tw: near-drowning, panic attacks, (not super brutal) torture scene, blood, basically EXTREME whump.
god I'm gonna torture these boys this time around...y'all be prepared, pixar themselves can never channel this amount of angst
Ian groans as he lies down on the stone floor. He slowly regains his consciousness, after whatever had happened to him, happened. He feels both pain and numbness simultaneously, throughout different parts of his lanky body. Deep down he hopes he'd just had a bad dream and he just happened to have fallen off his bed while sleeping...but this wasn't the case.
He slowly opens his eyes to see a stone ceiling in a dimly lit room. He then sits up from the cold floor and suddenly feels a sharp pain shoot down his back. Out his mouth erupts a brief yelp, which echoes throughout this old cell he's in.
The cell is only lit by one single torch. He can't seem to find any doors or windows. He can't hear the sounds of any other people, but only the echoey ambiance and distant water drops. The elf looks from side to side in gradually rising panic, realizing that this cell is real and that he was not dreaming.
We can make it out of this...don't worry... he thinks to himself.
He has no memory of being taken here. He doesn't know why he's here. All he wants is to be back home with his brother-
"Barley," he whispers.
He looks down and sees that his right leg is chained to the ground. Right next to him lays his still asleep older brother whose right leg is also chained.
It's pretty apparent they've been kidnapped. But by who? Who in this day and age would be waiting to take them to an ancient place like this? Ian would've thought that by now, this would've been turned into a general store. But of course, the brothers have already gone too far away from the rest of civilization for there to be something like that out in the open.
He can't quite grasp what is going on right now. And he's been doing this crazy questing stuff for a while now.
For almost a year, he and his brother Barley have been going on dangerous and glorious quests together, facing whatever evil force was put in front of them and seeking out random gems and weapons and whatnot. Through this year, the young wizard has worked on mastering the art of his magic gift, while Barley helped as a mentor to his younger brother. The two were an unstoppable duo.
It's a Saturday, exactly two weeks before Ian's birthday, and also two weeks before the day Barley would go off to college. For their final grand quest, the brothers decided to set out on a quest to find the Elvish Emerald. It was business as usual until they were out in a field, just as it felt like they were finally getting closer to the emerald. But then, everything went blank...and that was the last thing they remembered before waking up here in this creepy, intimidating cell.
The younger elf crawls over to his brother and starts waking him up.
"Barley, wake up. Please, man, wake up, we're probably about to die..." he desperately whispers while nudging him. "...Ian?" Barley groans as he wakes from his slumber. "What...what happened?"
He tries to process and figure out where he is. Once he realizes the amount of danger he and Ian could be in, his hazel eyes widen, and he immediately starts trying to take off his chain.
"What in the name of Chantar are we doing, well...here? How did we get here?" Barley asks. "That's exactly what I'm asking, and I have no clue," Ian starts trying to break his chain as well, despite his lack of strength compared to his brother.
The younger elf examines his chain. It's a rather flimsy chain, only a few feet long, and is wrapped tightly around his right leg with a lock. It was surprising that whoever put the chain on him was able to keep him attached so tightly, given that Ian's skinny limbs could slip through just about anything.
Ian pulls at the chain and tries to see if he could slide his leg out by shimmying it.
"Gods...they put these on tight..." Barley says as he struggles to get out of the chain. The elves take a break from messing with their chains and catch their breath while looking toward the lone torch providing light for the danger-bound brothers.
"Well, we've obviously been kidnapped," Ian says. "...Did they drug us? Put a spell on us? How could've we forgotten? It's like there's a black hole in my string of memories..." "Whatever they did, they knocked us out good," Barley says. "Maybe they were also happening to look for the Elvish Emerald and were trying to beat us?"
Ian tries not to think of what more horrific things could've possibly been done to him and Barley when they were faced with their foe or multiple foes.
"I don't even wanna think of what more they could've done to you, and I think I'm better off not knowing," the older elf says.
Something in the room captures Barley's attention. He notices that several holes are on the ground on each end, which could only mean...
"Water..." he whispers. "What?"
"Those holes in the walls, Ian. The only purpose those could serve is for pouring in...water." "Why just water? How could you know they wouldn't be pouring in lava, for all we know?" "Well, there's a greater percent chance it's for-"
Before Ian could share any more concerns, the brothers hear an eerie rumbling sound that eventually turned into the sound of rushing water. Just as they feared, water starts to rush out of the holes, immediately pooling around Ian and Barley and giving them a sudden chill throughout their bodies.
Both elves stand up in response to the rising water. They were once again doing everything they could to free themselves from the chains. The brothers have been faced with death many times during their expeditions. Walls closing in, steep drops into darkness, strange holes in the ground, deadly puzzles, arrows, horrific beasts, curses, you name it. They might as well be immortal at this point. But they aren't.
If there was any way either of the brothers wanted to die, the last one would be in Rising Water Trap #5.
The water was rising, and it was rising fast. As time progresses, the rushing water only becomes stronger and faster. It's eventually going to rise higher and higher, up to the ceiling, taking desperately needed air from the elves. It was hard for them not to panic. They'd dealt with rising water before during their quests, but at least during those times, they weren't chained to the ground. This time they have to find out how they can escape from tight chains when Ian doesn't have his staff on him, while simultaneously trying to keep their heads above water and get as much air as possible.
"It's no use, this thing won't budge," Ian states. The brothers stop yanking and look at each other as the water reaches their chests. It wouldn't be long until they have to tread water, and if they didn't come up with an idea soon enough, they'd be taken under the water while being held by the chains, with their last breaths. Ian would have to start treading water before Barley, given the slight height difference. That would give Barley a little less time struggling to keep his head above water, and as tired both brothers are, they didn't want to exhaust themselves.
"Wait a second," Ian then says. He takes a deep breath and dives under to look at his brother's chain. It was much stronger than his, but it was shorter than his by a foot. This meant Barley would be dragged down sooner than Ian.
When Ian returned to the surface and gasped for air, the water was starting to reach his neck. "What were you looking for?" Barley asked. "Your chain is so much shorter than mine, you won't have much time to breathe." "It's...it's fine, I'm sure we'll find a way out by then." "How do you know, Barley?" the younger elf asks, a stressful tone entering his voice. "There's no doors or windows, or at least the only door in here is one that can't be found easily. Even if we got out of the chains we'd still be dead..."
The water is now to the brothers' chins. Ian suddenly coughs out a bit of water that splashed into his mouth and instinctively starts to tread water. Barley cranes his head up so he can breathe easier until he starts treading water himself.
Barley can't find any reassuring words for his brother. He knows, deep down, that they are royally screwed. But he doesn't want to lose hope, and he doesn't want Ian to lose hope. Ever since his father died he's tried so hard to be strong for Ian, and he never cries or acts panicked in front of him. But today was different. It really feels like these are the last breaths they'll be taking, the last words they'll be speaking, the last time they'd see each other. It took a lot for the newly 20-year-old to not start tearing up, as the thought of him losing his brother made his heart shatter into a million pieces. Both of them couldn't do anything more than yank at the chains and hope for the best. There's no way out of the chamber. They are completely and utterly powerless. And it's the last way either of them wanted to go out. But it is what it is, and the elves need to do what they can.
It was getting harder for Iandore to keep himself together. He'd tried to keep calm and diligent alongside his big brother, but as he was treading water and kicking his chained leg even harder to try to break the chain, small inklings of a memory started coming back to him. But this wasn't a good memory. It was a vivid memory of what happened before he and Barley woke up in the cell. All he heard was a scream. The scream, which was Barley's, replayed in his head. Just as Ian heard that his legs stopped kicking and he slipped under the water. He thrashed his hands and used his legs to thrust himself back to the surface with a deep gasp.
"Ian, are you okay?" Barley asks with concern as his little brother coughs up water in between deep breaths. "Barley, I...cough...I can't lose you...cough..." Tears start pooling in Ian's brown eyes.
Barley couldn't bear to see his brother suffer like this...whoever is responsible for this will pay.
The older elf takes a deep breath to sink under, and he angrily starts yanking at both chains, doing anything he could to break them.
"Barley...Barley, that's not going to help..." Ian croaks as if he could hear him. He has the urge to swim under and stop him, but nothing would stop Barley Lightfoot. Not even his own brother.
He does it anyway. Ian swims under and tries to tell him it wouldn't work. Barley ignores his signals and keeps yanking away, doing all kinds of things to the chains to see what works. When he thinks he's gathered up enough strength to break his chain, he starts pulling it as hard as he possibly can, while many bubbles escape from out of his mouth and nostrils. Realizing he's run out of air, he swims back to the surface, gasping loudly and standing on the tip of his toes, trying to conserve his energy. Ian surfaces next to him and finally tells him "Barley, it's not going to work, we're dead."
"It will. I KNOW it will. Anything, ANYTHING at this point will help. We're NOT going to die, Iandore, YOU HEAR ME?" Barley's voice erupts. He inches closer to Ian and turns him to face him directly. "Ian, we're going to make it out of this alive. You're NOT gonna die on me, and I'm not gonna die on you..." Barley's voice breaks as tears start falling down his own face. "I mean...I'd die for you, but you better not die on me."
He holds his brother close as tears flow down his face like a waterfall. Ian does the same as he continues to wipe tears from his face. Barley cranes his head downward only to accidentally breathe in a small bit of water, and now he was treading water.
He was already feeling the effects of the shorter chain compared to his brother's. Ian could still swim perfectly fine with the chain at this moment, but Barley was already having to keep his head up. The chain was pulling him down, and he didn't have much time left.
"Barley...I'm going down with you..." Ian says, holding onto Barley tighter. "No, Ian, no, don't do that, you need to breathe," Barley snaps. "So do you," the younger elf says back. "But I'm not going to stay up here and get more air than you while you don't get any. I'm not gonna let you suffer like this." "Ian, please, you don't have to- cough..."
The water continues to rise and Ian doesn't let go.
"I love you bro...so much..." the older elf says as the water pools around his face looking up at the ceiling. Ian sinks down to his level and still doesn't let go. "I love you too..." Ian says, his voice breaking again.
The elves take their final deep breath before sinking under the water together.
The two brothers look into each other's eyes. Both of them can hold their breath for at least 2 minutes, and those minutes would feel much slower as they are submerged underwater, nearing their deaths. Ian was confident that if Barley went, he'd go too. Barley didn't want Ian to go. At all. The thought of it pains him. But here he is, holding onto him and giving up his last breaths of air so he could die by his side. Barley doesn't want him to do this. He loves him too much.
He grabs Ian and pushes him up towards the surface. Ian tries to fight back, but Barley's push was strong. When Ian got back to the surface, he knew his brother didn't want him to come back down. He wanted to try to save him so badly...but Barley wants him to breathe longer.
Barley watches Ian's legs kicking from underwater, and notices that the chain's about to start dragging him down as well. He didn't have much time left, but he wanted to see if there was one final thing he could do to free him and Ian. If only he had something on him...
Of course.
How could've he not remembered?
You've gotta use what you've got.
Barley quickly takes off one of his pins. He folds the needle as far back as he possibly could, then starts trying to pick his lock with the pin. He ends up successfully unlocking it, and happily throws off his chain.
On the surface, Ian crosses his fingers in hopes Barley can get themselves out of all this. That's when he feels the chains being taken off his leg, and after that, his brother returns to the surface with a gasp.
The elves laugh and cheer as they have finally been released from the chains. "Oh my gods, Barley...how did you do it?" Ian asks. "With this." Barley holds up the pin he used to unlock the chains. "Wow..."
"...Now what?" Ian asks.
"I guess we have to swim around and see if we can find a lever for a door," Barley answers. "There has to be some way out of here, how else could've they thrown us in here?" "Maybe it can only be accessed from the outside," Ian suggests. "I guess we'll find out."
The ceiling in the cell wasn't too high, but not too low either. The water had already risen a little over 3 quarters to the ceiling, and the brothers still had some air to come up for while searching for a way out. Ian took yet another deep breath and dove under to see if he could find any secret way out of this cell, while Barley stayed on the surface to try and find something on the ceiling.
Ian swam towards the walls and began pushing on random bricks hoping one of them would trigger a door to open. No luck. He swam to another side. Still no luck. The other two sides? Absolutely nothing.
Barley ended up swimming under to do the same but on the ground. He couldn't find a switch on the ceiling and he still can't on the ground.
Ian swam up for air. His head was only getting closer to touching the ceiling, and his hope started dwindling even more. His brother was such a determined elf, doing everything in his power to get themselves out of situations like this. We'll find a way, Ian. You can do this. I believe this can work. We're NOT going to die, Iandore, do you hear me?
He floats there and wonders. He thinks about what will happen after he and Barley die, what they'll miss out on, how everyone else would find out they died, what they left behind.
He dives back under and joins his brother in pushing on the bricks.
He thinks about his last day of school before this happened. It was yesterday, Friday, September 3rd. It wasn't too different from any other day except for the fact that he and Sadalia held hands. Well, accidentally, but the blushes and the giggle Sadalia gave after were enough to tell Ian that she definitely had feelings for him back.
He thinks about the last time he walked out of the house before going on his final quest. He gave his mother a hug, said goodbye to his stepfather, and was nearly tripped by his pet dragon. As if it were any other day.
He thinks about the legacy he'll leave. He'll die just barely one year after he defeated the stone dragon and became known for bringing back magic. He wishes he could've lived longer. He wanted to have kids. He wanted those kids to carry on his legacy. He wanted to live a good long life knowing he's lived up to the legacy of his father.
Not to mention what Barley would be thinking. He wanted to start college, start fresh, maybe meet the love of his life, start a family himself.
But that's not happening.
The torch that has been burning inside of them will be suddenly put out, just like that...
Wait.
Torch.
Ian blinks once...and all of a sudden he could only see darkness. He hadn't died...he still hears the ambiance of underwater and the water rushing in from the holes. But he couldn't see anything. It was pitch black. No.
He swims up and gasps for air, and his head bumps the ceiling. No.
Not now.
He doesn't want to go now.
He hears his brother surface on the other side of the room.
"Ian? Ian? Where are you, man? Did you come up?"
"Yes! Yes! Oh, my gods..."
Ian starts swimming in the direction where he heard Barley's voice. Barley had started swimming in Ian's direction, and they ended up bumping into each other. Barley's hand had accidentally touched Ian's cheek and Ian accidentally touched Barley's mouth. But the two knew they were now in front of each other, regardless if they could see or not.
As their eyes adjust to the darkness, Ian slightly sees the pins and patches on Barley's vest and Barley can make out Ian's (although soaked and drooping) mop of curly hair.
"I'm so glad we've made it this far, bro..." Barley tells his brother. "We got out of the chains and were able to at least see each other for a little while longer..."
The older elf had finally accepted his fate, after fighting all the way through. Now both elves are facing towards the ceiling, the water carrying them up in the pitch darkness.
This was it.
Barley feels for Ian's shoulders, and tells him "I couldn't have asked for a better little brother."
A trembling smile appears on Ian's face. "And I couldn't have asked for a better big brother."
It was strangely peaceful, those last seconds on the surface.
The water sloshing and splashing near their heads, the sounds of the brothers preparing for their final deep breath while sharing their last words.
"I love you..." Barley says to Ian one last time, as their noses were touching the ceiling.
"I love you too..."
Then they each took the deepest breath they'd ever taken in their lives, and sunk down after the water submerged the entire room.
They would then go out in ambiance and darkness together.
Ian didn't know the last few minutes of his life would be this peaceful.
But he knew that he would eventually drown, breathing in all that water and trying to puke it all up at the same time, underwater. A horrific, painful, but quiet death. And the same would happen to his brother.
He'll never forget nearly drowning in his pool when he was 6.
He accidentally fell in when no one was watching, and Barley came to his rescue.
He'd coughed up tons of water, but never went unconscious. And after that, he was terrified of water and didn't want to go anywhere near it.
But Barley was determined to eliminate Ian's fear. It took a lot of convincing, but eventually, he got to teach Ian to swim. And his fear was gone after that.
Throughout his life, his brother was always there to guide him towards the light-
Light.
Ian sees light.
A small speck of light, on the other side of the room.
He starts to swim towards the light, hoping he wasn't just seeing things.
But it gets closer.
And closer.
And it's there.
A small crack between two bricks, bringing in a speck of warm light, possibly from a torch in the next room. The people running this operation clearly didn't realize a small leak was in the walls...
Ian immediately begins pushing the bricks as hard as he possibly can.
That's when his lungs began screaming at him.
He was about to lose air, and his chance to escape with Barley.
But he was not going to give up.
He inched his fingers between the crack and pulled.
And holy tooth of Zadar...one of the bricks moved.
He pulled harder and harder...and the brick fell out of place. He could slightly see his own powder blue hands and the sleeves of his flannel again. Water had started flowing out.
He kept pulling out more and more bricks until the wall collapsed.
And suddenly...he was pulled out of the chamber and into a long, wide hallway, with his brother behind him. Water rushed through the hall, seeping away to where Ian could see the stone ground clearly again, with water in between the cracks.
He was free. And Barley was free.
Ian looked up from the ground and let out a deep gasp, then heavily coughed out excess water.
After panting and catching his breath, the elf lets out a cry of victory.
"YES! Haha, oh, we made it Barley!"
"...Barley?"
He turns around to see Barley lying face down, unconscious.
Did he...no.
"BARLEY!" he shouts.
Ian turns the limp, lifeless elf on his back. He checks his pulse. Nothing.
He listens for his heartbeat. Nothing.
He's not breathing.
"Barley...come on man...please don't go..." the wizard says, his voice trembling again.
He gets on his knees, places both his hands on Barley's chest, and begins doing compressions. He pushed so hard that he could nearly break his ribs. He then pinches his nose, opens his mouth, and gives him air. Tears fall onto Barley's shirt as Ian continues doing the chest compressions.
"Don't leave me...you're a fighter, I know you can come back..."
He gives him another breath.
One last round of chest compressions.
"Barley...please..."
He'd finished with the procedure.
And his brother still hasn't woken up.
"Barley, PLEASE!" Ian repeats, grabbing his shoulders.
No response.
The younger elf breaks down and cries on his brother's chest.
"Why did this happen...who did this..." he mutters over his heavy crying.
What was he going to do now?
His brother was gone.
He didn't know where he was, everything had been taken from him.
He was alone.
Powerless.
Afraid.
Pathetic.
He just wanted to curl up and cry forever.
That's when Ian's head is bumped by Barley's chest jumping.
He sees Barley coughing and choking on water, puking it all out onto the ground. After that, he takes in a big gulp of air and catches his breath while giving his little brother a big hug.
Ian's sorrowful cries turn into relieved chuckles.
"We made it, Barley..." Ian says.
"I knew we'd make it out alive," Barley says. "You were so brave back there Ian. So brave...and you saved my life."
The two brothers share a hug. The brotherly bond they share brings them warmth, through their dripping hair and wet clothes that stick to their skin.
"Did you find the right bricks to push or something?" Barley asks. "Well, yeah. I found a crack and just pushed on those bricks until one fell out," Ian answers.
Ian finds a button on the wall in the distance. So there was only one way in the cell.
"Ok, so...what do we do now?" Ian asks as both of them stand up. "I...quite literally have no idea."
Barley feels his pockets. "They took Gwinny's keys...and maybe Gwinny herself. And you need to get your staff back. We need to look for the people who took us here and give them what they deserve."
When the brothers begin to make their trek to the front of the chamber, a chilling voice from behind them makes them stop in their tracks.
"Well, would you look at that? You two actually made it."
The elves shakily turn around to see a tall, greasy troll standing behind them. The cuffs of his ripped jeans and his shoes were soaked, leaving the elves to think that he'd noticed the water leaking out and was lead here to see that they survived.
"Not gonna talk, eh?"
"Oh, we're gonna talk, alright," Barley snaps. "And I'm not gonna use my words."
Barley starts approaching him, and when he raises his fist, the troll grabs his arm tightly and starts trying to twist it.
"BARLEY!-" Ian yells. He tries to run over to him, but he is pulled into a chokehold from a cyclops behind him.
"Thought you were gonna get away from us? Gee, you guys sure do seem empty-handed right now! I wonder what else we can do with you two..."
All the fear and worry that had been piling up within Ian's body had started to evolve into unadulterated, boiling rage. He'd had enough of this. This was going to be his last quest with his brother for a very long time. He wanted to end on a high note. He was not going to let them get away with this.
The wizard uses all his physical strength and built up rage to break out of the chokehold. Right after escaping, he then tackles the cyclops onto his back.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY STAFF?" he shouts into his face.
The cyclops chuckles. "You're gonna have to ask Galen," he snickers, pointing at the troll behind him.
Galen drops Barley on the ground and snatches Ian by the collar of his flannel. Holding him up in the air, he taunts "Oh look, it's the famous wizard. Seems like he isn't so powerful without his staff, huh, Tade?" The two kidnappers chuckle.
Barley sits on the ground rubbing his arm and angrily staring at Galen and Tade. Ian was thrashing and flinging in the air, trying to get out of Galen's hold.
"He can't defeat a dragon like this! Imagine if we took his brother away, then he'd be truly defenseless. He can't do anything without that joke of an older brother."
That line is what set the older elf off.
He immediately gets off from the ground and snatches Ian away from them.
"What do you guys want from us? What is your problem?" Barley snaps.
"We've been waiting to get our hands on you guys since your little wiz bro 'brought back magic'," Tade answers. "And now that you have finally crossed our paths, you guys are with us now."
"You two understand what danger magic proposes to the realm?" Galen starts. "We put it down because we knew better. We found convenient ways to do things, and put that stuff in the past. And suddenly you come in with your dragon and quest shenanigans, bringing inbalance to the world."
"And you know what?" Tade says, leaning toward Barley. "Now that we think about it...we'll let you go. Your little brother on the other hand..."
Galen picks Ian up once again by the collar and pulls him onto the wall.
"...he's found a new home."
The troll uses one arm to hold the elf in place, then takes a knife out of his pocket and starts holding it towards Ian's neck.
Tears pour out of the wizard's eyes as he shivers while being pinned to the wall. He knows he's about to die. He knows his life is about to suddenly end so soon...
"I've waited so long to do this..."
"DON'T YOU KILL MY BROTHER!"
The burly elf runs and jumps onto Galen, causing him to drop his knife. Tade grabs Barley and shoves his face down on the floor. Barley looks up from the ground and notices blood trailing and dripping from his nose.
He wipes the blood with his arm and looks up to see that Galen and Ian were scuffling again. Ian had managed to grab the knife and both were fighting over it.
"You...are NOT...going to get away with this!" Ian grunts as he tries to get away from the scuffle. But Galen wouldn't let go of his arm, and he was just too strong. Galen eventually got a hold of the knife and slit Ian's cheek, causing him to shriek in pain and plow onto the ground with his hand on his face.
"IAN!" Barley yells as he runs over to check on him. Blood runs and drips down Ian's
Barley looks at the kidnappers in boiling anger at what they've done to his brother. He quickly stands up and punches both of them in the face before they could do anything. Both Galen and Tade fall back on the ground, temporarily stunned.
"Alright, let's get outta here."
The elves ran down the hallway on one side, and it dead-ended with no other doors. They ran down the other side and saw two other wooden doors on each side, and they compulsively chose the left one.
Behind that door was a dimly lit room with torture equipment, which made Ian shudder. He's glad that they never took him and Barley in that room, as their deaths would've been more quick, painful, and harder to escape. At least none of the equipment was bloodied, as that would've worsened his already upset stomach.
They quickly scan the room and don't see any signs of a staff or a set of keys. Barley shuts the door and opens the other one to see a set of stairs.
"GET BACK HERE!" erupts Tade. The brothers turn to see Galen and Tade getting up.
"Run, RUN!" Ian yells. They run up the stairs and are led to what they assume to be the entrance. And lo and behold, on the other side of the room leans his staff and the keys to the van. Both of them bolt over to their things and retrieve them just before the kidnappers could make it up the stairs.
"We're still not done with you two yet!" Tade snickers. They run towards the brothers when Ian yells "Boombastia!"
A large flash of fireworks emit from the staff and blasts Galen and Tade back on the ground, stunning them even worse.
"Great job, young sorcerer!" Barley applauds. "Now let's RUN."
The brothers bolt out of the door and are back in the field. Barley's van Guinevere II is parked right near the hideout, thankfully unscathed.
"And only just a few scratches," the older elf says as the two of them pile into the van. He tries to start up the rickety old orange van when he looks up and sees the goons starting to head out of the shack.
"Come on, Guinevere!" Barley hollers as the van slowly starts up. Like a miracle, it starts up just in time, and he shifts the gear into "O" for "onward" and floors the gas pedal.
The dust created by the wheels skidding through the field blinds Galen and Tade, causing them to lose sight of the elves.
"WOO-HOO! Oh man, we've made it! We really made it!" Barley cheers, punching the roof of the van.
"Do you even know where we are?" Ian asks. "We've still got our map right here, we should still be able to get back on track," Barley answers. "But we should probably get something to help with that nasty cut on your cheek. You wouldn't want that getting infected."
Ian feels the dried blood that's still on his face. "Oh gods, it still stings..."
"I bet it does, they got you good," the older elf adds as he gets back onto a paved road. "We're lucky we were able to get away as fast as we did."
Ian looks out the window at the fields and mountains in the distance. "We really did it," he repeats.
The wizard waits in the car and watches the sunset. Not too far away from the shack was a minuscule little town that goes by the name of Lingmell, and there were only a few stores on the main street. One of them was a drugstore, and the brothers took a pitstop to grab more snacks and something for Ian's cheek.
"Alright, this will probably help..." Barley says as he heads back in the van. He takes the bottle of hydrogen peroxide out of the plastic bag and dumps some of it onto a rag. He puts it on his brother's cheek.
"Oww..." Ian cringes when the rag is first put on his cheek. "Don't worry, it's just trying to help heal it..."
The younger elf holds the rag on his cheek and sighs. "It's going to be hard to sleep tonight..." he says.
"...I know..." Barley adds. "I was pretty shaken up by that too."
The elves watch the two moons slowly rise into the sky.
"...But think about how we're still alive. We got through all of that together. This final quest has really tested us, and it reminded me of how strong you truly are," he says, putting his arm around his little brother. "Nothing has ever stopped you."
"You helped a lot too," Ian says. "You picked the locks on our chains and snatched me away from those guys."
"But you did so much as well. You were able to push on those bricks and break us out of the trap, you used that spell on them so we could escape, you saved my life..." the burly elf says. "You handled it all so well."
The brothers share one final hug until Barley starts back on the road.
"Now...onward to the Elvish Emerald!"
HOO BOY, what a rollercoaster of a story this was to write! it honestly hurt so much writing some parts of this ngl. it's rare when i actually go through and finish stories like this (i know crazy) but look at me, i did it. i managed to conclude an onward story before soul came out. amazing. my 18 y/o neurodivergent brain is thriving rn. anyways, onward belongs to disney/pixar and dan scanlon!
the fates of the kidnapper goons will be explored in a one shot I plan to write about barley leaving for college.