Chapter Text
The sky broke apart with cracks of lightning and thunder, letting a torrent of rain pour through the dark grey clouds above.
Wilbur clutched his oars tighter, his grin spreading farther as he looked out upon the horizon. He was, finally, going home.
Tommy stood on the shore behind him, holding onto a newly received book with white knuckles and shaking hands, staring out at Wilbur’s boat with wide, terrified and confused eyes, feeling the weight of having his entire world turned upside down for the umpteenth time.
A rumble shook the water, and Wilbur laughed, high pitched and almost ecstatic. He was going home!
The wind stole his voice as it passed his lips and threw it to the skies, the vowels echoing through the clouds and staining the atmosphere with orange and red. The rumble only grew, sending a ringing into his ears and-
Everything went dark. Wilbur let his eyes clear, and saw himself staring back, astonished. It wasn’t him, though- not really. This…other him, this other Wilbur…he had cloudy grey-green eyes and was almost transparent, blueish black wings without feathers emerging from his back. He was staring at him in confusion and fear, and Wilbur tried to reach out, but the all-encompassing darkness swallowed him up and spat him out somewhere else.
The first thing he noticed was that it was…hot. Dust swirled through the air and into his hair, the wind then brushing it out of his face. He felt the sun’s light warming his skin, a cool breeze wafting over him. He opened his eyes with a small gasp of breath.
The landscape was barren, with a few hills, many rocks, and sand. Dead shrubs and the occasional cactus were spotted, and he heard the soft sound of water splashing upon a shore near him.
Wilbur felt an almost manic excitement rising in his chest. He kneeled down, dipping his hands into the sand, then lifted them up, letting it trickle through his fingers and back down into the ground. His eyes sparkled with disbelief and wonder as he slowly looked up and around again, recognising the land around him as the same land he grew up near.
“YES!” He cheered, throwing his arms up, screaming out into the empty landscape. He was home! He was home, finally, away from that awful, horrid land of pain and death and-
“What the hell?!” A high pitched shriek echoed through the sand wastes. Wilbur spun to face the source- there was someone else there?
He scanned the desert, searching for them, and…there! Standing several yards away, a figure obscured by the distance and the blowing sand, was another person.
Wilbur ducked behind a particularly leafy, but still mostly dead bush and attempted to not be seen. What if they were dangerous? He paused before finishing the thought. He turned around to look back at the person, contemplating. No, judging by their shout and the way they were looking around in…confusion? Worry? …They weren’t much of a danger.
He stepped out from behind the bush and began to walk towards the figure, waving and calling out a greeting as he got closer.
“Hello!” he said, and the person spun towards him, eyes wide. Upon seeing each other’s faces, both of them froze in shock.