The Haunting: Destiny (FF)

Chapter 50

Mia's POV:

My whole body aches as I slowly open my eyes. I can see the spinning sun shining down on me as I slowly get up. We're outside, it's familiar but I can't quite remember. Looking down I see cuts and scrapes littered all over my arms and small blotches of blood spread through my clothes, though it's not that obvious.

Ignoring the small stings I stand up. My head spins as I notice there's no sound, the world seems to be void of noise as I start to look around. There's no path, just shrubbery and trees, the grass is damp as small section of steam rise as the sun dries the water.

A scream brakes out, then the noise of the wind and the trees return to my ears. Frantically looking around I have to ignore the urge to collapse as I spot Grayson lying on the ground clutching his leg. His body is also covered in blood, however most of it is pouring out of his wound.

Rushing over I can hear his heart race as he tries to hold in a truly painful scream. The bandages wrapped around the leg are now soaked in blood, unable to keep any more the rest keeps flowing out, bleeding into the once green grass. Taking off my waist belt I roll up the his shredded trouser leg, the wound pokes through above and below the red bandages. His hands are gripped either side of it, not touching the cut but is instead opening it bit by bit.

"Grayson, how many fingers am I holding up?" He looks at me with tears smudging the blood on his face.

His whole body is shaking as he blinks a couple of times, his old glasses are cracked and on the verge of falling off.

"Three?"

His voice is nearly gone, not only is he struggling to speak, he's also horrendous at counting. I look around as I spot a tree, besides it are jagged rocks. Wrapping his arm around my shoulder I count down. Then he stands up with a pained yell all his weight is applied onto me as I carry him.

Placing him besides the tree I pull the nearest rock closer and gently place his right leg upon the smoothest section.

Trying to sit up, he's probably wants to grasp his leg. Having to repeatedly tell him to stay down I take off my waist belt and wrap it above the wound, if I can cut off the circulation it might render his leg useless but it'll stop him loosing even more blood.  Tying the ends together I keep them in place with the triangular heirloom I've had with me for as long as I can remember.

No longer trying to waist his strength, he starts mumbling something as he searches around in what would be a frantic manner if he wasn't so drained.

Now that the main threat has been partially dealt with, I check the other cuts that are scattered around his body. Most have already dried up, others are slowly trickling down to earth. Nothing dangerous.

The quiet noises of shuffling stops, turning, I see his eyes are locked at a space behind me. He mumbles something, too quiet for me to hear, as I follow his eyes to a bush, at first it seems normal but then I spot the blood.

Without thinking, I rush over to see Armen lying face down in a small growing pool of blood. Cautiously, I call out his name but to no avail.

I carefully roll him over, his face is covered in the blood that flows out of his once closed scar. I feel my heart skip a beat as the worst comes to mind.

No. Don't panic. Stay calm. Don't jump to conclusions. It'll be fine.

Cleaning blood away from his mouth, I lean down, turning my head down his body I let my ear rest just above his mouth...

He's breathing, the hollow breath catches my sensitive ears. It's slow and shallow but it's there. You wouldn't be able to see it visually and as I back away I start to doubt myself as no movement comes from his chest.

Just to double check I take his right arm and search for a pulse. As I wait, I realise there's not a lot of those small cuts and bruises that are over Grayson and I, instead there are burns that still produce heat they predominantly mark his arms, his clothes are torn and where skin is shown, only blood can be seen.  

Finally getting a weak pulse I feel myself sigh, my body relaxing from all the tension. Looking back to Grayson he's unconscious. His breathing is more obvious as the bleeding starts to die down.

Before my adrenaline slows down I force myself up, checking the surroundings. Even if they're alive, we'll be dead if any empirical guards find us, or those crazy people from that village.

Trees, bushes and short mounds are the main surroundings, the midday sun produces heat from the grass which I now realise is damp. I don't remember it raining...

Moving further away, I keep the two in my vision as I find a path with dry, old blood blended into the ground. Up ahead I see a road that's hidden in long rows of trees. Retracing my steps I realise that we're at the place we got captured. Must've been the only place Armen could think of.

Returning to them, I contemplate moving Armen. Ultimately, I decide against it, not wanting to cause unnecessary damage.

Sighing I finally rest against the tree Grayson rests besides.

"What are we going to do?" I mutter.

Wanting to reach for a map I realise our bags are still in the empire, "That's not good." I huff, "That was a lot of money." But besides that, there's the dragon egg.

Grayson's whole reason for this trip is to hatch the egg, and if he finds out it's back there... well he'll just head in, guns blazing in hopes to get it back. As much as I'd love to teach those thugs a lesson, that won't be possible with two of the four- three of us out of commission.

"I'll make sure you keep your promise, but it'll have to wait... I'm sure Drake will..." if he's still safe, would he even be able to protect it?

"Either way, here's the plan of action," I start, hoping they might hear me, "Once Armen stops playing dead we'll carry you to the Elven village. From memory, it should take a week or two to get there, if there's no problems that is, but there might be a village in between here and home so you two might be able to get some rest. Once at the Elven village I can get a mage to heal you."

These are really generous calculations, not taking into count how tired and close to death they are. It's also a big bet on if Armen will wake up any time soon, if he doesn't we're fucked as far as I'm concerned.

Lost in thought, I keep debating on all the different situation that could happen, that I want to happen and what I hope will never happen. I get knocked out of it as I feel a wet splash on my hand, looking down I see the remains of a tear, mixed with the blood from my face more of these red tinted streaks trickle down my cheeks.

Chuckling to myself I gently wipe them away. Looking down at my messy hands I take a deep breath and smile.

"I can save you. Even if it takes a while, I'll make sure we're safe."