Nowe stopped. He'd noticed the shivering. Again his eyes flickered to the doorway. Sora wasn't here yet. Of course Sora wasn't here yet. He was supposed to go help Kurosaki first. What could Sora do for Renji, anyway? Hopelessness was starting to fill his heart. Renji was still babbling nonsense. There was no way that was a good sign.
He had to keep Renji warm. Looking down at himself, he realized he didn't really have any more supplies on him besides the shoelaces tied around his wrist and the clothes on his back.
Wait a second...
Nowe peeled his shirt off. It was sticky with blood, but maybe it would help. He couldn't afford to be a pessimist about it. He laid it over Renji, then continued his story, though with considerably more difficulty this time.
"Right... right. Well, there was a man who lived at that time named Caim. He made a pact with a red dragon that had been captured in order to save his own life and that of the dragon's. Pacts in my world are very powerful. They make a normal human far stronger, though the human has to give up something very precious to them. Caim gave up his voice, but they say that the red dragon spoke for him."
The addition of the shirt probably helped a little; Renji didn't notice, himself. He did the best he could, just holding on to the sound of Nowe's voice and trying to understand what he was saying.
"Red dragon," he echoed, to show that he was listening. He'd never seen a dragon...
Nowe couldn't tell what good the shirt had done. He reached out and grasped Renji's wrist again, relaxing minimally when the familiar but faint heartbeat thumped against his fingertips.
"Yeah, a red dragon. She let Caim ride on her back, and together they fought battle after battle against the Empire. There was a man, supposedly one of Caim's friends, who kidnapped the Goddess, wanting her for himself, but was possessed and ended up becoming Caim's enemy."
It seemed wrong telling a story that was completely meaningless to Renji while the man was lying here and dying. But he couldn't leave him here. If Renji died alone, Nowe would never forgive himself.
Renji's eyes were half closed; it was just too much effort to keep them open. It was comforting to hear Nowe speak, though. It gave him something to concentrate on. He'd promised himself that, as tired as he was starting to feel, he wouldn't sleep until Sora got back. Since Nowe seemed so certain that would happen...
"Enemies," he said, to show that he was listening. But that word only brought to mind the last things he'd seen before Landel's. Involuntarily, his hand jerked against Nowe's grasp.
"R-Right," Nowe said, blinking hard against the hot tears that were trying to form in his eyes. He didn't want to lose one of the closest friends he'd made since getting to this damn place. They couldn't steal new friends from him too!
He grasped Renji's hand in both of his, resting his face against it, trying to steel his voice.
"The person pulling the strings behind Caim's friend was a young priestess, a girl who was about six at the time. S-she was a tool of the gods..." He was losing it, slowly, and he knew it. But he had to keep going. The story wasn't important, but he had to let Renji know he was still there.
"...and a great threat to the world. Caim travelled from place to place with the red dragon and his other allies, struggling to prevent the end of our world..." He could hear his voice breaking. He had to keep going.
Which was about the moment a large, dark-skinned man burst through the door, eyes immediately focusing on the glow of the flashlight and the scene that it illuminated.
Scar grit his teeth. Sora hadn't been exaggerating; his friends were in terrible shape, bearing the kinds of wounds that Scar had borne in this place as well as the world before it.
He walked towards them with rushed steps, kneeling down next to the boy who seemed to be in good enough shape to keep the other one conscious. His eyes narrowed as he surveyed the damage, then looked to the other.
"Sora asked me to help" was his explanation, short and gruff. He remembered vaguely the incident that he and Hughes had braved--had it only been a week and a half before? Days seemed so much longer in this place...
He began to take off the shirt that he'd been wearing, revealing skin with enough jagged marks to prove he was used to these kinds of situations. His able hands began to tear the grey cloth into strips.
As soon as the door opened, Nowe dropped Renji's hand and grabbed his flashlight, prepared to fight if he had to. He stared as the large figure marched toward them and knelt down, immediately relaxing upon his gruff explanation.
Thank you, Sora.
"I'm fine. Fine enough, anyway. It's Renji I'm worried about," he explained, gesturing to the man on the ground.
"I can't tell where he's injured. Unfortunately I didn't see what happened to him. I was too busy being smashed into a wall by that monster, so I'm not sure what's wrong. There's just too much blood..."
Nowe's explanation was rushed, and he tried not to stare at the new man's massive amount of scars. He felt like he should introduce himself, but now wasn't the time. Renji needed help before anything else. They could worry about pleasantries once his friend was up again.
Renji's reaction was a delayed one; everything seemed to be happening very quickly.
Focus, goddamnit, focus...
He didn't recognize this new person, and didn't really understand what was happening yet. One hand pressed against his side, he struggled partially upright, panting as if he'd just run a race. He fumbled for another pen, wheezing and coughing fresh blood from his mouth as he did.
Scar's eyes narrowed at the younger boy's explanation as well as the man's futile moments even through what must have been waves of pain. He was reminded of some of his closer tussles with death and the ferocity with which he had battled through them; after all, he'd decided that Ishbala was indeed a cruel punisher, causing him to live against all odds when life was the last thing he wanted.
"Stop it." He growled at the injured man even as he finished tearing the makeshift bandages for him. His right hand reached to hold down the man--Renji's--arm. He glared at him with red eyes. "You'll make it worse."
"Renji, stop. This guy's here to help. Sora sent him to us," Nowe explained, reaching out to pull the pen out of Renji's hand. He reached out and pressed a hand to Renji's forehead, trying to help the newcomer keep him still and down on the floor.
"Relax, Renji," he said firmly, "we'll be okay now." His tone was soft, trying to be reassuring, though it was difficult to tell if it was more for his own benefit or Renji's. He wanted desperately to convince himself that things would be alright now that Sora's help had arrived.
"Where did Sora go?" he asked Scar, once they had effectively pinned Renji down, "He didn't go after that monster by himself, did he?"
Still confused, Renji did his best to resist being dragged back down to the floor; needless to say, he was unsuccessful.
"Sora?" He wheezed. "Where's... Sora? Where's Sora?" He jerked against Nowe's hands; he didn't get anywhere. "Lone wolf... gets skinned. Kurosaki. Gotta find... Sora."
"He did," Scar answered the kid with a grunt as he pulled away the first shirt and then positioned his hands at Renji's collar to tear off the one he was wearing, "but not alone. Dias--a friend--went with him."
Scar might have elaborated and mentioned that Dias was a capable fighter armed with a sword (albeit made of bedamned alchemy), but all coherent thought left him as he tore the shirt down the middle, pulled the halves apart, and found himself staring at an array of impressive tattoos.
The Ishbalan's red eyes darted up to the man's face, then to his own right arm, its marks faint, but visible. The memories were sharp, the train of thought clear. The way Renji's own marks interconnected, even from the man's chest to his face to his arms...
"Is this man an alchemist?" Scar looked to the boy with wide eyes, nearly forgetting the blood that ran more freely across the man's chest than even the black lines.
Nowe also couldn't help but stare at the marks lining Renji's body.
"They look like a pact marking," he mumured to himself, and then looked up at Scar's question.
"Alchemist? I don't think so. He never mentioned anything about it, anyway," he said. He decided to leave out mentioning how old Renji had said he was, in case he didn't want any personal information revealed to Scar. He wasn't sure what an alchemist was, though. Of course, that fact wasn't terribly relevant, since he'd come across people from so many different worlds here.
Renji reached out with a shaking hand, grabbing Nowe's wrist. "Shinigami," he gasped. "That's why... we're hungry... all the time. Shinigami. Rukia... need to get... the hell out... of here."
For a moment, his grip tightened to painful strength. "Can't find... Zabimaru. They... took him." He pressed his other hand against his chest.
The tattooed man's words were enough to shake Scar out of bad memories and into even worse ones, of blood and gore and a brother laid out to die on unforgiving sands.
Scar grit his teeth and took the makeshift bandages, leaning forward and tightly pulling them over the shoulder wound that had already soaked through its first layer of dressings.
"I'm not an expert of first aid," he muttered, nearly self-derisively, "just of needing it."
He wasn't sure how much he could do for this man. How much he could do for anybody.
He tightly tied off the first strip and began the process again with a new one.
He had to keep Renji warm. Looking down at himself, he realized he didn't really have any more supplies on him besides the shoelaces tied around his wrist and the clothes on his back.
Wait a second...
Nowe peeled his shirt off. It was sticky with blood, but maybe it would help. He couldn't afford to be a pessimist about it. He laid it over Renji, then continued his story, though with considerably more difficulty this time.
"Right... right. Well, there was a man who lived at that time named Caim. He made a pact with a red dragon that had been captured in order to save his own life and that of the dragon's. Pacts in my world are very powerful. They make a normal human far stronger, though the human has to give up something very precious to them. Caim gave up his voice, but they say that the red dragon spoke for him."
Reply
"Red dragon," he echoed, to show that he was listening. He'd never seen a dragon...
Reply
"Yeah, a red dragon. She let Caim ride on her back, and together they fought battle after battle against the Empire. There was a man, supposedly one of Caim's friends, who kidnapped the Goddess, wanting her for himself, but was possessed and ended up becoming Caim's enemy."
It seemed wrong telling a story that was completely meaningless to Renji while the man was lying here and dying. But he couldn't leave him here. If Renji died alone, Nowe would never forgive himself.
Reply
"Enemies," he said, to show that he was listening. But that word only brought to mind the last things he'd seen before Landel's. Involuntarily, his hand jerked against Nowe's grasp.
Reply
He grasped Renji's hand in both of his, resting his face against it, trying to steel his voice.
"The person pulling the strings behind Caim's friend was a young priestess, a girl who was about six at the time. S-she was a tool of the gods..." He was losing it, slowly, and he knew it. But he had to keep going. The story wasn't important, but he had to let Renji know he was still there.
"...and a great threat to the world. Caim travelled from place to place with the red dragon and his other allies, struggling to prevent the end of our world..." He could hear his voice breaking. He had to keep going.
Reply
"It's okay," he said.
Reply
Which was about the moment a large, dark-skinned man burst through the door, eyes immediately focusing on the glow of the flashlight and the scene that it illuminated.
Scar grit his teeth. Sora hadn't been exaggerating; his friends were in terrible shape, bearing the kinds of wounds that Scar had borne in this place as well as the world before it.
He walked towards them with rushed steps, kneeling down next to the boy who seemed to be in good enough shape to keep the other one conscious. His eyes narrowed as he surveyed the damage, then looked to the other.
"Sora asked me to help" was his explanation, short and gruff. He remembered vaguely the incident that he and Hughes had braved--had it only been a week and a half before? Days seemed so much longer in this place...
He began to take off the shirt that he'd been wearing, revealing skin with enough jagged marks to prove he was used to these kinds of situations. His able hands began to tear the grey cloth into strips.
It had worked well enough last time.
Reply
Thank you, Sora.
"I'm fine. Fine enough, anyway. It's Renji I'm worried about," he explained, gesturing to the man on the ground.
"I can't tell where he's injured. Unfortunately I didn't see what happened to him. I was too busy being smashed into a wall by that monster, so I'm not sure what's wrong. There's just too much blood..."
Nowe's explanation was rushed, and he tried not to stare at the new man's massive amount of scars. He felt like he should introduce himself, but now wasn't the time. Renji needed help before anything else. They could worry about pleasantries once his friend was up again.
Reply
Focus, goddamnit, focus...
He didn't recognize this new person, and didn't really understand what was happening yet. One hand pressed against his side, he struggled partially upright, panting as if he'd just run a race. He fumbled for another pen, wheezing and coughing fresh blood from his mouth as he did.
Reply
"Stop it." He growled at the injured man even as he finished tearing the makeshift bandages for him. His right hand reached to hold down the man--Renji's--arm. He glared at him with red eyes. "You'll make it worse."
Reply
"Relax, Renji," he said firmly, "we'll be okay now." His tone was soft, trying to be reassuring, though it was difficult to tell if it was more for his own benefit or Renji's. He wanted desperately to convince himself that things would be alright now that Sora's help had arrived.
"Where did Sora go?" he asked Scar, once they had effectively pinned Renji down, "He didn't go after that monster by himself, did he?"
Reply
"Sora?" He wheezed. "Where's... Sora? Where's Sora?" He jerked against Nowe's hands; he didn't get anywhere. "Lone wolf... gets skinned. Kurosaki. Gotta find... Sora."
Reply
Scar might have elaborated and mentioned that Dias was a capable fighter armed with a sword (albeit made of bedamned alchemy), but all coherent thought left him as he tore the shirt down the middle, pulled the halves apart, and found himself staring at an array of impressive tattoos.
The Ishbalan's red eyes darted up to the man's face, then to his own right arm, its marks faint, but visible. The memories were sharp, the train of thought clear. The way Renji's own marks interconnected, even from the man's chest to his face to his arms...
"Is this man an alchemist?" Scar looked to the boy with wide eyes, nearly forgetting the blood that ran more freely across the man's chest than even the black lines.
Reply
"They look like a pact marking," he mumured to himself, and then looked up at Scar's question.
"Alchemist? I don't think so. He never mentioned anything about it, anyway," he said. He decided to leave out mentioning how old Renji had said he was, in case he didn't want any personal information revealed to Scar. He wasn't sure what an alchemist was, though. Of course, that fact wasn't terribly relevant, since he'd come across people from so many different worlds here.
Reply
For a moment, his grip tightened to painful strength. "Can't find... Zabimaru. They... took him." He pressed his other hand against his chest.
Reply
Scar grit his teeth and took the makeshift bandages, leaning forward and tightly pulling them over the shoulder wound that had already soaked through its first layer of dressings.
"I'm not an expert of first aid," he muttered, nearly self-derisively, "just of needing it."
He wasn't sure how much he could do for this man. How much he could do for anybody.
He tightly tied off the first strip and began the process again with a new one.
Reply
Leave a comment