The Lingering pain in her head pushed open her eyes, she looked around the room startled at the man she found sleeping opposite her, she glanced around at her surroundings, she noticed the window, it was bright outside, The last thing she could remember was leaving the party, but that was it so far, her head hurt from just remembering that much, she looked around some more, the Walls were made of large Logs, old, discolored and worn out, from the way the patches of bark peeled away and curled up, ‘the forest’, she thought glancing back to the window, the thick, dense growth of trees a ways off,

‘I’m still in the forest luckily’, she thought with relief, she continued to scan around her, eventually her eyes fell on a sleeping aluric slumped down in a wooden chair, his chest rising up and down gracefully, and his face with a peaceful and content look on it, as she continued to look at him, the large red bloodstain on the side of coat caught her eye blood still dripping off of it, She shuffled around and then a sharp pain entered her head causing her to hold her head in agony, as she moved her hand a trickle of blood ran down her face and dropped onto her pants,

she simply sat there trying not to panic as she tried to gather her thoughts from what happened last night,

she recalled the party and leaving to sit on the wall before going outside the base to investigate something, but she couldn’t remember what happened after that, everything seemed fuzzy,

The pain in her head began to worsen, throbbing and pulsing with her already labored breathing, she closed her eyes groaning from the pain, she tried to focus, focus on blocking out the pain, but she couldn’t, her constant groaning and agony eventually awoke the sleeping Aluric, he leaned forward out of the chair, touching yumi’s forehead, her eyes jolted open, she sprang from the chair towards the door, Glaring at him with one hand on her head while the other clenched into a fist, ready to defend herself,

“Despite that constant upbeat attitude, you’re always so serious”, Aluric said, placing his hand on the large bloodstained injury on his side,

“but you shouldn’t be moving around so recklessly with an injury like yours, especially if It came from a monster like that, ”, he said, ,

“wha….what are you talking about ?”, yumi asked, But just as she did, her head began aching again this time the memories of what happened last night started to rush back into her head, the image of the beast he was talking about also flashed in her head, it was large tiger about seven feet tall when standing on all fours and it had a very powerful body, but what set it apart from normal tigers was the fact that it had golden scales running along the middle of it’s back, this meant it was only semi divine as fully divine mountain tigers had a full pelt of golden armored scales,

Aluric let out a sigh of relief, “ that thing got a good hit on you, I saw you try to defend, but it sent you flying into a tree, it ripped your divine energy off of you like it was a piece of cloth”, Aluric said, walking up to her, with every step she grew more and more tense, and Aluric could see that that was the case,

“Yumi, relax the last thing I want to do right now is harm anyone, especially you, I’m tired aren’t you”, Aluric said, with a soft caring look in his eyes, She lowered her guard instinctively, she knew that look on his face, she’d seen it any time he was there and she was hurt, she knew he still cared for her, she dropped back into the couch she was sitting on before, and let out a sigh of relief, Aluric stepped in front of, kneeling down to her, he placed his hand on her forehead , moving her hair out of the way as he examined her wound, she sat there while he examined her wound closely, all of her missing memories came rushing back to her, After jumping off of the wall to investigate the strange light she had seen, she ran across Aluric being attacked by the mountain tiger, she had instinctively jumped in the fight, All the while questioning Aluric why he was out this late in the forest, but he never answered her, and before she could do anything else the mountain tiger had caught her off guard and with its powerful paws, it came baring down on her hitting her on her head, slapping her into a tree knocking her out,

she remembered that after hitting the tree she felt a burning sensation coming from her head, she looked to the right of her, seeing Aluric rushing towards her with his hand out, but the next thing she saw was the semi divine tiger’s claws ripping through the side of Aluric’s trench coat and knocking him though the forest, after that everything faded to black,

Aluric had stopped looking at her wound and then reached into his trench coat pocket and took out a small container with some blood inside of it, he took off the cap and poured a couple drops onto the Back of his hand, after a short period, the palm of his hand began to glow a bright green, as this happened he stretched out his hand towards yumi, but she quickly pulled away,

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“relax it’s just a healing ability that one of guild members possess, and you know how my power works, so there isn’t anything you have to worry about”, Aluric stated,

‘He was right’, yumi thought to herself, although he was now a really insufferable bastard who led many to kill and destroy families, he never told any lies, plus his convenient power of being able to use someone elses power once he had physical contact with any single part of their body inside or out, and the longer he touched them the longer and stronger he could use their power,

“fine, go ahead and do what you have to”, Yumi relented,

Soon after he had placed his hand on her forehead, a soothing warm feeling washed over her entire body, and for a couple seconds this caused her to forget about worrying over her situation,

“there all done, that shouldn’t be bothering you anymore, but you do have a small scar there now though, but I find that kind of adorable on you”, Aluric said chuckling to himself,

“ so why didn’t you just heal me when we got here, wherever here is ?” Yumi asked him,

‘well I’d been tracking and hunting that tiger for the entire day, and fighting that and saving you completely drained me , so as soon as we got here I passed out”, Aluric answered,

“not to mention this”, Aluric moved his hand from his side, showing her the open wound, four claw marks that tore trough his coat and skin, because of how long it had been exposed the blood had began to dry and clot around the wound, with fresh blood barely trickling out of it now,

“this is hoing to leave a nasty scar”, he said,

“look yumi, you know I never liked seeing you hurt or in pain, and if you were, all I would want to do is take that hurt and pain away”, Aluric stated,

Aluric stood up from crouching in front of her, he held his hand over his wound again the green light once again appeared, yumi watched on as the wound began to heal, and the blood coming from it began to trickle off of Alurics hand slower and slower,

“ what happened to that tiger anyways ?”, Yumi asked,

“it hurt you so I killed it, though I was planning to kill it anyways,”, Aluric answered, in a dry voice,

Yumi sat there watching Aluric, with things as they are now it was hard to think he was currently taking over this continent by force, and that he had killed so many up till this day, it felt as though they were on a guild mission all over again,

she then let out a loud sigh, “ I can’t believe I ended up in here with you, it’s only when we’re together, when it’s just the two of us that I seem to mess up as much as I did last night”, she said,

“I really wish things stayed the way they were, before all of this”, yumi continued, as she looked up towards the roof reminiscing on the days she was at the guild,

“yeah that would have been nice”, Aluric replied,

“so why did you do it ?……..Why did you sell out to the king and start this war ?”, Yumi asked aluric,

“I didn’t ‘sellout’ to the king, besides, If I told you right now you wouldn’t believe me”, Aluric answered, looking at his hands, with a dissatisfied and disappointed look in his eyes,

The anger falred out of Yumi in a rush, she lunged out of the chair onto Aluric, her hans gripped around his throat, her expression was as filled with as much shock and confusion as her mind was,

“After all this time I deserve and explanation, Why’s you do it, why did you hurt me”, She said, tears welling up in her eyes,

“yes you do, and you will get it once everything is over”, Aluric said, smiling,

“no how about right now”, yumi demanded,

“as I said even if I told you right now you wouldn’t believe me, but if you really want to know, convince my stubborn brother to surrender and I will fully explain everything to you”, aluric reiterated,

“ugghh, what the fuc, you evil bastard, even now all you think about is how to win, this is uswe are talking about Aluric, US”, yumi said, But Aluric just responded with a smile,

“why are you even smiling”, Yumi said,

“that time when we went on a mission in Bolterra to hunt the group of mercenaries, I had messed up the attack plan and gotten hurt in the process you reacted similarly to this, hand around my neck and all, what was it you said, if I wanted to die I should die by your hands”, Aluric answered,

“that was a long time ago”, yumi said,

“yes it was, yet here we are again, me wearing your hand as an accessory around my neck”, Aluric stated,

“though If I remember correctly something that both of us enjoyed happened after that time, no”, Aluric continued,

“you should go and get back to my brother before he starts to panic, we aren’t that far from your base, Just head north and you’ll be back there soon”, Aluric told Yumi,

Yumi slowly retreated off of Aluric, tears silently flowing down her face, she closed her eyes and wiped them away, looking up at aluric again she steeled her feelings, she picked her hat up out of the chair she was laying in, and made her way to the door as she fitted in on her head,

“Whatever it is that caused you to start this war I hope it was completely worth it in the end”, Yumi stated as she walked out the door,

As she walked out the door Closing it behind her she looked around, when she heard the sound of flies buzzing, she looked down next to the door, there it was the semi divine mountain tiger’s corpse laying there, it’s back and tail bare, it’s golden scales completely missing

Yumi looked away, reminded of just how terrifying the man named Aluric was, as she headed off back towards the base,