A Land Of Sea

Silent as a Pin Drop

Dream stepped down onto solid land.

He sighed, a hand still gripping one of the wooden pilings that tied his ship down in order to steady himself. Sea legs were a blessing and a curse.

Staring out over the cold expanse littered with nothing but snow and spruce, Dream nearly missed the presence that walked up beside him.

"To hell with the gods, Dream, how are you not freezing your ass off?" The voice belonged to a shivering Sapnap (despite his use of not one, but two extra shirts), of course.

Dream chuckled in response, but left the question unanswered. Turning around to the good ten or so of his crew choosing to follow him, he called out.

"We'll need to head to the south-most part of the island. Keep your eye out for anything suspicious or hidden. Let me know of any caves, unusual markings on the trees, all the like. And if you find something, don't follow it without me. This place is bound to be littered with traps.

"Oh, and I needn't remind you all of the habitants of the island. They're odd folk, who knows what they're capable of- try not to be seen, if you can help it."

Dream began to march, leading the small troupe around the white hills. Sapnap stayed to the side, allowing everyone else to go before him.

"Not you too, Tubbo! How the fuck can you survive out here without layering up!"

Dream laughed a little again as Sapnap kept muttering to himself using a rather large amount of expletives to describe the pains of being cold.

-

It wasn't past fifteen minutes when Wilbur pushed his way to the front next to Dream. "Don't think I haven't noticed what you've been up to."

"Excuse me?" Dream regarded the other with suspicion and a little too much concern for his lack of understanding in this conversation.

"With the merfolk. You've been feeding them yourself. You never feed them yourself. So what's up?"

"I just feel like it's worth it to make sure they're doing alright m-"

"No, don't give me that bullshit."

Dream forced a laugh. "I honestly don't know what you're talking about. If I had any other reason I would've t-"

Yet again, Dream was interrupted; only this time, it was with a shout by none other Tubbo. "I think I found something!"

Dream whipped his head around in search of the boy, and found he (and two other of his men) was a couple dozen yards deep into the forest, but not deep enough to be lost. He and Wilbur beckoned for all nearby to follow as they jogged up to meet Tubbo.

"There's marks on the trees, just like you suggested."

Dream peered down to look for said mark on the spruce in front of him, and found it was a lot smaller than anticipated. But it was a mark, manmade and unmistakable.

"My gods, Tubbo, how did you even spot this?" The boy only shrugged.

"Well good job either way. Let's follow them, see if they lead anywhere."

-

After another five minutes of exploring and following the lead of the trees, the marks stopped.

The last tree with a mark was surrounded by a large outcropping of towering boulders - glistening under the golden snow. If Dream could have seen the formation from above, he was sure it'd have looked like a clock, with the tree for a time teller hand. The one thing missing was one last boulder to close the entrance they'd come through. Thankfully, that entrance allowed them to find the tree in the first place.