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When Snow woke up the sky was either getting darker or getting lighter, he couldn't really tell. He was, however, comfortably tucked inside his blanket, and the warmth of the fire burning in front of him bathed his face. And yet there was something clearly missing ... Turning his head, he couldn't feel it, the weight of the warm hand that normally covered his head.
Sitting up, he looked around.
There were three other human bundles lying around the fire, and he quickly found him amongst them, also wrapped in his blanket, looking as if he were asleep.
He had never seen him lay down for the night, Snow thought, lost in the way the flames cast orange shadows on his pale face. He would always sit somewhere close by, his heavy hand resting on top of his head. Snow had seen him with his eyes closed but, somehow, he had always doubted that he was really asleep. Instead, he had always felt that he were watching him. As if he were merely waiting for him to make a wrong move and try to escape, so that he could catch him in the act.
Now that was no longer the case. Nox ZaiWin looked beyond exhausted, his sleep so heavy and deep that he almost looked dead.
"You're awake."
Turning his head towards that voice, Snow saw ZenTar approach the fire with a bowl in his hand, and carefully fill it with the contents boiling inside the pan.
Following his movements, Snow couldn't help noticing that, unlike the other times, there was no wood feeding that fire. He'd seen it before, back at the Nai Calzai's residence, small flames burning inside beautiful crystal basins, without a trace of anything that might be fueling them. Just like the magical lamps he'd always admired as a child.
Still watching ZenTar, Snow accepted the bowl he handed him.
"Drink some. It will help settle your inner energy. It is also good to purify your blood. Also, the smell of it tends to keep the feimao away," he added and Snow took a sniff at the contents of his bowl.
It looked like simple hot water, but the herbal aroma that filled his nose left a small smile of contentment on his lips. Yes. That was a good scent, he instinctively knew taking a small sip.
So, since everyone else was sleeping, ZenTar must be the one controlling the fire, he concluded looking at the silent flames. He had also been the one controlling that wall of wind, he recalled. The sheer force of it had been enough to uproot every tree around them. And now there was a strange, shimmering wall surrounding their camp.
"Will that … keep them away?" Snow asked timidly.
Even though ZenTar had never treated him badly, had never been rude or impolite to him, somehow something about the older man had always intimidated Snow, in some ways even more than ZaiWin did. Maybe because he was obviously the oldest of the group, which kind of set him apart from the others. Or maybe it was those fake, empty smiles, and his nice, polite ways, when his green eyes clearly kept looking at him as if he were a problem he had to solve as fast as possible.
Following Snow's gaze, ZenTar saw what he meant and shrugged.
"Nothing can really keep them away. That is what you could call a mirroring wall. Which means that, when seen from outside, it will mirror the trees and vegetation around us, preventing others to actually see us. But the feimao use more than their eyes to hunt their prey. They use their noses and ears, the way wild animals do. Sometimes it looks like they just instinctively know that you are there."
Snow lowered his gaze to his bowl and took another sip.
Be it ZaiWin or ZenTar, they both seemed rather accustomed to dealing with those things. Even the brew he now held in his hands had the ability to keep them away. Which only went to confirm what he had been told, that ZaiWin had fought against those things for many years, until he had finally been able to chase them away from his Province.
"Does he … always fight them this way?" Snow made himself ask.
ZenTar's green eyes immediately pierced him threateningly, as if he'd just asked something unforgivable. And so Snow quickly tried to explain what he meant.
"Even though the feimao never even touched us … he as still hurt."
"We call the area of contamination surrounding a feimao the death area. It is called so exactly because anyone inside it will probably die. The more corrupted the feimao are, the larger and deadlier is the death area they create. That one was what we call a type two. The ones back at Last Tree were all types one. The death area of a type two is deadly for all living things, with some few exceptions. He just happens to be one of those exceptions. However, even though he can survive it, that does not mean he is able to get out of it unscathed."
Snow glanced towards the place where ZaiWin was sleeping.
He could understand that. He too, would have probably died in there, if not for how fast he'd been able to take them both away from that place. But …
"That's not what I mean …" he whispered, before he could realize he'd spoken aloud.
Expecting another murderous glare, he immediately raised his head to look up at ZenTar. And, true enough, what had been a veiled threat was now openly menacing. ZenTar was trying to protect him, that much was clear, Snow thought. And he, with his questions, was somehow threatening his safety. Why would a fully grown, obviously powerful man like Nox ZaiWin need protection, he couldn't understand. Still, it was probably better for everyone if he would just simply change the subject.
"Will they be all right?"
At the sound of that harmless question. ZenTar seemed to finally relax, crossing the campsite to return to the place where he had been sitting.
"Nox just needs to rest a bit longer. HawkEye will be fine, except for a few bruises. MenTar …" his voice failed him and Snow looked towards the bundle that was MenTar, lying on the other side of the fire.
That's right!, he suddenly recalled. He had tried to protect them, but his golden dome had been completely shattered. He had been thrown back like a ragged doll blown by a storm, and then ZaiWin had somehow been able to catch him before he could fall. But he had never seen MenTar again.
"There was this big blast … and we were both thrown back …"
"I know. I saw it. I immediately took MenTar away from that place. But still …"
Placing the bowl on the ground beside him, Snow stood up, testing his own strength. He still felt a bit tired, but nothing especially limiting. If anything, he had always recovered exceptionally fast from most of his injuries.
"What are you doing? Just sit down and get some rest!" ZenTar scolded him, but Snow promptly ignored him, making his way to where MenTar was lying.
"I'm just going to take a look."
"He'll be fine! VinWei left us a bunch of healing crystals. He just needs to rest!" ZenTar argued, standing up to join him. Still, even though he kept trying to convince him against it, he didn't make a move to stop him, when Snow bent down over MenTar's unconscious body.
Snow had wanted to kneel beside him, in order to make it easier to check on his condition, but his body suddenly froze in place, his legs refusing to bend. Startled by his sudden immobilized condition, it took him a moment to understand what was happening.
Straightening his back, Snow frowned, looking down at MenTar, and tried again. This was plain stupid!, he angrily told himself. There was a sick person right in front of him! A sick person he really wanted to help! And his knees simply wouldn't bend!
A hand on his shoulder made him jump and quickly reel back from it. When he realized, ZenTar was holding both his hands in the air and, for once, he didn't look as if he wanted to kill him where he stood.
"Calm down. Why don't you just take a seat?" he suggested in a soft voice, as if he were standing before some skittish wild animal about to bolt for the woods, and Snow lowered his head feeling embarrassed.
Nodding, he took his advise. Apparently, since his intentions had changed, his legs had no problems obeying, and he finally sat down with a sigh of resignation.
Never mind that, he told himself, looking at MenTar's sleeping face. There were other, much more important things to take care of.
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I wouldn't feel at ease near ZenTar either ... 😒