Author's Note: Ugh. Seth, even when bleeding heavily, has to be a dutiful little dweeb and pretend nothing's wrong. (Haha, it's weird to call Seth a dweeb…) Eirika protects Seth this time, not the other way around… for once. -- Dumb dutiful overprotective knightly Paladins… Ahaha, well, on with the random drabble?
Her arms hurt like hell. She was breathing hard, running fast, half-dragging the softly protesting paladin. The gash ran from his shoulder to his hip, dyeing his armor red around the wound. Eirika had tried to carry him back, as to cause him less pain, but she couldn't lift him. She had wrapped an arm around his torso, and helped him to support himself, leaning on him as if to use her body as a tourniquet. He had mildly protested all the way as she pulled him closer to Natasha, but she ignored him.
The thought that ran through her mind was simple: "That blow was intended for me." The opposite side had his wound from Valter, and now this… Two wounds, two times he had been prepared to give his life for her… And there were undoubtedly many more than two, but these two times… These two were different.
Seth was pale with blood loss, and Eirika was pale with fear. She had ripped off her cape and tied it around his wound, but even with that makeshift bandaging the blood flowed freely. Eirika realized, after Seth emitted a soft groan of pain, that to move him more would be dangerous. She laid him down on the grass and began to remove his armor. By that time, Seth was feeling weak enough not to argue. Eirika took a bottle and un-corked it, pouring it onto a scrap of her cape. She rubbed it gently across the wound, trying not to hear Seth's self-muffled, almost silent, cries of pain.
He had been holding back the pain, keeping silent, so she wouldn't worry. That wasn't working. The cloth was soaked with blood at that time, so Eirika ripped another piece from her already tattered cape. She poured more of the liquid onto it, and set it on the wound. The rest of her cape would hold it there until a healer could get to it, and the liquid would keep away infection… But no matter what she did, the pain wouldn't leave.
The princess, refusing to leave her knight's side, stood and stopped clasping his hand whenever she saw a soldier coming toward them. He vaguely remembered her sillouette, standing over him, slashing at anyone who ventured near them.