Chapter 9
There were a lot of deviants near a fairly populated area, so Druig was just there in the sidelines. They would call on him if they needed him, if someone from the city got out, or even worse, a pack of travellers. Or someone was getting closer from some other side. The thing was that he wasn't supposed to go fight the deviants, just wait until human interaction happened.
And sometimes that bothered him, because he was actually a good enough warrior! Knew some hand to hand, could handle himself around most weapons, he could be an asset instead of just being on the reserve. That was normally. But not today.
Because today he just felt so stupidly dizzy. Like he'd been all day. Which was very nonsensical, why would he be dizzy? There was absolutely no reason for this to be happening. Yes, maybe he hadn't eaten in like a week in a half, but whatever was in this part of the earth (the water? the plants? who knew) was making him quite sick and throwing up was not an experience he wanted to experience again.
They could go on without eating for long periods of time, he knew, they all knew. They wouldn't be so "Eternal" if they needed to get sustenance every few hours, right? No, that wasn't it. He'd been in stakeouts that lasted for months and had not felt like this. So unsteady. So... woozy.
If he moved a bit too fast it sent the world spinning, the horizon was moving vertically and horizontally, in all direction. It moved and moved and moved, in bigger movements, at first that became smaller with time, as he stayed still. Perfectly still. The world kept spinning but less, and then less and then less. Until it was still wobbly but a bit more... calm.
By then he was tasting bile on his throat, which was not a good thing. At all.
Because at some point the other were probably going to need him, and they were going to need him to move and every time he moved, it became worse. He was starting to get weak on the knees, it was even complicated to keep upright. Where had his sense of balance gone and when would it return home from war?
Druig found himself closing his eyes more and more, because it helped to keep himself up and standing. But he knew it was a bad idea. He had to be attentive, in case the fight got closer, in case some deviant got too close or even in case of one of his fellow Eternals got in too much trouble and needed a helping hand. He was a part of the team, they were in the middle of a mission and he was useless if he couldn't move or see.
And then... oh no.
The tell-tale zing in his head of humans and their emotions, and quite a lot of them. Druig let out a little moan, because this was the last thing he needed right now. He opened his eyes, the world was still wobbly and moving way too much, but in the distance he could see them. A whole caravan, at least a dozen carriages coming the way of the city. Towards the deviants that the others were still fighting. The Deviants were still alive, and kicking.
Druig sighed. He couldn't let this humans go there, into the danger. He wouldn't allow them, this one the one thing he could do, that they let him do. So he tried to ignore the world around him, tried to ignore his own body and just focused enough for his eyes to glow for the carriages to turn the other way around, away from danger, away from the fight.
And then he felt more light-headed and faint than he'd ever been before, darkness took him and he fell, dropped to the floor, as if he had no bones. He heard his name being called as he fell, and then his head hit the floor and he knew no more.
*
Sersi had heard the people approaching, and had been worried. If they came too close the deviants might smell them and go against those humans instead of them. Kill a few of those innocent people as they tried to subdue them, it would be a whole mess.
A whole mess that never actually happened, because Druig had been there and with just a thought and a movement of his hands all of those carriages were moving the opposite way, far away from the fight. Sersi drew a little smile. Druig was so quiet sometimes, specially on missions or when he was on watch, sometimes you could forget he was there. But he was always there when you needed him.
Like now, getting the people out of danger, falling on a dead faint, hitting his head on the floor...
"DRUIG!" she screamed, but of course, he couldn't her. Because he was busy being unconscious, oh dear.
Slightly panicked, she turned the Earth under the deviant's feet into titanium so it would trapped there and unable to move and just ran his way.
By the time she arrived there, Makkari was already there too, having read the panicked cry in Sersi's lips and having felt some strong vibration of someone falling. Now slightly panicked herself, she ran her fist at super speed through five different places on the deviant's body, and just ran to the place she'd felt the fall.
And when she arrived she almost cried, he was all dead looking on the floor, his head on top of a little pool of blood. Shit, what had happened? Makkari took his head on her lap, slapped his cheeks tried to wake him.
"Ajaaaaaaaaak" Sersi called, not liking this one bit. But Ajak would come and solve this, right? Right???
"I'm a bit busy right now" Ajak called back.
Well, it was time call to call in the big guns. Her girlfriend powers.
"Ikaris, I need to take on Ajak's deviant so she can come"
"But..."
"No buts, we need her."
That seemed to work. Maybe it was the uncharacteristic anger in her voice, maybe it was the fact that now Ajak was worried to and wanted to see what was going on, but the healer managed to escape and get to where the girls and their fallen companion was.
"What happened to him?"
"I don't know, he just used his ability on the people that were coming and dropped to the floor."
Ajak managed to heal his head wound no problem, but he still wasn't waking up.
Makkari was looking at her with a face that said "Well?????" without needing any words.
"I can't do anything more for him, I think he's just too tired to wake up." Ajak said. "We should probably let him rest."
Ajak went back to the fight, but the others stayed. Sersi turned some earth and rocks into cotton and Makkari gently placed him there.
Sleep well, angel. We'll be there when you wake up.
And in the mean time, they would make sure nothing bad happened to him.
They were his guardians, and this was a job that could do forever.