Droplets On Heliotropes [Wanderer x Reader]

III

The days going by flowed into each other as there was not much difference between each of them. Without your carriage, you were slowed down immensely. The distance between you and the kidnapper was surely increasing by the hour, just like the difficulty of finding the right direction. Most of your supplies were gone, and with them the overall morale of your team had vanished. The nights were worse, since they had time to think about your current situation, and even with you reassuring them that an oasis would be reached shortly, their mood didn't improve much. An additional factor was that you now had to share tents, since half on them had been destroyed in the first attack. Rana and Safiyya of course shared one, so Farid and Gulabgir had decided to do so as well. That had left you and Wanderer in one tent. Not that you minded, but the moments right before falling asleep were filled with you trying to make smalltalk, him grumbling about it, or awkward silence. No matter how hard you tried to foster a friendly relationship between the two of you, he blocked all of your attempts. And another thing that didn't help your own mood was that the one positive thing about sharing a tent, body warmth, was mysteriously absent with your companion.

Every once in a while, creatures or Eremites with the kidnapper's symbol, a burning flower, attacked you, but since that was more of a sign that you were walking into at least somewhat the right direction, you were more thankful than anything for encounters like these. Still, you were exhausted, hungry and thirsty. All of you were, except Wanderer.

All of these facts combined were the reason your team and you were not amused when instead of the oasis you had promised, another pack of Eremites, accompanied by strange, huge scorpions and flying serpents awaited you around the corner.

At the start of the battle, you didn't realize that this one would be different, as everything looked and felt the same. You didn't see the trap. But as you moved in between the scorpions and serpents, taking on as many as you could to lighten the load on your team, your nose picked up an unusual smell. The few seconds it took your brain to match the smell to its source had devastating consequences.

"BACK!!" Screaming loudly, with all the volume you could muster, you tried to warn everybody. Gulabgir and Safiyya thankfully were far enough away from the beasts still, and Farid and Rana were almost quick enough to follow your shouted instruction to back away. The explosion didn't do much damage to them, the blast a bit more. All four of them were launched backwards and were injured only slightly.

Wanderer, though, was in the middle of the trap, just like you, fighting directly in the crowd of beasts, at the heart of the impact. You reacted quickly, not as fast as you'd have liked, but fast enough to swing your spear, letting the pole impact with his stomach and throw him back as well and far as you could.

Shielding both of you with water proved useful, but it wasn't enough to protect your subordinate from all harm. As he raised his arm to shield his face from the explosion, the burning and a piece of debris hit him hard. Both of you were catapulted even further away.

Smoke and a high-pitched ringing in your ears overshadowed almost all your senses. It took a while for your body to recover from the shock and impact as you coughed to get air back into your lungs.

When finally, the smoke had cleared and you could sense your surroundings again, the first thing you saw were the Eremites walking towards you. Obviously they wanted to make sure that all of you were dead. Panic rushed through your system, only to be flushed away by determination. Even though every single bone in your body hurt, even though you were still fighting for air, after every single bit had been pushed out of you, even though there was sand in your eyes, making it hard to see, you would not back down until you were sure your team was safe.

❊

"You were simply amazing, milady!" Despite having witnessed it more than a few times already, Safiyya was still astonished at the strength you displayed in a desperate situation.