-1Jack started from his much needed sleep and joined the apprentices, Chase and the others. He had suddenly felt a strange tugging at his heart and a feeling of dread set upon him. He told the others about his alarming feelings. "Tiger Instincts?" Jack shook his head, "No, intuition," They all looked frightened, except for Chase and Sylvan, who were calm as always, and Mary, who took this all as a chance to get to Jack. "Raimundo?" Kimiko enquired. Jack nodded, "He could be hurt or-or worse!" Jack, if at all possible, paled. "I'm not one to jump to conclusions, but I fear Jack may be right," Chase said. Feng nodded in agreement, "I agree with Chase, we must double our efforts to Raimundo. It will leave the temple vulnerable, but with most of our usual enemies dead or incapacitated, and Chase on the side of good," Feng said the last part with contempt so subtle that only Chase was able to catch it. "I believe that the threat of attack is not imminent." He finished. "Well, what are we standin' around yappin' for? We have to find Rai and fast." Though not usually the one to speak out so strongly, Jack was just about to hit breaking point, they needed to move now. Feng nodded, knowing Jack meant no disrespect. He rounded up anyone that was capable of finding Rai and split them up into groups of two. Chase went alone, so he wouldn't have anyone mussing up his senses. Jack was paired with an elder monk who knew the forest so well, he could travel through it alone with his eyes closed and not get lost once. This was a good thing, considering he was blind. Jack didn't really mind, though. His knowledge of the forest made up for his inability to see anything that might Rai was near. He followed the monk and kept a sharp eye out for his lover.
Chase transformed into his lizard form and began to search for Rai. After a while, Chase caught a scent that might be Rai. He followed it, pricking his ears for human sounds. Moments later, he heard a soft moan and an even softer voice, mumbling something incoherent. Got him, Chase thought and quickened his pace. He soon came to a man-made shelter built around a cliff. Something slithered over his foot, he looked down. A rattler was heading away from the direction of the shelter. It must have been in a bad mood, because it tried to bite him, but Chase killed it with his tail. He walked over to the shelter and pulled open the make-shift door, accidentally knocking over the entire shelter in the process. Rai was lying against the cliff wall, which had served as the back wall of his shelter, until Chase had come in with his big, lizard butt and knocked it down. Raimundo stared on as, what looked like to him, Chase ripped apart his shelter. Chase grinned sheepishly at him. However, since Chase was still in his lizard form, the grin looked more evil than sheepish. "Come to finish the job, Chase? Go on, you'd be doing me a favor. But if you have any kindness left in your soulless self, than tell Jack that I'm sorry and that I love him." Chase realized he must look like he was about to kill the Wind Dragon. However, he was confused at the words 'finish the job', that is, until he saw the state Rai was in. He looked half-dead. Chase noticed two swollen, purple puncture marks on Rai's arm, which was also swollen. He realized that the snake he killed must have bitten him. "You can tell him yourself," He said as he picked up Rai. "Not going to kill me?" He asked. "Nope."
"Good, I was lying when I said you'd be doing me a favor." Chase snorted. He morphed back into his human form. "Now, let's see, what was I supposed to do again if I found you?" Chase said, more to himself than Rai. "Oh yeah," Chase flagged Dojo down. "I found him," Chase said simply, as Dojo landed. Rai grinned weakly, "As if it wasn't obvious." He said. But even that was an effort for him. This entire ordeal was too much for him, and now all he wanted to do was sleep. That and see Jack again, even if Jack was mad at him. "Great! Kid, I thought I'd never see you again, I-."
"We don't have time to talk, Raimundo needs immediate medical attention."
"I'm fine, just need Jack." Chase rolled his eyes, "You were lost in the forest for two months and were just bitten by a venomous snake. Jack is the least of your worries right now." He said as he climbed onto Dojo, still holding onto Rai. Once they got properly situated, Rai turned towards Chase and… tried to bite him.
"What are you doing?" Chase asked. "I bite you." Clearly, the last two months had taken a toll on Rai's mind, as well as his body. "Why?" Asked Chase. "You're being mean, I bite you."
"Being mean?"
"Jack is the most of my worries, I bite you."
"Oh? And what will Jack think if he finds out that you died of something that was preventable?"
"I bite you?"
"No, he'll be miserable and it would be your fault." Rai thought about this for a moment and then, "I bi-." Chase put a finger to his mouth to keep him from saying the words. This proved to be a bad idea. Raimundo opened his jaws and clamped his teeth back down on Chase's finger. "Yay! I bite you!"
"Ouch!" Chase exclaimed, glaring at the Dragon of the Wind. Rai just grinned goofily at him. "What are you staring at?" Chase said, a bit of good humor in his eyes. Raimundo hugged Chase around the middle. "Thankies for rescuing me!" Chase looked down in surprise at Rai. "Um, you're welcome?" Rai just hugged him tighter. "Uh, you can let go of me now." Chase said to Rai, but Rai didn't move. Eventually Chase had to pry the Brazilian off of him. "I think that snake venom is going to your head." Chase said. "Meow!" Rai said, waving his arms around. Chase sighed.

Jack was getting frustrated; they had gotten no farther in finding Raimundo. By now, he could be dead, Jack thought with a shudder. The monk was too slow, maybe he should go ahead? The monk knew the forest well enough to find his own way back. No, He thought, then he'd get lost as well. He wouldn't do any good to Rai if he got lost too, even if he did find his lover. He sighed and thought, I wonder if he is still mad at me? Dojo suddenly landed in clearing not to far ahead. "You two are the last load, woulda got ya first, considering, but I couldn't find you for a while."
"We can't stop looking yet! We've barely started and it's really-."
"We, or more like Chase, found Raimundo."
"You're joking, and please don't tell me you're joking that would be cruel." Dojo jumped. Jack was suddenly on his back, and he had been a good thirty meters away. How'd he do that? Dojo thought and then shrugged. Some things will forever remain a mystery. "What are we waiting for?" Jack said, impatient. "Him." Dojo said, motioning to the monk, who was making his way ever so slowly towards them. Jack had to fight the urge to tell Dojo that the monk could find his own goddamned way back. Finally, the monk climbed shakily onto Dojo's back and they took off for the temple. Many things had taken a long time in the past eight weeks, but Jack swore that that ride back to the temple took way longer than it had a right to. "Where is he?" Jack asked the other apprentices and Master Feng as soon as he arrived. Master Feng pointed towards the temple hospital. When Jack entered, Rai was sitting in a hospital bed, doing what looked like cleaning himself as a cat would. Chase was sitting on a chair next to the bed, looking on in amusement. He looked up when Jack entered. "The herbs they used work like morphine, so he's a little loopy. Not that that's much of difference from when I found him, though." Rai looked up from 'washing' himself and waved enthusiastically, "Hiiii Jaaack!!!!!" Jack walked slowly up to the side of the bed, "Raimundo," He said and fell to his knees, crying. Raimundo stared at the sobbing youth for a moment before looking back up at Chase accusingly. "You broke Jack!" He said. "No, you 'broke' Jack." Chase responded. "I broke Jack?" Chase nodded. Raimundo reached down to pat Jack on the head. "I sorry I broke you. How do I fix you?" Jack stood up, wiping the tears from his eyes. After composing himself, Jack looked at Raimundo, who just grinned happily. "I miss Jack." Jack flung himself onto Rai, who squeaked in surprise, buried his face in Rai's neck and began to cry all over again. Rai thought he had hurt Jack and began to cry as well. "I sorry Jack, I won't do it again. Please don't cry." Jack looked up at Raimundo, tears in his eyes, mascara and other eye-make-up running, and smiling. "It's okay Rai, you didn't do anything. I've just missed you. A lot." Rai stopped crying and grinned happily once more. "I go sleepy now, kay?" Jack nodded, "Alright." He made to get up but Rai pulled him back down. "Stay with me!" He bubbled. Jack smiled, "Okay."
The medicine monk walked in and smiled as she saw Jack and Rai curled up together, sleeping. She didn't want to disturb them, but she needed to give Rai his meds. She walked over and shook Jack awake. He gave a wary look at the herbs in her hand. "Those going to make him all loopy again? There's kinda something I want to talk to him about." She shook her head. "Just minor painkillers for now on, we need him to be in a little pain so we can gauge how he's healing."
"Is he in a lot of pain?" Jack asked. "Well, he has a few broken bones, a few bones that we had to re-break because they healed crooked. That combined with the snakebite will definitely cause some pain, but he'll be all better in about, oh, eight to ten weeks." Jack winced as thought it was him feeling the pain, instead of Rai. "He got away lucky, didn't he?'' The doctor nodded. "I'm glad." He said. She smiled, "So am I. Oh and one more thing, absolutely no more stressful situations for Raimundo, okay? At least not for a while." No stressful situations? But what about the argument? "Okay?" Jack snapped back into reality, "Oh! Errrm, okay."
"Now he needs rest. A lot of it. So I'm going to have to ask you to leave, just for tomorrow, okay?" Jack nodded. That way he could figure out a way to make-up without putting Rai under any stress. Lost in thought, Jack didn't notice another presence until he ran into it. Literally. "Ouch," Jack said as metal armor connected with his forehead. He looked up, "Oh, hey Chase." His flippant greeting told Chase that Jack was distracted. That didn't bother him though, in fact, that would make his job that much easier. "Hello Spi- I mean Jack, can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked. "Sure Chase, whatever."
"Great," Chase said, with an evil grin on his face.