Tacenda - The Golden Guard x Reader

13

Gradually through the day you had woken up, but the feel of sleep still stung the corners of your eyes. The golden guard no longer needed to guide you with a hand to your back, but he still stayed close. The sky had also cleared, a few clouds hovering above you in the sky.

You had left the town of Valentine a few hours ago, dusk was nearing as your feet shuffled on the dirt path. You hummed the song you played on the record player the previous night, the golden guard basking in the setting sun, light glaring from his mask. "What's life like being a... wild witch?" You heard the golden guard ask. You quirked an eyebrow at him, "Why do you want to do?" You asked, you were going to tell him either way. "The whole thing weirdly interests me... it's like- Uh, yeah." He once again cut himself off, like he was going to tell you something but decided against it.

You ignored that and smiled happily now that you could talk about your interest. "Studying Wild Magic is the best choice I think I ever made, it's interesting, never gets old and there's so many different ways!" You knew the golden guard was giving you the side eye, from the way your face burnt as if there were eyes on it. "I mainly study wild magic, It's super complex which is why i like it, always up for a challenge. That's why I borrowed that book from the library, The book I was ready at the time, I had finished studying." You ramble on, about your interest with a large smile plastered to your face. "It's so fun to do, and the Illegal part of it all kinda gives me a rush of adrenaline." You laughed and looked toward the golden guard. "It's fun, I really enjoy it, I wouldn't trade it for the world."

The air filled with silence, you knew the golden guard was guilty underneath his mask, but you also knew he wouldn't act on his guilt.

You began humming again to break the air and kick up rocks.

As you walked you saw as the path began to narrow and the trees and shrubbery began to thicken. The golden guard pulled the map from his pocket and unrolled it, looking around until he spotted the forest. "Here we are," You looked at map, the large forest on the map catching your eye. "We will want to walk through the forest to get to the... next town faster." He cut himself off mid sentence, oddly. You stopped in your tracks, the golden guard kept his pace until he stopped a bit ahead of you. "What?" he questioned. "We're cutting through the forest?" You asked, He nodded slowly, confused. "Do you know how dangerous that is?" You questioned with a frown, he only looked at you. "The amount of unidentified creatures that could be aggressive that live in this forest is shocking! I read it in one of my books." The golden guard huffed and rolled his eyes. "If we stay on the path we will be walking for days, cutting through the forest will be faster." You huffed at him "Fine, but if I have to save your ass I'm not going to be happy about it."

The golden guard began pushing leaves and branches out of the way for you, as well as ducking and climbing over the abnormally massive roots of trees that sprouted in the forest. Your view of the sun was starting to lessen as you walked deeper into the forest, the ominous lush green nature around you feeling as if it was beckoning out to you. You frowned in discomfort and began picking at your cuticles to ease the discomfort. The golden guard looked down at your hand, and slowly removed a hand from his side to interlock with yours awkwardly. You accepted his hand and grabbed it, squeezing it in worry. "Don't pick at your fingers, I don't want you to hurt yourself." He spoke softly. You nodded, the tension in your hands made you want to act forth, but you on tugged on it a little more. You quickly realised the hand wasn't gloved, as it usually was, you looked over to the other hand of the golden guard and saw that he was loosely carrying the glove, you wondered why he had taken his glove off. The whole act was weirdly intimate.

The sight of the sun was barely showing besides the occasional ray of sunset sunlight. You two eventually came across a small clearing, which you could see the smallest amount of sky underneath. "I think we should stay here for the night, we won't find another clearing until deep into the night if we keep walking." You nodded, sliding the sleeping bags off your shoulders. "Go find some rocks and twigs to build a fire with, no need for flint, I found some earlier." You nodded and began stalking back into the forest.

You bent over to pick up a rock that was sturdy enough, picking up twigs and branches that were scattered around as well. You heard the rustle of a bush, and quickly sprang your heard up. It was eerily quiet, no sound of birds or wind or anything just the rustle. Another rustle and you were very discomforted. You turned and began to walk back to the clearing and felt as if there were eyes on you.

You got to where the clearing should be, but there was only a tree in its place. You narrowed your eyes, had you walked the wrong way? You turned but heard the rustling again and grew heavily uncomfortable. "Golden Guard?" You called out, but received no response. "Hello?" You called out again after a moment.

Suddenly the rustling began to slowly speed up and gain in numbers, you took steps back as the rustling became consistent as if there were hundreds of animals in the shrubbery. It picked up in sound and speed, Your back hit the tree that was in place of the clearing. It became overwhelming, horribly overwhelming. Screams of what you could only make out to be animals broke the air, growing in sound and number by the second. Your fear took over and you dropped all the things you had picked up, pushing against the tree with wide eyes, tears prickling in them. Suddenly the loud sound of some thing large falling, something metal and heavy, broke the air, sounding like it was coming straight down to hit you. You looked up and saw nothing but your fear took over.

Suddenly it all stopped. It was quiet, for too long, no more rustling, no more screams, no more falling, just silence. You heard the wind pick up gently and whisper something to you, something you couldn't hear before you abruptly opened your eyes.

The golden guard had his hands on your shoulders, shaking them to wake you up. Your mouth was agape as you stared back at him, so unbelievably uncomfortable and confused. "Y/N? Oh my titan, Are you ok?" He stared at you behind his mask.

"Uh, yeah, yeah I... am." You said looking around, the normal terrain was back, no tree stood in place of the clearing. "I was worried, you dropped all the things you collected and started sputtering a mess of words I couldn't make out." You only felt tiredness wash over you again.

"I think i'm just tired."