#tiny!ant

Dream glanced around. He knew the hunters were in this cave somewhere. He had seen them go into it.

He shifted his stance, scanning around the massive cave. His mind was focused solely on luring them out into his trap. Something crunched wetly and then screamed underneath his foot, and a nasty squelch sounded when he accidentally slipped on whatever it was before he managed to jerk away. 

Oh no…

A heavy lead weight of dread dropped into his gut at that horrible sound. There were few things in this world that wouldn't be dusted instantly from damage like that, fewer still that had enough body composition to be gooey. And there were very, very few creatures that could scream like a person.

Dream had a horrible feeling he knew what that had been. He immediately fell to his knees and leaned down, trying to get a better look at who he had just stepped on.

"Ant? Oh fuck," he hissed, internally cringing away. Ant wheezed out a strangled gurgle, blood starting to dribble from his mouth.

Ant's guts were smushed out of his side, mashed and smeared from where Dream slipped over them, and his legs were mangled and crushed beyond repair because Dream had stepped on him.

Dream had to forcefully push down the wave of nausea that hit him before he threw up over the smashed body of his friend. 

The poor cat hybrid's hazy blue eyes slid up to meet Dream's. The giant hurriedly shoved his mask to the side and met the cat's eyes.

"A-Ant, I-I," Dream forced down a choked whimper, hands twitching as they hovered uselessly over his mangled friend.

Dream swallowed. At this point, he thought it would be better to kill him. The pain of a respawn would be more merciful than this, this slow death of–of being crushed.

"I-I'm gonna have to kill you, Ant. You'll respawn just fine, okay?" Ant managed to stutter out a gurgle, which Dream chose to interpret as an 'okay.'

"Okay, so, I'm just going to break your neck. It'll be the quickest and most painless." Another choked sound from his friend made the giant wince.

Gently, he took Ant's head between his fingers. Blood-matted ears flicked against his skin, and Dream had to push down another wave of nausea.

With a quick twist of his fingers and a haunting snap, it was done, and Ant's smashed body puffed out of reality. The only evidence left was the thick smear of blood on the stone ground from where Dream had slid over his hapless friend’s body.

With the deed done, Dream sat back on his heels with a shaky breath and ran a hand over his face and through his hair.

"I-I'm calling off the hunt," Dream's voice shook as he spoke into the comm on his wrist. "I–we gotta go check on Ant."

His friends' concerned voices crackled over the comms, but he ignored them as he pushed himself to his feet.

Something about the way he had killed Ant disturbed him greatly. He just had to make sure his friend was okay.