Chapter Text
“Papa, can I play outside please?” Tubbo asked his dad while going back and forth from his heels to his toes. He already knew the answer, the answer had been the same for the past 2 years and he didn’t expect it to be different this time. But that didn’t stop the child from trying anyway. He just really wanted to play outside like he used to. He wanted to play knight with the knights and practice with his bow and arrow with his dad’s friends! Of course he understood why he wasn’t allowed to play outside. He was already 7 after all! However, yesterday his dad had been very happy so maybe, maybe he was finally allowed to play outside.
“Hmm… You know what, you can play outside today. Just wait until I have gathered some knights to go with you.” His dad said with a smile and Tubbo’s face lit up like a christmas tree.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou” Tubbo said while hugging his dad.
“However, you have to listen to everything the knights tell you, okay? If they tell you to go inside, you have to go inside immediately. Do you understand?”
“Yes papa!” Tubbo answered happily.
“Can I practice with my bow?”
“Yes of course! I will send one of the archeres to help you”
“Thank youuu papa!”
It was weird to go outside after two years but he was so happy about it. Even if he had to take 5 knights and 3 archeres with him, but he didn’t really care about that. Especially because one of the archeres were there to train him instead of guarding him. So he stayed outside as long as he was allowed to and practiced a lot with his bow. He felt so cool when he actually hit his first shot and the archeres were so proud of him. Sadly enough he had to go back inside for dinner a few hours later.
The next day he asked again and his dad let him play outside again. This time he played knight with one of the knights and even played hide and seek (even though he was only allowed to stay within the castle gardens and one of the knights was hiding with him). He couldn’t play outside for very long though, because he had to go follow his classes. He didn’t like the classes but his papa said that they were very important so he went to them and tried his very best. His momma was always sad but when he did good in his classes, his momma would be less sad and he liked making his momma smile.
The third day he was allowed to go outside again and this time his momma went with him. He played with his momma for a very long time and his momma was smiling the whole time. He knew his momma missed his little brother, he missed his baby brother too! But today his momma did not need to miss his brother! Because she could play with Tubbo and then she wouldn’t need to think about his brother!
However, on the fourth day this all came to a sudden halt. His dad has let him play outside again until suddenly his dad had ordered him to come back inside and suddenly he was surrounded by not just 5 but 20 knights. His dad looked mad, scarily mad but Tubbo knew it wasn’t directed at him. Tubbo knew his dad well, he knew that face. It could only mean one thing. The scary man with the scary mask was free and maybe coming for him.
Ever since the black finders arrived on the meadow, the atmosphere had been suffocating due to the extreme tension all around. Even little Tommy wasn’t as energetic as he usually was. Dream had introduced his former friends to the residents of the meadow and Ranboo had gone back home not long after because everything was just so awkward. The black finders had arrived before noon so they started training already in the afternoon after Dream had explained everything. However, they had refused to give Dream a real weapon and while at first Technoblade had protested against this because you need a real weapon to practice, he understood the reason the hunters had so Dream ended up practicing with a fake wooden sword while everyone else practiced with real weapons. It did look a bit silly and Tommy didn’t stop making fun of Dream for it but Dream accepted that he wasn’t going to get any training in any other way. It didn’t really matter either because after the first day of training Philza took over Dream’s training while Technoblade kept training the black finders.
“Okay, so when you use your magic you have to think of magic as energy flowing through your body. You can keep the energy within yourself, which will help you with your talent. Now I don’t have any experience with seeing the future so I don’t know if you can even control it, but if you could, you would do it by focussing on keeping the energy within yourself. For every talent you have to focus the energy in a different spot. For example, both me and Techno have to focus the energy in our brains to control it. I think that would be the most logical for you as well but I think it’s better that for now we focus on the other things you can do with your magic. We can train seeing the future after the future's looking brighter than it is!” Philza explained jokingly to his new pupil. Dream laughed at Philza and nodded in agreement before Philza went on with his explanation.
“To use your magic for things outside your talent, you have to focus the energy to outside your body. For example, Technoblade heightens his fighting senses by giving himself a layer of magic around him that senses things for him. I think you already naturally do that because your fighting senses are similar to Techno’s, you are just less experienced. However, there is more that you can do with pushing the magic outside your body. You can physically restrain people like I did to your friends, you can more easily brew potions because the magic will know the exact amount that is needed for specific potions, you can expel black magic from somebody's body by running your magic through their head, you can lift small objects and even grab objects from far away. But, the further you need to extend your magic and the more you want to restrain or lift, the more energy it uses. So brewing a potion doesn’t use a lot of energy, but grabbing your sword that your enemy tossed away does.”
“So how do I train my magic stamina then? If it all uses so much energy?” Dream asked confused and Philza just smiled at him.
“The same way you always train stamina, by using your magic a lot. Techno has almost infinite stamina with the amount he uses his magic. I’ve been training for decenia so I have a lot of stamina too, but you don’t. The coming month you’ll have to fight using your magic as much as you can so you will have some stamina when the real fight starts. I’m afraid that during the real battle you won’t be able to use your magic as much as you want and you will have to pace it. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
Dream nodded at Philza and tried to use the information he received to practice his magic, however it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. He had never actively used his magic before and thus it took him a lot of tries to even feel it flow inside him. It took him a lot of attempts but in the late afternoon he managed to move some of the leaves around him. It looked pitiful but Philza didn’t make fun of him, instead he praised him and encouraged him to keep on practicing. So he did, and the next day again, and again. At the end of the week, he could move heavier objects around and he was much better at recognizing his own magic.
“I think it might be time for you to train with Technoblade now. You understand your magic and have some control over it, that’s my job done. But to practice better fighting you should really train with Techno. You’ve seen how much your friends have improved in the past week. You need that same improvement if we want to have a chance against the black magic.” Philza said after the 8th day of practicing and Dream nodded while panting. The magic was using a lot of energy but he felt that it was already getting easier.
“Thank you Philza. Really. You could have just turned me away, I’m a very wanted criminal after all. But you listened to my story and even decided to train me and my friends. Thank you.” Dream said sincerely and Phil just nodded.
“No problem mate”
And that’s how Dream, the black finders, the two mages and the two children spent the rest of the month. Everyday Dream, Techno and the Black finders would make up early to continue training and while the atmosphere was still awkward, it had definitely gotten better after a few weeks. Philza had also started training Tommy and Wilbur, it being more in medicine and cooking then in fighting, but still they were being prepared to go with their adoptive dads to the battlefield. Even though the last word had not been said about this yet because while Techno thought it would be better to take the children with them, Philza was convinced that they shouldn’t. For now, however, the Children received training so they could both take care of themselves and others. All of them were preparing for what was to come, even if they didn’t want to think about what was to come.