"Master!" Pash beamed, the first to greet him, "I knew you would be okay… It was teleportation wasn't it? That's what they did? The necromancer must have realized you were the strongest and tried to trap you before he dealt with the rest of us."
"Something like that," Ermos agreed.
"What's happened?" Cherry asked, too worried to celebrate the return of her friend quite yet. "What's happened to Bell?"
"Fainted," Ermos explained simply, setting her down from his shoulder, about to lay her on the floor.
But it was at that moment that the girl chose to exit her little nap. She opened her eyes, squinting against the light, not quite sure where she was at first. She staggered, using Ermos' shoulder to support herself.
"Oh, Bell!" Cherry gasped, throwing her arms around her, showing no restraint. She almost sent the smaller girl flying. "Tell me everything! Where have you been? What happened to you?"
"Thank goodness…" Fer said, wiping away the tears from the corner of his eyes with his sleeve, attempting a grin to try and pass it off as cool.
Bell made a few shy hand gestures, before pointing at Ermos. Cherry followed her finger and looked up at him. "Hero…" she said, giving voice to Bell's words.
"Where?" Ermos asked, looking behind him.
Pash chuckled at that. "I think she means you, master. You encountered something crazy again, didn't you?"
"Oh, yeah!" Ermos said, enthusiastically, about to explain, before he frowned, looking at Mane on the floor. "He isn't dead, is he? Why isn't he talking?"
"…About that," Pash winced, "Mane saved us all master… He managed to defeat King Ozymandias. He kept us safe. But the price he paid… it might have been too great."
"Kah—Don't… Count me out… Yet," Mane said weakly, coughing up more blood.
"What are you doing, big guy?" Ermos asked, crouching down beside him. "You've gone and gotten yourself messed up pretty bad." There wasn't a spot on his body that was not covered in his blood. His face was a mess of bruises and his armour was punctured at the chest by the white of his own ribs. By right, he likely should have died a while ago.
"Hah… Just… Playing the… Hero," Mane chuckled, paying the price for his laughter in the form of another coughing fit.
"You've gotten stronger," Ermos noted, feeling something different coming from him now. "If you want to be a hero though, you've still got a ways to go. Heroes should be invincible."
"No, sir!" Fer spoke up loudly, tears running down his cheeks as he overheard their conversation. "Sir Mane is a true hero! He fought even when it looked like he couldn't win! He was ready to lay down his life for us! That's what a real hero does!"
Mane smiled at Fer's words, before turning back to Ermos. "How… Much… Stronger… Have… I… Gotten?"
"About this much?" Ermos said, holding his hands out slightly wider than his body.
"That's… Pretty… Good…" Mane said.
"…Can you not do something for him, Bell?" Ermos asked, interrupting the girl's reunion as she shared her hugs with her friends.
"Can you, Bell?" Cherry seconded, her eyes pleading. "I'm sorry for asking… you must have used up nearly all your magic already."
Bell wore a strong look on her face, as she heard their pleading. She nodded firmly, appearing determined. It was her battle that she had to fight. She kneeled down beside Ermos and inspected Mane's wounds closely, her expression weakening the more of it she saw.
"Don't… Push… Yourself…" Mane told her, still worrying about the child even as he lay there on death's door.
The purple light of Bell's magic lit up both of her hands. She closed her eyes as she concentrated, holding her hands right above Mane's chest, where the worst of the damage had been inflicted. She drew in energy from all around her and focused furiously. Little balls of purple magic ran into all of Mane's wounds, cleaning up blood and mending the body.
It had a sedative effect on Mane, as he too closed his eyes and his head fell back and he finally allowed himself to relax. When he lay like that, he only worried their companions even more, as he looked very much dead.
Lucifan – who Ermos had noticed was keeping rather quiet – subtly put his fingers to Mane's wrist, checking for a pulse, ensuring that he truly was still alive. Cherry and Fer shot him a questioning look, both wondering the same thing. He merely gave them a nod to reassure them.
"Magic is an incredible thing, isn't it, master?" Pash whispered, taking care not to interrupt Bell's concentration. "Oh, I forgot to mention – Fingers really helped me back there. I thought he didn't like me, but he made sure that I wasn't cut in two by Ozymandias' chakrams."
"He might just prefer to eat his meat whole rather than in chunks," Ermos said back.
Pash shot him a horrified look.
"You know, it's better to get a good chomp of something? Don't you think? I'd rather have my meat in one steak than in a few hundred little pieces," Ermos said, explaining further.
Pash looked behind them towards Fingers, likely wondering if there was any truth in what his master had said. The big boulder hound did nothing to offset the thought, for he was laid on his belly, his mouth wide opening, flashing those enormous white teeth, a bloodthirsty look in his eye. When Ermos turned too, his tail began to wag, dusting over the stone.
"Is it done, Bell?" Cherry asked, returning their attention back to the healing. From the look of her, Bell looked like she was ready to faint again at any second. A thin layer of sweat coated a pasty white forehead and her hair stuck to it. Her fingers were quivering. She made a few deliberate signs with her hands and all of them watched her intently, trying to decipher what they meant.
"He'll… live!" Cherry translated, her sullen face blossoming into a big smile as she cheered her triumph.
"YEAH!" Fer howled in joy.
"'Tis the way it should be," Lucifan said stoically.
"But he will need to spend a few weeks in bed, resting," Cherry continued as Bell sent more signs her way. "Bell will too."
"Ah… How will we get him home?" Fer asked in a panic.
"I'll carry him," Pash offered, before turning to Ermos. "That is, if you're okay carrying my backpack."
"Fine," Ermos agreed, feeling he had secured the better part of the bargain.
"I'll carry my sweet baby Bell if she likes," Cherry cooed, cradling her friends head in her arms as she showered her in kisses. "She's the sweetest cleverest more beautiful little doll in the whole and she's made me very proud today, yes she has."
"Ah, it does feel strange without a backpack on," Pash said, hefting his massive rucksack down from his back. "Are you sure you'll be alright carrying it master?"
"Probably," Ermos said, about to pick it up, until he remembered the skull that was in his hand. "Oh, but what about this? How come you didn't ask about it? It's a huge skull! I thought you'd at least think it impressive."
"I just thought that it was something you wanted to keep for yourself," Pash said, "I didn't think you'd want me bothering you with questions about it."
Somehow, that wasn't the reaction that Ermos had hoped for. He frowned a little bit, before he tossed it to his apprentice with a casual flick of his wrist. "Nope, it's a present, you keep it."
A flash of surprise ran across Pash's face as he yelped and dove to catch it. But from the fleshy part of his palm, the skull bounced, once, then twice, then three times, before Pash fumbled the catch entirely and the skull – Ermos' hard-earned treasure – shattered against the floor.
"No!" Pash gasped, still leaping from the pieces.
A black plume of gas escaped the shattered skull like smoke. It arose into the air, silent and deadly. Then, with a suddenness, it ran straight at the nearby Pash and disappeared inside his wide-open mouth.
Pash's eyes widened and he struggled for but a moment, before he went very still and collapsed against the floor.
"Pash..?" Ermos called out. His apprentice was unresponsive.
He tried poking him with a finger, but still the boy did not move. He then checked to see if he was breathing, just as he had with Bell before and sure enough, air came from his lungs regularly. It was as though he too had fainted.
"Noooo!" Ermos exclaimed in terror. "I don't want to carry Mane!"