The whole group stood above Vexar, mostly awestruck. Hitar buried his hands in his hair with wide eyes as he let out a long sigh.
"Help him." Hitar sternly commanded as he crossed his arms.
"Why should I?" Rickul bellowed as bent down slightly to come face-to-face with Hitar.
"Because he already died once for you!" Hitar replied as he pushed back slightly.
Rickul looked down at Vexar and the three women that tried to stop the bleeding. Reenix could be heard panicking.
"Can't he just go crazy again? That saved him last time!" Reenix asked as she slightly waved her hands in the air.
"And kill the first thing he sees?" Elaria started "Which would be us!"
Arkinis, who was kneeling directly in front of Vexar, was roughly pushed out of the way by Rickul.
"I can stop the bleeding, but I can't decide whether he makes it through afterward." Rickul explained as he placed his hands over the wound.
"Well wouldn't that be based on his body?" Arkinis slightly shouted as she picked herself off the ground.
"With the amount of blood he's lost and how weak he probably is right now, it's honestly up to him if he wants to live or not." Rickul answered.
"That's a pretty stupid thing to say, I mean, why wouldn't he want to live?" Reenix ended with her left hand on her hip.
Rickul stood up after he finished casting the healing spell. He seemed practically baffled when he finally spoke. "Don't you realize h-how much we've hurt him? Don't you realize that just since he isn't expressing his pain that he doesn't have any?"
The rest of the group's faces clearly changed to a saddened expression and they all slowly stared at the ground. Rickul spoke once again; just to better paint the picture in their heads.
"I can guarantee you" Rickul swallowed hard "He has thought about closing his eyes forever at least once."
Elaria wiped away the tear in her right eye with her right index finger. "It's almost like you care Rickul…"
Rickul merely grunted in response; turned his back to the group and walked towards the inn.
"Okay laddie" Hitar grunted as he picked up Vexar and hung him over his shoulder. "Laddie, do you even eat? You're light as a feather."
The group walked into inn to see Rickul already sitting at the bar and conversing with the local patrons. He sent them a tired but friendly smirk and later called to them.
"Just bring em' upstairs, I'll explain why you're carrying an incapacitated sixteen year old with you." Rickul finished and returned to his cups.
Hitar and the three women went to the last room on the left and promptly placed Vexar on the well-furnished bed. The four exchanged glances quickly and Hitar let out a long sigh.
"Y'know… He looks sorta… peaceful…" Reenix noted, acknowledging his pleasant-looking smile and his ruffled, messy hair, as she crossed her arms behind her back.
The other three looked at her, their initial disbelief that she could say something like that with the current situation. Although they soon realized it was more of Reenix's absent-minded cheerfulness.
"He looks like…" Elaria paused to think "He looks like a child…"
"I suppose your right about that, but I guess it's easy to forget that when you really think about it, he is just a kid." Hitar explained.
"Oh you know, a kid with severe burns on his face, unique vampiric spells and an arsenal of rapier spells." Arkinis jokingly stated as she walked out of the room.
"He hasn't explained those burns yet has he?" Elaria piped while covering Vexar with the blanket.
"Nope, and that's really a shame because I bet there's an awesome story behind it." Reenix whined as she walked out of the room with Hitar and Elaria behind her. The group joined Rickul at the bar and subsequently nearly took up half of the twelve stools.
Rickul pulled his head back with a glass in hand as he drank the last of his drink. He let out a satisfied exhale in stereotypical style after finishing a cold drink.
"Sadly, we've still got a job to do…" Elaria reminded as she grabbed her recently-ordered glass of tea with two hands and took a sip.
"We have to leave tomorrow, don't we?" Arkinis sighed. "This wasn't exactly a great time for a critical injury."
"I suppose not, but there isn't anything we can do about it now…" Reenix started "Let's look at it this way; just so we can put it behind us, for unfortunate reasons, we have an empty seat next to us."
"An empty seat because of me…" Hitar muttered as he rubbed his temples.
"Don't beat yourself up, he wouldn't want that." Arkinis spoke while pulling her hair back.
"Your right…" Hitar stood up and exhaled loudly "I'm going to sleep, don't stay up late or get drunk or whatever, we're leaving at the crack of dawn."