Theme: Nature's Fury
Lightning cracked across green-grey skies, and wind tore at the trees in merciless gales, sweeping across the French countryside without bias. The blasts of hot air ripped the leaves from branches, snapped branches from trees, and as Leo ducked against a particularly thick trunk, began uprooting the very oak under which he'd taken shelter from the dreadful storm. With a yell, he dove away from the towering tree as it swayed, and then toppled, crashing to the forest floor a mere foot from where he scrambled away. Its weight fell upon another tree's branches, and with a sickening cracking noise, tore right through them.
His heart in his throat, he clambered through the mud to his feet, trying to steady himself against the violent winds. The gusts tugged at his drenched clothes, threw his hair in his eyes, almost took his glasses off his face, and threatened to topple him just as it had done the oak. He stumbled, and tried to get better footing before cupping his hands over his mouth and shouting to the winds.
"ELLIOT!"
Where on earth could he be!? He'd been gone hours, and then the storm had finally unleashed its fury and began beating the earth in its rage. With hail and lightning and roaring thunder and terrible winds, it punished the world with an unquenchable wrath that had driven every animal into its shelter, every human within a hundred miles into their home, but had contrarily driven Leo out to search for his missing master.
The wind blew rain drops into his face, turning them into stinging needles that numbed his skin, and he winced as he called again. "ELLIOT!"
Come on, Elliot! You have to be out here somewhere!
"ELLIOT, WHERE ARE YOU?"
He managed to climb over the fallen oak, that once mighty warrior reduced to rubble, and staggered in the wet, uneven ground on the other side. Then, shielding his face from the gales with his arms, he continued forward, heedless of the lightning that lit the sky like daylight and the thunder that made his hair stand on end.
He could hear the trees groaning in pain as the wind whipped through them, over them, biting at their limbs and tearing off their leaves. They shifted overhead, and Leo had to wonder if at any moment, one of those massive branches might break off and crush him.
Over the next clap of thunder, he thought he heard a foreign sound, a voice that didn't belong to the storm. It wasn't human, but it wasn't nature either. Then, over the wind, he heard the pounding of footsteps.
No! Not footsteps, hoofbeats.
Elliot?
Leo squinted through the rain and the darkness, and saw a dark shadow coming increasingly closer. He picked up his pace as much as he could with poor footing, to try and intercept it. The shape grew larger, and came in faster until it hit a patch of moonlight and glowed gold.
"Aztec!" Leo shouted, and rushed for the horse as its reins caught in brambles.
The animal, eyes rolling back into its head, reared and thrashed in pure and utter panic. It threw its head, tossed its mane, and lashed out with deadly hooves, screaming in fear. The saddle, soaked and dark on its back, was empty.
"Easy, boy!" Leo shouted over the thunder, reaching out for the horse's lathered neck. "It's all right! Easy!"
Though he had to shout, he tried to keep a soothing, steady tone. If the stallion spooked further while he was disentangling the reins, he was done for. He'd be trampled, and then both he and Elliot would be lost in this horrific squall.
"Easy…" he muttered to the trembling beast as he jerked the reins loose of the brambles, and trailed his soaked gloved hands up the leather straps to the bridle. He held Aztec's head steady, and peered into his piebald eyes. "Where's Elliot, Aztec? What happened?"
Of course, the horse couldn't understand him. But it felt good to have someone to talk to in this terrifying situation. Any moment, he realized with a sinking feeling in his gut, could be his last.
Lightning struck a nearby tree with a deafening roar and a shower of sparks. Aztec squealed and reared up, throwing Leo off his feet and two yards back. The split tree toppled in two separate directions, and with a crash, blocked the horse from view. As he recovered from the blow dealt by the horse's flailing head, Leo listened to the hoofbeats drifting away.
Aztec would be fine. He knew the way home; animals seemed to have a sixth sense that way. But Elliot… what had become of that stubborn Nightray?
Please be all right, please be all right. If you're not all right, I'll never forgive myself.
Not that I'd ever tell you that.
Leo stumbled onward, warding off flying pieces of debris and ducking under broken branches, heading in the direction from which Aztec had come from. With almost constant flashes of lightning lighting his way, he trudged on.
He came upon one of the riding paths that he and Elliot often took during their trail outings when they got bored. Leo wasn't one for horseback riding, but he knew which trails were Elliot's preferred routes. This was one of them.
Why hadn't he thought of it before?
Mentally kicking himself, he redirected his path to follow the trail, and found gouges in the deep mud where panicked hooves had propelled a senseless horse homeward. Riderless. His hope rose, and he picked up his pace, slipping and sliding by now in the mire.
He rounded a bend, and froze in his tracks.
Ahead, just off the path, lay a young tree snapped in two by the ruthless winds, and just at its base, slightly covered by the unfortunate maple's trembling leaves, there was a body.
Oh God, let him be okay.
"Elliot!" Leo sprinted the rest of the way to the tree.
Sure, he'd only just recently become the guy's servant, but he wasn't so annoying that he'd ever wish this on him! By now… Well, by now, Leo considered him a good friend. His only friend, actually, if he were honest with himself.
He slid in the mud to a stop just beside the tree, and instantly pushed aside the branches to try and find Elliot's face among them. What on earth had happened? How had Aztec escaped, and Elliot not?
Through the whipping leaves, he finally caught a glimpse of his unconscious master's pale face. Paler than normal already, the gash that ran in across the left side of his forehead made Elliot look even paler, skin in contrast with dark red blood. Leo winced, and then readjusted his grip on the nearest branch to try and lift it off. With a loud grunt that was barely audible against the storm's violence, he heaved upward, and barely rocked the tree three inches.
Okay. He dropped it with a sharp outburst of breath, huddling against the foliage to try and escape the torrential rains. He had to try something else, get Elliot out somehow. Wait, just how badly was Elliot pinned under the tree?
Forsaking etiquette on account of how filthy he already was, he knelt in the mud, and braced himself on his hands and knees to peer under the branches.
Two branches lay over the young Nightray's prone figure. One a mere inch from crushing his ribs, and the other just above his neck. Leo let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, and sagged back onto his heels. Thank God… Had those branches collapsed, Elliot would have been dead.
Shifting over, Leo grabbed hold of Elliot's ankles and began to pull, dragging his friend out from under the unfortunate tree. Several times, the wind, growing in ferocity, nearly threw him off his feet, and he staggered to the side. He picked up his pace, and in a few moments, got Elliot out.
"Okay!" he muttered to himself. He grabbed one of Elliot's limp arms and looped it over his shoulders, hauling the unconscious boy up. He steadied him with an arm about his torso, and then looked frantically about. "Shelter, shelter, need a shelter."
There was no way they'd make it back to the manor in one piece. Leo had barely made it out here with his head on his shoulders, and the storm was getting worse. The wind howled, the trees cracked and moaned and lashed at each other with their limbs, the thunder roared incessantly. The rain whipped behind Leo's glasses, stinging his eyes.
"God, get us somewhere safe!" he shouted at the dark skies that grew ever darker.
Squinting, he looked harder at the clouds. They seemed to be churning, swirling, tossing like waves, but all pulling in one direction…
Oh, no.
Please, not that.
All the more frantic, Leo dragged Elliot off the path and into the trees. If it was what he thought it was, debris would have less a chance of hitting them instead of one of the trees, but they couldn't stay here. If it came this way…
He could hear the roaring, now, as he listened. That wasn't the wind, or the thunder. It was the sound of a twister, a deadly, furious cyclone that drew ever closer. It sounded like a steam train thundering down the tracks, steam blowing, wheels whirring, weight hurling.
The ground began to slope upward as Leo stumbled along, and soon, he paused to get his bearings. Where were they? He'd never seen these hills before. Well, perhaps from a distance, but the hills were outside Nightray borders. Wilderness. They'd never explored out here.
Wait, what was that? Up ahead, up the steepest incline yet, a spot of lighter color stood out in the lightning, a light brown-grey rather than green or black like the trees. Taking his chances, Leo pushed toward it, against the wind that rushed through the valley.
As they came to the base of the steep incline, the winds seem to die down. More than likely, the hill itself sheltered them, and Leo was grateful for the respite from the driving force. Taking the first few steps up the steep hillside, he suddenly realized just how exhausted he was. And Elliot's extra weight didn't help. It had been hard enough just for Leo to navigate the woods, against the wind and rain and falling twilight himself, without having to carry an unconscious person along with him!
The slope, wet from the downpour, had Leo sliding half the time, and stuck the other half. He would barely go three steps before the mud sent him back five, and then when he tried digging his heels in to avoid slipping, his polished shoes would be suctioned into the mud, and he would have to jerk loose, only to slide back another few steps.
With a growl of frustration, Leo stopped bracing Elliot's arm and reached out with his right hand to grab hold of a nearby sapling, using it to pull himself up the incline. Without the help of that hand, his other arm began to burn at the strain of holding Elliot erect.
At long last, with the help of the bending trees and a few conveniently-placed rocks in the earth, Leo staggered over the ridge and tumbled onto his knees. He felt the fabric of his once-crisp trousers tear against a stone he couldn't see, gasped in pain, felt his glasses fall from his face and heard them clatter on the gravel.
While he groped for his glasses, he stared ahead to what he had been aiming for. A rock face in the hillside, and the dark mouth of a cave.
"Thank you," he whispered, barely able to hear himself over the wind and thunder. He heard a distant crash as he found and picked up his spectacles, and wondered how many trees had to be uprooted by the cyclone to make that monstrous of a sound.
Hoisting himself to his feet and steadying Elliot once more, Leo made for the cave, and practically dove into its welcoming shadows. Instantly, everything grew quieter. The storm still raged outside, but it already sounded almost miles away. A small draft tunneled into the cave, but for the most part, the wind let them be as well. It was also dry, for which Leo breathed a sigh of relief.
He laid Elliot against the wall, and then stepped back to remove his own soaked coat. Both of them were wetter than cats after bath day, but without the luxury of being able to move about, Elliot would need the extra insulation. Leo could pace or jog in place or something to keep his blood flowing, but Elliot could not. And while Leo was a little concerned about hypothermia setting in because of the water, there was better chance against cold this way. Leo had to pick the lesser of two evils.
After laying his overcoat over his master, Leo then turned his attention to the wound on his forehead. It didn't look too bad on the outside, not much more than a scrape, but he knew he had to be worried about concussion. But at this point, there was nothing he could do for that. The most he could do was stop the bleeding, which he did in a matter of minutes with some strips of cloth he tore from his sleeve. He folded one strip up, rested it on the scrape, and then tore a longer one and tied it around Elliot's head.
He shifted his weight as he tied the last knot, and yelped as pain spiked from his knee. He rocked back onto his heels, shuffled away from Elliot, and sat back to examine his leg. Through the torn fabric of his trousers, he could see the gruesome puncture from the rock he'd landed on, and blood oozing down his shin.
He clenched his jaw, and then tore loose the fabric on the lower half of his pant leg that had ripped already, determined to use that to gauge the bleeding, and bandage the wound. He had nothing else to use, and with a glance at the raging tempest outside, knew that they weren't going anywhere anytime soon.
He soaked a whole strip of the fancy cloth in blood, and then tore another that he used to wad up and press against the wound. Then he used the rest to tie tightly around his knee. Hopefully, the pressure stopped the bleeding.
Hm, this was going to effect his plan to pace in order to keep warm.
Oh, well. He'd rather limp than catch cold.
He nearly jumped out of his skin as a tree crashed on the ledge just outside, and then tumbled down the incline and out of sight. The cyclone must have gotten closer.
"What the…" Elliot grumbled, hand instantly going to his head, which most likely hurt like heck.
"Why on earth did you have to go out riding alone today?" Leo quipped, standing up and testing his leg, which only throbbed mildly.
"Not so loud…" The Nightray grimaced, feeling the bandage on his head, and blinking his eyes open to glance around. "What-What happened?"
"I'm going to assume a tree started to fall over and instead of stopping like any smart person, you tried getting Aztec to race under it. Aztec did. You didn't."
Elliot scowled, rubbing his head and then stopping when he winced at the pain. "Where are we?"
"A cave I found. You'd better be grateful, too; you have no idea what I've gone through this evening, because you've been blissfully asleep the whole time."
"Shut up," Elliot moaned without his usual bluster, leaning his head back against the stone and closing his eyes. "All your talking's making my head hurt."
"Are you seeing stars?"
Without hesitation, Elliot nodding sullenly, sluggishly. He dragged his knees up slowly and tucked them against his chest, huddling under Leo's coat. He probably didn't even realize it was Leo's, and not his.
"Trouble thinking – more than usual – light-headed, nausea?"
To all these, Elliot nodded, and finally cracked his eyes open to glare at Leo. "Quieter…" he whined.
Leo nodded. Just as he thought. Concussion. But he shut up, for now. Elliot closed his eyes again, and huddled against the wall.
"Try to stay awake, Elliot," Leo cautioned, nudging Elliot with his uninjured foot. "You shouldn't be falling asleep right now."
"But I'm tired…" came the irritated, reluctant mumble.
Leo nodded. "I know, but you're probably concussed. Sleep isn't what you need."
"Silence is what I need."
"Good." Leo crossed over to the other side of the cave, and leaned against the wall. "You can be silent, but awake."
"MmMmMmmm…" Elliot readjusted his head to rest his chin on his knees, looping his arms about his ankles as he glared at the opposite wall.
Leo sighed again, and to give his knee a chance to stop bleeding, leaned against the cave wall and sunk down to a sitting position. He propped the ankle of his injured leg on the ankle of the uninjured one, to give it a bit of elevation.
"So, do you get concussions all the time?" Leo asked. "Because you're really not acting abnormal."
"Shut up."
"Right. Sorry."
This was going to be one long night.
A/N: Reviews are good for the writer's soul. :P Tell me: did I get Leo's character right? I don't usually write in his POV, so I can always use the feedback.
