Rey crept softly around the edge of the meadow, gripping her staff tightly on one hand and parting the tall grass in front of her with the other as she went, Kylo remaining behind to observe; he had chosen to give her the lead on her first hunt, reasoning that she would be fine, and he could offer advice once he had seen her in action. He failed to mention that the mere idea of watching her kill something had set his blood simmering ever since he began teaching her how to fight, and he now took a fierce joy in the anticipation of seeing that vision made flesh, smiling to himself as he watched her stalk her prey.
Reaching a vantage point where she could get a clearer view of her intended targets, Rey crouched low in the foliage to plan her attack. She spied the small troop of goblins not farther than fifty paces away; they seemed to be squabbling over the carcass of a rabbit and were not particularly aware of their surroundings. They were hideous things, the goblins; standing about a yard in height with grey, leathery skin clinging loosely to their bones, and their bright, flashing eyes skittering around mean-spiritedly. As Rey strained to get a better look, she noticed a slight haze surrounding and illuminating her prey; almost like a second sight was making it so she could observe them more clearly. She'd noticed it one or two times before when she had been trying to focus on an object in the dense darkness of the forest; it was as if some strange lavender light was cast around the object she had chosen to turn her attention on. It seemed stronger this time, and after rubbing her eyes a few times to no effect, she dismissed it as a side effect of going so long without strong sunlight.
Rey decided to make her move while the goblins were distracted, stealing through the tall grass until she was almost on top of them; she deduced that scattering them would give her the greatest advantage, and with her mind made up, she launched herself from her hiding place, landing right smack in the midst of them. The surprise attack had its intended effect, and the ones that weren't sent sprawling ears over tail, simply stood, rooted to the ground, gaping widely at Rey as she stood among them. The shock didn't last forever, though; as the goblins were regaining their faculties, Rey set about mowing them down. Kylo's words came back to her, and she attacked without hesitation, slaughtering each of her foes mercilessly, and soaking the ground with goblin blood. One or two of them landed hits on her, but the protection glyph Kylo had painted on her back did its job wonderfully, as each blow merely glanced off her harmlessly.
Turning her attention to the last two goblins, she dispatched one quickly, beheading it with a single powerful stroke; then, as she rounded on the other, was knocked flat on her back in a marshy puddle, stunned by a small but unexpected shockwave. The next few moments seemed to drag on as though time had slowed to a fraction of its normal pace, despite the fact that it all happened in a matter of seconds. Though her senses were overwhelmed for a moment, Rey fought her way back and caught site of the remaining goblin; it was standing there gnashing its teeth and shrieking in rage, in one of its uplifted hands, it held a stone with a glowing rune on it, while the other carried a curved dagger that it was menacing her with. As she lay there struggling to regain mastery of her faculties, Rey faintly heard Kylo's voice through the dull ringing in her ears; he seemed to be screaming a warning, but she couldn't make it out. All she knew was that she had to kill the goblin immediately and at all costs.
Searching desperately for her staff, Rey spied it laying a small distance away where she had stood when she was struck down, out of reach but clearly visible, and blocked by an enraged goblin. There was no way she could get around the creature to retrieve her weapon, and she had to act quickly; she had finally been able to figure out what Kylo had been screaming to her "THE STONE! REY! GET THE STONE!". She knew that she'd never be able to retrieve her weapon AND take the stone from the goblin, and she was beginning to panic, when her training with Kylo came flooding back to her. She had spent so many of her recent days practicing hand to hand fighting, that she had pushed their other training to the back of her mind; it was farther than she had ever done before, but there was no other way. Reaching out with her power, Rey seized her bladed staff and called it to her, passing it straight through the goblin's chest and sending it thudding into the ground beside her.
Too late. Rey didn't realize it, but she hadn't acted fast enough, and the goblin had hurled the runestone against a boulder, shattering it just before her blade snuffed out its life, releasing the spell stored inside of it. The whole event had taken place in the blink of an eye, and Kylo barely had time to scream a warning to Rey as he jumped to his feet to come thundering through the forest to her side. He had hardly made it ten paces before a shrieking howl ripped through the air, causing both of them to clap their hands over their ears at the pain it inflicted.
As soon as she was able, Rey scrambled to her feet, brandishing her weapon and whirling every which way, looking for the source of the terrible noise. A heavy, rhythmic thudding sound indicated the approach of some massive creature, and, seconds later, a monster unlike anything Rey had ever witnessed before came tearing through the trees heading straight for her. Its basic physical makeup was that of a lion, with the ruff of fur around its neck, and the body of a big cat, claws and fangs included, but this creature also had leathery wings and the tail of a scorpion, segmented in hard black shell and ending in a cruelly curved barb that dripped venom.
Kylo was still a good distance away when the thing reached Rey and he roared out as he sprinted towards her "IT'S A MANTICORE, REY! DO NOT LET IT STING YOU! I'M COMING!" Rey had no intention of letting the creature sting her with its barb, but it was already on top of her; she dodged the beast's first few lunges, whirling to one side, and blocking several more with her staff before it let out another howl and swiped a paw, claws extended, at her as she rolled to one side in order to avoid another lunge of its stinger. The paw caught Rey a glancing blow, not fatal, but giving her a taste of its claws as they tore deeply across her shoulder and into her side. At that same moment Rey was hitting the ground, from both the pain and inertia of the blow, she heard another roar, human this time, and a crackling beam of red light arced across her vision as she lay there, hitting the manticore on the broad side of its shoulder, and blasting it into the trunk of a great tree.
Rey felt herself going into shock; her limbs were already going cold when Kylo reached her. As the pain rolled over her in continuous waves, she could hear Kylo's panicked voice "Rey, stay with me! I'm going to get you home, just please, stay awake!" This roused her, and she fought to keep her head above the haze her body was creating as it tried to shut down. She managed to remain coherent and aware of her physical body, but she was losing touch with her surroundings. She felt herself being borne along at breakneck speeds through the forest, though she felt no arms encircling her. Every now and then she had a lucid moment, and looking around during one such time, found herself wrapped in Kylo's cloak, nestled on the back of a huge black wolf as it bounded over rocks and fallen trees on its urgent mission to get her to safety.
When they reached the cave, Kylo let her slide gently to the ground as he transformed back into his normal self, not even bothering to put on clothes as he began tearing through his supply of potions, remedies, and salves in search of anything that might help Rey. He eventually found what he was looking for, and gently picked Rey up and carried her to the bed, laying her on her unaffected side to give himself the most access to her wound. Yanking the cork from a bottle of wine, Kylo held it to Rey's lips "This is going to hurt, so please take this to bite down on." He waited for her to nod in acknowledgement, and then moved back a bit before holding up his hand outstretched, hovering above the wound; Rey, her eyes screwed shut, wondered what he was planning to do for a moment, before she felt a growing heat flowing from Kylo's hand, on to her skin where the manticore's claws had torn her skin. The heat grew until she was practically screaming, begging him to stop, collapsing from the pain and exhaustion when he finally did. Kylo leaned his forehead against Rey's stomach "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, but it was all I knew how to do in that kind of critical moment." He lifted his head and began making a poultice to put over her blistered skin, being as tender and careful as he could, and chilling the mixture slightly with his elemental magic as he applied it, to make it as soothing as possible "I have no healing magic, but I'll do everything I can to minimize your pain and scarring."
Rey managed to turn her head to look at the affected area, and saw that her skin was red and raised all around her wounds, realizing that they were completely cauterized. She reached down and ran a few fingers through Kylo's hair, whispering "You're doing everything you can, my love. You saved my life, I couldn't ask for more." She caught his eye at that moment, and saw that he was at the brink of a complete breakdown as his lower lip trembled slightly, even though his jaw was clenched tightly. She reached out and grasped his chin, turning it to make him look up at her "I'm fine, please don't-" "But you almost weren't fine!" he burst out "You could have died! When I track down that fucking manticore..." his free hand balled into a fist as he left his threat unuttered "No." It was Rey's turn to interrupt. You're not going to do anything to it." He looked up at her quizzically, about to protest before she laid a finger over his lips "You're going to get me all healed up, and then teach me to be even better until I can track it down and slaughter it myself."
Kylo's eyes glowed at her as she said it "You were amazing out there," he finally said, when he could steady his voice "you never faltered once, I couldn't have done better myself." Rey let out a raspy chuckle "You wouldn't have let yourself get knocked down so easily, and you definitely would have been able to keep that goblin from activating the stone's spell." He shook his head and stood up, walking to where he kept his clothes and pulling on a pair of his very thin sleeping trousers before returning to his former position, kneeling on the floor at Rey's side "There was no way you could have seen that coming. Goblins use weapons and limited magic, but I've never seen one use something like a summoning stone before. I didn't think they so much as possessed the intelligence to comprehend how to use one."
Rey propped herself up on one arm "One thing has me curious; several of them landed pretty solid hits on me, but they did nothing. I'm guessing I have your protection rune to thank for that, but why didn't it at least lessen the damage when the manticore clawed me?" Kylo frowned in response "You're right, it should have." he leaned over her and removed the scraps of leather and cloth that remained of her tunic and jerkin, inspecting his work "It's partially smudged away, it must have been the wet ground you fell onto when you were stunned." He thought for a moment before continuing "Rey...how would you feel if that protection glyph was more...permanent?" Rey shifted her weight a bit and tucked her lower arm under her head, her free hand going back up to twirl her fingers in his hair "What do you mean by 'more permanent'? Are you planning to brand me?" she joked with a quiet laugh. Kylo pulled her hand from his hair and held it in one of his own, drawing gentle circles on her palm with the index finger of his other hand "I could etch it in your skin with ink and needles, tattoo it on, but a better version this time. It won't make you indestructible, but it would make you less vulnerable to many kinds of magic and physical harm. And it wouldn't wash off at the most inconvenient time."
Rey couldn't help but smile; Kylo was so earnest in his desire to protect her, and so uncharacteristically soft-mannered, and it warmed her heart to the core. Neither of them had said "I love you." though Rey liked to call him "love" and they both knew that they had developed strong attachments to each other. His actions said everything he hadn't verbalized, and it was enough for her. She squeezed his hand affectionately "If this is such a great idea, why don't you have any? Aside from a few scars, your skin is perfectly bare." Kylo shrugged "Tattooing protection is rare; we all have unique needs, and these runes and glyphs need to be specifically drawn for their bearers, and you have to have a strong bond with the writer. They need to know your strengths and weaknesses in order for the design to be accurate, and I've never really had anyone who fits that description. Until now." Rey cradled his face in her hands and drew him close, kissing him softly "One more thing you'll have to teach me, I'm afraid; I don't know that I'm much of an artist. Now come here and hold me, I won't be able to sleep until you do."
Shout out to Different2019 for lending a hand with some of the details in this chapter!