Chapter 17: Aetherstone [4]
The three Dranox stopped midair like something had grabbed all of them at once.
Purple energy surged out from Aries in a violent wave pressing against the creatures from every direction before they could understand what was happening.
When he screamed. The air around him warped and crackled.
Violet spikes burst from him, carrying enough pressure that the Dranox never had a chance to react.
The first Dranox took the brunt of the impact head-on and went flying backward through the trees, splintering trunks as it crashed.
The other two slammed into the rocks at the clearing’s edge hard enough to shatter the stone around them.
The clearing went quiet.
Purple light leaked through the cracks between Aries’s fingers. Violet flames raced up along his arms.
Out of nowhere there was an overwhelming amount of energy moving through him, not mana, something that had replaced it entirely, something enormous and completely foreign.
Then slowly the purple lightning began leaving his body.
His consciousness came back the moment it did, pulling itself together piece by piece. His vision cleared enough to make out his own hands in front of him, still trembling, still faintly lit at the edges.
’Did I... do tha—’ His eyes closed before he could finish the thought.
Darkness took him.
____
Light came back before he expected it.
Aries opened his eyes and sat up slowly. His first instinct was to check his arm — the shoulder where the claws had torn through, where he’d felt four lines open deep and known immediately how bad it was.
He stared.
Not a single mark or scratch remained. There was no trace of dried blood, not even a faint line to show where skin had healed over.
He ran his fingers over the spot hard, pressing in, making sure he wasn’t looking at the wrong place.
’What? I was sure I got hurt there—’
His skull ached sharply enough to make him gasp.
"Agh—" He grabbed his head with both hands. "Damn, feels like something’s actually eating me—"
"Are you okay?"
He flinched and looked up fast.
A girl was kneeling beside him with both hands resting in her lap.
Bright crimson eyes watched him carefully from beneath rose-colored hair that fell loose and messy across her face. Pale skin. Trembling slightly. The expression of someone bracing for something bad to happen to them.
He hadn’t even opened his mouth yet.
"I-I’m sorry!" The words came out in a rush. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled before she could stop them. "This happened because of me. Because of my foolishness you got hurt. I’m really sorry—"
"Eh?" Aries blinked, caught completely off guard.
He let out a short helpless laugh and forced a smile.
"Hey. You don’t have to blame yourself like that." He raised both hands and moved them around to show her everything was working fine. "See? Still in one piece."
She looked at him like she wasn’t entirely convinced.
"But more importantly—" He crouched down to her level. "Are you hurt?"
She hesitated. Then glanced down and pointed quietly.
"A little."
Aries followed her gaze to her ankle.
Swollen, bruised dark at the edges, sitting at an angle it had no business sitting at. "That doesn’t look like ’a little’ to me."
He grabbed a strip of cloth from the cloak he’d been wearing since joining Cedric and the others, tore it free, and wrapped it carefully around her ankle.
Firm enough to hold it, not so tight it made the swelling worse.
"There." He sat back. "Not perfect, but it’ll hold for now."
He looked up expecting something, anything.
But what he received was her crying again.
"Wha—?" He stared at her. "Hey, hey — don’t cry like that." He held both hands up, flustered in a way that three Dranox had completely failed to make him.
"If you keep crying like this, how are you going to face anything else that comes at you out here?"
"I-I’m trying not to." She shook her head, sniffling. "It’s just... I can’t help it."
Aries opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
He closed it, sat there a second, and quietly accepted he had no idea how to handle this.
He pushed himself to his feet and looked around instead. Three dead bears earlier in this same forest had already told him this place wasn’t safe.
"This place isn’t safe. We should move before anything else finds us."
She nodded and tried to stand.
Her ankle gave immediately. She grabbed at nothing and nearly went straight down.
Aries watched the whole thing happen from start to finish. He rubbed his face slowly. "You’re kidding me."
"I know." She looked away, voice small. "I’m sorry."
’There she goes again.’
He turned around and crouched in front of her, back toward her. "Hop on."
"H-huh?" Her cheeks flushed instantly.
He glanced back over his shoulder. "Don’t ’huh’ me. Get on unless you’d rather limp through a Dranox-infested forest alone."
Still red-faced, she climbed reluctantly onto his back. Her arms wrapped around his neck, grip hesitant and barely there.
He frowned. "If you’re going to hold on, actually hold on properly."
"O-Okay!"
Her arms tightened. She buried her face against his shoulder.
He felt the small trembling in her that she was doing her best to hide.
"Better." He adjusted her weight. "Now hang on."
He pushed off and sprinted.
The forest thinned as they moved. Dense trees gave way to open ground, shadows got lighter, the air got easier.
With every step the heaviness of somewhere dangerous slowly lifted off them. Eventually the trees parted properly, and wide patches of real sunlight came through for the first time in hours.
She slipped carefully off his back when they stopped.
’Damn... I feel exhausted, and my back hurts.’ Aries spotted a flat stone nearby and took two steps toward it.
His knees gave out as he collapsed on the stone, his shoulders slumping as the last of his energy vanished all at once.
