Chapter 4 of 5

Two Worlds

Wilson's POV

In hindsight, it was rather strange that the first thing I became aware of was the ground I was lying on. It was normally the ambient air temperature I noticed first, or even the sounds around me. But no, this time, it was the feel of grass pressed against my cheek. At least… I was pretty sure it was grass.

It wasn't the coarse, stiff stems I had grown used to, though. The grass beneath me was thick and plush, grown so thickly that it almost formed a cushion. There was a gentle breeze in the air, tousling my hair and causing the blades of grass to tremble against my skin. In the previous worlds, the wind had been biting, howling far above our heads even when we were sheltered from it. Here, the wind was warm and soft, just like the grass. Carried with it was the tangy scent of citrus, like an orange had been cut directly in front of my nose.

The air was warm and dry. There wasn't even the slightest bit of humidity to ruin the peaceful warmth, a temperature far above freezing but far below overheating. In a way, it almost felt air conditioned. Like it was being kept at the exact temperature for perfect comfort. The sun, too, was almost artificially perfect. Strong enough that I could feel it against my skin, but not so strong that it felt hot or overbearing.

For a long moment, I didn't even move. I simply let myself rest in this little bubble of comfort. I figured I was still in a dreaming state, because there was absolutely no way this place could be so perfect in the waking world. I was in no rush to wake up.

Then, someone was purposely shaking me. I grumbled unhappily as I was rudely thrust from my sleep, and squinted my eyes open to give Winona the perfect expression for what I was feeling.

But I was awake now, and everything still felt the same.

I was suddenly wide awake.

I shot to a sitting position, startling the mechanic as I did so. "Where are we?" I demanded. This wasn't right. This wasn't right at all.

The grass was vibrantly green and ankle-deep. Thick and healthy like no plant I had seen since leaving home. We were in a sort of natural dip in the ground, surrounded on all sides by brambles that reached up to my knee. When I glanced up, I saw tall, powerful birchnut trees with trunks that spanned upwards of ten feet across, each one laden with deep green leaves and dappled with warm yellow sunlight. The sky was a shade of blue I hadn't seen in years, cloudless and open. Butterflies in shades of purples, blues, and shimmering golds fluttered curiously close to me, one even perching carefully on my head before I shook it off. Plump little yellow birds chirped from the trees with a gorgeous, trilling song.

It was nothing like anything I had ever seen before. Every inch was picture perfect, as if I had stepped out of a nightmare and into a wonderful daydream. It was such a close rendition of the most beautiful places on Earth that I found myself on the verge of tears as waves of nostalgia swept over me.

"I know, right?" Winona breathed from beside me. I jumped and glanced her way. I had almost entirely forgotten I wasn't alone. She gave me a murmured apology before turning her attention back towards the scenery. "I've never seen anything like this."

"I don't like it," Wilbur growled. The prime ape was a few paces away from us, his fur still ruffled from sleep. He reached a hand out to touch the slant of the ditch and ran his fingers through the grass. "Bright colors are nature's biggest warning in the jungle."

"It looks like home," I said quietly. "I don't know what Maxwell's game is, but…" I shook my head. There were no immediate threats as far as I could see. It seemed as if he had finally given up his game of increasingly cold worlds, but that meant he must have had something else up his sleeve. Would the ground start collapsing a few days from now? Maybe everything in the entire land was poisonous? Or maybe hound packs the size of small towns would pounce upon us when we turned our backs. It was an unsettling feeling, where the familiarity of such a place screamed safety, but my instincts prickled with warning.

Nothing could be that easy.

"I am truly hurt that you have such little faith in me."

I spun around to glare at our captor the second I heard his voice. Wilbur already had his teeth bared at the man, but he managed to keep himself from attacking, which was better than the previous times.

Maxwell had a passive look on his face, as if incredibly bored. He had abandoned his fur coat from a couple of worlds back and replaced it with a simple suit and tie. I wanted to spit on his stupid, pristine dress shoes, and I probably would've, too-

If he didn't have a sleeping Tyler curled up in his arms.

"And here I thought you forgot about us after not showing your face in the last world," I muttered lowly. I instinctively dropped into a defensive crouch despite lacking any weapon to fight with.

"Put him down, William." Winona's voice was thick, strung tight like a rubberband about to snap. Wilbur didn't say anything, but I doubted he would be able to get any words out from how loudly he was growling.

"I'm not hurting him," Maxwell said breezily. "In fact, I was simply giving some assistance." He unceremoniously dropped the hybrid. Wilbur and Winona both immediately leaped forward, but it was Wilbur that caught him. The monkey slid a few feet as he landed before promptly falling flat on his face from overbalancing. Somehow, Tyler remained asleep through it all, likely under some sort of spell. "You didn't believe he would have no long-term disabilities or illness from his little escapades in the last world, did you? I simply fixed him back up."

"And why would you do that?" Wilbur hissed between spitting out clumps of dirt.

"I thought it would be obvious." Maxwell flourished his arms out. A glistening, bright red apple suddenly appeared in his hand, which he then tossed my way. I instinctively caught the fruit without thinking. "Nightmare and I have had many long discussions about what to do with you four." I felt my shoulders stiffen as a coil of amusement roiled in my gut. "We considered simply killing you. The previous worlds have been winnable, but it wouldn't be hard to create something that would simply end your lives without contest. But we decided that would just be… unsatisfying. Nightmare referred to death as a reward that you didn't deserve." He summoned another apple, this one a flushed pink color. He took a bite of it, chewing slowly as he took us in. "Instead, we decided to offer a truce."

"A truce?" I blurted. "What do you mean a truce? You've held us captive and tortured us for what? Two years now? What truce could you possibly offer?"

Winona pressed one hand on my shoulder as if in warning. I could see the anger boiling in her eyes as well, but she kept her lips tightly sealed.

"The trials, the games, I tire of them." Maxwell waved his empty hand casually as if doing something as simple as discussing the weather. "It is not your homes you are after, it is safety, correct?"

Wilbur and Winona immediately started arguing this point, their voices overlapping until I couldn't even understand who was saying what. Honestly, Maxwell was pretty spot on. There really wasn't anything on Earth I cared too much about. Although it definitely seemed as if my other two companions disagreed. I had a feeling Tyler would agree with me though.

"Here is my offer." He took another bite of the stupid apple before continuing. "This world has been tailored to be perfect in every way. The seasons never change. The rains only come to provide water to sustain life. Droughts and floods will never occur. Everywhere you look you will find an abundance of rabbits that will come right up to you, berries sweeter than the richest desserts, and beefalo ready to lie down and die. The moon will forever be full, meaning Nightmare will stay far away from this place." He turned his gaze to each of us in turn. "This land is a paradise."

I'll believe it when I see it.

"Then what's the catch?" Winona demanded.

This is when Maxwell straightened himself up. His eyes lit up with a cool fire, and just for a moment, he looked like the powerful deity he had become instead of the calm, smug man he portrayed himself as.

"You will go no further."

I raised my brow at him dubiously. Winona crossed her arms, entirely unconvinced if her face had anything to say about it.

Wilbur started laughing uproariously. He laughed so hard he started to clutch his stomach as if a stitch was forming in his side, but even then, he continued to laugh. He pointed a finger towards Maxwell with a look of manic glee on his face. "You're chickening out!" He mocked. "You little coward! This is rich! The 'Great and Powerful Maxwell' dumbed down to a whining little baby! How pathetic of you, Maxwell. What, if we refuse, are you going to get on your hands and knees and start begging like a child begging for candy? Cause I'd love to see it." Wilbur sneered at our captor.

I paid close attention to Maxwell's reaction, which is why I noticed the way the man's fist clenched ever-so-slightly around his apple. When he spoke, however, his voice still had the calm cadence it normally held. "I believe you will grow to forget your stubbornness, once you get soft on the spoils of this world. I have more important business to attend to than this, so I suppose I should wish you luck… but instead, I'll simply leave you with this." He finished the apple and tossed the core to the side. It vanished before it even touched the ground. "I do not care about the goings on here. Stay here as long as you want, grow old, start a family, I don't care. If you decide to break the terms of our truce-" Wilbur muttered harshly under his breath. "-then I will feel nothing but joy at seeing Nightmare tear your corpses apart in Darkness."

With that ominous line, he vanished, leaving nothing behind but the red apple he had tossed at me. As soon as I noticed I was still holding it, I stuck my tongue out and let it fall to the ground.

"Is he gone?" Tyler suddenly asked from the ground. I whipped my head around to see the boy seemingly wide awake despite the opposite being true just a moment ago. When I gave a short nod, he stretched out his arms and yawned. "Oh thank goodness, I was afraid I was gonna just fall back asleep if he kept monologuing."

"You were awake that whole time?" Wilbur tipped his head.

"Yup," Tyler said cheerfully, popping the 'p' at the end. "I did not want to deal with him, thank you very much."

Winona crouched down to talk to him, probably bombarding him with questions about how he felt or whatever. I rolled my eyes and turned away, before promptly finding myself confused about my own irritation.

In the last world, the ice spearing my chest had melted just a bit, making way for the rush of worry that had gripped me after… well, all of that had happened. In fact, I had felt a bit more 'myself' in the last world than I had for a while, as if the ice outside had drawn out the ice inside.

But the world was warm, and the sun was gentle, and the ice had returned with full force.

I dug my palms into my eyes, groaning softly. The conversation Wilbur and I had had a few weeks ago now about Nightmare's influence came back to me.

"There's something They don't want you to know. Nightmare's one weakness. You see, the one thing Nightmare has never been strong enough to conquer… is love."

Love was something constant, though, not something that waxed and waned like the moon. It was supposed to be something that lasted eternally and without pause. Wilbur's words made no sense if that was Nightmare's only weakness. I had been able to feel so worried and soft in the last world, but now it was gone, and all I could do was feel angry about it.

Unless this had nothing to do with Nightmare. Unless there was something else wrong with me, draining my heart and tearing away at my emotions with an ice pick.

But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't even begin to guess what other option there was.

Instead of forcing myself to stew in annoyance, I decided to walk a circle around the area. I looked for a way around the brambles surrounding us, but we were entirely closed in. I sighed and prepared to push my way through the prickly bushes, but before I even touched them, the branches swayed away from my hand and opened a narrow path for me. I stared blankly at it for a long moment.

Had Maxwell seriously made us a magical barrier just to drive his point home?

I rolled my eyes, but internally I couldn't help but feel grateful for a break. Even if the break was short-lived in the case there really was some terrible catch to this world, at least it was something. We all needed it after everything that had happened up until now.

Outside of the bramble barrier, it was almost more pristine. Wildflowers that I hadn't seen in years waved in the wind with cheerful brightness. Trees with thick trunks curled over the barrier and over the dip, but other than those, there weren't as many trees as I was used to seeing in one place. We certainly weren't in a forest. It was too clean for that. The trees that were there were spaced evenly and kept in distinct shape, not a single leaf or branch out of formation. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that these trees weren't birchnuts.

I almost wanted to groan at the predictability and simplicity of it all. They were fruit trees.

Other than berries, we hadn't had much in the way of fruit in quite some time. Certainly not to this extent either. The trees were laden with perfectly ripe fruits of every size, shape, and color. Oranges, lemons, pears, even bananas and more. I watched wearily as one of the bright yellow birds stabbed its beak into one of the oranges, but nothing special happened. The orange didn't spontaneously combust or suddenly become rotten, and the bird didn't seem to be poisoned or anything by eating it.

I curiously picked one of the pears and let the fruit sit in my hand. It was plump and slightly squishy to the touch, entirely unassuming in every way.

I returned to the others to share my discovery.

Wilbur snatched the pear from me almost immediately and examined it closely. Tyler hovered over his shoulder, watching quietly as the prime ape turned it in his hands. Wilbur scratched at the skin with one claw, exposing the inside, before giving it a long sniff. There was a moment of silence from the rest of us as we watched his reaction. Apparently finding nothing off, he dug at the flesh with the same claw until he carved a chunk out of it, then popped it in his mouth.

Another long moment of silence.

Then, Wilbur let out a curse and a cry of frustration as he chucked the offending fruit at the nearest tree. "It's even perfectly ripe!" He shouted. "I HATE this guy!"

"It's… not poisoned or anything?" Winona asked hesitantly.

"I wish!" Wilbur exclaimed. "At least that would be predictable!"

"Are we taking bets on how long it takes for something awful to happen?" Tyler suggested. He was still sitting on the ground, his gaze fixed on the pear splattered across the tree. "'Cause I'm going for two days."

"I wish I knew what his strategy was here," Winona grumbled. "I'm regretting not talking to him more when he was dating my sister. Maybe I'd know how his mind works a bit better."

"You act like Maxwell is the same guy he was back then," Wilbur said. "Even if you did know him, he's been sitting in the Nightmare Throne for decades. He's more Them than himself anymore."

"I guess there's no use worrying about it now," I sighed. "Now, we should take advantage of what we have while we have it. If and when Maxwell pulls the rug out from under us, we'll at least be in better shape than we are right now, right?"

Wilbur immediately perked up at this. "Are you suggesting that it's feasting time?"

"I'm suggesting that we take stock of what we have and try to make the best of it." I cracked my knuckles. While the previous world had been more generous in food than its predecessors, it had been so cold that it was almost impossible to hunt. With the current temperature, it would be no issue moving about, especially since we were smack in the middle of a fruit grove.

"I'd like to try that fruit," Tyler said mildly. I tossed a glance his way, suddenly dubious.

He was acting as if the previous worlds had not happened at all. I narrowed my eyes at him. I knew he was good at hiding himself, but he typically did so by burying himself in indignant anger. This was even more unnatural. Like someone imitating the way a human acts rather than actually knowing how to act.

"You've never had a pear?" Winona asked, her eyes wide. Tyler shook his head, and Wilbur shrugged.

"I don't think they're native to the Constant," Wilbur said. "I'll admit, it's pretty impressive that Maxy even brought food from your world just to sweeten the deal even more. I'd tear him to shreds if I could, but he's good at negotiating."

"And I'd love to say we shouldn't take handouts from someone like him, but…" I sighed.

"But we kind of need it right now," Winona finished.

"Alright, it's settled." I clapped my hands together and looked around the faces of my group. "We go on a short walk to see what we're dealing with here, then when we come back we make ourselves a decent meal?"

Winona and Wilbur both nodded in agreement, but they immediately dropped that entire subject the second Tyler started to pull himself to his feet. "I'm fine!" He snapped at the duo. Winona pressed a hand to his shoulder. He hissed at her. "I can get up on my own, you know!"

"Tyler, you almost died," Wilbur said. His body was tight with nerves, decidedly smarter than Winona by keeping his hands off of the hybrid but infinitely more jumpy than her. "Just rest. I can stay-"

"No!" Tyler bristled. "I'm fine! I feel fine! Just drop it. Don't talk about it."

Ah. He was strung tighter than he looked.

Wilbur seemed to shrink into himself, just a bit. "Ty, you-"

"I know. Just… shut up. Just shut up. I don't want to hear it." Tyler looked up at me with fire in his eyes. I could almost physically see him force himself to calm down. I could see the way he dragged his shoulders back down and forcibly loosened his jaw.

I shook my head. Still just as stubborn as he had always been. Despite everything we had done this far. Despite how often we already had to drag his stupid behind from death's door. He was still being difficult. I didn't say anything.

Once Tyler had successfully forced his body back into a neutral state, he released a stream of air that sounded a lot huffier than he probably intended. "Sorry," he muttered, voice low with what I assumed to be faux regret. "I just… don't want to be stuck here, okay?"

Wilbur twitched his tail and growled under his breath. "Fine," he said shortly. "But just… don't push yourself. Please. And I know how you don't want me to say anything…" He lowered his voice so much it was a wonder I was able to hear his words at all. "But we will talk later, okay?"

Tyler's whiskers twitched, but he seemed to accept the terms of this for now at least.

I'd have to say something to Wilbur again. We had an entire discussion about letting the kid make his own stupid decisions just yesterday and the monkey was already dropping that promise. If the others weren't looking at me, I probably would've started massaging the space between my eyebrows to quell the irritation simmering inside of my skull. Instead, I simply gave a thin-lipped smile. "Off we go, then."

Contrary to my dubious initial reaction, the others seem to show a little bit of excitement at the sight of all of the fruits being offered to us. Winona's eyes widened and I could hear the breath leave her chest in a rush. Tyler seemed a bit uneasy, a bit curious. He hovered uncomfortably away from the rest of us, a couple of feet to the side, but the minuscule distance wasn't enough to hide with wonder and hunger glittering in his eyes.

Wilbur was much more vocal.

"Oh my me!" He shouted as he rushed forward, seemingly forgetting about his frustration entirely. "Bananas! Oh Maxy, you do know the way to a prime ape's heart!" He tore up one of the trees and almost immediately returned with a bunch clasped in his hand. "Ty, you are about to experience the blessed world of fruit."

"Careful, Wilbur!" Winona called. "Remember, we don't know what Maxwell is planning. There could be traps anywhere."

"To trap a banana tree would be a sin," the monkey responded with conviction.

Outside of the orchard, flat grassland rolled out for miles. Gentle swoops of land provided small amounts of wind resistance, but it was enough given how gentle the breeze was. Dozens of plump rabbits dozed in sunbeams or nibbled sleepily on plush grass. Bushes dotted the landscape, each one heavy with bright red berries.

It all looked so unassuming, which meant something terrible had to be cooking under the surface. "I don't like this," I muttered. There didn't seem to be anything noticeably wrong. I didn't see any hounds or giants, the rabbits looked entirely unconcerned, nothing seemed different than what you would expect with a perfect world.

Tyler looked the most excited about this development. I could almost see him drooling as he stared down the peaceful animals. Of course he would be more concerned with the sight of meat than how suspicious all of this was. He was a predator, and his mere existence was a testament to a spider's lack of critical thinking skills. If he saw an easy meal, he would take it.

"Okay, I'm going to be honest," Winona sighed. I glanced at her to see that she had her hands perched on her hips, her face creased into a scowl. "I'm starting to get a headache from the whiplash of emotions. I want to be really suspicious but this is a lot of work for someone to go through just to trick us." She pinched her nose and gathered her words. "I think this offer is genuine."

"You think that Maxwell is getting scared?" I said.

"Oh yeah." She nodded. "This is a last ditch effort if I've ever seen one. He doesn't want us going any further."

"I always knew that Maxwell was a coward," Wilbur scoffed. "But he's also extremely intelligent. He hasn't done anything to outright kill us yet, and I don't think this will be different." He hummed under his breath as he studied the grass beneath our feet. "Yeah. I think this is a bribe."
"So we take advantage of it," Tyler said. "Get what we can out of here and leave." His claws twitched.

"Precisely." Wilbur gave a little smirk as he gazed at our surroundings. He nodded slowly. "Oh yeah. I think I could make something real nice with all of this. If you guys think food tasted good before, just wait until I have a bit of everything. Nightmare itself is going to be asking for seconds."

Any further exploration yielded nothing but more of the same. Water so clear we could see the riverbeds fifteen feet down, prey so content you could reach out and pet it, and yellow birds singing cheerful songs high above our heads. It was so clean and perfect, which is exactly why it was so unnatural. And yet, the idea had solidified in all of our minds that Maxwell was actually speaking the truth for once. This was a bribe to force us to stay. For whatever reason, he didn't want us to go further, and we had proven ourselves capable of pushing through terrible obstacles. He was running out of ideas.

On the one hand, it was good that his last-ditch attempt was something too good to let go instead of something even worse than before. I wasn't sure any of us could survive another winter, especially the youngest of our group with his knack for getting into every life or death situation possible.

On the other hand, it meant he was getting desperate, and a desperate malevolent overlord was much, much more terrifying than a smug one. I was sure that if we continued to push forward despite Maxwell's wishes, he would make us regret it.

And we had gotten this far. There wasn't any way we were stopping now.

But that meant we had to be ready for whatever he was planning next. It meant that a trap could be sprung at any moment.

Night came early, but it was just as ideal and benign as everything else so far. The moon was so full and bright that the entire world was illuminated in silver moonlight. The air tasted of morning dew, and little bats fluttered through the air.

I was having trouble sleeping, my mind running rampant with thoughts and concerns. I wanted to keep an ear out for anything wrong, but I knew that I would need to sleep in order to remain on top of my game. And so, I simply lay as still as I could, closely monitoring my breaths and counting in my head to distract myself from all of the theories I didn't want to think about.

As I was finally starting to drift off, gentle voices reached my ears. I strained to listen to them, but they kept themselves mere whispers, barely even loud enough for me to hear let alone understand. I cracked open one eye just a bit to see the offenders to see the two animals of the group huddled together. I mentally rolled my eyes. I should've figured it would've been them.

Considering everything that had happened the past couple of days, perhaps I should have listened in to make sure everything was okay. Instead, I really was just more irritated that they were disturbing my sleep. So, instead of trying to interject myself in a conversation that I wasn't a part of, I instead simply rolled over and squeezed my eyes even tighter shut.

My chest ached from the effort of caring so much recently, and I figured I was more than overdue on a break from it. Perhaps, in another state of mind, I would've cared more about this development.

Instead, I simply found myself cursing the new ache for its part in making it harder to sleep.