From Murder to Dust

ALP - 14 - Scare

Ink had been free for two months, now, and we were still wary, no matter how many safeguards there were that were keeping Ink from entering Outertale; we were still scared. We didn't shy away from visiting friends in other universes, but we wouldn't stray too far from an adult; we didn't want to risk anything. Ink hadn't been seen doing too much of anything important in the time that he was free, but that didn't mean that he wasn't planning something; we weren't eager to find out. On the other hand, we didn't stop normal life just because of Ink; we played, had fun, and continued being children as always - we pretty much were children, and everyone regarded us as such. We liked being thought of as children; it made us feel innocent, and that was cause enough to make us happy. After the things we had done in the past, we thrived on being seen as innocent, and we didn't want to ruin that for anything. At the moment, we were playing in Stardin forest with Dream and the Outertale brothers, and we were having a blast! We loved playing games in the forest, and it was always so peaceful there.

"No way!" Error whined. "How did I not find you?!"

"You didn't look up." I chuckled, looking down from my tree; we had just finished a round of hide and seek..and I had just realized how high I was.. "Uh..could someone help me get down, please?" I clung to a tree branch tightly.

"Just hold on, Dust!" Outer summoned a blaster and had it fly up to me; I carefully slid onto it and held on as it lowered me down to the ground.

"Thank you!" I hugged Outer.

"No problem, kiddo!"

"What do we play now?" Killer was ready.

"Hmm..I wonder.." Nightmare glanced at Outer's blaster before summoning his own; it was tiny!

"It's adorable!" Dream squealed; it was adorable!

"He shall be named Goopy." Nightmare hugged Goopy; Goopy was certainly goopy, just like Nightmare!

"Ooh, I wonder if mine's small!" Killer summoned his, which was indeed small! "Yay!"

"I completely forgot these things existed.." Error grinned at his tiny blaster.

"I's cute!" Horror giggled when his materialized.

"O-oh!" Cross's tiny blaster circled around him; it was pretty.

"They're cute!" I laughed at the others' blasters.

"How about it, Dust?" Outer encouraged. "What does yours look like?"

"Um..it's probably nothing special.." I didn't want to know.

"I'm sure it's fine!"

"I..just don't want to.."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah..the others are having fun.."

"Well, okay.."

I smiled at the sight of the others having fun; their happiness mattered more to me than my own. When they were all occupied, I sat next to a nearby tree and spectated for a while as the others played; they looked like they were having a lot of fun. After a few minutes, I looked down at my hands, focused my magic, and summoned my own little blaster; it was..cracked. If Nightmare hadn't installed the magic restorer when he did, my blasters would have been the next type of magic to leave me, and it was rather evident in the multitude of cracks littering the blaster's body. Somehow, I found a bit of happiness in it; I just didn't want to waste magic when I didn't need to. After giving the blaster a small hug, I allowed it to dematerialize, and it was gone. I looked back to my family soon, finding that they were coming over to me. They sat next to me and smiled happily; we were having a lot of fun!