Agape

Chapter 6

The woeful cry of the lark pierced through the silence of the morning. Free groaned, placing a firm hand on his side, his hand flaring up waves of intense pain. He kept his eyes closed, evening his laboured breathing, counting quietly. It was after that he decided to open his eyes, the bleary edges in the corner of his eyes creating a mess of a blur in his vision. He blinked, focusing his gaze, turning his head just enough to spot the two right beside his bed on the floor. Shu and Lui, the former too close to the bed, heavily asleep, his head resting on Lui's shoulder. Free, despite the pain, raised a questioning brow upon them.

What happened last night?

His memory was a vague recollection of broken fragments. He remembered being attacked by the Wendigo. He remembered Shu's face, his quiet breath upon his face. Aside from that, he could only recall the flashes of pain, the numbness which followed soon after being succumbed to darkness.

"You're awake" Free turned his head back towards the pair. Lui was awake. He slowly pushed the albino into a comfortable position, his head now resting on the side of his bed before making his way to Free. "How are you feeling?"

"Thirsty" Free croaked out, licking his dry lips.

Lui nodded. He picked up the iron jug beside the bedside table and poured the water into the small wooden bowl. "Let me" The White Tyrant murmured, wrapping one of his arms around Free's shoulders, pulling him into a sitting position. Free winced in pain, a whine escaping his lips at the contact. When Lui lowered the bowl to his lips, Free drank greedily like a man discovering a paradise amidst a dessert. Instantly, a bit of the energy returned to his muscles, and cleared the array of thoughts inside his head.

"Thank you"

Lui nodded, lowering him back to the mattress. Free protested, "I need to sit down."

Lui sighed but before he could protest to the request of the blonde, Valt woke up. "Free!" He yelled, charging at the male with his hypercrative energy. His loud cries woke the rest of them except Shu, who just curled to his side in response still deep in slumber.

"Man," Honcho said, wiping his face. "You gave us a good scare"

Free just shrugged, "We didn't intend this journey to be easy. Things like this happen."

"Always with the details" Honcho grinned, "Welcome back"

"Thank you"

Haru collapsed to one of the nearby chairs. "I thought you died"

"He would've if it weren't for Shu"

This was news to Free. He turned to Max who just spoke the words. "What do you mean?"

"There were no healers" Valt started, "So, Shu patched you up. After a couple of hours a healer came and checked you, but yeah, it was Shu who helped you first"

"Oh" His eyes shifted to the albino, still sleeping soundly despite the conversation in the room. Takeshi shook his head, stretching his arms as he looked outside the opened window of the room.

The village was in tatters. Half of the buildings and the houses which were up and strong yesterday were in scrambles. It was almost as if a storm passed by, taking all the lively companionship of the villagers and leaving only a shell of what was behind. "We should help them to settle all these things"

Valt nodded beside him, "We should, it's partly our fault this happened"

"Not exactly," Haru said. "If they explained to us what was going on we would've been more careful."

"Let's stop passing the blame," Max interrupted. During the past few days he had grown to be the peacemaker of the crew and even stopped his verbal attacks towards Shu, almost accepting the Omega as an equal. Though Max refused to admit it, he knew the memories which were evoked by the Nymphs made this change in him. The attack he saw that day was something he had locked deep inside his heart, a Pandora box he did not want to open. But the nymphs forced open the secrets in his heart and it made him question himself. Why did he even start hating Shu in the first place? He was not in the wrong. Just a victim of the make-believe society that they had created for themselves. Just another marionette tied to the strings of orthodox culture in Solasta. "Let's go help them. That's the least we can do for now"