Jake woke with a gasp, quickly reaching up and struggling to pull the flesh away from his neck. It held tight, its clammy grip still stuck to him with force. Yet it offered little resistance outside its already tightened grip to being pulled away. Forcing himself upright, wiggling out from the mound of flesh that had coiled around him, he grabbed one of the knives still resting in his pocket and cut away the tendril wrapped tight to his throat.
It fell away, allowing Jake to breathe freely once again. Yet as it fell to the floor bleeding it didn’t twitch or squirm. It simply lay there, cold and unmoving. Looking around Jake realized for the first time the flesh surrounding him was all dead, lying on the floor in a decaying heap.
Rising to shaky feet, Jake looked around and took in the sky above. The world was still dark tucked under the night sky above, yet it was a different kind of darkness. The all-encompassing void from before was no more. Now the blanket of stars returned to their natural place and a moon, blue and crisp and closer than any moon Jake had seen before, hung in the sky. Looking around under the dim moonlight Jake saw no movement throughout the ruins of Largo. The remains of the flesh simply hung, lifeless, and rotted as it leaked black ooze.
The only life Jake saw was down below, as the trio stirred and moved making what looked like a crude camp amongst the ruins and rotting meat of the flesh. Their exact actions were a bit difficult to discern, but Jake could tell only Rick was actively moving. The other two sat still. A lump formed in his throat as Jake struggled to tell if Lana and Leopold were breathing. He began to hurry to move down the edge of the cliff before stopping.
His head snapped toward the wall of flesh that had been pursuing him not long ago. It lay not far away, a few meters from encompassing him. Stopping his descent down the cliff side Jake hurried back toward the deceased flesh to recover the knives he’d tossed. It was only fair to have them all on hand when he returned them to Rick. His time left here was limited now. The sky above danced with a beauty Jake had forgotten about in the weeks spent trekking the endless dark, but its return meant that come daybreak he would once more be thrust into another world. He’d need to prepare for that.
Coming to the edge of the flesh, Jake dug through its collapsed remains for his blades. The first was easy to find, it sunk into the middle of the creature’s massive form and came loose easily. The second was a bit harder to find. It was at the back of the creature, still imbued in the skull Jake had stabbed it into. The flesh he’d stabbed it with laid limp, being dragged forward by the rest of the wall.
Reaching the limp form of the flesh, Jake reached down and dug the knife free from the rotted skull, meeting significantly more resistance than the first knife. With a grunt, he braced himself against the ground a pulled the knife free with a massive amount of effort. This in turn caused the head of the flesh he’d killed to roll with the knife bringing its twisted face around toward Jake. Its features were still maimed and twisted open screaming in silent agony. Yet its eyes, once mad, now had a look of gratitude locked behind the glassy veil of death.
Jake found himself drawn to them, locked into silently looking into its gaze for a moment before he stood up, an uncomfortable shiver racing through his spine. Placing the knives, still coated in viscous blood, in his pocket, before racing over to the cliff edge. Hurridly, he began his descent down the sloping wall without any further delay.
The climb down was significantly easier than the blind climb up had been. The light provided by the night sky above was not much, but it was still infinitely more than what he’d worked with before when he crept up in the dark. It took less than half the time it took for him to go up the wall to make it back down to the ground below. No longer concerned with sneaking Jake did away with hiding behind rubble and ruins and beelined straight toward where the trio lay.
Reaching closer to the edge of the trio’s camp he was relieved to see all three of them still breathing, yet they were in terrible shape. The best among them was Rick who still stood mobile yet he had visible slashes running all across his chest occasionally spurting blood. The wounds must not have been too deep, however, as he did not bother bandaging himself up or paying them much mind at all.
Instead, his entire attention was devoted to Lana who sat taking shallow breaths to the side of Leopold. Her arms and hands were coated in blood. Rick had wrapped her hands in heavy splints and gauze, so Jake could not see the extent of the damage done. Yet he could tell it was serious as already the gauze had stained itself red, tiny dribbles of blood beginning to leak out from beneath the wrapping to the floor. Her arms were covered in deep, vain-like gashes that bore into her flesh seeping blood unendingly. Rick was still focused on these wounds when Jake arrived, and so they had yet to be covered. It looked as though her flesh had splintered and cracked from the inside out, leaving the skin of her arms shattered.
The worst among them though was Leopold. He lay silent without movement within the twisted remains of his armor. His arm was gone, roughly removed leaving behind only splintered bound and torn muscle. His back was covered in deep gashes which cut through the skin deep into the muscle and sinew below. His legs also lay in a bloodied heap, the extent of the damage done to them unclear, but the very armor worn to protect them was now dyed crimson red. His damage was the most severe leaving him prone, face down in a catatonic state. He was barely breathing. Yet he was alive, a thin layer of magic Jake was very familiar with surrounding his wounds.
As Jake neared the edge of the makeshift camp Rick turned toward him and gave him a nod before refocusing on wrapping gauze around Lana’s heavily injured arms. While he didn’t initiate any conversation, his eyes lit up at the sight of Jake’s approach, and a smile formed across his face.
“Are they going to be alright?” Jake asked pointing between Leopold and Lana, worry evident in his voice.
“They’ll be fine kid,” Rick said, though there was a sort of unease to his voice as he continued wrapping bandages around Lana's arm, and though he tried to hide it, Jake could see a slight tremor in his hands.
Stolen story; please report.
“Lana’s just exhausted. She overused her magic by a wider margin than I think anyone ever has. Usually, people stop when their skin starts to harden and split but well, special times and all that…” He was talking in a kind of frantic manner, fast and unfocused. His tone tried to hide his worry but his frantic speech and shaky limbs betrayed him. Kneeling on the other side of Lana, Jake looked around for something he could use to mop the blood spilling from her wounds.
Finally settling on a clean bit of extra fabric he found settled in the group's haphazardly discarded bags, Jake pressed the fabric against her skin to begin staunching the flow of blood. He expected a wince of pain or any sort of reaction, but instead, she just continued staring ahead, eyes lost behind a veil her breathing uneven and shallow. Pushing hard with the cloth he held, Jake reached his hand out toward Rick and said,
“Gauze,” Rick looked over only now seeming to notice Jake's movements to his side, before extending a shaking hand and offering a roll of unused gauze. Jake began wrapping the wounds on Lana's arms, yet realized with his limited experience he could only rely on the few times he had been wrapped in gauze for reference. He started working his way up, wrapping the gauze tight around her arm. He pulled tighter and tighter, to the point he expected her to awake from her daze and scream in pain yet no reaction came. When he first started wrapping, blood soaked through the gauze layer by layer, staining it and dripping onto Jake's hands.
Yet the further up he traveled with the wrappings and the tighter he drew them, the more the flow of blood ceased and soon the dripping stream of red coming from the slashes in Lanas’s arm had stopped. Sitting there at the end of the gauze, he was unsure of how to properly secure it. He didn’t know how to properly tie it off and didn’t want to release the pressure he was currently applying and risk the flow of blood starting up again.
As he was pondering how to properly release the wrapping Rick appeared beside him, a knife drawn as he cut the gauze away from its roll. He quickly secured it in place, so fast Jake barely had time to see what he had done. Stepping back now that all the wounds across Lana were covered, Jake collapsed back onto the stone, the Gauze slipping from his hand. The bandages across Lana looked secure, even though blood continued to dribble from her hands despite the multiple layers of wrapping covering them.
As Jake fell back, Rick also came to stand at his side, arms crossed. He still looked rattled, yet his hands no longer trembled.
“Do we need to wrap him?” Jake asked, pointing toward Leopold. Rick shook his head.
“Don’t have enough wrap to cover his entire body. We need to focus on Lana till she can recover. The magic Lana cast on him should be pretty strong, should be good enough till she can recover.”
Jake nodded at Rick's answer, yet noted he sounded almost as if he was convincing himself more than Jake. Standing up Jake looked to the sky and noticed it looked significantly brighter than it had the last time he examined it, a faint purplish hue filling the air. Jake let out a sigh and reached into his pockets to pull the knives he carried out before presenting them to Rick who looked at him with a confused expression on his face.
“I’ll be leaving soon. I wish I could stay for longer, I wish I could help you all like you helped me but I don’t have a choice. I’m sorry, I wish I could stay. I wish I could help but I can’t.”
Jake glanced over his shoulder at the injured forms of Leopold and Lana and felt his heart grow heavy. Constantly in the back of his mind, the thought of leaving and continuing his journey home had not once left him. Yet now, on the precipice of finally leaving this world and continuing on he found himself reluctant to do so. To leave the trio behind in such a state when he was so unsure of their survival sat like rocks in his heart. It weighed his very soul down.
Jake felt the knives pushed back toward him as he was focused behind him, and turning around he saw Rick pushing the knives back toward him a confused look on his face.
“Those are yours, kid, you grabbed them fair and square. I have no claim to them anymore, don’t know what you're doing trying to give them back to me.” Jake opened his mouth to protest, confused, but was silenced as Rick continued “Get out of here already, will yah? Been slowing us down for weeks. You think just because you found the sky we’d let you keep following us around? Remember what I said kid, I don’t trust you. Now those two are finally out of the picture for a little while, I can throw you out all I want.”
Rick's words had a bite to them that didn’t ring true as a smile shone on his face. A look of sad understanding was worn in his eyes as he watched Jake retract the offered knives and repocket them. Unsure of what else to say, Jake turned and slowly walked toward his discarded bag. It lay slightly open. Despite the rough shape it was in, all its contents remained inside making it easy for Jake to grab his supplies and sling it across his back. Turning around he found Rick still standing there, arms crossed staring at the floor.
“Getting out of here already?”
Jake looked at the sky and saw the faintest glimpse of the sun beginning to poke its way into the sky.
“Probably any minute now, yeah,” Jake said, unsure of what to say. Rick nodded, not looking up from the floor.
“Good, finally rid of you. Just get out of here already. Just...make sure not to die kid. Still need to make it home, right? A mother, a father, and two sisters are all waiting for you. Just don’t forget kid, it doesn’t matter how it happens so long as you survive.”
Jake nodded, the words he wanted to say lost in his throat. His hands gravitated toward his pockets, feeling awkward just hanging at his sides when a sharp Jab met his finger. Pulling his finger out with a small exhale Jake wondered if he stabbed himself with the blade of one of his knives but what stabbed him had felt rougher, more natural.
Curious now, Jake carefully dug through his pockets and removed the four wolf fangs he’d plucked so long ago. He’d forgotten all about them, they’d seemed so important in the moment yet now sat forgotten in his pocket. Jake marveled for a second at how all four had survived this long without getting lost before an idea struck him. Racing up to Rick, who had turned and started slowly walking away he dumped three of the fangs into his hand,
“Do me a favor, split those with Leopold and Lana when they wake up. Think of it as a reminder. Let them know thanks, from me, one last time. And tell them how sorry I am I have to leave so early. That I couldn't help them.”
Rick gave a silent nod, clutching the teeth in his hand as he turned around and started to walk away before he paused and pulled from his cloak a dagger. It was longer than any of his usual throwing variants, and more specialized for skinning and craftwork. It could prove useful, Rick decided, to help the kid get home. Yet as Rick turned around, the light of the sun glinting off the blade he held, he found no one in sight.
No footsteps had been heard slinking away or breath wasted in Jake's retreat, he simply vanished without a trace with the rising of the sun. Looking around, shocked at how easily Jake had snuck past him Rick burst into gruff fits of laughter.
“Full of surprises aren’t you kid?” He laughed harder than he had in a while, harder than Leopold ever made him laugh. Looking down at the fangs in his hands he thought back on the last words Jake had said. Usually, Leopold hated reminders, but this time…
His hand gripped tightly around the fangs; Rick walked back toward where his injured friends lay. A small mutter escaped him, filling the silence of Largo as he walked,
“Don’t die kid…”