Feeling eyes burning into me, I woke up. I didn't move. Slowly, I shifted my eyes to see what was looking at me. There it was, right by Sou's bag in the darkness. Bag? Where was Soul? Sitting upright I grabbed another torch from my bag. I lit it over the fire.
"Soul?" I called raising the torch above my head expanding the lit area. As the light hit the creatures of the darkness they hissed moving backward."Soul!" I called again.
"Kyo, don't worry, I'm alright," he responded.
"Last time I heard that my best friend was covered in someone else's blood." I took a hesitant step outside the circle of light with my little torch. "What's going on Soul?"
"It's nothing, go back to sleep."
"Don't play games with me Soul"
"Seriously Kyoka. I'm fine." His voice was closer and a bit strained.
"Just-" I took a breath almost gagging. "What is that, ugh," I said to myself. I finally passed a big tree that was in my way. I could see a dim light a couple of meters away.
"Do you, ugh, have a light Soul?"
"Of course I do, I'm not stupid, go back to camp." That's when I heard it. A low rumble and a splat.
"Oh, ok. Holler if you need anything." My face was pale as I made my way back into the camp circle. Sitting down I let out a sigh. There was a rustle behind me. I jumped from the sudden sound. I spun around, torch still in hand, to see if I could tell what it was.
"Aww, you're kind of cute. Wait a minute." I waved the torch at a white bunny. You're not in pain by the light?"
"What are you doing now?" Soul joined the camp circle.
"Look Soul," I scooted over letting even more light on the bunny.
"Aren't they supposed to be burned by the light?" He asked.
"Yeah, that's why I'm confused." The bunny jumped further into our camp. It jumped right over to the fire. We heard little low demonic giggles.
"Oh, Shit! Soul grab-" I finally realized what it was. The bunny opened its mouth sucking in with great force. It swallowed all of the light. Its little white body had a faint glow as it hopped off.
"What the hell was that?" Soul kicked a gnome that jumped at him.
"That was, ugh, a Light Sucker. A creature that can take on innocent forms sucking the light out of things." Soul and I were back to back fight the gremlins that wanted us for dinner. "They're not supposed to be this far North!" I screamed throwing a gnome that had bitten into my arm. After what seemed like hours the gnomes finally retreated. I rushed to my bag pulling out a green glow stick. I snapped it making it light up.
"Soul are you alright?" I asked,
"Yeah, for the most part. I guess those things are creepy."
"Told ya! Why did they retreat though?" I spun around in the darkness looking for anything. The ground beneath us shook slightly then stopped.
"Maka?" Soul asked hesitantly. I turned around, there she was, standing a couple of feet in front of Soul. She was looking at the ground.
"What are you doing here?" Soul asked.
"Soul," Her voice was distorted, scratchy, almost demonic.
"That's not Maka." I placed a hand on Soul's shoulder.
"I gathered that." His hand and arm morphed into his scythe blade. "How dare you impersonate my meister!" Soul yelled running at the imposter.
"I don't need you. I need a stronger weapon!" It's mouth contorted and twitched, as a large smile crept across its face.
"Oh, shut up. You don't know what you're talking about." Soul ran at the Maka trying to cut it in half. It jumped back dodging.
"Soul! Why are you doing this?" A perfect Maka voice came from the being, causing Soul to hesitate just slightly trying to slash the monster. She took the opening, stabbing Soul right through the shoulder.
"Soul!" I ran to his side.
"I'll be back!" Maka screamed causing a forceful wind around her, she disappeared. The sun was coming up, the sky was dark blue, oranges and purples began to show.
"Soul, are you ok?" I asked looking at the hole.
"Not cool." He groaned. I ripped the bottom of my sweater off wrapping it around his shoulder.
"We need more rest before we head out. And we need to clean your shoulder." I sighed, "The suns coming up so we should be safe for now."
"I'm fine, let's go." He stood up shakily grabbing his bag.
"Dammit Soul." I huffed to myself. We headed deep into the forest.
"Soul, will you slow down? I can see you're in pain!" I called to the fast walking man.
"Humph," He just grunted. I dropped my head a bit in defeat. He's so stubborn. Turning my head to look at my surroundings, I stopped dead in my tracks.
"Soul! Water!" I ran up grabbing his good hand pulling him off his current path. He almost growled at me but stopped when he saw what caught my attention. I continued to hold his hand as we walked to the body of water. We stopped staring at the beauty of the sun and sky glistening on the small lake. Soul turned his head to look at me. I looked back at him. My entire body heated up. He's actually quite handsome. My head started to become moist. I glanced down noticing I was still holding his hand. I pulled my hand away and up to my chest blushing.
"What are we waiting for?" I asked. I quickly turned around putting my bag on the bank. I watched as Soul put his bag down wincing as he moved his shoulder.
"Kyoka, will you," he turned his head to the forest huffing, "Help me take this off." he blushed.
"Mhmm." I nodded quickly approaching him. I unwrapped his shoulder. Soul unzipped his jacket carefully pulling his bad arm out of it, his good one followed. He tried to take off his shirt but couldn't get it up far enough. I intervened, grabbing the hem of his shirt. I pulled it slowly over his head. My eyes trailed over his bare chest spotting a large vertical scar. I slid his shirt completely off of him looking at his right shoulder.
"Soul, I'm sorry." I used his shirt to dab at the wound.
"You're so annoying," he grunted. He sat on a large rock trying to stretch the best he could. I got into my bag grabbing a clean cloth. I walked over to the water to dampen it. Watching the ground as I walked back to Soul, I started humming to myself. I cleaned his wound carefully with a small smile on my face still humming. When it was all cleaned up I stopped humming, taking a closer look at his shoulder. The entrance wound wasn't very big and looked like a clean impact. The exit wound looked the same, except, it was as if it healed already. I ran my fingers over the spot causing Soul to wince. It was tender, but, it was healed over. I found my way to his front side looking at his other scar.
"Not cool." Soul stood up. I turned around walked back to my bag.
"How did that happen?" I asked taking my ripped sweater off.
"Ragnarok, the demon sword."
"Is that how you got the black blood?"
"Yeah." I slipped out of my pants. "What-What are you doing?" He blushed looking away.
"I'm going to go for a swim." I was now standing in my boy short undies my chest still wrapped from Maka. I giggled at him. He sat back on the rock.
"You coming?" I dove into the water. The purpose of swimming was not only for some relaxation but to clean off. Soul took his pants off joining me in the water in just his boxers.
