"What?" Lukas's head jerked up in surprise, but Jesse was already fumbling to put the book down in a way that they could see it.
"I can find the spell- I can try it!" They were babbling, they knew they were, but none of them cut Jesse off, just looked at Jesse hopelessly, because there was no way they'd be able to do anything.
Gill almost moved to stop them, but Maya pushed him away from the tiny human, murmuring words that Jesse could only snatch at and catch a few separate words.
Can't hurt.
Human.
Can't do magic.
Won't hurt.
Jesse pressed their hands to the wound, trying not to press too hard. Not that it mattered, Aiden was still and silent and his lips were parted, and Jesse got the feeling they could've slapped him full across the face and nothing would've happened.
They couldn't let him die.
They would not let him die.
Jesse's eyes fixated on the pages of the book, looking at the healing spell that Lukas had pointed out.
It was long. At least twenty words in it, and you couldn't lose concentration at all or you had to start the spell over and you were drained of energy besides- if it even worked. Jesse could see why Lukas was a little reluctant about performing the spell, just for the sake of the length of the words.
Maya and Gill gave each other this hopeless sort of look, for once not sniping at each other, because the likelihood that this would do anything was so slim and nonexistent that there was no hope at all.
They took a deep breath, refusing to tear their eyes from the words.
"Sana," they said, in a wavery little voice.
Something flickered around them.
Petra sucked in a breath, but Jesse refused to remove their eyes from the book or look up or even blink unless they had to. "Medeor," they said, trying to steady their voice.
Another flicker.
"Percuro, consan, integro, comprimo, confervo, auxilia, saudavel..."
With each word, Jesse's voice grew a little stronger, their eyes fixated on the words of the spell as their eyes travelled along the page, marking each one as done and then moving to the next. They picked up the pace, falling into a rhythm that was almost pleasing in a sense. Comforting, really.
If they had been able to see themselves, or even look up from the spellbook, they would've seen Lukas's slack jaw, the way Maya's eyes were almost bugging out of her head, Petra's stunned look, Gill's silent, open-mouthed stare, and they would've known exactly why.
There were dozens of concentric golden rings surrounding their entire body, illuminating the entire base of the cavern gold instead of purple and green and white and blue and red from the crystals, every word they were speaking clicking into place and every following word already beginning to click into place beneath it- almost like when Lukas had summoned the horse, a few days ago (days, days, it had only been a matter of days).
Except when he had summoned the horse, the concentric circles of magic had not gleamed iridescent in the light, and the golden circles had not washed everything in golden light, glowing with an almost radioactive heat.
"... heilbrigt, enempilo, nirogi," they finished, the last word coming out firm and strong- a bit of a difference from the wavery words they'd started with.
You know, just a little bit.
The words around them quivered, then whirled about in the air, unfurling into a sort of coiled strand of magic, words and light that Jesse couldn't make out before it had zipped- fairly shot out of the air- down into Jesse's body, their veins immediately lighting green and gold like sunlight in a forest canopy, caught in the leaves and glowing colors.
And then it shot into Aiden's torso, leaking out of Jesse's fingers and instead glowing from the bloodstained bandages, light shooting through them and sending wisps of green and gold magic spiraling everywhere.
A few little dark wisps flickered to life, squirming and thrashing and trying to smother the light, but then still more light poured through, vaporizing the dark wisps, and maybe Jesse could've described it if they'd watched it for longer but their vision was growing blurry and dark at the edges despite the almost blinding light, the world swaying slowly around them.
Then they found themselves falling, everything darkening so that they were enveloped in some kind of quiet darkness, sounds of the startled half-demons around them and the dragon snorting and Reuben's squeals dampening until it disappeared into silence.
Jesse hoped that they had helped in some way.
Lukas caught Jesse's suddenly-limp form before they could collapse right on top of an unconscious Aiden, tugging them back so that they were almost curled- like a baby or a little kid- in his lap, eyes shut as the light dancing on Aiden's torso sucked itself into his damaged chest, leaving the area looking suddenly more empty, without the abundance of gold and green light.
His jaw was still dropped open as he stared at Aiden, whose face somehow seemed less pained in his unconscious state, then down at Jesse, who was asleep (unconscious) and curled up in his grip.
The dragon grumbled over his shoulder, blinking huge purple eyes down at Jesse's limp little form, before using its clawed hands to gently tug Jesse away from Lukas (he almost tightened his grip instinctively but let them go after a moment) and nestle them against its scaly side, cradling Jesse like some kind of baby.
After a moment of silence, he tugged down Aiden's blood-soaked bandages, carefully peeled them away- with how drenched they were, they should be changed anyway.
He found nothing except three faint marks where the injuries had been, almost as if they'd never really happened and they'd imagined the way Aiden's chest and torso and stomach had been ripped open like some kind of plastic bag. Besides the blood smeared on his skin, there was no sign that it had even happened.
Slowly, he raised his eyes to stare at Maya, Gill, Petra. Their looks of shock mirrored his own, even if his was lesser so due to the blindfold covering his eyes, but if he hadn't had that covering his eyes he would've had eyes that were just as wide as all of theirs.
After a long, long moment of silence and the dragon nuzzling Jesse's limp form and Reuben squealing as he poked at Jesse and Aiden's now-steady breathing, his lips finally formed the appropriate words that summed up everything he was thinking, the maelstrom of thoughts and words and ideas whirling in his head at that display.
"What the fuck just happened?"
A/N: This chapter happened to be done pretty quick so... here you go, I guess, two updates xD
No replies because I doubt anyone finished the chapter that quick xD
That's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!
x.X. A.L. X.x
