Vio was lost.
Not only lost, but with all the bruises he had on his exhausted and famished body, it was a miracle that he was still alive and walking.
Needless to say, Vio didn't like this situation at all.
He had no idea where he was or who he was, the first memory he has is he is drowning in a stone bed in that strange cave and his whole body is aching, as if he had just finished a fight for life or death, and wasn't sure if he won.
Pain that worsened with every step he took, as if every muscle fiber he had was being brutally attacked with every tiny movement he made. Even breathing was hard work, and Vio was sure that this shouldn't happen.
But Vio is not weak, he is strong, and he refused to fall before he knew what was happening. Especially because of the female voice that spoke to him, commenting on his rude awakening, and this strange Sheikah Slate resting on his belt.
Grunting in pain, Vio leaned against the trees as he walked, holding his bow tightly with his other hand. The bruise on his rib was getting purple, just as his right leg refused to take his weight again. Vio didn't care. Now he was armed and would not succumb so easily.
A movement several meters ahead on the lowest level of where he was caught the young man's attention. He frowned a little, his vision sharpened, but half clouded by his hunger, trying to understand what lay ahead of him. It seemed to be a lake, with some creature approaching the lake through the trees. Taking a deep breath and ignoring all the pain in his weakened body, Vio silently marched toward the suspicious movement.
He stood on the highest ground he could without being detected and looked around. In the lake he had seen, was an encampment with five Bokoblins, two of them in small towers watching around, while the other three baked a reasonably large animal. Vio again ignored the pain in his belly and continued to scan around when his eyes fixed on the creature he had seen before.
A person like him was hidden among the treetops, using a rusty medium-sized sword with a chain on the sword's wrist that was wrapped around the young man's wrist to hang on the tree, and what looked like a wooden shield on his back. His clothes were different that Vio wore and had a few rips at the edges. The person looked like Vio, but he seemed to have more muscles, beyond his tanned skin, black hair and red eyes.
Red-eyes that were directed exactly to where Vio was.
The Red-Eyes gave a small wave with his free hand, Vio blinked before looking around. When he was sure the other person was talking to him, the young blond man hesitantly returned the nod, which made the brunette smile.
Vio was once again lost on what to do, he knew he should have another like him around, but he still created a strange feeling in him when he came upon another young man. The brunette looked at the group of Bokoblins and again at the blond, he pointed at the blond, then at him before pointing to the Bokoblins and making the move to break something in the air.
The young blond blinked, considering the offer, it seemed too good to be true. He forced her body to become visibly tense and frowned, pulling back slightly as they faced the other young man. The brunette rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then pointed to the camp and made a rectangle in the air, cutting exactly in the center before pointing between them three times.
Now this is a much more acceptable offer than the previous one. It still looked suspicious, but much more credible. Relaxing, Vio straightened and raised an eyebrow as he tilted his head to one side.
The brunette's response was simply to shrug before reaching out with a small smile.
Trust him? Vio just met this guy and he's asking the blond to trust him? This is stupid in many ways ... Just as it would be to face that group of Bokoblins alone. Vio was strong, but not stupid. He sighed before picking up an arrow from his quiver and preparing in the bow, waving at the other young man. The Red-Eyes also waved before beginning to approach the encampment through the trees.
The young archer silently climbed down the hill, feeling his injured leg protest the movement. He ignored it again as he adjusted, he had few arrows and could not afford to spend for no reason, especially if he was not sure if the other guy would fulfill his share of the deal.
Vio looked up and found the brunet ready on a branch near one of the lookouts, hidden among the leaves. The blond aim at the other lookout carefully, waiting for the best opportunity to shoot, and wasted no time when it came. The arrow hit the head, killing the monster, and the impact knocked the body off the edge of the little watchtower.
This caused the necessary distraction they needed, the Bokoblins headed toward the downed ally, and the brunet took advantage to eliminate the other lookout, stabbing his sword in the neck and covering the monster's mouth to keep it from making a noise. The brunet silently placed the body in the tower and descended to the ground, sneaking toward the other Bokoblins. Vio had also shifted his position to one closer to the lake before firing at what was in the middle, right in the left eye, scaring the others of the group again when they saw another ally fall dead.
Again taking advantage of the distraction, the brunet attacked the nearest red monster, beheaded in a single blow. The other Bokoblin quickly turned and picked up his weapon, striking a blow that would surely have been painful if the swordsman had not intercepted his bone-adorned shield. They began a confrontation, where the Red-Eyes seemed to be at an advantage, and Vio prepared his bow again for any unforeseen event to occur in the fight.
It was when a strong impact hit Vio's back, taking the archer completely off guard and knocking him to the ground. With a new pain in the spine, the blonde turned his face and saw a new Bokoblin with a weapon, ready to attack again, Vio quickly turned on his back and blocked the attack with his bow.
The Bokoblin growled and put more pressure, possibly trying to break the bow to the force. The blonde did not have much physical strength and the new injury on his back did not help, but he refused to lose this fight, he refused to be weak. The monster braced itself for another blow when a sword was thrown and be stuck on the monster's shoulder, and the archer turned his face enough to see the Red-Eyes a few feet from where he was, holding the chain tightly and expression would be in the face.
And the Red-Eyes's eyes ... They were shining.
Maybe Vio had hit his head hard when he fell, but the young blonde was sure that the brunette's red irises were emitting a little unnatural glow, especially as sunlight was receding at that moment.
"GET OVER HERE!" He screamed before pulling the chain hard, bringing the sword and the monster to himself. The brunet hit the monster with the shield before blocking with the sword the attack of the other Bokoblin he was facing before, now starting a two-on-one fight.
Vio was trembling from the effort and pain as he rose, coughing a little and feeling a taste of copper in his mouth. Using all the rest of the strength he still had, the blond caught one of the fallen arrows and aim at the less injured Bokoblin. The blood dripping from his forehead slightly distupted his vision, but he still managed to hit the knee of his target. The monster screamed in pain and crouched to try to take the arrow, and the brunet quickly made a deep diagonal cut in the Bokoblin he was fighting , and soon afterwards plunged the sword into the skull of the crouching monster, finally eliminating all the enemies.
The two young men were panting, the adrenaline of combat starting to subside with each breath. The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, the swordsman certainly in a much better condition than the archer, even though he had been on the front line, which bothered the archer somewhat. He tried to say something, but his frail and injured body finally succumbed to pain and he fell into the lake.
That awful sensation again erupted in his chest as he felt all the air in his lungs leave his body. He tried to swim to the surface, but his limbs refused to respond, his lungs and throat began to burn and his chest felt like it would explode along with his head. He couldn't think straight, and he couldn't move, and his whole body ached and burned, and he wanted to scream and cry, but he couldn't think straight, and ...
The last thing he saw were strangely familiar red eyes.
Lightness, that was the first thing Vio felt when he regained consciousness. His body was still aching, but to a much lower degree than before, and his hunger vanished, leaving his head much lighter now that a part of his brain wasn't constantly complaining and demanding that he do something about it.
Slowly, he began to open his eyes and faced the dark blue sky full of bright stars. Vio blinked, a little confused about what was happening, before he tried to get up.
"Do not move," a male voice said. The young blonde turned his face a little and ran into the familiar Red-Eyes. "You are still very hurt, try not to move too much."
The brunette was sitting next to him, making some kind of mixture on a leaf. He was without his shirt, used to bandage his right arm, and had a kind of pasty solution passed on his shoulder blades. As he turned, the blond spotted a strange mark / tattoo on his left side to chest in the form of a quadruped animal with a relatively long neck and two humps on its back.
The type of drawing closely resembled the eagle's drawing that Vio had on his right arm.
"Eat, it will ease the pain and accelerate healing." The swordsman handed over the mixture he was making, lifting the archer's head slightly in the process. The blonde hesitated a little before eating what was offered, his taste being much better than the appearance. He ate as much as he could before feeling his stomach twisting, apparently unable to take any more food, and tried to sit up, the brunet quickly helped him and left him leaning on the nearby fallen log before pushing away the food a little from the archer. All the while being watched by the blonde. "Shadow."
"What?"
"My name is Shadow. Or at least that is how I got called. "He turned to the blond with a small smile. "And you?"
"... Vio."
"Cool name, at least I find it more creative than 'Shadow'." He gave a small laugh and stood up, approaching a bonfire almost erased and fed the fire with a few branches before he sat next to the blond. "How you feels?"
"I'm sore, but not so much. I'm more confused about what's happening than sore. "As soon as he answered, Vio frowned a little, wondering if it was normal to respond so frankly to a complete stranger. But again, Shadow has helped him, so maybe he can have some of his confidence.
"I am in the same boat as you, buddy, mostly because you have a Sheikah Slate like mine." The Red-Eyes commented as he showed two Sheikah Slates in his hands. Vio raised a little eyebrow as he switched his gaze to the two identical objects, and Shadow handed him the one on the right. "Here, this is yours. I know this because he has a little bird symbol that mine does not have in the corner ... That and the fact that it does not respond right to my touch, I think it only works with the real owners. "
Gently, the archer took his artifact and examined it carefully, then reached out his hand in a silent request for the other and examined it as well. In fact, right in the lower left corner of the fist, it had the design of the animal equal to what they had, and Vio was curious to know what kind of connection existed in all this.
The archer returned the artifact corresponding to the swordsman before finally deciding to examine his body to find out how much damage he has suffered in the last few days. He was half-naked, so it was easy to see that the pasty solution and the improvised bandages covered him almost from head to toe, with some regions looking more swollen than others, such as his torso and right leg. His foot was again in a natural angle and had some branches in the bandages to leave immobilized the region. Vio touched his head to check. Correction, he was definitely bandaged from head to toe.
"... I do not know what happened to you, but it seems you have not had a quiet day since you woke up, correct?" The swordsman asked after the archer finished examining himself. Vio looked up at the dark-haired man.
"You woke up in a cave too." It was not a question, but the brunet nodded nonetheless. "... My first memory is of me be drowning."
"The water around you was not drained when you woke up?" Shadow stared at him now with a strange emotion on his face, but something in Vio didn't like that look. The blonde shook his head and Shadow looked down at the floor. "That explains why you looked so scared when I was taking you out of the lake ... I thought it was you drowning, but it seems that your fear is much deeper ..."
"Fear?" Vio recognized the word, but its meaning seemed to have escaped his mind. The swordsman blinked, looking lost or ... Some other similar emotion.
"You ... You do not know what it is to be afraid?" The archer denied it again, and the Red-Eyes again stared at him strangely. The strange sensation in his chest returned to a smaller scale, along with the discomfort, do people transmit as many unknown emotions as Shadow or was it just him? "Tell me, what did you feel at that moment?"
"I ..." Vio hesitated, why should he answer that? This wasn't important and it wasn't the brunet's business ... Still, something told the blonde that he could talk to the other young man. "... I couldn't think straight, my arms didn't move, my chest ached ... And my head throbbed, but I think it was because of the bruise on my head."
"It was a bad feeling, was not it?" The archer nodded, watching as a soft smile appeared on the swordsman's face. "What you have felt is called fear, and maybe a good deal of panic."
"Fear ..." The blonde frowned, that word gaining a bitter taste in his mouth. "I don't like this."
"I bet you are not the only one." Shadow hesitated a little before extending his hand to Vio. "It is okay to feel fear, it is a natural feeling ... But if you are still afraid and do not want to feel now, you can hold my hand if you want."
Vio looked at the outstretched hand with a small frown, not understanding how to hold his hand would make that feeling stop. Touches hurt, anything alive that touch on the blond always hurt, so he seriously doubted that touching Shadow could help, it should make things worse.
Still, he decided to risk it, the worst that could happen is his hand start to throb, but he was accustomed to it. Slowly, he held the Red-Eyes's hand, still with a scowl on his face as he looked at the swordsman, making it clear that it wasn't working.
... Although slowly, the small heat that emanated in their joined hands began to spread through the painful body of the blonde.
He hadn't realized how tense he was with that contact until he began to feel his body relax without his permission and his mind stop buzzing. Vio blinked, the part in his brain that wasn't relaxed was totally stunned by what was happening. Contacts should hurt, he should be feeling pain right now, but that particular touch didn't hurt. On the contrary, the contact had a gentle warmth never felt before made Vio felt ... Safe.
"Better?" The blond nodded, still stunned and relaxed. "Good ... If you are feeling that way again, do not hesitate to talk to me, okay?"
Shadow let go of his hand then, getting up and heading toward the fire. The blonde slowly lifted his hand, still feeling the heat in his palm. With a single touch, Shadow had managed to make the blonde relax in a way he hadn't before since Vio awakened, made him feel safe as never before, he had ...
... He had destroyed all the defenses that Vio had made with so much effort in a simple touch.
The heat in his hand instantly cooled with that thought.
Shadow ... He was strong ...
... Stronger than anything Vio had found.
His hand began to tremble.
The law of the strongest was the first thing Vio had understood when he awoke. If you aren't strong, you are just another prey for the strongest, who is waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill the weakest. Only the strongest should prevail, nothing beneath it survives.
The tremble ran through his body.
Vio was asleep for how long, hours? Days? All this time, Shadow took food, protected the encampment alone, and even found medicinal herbs enough to heal both. And he doesn't seem to have had any problems since he is still moving as if nothing had happened.
His breath hitched.
Shadow was the strong, not Vio. Vio was weak, very weak compared to the Red-Eyes. If the brunet wanted to, the archer would be dead by now ...
... Maybe he would be dead soon.
Her vision blurred.
Maybe Shadow wanted to make the blond feel safe before he decided to kill him.
... Vio wasn't the strongest ...
... He could be killed at any moment and there was nothing he could do.
He...
...
...
... He was having another attack.
Vio embraced tremulously, in a faint attempt to calm himself. His mind was a thousand an hour, but he couldn't concentrate on what he was thinking right, everything around him summed up to nothing as he felt his chest explode along with his lungs. He didn't know what was happening, and some small part of him seemed conscious enough to not like this situation, but Vio couldn't concentrate on anything else besides the nothing that his mind navigated, the fear that his body felt and the tremor of his head, or maybe it was the other way around? He didn't know any more! What was happening? Does it really matter considering he would be dead soon?
… breath… Take a deep breath...
A voice whispered in the blond's head, who did everything to focus on it, in a last attempt to anchor himself in reality. Vio didn't know when time was here, trying to escape from that mental prison, but finally began to feel his body again. The first thing he felt was a gentle warmth in his right arm, then a presence next to him. Vio put everything he had so he could raise his gaze and discover what was next to him.
A dark haired man with tanned skin was sitting next to him, his hand on the blond's arm as his red eyes watched him with some intensity and unfamiliar feelings.
... Red Eyes...
"Take a deep breath, I know you can." The Red-Eyes ... Shadow whispered gently, his hand gently going up and down the blond's arm. He had left a space that should be comfortable between them, but something in Vio made that fear come back to him, the distance of a few inches between them seeming miles that increased every second.
At that moment, Vio didn't care if it was a false sensation or a trap, he just wanted to feel safe.
When the blond realized, he was hugging the red eyes man as if it was the only thing that separated him from life and death, held tightly to the swordsman as if it were the last thing he would do forever. A part of the blond's mind noticed red marks where his nails had pierced the swordsman's skin, but the rest only desperately tried to feel that safety again, that only contact that had not hurt him.
"Yes, continue like this ... You are doing very well." Shadow kept whispering in his ear and the blond's conscious part felt disgusted when it noticed that Vio was shaking and whimpering like an abandoned puppy. "... You are very strong, you know that?"
Vio's breath hitched.
"You survived all this time alone, fighting even really hurt, and still had this anxiety problem?" The brunette gave a small laugh. "I think I would have gone crazy the first day, but here you are, fighting your mind and winning." Still shaking, Vio looked up and met the gentlest expression he had ever seen. "You are definitely very strong, Vio."
They stared at each other for a few seconds before the blond rested his forehead on the young man's shoulder. Shadow hugged the archer as he continued to whisper in his ear. Vio had no idea how long they were like that, but it should have been a few hours, considering that when Vio calmed down, the sky began to take on a lighter tone.
With no hesitation, the archer quickly stepped back from the Red-Eyes, who simply sat more comfortably, not attempting to approach again, leaving the blond even more grateful. For the first time in his attacks, physical contact was good for calming and keeping him safe, but he definitely felt more comfortable without any kind of touch.
The two sat in silence for a while, watching the sky slowly become clear and the stars disappear. The blonde reflected on what happened, with his defenses having returned a little, he was managing to think more clearly, but something still didn't make sense.
"... Thanks for helping me, you didn't need to do this," He commented after a while. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shadow shrug.
"It was not a big deal."
"No, serious, you really didn't need to do this. And you still don't have to." The archer turned to face the swordsman's face. "You're strong, you can deal with anything in that region alone, that's pretty clear. Then why are you helping me? Even though I'm strong too, I'm hurt. Why bother to help me when you can obviously keep moving forward without help? "
The question made Shadow finally turn his gaze to the blond, an empty expression on his face. He stared at the archer for a few seconds, as if analyzing it, before closing his eyes and sighing, scratching the back of his head in the process.
"You got me ... Being completely honest? Well, that is two reasons for that. The first motive is selfish. "The brunette's expression became serious as he returned to face the blonde directly, feelings that Vio did not recognize mixed in a single glance. "I need you to survive. I want to leave this place, but I can not do it alone. I know, I already tried ... I need help getting out of here, and I specifically need your help getting out. "
"Oh ... I see." That ... made a lot of sense to Vio. If he was lucky, then that would also make him leave that region. The blonde tilted his head a little thoughtfully. "... and the second reason?" The question brought back the swordman's gentle smile.
"The second reason is more altruistic ... I helped you because even though you were strong, you were suffering."
Vio raised his eyebrow, skeptical, making Shadow give a laugh.
"I am serious!" He leaned a little to the blonde's direction, but did not approach any more than that. "You were in pain, apparently since you woke up. The world has decided to be cruel to you for some reason, perhaps to make you stronger, and made you suffer almost all bad, but I am not the world. "A soft smile appeared on the swordsman's face as his voice took on a more tone soft. "No soul deserves to suffer like this, and even if you were not the one I sought, I would still help you ... I will not let you suffer, Vio. No anymore."
The sincerity in his voice left Vio stunned. He watched the swordsman get up and turn a half-burned meat skewers into the bonfire. Maybe they were being done when Vio had a attack.
This was so different from what he'd seen since awake. It was a fact that the archer hadn't been awake for a long time, but all the strong beings he encountered were cruel or savage. Vio couldn't understand how someone so strong could be so gentle in such a cruel world ...
...
...
... No, maybe it wasn't like that.
"Shadow."
Maybe the fact that he continues to be gentle, even in such a cruel world, is what makes him strong.
The Red-Eyes turned, wanting to know what the blonde would say.
And maybe gentleness wasn't and will never be Vio's strong point, but he had something that was as strong as the swordsman's gentleness, reserved for when he met someone trustworthy.
Vio stared at Shadow with a determined expression.
And maybe, just maybe ... He finally found that person he was looking for unconsciously.
"I'll help you out of this place ... And after that, I'll continue to help you, as long as you let me stay by your side."
A smile, confident and grateful, appeared on Shadow's face, and Vio couldn't help but reciprocate, even on a much smaller scale.
Shadow is strong, he is brave, he is gentle, and he is prepared to face anything the world throws at him with a little smile and warm red eyes.
And Vio was willing to follow those red eyes until the end, no matter how difficult.
"Sounds like a deal to me."