Chapter 3!

The cavern was suddenly very quiet but for Leo's soft gasping.

Jean looked down at him.

"He's in shock," she thought. She had to keep him awake.

"Stay with me, Leo," she said.

"I'm trying," he whispered back.

It made her feel a little better. At least he wasn't completely delirious. She turned to the dragon.

"Ruby, will you bring me that waterskin?" Jean said, pointing to the dusty item. With Leo still in her lap, she didn't think moving would be a good idea just yet.

Ruby grabbed the leather pouch with her teeth and flew it over to Jean, who tore the lid off and slowly poured the water over Leo's side.

He hissed slightly as the water flowed over his charred wound, but otherwise made no sound. That last scream seemed to have worn him out.

Jean considered covering the wound with something, but everything was tainted with dust from the collapse, and nothing she had seemed thin enough to properly cover a burn anyway. She felt tears stinging at her eyes again. She had never felt so useless before.

"A burn should be kept clean and dry," she reminded herself. What did she have that was clean and dry?

Then she remembered, stuffed in a wad at the bottom of her pack: her old dance outfit. The fabric was thin and cool, and it had folded up small enough for her to bring it along on her travels. Surely it was still clean.

"Ruby, have you seen my pack anywhere?" she asked.

"No, but I can look," Ruby said, getting to work digging around the area.

Jean turned her attention back to Leo, who seemed to be struggling to speak.

"Jean...I don't feel well," he managed, in what was probably the greatest understatement of the journey.

"I know, Leo, we're trying to help-" She was interrupted when Leo suddenly began coughing uncontrollably. His whole body convulsed and Jean was afraid he was going to vomit. She helped turn him onto his uninjured side as the coughs continued to tear at his weakened form. After a minute or so, the attack finally began to subside.

"W-Water," Leo croaked. Jean offered him the last few sips left in the waterskin.

"He must've gotten a lot of dust in his throat," Jean realized as Leo gratefully drank. He had been buried in the collapse, after all.

"Jean, I found it," Ruby said, hastily carrying a small bag over to Jean's side.

"Oh, thank the goddess!" Jean cried. She reached deep into the bag and pulled out the cream-colored skirt with blue and red trim. "This will work well."

Jean couldn't help but feel a small twinge of remorse as she tore the skirt to pieces. She had really loved that outfit Giban had gotten for her.

She dried the wound with one piece of the skirt, then wrapped another piece carefully around Leo's waist.

When all that was finished, she carefully laid Leo down, using her bag as a makeshift pillow. She stood up and stretched, stifling a groan. The stress of the situation was giving her a pretty bad headache. She sat down beside Leo and willed herself to rest.

"I always expected that I would die in battle, defending the goddess," Leo suddenly said, bitterly.

"Don't talk like that," Jean said, leaning over him.

"Forgive me," Leo whispered. "I just don't see myself getting out of this one alive." He was shivering again, and his eyes were glassy with fever. "I wish I h-hadn't been lost for so long."

"Lost though you were, your time was not completely wasted," Jean said. "You were a beacon for thousands to look up to, a symbol of true devotion to the greater good."

"Do you really believe so?"

"I really do," Jean said with a smile. As she looked down at his pale face, a splatter of blood landed his forehead. She stared a moment in confusion.

"Jean, you're hurt!" Leo said, reaching up. His hand missed her face by a long shot.

Jean brought her own hand to her right temple. It came away bloody.

"Oh," was all she could think to say. That's where the headache came from. And why she had been unconscious for several minutes after the collapse.

"It l-looks serious," Leo said. He coughed several times again.

Ruby flew quickly over.

"He's right," she squeaked, examining Jean's head.

"It probably just looks bad. Head wounds bleed a lot," Jean tore a large strip from the skirt and tied the makeshift bandage around her head. "There, good as new."

There was silence for a while, and a soft snore told Jean that Ruby was asleep beside them.

Jean began to gently comb through Leo's hair with her fingers, speaking softly.

"When we docked for the first time in Meribia there was a small group of children playing by the storage houses," she said.

"They were playing the oldest make-believe game in written history: the Four Heroes. They say even a thousand years ago children were pretending to be Dyne and Hell Mel when they played on the streets."

"I always wanted to be Alex," Leo whispered.

The comment surprised Jean at first, but then, it did make sense. He had grown up a warrior. Alex had probably been a personal hero to many of the knights.

"Well, none of the children we saw wanted to play Alex," Jean continued. "They wanted to be White Knight Leo. They were fighting over who got to be you."

"I feel sorry for the...poor chubby kid who had to be Borgan,"

Jean chuckled. "I didn't think you had it in you, Leo!"

"Had what?"

"A sense of humor."

Leo smiled weakly. "I was always the serious one. Ronfar was the funny one...But in all seriousness... thank you, Jean,"

He reached up toward her face, and she took his hand, holding it against her cheek. She leaned over him, overwhelmed with the urge to kiss his lips. Their faces were mere inches apart when Leo suddenly winced in pain.

"Leo?" Jean ventured, a worried frown on her face.

He didn't respond, just gasped weakly, hands clutching at his side.

Jean winced sympathetically. She remembered burning herself pulling a stick out of a bonfire her first year with the caravan. Her hand had stung terribly for several days. She could only imagine how much pain Leo was in.

"It's all right, Leo. They'll be back for us. It'll all be over soon," she said, gently.

"You'll t-tell Lucia I'm sorry, r-right?" His breathing was becoming shallower and more pained.

"You'll tell her yourself when she gets here. She'll be able to heal you right up."

"She w-won't be able to h-heal a corpse."

"Leo-" Jean began, but he interrupted her.

"I'm so cold... Will you hold me?"

"All right," Jean said. She half carried-half dragged Leo's dead weight a few feet over so she lean herself against a wall. She held her wounded friend in her arms with his head resting on her chest, just below her chin.

"You'll be all right," she whispered.

Thanks for reading!

-Samuel