I don't know what time it was when I... woke up, I guess. I could feel the sun shining on my face through the entrance of the cave, yet I couldn't open my eyes. I could hear birds singing, a river in the distance, the soft crackle of the embers of the torches, and leaves rustling in the wind. I waited a while before waking up Rainbow. I don't think he really slept while planning things in the grey abyss, and we did stay up late into the night. Then, I attempted to get Rainbow to start the day. We had a lot ahead of us.
"Rainbow." I say. "Rainbow, wake up. We got stuff to do."
I hear Rainbow shift around above me. "Noooo..."
Alrighty then. Time for the big guns. I brace myself for the incoming jumpscare, and;
"RAINBOW!"
I hear him hit his head on the top of the carved-out section above me. "I'M UP! I'M UP!" He jumps down from the bunk. "What the heck, dude?!"
"I got bored waiting for you to wake up." I said. "Besides, we got stuff to do today, remember?"
Rainbow gets excited. "Oh, right! Thanks buddy!"
I feel Rainbow grab my arm, and my eyes open. Just like yesterday, Rainbow begins puppeteering my body to move. He leads me over to the middle of the cave, and goes to look through the chests again.
"Let's see if we have any food in here..." he says.
He roots around in the chests for a while, not finding anything. Then, in the fifth and final chest, he pulls something out.
"There's a cake in this one!" Rainbow exclaims.
"Wouldn't it be bad by now?" I ask. Since everything is worn down, hasn't everything in this cave been here a while?
"No, it's perfectly fine!" Rainbow says, walking back over in front of me. "Look!"
He holds out a perfectly preserved cake. Hard to believe it's not rotted away. Maybe this cave isn't as old as we thought?
"Huh, well would you look at that. It is." I say.
We sit down, and Rainbow takes two pieces off the cake, and hands one to me. Since we're both doing the same thing, Rainbow makes me copy him instead of puppeteering. Cake is always a good breakfast. When we finish, I manage to smile at him slightly.
"Looks like you can do expressions, a little." He says, smiling back.
"Yeah, it's difficult, though."
"Don't worry, maybe if you practice doing things, we could get you back to normal!"
"Heh, thanks bud."
We both get up, and Rainbow grabs my arm again so he makes sure I follow him out of the cave. As we exit, we get to have a better look at the surroundings of our new base. Before, we were kind of rushing to find somewhere safe while it was raining, so we didn't really stop to look around. The small cave entrance is surrounded by long grass and tall flower bushes, beautiful dark oak trees, and vines climbing along the branches above. Some are even covered in colorful blooms. There's a small river to our right, with fish jumping out of the water occasionally. Morning dew left over from the storm covers everything.
"Woah..." Rainbow gasps.
"Guess we're not the only things thriving in the wilderness, huh?" I say, admiring the landscape in front of us.
"We really picked a great setup, huh?" Rainbow says. "I mean, there's a river right there, berries next to that..."
"And, if someone ever finds us, we can escape using the vines to climb up the trees."
"Right?!" Rainbow says, bounding through the grass, dragging me behind him. "We really got lucky!"
"So, where should we start?" I say.
"Start what?"
"Getting materials. We're gonna need wood for making stuff and having a fire, some coal and stone for torches and tools, some food..."
"Right! We should start with the wood!"
Rainbow finds a smaller tree away from the ones surrounding the cave, and starts collecting logs and sticks, me being puppeteered to do the same.
"How do you know what to get first, Sabre?" Rainbow asked me. "It's like you've done this before, or something."
"I've had to start from scratch a lot." I say. Rainbow doesn't question it.
We finish up collecting wood, and head back to the cave to drop it off before doing the next things on the list. As I'm putting away the logs, Rainbow takes a longer, thinner one and props it into the nook. It fits snugly in the rocks.
"Fits like a doorframe!" Rainbow says.
"Why's you put that there?" I say.
"Well, it'll be like a door! There's a little branch for a handle and everything! Someone might look through the entrance if they see the torches, so we needed something to keep us hidden."
"Huh. Good idea, buddy!" Rainbow lets me get up, and he walks over. "What's next on the list, chief?"
Rainbow pauses for a moment. "Maybe we should gather some food next? Getting wood took a while, and it's almost noon already."
"Or we just woke up late."
"True, true." Rainbow laughs. We go back out to the clearing, and start to gather berries and fish.
—————————————————————————————————————
[Light's POV]
As we walk through the forest, following the footprints, the Guards and I keep an eye out for any suspicious figures that might be following us. I've already let the rest of the Guards know what we were doing, as there were a few coming back from patrol while we were heading to the forest. I'm still thinking about the grave. Why would someone dig up a dead body only two days after it was buried? It doesn't make sense. Was there some kind of psycho out here or something? My thoughts are interrupted by one of the Guards.
"Sir, it seems like the thieves went much farther than the Kingdom's walls, at this rate." He says. "Do you have any ideas of how we're going to find them?"
"We're going to find where they're hiding out, then come back with more men." I answer. "It doesn't seem like a good idea to confront them right away."
"Understood, sir."
We keep walking. However, the footprint trail starts to fade, then disappears at a fork in the road. I sigh.
"Looks like the storm last night covered their tracks..." Now what? One of the Guards points at something on the ground.
"Sir, there's more shards over there."
I walk over, and there they are. More shards. Except these ones are individually colored. I pick them up, then see the scratches on the tree trunk next to them. It points left.
"Seems they left another trail. Come on."
As we're walking, I compare the shards I just found to the ones found at the gravesite. The gravesite shards are iridescent and a mixture of colors, much like the Rainbow Crystal itself, however the new ones are separate and show only one color on each shard. What could've caused this to happen? Did the perpetrator do something to the Crystal? As we walk, we see more shards on the ground, some stuck in scratches on trees and low-hanging branches. They must've been in a hurry to get somewhere.
I just hope we find the thieves soon, with the Crystal intact. Everyone is going to react badly to the news of the grave robbery, and it's only going to make tensions higher. Especially between the Leaders. The Corrected Sun incident already messed up quite a bit of things, and everyone is still recovering from betrayals and such.
If Sabre were still with us, he would know what to do.
—————————————————————————————————————
As I sit along the river bank, holding the rod Rainbow handed me, I watch the river flowing across the rocks and plants like the wind blows around mountains and trees. I can't really do anything if a fish takes the bait, so I'm just admiring the clear water while waiting for him to get back. It's amazing how much was hiding in plain sight, just a little ways away from the Kindom. It's nice, being out here like this. Living in the Kingdom was honestly kind of suffocating, and stressful. The only times I really left my house was to go to meetings or do errands, as I could tell I was still hated by some for what happened during the Age of Darkness. I wonder why they all thought I was in control of that... my thoughts are interrupted by Rainbow running back up to me, holding sugar cane.
"Found some!" He says. "Now we can make some paper for our... plans." Rainbow giggles and clasps his hands together, once again taking on a mischievous look.
"Nice." I say, trying not to laugh. "Can you take the rod back now, ya goof?"
"Okaaaay." Rainbow says, and he picks up the rod from my hands. "Did any fish bite while I was gone?"
"Two, but as you can see..." I said. "I couldn't exactly reel them in."
"Oh. Well, now I'm here! So we can keep fishing!"
We talk for a while as he fishes, getting excited every time he gets one. It's close to late afternoon when we think we've caught enough.
"Too bad there aren't any pufferfish in rivers." Rainbow sighs.
"Rainbow, don't you dare. You just revived yourself." I say. The last thing we needed was him getting himself poisoned.
"I know, I know." Rainbow laughs.
We head back into the cave, where we've made some new additions. There's now a fire pit in the center of the room, holding a pot over it so we can cook, and two cushions to act as seats next to it. The torches have been replaced with lanterns, hanging from sturdy, dried vines we found in the forest. The old, ragged carpets have been replaced with new multicolored ones (Rainbow said "Because we're both rainbows now!"). The chests have gone from five single chests to eight double chests, neatly stacked and labeled against the wall. The makeshift hay-and-cloth beddings have been replaced by actual beds in the carved-out bunks; Orange on top bunk, dark green on the bottom bunk. There's now a ladder leading up to the top bunk. More areas have smaller carvings in the walls for shelving, holding bandages, bottles, and extra items. There's now furnaces and crafting tables on the opposite wall of the bunks. Rainbow and I set the two buckets of fish he caught on the furnaces.
"We got a lot done today, Sabre!" Rainbow beams. I manage to smile.
"We sure did, Rainbow." He walks us over to the cushions and plops down on one, and I follow right after.
"Who knows? Maybe we can expand the cave, too! Have more than one room!"
"That sounds like an AWESOME idea."
"Oh, that's right! I got sugar cane!"
Rainbow takes the sugar cane out of his pocket and goes over to the crafting table, making paper. After he does that, he grabs a piece of charcoal he fashioned into a makeshift pen.
"Now that we're going to be vengeance rebels," he says, placing a piece of paper from the stack in front of him. "We're gonna need a symbol we leave behind after we do our handiwork."
"Like a calling card?" I ask.
"Like a what?"
"A calling card." I start to explain, even though I think it sounds a little silly. "I'm pretty sure it's just that; a symbol a thief or rebel uses to leave their mark after they get their target. So they can be known. It's also usually worn too, like a patch on their clothes or a cape." Rainbow's eyes glisten.
"Yeeees! You get it!" He excitedly squeals. He hovers the charcoal pen over the paper. "Alright, what do we start with?"
"Maybe start with a circle, then build around that?"
"Ooh, good idea!"
We work on the calling card for about two hours, I think. We really need to get a clock in here. As we work on it, I don't think it's silly anymore. It actually looks pretty cool.
"Alright, finishing touch. What do we put?" Rainbow says, excited to finish the drawing.
"How about a diamond shape, to represent the Crystal?" I suggest. "It makes sense, because we technically both have it."
"Ooh, perfect!" Rainbow says, as he scribbles the shape into the design. He holds it up, then flips it over so I can see. "How's it look?" He asks.
"That's really freakin' cool, man!" I say. Rainbow smiles.
"Not bad for a first pass, If I do say so myself."
"I'm proud of you, Rainbow! That's really good!"
"Ahhh, you helped! The wings, halo, and crystal were your ideas!"
"Aw, you're too kind, Rainbow."
"We need a name too." Rainbow says, holding up the pen.
"Like, a group name? But it's just the two of us."
Rainbow giggles. "So? It'll be cool!"
I think for a moment. "Well, we're out to get revenge on others, right?"
"Yeah?"
"What about... The Vengeful?"
"Ooh, nice. I'm writing that down."
Rainbow scribbles down 'The Vengeful' under the calling card.
"Hey, while I'm doing that, can I add a pufferfish to the design?"
We both laugh. I missed this so much. Seems Rainbow is reflecting on things, too.
"I miss Gerald." He says somberly.
"Well, last I saw him he was making himself comfortable in the Hub with all his friends. He's probably still there." I say, trying to cheer him up. "Maybe sometime we could go back and pick him up? I have no doubt he'll want to go with you." Rainbow lights up.
"Really?! He was?!"
"Yeah, he was having a frickin party, man. He had a hidden room behind a painting me and... Light found..." I trail off at the memory. Light Steve... I haven't really thought about how he's doing. I mean, yeah, he's abandoned me just like the rest. But I can't help but miss the days where we were good friends... I think the memories are hitting me and Rainbow at this point. We stay silent for a moment.
"Well, we shouldn't really look too much into the past when we have a whole future ahead of us." Rainbow says. "There's no turning back now. Remember what they did to us."
I snap out of it. "Yeah, you're right. They kind of hit the point of no return wayyy before we did."
"We should focus on other things. Like..." Rainbow looks around the room. "What should we cook for dinner? We can roast fish or make something out of the berries. Or finish the cake."
"Is it really evening already?"
"Yeah, the sunlight stopped shining through the cracks in our doorway a while ago."
"Dang. How time flies, huh? Day two of our new life is right around the corner."
Rainbow nods, then goes over to the furnaces. "I, personally, want fish."
"Yeah, fish sounds good."
Rainbow gets me up from the seat, and we cook the fish together. As we do, we talk and joke with each other. When I bring up the time I chased him and Gerald around the Hub for calling me a chicken, he laughed so hard he dropped his fish in the fire. He quickly picked it up.
"Still good!" Rainbow turns to me with a smile, holding up the soot-covered fish. I return the same cheesy grin.
—————————————————————————————————————
[Light's POV]
The Guards and I are beginning to sparsely see dark oak trees around. Definitely far from the Kingdom, there weren't any in the surrounding area at all. Following the trail of crystals and scratches has taken all day, as it's now late afternoon. How did the thieves get so far out so fast? This is probably going to take another day on foot, but the thieves didn't have any horses, and it's clear they didn't teleport. One of the Guards thinks the same thing.
"How in blazes did these two get farther than this in a single night?" He wonders aloud.
"I don't know," the other Guard says. "Maybe they're Yellow Steves?"
"That... could actually be possible." I say. "There's no way a normal Steve could be this fast."
"Or maybe they used the Crystal that they stole." The first Guard says.
"...Also plausible."
We continue on for what feels like hours. We're at the beginning of an actual dark oak forest when the sun starts to set. The Guards and I decide to make camp for the night, as it's dangerous to be caught after dark during a search.
One is sitting in front of the campfire, keeping it lit. The other is leaning against a tent, sharpening his spear. I'm trying to figure out if this forest is on the map we have or not. No luck. Folding the map closed, I reflect on what's happened the last few days. Since the grave robbery, I know they're all connected somehow. It just makes too much sense for it not to be. First, Sabre was murdered while out on a mission. Then, right after the announcement of his death, the Crystal was discovered to be stolen, don't know when exactly or by who. The night after, the grave was dug up, the body taken, and crystal shards were left behind. While following the path, we find more crystal shards that are like the original seven crystals. The more I think about it, trying to figure out why this is happening, the more I feel like I'm repeatedly hitting a wall. I've tried thinking of every possible reason someone could be behind this, yet something always disproves it. Later, I just give up for that night, and the Guards and I turn in.
However, I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched.
—————————————————————————————————————
I woke up in the middle of the night, somehow. After Rainbow and I went to bed, he made my body fall asleep, just like yesterday. Something was off about tonight, though. I felt like something shocked me awake, then I could open my eyes. I still couldn't move, though. Looking around the room, I noticed a few things were missing from the shelves:
A stone sword, a spyglass we found from the chests, and a roast fish from earlier. Why were things missing? I looked around the room some more in complete silence. Wait... complete silence? That's not right... I stood still and listened.
I couldn't hear Rainbow above me anymore.
Why wasn't he here? Did he go somewhere? Did he take those things? Why? I mean, the fish I understand, but-
My thoughts are interrupted by the log door opening. I looked over, and Rainbow was there, putting it back, trying to be quiet. I call out to him.
"Rainbow?"
He jumped, then looked back at me. "Sabre? How'd you wake up on your own?"
"I dunno. Hey, what were you doing outside just now?"
"Oh, I thought I heard something, so I went to check it out." He puts the items away. "I guess it was just an animal or something. Maybe another fish in the river."
"What'd you need the spyglass for?"
"It's stupid."
"Can't be as stupid as eating pufferfish." Rainbow jokingly scoffs at my comment.
"Well, excuse YOU. Okay, even though we're so far out, I thought someone found us."
"Oh, that's not stupid. It's okay to be a little paranoid. We are kind of running from everyone."
"Everyone thinks we're dead, though."
"Still."
Rainbow climbs back up to the top bunk. With a wave of his hand, I start to fall asleep again, and soon I'm out like a light.
—————————————————————————————————————
Rainbow's the one that wakes me up this time. I open my eyes to see he's already moved me to one of the cushions in front of the fire pit.
"Sorry about that, I didn't realize you were still asleep." He says, walking over to where we've been keeping our food. "I guess I can puppeteer you in your sleep or something."
"It's alright, we're both getting used to this 'paralyzed' thing." I said. "You have no idea how many times I've tried to move on my own, but forgot I can't."
Rainbow holds up the cake leftovers from yesterday. "You want cake for breakfast again?" He asks.
"Heck yeah."
He's just sat down when we hear something outside. It sounded like screeching, then someone screamed.
"NO! GO AWAY! STOP!"
Rainbow looks towards the door. "Hey... that sounds familiar..." The screaming gets closer.
"HELP! PLEASE, SOMEONE HELP!"
We hear whoever's screaming crash through the river. Rainbow bolts up and runs to the door.
"I'm gonna check it out!" He says, his hand on the door.
"Careful, Rainbow!" What if it's someone from the Kingdom?
Rainbow opens the door slightly, and gasps. He runs outside, and I hear lightning strike. The screeching and screaming stops. Rainbow starts talking to the person.
"Holy crap, are you okay?! You're bleeding!" He says.
"R-Rainbow?! H-how, I saw you- you-"
"No time, get inside! Now! You're hurt! I'll explain later!"
Rainbow bursts into back the cave, carrying someone on his shoulder. It's not until Rainbow sets him down against the wall to run and get the bandages, when I can get a closer look at our surprise guest.
His outfit was entirely black, matching his hair and dark grey skin. He had a huge gash along his arm, and his leg seemed severely sprained, if not broken. The only thing that's changed about him since I saw him last was that his left eye was now yellow, and his right orange.
"Dark Steve?"