(I, unfortunately, own nothing. Not FFVII, not any of the characters. But some day, oh yes, some day…)
Perfect One-Winged Angel
Chapter 2: A New Beginning…
"Wake up, One Winged Angel."
"What? Who is that?" coughs out the silver-haired figure.
"Calm down and drink this," says a voice above him, soft and feminine, a voice that reverberates with the calm sound of someone who has seen the world and decided to work smaller. She presses the edge of a cup lightly up against his cracked lips "You walked for almost two days straight, and you passed up a village that could have helped you. Then again, you may not have enjoyed their welcome."
He tries to open his eyes to examine the owner of the soothing voice, but realizes he can't open his eyes to look at her and begins to move his arms in panic. He soon discovers the ignorance of his action as every tiny ache he had felt returns with a vengeance, and his eyes roll back in their sockets with the wave of pain that crashes over him.
"Hurts?" says the young woman, and she is indeed young, he realizes, because of the way a slight giggle seems to infuse her question. "It would have to, even for you. Just try not to worry. Lie still and I'll try to take some of it away." She lays her hands on him and a strange tingle begins to flow through his body, easing the agony that had wracked his body.
"But…" he says in a hoarse voice, issuing forth from a battered throat. "My eyes…"
"Your eyes are just fine. When you collapsed, you hit your head and some blood dried over your eyelids. I'll take care of that after some of the more…" again the hint of a giggle, or perhaps a grin, alters her voice. "Pressing issues. Unless, of course, you would rather I cleared your eyes before I finished healing your chest?"
"No…" he says, feeling slightly ashamed by his panic. The tingling becomes more localized, and he can feel as the pain he has is gradually burned away by the combination of hot and cold. He laid still for a while, and then opened his mouth to ask another question. "Why did you help me?"
"I happened to see you crumple to the cave floor as I was passing by. I couldn't just leave you here."
"What were you doing in a place like this?"
"I'm a healer," she said. "I came to look for some herbs I could use to help treat my patients," she responded offhand as she continued to pour her attention into the healing that seeped into his pain-wracked body.
"What…"
"Hush," she says with a stern twist to her voice. "You've just been brought from the point of death. You need rest. And food, though now I'll have to make some more soup. You knocked over what I was going to give you."
"I'm sorry…"
"No apologies. Just sleep."
Despite his curiosity of the woman, he rested his head backwards on the cold stone floor and slowly drifted into the deep, dreamless sleep of young children and the exhausted.
When his eyes cautiously opened night had swallowed the cave in darkness. He slowly flexed muscles to check their readiness. Running his hand over the punctured flesh, his fingers met only smooth skin where he vividly remembered his lifeblood seeping out of his body. His wounds had closed and, as he cautiously got to his feet, only the barest echoes of his hellish pain the day before remained.
You're alive…
Every muscle tenses and his body instantly drops to a defensive stance, his legs bent slightly and his body poised on the verge of sudden and violent movement. His hand opened and closed at his waist, searching for something, but he did not know what.
Ah…how cute. He's struggling. Do yourself a favor,