Chapter 1
There was a whole pack of deviants, at least four dozen, and the Eternals just weren't enough. Not to get to them at same time, and save any humans that are around, cover all the place, attack them before they are attacked...
It was simply too much. It was only a matter of time before someone got hurt.
Druig knew that he wasn't the strongest one of them, hell, he was probably on the bottom of the team in terms of strength. He wasn't weak, none of them were, but he didn't have Gilgamesh's raw force or Thena's precision. And he couldn't shoot lasers out of his eyes, either - his ability was of a more.... subtle nature.
And it could be something world changing and it was certainly a force to be beckoned with, but, apparently, it didn't work on deviants, which was unfortunate, since they, and not the humans were the target of their mission. But hey... he wasn't useless, either. He didn't have Makkari's speed, but he could get humans to safety with just a thought.
And he could still go one against one with one of those beasts, he did have some weapons hidden around in his outfits. Sadly for him, those beasts were like eight times bigger than he was, and sometimes... Sometimes they were hard to shake off. And sometimes their claws nearly disembowelled you before you could slice their neck. There was an open wound on his side, from his ribs almost to the navel, and it was quite deep.
So yeah, now he was bleeding, badly, and it hurt, but there was still a lot of monsters and the others were still fighting. He could push his pain aside, and continue fighting, even if it wasn't as easy, he had a good control of his own emotions just as he had the emotions of others.
Thankfully, the black and red clothing was perfect to hide blood.
And so he kept fighting, making people move away from danger, even if it was making him quite dizzy, still with his dagger at the ready, in case another deviant came too close. He could see thst the main conflict of the battle was far ahead, and was trying to get to them, to help, but they seemed awfully far away, and every step took more effort and was harder than the last one.
Maybe the monster had done more damage than he thought. Maybe he was losing himself a bit too fast to be able to really help. Still, there was no place to rest and hide, not around here. And besides, he wasn't going to give Ikairs any further fuel to "discipline him" "remind him what the true mission was" or anything of the sort. Gosh, sometimes he hated that guy, family or not.
And if he left the battleground before the battle was done he was never going to hear the end of it. No, he had to keep going, for every person that was still there, for the others, for...
He made a bunch of people run to what was left of some houses and suddenly the world was tilting, moving too fast and just... spinning. Which was odd, the world had never done that before, had it? Were they on the verge of some cataclysmic event and didn't know it??
He was feeling... wrong. Later, he would find out that this was what nausea meant, but at that moment... he couldn't remember ever feeling like that. So out of sorts. As if the world was moving too fast for him, and his body couldn't catch up. As if down was up. And every little movement made the feeling worse. He wanted to close his eyes and make everything stop, but closing your eyes when your surrounded by monsters that want to gut you didn't seem like the wisest choice.
Someone was approaching.
His leg was soaked now, and Druig somehow knew that he was in more trouble than he'd originally thought, that this was a bit more serious than he'd been planning. Maybe...
There was someone's voice, around him, but he couldn't focus. This was not good.
He was an Eternal with a mission, a mighty warrior from Olympia, and he had to be every bit as fierce and as deadly as all the others. Had to save the humans, had to kill the deviants. Had to... But with the next step, his eyes closed on their own accord and he fell into whoever had come.
"Druig! DRUIG!"
He opened his eyes, which was strange, since he didn't remember closing them. Kingo was there, and it was the only thing keeping him upright.
"You're injured?"
"It would seem so, wouldn't it." His own voice felt foreign to him, to raw, too low. Too small, too broken, the opposite of what he should be. Of what they were here send to be, a mighty scary force.
Druig felt anything but - practically could feel the life leaving him.
"How bad is it?" he hadn't wanted to look at his wound, because what good could would it do? He already knew it was big and gushing blood. He didn't need to know that almost his entire side had been clawed open.
"It's bad." And that was an understatement. There was so much blood trailing back to where he'd come from, where that dead deviant was.
They needed Ajak, and they needed her now. Kingo knew that this was serious. Would Makkari tell the vibrations if he just screamed her name? There was so much ruckus, it was hard to tell. He needed to get her, and tell her to find Ajak and get her to Druig, who he was helping to a more or less stable sitting position, and hoping would last.
"I'll be back in a moment." he needed to run. "Don't die."
Some part of Druig wanted to snap some sort of "don't give me orders" kinda thing, but not dying actually didn't seem like bad advice. He closed his eyes, even if he knew that it was not the greatest idea. It was stronger than him, and he hated it.
When he opened them again, Makkari was there and he half smiled. The world was still blurry, but she always made him feel better. Ajak was there too, and she put her hands on his side and suddenly.... He slumped on her. It had all been too much.
Makkari was freaking out. His wound had been healed, why had he passed out?
"He's just exhausted himself, walking around with that wound. I'm sure he'll be fine after some resting." And so she took the unconscious man in her arms and then softly placed him on a bed, with Makkari and Kingo following closely.
It had been scary as shit, just as they were finishing the last deviants, hearing Kingo tell them that "Druig had been sliced open and was dying!!!!!!" and then fall on a dead faint even after being cured.
Just... a long, stressful day.
When he woke up again, after a nice couple of days sleeping (which prompted many "took you long enough" jokes, some claim it's the origin story of the sleeping beauty fairy tale), Druig finally awoke again.
Makkari was there, which was great, but she seemed angry, which wasn't. She also wasn't in the mood for small talk.
Why did you keep going after you were hurt? Why not just try and find Ajak? You put yourself in serious danger.
And Druig was touched that she worried so much. Sometimes... sometimes even in his own team, he felt like the odd man out. It was nice to know that someone cared.
Didn't want you to think I was just taking the easy way out of a fight. You know I can be a warrior, too.
And you can be an idiot! You go and find Ajak if you're hurt, no one will think less of you. We could have lost you, I could have lost you...
Makkari went the most serious he'd ever seen her.
Please, Druig. You really scared me. Don't do this, ever again.
I'll try not to.
She lay next to him, happy to be seeing those eyes open again. Druig was still feeling abit wiped out, but happy to have some company.
Now what did I miss?
Makkari smiled. And started signing all the gossip.
It had been scary, watching him fall like that, seeing the trail of blood, thinking they may have been too late. She knew that sometimes Druig didn't feel as important as the rest of them in the group - felt like he could leave and no one would care. But it wasn't true.
They cared, and he mattered, more than he knew.
Now they just have to let him see it. And Makkari had a few ideas for that.