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ancha-aus · 25 days ago

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Gifted Drabble - New Age AU - Horsing Around

Hey @spotaus !! :D My totally not scheme is done! (it has been for a while lmao. but i didn't want to ADD to the amount i already send you so it was in the backlog lmao. Waiting... like a little present... or a sniper >:D)

So here we go!! A day with Dust in his early days. Bck when he wasn't quite training to be a knight and still on parole lmao.

*-----------------------------*

His arm feels empty.

Dust rubs his arms and feels the obvious lack of another one of his bracelets.

Fucking idiot.

That is what King Nightmare is.

Who the fuck trusts a prisoner with dangerous magic?! Aparently the king of Ochard.

He can't help but touch the warm sweater covering him. It is handmade by one of the seamstresses, either in town or from the castle Dust doesn't know. It is just.. it was made for him...

Dust doesn't know how the king noticed but he noticed that Dust dislikes being uncovered... And with his normal stuff ruined after the original fight and the armour he borrows on missions not being comfortable.

It is... more than he deserves...

It is soft and warm and is slightly too large for his frame. Exactly as he likes it. That together with the beanie and the trousers? he is warm and comfortable in the cooling air. THe shoes are still his own as those are sturdy.

And Dust long ago layered rubber into them to help them survive his sudden lightning strikes.

He is outside now. In the open air as he stares at the castle. Large and Dust sometimes has the feeling it moves... but the storm in him always made him feel weird stuff about totally normal things...

His hand finds the two remaining bracelets on his arms. One on each. Secure and tight.

Dust's phalanges map out the, by now, familiar texture. It is rough and large. It is ancient technology, not at all what they looked like back home.

Back home... the designs had been slink. It had been streamlined to not bother anyone when working. To not get stuck on things and to make them harder to remove. Dust looks at these bracelets. They are nothing like that... They are large and heavy, almost as if it are weights put around his hands. They weight about the same as that as well, his arms used to ache badly with all four. that together with the obvious dark grey and purple magic shining in the runes? It is very obviously that Dust is a criminal and a dangerous one at that.

It would be nice if they were actually treating him as such!!

At least Horror isn't an idiot. He is weary and keeps a close eye on him. Which is much better than Nightmare's almost blind trust?! Dust always heard the guy was paranoid... yet here Dust was. Walking around. Not locked away in a cell. with only two magic blockers on him by now.

Worse is Killer who just... treats him as if they are hanging out? It is so confusing! what is he even suposed to do?! It wan't that long ago that Killer was trying to, unsuccessfully, interogate him!

It is a strange place.

He hears an ominious rumble in the, now, much darker clouds above him and he tightens his hold on his own hand. He closes his eyes and breathes in deeply. Concentrating on his soul, or whatever that mess counts as, and feels the storm. It is reacting to his anxiety, like the most overactive guard dog.

It is hard to force his own soul to calm down, especially with the storm also zapping his own soul. It makes his soul feel more agitated and almost frenzied. It is difficult, to calm down, to let any emotions that had been there leave him. To just feel numb. But that is the only way to control the storm. The only way for it to calm down and to not accidentally zap someone.

The rumbling up in the air calms again and Dust glances up. Less dark but there is still a small drizzle. Great. Hopefully he doesn't ruin any gardens by drowning plants... again.

He rubs his face and his eyes find the blocker again. He wishes he was still wearing four. Sure he couldn't even feel his magic at that point and the storm had a hard time powering him. It felt like he could barely be awake. But at least then he was actually harmless! At least then he didn't have to worry that he would kill someone!

there had already been too many close calls.

Yet... when Nightmare realised what the four bracers did? How low Dust had been and how he was barely not in a coma? Ngihtmare had immediantly removed one of the blockers. Which caused his magic to spark out and zap the other. He hadn't even been fully awake yet when he found Killer glaring at him wiht a knife aimed at his neck while Nightmare had been holding on of his braces.

Dust remembers frowning at them confused before glancing at the brace and then back to the now empty spot on his arm.

"why did you remove that?"

That had been his first question because that is what had nagged him. It is dangerous. Very dangerous. They know he is dangerous! They saw the damage he did on purpose! And with the magic keeping the storms out now gone it just means that his magic will grow stronger!

Which Nightmare may want as the king is now trying to train him on controling the lightning. Dust told him already he can't but Nightmare just keeps making time for them to feel out the lightning and for Dust to practise... It has to be that Nightmare wishes for him to control the lightning so Dust can use it on missions... otherwise it would mean that... it is for Dust...

And the only people who cared about Dust had been his parents and brother. Even the mage installing the spell and making the magic directly connected to Dust hadn't cared about Dust or his health. Just that the theory he had had been right. That it was possible t use magic to power living monsters...

More rumbles in the air and Dust shakes his skull. He needs to stop thinking about it. It makes him feel like a project. As a thing. As a studycase. All things that give him anxiety which causes the storm to grow angry and... He would call it protective but Dust is pretty sure the storm can't actually feel things... and if it did it would only care about keeping Dust alive to enable itself to live on.

He needs a distraction.

He looks around and looks away from the castle. He spots the forest around the castle grounds and partly on it. Maybe a walk in the forest? just not see the castle and find soemthing to not think about what is going on now? that could work...

He walks towards the forest.

The closer he gets the more he realises it just looks like a forest. It is actually a tree garden. Carefully and skillfully maintained to make it look like a garden.

Dust studies the tree line and looks down. He can see that there is lose ground, clearly maintained to make it easy for the roots to well, take root. There are bushes alone the treeline, forming a natural looking wall to keep the trees to their area. Dust walks alongside the treeline and spots a sand rock path leading into the forest. Winding and twisting between the trees. Looking like a paht made by people often walking over it.

He crouches down and nudges some of the very small ferns and beginning patches of flowers aside. A small gravel line alongside the rocky sand path. Again, carefully maintained but looking natural. It is again all created in an image, looking exactly as these magic made gods want it to look like.

Still it is an illusion made well enough that it can work.

Dust follows the path and listens to the forest. It is much too quiet. The creatures sensing the danger that he is. Hiding in their little home sas they feel the storm brewing.

At least this forest reminds him of home a little. They would go to the nearby forest, when their parents had the currency or it and Dsut himself was strong enough for the small trip. It was a pine tree forest. there was a small lake. They would go at any time a year. Small three day trips. They would camp right by that little lake, their dad would be teach them how to catch a fish, how to prepare it over an open fire. Their mom would than later take them a bit away from the camp, teach them how to find their way back and how to look for shelter.

He didn't get to go on many trips.

The spell around his soul was meant to make him able to live. To be able to just exist. Instead he had to make sure he didn't accidentally lost control. That he didn't feel too scared or mad or hurt as the lightning would shoot from his fingers without his consent.

The one upside was that it also hurt him. It burned his joints and mana lines whenever it zapped outwards. At least he will never hurt anyone else wihtout noticing.

It is the only punishment he got for hurting his little brother...

He tries to focus on which plants he sees. Trying to remember old classes. What is edible? what is useful to make camp? Which ones signal for many insects nearby? Which ones are used to feed larger animals and you should stay away from.

It is... A good distraction.

The path through the forest isn't as long as he had hoped. It is maybe a good fifteen minute walk when the trees thin out again. He had been walking slightly downhill.

There is a small building next to the other side of this small clearing. it is made of an light wood with pink or red ish roof. There is a pen with two horses...

There are horses in this forest?

Dust stands by the tree line and frowns as he glances around. He doesn't see anyone... Why is there just a building wiht horses?

He walks a little closer. Slowly to make sure he isn't spotted. Why is this little ranch hidden away? It looks... old. Really old. The light wood is all faded, maybe it used to be darker but the constant sun also bleached it clearly. The white painted is peeled off and the roof seems to have been red before but experienced the same conditions to turn much pinker.

He hears movement and he rushes to hide behind some hay stacks.

A monster walks out of the probaly stables. They are a mannequin monster. They are wheeling a wheelbarrow out with old hay which they throw into a bigger cart with a pitchfork.

Dust just watches them work for a while. See which steps they take and what they do to try and figure out the whys. This he asumes is cleaning out the different horse... pens? After that they move towards his hiding space and Dust realises he messed up. He is right by the fresh hay!

Dust listens carefully and moves around the stack as the other grows near. At least all those classes and training is working in his favour in a bit.

There is a long silence but the other grabs the hay and leaves again. Dust makes sure the other is back inside before rushing towards the side of the stable and steal more glances.

That is where he stays for most of the afternoon. Watching the person move around the stable as they clean and order things. They fill the feeders and water troughs. After that is done they take some tools that he can't quite get a close look at as they walk towards the horses that are outside. Dust sees two at the moment.

There is nothing he can hide behind to get a closer look to see what the other is doing. He cna however...

He goes into the stable. He glances around and ignores the smell. There is a small area to the left right by the enterance. He spots another set of large boots and some large brushes and something that looks like a metal hook? There is a small brush to the side as well. A bucket on the ground with some left over grain in there. there is a small basket with carrots. There are more things but Dust has no idea what any of those things are for.

There are six pens inside. Dust slowly walks deeper into the area and glances into the first pen. It is empty and completely clean, no straw or hay or water in any of the obivous spots. Empty? Not in use? He moves to the next and sees that while there is no horse inside there is straw and hay and water. Even some grain. He moves towards the last pen on the left side and finds it much the same as the second he saw. Ready for use but empty.

He turns around and freezes. A large horse is staring at him from inside the pen across from the third on the left. Dust is frozen. Sure he has near a few horses before. The white mare hiding the enterance to a smuggle spot was always great! She even let him pet her once in trade for an apple. But this horse looks much larger than the other had been. It didn't even make any noise!

They stand for a moment. The horse huffs as they lean a little closer. Sniffing the air before huffing and shaking its mane.

Dust blinks and glances towards the enterance, there had been carrots... He silently moves over there as grabs one, then he glances back to quickly check the other pins. Nope, just one horse inside it seems. He walks back with the one carrot and holds it out to the horse "Is... this what you wanted?" his voice is just a mumble.

The horse walks over and sniffs the treat before eating it quickly.

Dust watches and studies the horse. It looks strong but he doesn't know stuff about horses... Just that they are usually used to pull carts, transport people around, or to help in the field to prepare for more farming. He wonders what these horses are for- oh wait he knows! They used these horses to get to the farms near the border where they met Horror.

That is all he ever saw of these horses... When Killer and him have missions they usually just walk or they hire faster transport if it is further.

He never really goes towards the gardens or the farm checks as Horror doens't like to have him along, which is fair he is dangerous. Maybe the horses help there more?

Something nearby moves and Dust quickly glances out of the small windows by the empty horse stall. The ranchhand is nearing the building.

Dust rushes towards one of the empty stalls on the other side and climbs through the window. He waits a moment until he hears the door move before jumping down and rushing to hide by the treeline nearby.

He glances back and pants. That was close.

Dust isn't sure if he is even allowed to be near them. Or even here for that fact. He is still a criminal and on house-arrest after all. He glances back before making his way back to the castle. Best get back befoe anyone goes looking for him.

Maybe he will go back tomorrow... He heard horses like sugar cubes... he can try to get some to give to the horse...

#utmv #Newageau #dust sans #It is about dust today!#back before dust became a knight. before he even realised he was being TRAINED to be a knight.#He is more worried about his out of control magic than anything else #But he foudn the stables!#and he knows NOTHING about horses!#but this is the first time he got the time to see them ehre!#and he likes them already!#The mannequin monster DID see someone sneaking around.#but they aren't worried.#They figure it is either someone curious about the horses or someone looking for one of the many cats.#They will eventually see dust and invite him to stay closer and teach him about horses #Dust's horsegirl arc will start quickly!#sidenote. Hroror is VERY weary and suspicious of dust.#in his defence. Dust looked EVERY bit the criminal he was.#Horror will see dust sneak off more and more to the forest and probably stlak him once.#only to see dust just look enchanted at the horses and listen to this random person explaining stuff about horse care and how to ride one.#He feels so bad for being so supicious and leaves.#(killer did soemthing similar. he stalked Dust on his third visit towards the stables.#Noticed his new hobby. told nightmare about it. and let dust do his thing.)#nightmare was jsut happy that dust was finally learnign to relax and settle a bit.#nightmare sees it as a sign that dust is starting to trust his own magical abilities to manage his magic.#Dust meanwhile just likes the horseys :)

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