Beta-Reader: DannerisCringe

[Arrival - Part 2]

The feeling of snow against skin confused Technoblade. The last time he checked, the area around the entrance portal to the prison wasn't in some sort of nature preserve, or anywhere near any sort of snow for that matter. Rather, it was inside a building, away from nature, as a way to make sure no one randomly stumbled across it.

With his face in the snow and his body feeling weak, most likely from only eating raw potatoes for several days, he laid there for a second, his mind in a daze. Was he back in the Tundra? If so, how? If he was in the Tundra, was Philza nearby? He stopped that train of thought. That would be impossible. He came out of the prison entrance portal. There was no way he was in the Tundra…

After a few more seconds passed, he used enough energy to begin to outstretch his arms, pushing his upper body up from the floor, and as a result, his arms began to shake from the sudden use. The lack of eating properly was starting to affect his physical capabilities, which was starting to annoy the half-piglin.

His eyes slowly peered open, blinking a few times to get the blaring sunlight out of his eyes. He grunted as his fingers dug into the soft snow underneath him, and with a shove, he pushed his upper body up just enough for his knees to bend back and for him to jump up from the ground.

Stumbling around for a few seconds, he quickly got his bearings as he took a quick look around him—trees and snow for miles beyond him, coupled with the sounds of chirping birds. A small grunt escaped his lips as he blinked a couple of times. This wasn't the entrance room to the prison. That much he knew for a fact.

Did they take the wrong nether portal? No… that couldn't have been it. He knew each portal and where they went, so where were they now?

He glanced beside him, and laying there, groaning, was Dream. He sighed, deciding to glance behind him. He was probably going to have to go back through the nether portal and take another one. As stupid as that was, he needed to go to the prison entrance because if he knew Phil, he would be waiting for him there. But as he turned around, a sudden shock went through his body as his eyes widened.

Now, usually, when someone decides to use the nether portal as a means of transport, there would be a duplicate portal behind you, in case you wanted to travel back to the place you had been before.

But that had not been the case this time around. The eight-foot-tall square made of obsidian and fire was not behind him. In fact, there was nothing there, aside from more of the strange forest and snow.

"Dream… get up!" Technoblade started slowly as his eyes darted from side to side, glancing down at the snowy ground as he saw Dream begin to pull himself from the dirt path below him. He heard confused mumbling coming from the masked man as he brought out a netherite axe from thin air, using it as a lever to pull himself up.

As Dream used his free hand to adjust his mask, he slowly stood up as he climbed up from one knee and finally stood to his full height, grabbing the side of his head as he shook it.

"Was I right? Are we surround…ed?" As Dream looked around him, his tone of voice quickly went from annoyed to confused in a matter of seconds. He too was confused at their current predicament. "Where are we? This isn't the prison's entrance? This is just a random forest!" Dream then turned around and paled underneath his mask, his tone no longer being that of confusion but a mixture of anger and fear as he turned to face the half-piglin. "Where's the nether portal! Techno, Where's the nether portal?!"

The half-piglin continued to stare behind him, dread sinking into his heart before he quickly got a hold of himself. Turning to face Dream, he put a hand on his shoulder, making the masked man look at him.

"Dream. I have no idea where we are, and last I checked…." Technoblade drawled off, scanning the area around him, observing the area for what it was. The trees looked incredibly similar to that of a spruce tree. However, the difference between them was that they had weird pointy things that looked like sticks instead of the normal oval leaves he had been used to seeing.

"There wasn't an area like this in the greater SMP, was there?" Technoblade asked as Dream took in a sharp intake of breath, calming himself down as he carefully looked around him. There was a pregnant pause in the air as a great deal of worry dwelled inside Technoblade.

Certainly, Dream would know where they were. Then they could make their way to the Tundra with Philza and hide for a bit with the syndicate. The snow on the ground gave Technoblade hope that they were already there, but then again, they went through the portal that was supposed to take them to the prison's entrance.

However, it quickly became evident that wasn't the case. Add on to the fact that the nether portal that was supposed to take them back if they so chose wasn't there. It made Technoblade think one of two things occurred.

The first thing was that either the other portal had been destroyed by someone, or…

He stopped his train of thought. No. That wasn't possible. That couldn't be possible. Through the hundreds of years he had been alive for, not once did that ever happen.

It was in that train of thought that Dream spoke. His voice was quiet, laced with confusion and a tinge of fear. "Technoblade. I have no idea where we are. I've never seen trees like this in any of the regions of the Greater SMP."

It was at that moment that the voices in the back of Techno's head began to stir. They were panicking. The voices never panicked. Not ever since the war of the Gods did they panic, and that was when Technoblade knew that he could very well die, which was why the voices were panicking back then.

Did that mean that this was a similar scenario? Or perhaps they were panicking because this area was unfamiliar to even the voices?

Technoblade looked up at the sky. The sun was still high up, and the sky was slightly cloudy. Birds flew in the sky, birds that looked nothing like what Techno was used to seeing. There were animals in the trees that looked nothing like what he had ever seen before, and to make things worse, he wasn't seeing any strays in the cover of the trees, hiding from the sun.

As he observed the nature, he quickly pieced together what was wrong. "That would make sense. I don't think these trees even existed in our country," Technoblade observed, trying to remain calm as he walked up to one of them, brushing his hand against the bark.

"What do you mean?" Dream asked, his voice staggering as he adjusted his mask in a fidgety manner. The man in green was curling and uncurling his fingers, almost as if he was trying to keep his mind distracted from the growing fear that they could've possibly been transported to somewhere completely unfamiliar to the both of them.

"What I mean… is that I don't think we're even in our country anymore, Dream. I think we've been taken to a completely different country, neigh, a completely different continent," Technoblade uttered darkly as Dream's eyes went wide underneath the mask.

"Wh-What?! Have you finally lost your mind, Techno! A nether portal can't just plop you somewhere off the continent it's on! You and I both know that, so why are you even suggesting that be a-" Dream was going to continue his rant when Technoblade held up a hand to silence him.

"Dream. Do you remember when we tried to summon Dream XD for a second time? After my wish for that bell?" Technoblade asked as Dream's breath hitched. The man grabbed the side of his arm before rubbing it in thought.

"Yeah… what of it?" Dream asked as Technoblade crossed his arms, a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead.

"I think you angered him when you tried to take advantage of summoning him. So as a punishment, he sent us here. I don't know how, but he did. And I don't think there is a way back to the SMP…." Technoblade stated calmly, though the look in his eyes screamed distress.

The sudden load of information, dreadful information, hit Dream like a sudden punch to the gut, causing the former tyrant to stagger backwards, a sudden gasp escaping his lips as Technoblade lowered his head.

He had never seen Dream look so pathetic before, at least not since he first saw him in prison.

A world of emotions raced through the half-piglin's head. Damnit, why did this have to happen now? At least he wouldn't have to worry about the entire world crashing down on him, at least not until he came back.

There was no doubt in his mind that the rest of the SMP was on a manhunt for Dream, as well as himself. Philza was probably panicking, Puffy was probably confused, as were Ranboo and Niki… "Shit." Technoblade cursed as he bit his lip in thought.

"O-Oh my god… I… We're stranded… no… not stranded. XD freaking exiled us! What the hell! We need to get back Techno. We need to back to the SMP, I…" he paused before a small chuckle came from his mouth.

"Ha… Ha ha… Is this what Tommy felt like when… Oh god…" Dream fell to the ground, his knees hitting the snow as Techno looked at his friend. Dream was right. They were exiled. Most likely for causing an immense amount of damage to the server.

Although none of it was unjustified, at least Techno's destruction wasn't. But the fact of the matter remained. They were lost, and they needed to find where they were, and most importantly, they needed to set up a base camp.

"Dream," Technoblade spoke sharply, which caused the man in green to look up at him. That mask, that annoying, stupid mask. "First of all, take off the mask and look me in the eye," Technoblade said, this time, his voice was calm, and Dream reluctantly moved the mask away from his face.

There was a long, hideous scar across his left eye, but instead of that eye being blind, both of his eyes were a brilliant green. He had a facial expression that read 'panic,' mixed with the pain in his eyes. He was clearly distraught.

"You need to suck it up. We might be trapped here for the rest of our lives, so we need to build a base camp, a simple fire, and some seats will do. I can make a chest to store some things for now, but I need you to gather some food, you got that?" Technoblade commanded, causing Dream to pick himself up, clearing his throat before a serious expression dawned on his face.

"Yeah… you're right," Dream stated as he brought out his netherite axe. "I'll be back. You want to set up camp here?" Dream asked as Technoblade nodded.

"It would be for the best." The half-piglin stated dryly as he brought out some sticks from thin air. Dream nodded, fixing his mask to his face as he wandered off to find some food, the crunching of the thick snow fading as Technoblade got to work setting up the camp.

Dream had no idea how long he had been walking for. It had to have been at least a couple of minutes, maybe even an hour, but despite wearing a hoodie, he was starting to get cold. He had no idea how Technoblade could stand the bitter coldness of the snowy biomes of the Greater SMP, back when they were still there, of course, but he assumed it had to do with him being naturally hotter than a normal person due to his half-piglin status.

But that wasn't the main thing that was perplexing him. Rather, it was to do with the wildlife or, in this case, lack thereof. He hadn't seen a single animal at all. Usually, there would be a wild sheep, cow, or even a chicken, but none showed up, and it was starting to annoy him.

What Technoblade said was still processing in his mind. XD had exiled them. His own father exiled him. Not only had that annoyed him, but it had angered him. He could understand allowing him to be imprisoned. But exiling him?! He knew he went a bit too far with blaming Tommy for destroying the community house and threatening to kill Tubbo…

Perhaps he deserved this. He was basically responsible for over 90% of the conflict on the SMP; if you discounted that one time Tommy had stolen his, Georges and Sapnaps items, but the rest of the time, he had caused a majority of the damage and issues.

He thought that the prison was punishment enough, but this took things to a whole other level.

At least he had Techno…

He let a small groan leave his mouth as he looked into his dull netherite axe. He would have to sharpen the blade once he got back to base camp. It could still cleave things in half, but it would take more blows to do so. Clashing metals against other metals such as armour does a lot to a blade. Wearing it down was another thing that it did too, which was something that Dream was starting to worry about.

He had stolen a few netherite ingots from Sam's corpse when he died. That way, he could repair Sam's former weapon.

It was funny. He used to be the second most powerful member of the SMP. But when he was imprisoned, all of his stuff had been given to the other members of the SMP, including his axe, which had been given to Tommy.

He wondered what Tommy was doing now? Was he panicking? Was he squirming around, knowing that Dream, the bane of his existence, was free from the prison? A small smile crept upon his face.

He hated that insufferable little brat. He should've just killed that little twerp before he could've done any harm to his plan. But hindsight was 20/20 now, so he'd make that his main goal upon returning to the SMP.

As he continued his walking, keeping an ear out for any animals, he heard a sudden rustling in the bushes. His smirk dropped as he stopped. Finally, there was something. He looked around, trying to find where the rustling had come from, and then, the bush to his left had begun to rustle. His eyes darted to its location, and the rustling stopped.

Readying his axe, he gripped the hilt tightly, narrowing his eyes at the bush. The bush began to rustle again, and as Dream brought his axe close to his chest, the thing that had been hiding in the bush jumped out and lunged at Dream.

Its grey fur and sharp teeth were the first things he saw, and as he dodged out of the way and got into a defensive stance, he felt a jolt of confusion flow through his brain. Its yellow eyes stared at him as it snarled, and that's when Dream huffed. A wolf, just great. These wolves were nothing like the ones back in the SMP. This one was much more violent, and taming one seemed to be impossible, considering it was already hostile.

"Alright, flea-bag, you wanna die, come at me then!" Dream spat as the wolf lunged at him, swiping its paw at him as Dream dodged to the right, swinging his axe into the side of the wolf. The axe dug deep into the wolf's fur and into its body as it yelped.

Blood coated the wolf's fur as Dream removed the axe from its side. After doing so, it began to retreat, a bloody trail following it. He was going to be damned if he was going to let this wolf getaway, it attacked him, and he was going to follow it and finish it off.

The green-clad man ran after it as his eyes narrowed, pushing through bushes and low hanging branches as he scoffed at the sight before him. The wolf didn't make it very far before it slumped against the tree. Clearly, he had caused it more damage than he had thought. He could hear it whimpering, and a part of him felt his heart shatter.

However, he wasn't going to let his feelings get in the way of finishing the wolf off. "End of the line, sorry about this bud, guess it's a dog-eat-dog world," Dream stated as he raised the axe into the air and cut the wolf's head clean off, blood spewing from where its neck once was. The head tumbled into the snow below as it started to turn red around the feral animal's head. A few seconds passed, and the bleeding stopped as Dream lowered the axe.

He looked down at his weapon, blood covering it as he sighed. Unlike the things from his land, the wolf didn't turn to dust and leave behind the meat. Did he have to get it himself? He sighed. What was good meat on a wolf? The fur might actually make a good coat, now that he thought of it.

Getting to his knees, he began to de-fur the corpse and put said fur into his inventory. As he did so, time seemed to go slower than normal. The body reminded him of a hairless dog when he was done, but he supposed it technically was. The amount of blood that got all over him was stupid, splotches of the stuff on his hoodie and pants.

He cut a few chunks of meat off the body and left the rest, storing it away in his personal inventory. It poofed away from his sight as he stood up. The chances of other predators coming to eat the rest were high, but he could've cared less.

As he turned around, a small kid clad in a strange-looking black robe with short black hair looked at him, his eyes wide in horror. Dream tilted his head at the kid. Since when did this kid get here? Was he a local? He was puzzled at just how small the kid was. He was probably up to his knees in height. Just how long had he been there?

"Uh… hey there, um… I take it you're a local here, right?" Dream asked as the kid remained silent, still staring at him. "Uh… kid? Hey, can you-" before he could continue talking, the kid screamed and began to run away. "KID! WAIT, I- oh forget it…." Dream sighed as he shouldered his axe.

He wasn't going to chase the kid. He had to get back to camp. However, a part of him worried for the kid's safety. Taking into consideration, he had encountered a wild wolf just an hour ago. There was a chance there was more out there.

But the kid wasn't his problem. If he died to a wolf, he wouldn't have given a rat's ass about it.

Leaving the wolf carcass for whatever other animal would come and take it, Dream left the wooded area where he had followed the wolf and stepped through to the pathway he had come here from. But as he did, he saw a young girl running, wearing a weird white robe. Just what was it with kids and wearing robes here?

Now, he lost his chance to get information before, but he wasn't going to lose it again, as he assumed she was a local. Quickly grabbing her by the back of her robe, he lifted her up from the ground and huffed. "Huh, I wasn't expecting more people to be around here. This could be useful," he said in his usual condescending tone.

The girl began to squirm in his grip. It reminded him of Tommy squirming, and he didn't mind it, not one bit. The kid looked back at him as he tilted his head. She had a cute face too, big dark pink eyes, and a face that screamed fear.

Maybe it was the sadist in him, but he loved the fear in her eyes. It reminded him of Tommy… a lot. In fact, it reminded him far too much of Tommy. He didn't mind that. If this were this continent's version of Tommy, then he would enjoy messing around with her.

"Well, I should take you back to base camp. Techno would love to hear what you had to say. Plus, we're kinda lost, and that other kid wasn't too much of a help. Maybe you could help us," Dream said, slinging her onto his free shoulder, holding her down with his arm. The kid was weak, which was something Tommy wasn't, so that was one thing that she didn't match up with.

"LET ME GO! PUT ME DOWN! HELP! SOMEONE HELP!" The kid shouted as Dream mentally scoffed as he walked. She shouted like Tommy too. This was going to be fun.

-To Be Continued-

Yup, I'm doing this, aren't I? Leaving it in the same place as the last chapter, but at the same time, nearly 4000 words is a pretty good spot to leave it off, in my opinion. Also, for those who are concerned for Nezuko, well, we all know her fate in canon, but who says I'm keeping it that way :)

In the next chapter, we get to see what Techno's up to and what his reaction will be to seeing Dream walk in with a kid on his shoulder and him covered head to toe in blood.

Till then, see ya later.