#And she will see the most of the Phoenix Drop residents as well as Cadenza as her extended family

[gendervoid-zane]

MCD Series Rewrite:

No clue if Alina is gonna exist in my rewrite (if she does, then she gonna be adopted instead of being Aphmau and Aaron’s biological daughter), but let it be known that Lilith will be the living embodiment of “it takes a village”, she’s gonna have no less than ten thousand parental figures and no less than five billion family figures.

[vyladromeave]

Mr. Zvahl

a/n: wee snaw i had extra time in my 2nd period so i just. wrote an entire fic. ghgjhFSDHGJ. ive been meaning to make Something for this idea for a while now, and nothing says motivation like procrastinating schoolwork. would like to make this multichapter and expand on it a bit more, so look out for that maybe?????????????????????????? yee haw. Somewhat inspired by a conversation I had with Maddie (@undercovermcdfan) fshjgdghfs!! gibve her a big thanks pwease shes so good.

(also, i finally got an ao3! you can read this fic here!)

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~~~ There’s a loud bang that accompanies his return. Deep in the forest surrounding Phoenix Drop, the trees sway, birds flee, a cold air blows through the leaves. He lays there on the ground for a moment, not bothering to stand. Vylad is not one to indulge often, and yet he takes a moment to feel the sun on his face, and the breeze on his skin. And he waits. And waits. There is a moment where he considers never getting up, to just sink into the dirt and let the forest consume his tired soul. Irene, is he tired.

He stands, albeit not as sturdy as he should be. Hyria’s trick served him well enough in escaping, but he had no way of telling what the repercussions of it might be. He winced and sighed- it was something he would deal with as it came to him, he supposed. That was how he dealt with most unsuspected things. It was how he should deal with his surroundings now, he mused. He looked around.

He had aimed to land near Phoenix Drop (it and O’khasis were really the only locations in the Overworld that he knew well enough anyways), and yet this land was somewhat unfamiliar. He spent most of his time in the forest surrounding the land while he still resided here, but this area didn’t look familiar. Perhaps more time had passed than he’d imagined, he thought. Squinting, he could make out something in the distance, a good enough start. He headed towards it, and then he heard a shuffling of branches, footsteps approaching, and-

~~~ “It doesn’t look like bandits.” He said, squinting off into the distance from his perch on the battered wall.

“That's what I was thinking. The trees were moving Dante, last time I checked we didn’t have loggers living outside the city too.” She sassed him, of course she did. She’d been a bit grumpy since the morning, her ritual to bring them back had failed again. She always said she was so close, but she had nothing to show for her efforts except her book of notes and weariness.

He saw a light reach her eyes. And he knew it was futile.

“What if it's-“

“No.”

“No?”  

“It's not them.”

“How do you know? They could be back, they could have made it out on their own, maybe-”

“It’s the wrong area. The portal is further to the West.” He pointed, guiding her eyes to a less dense section of the forest off to the side.

“Well maybe-”

His voice grew softer. “Zoey. Please. I know you want them back, we all do. But you shouldn’t get your hopes up. It's not them.”

He didn’t say it aloud, but it hangs in the air anyways. You know it isn’t them. They’re gone.

There’s a pause. He speaks again.

“...I’m sorry. I shouldn’t h-”

“Let me check.”

“W- huh?”

“There’s no harm in checking. You said it yourself, it's not bandits, and it's probably important if whatever that was is strong enough to shake the trees. I’m better with magicks and nature than you are, so I want to go see it.”

He blinks. Zoey never goes out, not unless she’s testing another one of her theories on the Irene portal again. The last time she truly left Phoenix Drop was to make sure Cadenza was settling into New Meteli well, and to see if the library there was more helpful than the ones in Yggdrasil and Phoenix Drop.

It wasn’t.

“I, uh… I guess there’s no harm in it?” She hardly waits for him to give her the ok, she’s already turned around and heading for the decrepit gates. He sighs, and takes back to his position at the wall. Sometimes he still doesn’t quite feel cut out for this ‘head guard’ stuff, even after all this time. He didn’t even offer to go with her.

Oh well.

~~~ She walks through the gates, into the woods that surround Phoenix Drop. It only hits her once she’s well off the path that no matter how well she claims to know this forest, she never goes out this direction. She’s not lost, no, but that doesn’t stop her from feeling a bit nervous. Is she going the right way? How far out is that location anyways? Did she pass it already? What if it really was bandits? Or a monster? She wished Aph-...

She wished Aphmau was here.

Now that she was feeling anxious, lonely, and nostalgic all at the same time, she continued in deeper to the forest. She had gone too far to come back empty handed. She wanted to find the source of the anomaly from earlier, but if she couldn’t, she could maybe find a gift for Kawaii~Chan at the very least. Or maybe a gift for Dante to give to Kawaii~Chan? That would be cute.

Now somewhat distracted, she was caught off guard when something rocketed past her. It was fast, that was for sure. And it was a person. She could tell from the green scarf that hit her face as the figure rocketed past. This must be it. She turned back around, moving to follow the figure (who now seemed to be following her tracks in reverse) as they headed straight for Phoenix Drop.

~~~ He didn’t have time to observe the person who had approached him. Mostly because he didn’t want them to observe him. Now that he was free he realized he hadn’t really thought that far ahead. Where would he go? Could he really go into the town? He didn’t want to make a commotion, but he guessed that if someone had found him already than it was too late for total stealth. He ran faster. All of a sudden he had no time to stop and think, no time to stop at all, he could hear the person behind him, still chasing, he had no time.  

Handle things as you go. That’s right. Ok. He would be fine. He ran faster.

~~~ The mysterious person was too fast for her. Whoever this guy was, he was clearly used to running through forests, because he was very good at nearly losing her. He didn’t seem like a bandit to her, but that made her shudder. If he wasn’t a bandit, then what was he?

~~~ He stood at the gate, debating whether or not to go search for Zoey. Sure, she hadn’t been gone for very long, and she could definitely handle herself, but for every second she was out alone was another second that he was reminded that if something happened to her, it would be completely and totally his fault.

He squinted into the distance past the gates. Someone was approaching, and quickly.

~~~ They were too fast. She couldn’t reach him in time.

“HEY! STOP!”

~~~ Almost there.

~~~ The figure ran past him. He could see Zoey following behind. Was this the source of the disturbance in the forest…?

~~~ Something isn’t right.

~~~ Just as quickly as the figure ran past him, they stopped. And glanced around.

~~~

What happened here?

~~~ He looked conflicted. Confused. Dante probably had a similar look on his face, although his was more of a look of shock. He put a hand to one of the blades at his hip, but didn’t draw it. As far as he could tell, he wasn’t hostile. He didn’t seem to have any weapons either.

“Er… hello? Sir? Do you need some help…?”

The man glanced back at him, Dante’s voice snapping him out of his thoughts and returning him back to reality. For a moment, the two strangers stared at each other.

And then Vylad ran away.

~~~