Chapter Text
You heard them before you saw them. Ragged breaths, heavy footfalls on clumsy feet. A child, a child, scratched-up and exhausted, likely without food or water. All alone. Of course all you could do was rush forward, grabbing them before they could fall over.
Not only were you the first to see them, you'd been the only one. It pains you to think about, but the reality that came instead was more relieving than any hypothetical.
Bonnie was their name, they said once they'd gotten some food and water. 'Boniface', formally, but the rest of it hadn't stuck. They were from Bambouche, a town close to the beach—and a few days away from your current position. Their sister had rushed them out of the place, pushing them away from the encroaching curse and telling them to rush before she got caught herself.
Several days, all alone, so close to the curse. It was a miracle they were even alive, but you couldn't say that to them. They wouldn't believe you, they would say they didn't deserve it. If there were words you could say to them, you didn't know them. So, instead, you acted. Helped them get back up, nurse their wounds, everything. At first, the plan was to drop them off in a somewhat safe town, but as the curse kept growing, it seemed less and less responsible.
You and Odile decided to ask for their opinion. It was smarter than choosing for them.
"Boniface, do you have a moment?"
They obviously did. They'd usually taken on cooking duty, and the others had let them to make sure they felt like they were doing something, but after the meal, there wasn't much room for anything else.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, sure, why?"
You decided to chime in next, "Since you know what our goal is, and we know it's dangerous, we wanted to know what you want to do!"
The kid's eyes narrowed a bit, suspicion drifting into their gaze. "What's that mean?"
You guessed Bonnie was worried about being abandoned. Both of you sat down, and Odile seemed to have caught on—or she had prepared her words well.
"Obviously, travelling with us to Dormont is going to be dangerous. We want to protect you as best we can, but we can't guarantee your safety." She rested her hands on her knees, not wanting to show too much expression. "But, given the nature of the curse, we feel like keeping you with us is still the safer option. Leaving you at some town we know nothing about, with the curse nearby, that doesn't seem wise… but we'd rather let you choose. If there is still a town nearby that you would feel safe in, we can take you there-"
"Nah, I'm good." Bonnie didn't need to think about that at all, a smile climbing onto their face. It wasn't quite happy, but it was determined. "You scared me, Dile! I thought you were gonna dump me, I can't do that. Nille saved me from the curse, and I can't just go back to get cursed too! Besides, who's gonna cook good food if I'm not there?"
You think they make a great point. Odile seems to think the same, judging by the smile she tries to hide.
"Then it's decided. We'll be stopping for supplies nearby—we're a bit short on coin, but we should be able to get some vegetables for a healthier meal. Would you like to help pick them out, then?"
Bonnie gave her a vigorous nod, and the two shook on it—a real agreement before she headed to her tent. She had some research to do, leaving you alone with the kid for now.
"I'm glad you wanna stay," you said after a while, "I know we're worried about you all the time, but we've had fun already, haven't we?"
"Hmh!" Bonnie pumped their fist into the air. "We've cooked and fought and partied! Totally worth it."
You pause, thinking about the preceding weeks. About the stinging pain, the excercises, trying to get used to the way your sight worked now.
"Worth it," you agreed. Bonnie didn't know yet, or maybe they'd guessed as much. It wasn't that important now, you've compensated well! Protecting them and the rest of your friends should go much better now!
Vaguely, you see them on your blind side sometimes. That figure, remarkably similar to you, yet Different. They wandered through a darkness that only existed in your eyesocket, like there was a world made of only your unseeing.
They were distant, then they were close. When you shut your working eye, they didn't go there. It must be a big place, the fruit of your mistake growing into a garden like that.
If it wasn't a hallucination, mind you. It was hard to distinguish reality from dreams sometimes, leaving just a lingering sense that you were in the wrong place, at the right time. With the look your döppelganger gave you, they seemed to agree. Their worries were sketched on clear, always directed in the same direction.
You moved your good eye, and saw Bonnie where your specter stood, where he was looking now. Their expression was obscured, their posture hidden by their cloak, much like yours. Still, it was obvious to you what they felt, even if the words didn't come.
Your job was to protect them, that much was clear. It always had been, for the children were the future. Whatever this other self feared or saw or dreaded, you couldn't let it come to pass.
And yet…
Sometimes, rather than seeing your other self, you would look around without catching sight of you. You could look at your hands and see nothing, be deafened to your own breath, which caught on to the fact there was no body to inhale with. A brief moment of non-existence, as if pushing you away.
You couldn't be sure if you were real, not in those moments. It felt like sleeping, these hesitations between waking and dreaming where the idea of choice, both from consciousness and pure instinct, was null.
Not something to bring up, of course. Your memory was poor, this was probably a related symptom. Maybe whatever brain damage you'd gotten in your past got worse after you lost your eye. What was it called… maybe it was more like a flashback! Just to a memory you didn't have. It was hard for your life to flash before your eyes when there was no light to see it with.
"Frin. Heyfrin, Frin."
Bonnie would snap you out of your reveries after a moment's thought. What were you doing, where were you?
"Yes, Bonbon?"
"You looked like you're thinking real hard about something. What's up? Thinking of secrets?"
A classic way of prodding for them, something they tried on both you and Odile. After you looked around, realising you were at camp, you replied.
"Just thinking about some weird dreams I'm having!" You didn't want to worry them too much, after all, "Some people say dreams have secret meanings, so I figured I'd try that."
"Oh, that kinda stuff." the kid nodded knowingly. "A friend of my sister was big on that, he said dreams are secret changes in your thought or something. Weird stuff, but it kinda makes sense, right?"
It didn't not make sense, but before you could agree, Bonnie continued: "So you gotta tell me your thoughts and I will become a dream puh-sy-cologist."
Saying 'no' might have been the easiest move there, but you were never the sort to do things the easy way. Lying to Bonbon though, that would suck… Plus, you weren't a good liar! Half-truth, then.
"I dreamt I was invisible or something," you explain, "I couldn't see my hands, or even feel them! Maybe I was a ghost or something."
"You better not be, you'd be a crabby one," they replied authoritatively, "if you can't see yourself, you can't see! 'Cause you can't see your eyes, and if you can't see what you see with, that's a problem!"
That made sense, yet it didn't make sense at all. Truly a gift of youth, to be capable of such nonsense.
"Yeah, not great when I'm already missing half of it, too!" You agreed with a fake grumble, "but it's all just stuff like that. Spooky, but just dreams."
"Just dreams!" Bonnie crossed their arms and nodded firmly in agreement. "But when you're dreaming, that's scary. Nille taught me tricks to help with that, wanna learn?"
That did sound lovely, you thought.
A hand reaches through the wheat, a gentle breeze man-made.
"Say, did your dreams catch up to your body yet?"
Another appirition, or the same one perhaps.
"Not yet? If you mean my eye, it's… it just goes back and forth the harder I think about it."
"It's weird, right? We can still imagine seeing that vividly. It's not really happened in mine for a while now, but I've not kept track."
The patterns were consistent at least. They talked like a 'future self' still, an omen or something. You feel like you've heard about this before, but it never seemed disjointed.
"Why ask? You should know, right?"
"I should, yes."
The figure turned around, their one eye burning into your own. It wasn't an angry look—it reminded you more of Odile's investigative spirit.
"It just doesn't quite make sense yet. You know the grandfather paradox, right?"
"No, but my grandpa owned a pair of docks, if that helps."
"That he did, but… basically, if you change the past for a reason, you might remove the reason you went back, meaning you never would have changed the past. You can see the loop there, I assume."
That did sound pretty weird. Something like that wouldn't work, unless-
"Unless you close the loop yourself. If I end up at your position, I can send these messages and nothing will actually break, right?"
"That's what I'm hoping, yes. There's some inconsistencies I'm trying to hammer out, though. Like…
"Ah, blind it. When did you lose-"
And they were awake again. Standing upright, walking along a trail.
This felt rather foreboding. In more ways than one, mind you. Every dream, the positions shifted along the-