#Creavence

[yukiwrites]

Interlude Before the War

Thank you so much for the support and patience as always, @breeachuu! Please hold Wolfie with everything you have ToT)

Summary: Wolfram had managed to hold onto Byleth during their fall and upholded his mission to stay with the Heart of Immortals. But Byleth wasn’t waking up, no matter how much time passed... What would become of his mission? And what of his friends, all scattered around Fódlan because of the war?

Commission info HERE and HERE!

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The sound of running water was what Wolfram heard first before regaining consciousness. His entire body hurting like a mountain had fallen on him (which it actually had), the half manakete groaned as he shook his head in an attempt to shake off the pain.

Something wet and warm slithed through his cheek and head, forcing Wolfie to open his eyes. “Ugh, what-” his voice sounded hoarse and foregin, as though it had all but faded when he screamed for Byleth’s name as they fell. The wet thing once again slithed on his face, which Wolfram replied with a gasp. “Aquilo, boy! You’ve found me!” He tried to sit up, but something in his arms made the boy look down.

It was Byleth, but she was unconscious.

“Byleth? Hey, Professor? Byleth!!” Wolfram tried to shake her a bit, but the action brought a jolt of pain through his upper back and right arm. “Ouch, I got hurt pretty bad, now that I look at it…” he murmured as he looked at the state of his wings, back and legs. “Using healing magic on oneself is really hard, so it’s better if I just find some medicinal herbs around here to heal it the old-fashioned way.”

He thought, if only there were healing staves here, in passing, but the situation was more pressing than his musing let out: he and Byleth had fallen down the entire mountain into a river and drifted close to a rocky margin. Though it was blurry, Wolfram remembered parts of what had happened during the fall -- he had managed to catch Byleth and cushion their fall by flapping his wings as hard as he could, but the rocks falling from above hit the both of them as they reached the water. After that, everything was a blank.

Pressing his lips into a thin line, Wolfie’s chin trembled -- not from the cold that gripped his drenched body, no, but from the agony of remembering yesterday’s events and everything that had led to them.

Shaking his head, Wolfie tried to shoo these thoughts away. “Now’s not the time for this. I don’t actually know how much time passed, and this area won’t be safe for long after all those soldiers attacked. Since I can’t use healing magic on myself, I’ll-” he placed his palm over Byleth’s head in an attempt to heal her, but his magic somehow ricocheted on Byleth into the ether. “... Huh? She’s not hurt?” He tried to use the magic once again, but again it was rejected by Byleth’s body. “Then why isn’t she waking up…?”

The cold swept into Wolfram’s heart. Was something wrong with her? It couldn’t be!

Panicking, Wolfie put his ear over Byleth’s chest -- he panicked even more when he didn’t hear a heartbeat. “It can’t be- I didn’t come all this way for-” he sniffled, putting his ear over her face to listen to her breathing and, unexpectedly, it was there.

Faint, constant, as though induced, but it was there. She was breathing, although her heart wasn’t beating. Bewildered, Wolfram looked around as though he could find the answer to the swarm of questions making his brain go haywire just lying around under a pebble.

“Huff, huff…” he took deep breaths, and in doing so, managed to catch something he had overlooked before, be it because it was deafened by the sound of running water or erased due to his panic: he felt the pulsating of the Blood flowing through Byleth in a pattern he had felt once before.

It was just like her breathing: weak and constant, in a way that would not happen if the person were simply asleep. It was something Wolfram had seen only once when he was much younger when Nidra had taken him to Mila’s tree to visit Nah and Tiki: it was the Slumber.

At that time, Tiki had been awake for over twenty years and that had seeped into her energy to the point of forcing her into a Slumber so she could regain her strength. It was something common for those who bore the Blood, though in Tiki’s case she had to keep her own power in check due to tragedies long forgotten.

Wolfram had watched, then, as The Voice slept through a short Slumber that lasted only three years (a record, considering the earliest she had managed to wake up before then was only after a decade). Her complexion and the state of the Blood in her were very much similar as Byleth’s were at that moment.

Her skin still had the same shine as one of the dragonkin, as did her hair and Presence. Her breathing and Blood were in unison, as though telling Wolfram that she needed time to recover from whatever he hadn’t managed to protect her of.

“Was this why I was brought here? To- to look after her during her Slumber? Was this why nothing was said to me apart from ‘stay with the Heart of Immortals’?” Wolfie trailed his fingers through Byleth’s arm, finding it comforting that she still held the warmth of a living person despite the silence within her chest.

Frowning deeply, Wolfie started to reach within himself to think about his situation, but Aquilo managed to snap him out of it by whipping his tail on the ground beside them. Startled, Wolfram clutched his chest in surprise as he looked up to the alarmed wyvern. “What is it, boy-”

Before he could even finish the sentence, he felt as though his senses had finally come back in full, slapping him on the face with a wide array of smells, sounds and feelings. “Oh no! The fight’s still going!” He grabbed Byleth and got up, ignoring his aching muscles and the wings he couldn’t call back due to the sharp pain. “C’mon boy, let’s find a place to hide!”

Aquilo nodded and took off, signaling for Wolfie to follow him upstream.

Wolfram followed his steed and friend from below, hiding himself within the woods while still keeping the thinning river in his sight -- the more he ran, the smaller the river became and the steeper the ground turned, as though they were going straight to the heart of the mountain.

The forest started to make way to a rocky path, from which water flowed. Aquilo flew in circles above the rockhead before landing on a large-looking tree right on the side. Wolfram looked at the place from which water flowed to Aquilo, “here, boy?” he asked, receiving a nod in return. He needed to hear no more and put Byleth down before taking the rocks out of the way.

To his surprise, he could feel the wind being sucked in as he took each rock out, realizing that Aquilo had led him into a cave he could not only use as a hideout, but also mask behind the rocks whenever he went in or out. Thanking his friend under his breath, Wolfie took the rocks at a faster pace, quickly finding himself in front of a small creavence that would serve as a passage for him and Byleth.

“But you won’t fit in here, Aquilo! We can’t stay here if you’re not with us.” Wolfram shook his head, but so did Aquilo.

The wyvern said that there was a spot higher up where he could nest into -- a cave in the middle of the steep rock that only winged ones could reach -- so there was no need for Wolfram to worry.

“You really thought about everything, didn’t you, boy? Thank you so much.” Wolfram smiled weakly as Aquilo puffed his chest up with pride. “Alright, I’ll get Byleth inside and then we can look for the herbs together.”

Aquilo nodded and took off, ready to promptly start the search to help alleviate Wolfram’s pain (he knew how much it hurt to have a wound on his wing, after all) as the boy went inside the cave with Byleth in his arms. He covered the entrance with the rocks and trekked in, unbothered by the darkness as his heightened senses could guide him in.

He followed the flowing water up until a small spring at the very end of the cave, finally placing Byleth on the ground beside it. He covered her with her own coat, took a sip of water and started a fire with his magic.

What could he do, other than watch over her until she awoke from her Slumber?

Nidra had told him that one couldn’t simply forcefully wake a dragonkin up from the Slumber, since there was no way to tell what state of mind they would wake up in. So the only way for it was to wait.

Wait.

Wolfram held his knees in a silent prayer to Naga as his warm tears died into his clothes. The sobs of a boy who had discovered the true meaning of his mission filled the dark, damp cave, its walls uncaring for the loneliness that would slowly swallow him over time.

Everyday Wolfram woke up only to find Byleth still asleep. He thought to himself that ‘maybe today she’ll wake up’ more times than he could count, while still unsure of what else he could do as he guarded the Heart of Immortals.

He didn’t know what the situation was up there in the Monastery, nor did he know what happened to his classmates after that dreadful battle. Not to mention that hunting was hard for both him and Aquilo -- the battle had scared off most of the animals, so Wolfram had been subsisting on mushrooms and fruits he learned to distinguish thanks to Leonie and Raphael.

Thinking about his classmates always made the boy’s eyes sting with tears and his heart ache with doom. Still, even so, the boy tried to look at the situation with a bright perspective lest he fell victim to the dreadful thoughts.

Little by little did he manage to cover more ground around his hideout -- every day he would venture a little farther or walk for a while longer. During the night, whenever the moon was out, he even dared to fly so as to scout the area, but only to places Aquilo had already informed him that were safe.

The days merged together; the growing silence no longer bothered Wolfram’s ears; on the contrary, they were a sign that things had started to calm down around the area: the silence on the side of the war meant that the noise of the forest would follow suit soon enough.

A week later -- or perhaps a year later, Wolfram could no longer tell -- the boy felt the presence of a human not too far from the spot he was scouting, many ways from the safely guarded hideout.

It was a merchant.

“Ho! I didn’t expect to find one so young in these woods! From the looks of it, you were in the thick of battle, weren’t you, lad?” The middle-aged man approached with an easy-going smile, despite carrying a load three times larger than himself.

Wolfie opened and closed his mouth, almost forgetting how to speak for a full second.

The urge to cry slapped him hard in the throat, but the boy managed to look down and dry his eyes before raising his gaze and smiling at the man. “Yeah, um, but why are you here? I thought the battle was over?”

“Boy, if you don’t know what’s happening up there, then it’s for the best if you keep on not knowing. I came here to check if I could loot- er, find something useful for my trade lying around in the ruins of the Monastery, but it’s been completely seized by outlaws. Better steer clear from there.”

“Ruins- outlaws?!” Wolfie gasped as the man nodded. “I’m sorry, I must- I gotta go!” He quickly turned and left, running at the most of his speed towards the trail that would lead him to the road to the Monastery.

Once he was out of reach, Wolfie brought out his wings and flew.

He flew up high, towards the Monastery for the first time ever since the battle. The wind still carried the smell of smoke and ashes, not to mention the putrid stench of death.

Wolfie could barely keep himself upright as he saw the destruction that had taken over the place he had called home for those short but fulfilling months.

Destroyed walls, decaying corpses, dangerous-looking men lurking around in the shadows… that place was no longer the impenetrable Monastery that had welcomed Wolfram as one of their own.

It was only… an empty, decaying husk.

His chin trembling, Wolfram sniffled and flew back to the hideout, running to Byleth so as to grab her hand under his uncontrollable sobs. “W-we need to do something, Byleth. P-please, please wake up soon so we can help everyone! I don’t- I can’t be hopeful that they’re all okay after seeing that, I can’t- Oh, Byleth!” the boy sobbed, digging his face into his and Byleth’s hands, sniffling like a lost young child.

But Byleth didn’t wake.

Not after another day, not after another month. Not after another year. She wasn’t waking up.

The merchant Wolfie met that day used a route close to the hideout to go to a village at the foot of the mountain, so the two of them would sometimes meet -- and Wolfie would acquire precious information of the outside world from him.

The man also took pity at the state of Wolfram’s clothes (that had been torn beyond recognition after the fall) so he made a huge discount on different pieces so the boy could pick them and at least resemble a person again.

Smiling faintly, which was the most Wolfie could do after two years of waiting, the boy picked up a bandanna that was to his liking as he gulped, wondering if he should ask the question that was stuck in his throat. “What…” he tried, but the words didn’t come out.

“Hm? Say something, young man?”

“W-what happened to Faerghus? You know, after the war started?” He managed to ask with a huff, not being able to look at the man’s eyes.

“Hmm, well, the Crown Prince was arrested for treason after being accused of murdering his uncle and was sentenced to death-”

The item on Wolfram’s hand slipped right through his fingers as color left his face. “Dimitri- he- uncle? Death?” The boy shook from within, his eyes so large it was the first time the man saw their color.

“W-wait, don’t go panicking yet, kid. On the day he was to be hanged, some people from Duscur saved him, though now no one knows where he is or if he’s still alive.”

Blinking, Wolfram remembered his once-roommate and Dimitri’s most fateful friend: Dedue.

Unsure if he should sigh with relief or tense up even more from the conflicting information, Wolfram felt the familiar sting of tears itch on his nose. “Dimitri, Dedue… please, please be okay out there.” He sniffled, covering his face with both hands.

The merchant scratched the back of his head, patting Wolfram’s shoulder for an awkward support, action of which reminded the boy of something he had completely forgotten: the warmth of a person, the support of a friend.

Dimitri’s hand on his shoulder, always spurring him to be the best he could be.

The friendship jewel he never made.

“The friendship jewel!” Wolfram raised his face with a jolt, the tears put to a stop. “I gotta- I’m gonna-” he looked around, as though he could find the hair he had stashed inside his locket just lying around in the forest. “I need to go!” He bowed to the merchant before taking off into the woods, holding into the locket with the biggest smile he’d worn in years.

Thankfully, the full moon was just around the corner, so it was just a matter of Wolfie remembering all the steps his siblings taught him so he could make a proper jewel with his feelings for Dimitri in it.

It would be full of prayers for his friend’s safety and contain a vow to meet him again so as to give him one of the sibling jewels. Wolfram prayed to the full moon so that it would take his thoughts to Naga, whose voice was fainter than ever now that Byleth’s Blood entered the Slumber.

As he held the jewels within his hands and prayed under the moonlight, Wolfie could feel a pat on his head -- an act so faint he could’ve mistaken it by a draft. But he knew better.

He knew this was Naga looking out for him; telling him that She would be there for him and that he could do it. Sniffling the boy sobbed into his hands, lowering himself into the bow characteristic to his race towards Naga, feeling the warmth of a mother embrace him within this cold, lonely night.

After that night, Wolfram always kept the jewels safely inside his bag, back at the hideout. He did think of bringing them out with him as he patrolled, but he feared dropping them from the sky since he didn’t have another locket to store them into.

The movement around the Monastery came and went in waves -- during the first few years, there were a lot of looters and grave robbers, but those eventually left after noticing there would be nothing of interest there. Still, new and unsuspecting looters would always arrive, to the point where Wolfram knew the best spots to hide in should he be inside the Monastery whenever they appeared.

One particular night, three, or perhaps five years after the battle, Wolfram heard a commotion breaking a bit before dawn during one of his patrols. He had basically become a nocturnal person during these years of hiding, as it was safer to come out at night than it was during the day.

Regardless, he heard a sound he hadn’t heard in a long while -- the roars of battle and the screams that preceded death. Startled, the boy flew closer to take a look while his instincts compelled him to go back to the hideout as fast as possible.

Peeking through one of the fallen walls, Wolfram saw what looked like a beast wearing the skin of a human: a tall, dirty and blonde man swirled his lance wildly to the sides, claiming one life with each powerful thrust. His strength didn’t look human either, as he broke skulls with his bare hands and caved in more holes in destroyed walls.

Wolfram felt fear creep inside him as he watched the beast-like man fight. The large mantle he wore only made him look bigger and more feral, to the point of Wolfie wondering if he wasn’t a shape-shifter after all.

The looters were swatted like flies whenever the man moved his weapon, which made Wolfie gag and look away from the slaughter.

“You are all rats! You deserve to pay for your sins with death!” The man yelled in a guttural voice, but that only made Wolfie widen his eyes.

“Dimitri…?” Wolfram murmured before looking back at the crazed man. “Is it really?” He huffed as his heart rate spiked. Was he alive? Truly?

Oh, he’s gotta meet him! But- what about the jewel? And Byleth? Maybe he could bring Byleth here so they could take care of her together? Or bring Dimitri to her!

As he figured out what to do, Dimitri left a trail of death behind his hunched figure, walking at slow steps at nowhere in particular.

Wolfram remembered vividly the state of mind Dimitri had last they saw each other. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what time must’ve done to his friend while they were separated. But that would end today.

“I’ll be back, Dimitri, wait for me!” Wolfram said to no one in particular as he flew back to the hideout, intent on bringing out the jewels so he could finally show the proof of their bond. As he got closer to the cave, Wolfram felt that something wasn’t right.

He couldn’t feel Byleth’s presence at all!

“Byleth? Byleth!” He huffed as he dove as fast as he could only to find that the entrance to the cave had been opened. “Oh no, nononono,” he ran in as quickly as he could, but his fears truly ended up being real.

Byleth was nowhere to be found.