Chapter 3
Sol was re-splinting Ky's leg when he woke up. The blond Knight opened one eye, caught sight of Sol, groaned, and shut it again. Sol grinned. The kiss must have affected him then.
Finally Ky's curiosity seemed to get the better of him and he opened his eyes fully. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Re-splinting your leg," Sol replied, cinching the last buckle. "There. I used one of the branches from the trees here so that you can have your scabbard free." He indicated Ky's sword sheath, which was now reattached at his side.
Ky blinked at it for a few moments. "Thank you," he said eventually. Sol smiled and stood up, extending a hand to help him. To no great surprise, Ky shunned the hand in favor of using the tree trunk to hoist himself upright.
"I have another gift for you," said Sol.
Ky looked at him suspiciously. "Oh yeah? And what's that?"
Sol grinned and reached behind the tree trunk. With a small flourish he produced a tall stick with a small "V" at the top. "Tah-dah!" he said as he presented it to Ky. "It's a crutch. As much as I would like to have you lean on my shoulder, I know that you're not going to. But you would be much too slow on your own, so I found this for you. Try it out."
Ky accepted the crutch and gingerly took a few steps around their clearing with it. "Seems good," he said. "Thanks. That was... umm... nice of you."
Sol smiled. "Come on then. Let's get going. The sooner we get you back to the hospital, the sooner you can get healed, and the sooner I can kill you."
With that he strode out of the forest toward the clear edge of the canyon, and began following it in the same direction they had been traveling the day before with the forest to his left. Behind him, he heard Ky struggling to catch up.
"Why do you want to kill me so much anyway?" Ky asked when he reached him. "I mean, I understand that I've been trying to capture you for a long time but that hardly merits the kind of hatred you seem to have for me. Is it something with the Knights? Something that happened before you joined? I know that you knew the old leader somehow."
Sol shook his head. "You wouldn't understand it Sparky. I chase you because, well, what else is there?"
"Excuse me?" Ky sounded genuinely confused. "What are you talking about? You have plenty to live for. I mean, you've done some bad things, but it's not like you can't redeem-"
"That's not what I meant!" Sol interrupted. He quickened his pace, making it harder for Ky to keep up. "You don't get it Kiske. It's not what I've done that matters. It's what I have left to do. You couldn't understand. You have the Knights, your job. People count on you. You have your beliefs. God. Hell, you even have me. A mission, I guess. What do I have? Nothing. Nothing except you. The only thing left for me is chasing you. I have no other purpose. That's why I hate you. Why I have to kill you."
Ky fell silent. Sol didn't turn around, but he could imagine the look of shock on the Knight's young-looking face. He shook his head. He probably shouldn't have told Ky that. No use getting so dark. Lightning-boy might actually start to take him seriously. He applied a well-chosen change of subject.
"Hey Kiske, are you a virgin?"
Ky's incoherent sputtering gave him no end of amusement. "That's none of your business," came the eventual reply.
"Oh, you are! Haha!" Sol finally allowed himself to glance over his shoulder. Ky's face was beet red, and he looked as though he'd like to go hide under a rock somewhere.
"I'm surprised, Kiske," Sol teased. "Very few people are still virgins at your age. What's wrong? You have some sort of defect or something?"
"No!" said Ky defensively. "And I really don't feel like taking this sort of abuse from someone who probably lost their virginity at age ten!"
"Twelve," corrected Sol smoothly.
Ky rolled his eyes. Sol had slowed down enough to allow him to catch up, and they were now walking side by side. "Oh excuse me. And how old was the girl, pray tell?"
"Guy," said Sol, "and seventeen." He grinned at Ky's obvious discomfort. "What's wrong, run out of snappy comebacks?"
Ky snorted. "Forgive me if I do not wish to banter about your sexual prowess."
"Well why not?" asked Sol. "It's not like we can banter about your sexual prowess, now is it?"
Ky turned red again, but wisely did not say anything.
Oh God, that was hideous. Take me back.
or
Oh God, that was hideous. Let me complain to the author.