The Uncanny Majesty (Dreamnoblade)

The Desert Rose

Dream made his way through the jungle, using his machete to cut away low hanging vines and branches, tearing through the thick underbrush of leaves and plants.

"It's gotta be here somewhere," he says to his companion. The other man also has a gun.

"I saw it run just east of that big tree, the one we passed with the red leaves, remember?"

Dream nodded. "But how do you know it was east? Are you sure?"

"I saw the sun on its face before it turned and ran. The sun sets in the west, and so it must have ran east."

"Okay, shh." Dream heard a noise like a branch breaking, sharp and sudden. "Shh," he said again, as he crouched down into the dense overgrowth, pulling his companion down by the jacket sleeve.

"It's here," Dream whispered.

Through the leaves, tinged with gold from the late sun, he saw the creature. It had the body of a man and it was hunched over in pain. It turned it's head and Dream saw a snout and a pair of ivory tusks that curled up in a spiral. It's eyes were intense like an animal's.

The creature saw the two men. It's breath was heaving from some injury it nursed on its stomach, although Dream could not see the details. It huffed and snorted in agony when Dream raised the barrel of his gun.

The jungle was still except for the harem of flies that buzzed nearby. Dream's stomach turned, and he thought the fresh air smelled like death. He always hated this part.

"Wait," said the creature.

The world swug out of control. Wait? He felt the musket slide out of his hands ever so slightly, the smooth metal of the barrel running through his fingers. Wait? It can talk?

"Shoot, man," said his companion. Dream hesitated, his eyes wide with fear. It did not seem to be much of a surprise to his friend that the creature was intelligent, his urgent words shaking the air. "Shoot, man! We need the money." He grabbed Dream's shoulder, as if to snap him out of a trance.

"Who are you?" asked Dream. A bird shrieked from far overhead and his shoulders tensed like something had hit him.

The creature snorted again, his tusks glinting in the light. "They call me Technoblade."

"What are you?" asked Dream. Are you human or pig?

"I don't know," said Technoblade.

"Enough of this!" yelled the companion. He raised his own gun and leveled it at the back of Techno's head.

"No!" shouted Dream, and he pushed the weapon into the air. A shot rang out but it went up into the trees, leaving Techno unharmed.

"Traitor!" said the companion. He swung the blunt end of the weapon into Dream's skull, it connected with a sickening crack and a cry of pain. He prepared to do it again but a strange pair of hands stopped the blow. Techno was holding back the weapon.

Dream stood, dazed, and with no time to think. He took one of Techno's hands and grabbed it, and yanked the creature, pulling him through the jungle, away from the other man. They ran, hearing a shotgun behind them, the bang, bang forcing their feet to move faster.

The being's footsteps faltered and Dream looked back to see a gash in his stomach that started in the middle of his chest and ran all the way down, bleeding. This must have been the injury he was nursing when they saw him in the clearing. Without a second thought he scooped the man up on his back and kept running, panting.