Among the Fire

Chapter 1

 His world started with war, so he believed that it must end with one too.

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Wilbur Soot sat and thought to himself; there was a lot of pain surrounding him, but they had won. He and his friends had won their fight of freedom against the tyrant king known as Dream. Dream, along with his plethora of loyal followers, had been tormenting L'manburg citizens for months now, and the loss of the war would have been the final nail in the coffin for Wilbur. However stacked the odds were against the new nation of L'manburg, they somehow turned victorious, finally able to christen their nation.

"Wilbur! Wilbur!" shouted a distant voice. "We won Wilbur!"

The voice belonged to Wilbur's youngest brother, Tommy Innit. Like siblings, they constantly fought and argued, but they always made sure to have each other's backs.

"Yeah, I know, Tommy." Wilbur responded in a joking manner, but Tommy could still hear the hurt in his voice.

"What's going on? Shouldn't you be happy? We freaking won the war! We get to be our own nation now!" Tommy exclaimed. "Now us and all of our friends can finally be happy! We can all live how we want to, and we can make our own rules, and you and Niki can even be together--"

"Stop." Wilbur didn't want to think of his friends, and he especially didn't want to think of Niki.

Wilbur had known Niki for most of his life. It was only recently that he noticed how he actually felt about her, but they were never able to be together under Dream's regime. The idea of this now was still raw with Wilbur; he didn't believe he deserved her, especially after everything that had happened in the war. She was the kindest, happiest person he knew, and he didn't want to further introduce his darkness into her life.

The brothers sat in silence for a few minutes. Tommy knew what had happened wasn't Wilbur's fault, but he also knew his eldest brother would never stop blaming himself for it.

"Let's go see the others," Tommy finally said. "Everyone is celebrating at town square."

"I'll catch up with you," Wilbur responded, returning to his thoughts.

After Tommy left, Wilbur looked around at the rubble. He was sitting just outside L'manburg's new walls, staring into the wasteland that used to be the edge of Dream's kingdom. They had, regrettably, used bombs in the war, bombs that ultimately destroyed the back half of the kingdom; many died. Now there was just an empty landscape on all sides of L'manburg, a constant reminder of the morals they had to sacrifice for their freedom.

Tommy wasn't sure how to help Wilbur. He understood what had happened, but he was much less worried compared to his brother. Tommy believed that it was for the good of his people, and nothing could sway him of that very idea.

He was a very stubborn person; this quality pushed many people away, except for his best friend Tubbo. Tubbo was the yin to Tommy's yang, the quiet to Tommy's loud. Wilbur often wondered how they were such good friends; nevertheless, Tommy and Tubbo were rarely seen apart.

Tubbo was more of a brother to Tommy than Tommy's middle sibling, Fundy. Though Fundy fought for L'manburg, Tommy didn't believe that he would stay on their side. Fundy was severely ambitious, enough to cloud his judgement on many occasions in his life, but at heart he was a good man who tried to help people in his own way.

As Tommy entered L'manburg, he heard the growing sound of music and cheering. Like he had told Wilbur, everyone was celebrating their victory. Because the new nation was so small, almost everyone had participated in the war, and everyone was happy it was over.