He Manipulates

11

Tw- blood, wounds, food,

Yall, I just realized, I planned like another four chapters of fluff before the hunters were supposed to find them, and now the fluff won't make sense and I'm now too lazy to write it into the actual storyline like, properly and fix any inconsistencies it might cause, so I was wondering, would y'all like another book with just extras from this series?

~~~

Tommy fell to the ground as the door was pulled open. "Tommy!"

In his arms was Shroud, covered in blood. He was in an absolute state. A multitude of other animals were behind him, but all of them looked to be fine.

"Techno! Phil!" The teen looked up with wide, scared eyes. "A-a zombie hoard! It just came out of nowhere-we were in the dark and asleep and like, Shroud was hunting and I can't-look at him! Look at Shroud!! He's gonna die!" He cried. Neither of the adults had ever seen him this emotional, this frantic.

"Where's your medical supplies we need shit to fix Shroud!" He screamed, trembling as he leaned over the body of his barely breathing pet.

"Okay-uh-Tommy let's heal him, a har-"

"No!" Techno reeled back.

"No?"

"No! No I-I don't remember the right potion for spiders and we can risk it! Just-help me wrap his wounds and someone find a fucking potion book!"

The door opened and Tubbo jumped down. "Michael stay up there okay?!" He called before rushing over to Tommy. "Tommy! What happened? Are you hurt?" He whisper shouted.

Tommy shook his head. "Shroud, Shroud! Go find a fucking potion book!! Now!!" Tubbo hesitated, hovering before biting his lip and running back up the stairs.

Techno and Phil were rummaging through chests as Tommy sat in the background muttering to Shroud as if it would save him.

Techno was the first to find the bandages and dropped down next to Tommy. "Tommy. Tommy! Okay, look. You've got to let go of Shroud for me to help, okay?" Instead of waiting for an answer, Techno gently nudged him away and began working on cleaning the blood and wrapping all the gashes, and cutting off any skin hanging onto the spider by just a thread.

Tommy was hovering around him, yelling at him when he thought Techno made a wrong move. He rambled on and on about who knows what. Techno eventually had enough and spoke up. "Phil, take Tommy upstairs, please."

"What? No! You bitch I'm not leaving Shroud alone!" Phil put a hand on Tommy's shoulder, trying to get him to move towards the stairs. "Let go of me you old crank!" He snapped. Techno stopped what he was doing and stood to face Tommy.

"What are you doing, why did you stop there's still wounds un-!!"

"Tommy. Either I listen to you or I save your spider. If you think you can help it-"

"-him-"

"-him. Yourself then be my guest, otherwise do as I say or your spider isn't gonna make it through the night. Go get cleaned up." He turned back to the spider, listening as hesitant footsteps walked away and up the stairs.

He sighed. "Here we go."

~~~

The hybrid shut the door behind her, letting out a shaky breath as her legs gave way beneath her.

"Mother? Mother!" She heard light footsteps running towards her and looked to see her beautiful child standing there in front of her. "Mom are you okay?"

She smiled. "Of course, dearie. No need to worry about me, things just got a little difficult at work." The girl frowned and stood, helping her mother up and over to their old couch. "Let me fix you up a cup of tea, yes? We also still have some left over pastries!" She tried to sound cheery. Her mother nodded. "That all would be wonderful kiddo."

The girl hurried to the kitchen. "What happened at work, mom?"

"Officer Dream brought in a man named Wilbur Soot-" a ceramic cup shattered against the ground.

"What did he look like?" She ran back over, clutching her mother's hands within her own tightly.

"Uh, he was dressed in yellow, brunette-his hair was an absolute mess by the way-, rather tall, glasses. Why?"

"Mom... Mom, that's my music teacher."

~~~

"Ranboo still isn't here?"

"Where's Papa? I wanna go back home, miss my flowers..."

"Fuck-we need to find out what the fuck is going on in town."

"Tubbo, help me plan. Help me with redstone, Phil is busy."

"Wilbur is starting to worry me. He's never silent for this long."

~~~

Ranboo sat, perched in a higher branch of a tree. He sat like a cat, muscles tense and ready to run-or attack. His tail flicked behind him, silently brushing against the leaves as he surveyed the most recent hunting party. His crown was hidden in a deep, deep cave. His clothes were torn and he'd long since lost his tie. His armour cracked a while ago. He was almost certain it had been about a month or so of running.

The party began to move out of sight and he leapt to another tree nearby to follow. Teleporting was too dangerous when they were so close, they could detect whenever an enderman were to teleport using a metal rod attracted to their purple particles.

If they focused as much energy on anything useful instead of just on hybrid detecting technology, maybe they wouldn't need the apothecaries for potions. Maybe they'd all know how to make them themselves-along with anything containing redstone.

He continued jumping along, hiding when he needed to. His heart was pounding. They finally reached a lake-they probably thought they were safe from him-and began to set up camp.

He watched as they stood up their tents and started their fires. They caught fish and took out dried meat and potatoes and berries. He could feel his own hunger screaming in agony as he watched them eat like calm, civilized, well-fed people. He huffed.

He sat in the tree idly until everyone fell asleep eventually. All lanterns were off, the fire had gone out, and today was quite a dark night. He slipped through the shadows, stealing a bag and stuffing food and other supplies into the bag before running off, darting between trees as he ran as far as he could from the hunters. Eventually he moved back to traveling in trees.

He shook his head, hair matted and dirty. "Another successful day at work." He murmured. "Just practice for our vacation!" He laughed maniacally.