Auri awoke to a red dawn. She lifted her head off her outstretched arm and groaned. If she didn't find a proper bed soon she feared for her sanity. She had thought of a plan, it depended on several factors and discretion. The latter would probably be her undoing. She rose from the ground and began shoving her scattered belongings into her pack.
She rolled up her bedroll and had just sheathed her steel when a seemingly disgruntled Mawr yawned from the back of the cave. Auri turned.
'You said you'd leave at first light.'
'I did.'
'Why are you still here then?' she asked and grew more furious by the minute. How fucking hard was it for him to just leave?
'You seem to rack up monsters wherever you go, I am in need of monsters.'
'No.' she said adamantly and fastened the leather strap to the bedroll and tossed it across her shoulders. Mawr chuckled from behind her and she wanted to throw her tankard at his sneering face. He rose.
'Why?'
'Because you'll get in the way. I still don't trust you, all I want is to get back home, leave this fucking place behind and see my family. And you,' she pointed a finger at his chest when he walked up to her, 'give me more trouble than aid. I did what you said, you have your teeth. Go back to Redania or wherever it is you came from and get your contracts. I have to get to Skellige.'
'You're an Islander? That's where you're going? Mawr asked and his brows furrowed. He was thinking. A muscle in his jaw kept flexing and his eyes narrowed an inkling.
'I'm from Fayrlund. I have to get home to my father. I'm needed there. Aedirn is not for me, neither is this place apparently since I can never get a fucking break from Nilfgaardian soldiers and very inquisitive former generals!' she said and shoved her way past him. Her shoulder hit his arm and he hissed. Auri stopped dead in her tracks and scowled at him. He was in pain. She saw it even clearer up close. His skin had a pallid sheen to it, his eyes were bloodshot and his gaze refused to focus. Auri extended a finger and poked it hard into the crook of his right elbow.
'Fucking hell! What did you do that for?' Mawr hissed and wrenched his arm away from her. Auri gave him no respite whatsoever and grabbed it before he managed to hide it behind his back. Her fingers dug into the boiled leather and when her thumb swept over his exposed skin she cursed.
'You were bit!' His skin was warm, clammy and reeked of infection. Auri reached for her dagger and quickly cut loose the linen he'd tied around the wound. The smell of pepper vodka and herbs made her gag, that wasn't the worst of it she realized when the seeping cloth fell to the ground. His voice was ragged and shallow when he spoke.
'I didn't think it would get this bad in a couple of hours. I was about to leave, I-'
'Shut up,' she interrupted and dragged her dagger the rest of the way up beneath the leather to his shoulder. She'd have to clean it, burn away the necrotic skin and then stitch it if he should have any chance of keeping the arm.
'Oh, so you're helping now? What happened to 'get the fuck away from me?'' he asked, sweat running down his temples.
'This is infectious, you fucking moron.' she replied and pulled on his arm to make him follow.

She walked him out into the light, forced him to sit down on the ground and made her way over to the small stream that had broken free from the Yaruga. To be a soldier and still be this stupid? How the hell was it even possible? Everyone knew that ghoul-bites were dangerous. The necrosis blackened the skin and killed the healthy tissue underneath. If he'd gone any further without telling her he would have lost the arm, or he could have infected her. She had a number of small cuts, and any drop of infected blood from him would surely make her sick too.

She filled a skin of water and grumbled. On her way back to the cave she spotted him with his head to the skies. His breathing had hollowed out even more, she didn't see his chest move at all now. His curls were plastered to his face and his neck and cheeks had a sickly tint of green.
'Did they bite you before or after I found you?' she asked and knelt down by his side, inspecting the blackening skin and the green pus leaking from the four jagged marks around his elbow.
'Before,' he said weakly and swallowed. 'What are you going to do?'

Auri looked at him. His bloodshot eyes scanned her face and it amused her to find a slight look of panic on his face.
'Clean it, burn away the dead skin and then stitch it. Hopefully it won't spread and you'll get to keep the arm, if not I know of a good-'

His hand locked around her wrist and he dragged her face so close to his that their noses nearly touched.
'Do not fucking play with me, Auri!' he snarled. It hurt him more to move quickly, she saw his skin grow paler and the color drained from his face.
'I can leave you to the necrosis, or you can take your fucking hand off me and let me help before I bite you as well!' she said and moved his clammy hand back to his lap.
She only had to threaten to end his life twice before he finally let her look at the arm. In the time it had taken her to notice it, get the water and then walk back over to him the black veins had curled lower, nearly reaching his wrist. They snaked their way around the already healing cut- He'd cut himself to hide the bite. Idiot.
'This will hurt,' she said and uncorked the water-skin.
'I don't care. I spent half a year in a dungeon, I'll take a bite any day.' he said and stretched his arm out toward her. She had been about to ask him about what he meant but the smell from him made her clamp her lips shut and only breathe out through her nose. He fucking reeked. The skin had blackened, cracked and was now leaking smelly blood and saliva all over her. Auri poured water over the bites and most of the dirt, sweat and grime ran to the ground with it, and the sweet-smelling infection soon covered both her arms and her thighs.

He didn't balk until she grabbed the alcohol. Then his face cringed up and the unfocused blur in his eyes went away in an instant.
'Is this really necessary?' he tried when she upended the bottle over his arm.
'Alcohol equals arm, no alcohol, no arm.' she said curtly and cringed at the smell. She'd give anything to have a bottle of pure spirit from Skellige. It would kill whatever bacteria he'd contracted in a day. This would take several days to heal, which meant she'd have to stay with him even longer. She couldn't find it in herself to leave him here to die. He'd saved her life, despite her not needing that much help. And, if she healed his arm they were even and she could tell him to fuck off with a bit more authority when she didn't owe him anything.

Auri left the empty bottle on the ground and reached for the leather strap around her bedroll.
'Now what?' Mawr asked and panted wildly. She knew it hurt, it was his fucking fault he hadn't been truthful in the first place. If he had told her yesterday she would have burnt the infection out before he even blinked. Now-
'I have to burn away the infected skin. Fire heals, remember I said the water would hurt, the fire is worse-'
'I know it fucking hurts! I'm a commander, not a child!' he snapped and grabbed the leather strap from her and angrily shoved it in between his teeth.
'Then why do you act like a child?' she began and snapped a finger. 'It's infectious, and it kills! You should have told me!'
The scowl he sent her made her furious. She had half the mind to drop his arm and leave his ass. The ghouls would find him again and soon he'd be dead. Right now, if she stole his horse there was no way for him to stop her, he couldn't even stand up straight, much less protect himself.
'Just get on with it,' he mumbled and dropped his scowling. Perhaps he'd figured out that antagonizing her right now wasn't the brightest idea. Auri circled her finger in the air and begged her thundering heart to still. Keeping the flame small was difficult, throwing out massive balls of fire and wreathing entire fields in flame was easy. She'd done it before, but this..
Keeping the flame a little more than a flicker, contained and concise took more of her energy than she'd thought.

Mawr instinctively tried to drag his arm away when the flame neared his skin. Auri moved. She placed her knee in his open palm and forced his arm down to the ground, keeping his elbow and the bites exposed. He turned his shoulder a little to keep the strain off his bent arm.
'Claw at me all you want, just remember to bite down. Though I assume you'd be less annoying with no tongue-'

Mawr kicked her in the shin. She pissed him off on purpose, anything to keep his left hand from hovering over the sword next to him. Auri grabbed a hold of his arm again and forced her flaming finger down to his skin. His teeth clamped down on the leather strap and his jaw tensed with such ferocity she feared for the strap. And his tongue.

She worked as quickly as possible. It was like trying to hold onto a slippery eel, no matter what she did or how she moved her hand all he did was pull his arm away from her. His fingers gripped around her knee and sharp nails dug into her skin, when she looked at his face she understood why.
Mawr was terrified of fire. He didn't blink and his breathing quickened every time the flame flared.
'Sodden didn't go well for you, did it?' she asked, trying to keep his mind off her finger searing away the dead flesh coating his elbow.
'No,' he mumbled through gritted teeth, still biting down on the creaking leather.
'I assume the Nilfgaardians captured and tortured you, you said you spent half a year in a dungeon. This is the same fire, Mawr.' she continued and lifted her finger from his arm, following the bubbling skin up to the worst bite. 'Except this time, it's going to heal you.'

Auri had meant for her words to calm him, it did the opposite. The further up his arm her flames crackled, the more panic shone on his face. The fire reflected in his pale eyes and even if he wanted to look away he didn't, he kept staring at his own skin being burnt off, kept staring as the healthy tissue underneath exposed itself and he kept staring as Auri reached for a second bottle of foul-smelling alcohol.

He screamed. He tried to control it but he still screamed when the clear liquid burnt the fresh wound. The hand around her knee opened and closed repeatedly, nails still digging into the already sore and split skin. His other hand was fisted in the grass, and much to her relief, nowhere near the blade.

Auri ripped a long strip of cloth from her cloak, dunked it in the rest of the alcohol and tied it around his elbow.
'Any tighter and your blood flow will be gone. Keep an eye on it and for fuck's sake, change it if it smells.' she said and dried her hands on her pants.

The sweat pooled in the crook of his neck and she half wondered if he'd gone mad. He said nothing, he only stared at his hand and then at hers.
'Are you okay?' she asked tentatively, trying to find his eyes underneath all the sweating and pain.
'I can't feel my arm,' he said and removed the strap. 'Which is good, I suppose.'
'You will feel it soon enough. If it heals well you won't need stitches.' she said and rose from the ground. She was halfway to the back of the cave when she heard his footsteps. She should leave him. He'd be fine now, they were even. She crossed her arms over her chest and scrutinized the shabby-looking commander currently standing in the way of the light.
'I'll take you to Skellige, consider it payment,' he waved his bandaged arm weakly in her general direction. 'For this.'