Dream stood in front of the group with Blue standing beside him.

"What is this plan of yours?" Nightmare asked impatiently.

"Well, brother," Dream paused, giving his brother a glare, "We have to save this injured mother's child and return them to her." Dream announced.

Nightmare huffed and returned the glare.

"And?" Killer queried.

"Then her family will leave and we will get that relic." Dream answered.

"Sounds like a plan!" Killer cheerfully got up from the floor and began to walk towards the castle.

"Wait!" Blue called.

Killer looked back, stopping his stride towards the castle.

"You're a healer, right?" Blue asked.

Killer nodded suspiciously, not liking where their conversation was going.

"Could you stay here with the mother and heal her? She's injured." Blue pointed, the mother was leaning against the castle wall,

Killer gaped, "N-!"

"Killer." Nightmare interrupted, "Stay."

Killer gave him a betrayed look, but soon enough sulked and slowly walked towards the injured creature.

"Horror, you'll be coming with me to rescue this child." Nightmare informed.

Horror nodded and followed Nightmare.

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

"We're here now." Nightmare whispered, looking around the halls. "I'm not quite sure where this kid could be."

Horror hummed in thought, "Maybe... With the...King".

"Good idea!" Nightmare beamed.

Horror smiled, Nightmare usually didn't show much positivity but he assumed the world was affecting him.

Nightmare stared at Horror for a second but soon turned away to cover his embarrassment.

"Alright, let's go," Nightmare instructed.

Nightmare and Horror sneaked through the hallways, the castle surprisingly lacked the guards for security but the two were playing it safe.

Horror peaked into a room which had its door creaked open.

Inside the room was the King. His snores were loud and shook the castle walls.

Beside the large bed was the shaking body of a small grey feathered creature. The small creature could be heard whimpering and calling out to her mother.

Nightmare quietly crept into the room, cautious of waking the king.

The small creature stopped whimpering as she saw Nightmare creeping towards her. She scooted away from the god, afraid of the dark mattered being.

"Shh, little one, I mean no harm." Nightmare hushed the child, speaking softly to not scare the child. "I'm here to return you to your mother."

The bird perked up, "mama?" Her small voice wavered, a small sound of hope reached her voice.

"Yes, little one," Nightmare crouched to her height, "come here," 

The small child jumped up in happiness and flapped her wings. But as quickly as she got up, she was snatched from her spot and into the arms of the king.

Everyone froze. The only movement was from the king as he snuggled into the feathers of the baby bird.

The child let out a small chirp as Nightmare reached for the child, but froze when the king stirred.

Once the king stopped moving, Nightmare continued his movements.

'What am I supposed to do now?' Nightmare thought, unsure of what to do.

"Hey" Horror whispered, catching the attention of the guardian.

He turned to see Horror holding a fluffy pillow from the couch. "Take...this..."

"No, no." Nightmare knew he'd wake up the king. He remembered something. Horror was an assassin, maybe Horror should switch out the child and the pillow.

"You do it," Nightmare instructed. Horror gave him a confused look, which Nightmare quickly added, "You're an assassin, you have the skills".

Horror hesitated, "O-ok".

Slowly Horror made his way to stand beside the bed where the child was being held. Horror held his breath, although he didn't have any. He could hear the soft rattling of his bones hitting each other.

He reached for the child, taking hold of the child, he slowly pulled out the child and moved his other hand to place the pillow into the king's arms.

"Ugh," The king's eyes slowly opened.

Horror froze, 'oh no'.

The king's eyes pinned at the fluffy pillow, "Ohh, what a lovely pillow. Thank you, maid Josephine". And he turned around with the pillow in his clutches.

Nightmare and Horror quickly crept out of the king's room, with the child in their possession.

Once they got far from the room, they breathed out a breath of relief.

"We did it..." Horror sighed, his soul thumped into his ribcage.

"Yeah, we did..." Nightmare confirmed.

The negative skeleton held the small child in his arms, she cuddled into his arms. "Let's get her back to her mother".

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

"MY BABY!!" The mother squealed, gaining the attention of the child.

"Mama!" Her voice was soft and croaked.

The feathered mother reached out her arms for her child, which Nightmare passed her baby to her.

"What has that reached king done to you, my child!" The mother screeched.

The child shook in her mother's arms, "nothing, mama".

"Dear! Who's that?" Another voice called out. .

As the first voice called, many voices joined the first, as they asked if the child was alright and unharmed. These voices belonged to the winged creatures that they helped aid.

"Thank you for saving my daughter," the mother gave them a grateful smile and started to flap her wings to take off.

Once she was in the air, more feathered creatures flew with her.

"Let's notify the king they left," Dream instructed.

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

Stepping into the throne room, the king sat at his throne. His expression was grumpy, small grunts came from the king as he eyed the empty spot beside his throne.

Dream cleared his throat, having the king look in his direction, "Your Majesty, we have come to report that we have completed your task".

The king's sour expression turned into a grin, he let out a burst of deep laughter, "Have you now?"

Dream nodded at the king, causing the king to grin more.

"You!" The king pointed at Horror, "come here and retrieve your reward," The king smugly patted his lap.

"You said you'll give us the relic," Dust growled, stepping in front of the bigger skeleton.

The king huffed, "yeah, yeah, here," he said, tossing the gemstone towards the group.

Cross quickly rushed forward and caught the gemstone.

"Off you go," waving the group off as he started to get comfortable in his throne.

Dust was about to charge at the greedy king but was stopped by Horror, "don't".

In which Dust sighed and walked out the doors of the throne room. Killer, Cross and Horror soon followed suit, while the rest stayed back for a little.

The king scoffed, "What are you still doing here?" waving his hand again, "Aren't you going to go with the other skeletons?"

The group left without another word.

"Ugh!" Dust screamed, "What is wrong with that guy!"

"Leave it, Dust." Nightmare sternly said. He did not like what the king tried to do but what else could they do.

"I want to kill that guy!" Dust growled.

"Do it," Dream urged.

Everyone stared at Dream in shock.

"What?" Dream looked at everyone, confused..

The group was left stunned and speechless as Dream looked back at Dust, "Kill him".

Dust grinned at Dream, "I will" And soon disappeared alongside Horror.

"I'm surprised that you agreed," Nightmare queried, leaning onto his brother.

Dream sighed, "We don't tolerate disgusting people".

Nightmare hummed in thought, "Why stand up for Horror?"

The yellow clad skeleton looked at Nightmare, he gave him a deadpan expression, "He doesn't deserve that treatment".

The negative guardian looked at the spot Horror and Dust were previously at, he only muttered "they all don't".

"That look on his face!" Dust grinned walking back to the group with Horror. "It was hilarious!"

Horror nodded and smiled at the shorter male.

"Are we ready to set off now?" Nightmare asked the group, snapping the map out of Dream's hands.
Dream let out a small "hey!" but didn't make a move to take it back.

The group agreed and stood around the dark guardian, awaiting  his orders.

"Let's see here..." Nightmare mumbled, looking at the map for what their next step would be.

"The closest relic to us are in the mountains over here," Nightmare pointed at the snow covered mountains, drawing the group's attention towards the map. "We will have to find something to travel on as walking would be too tedious".

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

After a moment of planning, the group had decided on finding a vehicle.

"How are we supposed to find a car?" Killer asked Nightmare as he played with one of Horror's knives.

Nightmare hummed, "I suggest we ask around".

"I saw a train before we got here". Ink said, pointing towards the gates of the kingdom.

"Well, I believe that's sorted," Nightmare confirmed, "Shall we head off?"

The group mumbled quiet confirmations before heading towards the castle gates.

Horror picked his pace up, catching up to his leader, "we need.... food".

"Ah yes, we do indeed." Nightmare replied.

Turning towards the group, he announced that they 'need supplies' before heading to the mountains.

Everyone went around the town and required resources for their trip.

Some came back with food and water, others came back with clothing for the cold temperatures while Nightmare came back with magical equipment.

"What's that boss?" Killer tapped the glass of one of the potions.

Nightmare moved his stash away from the empty eyed killer, "They help magic users with their power levels".

Killer grinned at his boss, nodding in understanding.

Nightmare backed away from the man and walked towards Error, "Hey".

The black and yellow skeleton looked towards his companion, and greeted him.

"I have something that can improve our magic," Nightmare picked up one of the bottles and handed it to the taller male.

Upon being given the round bottle, Error decided to inspect it. The glass held some bubbly red liquid. Error shook the bottle, watching as the liquid sloshed around in the container.

"What does it do?" Error inquired, watching the goopy skeleton as he grabbed out another bottle from his bag around his waist.

Nightmare grinned and shrugged at the glitch.

Error gave Nightmare a deadpan expression but continued to look at the next bottle that was given to him.

"Ooo, do I get one?" Ink's voice cut through the peaceful silence in the air.

"Fuck off, squid" Error barked, moving behind Nightmare so the shorter male could shield him from the other.

A sigh left Nightmare's mouth, "I guess so. You could be our test subject" The guardian grinned after the thought.

Dream cleared his throat, "we must take our leave now".

"Follow me, everyone!" Ink announced, making his way towards the front of the group.

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

"We're here!"

In front of the group was a large rusty steam train. Entering and exiting the train were all kinds of humans and creatures. The area was filled with loud chatter and footsteps from the many passengers that boarded the train.

"Let's see here" Nightmare mumbled, looking at the board of locations, "platform 9".

"Platform 9?!" Error repeated in shock, "That's all the way across this station!"

Nightmare grumbled, "come on, we have to hurry if we don't want to be late".

They started to run, weaving through the crowd to get to their location.

"Halt!" A man stood in front of them, his hand out to stop the group, "where is your ticket?"

"Oh shit," Killer mumbled, shuffling in his spot.

"But sir!" Ink whined, "You already checked our ticket".

Horror gave the painter a confused look, about to say something when the guard spoke.

"Oh, uh, right. I must have already checked. My apologies, please enjoy your ride," stepping back to allow the group to pass.

"All aboard!" the conductor yelled.

Startled, the group quickly ran towards the train and hopped on.

"Hey, what the hell was that, Ink?" Killer probed, poking the short artist.

"What was what?" Ink replied, oblivious to the murderer harshly poking the protector.

Ink and Killer's chatter was ignored by the large skeleton, his hood hitting the wall as he leaned onto the train's walls, sighing in relief from the run. The tall skeleton looked around the train, seeing people sitting down in their seats. Luckily for them, there were plenty of unoccupied seats for them to take.

Walking to an empty seat next to the doorway, the group stood in, Horror took a seat and rested his skull on the glass. Horror felt the spot beside him, dip, as someone sat next to him.

"Tiring, hasn't it been?" The dark guardian said, moving around to get himself comfortable next to the hooded male.

The silent giant nodded, feeling his leader rest up against him.