Chapter Text
When Dream opened his eyes, everything looked weird. So weird in fact, that it took his brain a few seconds to recognize that he had no idea where he was.
He scrambled up, vertigo immediately taking him as he fell to the ground with a pained sound. A sigh escaped him and blew through the grass in front of him, before he turned onto his back again, staring at the wide sky above him.
His first thought was that this was a dream. A pinch to the arm discouraged that notion.
His second thought was that Sapnap was pranking him, but that too got immediately dismissed. His best friend was scared of even just waking him up, he wouldn't do that - and even if he wanted to, Dream would have woken up.
He tried to stand up again, this time slower, and smiled triumphantly when he managed it, though with shaking legs. There were no cameras or people around him, just an endless, green field surrounded by tall, dark trees.
“Nick?!” he yelled, his voice carried far away by the gentle breeze. Nobody answered except for the quiet echo. "Sapnap?!"
Everything looked weirdly blocky, from the clouds floating leisurely in the sky to the tall, swaying grass that almost reached his knees. It was beautiful and calm, a scene he would take more time to appreciate if he wasn't here against his will. He reached for his phone before groaning, hands going slack in his empty pockets. Of course, of fucking course. The last thing he remembered was going to bed, now he was standing there with bare feet, loose, green shorts and his black merch hoodie.
Nothing he could change now though except find a way back home. God, he had watched so many survival shows about people in the wilderness, but now he had no idea what to do. It truly was easier pointing at the TV and making fun of others for doing stupid decisions than to make those decisions yourself. Hell, he had barely left his home in so many months, and even before he had never been a fan of going out into nature.
“The sun rises in the east, right?” Scratching his head, he looked towards the bright light. He would simply choose a direction to wander and then determine in which cardinal direction he was going so as to not walk in circles.
After several hours of wandering into the northeastern direction, he was beginning to wonder if the landscape was indeed weird or if he just didn’t go out enough. There were no streams, only shallow ponds in which no creatures resided. It had taken all of his willpower not to kneel down and drink, ease his dry mouth, after all he did know that bacteria liked to grow in these kinds of ponds. It would be better to drink from a river should he ever find one. He hadn’t been attacked by any mosquitos and even though the sun shone, he didn’t sweat in his warm hoodie. Doubt started to grow in his mind that he was still in Florida.
After what felt like another hour, the grass came to an end, bordering instead on hard sand and after that- finally!
He quashed the impulse to run towards the river, instead saving his energy and walking fast. Greedily he began to drink from the stream, only stopping when his stomach began hurting.
This was good. People in the survival shows always said to find a stream and go downstream to find a city. His abused feet would have to suffer a bit more but he had hope that he would soon find something. With a sharp exhale, he took off his shirt and then threw his hoodie back on. The next minutes he spent in a humiliating battle with his shirt, trying to rip it into two even pieces.
"This- this looks easier in the movies," he gasped, frantically pulling at the collar until his hands were rubbed red and he was holding two completely unproportionally divided pieces of cloth in his hands. With a clenched jaw he tied them around his feet, sighing in relief when tiny sticks and stones didn't dig into his skin anymore when he stood up. God, he should have done this ages ago. For a moment he cursed evolution for making humans dependent on shoes.
He could do this. He wasn't a survival expert but he did have luck on his side. Sometimes. Not very often but sometimes.
The river ended near a mountain, killing his hope with a crushing disappointment. Didn’t rivers end in lakes or something?!
“What the hell is going on here?!” he screamed, a desire to destroy something suddenly overcoming, making him punch a tree in a sudden burst of desperation. A part of the tree flew away, leaving a blank space where once had been wood. He stared at it. “What.” He rubbed his eyes and stared harder. The blank space was still there. "What?!" Even after he held his hand in the middle, waving it around like a magician presenting his levitation trick, the space stayed empty and the tree continued to float in the air.
A movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Something was floating over the floor, smaller than his palm and slightly transparent. Confused he stretched out his arm, jumping back with a scream when it whizzed towards him. Slowly, he got out of his protective fetus position and stared at the thing that was still floating over his hand as if magnetized by it. It looked like a part of a trunk, just in miniature. When he closed his hand over it, it gave out a slight pulse, and when his hand flinched open in shock, instead four wooden boxes in a light color had replaced it.
The creeping suspicion he had gotten the more time he had spent in this place, a suspicion he hadn’t wanted to even consider, hit him like a truck, and he found himself reeling, staring with a gaping mouth at the wooden blocks over his palm.
Minecraft.
He was in Minecraft.
How the hell was he in Minecraft?!
He stared around wildly before his gaze focused on the same tree again. He raised his hand and punched it.
"Ow, shit! What the- what the fuck!" he yelled, cradling the hand carefully against his chest. The block of the trunk was still there, as if mocking him. He punched it again, this time gentler. Nothing happened except for another bruise on his knuckles.
What did he do differently last time? He had screamed, he had been angry, he had wanted to destroy something- was that it? The intention of destroying something?
He raised his hand again and took a deep breath, focusing on his intention. Then he punched the block. Like last time it disappeared and turned into its smaller form, immediately snapping towards him when he held out his hand.
"Amazing," he whispered, balling his hand together like last time. And like last time the trunk turned into four wooden blocks.
With wide eyes he stared at the blocks, wondering if he could turn them into a crafting table. Then, remembering the last time, he summoned his intention to be able to craft. In front of him, a transparent picture appeared like a hologram, looking exactly like a minecraft inventory, just without the view of his character, the hotbar menu and the slots for armor and shield.
The other wooden blocks from the first trunk were in the first slot of his inventory and appeared in his hand when he stretched it out to them.
"What the fuck," he whispered again, mind still not completely caught on. He was in a video game. A god damn video game.
Maybe he had eaten something bad and was now hallucinating about Minecraft when he was actually lying dying on a hospital bed. That would probably come from spending as many hours as he did in Minecraft. His friends would laugh at him if he told them.
Maybe it was like in one of those anime Sapnap liked to tell him about, in which players got transported into their favorite games and had to complete them to get out. Which meant that he would probably find other players, his other friends!
New resolution grew in him. He would speedrun the first steps, find his friends and then get the fuck out of here.
--
Playing Minecraft was a hell of a lot easier in a game than in real life. Mining stone with a pickaxe was exhausting and made his arms hurt, an axe was heavier than he had expected, and the first time he had swung it around, he had to promptly craft a new one after he hadn't been able to pull it out of a tree. That axe would stay there forever. Blocks from the ground were weird too. If he simply put his hand inside of sand, it would just glide off his skin just like in the real world, but if he wanted to pick it up as a block with clear intention, then it would appear in his hand. He didn't spend too much time gathering materials, he needed to find other people or a village before night approached. A chat function didn’t seem to exist, and it also wasn’t possible to see who else was present.
His limits became quickly clear, not in his capabilities but in his weak heart, when he stood before a cow, axe raised and ready to strike.
"Come on," he told himself, arms trembling with the weight behind him. "You can do it. It's just a bunch of code, it's not a living cow, you're not even vegetarian!"
The cow stared at him with a stupid expression, walking towards him to sniff curiously at him before licking his face.
"Hey, come on, that's unfair! I wanna kill you here!"
The cow huffed. Then it turned around and stomped away, leaving him to let his axe fall back into his inventory with a sigh. It looked so similar to a real cow, it was breathing, and it had a child for god's sake!
"You'll have to continue being hungry for a while I guess." Groaning, he slapped his hands against his face. "And I wanted to make leather for shoes!"
He could make wheat but without bonemealing it, it would take around two to three days to grow, and since days in this world actually seemed to last as long as normal days, he didn't want to stay in one place for that long.
So he just clenched his teeth and didn't look at the herd of cows enjoying their meals beside him. Curse his bleeding heart.
-
The sun was slowly beginning to settle and he was wondering if he had to hide underneath the earth to protect himself from mobs, when he finally spotted smoke rising towards the sky about a mile away from him.
"Let's go!" he exclaimed, picking up his pace as well as he could with his bleeding feet and shoes made out of cloth. Other players! He finally wasn't alone anymore and he didn't have to spend a night under the ground!
"Hey!" he screamed when he finally saw houses out of wood and several silhouettes walking around. But before he could get closer, he was suddenly picked up by the scruff of his hoodie, flailing around with a surprised yelp when he came face to face with an iron golem. Tired red eyes bore into his and he could only hang there frozen like a kitten carried by its mother. The golem was absolutely gigantic, and he gulped when he saw how far away the ground was. And it had been able to sneak up with its gigantic form. Or maybe he had simply been too exhausted to hear its loud footsteps.
"Uhh… hi?"
"What do you seek from the village, traveler?"
Cold air blew around his face, making him shudder. The voice was deep and rumbling, containing a certain metal hollowness like someone speaking into a long pipe.
Startled, he stared at it open mouthed. They could talk in this world?!
"I, uh… need a place to stay? And to meet other players?"
He was placed down gently, leaving only faint memories of cold fingers on his hoodie. He needed to tilt his head and take a step back to even look into the eyes of this absolute behemoth. "Proceed then. But be warned, any harm to the residents will be met with punishment."
With that, the iron golem continued its trek around the village, leaving him to stare at it until it disappeared around the corner.
Quickly he shook his head to snap out of it. He should quickly get used to these oddities, he couldn't let himself get surprised by everything- especially when he intended to go to the nether. Shuddering, he quickly dismissed any thought about that hell. Future-Dream could deal with that. Present-Dream just wanted to fall into bed and sleep for several days.
The village was big and full of villagers that looked too weird in a realistic setting. They were furry, brown creatures with long noses and no differentiating traits besides their clothing, but what startled him the most was that he could understand what they were saying. They stopped mid conversation when he walked past them but didn't approach him, instead following him with suspicious gazes.
At the town square, he finally spotted someone who looked official, and walked towards them, being greeted with an official nod when they saw him.
"Ahh, a traveler," they said. "Greetings. My name is Hmmm and I'm the mayor of this esteemed town. How can we help you?"
"Uhm- greetings!" he coughed awkwardly. "My name is Clay- uh, Dream, and- well, it's a bit weird, but I suddenly found myself alone here without anything and just needed a place to stay."
The mayor nodded sagely. "Of course, of course, we do have a few free beds. Are you in possession of emeralds?
Dream hid a wince. "... no?"
"Anything to trade? Wheat? Raw meat? Squid ink?"
With every shake of the head, the mayor looked less and less impressed with him.
"Sticks?" the mayor finally asked.
"I- uhm, well, I have seven? I could- I mean, I- I could get more?"
The mayor rubbed the middle of their unibrow in exasperation. "Fine," they said. "My brother has a thing for helping lost puppies. I'm sure he'll take you in. If you intend to stay for more than one night though, you will have to pull your weight or leave."
Dream nodded quickly under the annoyed gaze of the mayor.
"Hmmm!" the villager yelled, and another figure in the clothes of a librarian appeared. Blinking, Dream wondered if all villagers carried the name Hmmm.
Similar to the mayor, the fur covered the mouth of the new villager but his green eyes seemed to twinkle in delight when they fell on Dream.
"A traveler!" he exclaimed.
"Hmmm, this is Clay uh Dream."
"It's just Dream!" he threw in.
"Just Dream!" the librarian yelled. His booming voice was apparently his normal volume. "Oh, look at the state of you, poor thing! Hmmm, how long has it been since we had one of them?"
"You had other travelers?" Dream asked eagerly. "When were they here?"
The mayor stroked the fur on their chin. "Not that long ago. A few days I think. That darn cod-head killed one of our iron golems - Bob, may he rest in peace - and then just walked away! He went north if I recall correctly. Other than that we don't get many travelers who aren't Hmmm."
"Ugh," the librarian groaned. "Hmmm, did you know that annoying wandering trader came here again with his rip offs that he calls trades. Wanted to sell me white dye for one emerald. What a joke! Oh, and he calls himself HmmmHmmm now, that imbecile!"
Dream coughed into his fist when the two siblings continued complaining about the wandering trader. Usually he would be more polite and listen but at that moment he was too exhausted and hurt to even think about manners. They startled and looked at him, before recognition lit up their faces.
"Ah yes, the traveler! Just Dream!" the librarian said. "Come, I'll give you a warm bed and a hot meal, you look like you need it!"
Relief flooded through him at the thought of finally being able to rest.
"Are all villagers called Hmmm?" he asked when the librarian led him though the village into a two story house that looked so comfortable, it called to him like a siren.
"What are you talking about?" the librarian laughed and opened the unlocked door. "My name is Hmmm! And my sister's name is Hmmm! And my neighbor's name is Hmmm!"
"Yeah," Dream frowned. "Hmmm."
"No, traveler, Hmmm! Hmmm is the name of my friend who tragically departed from us last year."
"Oh," Dream said, wincing. He hadn't intended to step on that bees nest. "I'm sorry. What happened?"
"He decided to become a wandering trader and calls himself HmmmHmHmm now! Can you believe it?! That guy wanted to trade one single wheat seed for one emerald! Talk about a rip off-"
Ten minutes later he was standing inside of the living room, swaying on his feet and snapping out of sleep every few seconds while the librarian was still angrily ranting about his former friend. Usually he would be polite and continue letting the other talk, but it felt like he would keel over dead if he stayed awake for one more minute.
"I-" he got interrupted by a yawn and the librarian patted his shoulder with a twinkle in his eyes. "-think I would really like to go to bed now."
--
The next morning the librarian sent him off with a full stomach, some cooked meat, a water poach, a few hay bales, a water bucket and leather shoes, which he accepted with a tremendous amount of gratitude. Hmmm was ashamed that he couldn't at least give him a pair of leather pants, but Dream immediately shot up to assure him that it was more than enough.
"I can't- I can't repay this!" Guiltily he looked up at the villager but he waved it off with a smile underneath his thick fur.
"You looked like you needed it, Just Dream! And hey, if you'll ever be around again, give me a visit! Oh, and should you ever meet HmmmHmHmm, tell him he can sock it!"
Laughing, Dream nodded and gave him another toothy smile.
The librarian waved until the village was far behind him and he was walking towards where the librarian had pointed him to find the other player, even though he had expressed surprise that Dream wanted to find someone who would kill an iron golem just like that.
For a short moment he thought about going back and robbing their chests, before dismissing that entirely.
This world felt too real to just be a bunch of code, they were breathing, had lives and personalities and weren't just NPCs. He couldn't possibly rob them, not after the librarian had so kindly given him so many of his things.
The next hours were spent again simply walking in one direction. It got boring pretty fast, the landscape did not seem to change at all beside the position of the sun. Cold air blew around his naked calves and he was grateful that last night in Florida it had been colder than usual because that meant that he had gone to bed with a hoodie rather than simply a t-shirt.
A couple of bees followed him for a while, much bigger than in the real world, but for some reason not eliciting any fear in him. He laughed when one of them landed on his head, ruffling his hair, and gave it a gentle pet which the bee accepted with an excited buzz.
He only paused to craft bread out of wheat and eat it with a grimace. The librarian had explained to him that crafted food items tended to taste much more bland than if they had been prepared the normal way, but Dream didn't have the time to bake the bread. He only needed to survive after all.
Too absorbed in his thoughts, he didn't even notice the distinct sound of an arrow whizzing through the air, until a sharp sting suddenly appeared on his leg, tearing a piece of fabric off his shorts.
"What the fu-"
He whirled around and came face to face with a skeleton underneath the shadows of the trees, bow drawn back to point an arrow directly at him. It was horrifying and uncanny, not necessarily because of its looks but because it felt like a human being, it walked like a human being, but he knew that it was dead.
"Shit!" he cursed and threw himself to the side when another arrow flew past him. Without looking back, he started running in a zig-zag pattern until he was far away, until his heart was beating heavily and his breath got too erratic and fast, and he crashed onto the floor with a gasp, trembles overtaking his body.
He had almost been killed. The arrow had grazed him, made him bleed, and no health bar had appeared. For the first time he wondered what would happen if he died in this world.
Fuck.
Fuck.
That thought made him gag until he was vomiting over the grass, coughing until there was nothing left except for bile.
With a trembling hand he took a pouch out of his inventory and washed out his mouth to get rid of the terrible taste. He just had to play carefully. Not engage with mobs or just use long ranged weapons. Never go out at night. Going into the nether would come later, now he didn't have to think about that. Now he only had to think about surviving through the next day.
On shaky legs he carefully stood up and continued to walk. Compartmentalize, he told himself. For now he only needed to find the other player. Then he could think about what came after.
--
The scratch on his leg had crusted over and he had been walking for another few hours when he spotted smoke rising into the sky not too far away from him. Either he had found another village or the player had made a campfire, one way or the other it could only mean good things.
He increased his speed, almost jogging towards what he now could recognize as a campfire and a single person sitting in front of it.
"Hey!" he yelled out, relief flooding through his body. Another human, he had finally met another player!
The person turned around, and Dream's eyes widened. Dark brown, almost black, hair, a bandana, a brown cloak over enchanted netherite armor, a pair of golden, glowing eyes like molten lava- but it was still unmistakably Sapnap.
Dream let out a laugh, almost choking on tears. "God, you're here too! How long have you been here, you already got a full set of netherite armor, what the hell!"
In his relief he didn't notice that Sapnap's shock at seeing him wasn't born out of happiness. Instead, a twisted anger was growing in his expression the more Dream talked.
"And you- you even look like your skin! I'm just, I mean, well I'm just happy I wasn't dropped in here as my skin, god knows what that would have looked like!" Grinning, he finally arrived in front of his friend. "Sapnap?"
"... Dream," Sapnap said slowly.
"Come here!" Dream spread out his arms and went to hug him, freezing on the spot when Sapnap raised his axe towards his neck.
"Sapnap?" he asked again with a shaky voice, his smile turning into a grimace the longer his best friend looked at him with those furious, burning eyes. The hands he had raised for an embrace instead became a plea for peace.
"Dream," Sapnap growled again, breathing ash and smoke out of his mouth. "What the fuck are you doing out of prison?!"