Sapnap had finished the now-cold tea that was handed back to him, and despite the really awful taste, he did feel a little better. Actually, surprisingly better? The rise and fall of his chest didn't hurt anymore and his headache was significantly lighter. The taste of blood no longer lingered in his mouth, but that was probably just from the tea washing it out.

"So what do we do now?" Sapnap asked, gently setting the cup onto the nightstand next to the bed.

"Well you are going to stay in bed and rest, while I go and get my friend. With his help we'll find your friends in no time, and then we can go from there." Philza said.

"Ok," Sapnap sighed. He didn't like the idea of staying in bed and being babied, but he knew he was useless at the moment, and would only slow Phliza down.

"Try to get some rest mate." Philza said as he walked out the door and shut it behind him. Sapnap carefully leaned back onto the bed, laying down on his back. Even resting a little more could probably save him from total exhaustion before he found the others.

Philza calmly walked out of the house. "This is not how I thought I'd be spending my sunny vacation," He mumbled to himself with a slight chuckle. He breathed in the fresh air and walked in the direction of the waterfall where he assumed Technoblade would be. It was a few minutes walk, so he hummed to himself as he went. A tune he hadn't heard in a long time. Since Wilbur had moved to the hub at least, taking his old guitar with him.

Listen to the feathered crows

Sing to the void all your woes

Leaning on her every word

Heard the message from a bird

Take a step back from life

Calm your ever growing strife

One days you'll be so old

And heard all stories gone untold

Another adventure can wait some time

Don't forget to sub with prime

He chuckled at the last line, one that Tommy had come up with on the spot, and tried to remember the next verse.

Until he heard a rustling above him, and stopped in his tracks, going quiet immediately.

"Who's there?" He asked towards the direction of the sound. His guard shot up, and he squinted his eyes, hoping it was just a squirrel, or rather, a crow. It had been a good while since he had seen one at least.

"Oh just some guy in the trees!" A cheery voice said. Ok, so not a simple forest creature then. Philza stayed on guard, trying to find a face in the tree branches. Whoever this was was really good at blending in with the green treetops.

"I won't bother you, but I was wondering if you saw a man with a flame on a white t-shirt?" The voice continued.

"Uhm yes actually?" Philza said, before realizing he probably shouldn't have said that.

"Great great! Could you tell me where he is then?" The voice said quickly and really too excitedly. It was slightly unnerving.

"Sure," Philza said more warily, "But could you first tell me who you are?"

"Oh I'm his friend! We got separated at the train station and I've been looking for him for a while now." The man in the trees said in a calm and friendly tone. Too friendly, too fake.

Philza remembered that Sapnap had mentioned getting separated from his group in the forest and not the train station. If this man wasn't his friend, he could very well be the person Sapnap had gotten away from. He held his face still so as to not give the realization away from the tree man that could very well be watching him directly.

"Oh that's great to hear! He was looking for you ya' know. Well, I saw him run off in that direction." Philza lied through his teeth pointing to the only direction away from the waterfall, the edge of the forest, and the cottage.

"Oh, but if you can't see me then I suppose it's North? Oh wait no-... East?" Philza continued
"Hmm.. I'm getting all turned around here. All the forest looks the same, you know?" Philza lied, trying to confuse the strange tree man.

"Oh don't worry, I saw the way you pointed. Thank you so much! Goodbye now!" The tree man said happily. Philza heard more rustling towards the direction he pointed and let out a silent sigh. The man in the trees had seen him, as he had confirmed with the question. He wanted to find Techno first, but decided that in case the tree man found the cottage and really was the creepy guy following Sapnap, he would need to be there to protect the hurt kid. He turned around, more carefully listening to his surroundings, and walked home quickly, no song to follow his footsteps.

He got to his door and looked around to make sure no one had followed him as he went inside carefully. Sapnap was still laying on the bed looking bored out of his mind.

"Well that was quick. Where is your friend?" Sapnap asked, seeing Philza enter alone.

Philza closed the curtains and locked the door, a worried frown on his face.

"What's wrong?" Sapnap asked slowly.

"There was a man in the trees that asked me where a boy with a flame shirt was before I made it to where Techno is," Philza said quietly.

Before Sapnap could ask questions he continued, "I told him the wrong direction, but I don't know if it's safe to stay here much longer just in case he didn't buy it."

"Just one person? What did he look like?" Sapnap asked.

"He hid in the trees, so I couldn't see him."

"Sounds something like Dream would do..." Sapnap said, clenching his fists on the blanket and starting to panic a little.

"It's ok, I know a place where we can go for now until we can find our friends." Philza said, walking around the room looking for something. Or some-things.

"What are you doing?" Sapnap asked as Philza was collecting frames and moving them around.

"Saving what I can. If he does come here then I want my photos and things to be safe when we evacuate."

"Oh.." Was all Sapnap had to say. He understood what Philza was implying. Philza gathered up photos and frames and put them in an airtight metal container hidden in the corner underneath some loose floorboards. The shelves were empty. He packed some food and blankets tightly into a backpack with very loose straps.

"It's really just a precaution. Nothing's getting through that metal container. And we have sprinklers too just in case." Philza said to reassure Sapnap who had a guilt ridden look on his face. He had dragged this nice man who was living in peace into his war without meaning too. Philza patted him back and smiled to tell him it was ok.

"Wait, how am I going to evacuate with a broken foot? You banged it, thank you for that, but I don't know if I can walk on it."

Philza gave a small quiet laugh and a sigh. "We need to trust each other to get out of here safely. You aren't from around here, are you?" He asked, but it wasn't really a question.

"Well what do you mean?" Sapnap felt himself starting to sweat.

"You aren't from Earth. Don't worry, neither am I." Philza said. And with that, Sapnap felt a wave of relief wash over him, he didn't know how much longer he could keep up the lie. He was also curious as to where Philza was from, but decided to save that question for a later time.

"Oh phew," Sapnap sighed.

"As for walking, I have a solution." Philza said and smiled confidently.

He took a deep breath in and in a soft light, huge wings outstretched behind him, with Sapnap staring at them in awe. They were a dark grey blueish color, and like, really big. Like, Philza had a hard time fitting in the small cottage- big.

"Probably should've done this outside." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. He pulled out a single feather with a little "ow" and grabbed some paper from the drawer. He dipped the feather in some ink and wrote a quick note to Technoblade.

The note read: " I found a kid in the forest, but a stranger is following him, so we left to stay safe. You know where we are."

"Ok, it's time to go." Philza said, folding his wings through the loose straps of the backpack. It made sense why they were so loose now. Sapnap nodded and sat up more. It hurt, but much less than it would've before. Now that he knew Philza wasn't human, he had a sneaking suspicion that tea wasn't just leaf water either.

CRASH

They both whipped their heads to the sound, and saw an arrow had been shot through a window. Shattered glass was splayed out onto the ground and an arrow was lying on the ground.

"You're a bad liar!~" The voice outside sang.

"That's definitely Dream." Sapnap whispered to Philza. Philza nodded with fear; They had taken too long.

"Just hand over Sapnap and I'll leave you and your house alone! It's simple really." Another arrow shot through a different window and shattered it.

"No, I think I'm a good mate." Philza yelled out, with a bit of a smug tone. He scooped up Sapnap and climbed the stairs to the roof quickly.

Dream politely waited to see Philza's face from behind the chimney before firing another arrow, and Philza and Sapnap missed it by a hair. Philza jumped back holding Sapnap and they hid behind the chimney.

"Oh that's too bad, really." The voice dripped with a toxic tone. Dream was having fun.

Another arrow was shot, but this one was tipped with fire. It hit the roof and started to spread the flames over the moss ridden, wood roof.

Philza stomped it out, but 3 more arrows were quick to follow. Holding Sapnap, the backpack and dodging the flaming arrows was a lot of work, and he just didn't have the energy or skill to keep stomping out the fires.

"It was a lovely house," Dream said almost solemnly, firing more arrows. Almost. A part of him was having too much fun destroying it actually. Probably the evil part.

"We have to go." Philza whispered to Sapnap, who just nodded.

They heard Dream walk over and kick at the door, before slashing it with an axe instead and breaking it down. Philza took a deep breath and jumped off the roof, spreading out his wings and soaring over the trees. He wobbled a bit at first, but by the time Dream had made it to the roof and shot a few arrows at them, they were a safe distance away.

Philza turned his head to look at his singed house, eyes with sorrow, and a heavy heart.

"Thank you," Sapnap said, looking up at Philza.

"This kid's life was worth more than a house anyway." He knew, and smiled a little.

"And I'm sorry for dragging you into this," Sapnap continued.

"It's going to be ok, mate. We are both safe, and that's what matters for now." Philza said.

"But your house!-" Sapnap started.

"Can be rebuilt." Philza interrupted, "And once we find your friends we can make a plan to get that lunatic under control." Philza smiled, glancing down at Sapnap. For the rest of the flight, they silently watched the beauty of earth unfold in front of them.

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Thank you so much for reading! There are at least a small few of ya' out there reading it and it really means a lot to me, so thank you. If you have an account, leave a like or suggestion of stuff in the comments! Who do you think the next character introduced is going to be? Why do you think Dream went insane? Any ideas for roles of future MCYT characters? thanks again, and have a good day or night! (At this point if you are still awake at night then just make sure to sleep in when you do go to sleep please.)