Dream stepped into The Craft pub first, followed by his friends. As Wilbur and Fundy were just finishing up their discussion on what the hell the boy had been doing stealing cheese, the voice Dream had been looking for appeared to his left, and he turned to be greeted by Philza Craft, the one and only.
"Dream! What a pleasant surprise to see you here!"
Philza smiled gently, and Dream did nothing but return it.
"Wilbur, my son, why didn't you write you were visiting?" He joked halfheartedly as he pulled the younger man into a warm hug, displaying their long missed connection openly.
"I would've, but it was a bit of an unexpected trip to all of us to be honest." They chuckled, an eerily similar laugh emitting from the both of them. Then Phil turned to Fundy, blinking in both surprise and greeting.
"Fundy, mate, it's been a year or two, hasn't it! You're so much older now, you'll have to catch me up on the crew when you've got the time!"
His grandson grinned, looking somewhat younger than his age upon meeting his family.
"I almost missed this, because someone didn't wake me. When I heard you all had gone to see Phil I left the ship as fast as I could." He gave a pointed glare towards his father as he spoke, letting him know where the true blame lay.
"Well I'll catch up with you and Wil after I speak with Dream here. Sounds rather important if I didn't know you lot were coming, ey?"
Dream nodded, though a smile still rested on his face. "You got a uh..well, more private place than this?" He gestured around at the full tables and busy bar for emphasis, and the older blonde chuckled at the realization. He nodded, wordlessly leading them to the back.
The large group attracted some attention as they walked through, but that wasn't on the forefront of their mind.
Dream kept his mask fully down as they crossed into a smaller space, cluttered with maps, trinkets, and information galore. As the old man looked to him with expectation, he began rummaging through his pockets.
Soon enough, Dream pulled out a worn looking map, unfolding it carefully. It was, however, made of a sturdy material, and if it could last in his pockets well, peeling apart the corners would do nothing to its overall quality.
Dream laid the map down on the empty (or, emptiest) part of the desk that stood, spreading it out with his hands.
"This, is what we need help with." He said simply, and Ant took Dream's side, eagerly awaiting Phil's reaction.
Phil studied it momentarily, gaze scanning across the parchment torn at the edges. Then his eyes widened, and he looked up at Dream.
"No way you're going after this."
"Yes. We are."
"But- I mean you don't even know where to find everything else, and you couldn't possibly-"
Ranboo jumped in, and Dream realized was grateful for the tall boy in situations like this. "Phil you know we've had the map all this time, and that's the most important piece. Screw past danger, this is the biggest treasure to ever exist and if any pirate has a chance at it, it's us."
"You do realize, this could..well, you could be riskin' your lives here. I just want to make sure.." He trailed off.
Dream sighed, nodding slightly. "Yeah, we know. But we need this Phil, it's our only shot." Then, quieter, he added on, "it's gotten worse, and I think we've got less time."
With understanding, the old man looked away out of guilt. After a second he looked back at the map, taking in the information he already knew once again.
"Well, I can't help you with this, I'm afraid."
Dream's heart stopped, if only for a minute, and it was only relieved when Phil continued: "But I know who can."
—————
Wilbur, Tommy, and Fundy had all stayed behind to catch up with family, while Dream, Ant, Ranboo, and Tubbo all followed the roughly written location description on a loose piece of parchment.
Unfortunately, it meant walking a distance nearly all the way to one end of the town, further up north but still along the coastline, making it easy to find.
Phil had been vague about the building, giving a generalized summary of it and shoving them out the door with the phrase, "You'll know when you see it."
And when Dream set his eyes on the massive, overpowering, far too well-maintained looking building, he knew.
For such a wide front, it certainly had a small door. A simple knocker, in the odd shape of a face of some sort, decorated the plain wood.
Lifting it and rapping it down three equally paced times, he stepped back as his old rival faced him on the other side.
"Hello, Grian."
—————
Word Count: 815
Date: 29/06/21
I was gonna continue this chapter, but yaknow, consistency.
If you couldn't tell, I was really milking the old man in Philza, it's just impossible NOT to write "old man" sometimes
Y'all comments are so fun to read, like getting a Wattpad notif and reading a comment and looking to see what paragraph it's about, makes me so happy y'all don't even know 🥺 never stop
Okay byeee