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Flame doesn’t really see himself as a kind person. Far from it. But he had his morals, however ambiguous they might be.
“Are you crazy?!” some random said. His voice had gotten all high-pitched and squeaky, as he stared at Wemmbu with wide, disbelieving eyes. “You want me to— to travel through twelve inches of snow without my gear on? At least lend me a torch!”
“Or let him wear clothes,” Flame muttered, pointedly averting his eyes to avoid looking at the pitiful, shivering bird in between the poor guy’s legs.
Wemmbu tuts. His excessively long, purple hair flowed behind him as the wind picked up, almost smacking Flame in the face. He stepped away with an annoyed frown.
“This is your own fault,” Wemmbu said dismissively. He eyed the guy up and down and scrunched his face. “Now get a move on, I’ve got places to be.”
And then he lit the guy’s armor on fire, along with his clothes. And underwear.
“You crazy-!”
“Bro, just walk.” Flame sighed. He would’ve left if he didn’t already promise Mane he’d get that stupid trim for him. The reward for all this trouble better be worth it, or else Mane wouldn’t know what hit him.
“Or would you rather crawl?” The mace in Wemmbu’s hand glinted ominously.
The guy walked.
“So,” Flame started, as they followed him. The guy held his arms tightly to his body, doing his best to protect his fingers from the biting cold by hiding it under his pits. He stuck closer to Flame, drawn by the natural heat he’d been giving off. Flame side-eyed the demon beside him. “You want that trim, too? D’you have diamonds to dupe it? ‘Cause I’m not giving it up.”
“What trim?” Wemmbu cocked his head to the side, then shook it. “Anyway, that’s not what I’m here for.”
“What for, then?”
Wemmbu shrugged. He took out his sword to poke at the guy’s back, urging him to move faster. “There’s this book. A little birdie told me this weakling had it.”
“You’re doing this for a book?” Flame couldn’t believe it. “You are?”
Wemmbu put his sword down. Flame finally turned to face him propely, as their destination appeared before them.
A quaint little house in the middle of nowhere, precariously built on top of a mountain.
“Egg mentioned it a while ago.” Wemmbu wasn’t looking at the house, however. His heavy gaze had instead landed on the player in front of them. “And whatever Egg wants, he gets.”
The guy turned to them and shifted from side to side, ready to bolt. “We’re here. Am I free to go?”
“Nope!” Wemmbu said, and then he chopped the guy’s hand off.
“Agh!”
“Bro?” Flame called, alarmed. Fragger materialized in his hand, held up defensively.
Wemmbu paid him no mind and swung his own sword to the side, leaving an arc of blood across the snow.
“Hand it over now,” Wemmbu said. His sword dissipated and was replaced by his mace. “I can do this all day.”
He doesn’t even let the guy get a word in before he jumped up and smashed his mace right on the guy’s knee.
“FUCK!” the guy screamed. He scrambled to empty his inventory, as he crawled away from Wemmbu. “Take it, take it! You crazy son of a—!”
Among the clutter of items lay a pristine, blue book. And the trim Flame wanted.
Wemmbu’s tail swished delightedly, paying no mind to the way his heels dug deeply into the snow.
“Here, catch.”
Flame caught the trim mid-air.
“Are you h-happy now?” The guy’s teeth were clattering, and he hugged himself even tighter.
Wemmbu turned to him and grinned.
A second later, a death message appeared in Chat.
-
“He’s crazy, bro, I’m telling you,” he told Mane after he had gotten home. “If you ever see him, literally just walk away.”
His brother waved him off. He was too busy admiring his new armor set.
-
They meet again in a village.
Flame doesn’t know why the universe kept pushing them together. He doesn’t want anything to do with the guy, aside from maybe defeating him from time to time.
But unlike a handful of their meetings, Wemmbu wasn’t alone.
“Oh.” Eggchan blinked at him, when they locked eyes. Eye. Whatever.
Eggchan turned to Wemmbu, fluttering his wing against Wemmbu’s face to catch his attention. Flame winced and tried to scan the area for a hiding place. He really didn’t want to talk to that maniac.
“Wem, you’ll never guess who’s here.”
Wemmbu turned. Flame sighed as the demon waved him over.
Flame could leave. He could turn around right now and head back to the Tree and just ignore Mane when he grumbled about him not getting any supplies.
Flame turned around. Parrot’s shocked face greeted him.
“Flame?”
Great. Just great. Why did everyone suddenly decide to come to this random ass village?
“Parrot,” he greeted. And to his side, “Theo.”
“What’re you doing here, bro? And is that Wemmbu?”
“Unfortunately.”
Wemmbu began walking towards them.
“Hey, guys!” he chirped innocently. Ew. “What’s happening here?”
“Uh,” Parrot said smartly. He looked like he wasn’t too used to seeing a Wemmbu outside of a battlefield, more so an amicable one. He and Theo shared a quick glance. “We’re just stocking up on supplies, I suppose.”
“Ah.” Wemmbu nodded. “Same here, same here.”
Flame slowly inched away from the conversation.
Wemmbu grabbed ahold of his collar. He was undeterred when Flame glared at him.
“Let’s shop together, then,” Wemmbu suggested brightly.
Against Flame’s will, they did, indeed, all end up shopping together.
Though he would fervently deny it, it actually made the process a whole lot easier. He let Parrot haggle prices for him, which ended up saving almost half of his budget. Of course, he wouldn’t tell Mane this. Consider it payment for making him do errands.
“Yo, you think I should get this?” Eggchan’s voice drifted from somewhere behind him. Curious, Flame turned around. Eggchan was in front of a stall holding an enchanted fishing rod, and even with Flame’s limited knowledge of anything regarding fishing, he could tell that it was a good one.
But Wemmbu only glanced at it with a frown.
“Don’t get that, it’s useless.”
The Player selling it sputtered in offended protest.
Eggchan rolled his eyes. “I’m buying it anyway. I have my own money.” He turned back to the Player with a handful of diamonds in his off hand. “Here.”
Before the Player could accept the payment, Wemmbu suddenly snatched the fishing rod right out of Eggchan’s hand and tossed it at a nearby cactus. It disappeared instantly.
Flame felt his eye twitch. He doesn’t know how Eggchan could deal with anything Wemmbu did.
Beside him, Parrot let out a muttered insult in solidarity.
“Bro.”
Flame expected Eggchan to be upset. He even waited for the guy to punch the smug smirk out of Wemmbu’s infuriating face.
Eggchan does none of those things. He’s not even mad. He just stood still as Wemmbu brushed against his shoulder, and went to the stall behind him.
Wemmbu threw a stack of diamond blocks at the Player. The Player looked up at Wemmbu, gobsmacked along with Flame and Parrot and- he guesses Theo was watching now too.
“Th- thank you, sir! But this is way too—“
Wemmbu unleashed a stab shot at the stall.
“What the fuck is wrong with him?” Theo said, as Parrot screamed, “Wemmbu!”
Flame kept his eyes on Eggchan.
Eggchan, who remained calm, seemingly not even bothered by the violent display. Wemmbu now stood in front of him, positively glowing with satisfaction.
Eggchan watched as Wemmbu took out a shulker box, patiently waiting as he rummaged through it. After a moment, Wemmbu’s tail perked up when he finally managed to grab ahold of whatever it was he was searching for.
It was another fishing rod.
He offered it to Eggchan, who didn’t hesitate to take it.
And Flame had to admit, reluctantly, that the fishing rod Eggchan held now was definitely way better than the one he was about to buy.
Eggchan smiled.
“You sap.”
Wemmbu only curled his tail around him in response.
-
“You didn’t get fish?” Mane asked from the other room. Flame made sure Fragger was as sharp as it could get before he answered.
“The shop blew up.”
“It what?”
-
Wemmbu pearled on top of a tree.
Flame cursed as a Player lunged towards his vulnerable back, barely managing to block the axe that was about to bash through his skull.
“Wemmbu!” he screamed at the tree.
Wemmbu peeked over a branch, his mouth stuffed with a golden apple. He glowed a soft pink with Regeneration.
“Want some?”
“Fucking—“ Flame slashed at another Player, “help me!”
“Aw,” Wemmbu cooed. “Flamey needs my help? Say please first.”
Flame growled. In a fit of rage, he killed five more.
Only a hundred Players left to go.
“Coward!” Flame yelled. He beheaded another. “Weakling!”
Instead of the insults provoking him, Wemmbu only pursed his lips and went back to hide in whatever hidey-hole he had up in that tree.
That. was. it.
Flame pearled up with his last ender pearl.
His aim was sabotaged by a particularly bloodthirsty Player hacking at his side. Flame missed his shot by a few blocks, and he had to quickly grab onto a branch to prevent himself from falling.
Below, seventy-something Players all scrambled up to get to him.
Flame lifted himself up. He only had a few seconds to strangle Wemmbu before the Players managed to get up here. He had to make this quick.
What greeted him was not an elaborate base of operations. It was not a base at all, actually. Wemmbu’s just sitting there, all relaxed with Egg by his side.
“You still had pearls?” Wemmbu asked in annoyance. “Would’ve been funnier seeing you try to build up here while getting shot at by arrows.”
Flame marched up to him and pushed him off the tree.
Egg whistled like he was impressed. And then he turned to Flame, sweating.
“You’re not gonna do that to me, are you?”
Just for that, he pushed Egg off the tree too. Not really his proudest moment.
“Wemmbu!” Egg screamed on his way down, voice fading the closer he got to the ground. Flame watched as Wemmbu’s head immediately snapped towards the sound, watched as he flew with a wind charge propelling him to the sky, and caught Egg mid-air.
Flame leapt down to join them.
“I lost years off my life from that,” Egg said from the comfort in Wemmbu’s arms.
“Why didn’t you just fly, bro?” Flame deadpanned.
But neither Egg nor Wemmbu managed to answer as a Player splashed a potion of harming on them.
Egg hissed in pain.
And Wemmbu.
Wemmbu held him tight and called upon hundreds and hundreds of TNT.
Flame cursed again and held his shield up for cover.
The area was abolished in seconds.
Chat buzzed incessantly in his brain, sending tingles through him as he received death message after death message after death message.
Only eighteen Players remained.
Wemmbu set Egg down gently on the ground, splashing him with Regeneration and Strength and Swiftness and whatever else.
A Player tried to use that moment to get a hit on Egg’s back, but Wemmbu caught the movement. He quickly held Egg close to his chest, his tail curling around his waist and all the way down to his leg, and used his claws to dig into the Player’s face.
Seventeen left.
It was barely even a warm-up, after that. With both Flame and Wemmbu teaming up on them, they stood no chance.
Egg never left Wemmbu’s side. Not even for a second. He was always an arm’s reach away, from either Wemmbu or Flame himself. He tried not to think about the implications of that.
They vacated the area once the fight was over. Who knew if more were coming? All three of them were low on supplies, their armor chipped and low on durability.
Flame glanced over at the two lagging behind him.
And only then, without the distraction of battle, could Flame see the faint tremors that ran through Wemmbu’s hands as he desperately held onto Egg.
-
“Maybe he’s not all that heartless,” Flame thought out loud.
Lomedy eyed him weirdly, as they watched Wemmbu cut off a woman’s ear and feed it back to her with a laugh.
-
“Wait here.”
Flame nodded. He sat down on a nearby furnace as Minute walked out of the room.
Chorus fruit was a common resource, but Flame couldn’t be bothered to farm it himself. If not for Spoke offering to show him a new glitch, Flame would see no reason to seek it out.
His eyes drifted towards the walls, landing on nothing in particular. Boredom had already sunk its claws into him in the few minutes he’d been alone.
Flame was only a little guilty when he left the room.
He walked through a series of paths around the base, marveling at the dreary atmosphere that somehow clung onto every dark corner. It didn’t look lived in, but that was probably because Minute spent most of his days outside guarding the portal.
A flicker of light caught his attention.
Compared to the cold glow of end rods, a cozy, yellow torch stood out exceptionally well. It didn’t match the obsidian, nor the purpur blocks around it. When Flame walked towards it, he spotted two more mounted on the walls, a few blocks away from each other. Its trail eventually led Flame down the start of a deep stairwell.
Flame glanced back, hesitating.
He should go back to the room Minute told him to stay in, if only to avoid his anger. And to respect his privacy.
Still…
Flame gazed down the stairs.
A moment later, he stepped onto wooden floors, gawking at the contrast of the frigid base upstairs and this homey room.
A hearth sizzled quietly by the side, bringing in warmth Flame couldn’t feel due to his extremely heat-resistant skin. He looked around, at the walls and the floor and the tiny little nook a few blocks away from the fire. A mountain of soft blankets and pillows occupied it, which instantly put Flame on high alert.
If that was what he thought it was, Flame was in deep shit.
Because whoever was inside that nest had every right to murder him for daring to intrude upon such a private space. Heaven knew he’d do the same to whoever barged into his nest back at the Tree, if his brother didn’t get to them first.
Flame slowly backed away, his foot already on the step behind him.
The blanket shifted.
Wemmbu met his eyes from across the room, his eyes a bright gold, his pupils slit. His fangs were bared, sharp and dripping with green venom.
Flame didn’t dare move.
Wemmbu observed him, cataloging his empty hand, devoid of any weapon. His usual netherite armor was replaced by a diamond one, to avoid being detected as he traveled here. Wemmbu let his eyes stray, scanning the room for more threats. When he found none, he stopped his growling, letting his fangs shrink and tail relax.
Flame still didn’t dare to move.
That proved to be a wise decision, as Wemmbu only huffed at him and put his head back down.
Flame glanced at the stairs behind him. He moved up one step.
Wemmbu growled again.
Flame tilted his head. Wemmbu was acting fairly tame for a demon whose territory was currently being invaded. Flame thought he’d be fighting for his life right now, or trying to escape Wemmbu’s claws.
Flame can think of two explanations for this. One, Wemmbu doesn’t see him as a threat. A plausible reason, since Flame didn’t seem like he was looking for a fight, nor was he threatening the safety of the nest. But if that was the case, Wemmbu wouldn’t have protested when Flame tried to leave. He should have been more than happy, actually, to not be so on guard with a practical stranger hovering around his territory.
Which led him to the second explanation: Wemmbu considers him…as pack.
They weren’t close enough for Wemmbu to invite him inside the nest—and Flame’s not sure if he would have accepted it either—but he was giving clear signs that he trusted Flame enough to protect it.
To protect him.
Just thinking about that made his head spin. His understanding of Wemmbu shifted slightly to the left, as memories upon memories were being given new context.
A playful spar. Offerings of game after a hunt. Grooming his hair.
“…How near do you want me?”
Wemmbu’s eyes and tail flicked to the chair two blocks away from him. Flame sighed and sat down. He acted like this was such a bothersome chore, but Flame could feel his instincts stir.
He’d bleed first before anyone even managed to sneak a glance at Wemmbu’s nest.
As if testing his resolve, a series of thuds from the staircase made Flame tense. He readied his sword, heat sizzling under his skin, ready to be unleashed at—
“Sorry, Wem,” Egg waltzed in the room, cradling a bundle of books in his arms, “did I make you wait?“
Egg glanced at him disinterestedly before doing a double-take.
“Flame?”
Instantly, Egg’s relaxed demeanor vanished, as he took note of how close he was to Wemmbu’s nest. The wings on his back ruffled, his visible eye narrowing with it.
Wemmbu’s tail flicked in interest. He does nothing to clear the misunderstanding.
“Egg, I—“
“I’m going to need you to leave,” Egg said calmly. A bow materialized in his hand, weakness arrows already nocked. Flame could easily take him on, but he’d really rather not to. Especially since Egg somehow managed to grow his wings. It stretched across the room, even blocking the stairwell, his only means of escape. Egg seemed to glow, or maybe it was the room that darkened. Whatever it was, Flame didn’t want to mess with it. Dealing with the unknown was Spoke’s area of expertise, not his.
Above them, muffled through hundreds of blocks, Flame heard the agonized screaming of Endermen.
Maybe it really was time to leave.
Wemmbu snorted at the look on his face. When both Egg and Flame turned to him, he suddenly burst into a fit of giggles.
By the time Flame got his bearings back, Egg was back to normal, rolling his eyes at Wemmbu having the time of his life.
“Was that funny, huh?” Egg ribbed. He doesn’t ask for permission to enter the nest, merely batting away Wemmbu’s hands when he tried to complain. Egg couldn’t avoid the tail that wrapped around him, though. But he didn’t look like he minded it much, by the way he retaliated by pinching Wemmbu’s nose. Wemmbu snapped at Egg’s hand, and Egg doesn’t flinch away. Not even when Wemmbu growled and bore his fangs.
“You’re so spoiled,” Egg said, unimpressed. He proceeded to spoil Wemmbu even more by scratching at the base of his horns.
Flame averted his eyes, feeling awkward witnessing such a mind-boggling scene.
Egg had jostled the borders of Wemmbu’s nest—hadn’t even asked before barging into it. If Flame ever did that to Mane, he would have been flung out of the window and been banned from ever going near his den until Flame begged for forgiveness. And they were brothers, arguably one of the closest bonds you could have with a packmate.
Wemmbu only looked at the disruption and huffed.
“Oh.” Eggchan finally noticed his mistake. “My bad, bro.”
He then rearranged the entire side without consulting Wemmbu even once. Flame could only watch in horror, glancing at Wemmbu from time to time to see if he was going to strike out at Egg for doing whatever the hell he wanted.
Wemmbu just rolled to the side when Egg nudged him away to take his blanket and place it down somewhere else.
“Now, are you going to explain why Flame’s here?”
Wemmbu widened his eyes innocently. And purred.
Egg raised an eyebrow. He glanced at Flame once before he took off Wemmbu’s tiara and set it down to the side. “When did that happen?”
Wemmbu yawned and turned away, tail flicking.
Egg sighed. Addressing Flame, he said, “Sorry about this. If you need to go, you can.”
He ignored Wemmbu’s immediate growl of protest.
“Nah, it’s fine, bro,” Flame said awkwardly. ”Just…do your thing.”
Their ‘thing’ was, apparently, spoken word poetry.
-
“He was making sense. When you eat an egg you never really think about the chicken you had to kill...”
“FLAME, WHAT THE FUCK,” Parrot said calmly, as a horde of Players shot arrows at them.
-
Flame coughed.
It didn’t seem to clear the tension between Wemmbu and Mane.
“What’s this asshole doing here?” Wemmbu spat venomously.
Mane crossed his arms with an aggravated flick of his ear. “This is my house.”
Flame caught the tail-end of Wemmbu’s coat before he could lunge at Mane. Mane smirked victoriously, taunting Wemmbu even more.
“Leave us alone, bro,” Flame hissed at Mane.
Mane looked away and pretended not to hear him.
Changing tactics, Flame turned to Wemmbu, only to find him glaring at Mane so maliciously that Flame was hesitant to let him go in fear of the guy actually killing his brother. He risked placing a steady hand on the nape of Wemmbu’s neck, unsure if it would actually work.
Mane raised an eyebrow at the two of them when Wemmbu instantly stopped growling.
“So?” Flame said to Wemmbu. “What brings you here?”
“Egg’s been kidnapped.”
“You’re still sticking with that guy?” Mane asked doubtfully.
This time, Flame couldn’t hold Wemmbu back as he jumped over the table and tipped Mane’s chair over, bringing the both of them down to the ground. Mane chuffed when Wemmbu swiped at his face, claws coming dangerously close his eye. Wemmbu’s tail was lashing out behind him, spikes suddenly sprouting along the top, though more were clustered near the end.
Mane rolled them both over and began aggressively hitting Wemmbu’s face with the soft pads of his hand, his contrastingly fluffy tail swishing pleasantly behind him.
Did the bastard seriously think he and Wemmbu were play-fighting right now?
“You’re still so weak,” Mane said fondly, as Wemmbu tried to use his fangs to inject him with a lethal venom.
Flame pulled at Mane’s dreads just as he was about to stick his finger in Wemmbu’s mouth to inspect his teeth. He can’t believe his brother was treating this maniac demon like he was just some cub throwing a hissy-fit.
When Mane finally let Wemmbu go, the demon instantly hid behind Flame, growling at the smug lion. Flame was only a little pleased by the blatant favoritism.
“So, what’s this about Egg?”
Hours later, Flame stood on top of a cliff in the nether, keeping an eye on the Players guarding Egg’s cage. They were surrounded by a moat of lava, with fire periodically spreading in random bursts across the floor. This must be why Wemmbu sought him out.
“A+ for effort, I guess.”
Unfortunately, Mane also decided to tag along.
Wemmbu hissed at him to keep quiet, which Flame could tell only made Mane want to act out even more. He doesn’t though, if only because Wemmbu looked genuinely scared for his friend.
“Mane and I’ll distract them,” Flame said to Wemmbu. “Go invis and sneak Egg out of here.”
Wemmbu instantly protested. “I can fight too.” He looked down below, at the Players shooting arrows at Egg, who flinched every time it jostled the cage. Wemmbu’s eyes darkened, his jaw locking. “They’re going to pay that.”
Mane laid a heavy hand on Wemmbu’s head, shaking him roughly. “You’re actually so stupid, bro. What do you really want to do? Kill all these chungies or save your friend? Decide carefully.”
They watched as Egg brought his wings close to his body, doing his best to avoid it being hurt again. There were already a few arrows buried in the base of it, and his primaries were dyed red. For the sake of these Players, the blood better not be Egg’s.
A flash of bloodlust made Flame draw out his sword. He only caught a glimpse of Wemmbu reigning himself in before he splashed himself with invisibility.
The rest was a blur after that. Flame could remember snippets of crushed bones and burning flesh. There was a moment when the enemy discovered Wemmbu as he carried an unconscious Egg away. Flame had it seared in his memory, the way Wemmbu bit into their skin. How the Player seized like a transforming drowned, before he went limp and dead. Wemmbu had fought off the rest without using his hands, which meant he fought with no mace or any of his dishonorable tricks.
He and Mane watched as Wemmbu bashed a Player’s skull with his tail. As he skewered another with his horns. He watched as Wemmbu cried in pain when someone managed to take Egg away from him. The fearful anguish that graced Wemmbu’s face after that made Flame feel a sudden surge of indignation, which he channeled onto his next victims. Mane raged beside him.
By the time they got home, their skin and hair was caked with blood, and Wemmbu was asleep in Mane’s arms. Though, he still didn’t let go of Egg, forcing Flame to stick close to his brother to avoid dislodging the two.
They woke them up eventually, and all of them took turns with the bath. When Flame finished with his, he walked past Mane’s room and caught sight of Wemmbu’s purple hair from the cracked door. Flame tilted his head, watching as Mane dragged Wemmbu inside his nest, ignoring the way he growled and hissed. He stopped when Mane tossed a bleary Eggchan at him, covered with all sorts of bandages.
Wemmbu suspiciously accepted the peace offering, tugging Egg close to his chest, tail wrapping around him, once, twice. Egg grumbled sleepily, and Flame finally decided to leave them alone. The floor creaked under him when he moved, and Mane’s ear flicked towards him.
By the next time he blinked, Wemmbu was purring up a storm under his hand. Mane was adjusting a pillow near Egg’s head, which earned him a thankful brush of a wing.
By the next time he opened his eyes, Wemmbu and Egg have somehow lived with them for three weeks, and have made themselves a new room only a few blocks away from Flame’s own.
Flame sipped his drink as Egg read his book while leaning against him. On the floor, Mane finally managed to pin Wemmbu down to nuzzle his nose against his hair. Wemmbu screamed for help, and Flame smiled.
He has never been so content.