"Nalé!"
Finral slams open door after door, his breathing labored, eyes stinging from the viscous blood dripping from his head.
"Please be ok, please be ok," he whispers frantically as he continues to search through the impossibly huge building Nalé was taken into.
His body aches, bruises forming from the hits of the bandits he fought previously.
He had defeated 5 bandits by himself when he was mobbed by the others who were hiding, waiting for him to be in a vulnerable position.
They spared no time, and gave no mercy as they kicked, scratched, stabbed at Finral.
Before it went too far, he created a giant portal and sucked them all in, transporting them into the Black Bull's hideout.
"Sorry guys, please take care of them for me." he had said, worried but at the same time relieved that he had stopped the incessant abuse.
He then hobbled off to find Nalé, worried for the woman's safety, which led to his current predicament.
"Why there are so many goddamn rooms?!" Finral muttered anger evident in his tone.
It wasn't until he turned a corridor and heard sounds of struggle, that he found her.
He slammed opened the door, shouting her name.
What he saw made bile rise in his throat.
In the bed lied the man who took Nalé away, unmoving, the bedsheets soaked in blood.
On the floor was Nalé , almost unrecognizable, blood caked onto her face, and holes adorning her bottoms, holes that went deep into her flesh. They were slowly healing, but the blood flow only stopped when her wounds were fully closed.
Finral's composure was in hell at this point, his mind running a hundred miles a minute, trying to understand what he was seeing.
But he gathered himself because his friend was in trouble.
His head throbbed, he had not tended to his wounds and that mistake was coming back to bite him with a violent enthusiasm.
"I," he limped over to her body, head swimming in disorientation.
"I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner," He gulped, tears starting to run down his face.
"Let-Let's get out of here." He hiccupped, sob stuck in his throat as he used the last of his magic to open a portal beneath them, leading to the best medic he knew from the clover kingdom.
_____________________________________________________________________________
"Dr Owen!"
A hyperventilating man opened the door to an office, which contained an older men who seemed to be going over medical records.
The older man, startled, looked up to the man at the door.
"Is there something wrong?" He asked
"Critical!" said the other, breathing labored.
"Severe bleeding, two black bu-"
Owen didn't waste time running out of the door, The faster he reacted the faster he could save whoever it was.
As both of the men turned into the next hallway, they saw a massive amount of blood on the floor, leading up to one of the medical chambers.
"Have someone come clean this up." Owen ordered as he walked in to the medical chamber .
"Yes sir."
He finally manages to see who his two patients are.
"Finral?" he whispered, worried about the young bull.
He gets closer to look at his injuries as the other nurses do their best to help the other patient.
Several lacerations marked his skin, and the most concerning, a blunt force trauma marked his head, hair muddled in blood and dirt.
He gets to work straight away, his priority being Finral's head wound.
He quickly washes his hand , puts on his gloves and starts cleaning the head wound, proceeding with the stitching.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Yami grinded his teeth in annoyance at the amount of paperwork the lady at the jail gave him.
Just a few hours ago, he was reading his newspaper, eager to uncover more stories, and mysteries he could investigate, when all of sudden 20 or so men are transported in the living room interrupting his alone time.
He beat them all easily, within a minute or so, but his dilemma began when he realized that he couldn't just leave them there, so he tied them to each other , and tied the end of the rope to his broom.
He jumped on, heading towards the closest prison.
He chuckled, exhaling his smoke. He must look funny, standing on his broom, with a trail of men swinging behind him, all tied to his broom.
A ring abruptly ends his reminiscing.
He grumbles, taking the magical device out of his pocket, answering gruffly.
"What is it?"
"Yami, picking up on the first ring, how surprising."
Yami's surprised to hear Owen calling him, usually he's the one who bothers the older man, asking him to go gambling and all that.
"Owen? To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Your kids are injured, gravely. Get your ass to the medical tower."
The communication device disconnects.
Yami scratches at his beard, anxiety pooling at his gut.
"They better be alright."
He leaves the prison, speeding up towards the tower.
_____________________________________________________________________________
A few hours later, there are two men are sitting at a table, discussion soon to start on the two injured black bulls.
"So what's the extent of their injuries," Yami asks not smoking for once.
"The woman had several holes in her body, She seems to have fast healing but she was stabbed so much that they were still healing by the time she was transported here. We can tell she was stabbed plenty of times because when she healed, the holes left scars. There were similar scars all around her waist and hip areas. If any organs were punctured, since she heals fast they'd most likely be healed first, then the tissue and skin."
Yami was tense, hands itching to reach for a cigarette.
"Anything else on her?"
Owen coughed.
"There were severe bruises near the chest areas, and scratches on her back..."
A tense silence covers the room, before Yami breaks it.
"What about Finral?"
"His head injury was not severe enough to give him brain damage but there was a lot bleeding.
He had several cuts and bruises all around his body, but those will heal fast . A few stabs as well, but they weren't deep enough to be fatal."
"I see."
"We managed to stop the bleeding for both of them. They should be recovering well. He should be able to wake up in a few days. The lady however is a different case, Her healing has sped up exponentially since she's been here. She's all healed up. She should be able to wake up tomorrow."
"Thanks."
Owen nods, and sighs going back to the last bit of work he has before he clocks out for the night and heads home.
Yami heads to their room, wanting to see them, and to calm his conscience.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Do you know that feeling when, you're on the cusp of sleep, the sweet sensation that gently lulls you to the place where your consciousness goes to rest?
Nalé felt as if she was being bathed by the perpetual motion of this feeling, it flowing throughout her body, but providing her consciousness with no relief.
This time, it isn't the presence of a gothic man who wakes her but the cold sharpness of a snowflake on her cheek.
She sits up, taking in the sights of her surroundings.
She seems to have been dropped in an abandoned place, there are decaying buildings and structures everywhere. The surrounding vegetation already taking over what seemed to be a town once.
𝘙𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘴? She thinks, scratching her head .
"That makes no sense."
before she has the chance to think more about her strange surroundings, the ground crumbles beneath her dropping her into freezing and tempestuous waters.
She screams as she falls.
Her screams become the last remnants of her presence and even they cease in the end, as they turn into gurgles which then fade into silence.
She wakes up with a choked gasp, an ungodly amount of water escaping out of her mouth like a projectile and hitting the closest thing to her hospital bed, which happened to be Yami.
She hits her chest with her palm , wheezing out the last amounts of the water in her lungs before falling back into the soft sheets of her hospital bed?
"What the fuck just happened.." grunts Yami, eyes twitching in anger and confusion, soaked, cigarette now wet and useless against his lips.
she lifts her head to take a look at the drenched man and smiles.
She speaks, her voice slurring as if she's drunk. "If I knew, I'd tell you, you beautiful bastard. What a way to greet something though, eh?.."
He continues to stare at her , and her at him.
.
.
.
"Whatever happened to that man who was shitting down people's chimney's? Has h-"
She promptly passes out before she has the chance to inquire even more.
A moment later, a loud snore echoes throughout the room.
Yami's eyes linger on the unconscious woman for a beat before looking down at the puddle of water he now stood in.
They then flicker to Finral, who happened to witness the entire anomaly that just occurred.
He was occupying the bed next to Nalé, and had been eager for her to wake up.
Most of his wounds had healed, but the wound on his head would take a bit more time to.
So there he sat, mouth open in confusion at the previously occurring spectacle.
"Hah…" Yami sighs, heading toward the door, another lit cigarette already gracing his lips.
"I'm gonna go get the doctor, and a new change of clothes.."
He waves lazily at Finral and leaves the two to rest upon his absence.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The two rested at the medical tower for a few more days before they were eventually detained and deemed fit enough to go back home.
During the time spent recovering, the members that had no missions took their time to visit the two, periodically checking in on them.
Finral also took the time to tell Nalé more about himself, after apologizing to her for not getting to the room she was taken to fast enough. Thankfully, she held no grudge against him, she told him that she had not thought of it that way and he had nothing to worry about. So they went on to talk about their families and lives. It's not like they had somewhere else to be.
She listened attentively when he spoke of his experiences with his family, and when he finished she had asked Wether she could bluntly tell him how she felt about his relationship with his family family.
"Go ahead." He had said reluctantly, curious, yet worried about her answer.
She took a deep breath and tried to word her thoughts carefully despite what she had told him previously.
As much as I'd like to, I can't outright insult his entire family. That would bring me joy, but he seems like the sort of person who wouldn't like that. I have to be careful about this.
"From what you've told me, they treated you horribly."
Finral slowly nodded his head, agreeing with her statement. He could see why she would think that, but he was weak after all, and he just wasn't what they were looking for.
"They put you down whenever they could, compared you to your sibling, potentially abused you worse than you've told me so far."
"Maybe," he whispered, pulling at his bed sheets.
"Hm," she hummed.
"Let me ask you this. If they suddenly realized the error of their ways, and started treating you like a decent human being for the first time in your 2 decades of living, would you welcome them with open arms?"
After a minute of silence, a small "no" came from Finral.
Nalé is surprised at his answer, she expected him to be forgiving , but before she could say anything else, he continued.
"But if they apologized, and stated and acknowledged what they did wrong, I might consider it."
"Oh..." she whispered, dissapointed in his answer.
"Was that not the right response?" he asked.
"It was fine. We see things differently, it seems."
Curious, he asks "How do you see things?"
She made herself more comfortable and prepared to give him a piece of her mind, gently.
"I have no time, energy or space for toxic and shitty people in my life. When was younger, my parents weren't around, so I lived with with an aunt of mine. She was needlessly cruel to my sibling and I, bullied us, mentally and physically whenever she could and showed clear favoritism of every other child in that house. Everyone else followed her footstep and everyday we were beat, put down and isolated. When I got old enough I raised enough money to take my sister and I out of that house."
She took deep breaths, trying to calm down her heavily beating heart.
"Now, would it make sense if I suddenly forgave them, or even thought about forgiving them? If I acted all nice and sweet, smiled and laughed with them?"
Finral looked at the older woman in silence for a minute, his hands clenched in reaction to her story.
"No, that would be absurd."
"So do you see why I'm disappointed when I hear your answer about your own situation? In both of our stories, these people that call themselves our family had years upon years to fix their mistakes, but instead, these "adults" abused us, battered our self esteem, and that has affected our adulthoods? Can you with no doubts, say that you're mentally well as of now? I know I can't.
And so, I won't give anyone that's ever abused me an inch of my compassion, my love or my understanding. They don't deserve it."
Finral was shocked to see this side of Nalé. She was so bitter and unforgiving, different from the woman who had held him at the library. He knows this side of her exists for a logical reason, he cannot blame her for being the way she is, but it's such a contrast to her daily self that he's jarred by the difference.
He answers simply. "Ok, I understand."
And that conversation ended there.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Now they're getting ready to go back home.
Finral and Nalé are arranging their beds before they leave the tower, and it is at this moment that Finral decides to address the elephant that's been in the room all this time.
"What happened...when he took you?"
He notices her flinch, the way her fingers tightly grip the sheet and how her face sports a frown at his question.
"I'll tell you when we meet up with Captain Yami back at the base."
"Ok," he says.
"Ready to go home?" He asks jovially, hoping to cheer her up.
He smiles in victory when her lips tilt ever so slightly up.
"Duh!" she runs to him, hooking her arm around his.
Earlier today, they made sure to thank Dr Owen, and the assortment of nurses and doctors that helped them recover, so they had nothing holding them back from leaving.
He laughed at her antics, and opens up a portal, both of them walk in, eager to finally be going home.