The Withering-Dreamnotfound {Sequel Out Now!}

Spooky Scary Skeleton

Dream couldn't lie, the bonfire was a lot of fun. Zelk cooked chicken over the fire for everyone and, after dinner, Alyssa presented everyone with a cake. Rose started talking to Sapnap more than earlier. She still gravitated towards George, but Sapnap thought that this was still better than nothing. George sat close to Dream, still in his tank top. He seemed to be nervous about something, but didn't let it get in the way of having fun. Cat was rolling around on the sand, having a grand time. Dream had though the night couldn't get any better. He had no idea what he was in for.
"Hey Bad?" Zelk asks. "Alyssa and I are going to go check on Mega at the watch tower. You should come with us to check it out."
Bad nods. "Sounds like a plan!" He gets up and walks with them to the watch tower on the other side of the village. On her way out, Alyssa first bumps George.
"Sapnap!" Rose says. "I need your help with something inside." She grabs his hand. "Come on!" Before he has the chance to say anything, she is already pulling him inside. Before she closes the door, she crosses her fingers and looks at George with a big smile. Cat wonders inside right behind Rose. The door closes, leaving George and Dream alone by the warm fire.
The two sit in silence for a little bit. George's leg was bouncing as he stared into the flames. The village was extremely quite, only a few people walking around. "So, how are things with Rose?" Dream asks.
          George shrugs. "Fine, I guess. I mean, I barely know her, but she seems cool. Sapnap will like her a lot."
          "Sapnap?" Dream asks.
          George nods. "She's been asking me about him all day. She could tell that he and I had some tension, so she was using me to see if it'd make him jealous. And because it did, she took it as a sign that he likes her." He laughs. "I still don't understand girls at all."
          "Me either. I'm sure it'd be way easier to date a guy," Dream admits.
          The Sun begins to set, casting a pink glow on everything around them. It was just the moment George had been waiting for. "You know, I got to admit it. This sunset is gorgeous."
          Dream smiles and looks over at George, only to find him staring at him. He could feel himself starting to get lost in George's big brown eyes. He blushes and looks away. "Yeah, it looks nice out," Dream agrees.
          George leans back on his hands as he watches the Sun go down. "This is amazing."
          "Yep. We're just two....two-two men on a date," Dream jokes.
          "I mean, we could be," George says. Dream bites the inside of his cheek, attempting to hide him smile. "Dream, I want to tell you something, but I want us to both be adults about it. If you don't feel the same way, know that it's ok and I won't let that change the fact that you're my friend." He wraps his hand into Dream's. "I think I know what Bad was talking about when he said the things about loving someone's laugh and being in love. I don't know if this is love yet, but I do know I want to give this a shot. Give us a shot. I know things are crazy right now so if you want to wait, I'm ok with that. I just wanted you to know that I-"
          George is silenced when Dream gently presses his lips to George's. George's heart explodes knowing that Dream felt the same way he did. After a few seconds, the two pull away from each other.
          Dream squeezes George's hand. "I think I'd like to give this a try too," he says softly.
          "Guys!" Bad calls from down the road of the village. "It's here!" Dream helps George up and they quickly make their way to the watch tower, hands still locked together. They quickly run up the stairs and to the top of the tower. Alyssa and Zelk were both staring out into the desert beyond the village. Mega had his bow drawn and was aiming at something in front of him. Dream squints his eyes and just barely makes out the silhouette of the Wither. It wasn't moving. It was just hovering, looking at them in the watch tower. Dream felt like it was looking into his soul.
          "It's been here a few minutes," Bad explains. "It tore up the birch forest over there and just stopped when it got here." Beyond the Wither, there was a field full of dead trees that were outlined by the moon rising behind it. "Where's Sapnap?" Bad asks.
          "He had to help Rose with something," George responds. "We haven't seen him for a little bit."
          Just then, the Wither lets out an awful screech and begins flying right for the watch tower. Mega fires his loaded arrow at the Wither. It absorbes it and continues flying towards the tower. Mega throws his bow down and draws his sword.
"We don't have our swords!" Dream says to Zelk.
"Go! We'll cover you!" He responds. He and Alyssa ready themselves to defend the tower and Dream leads Bad and George down and towards the warrior home. As they run, they can hear yelling and the Wither's screech echo off of the buildings.
Dream runs ahead and bursts into the home. Once George and Bad are inside, he slams it shut. Behind the curtains if one bunk, he hears Sapnap whisper, "Damn. Gotta go." He emerges from behind the curtain shirtless.
Dream throws his sword at him. "Get a shirt on. The Wither is attacking." He tosses George his sword, but stops. "Why are you shirtless?"
Rose comes out from behind the curtain, wrapped up in a blanket. "I'll meet you guys out there."
"WOAH!" Bad says, covering his eyes. "I did NOT need to see that."
Sapnap slips into his shirt while Rose runs off to the bathroom. As soon as the door clicks behind her, Bad uncovers his eyes and grabs his sword.
"The Wither is here?" Sapnap asks, trying to take attention away from what his friends just saw.
"Yeah! And to make matters worse, arrows won't hurt it!" George shouts. "Let's just hope I'm good enough with a sword for this."
Dream kisses him on the cheek. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. And I've got your back."
Sapnap stares at them for a second. "Remind me to ask what the hell happened between you two when we're done."
Bad opens the door up to chaos. Alyssa is guiding everyone out of the village while Zelk and Mega try to fight off the flying monster. It was picking up chunks of land and throwing it at the two. Had it not been for their shields, they would've died long ago.
"What's the plan?" Bad asks.
Dream looks at his surroundings. The Wither was too far off the ground to hit it and bows were no use. He remembered seeing Alyssa and Zelk go to the roof earlier which gave him an idea. The Wither was right by the roof of a building not too far from the warrior home. "Bad, you and George stay down here and keep that thing distracted while Sapnap and I jump roofs to get over there!" He points to the building by the Wither.
Bad nods and pulls George with him. "Don't die!" George yells as Bad leads him away.
Dream smiles at him before running back inside of the home. Inside, Rose was putting on some leather armor. "Hey, Dream! Put your iron chest plate on dude!" He looks down and realizes that he had no protection. He slides his chest plate on and heads up to the roof, Sapnap close behind him. Rose takes off out the front door to meet everyone on the ground.
When they reach the roof, they hear the sounds of their friends yelling orders to each other below. Dream gets up and stands on the edge of the roof. It was a good six foot gap between where he was and the next roof. Sapnap pulls himself up and realizes what Dream is about to make him do.
He looks over the edge and becomes nauseous. They were high enough up that the could get badly hurt if they fell. "I don't know about this Dream."
"We can make it," Dream reassures him. "We just need a running start." Dream backs up, then sprints full speed, jumping right as he ran out of room for his feet. He feels himself fall for a second, but manages to jump into the next rooftop. "Come on, Nick! I'll catch you!"
Sapnap follows Dreams lead and gives himself a running start. But right as he prepared to jump, his foot slips off of the side of the roof. He pushes off as hard as he can and manages to grab onto the edge of the next roof. Dream pulls him up and Sapnap lays on the ground, catching his breath for a moment.
"Come on, you can do it," Dream encourages. "Just one more!" Sapnap nods as he stands up, shaking from nearly falling not ten seconds earlier. Dream runs and jumps the gap between the two roofs, this gap being shorter than the last. Sapnap manages to jump without falling this time. Dream looks to where the Wither is. It was so close to him that he could smell it. The smell of burnt flesh takes over his nose, making him gag. Sapnap quietly makes his way to the creature, but finds it is still too far away to fight.
"Dream, what do we do? We can't just yell to get it's attention, it'll kill us!" Sapnap looks at the monster, horrified.
"I have an idea," Dream says. "But you're got going to like it." Dream closes his eyes tightly, not thinking his plan all the way through. He then starts running at the Wither, his sword held over his head. He launches himself off of the roof and dives his sword into the creature, pushing it down with him as gravity pulls him to the ground. He lands on top of the Wither, sending shockwaves of pain into his body. He digs his sword further into the thing's body, feeling sand being displaced beneath him. He screams in agony as his hands and arms start turning grey. Before he knows it, he's pulled off of the Wither. He watches as the Wither absorbes his sword and floats up into the sky, retreating towards the forest it decimated earlier.
          His sight starts getting fuzzy as he feels multiple pairs of hands touching him.
          "Dream! Stay with me!" He hears George yell.
          "Mega! Hurry!" Rose shouts beside him.
          The next thing he knows, George is tilting his head back while Mega nearly drowns him with a bucket of milk. Dream coughs as he immediately feels better. His eyesight returns to normal, allowing him to see George crouched over him, worried. 
          Dream cracks a smile. "We need to stop meeting like this."
          George smiles through the pain and he wraps his arms around Dream. "Stop scaring me like that!" George jumps back, looking at his tank top now wet and stuck to his chest. "Gross."
          "Mega, you didn't have to empty the entire milk bucket on him!" Rose yells. Mega only replies with an innocent shrug.
          Sapnap comes running out of the warrior house. "What just happened?"
          "Well, milk helps with potion effects," Zelk explains. "We use it all the time when the Husks attack. We figured we'd try it with him."
          "It's a good thing it worked. I would've been pissed if someone wasted all of our milk for nothing," Rose states, looking straight at Mega.
          "So, milk equals cure?" Bad asks. "Good to know."
          George holds Dream's hand up as he watches the grey disappear into thin air. "How do you feel?"
          Dream shrugs. "Same as I did before I attacked it. It's like nothing happened."
          George stands up and pulls Dream up with him. "I'm glad you're alright. That would've been awful if I lost you."
          "I KNEW I was forgetting something!" Sapnap blurts out. "When did this happen?" He points at Dream and George, still holding hands.
          "Probably around the same time that happened!" George points to Rose and Sapnap, who both blush.
          "Hey Zelk, can you take watch with Mega? Holler if that thing comes back," Rose directs just as Alyssa walks up with the townspeople following her.
          "Nice work you guys," Alyssa states, looking around. "Minimal damage was done. Our builders can have it fixed by tomorrow."
          "Well, I'm exhausted!" Sapnap says. "Let's get some sleep so we can go logging tomorrow, shall we?"

          Dream found himself struggling to sleep that night. From kissing George to his first real fight against the Wither, his adrenaline wouldn't stop pumping. The next morning, he felt especially tired. The beds had been surprisingly comfortable, but it wasn't enough to help him sleep.
          He rubs his eyes as he sits up in his bed. He opens the curtain just as Mega falls into his bunk. Dream was thankful that the Wither never came back. He felt drained as it was. He just wanted a break day.
          Dream makes his way down the top bunk of the bed and peeks into the bottom bunk. George was still fast asleep, Cat curled up on his chest. Dream looked at his face, thinking he looked so adorable. He even looked like he had a small smile.
          "Are you going to fill me in on you two?" Sapnap asks from behind Dream, startling him. He was sitting at the table, a cup of coffee in his hands. "You guys go from being friends to you kissing him on the cheek in a matter of minutes."
"I like him, Sapnap. A lot. And he likes me back. We talked about it last night and we kissed. There's not much else to say about it." Dream takes a seat at the table. "We aren't dating or anything. Just two guys who want to give a relationship a shot. Now, tell me about you and Rose."
"I think you saw enough last night to know what we were doing while you two were having your moment." Sapnap was right. They didn't really leave much to the imagination. "We're leaving in an hour to go get wood. Wake up your boyfriend, will you?"
Dream smiled. He didn't want to correct Sapnap. George was finally his. He opens George's curtains and gently says, "George? It's time to get up."
George's eyes flutter open and he smiles. "Good morning, Clay." Cat rubs against his arm before jumping off of the bed. George follows the cat, stretching before standing. As soon as his eyes fall on Sapnap, he tenses up. While things were going alright between them, he still felt weird about liking Dream around him. Sapnap always had this expression that made him think he was judging you, even if he wasn't.
George and Dream sit across from Sapnap as they eat their breakfast. George slowly wraps his hand around Dream's while they eat and, by the time they are done, their fingers were laced together tightly as Dream runs his thumb over George's knuckles. The three didn't talk much during their meal. They instead shared awkward glances.
Had Bad not entered the place when he did, the three would've died in their own awkwardness. "You guys! Get dressed so we can go make some sticks!"

After getting dressed and a long walk, the four guys and Rose finally make it to the dark oak forest. "Alright, you guys start cutting some trees down. If saplings fall, replant them. And be on the lookout for pillagers. If you see one, quickly walk in the other direction or climb a tree and hide until they leave," Rose explains. "You should spread out so that we don't just go and deforest the area. Any questions?" None of the boys answer. "Alright, get to chopping!"
Dream decides to follow a thin dirt path on the ground that led him into an area where there were a lot of trees close together. This area was significantly cooler than the desert, but not enough for Dream to wear his hoodie. He hangs it on a tree and gets to cutting wood.
The day was quite peaceful. Dream enjoyed hearing the birds sing around him. It gave him some time to reflect on everything that had happened so far. He fell in love, had a fight with the Wither, and nearly died multiple times, all within the span of a week. He couldn't believe how much he's done and how far away from home he was. He was truly thankful he had three people blindly follow him into the woods that day.
But then, another thought entered his mind as he heard footsteps behind him, accompanied by the sounds of crossbows being loaded.
Why wasn't I watching for pillagers?

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Word Count: 2868

Published: July 4th