--Rememberance--

Chapter 3 - 2

The journey was going smoothly so far. Tighnari had drained through lots of our water supply, but it was okay, since we could refill at a nearby oasis.

"Ugh... so hot... any more and I'm going to pass out..." Tighnari muttered, staggering around.

"You've been saying that for the last hour. Don't worry, we're near the oasis. I can already see parts of it..."

I splashed a little of my water on Tighnari. As if a spell had been cast, he jumped up, his posture straightening and his eyes no longer zombie-like.

"Ack- thanks."
His ears drooped slightly as a few drops of water slid off them. I chuckled. How cute was that?...Wait, that was cute? Well, yeah... his ears are cute. Or is he cute? Maybe I am gay.

"No worries Tighnari, we're finally at the oasis- Shoot."

I spotted quite a few Eremites relaxing at the oasis. I couldn't count for sure, because there were sand dunes and shadows hindering my view.

"...Eremites. How will we know whether they're friendly or not?" Tighnari asked, giving me a worried look.

"I'll approach them. If they have nothing to hide they won't show any aggression," I suggested, sheathing my polearm and securing it on my back.

"Be careful..." Tighnari whispered as I made my way towards the oasis.

People were always going to be weary around me since I was the General Mahamatra, but I tried to act as peaceful as possible as I went into the view of the Eremites.

They didn't seem too panicked when I was there- no weapons unsheathed, no dirty looks. Just confused glances.

"What's the General Mahamatra doing here?" one of the Eremites exclaimed, skipping towards me.

She seemed friendly enough. Her expression looked almost scarily happy, although it seemed to be her fixed face. Creepy.

The joyful Eremite was uncomfortably close to me, but I figured she was just checking me out. It isn't every day that you see the General Mahamatra not arresting criminals.

"Sorry if I'm intruding, but I'd just like to refill some water. I'm not gonna arrest anyone here-

I felt a knife impale my waist.

Before I could even react, a glowing arrow whizzed right in front of my eyes. It hit the Eremite's eye, killing her.

"T- Tighnari!" I called out, choking on my own words as pain rushed through my body.

Everything was happening so quickly. A muscular Eremite charged towards me with a machete. I dodged narrowly, rolling into the water. It pressed the knife deeper into my waist, but it was better than having my head severed.

I scrambled back to land, slightly further away from the Eremites. As arrows flew past me, I dug the knife out of my body. It caused me to screech in agony.

More arrows flew towards the Eremites, but barely any of them were taken down.

"We gotta get out of here, before I run out of arrows!" Tighnari shouted, slowly stopping his rapid flurry of shots.

He ran towards me, pushed me onto his back and ran. I looked back, watching the Eremites pursue us. No way Tighnari could keep this pace up, with my body weighing him down.

Tighnari suddenly swerved left, which caught even me off guard. Instead of crashing into a dune, we fell through a thin layer of sand, and landed in a small cave. It was quite cramped, but just about gave the both of us some breathing space.

I watched Tighnari's ears twitch intensively. After a while, they stopped moving, and he began to unpack his first aid equipment.

"They're gone, and for good... Ugh, I'm sorry for causing this, Cyno. I probably would've lasted if we went to the next oasis."

"It's okay," I croaked, still trembling from pain.

"Just hang in there, please," Tighnari muttered, his voice shaky, "I'm sorry."

"Hey, at least I got something out of that..."

I weakly lifted a semi-full water skin. It had filled itself a bit when I fell into the water.

Tighnari chuckled softly, making my heart flutter.
"Well, Cyno, I guess you could say we lost the battle but won the war."

(694 words)