Tales Of The Underlands (jjba part 5 Wonderland AU)

Small Changes

That's how you spent your days, breakfast, then, on some days, visiting the others, after that you would train and eat. Sometimes you spent the evenings at the fire with Narancia, Mista and Fugo, if you didn't feel too tired.

If you went to bed early you couldn't sleep, there was too much on your mind. Your fighting got better, the portions at the camp got smaller and your nights were restless. A small part of you wished you could leave, but no one would let you go now, not when you were their symbol of hope.

The other, bigger, part of you felt useless for not being able to help. You couldn't help with their food problem nor could you fully convince Bucciarati to free Risotto and his men. For you it felt like you were frozen in place. Stuck in a loop, repeating itself was the same day over and over.

The small amount of sleep you got was ruled by feverish dreams and Nightmares. Worms crawling out of your mouth and writhing around your arms and legs, leaving bites on your skin till you woke up in cold sweat. And everytime you had that dream you went to wash yourself, you felt like you had to pluck the worms out of your body and clean the wounds, even if there weren't any. Maybe it was madness at this point, but it allowed you to sleep afterwards.

There were dreams where you saw Frogs looking like stones hopping around a field full of red flowers towards a pink light, an old oak tree in the middle.

Then there were the dreams that you hoped for every night, the ones where you were back in the forest, the sun shining through the leaves and the smell of earth in the air. The old oak tree was in front of you, but instead of walking towards it you turned around and went home, sadly it was too good to be true and you woke up a second later.

You tried your best to avoid screaming in frustration when that happened,but you couldn't help the angry hot tears that streamed down your face.

There was one day when things suddenly seemed to change.

You had been at the camp for over a week now, your fighting got better and you slowly started to convince Bucciarati that Risotto and his men wouldn't be a threat to him and the rebellion.

All these things were good, but there was this one day that turned everything around. It started with the fact that you woke up well rested from dreamless slumber. The next thing was the nice weather, the sun was shining and warmed your face.

But the most unexpected thing was your breakfast. You got some jam, bread and milk with a hard boiled egg and a small piece of cake.

"Oh the new supplies arrived!" Narancia sounded more than happy about that. He continued to look for a table while humming a little song, ignoring your confused face.

"Every month they bring new supplies from rogue castle. The winter gardens are built over hot springs, so that they can provide it with food." Fugo answers your unspoken question.

You just nod in amazement. At least there was one less problem to worry about.

"Oh, you'll have to train with someone else today, Fugo is going to give me some extra lessons today, he said I lacked math skills he already possessed as a toddler." Narancia sent a glare in his direction.

Fugo shrugged and continued with his breakfast unphased by the fact that Narancia glared daggers into him.

Narancia continued his chatter" Mista would probably train with you, but he isn't the best when it comes to melee, you could ask Bucciarati or Abbaccio. Sure you're not on their skill level, but they can teach you some stuff even better I could."

Would that even be possible, both of them looked like in a trance when fighting, not only each other, but different opponents too.

You were sure you could ask that soldier, Fragola, if she'd train with you. She was one of the few guards who didn't seem to mind your friendship with Risottos men, even if she didn't approve of it.

After breakfast you went to try and find her, but after looking and asking around for 15 minutes you gave up, your shoulders sacked because you knew you'd have to train with Bucciarati and Abbaccio and to be honest, it scared you. You'd seen how dangerous they could be first hand.

Plus Abbaccio was a bit hostile towards you, you couldn't blame him, if you were in his position you'd also be weary of strangers.

When you arrived to the training grounds they were already entrapped in their fight and you found yourself just watching them for a few minutes, they were spinning around each other, blades clashing, determination clearly visible in both of their faces.

Should you interrupt them? Would they even want to train with you? Would they be disappointed if you couldn't live up to their expectations?

Suddenly you're torn out of your thoughts by a call of your name. Bucciarati was standing in front of you and looked at you expectantly.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

The Prince chuckled at that, "I asked you if you wanted to join Abbaccio and me during training, you might learn a few things from us."

Oh that was easier then you expected.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

"Good, Abbaccio will go first, don't worry he will go easy on you, I promise!" he gave you a crinkled smile before stepping aside and revealing a pissed off looking Abbaccio.

By now, after all these days, you were pretty sure that was just his face. Maybe he should also take some lessons from Fugo, but instead of history or math he could teach him how to smile.

You got into your fighting stance, your dagger unsheathed. Before you could even blink you were disarmed.

The man in front of you had a slight smirk on his face, while his sword was pointed at your chest. "You lose."

You picked up your dagger quickly got ready to do it all over. The first hour was hard, you had to move quickly if you wanted to last even a few seconds against him. He was taking this way too seriously.

All the while Bucciarati was watching you two, he could see that Narancia had taught you the basics, but you wouldn't be able to hold your own in a fight, especially if companions were involved. You would need to train harder for your own sake, he didn't want you to die or be horribly injured if you got attacked. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he didn't want to see anything bad happen to you. He had promised to keep you out of harms way and he would keep that promise.

After an hour he had seen enough and decided to replace Abbaccio. As he took his stance he noticed that your body was trembling from exhaustion, Abbaccio had been easy on you, at least for his standards, but you weren't used to that much fighting with that intensity. Maybe he should let you finish early today, you would need it.

He put a hand on your shoulder and your eyes met his. You had often noticed how kind they looked, this time they made you feel a warmth inside. You weren't sure how someone who had been fighting so hard his entire life could be so caring towards other people.

"You look exhausted, for now you should get some rest and continue tomorrow. Also I'd like you to join me at dinner again this evening. It concerns Risotto and the plans I have for him and his men, I thought you would be interested in hearing what I have to say."

" That is very kind of you Prince Bucciarati." your voice had a faint hint of exhaustion, but you did your best to appear strong in front of him, you couldn't have him think that you were weak.

" I'll be there this evening."

" I'm looking forward to it and I can assure you that this time you will be served better food." there was a glint of mischief in his eyes after his little joke.

When you got to your own tent you thought about the invitation and how life in the rebel camp had been so far, both the place and the people certainly weren't what you had expected.