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Bdubs collapses at the edge of the shallow pond, defeated. He hears Grian’s betrayed yelling. They think he’s dead.
He’s very still in the mud and grass as he listens to Grian and Scar’s conversation fade away.
It’s there that Bdubs stays, laying on the ground, bloodied and bruised. It’s there that he lets the ground welcome him home.
It’s there where everyone thinks he dies.
~
Bdubs doesn’t know how much time passes. He knows that it’s been long enough that the pond has dried out, that it’s been long enough for the lush green grass to have grown around and on his body.
He sits up, disoriented. He lets the cloak of dirt and grass hang around his shoulders. He looks at himself and notices that the blood caking his body is no longer there, presumably washed away by the water from long ago.
The scenery around him has changed. Changed enough that he wouldn’t know what direction to go in to get back home.
Home. Isn’t his home in the forest, now? He always comes back to the forest. It’s what made him. He can never truly leave, can he?
Bdubs stands and stretches. He picks a direction and starts walking, familiarizing himself with the new surroundings.
There’s no longer the ever-looming border surrounding the area. He expected it, but he’s thankful nonetheless.
He spots smoke rising in the far distance. A new village, he thinks. Maybe they built it near the old village. He half hopes they didn’t. He doesn’t want to have to face the ruins of his old friends.
Bdubs wanders closer. The forest seems to go on forever, but he doesn’t complain. It’s unfamiliar, but it seems like it already knows him. He grins at the feeling.
Eventually, the untouched grass beneath his feet turns into a well worn path. He stops in his tracks. Does he want to talk to people this soon? He’s only just awoken.
He decides that, yes, he does want to talk to people. For as long as he’s existed, he’s enjoyed talking to the people. Whether it be tricking them, befriending them, harming them, or perhaps all three, he enjoys their company.
It’s not often that he pretends to completely be one of them, though. He thinks that he won’t do that again for a long while. He misses the others. To Bdubs, the wound is too fresh. He doesn’t want to go befriending anyone just after he’s lost so many.
He knows he shouldn’t be too attached to those people. It was only a few months, and to someone like him that’s nothing. He should have already forgotten about it all, simply not caring for any of it now that it’s over.
Bdubs thinks that right now he’s still a little too human for his liking.
A watchtower comes into view. It’s at the very edge of the village, built within the wall surrounding the whole town, Bdubs notices that villages have gotten a little more advanced since he’s last seen them.
Looking up and shielding the sun from his eyes, he sees that there is a figure at the top of the watchtower. The grin on his face doesn’t fade, and instead gets brighter.
They seem to spot him, and their shadow disappears from sight.
A few moments later, the door at the bottom opens. Bdubs does not stay standing there, and instead uses the greenery to blend in. He hears the human walking closer, so he goes to flash a glance, beckoning them to follow him.
This doesn’t work, as for the moment he properly sees the human for the first time, he trips over himself in shock.
The human laughs at his fall. The sunlight peeking through the trees above seems to hit her eyes in just a way that makes them sparkle. She is holding a sword at her waist, ever so ready to attack if needed, and her curly orange hair is tied into a ponytail, away from her face.
She looks to where he is crumpled on the ground. The light behind her head makes her look otherworldly, as if she’s one of the forest and not him. She offers a hand to help him and he graciously takes it.
“What brings you to the village?” She asks as she hauls him up, and it makes him want to cry.
He forces a smile back onto his face. “What brings you to the forest?” He mimics.
She raises an eyebrow at him. “Seriously?” She asks. “I saw a strange man wandering around near my tower, and it is very much my job to check that kind of stuff out.”
He nods. Seeing her face and hearing her voice again is simultaneously the most painful and the most relieving thing he’s ever experienced. He knows that this is possible. He knows that the same souls inhabit many mortal forms throughout time. He’s always known that one day he could run into someone he used to know, someone that no longer knows him.
He just didn’t expect it to be Cleo .
“Are you just going to stand there and look at me?” She asks, bringing him out of his thoughts.
“I was lost in thought, okay?” He huffs, and a few leaves on the ground swirl around his feet.
“Of course you were.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Oh nothing, nothing.” She grins. For barely a second he can see confusion on her face, but she quickly steels her face back to the grin.
He squints at her, suspicious. “Y’know, you shouldn’t lie to the beings of the forest. It’s kind of bad karma.”
“I doubt you’d have it in you to hurt me, darling.” She says confidently. It’s supposed to be a threat, a bluff, something that’s often woven into Cleo’s words.
But the worst thing about it all, is that she’s entirely correct. The too-human feelings and morals are still hung fresh in his heart, and he hasn’t had the time to shake them off.
(That’s the excuse he tells himself, anyways.)
He couldn’t lay a finger on her even if the whole forest was urging him to.
~
After hours of talking, the sky slowly starts to shift into hues of orange, pink, and purple.
The human looks up to the vast sky above them. Bdubs can’t help but watch her as she admires the beautiful colours for a few moments. The light really brings out the colour in her eyes and face, he thinks. There’s no longer the green-blue tinge of her skin that he’s used to, but the fascinating way the light dances in her eyes is the same as it’s always been.
“I think I should be heading back into the village now.” She breaks the silence, standing up and dusting the grass off of her pants.
He stays silent. For a moment, he had forgotten that they didn’t share a home, and the ache in his heart reminds him that this is not his Cleo, no matter how much he wants her to be.
“Well yes of course!” Bdubs speaks up. “You wouldn’t want to stay out here too long. During the night…” He lowers his brows and trails off menacingly. The trees above them bend ever so slightly, cutting off the remaining light with their canopy of leaves.
She raises an eyebrow at him and looks around, pretending not to be startled by the sudden change. “During the night what ?”
The trees go back to as they were before, and Bdubs grins. “Oh don’t worry about it, it’s not like you’re talking to a guy who can control nature.”
She sighs, partly out of relief and partly out of exasperation. “Is that it? I thought you were warning me about something that was actually scary.”
“Hey!”
She laughs again, and turns to leave. “Well, I’ll be off. I expect I’ll see you again sometime.”
He makes a noise of agreement. “Yeah, yeah probably.” He replies, waving goodbye.
Bdubs lies back onto the grass, not wanting to get up. Maybe he’ll just rest here for the night.
~
Weeks later when he runs into her, she’s just entering the forest.
“No watchtower today?” He asks, appearing from within the leaves.
He’s gotten somewhat used to her watch shifts, and today is the first time she exits the village without following those times.
“Nope.” She replies, unphased by his sudden appearance. She checks her belt to make sure she has everything.
Bdubs follows at her side, and they both continue walking.
He’s confused on why she needs to go into the woods. He hasn’t really seen anyone leave the village from this side other than her, and even then, he hasn’t seen her do anything besides her job.
“Doing anythin’ specific in here or…?” He asks.
“Not really, to be entirely honest.” She responds, and steps over an exposed tree root. “Just needed to take a break. People are tiring sometimes, you know?”
He nods in understanding. “Good thing I’m not a person!”
She laughs quietly. “Really now? I would never have guessed. You ? Not a human ? How surprising.”
They continue on for a while, just walking in the forest. Bdubs hums a tune to fill the silence. Eventually they reach a point where the path slowly dwindles out.
Suddenly she stops and turns to look at him.
“If I leave this path, will you do some odd fae stuff and make it so I never leave the forest again?” She asks. The complete seriousness of her question catches him off guard.
As much as he hates to admit it, he has considered doing exactly that. She is firm in her beliefs and that means leading her astray is not the easiest of tasks, but he’d be willing to put in the effort it takes.
But it also means not letting her go. He doesn’t want to lose her again, really. He thinks he’d do almost anything to prevent that.
Inevitably she would be very upset with him if he did end up doing it. That’s also something he would do many things to prevent. No one wants to be on the receiving end of her anger.
“I won’t.” He replies with wholehearted honesty. He doesn’t joke, and he doesn’t smile. It feels wrong to say that with such honesty, and it feels like he should be doing more to trick humans. He ignores that feeling.
She nods, satisfied. “Thank you.” She turns and continues further into the forest.
It takes him a second to catch up.
There’s something dark brewing in her eyes that he hasn’t seen in a long time. Dancing light turned to lashing fire, spreading ash to everything surrounding it.
“What happened?” He blurts before he can think it over.
“Pardon?” She responds, still trudging forward. She pushes through a thicket of bushes with more force than necessary.
He follows, as he always does. “You look upset! You wouldn’t be upset for no reason.”
It takes little hesitation from her to start talking. “It’s not that big of a deal, but it pissed me off.” She sighs. “Almost nobody in town has been listening when I tell them that winter is coming earlier this year. I can feel the changes, but apparently no one else can!”
Bdubs falters and stumbles over a fallen branch. “Winter is coming earlier?” He asks in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. Images of a bloodied red crown flash in his mind.
She stops walking and turns, steadying him with her hand on his shoulder. She looks at him with a soft concern, another expression that he hasn’t seen in a long time. “Yes, winter is coming earlier. It’s not that big of a deal currently, but the farmers really need to be wary of it. I don’t genuinely have anything against anyone for not listening, they’re friendly most of the time.”
“Right, right. Yeah.” He nods. “I didn’t even realize.”
“Aren’t you some sort of forest spirit?”
“Well yeah! Doesn’t mean I can predict the weather.” He crosses his arms.
They fall silent, and she turns around to continue walking. Bdubs follows.
“I never did ask your name!” He changes the topic. Is her name even Cleo? He half hopes so. It would be kind of awkward if this entire time he was calling her the wrong name in his head.
“Seriously? Do you really think I’m going to give you my name? In the middle of your domain?” She scoffs at him, partially amused.
“Oh. Right.”
“What, did you forget that I have common sense?”
“No, no! Not at all. I just forgot that the whole ‘name’ thing is important.”
“You forgot.”
“Yes I forgot!”
“Some fairy you are, then. Can’t even trick a human properly.”
“Hey!” He elbows her arm. “I’m a great fairy! You could be tricked right now, and you wouldn’t even know.”
“Really?” She tries to hold back an entertained smile.
“Yes really! You have no faith in me.”
“Sure, sure. No faith at all.”
They fall into another comfortable silence. The doom in her face has softened considerably and Bdubs smiles to himself, accomplished.
~
The sky is white today, entirely covered by a blanket of clouds.
It seems like the type of day that Bdubs would stay inside all day and sharpen his gear, but he can’t do that anymore. He has no bowstrings to tighten and he has no arrows to make. So now, he just sits under a tree, watching the sky for rain.
He fiddles with some tall grass, weaving the blades into some sort of bizarre attempt at a square. The end result turns out to be more of a misshapen pentagon. He tosses it aside and onto the ground next to him.
He starts again with a different way of weaving, and this square becomes even uglier than the last.
‘ Great way to spend a dreary day. ’ He thinks sarcastically and tosses that ‘square’ with the other one.
He spends an abnormally long time trying to weave a good square, to no avail.
Suddenly he hears the gentle pitter-patter of rain on the leaves above him. He watches in fascination as a drop of water slowly flows down a leaf and drips off of the end, onto the grass below.
The rain continues at a steady pace, not getting any heavier and not getting any lighter.
He tosses the forgotten half-woven square next to all the other ones and watches it soak up the water from the damp ground.
The familiar creak of the watchtower door is a quiet sound in the loud rain, but he hears it nonetheless.
“Afternoon.” The human says. It’s barely audible over the rain.
He grins. “Good afternoon!”
She sits just at the inside of the doorway and raises an eyebrow. “I would say it’s more of a damp afternoon, not a good one. Wet afternoon. A moist afternoon, even.”
He laughs from his dry spot under a tree. At least, it’s dry for now. He hopes it’ll stay dry until the rain lets up.
It just happens that a large leaf directly above Bdubs has been weighed down from the amount of water gathering on it. Bdubs lets the leaf shift, and the water comes pouring down onto his head.
He feigns surprise, but it turns into some abomination of fake and real shock due to how freezing the water is.
He can hear laughter from his companion as he sputters and coughs, trying to get the water off of his face.
“Don’t laugh!” He chokes in between coughs. “Not funny!”
“Oh but it is funny!” She cackles. “You’re absolutely drenched!”
As if on cue, water starts to steadily drip onto his head.
“This is the worst!” He bats at the water, trying to somehow get it to stop. Technically he could stop the water, but it’s much more entertaining this way.
Bdubs stands up. The only other dry spot he can see is the inside of the watchtower, where she is sitting.
“Envy my un-dampness, do you?” She sees him eyeing the doorway.
“And what if I do?”
“Well, I can’t say that I’d tell you off for it.”
He takes that as an invitation to join her in the watchtower. He swiftly walks through the frigid open rain between the tree and the door, desperately trying not to slip on the wet grass.
Clumsily, he falls to the ground at the doorway in a wild attempt to sit down. She reaches out and catches him with an oomf.
“I can’t believe you’ve brought your dampness in here with you.” She sighs, pretending to be offended.
“My dampness is great thank you very much. Very nourishing. I’m like a plant, you know? I gotta be watered.”
“I feel like that’s not the truth.”
“It is!”
“Is that why you’re so short? There hasn’t been much rain lately?”
“Yes exactly.” He pauses. “Hey wait! I’m not short! I’m perfectly average height.”
“If you say so.”
“I do say so.” He huffs.
“Then I suppose you’re not short anymore, if you really do say so.”
“Now you’re just mocking me!”
“No, who said that? I’d never mock you.” The ever-growing grin on her face betrays her words.
“This day can’t get any worse.”
She giggles and gently pats his head. “There there, sometimes life puts you face to face with some terrible terrible truths. Said terrible truths being the fact of how tall you are.”
“I’m not talking to you anymore.”
One of her arms is still wrapped around him from when she broke his fall, but he turns slightly to look at the sky. It seems to be getting lighter, and he catches glimpses of the sun peeking through the thick blanket of clouds. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see her also looking up.
“This is nice.” She says softly.
He hums in agreement, and leans onto her shoulder.
It feels familiar in a painfully good way.
~
Bdubs smells the fire before he sees it.
From outside of the village walls, he thinks that perhaps someone had started a fire in the forest. But as smoke slowly starts to rise from what he assumes to be the centre of town, all he can think is ‘ This must have been her. ’
He can’t think of a reason why she would even set a fire in the village. Maybe someone has wronged her somehow, that’s the only option he can think of.
He knows that she doesn’t have work today, but she had said the night before that she would show up anyways. She’s been staying for longer and longer and even visiting him outside her work hours. It’s nice, he thinks.
A few short minutes after he sees the smoke, the shouting starts.
He hears loud arguing, and he hears the telltale sound of metal clashing on metal. There are swords being used in the village. Are the villagers fighting each other?
Bdubs doesn’t know. He debates whether or not he should sneak in and see for himself.
If he enters the village, the villagers would know that he’s one of the forest. He looks similar to a human in many ways, but the moss and foliage that covers him would be a dead giveaway as to where he comes from. He doesn’t have the time to get rid of it enough to convincingly blend in.
They would know that he shouldn’t be there, they would think that he isn’t there for good reason.
His companion had told him once about a hidden key in the watchtower that grants access to the village. She said that he could use it whenever he pleases. He hasn’t used it once.
He makes his way over to the watchtower and uncovers the key hidden beneath a loose floorboard. He stares at it, and picks it up. It feels heavy in his hand and as if it could burn a hole straight through his palm.
Is this a moment when he should use it?
He glances at the open door behind him that leads to the outside, then at the closed door that leads to the village.
He can hear the fire raging and the villagers shouting. There are more screams now, he notes.
Suddenly from outside, Bdubs sees a flash of grey weave between the trees and bushes.
The village is being thrown apart by raiders.
He takes an iron sword off of the wall. The extra weapons that she always has stored somewhere certainly come in handy right now. Her paranoia is handy for survival sometimes, he thinks.
He steps out the door, wary. The sword is held in front of him with a quivering hand. He tries to will it to stay steady.
Bdubs can feel the pillager in the bushes, disturbing the flora that has been his home for nearly a year now.
As quietly as he can, he sneaks behind the stranger. He raises his sword to strike, but the pillager hears him at the last second.
They engage in a simple fight with just iron tools, but it takes more effort out of Bdubs than it should. There has been no practicing of his swordsmanship since the end of the game. He’s rusty, and in that sense similar to his abandoned tools left at the Crastle years ago.
The pillager falls at his feet, dead, and he can’t bring himself to regret it.
He’s more bloodied and bruised than he thought he would be. Cuts litter his face and body but he barely notices them over the sound of his heart pounding in his ears.
It’s in that moment when he makes up his mind on the village. He runs to the watchtower and unlocks the inside door with little hesitation.
The sight that greets him is near exactly what he expected, but it still makes him stumble to a stop. Houses half-crumbled in piles of ash, the scattered body on the ground, and fresh blood seeping into the dirt.
He quickly starts walking again and follows the path to the centre of the village, where he can hear the bell’s incessant ringing. ‘Are bells automated now? ’ He wonders. He shakes his head to clear that thought and to focus on the task at hand.
The town square enters his vision, with a fight raging in the middle of it.
She’s there, fighting more pillagers than she knows she can handle.
Cleo’s there, fighting more men in an army that was always going to outnumber her.
He’s frozen where he stands, the smell of ash burning his lungs.
Bdubs is standing on the hill watching as Skizz chases her down the river .
He will not let her meet this fate for the second time.
As fast as he can gather himself, he inserts into the battle but doesn’t stay to fight. He grabs her hand and turns, running as fast as he can without tearing her arm off. The weeds in the cracks of the path spring underneath his feet in an attempt to assist him in sprinting faster.
He can hear the furious shouts of the pillagers as they chase him. He spares a moment to glance back at them. They seem to notice the gleam of the forest in his eyes and the unnaturally green plant life at his feet. The realizations make them skid to a stop, horrified looks on their faces.
He spares a moment to grin in a twisted sense of pride.
She’s bleeding more than she should be, and the blood is making a dark trail that starkly contrasts the vibrant ground beneath them.
Soon they reach the watchtower exit, and he locks the door behind them. The outside door stays open, letting in the smell of the flowers and the trees.
It almost feels taunting, the fact that the forest is unchanged. The flowers are mocking him, smelling as sweet as ever, while the one person he truly cares about is bleeding out in the very tower that led them to meet in the first place.
She groans and her legs give out. They both collapse into the floor with their fall just barely slowed by Bdubs’ efforts.
She’s clutching a large gash at her side, and he doesn’t know what to do.
They sit in near silence, save for the occasional sharp intake of breath. The wooden floor is slowly being stained red.
“I’ll miss you.” She says, and her weak laugh turns into a coughing fit. Her hand tightens on his arm for a moment.
He smiles. “You have no idea.”
And she doesn’t, really. She has no idea about how this is his second time watching her die. That this is the second time he was too late. He half hopes it’s the last.
“The village is ruined, isn’t it?” She sighs, disappointed.
Bdubs wants to look out the window. He wants to check the wreckage now that it’s over. He wants to let her know that her village has survived.
But he can’t. He can’t take his eyes off of her. He can’t assure her that everything is okay. He needs to hold onto this moment as long as he can.
“Who knows?” He replies.
Very subtly, she shrugs in some sort of defeat. He wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been paying the closest attention he possibly can to her.
Her breathing is slowing down. There’s not much time left.
Sometimes, he wishes his clock still worked. The scuffed golden device is heavy in his pocket, stuck permanently at the time he won Grian’s game.
In her final act of strength, she reaches to the shelf next to them and takes a flower out of it’s pot. A blue orchid.
She tucks it behind his ear, and smiles at her work.
“I’m sorry.” She whispers. It seems as if the rest of the world is silent, mourning someone who’s not yet dead. “I didn’t want to leave you.”
“I’m sorry too.” He wants to say her name, but feels something in his deep instincts resisting. “It wasn’t too bad, right? We had a good time.”
She hums a noise of agreement. “I suppose we did.”
“Hey! What do you mean ‘suppose’?” He can’t help but smile. “We had a great time!”
“Of course.” She smiles back.
And her vibrant green eyes dim.
Bdubs does not weep, nor he does he shout. He stands up, gently taking her body with him.
He walks outside to the forest and lays her next to a tree. Perhaps it’s intentional that it’s the very tree he would sit under while talking to her during her shifts.
He unties her hair, letting the orange curls cushion her head along with the soft grass.
Flowers bloom and surround her corpse, giving her the most beautiful funeral with only one attendee as witness.
“Bye, Cleo.” He whispers.