Characters: Laurence, Gehrman, Maria, Rom, Micolash

Word Count: 3.767

Summary: The kids are talking about their dream about the future and Laurence discovers an amazing place.

(Author's note: Hey, it has been some while, hmmm? I decided to finally write chapter 5 of this story. This one ends the Red Whistle arc. Please enjoy!)

"Hey guys.", Laurence barged into the common room of Balchero, where all of his friends were currently loitering, holding up a big sack, "We finally gathered enough post balloons to make deliveries. Who's coming with me?"

Gehrman was the first to stand up, then Maria. After a short amount of hesitation Rom joined them and upon her nudging Micolash, the boy looked up from his book and scrambled on his feet.

"Great, I am waiting for you in front of the orphanage.", Laurence said, leaving them be so that they could prepare themselves. Laurence sat himself down on the stairs in front of the entry door and let his thoughts wander.

After he, Maria and Rom had ascended from their delve, they had met up with Gehrman right away. Micolash had seen them and grown curious and so all four of them had been led to his little workshop, where they marveled over the designs that Gehrman had thought up, despite being only thirteen years old.

Maria had been especially interested in Gehrman's work (hobby?) and the both of them had talked for a long time, all while Laurence, Rom and Micolash had indulged in... fantasies.

"So many delvers have been killed by some of the more aggressive beasts. Imagine if we could help them and make the routes a tiny bit safer.", Rom had said.

"And imagine all the rare relics we might find if we don't have to avoid their lairs anymore.", Micolash had added, "We could get famous... and rich."

"And imagine all these new tastes.", Laurence had added, "Has anybody ever tried a crimson splitjaw? I don't think so."

At that point Rom had gotten mad at them for preferring relics and food to the safety of delvers, but soon she had calmed down and they even got Maria and Gehrman into the fantasy, though, Maria had a harsh truth for them.

"We are only children.", she said, "We can't even build this weapons, we don't have any money or materials. How should we turn into hunters like this?"

The face of Laurence, Micolash and Rom had fallen at the same time. They had gotten too caught up in their fantasy, so that the brutal reality was suddenly catching up on them quickly. It had been Gehrman who had poured oil on troubled water.

"It's true, we are only children now, but we won't stay children. Once we grow up, we can make our dream a reality. What do you say, if we all make it to being Moon Whistles, shall we work on it? As our goal in life?"

All of them had been all for it, using up the rest of the evening to fantasize a bit more about their adult life.

Now that Laurence was sitting in front of the orphanage, staring at his red whistle, he knew that it wouldn't be as easy in their fantasy. All of them were still Red Whistles, they would need to survive so many more delves before they would even become Blue Whistles. Still, Laurence didn't plan to die, not that soon. The Abyss would have his soul eventually, but not before he was wearing a black whistle and could proudly call himself a veteran.

The door opened and Laurence' friends appeared, all equipped with a little bag. Laurence did hand all of them some of the letters, until they were evenly distributed.

"Alright, we do it like usual. We walk towards town in a group and then all of us are taking our own route.", Laurence said, shouldering the now much lighter large bag.

As they started to walk through the forest, Laurence' earlier thoughts were coming back.

"Are we really doing it?", he said, "Becoming hunters, I mean... should we... grow up."

"I don't see why we shouldn't try it.", Gehrman said, "Most delvers are simply searching for relics. Outside of the White Whistles, you don't hear much of delvers hunting the beasts, outside for food, and those are not the dangerous ones. If I have better materials for my weapons, I bet they could even cut the skin of a crimson splitjaw."

"And I have had combat training since I can remember being alive.", Maria chimed in, "I can train all of you. You are already used to delve, handling combat isn't that much different, just more slashing stuff instead of running away."

"Hmm, with both Maria and Gehrman having their roles, what are our roles?", Rom asked herself, looking to Micolash and then to Laurence.

"You know a lot about bugs.", Laurence said, "Maybe that can be used somehow?"

"Well, they can be used to be made into potions, even though I would prefer not to, and knowing about their movements can help a lot with navigating the Abyss. Besides, I learned a lot about the plants as well, because then I can see more bugs. I could scout and tell you which plants are safe and which should be avoided."

Rom looked at Micolash: "And you, Micolash? What would you like to do?"

"The plants you told me about can be excellently mixed into explosives.", Micolash answered without hesitation, making Rom's mouth fall open.

"Micolash! We aren't here to set the Abyss on fire!", she screamed, but also laughed a bit.

"Actually, why not?", Gehrman said, "We need all kind of tools if we really want to hunt the primordial beasts of the Abyss."

"You are encouraging him?!", Laurence asked and then noticed that all eyes were on him. He hadn't stated his role yet. Luckily, he already had thought about it plenty yesterday, before he fell asleep.

"I am going to take first aid classes.", he said, "When Micolash got sick and I got hurt, I noticed that we would have been done for if the poison would have been more than a laxative and my wound would have been deeper. We need someone who knows how to take care of bad wounds and how to neutralize poison. I have no trouble seeing gross stuff, so I thought this would be a good rule for me."

Maria looked at Gehrman and Micolash and Rom shared a look at well. Then, all of them nodded.

"So, we have Gehrman as our weapon provider, Maria as our combat teacher, Rom as our scout, Micolash for explosives and me as the medic.", Laurence said. "I would say that sounds like an excellent team. And maybe we can even recruit more delvers to our cause!"

"Easy, Laurence, first... we need to get our blue whistles.", Gehrman said. He and the rest of the group stopped and Laurence noticed that they had arrived at the town.

"Yeah, sorry, I got carried away.", he said and then waved to them. "I'll see you guys later."

Laurence waved to his friends and then sorted through his letters one last time, planning the best route. Once he had the first letter in his hand, heading for the house it was addressed to, he noticed something that he had never seen before, even though he had walked this route countless times already.

His eyes grew wide when he saw it and he just knew that he had to show the others once they were done with their routes.

Laurence had finished his route in record timing and impatiently waited at their meeting spot for the others to finish as well. How could they make him wait so long? They knew the city as well as him, they could have been done with their routes already. A little voice in the back of Laurence' mind whispered that he was unreasonable, but he was just so impatient. He wanted to show off his discovery.

Finally, Gehrman and Maria appeared and not much later Rom and Micolash. Laurence was on his feet in an instant and talked before anybody else even had the chance to open their mouth: "Guys, I need to show you something AMAZING! It's not even far from here, come, let's go there right this moment."

"Easy, Laurence, we just finished our tour, give us a moment to rest.", Gehrman said, placing his blue worried eyes on Laurence. Laurence just fell back to his rear and huffed.

"Fine, but I have been waiting so long already.", he said.

"Whatever you want to show us won't get up and walk away.", Micolash said, "Probably."

"No, I haven't found a cat I wanted to show you this time.", Laurence said, crossing his arms, "It's really cool though, I want you guys to see."

"Give us ten minutes, then we'll come.", Gehrman said, looking first to Laurence, then to Micolash and the girls, "Right?" The three children nodded and Laurence frowned, but had to accept anyway.

"Fine.", he said again, having to patiently wait until his friends were ready. Once they finally told him they would come with him now, Laurence was so quick on his feet that he almost toppled over.

"This way.", he said and led the group of the children to the alley he had seen it. He didn't elaborate at all on what he had seen, relishing in the whispers of his friends and then stopped in front of a hill covered in flowers of fortitudes, with a big house built on it.

"Look.", he said, "This place apparently has been vacant for a while! We could buy it and repair it, so that we have a place of our own. Gehrman can build his weapons there, Maria can train us in the garden, we all can have a room of our own and live together here. We could have our own little workshop."

The four other children gathered in front of the gate that prevented access to the house, marvellig at it, starting to talk wildly about all the kinds of activities they could do in their own place. It was Rom who broke the bubble first.

"Guys, I would like to do this as much as you, but... we are still Red Whistles. We don't have money. We don't even know if we all survive long enough to... make our dream a reality."

Her words that held an absolute truth made all of them shut up instantly.

"Besides.", Rom continued, "Maybe someone buys the house before we even have the chance. It's... fine to dream, but maybe we should... get a bit more realistic about this. There isn't much of a chance that we can fulfill this dream..."

Laurence was opening his mouth to say something when Micolash interrupted him by speaking first. "Rom.", he said, "Do you think the White Whistles managed to get their status by giving up before they tried? It may be a silly dream of us Red Whistles, but even the White Whistles were once like us. It might be a nightmare to make it come true, but let us have our dream. That's all we have."

Laurence finally found his words, but only managed to say: "Um, what Micolash said, basically. Let's... at least try." He looked at Gehrman and Maria with a pleading look, hoping that they could help out a bit.

"Rom, your words carry the truth.", Gehrman said, "But Micolash's words carry a certain truth as well. I think we are all aware that it is a huge dream to have, one that might never come true, but... we can at least try, can we?"

"I always dreamed of getting away from my relatives.", Maria chimed in, "I was only six and never thought it would happen. It still happened and I met you guys. I am fine with that, I don't need anything more, but I am fine with dreaming a bit more."

Rom sighed and then said: "Guys, I don't want to be a killjoy, I just wanted to remind you that it isn't as easy as we think it is."

"We know.", Laurence, Micolash, Gehrman and Maria said pretty much at the same time and then chuckled when they noticed.

"How about that?", Laurence said, "We promise that we will not get caught up in our dream. And... any of you can back down at any minute. I just would like to do this with all of you, if we really manage to fulfill it."

"Works for me.", Rom said and then Micolash, Gehrman and Maria joined in with similar affirmations.

"Alright then, let's take a vow.", Laurence said, extending his hand, "Here, in front of this house, let's vow that we will try to fulfill our dream, but that we will never force anyone into our dream."

Gehrman was the first who laid his hand on Laurence, then Maria, then Micolash and then finally Rom.

"We promise.", they said in unison.

Three years passed and Laurence managed to grow over the years. Not a lot though, the same as Micolash. Both of them were staring with jealousy at Gehrman, when the older boy managed to outgrow all of them and became tall once he had hit the sixteen. Laurence still hoped that his body would have a growth spurt, but the only thing starting to grow was his beard, which only annoyed him and so he made sure to shave his face clean, annoyed by his body going through puberty. As if the constant voice breaking and all the awkward situations weren't enough already...

Laurence was now fourteen and still a Red Whistle. Gehrman was the only one who had been promoted to a Blue Whistle thanks to his age, it wasn't possible to get promoted before one had turned fifteen. Laurence' birthday was soon though and he was positive that he would pass the test for his blue whistle with flying colours.

Right at this moment, Laurence was in the Abyss, staring at a corpse. Long away were the times where a praying skeleton had scared him. Seeing the corpses of delvers had become a constant in the almost five years he had delved in the first layer. It wasn't something that surprised him anymore.

This one had been a Blue Whistle. Laurence couldn't see any external injuries, but the way their neck was bent indicated that they had fallen really unlucky and snapped it. They probably had underestimated the curse, tried to climb up, gotten dizzy and then had fallen to their death.

Laurence kneeled in front of them and took their whistle. It was custom that a relative would get it... if there even were any known relatives. If not, it would be given to the guild. He also checked the rucksack of the dead delver and secured any relics they had with them. They also would be given to the guild, it was considered rude to keep relics of other delvers for oneself.

The last thing he did was putting his hands on the ground in front of the corpse and murmuring. "This soul went back into the Abyss. Please let it rest inside of you."

Laurence was a big practitioner of the Abyss Faith, Orth's religion. He firmly believed that anyone who died in the Abyss would give their soul back to it and one day, the Abyss would bless a new life with this very soul, keeping it in a constant cycle. One day, he himself would also return to the Abyss. He still hoped that the Abyss would leave him some more time though.

Once Laurence was done with the prayer, he got up and walked away. Nobody ever would retrieve the corpses, they always would take the whistles instead. Orth funerals worked differently than the rest of the world. Some tourists had told him that other places had graveyards, where the dead were buried, but in Orth, they wrote their name on a badge and tossed it into the Abyss with flower of fortitude petals. It had been like this forever and the tourists always had been as weirded out by the practice as Laurence had been with their practice of burying bodies.

Laurence didn't feel like searching for relics anymore and sat himself on the edge of the cliff he was currently on. It was rather quiet, so he decided that taking a break wouldn't be too dangerous. Once he sat down, he looked at the blue whistle in his hands and then put it away, getting out two black whistles instead. The ones that belonged to his parents.

"I hope you still watch over me.", he murmured, closing his eyes, cradling the whistles in his hands, nearly jumping up in alarm when a voice spoke next to him.

"Who were they?"

Laurence looked into the direction of the voice to see an older delver, his features told Laurence that he was probably middle aged and the black whistle around his neck told him that he was looking at a veteran. It was rare to see them in the first layer, they normally delved in the deeper layers.

"My parents.", Laurence replied.

"How unusual.", the delver said, taking a seat next to Laurence.

"I know...", Laurence said. He knew how unusual it was for parents in Orth to not give their child away. How often had he opened the door of the orphanage during his morning duties only to find a baby or toddler in front of it. All of them would be trained to be delvers one day.

"Were they good parents, kid?", the delver asked. Laurence raised his brows in surprise, then looked at the two black whistles in his hands.

"They...", he started, then stopped and thought. Had they been good parents? Granted, he didn't see them often. They would go on week or even month long delves and Laurence often would be in the care of some neighbours, sometimes crying himself to sleep because he missed them. But... whenever they were above ground, they made sure to spend every single minute they could with him. Laurence had looked so forward to having his first delve with them... it had broken his heart when the two whistles had been placed in his hands and he had known what it implied.

"Yes.", he finally said. "Yes, they have been good parents. They loved me and they are still watching over me. We are together when I am here."

The delver didn't say anything and Laurence fell quiet as well. Maybe he was weirded out by Laurence' Abyss Faith, not everyone in Orth was getting it. Then, after quite some time passed, the delver spoke again.

"She would have been around your age now..."

"Huh?", Laurence said, looking at the delver, noticing the red whistle in his hands. This... wasn't a red whistle he had found recently, taken from some random corpse. This red whistle held the same weight as the two black whistles in Laurence' position. "I am sorry...", he said. He knew that no words could truly alleviate the pain, only time managed it.

"So...", Laurence said, wanting to break through the silence and awkwardness, "You were unusual too."

The delver looked at him and a sad smile appeared on his face: "When my daughter was born, her mother wanted to leave her behind in front of the orphanage right away."

Laurence nodded, that was normal in Orth. He had been one of the exceptions, a child of delvers that was allowed to grow up in their care. Well, partially at least.

"But the moment I laid my eyes on this tiny girl, I couldn't... do this. I couldn't abandon her right after she was born. I decided to raise her myself. I gave up on delving, I found a job on the market place. Her mother made it clear that she wouldn't be a part of this. For a few wonderful years, it was just me and my daughter. I wished it could have stayed forever like this..."

Laurence didn't have to ask what happened. He already knew.

"It was the Abyss that lured her in. She saw it, she saw the delvers, she saw the relics, she wanted to be a part of it. I tried to explain to her how dangerous it could be, but I also didn't want to break her heart, having to see how all these other children were handed their red whistles, so... she became a delver. And then... after only her third delve, she didn't come back."

iIt could have been me./i, Laurence thought to himself, iThat child that never returned... it could have been me./i Laurence took a brief moment to thank his parents for protecting him so well over the years.

"When they handed me her whistle, something broke inside of me. And since then, I went back int the Abyss. But not for the fame or the glory or the relics. I simply hope... that it will claim me and that I can be together with my beloved daughter again."

"But.", Laurence said, wanting to say something, anything, after this delver, a complete stranger, had poured his heart out to him, "Aren't you together when you are in here? Like me and my parents? I am sure your daughter wouldn't like to see you so soon."

"Kid, what do you think is the worst curse of the known layers?", the delver asked, "The ones that don't kill you."

"The worst, hm...", Laurence set a hand on his chin and considered the question, "The fourth layer, I would say. It makes you bleed from every orifice. That must hurt a lot."

The delver shook his head. "You all answer the question the same. It's the third layer. You can't escape them. Your inner turmoil, your inner demons... they will manifest themselves. I... dread having to ascend from the third layer. It's the curse at its worst."

Laurence only stared at the delver, not knowing what to say, barely understanding what he tried to say. He would only understand it much much later, years after this conversation had taken place.

"Thanks for listening to me, kid.", the delver said, getting up, "And take care. Your parents probably wouldn't be happy if you joined them too soon."

Just like that, the delver left, leaving Laurence with an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He once again stared at the two black whistles in his hands and murmured: "I hope he will feel better soon..."

(Author's note: Writing five characters at once is so damn difficult! Arghl! Why am I doing that to myself?

The random delver at the end wasn't a specific person. I just wanted Laurence to have a talk with a delver who lost their child to the Abyss. When it comes to children in Orth, I headcanon that it actually is seen as a bad thing to raise your child on your own when you are a delver, because chances are that you die and leave them devastated. So, almost all children that are born in Orth are put in the orphanage where they will be raised into being delvers, which starts the cycle anew. Did I tag this with "Orth is a fucked up place" or not?

The next chapter will start the Blue Whistle arc. I got a few more ideas for it now, but like I said last chapter, I have two other long fics and will focus on writing stuff for them before I will write chapter six.

I know this story isn't super popular, as a crossover between two fandoms that are small, but I want to thank anyone who reads it and likes it. It means a lot to me that you share my love for these characters and sit through my world building. Though, the burial one is actually canon ^^)