Rick let out a frustrated scream as soon as he was outside the cave, his voice drowned out by the crackling of the fire and the wind rushing around him. In a blind rage, he lashed out, punching the solid rock of the mountain. The pain radiating out from his fist failed to register as he rewound and threw another punch into the mountain’s face. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, drowning in his hatred trying to unleash his bottled-up rage.

Eventually, he stopped, slumping down to his knees his arms limp at his sides. Blood splattered the rock wall in front of him and dripped slowly out his destroyed knuckles. His breathing was heavy and ragged, and tears stained his eyes flowing heavily down his cheeks.

“Killing… Them… Is… Right…” He panted to himself, his voice rough and cracked the rage gone only despair remaining.

“You calmed down now?” Rick heard behind him. He turned slowly to see Leopold standing with his arms crossed, surveying him with a kind smile on his face. He stepped forward and patted Rick's shoulder.

“Lana and the kid are sleeping right now.” He glanced at Rick with a slightly nervous side-eye before saying “You know you can’t blame him for that, right?” before pointing towards the pile of burning Swarm, now practically reduced to nothing but ash. Rick shook his head, sniffles escaping from his throat before slowly speaking in a muffled voice,

“He’s just a stupid kid. Doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Just a stupid kid.”

Leopold let out a light laugh before continuing, still patting Rick's shoulder,

“Been a while since someone questioned you killing The Swarm, huh? Didn’t think you’d react so… colorfully.” He said with a laugh, pointing towards the blood splattering the wall and dripping from Rick's hands. When Rick failed to respond, Leopold tightened his grip on Rick’s shoulder and said,

“Come on Rick, let’s get you bandaged up, ok?”

Rick nodded and let himself be pulled up and led inside by Leopold toward the bags packed with gauze and past the slumbering forms of Lana and Jake. Rick shuddered when he saw Jake sleeping, a discontent look on his sleeping face. Rick remembered the moment Jake had hesitated, the look of shock and concern on his face as he looked down at The Swarm primed to lunge forward and rip his throat out. The hesitation had almost cost him his life as he pitied the monster that almost ripped him to shreds.

He hated that moment, ingrained in his head. He hated that split-second look of shock and pity displayed across Jake’s face. It brought up bad memories in Rick’s mind. Nightmarish experiences he struggled to bury, experiences he’d now once again failed to ignore.

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When Jake woke the cave was a very active place. Rick was missing from the cave, which was not a surprise to Jake after his violent reaction to his question, but both Leopold and Lana were up and busy themselves. In truth, Jake was grateful for Rick’s absence. He hardly got along with the surly man as it was, and after his hostile reaction to Jake’s question, Jake wasn’t looking forward to their reunion.

Seeing Jake wake up, Leopold smiled and gave a wave announcing,

“Morning Kid!”

Jake had expected the atmosphere between him and Leopold to be awkward following the talk the two had the night before, but he approached Jake with his usual Joyful smile and spread his arms out wide throughout the cave, before letting out a laugh and saying,

“Woke up just as we finished. We’ll be camping in the cave another day or two, now we have some time before the next Swarm come’s. Can’t be sleeping in blood, can we?”

At Leopold's words, Jake looked around the room and noticed the cave was no longer soaked in the viscous blood of The Swarm. Looking down, even his clothes were free of the filth that once clung to them. A rag hung from Leopold's hand as he waved his hand around the room, but barely any of the black blood stained it.

“Why are you acting all proud?” Lana asked, walking past Leopold and smacking the back of his head as she passed toward Jake, “You didn’t do anything.”

He let out a slight chuckle before shrugging to Jake and walking towards the bags still piled in a corner of the cave.

“Are you feeling ok?” Jake asked Lana as she sat next to him, remembering how out of it she seemed before. Now she seemed completely fine, better than fine even. She had moved around the cave toward Jake with an energetic spring in her step and had a large smile stretched across her face.

“Me, oh I’m fine!” She said, beginning to examine Jake’s wrappings, “Forgot you’ve never seen magic. My magic burned through my stamina when I overused it so I passed out and had to wait till my stamina recovered. Just need to be careful I don’t overexert myself again. Woke up earlier itching to move and burn off some excess magic so I took to cleaning the cave. Also cleaned you too cause, sorry to tell you this Jake but you smelled terrible.”

Jake felt guilty hearing Lana describe what had led to her collapse. It wasn’t hard to tell he was the number one cause for overusing her magic. He was preparing to say something to apologize but was interrupted by Leopold who let out a snort, having walked over to where Lana and Leopold were talking. He was carrying a wooden cup, much more nicely carved than the one Jake had lost, and a few bits of dried meat accompanied by some berries.

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“Finally, someone said it, you reeked. Here kid, eat this while Lala works on you. Lala, do you mind?” He asked, shaking the wooden cup toward Lana.

“Could say please,” Lala mumbled, but she raised her hand glowing a bright blue, and the air around the three suddenly felt warmer and Jake noticed an itching sensation along his skin. Globs of water floating in the air began to appear, slowly, before falling into the cup. When the cup was half full, Lana stopped and Leopold handed the cup over to Jake with a smile.

“Thanks, Lala, no snow to melt and we're running low on water, can you gather some more for us later?”

“Maybe,” Lana said in an unenthusiastic tone, but Leopold reacted as if she’d given definitive confirmation and gave a massive thumbs up before walking away. Lana let out a sigh before returning her attention to Jake.

“I examined you briefly while cleaning you, but it looks like the skin tore from your foot while you were climbing the mountain. The skin on your back still looked delicate, but I didn't see any signs of tearing anywhere which is good. I started casting numbing and light healing magic on your leg earlier, and I’m going to slowly amp it up over the next few hours.”

Jake gave a nod and let Lana work, focusing on the food Leopold had been kind enough to provide him. As Lana worked, she removed the splint and bandages that still clung to his leg in tattered remains. Though the bandages were now clean, Lana still crumpled and tossed them aside stating they were no longer fit to be used again. The skin on Jake’s leg was still an uncomfortable sight to see. The skin was still pink and though it was less wrinkled now it looked swollen and splotchy, with several sections of skin a palish color in complexion appearing across the surface of the leg. These concerns didn’t seem to bother Lana, who focused her attention on his foot.

The foot looked rough. It also looked swollen and made of wrinkled pink flesh, but the bottom of his had been completely torn away, lost on the rocks as he launched himself up the mountain. Though this flesh was being rebuilt, it didn’t make for a pretty sight and Jake could still make out several areas on his foot where blood threatened to flow freely if not for the magic keeping it at bay.

As Jake sat, eating at first but eventually just waiting, the work Lana did gradually became more and more painful. It started as a slight pinprick in the heel of his foot, before graduating to what felt like pinpricks on the entire underside of his foot, before graduating further to what felt like needles being slowly inserted into the entirety of his leg. Though it was painful, it never reached the height of pain he first experienced when she rapidly healed his leg, and before long she was done.

“I’ve done all I can do. It should be capable of supporting your weight, but you’ll probably struggle to walk, so I’d be careful if I were you. I wouldn’t wander far. You’ll need to keep walking though, it’s the only way your legs going to improve.”

Jake examined his leg. The swelling had gone down, and the bleeding had stopped. The flesh was still pink and slightly splotchy throughout, but it was no longer wrinkled. He found he could move his ankle around, and with careful focus could move his toes though they felt sluggish to respond.

“Thank you… I can’t even begin to thank you, Lana.” Jake said, choking up.

“It’s fine, really. No problem at all.” Lana said, looking embarrassed about the thanks she was receiving but not dissatisfied. She moved to stand up and walk away from Jake, but he grabbed her wrist before she could.

“And Lana, I’m sorry. Because of me, you ended up passing out, I …” Jake started to apologize but was interrupted by Lana raising her hands and shaking her head.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s honestly no big deal. Wasn’t my first time overusing magic and won’t be my last.” She let out a laugh and stood up.

Jake let out a sigh and began stretching his ankle out, trying to feel how easy it was to move on it. It felt stiff and clunky, and it started shaking violently when he pressed against it. When he decided he had stretched enough he went for the major test, propping himself against the wall behind him and slowly trying to lift himself upright. He was interrupted by something being thrown at him, landing on his head and causing him to collapse back to the ground.

“Wrap that around your foot kid, don’t want you cutting yourself open again,” Leopold said, from across the cave. He was busy polishing his armor and didn't even look at Jake saying his piece. Jake pulled what was tossed to him off his head and found what looked like a simple slipper made from leather. All this time his foot had remained bandaged so he hadn’t noticed it, but his left shoe was missing, likely destroyed when he was attacked along with his leg. Slipping the slipper on, he resumed pulling himself up using the rock wall behind him.

He struggled to just stand upright. The slipper was a godsend, without it he’d be completely unbalanced and would have tumbled forward a long time ago. He wasn’t sure how long he spent just leaning against the wall, struggling to find his balance but slowly he inched his way forward. It felt agonizing at first. His ankle refused to cooperate, and each step sent painful shivers up his leg.

Eventually though, after grueling work, he inched himself around the length of the cave and completed a lap. This effort was rewarded with a round of applause from both Leopold and Lana who had taken to watch his slow progress (In Jake’s opinion Lana’s applause where probably genuine while Leopold where just him being a smart ass). He didn’t stop there, though his leg was begging him to. He moved from just inching forward to taking full steps.

The sudden increase in difficulty was not approached by his body, which screamed in protest, but he was able to successfully complete another lap before standing became too much and Jake collapsed back down, sliding to the ground. He was leaning forward, panting from the effort simply walking took. He felt terrible. He felt like he’d never struggled so hard physically, and he had traveled less than half a mile in total.

Leaning back against the rock whipping the sweat from his forehead, Jake struggled to calm himself down. How could he ever hope to keep following this trio up a mountain if he couldn’t even walk across a room? If they left him behind, would Jake be able to descend the mountain safely? He doubted it. Just as he was beginning to despair at his chances of recovery, Lana and Leopold walked over beaming.

“Good job kid!” Leopold laughed, slapping Jake so hard on the back he was launched forward.

“Impressive”, Lana said handing Jake a cup of water “I honestly didn’t think you’d be able to stand today.”

“Cost me some money,” Jake said with a quick grimace, before once again laughing and slapping Jake on the back. Jake was stunned. He thought he was behind schedule, but apparently, he was ahead of it, at least ahead of what the others had been predicting. A chuckle escaped Jake’s lips as he leaned back and downed the provided water in a few gulps.

He’d been planning to rest briefly and continue trying to walk, but he found soon as he sat down his legs felt like lead and he couldn’t will himself to stand again. Falling back onto the rough rock of the cave floor Jake closed his eyes and soon drifted off to sleep.