yarstarthewolf

Yarstar

I'm on the g/t side of power

88 posts

Venture

Chapter 2

Mmm not much to say here, other than, after this chapter, I don't have anything else ready for this to put out.

Oh yeah! Thanks @da3dm for proofreading!!

Chapter 1

Enjoy!

Word Count: 1,710

Warnings: Blood, Fear, ect.

It didn't take him long to find their camp.

He stalked over to the pile of belongings, silently assessing the bags. While he wasn't officially a thief, he was quite fond of pilfering through others’ things, especially the things of hunters. There was always at least a few items of value stowed away. Plus, there was probably something edible he could grab.

He dropped to one knee in front of the pile and snagged one of the bags, tugging it open and digging through it. There wasn’t anything special, only a couple of glittering trinkets and a single golden ring. They wouldn't be worth much to trade, Dream estimated quietly. He pocketed them anyway, moving on to the next pack. This one had a few shimmering potions, which he inspected curiously before stowing them away. He would find out what they were later.

Dream flipped open another satchel and promptly froze. What…What the hell?! That's a kid, why would- He cut himself off, staring down at the little form. They were young, he could tell that much, maybe in their mid-teens if he pushed it.

The kid stared up at him with wide blue eyes set above pale, round cheeks. His face was framed by fluffy blond curls, which hung over his brow in a wild tangle. Long, ungainly legs pushed him further into the corner of the mesh cage while thin, twiggy arms curled defensively over his chest.

He was also terrified, Dream noted, and was doing a terrible job of hiding it.

“...Hey,” he murmured, suddenly acutely aware of how blood still dripped from his mask, still soaked his clothes, still stained his hands. He winced, leaning back a little. He frightened normal-sized people on accident. There was no telling what he looked like to the tiny teenager.

Scaring an apparent captive really wasn’t on today’s agenda.

…He should probably get the kid out of the cage, actually.

The kid stared up through the thin wire bars with thinly veiled panic when Dream reached into the bag, intent on grabbing the cage.

"N-No–Fuck!-" The kid clapped his hands over his mouth as the words seemed to slip out, cringing down further into the corner of the cage.

Dream paused at his cry before slowly drawing his hand back, out of view with a grimace. The kid shook, eyes wide.

“...Um,” Dream put eloquently, shifting to sit on his knees. He…he had no idea how to deal with kids. Adults, at least, could deal if his brash actions scared them, but children? He raised his hands dubiously, then lowered them. What…what did he do? He furrowed his brow, brushing a bloodied hand over his chin. Well, he didn’t want to traumatize the kid, so…

He decided to go with the subtler route. If anything, it’d be good practice for any future dealings with tiny frightened children.

“I’m Dream,” He murmured lowly, dropping his hands to rest in his lap. The kid only stared, puffing half-frantic breaths through his hands.

“I'm not gonna hurt you, kid.” Yeah, that would surely convince him. Hmm. Dream cocked his head, an idea blooming. “The people that had you were hunters, right? Or traffickers?” He tensed even more, scrawny shoulders hitching up around his ears. “I'll take that as a yes. Okay, well, they went after me, so I killed them. You won't have to worry about them anymore.” The rigid form relaxed just the tiniest bit at the news, but his eyes widened substantially.

“I'm only here because I wanted to loot their stuff, so, um…yeah.” He paused. “I won't hurt you.”

What he said seemed to work, because the small blond slowly pulled his hands from his mouth and drew his head up from his shoulders. The tiny, almost indistinguishable blue eyes scrutinized what little of Dream’s expression he could see for a long beat before he slumped, apparently accepting the assassin’s words.

Dream let a small grin slip on his face and leaned forward.

“Would you mind telling me what your name is?” The kid jumped, eyeing him suspiciously for a long beat, before he seemed to deflate and jerked a small nod.

“I’m Tommy,” he rasped quietly. Dream had to do a double take. He could have sworn he heard the word ‘bitch’ tacked onto the end of that. He shook himself. He supposed it didn't really matter.

“Tommy? Cool.” His grin widened. “I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but, considering the circumstances…” He swiped at some of the blood still adorning his mask and flung the droplets away with a dismissive flick of his fingers.

Tommy cringed, eyeing the smeared streaks on the mask. If the human was really telling the truth…then that would mean that the blood on his mask was from his captors. That would mean that this human had single-handedly murdered five armed hunters and, from what Tommy could see, escaped relatively unscathed. That meant that this human was dangerous. More so than the average sword-swinger.

…Tommy didn’t think he should antagonize this one too much. He already regretted the habitual insult that had slipped out when he said his name. There was no need to actually make the man mad.

The human leaned forward, blocking out most of what Tommy could see out from the opening of the bag with his enormous frame. The beady little eyes of the mask bore disconcertingly down on the teen, and, unconsciously, he shivered. It was so creepy.

“Do you want me to let you out of the cage?” Dream broke the silence, cocking his head to the side.

Tommy’s eyes widened, and he shook his head fervently. He did not want to be out and around this human, thank you very much. The cage, at least, offered him some (flimsy) barrier of safety, kept him from being in open grabbing reach.

Dream hummed, bobbing his head in a nod. His hand rose, blocking half of Tommy’s view as it reached into the bag. Tommy’s heart spiked in fear.

“Alright, well, I'm gonna have to carry the cage anyway, kay?” Dream muttered, grabbing the mesh top. “I'm not just gonna leave you here.”

Gorey fingers poked through the top of the cage and curled around the wires. Tommy flinched as a few drops of blood splattered down on the metal floor of the cage, each plinking quietly against the cold surface.

With a nauseating lurch, the cage was hoisted into the air. Tommy flung his bandaged arms out, bracing them against the wire mesh at the sudden movement. He was thankful he was sitting down this time. Being thrown about the harsh metal cage was not an experience he liked to indulge in.

Almost as soon as it had risen, though, the cage was firmly plonked onto the mulchy forest floor. Tommy jolted, confused, when the huge, extremely fucking tall, wow, he just kept going, human stood and moved over to the rest of the belonging pile. He waved a hand lazily in Tommy's direction.

“Just sit tight for a bit, alright? I’m gonna finish robbing this stuff.”

Tommy stared, a slightly offended expression growing on his face. Just find him and then just, just leave to go looting?! Just like that? It was like finding a tiny person, an abnormality, was nothing to this guy! Usually there was at least some sort of awe, or fascination, or, or even a touch of greed at his prospective uses! But no? This guy just up and ditches?

It’s not that Tommy was complaining, really. He was quite glad that this Dream guy wasn’t poking and prodding and trying to estimate his sell price, but…it was the principle of the matter! He wasn’t acting like a normal person would!

Tommy froze when a horrifying thought popped into his head. What if…what if the reason the human wasn’t reacting normally was because he had done this before? What if he was used to seeing smallfolk? What if he was used to capturing smallfolk? No, no, it couldn’t be that, right? Right?

Tommy watched Dream root through the rest of the hunter’s belongings, the man humming whenever he found something interesting before it was whisked away under the green poncho. He…he couldn’t tell if the human was malicious or not! Tommy knew, Tommy knew, that some, a very, very select, small few humans were good, were nice enough to at least ignore smallfolk, and that some were even okay to speak to and interact with, but…the hard part was figuring out who it was you could trust. Who it was that wouldn’t try to murder you. Who it was that wouldn’t kidnap you. Tommy learned this lesson the hard way.

Dream stood, seemingly finished with his act of larceny. Tommy swallowed nervously as the huge boots strode towards him, audibly crushing the forest foliage underneath the massive leather soles, until they stopped just in front of the cage. The blood-streaked, innocently smiling mask caught the light of the dusking sun as the human bent and snagged his fingers through the thin wires at the top, and then the cage lurched as he picked it up.

Tommy slid across the metal floor of the cage, narrowly avoiding the large splatters of blood in the middle as it was moved to rest against the vast green wall of Dream’s chest, and huge, cloth wrapped arms curled around the front, trapping the cage against the human’s torso.

“Just sit tight for now, kay?” The human started moving, long, striding steps that rolled smoothly through the cage. “I’ve gotta find someplace to set up camp, and then I can check up on you.”

Tommy shrunk back against the cage bars, wrapping his fingers around the thick wires. The easy stride the human had taken barely affected the cage, but Tommy was still cautious. His thrumming heart had slowed from it’s breakneck pace, letting him breathe easier.

He settled back, pushing down on the uncertain queasiness in his gut. Tommy figured he would have nothing to do but to wait, wait until he could try to escape from this new danger.

Tommy didn’t know what Dream wanted from him, but he was almost certain it wouldn’t be pleasant. When it involved the big folk, it never was.

Venture

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