Tino had come to find that though silent, Berwald was very good at playing things like charades and Pictionary. He had even seen him smile a couple of times while they were playing and he'd actually heard him chuckle at one stage.
But after an hour or two, the Swede had drifted off, too tired for anything more and Tino lay quietly alongside him, under the makeshift cover. The sandstorm still lingered but wasn't as fierce as the first few hours and was now letting off more of a light drone than a roar.
But still… It was getting dark as the pinpoints of light that filtered through the tiny worn gaps in the material of their cover were slowly fading away, and the darker it got, the less Tino could see.
And well… though he was ashamed to admit it… he was terrified of the dark. And for the past few nights he had been walking or falling asleep by a dim fire with Berwald keeping watch.
And now there was no fire and he was the only one awake. He could have tried to go to sleep, but that would be doing so in fear which was very difficult and he would end up having horrible nightmares, either of hideous monsters and beasts or of past occurrences that haunted him still.
He closed his eyes tightly, trying to not cry, praying he could just do it just this once. Right now he should have been cleaning up after supper with Katuyasha and sitting down as she gave him his final reading lessons, as he was almost fully literate.
They would usually have a cup of tea and then go to bed early, completely relaxed and thinking happy thoughts.
And if anything, the sandstorm merely tore him away from his near happy thoughts and he whimpered.
It was hopeless. Completely hopeless to depend on his own bravery, if there be such a thing within him.
And all he had to depend on for safety right now… was Berwald.
He sniffed and bit his bottom lip before he shifted forward, curling up against the larger of the two, hiding his face in his chest.
He almost died of a heart attack when he felt two arms wrap around him in response.
"I-I… I'm sorry…" The Fin whispered, feeling a little ashamed of himself.
"D'n't be… J'sttr' t'sle'p." The Swede mumbled, sounding alert but still somewhat tired.
Tino smiled and nodded a little, closing his eyes slowly. "Yes… okay…"
/
Nameless as ever, the platinum blonde looked up to his Danish lover.
Mouth set in a grim line, eyes not full of the usual spark he would usually acclaim to be annoying and trying to stand straight but his shoulders bowed slightly as he scanned the horizon. He didn't want to kill Berwald. But… he didn't want to lose his Norwegian either.
But there was no way that either of them could think of that they could slip through it or find a way around it.
And Mathias wouldn't let the smaller male give himself up for Berwald's sake and the platinum blonde refused the same course of action from the Dane.
The only choice they had was to find Berwald, and as they searched, hopefully come up with a plan to save the lives of all three. Running away from civilization seemed the easiest at this point in time, but was infact probably the hardest thing to do. Living in the wilderness with out any contact to the outside world, no way to get supplies if desperate… they may as well decide to become savages…
And that looked like the only course of action that they could successfully get away with… unless… well… Mathias tried not to think about it but… the only way to save the lives of all three… well… give it a shot anyway… was to change sides…. Change sides and work for the Shadow Lord instead. But… they weren't so sure they wanted that, even as a last resort.
Because… The Shadow King was evil… and… the Saviour… the Saviour… he was good… right?
/
"The storm is slowing down… And it's almost light… we should keep looking before the heat sets in, da?" Ivan said as he poked his head out of a small gap from the tent they had built at the sight of the approaching sandstorm the day before. Everyone was surprised that it had actually managed to stay up and they had all managed to sleep as comfortable as one could on sand with camels in the tent beside you. Least to say, it had been very snug.
Gilbert was the first of the group to perk up at that. "Awesome…. Sadiq sat on my face last night and my ass hurts."
The Turk who was the complete opposite side of the tent, grinned widely at the albino. "Your fault for kicking me in the face."
Ludwig, ever the persistent leader type, rolled his eyes with a sigh and climbed out of the tent, calling behind him once outside in the early morning desert sun. "Hurry up and get out so we can get the camels ready and search for Tino…" Everyone nodded, with a tired sigh though, and climbed out, dismantling the tent and getting their mounts ready. Once everything was packed up, they climbed onto the desert beasts and resumed their search as a light breeze stayed off the sun's rays.
They had already been searching for not that long when Ivan, frowned, and stopped. Also frowning, Ludwig stopped and looked at him. "Something wrong Ivan?" He asked doing a quick scan of the horizon. Ivan was like their high alert system, if you wanted to look at it that way. His senses were slightly higher than others, much like he found it easy to adapt to different environments. That made him useful and of course, despite him being a human taking refuge, he was put to use. Him just being around had strangely enough saved many peoples' lives by figuring out where an ambush was or pointing people down the safer path by just looking at the land scape. That and he was just a shit scary fighter, cutting down any opponent in his path.
"I hear something… south east of here… maybe half a mile…?" He said slowly, though appearing as though he was trying to hear it better.
"Saviour's troops?"
"Nyet…." Ivan frowned again. "It sounds like a cry for help… maybe a small boy or…."
"It might be Tino…" Gupta said, looking at Sadiq. "We should check it out."
"Nodding in agreement, the small band set of, following Ivan's directions, relaxed that they knew there were none of the Saviour's soldiers nearby, yet still on guard. One could never tell if it was a trick being played or merely a trick Ivan's mind was playing on him. This… was common… and one of the downers of Ivan's senses… they all knew the story of his past, though sketchy, and his mind was just never quite right… Sometimes he would go into a dreamlike state, cloudy smile plastered across his face, or other times he would become enraged, or scared, seeing what was not real and try to hit, hurt, fight and kill… So… while useful… no one… well, rarely anyone, trusted him… The main person who did was Yao… he trusted him with his life… and thus he bore scars for it. No one would understand why he forgave and continued to trust.
It was probably a good half hour later that they all saw at the top of a dune a boy, in a blue tunic waving his hands and jumping in the air, definitely trying to catch their attention. As they came closer, the blonde hair, violet eyes and burnt, but pale skin gave him away. They forced the camels into a run and came to a halt five metres before him, all but Ivan dismounting… The fin smiled, relief washing over his features.
"Thankyou…." He whispered, voice hoarse from shouting and screaming. Next thing he knew, a flask of water was being pushed into his hand with a chink of bread and cheese, and he devoured them hungrily, washing it down with the water. When he was done, they tried to lead him to the camels, but to their astonishment, he pulled away.
"Tino? What's wrong?" Heracles asked, stepping forward slightly.
The small blonde bit his lip and gave a quick glance over his shoulder, down below the dune. "Please…" He looked back to them with pleading eyes. "Please…. He's hurt… He got hurt when the sandstorm came and then… He didn't wake up this morning! I can't get him to wake up!" Distress was thick in the boy's voice and tears of said distress and exhaustion prickled at the corners of his eyes.
Everyone was confused… but it was Gilbert who got it first and he nodded to Tino. "Don't worry… we'll help him… coz, It's totally un-awesome to leave someone stranded, ja, West?"
Ludwig gave a puzzled expression, frowning slightly before nodding.
"Ja… Ivan, Yao… you come with us… Heracles… take Tino to the camels and get him some more water."
The Greecian nodded and led the Fin over to the desert beasts, the other's remaining on top of the dunes as Gilbert, Ludwig, Ivan and Yao, went below into the ditch created by the dune they were on and the next one, a bit of it in shadow because of the other dune.
"I don't see anything…" Gilbert said. He knew that Tino wasn't lying, let alone hallucinating, because he knew Berwald had come into the desert with him. The others had known it too, but he was the only one who guessed Tino hadn't run away from the Swede somehow. He'd stuck with him. He felt like they should do this, that they owed it to the man to save his life, even if he had been right about it being morally correct. Because if the archer hadn't of save Tino and taken him from the fight, then both German's would have been slaughtered while trying to do so themselves.
"Wait… what about that bush over there?" Ivan said, pointing to a desert scrub, dusty from the storm.
With a nod from Ludwig, the four made their way to it and sure enough, slightly covered by the shade of the scrub, lay Berwald, covered by his cloak to keep the sun off of him.
Yao, the mother like doctor of the group, knelt down beside him and felt his forehead, feeling the heated skin and the cold sweat. Sweat meant he was alive, so it was a good sign enough for now. He felt the eyes of his lover and the German's on him as he lightly touched the horribly bandaged hand and unwrapped the dirty material, revealing the back of his hand.
It was beginning to scab at the very edges but it wasn't healing well, a thick, clear fluid flowing quite freely from it.
Sighing, Yao took a bandage from the pack at his waist and began to rewrap it. "He needs medicine… We have to take him back to the ship where I can do more for him, aru…" The Chinese bit his lower lip before tying off the bandage and climbing back to his feet. "Ivan… can you please help me with him?"
The Russian blinked and nodded with a small smile, bending at the knees, and picking the unconscious male up. It would have appeared comical if not a serious situation, as the other was probably, when standing, close to the Russian's height. That was saying something, as Ivan was the tallest person most people would come across.
As they began back up the dune and hence to the camels, Tino either having fainted or fallen asleep on Heracles, Ludwig frowned, muttering to Ivan. "When the time comes, can we trust this man?"
Ivan looked at the German and smiled softly. "I don't know him Ludwig… I just know that he doesn't want other people looking into his past, present or future."
"What does that mean?" Gilbert queried.
"It means…" Ivan began and looked ahead, uncomfortable as always around the steadfast albino. "That I don't know… much… He just wants… to be left alone."
"Like you used to…?" Yao asked, looking up at the much taller man, smiling softly.
"Da… Like me…" Ivan smiled… No one was ever like him before…
/
The water was cool on his toes, sunlight warm in his messy chocolate hair and everything absolutely wonderful. Everything was wonderful because that's how it was for him… nothing had a downside. Not even his companion screaming blue murder at him for being to happy. That just made him happier.
Looking over his shoulder he smiled a suntanned smile at the pouting boy before him.
"There is nothing wrong with being too happy, si~"
/
There, I think that last character is pretty obvious, but what role he plays is still hidden. I'll go into his story a little bit in the next chapter, but I won't go into it as much as I did with Ivan. FORGIVENESS!
Sorry also for the delay on posting this chapter. Ontop of limited internet access, my mom won't let me onto anything except facebook. CURSE THIS NOT BEING EIGHTEEN FOR NINE MONTHS crap. Any way, I'm sneaking on to post this to you so you should worship me damnit! 3 Love you gais!