Chapter 2

"...And that's how I met Tommy." Tubbo finished. The moon was high above your head, hanging like an eyeball watching their every move. You snorted quietly but am overrun by Tommy's very loud and drawn-out yawn.

"We should get to bed," Wilbur said, shoving Tommy out of his seat. Tubbo nodded. "Shadow," Wilbur said, turning to you. "Where do you want to sleep?"

You shrug. "I can camp outside the walls in the forest." You point outside of the city walls to the thick grove of trees.

Tubbo frowned. "You sure? The Dream SMP might be out there tonight."

You grin. "I can take them." You pat Orphan Slayer, which is back in its sheath. Waving goodnight to everyone, you leave the lit-up city and headed towards the dark and foreboding forest. Heading deep into it, you spread out your cot and blanket after building a small tent out of some wool.

You sit on the cot, finally taking off your mask and pushing back your hood. With a sigh of relief, you unbraid your H/C hair, staring at the tips. Before you know it, you're back to the day you dyed the ends pink.

"Tech?" You asked the large man. It was 13 years after he had found you, and you were now 16. Actually, it was your birthday. Your adopted father turned to you, pig mask down.

"Close your eyes," he commanded, and you did. You could feel the unfamiliar sensation of a cool liquid or gel along the ends of your hair, feeling like your hair was coated in frost. You sat there for around 30 minutes, eyes still closed. Finally, the goo was washed away, and you heard leaves crunching under Techno's boots.

"Done!" He cheered. "The piglet lives!" you opened your eyes, surprised to see that Techno was actually smiling. You first made a futile attempt to look over your shoulder, then picked up your hair and brought it over your shoulder. You gasped. The tips of your H/C hair was now a delicate pink, like the color of a hybrid rose.

You grinned and hugged Father Techno (Makes him sound like a friar or priest XD). "Thank you," you whispered.

He smiled. "Anything for the piglet."

A sharp bark of laughter ripped you from your memory. You quickly shoved your mask back on, braiding your hair at record speeds. In a flash, you extinguished the torch, grateful as muffins that your tent was dappled olive and black wool. With any luck you should be able to bl-

You hear a familiar hissing noise. It sounds like a fire being lit. Without wasting a moment, you pack up everything you can at once, slinging things into your inventory and breaking your tent down. As you finish up, you can smell smoke, and your surroundings seem lighter.

Flipping the hood back up, you take out Orphan Slayer and begin running through the trees. You can see an orange light up ahead, and skid to a sudden stop. With a growl, you turn around and run the other way, past your campsite. Once again, orange light. You're becoming tired, and it seems like your surrounded by fire.

Being either very dumb or very smart, you grab your horse, H/N, and ride as fast as you can through the forest. Don't question how the horse didn't trip or die, book logic. You see another glow of fire ahead, and don't stop. Your horse balks, but you urge it on, faster and faster until the fire, with leaping tongues devouring the trees, is right in front of you. The horse shirks away, but you ride it forward until you leap over the fire.

You can feel the burning heat on your boots and feel the horse flinch as it is burned. Once you clear the fire, you dismount and check the horse's legs. Sure enough, against the H/C/C coat, there's an ugly burn. You pull out a bundle of hay from your inventory and feed it to the horse, watching the burn fade.

You get the feeling, however, you're being watched.

Dream PoV

Sapnap laughs like a maniac as he finishes setting the last of the outside of the forest on fire. Already, the fire is spreading further into the woods, turning wood to charcoal and leaves to ashes. As Dream watches, he notices a flash of color and a blur of movement in the trees.

"Sap, George, did you see that?" he asks his friends. Sap shakes his head, but George nods hesitantly. "There's someone in there," Dream realizes.

Sapnap shrugs. "Either they have a speed potion or a horse, and either way they'll probably make it out."

George sighs. "Fine. We should at least go spy on them!" He holds up a splash potion of Invisibility. Without any more ceremony, Sapnap jerks it out of his hands and yeets it to the floor. It's a strange feeling. Dream watches himself, starting from his feet, to quickly disappear. Soon, he's only a floating wraith of armor. He glances at the others.

"Let's gooooooo!" Sapnap's disembodied voice cheers as his armor runs away into the forest. Dream groans and follows him.

Soon, they arrive to see a H/C/C horse and a tall, thin black figure. As they watch, the figure pulls out a sheaf of wheat and feeds it to the horse, intently staring at something on the horse's legs. Sapnap elbowed Dream.

"Told you they had a horse!" Sapnap whispered. Dream told him to hush and went back to watching.

The figure stood, facing away from them, and was completely still for a moment. Then, they whirled around and fired a crossbow right at the invisible stalkers. George shrieked as the bolt struck next to his face, but Dream and Sapnap grabbed his hands and yanked him into the forest, where their horses were. Seconds later, they were all riding back to the castle.
"Snakes," Sapnap cursed under his breath, "Who was that?"

Dream shook his head. "Never seen them before. I don't think they're a part of L'ameburg, but they were in the forest..."

Sap snorted. "What forest? I see no forest, only fire!" he cheered, pumping a hand in the air.

"Crazy Pyromaniac," George teased, elbowing Sap in the ribs. Behind them, the sky was lit with bright orange and gold light, illuminating a crowd of L'ameburgians investigating the fire. "Tommy is probably calling you much worse."

L'manburg

"-CKING CRAZY PYROMANIAC!" Tommy shouted, shaking his fist at the three figures riding away. You rolled your eyes, but kinda agreed with him at this point. Your crossbow is still in your knapsack, loaded with a bolt in case you ever see them again. You still couldn't believe that they had STALKED you after you escaped the fire that THEY HAD SET. Unbelievable.

"Calm down, Tommy," Wilbur said, attempting to sooth the angry child.

You sighed, shifting. "We do know that Dream started this fire," you explain, "but we don't know why." You glanced expectantly at the others. "The sooner you figure this out, the sooner I can LEAVE."

Tubbo grabbed a map. "Here's L'manburg, and here's where the forest was." He went over to a cartography table before coming back. "And this is what it looks like now." He held up the two pages, and you snatched both of them.

After a moment, you looked up. "This was one of your only sources of wood, no?"

Wilbur nodded. "It was the closest one out of two, the other one being here," he said, pointing a finger to a much smaller patch of green around a mile away.

"Soooo he's trying to get rid of your wood?" you asked skeptically.

Wilbur shook his head. "Sorry, Shadow, but I don't think that's what this is."

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Maybe Sapnap just wanted an excuse to burn something."

"But then why the forest?" Tubbo interjected. "He coul-"

The door slammed open, revealing an unhappy Eret. "Sorry I'm late!" he said in a rush, nearly tripping into the table. "What'd I miss?"

You slammed your head against the desk. "I am so tempted to leave right now and never return." You muttered into the wood.

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1367 words

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Ye ye, author here with yet another Author Note Fail.

I seriously don't know what to put here.

I know that L'manburg is literally in the middle of a forest, however, I actually haven't seen very much of the streams and only started watching the summaries after I wrote part of Chapter 3. Sorry for the author fail :P