It Was Never the End DreamNotFound

Chapter 23

"Were you thinking about Tubbo when you came down here?"

Tommy flinched. "Don't, Gogs. Just fucking don't."

"Why?" George pressed. "You can't tell me that incident had nothing to do with this one." 

Tubbo was Tommy and Ranboo's best friend. The boy had died not long before George joined the Sleepy Bois. George could still remember the camp's horror when they found out the three teens had snuck out to explore. Only two of them came back. George knew the memory of Tubbo's death fueled Tommy's reckless rage each time a monster took a groupmate's life. 

"Haven't enough people died?" Tommy snapped back. "Why shouldn't we kill the monsters that hurt us?"

"Because you could die when you go after a monster strong enough to kill Ponk, by yourself, without even telling anyone." George scolded. "What would your family, or any of us, do if something happened to you? Wilbur especially." 

"I wasn't planning on getting killed!" 

"But what if you had?" George softened his voice slightly. 

Tommy fell silent for a long moment. Finally he looked around the stone walls. "It was stupid. I can see that now."

George was shocked Tommy backed down. He stared at the boy with round eyes, speechless. 

Tommy's eyes trailed on the ground. "Can we drop it now?"

George nodded. They walked in silence for a long time. George's legs were beginning to ache walking over cart tracks and loose stones. He sucked in a breath of stuffy air. 

"How far does this go?" Tommy struggled to see through the darkness. "There's no way it doesn't open up at some point." 

"I don't know." Wiping sweat from his forehead, George followed Tommy through yet another split in the tunnels. They'd gone through so many twists and turns he wasn't sure they could get back to the rockfall even if they wanted to. 

To George's surprise, the stone walls expanded around them, enclosing a massive cave. A hole in the roof leaked light down to them. Several other tunnels fanned out from the cave. 

"Think we can get out through there?" Tommy pointed at the hole.

George walked towards the opening, his heart sinking as he replied, "No. One of us would have to lift the other through, and it's too high for the other to get out without a boost. Maybe if we had rope or something...." 

"Yeah but I can lift—" 

"Not leaving you here. So shut up." 

George was about to contact Dream to tell him what they'd found when a deep growl sounded from one of the tunnels. 

George and Tommy turned in unison as a huge wolf-like creature stalked out of a tunnel to their left. A red horn curved out of the monster's forehead, its eyes sunken. 

George lined up an trajectory arrow, taking aim as the monster pounced. The creature tried to dodge, but the arrow followed and embedded deep into its shoulder. 

Howling in pain, the monster skidded and lunged at George. Tommy's bat struck the monster's face barely an inch away from where it was about to latch onto George. The nails of the bat scraped the wolf-creature's face as it fell back, shaking its head. Blackish-purple blood streamed from the gashes. 

George's next arrow sent an electric shock through the monster's body. Tommy used the split second of paralysis to grab his dagger on his hip, sinking the blade deep into the monster's chest. Blood sprayed as Tommy flicked the dagger, slicing the monster's chest open.