Webber's POV
The bitter cold of winter seemed far away now. The muffled chirps of snowy blue birds that lived in the barren landscape were the only thing that broken the uncomfortable silence.
Well, that and the sound of the fire crackling nearby. It was strange how much the sound came as a relief to us. It didn't even occur to us before that we didn't have any hope to hear it again. Gradually, our senses returned, and we became acutely aware of how, despite the heat that was heavy in our fur, there was an underlying chill we could not shake off. We stretched, uncurling from the ball we didn't know we had curled into. Wilson, disturbed by the movement, glanced down at us and smiled. We instantly felt our cheeks flush with embarrassment, but the fact that we had essentially cuddled up to him all night for warmth was not brought up at all. A moment of silence passed before he turned back to the fire. We stifled a sneeze and blinked up at him, even though he wasn't looking at us anymore. Finally, we couldn't hold it in anymore and sneezed anyway, a small and childish sound which definitely did not help our pride in this situation at all.
"You just can't keep yourself out of trouble, can you?" Wilson chuckled. "I've never know anyone more prone to the elements than you are."
We looked away, burning with shame.
"It's... not hypothermia, right?"
He shrugged. "I'm pretty sure you just got a cold. Which isn't surprising, considering you were soaking wet in the middle of winter away from the sun for who-knows-how-long. What did you even do to get so wet? Take a swim?"
"That's... closer to the truth than you'd probably think," I admitted ruefully.
He quickly gave us an alarmed look.
"We were pushed," I added quickly, not wanting to seem even stupider than we already did. "by a shadow." Should've left that out...
Instead of laughing or making fun of us for believing a shadow could do such a thing, a deep frown replaced his smile. He opened his mouth to say something when one of the frozen bushes crackled and WX pushed his way out of the undergrowth, wearing a similar stern expression. "WE WEREN'T FOLLOWED," he said. He looked a bit worse for wear but considering the circumstances, it could've have ended much worse. For any of us.
Wilson nodded, his gaze remote for a moment before clearing. "I saw a shadow," he murmured after a moment.
WX scoffed as he sat beside the fire.
"It wasn't an ordinary shadow though. It..." he took a deep breath. "It talked to me."
WX perked up at this, as did we. "WHAT DID IT SAY?" WX pressed warily.
Wilson looked back at the fire. "It's... probably nothing. Just imagining stuff..."
An uncomfortable silence settled over us. We took a deep breath- making a sniffing sound due to congestion from the cold- and sat up a little straighter, bringing our knees to our face and resting our chin on them. "I saw my spider," I said after a minute. Two shocked gazes turned on us, and we shrank in our own fur.
WX tore his gaze away and concentrated on the fire as though some secret message was written in it. "I... I SAW MY CREATOR," he murmured in a tired tone. We were almost certain we didn't imagine the quiver in his voice.
"Okay, wow, I thought my vision was the craziest. What are you talking about, seeing your spider? Like, the one that supposedly ate you?"
We nodded miserably.
"I ASSUME THIS MEANS WE ALL SAW THE SAME THING, EXCEPT BEING HAUNTED BY OUR WORST NIGHTMARES," WX said breezily. How horrible must that be? Being afraid of your only parent? We couldn't... we couldn't bear to hate our parents...
"That was what he told me," I confirmed. "The... seeing the same thing part..."
"So is that what we're supposed to do? Kill the abomination that is the Bearger?" Wilson tipped his head.
"The Bearger? No, we saw..." our voice faltered. "the tooth of the Dragonfly and the horn of the Ancient Guardian..."
There was a pause, before WX added his own. "EGG OF THE MOOSE AND EYE OF THE DEERCLOPS."
Wilson groaned and put his head in his hands. "Are you serious? We have to kill all five?"
"We couldn't even take on the Deerclops..." We hunched our shoulders sadly. "Guess that means we're stuck here..."
"Don't be that way! We can do this!" Wilson looked from us to WX, then back again. His determined expression fell slightly. "Guys?"
"IT'S A SUICIDE MISSION," WX pointed out.
"It's not something we have to do right now." Wilson protested. "We all just got done with a pretty big scare... but we gotta know if we're going to try or not."
"Why would we? It's suicide either way."
"Maybe? But at least if we go for this it's suicide with a purpose."
"I WOULDN'T MIND NOT HAVING TO ENDURE ONE OF THESE STUPID WINTERS AGAIN," WX murmured thoughtfully. He motioned towards us. "HE PROBABLY WON'T EVEN LAST UNTIL THE END OF THIS ONE."
We scowled, and judging by the look on Wilson's face, he agreed with WX. "We're stronger than you think we are."
"TREE GUARD, INSANITY, NEARLY FREEZING TO DEATH..."
"Alright, alright, we get it. But we're still alive, aren't we?"
"BECAUSE WE'RE PULLING YOUR WEIGHT. DIDN'T YOUR TIME ALONE TEACH YOU THAT?" A spark of tension shot between us as we bunched our muscles, preparing to finish his beating.
"That's enough!" Wilson snapped. "The last thing we need is for you guys to fight again or science forbid break us apart again."
We growled softly but sat back again, our claws itching to wipe that smug grin off of WX's face.
Wilson pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "So are we going to do this or not? Do you guys want to take our chances against the world or do you guys want to take out these beasts?"
There was a pause as we considered the options. "I think we should go for the giants."
"I THINK YOU'RE BOTH NUTS," WX grumbled.
Wilson looked between us and sighed again. "I have to be the tiebreaker, don't I? Alright." He flipped his book over- which he had previously beside him- and flipped through its pages. He stopped on the Moose. "Since we've already run into the Deerclops this winter, I don't think we will again. This is our best bet for the first giant. We need to separate her from her nest before we fight her."
"IT'S THE EGG WE NEED," WX pointed out.
"Yeah, but I don't want to fight her and the moslings at the same time." He paused as though waiting for another question to be asked, but when none was he nodded once and went on: "She's the spring giant, but it's fairly easy to find the remnants of her nest during the other seasons." He snapped the book shut and stood again, tucking it away under his arm. "So let's go find that nest."
"...now?"
"Now."
We growled softly as we forced ourself to stand. Now us and Wilson stood over WX, who leaned back and made a motion that looked oddly like he'd be rolling his eyes if he had any. "NEITHER OF YOU WILL EVER UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I HATE YOU," he muttered as he stood up as well.
"Great!" Wilson exclaimed as though WX hadn't said anything. "All three of us! Back together again! Beating the elements and soon to be beating the giants!" He turned on his heel and hummed quietly as he marched towards the savanna.
We smiled, angling our face downward so they couldn't see or hear as we hummed along to the familiar tune. The blizzard had died sometime before we woke up again, but the snowdrifts left over from it were well over our head. Where it wasn't a snowdrift, it went about as high as our knees. We dropped behind a little, due to being the smallest of the group, but we took it to our advantage. As soon as we knew we were out of their peripheral vision, we slowly grabbed a handful of the snow, which crunched and compacted satisfyingly under our grip. We spent a few more seconds rolling it in our hands a few times before throwing it at Wilson and diving beneath the snow before he could catch us, hyper-aware that our black fur would stand out against the snow like a sore thumb but for once not caring.
Wilson jumped at the impact of the snowball and turned quickly as though expecting something terrible to be there. "Webber!" He exclaimed, sounding actually a bit shocked. We peeked over our little hiding place only to get hit in the forehead with a similar snowball. We fell back dramatically, trying hide our laughter under a fit of sneezing. "Has anyone ever told you that you sneeze like a kitten!?" He teased.
"We'll show you who sneezes like a kitten!" We lunged forward and threw a handful of loose snow over his head. He quickly stepped back and sneezed as well due to the snowflakes.
"ENOUGH FOOLING AROUND," WX, who had stopped to watch the miniature snowball fight, said sternly. "WE HAVE ACTUAL WORK TO DO."
Wilson simply looked at him for a second before throwing the snowball he had prepared at him.
WX backed away a little, trying to brush the sticky snow off of his chest.
It's amazing how something as little as snow can make us feel... myself again...
We playfully tackled the robot, not any real force behind the action but enough to send him down. Anger flashed in his eyeless gaze and he kicked us away, driving the air from our lungs as he kicked our stomach to send us off of him. We hit the ground on our side, not actually getting hurt but getting the breath knocked out instead. We looked up, our eyes wide with shock at the sudden change of atmosphere. His 'eyes' were wide too as he shakily forced himself to his feet again. "DON'T. DO. THAT." He growled.
We looked down and nodded, not wanting to get into a fight after feeling like a child like that again.
Beneath us was a smudge of blood.
We took a sharp breath and jumped back. Did he actually hurt us?
It wasn't on our fur though, and we weren't hurt as far as we could tell...
Wilson frowned and made his way through the snow to look at it. He hesitated, then carefully dug around it. Our heart began to slow as his digging revealed that it was not blood, but it was the color of blood.
He pulled the object away from the snow and brushed remaining flakes off of it, turning it over in his hands a few times. "What... is this thing?"
"SMART. FIND A WEIRD THING IN THE SNOW AND PICK IT UP. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT BEING OUT HERE THIS LONG TAUGHT US," WX huffed, his arms crossed.
It appeared to be a small bone with tiny horns coming out of the red bulb on top. The red bulb rested on a patch of brownish fur. He shrugged and made a motion to throw it away.
The bulb suddenly parted in half to reveal an eye.
"YOU IDIOT!" WX shouted before he seemed to be able to stop himself. At the same time, Wilson threw it as hard as he could. All three of us held our breath, paralyzed in fear of what Wilson may or may not have summoned.
We're gonna die, aren't we?
We quickly glanced to the side as footsteps crunched in the snow. We were the first to hear it due to our superior hearing, but soon they turned too.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
The creature made itself shown.
Our first reaction was fear, but it was quickly shoved down. It bounced above the snow, its orange skin standing out against the snow just as bad as our fur did. Two white horns protruded out of its head, and four, sturdy, red legs were keeping its body just below the snow's top.
There was a moment of awkward silence as we tried to figure out if we had to be scared of this creature or not. It was still as well, a pink tongue rolling out of its mouth as it panted like a dog. It licked its chops, looking around (although it could barely be considered that due to its apparent lack of eyes) before stopping, facing the bone. It bounced over to it and picked it up in its mouth, before bounding to Wilson's feet and dropping it.
"Is it... hostile?"
Wilson seemed lost for words as he picked up the eye bone. "I... I think it's a friend..."
"Have you seen it in your book?"
"I... have no idea..."
More silence.
"Can... can we keep it? We've always wanted a dog."
"NO!"
"I... don't see why not if it's not hostile..."
"ARE YOU BOTH IDIOTS?"
"Probably," I snickered, bending over the creature and patting its head. It panted with joy and licked our hand.
"Don't worry," Wilson scoffed. "I'll make sure he's not some sort of vicious creature. Just in case, though, don't get too attached to him, Webber."
"We won't!" I lied as the creature tackled us in into the snow. A spark of warmth lit in our chest. It's been a long time since we've been able to laugh like this.
We sighed happily, hugging the creature we just met.
It's been a long time...