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It was the cold that woke him.
He had never felt such cold in all of his 7,000 years.
It was deep within his body. Wrapping around his bones and seeping into his lungs.
It was a cold that he would never forget. The absence of anything.
The shock was enough that as he pushed his eyes open, a cry tore its way out of his throat. He gasped and felt his body pull in on itself, convulsing as he desperately tried to understand what was happening.
There were hands holding him. One on his shoulder, another on his side, one under his arm, another holding his head up. It was too much.
Then his eyes started to clear, and he saw her. Thank the gods he saw her.
beautiful, beautiful Makkari
There were tears streaming down her cheeks, and she was signing to someone he did not see. He wanted to say something to her, anything.
But instead, he felt the cold, gripping at his very being, and he cried out again. As his head fell back, he felt the hands again. He knew they kept him grounded, but it was too much.
He wanted to only know her hands.
Then all at once he felt her. Her hands were the ones on either side of his face. Holding him up, and pressing her forehead to his.
She was warmth, and wonder, and light. She was safety.
He could survive this, with her.
beautiful, beautiful Makkari
She had never seen him look so cold.
The absence of the comforting vibration of his heart told her everything she needed to know before she even made it to him.
Lying there, crumpled against the grass and dirt, it was hard to comprehend that this was him. He was so, so cold. It was as if he had never been warm before.
She held him to her, pulling him close and resting his head in her lap. She placed shaky hands on the gash across his chest. The red of his life, stained the grass and blended into the red of her uniform.
She was desperate for anything that could protect him. Convincing herself it was not too late.
her Druig
The vibrations of footsteps alerted her to the others making their way to her, and him.
She felt hands. One on her shoulder, another on his side, one on her arm, another reaching for him. It was too much.
She tried to tell them, to make them understand.
He’s too cold, she signed. I can’t feel his heart.
She could see their mouths moving. Something had to be done.
Their healer, ever the calm within the storm, smiled sadly at her. The pain in the healer’s eyes was different, but reflecting the pain deep in her chest.
This might not work, she signed to her. And if it does, it will hurt him.
She shook her head. Please, she signed back.
The healer nodded as she placed her hands on either side of his chest, and as the magic flowed through him, all at once she felt his heart.
her Druig
The evening seemed so far away now.
It had been calm, the air crisp and light. They could feel the cool of the night seeping in as the sun set. Striking bursts of yellow light breaking through the woven leaves above them.
He had been content, walking quietly next to his brother through the woods.
The brother that flew too close to the sun. They never fully trusted each other.
All the same, he loved him.
The rustling from deep in the trees caught them both off guard. It was quick and quiet.
He heard it before his brother did. Drawing the knife he kept at his side, he turned suddenly towards the direction of the sound.
His brother followed suit, tensing as he scanned the dimness.
Then it was there, a blur of sharp color and movement. It threw his brother as if he was a twig within a river. Sending him through the trees, and from eyesight.
Ikaris!
He knew he did not have much time, and so he advanced on the creature, cutting it in small quick succession. He barely made a scratch.
It was on him then, claws catching on his shoulders and pushing him down and into the Earth. He cried out in pain, and felt the knife leave his hands. He had nothing.
There weren’t even supposed to have been any creatures out here. A quiet observation, they were told. His brother had recommended they all split up. Cover more ground, take less time.
He needed to do something, and soon. He tore around frantically, sliding his hands across the dirt, for anything. As if understanding what he was grasping for, the creature moved, rearing up and dragging its claws deep across his chest.
He screamed.
There was nothing he could do. It was going to kill him.
Then he saw him. His brother, just behind the trees. He called out.
Ikaris!
He would never forget the way his brother looked at him. It wasn’t quite hate, but there was no love behind his eyes.
He watched as his brother disappeared, leaving him there, bleeding in the dirt.
Abandoned, he felt his strength leaving him. He was going to die. The creature knew it too, knew the fight was over, and that this was it.
It pushed it’s claws deeper, the pain was blinding, it lifted his body as if it was weightless, then it tossed him aside.
His world was nothing.
He hit the ground hard. He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. He could feel himself slipping away.
Lying there, crumpled against the grass and dirt, his mind drifted to her.
beautiful, beautiful Makkari
i’m sorry
She could tell he was still in pain.
Though he slept, she watched as he would shift and tense. The agony was apparent whenever he tried to take a deep breath. She could feel the ragged movement under her fingertips.
Her heart ached for him.
her Druig
His chest was wrapped tightly, and they had stopped the bleeding, but it was apparent he was still struggling. When she placed her hands against the bandages, she could feel the uneven vibrations of his heart and lungs.
She would have done anything to take his pain away.
Directly next to her worry and desire to ease him, was a burning rage. Her anger at whatever did this to him was almosting blinding if she dwelled on it too long. She wanted them to suffer as they made him, maybe more.
She had barely left his side since she first saw their brother come through the deep part of the wood. He was disheveled, with a cut above his eye that dripped down, resembling dark red tears.
He was talking quickly, not even bothering to sign, but she knew all the same. She felt it.
her Druig
She couldn’t stop the thoughts. What if they had been too late? What if he was too far gone when they found him?
What if they had never found him at all?
Still, he was with her now, alive and breathing.
She smiled sweetly at him as he slept next to her, thanking whatever was listening that the universe had not taken him from her quite yet.
His hair was askew across his forehead, and as she brushed it aside he opened his eyes slowly, clearly confused.
Until his eyes met hers.
The recognition, the relief in his gaze. His smile was sincere. She watched his mouth move.
beautiful, beautiful Makkari
Tears began flowing down his face as she placed her hands against his. He was saying words she could barely see through her own tears. He was alive, and awake, and speaking to her. Her heart felt so, so light. He was going to survive this.
He was here, and as she pressed her forehead to his, she knew everything would be okay
.
her Druig
The rage he felt deep in his chest was almost as painful as his actual wound.
Their healer had done as much as she could, but the rest of the healing would have to be done through rest. He hated it.
She made it bearable. Staying with him through the night, the two of them talking quietly by a low burning fire. Legs entwined and hands speaking.
She slept against his chest, it didn’t hurt as much anymore. The soft rise and fall of her breath was calming for him. Whatever pain he did feel, he ignored it to have her close to him.
It terrified him, the thought that he almost lost all of this. That he almost lost her.
beautiful, beautiful Makkari
He wasn’t supposed to live.
They were far from the others, they would never know.
It was a creature, he told them. I barely got a look at it. When I found him it was gone.
He wasn’t supposed to live.
It broke his heart to see his brother like that. Pinned down, bleeding in the dirt, crying out for him
Ikaris!
It had to be done. His brother was smart, and untrusting. He would follow the others to the end of time, but not him.
He stayed away from the sun.
He wasn’t supposed to live.
The first of the group he found were their healer and her. She moved as fiercely as light, and loved twice that.
He thought it had been enough time. When he left him there, in the woods, he was as good as gone. The creature was so focused on riding the world of one of them, it paid no attention as he retreated to get the others. They would mourn, but when the time came, it would be easier with his brother gone.
The mission was all that was important.
He wasn’t supposed to live.
She found him first, crying out when she saw him.
His brother was still, as if carved there, and cold. His brother was so cold.
He placed a hand against his brother’s cheek. He had never felt such cold. He let the tears come freely. In his heart he loved his brother, but this was exceeded by his loyalty to their design. He always knew his, their, purpose, and if this was a part of it, so be it.
Still, he could hear his brother’s voice ringing in his ears, and his heart seized.
Ikaris!
He watched them now. She held him so tightly, as if the tighter she held, the longer she kept him there, with her. His blood stained her uniform, and the grass, and the dirt.
He did not stir, his face eerily peaceful. He could almost pretend he was resting.
Their healer looked deeply saddened, as if she had already accepted the loss.
The others were there now too. The gunslinger, uncharacteristically worried, and his love very characteristically worried. But he knew their fear. In 7,000 years, none of them had died.
Their healer placed her hands against his brother's chest, and as she filled him with magic, he thought about how he would help avenge his brother. The brother he hurt. The brother he left to die. The brother he killed. He was already accepting this. A means to an end, he told himself.
He wasn’t supposed to live.
The shock he felt deep in his chest as he watched his brother’s eyes open was suffocating. Tears streamed down her face as she held him down. His brother cried out as the magic stitched him back together, shaking uncontrollably. He was in pain, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Yet, he was alive. He was looking at her, a look of utter relief and sincerity. It was reflected in her own eyes. When they looked at each other it was as if they were the only two alive.
He was mouthing something to her that only she could read. She was going to save him, he would hang on for her. He would survive this, with her.
He wasn’t supposed to live.