Tyler
My eyes opened up slowly as I blinked at the sunny sky through the leaves. 'what happened?'.
A head loomed over my face and yelled "you're up?!"
"Ah!" I screamed and got up immediately as our heads came in contact. "Ouch!"
"The heck dude!" I heard Tyson's voice
"Why'd you suddenly put your face over mine! That's creepy!" I yelled back at him
"Why'd you have to get up so fast. I'm not gonna eat you"
"You're really going to say that in this forest?"
He went silent and so did I then he let out a sigh with a smile and said "You have no idea how glad I am to see you right now"
"Right back at... Where's Alex?" I asked I suddenly remembered what went down.
He threw his hands in the air and said "I'm glad to see you're also happy to see me"
He must've realized how anxious I was for an answer cause he sighed and said "she's right beside you.
I looked to my left and saw her asleep. Her hand immediately caught my attention "what happened to her hand?"
"Poison" Tyson said as he came up behind me.
"What?"
"When I found you two, you were both unconscious. She was bleeding a lot from her hand. It seems the monster you were dealing with had a poisonous bite and her moving around didn't help. I managed to squeeze out the poison but she must still be in pain. We obviously can't find a hospital here so we can just hope for the best"
I remembered slightly from my blurry vision. One of the monsters managed to get in and she went one on one with it. I could never do that. I only realized now how her brows were furrowed. It must hurt a lot. I looked at the bandage on her hand and went for the knot.
"Wait, what are you doing?" He held my hand
"I can help. My blood might be able to help"
I said and his face wrung up confusedly. "J-just let me show you"
I loosened the bandage and winced at the sight of the injury, it was deep but it seems Tyson had managed to clean it up enough to heal well.
"Get me a knife" I could feel his widened eyes Pierce through. "Hurry Tyson"
"I don't know what on Earth you're thinking but what makes you think I trust you with a knife?"
'there he goes again'
I looked at him and gave him a would-you-just-hand-me-a-knife first kind of look and he returned it with a okay-but-don't-go-crazy kind of look. I wasn't happy when my power manifested. It just meant my worst nightmare was back to hunt me, but admist that I found out something else that had kept me alive till now.
I placed my palm on the blade and gave it a press. I winced as the knife grazed me just enough for my blood to flow out. I hope this works, I thought. I placed my hand over her wound and clenched my fist, my blood dripped down. Nothing happened. I bit my lips as I desperately prayed for it to work.
Nothing.
I withdrew my hand disappointedly "it didn't work"
"Care to explain now?" Tyson asked beside me as I showed him my palm. The wound covered up and I saw him flinch.
"I'm not gonna eat you" I smirked as a wave of worry hit me again. In the one month we've been separated, I discovered that I heal up every time I get injured. I assumed it was my blood and that it might work on other people but was I wrong? Is it actually my flesh that has the healing?
"I guess the healing is left to her and her body now" Tyson said softly as he carefully tied up the wound.
"What do we do now? We could get attacked any moment from now and we need to minimize our movement 'cause of Alex" I said and Tyson sighed next to me.
"You don't need to worry about that, it's safe here. Truth is– Before we left, I had some things Grandpa left that could be of help on our journey. I guess amongst it were stones that could keep every monster 10 feet away from you" His voice deemed as he avoided my gaze
I cocked my head a little to the side as his words finally hit me.
"You mean to say– all this while, there was a way to avoid fighting this things... and you never thought you should have given us first thing before we even thought of leaving?"
"I swr I had meant to give some to you but I had no idea we were gonna be separated– for a month at that"
"I can't believe this!" I said as I remembered how I had survived for one month in this forest.
It was hell!
"Look on the bright side... We're all here together now" he smiled awkwardly but I wasn't having it this time.
"Stop trying to laugh your way out Tyson. There is no bright side right now. Alex is lying here unconscious with poison in her hand, what if something worse had happen..." I stopped and gritted my teeth as I saw his face darken with his eyes no longer focused on me "Tyson"
"Um Tyler..." His eyes finally met mine and he looked disturbed.
"What?" I looked behind me. Is it a monster?, I thought but there was nothing behind me. I looked back at him and then I got furious at the thought that it was one of his ways of avoiding things again. "Ty..."
"...don't move!" I flinched as he rushed over to a tent that hadn't caught my eyes before. He ran back out with a bottle of water and before I could ask any other question, he drained the whole bottle on me.
I gasped as I looked up at him and yelled again "Tyson!"
"Dude your head's on fire!"
"What?" I freaked out not at what it said but the rate of it being true. I looked up and caught a glimpse of the fire. My eyes rolled up my head immediately and the last thing I heard was Tyson screaming my name.
***************
My eyes came open again as I stared into the dark sky. It's night again. A face looked over me and I sat up immediately as our heads came in contact.
"Not again Tys..."
"... Sorry, I didn't mean to startle to you"
I paused as I recognized the voice which wasn't Tyson. My hand fell off my face and I turned to see Alex.
"Alex!"
"Are you okay?" We said in unison
"Me? I'm totally fine but you? Your arm, doesn't it hurt? The wound looked so bad" I said being more worried about her
"That's nothing serious but You suddenly collapsed, I almost freaked out were you hurt somewhere?"
"Oh t–that's kind of a long stor... Wait, that's not nothing!" I said in reference to her arm as I held it and stopped, I realized the bandage had been taken off and the wound had closed up. Completely. "It–its gone"
'Did it work?'
"Are you okay? Are you in pain?"
"Strangely... I feel fine. Even my ankle's all healed up" she looked down at it and I wondered what happened to her ankle.
"I just sprained it a little"
"Oh" I said but thought 'she had also sprained her ankle?!
"Did you use some sort of medicine, it works quite well"
"Oh, that–" the smile on my face wiped off. There's no way I'm telling her I used my blood on her wound. That would totally sound creepy.
"I used my blood in healing you"
She paused and then a confused smile appeared on her face "wwhat?"
Totally creepy!
"Tyson actually– helped more" I said and thought, the truth is gonna have to wait.
"Where's Tyson by the way?" I asked suddenly realizing his absence.
"Now you notice me" I heard beside me and I turned to see him not so far away from me. He was at arm's length, how did I not notice him.
"Oh"
"Oh? Oh? That's all I get, an oh?"
What exactly was he expecting a peck on the cheek?...
"You wiped off my entire existence since you woke up and when you finally see me all I get is 'oh" Tyson whined
"Don't push it Tyson, I'm still mad at you"
"I already told you it wasn't my intention! I'm sorry okay!"
Change of topic successful. If I don't leave that topic now he's just gonna whine on. I wasn't actually mad anymore. I knew Tyson wouldn't use such a low method, why? One, I know him. Two, he's the most excited about this journey and he would like to keep the success rate high. Basically, he would do everything to keep us safe.
"Hear this Alex. Apparently my grandpa left some really useful things that could keep us alive in this forest. One of it is a stone that can keep annoying monsters ten feet away from us and he didn't think he should have given us that before we left home" I said and waited for her reaction. She looked at Tyson for a while and sat down on the ground.
"Where's the stone?" She asked calmly
"Uh... It's under the light" he pointed nervously. I followed his finger and saw a triangle glass floating on air. It emitted a white light just like a light bulb. I hadn't noticed it. Was this another thing my grandpa left him?!
"How easy has your life been this while month?!" I yelled with my eyes widened. My torch has been without life for a week now. That made things harder for me at night so I could only move around at dawn. Spending dark night alone in a forest full of monsters is literally suicide. I still wonder why I'm still alive at the moment. The writer of my life is really generous.
"I'm really really really reeally sorry!" He clasped his hands together. "I had no idea we were gonna get separated. I swear on my heart I tried to find you two.
She looked around and sighed "so? What's the plan now?"
I was just as taken aback as Tyson was.
"You– you're not mad?" Tyson asked
She looked at the ground "Not really. I mean, what's done has been done. I can't take you back to the start and ask you to give me a stone. You should just be thankful we managed to stay alive. This forest has been anything but fun"
"I second that" I raised my hand as I agreed with Alex. It truly was anything but fun. Though with that being said, I thought she was going to yell at him or give him a hearing or two.
Tyson grabbed her hand and she flinched "You're an angel" I smacked his hand off and squinted at him.
"Fine" he redrew and then focused on me "By the way Tyler, why was your hair on fire? It totally went out when you fainted"
Ah. I had totally forgotten about that.
"His hair was on fire?"
"His hair was on fire"
They both looked at me for answers but it was a question I couldn't answer. I also had no idea why I had fire come out of my head. I suddenly got the chills.
"Did you start the fire you got caught in?" Tyson asked and I nodded "I knew you had the power to control fire but seeing it again it's gotten pretty strong– and hot. I thought I was gonna fry up while I tried to get you two away from it, but it's all good since I also found you that way. What about you Alex?"
"Hm?"
"What's your power?"
"I– actually don't think I have that. I didn't notice any– power thing that is. Unfortunately for me all I had to depend on was the blunt kitchen knife I had with me" she shrugged and Tyson rested his chin on his hand.
"That's weird, we're all supposed to have seen ours now. I have no clue what yours could be but it's probably just coming late. Be expecting it anytime from now" he cheered her on and continued with a smug look "Don't worry about safety now. Since we're all here together once again, we'll be here for you. We'll be your human shield"
"Yeah no thanks" She objected immediately.
He laughed and I felt a little smile curl up my mouth. It was great to be back together again. Time seemed to move again and I was no longer on edge like I was before when I was alone. I also get to worry less about the whereabouts of Alex. We did drag her into this after all. We weren't safe just yet, but now we'll be traveling together and taking more steps to get out of this forest.