Chapter 3
He fell down, and the sharp edges of the cliff broke him in pieces.
It had been some sort of wild animal, he wasn't exactly sure what it was, big as an elephant, but... different. The animal had gone wild, spooked by something or who knew, and took Druig down, who was just sitting on the edge of a cliff, trying to clear his thoughts. And the ocean, the ocean always helped.
Sometimes everyone's thoughts on top of his own were too much, sometimes the emotions of humans he couldn't save stick to him and made it difficult to do anything else, much less be with those that had no issue letting them kill each other. Sometimes Druig just needed to get away from everyone and everything, be by himself, so he could gather himself and go back to who he was supposed to be.
And it usually worked, turned out good.
He'd never thought he would be thrown into some pointy rocks, cut up and then would fall to the sea, to bleed there, and let the violent waves thrown him against the rocks some more. He did have some more endurance and strength than a normal human... but it hurt.
He needed to get out of the sea, or it would be too much. There was a wound under his collarbone that was bleeding profusely, and if another wave knocked him out he was going to bleed out before he could think about what to do, how to get out of this situation.
So he needed to think fast, and act fast, or he was done for.
His eyes were still better than a regular human's and he spotted above sea level - all he would have to do was get into that cave and hopefully do something to stop that bleeding. Which was no easy feat.
The waves made it difficult to move in a specific direction, and he was feeling more and more light-headed as time passed. Sometimes he closed his eyes and when eh opened them again he was much farther than he thought - he was losing time, as well as being thrown around by the ocean.
But he had to move, he had to make it to that cave, and he had to do it fast.
Tried to think of motivations. Maybe imagining Ikaris' face smugly saying that yes, it was a pity, but not such a great loss and that in a way it was his own fault for not staying with the others as the mission called for would be enough. Oh, no, he was not going to let that smug guy win, not this once, my man.
With a lot of difficulty and a lot of pain, he managed to make it out of the water and into the little cave. Now he was drenched, shivering badly and still bleeding out.
He sent a little distress signal with his mind, but he didn't have much hope. Makkari was doing who knew what on the other side of the planet, and anyone else was too far from him to reach before a couple of days. And if he was honest, with Makkari gone, there was a chance none of the others noticed his absence, or cared much about it. Ajak maybe, but she knew to leave him alone on his moods.
Which meant that he was alone, alone on his little cave, without much hope of getting help. He would have stay there, injured and freezing, until his wounds closed enough that he could climb out the side of the cliff. But for that to happen first he needed to close the worst wounds, because he was fairly certainly that one of them had tore apart an artery or something. There was so much blood, there was already a puddle and he'd only been on here for a couple of minutes...
He was going to need to close it, and it was going to hurt. He only had his clothes to use as surgical instruments, which was going to make things harder, too. Some part of him was angry at himself for yes, getting overwhelmed, leaving everyone else behind, being alone so much - needing this much space. Another part of him was pissed at himself for not being able to fly, or to conjure up a spike to keep himself upright, or I don't know, turn the ocean into marshmallows.
Sometimes he didn't feel like an actual eternal warrior, but an excessively sensitive long-spanned regular guy. And he hated that. Because surely most of the others would have managed the situation better, so as not to fall, not to hit the rocks, not to bleed out while shivering on a cave.
Focus, Druig, this is not the time to lament.
With shaking hands (did this have to do with the cold, with the blood loss? who knew. who cared) he took out a bit of the metallic part of his top that he hoped was sharp enough and then there was some thread from his pants... Oh this was a bad idea. This was a terrible idea.
But he needed to close the wound, now, and he knew that he wasn't going to have enough energy to apply the pressure needed until it closed. So he'd have to do like the humans did, and stitch it closed.
But it hurt, so much. Every movement was like hell, and moving the thread to keep the opening closed... Agony. He screamed, because it just hurt, all right? So he screamed. And maybe there were some tears falling down his cheeks. But he had to keep going.
He didn't want to die here, alone, without seeing his home again, without finishing the mission, without giving Makkari a kiss, without making a real difference for the better to the humans. He want to be more. He wanted better. And he wanted a life for himself as well, something beyond obedience and misery and bad looks. He wanted to live, but god it was painful to keep himself alive.
He had to stop, after a while. He wasn't finished but his hands were not doing their job anymore, and he was seeing double. All this pain for nothing, he thought bitterly, as he watched the sea in front of him, all of this...
He tried to keep going. Maybe the pain would help him stay awake, maybe...
It was hard. Sometimes it was too hard.
And sometimes the weight of everything he didn't say but felt deeply became too much. He wanted to live, but he didn't know if he was strong enough.
He closed his eyes. Maybe this way... maybe sleeping was just what he needed.
The blood dripping down his mangled clothes and Druig knew stopping was wrong, but... he would start again in a minute, just a minute, give him... a minute.
An unknown stretch of time later, someone was calling his name, tapping his cheek.
"Come on, come on!"
"I think he's waking!" another voice said behind the first one.
"Druig? Can you hear me?"
Yes, he could. She...seemed familiar. He was still too foggy to recognise her, but he knew her. He nodded weakly.
"That's our boy!" the voice in the background, that was also familiar and also impossible to identify.
It was all right, though. At least, this way, he wouldn't have to die alone.
*
They had felt it, in their bones, in their throats, everywhere. Thena and Gilgamesh had been horse riding when they felt that wave of pain and distress shaking their bodies. There was only one person who could do something like that - Druig, who was clearly in trouble.
A singular "help I'm in pain" wave didn't exactly come with coordinates, but Thena had seen the direction in which he'd left, and she had good instincts. She was going to find him their team mate, and they were going to get him out of whatever jam he was in.
She had to admit though, she was concerned. Druig's ability helped him fix any kind of trouble without their help and usually he wasn't this open with his distress. Something serious must have happened.
Something serious like badly injuring himself, falling on the sea and then picking himself up, trying to sew his worst wounds and passing out in the middle of it. He was laying on a pool of his own blood, barely breathing and it was a heartbreaking sight.
"Is he still alive?"
Gilgamesh asked.
Thena sat next to him, and felt him.
"He is, but it's still bad."
She had experience with bad injuries in the many battles she'd fought, stitched some of her soldiers, sometimes herself if Ajak wasn't around. She could try and fix this mess, and they could try and locate Ajak so she could fix the rest.
After some stitching, Druig's eyes started opening.
He wasn't completely there, but he was in the way to it.
To getting better.
After a while, Thena carefully placed him in her horse, before going up in it herself, so she could keep him upright.
"It's so strange seeing him like this, you know?" Gilgamesh said. "He always was so... whole, so self-reliant. And now he's just laying against you, needing you to simply stay up."
"We may be immortal, but we are also vulnerable, and sometimes the world can be unkind. I'm just grateful that he asked for help, and that we got here before it was too late."
"Yes, me too."
On their ride to Ajak they would have to carry Druig, feed him, look after the worst of the wounds. And they were going to do it, happily.
Because Druig was still one of them, even if he sometimes didn't feel like it.
He was still an Eternal, and they'd care for him, eternally.