Child Soldier

Chapter 5; An Unlikely Friend

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At some point during Dream's sleep, he felt a force being pressed into him. It felt like a hand wrapping softly around his arm, followed by another and Dream's eyes shot open. The touch immediately caused the man to jerk upright. His fight or flight kicking in instinctively, and without a thought he summoned his axe to his hand.

The particles formed until they solidified into the weapon and Dream looked to his right, axe swung threateningly into the air above the offending entity.

Tommy.

Dream released the axe and it vanished again just before it could land on the boy.

Fuck.

That had been close. He needed to get his reflexes in check.

Tommy was gripping onto Dream for comfort, brows furrowed and eyes shut tight. He looked like he was having a nightmare and Dream exhaled, falling back to the blanket beneath them. It only provided a small amount of relief between himself and the floor, but Dream was still grateful to have something, beside wood, beneath him at least. Hopefully he could get in a proper bed soon.

They should actually be at Tommy's new location of exile before nightfall today, if Tommy sped up his pace a little more. They should even be able to tame some wild horses once they got out of the tundra biome and back into some warmer climates.

Dream stared up at the ceiling, thoughts breaking as he noticed a small amount of light coming in the windows from the sun rising and he took in a deep breath. It was time to get up. He could get some breakfast into the both of them and set off. Take advantage of the sunlight as long as they could.

Tommy, with no weapons, and no armor, wasn't in any place to be dealing with mobs again if last night was any indication of that.

Dream looked over to Tommy. The boy still seemed to be in distress from whatever he was dreaming of and Dream raised his hand, brushing his fingers gently through the small teen's hair. He preferred Tommy like this. Quiet and relaxed. Not the loud obnoxious brat he usually was.

Then again that big spirit he carried with him was what kept Dream on his toes. It breathed life into everything and everyone around him, Dream always admired him for it. If he could harness that for himself, they'd be quite the duo.

It's one of the reasons Dream tried not to go too hard on him. He didn't want to break that spirit. Not entirely anyway.

But then again that same energy was what drew Dream to have to take such harsh measures sometimes. It was a double edged sword for Tommy. His gumption always landing him in some amount of trouble.

He was too brave and proud for his own good.

Dream combed his fingers through Tommy's hair again. This time brushing Tommy's bangs away from his face. The boy seemed to be relaxing from the touch and Dream continued until he appeared to be fully at rest again. His face serene.

Dream's eyes trailed down to the scar Tommy had across his lips on the right side, and he brought his hand down, brushing his thumb against the raised mark. Still pink as it was put there recently. That was a time Dream regretted. The boy was putting up a particular amount of fight that day against Dream, when he told him to throw his belongings in a hole to be destroyed. He meant to hit his chest just as warning strike. Instead Dream had accidentally hit his face, and it had bled terribly.

Dream had helped him patch it up. As he usually did.

It was one of the handful of times he'd hit Tommy and really disgusted himself with his own actions.