Trouvaille | Technoblade x Reader

Chapter 9 - Blood Bound

When you awoke, you felt so disoriented that moving felt akin to swimming through molasses. Sunlight was beginning to peek in through the temple's broken windows, but instead of hurriedly leaving your spot on the floor, you stared up at the temple's roof.

There was no way that had been real, right? It was just the imagination of someone with too many old stories rattling around in their head.

But...

You clenched the blanket in your grasp tighter.

You could still feel the roughly scraped smiley face etched into Clay's mask on your fingertips. Even worse, you could still remember things that weren't in the dream. You somehow knew that there were armies of them - of the people with the masks. All the same. That had been the point of them in the first place.

If you took their faces, took what made them human, eventually they would become something... else. Something that didn't feel.

Did they still exist? Would you be able to tell Clay apart from any number of them if they did exist? Was Clay even real?

You pulled your blanket up over your head and let out an unsteady breath.

This seemed like a problem for later. Whether or not Clay was real, whether or not that dream was real, you still had things to do. Existential crises could come later.

You carefully folded up your blanket and set it aside. First things first: breakfast. Then, you'd begin hunting creepers in the forest. In the beginning, you had been afraid of them, but they were sort of normal to you now.

You stood up and winced at the pain in your back – sleeping on solid stone was really doing a number on your spine – as you stretched your arms as best as you could. The dog – who you were pretty sure Technoblade had named Princess – was watching you carefully as you moved from her corner of the temple.

"Hey there," you greeted her gently.

She bared her teeth at you in warning, and you sighed dejectedly. She must not have forgiven you for kicking her mid-battle yet. To be fair, you still hadn't quite forgiven her for taking a chunk out of your leg.

"You're the one who bit me," you huffed. "I was just defending myself."

Suddenly, she rose to her feet and began scenting the air, causing you to take a cautious step back. Yeah, you definitely weren't quite over the whole leg thing.

"What?" you asked her. "Do you smell something to eat? Preferably that's not me, but..."

Her tongue lolled out of her mouth as she stared outside the temple, and as you leaned over to see what she was staring at, she bolted outside, barking excitedly. You flinched back as she ran by you, but she seemed more concerned with what was outside.

"That better be a squirrel or-"

You froze in the entryway to the temple. The lead Butcher with the scar – Quackity, the one mentioned in your dream – stood just past the clearing, a diamond axe in hand and the dog wagging happily at his feet.

Your heartbeat thudded loudly in your ears as you drew the diamond sword that you stole, and for a moment, you considered yelling for Technoblade, but you remembered the warning in your dream.

Save Quackity from Technoblade.

What you would give to be able to simply call for Technoblade and let him have his revenge for... whatever it was that Quackity had done. But if this dream was real, if it was a message from your goddess, then there was no way you could let Technoblade know that Quackity was here.

Slowly stepping out of the temple, you carefully eyed Quackity. He seemed... normal. Just another Butcher. How important could he possibly be?

"What do you want?" you asked.

Much to your surprise, Quackity just smiled at you and stepped out from the undergrowth.

"I'm surprised you're alive," Quackity said. "I'm glad, though. You didn't deserve to die like that – wounded and alone in the woods."

"You were the one trying to kill me," you pointed out with a snort. "Don't expect me to believe that shit."

Quackity cocked his head to the side curiously. You felt as if you were being examined; although, you couldn't imagine why.

"I found you, you know," Quackity said. "You were bleeding out at the bottom of that hill. I could have slit your throat there or drawn Technoblade away from you. If I had wanted you dead, you'd be dead."

He had been there. You didn't know why or how, but he had been there.

Why?

Why had he and the others hunted you down? You were forced to leave your home, to retreat to this place in the forest with the Blood God, and for what? If he hadn't wanted to kill you, then why?

"You're lying," you bluffed with a scoff. "You were just too scared to kill me with Technoblade hunting you, that's all. You're just a little duckling with your feathers all ruffled trying to act bigger than you are."

Quackity just smiled at you and fiddled with the axe in his hand. He reached down to pet the dog at his feet, and the little traitor rolled over on her stomach with her tail wagging wildly.

You were hoping for some real answers, or at least a reaction to give away his intentions, but Quackity hadn't fallen for it.