Hello! I'm not dead!
Oh my gosh, has it been two years? I am so sorry yall!
But! The good news is I have another update, and it's pretty long! I kept going like a freight train!
Quick Shoutout to everyone!
Vio 16- Thank you! I'm doing a lot better nowadays! Things are still rough with the Panini still here somewhat, and the um…. 'Conflict' going on you-know-where.
22darkmoon22- Thanks! Hopefully, I'll be back for a little longer, or more frequent lol. I've had a lot of changes in my own life these past two years since I last updated. I don't know what you mean exactly by 'posting on DeviantArt too much', but in full honesty, if you're still making healthy life choices, there shouldn't be a limit to how much you post!
Guest- …. So I didn't update as soon as I would have liked, but I still did? Thank you for your kind words!
And thank you to everyone who follows/favorited this story! It means a lot to me!
And with that,
On with the story!
There were two things that Blue was aware of when he came to; one, there was pain. A lot of it. It spread throughout his entire body where it seemed to burn him from the inside, while the outside of him seemed to freeze from the cold that swept all around him. And two, Blue was vaguely aware of something soft and warm against his back, and as he laid there as still as he could to allow the least amount of pain, memories started to come back to him. He let out a groan as he realized just where he was.
"Blue?" Green's voice spoke up quietly, the warmth behind him shifting as he felt the wolf's soft breathing against the back of his head. Blue groan again in response, lifting his left arm to pat Green's muzzle, who nuzzled against his hand as the wolf-boy spoke again,
"Oh, goddesses! I was so worried!" Blue let his hand drop back to the ground, too weak to keep it up and eyes still closed as he felt Green gently lick his head, a wound somewhere in his hairline stinging in pain as the canines tongue went across it,
"I'm so so sorry about this! It's all my fault you're hurt! I-"
"There's nothing to be sorry for." Blue interrupted, his voice coming out hoarse and dry, "I'll be OK. Eventually." A whimper from Green told Blue that the wolf didn't believe a word he just said causing Blue to sigh, only to hiss in pain as his apparent damaged rips screamed in protest. Taking caution, Blue slowly rolled to the left onto his back as he hissed and grunted in pain. Once on his back, Blue slowly opened his eyes to find the sky in the colors of dark reds and purples behind a thin layer of clouds, the sun rising somewhere out of sight, with Green to the left of him.
"How long was I out?" He asked, eyebrows furrowed as he recalled it being nighttime when he fell.
"When night falls again, it'd be three days," Green answered, shifting into a better position to block the cold wind from Blue as he gently grabbed the torn blanket with his teeth, pulling it tighter around Blue. Processing this info, Blue realized that this was not the place to stay as his body shivered slightly from the cold that still seeped past his blanket.
"We can't stay here." He concluded before taking his right arm to push himself off the ground, only to give a small shout of pain as his arm screamed in protest.
"You're not strong enough to get up, let alone walk!" Green protest, trying to gently guide Blue back down,
"Well," Blue groaned as he fought against the wolf, favoring his left side "I won't be able to recover if we stay in this cold ass gorge, so before what looks like rain making its way here comes, and it gets even more fucking cold, let's find somewhere that'll shelter us a bit better." Green paused for a moment before sighing, helping Blue sit up. They paused for a moment as Blue sat there and got his breathing back under control before getting the blue-clothed boy up on his one good foot, using Green's back as a kind of cane. Very slowly they made their way over to the wall and once there, Blue leaned against the rock wall as he looked around. From where he stood, Blue couldn't see any indents in the rocks that suggested a cave was there.
"Have you scouted the area?" Blue asked as he cradled his right arm against his chest. At first, he thought it was from his shoulder wound, but it only took a glance to see that it was dislocated as well.
"Just great." He thought before Green spoke up,
"I didn't go far, but last night I saw signs of a way out towards the north. I can go ahead and go check it out. Make sure it's safe." Blue shook his head, already hearing the hesitation in his brother's voice,
"Won't do me good just standing here, so I'll follow behind just in case."
"In case what? Blue, you can't fight like this."
"Fucking watch me." The boy grunted as he used the wall to brace himself as he badly limped north.
"And how would you do anything without your weapon?" This made Blue stop, looking over his shoulder and watching as Green hurriedly stuffed the blanket into Blue's satchel before dragging it over to Blue; his sword and shield laying on the floor in the center of the gorge.
As Green set the bag down beside Blue, he turned and hurried back to collect the sword and shield. Blue went to bend down and grab the bag, but unfortunately, a wave of dizziness overtook him; causing him to start tipping forward. Instinctually Blue reached out to grab the wall but didn't quite catch it, and ended up crashing forward shouting in pain as his body exploded in pain. Between the pain and vertigo, Blue couldn't think straight as he distantly felt Green gently nudging him trying to get his attention. He knew his brother was talking, but a loud buzz rang in Blue's ear as he tried his best to even out his breathing. As his leg throbbed, he could feel the sharp pains from his ribs while his shoulder seemed to scream in pain. He didn't even realize the tears rolling down his face until the feeling of a rough canine tough lapped them away. Wheezing for air, Blue focused on that feeling as his other senses struggled to come back. Once the pain subsided enough, Blue gave his brother a couple of pats on the head, indicating that was enough,
"Are you ok?" a nod was his answer as Blue took his good arm and gripped the wall, pulling himself up into a sitting position. Once he got his breathing back under control, Blue stubbornly grabbed his satchel before he stood on his good leg, grumbling to Green as he started to move again,
"Let's just get out of this damned hole."
)*()*()*(
The morning rain pattered against the window as Shadow sat with his knees drawn to his chest, a thick wool blanket wrapped around him; his body trembling with pain. As he sat there, Shadow watched as the floor quickly became a mess of notes, books, pencils, and quills alike, bandages, blankets, and balls of paper crumpled up from deadends. Sitting in front of him, leaning against the bed was Shelda, looking over notes as best she could as Vio sat in the middle of the mayhem, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Between the two sat the open locket, the damaged mirror glimmering in the dim light.
It had been two days since the attack on their camp. Vio and Shadow finally arrived the following morning after the attack while the sun started to light up the sky; both exhausted and ready to collapse. Red and Malon were quick to help Shadow onto the bed while Talon took Vio and helped him settle in one of the chairs. It didn't take long for Vio to dive headfirst into studying everything he could about the mirror, Shelda assisting in flushing out all facts and fiction with anything they came across. However, two major problems emerged as they worked; one, nothing they tried seemed to fix the mirror, if anything, made it worse in Shadow's opinion.
And two; Green and Blue were nowhere to be found.
Their first fear was that they were captured, Red and Malon making quick haste in scouting the nearby woods to see if they could find any trace of them. The two returned that evening, with word that they found tracks of them heading south, away from Lon Lon Ranch with no sign of capture. Now they just hoped that they were making their way back.
As Shadow sat curled up, the sound of the door opening caught his attention. Glancing over, he saw Red enter, and quietly close the door behind him before carefully stepping around the mess on the floor towards the bed.
"Hey," He said softly to Shadow as he climbed up on the bed beside him, placing his hand against Shadow's forehead to feel the ongoing fever that set in a few hours prior, "How are you holding up?" Shadow merely grunted in response in a low, tired voice,
"Been better." He held his tongue about how the pain seemed to burn from his scars, specifically where his old light wounds blister burned. He didn't think that was important to mention.
"Do you need anything?" Red asked, "Malon is making some tea and toast?" Shadow shook his head in answer and opened his mouth to give a verbal response before a sudden sharp stab of pain pierced his chest, causing Shadow to shout out and curl deeper into himself. Groaning at the pain doubling in ferocity, Shadow took a glance over to Vio. Said brother was leaning over the mirror on the floor, a piece of paper draped over it with arcane writing on it; pen in his hand.
"How many times do I have to ask you to give us a fucking warning?!" Shadow barked, noticing Shelda curled up in pain, as well as Vio, looking between the two with guilt in his eyes.
"I'm sorry," Vio mumbled quietly, taking the paper off the mirror and crumbling it up, throwing it off to the side. "I thought I had it that time…"
"It's ok!" Red quickly intervened, "We know you're doing your best to help! Just keep us in mind next time, ok?" Shadow huffed before curling into himself even tighter, resting his flush face against his knees.
"Ok…." Vio mumbled, trailing off. Shadow could hear shuffling around but didn't bother looking up as his body trembled in even more pain now. As he sat there, trying to hopefully doze off, a gentle hand rested on his shoulder and caught his attention, looking up, Shadow saw Vio had come up to the side of the bed beside him. Grunting in acknowledgment, Shadow closed his eyes and settled back into his knees. He felt more shuffling on the bed and quickly deducted Red moved and Vio had settled beside him. Shadow heard Red mumble something about breakfast and the open and close of the door before nothing but the sound of rain echoed through the room. Another hand on his foot gave Shadow awareness of Shelda still on the floor,
"Are you ok Shad?" her voice was soft, and Shadow could catch the lace of pain in her voice. Shadow opened his mouth to say he was fine but thought differently and knew they needed the truth,
"Um… worse than I was, to be honest," He said, aware of Vio beside him, gently rubbing his shoulder, "That last one gave me a sharp pain in my chest, and it made the overall pain worse."
"Is the sharp pain still there?" Shelda asked, her voice worried.
"A little. Not as bad as it initially was." After a beat of silence, he added with a sigh, "Vio, I can taste the guilt falling off you. You're fine. I didn't mean to snap at you."
"No, it's not ok," Vio responded, "I'm putting you and Shelda through all this pain, with no progression. I'm missing something, and because of it, we're sitting ducks here. We can't look for Green and Blue to make sure they're ok because I can't get this right.-"
"Whoa whoa whoa," Shadow quickly piped in, sitting up and grabbing Vio's hand to gain his attention, "Who said this is your fault? You're just doing your best to help us! If anyone's at fault it's those bastards who attacked us." Shadow noticed how Vio just simply nodded, not truly believing him. He opened his mouth to say more, but the pain in his chest spiked, causing Shadow to gasp in pain as one of his hands flew to his chest, suddenly winded as the pain burned. Immediately both Vio and Shelda were beside him, the latter pulling herself up on the bed. It took Shadow a moment to get his bearings back, but once he did he was aware that he was clenching Vio's hand. Taking a deep breath, he slowly let go, as the other two started asking questions,
"Shadow, what's wrong?"
"Hey, you ok?" Nodding, Shadow gently rubbed where the pain was centering from.
"Yeah," he whispered, still getting his breath back, "just had a spike in my chest." At that, suddenly Shelda was taking his hand to grab his attention,
"Shad, I'm worried," she said, causing Shadow and Vio to look at her in confusion,
"Why?" Shadow asked, "It's just a spike, we've been having them for the last two days."
"That's what worries me," She said seriously, "I'm not having pains in my chest. I didn't have a spike with you just now." Shadow exchanged a concerned look with Vio as he thought about it. Since the mirror broke, the spikes had been irregular, but they would have them together. At that, Shelda took the hand that wasn't holding Shadow's and pressed it against his forehead,
"And I don't have as bad of a fever as you…"
"Why do you think this is happening?" Vio asked as the door opened to Red carefully balancing a tray of food on his good arm.
"I don't know.." Shelda trailed off as she went into thought. Red approached the bed, setting the tray between them. As the others grabbed some food, Shadow didn't feel hungry as dread set in his stomach, realizing that something was wrong. Subconsciously rubbing his chest, Shadow glanced out the window as a thought crossed his mind;
"I think I know why." Looking back at Shelda, the purple-haired boy carefully dropped his knees to sit cross-legged, and gently point to his chest,
"My weak spot," he explained, "It's right where the pain is coming from."
"Weak spot?" Vio asked,
"What's that?" asked Red, and suddenly, Shadow felt like he was drenched in ice-cold water at the realization that Blue was the only one out of his brothers that knew about his weak spot. A sudden silence fell on them as all Shadow could hear was a loud ringing in his ear. A rush of thoughts ran through his mind. If he had to explain his weak spot, he'll have to explain how it happened, and then they might ask to see it, and if they ask to see it, they'll see the blisters, and will ask about those, and goddesses above he did not want to think about where those came from again! Shadow was vaguely aware of his breathing starting to become irregular,
'You're going to have a panic attack,' a small voice in his head said, but Shadow couldn't do anything about it. The thought of the others seeing his scars and telling them about it and having to think about it caused him to spiral into hyperventilating. He couldn't see Malon's room anymore, as it morphed into dark bricks; the sunlight fading away leaving the unnatural darkness he used to be so familiar with. He was suddenly hyper-aware of all of his scars, his wrists going tight as shackles wrapped around them. Shadow couldn't contain the whimper that escaped him as he wanted out. He needed to get out. All his mind could think now was to get out of here, get out of here getoutofhere-
And then there was something grabbing him, grabbing his arm, his blistered arm, just like they use to, and his legs. The flight screaming in his mind suddenly pitched, and with a scream, Shadow lashed out. He felt his arm smack against something, and the heel of his foot hit another. Once it did, he was released. Taking advantage, Shadow pushed himself away from whatever was grabbing at him towards the opposite wall. As he backed up against the wall, the floor beneath him gave out, and he fell. The jolt of falling took the prison away in a flash, and Shadow found his butt stuck between the mattress and wall in Malon's room. Tense and breathing in hard puffs, Shadow looked between the three that stood at the other end of the bed. Vio was cradling the right side of his face, Red seemed to be crying behind him, and Shelda looked like she had scrambled off the bed, a red mark on her forehead and her arm sticking out as if to prevent the other two from approaching. Afraid to move, Shadow continued to stare at the three, who all seemed to be holding their breath waiting for something. After a few moments of nothing happening it was Shelda that spoke first with her voice so soft and gentle, Shadow didn't think he ever remembered her talking like that before, but a small voice in his head told him he did,
"Shadow," she said as she slowly climbed back on the bed towards him, "can you hear me?" Shadow had to think for a second as to why she was asking, before nodding, subconsciously watching her every move like a hawk. She nodded in response,
"Ok," she said, "I want you to listen to me, ok?" She stopped moving closer, and a small part of Shadow's mind noted that she was staying clear of his legs. Still struggling to breathe, Shadow gave a nod,
"You're having a panic attack, and I need to help you calm down." Calm down? True, he didn't exactly feel calm, but he didn't think he was panicking either. Deciding to humor his friend, he gave another nod. At that, Vio turned and whispered something to Red, who gave a nod and more or less bolted out of the room, leaving the door open. Something in him told him to get out get out getout, but he knew he was stuck where he was from both the two in front of him and his butt wedged between the bed and wall.
"He went to go get something that will help." Vio explained in his own soft, soothing voice. A part of him calmed at that, while another seemed to panic even more at the thought. Before his mind could spiral into what Red could be getting, Shelda spoke again,
"Can you talk?" Shadow nodded out of reflex, but realized what she said and responded in a whisper,
"Yeah." With a nod, she spoke again,
"Ok, can you tell me some things you can see?" not thinking he said,
"You."
"Ok," she said with a chuckle, "Anything else?" Shadow looked around the room, quietly naming things he saw,
"Um… Vio.. the bed.. A dresser.. The door.. Red.." He added the last one as Red himself entered, his hands cupping something between them. Confusion hit Shadow as he watched his brother walk over to Shelda and open his hand, revealing ice cubes slowly melting in the palm of his hands. After Red whispered a few words to her, Shelda gently took one and offered it to Shadow, making him more confused as she said,
"Can you take this and let it sit in your mouth?" hesitant, Shadow carefully reached out for the ice cube and did as Shelda asked and took it, placing it in his mouth to let it sit between the roof of his mouth and tongue. As he sat there with the ice cube in his mouth, the cold of it seemed to flow through his whole body and make his overthinking mind stop for a moment. Deciding that to just focus on the sheer cold the ice cube gave him helped his uneven breathing and rapid heart, Shadow gladly accepted a second one when it was handed to him. By the time he was almost down with the third, his breathing was almost back to regular and his heart didn't feel like it was beating out of his chest. When the fourth one was in his mouth, his shoulders were relaxed, his breathing was even, and his mind wasn't racing anymore. Swallowing the last of the ice cube, Shadow looked up and realized everyone was watching him, concerned in their eyes. Finally, after a moment of silence, Shelda's soft voice spoke up,
"Are you feeling better?" a nod was Shadow's answer, thinking back on what happened and feeling shame wash over him.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled, "I didn't mean to freak out like that."
"It's ok," Vio said, his voice low to an almost whisper, "Do you want us to help you out?" remembering where he was, and losing feeling in his legs, Shadow nodded, reaching out for both Vio and Shelda. However, something grabbed his attention as they both took an arm; in the shuffle, his sleeves rode up, showing the red, angry scars from his shackles. Shelda didn't seem to notice or care, but Shadow saw the way Vio and Red glanced at them, surprise and concern all over their faces. Once he was fully back on the bed, Shadow quickly ripped his arms out of his friend's grip to pull the sleeves down, not daring to look at any of them. His heart was racing again, and he didn't know what to do, what to say.
"Why was this so much easier with Blue?" He couldn't help but think as he sat in the middle of the bed, holding both his arms close to his still hurting chest. As they sat in silence for a moment, Shadow heard Vio make a sound like he was getting ready to say something, but a sudden spike of pain had both shadowlings gasping in pain and curling in on themselves. Trembling, Shadow felt as someone sat on the bed and gently draped his blanket back over his shoulders. Suddenly realizing how cold he was, and still self-conscious about his arms, Shadow took the ends of the blanket and wrapped it tightly around him, and pulled his knees back up against his chest. As the pain subsided, Shadow suddenly felt exhaustion wash over his body. His brothers must have noticed, because it didn't take them long to gently coax him to lay down, and draped the blanket over him; Red taking the extra time to tuck it in around him to create a warm cocoon. Mumbling a quiet thanks, Shadow nuzzled deeper into the pillow, relaxing at the feeling of someone raking their fingers through his hair. It didn't take long for the boy to fall into a deep, dreamless slumber.
)*()*()*(
Vio sat there and gently combed his fingers through Shadow's hair, watching as his brother's face slowly relaxed, and finally, he seemed to fall asleep. Pausing in his combing for a moment to make sure stopping wouldn't wake him, the purple-clothed boy looked up at Shelda, who still sat at the end of the bed, slight tremors rolling off her.
"Shelda," he said in a whisper, "what happened back there?" his cheek still stung from when Shadow more or less used his arm as a club to whack it against Vio's face earlier. A sigh escaped her before she answered, the spot on her forehead where Shadow had kicked her an ugly red now,
"It's a long story. I didn't know that it was this bad."
"What is this bad?" Vio stressed, the sight of seeing Shadow's wrists worrying him. Another sigh escaped her,
"Maybe it'd be best if we left him to rest and talked in another room," Red suggested beside him. Thinking about it, Vio nodded in agreement and as quietly as possible, the three made their way out of the room, Red helping Shelda and she shook with each step. The house was silent, indicating Talon and Malon were outside working. That was good because it allowed them to sit in the living room that sat with the front door adjoined to it and talk without outside ears listening in.
"Look," started Shelda as she settled into one of the armchairs, "I don't know the exact details of what happened, I've just heard bits and pieces." Listening intently, Vio nodded, him and Red sitting on a small sofa beside her, silently asking her to continue. Brushing the hair out of her face, Shelda took a deep breath and spoke,
"When Shadow returned to the Dark Realm, he was immediately put on trial for treason against his kind. I wasn't there, but from what I heard, he very clearly claimed guilty, saying he wasn't one of them." Vio couldn't help but be surprised at that, and wanted to ask more, but kept his mouth shut as Shelda continued,
"Since he was found guilty, Twinrova themselves pulled his dark magic from him as part of his punishment. I was told they did it with…. Unnecessary equipment."
"What do you mean?" Vio couldn't help but ask her.
"There are multiple ways to extract a dark one's magic," Shelda explained with a sigh, rubbing the red spot on her head, "The stronger they are, the more extreme the measures have to be, but most imp's magic can be extracted with a simple spell from a stronger dark being." Looking both boys in the eyes, her tone turned more sorrowful than educational, "However, no matter how the magic is extracted, it still affects the dark being in both physical and mental ways. If it was just a simple spell, it'd be easier to move on from it. But Shadow…." She trailed off, and Vio gave her some time to continue, but when she didn't, he had to ask,
"What methods did they use?" She didn't say anything for another moment, and Vio could feel dread wash over him the more the silence dragged on. At some point, Red grabbed onto his hand, and he gave a light squeeze back not letting go. After another moment, she sighed and explained,
"They… summoned an entity that was made of pure magic, and allowed it to take Shadow's magic for itself by… plunging its sword into his chest."
"WHAT?!" Vio couldn't help shouting, sitting up even straighter than before if that was possible. Shelda was quick to shush him, and once he felt a tight squeeze of his hand, he glanced over to Red to see he was crying again. Wrapping one arm around him, Vio continued to hold his hand with his other one as he spoke again,
"So you're saying Shadow was stabbed to extract his magic?!" Red let out a whimper at that, to which Vio rubbed his arm, trying to comfort his brother while still getting answers from Shelda,
"From what I heard, yes," Shelda said sadly.
They all sat in silence as Vio and Red processed what exactly Shelda told them, and after a bit, she spoke again,
"That's what he was talking about earlier; his weak spot. Because they used those methods to extract his magic, it left physical damage to his body. I'm not an expert with magic extraction, but his trial was talked about a lot in the castle. They were saying since he had a physical scar, it left a part on his body that even the strongest magic couldn't hold on to. But, at the same time, it also left a door open for the magic to openly enter and leave his body." Vio's mind was slowly putting the dots together as he went over what she said, as Shelda herself put her hands in her hair, mumbling, "Why didn't I realize it sooner?"
"It's not your fault," Vio piped up, "Not even Shadow himself realized it until now."
"What does it mean?" Red asked, looking between Shelda and Vio for an explanation. Sighing, Vio explained,
"From how I'm understanding it, because of both the damaged mirror and Shadow's weak spot, magic isn't able to flow and stay in his body. Which makes it even harder for any remaining magic in the mirror to do what it's supposed to for his body." turning to Red, he added, "It's like giving someone blood when they have an open wound that's bleeding."
"So he'll get worse the longer the mirror is broken?" Red asked timidly.
"We both will," Shelda answered, "But he will get worse faster than me." Vio knew Red understood the gravity of the situation as he nodded, but Vio still didn't understand something,
"You said he was affected both physically and mentally. Is that why he had a panic attack back there? Because he remembered it was there?"
"Not exactly…" Shelda trailed off, resting her hands in her lap, "I think the main thing that caused that was because he forgot you guys were there."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't think he was thinking of the weak spot until you guys said something. When he first mentioned it, it was kind of nonchalant, as if he had forgotten just why he had it, and how he got it.-"
"It wasn't until we asked about it that he remembered." Vio said, realizing that was the exact moment his brother seemed to start spiraling into a panic attack.
"Yeah, exactly."
"But what about the scars on his wrists? Why did he not want us to see those?" Vio couldn't help but ask, remembering how Shadow seemed to withdraw from them once he realized they saw them. At his question, Shelda's eyes seemed to darken in sadness, meeting his eyes, she asked in a broken whisper,
"What do you think?" with that question, Vio sat back and thought about it, and felt even more dread as he quickly realized why;
"It's because those were also part of his punishment." Looking back at Shelda, he could tell he was right, and couldn't help the tears rolling down his cheeks.
"What do you mean?" Asked Red, "What else happened?" Vio watched as Shelda sighed, wiping a couple of tears from her eyes and avoiding their stares.
"Again, I don't know the detail." She stated, "All I know is that when his power was stripped, they decided to join him to the Prison Mirror, and after he was taken to his cell, Twinrova publicly announced that anyone was allowed down in his cell and, 'do what they please.'" Vio felt sick at that thought, imagining all the things they could have done to his brother. Suddenly his experience didn't seem so bad.
"That's how I met him, actually." Shelda continued, her voice going soft as she recounted the events, "I was the only one who could tolerate Vaati with his temper. He calmed down after realizing I really didn't give a fuck, and started telling me bout stuff. Including Shadow. Curious, I went to see him. I still don't know why I did, but he just…. Piqued my interest. He was already in bad shape when I met him, and that was only a day or two after his trial. He was already expecting me to beat him, but I surprised us both and just sat there and talked with him." Vio was surprised and curious about the story. Shelda chuckled before continuing,
"After that, I would go down there and just talk with him. We both enjoyed the company, even though he was a little on the rough side. He told me everything he knew about the Light Realm. Including you guys. It may seem creepy, but I would use my dark mirror to peek in on Link a couple of times and let him know how yall were doing. And then Twinrova assigned me to assassinate Link." She paused at that, obviously lost in thought as Vio sat there, Red curled up beside him, both listening intently to the story.
"I didn't know what to think at first," she continued, "but after talking with Shadow, and thinking about it a bit myself, I realized that I didn't want to be a part of what they wanted. It…. Wasn't me." She turned to make eye contact with them before adding,
"This though, this is me." Vio nodded in agreement as the room fell into silence. Vio couldn't help but think over everything he was told about his brother. He was worried about how he was doing now, especially with the knowledge that his health was declining faster than it should be. Taking a deep breath, Vio carefully untangled himself from Red as he spoke up,
"I'm gonna go poke my head in on Shadow, see if he's still asleep." At that, he walked back to the room and peeked in, carefully opening the door enough to see in. As the light streamed in, Vio immediately saw the purple bush that was Shadow's hair, which was the only thing that could be seen from the lump in the blanket. Vio watched for a bit, debating whether or not to go in and fully check on him or not. As he stood there, a sudden commotion from the other room drew his attention. Closing the door, Vio hurriedly made his way back to the living room. Coming around the corner, he was immediately welcomed to the sight of Blue in the doorway, with Green right behind him. Rushing forward, Vio could immediately tell that Blue was injured as Red came and supported his brother as he strongly limped into the house.
"Are you two ok?" He asked as he came up to Blue's right side, ready to help the boy. Immediately noticing Vios attempt to grab his right arm, Blue leaned more into Red, quick to speak up,
"Injured arm! Don't touch it!" Vio immediately stopped and now noticed the odd way his shoulder sat. As soon as Shelda approached him, she was ushering Red to take Blue into the room. Taking a glance at Green, who seemed fine, he quickly followed them as they entered the room. He watched as Shelda quickly went into the room and picked up the mirror from the floor and set it on the nightstand. Vio kept an eye on Shadow's form as they settled Blue into a chair in the opposite corner of the room. As Red got him seated, Green spoke up,
"As we fought the dark knights, I snapped at some point and ended up taking us both over the edge of a gorge. He took the brunt of the fall and has a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist, and a broken leg. I think he has some damaged ribs too." Red repeated what Green said to Shelda as said wolf continued talking to Vio,
"He didn't wake up from the fall until early this morning before the rain started. We were able to get out of the gorge before the rain fully hit. Obviously, it took us some time to get here. Sorry, we're late." Vio gave a small chuckle at the apology,
"Don't worry about it."
"Hey, Vio?" Shelda called to him, "can I get a hand real quick?" Nodding, Vio came over to them where Blue sat on the chair, his head leaning against the back as he let out a groan of pain. Shelda and Red stood at his right side, obviously trying to position themselves to relocate his shoulder.
"Alright, what can I do?" He asked as he came up beside Shelda, gently patting Blue's left shoulder, earning a grunt of acknowledgment from his brother.
"I need you to keep the shoulder braced while Red and I align the socket." Blue let out another groan as Vio carefully grasped his shoulder, being sure to keep it still while Red and Shelda gently grabbed his upper arm and slowly raised his arm. Vio noticed how Blue's face contorted in pain as they moved his arm.
"Alright," Shelda mumbled, "On the count of three. One. Two. Three!" With that, Shelda and Red pushed his arm against the shoulder, and a loud pop was heard.
"SON OF A BITCH" Blue shouted at the top of his lungs immediately as the shoulder popped back into place. Taking his now relocated arm, Blue cradled it against his chest continuing to mumble profanities. Catching movement from the bed, Vio looked over to see Shadow, now awake, sitting half up in the bed, a startled, fearful look on his face. Remembering seeing that look before, Vio was quick to go to his side and crouched beside him placing a hand on the bed in front of Shadow.
"Hey," He said softly, Shadow locking his wide eyes to Vio's, "It's ok, Blue and Green showed up. Had to relocate Blue's shoulder." He could see Shadow was still breathing heavily but seemed to relax a bit at the explanation. Taking caution to make sure he was ok with it, Vio gently placed his hand on Shadow's shoulder, and once he was sure Shadow was ok with it he started massaging his shoulder.
"How are you feeling?" He asked
"FUCKING SHIT!" Blue screamed and continued shouting profanities while Shelda set his leg. "Are you still having pains in your chest?" Vio watched as Shadow looked over to Blue for a moment, before processing what Vio said and looked back, rubbing his face as he seemed to dip further into the bed,
"Yeah, yeah. Still, um, still got that pain." A sigh escaped Shadow as Vio watched him plop back into the bed with a thump. Vio moved his hand from Shadow's shoulder to his head, gently combing his hair.
"Did you wanna go back to sleep?" A nod was his answer so Vio continued combing his hair, hoping that will help as it did last time. After a bit, Vio felt Shadow start to relax again, but right as he thought Shadow was going to fall asleep, Blue shouted in pain again,
"FUCK!" And the shout caused Shadow to bolt up again, that fear in his eyes again as he looked over to the others to see it was just Blue getting his wrist braced and not anything else. Vio cursed under his breath as he got up and sat on the edge of the bed, nudging Shadow to fully sit up too.
"Might as well wait till he gets settled," Vio said apologetically, nodding his head towards Blue. Shadow nodded to that, and sat on the edge of the bed, wrapping the blanket around himself. They sat in silence as they both watched Shelda and Red working together to patch up the blue-clothed boy.
"Do you know what happened?" Vio suddenly heard Shadow ask. Turning to look at his brother, he could see the uncertainty in his eyes.
"Green snapped while they were fighting off the dark knights," Vio explained, "Chased both of them into a gorge. That's where mostly all of his injuries came from." A nod was the shadowling's response as they continued to watch from the sidelines. Taking a moment to do a quick one-over on Shadow, he could see the boy wasn't doing very well; the tremors have worsen, and dark circles were starting to hang from his eyes as sweat clamped to his skin. Taking his hand, Vio gently placed it against his brother's forehead, immediately greeted with unnatural warmth.
"Your fever went up.." Vio mumbled, his eyebrows furrowed with worry, "I'm gonna try and find a basin of water, maybe we can bring it down a bit." Shadow nodded in acknowledgment, his eyes half-lidded as he tried to stay awake.
"If you need to lie down, do so." Vio commanded as he got up, "I don't want you pushing yourself." Another nod from him, and immediately Shadow moved to lay on the bed, facing the room as he continued to watch Blue. Vio gave one last comb through his hair in hesitation to leave the boy before leaving the room, heading for the kitchen. Soft footsteps following him had Vio glance behind him to see Green following behind.
"How has your neck of the woods been?" the wolf asked as they entered the kitchen. Vio sighed, not knowing where to start.
"We've hit a dead end with the mirror." He grabbed a couple of rags, placing them on the table before pulling out a chair and sitting down.
"And…. we're getting really worried bout Shadow."
"How so?"
"He's…" Vio hesitated, not sure just how much he could relay right now. As he tried to think of how to start, everything came rushing back, and Vio felt his walls give as he realized just how bad things were now. Between his own injuries and lung problems, they now had their two shadowlings out of commission with no knowledge on how to fix it, one of them is in no state to battle with broken bones in multiple places, and then the realization that one of his brothers, his best friend was showing obvious signs of trauma, and there was no way he can help. All at once, everything hit Vio like a bag of bricks, and he felt helpless. Because even though he was the most knowledgeable one in the group, there was nothing he could do.
"..Not good." And with that thought, Vio broke into tears, a soft sob escaping his mouth as all he could think of was those scared crimson eyes staring at him, all light in them gone. He felt Green rest his head on Vio's lap, and the boy quickly grabbed the excess hair around his brother's neck and curled up around him as another sob shook him to the core.
Vio had never felt so useless in his life. There were a million things he could think of to help, but he knew that at that moment; curled up around his brother as he sobbed in the kitchen, there was nothing he could do.
And that broke him.
…. So you guys might not believe it, but a majority of this chapter was planned at the very start.
Mostly the Shadow hints at PTSD and Vio coming to the realization that they are fucked in trying to help with this. And they're also fucked because *clap* *jazz hands* no one is ok!
So two things; one, I just wanna clarify that I have no personal experience with PTSD, and have, what my therapist calls, 'uncommon panic attacks', which mostly means instead of your typical symptoms, I more or less just shut down and go mute. I can still go on with my day, just can't talk or think a lot. So this means I'm not personally familiar with how common panic attacks are, but I do know that the ice cube trick is a universal help towards panic attacks!
And two; soon ill be giving green his human foam (not sure how soon though) and I am torn. Should I leave him as a normal human boy, or really take the jump to four sword/twilight princess and allow him to change in between foams? Cuz I do have an idea for magic mumbo-jumbo to make that possible…. Lemme know!
And with that my dudes, I bid you all a good day/night!
TELLER OUT!