Wild

chapter 9

Crackling, that was the first thing he heard when he woke. The soothing cracks and snaps of fire burning away at logs. And normally the sound would relax him, something he would fall asleep to on cold days in the forest. But this time it was different, this time he wasn't home, safe in his living room with the warm fire. He didn't know where he was now, the only thing he knew was the faint sweet taste in his mouth.

Dream scrunched up his eyes, feeling a pain behind his eyes. What happened? He remembered he went to confront George, a stupid decision now that he thought about it. But before he could speak there was a hand covering his mouth and an arm dragging him back. Then that damp cloth was pressed against his mouth and the next thing he knew he was here, with the crackling fire.
He slowly opened his eyes, thankfully whoever kidnapped him left his mask on. It took him a couple seconds to blink away his blurry vision, but when he did it didn't take long to recognize where he was. He was in the abandoned borrower house, with the fireplace in front of him with a low flame casting heat out.

"About time you woke up" a low voice spoke off to his left making Dream look over to the source. In the single couch on the other side of the fireplace sat another borrower. He was hard to see with the only light cast by the fire, he had wild curly brown hair that fell in strands over his dark brown eyes. He sat back relaxed on the couch with a pensive look, letting Dream get his bearings. He wore all brown clothes, looking like they were made out of hide, and a long brown trench coat that fell over his tough hide boots. Dream could just make out the belt around his waist with a shining hook attached, except this hook looked nothing like his. This one was a three pronged hook with deadly sharp edges, he was sure it would almost never miss when thrown. He could see the hilt of a sword hanging from the belt but couldn't see what it was made of, covered by the swords sheath. The oddest thing he noticed was the pouches, every empty space on the belt had a small pouch on it. He had no clue what someone would need that much storage for.

"Are you going to stare all day or explain why you were about to get yourself killed by a human?" the other man's voice dipped at the last word, spitting it like it was poison. He stood up while he spoke, walking up to Dream with a glare. Now that he was closer he finally saw more of his face, or more accurately the most eye-catching thing on it. A scar ran along his face, starting from his left cheek to just above his right eyebrow, a line going across the bridge of his nose. It wasn't an ugly scar like he'd seen so many times on badly injured borrowers, no this one looked more like one long scratch.

Dream opened his mouth to reply, not liking the accusatory tone, "I wasn't going to get myself killed!" The man shot him an unimpressed look, taking a step back. "Oh I get it, you were just going to walk out there and have a cup of tea then" Dream attempted to get up from where he was lying awkwardly on the couch but froze when he felt something rubbing painfully against his arms and legs. He looked down at his arms and blinked owlishly at the rope binding him, the same went for his legs when he looked down. Dream looked back at the man now sporting an amused smirk, "you tied me up!? What kind of borrower are you?" he spoke incredulously, giving the man a dumbfounded look behind his mask.

The other scoffed with a roll of his eyes, "oh come on you cant blame me, the last thing I saw you doing was walking out in plain sight of a human. It's not a far leap of logic to think you're insane enough to hurt yourself or me." Dream sighed in frustration, letting his struggles against the rope cease. "The human saw me. The other day when he came back after what I assume was a trip to the nether. He passed out on the couch in barely a few minutes and left my mask on the table, so I figured I'd grab it while he was sleeping. Unfortunately he woke up, I managed to get away but he didn't do anything when he saw me. He didn't even move to go after me! and he hasn't done anything all day. So I got annoyed, I wanted to know why he was acting like nothing happened. That's what I was doing before you kidnapped me."