Chapter Text
“Where is Jax?” Ribbit inquired.
“I don’t know honestly,” Kaufmo responded.
The frog and the jester were standing in the middle of the circus, waiting for whatever adventure Caine had planned for the trio today.
A low whistle could be heard and Ribbit turned to see the tall, purple rabbit strutting towards her. “Sorry I’m late. But I guess, not technically, since time moves differently around here.”
“Did somebody say ‘TIMEEEE?’” A booming voice could be heard and not a second later did Caine appear.
“What’s the adventure today, Caine?” Kaufmo asked.
“Today is a SNOWQUEST adventure! Your jobs are to retrieve the princess hidden at the top of Mt. Snowglinda, whilst battling demons and other nefarious creatures out there.” Caine then opened up a portal and pushed all of them inside before they could even interject.
Outside, the air was frigid, with the snow being thick and deep. Even though the trio was tall, it still felt difficult to trudge through.
“Some adventure…” Jax muttered to himself. He put his hands further into his pockets while trying to hold back a shiver.
Ribbit looked over and rolled her eyes. “Ain’t no use in trying to pretend you’re not cold. It’s like 10 degrees out here.”
“Hey, it could be worse honestly!” Kaufmo stated.
Just as Jax was about to respond, he was knocked over by a snowball that practically turned him upside-down.
“Jax!” Ribbit and Kaufmo exclaimed as they rushed to his side.
“Are you okay?” Ribbit asked, brushing the snow off his neck.
Jax nodded as he looked up to see who hit him. It turned out to be a snow-dog who already had another snowball in their mouth.
Jax signaled to the other two as they all quickly lunged away as the snowball came towards them.
“How exactly does Caine expect us to defeat these creatures?” Ribbit panted.
Jax took a deep breath in and sprinted towards the dog before tackling it to the ground. The dog then glitched for a moment before it disappeared.
Kaufmo stood up, brushing snow off of his pants. “Huh? It was that easy?”
“Well, let’s not dilly-dally any further,” Ribbit stated, already trudging ahead of Kaufmo and Jax.
The trio continued on, battling different snow-dogs and other various creatures. Eventually, they reached where the princess was being held.
“Are we supposed to just break it open? Or Jax, do you have a key?” Kaufmo asked, turning to Jax.
Jax looked at him with a puzzled expression. “I mean, we ain’t in the circus anymore. So I doubt even if I had a key on me, it would work.”
Ribbit pondered for a moment before bending down and pushing snow together with her hands.
“Are you making a key? Jax asked, side-eyeing her.
“Well, yeah, it’s worth a shot.” Ribbit picked up the make-shift snow key and tried inserting it into the lock. After a bit of fiddling, the key turned and the door opened.
The princess emerged. She was a petite, lanky woman, wearing a thin dress. “Thank you guys so much for saving me!”
“Of course!” Ribbit exclaimed. She helped the princess out of the cage. “Let’s get you back to your kingdom.”
After the trio took the princess back to her kingdom, Ribbit and Jax settled down in the kitchen area while Kaufmo chose to go back to his room. Jax pulled out a bag of marshmallows from the cupboard area while Ribbit took out a pan and poured some hot chocolate mix into the pan.
“Why not the microwave? It’s faster that way. Tastes the same too.” Jax stated as he plopped a marshmallow into his mouth.
Ribbit side-eyed him. “No, it doesn’t.” As Ribbit began pouring the milk into the pan, a few coughs could be heard near her. She turned around to see Jax bent over like a foldable chair, coughing into his fist. “Are you good?”
Jax straightened up really quick and scoffed. “Yeah. Shouldn’t you be focused on the hot chocolate?”
Ribbit rolled her eyes and turned back to pouring the milk. “God forbid I care about my friend. It’s not like you had the warmest fit out there earlier.”
Jax crossed his arms. “Well, it’s not like we can get sick. This is a digital world, after all.”
Ribbit grabbed a wooden spoon and began stirring the hot chocolate together. “I’m just saying.”
As Ribbit finished the hot chocolate, Jax grabbed two mugs and shared out two cups for them. He added some whipped cream on top and passed a mug to Ribbit.
Jax took a sip and his eyes shrunk a bit. “Wow, this isn’t terrible.”
Ribbit swatted him lightly. “Now you know this s*it is good.”
“That’s exactly why I said that it isn’t terrible!”
Jax sniffled twice before turning his head and letting out a soft sneeze into his fist. “H’tshh’huu!”
Ribbit took a small step back and clutched her mug of hot chocolate closer like it was some prized possession. “Bless you.”
“I’m not sick.”
“I never said you were. But like, still.”
“Over here acting like I’m the freaking plague.”
“Well, you did sneeze into your fist, which is like, disgusting, but also, you never know. You might be getting sick.”
Jax’s nose prickling at the exact moment definitely didn’t help right now. He turned away sharply and sneezed twice into his elbow. “H’tsch’chuuu! H’tssh!” He cleared his throat and sighed. “I’m going to bed now.”
He downed the rest of his hot chocolate and left the mug on the counter.
Ribbit waved to Jax before heading to the sink. “Goodnight.”
Jax just responded with a half-hearted wave before leaving the kitchen and heading back to his room, only to immediately pass out on his bed.
When Jax woke up, he tried to sit up, but the room seemed to spin in four different directions. He shivered as he grabbed the duvet to try and keep himself warm, only for his body to basically reject that as well. He threw the duvet off his body as he grumbled about being both hot and cold. “So much for regulating my body temperature.” Everything felt warm and sticky. On top of that, he was now shivering profusely, so that was great.
He cleared his throat before his body decided to lurch forward with two ghastly, horrendous coughs. His body began to convulse and tremble as the coughs became rougher and deeper. He felt the sweat build on his forehead as he panted for fresh air.
As Jax’s coughing fit subsided, he heard a knock at his door. He groaned and stood up, only for him to nearly fall back down onto his bed. He took a deep breath in and forced himself to stand up and walk to the door. He opened it slightly and there stood Ribbit in a cute, patterned onesie outfit.
Ribbit’s eyes widened when she noticed Jax’s state. “You don’t look so hot.”
“Why are you here?”
“Breakfast,” a muffled voice spoke, and Jax pushed open his door further to see Kaufmo eating a bowl of cereal.
The trio sat quietly at the breakfast table, with Kaufmo gnawing down a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal and Ribbit eating some bacon with toast. Meanwhile, Jax had himself a small bowl of oatmeal with fruit that he was just picking at.
“Are we going on another adventure today?” Kaufmo asked, taking a bite of his cereal.
Ribbit shrugged. “Probably not. I heard Caine was doing some important office stuff today.”
“Really? Well, that's new.”
“I’m glad. We get a break for once. Honestly, you remember when we…”
The conversation began to dull as Jax’s vision started to slow and become impaired. The room began to flash specks of white and black. His heartbeat began to quicken like a ticking timebomb. Everything was white and then, he collapsed from his seat, and everything turned black.