Jake opened his eyes, slowly rousing from a deep dreamless sleep. It took him some time to collect himself after waking up. Once he was awake, he tried to sit up only to wince as pain radiated out from his back, falling back down. The pain felt less sharp than yesterday, but still severe.

Craning his head around carefully to not shock his body with the sudden movement and send cataclysms of pain rocketing down his spine, Jake was able to see he was resting comfortably next to a low burning fire. Beyond it, a few yards away, he could see the distinct glow of a second fire crackling away. Around the second fire, he could see the huddled figure of someone swaddled in blankets asleep on the ground. A second figure, the man in armor Jake guessed based on how the light danced and gleamed off his form, was hunched over the fire busying himself with something.

Beyond both sets of fires, Jake could make out the sky above. Pitch black. Not a star shone in the sky nor the moon above broke up the pitch black of the sky. It sent eerie chills through Jake's body, reminding him of the night spent curled in the rocks of the desert. The pitch of the sky offered no illumination to help Jake make out the rest of his surroundings, so everything else he could see came from the dancing light of the fires.

He could vaguely see the shifting forms of pine trees, hiding beyond clear view. Next to his head directly opposite where the fires burned, he could see stone-carved bricks stacked into a wall. The wall looked like it belonged to a ruin, covered in scratch marks and missing several bricks in key places. Jake didn’t think the wall looked particularly old, but it certainly looked destroyed.

With that, his stationary tour of his surroundings was over, and not wanting to interrupt whatever the man across from him was busy with, Jake simply laid back into the earth and tried to fall back asleep. The longer he stayed awake, the more he felt the stinging sensation radiating from his back. However, the constant painful pricks had already reached a point where sleep seemed impossible.

Just as Jake was considering what to do next, the man across from him at the next fire turned round revealing a copper pot propped on rocks he’d been busying himself with. Their eyes locked, the man smiled at seeing Jake was awake and began making his way toward Jake. Then suddenly stopping, the man scooped something up of the pot into a wooden bowl before continuing onwards toward Jake.

“Sorry about that, almost completely forgot to bring you the soup! Usually, we just grill or fry whatever we find but Lala was insistent on soup this time, and wanted to prepare something you could easily eat.”

“Thank you.”

Jake said, before slowly starting to force himself upright wincing through the pain this process brought. Noticing this, the man set the soup down on the ground nearby and helped Jake slowly prop himself up, leaning him against the nearby rocks, before handing him the soup. It was almost clear with a few bits of thinly sliced vegetable and meat floating throughout that made swallowing the whole thing trivial. Jake gratefully drank the entire thing in a rush. He would have done the same even if the provided soup had a rancid taste, but he was pleasantly surprised to find it reminded him of Chicken Noodle.

Setting the bowl aside after finishing his soup Jake pointed across the way toward the sleeping bundle and asked,

“Is Lala asleep?”

“What?” The man asked looking surprised for a moment, before bursting out laughing for a solid minute to such a degree he had to sit down, flopping to the side of Jake. The ground shook with his landing, and his outstretched armored legs now blocked Jake's view of the fire, save for the top of its crackling glow. At last, the man stopped laughing, reaching up to whip a tear from his eyes with unarmored hands before saying,

“Yes, yes that’s Lala asleep over there. She stayed up late helping heal your wounds and changing your bandages. She’s been asleep for a few hours now, not sure how long exactly but she slept through my patrol and didn’t wake up when me and Rick switched off.”

Jake could tell from the man’s reaction to his question that he’d missed something, as nothing about his question or the man’s response was funny. Jake also had no clue who this “Rick” the man mentioned was, but at hearing the efforts the sleeping woman across from him had made to save his life both while he was awake and unconscious, his gratitude for her grew even deeper than it already was.

“I understand, thank you”

“That’s twice you’ve thanked me, and I haven’t done anything for you. It was Lala who had us make soup for you and Lala who stayed up tending to you.” The man said with a serious face suddenly “What are you thanking me for exactly?”

“I… I don’t know, I'll thank Lala when she thanks up. Wakes up, wakes up I mean” Jake said hurriedly, surprised at how serious the man next to him suddenly turned on the flip of a dime.

“Good,” the man said as the usual jovial smile Jake had seen returned to his face “My name’s Leopold. I know they both start with L’s but hers is a lot shorter so you shouldn’t get us confused. Now, we’ve been searching for the last couple of days since we found you but just like you said we couldn’t find a trace of any monster capable of providing your injuries. Did you fight the monster that attacked you off before running away?”

“No,” Jake said with a shake of his head “I just ran away before collapsing. I was barely able to run, let alone fight back.”

“I see,” Leopold said, his face hardening for a split second before he gave a shrug and said, “Anyway, do you remember why you were out here before you were attacked?”

“No, I don’t even know where I am”

Leopold nodded at that and opened his mouth to say something else before the conversation was interrupted by the sound of a loud yawn. Looking over, Jake and Leopold watched as Lala sat up and unbundled herself from her blankets, her hair somehow more disheveled than the last time Jake saw it thanks to the bedhead that now plagued her.

“Morning!” Leopold called out with a jovial wave. He received a grunt in return, as Lala was busying herself pouring a bowl of soup from the cauldron next to her. After filling a wooden bowl with soup and taking a sip, she turned toward Leopold and Jake, starting to give a lecture with a stern tone in her voice:

“Leopold, I’ve already told you to let him rest, he isn’t ready to WHY ARE YOU SITTING UP!” The last part of her cry was directed at Jake. As soon as she caught sight of him propped up sitting next to Leopold she hurriedly dashed over, spilling soup out of her bowl all over the floor. This reaction earned a giggle out of Leopold, which was ignored by Lala who was hurriedly inspecting Jake.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“You should still be lying down unless properly supported! Do you want your bandaging to come undone? If I’m not there to support you, don’t even think about trying to move around, and YOU!” Lala, having finished her inspection turned angrily towards Leopold who quickly stopped his giggles and through his hands into the air in surrender “What was your plan if collapsed again before you could wake me up in time, huh? I just wish for once in our lives you’d listen to me.”

Still visibly pissed, she’d finished her verbal scolding's but continued her inspections on Jake’s wrappings and at one point carefully moved him upward to examine his back. Once she finished examining him, she carefully laid him back flat on the ground. Then, just like yesterday, she placed her hand on Jake's chest and enveloped him in a calm numbing sensation that stretched throughout his entire body.

“Careful not to move too much, I don’t know how much you might have aggravated your injuries already.”

Jake gave a nod, lying still as possible as Lala worked enjoying the numbing feeling throughout his body. When she’d finished her work for the time being and removed her hand from his chest Jake smiled up at her and said,

“Thank you for this, for healing me I mean. Thank you for saving my life, Lala.”

Lala had looked touched by his sudden thanks till the end when her face suddenly froze, and Leopold began laughing once again.

“You, you told him to call me that, didn’t you? Why can’t you let it die, it’s so stupid oh my god what is wrong with you!” Lala began raving, swiping her hands trying to grab Leopold's wrists while Leopold effortlessly dodged.

“What, I thought that’s what you said your name was?” Leopold said with a shit-eating grin while catching Lala’s hand and holding it so she couldn’t continue swinging it at him “L-A-L-A”

“I was three! My god, why can’t you just let it go, everyone else thinks it’s stupid except you!”

“I can’t let it go because you hate it so little Lala,” Leopold said, letting out one last snicker before he released her and endured her rushed punches to his side. Either she wasn’t trying to hurt him or couldn’t produce enough force to reach through his armor because Leopold simply sat there unbothered before saying “What, you’re just going to ignore the kid? That’s cold Lala.”

Jake didn’t want to get in the middle of… whatever was going on between the two but at the mention of him Lala stopped punching Leopold's side abruptly, as if suddenly remembering him, and came back over to his side. There was a moment of awkward pause as neither knew what to say before Lala said,

“It’s no problem, honest. Just glad I found you when I did. And it’s Lana, not Lala unlike what my dumbass brother might have said. Only he calls me that.”

“I take offense to that!” Leopold called in a lighthearted tone, but he was ignored.

“I see, I’m sorry then. I didn’t know your name was such a big issue.” Jake felt embarrassed and guilty at having been tricked into messing with Lana like that, and not just because he owed her such a massive debt. As the youngest sibling in his family, he didn’t appreciate being used like that. Especially without even being in on the joke.

“It’s fine, I don’t care honest. It’s a joke he’s pulled for years. It’s just been a while since the last time he played it.” She replied with a smile and a shrug, but Jake still felt immense guilt. Though Lana played it off as a joke she radiated a clear tone of embarrassment and conversation quickly died as the trio fell into an awkward silence.

“So, how long have I been asleep?” Jake asked, hoping to break through the awkward fog surrounding them.

“It’s hard to say these days, you know?” Leopold began “I think roughly two days, maybe three, we found you awhile go. You had that break awhile back where you suddenly woke up talking gibberish,” Leopold gave a quick chuckle “But it’s really hard to say, does two- or three-days sound right to you Lala?” Lana gave a nod at the question without much thought.

“Then will the sun be rising soon?” Jake asked, looking up at the sky. He remembered it was pitch-black yesterday and so far, he’d only ever arrived in new worlds during sunrise, never at night. So, he must have been found early in the morning and first woken up after sunset. Having fallen asleep again yesterday, he must be close to his deadline for staying here.

At his question, Lana and Leopold just blinked at him in confusion before Lana hurriedly began to examine his head while Leopold asked “You really can’t remember anything, can you?”

“What are you guys talking about?” Jake found their reactions strange and alarm bells began ringing in his head.

“There is no sunrise, not anymore. Not for the last two or three years. Maybe longer, it's been hard to keep track of time since the sky was stolen.”

“Since the sky was stolen?! What the hell does that mean, how can someone steal the…” Jake began asking in alarm, sitting up due to the shock of what he’d heard. However, before he could continue his questioning he was interrupted by a sudden and violent coughing fit. His vision began to spin as the world looked dizzy. Lana grabbed his head after he finished coughing and looked into his eyes.

“Your pupils are dilated and unfocused, you need rest. We’ll talk more when you wake up.”

“Wait, no hold on a second! How can someone steal the sky?!” Jake tried to call out, but it was no use. Instead of a response, he was met with Lana’s fingers glowing bright red pressing down against his forehead and before he could react, he was drifting off to dreamless slumber.

----------------------------------------

“I don’t like him,” Rick said, jerking his head towards the passed-out boy Lana was currently tending to. At the moment, she was carefully funneling water down his throat so as not to choke him, trying to make sure he stayed hydrated while also allowing him much-needed rest.

At Rick's comment, Leopold simply rolled his eyes before saying,

“Oh wow, what a shocker. It’s not like you haven’t been complaining about the kid since the delay.”

Rick glared at Leopold before saying,

“I thought you didn’t like him either, didn’t you say his story yesterday was suspicious?”

“Oh, he’s definitely hiding something.” Leopold said with a nod “But I doubt he’s a spy, he’s not a good enough actor for that. If he were a spy, he’d be a terrible one. His story makes no sense. Today he told both me and Lana he didn’t know anything about the sky being stolen.” Leopold said with a chuckle before putting his hand on Rick's shoulder and saying “He’s hiding something but after talking to him I doubt it’s anything malicious. We all have our pasts right.”

He shot Rick a smile, which went ignored, before adding on with a shrug “You’ve never even talked to the kid Rick, but if you think you can convince Lala to abandon her patient and keep moving on be my guest.”

Rick grunted and shook Leopold's hand off before leaving to go sit by the fire, knowing that convincing Lana would be impossible. With a victorious smirk, Leopold hoped Rick would get used to the kid quickly, as he was already getting annoyed by this. Looking over at Lana and the kid, though he wouldn’t admit it to Rick to keep the peace, Leopold would also stop him from leaving the kid behind. He’d grown fond of him during their short talks, he was so gullible! Leopold let out a laugh to himself, imagining what else he could get the kid to fall for next.