"Hello, my friend. It has been awhile, has it not?"
Tiled floors cooled the skin beneath his thin layer of fur. Immediately, terror spiked through his chest as he scrabbled to a standing position, finding himself in front of the one person he wished he would never see again. Fur immediately bristled, standing on end as his shoulders stiffened with a kind of anger he hadn't felt in years.
"Nightmare!" He snarled, lurching forward as if to attack the creature, even though he knew full well that he could never harm it. Nightmare chuckled softly, its form unnaturally shifting between its current host and something unsteadily something else. Charlie was not present for this conversation, something that he was not surprised with. The demon raised a single hand, immediately summoning chains from the floor to bind him to the spot. He coiled his body inward, preparing himself for when Nightmare came within clawing distance. "What do you want?" He snarled.
"It's always a pleasure to see you too, Wilbur," Nightmare purred. "I'm surprised that you're so willing to lash out. I had figured you had grown out of that by now."
"Sorry to tell you, but I'm set in my ways."
"Ah, as I should have expected." It wreathed closer, cool skin gently making contact with the top of Wilbur's head as it rested a hand on him. Wilbur tried to bite at him, but another length of chain burst from the ground and pulled him forcibly down to the ground by his neck. His teeth clacked together loudly. As soon as Wilbur was thoroughly trapped, Nightmare began to run its fingers through his fur, almost as if petting him. Wilbur growled at him, tail lashing, but he was helpless. "Still caught up on the past, are we?"
"You think I would just forgive you?" Wilbur laughed incredulously. "After everything you did? After you-" He swallowed what felt like pure gravel as he spat out the words. "After you killed Roselyn and left Elizabeth to die?" Nightmare's hand touched his head again, and Wilbur instinctively lurched to snap at it, even though he knew very well that he was stuck.
"Oh, Wilbur, you misunderstand I believe. Elizabeth is still alive."
"Go to Hell."
"You think I am lying to you?"
Wilbur said nothing. He kept his teeth bared, though, just so Nightmare knew that he had fangs that he wasn't afraid to use. He didn't even allow the flutter of hope any time to flicker in his chest. To believe a word out of Nightmare's mouth was to put yourself in the path of the beast. The demon tutted, shaking its head.
"At the moment, she is alive and safe. The leader of her troop, in case you didn't know. Just as ferociously strong as her mother, with a heart as big as well. She doesn't seem to have much of your personality, but I think you'd be glad to hear that."
"Shut up," Wilbur hissed through gritted teeth. He squeezed his eyes shut.
"Just as good at taking down dragoons as her as well. Honestly, it's surprising just how special she is. It would be such a shame if something happened to her, right?"
"Shut up!" He roared. Wilbur struggled against his binds, hissing and snarling all the while. "Keep your dirty hands off of her!"
"I have no intention of hurting the little princess." Nightmare sounded almost offended, but the sharp-toothed grin that was painted on its face betrayed its true intention. "Unless, of course, you choose not to comply."
"Go to Hell!" Wilbur shouted again. "Don't you dare threaten her!"
"I don't know how you think you could stop me if I was going to do anything. Besides, I'm just here for a trade, your highness."
Wilbur knew more than anything that Nightmare could do whatever it wanted. That didn't stop him from struggling, once again, to splatter the creature across the clean tile floors.
"You won't even hear me out? Come on, Wilbur, we used to be good friends, didn't we? What happened to those days? Surely there is more to worry about these days from some random fling from years ago."
In response, Wilbur spat out a string of curses and slurs, from every single language that he knew.
"So, here is your choice. Really, it should be quite an easy one since you still seem to care so much about your progeny." Nightmare raised a claw to tap at its chin, a thoughtful glint in its eye. "You see, there has been this... thorn in my side. All I need is for you to take care of it for me, and you won't have to worry about any... punishment coming your daughter's way."
Wilbur went very still. Then, he let out a harsh, vicious laugh. "Tyler, right?"
"You catch on very quickly, Wilbur. I had almost forgotten that about you."
"He's the Young Heir. Of course you would want him dead. He's a threat to you."
"He has shown himself to be... resilient. All of my attempts have failed previously. So, I ask assistance from my most reliable companion again. Surely you can handle him?"
Wilbur spit at him. "Up yours."
"You seem to be forgetting the terms of our deal, then." Nightmare let out a long sigh, as if Wilbur was inconveniencing it. "I'm asking you to choose between him... and your precious daughter."
It spread its arms, an eerie, spectral orb appearing in front of its chest. It gently nudged it down until Wilbur was able to see it from his prone position. The prime ape nearly choked on his own breath as he saw the image of a starlit night, with a sandy-furred female prime ape fast asleep in the center of a troop. His heart stopped for a moment, unable to believe just how much she resembled her mother. He couldn't move his hands due to his positioning, but he craned his neck upwards until his nose nearly touched it. "She's gotten so big," he said softly, a single tear rising in his eyes before being quickly absorbed into his fur.
"It should be an easy trade, really." Nightmare waved its hands, and suddenly, Wilbur's shackles were gone. He dragged himself into a standing position, limbs protesting as he did so. He tentatively reached a hand out, gingerly touching the orb in front of him. The image of the prime ape wavered under his touch, and his ears were suddenly assaulted with voices. He couldn't make out their words, but he was filled with emotion all the same. Crippling pain, grief, fear, sadness, and most of all, guilt.
As soon as he heard them, Nightmare swiped the orb away, throwing it far out of his reach. His hand hovered in the air for a long moment. An experimental dab to his face brought tears.
"Is there another way?" Wilbur asked softly. His voice shook so hard, and he had to swallow back tears just to finish his sentence. "One that doesn't... involve killing?"
"You know my wish. I will not barter with you, monkey."
Wilbur lowered his hand. "I'll think about it. Okay? How does that sound?"
Nightmare huffed, clearly annoyed. "Fine then. But choose quickly, monkey. I expect to know your answer tomorrow night."
With those parting words, Wilbur awoke with a jerk, to the sound of Tyler waking from the throes of a violent nightmare.
He talked with the boy for awhile, quickly cracking down his defenses once more until something impossibly tender was left. Tyler wanted him to join him back to the mainland, but the thought of leaving the archipelago behind was something that Wilbur couldn't deal with. Instead, he followed his heart, and presented the boy with a necklace.
The very same necklace that once belonged to his mate.
…
Wilbur lead him along the beach. They had left the forest behind, mostly because he noticed that Tyler kept jumping at every strange noise and cry. He definitely seemed in a much better mood, often breaking up the monotony of walking with anecdotes about his life. He had a fairly good idea where the fabled 'portal' to the mainland was; a peculiar machine called the Seaworthy. He had never used it himself, nor had he ever seen it used, but he was still fairly certain that his hunch was correct.
Tyler followed without protest, and Wilbur noticed him slowly building up a collection of seashells. He brought no attention to it since the boy said nothing about it, but he still found himself purposely unearthing ones when he saw them poking from the sand. Then, he would notice that that seashell had joined the rest.
A flash of blue caught Wilbur's attention, and he abruptly stopped, raising his tail to signal Tyler to stop as well. "Are you hungry?"
Tyler opened his mouth, looking very much like he was about to deny, but he hesitated. Then, he nodded. "It's... been awhile since I last ate."
"Well, then," Wilbur said proudly, twitching his tail. "Watch and learn, apprentice."
He knew this island like the back of his hand. This, once upon a time, was Wilbur's hunting grounds before he retreated to the forests. The lumps in the sand were subtle, and impossible to notice if you didn't know what to look for. Luckily for them both, though, he knew exactly what he was looking for. The faint shifting of sand betrayed their location.
"Ready?"
"What?" Tyler asked, startled, seconds before Wilbur dug his hands into the sand, yanking a sky blue crab out of the sand and chucking it at the boy. Tyler's eyes flashed as he snatched the creature out of the air. He twitched his claws as if to break its neck, but seeing as how it didn't have much of a neck to snap, he instead cracked its shell, which immediately killed it anyway. Wilbur blinked, impressed, as Tyler stared down at the blue blood that was now leaking onto his claws.
"Wow, that was impressive! You've got some serious talent for catching things that are thrown at your face."
Tyler seemed surprised himself. "I didn't expect you to just throw it!"
"Well, it turned out well, didn't it? Come on, go get some kindling so we can start a fire. I'm going to assume that you aren't too keen on eating raw crabbit."
Tyler nodded and dropped the creature into the sand before rushing towards a nearby copse of trees. Wilbur smiled to himself, taking up the animal himself and efficiently slicing away its remaining shell, exposing the meat inside. Crabbits weren't very filling, but easy to find and easy to catch assuming you had claws to grip onto their smooth bodies.
He hummed to himself, claws quickly painted in blood as he used them in lieu of a knife.
"You're really good at that!" Tyler exclaimed, making Wilbur jump nearly a foot in the air.
"Jeez kid, do I need to get you a bell? Could you have possibly snuck up on me any quieter?"
"Sorry," he said, sounding not at all sorry. He dropped the sticks and twigs that filled his arms and sat down beside it, working diligently to build a stable beginning to a fire. "Where did you learn how to prepare food like that?" He asked, nodding his head at the cleanly separated crabbit by Wilbur's side.
"Prepared food? No, this is just the product of knowing someone who would nag you to death if you didn't clean an animal perfectly. Prepared would be... hmm." Wilbur hummed thoughtfully, eyes scanning the sandy beachfront. "Aha!" He bounded towards a slight irregularity in the sand, dipping his paws into the loose ground until he touched something under the ground. He produced a single creature from the sand- something similar to a clam but with a much softer shell that he knew would separate if cooked. "Being in the middle of the wilderness, we don't really have many spices, especially not on the beach, but these little guys," he waved the creature in the air, and Tyler's eyes tracked the movement as if genuinely interested. "Are the tastiest things you can find on this island. And when cooked together with crabbit meat?" He touched two fingers to his mouth to imitate kissing them. "I can assume by how scrawny you are that it's been a long time since you had a decent meal."
The boy opened his mouth as if to protest, but he closed it a moment later as if unable to come up with a good protest.
"Uhuh, yeah, thought so. If you can find them, go ahead and bring me some more crabbits. If you see any, uh, dents in the sand that are unnaturally soft, there might be a trivalve in there. Maybe... two crabbits per trivalve would be good? Let's work on getting some meat on your bones again."
Tyler looked confused, but he nodded. "Gotcha." Immediately, he scampered away, likely hunting for the aforementioned creatures.
Wilbur sighed, hoping that the boy would be occupied long enough. Truthfully, it had been awhile since Wilbur had had a good meal himself, and this was a good excuse to put those old skills to use again. He left behind the unlit fire and started back towards the jungle they had come from, where he had seen multiple palm trees. He knew from experience that there was a Tree Guard that lived near there, one that often shed larger-than-average coconuts that would work great to prepare food in.
The tree monster was still deep asleep, no foolish survivors around to cut down trees and attract its anger. He collected the coconuts without issue, emptied them, and filled them with water from a nearby pond, losing himself to the once-familiar process.
"Really, you call that food? That's- that's just insulting!"
"What? It's edible, isn't it? You need to learn to not be a priss about everything if you're going to survive five days on this island. If the elements or hunger doesn't kill you, I will."
Furious sputtering, as if he couldn't believe Wilbur would dare insult him like that. "No! No, no, no, this simply will not do! I refuse! I will make my own meal then."
"Nothing wrong with eating raw crabbit and trivalves. It's very nutritious, really. Almost as much so as whiny humans."
"Come with me, then, and I will show you that you are sorely, painfully, heartbreakingly wrong. You may have survived, but what is even the point if your life is spent consuming this... 'food', if you can even call it that."
"I'm getting pretty good at it, aren't I? Next, they'll have to start calling me The Culinarian, leaving you to be The Monkey King, hahaha!"
"Wilbur, I am offended that you would even dare suggest that your skills could surpass mine! Although... I can't deny that you are improving. I haven't seen you eat a raw crabbit since last week."
"It was sushi."
"It was repulsive!"
Wilbur noticed that he had stopped moving, a few drops sloshing over the sides of the now water-filled coconuts and wetting his fur. He sighed harshly, trying to exhale those interactions along with it. The fates of his old companions didn't traumatize him, but he missed them sometimes.
Tyler was already back by the time Wilbur returned. He jumped to his feet, eyes wide and surprised. "I thought you ditched me!" He protested.
"You wish I would ditch you," Wilbur said in response. "I simply can't have your death on my conscience."
At that, Tyler's faint smile twitched into a frown. Wilbur quickly changed the subject.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Get that fire started. We can't cook food over sticks and sand!" He stuck his tongue out at Tyler, and to his delight, the hybrid followed in turn and blew a raspberry at the ape. "How dare you? The nerve to insult royalty in such a way!"
"Anarchy!" Tyler exclaimed, even as he started the tedious process of getting a fire to light.
Wilbur sat down beside Tyler, admiring the four dead crabbits on the ground next to him. "You caught onto that quickly."
"They don't try very hard to be hidden," Tyler said breezily as the sticks he was rubbing together began to glow with the startings of embers. He found himself impressed with how quickly Tyler had got that to start.
"And the trivalves?"
"Buried themselves." Tyler pouted as he tipped his head slightly to the side, motioning to the newly dug sand beside him. "They didn't get far though."
"You didn't kill them?"
"...that's a good idea."
Wilbur snorted in amusement as he buried his hands in the sand. Sure enough, the offending creatures weren't far beneath the surface, and he was easily able to pull them out. Under Tyler's deft hands, the fire sprung to life, and Wilbur set the water up to boil.
"Show me how you cut up that crabbit so cleanly." Tyler glanced at Wilbur, his eyes sparking with interest.
"Hmm, I don't know. It's a family secret, Tyler." Wilbur put a finger to his lips, which did little to hide his grin. "I don't know if I can trust you with something so important."
"No! You have to share! You can totally trust me!" Tyler widened his eyes as if trying to show his trustworthiness. The light glinted off of the necklace now displayed proudly around his neck, and Wilbur stared at it for a moment.
"Hmm... fine! You shall be the heir to my legacy!"
"They've got me all wrong. I'm not heir to the Nightmare Throne, I'm the heir to your cutting techniques!" Tyler proclaimed.
Wilbur curled his tail around his feet and took up one of the crabbits, beckoning for Tyler to do the same. He clearly was experienced with preparing animals, but his technique was sloppy and, as Wilbur noticed, left some meat behind. Clearly, this boy needed new instruction on preparing an animal- he was obviously self-taught.
Tyler seemed proud of himself on the second crabbit, when his cuts came out smoother and straighter, and almost all of the meat had been sliced from the shell. Then, Wilbur showed him how to prepare the intended food, making his own while instructing Tyler on making the food simmering in the other coconut.
The entire time, though, small thoughts nestled into Wilbur's mind. Nightmare's demands the night before, and how easy they would be to carry out. The fire would be enough to make quick work of anybody without medical care, and it would be incredibly simple to push him in. He could have left out basic instructions on avoiding the toxic pouch on his trivalve, or slipped something into his food to make him choke.
But Wilbur didn't. Instead, he allowed them to have this moment, and when they began walking down the beach again, Tyler now using one of the empty coconuts to hold his growing seashell collection. Wilbur was impossibly glad that he had made his decision.
That night, Wilbur looked Nightmare in the eye, begging his lost mate and missing daughter for forgiveness, and told the demon no. He wouldn't kill Tyler, no matter what the demon threatened. Nightmare was furious, but when Wilbur woke up again and saw Tyler deep asleep, seashell collection clutched to his chest and the softest of snores rising from his half-open mouth, he knew he had made the right decision.