Desperate Escape
(Revised slightly.)Gojyo dashed across the grass, cursing their seemingly infinite bad luck—it always doomed them to fighting annoyingly large number of Youkai. Barreling through the broken door, he cast a panicked glance around the room for the wayward sutra. Dammit, if only I'd paid more attention to where I was throwing his clothes…. The kappa's thoughts were interrupted by a low gurgle behind him and he turned just in time to witness a particularly large-mouthed demon sailing straight at his face. His reflexes were good enough to save his face, but it sank its teeth into the hand he blocked it with instead. Snarling in pain, Gojyo dropped Shaku Jou and tried to shake the creature off. It refused to budge and only sunk its fangs deeper into his palm, tearing at the flesh. Frustrated and pressed for time, he whipped his hand into the bedpost followed by a crack as the demon's jaw went slack. Gojyo flung it aside in disgust and knelt next to the bed, peering under it in hopes the sutra would be there. Reaching underneath, the redhead stretched his arms as far as he could, but the thing kept rolling away from him. A cautious glance behind him told the kappa that the demons had infiltrated the cabin and were proceeding to slowly surround him, attracted by the blood of their fallen comrade.
"Shit…." Gojyo wriggled the rest of the way under the bed and closed the fingers of his good hand about the elusive sutra. Forcing his injured hand around the scroll, he snatched up his weapon and plowed a way to the door through the crowd of demons.
Outside,
the priest was still standing, blood pouring out of the bite on his neck. It wasn't a deep wound, but very messy
nonetheless. Wearing down slowly from
lack of sleep and draining adrenaline, Sanzo cursed the kappa silently for not
moving faster than he was. The stick he
was using to smash the lesser demons was broken into a short club now and it
was becoming increasingly difficult to hold on to, as it was slick with
blood. For every creature the priest
killed two more appeared in its stead, creating a steady stream of the
things. Thankfully, quite a few of them
were preoccupied with the corpse under the tree and fighting or eating each
other. Sanzo was tempted to go after
the kappa, curious and irritated at what was taking him so long to find the
sutra, but they would have both ended up trapped and surrounded by the demons
that way. After a few more nasty bites
he shouted toward the cabin, "What the fuck is taking you so long?! Goddamned kappa!"
Turning, the priest saw Gojyo running out of the cabin with the bloodied sutra in his hand. As he did so, he took his eyes off the demon he had been about to crush with the branch and it leapt at his face, raking miniscule claws across one side. Lucky for Sanzo, he had turned in that moment or else the demon would have taken out both his eyes. Instead, it left several long scratches across one eyelid. "Agh…." The priest clutched a hand over the gashes, dirt from his hand making them sting.
"Sanzo!" Gojyo cursed vehemently for not being fast enough. When he finally made it to the priest's side, the damage had already been done. "Here, here—use it, dammit!" he said, shoving the stained sutra at Sanzo.
Grabbing the sutra, the priest began chanting quickly, letting the ribbons of the script snake out over the seemingly endless mass of lesser demons. It was a sloppy spell, but effective judging from the way the creatures dropped dead, but they contorted in odd ways as they did so. When all movement had stopped on the battlefield Sanzo quit chanting, not bothering to recall the sutra to its neat roll. He sat down heavily amidst the little corpses, holding a hand over the stinging scratches on his face and breathing hard.
Gojyo opened his eyes, having snapped them shut as the sutra burst forth. The eerie, glowing scroll had always given him the creeps whenever it unfolded and caused massive death and destruction. An uncomfortable silence had settled over the expanse, and Gojyo sighed and leaned on his weapon. "Holy shit."
The priest didn't respond, attempting to catch his breath. He was thoroughly exhausted now and wished yet again that they were in a town with a nice hotel, not in the middle of nowhere surrounded by small, seizured corpses. Every limb seemed to throb, sting, bleed, or any combination of those three. The bodies were still twitching, even those that were in pieces. Gojyo turned his gaze away from a convulsing, headless torso, thoroughly sickened. He looked down at Sanzo, assessing the collection of oozing gashes and scrapes on the priest's body. His own left hand was mangled brutally, although Gojyo was sure not beyond repair, provided they got to civilization soon. Glancing down again at Sanzo and out at the dark terrain, the redhead came to a decision. "Let's get out of here. I can't take anymore of this weird crap." He offered his good hand to the priest.
Sanzo didn't notice the hand at first, a little dazed from the culmination of the night's events. He was so tired that everything seemed but a painful blur. Reaching up, he grabbed Gojyo's hand and started to slowly pull himself up, removing his other hand from his eye to gain some leverage. Eventually, Sanzo was standing shakily next to the kappa, although he couldn't put much weight on the leg that had been bitten. "…And where…do you propose we go? It's still dark."
Gojyo frowned at the way the priest favored one of his legs. "I'm not sure…. I know I don't want to stay here and we could both use a bit of patching up. I can see pretty well in the dark, but…" the kappa's frown deepened as he considered Sanzo's leg and the weary look on the blonde's face, "you have to let me carry you."
"No. Just no," Sanzo said matter-of-factly. With a sour look and a stubborn sense of dignity overpowering the pain, he limped forward and recalled the sutra to its roll. Looking back to see if the kappa was following him, Sanzo continued hobbling in the direction they had originally come. It was hell to walk, but the priest grit his teeth and kept moving, determined to not let his ego be cut down to size by a mere half-breed.
Gojyo raised a red eyebrow, watching the priest limp around like an old man with arthritis. It made him angry when Sanzo did things like this—was it wrong to accept a little help once in a while? Grinding his teeth, the kappa ran after what he had now deemed the 'high and mighty mule'. "Get over here, goddammit!"
Ignoring the kappa completely, Sanzo tried to stumble along as if nothing was wrong, but that venture was quickly losing momentum. A few more steps and the priest tripped over a dip in the ground and his leg decided to give out at that moment. "Ah, fuck…." Sanzo sat clutching his leg where fresh blood started to stain his robes. Gojyo slowed to a stop beside the grounded priest. An expression of frustrated anger crossed his face as he knelt down beside his companion.
"You damn monk—stop being a colossal pain in the ass and get the hell on my back." Leaning forward insistently, he offered his neck for Sanzo to climb on. He was just about ready to drag Sanzo by his toes if he refused this time. It appeared that this would be the case—he was glaring resolutely despite the pain in his leg. The priest tried to get his feet under him enough to stand, but couldn't manage it a second time. With a disapproving grunt, he slipped his arms around Gojyo's neck, pushing himself forward with his good leg to lean in close.
"I think you're mistaken about who's the asshole here…" Sanzo muttered.
The kappa laughed mirthlessly, standing once he was sure the priest had a good grip. "Oh, so I'm an asshole for carting your bony carcass around now? You should be thanking me," he snickered, not really expecting such, but bringing it up just to further annoy the blond, to which he received a light swat on the head. Sanzo nearly lost his balanced and tumbled off backward for that.
Grabbing the front of Gojyo's shirt to steady himself, he responded with a growl, "Just walk, kappa." The priest kept a tighter grip around Gojyo's neck after that, as an assurance he wouldn't end up breaking his neck on the rocks beneath their feet. The kappa's injured hand dripped a steady stream of blood onto his leg, soaking through the robe and mingling with this own and that of the demons.
"…You should wrap up that hand. It's bleeding really badly." Sanzo peered down through the dark at the bloody hand on this leg. He felt more than saw the blood trickle down his leg. The priest's own cuts had mostly stopped for the time being, save for the one on his leg and the one on his neck. He received an indignant sniff in reply, a verbal shrug considering that Gojyo's shoulders were currently occupied.
"It's not bothering me." In reality, the kappa's fingers had gone numb a while ago, the white wraps around his forearm soaked through with blood.
" 'Ch, fool…. Here—" Sanzo let go of Gojyo's neck and slid down off his back. He landed a little too heavily on his injured leg, but managed to stay upright this time. The priest snatched up his hand roughly and tried to examine it through the dark with only one eye. Consequently, this didn't work very well, but he could at least tell how badly it was bleeding. The kappa had opened his mouth to protest, but Sanzo was already working on it. Turning to face the priest with a stern expression was quickly replaced with a soft whimper as Sanzo nicked a raw spot with this fingernail. After prodding the hand a bit more, Sanzo leaned down and tore a strip off the edge of his robe. It was fairly dirty, but better than leaving a wound like that in the open air. The priest wasn't exactly very practiced at this sort of thing, but he tied it up the best he could.
"There. That should hold until we get to the next town."
Gojyo winced at every tug of the fabric, resorting to biting his lip toward the end of the administration. He hadn't expected such a gesture from the normally callous priest, though he suspected Sanzo needed to keep him alive if only for a makeshift donkey. "Thanks," he said with a grin and a wink, both of which were lost to the priest's considerably depleted vision, or else Gojyo may have gotten a good smack for it. Encircling his neck again with his arms, Sanzo clambered back onto the kappa's back. Gojyo decided he defiantly liked the feel of the priest's arms willingly around his neck, although it was a crying shame it had to be under these circumstances. If Sanzo had not been so roughed up, he might have let his thoughts about the blonde's body pressed up against his to wander in the wrong direction, but as it were, Gojyo thought about shelter and food instead.
The steady, plodding pace eventually started to make the priest drowsier than he would have like to be. They hadn't said very much to each other since the quick stop to wrap the kappa's hand. It wasn't too terribly uncomfortable leaning against Gojyo's back, despite his spine digging into Sanzo's chest. The redhead's body heat was rather relaxing and he dozed off, making sure to keep a tight grip. The kappa kept moving until walking became more of a mindless endeavor than anything else. So far there had been not trace or indication of a town—just trees and grass bending toward the horizon line he could barely make out in the dark. His eyes, however, were good for spotting rocks or protruding roots so he could easily avoid losing his passenger. Soon though, Gojyo's muscles began complaining in the form of a dull ache.
Sanzo gradually fell deeply asleep and wasn't likely to wake up for anything. The blood loss and exhaustion had finally gotten the better of him, though he would have rather faced the whole pack of lesser demons by himself again than admit his High-and-Mighty self fell asleep on Gojyo's back like a child. As for the kappa, his footsteps got heavier and more lethargic as time passed. He felt very much like a dumb beast of burden on an endless trek; there was no room to think about anything else besides walking or else me might just collapse. The time came when his legs just wouldn't support them both any longer. Gojyo's cheek was on the grass, but he didn't remember kneeling down…. Blurry balls of light were extinguished in the kappa's vision as Gojyo felt his eyelids fall closed.