore and ate nine of them. Four fell off the island into the Abyss. Three more were killed by the endermans. Sixteen remain. The children are calling for their parents. Dream thinks of his mother. She's used to him being away for a few days, but it's been a little over a week... His heart clenches when he thinks about how much she will worry. Father will probably go looking for him... But he won't find him. Dream knows he won't. He regrets that he let himself be kidnapped so easily. He should have screamed louder, should have bitten harder despite the adults' painful blows, should have thrown them into the void of the End instead of running to save the other children from the endermans and the dragon. If he had killed most of them... The portal would have remained open. He knows he shouldn't think about such things. Hell, he's only nine, kids like him shouldn't be thinking about killing! But he can't stop. God... They're trapped in here. There's no way out of here, there's no water, there's nothing! They still have a couple of flasks left, but that's not for long, Dream knows. What he doesn't know is what they are supposed to do now. His stomach rumbles again, and Dream wraps his arms around it, hoping to dull the feeling of hunger. He doesn't want to die. Please, not like this, just not like this. He's scared out of his mind, he just wants to curl up somewhere and hide from the world. He wants to scream and cry, but he holds back. With all his might. There are others here who are younger than him, there are girls, and he shouldn't scare them more with his hysterics. Dream has a little sister and brother at home. He knows that children are frightened by violent emotions. He has had to calm them down more than once after another argument at home. Someone screams. Dream throws his head up and grabs the handle of the iron axe he's been handed, tighter. He doesn't know much about how to use it and has only held it a couple of times when his father showed him how to chop wood, but right now it's his only way to defend himself. Some boy tries to defend himself from the aggressively screeching enderman, and while everyone else is hiding and crying, Dream runs toward him, wasting precious energy trying to get rid of the hostile creature. He strikes it with all his remaining strength with his axe, barely on his feet, but the enderman has already managed to rip out the boy's heart, splattering everything around with blood. Dream tries not to think about the wasted effort. The tall creature shrieks deafeningly, turning toward him and attacking his assailant, but luckily it only takes one blow for him to fall to the ground with an eerie wheeze, bleeding purple. Dream stares at the body of the enderman with a kind of strange irritation. There are fifteen of them now. And then he notices it. He sits down on the crusts and reaches for the creature's ripped belly. The children watching him shout something, telling him not to do it, but he doesn't listen to them. He climbs his hands into the warm flesh and pulls it apart, reaching for what has caught his attention. He pulls out some kind of orb, completely covered in the purple viscous blood of an enderman, and doesn't hold back a surprised breath. He knows what it is. Has seen the people who came for the dragon and left them here use it. It's an ender pearl. Dream examines the little orb as closely as he can, looking at the shimmering blues and dark greens, and something clicks in his head. He throws his head up, looking at the second portal that appeared after the dragon's death. But it is too high - they can't reach it. The pearl in his hand is light and feels warm, though it is probably just his imagination. He hopes he is not wrong. It would be too painful to find one more paltry hope and immediately lose it. Dream wants to clam up, but he knows he can't. If there is going to be any result after all, he has to see it. So he clutches the pearl in his palm damp from the endermans' blood, swings it around, and throws it. As soon as the pearl touches the ground he hears a rustling sound and at the same moment, he finds himself in a completely different place, landing on the spot where the orb fell. The children look at him in surprise, not expecting such a thing, apparently not paying any attention at all to the way the adults fought the dragon. He goes back to the enderman and sits beside him again, digging into his dead body and searching for more pearls. One girl cries and throws up bile from the sight. Dream holds herself back from snorting. Their stomachs are too empty to throw anything else away. He thinks he's crazy. He's often heard his mother use that word in reference to their neighbor, who was always yelling at someone in the house. It makes him want to yell, too. Anger boils up inside, he wants to break something and finally get it into those kids' heads that they have to survive. That they can't just die! But he has to swallow all his emotions and quietly go out of his mind, cursing the whole world in his thoughts. His stomach twists again, and he doesn't hold back the painful hiss, pressing his hands against it again. Dream looks at the dead boy's body. If they were on one of the servers where the admin would give each resident a few lives, death would be the easiest choice. He would have gone, jumped off that island in the middle of nowhere, woke up at home, and then come back, opening the portal and letting the others out of this cursed world. Yes, he would sacrifice one life, but he would still have a few more! But they are not members of any server and they only have one life. That's why the bodies don't disappear, staying on the ground. One more pearl is found in the endermans' body, but they need fourteen more if Dream wants to carry out their plan. Maybe even more for those who don't make it and miss the portal. He approaches the children, telling them about his idea, but they are afraid, they don't want to approach the endermans, who periodically start attacking them for some reason and shake their heads negatively, saying that this is a very bad idea. Dream wants to spit with irritation. No one is going to do anything, and he feels the urge to yell again at their stubbornness and naivety. But he doesn't. Grabs his axe tighter and walks off toward the endermans, mentally hissing at his stomach and trying to make as frugal a move as possible so he doesn't waste much energy. Dream attacks the first one. The one immediately begins squealing and attacking, teleporting in different directions to mislead him. He hisses when he fails to dodge, curses when he is hit too hard and blood begins to flow onto the yellow ground of the End but does not give up, swinging his axe until the creature wheezes, dying. He has no luck and there is not a single pearl in this enderman's body, so he gathers his strength and goes for the next one. And the next. Dream is covered in blood, his own and others', he is tired and he is hungry, and he has only six pearls. His wounds ache and his limbs are pulled down by his weight. It seems to him that if he takes one more step, he will just fall and die. But he doesn't want to, he so much refuses to die! He is afraid to the point of trembling, afraid to the point of horror that his life will be cut short here. In this strange world, where there is nothing but emptiness. God... he wants to go home so badly. He slumps to the ground and closes his eyes, stretching his legs out. A shiver runs through him. It's colder in here than he thought... Someone sits down next to him, nestles into his side, and hugs him shyly. At first, Dream even thinks he's imagining it. He lowers his eyes and sees the soft brown eyes of the youngest girl of all the children, who somehow managed to survive the human attack on the dragon. The girl has mussed hair and a dirty face, and Dream recalls that the adults said they caught her stealing food from the market. She's nimble and good at hiding - maybe that's what kept her alive. "Don't be sad." She whispers softly, pulling herself closer to him. No doubt she was looking for warmth. "Everything will be all right." Dream looks at her and somehow sees her as his little sister. She also liked to snuggle up to his side like that and ask for a hug. "Of course." Dream answers her, though he doesn't believe it. He wraps his arms around her and lets himself imagine for a second that he is home and that it is his sister, rejoicing at his return. "My name is Nelumbo. What's yours?" "Dream." He exhaled as he looked up at the starry sky. It was so strange to realize that for two such different worlds, the sky was exactly the same. "Are you in pain?" The girl asked, jabbing her finger at the scratch. The blond hissed, and she hurriedly apologized, taking her hand away. He wanted to snap back, but he couldn't do it. His sister was always upset if he was rude. "A little." He sighed and looked at the axe clenched in his hands. He needed to learn to expend less energy fighting with it. "You're hungry." Utters Nelumbo and listens to the aggressive rumbling of his stomach "Maybe we can find something to eat here?" Dream can't hold back a smile. The girl's naivety no longer makes him want to be angry. It makes him want to laugh insanely. "There is nothing here." He says softly and, seeing Nelumbo's distraught face, corrects himself at once. The girl deftly takes one of the pearls from his pocket. "What have you got it for?" she asks, twisting it in her palm. "The second portal. The pearls can teleport us. We just need to gather enough for each..." Nelumbo hums thoughtfully. "You're a good one." She says after a few minutes "I wouldn't do that for everybody. Only for myself." She gives him the pearl, but Dream is suddenly struck with a realization. Despite the fact that they are children, the blond was wrong to think they were all naive. Nelumbo only approached because she wanted to steal the pearl from him. Everyone does what they can for their own survival. Dream might even have admired her if he hadn't been so tired... He hears the children begin to cry, not understanding why this happened to them, not knowing what to do to get rid of the painful feeling in his stomach, wishing it was all just a nightmare. But they are awake. It's impossible to wake up. The only thing they have left to hope for is that behind the second portal it will be better. That there will be something there to help them live a little longer. So he rests for a few more minutes and then forces himself to get up and start looking for the pearls again. When thirty pearls are on his hands a few hours later, and he goes back to all the others, there are two new corpses at the obsidian tower with distinct marks of pointed and very long fingers of the endermans. Dream forces himself not to look in their direction. He hands each one a pearl and points wearily up to the portal. "Those who are not sure of their aim, take three. We'll need one on the other side of the portal to get down. The pearl teleports when it touches something, so you won't fall." The children nod timidly, not really believing him, but also not wanting to die the way the others did. Being torn by an enderman looked horrifying enough to have nightmares for the rest of their lives. Nelumbo throws first, hits on the first try, and disappears, encouraging the others a little. Dream watches as, one by one, the children drop their pearls and disappear to the other side of the portal. He has no energy to worry about them, nor does he want to. All that occupies his head is the thought that he is hungry, he is tired, he just wants to lie down and sleep. And he doesn't want to die. Dream closed his eyes for a few seconds, letting out a sigh, and then he heard someone else scream. But he was too tired to react in time. One of the children threw the pearl too high. It hits the edge of the portal, teleporting the child, and he doesn't hold on, doesn't have time to grab on, slips away. The boy panics and doesn't drop the second pearl while he has the chance. He falls and crashes, splattering everything around him with his blood. Dream is tired - he doesn't react. Unlike the girl left beside him, who is about a year older than he is. She is frightened, barely holding back a scream of terror, and refuses to drop her pearl. The blond is thankful at least that she isn't throwing up. He spends precious time trying to convince her, so when she finally throws her pearl and they pass through the portal, there are two more fresh corpses on the other side. Dream has no time to wonder how quickly they die. Perhaps none of them will live to see tomorrow. He shakes those thoughts out. He can't. He can't think like that. He has to act. Seek shelter, look for water and food, find anything that will help them prolong their doomed lives. The children are frightened - they look at the corpses with fear. They hesitate and freeze in place, not knowing what to do next. Nelumbo looks at them calculatingly, as if deciding for herself who to stick with in order to survive. She doesn't go near Dream anymore. And that's understandable. He's going out of his way to try to save them all, death will come fastest next to him. The blond looks around. There are islands all around, just like the one where the dragon flew, but much smaller. Although... There seems to be something big enough in the distance... Dream leaves the children behind him and sets off on his own to explore. He has almost no energy left, and his stomach seems to have started digesting itself, but he can't afford to do nothing. He has to survive. Survive-survive-survive... That is his main goal at the moment. The coolness of the pearls in his hands becomes almost a familiar sensation. When he finally reaches the largest island, he sees huge strange trees, towering with long curved trunks into the sky of the End. They are a dark purple color, clustered with some kind of flowers, but most importantly, Dream sees something on them that looks like fruit. He doesn't care if they are poisonous if they are edible or safe for ordinary people. He gnaws into them with the desperation of a man who has almost forgotten the taste of food, chokes on the leaking sour juice, gets completely drenched in the sticky purple liquid, and cries. What a shame. Crying over such a small thing. How stupid. The fruit is sour, tasting like unripe apples, but he has never been so happy about that taste. He thinks it's the tastiest thing he's ever eaten. He opens his eyes and shudders at how close he is to the trunk of the strange tree. Did... did he get that close? Thinking about it, he takes another bite of the purple fruit and nearly flinches at the sudden teleportation a couple of steps to his left. And he'd be surprised, but he's already too tired of all this crap, so the only thought that slips through his mind is: "Is all the food here like this?" Dream raises his head and inadvertently stares into the bright eyes of the enderman. The creature, which had been wandering peacefully beside him before, opened its mouth aggressively and let out its strange shriek of some kind of wheezing, mixed with a hiss and a scream. The blond man barely had time to cover his face with his hands when the hostile creature teleported beside him, swinging its long arms and equally long claws. Skin and flesh came apart under his blows as easily as if they were made of paper. The enderman continued to wheeze deafeningly, and Dream knew that he was about to be killed. There was no strength left, and he couldn't even bring himself to take his hands away from his face, just crouching on his side and trying to shrink back so that his claws wouldn't hit anything particularly important. There was still some slim hope of survival, no matter what. The yelling and hissing made his head hurt, but Dream didn't care. The pain from the claws was far worse than any migraine. The endermans, as far as the blond had noticed, struck solely with their terrifying hands. The bony limbs were incredibly strong, though they didn't seem so, and the disproportionately long, pointed black fingers, though thin, were perfectly capable of inflicting wounds on par with those that would be left by a sword. The hostile creature hurled him into every available surface, making a heartbreaking jumble of noises and continuing to tear at him with its claws. And just when Dream was sure he was about to have his heart ripped out or just his head cut off by those fingers, everything suddenly... stopped? The screaming stopped, and when he opened his eyes, the blond man saw the retreating feet. Why hadn't he finished him off? It hurt to think. But still? He hissed painfully and looked at his wounded hands. They were bleeding and there was... a lot of blood. It was bad. He remembered his mother telling him that one of the farmers in their village died of blood loss after a raid because he was found too late to get any help. So Dream knew that blood was important. That it must not be wasted. That there was... there's... not much of it... Too little to help him live in a hostile world losing that much in just one day. Sighing, he gently squeezed one palm, clutching at the pain that shot through his entire arm. He made an effort to tear his shirt, already torn from the endermans' claws, into wide strips. Wrapping it around his wounds, he hoped that would be enough and slowly began to gather the fruits into an empty bag, taken from the children left somewhere out there by the portal. They wouldn't need it for now anyway. After gathering as much as he could, he headed back, praying to all the known gods for a quieter road back. He had no energy left to cope with anything. He was tired, he was in pain. He wanted to sleep, but he had to survive. That was the most important thing. *** The children pounce on the food as greedily as he had a few hours before. They choke and shriek in surprise when they see the unusual effect of eating the fruit. Dream wonders if this will let them live another day. The girl he persuaded to throw the pearls into the portal after she saw another child die approaches him. She whispers thanks him and timidly reaches for his arms, explaining that she is the healers' daughter and knows a little about how to treat wounds. Dream lets her, too tired to object. She wastes the precious water they have left to wash his wounds and tears her own clothes into strips of tissue, tossing aside the ones Dream used. They didn't have enough water to wash them, and wrapping dirty cloth around the wounds was just stupid. The girl says he needs to get some sleep. Dream knows he can't, but she's older than him, so she knows what she's saying, right? Or so he convinces himself... The blond shuts his mind and instincts and lies down on the yellow earth of the End, curling up in a ball to keep warm and trusting the girl for her safety. Sleep comes almost immediately, gently enveloping him in darkness and washing all thoughts from his head. He doesn't know how much time has passed when he wakes up. Time stands still here, not changing in any way, and there is no way to understand it. The same girl is sitting next to him, but now she is crying for some reason. Dream doesn't ask. He gets up, still feeling sluggish, but it's much better than his condition before. Gathering the pearls is easier and faster this time. He must be getting used to it. Dream tries to do it as quickly as possible. He can't waste time. Some of the surviving boys try to help him. They attack in threes against one enderman, but the blond is not complaining. Any help now feels priceless. They collect enough pearls for each of the children and start walking toward those huge trees, teleporting from island to island and carefully inspecting their surroundings. Along the way, they are attacked by several endermans, but they manage to fight them off and even get away without any victims. These are unpleasant events, but they help Dream understand one very important thing... "Don't look them in the eye. They attack when we look at them." The children nod understandingly, but Dream senses that this will not help them. They get to the tall trees and many insist that they stay here. The boys want to try to build a shelter, but the blond knows they won't last long on chorus fruit alone. They need water. So he doesn't discourage them and goes exploring the world of the End again, hoping that there will still be water somewhere. Hours of wandering around the world are rewarded when Dream finds some strange huge yellow brick buildings hidden in the forests of these giant strange trees and surrounded by endermans, gurgling distortedly about something with each other. Dream lowers his head and walks quickly past them into one of the forts. No one seems to be inside and he dares to look up and can't believe his luck. Out of the wall, water flows into a neat little pool, but before he can rush to it, he hears someone's disgusting muttering, and the next second something hits him. He doesn't immediately understand what is happening, but he slowly rises into the air and begins to panic as the ground gets farther and farther away. He sees strange creatures on the walls, hiding behind square shells, and sees their attentive eyes waiting for him to fall. He barely has time to grasp the burning surface of the glowing rods of the End when the strange effect subsides, throwing him down. The creatures in the shells mutter unhappily and stare at him with hostile eyes. Dream tries not to fall. His hands sting from the hot surface of the rod that serves as a sort of lamp here and it hurts, but he can't bring himself to unclench his palms. He hears some disgusting mumbling and knows that the levitation trick is about to be repeated. And he really doesn't want to be crushed to death in this hostile world. The creature opens its shell and shoots clots of light at him, which slowly fly toward him, changing its trajectory in flight. Despite the protest of all his instincts, Dream lets go of the rod and flies down. The light reaches him almost at the ground, and he becomes strangely light again but is already ready for the sensation. He grabs another rod, but this one is much closer to the floor than the last and he's sure he can jump off without risking breaking his neck when the effect subsides. His arms hurt like hell, but that's something he can deal with later. Right now the priority was his survival and getting out of the fortress without crashing. The creature mumbles unintelligibly and distortedly again. Dream hates this sound. When his body stops climbing up and is pulled down by gravity, the blond lets it fall and gets out of the place as quickly as possible. He sits down at the entrance outside and tries to calm his breathing by starting to pull his hair. There was water inside. And strange creatures trying to kill him. How should he get water without being killed? Dream looks at his hands. There are flat burns on them, resembling wide lines as if he had taken a red-hot pin, and he is only now beginning to feel the pain. The adrenaline wanes and fatigue sets in. He returns to the others completely shattered, barely dragging his axe behind him, not knowing how to take it without hurting himself more. The shelter looks like a hole in the ground and, on top of everything else, another child's corpse next to it. How many are left? Nine? So few... Dream's gaze clings to the pickaxe lying next to the corpse. The adults didn't bother to give them normal weapons, so many of the children got their worn tools for protection. Like his own axe or this pickaxe here... He goes into the shelter and sees the children digging in the yellow earth, trying to make the hole bigger and make it go deeper so they can hide from the hostile endermans. For some reason, Dream thought of the scary tales told by the teenagers in his village. About living-dead people dwelling beneath the earth. He found it ironic. He didn't know then that he would have to live in this shelter for another year. Time passes slowly here, but they seem to get along. They get used to each other, they eat chorus fruit and sometimes Dream roasts the meat of the endermans with the resources he finds on the lower levels of those strange yellow fortresses. In their second week of living here, he even managed to find a healing potion in the chests, which was very good considering the wounds on his arms were starting to fester and... looked bad in general. Disgusting. The girl healer, whose name was Maya, though she didn't know much, said that he might die if the pus moved further down his body. The potion he found at that moment felt like a miracle. He has to go for water every two days. At first, he tried to get to the spring with a pickaxe, making a crack in the wall, very close to the pool, but the creatures reached him with their light even that way. He almost died because of them so many times that he was even surprised at his own survivability. He hated the twisted, mumbling creatures as much as they hated him. Nevertheless, he was getting used to it. Dream tried to get faster, become more agile and flexible, avoiding those sneaky attacks, and after a couple of months he could already walk for water much more confidently, knowing full well what he had to do not to die from the vile inhabitants of the fortress. But even though they had more or less gotten used to their new way of life, it didn't mean that their numbers stopped decreasing. Living in the End meant living almost blindly. And few of them could accept that. Maya died next. She was attacked by several endermans, and though they managed to get her out of their grasp, she died three days later, never able to recover from her wounds. Dream was never able to find her another healing potion. Eight were left. The next one disappeared. Went off to explore the area and never came back. They couldn't find his body. Seven. The panic is getting harder and harder to choke in his throat. Dream sees the pace at which they are dying. He wants to survive, desires it with all his soul, but his confidence in his own abilities is fading with each passing day. If he were stronger, he could protect them. He wouldn't let them die, would he? How could he be sure that his own life would not be cut short tomorrow if they died so easily! He is afraid. Terror grips him more and more every day, but he can't show it to the others. He should not have deprived them of hope even more. He tells no one that he himself has almost lost it. Dream finds books in the fortresses. They are all written in a language that is considered dead in the Overworld, but the blond is surprised to realize that he understands it. He knows the written language of the End. All of the spells his father put on custom-made weapons are written in it. Therefore, the books are read relatively easily. Sometimes he reads unfamiliar words, but he tries to understand them by their meaning. He reads aloud, hastily translating into their native language, and they all try to guess the meaning of the incomprehensible words together. They look up at the starry sky, guessing the names of the stars, reading them out of books, and Dream lies on the yellow ground with them, gazing into the vast emptiness of the sky. These moments seem almost normal. Calm. The children are chatting quietly and laughing while looking at the stars. Dream... laughs with them. He had to grow up abruptly and early, but it's at times like this that he finally lets himself be the child he is. But it doesn't last as long as he would have liked. They learn from books, soaking up whatever knowledge they can after the informative vacuum they've all been in. They try to teach each other what they know, even if they know very little, and they exchange ideas, trying to grow up together. Dream had learned to use the axe as his weapon by then, and the children wanted to learn it as well. And he taught. Well, he tried. He tried his best to teach them his skills. How was he to know he was such a terrible teacher? After a month of training, he praised one of the boys for his success, and the next day they found him torn apart by the endermans he had attacked, thinking he could overpower them alone now that he knew how to handle an axe. He couldn't. Dream had stopped teaching the others ever since. Six. Then a year goes by without any deaths. His fear slowly goes away and he really feels like they can all survive together. Dream was able to convince them to leave their old hiding place and occupy the lower floor of the fortress, which he had managed to clear. There was much more space, and now they didn't have to run for water all the time. The others liked it. The eternal night flowed slowly, and they occupied it with routine. Gathering chorus fruit, exploring the third world, killing endermans, and getting pearls and meat. The blond notices how much his hair has grown. The long hair makes it difficult. The endermans are grabbing at them, pulling at them, preventing him from attacking, so Dream cuts them as short as he can with his axe blade. Nelumbo looks at his cut strands almost enviously and asks if he feels sorry for them. What a stupid question... Climbing up to the upper floors, pushing off the shells of the Shulkers (their name they found in one of their books, as well as a description of these vile creatures) and the thin rods of the End was getting easier by the day. He even liked it. He climbed to the fourth levels as easily as if he could walk on walls. The others, of course, complained and he had to build stairs for them, but Dream liked it when he could quickly jump from one surface to another, deftly cling to the ledges and toss his body up, bend it inconceivably, dodging the attacks of disgusting shulkers... It almost felt like a game. In the chests from the upper floors, there were more and more clothes, weapons, and armor, which they shared among themselves, replacing what was worn out and no longer usable. It was all hanging on them like hangers, clearly unreasonable for children, but they all didn't care about that. Warmth and safety were more important. It was always chilly in the End, and though they couldn't freeze to death here, they could easily catch a cold. That's how the next one died. Started coughing, had a fever... They didn't know what to do. They gave him water, made a purée out of chorus fruit and endermans' meat because it was too painful for him to swallow, but none of them knew what to do in case of cold, and Maia had died long ago to explain them anything. He was dying slowly, and they didn't know how to help him. The coughing became more and more violent and it got to the point where they were all just afraid to leave the boy alone, constantly being near him, trying to keep him warm, figuring out if he wanted something, and immediately rushing out of their seats to get it for him. He didn't sleep much because of his cough, and when he finally fell asleep he never woke up again. He died in his sleep. Panic and terror returned with redoubled force, and Dream almost snapped, showing everyone how scared he was. His internal panic attacks, which he swallowed without letting out, were mentally draining, but everyone else was too saddened by the death of yet another member of their little family to pay attention to his condition. He was even grateful to them for that. The blond was sure that if anyone had asked what was wrong with him, he would have broken down and cried. Five. Dream feels like he's going crazy. He wants to scream and bang his head against the walls until his brain turns to mush, but he's stopped by the fact that the others would be even more frightened. He doesn't know why he shouldered this burden of worrying about the others in the first place. Why he feels responsible for all the children. Among them were some who were older than him, so why it was him who got this role?! He thinks about how old he is. He was nine when they locked them up here. How old is he now? Eleven? He's not sure. Dream looks at his body. Skinny, but strong nonetheless - scars multiply on it. Most are from the endermans' claws, some from his training, some from bad falls that have gotten fewer and fewer over the years. Others have bodies that are more intact. For the most part, he is the only one who fights and is wounded. The others follow him down the paths that have already been cleared. Dream gets the best weapons because only he knows how to use them well enough. He is clad in armor, learning to be fast and agile with its weight on him, a shield in his hands, a bow and a crossbow on his back. He knows how to use any weapon, any tool for his own survival and the protection of others. Fighting only gets easier with time. He invents tricks, new moves that would allow him to mislead hostile creatures, makes traps, and skillfully lures his victims into them. Most he invents himself, others he finds in books, whose language becomes increasingly clear. But despite this, it seems to him that... he is fading away. His days consist of endless fighting, dodging, and running. For some reason, he feels empty. Dream misses his family. His mother with her irascible temper, his father and his lessons about enchanting weapons and armor that were ordered from him, his little sister and brother who loved to come to his bed at night and pile on all sides, basking... He often catches himself thinking about what their lives have become... without him. And it scares him that he is beginning to forget their faces. Dream tries to remember them every time before he goes to bed, but his memory picture is never complete. He remembers his mother's hair, he remembers his father's hands. He remembers the gap in his brother's teeth and the thin scar on his sister's chin from when she fell off the swing. And... he misses them. God, he misses them all so much. He wants to feel the warmth of their embrace, to hear and remember their voices, but there is only the chill of the End, and of the sounds there is only silence and the distorted gurgling of the endermans. He wants to survive to see them again. Dream lies on his "bed" on the lower floors of the fortress (it's hard to call it a bed, mostly a pile of rags) and stares at the ceiling. He tries to remember what his brother's laughter sounded like the last time he saw him. He almost manages to piece together that memory when Tom, the oldest of them all, bursts in. He closes and opens his mouth, unable to say anything. There's blood on his hands. And it's not the purple blood of the endermans. It is human blood. The others start yelling at him, panicking, blaming him, throwing words at first, and then figuring out what happened. Dream closes his eyes. He doesn't care anymore. He doesn't want to hear anything. Four. Dream sweeps their fortress completely. From the lowest to the highest levels, where he almost died a few hundred times each. They've occupied it, rebuilt it a bit, and made it their home. And while that's great, he has to leave to find other fortresses for new resources. The floors are easier to clear this time and it takes him one day to get around them all, bypassing the shulkers he hates and picking up useful materials from the chests. Then he finds clay in one of the chests. At first, he has no intention of taking it away, opting for more pieces of cloth. They were all growing, and it was chilly out here - they needed clothes. And then for some reason, he changes his mind, not even really knowing what he's going to do with it. The answer is found a couple of days later. The endermans attack, even if they try not to look at them. Their claws continue to leave scars. And Dream gets an idea. They make masks. Nelumbo, Tom and Michael make them look like themselves. They were all neat, beautiful, eye-catching. Michael loved to draw and create, he helped the others. Their masks are elongated, with potholes and various patterns, narrow slits for eyes, and all sorts of details like horns at will. But Michael doesn't have time to help him with his mask. He's picking chorus fruit and at one point he falls off into the void. Well, that's what Nelumbo tells him when he comes from another fortress. There are three of them left, but Dream no longer counts. It's useless. He makes his own mask. He has no drawing or sculpting skills, the only thing he could create was a weapon. He still remembers the basics his father showed him. He knows how to enchant them by hammering out the runes on the End language, but that's not what he needs for making a mask. That's why... His mask is the strangest of all. Even though he managed to make it smooth enough that he couldn't feel any bumps with his fingers, that was the problem. The others had a mask that almost replicated their faces, with carefully sculpted noses and gaps for their mouths, but Dream's... It resembled just a curved, smooth plate. He makes little holes in it for his eyes, and though it is almost impossible to see in it, he gets used to it and learns to rely on more than just his vision. He carefully punches runes on the inside of it, enchanting it and putting it on his face. Others cringe a little, saying it makes him look as if he has no face at all, but he doesn't care. For the next two years they don't take them off, only lifting them slightly during meals. And then Tom dies. And he dies very stupidly. That day (night?) they fight. Tom wants to go to the fort with him, but Dream doesn't think it's a good idea. Tom is strong, he doesn't argue, but it needs speed and agility there, not strength. But he won't listen to him. Dream stands his ground and word for word, they start screaming. Then Tom explodes with emotion, saying that he is to blame for all the deaths and it is because of his stupid decisions that there are only three of them left. They fight under the masked, calculating gaze of Nelumbo, and when Dream wins Tom rips off his mask. He throws it on the floor and steps on it. It shatters, and he walks away. A week and a half later, Dream finds his starting to decompose corpse, torn by the claws of the endermans. Two. Then everything seems to go quietly for another three years. Nelumbo never goes into trouble and always calculates the benefits for herself. Surviving with her is easy. Dream no longer sees her face, just as she no longer sees his own. He forgets what she looks like. But he doesn't care about that. The blond man finds more books. One of them is on anatomy, and he realizes for the first time that something is wrong with his body. His body... It's not really male. It looks more like a woman's, but he doesn't understand why. And he tries not to think about it. There's no one here for him to ask questions. He can't ask Nelumbo, really. He finds books about other worlds. About the Nether, which he has never seen, about oceans of lava and the people who lived there, about the fire-borns called Blazes and their huge fortresses... He reads of the Overworld, of a world full of water and flowers. He tries very hard to remember it as he watches the vivid pictures. Nelumbo doesn't seem at all interested in it. And then there are books about the End. About a world in the middle of nowhere and its quiet cities. And about dragons. Dream finally has a goal in mind. He remembers that when they were locked up here, the adults left an egg behind. And the books say it should hatch in ten years. So people will come back. So they still had a chance to get out of here. Dream doesn't feel any aggression or any desire for revenge on the people who trapped them here. He's already emotionally burned out for that. He... he just wants to get out of here. And forget about all of this. Dream explores what must be the tenth fortress in all the time they've been here and suddenly notices the outline of something enormous above. It looks like some kind of flying ship and the mere sight of something new already makes him excited. He tells Nelumbo about it and she asks to go with him. Dream is not thrilled, but he remembers what caused Tom's death and lets her, inwardly resigned to having to be distracted to protect her. Nevertheless, though she slows him down considerably on her way to the upper floors she manages to slip through unharmed, taking advantage of the sheer number of ender pearls to avoid attacks. It was almost a waste, but since it allowed them to advance, Dream said nothing about it. To get to the ship, they have to set themselves up for attacks by shulkers, rising into the air and dropping pearls on the ship already when they were high in the hollow of the End. The ship has many rooms with chests, and they split up, exploring it. Dream walks to the prow and looks at the dragon's head attached to it with some sadness that he himself does not understand. It's a shame that the dragons here have been doomed to die forever. They just lived in their own world, guarding the city, and the humans just came just as easily for their blood and bones. He turns away and walks on. There are many things in the chests - Dream finds ink, new books, clothes (that looked more expensive than the ones they found in the city), gold and iron... In one of the rooms, he even sees a potions stand and... something strange on the wall. He gets closer. It looks like cloth to the touch, but with something hard, maybe even metal inside. It looks like huge wings, but after a closer look, Dream realizes that they are holey. Flying with these would probably be impossible... The blond takes them off the wall and carries them out in his arms, thinking to show them to Nelumbo. What he doesn't expect is her almost going wild when she sees the thing in his hands. She attacks him and screams. Dream can feel her rage even through the mask. "Give it to me! It must be mine! Give it back!" she screams, and he doesn't risk angering her any further by throwing the thing at her feet. Nelumbo picks up the strange wings almost instantly. "I'm sick of this damned world!" she mutters, clinging the thing to her shoulders "There can't only be one portal out! I have to get out of here!" She hops onto the bow of the ship and turns around one last time toward the blond man. "It's nothing personal, Dream. I just don't want to rot here." She says and jumps off. He doesn't have time to warn her that they're torn. The big weird wings flap once, opening behind her back, and begin to tear even more under the pressure of the air. Dream hears a long scream as she begins to fall, and then silence reigns. He is too high to hear the sound of her crashing. One. When he gets home, it's unusually quiet. No one sits in the corner, leafing through books, no one asks how many pearls and meat he collected today. Dream sits down on what replaces his bed and removes his mask. It stares back at him with a blank surface and two dotted eyes. Other than this lump of clay, he has no one left. He looks at his mask and then reaches into his pocket, pulling out a vial of ink and a thin stick. The blond dips it in the thick black liquid and paints a crooked smile on his mask. And putting it back on, he never takes it off again. For the next couple of years, he almost goes crazy from loneliness. Fortunately, there are always endermans around to try his knowledge of their language at them. They are not very good conversationalists, there is nothing to ask of them and for the most part, they only listen to what he tells them. Sometimes they talk about other worlds they've been to, talk about a strange thing people call grass, which they drag into their world along with the earth. But it withers and dies quickly here, so it cannot be grown on their yellow earth. Nevertheless, they help him stay sane, and Dream consoles himself that perhaps when he returns to the Overworld, he won't be too much of a psycho. After a couple of years, he makes supplies, takes the most important things, and returns to the portal, teleporting to the main island, where the dragon egg has almost-almost hatched. Dream waits for the people who trapped them here. After a month, the egg hatches, and the blond carefully takes the little cub into his arms. He knows that dragons grow very quickly, and in just a few weeks they will be huge, reaching their "adult" height. "Mommy?" the little dragon asks in his language, and Dream shakes his head, feeling angry at the people who robbed the creature of its family. "I'm sorry." The dragon only clings to his clothes, and leans closer, trying to keep warm. Dream doesn't push him away. He's been waiting for humans for three more months, sometimes leaving for the city of End for water and food, but now he has a companion. Dragons have the one memory for everyone, so after a couple of weeks, his little (no longer quite) friend could talk about everything the other fire-breathing reptiles have ever known. Dream has a normal company for the first time in several years. The dragon is teaching him the wisdom of the End, talking about other worlds, about people, and civilizations that used to be here, and he finally has someone to teach him and give him answers to all his questions. And that's... really great. The reptile asks him about the mask, lets him ride it a couple of times, and even explains to him that there's nothing wrong with his body. Dragon also seems to enjoy the company and they understand each other quite well. Dream gets his first real friend. And then finally the portal lights up and people pass into the End. He doesn't let them even realize what's going on, not one extra second to start destroying the crystals and hurting his friend. Immediately he rushes at them with an axe and takes their lives one by one. The men are surprised by this move, screaming and straining to defend themselves. But their attacks seem so... slow. Fighting them is easier than fighting shulkers or endermans, and he is even annoyed by their sluggishness and absent-mindedness. How could he allow himself to be caught by such... worthless people? Was he really that weak? The dragon doesn't even have to put up a fight, as Dream has already dealt with almost everyone. He's covered in other people's blood from head to toe, and the last survivor watches in horror as he approaches him, an axe slung over his shoulder. "You... y-you're... the child. O-one of those..." Dream frowns under his mask and lowers the axe on his arm. He waits for the cry of pain to turn into sobs and whimpers, then hisses: "Yes. One of those." He confirms it and, without letting him say anything more, brings the axe down once more on his chest, breaking his ribs and surely reaching his heart. The man chokes on the blood and falls silent. The dragon watches thoughtfully from one of his towers. When it is time to say goodbye, he leans his huge head toward Dream and forces him to embrace him. "Find your family. This life was not meant for you." The dragon tells him and pushes him toward the open portal "You need someone to love you and someone for you to love." And though he's sorry to leave his friend here, he's been trapped here too long and the desire to get out is literally throbbing in his head. They say goodbye, and he's finally free. He can't even believe it. *** It takes time to get home. First, he has to get used to the sunlight again, because his eyes hurt like hell, and on the first day, he can barely move, blinded by so much light. Then he has to remember where his village was, get used to the people's language again and the strange looks that follow him everywhere. But after two weeks, he finds it after all. Dream runs to the smithy, but he does not see his father inside, and when asked where he is, he is told that he died eight years ago looking for his son. He forces his hands not to shake and runs to their old house. For some reason, the windows are boarded up, and the house reeks of dampness and destruction. Passers-by tell him that a madwoman lives there, but he doesn't listen to them. He just.... just really wants to see his family. Even if it's already incomplete. He knocks, but inside someone screams at him to get out and doesn't listen to a word he says. Dream sits at the door all day trying to convince his mother it's him, but she doesn't believe him at all - she says her son has been dead a long time. He manages to convince her to open the door, but as soon as she sees his mask, she screams that he's a freak, that he can't be her dead son because he's gone. Despite how much her heart clenches inside, Dream knows that she wouldn't recognize him even if he took the mask off. So he asks her about her brother and sister, and all he gets in response is cries that the ungrateful brats have left this house and she hasn't had any more children since. When he leaves, there are still screams coming from the house. Dream forces himself not to turn around. How did he manage to lose his whole family?! He thinks he's sleeping, and this is one of his nightmares. His father is dead, his mother has gone mad, his brother and sister have run away. To his own surprise, he decides not to look for them. It's not worth stressing them out with a suddenly revived relative. Especially if they already have a life of their own. He tries not to think about how lonely he feels in his own world. For the next year, he tries to make up for the knowledge he missed out on while trapped in the End. He doesn't act like a human being in the full sense of the word, not knowing all the people's customs and habits, and struggles to make up for it, hoping that it will help him... find a new family? Blend in with the crowd? Find friends? He doesn't know what he wants himself. The first time, he stays in one of the small villages, helping the residents with monster attacks and aggressive creatures, protecting them. There he meets George and Sapnap. They are both chaotic, fun-loving, adventure-seeking, and Dream realizes that he is slowly beginning to "thaw out" around them. They show him many interesting things, common to the inhabitants of the Overworld, but simply stunning to himself. Sapnap is the first hybrid he has ever seen, and he identifies him as a fire-born, the one he read about in the End - a Blaze. George, though he looked less flamboyant and was calmer, carefully concealed sparks of adventurousness and recklessness. No wonder people like them became his friends. Then they introduce him to Puffy, a female pirate who seemed to know an endless number of interesting stories and had a very combative personality. But for some reason, neither of them was very accepted in society. Maybe because they were nomads, maybe because of their oddities that made them unique personalities... As far as Dream had noticed, for some reason people didn't like those who were different from them, calling them freaks. But at least, now it was clear why his mother thought he was one of them. And then, they found out about the games and George insisted that they apply to participate. And even though the blond man had his doubts at first... He couldn't help but admit that it was fun. There were competitions for speed, for something they called parkour, for archery, for free fights... Dream signs up with George and Sappnap for parkour and fights. He doesn't know what to expect, but the feeling of this strange impatience and excitement feels good. He didn't feel that at the End... He shakes thoughts of the third world out of his mind. He didn't want to think about it. The games are very exciting. Dream has yet to meet anyone who can move as easy and as fast as he does and it just thrills him. At the parkour competition, a lot of people are eliminated right at the beginning, George and Sapnap make it almost to the middle, and at the end, it's just him and some guy named Illumina. They go almost side by side with him, navigating the most difficult sections with ease. The audience shouts and applauds enthusiastically. Illumina was a famous parkourist and many were sure that he would win again this year, but after the appearance of the newcomer with the creepy mask on his face, many are not so sure anymore. Dream doesn't think about winning. He's just having fun. Honestly, he really missed this kind of friendly competition with someone who can make him sweat. He manages to outrun his opponent in the part of the arena where he had to jump over thin beams without much support, but for Dream, who only got to the upper floors of the End city fortresses that way (there was rarely anything but glowing rods and the shulkers themselves to cling to) it's a very easy section to pass. Illumina, on the other hand, slows down and insures himself at a slower pace. The blond comes to the finish line faster than him by as much as half a minute. That's a huge time gap in the competition. He doesn't have time to get to know his opponent, as he disappears after the end of the competition, and Dream is already called to fight. They are allowed to choose their weapons, and he immediately grabs an axe. It is forbidden to wear armor at the fights, but that's actually a good thing - that way he's sure to have an advantage in speed. They are given a shield and allowed to take either a bow or a crossbow. The bow is more practical, but the crossbow is smaller, so Dream chooses it. He stands in a crowd of contestants who are determined to win, all talking about some Blood God. The nickname isn't familiar to him, but it sounds menacing enough to not be so easily ignored. He fights ten battles, emerging victorious from each, reaching the very top where his opponent, who also manages to get through all the battles, will be. Dream is not surprised when he is announced that his last fight will be with the Blood God himself. They enter the arena and damn, this guy is huge! Dream has never considered himself short, but his opponent towers over him by almost a head and a half. He has a strong body with muscles of steel rolling under his skin and Dream can't contain his admiration. How many amazing personalities there are in the Overworld! They shake hands. "Technoblade." Monotonously introduces himself to his adversary. Dream takes advantage of his proximity to examine his sternly frowning eyebrows, his tusks protruding from beneath his upper lip, and his completely black eyes with blood-red irises. He has long pink hair, silky even by sight, which is pulled into a tight braid and bound in black ribbons. "Dream." he introduces himself in response, shaking his hand. Technoblade's gaze slides almost indifferently over his mask, and he responds to the handshake, retreating to his side of the arena afterward. The blond almost wishes he could get a longer look at him. The advantage of the mask is that no one will realize he's staring at anyone, and Dream takes shameless use of it. He makes a mental note to himself to ask his friends who it is. Clearly not human, and the rest of the species, including those considered hybrids he didn't know yet. Well, except for the Blazes of course. Their fight is the most exciting of the ones Dream had here. He has the advantage of speed and agility, but his opponent easily makes up for it with his strength and technique. Technoblade handles weapons as easily as if these skills were in his blood. He also knows exactly how to use his body. And he kicks rather painfully. And I'm sure his own blows will leave some serious bruises on his opponent's body, too. They almost dance around the arena, watching their opponent's every move closely, parrying and blocking others' blows, making fake lunges, and squeezing out all of their abilities. The blond is almost shaking with excitement. He hasn't had this much fun and excitement in a long time. But all that fun evaporates as soon as Technoblade splits his mask. The fear comes on so fast that he doesn't even have time to do anything before he starts to panic. His first reflex is to cover his face, not to look anyone in the eye. It's too bright without the mask, he's not used to it, and he feels like he's been hit on the head with some kind of kick, so blurry is everything around him. Why was the Overworld so bright?! He feels something warm on his face and realizes belatedly that it is his blood. He moves away from the next blow almost on instinct, leaning back and pushing his hands off the ground, trying to break the distance between him and Technoblade. Dream is still afraid to look around in a place with so many people, he keeps trying to cover his face and eyes, keeping his eyes on his opponent's legs. He barely attacks back, continuing to dodge and evade other people's blows, and at one point Technoblade gets him after all and knocks him to the ground, putting the blade of his sword to his throat. Without his mask, the world seems wider, and Dream finally blinks away the blur from the too-bright light, accidentally bumping into his opponent's gaze. He's breathing heavily, and so is he, his hair sticking to his temples with sweat. Perhaps this is what a real warrior should look like... The blond man stumbles and tries to frantically remember what people do when they lose. Nothing comes to mind, and he just smiles shyly at his opponent, surprised when he receives a crooked but nonetheless friendly smirk in return. Technoblade holds out his hand and Dream timidly grasps it, still not too used to having someone around to give it to him. The palm feels very warm, and it's... nice. It was too cold in the End, and this guy's temperature is clearly higher than people's. Once again, Dream reminds himself to remember to ask his friends what kind of species it is. The blond man stands beside him and suddenly remembers that people like... introducing the winner? He was still too ignorant of all the weird things they thought they should be doing. Still holding his palm, Dream lifts it up and turns to the bleachers, keeping his eyes half-closed so he doesn't run into anyone's gaze, but smiling nonetheless as he presents the audience their winner. What happened next, he didn't remember much. He seemed to have drank a healing potion, which though it healed the wound on his face, still left a scar that could not remove them. Someone tried to cheer him on and congratulate him for making it this far, but not having his mask with him, Dream felt terribly uncomfortable, afraid to look anyone in the eye and so, at the first opportunity, quietly fled to the locker rooms, where, luckily for him, no one was there. He sat down on one of the benches, twirling in his hands the two halves of his mask that had replaced his face for so long. He couldn't believe he was so stuck to it. "Dream, huh?" He almost jumps up when someone approaches him and looks up quite a bit, trying to tell by the clothes who's here "That was a good fight, wasn't it?" Technoblade sits down next to him and hands him something in a small bowl. The blond almost immediately recognizes the gray substance as clay. Dream nods and removes his fingerless gloves, taking some of the clay in his palm and warming it up. A malleable mass, it warms easily and glues the two halves of the mask together. The blond man caulks the irregularities as best he can, and even though the crooked line of the painted mouth is now interrupted by a gray streak and the clay itself is still raw, he immediately puts the mask on his face, feeling that he is regaining his confidence this way. "Thank you." he says quietly, finally able to turn his head fully and "meet" his gaze. They sit in silence for a few more moments before a tempting thought pops into his head "If you don't mind, I'd like to get my "revenge" sometime." he jokes, and Technoblade, to his surprise, grins crookedly again, extending his hand for a handshake. "Always at your service to kick your ass." The Blood God replies just as jokingly, and Dream laughs, wheezing at the top of his lungs. Even though it probably sounds like a fit of some gravely ill creature, and the blond has caught strange looks from passersby because of it more than once, Technoblade seems to find his laughter amusing, stretching his grin a millimeter wider. "We won't be here long, unfortunately, but..." The Blood God says out thoughtfully "Come. I'll introduce you to a friend of mine. He'll teach you how to contact us." Technoblade's friend turned out to be named Phil, and he was another hybrid that Dream couldn't identify. He wondered if there were any hybrids of the endermans. He'd never seen any in the Third World... Phil had huge wings behind his back, and he could talk to crows, which was such an amazing fact that the man was even embarrassed by the admiration in Dream's voice when he asked about how exactly he was able to communicate with the birds.   Then it was explained to him that if he wanted to contact Technoblade or Phil, he had to hand the letter to a crow, and they would carry it to them, working almost like mail service. Dream left the city where the games were held, knowing that he had new acquaintances. Though he never got to talk to Illumina, he consoled himself that it was a small world and they would meet again. After that, he and George and Sapnap still traveled through the Overworld, and even looked into the Nether, showing it to the blond man for the first time, and lived the casual lifestyle of true nomads. They didn't stay anywhere for long and spent most of their time on the road looking for adventures for their asses. And even though it was fun, Dream admitted to himself that it wasn't exactly what he wanted. George and Sapnap liked being nomads. But Dream himself really wanted a home. One of his own, where he could bring his future family. So he begins to think about creating a server for the first time. A server is like a fold of space. A place that no one gets into unless they're invited in. Almost like a separate world. There his friends can be nomadic, yet always at home. And the idea of such a world was becoming more tempting with each passing day. But there was a price. To create such a world, you had to be willing to pay with part of your soul. Well, not exactly. The server was directly connected to the soul of its creator, quite clearly and painfully transmitting any changes to its admins. Not many people knew this, but there were books on server creation in the End, and Dream remembered well what was written in them. In fact, this whole created world, became his own part, an extension of himself, a creation that transmitted all its sensations to him. He finds it a little dangerous, but not so threatening that he gives up on his idea. They will have a home of their own, is it not worth tying a piece of his soul to something so enormous? How naive of him to have thought so. He sets about creating the server, remembering bit by bit everything he has read in the End books and slowly preparing the basis for his world. The folding of space is (very) painful enough, but for the sake of his goal, Dream is willing to endure any pain. Dream didn't tell his friends what this server cost him. Just a few months later, when he finally finished his work, he invited them into his world, naming it SMP, and tried to stay on top of the awesome ocean of happiness he felt while in the newborn server. The world he created groped curiously for its new inhabitants, conveying the joy and delight of the fullness they brought to it. On the first day, George and Sapnap learn about the admin panel. Since Dream was the creator, he was the admin and it was up to him to decide what rules to set in his server. The admin panel gave him access to... to almost everything. The list of "members", their status, their lives. It could be used to change the basics of the world, add or reduce the number of lives living in it, understand the abilities of other people's bodies... George and Sapnap watched curiously as he put their names on the list of participants, handing them two extra lives, and as he laid down the ground rules, the laws of his world. At the time, Dream didn't think about the fact that he should think better of it. He was so excited about his creation that he thought it best to keep it clear and as simple as possible. The first law is more of a joke because Dream was so happy at that moment that he decided to remember it forever. The first rule - no grief. It was a whole huge world with so many possibilities that belonged to them alone - how could they be sad? The second rule was no wars. Plain and simple. Dream didn't know why he put it in, if everything was fine then. He just thought he wanted to be friends with George and Sapnap forever, and for that, there had to be no fighting. War from an argument, of course, was very different, but for some reason, the new admin decided at the time that it was clear enough. And then there was the third rule. The most important, the strictest. The End was forbidden. He put more of his soul into this rule than he did into the other two, and after a while the world created XD from it, copied from the admin's image, who enforced this law by appearing when it was about to be broken. However, it took a very long time for Dream himself to find out about it. The admin gave George and Sappnap the right to invite whoever they wanted into the world, giving them some of the control as his best friends. Soon they sent an invitation to Puffy and a few acquaintances they had met during their life as nomads. Dream writes a letter inviting Technoblade and Phil to become residents of his server. The world becomes more fulfilled, more alive, and the admin, feeling his joy, is happy too. Until some time. Where the chaos came from he didn't remember. The world was evolving, building and all was well until someone decided to tear it apart. Dream was an admin - he was obligated to manage the territory of his world, to visit each of them, correcting inaccuracies and problems that appeared - the idea of dividing the land was unacceptable. But was he able to explain it? With the division of his world and the emergence of this fucking drug-created country, the server began to show the first signs of discontent. Only no one felt them, except Dream. He tried to fix it - running back and forth, convincing others to stop tearing his world apart, but no one was going to listen to him. And little by little, the rules began to be broken. Dream didn't have time to understand how so many people he doesn't know are here and why they're so careless about his creation when new problems appeared. Theft. The murder of pets and violation of the first rule. The problems brought grief and the silly law so inadvertently connected to his soul began to tug unpleasantly somewhere inside, reminding him of the violation and demanding that it be dealt with. Then the wars began. The world began to show the first signs of pain, transmitting it all to its creator. Everything was falling apart at a terrifying rate and Dream was running around the server like a madman, trying to stop it, to bring his world back to balance, and to understand where the root of all the problems lay. He couldn't put an end to one conflict before two more erupted. And no one was going to help him save his home. Even George and Sapnap, who should have been on his side, soon turned their backs on him, thinking him guilty of something. Dream couldn't figure out exactly what his fault was. He had not slept, rushing through his world, trying to put it back together again, but people were only tearing it apart more as if in mockery destroying his creation, trampling it to dust right before his eyes. His built home, which for some reason was made common, was burned down, his pets were killed, his server was torn apart, and everyone, for some reason, thought that he was also to blame for preventing them from completing their deeds. Dream has been living at this pace for almost a year, and the despair that consumes him more and more every day drags him to the bottom, prevents him from breathing, literally kills him. His home feels like a cage, the same as in the End and the admin gets closer and closer to a nervous and panic breakdown when he realizes that the illusion of the third world becomes a little more real in front of his eyes with each failure. He doesn't want to go back. Please, anything but that! He wants to live! To live peacefully, with a family he doesn't seem to have, with someone with whom he will finally feel the atmosphere of a real home. All he feels at the moment is the painful call of his world demanding help. And he would change those stupid rules that made the world suffer, but any change in the admin panel that wasn't accounted for in the beginning literally tore at the soul of the creators, cramping them to fix everything that had served as the foundation of the world since the earliest days. And... it's cowardly and selfish, but Dream is afraid to try to change that. End's books made it clear that panel changes often lead to loss of mind due to too much damage to the soul, and he still really wanted to live. To live normally, to be able to enjoy new days, to see the wonders of the worlds, and to create a family for himself. He doesn't want to lose that. The rest of the people don't want to understand that. Lately, George and Sapnap have been hinting more and more to him to give them more access to the panel, but Dream just can't. All changes go through the creator of the server, not those who make edits to the panel. Which means that the consequences of their decisions will be endured by him and as the facts show - all alone. And everyone else will think that this would be what he deserves. The admin feels like he's going crazy. Everyone around him argues with him, and he does not understand why. They think he is the villain, not noticing on whose territory they are and that there is almost ruin beneath their feet. He is shouted accusations - his voice has long been hoarse with explanations and excuses. They tell him that he should leave everyone alone, let them live a peaceful life, and finally find his place himself. Dream can't remember the last time he slept. But his mask is perpetually invigorated, showing no signs of fatigue, which means no one will pay attention. Dream ignores the fact that his hope for a better outcome crumbles to dust in his hands and leaves him an empty shell, wandering the server howling in pain. He wants to howl himself, but it's no use. He can't do anything about it. He should have howled when he realized how many strangers he'd let into his house, giving his friends such scant access to the admin panel. He looks like a perpetually silent shadow. Dream fades and discolors - he doesn't know what to do anymore. It's in this state that Phil finds him. He is frightened by how empty the admin seems. Not a trace of his former enthusiasm for small things, no emotion, no strange laughter. It's as if he were a puppet, not a person. Dream feels shackled on his arms and legs. He pulls an unbearable weight behind him, nearly crushing and suffocating him, and somehow thinks that if the Overworld makes him feel as caged as in the End... what was the point of craving to get himself out of there like that? He's like an error of nature, rejected in each world, desperately trying to find a place for himself and consistently failing. What difference does it make then in which world to rot in? Phil is almost horrified by his condition, though Dream doesn't tell him anything of what's going on in his head. Perhaps marriage to the Goddess of Death herself is setting its imprints... The winged man drags him to him almost by force, hands him a warm mug of tea, and tries to detect any reaction. And finds nothing. Dream thanks him for following the rules, but Phil doesn't know what he means. So he calls Technoblade for help. But Dream is sure he's already broken - nothing can help here. Their attempts are futile, and he himself needs to leave before he makes things worse. But he is wrong. Because when the Blood God comes, he manages to take him out of his mind in half an hour. Phil is relieved to watch that pall of emptiness and despair evaporate on the admins, while Technoblade teases Dream, with his horrible monotone voice joking something about how Dream's shoes need shining, calling him a green homeless teletubby. The admin gets angry, almost fuming, then snaps back, and then bursts into his wheezing laugh, and even though he sounds much dimmer than usual, it's a million times better than the state in which Dream walked in. He didn't even realize how much he needed that kind of support. Even though neither Phil nor Technoblade understood the reason for his "faded" state, thinking that he was worried about some fight with his friends, it didn't change the fact that his gratitude was genuine and Dream did feel better after spending a few hours with them. Dream walks away from them full of energy and determination to try to make things right again. He runs around the server, trying to act tough and remind everyone that this is still his world. It only makes it worse. He makes a few mistakes, and the inhabitants of his SMP begin to scowl in his direction. They are angry, tense, preparing weapons to stab him in the back at an opportune moment, and in general, they look like mad and bloodthirsty animals, ready to lunge at him at the first sign of his weakness. And Dream is terribly afraid. Fear reminds him of the third world, and it becomes even more real before his eyes. The similarities grow more and more, and the admin suffocates. His created home, his SMP, is a tarred ocean. Everyone is on boats, and he is drowning, sinking in the black substance, trying to breathe, but only forcing it into his mouth and throat, cutting off his access to oxygen. His eyes sting and everything inside is squeezed hard by that huge wave of sensations of his world, covering him head-on. A month later, he goes to Technoblade again, not really hoping for anything. He pretends to be fine, annoys him, and tries to make jokes, expecting to be kicked out, but for some reason, the Blood God doesn't do that. Instead, he offers to fight him, and, damn it, that's when Dream seems to realize that Technoblade is his favorite creature in all three worlds. He lets off steam, parries his sparring partner's punches, runs across the field, and knocks the Blood God to the ground, settling on his waist and not letting him get up. He locks his arms and presses the training wooden sword to his neck. And feeling the strong body beneath him, watching the drop of sweat slide down his opponent's forehead, seeing how hard he breathes and how some strands of his long pink hair have slipped out of his braid and spread on the ground, Dream thinks for the first time that he likes someone... a little more than he should like just a friend. And, probably because of his confusion at the thought, Technoblade manages to throw him off of him and press his face to the ground. The admin has never been more grateful to his mask for allowing him to hide his flushed face. "Wow... I actually thought for a second that you might be getting your "revenge"." The God of Blood teases, but Dream can't bring himself to be angry. Instead, he smiles. Even though Technoblade won't see it. After that, he comes to him a few more times. Usually once a month, when his powers aren't enough to deal with all the crap that's going on at SMP. They fight and each time, Dream catches himself looking for an excuse to stay with Technoblade longer. But it all falls apart when the piglin tells him he's going to leave the SMP. Dream tries. He honestly tries, to accept his decision, but... he can't. He doesn't want to. But no one asks his opinion. They never do. So he pretends. Wishes him a good trip and adventure, and leaves. Technoblade is no longer listed as a member of the SMP the next day. Dream frowns. No. It wasn't like that. Where did he get that memory from? The world around him cracks and Dream freaks out, closing his eyes and trying to remember what really happened. He couldn't leave after Technoblade told him to leave. Said he would stay with him until the second the piglin decided to go away. The Blood God didn't mind. He didn't remember what they talked about. About everything and nothing, most likely. Dream was babbling on and on, trying to make himself forget that this was probably the last time he'd ever see Technoblade, and at some point, the conversation accidentally took a wrong turn and the admin said something he shouldn't have. Something about him not having a male body and generally being some kind of anomaly of all three worlds. Realizing exactly what he said, Dream freaks out and tries to escape. He's been holding on to all the problems and worries and insecurities for so long that he feels like he's just going to be torn by what he's been swallowing for so long without telling anyone. But when he's about to run out of the house, Technoblade catches him and presses him against the wall, asking him to calm down. When he doesn't listen, he lifts his mask slightly and kisses him. Dream quiets down almost immediately, melting from the sensation of his first kiss. And when the piglin gently asks him if he's willing to go any further, the admin doesn't even have anything to object to him. He lets him do whatever he wants with his body, giving his first time to Technoblade, struggling to muffle his voice under the piglin's careful and affectionate touches. And from his tenderness, Dream can't help but let the Blood God know about some part of the load he's been dragging on him for who knows how long. He doesn't tell him everything - just a small part of what's going on - but that's enough for Technoblade. He suggests to Dream that they should leave together. A decision that seemed like it should be very difficult came incredibly easy. Yes, he may have betrayed his creation by leaving him to his own mercy, but he couldn't take it anymore. He didn't want to feel like a prisoner in his own home. He didn't want to feel as trapped as he did in the End. So he leaves with Technoblade. Cutting ties with everyone and literally disappearing, promising himself never to show up there again. Starts a new life and actually creates a family this time. Yeah, that's right now. The world no longer cracks around him and Dream allows himself to open his eyes. He sees the piglin beside him and smiles. Techno mirrors his expression by gently placing his hand on his face and running his fingers along the scar on his nose, kissing it gently. He moves his lips lower, kissing his shoulders and arms, not ignoring any of the scars on his body. Dream returns the affection in kind. Despite Techno's words, Dream likes the piglin's scars. Unlike his own. If Technoblade's scars meant that he was strong, that he overcame much and was able to survive, able to emerge victorious from his battles, his own showed how stupid he was to get them. Technoblade kisses him until those thoughts melt away under the pressure of his gentle words and piglin touches. They learn to live together, fall in love with each other more and more every day, notice others' habits and respect their secrets. Dream never asks about his past. He knows it's taboo, and it's not worth spoiling their quiet life by digging up through it. Technoblade never asks about the server. Nor does he ask about where and how he lived before they met at the competition. Dream never told Techno that the connection to the server still hurt him. He could feel his SMP's painful moans, hear its howls and its calls at times. But he would not return. As much as he felt sorry for his creation - he lost it when he let in so many strangers. But he never gave up the admin panel. In his hands, it was useless to him, and in other people's hands, it was becoming dangerous. So when Dream left the server with Techno, he couldn't bring himself to give the panel to anyone. He couldn't find someone who was as careful with it as he was. Besides, you could do a lot of damage with it, and the server was still tied to its creator, the very first admin, which meant that all the painful kickbacks would still come to him. Considering the recklessness bordering on the emerging insanity of almost all the 'members' of the server - Dream was sure that the pain would haunt him constantly. Well... he knew that SMP's creation had a high price, but he never thought that it could turn out this way. Dream closes his eyes, and when he opens them again, the piglin is no longer there. But there is George, holding a swaddle with his and Techno's daughter in his arms. His face twists in contempt and the admin's insides freeze when he sees it. He stretches out his arms, trying to take his little miracle from the stranger's hands, but George scowls and makes a motion as if he wants to drop the baby. The blond man freezes, not risking. "So what, Dream? You traded us for this?" His words are venomous as he nods at the diapers in his hands and the wedding ring on the admin's finger "The whole world for some piglin, his brats, and loneliness? Our friendship for such a life?" He hears his daughter cry and his hands shake for some reason. "George... George, please... Give her to me. She's crying... Let me calm her down, please... George, please... I'm begging you, give her to me..." He is almost crying, begging for his daughter back, but his former friend remains as unemotional as ever. Sapnap appears behind him and also looks into the swaddle with such a squeamish expression on his face as if it were real dirt instead of a living creature. Then Puffy comes up from somewhere and Dream throws herself on her knees, begging her to give the baby back to him, not to hurt Adara, to bring her home. Puffy curves her lips and pushes him away with her boot. "You abandoned us." hisses Sapnap "Ran off with that piglin, taking the panel with you. Do you really think we'd let it go that easily?" Dream gasps in tears as he excuses himself, apologizes, says they don't need to have the panel to use the SMP as they please. But they don't listen to him. There are more and more familiar silhouettes, and they all look at him with cruelty, not about to give him his daughter, still tearfully crying in George's arms. "You have abandoned us." They repeat in dozens of voices "Now your family will abandon you." The admin blinks and the next second there is no one else around. There is an empty space filled with thick fog and a path leading to... He feels his arms sink and his body grow weaker. Dream looks at the house. It is empty and as if abandoned. But... it can't be. It's... it's his and Techno's house that they built themselves, why... Why does it look like this?! He gasps for air. Almost kicking in the door, he coughs up dust and hits his head in the cobwebs, but that doesn't stop him. He runs upstairs to Adara's room, bumps into the walls, and still can't take a breath. The door to her room is open, but it is also completely covered in cobwebs and dust - it hasn't been touched in a long time. Dream sees the cradle and rushes to it like a madman. He falls to his knees beside it, running his hands inside, but... It is empty. There is no one under the dusty covers and blankets. It's as if Adara was never here at all. His lungs burn from the lack of air, but Dream ignores it. Instead, he screams heartbreakingly, clutching his throat and hair and leaning his head palpably against the painted wall of the cradle, where there was a painted pig in a crown and a crooked white blob beside it. And he knows he is alone again, the illusion of the empty End around him becomes painfully, no, too real again and he no longer wants to survive. He is sickened by the black abyss, he does not want to see the cursed land of the third world where he has been trapped for so long, he does not want to hear the distorted sounds of the endermans. He wants only one thing now. He wants to die. Dream wakes up. He spins his head frantically, but there is no one beside him and the other side of the bed is cold. The blond jumps up and falls off the bed, hitting his knees painfully, but he keeps throwing himself forward, needing... He desperately needed to realize that none of this was real. Otherwise, he would just go crazy. He runs into Adara's room and his heart goes off somewhere into the abyss, freezing and shattering into a million pieces. The cradle is empty. Dream doesn't realize that his breathing is sharp, fast - clearly a panic attack, he doesn't realize how much his knuckles turned white from the force with which he clutched their daughter's little crib. All he heard was some kind of noise in his ears, and the thoughts ran in circles in his head at the speed of light, all repeating, and repeating, and repeating... "They took Adara, they took Techno, they took my family, they took her, they will pay, they will pay, they will die-die-die, they must die..." His faithful axe, his Nightmare, slips into his hand from the wall as easily as if he had never left it, and the enchantments hum quietly, welcoming its master. He wants to see blood on it. He wants the blood of every bastard who has attacked the most sacred thing he had, his family, to soak into the weapon and cover it with a second layer as he tears down their heads and breaks their bones, and crushes their still-beating hearts. He will beat and beat and beat until their bodies are so disfigured that no one will ever be able to identify them again, he will skin them alive, gouge out their eyes, tear out their guts, and make them watch others die until they tremble and beg for mercy, knowing full well that it is their turn next. Dream can neither hear nor see anything around him. He is lost in his own thoughts, mindlessly putting on his armor and going downstairs, preparing to pay a visit to his old... friends. He grabs his old mask from the shelf and is about to walk out when a surprised call comes from behind him. "Dream? Where are you going?" The blond man turns around so fast that his neck crunches warningly and the door slams shut with an overly harsh and nervous hand movement. In the kitchen doorway stands Techno, with his long pink hair as shaggy as ever after sleep, looking at him confused, clearly not understanding where he went off to at night in full armor with the Nightmare and the mask he hasn't touched in almost two years. Adara in his arms is quietly drinking milk from a bottle, sucking contentedly, completely untouched by all the noise and the situation around her. Dream's legs are shaky. He drops to his knees and almost crawls to them both, holding out his hands like he's blind. Techno freaks out and rushes over to him, crouching carefully beside him so as not to disturb Adara. "Dream? What's wrong?" The blond man looks at his husband, at their little daughter, and can't help himself. He cries quietly, silently, not visible behind the mask anyway, and hugs them both, clinging to the clothes on Techno's shoulder with one hand and gently holding Adara's tiny hand with the other. He is hysterical, unable to calm down, and eventually, even his daughter begins to sense that something is going wrong and whimpering in his husband's arms, about to cry. "I-I-I... I d-thought..." Dream chokes on his tears and Techno hugs him anxiously with one arm, trying to unmask him and see what the problem is "you've been taken and... gone and... the End... I was-l again..." he mumbles, not really knowing what he's saying himself, but the piglin seems to guess what he wants to say. "Love, it's okay, it's alright..." Techno passes Adara into his husband's arms, and he cradles her gently, not believing he can feel her in his arms. He cradles her and she calms down, feeling her mother's presence close by "It's okay, see? She's with you... I'm with you...." Dream rests his head on his husband's shoulder, crying softly and holding her daughter close to his heart as if he's afraid she's about to be taken away from him. Techno strokes his hair affectionately, enclosing his family in an embrace and giving them that much-needed sense of security. He kisses the top of his head and warms him with his hands, and Dream just can't bring himself to stop crying. Technoblade keeps whispering something soothing and sweet to him until he has no more tears left and the admin just sits in his arms sniffling his nose and taking control of his labored breathing. Dream doesn't have time to realize it when Techno lifts him up with Adara in his arms and sits him down at the table, handing him a cup of hot tea and taking his daughter from his grasp. Fortunately, he says nothing about the way Dream twitches, almost starting to panic when he takes Adara from him. The admin doesn't take his eyes off his daughter, watching her finish her milk from the bottle, and then slowly fall asleep, cradling her tiny hands. "I'll put her to bed and come over. Your cup should be empty when I come down." says Techno, walking out of the kitchen, and Dream does his best not to run after them. His hands are shaking and he wants to cry again, but instead, he just bites his lips and looks at his reflection in the cup. He's all red and swollen from crying and looks just... pathetic. Shameful. He doesn't notice when Techno comes back and sits down next to him, covering his hand with his own. Piglin kisses his temple and frowns when he sees the untouched tea. "Would you like me to make some hot chocolate?" He asks quietly and Dream shakes his head negatively, snuggling into his husband and closing his eyes. He didn't want anything. He just needed to calm down a little... At least until the illusion of the End around him wasn't so real anymore. Technoblade sighs and takes advantage of his husband's complete lack of reaction to pick him up again and carry him into the bedroom. He wraps him in a blanket and cuddles him, watching as Dream places his head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. "Try to go to sleep. It's only three in the morning..." The blond man frantically clenches his palms into fists and presses himself harder against his husband." "I don't... don't..." he swallows, remembering that feeling of all-consuming despair when he saw the empty house in his nightmare "I don't want to sleep. I... I'm scared that I'm going to... again. I don't want to think about it." He gets completely confused towards the end, and his voice falters as he begins to whisper. Dream can't hear himself. Technoblade runs his broad palms down his back, resting on the top of his head again, and continues to warm him with his body, seemingly thinking about something. Dream clings to his body and the warmth it provides as a lifeline, wanting to erase the third world's cold from his mind. So when his husband pulls away, flipping him onto his back, he almost sobs, haunted by the sensation of the slipping warmth. "Shh... Sweetheart, it's okay, I'm here." Immediately, Techno soothes him and kisses him so gently that Dream almost starts crying again. Piglin runs kisses down his neck, sometimes biting the skin sensibly and immediately licking the marks. He lifts his eyes and meets Dream's moist gaze, who looks so fragile and small now... "I'll make you think of something else, something more pleasant..." promises Techno and lifts up his shirt, pulling it up to his chest and continuing to leave kisses on his skin. Dream squeezes his eyes shut and reaches for his husband's face, forcing him to stop and pull himself closer to the blond man's face. The pink hair falls almost like a veil, and the admin runs his fingers through it almost automatically, feeling that he needs something to occupy his hands with. He pulls Techno gently toward him and kisses him again, sensing as if he would crumble and melt if his husband stopped. On Techno's side, there is only love and tenderness in the kiss. On Dream's side, there is despair and fear. He keeps thinking that this is another delusion of his mind, that he's about to wake up alone in the End with nothing but corpses around him and eternal darkness blinding his eyes. It's as if piglin senses this and adds assertiveness, licking his husband's mouth from the inside, kissing him until Dream whimpers out of breath. Then he pulls away and lets him catch his breath, stroking his cheek affectionately with his thumb. The blond flattens into his touch and silently asks for more, forcing Techno back to his lips while his hands gently stroke his body, warming his frozen skin. The cold grip of the third world slowly melts under the gentle touch of his fingers, and Dream no longer seems to see the vast emptiness of the End above him. All he sees now is Techno, not skirting an inch of his skin and literally covering him with kisses from head to toe. "Don't be afraid," his husband rises to his face again, sharing one breath with him and leaving his face so close that Dream could see his reflection in those beloved bright red eyes peering into his very soul, "I will never leave you, and I will never let you separate from us." He pressed their foreheads and very gently took his face in his hands "Wherever you go, I will follow you. Even if you ever disappear, I will turn all three worlds upside down, but I will find you. Remember that." Dream couldn't help it, because his eyes became treacherously moist again, and the way Techno began to kiss away the tears made him want to just clench and stay in his arms forever. The blond man reached for his husband's lips, allowing himself to dissolve into the sensations Techno was giving him, erasing all his worries and fears. Piglin reached down again, pulling off Dream's shirt and leaving him in just his boxers. The blond clutched at his shoulders, not really knowing whether he wanted to stop him or encourage him to keep going. Techno decided for him, taking his hand and leaving a soft kiss on it. "Love, you need to relax. It's okay, I'll take care of everything." Dream exhaled slowly and forced himself to stop being so tense. Techno stroked his thigh approvingly and licked a band across his stomach just above the waistband of his boxers, sending a sweet shiver through his entire body. After waiting for him to calm down a bit, piglin picked up the edge of the interfering piece of clothing and gently pulled it off his husband, trying to touch his skin as much as possible. "Ready?" Techno asked, and Dream frowned incomprehensibly, not quite sure what he had to be ready for. Piglin saw no need to explain, instead pushing his palms between his husband's clenched thighs, spreading his legs apart, and putting his head between them. When a warm, rough tongue slid over his labia, collecting droplets of slick, Dream didn't hold back a cry and twitched, clutching Techno's head with his thighs and hearing him purr contentedly between his legs, feeling the soft flesh around his face. More of the sweet slick was being released and the piglin began to work with his tongue harder, trying to collect it all. Dream clung to his hair, breathing heavily, not knowing where to go with the sensations his body was experiencing. There was so much that he felt like he was going to melt into it. Techno, meanwhile, continued to enthusiastically lick his cunt and the squelching sounds he made made made the blond man blush to the tips of his ears, barely able to contain his own moans. His husband's tongue seemed to go everywhere, hitting the most sensitive spots, while the piglin itself purred contentedly as if he was getting his favorite and long-awaited sweets. And when Techno got whit it inside... It seemed to Dream that all his thoughts went out the window, because his head was horribly empty, and a long moan, almost on the verge of a scream, could not be contained. Techno made another satisfied sound and turned his head slightly to leave kisses and bites on his thighs, returning periodically to his dripping vagina and making Dream almost lose his head from his actions. When the blond was sure he couldn't take any more, Techno finally pulled away from him, leaving one last kiss on the inside of his right thigh, and licked the droplets of slick off his lips. "You should know how sweet you taste..." rumbled the piglin, running his palms over his legs with a marked adoration in his eyes. He leaned in, biting the skin on his collarbone and immediately licking his mark, smiling as he felt Dream's hands slip over his shoulders. Techno slid his hand between his thighs and rubbed his wet cunt before gently inserting a finger into it, and then a little while later a second, watching Dream tremble as he let out noisy exhales and tried to draw his husband to him for kisses. Piglin happily complied with his desire, leaning in and immediately attacking his tortured lips, pushing his tongue through and greedily licking his husband's mouth from the inside. Feeling that he was stretched enough, Techno added a third finger and pulled away for a few seconds, allowing Dream to catch his breath. "Come on, love... let me hear your voice." Techno rumbled in his ear, biting it a little. The blond opened his eyes and gently ran his fingers over Techno's outstretched ears, to which he squeezed out a pleasant smile. Dream had long known that this was one of his sensitive spots, and he used it shamelessly. "Y-You forgot that Adara sleeps in the n-next room?" he let out between moans, and judging by the frozen look on Techno's face for a second, he really hadn't thought of that. Dream laughed softly, and the next second he choked on a moan as the piglin thrust his fingers into his body particularly sharply. "If you don't scream too loud, you won't wake her." Techno assured him, attacking his lips again. Deciding that the blond was ready, the piglin sat down on the bed a little closer to the wall, lifting Dream onto his lap and forcing him to rest his back against the headboard of the bed, in a position where he was somehow half sitting, half lying on his husband's thighs. When he had time to undress, the blond had no idea. Leaning in to capture another dozen kisses on his swollen lips, Techno growled possessively, squeezing his husband's hips and pushing his cock into Dream's body with sharp, yet careful thrusts. The blond man whimpered and ground his teeth into the piglin's shoulder, trying to stifle his moans as his hands tried to grasp at something on his back, leaving scratches, trying to stay afloat in this ocean of pleasure. "You're mine." Techno growled over his head, beginning to move methodically and press his nose against Dream's hair as he continued to muffle the moans in his shoulder "So don't you dare even think about me leaving you again." Dream whimpered and reached blindly for his lips, forcing his husband to secure his words with actions. Techno squeezed his hips, making sure that his grip was sure to leave bruises, and pushed harder, making his husband gasp. Dream nuzzled into his neck again, leaving wet kisses and bites across his skin and listening to the piglin growl at his ear as he continued to push methodically inside. The blond man pressed against the hot body, thinking that instead of blood, Techno must have lava, because it erased any memory of the cold of the End, leaving only the warmth of his family, which he had finally found. And he wouldn't lose it again. There was no way. Techno, as if sensing his thoughts, lifted his head by the chin and pounced on him with another near-bloody kiss, listening with poorly concealed pleasure as Dream moaned against his lips, trembling with every thrust. Pulling him up a little higher by the waist, the piglin hooked his palms into the headboard of the bed, and slipping out of the blond's body until only the head of his cock was inside, he gave in sharply, thrusting hard inside and starting to speed up his pace little by little. Dream had to bite his lips sharply and hide his face in his husband's shoulder again, because the scream that came from his lips was clearly not quiet enough to be ignored by Adara. The bed shook from the rhythm that Techno had set, and the blond himself had to hold his body with his hands against the wall and the headboard to keep from sliding down and banging his head as his husband literally shoved him into the mattress. He wanted to remind him that it wasn't the best idea, considering Adara might wake up, but Dream was too afraid to pull away from Techno's shoulder to tell him that because in this case, their daughter would definitely wake up to his moans and screams. But the piglin was fulfilling his goal perfectly. Not a single normal thought could form in the blond's head, except for incessant scraps like "Oh-God-so-good-don't-stop-god-yes-yes-fuck-yeees..." Techno tilted his head and tried to reach his lips to his face, forcing his husband to lift his head and respond to the hungry kiss, moaning into his mouth. Piglin pressed in and gave no chance to take control, kissing so insistently that Dream couldn't contain his quiet whimpering at the passion with which he was doing it. The blond man was melting and burning from his actions, but... damn, he loved it. He felt as if their souls merged into one, along with their bodies, creating something new, something big and powerful, and the mere sensations Techno was giving him made his head fill with smoke and make his whole being so weightless that it felt like he was definitely in heaven. Piglin growled and moved to his neck, biting his skin to the blood, causing the blond to nearly burst into another scream, just in time to intercept it in his throat and duck into his husband's collarbones again. Sensing his release approaching, Dream made an effort to put his hands on Techno's shoulders, using them as support and beginning to thrust his hips in time with his husband's thrusts, making his cock go even deeper into his body. He had to sink his teeth into his neck again, though, because it was getting harder and harder to keep his voice down. Piglin growled again, apparently pleased by this unexpected initiative, and continued to pound into Dream's body in a frantic rhythm. The headboard crackled pitifully under his palms, and they might have to replace it after they... finished, but right now the blond didn't care about that at all. All he cared about at the moment was how warm and good he felt. "Tech..." he moaned into his neck, ignoring how much his voice was shaking and the way he was grabbing air with his mouth "Ngh... T-Techno..." Piglin buried his nose in his hair, growling something from there. Dream was well aware of how much his husband's mind focused on the golden color of his hair when he stopped restraining himself. He continued to thrust his hips forward sharply, but by how abrupt his movements became, the blond knew he was feeling his orgasm close, too. "Come on, sweetheart." Techno rumbled, pulling away from the top of her husband's head and leaning into his ear. "I can feel you starting to clench..." With another particularly hard thrust of the piglin, Dream couldn't take it, and with a loud moan almost resembling a scream, squeezed the walls of his cunt tightly around his cock, making him cum inside after a few more movements with a growl. Techno continued to move gently, guiding himself through the euphoria of his orgasm and listening to his husband's quiet sobs from the waves of sensation he was experiencing. Releasing the headboard of the bed, Piglin wrapped his arms around the blond and placed his chin on the top of his head, waiting patiently for Dream to come to his senses, catching his breath. "If it's a girl, we'll definitely name her Willow." He announced, and the blond frowned in confusion, not sure what that had to do with anything. But it didn't take him long to realize that they weren't using any kind of protection. "God..." Dream groaned, hiding his face on his husband's chest. "Do you want to keep me pregnant all my life?" "It's a tempting thought, no doubt." The piglin smiled and the blond mirrored his expression, laughing softly. Techno was so... Techno. Dream thought of Adara and how she might have a little sister or brother and his heart filled with tenderness for some reason. Before his daughter came along, he hadn't known he wanted children so badly. It was enough to think of Techno playing with Adara in his arms while she laughed gleefully, and against his will, he wanted to smile and know happily that here it was, his family. Piglin slipped gently out of his body, making himself comfortable and cradling his husband in his arms, not letting him go anywhere even if he wanted to. Dream allowed himself to relax completely, feeling a familiar and warm body beside him. After a few moments, though, he had to raise his head because Techno, though lying still, obviously wanted something, but didn't know how to tell him. "Your nightmare... It's..." Dream closed his eyes and pressed his nose against his collarbone. "It's nothing. It's just that sometimes I have to remember things that aren't... that are not the most pleasant things. About the End, and the server, and the admin panel..." Techno tensed up. Ever since Tommy's attack for the panel when Dream was pregnant, he'd been very wary of anything that touched the subject. At times when he was in a bad mood he'd try to go back to the server to slaughter the people who caused his husband so much pain, but every time he was stopped by the admin himself and his kind words, assuring them that they weren't worth it. But sometimes he wanted to do it so badly. Dispelling the gloomy atmosphere around his husband, Dream reached up and left a soft kiss on his lips, peering into his eyes. "They're just nightmares, Tech. There's nothing wrong with them." The blond took his face in his palms, running his fingers gently over the skin on his cheeks "Can you help me in the bathroom?" he asked, trying to change the subject, and the piglin nodded softly, returning his affectionate kisses. Without letting his husband rise from the bed, Techno picked him up easily in his arms, forcing the blond to clutch at his bruised shoulders and look at him with a pout. He paid no attention to this, continuing to carry his treasure into the bathroom. "And yet... Consider my suggestion some more. I could always go and teach a lesson or two to the inhabitants of SMP..." By lessons, of course, he meant the most excruciating and painful death. "Or you could spend your time more pleasantly occupying it with me." Dream objected, and Techno smiled at him. "Only if we leave Adara with Phil and Kristen for a few hours. I want to hear you screaming at the top of your voice as I have you over and over again, without giving you a moment to rest." Dream will never admit that he blushed at that moment. Nor will he say that, after a quick shower, when they went back to bed, instead of painful memories, he dreamed exactly how Techno would bring his words to life. But now, even in his dreams, he felt warm.