#eiskonig

sleeeeeeeeep.

“I CAN STILL–…..i can still FIGHT.” he struggles to get back up onto his feels, to feel solid beneath his feet, but was pushed back down onto his backside, made to lay back onto the ground and collect his breath. he pants hard, lungs feeling as if they were on fire, as he attempts to desperately take in lung fulls of air, but failing to get even a suitable gasp in.

he was tired.

but, thankfully, they had gotten rid of the last remnants of the Grimm that plagued this area. yet still, they ran into….– into something larger than any beowolf they had ever laid their eyes on. and words could not describe its horribleness. it was as tall as the cave it had walked out of, clad in thick and heavy bone armor, decked with rows upon rows of sharpened fangs and claws. it was just…..strange.

yet still, it’s body had laid in front of them, multiple gunshots and slash wounds along its body, and even then, it breathed weakly. even with half of a summoned sword stuck in its back and protruding from its ribcage, it still breathed defyingly.

“are you– are you ALRIGHT?” he asks in-between gasps, as he manages to pick himself up, getting into a sitting position as he goes to take a closer look at his partner, frosted hues narrowing at them.

         “no you can’t.” ordinary gentle movements needed to be tossed aside when the ugly side of their profession reared its head. there was a hoarseness in his voice, raspy and pained, breaking with the effort. he’d been fighting too, and when he’d switched to a supportive position the dragon had almost exhausted his aura trying to heal other warriors. even now he was practically heaving over eis, trying to regenerate enough power to heal his wounds too.

         whatever beast they’d been fighting had injured even the most skilled of their fighters, thus the reason eis was lying down, almost incapacitated. when its claws laid into ren, striking him in the side, broken bits of bone and talon were left in the wound. it shattered his pride to bow out of the fight so fast, but even now he still hadn’t treated it, having been needed to assist with other injuries.

         “the creature will die soon. . . it’s practically,” he shuddered violently, gritting his teeth and flinching over his stomach wound, bleeding through his robes, “it’s practically all smoke at this point.” both suffered from their strange hero complex apparently, because what spouted from ren’s mouth was a bold—faced lie. “i. . . i’m fine.” at this point he was just taking advantage of the fact that eis’ position on the floor limited his vision. “i— i just need to treat your injuries first.”

Nerissa hadn’t exactly planned on going all the way to the other side of the kingdom- she’d moved as a woman possessed, taking her scroll and the stolen letter from the family’s manor and going out onto the cold, night streets of Atlas. She wasn’t even sure what time it was, how long she had walked- it must have been for quite some time because her legs and feet hurt terribly, but it was nothing compared to the pain in her heart. 

Being in Eis’s arms brought with it the first bit of comfort she’d experienced all day. She buried her face in his chest as he picked her up in his arms, hardly wanting to be parted from him when he tried to set her back down on the couch. She was so tired, emotionally and physically drained, and she just wanted to rest. Every time she closed her eyes though she saw Tethys’s face, heard her voice, and all the emotions came flooding back and threatened to overflow once more. 

Waiting for Eis to return with the drink she stared down at the letter in her hands, noting how wrinkled it’d become from being worried by her hands over and over. She couldn’t even count how many times she’d read over her sister’s words, heard her voice in each one. She’d tried making it sound as formal as possible but in the end it was still too rough- exactly like her. Feeling tears pricking at her eyes once more Nerissa rubbed at them hastily with the back of her hand, cursing herself for being such a wreck- why had she even come here in the first place? She was just going to both Eis with how she was being- but she couldn’t stand the thought of going back to that manor, to the sound of her mother wailing in her room. She’d rather have spent the night wandering the cold streets than go back to that. 

only if you want to.