Chapter Text
In hindsight, Bennett should've expected this would happen.
Really, how had he let himself believe his day would finally not be plagued with bad luck for a change?
His day had started off relatively normal, the only difference being he didn't wake up by falling head first off his loft like he normally did, and the breakfast he made for himself and his dads wasn't burnt around the edges for once.
Honestly, that should have been when he noticed something was off.
He had left the house that morning with a prep in his step, and made his way over to the Adventures guild to collect his daily commissions from Katherine. He didn't even have a rock fall on his head from out of nowhere, or trip and knock his forehead on the stone street on his way there!
He had a small chat with Katherine, the women as kind as always, before he set off beyond the city walls to complete his commission.
They were all relatively easy ones today: Help someone find a key they are lost the day before, clear out a small hilichurl camp, stop an Abyss Mage that was casting some suspicious spell, and finally defeat a ruin guard spotted near a ruin. OK, so, maybe those last two ones weren't the easiest, but he'd done many like them before without getting hurt to bad, so he wasn't worried.
He had completed the first and second commission extremely quickly, and with no issues what so ever! The key had been very easy to locate, and the Hilichurl camp had no more then 5 Hilichurl occupying it, not a Samachurl or Mitachurl in sight!
Surprisingly, Bennet had found the third commission hadn't been difficult either. He had managed to take the Cryo Abyss Mage off guard, and was able to get a good two hits in before it activated its shield, but he was able to break it clearly by infusing his sword with Pyro—thanks to his vision—and then the Mage itself was taken care of quickly. The Hilichurl that had been assisting the Abyss Mage then followed.
When he had finally tracked down the ruin guard, he had found it was already injured, sparks flying from its left arm, which hung limping at its side, throwing off its balance. He didn't even allow himself to question just how he had gotten so lucky seeing as he was, well, him! He had charged forward, infusing his sword with Pryo as he struck it, aiming for its singular glowing eyes. Somehow, his hit had landed, and exactly where he wanted it to! He had kicked off the now deactivated Ruin guard, his action knocking it down to the ground in a flurry of sparks and smoke.
Feeling giddy off his quick victory, and his strange newfound luck—that he had stubbornly refused to question for whatever reason—Bennett decided to take a rest before returning to the City to collect his rewards.
He had wondered around for a short while, until he had found one of the many firepits fitted with a cooking pot scattered all through Mondstat, one that was in great condition. Normally the ones he found had dented and rusted pots, or just didn't have one at all.
He sat himself and his gear infront of the firepit, and with a flick of his index finger lit the stick and leaves underneath the pot ablaze. He didn't even set any of the grass on fire!
He then unhooked the cooking pot and placed it to the side, not needing it for what he planned to make, and pulled out a skewer, a piece of fowl and two mushrooms. He stabbed the peices of food onto the wooden skewer, and then hovered it over the fire to let it cook.
He hummed to himself as the watched the fire lick at the mushroom and chicken skewer, steadily cooking it while he allowed himself to relax. He could hear the bird singing in the background, the wind rustling the leaves of the trees, and—by far his favourite sound—the crackling of the fire before.
He didn't know why he loved the sound so much, but he guessed it was because he was the bearer of a pryo vision, so it kind of made sense that he enjoyed the noise. And the sight. Fire was just so pretty to look at, so mesmerising. Watching the oranges, Yellows and red mingle as the fire danced and twisted, releasing embers that cooled down into ashes as they were carried off by the winds..
It was a weird thing to have an interest about—but then again, when he had told Sir Kaeya about it, he had said he liked the look of ice, and he had an cyro vision. So maybe it really did have something to do with his vision..
Thinking of Sir Kaeya, Bennett suddenly remembered something—they were supposed to train later today! He loved training with Kaeya! Even if he always messed up his footwork and ended up tripping, or his sword would go flying out of his hands when he swung it—he had fun! And Kaeya never got mad at him, either. He'd always laugh it off, or check to make sure he wasn't hurt. Bennett never really understood why—everyone else would curse him up and down if his badluck happened anywhere around them, but Sir Kaeya never seemed to care.
It was.. nice. Honestly, he didn't mind it when everyone got mad at him for being Mondstats 'Bad Luck Charm', he was used to it. And everyone was right—his bad luck was a nuisance, and annoying. But Kaeya.. him not caring was nice.
The smell of his skewer burning shook bennet out of his odd reminiscing session, and he had quickly pulled his lunch away from the fire and inspected it. Thankfully, it hadn't been too burnt, if anything it was only the smallest bit charred, so he ate it anyways. It had tasted great, despite it being a bit overcooked.
Well rested and his appetite satisfied, he put out the fire, picked up his gear, and began making his way back to the City.
He had decided to take the longer route, only hesitating for a moment when he remembered said route, while arguably more scenic, was riddled with monsters. But then he had thought back to his luck throughout the day, and decided it was worth it—Archons, he had been so stuipd—and continued on the path.
Courtesy of his new fortune, he didn't come across any Hilichurl camps—he didn't even see a lone Hilichurl wandering about.
Strangly enough, that was the moment he had begun to question why his bad luck hadn't caused anything. The only thing remotely unlucky that had happened was his food getting the slightest bit burnt, but that was just because he wasn't paying attention.
Why hadn't a rock fallen on his head randomly? Why hadn't he accidentally left most of his gear back home? Why did his commissions go so unusually well? Why hadn't be gotten injured in anyway, shape or form? Why hadn't he seen a single monster in a area that was known for being riddled with them?
He had felt bad for suddenly questioning his luck, because what if this was the Archons finally feeling pity for him and gracing him with even the smallest bit of fortune, and there he was, complaining about it?
He bit the inside of his cheek, his hand going to grab at the pryo vision hanging at his side. He had slowed in his steps, eyes scanning the area around him, yet.. still, not even a single monster.
He had sighed, groaning. He really shouldn't be complaining about that. It wasn't like he wanted to fight and possibly get injured. It's was just.. it was so strange. He was so used to monsters jumping out of bushes randomly, hitting him over the head with a club before he even noticed them. And now that something like that hadn't happened yet, it was.. odd.
He didn't know how to react to this—which was stuipd, seeing as he'd just be ignoring his lack of misfortune for the entire day, so he should be fine. But he wasn't. He couldn't stop looking over his shoulder, flinching at every small noise and holding his breath at the sight of a mere shadow. He wasn't even admiring the beautiful wilderness around him—the whole reason he decided to take this route!
While before he wanted to take a relaxing stroll before heading back to the city, now all he wanted to do was get back home as soon as possible. Screw the view! He just wanted to get home, and then maybe then he wouldn't feel like something very, very bad was about to happen!
He had been walking by a cliffside when it happened.
It had been quiet, almost silent. Even the naturals sounds of the the area surrounding him had disappeared. Just sound of his own heartbeat in his ears amd his quick paced footsteps and—
Clack.
Bennety flinched, hus head swiveling to the direction of the sound. A peddle dropped down the cliffside besides him, skipping down the high incline of stone before landing with a thud on the grass.
There was silence once again. Then—
Clack.
Another pebble.
Clack.
Another, larger this time.
Clunk.
A rock rumpled down the cliffside, this time.
Clunk.
Another.
CLUNK.
And another.
CLUNK.
And then-
Suddenly, there was a wave of stone falling from the cliffside—peddles, rocks, stones, bolders—the earth shaking with the intensity of the abrupt landslide.
Bennett felt panic seize him, staring at the incoming threat of stoney death with wide, terror-filled eyes.
He turned on his heel, almost tripping and ripping up dirt and grass, before he took off running in the opposite direction to the landslide, praying to every Archon he knew of—Barbatos, Morax, Buer, Murata, all of them—that he'd be able to get out of the way in time, that those falling clunks of stone would miss him. That his luck wouldn't run out, that he'd be lucky enough to get to safety—
But when has luck truly been on his side?
He hardly had time to react as a flying rock hit him square in the back of the head, then another in his thigh, then his shoulder, until one knocked right into the back of his knee, forcing his legs to buckle underneath him and—
He summoned pure pyro elemental energy from his vision, pushing it out to try and give himself some sort of shield, anything to protect himself from the sudden onslaught of rocks and borders encasing around him.
It worked, somewhat.
That was, until he felt his vision get torn away from where it was clasped at his hip, a stray rock ripping the fabric holding it in place, and suddenly, the thin layer of protective pryo energy disappeared.
And the heavy weight of bolders replaced it.