Chapter Text
Get to the portal. That’s all he had to do. Just get to the portal. It wasn’t even that far, for chat’s sake! The voices were insistent that he get to it and mocking when he failed; COULDN’T THEY SEE THAT HE WAS TRYING?!?!?! But he felt weak and sluggish, and the potion the piglin had tossed on him burned. He could feel it seeping into his skin. He could feel himself changing. He needed to get to the portal. He needed to get to Phil. He needed to get home.
Phil and Ranboo were hanging out by the fire in Techno’s cabin; the crippled avian reading a book and the hybrid playing with Michael, whom Ranboo has somehow convinced Tubbo to let visit while he was away from Snowchester. Suddenly Ranboo got up and headed to the window. Phil watched him from the corner of his eye; no need to bother the hybrid. For all Phil knew, it could just be one of Ranboo’s peculiar habits and he just hadn’t shown yet.
“Where’s Techno?” the boy asked, spiny tail twitching nervously as he bent down to see out the window, “He’s been gone a while.”
Phil set his book down and picked up Michael, joining Ranboo at the window. He was careful to avoid the young boy’s flicking tail; the avian had seen Techno learn the hard way just how sharp those spines were.
“He went to the Nether a few days ago to get some more blaze powder.” Phil said, handing Michael to his father, “Did you not put that in your book?”
Ranboo took Michael, frowning. “I did; It just feels like something’s off, you know? I thought he would’ve been back by now.”
Phil though about that; Techno had been gone longer than usual; he typically made a point of being gone for no longer that three days. It’d been almost a week since he’d left. He knew his friend was one of the most - if not the most - capable person in the server, but for him to be gone this long was concerning. He decided he needed to do something about it.
“Stay here,” he told the Ranboo as he started gathering supplies.
“Wh- what are you doing?” The boy asked.
“I’m going to look for Techno.”