As much as he wanted to run away, Noctis found out without surprise that he couldn't move a finger. Surrounded by sticky darkness, immobilized against his will, but abnormally calm at the same time, he breathed once, or tried to… he couldn't breathe.

He couldn't breathe!

"Noct! Hey, Noct, quit it, will ya!"

Noctis could hear someone calling him, familiar voice carrying warmth and worry. But at the same time dark mass holding him changed into stinking red liquid, too thick for water and too thin for blood, pulling him in, holding his hands in place and he was drowning, drowning, drowning…

"Your highness, your highness!"

His lungs burned and Noctis could taste salty tears running down his face, when suddenly something both hot and cold surrounded his throat and blinding light rendered him unable to see anything at all.

"He is waking up! Ignis, come quick, he's waking up!"

Unexpectedly, all sounds returned to normal. They weren't splotchy, gurgling or bubbling in his ears anymore, just sounding normally and Noctis nearly cried for real this time, realizing that every terrifying thing he had felt until now was most certainly a dream.

"Your highness, how do you feel? Are you in pain?"

Yes, that was Ignis for sure. Only he would want to immediately make sure that his prince was alive and kicking. Even if he wasn't, not literarily.

However, any try to answer his advisor left Noctis coughing his lungs out.

"Take it easy, boy." came a screeching voice from his side and his throat again engulfed in heat and coldness together and the pain lessened enough for him to swallow freely. Through his eyes, blurred with tears of pain, Noctis could see an older woman observing him keenly, bending over Prompto that sat on the chair nearest the bed. The woman's eyes were scary, yellow and unmoving like those of a wolf…

Wolves!

Noctis coughed again, then tried speaking.

"What… what ha- .."

"It's okay, Noct!" jumping on his chair, Prompto ducked under woman's arm to get to his friend. "Don't speak! The healer said that your voice will be out of action for some time!"

"Exactly." Ignis said from the doorway. From what Noctis could see, many people miled through the house, some talking, some running with errands, some tending to the sick, since he wasn't the only one person bandaged and lying on the bed in the room. "You need rest, your highness. We just wanted to make sure you are in stable condition."

"As you did." barked the woman with yellow eyes. "Now shoo! Yer disturbing the patients!"

"But madame…"

"Am not yer ma'am, young man, and these people need strict bed rest! off you go, both of you!"

While the woman was forcing Prompto and Ignis away with well-practiced gestures, Noctis sighed. That was true, he felt rather tired. Not exactly terrible, but his arm hurt, his throat felt scratchy and his head fuzzy with the remnants of his feverish dream.

The woman came to him, grumbling under her breath about irresponsible young ones that caused more trouble than they were worth. She adjusted his pillows and sheets, being professionally careful about his hurt arm and told him to sleep in rather stern voice. Being touched and moved around didn't actually scare Noctis, as he was quite used to it, being the prince of Lucis and all. It also didn't prevent him from thinking. He was injured, yes, but not severely and he felt he could be up and running the next day, as soon as he got some sleep. He didn't remember much of the fight with the pack of wolves, but it should have turned out alright. As much as he could see, his two friends were alright, not injured and if it came to Gladio, he was the toughest of them and nothing could have happened to him.

Right…?

/

Next time Noctis woke up, it was Gladio that was sitting by his side, sleeping soundly and even snoring a little through his nose. The prince blinked slowly, clearing his vision, as more and more details came into focus. Now, he could see well enough to notice thick dressing at Gladio's nape and shoulders. He wondered for a short moment what was it for, when a memory of the wolf, pack leader standing on Gladio's back, came to him suddenly. As he gasped quietly, Gladio stirred and opened his eyes.

"Morning sleepy head." he said, yawning himself.

"Mor.. nin..g.." Noctis managed to get out from his abused throat.

"Hey, don't try to say anything yet." the bodyguard moved anxiously on his chair. "Mrs Spiderwick will bring you the medicine."

"But.. wha…?"

"What happened, huh? Yeah, I guess you don't remember much, do ya?"

When Noctis nodded, Gladio turned to him fully, moving his chair with him.

"You know when the pack leader appeared, right?" he asked and when the prince nodded again, cringing and massaging his throat through the dressing, he continued. "basically we were sitting ducks, 'coz it turned out some more wolves were still hiding in the bushes. The adults, you know, not the pups. So, even if we could do something about the fuckers attacking us, there were still more to go."

Noctis groaned and Gladio smiled humorlessly. That hadn't been his best day as the bodyguard.

"But as Prompto and Ignis were fighting three wolves and I managed to clock other two, we noticed that the leader wanted to get to you. I was too far and Iggy couldn't shake his wolf without leaving Prompto with them. Then, we heard a whistle, some calling and a group of chocobos jumped right in the center of the party."

Now, Gladio chuckled, as Noctis was giving him the look 'are you kidding me?'.

"No, seriously! There were some kids riding them and they threw this little thingies at the wolves, that erupted with flour, I think? Well, it was helluva effective, since directly after children came adults with guns and weapons and fire and scared the pack. We were freed, only to see that the leader was still advancing on you, Noct."

Noctis quirked an eyebrow.

"But they had a healer with them and they managed to scare the wolf away, the mayor together with two other guys. But this is not the end!" Gladio exclaimed, seeing Noctis frown. as the prince pointed at his own throat, he nodded. "yeah, that's not wolf's doing. When the healer wanted to examine you, you jumped at her and tried to bite her neck!".

Noctis grimaced again.

"It was serious." Gladio said, again becoming calm. "They knocked you out, but you didn't stop to trash around and try to bite somebody. So before we could stop them, the healer ordered one of the men to strangle you. Damn, that scared me shitless, I tell ya. But somehow, it helped you, Noct."

Before Noctis could call bullshit on crazy methods like that, the door opened and the wolf eyes lady strode in.

"Your medicine, lad." she said sternly. Watching as he drank she added "Yer friend said the truth. 'Vampirism' is a serious thing to treat. Especially when you guys didn't have anything to treat it with." the woman snorted and Gladio sighed tiredly.

"Yeah, yeah, we know that Mrs. Spiderwick. You told us enough times, Ignis was near tears already."

Noctis laughed soundlessly, not being able to believe such obvious lie. Gladio winked to him.

"You're the patient Noct, but you should have heard Mrs. Spiderwick when she got Prom and Iggy in her clutches. They looked worse than me in the end."

/

"I don't like it."

Ignis got into the car with a meaningful force closing the door. As they were told that the prince shouldn't still be running about, he was positioned on the back seat, leaning halfway on the leather and some on Prompto, who still felt crazy guilty for the whole ordeal. While Noctis really tried to calm him down and limit the damage caused by Prom's honest tries to make the situation better, after the third time of listening to chaotic apologizes when the other so much as touched him, he resigned.

"What? You didn't get directions from the mayor?" Gladio asked from the front seat. He tried real hard to ignore Prompto's squeaking fidgeting, but it was starting to get on his nerves, already wrecked by Mrs. Spiderwick's rough hospitality.

"I did." Ignis was still frowning. "But he gave me a rather peculiar look, when I said we want to meet Witch of the East."

"Did he?"

"I didn't imagine that." Ignis snarled angrily. Since the unexpected accident with the wolves, he seemed jumpy and constantly irritated. He put the key into ignition and turned it with so much force that the engine whizzed in protest.

"I didn't say you did" the bodyguard said carefully, seeing that Ignis' knuckles went white on the steering wheel. When the advisor was like this, much caution was highly recommended.

But the probable argument was cut short with a heavy sigh from the back seat.

"Can we please just go? People are looking at us strangely."

"Yes, your highness." this time the ignition answered smoothly and after a few seconds to compose himself and not to set anything on fire, Ignis pulled away from the village road.