Matthew slumped against the mast of the boat, groaning as his injuries were looked after by Rief, the Water Adept's eyes closed in concentration as he used Ply to mend Matthew's broken arm. The Venus adept had drained his psyenergy with a last second Odyssey, aimed at a monster creeping up behind one of his friends. That same friend was watching the healing process with worry, feral green eyes looking at Matthew carefully in case something went wrong. Matthew smiled up at the girl's pale face, and Sveta smiled back, her long pointed ears twitching a little. While Matthew had saved the Morgal beastgirl from further harm, he hadn't noticed a lone Calamari slide in from behind and slam its tentacles into him. He had gone flying, slamming to the deck and landing on his arm, causing a loud crack to be heard.
Matthew had blacked out immediately, falling into a black sleep. The next thing he know, he was looking into a pair of concerned, lime green eyes, framed by a small, white face and lavender braids with red ribbons in them. Suddenly, he it hit him. Sveta was . . . rather attractive. It wasn't like he hadn't thought this before, but this time wasn't like his once over of the beastgirl at the Teppe ruins. This time, he looked. He saw her thin swaying body, her long hair that draped over her narrow shoulders . . . she was really cute. Even her long, pointed ears and small, button nose made her look even more beautiful. Matthew was left speechless. This, however, worried Sveta even more. "Rief!" she called, worried. "Matthew's hurt!"
And so the earth Adept sat there, letting the Mercury user restore the feeling to his shattered arm. He'd said enough to calm Sveta down, but the wind user wasn't, oddly enough, wasn't going to leave until she saw Matthew's arm move again.
"Done." Rief said, sagging against the mast. While superficial wounds were draining, accelerating bone repairs was even worse, causing the healer to experience the physical pain that the victim had gone through. From the look of Rief, Matthew's bones had been rather shattered. Rief looked pretty dizzy, too.
"Thanks, Rief." Matthew replied, smiling and flexing his arm a little to make sure it was working properly. He looked up at the boy, a little concerned. "Go ahead and get some rest. Sveta and I can finish this watch." The party had taken shifts watching for monsters, and it had been Matthew and Rief's turn to keep lookout.
"T-Thanks, Matt." Rief murmured, then staggered off, heading below decks to get some well-deserved sleep. The other two watched him go, and then turned to each other.
"A-are you sure you're fine? I can always-"Sveta started, ready to summon a Boon if the Earth adept needed.
"No, I'm fine." Matthew said, smiling at the beastgirl. "But what about you? I was kind of . . . out, so I didn't see the rest of the battle." His eyes were drawn to one of her hands, cradling her opposite arm. "You didn't heal yourself? Why?" he asked, holding a hand out, his way of asking if he could see her injury.
Sveta hesitated, and then held her right arm out, pulling back her ocean blue sleeve. Running down her limb was a rather bad bruise, turned an uncomfortable looking blue. "After the monster attacked you, I fought it on my own." She admitted. "I became . . . careless . . . and I did not avoid one of the strikes it made."
"Sveta . . ." Matthew chuckled at the girl's eagerness to protect her friends. He took her arm, Mending it in a matter of seconds. The beastgirl smiled as well, sitting there in silence, looking at Matthew. They shared a moment of silence, he a little nervous, with thoughts he was unaccustomed to in his head, while Sveta, as usual, had her brother on her mind secretly. Ever since her brother Volecheck, the king of Belinsk, had sacrificed himself during the Grave Eclipse, staying behind to aid his countrymen. The image of her noble brother striding into the eclipse tower after tossing them the strange blue orb now in her possession had been forever imprinted in Sveta's mind as the last time she'd see her brother alive. Now, she was helping to stop the nightmare he had unknowingly started, traveling with her friends to find something called the Umbra gear, equipment that seemed to be made of the shadows themselves, and a yellow orb to go along with the blue orb they had, and a red orb they had received from Unan, the emperor of Tonfon. Sveta had two of the pieces of the Umbra gear; two leather gauntlets that did an amazing job of keeping out the sun's heat, and a pair of sharp Knuckles, purple flat plates that were strapped to the gauntlets, short spikes on the top that easily punctured the flesh of monsters. Every day, unknown to the rest of the team, Sveta took out the orb in the solitude of her cabin and stared into it, reminiscing. She wasn't weak, no. that was far from the problem. But she had watched the last member of her living family walk to what was probably his death. Her inner peace had been unbalanced, and she was no longer the girl she had been.
"You're thinking of him again, aren't you?" Matthew's voice cut through Sveta's thoughts, and she refocused, flushing.
"I'm sorry? What are you talking about, Matthew?" she asked, looking at his worried face.
"you get this cloudy look whenever you think of your brother, Sveta. You sit there, remembering. Sometimes you look as if you're going to cry, but you swallow your tears and get up as if nothing's occurred. It happens too often to be anything else. You miss him, Sveta . . ." Matthew said.
"How could I not, Matthew?" Sveta admitted sadly, long ears drooping on both sides of her face. "he was the only family I had left . . . he was always there for me. Now I am alone . . ." her body language turned closed, and suddenly an uncomfortable silence descended. Matthew frowned; realizing that he'd made her turn inward again, and tried to think of what to say. He cast his thoughts to what his father had said in the past, and realized Isaac had said nothing about dealing with a depressed princess in waiting whose country was being destroyed by a plague of shadowy beasts. But . . .
"Sveta . . ." He started. "Th-There's a story my dad told me . . . about him and my mother . . . I don't know if it will make you feel better, but I think you'd like it . . ." He said.
Sveta sniffed, and then looked at the blonde, ears perking in curiosity. "I-I guess . . . I could afford to take my minds off of recent events . . ." she said slowly. "please, tell me this story, Matthew . . ."
"Well, it starts before I was born, after the Golden Sun event . . ." Matthew started . . .