Chapter Text
Tommy was fine that morning. He woke up feeling fine, he'd gotten ready for the day feeling fine, he'd even made it through Dream's visit feeling fine. But then he saw a feather laying at the entrance of his tent. A single black feather.
A single black crow feather.
It had felt like there was just a tidal wave of memories rushing through his mind. All the times he'd cooed at crows that always hung around where he lived as a small child. All the small feathers he collected and kept safe. Or the ones that he'd sacrificed after… conversing with them some.
It had reminded him on cold nights when one of his mentors from school would bring him home with them because Tommy wasn't safe at home. It reminded him of dark wings that would wrap around him after a nightmare, something so unpreventable that Tommy was surprised that his mentor's dad would still try. Every time that Tommy was over for the night, Philza had tried to soothe away Tommy's nightmares.
Tommy hadn't seen a crow, or even their feathers, since Philza had joined the server.
Seeing one laying so innocently in front of his tent after so long almost… scared Tommy. He'd definitely felt like a bucket of ice water had been dropped down overtop of him. Afterwards, it had felt like Tommy had just begun to slowly feel worse and worse.
He'd rushed to pick the feather up, holding it so carefully in his hands with wide eyes and a racing heart. He was quick to shove the feather into his inventory, turning and sitting on the sandy beach with his knees pulled up to his chest as he began to cry.
He'd ignored the caw of a crow that sounded so different yet so familiar.
Tommy winced, a pain slowly spreading across his back as he waited almost anxiously for Dream's arrival. It wasn't usual for Dream to be late. Even less usual for one of Dream's visits to be in the afternoon after near months of it always being first thing in the morning.
He wasn't sure how, or why, but he felt like it was going to be a bad visit when he did arrive, which only made Tommy all the more anxious. The knowledge that his 'feelings' were always correct, in some form or another, only made him feel worse, and not with anxiety. He felt sick to his stomach.
Even at just the brief reminder of everything he'd predicted as a child, Tommy felt sick to his stomach. He almost felt like crying, but there was always the possibility that Dream could show up while Tommy was crying. Dream never liked it when Tommy cried.
Tommy swallowed as he started pacing, a feeling of restlessness filling him the longer he waited by the Nether Portal that Dream used to visit him most days. He never came by boat. He used to, though. Back during the first month that Tommy had been exiled.
He would use that over Tommy's head all the time, his hands having gotten hurt too many times by the old boat ores and the splinters. The only reason he probably still didn't come by boat was because the ores had snapped and the boat had sprung a leak somewhere that Dream couldn't find to fix.
Tommy sighed, looking up at the sun to see if he could figure out what time of day it was. He'd never been the best at telling the time with the positioning of the sun, that had always been more of Wilbur's thing… He looked away as a feeling of frustration began to rise up in Tommy… Before it was quickly wiped out by a deep seated guilt.
Dream took time out of his day, out of his very busy schedule, to visit Tommy. Those visits could always be stopped, even without warning… Without warning.
Tommy felt a jolt of realization before a wave of pain rushed through him. Both literal pain and the emotional kind that always annoyed his friend. Tommy stumbled away from the Nether Portal, tears welling up in his eyes against all of Tommy's best interests.
During Dream's last visit, Tommy must have done something to upset or annoy Dream enough for him to stop visiting. That's why there was no visit today. The answer seemed so obvious, now that Tommy had remembered some of Dream's hurtful jabs. No, that was a mean thought.
Dream had never meant to be hurtful, and it wasn't fair to think of any of his actions as such. Dream had only been trying to help Tommy. He'd been trying to help Tommy learn and understand. And Tommy had failed.
A quiet sob escaped Tommy as he dropped just outside of his tent. His back felt like it was on fire and it was starting to scare him. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt. And Tommy wanted it to stop and it wasn't stopping.
Tommy flinched as something landed next to him. He forced his eyes, which had squeezed shut at some point from his knees touching the ground and then, to open. He turned his head and found that there was a crow staring at him with a look akin to curiosity in its eyes.
Tommy flinched, less than before, as the crow hopped just a tad bit closer.
"Hello," Tommy greeted. His voice was shaky, which wasn't that surprising. It always was when he was hurt, or hurting he supposed. He swallowed as the crow came close enough to bump its head against his cheek. "It's been a long while since one of you has been near." The crow tilted its head curiously.
Another wave of pain washed over Tommy. He yelped, turning his head so that he was looking down at the sand that he was currently kneeling on top of. He could faintly feel the crow bumping its head against Tommy's cheek, crooning softly.
Tommy was panting lightly when the wave of pain ended. He was panting slightly, which he only noticed when the crow trilled lightly. There was a seemingly slow pattern that the crow was mimicking. A mix of trills and chirps that didn't take Tommy barely any time to realize was the crow walking him through a breathing exercise.
He could remember hiding in the forests, crying and panicking because he was hurt and lost. He'd run out there when his father had gotten mad at him and hadn't intended on getting lost. Nothing usually went how Tommy wanted it to. He could also remember how the crows around his home had learned how to communicate with Tommy, at least in a sense. When he was to panicked to listen, they would make patterns.
Patterns that usually followed breathing patterns.
Tommy took a breath in at the start of the next trill, breathing in until it ended and then holding as the crow chirped. The next trill had him releasing the breath. Then the two of them repeated the pattern. Over and over and over again. And then for some more time after that, just to make sure that Tommy wasn't going to start hyperventilating at quick movements from his little friend.
By the time Tommy had calmed down, he'd felt too exhausted to move. Well, too exhausted to move past turned and falling onto his eyes, his eyes opening briefly to stare at the crow who was trilling curiously, trilling in concern.
"Thank you, little friend." Tommy uttered quietly. The pain was, surprisingly, gone. At least, for the most part. Tommy wasn't sure that the pain would ever leave him again but he found that was okay… so long as he was uninjured. Tommy wasn't sure how he would fare if Dream thought he needed to be taught another lesson.
He felt a jolt of hurt at the thought of Dream. He was quick to stop the line of thinking before he worked himself up again.
The tiny crow made a purring sound before taking off into the air. Tommy didn't have the time to feel sadness at his 'little friend' leaving before the crow was back, landing on his chest now that Tommy was mostly on his back. Tommy smiled at the warbles of comfort as the two of them settled.
Prime was Tommy tired, he noted as he yawned suddenly. He hoped that the tiny crow wouldn't mind if Tommy fell asleep. Tommy wasn't going to be able to fight off sleep, even if he tried. And Tommy didn't have the energy to try.
He fell asleep to the soothing warbles and gentle waves.
He woke up screaming as a burning sensation came from his back. His back felt like it was burning, on fire, and like he was being stabbed all at the same time. It was tight, and tense, and Tommy couldn't pull his shirt off fast enough with the fear that his shirt had somehow caught on fire. It didn't.
A sob broke from Tommy's throat, eyes widening in surprise and shock before he was squeezing them shut, another scream coming from him as he twisted onto his stomach. The sand hadn't been the nicest to fall asleep on, and it definitely hadn't helped his back when the pain had come back.
Tommy struggled putting his arms up by his head so that he wasn't getting a mouth full of sand every time he screamed, he had a feeling this was going to be going on for a while and he wanted the reassurance he wasn't going to eat sand.
He didn't know when this was going to end. He wished he did.
A feeling of helplessness washed through Tommy, making him only feel worse as he got a sickening feeling of something in his back moving. He gagged, choking on a sob as he tried to open his eyes so that he could at least see his surroundings. The only thing he knew for certain was that it was dark out.
And the dark meant mobs. Mobs that would want to kill Tommy. Especially while he was down and weak and hurt. Tommy couldn't move though.
He was in too much pain to move.
Tommy sobbed freely into his arm as the pain continued to run through his body. It had spread throughout his body at some point after Tommy had moved onto his stomach.
Another sharp pain, different from the others, ran through his body and Tommy screamed before his teeth bit down into his arm.
He choked on the taste of iron in his mouth but it was like he couldn't get his jaw to listen to him. His teeth were locked in place.
Tommy was sobbing and choking slightly on the little blood that was in his mouth. His back was on fire and Tommy screamed.
"Oh Toms, how did you end up like this?" Tommy groaned lightly, eyes fluttering and looking around him in pain filled confusion. It felt like there was a haze over his mind, like a blanket had wrapped around his senses and was dulling everything. He groaned again as he spotted someone kneeling over him. "Oh Tommy, what happened? What did I miss?"
Tommy noticed that there was a lot of green and black, which initially made him think of Dream, but Dream didn't wear black. Ever. And with how dizzy Tommy felt, he couldn't possibly think of who it was kneeling over him.
"We have to go if we want to get out of here without a fight." Another voice spoke. Tommy looked over, his head lagging behind his command, and found a lot of pink. Tommy groaned, his eyes squeezing shut as arms slipped underneath him in an odd way and lifted him up.
He cried out in pain before everything around him faded out.