EN | An encounter she will never forget | ᴄʜɪʟᴜᴍɪ

8 - The blue-eyed fury

𝗧𝗪 : 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗰 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗩𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱, 𝗜𝗻𝗷𝘂𝗿𝘆

As usual, Paimon and Lumine had set up camp, located on the Guili Plains this time, after eradicating the monsters around. The little fairy had disappeared into her world for the night while Lumine leaned against a tree to fall asleep. Very agitated, but still a slumber.

But as she was sleeping, Lumine was woken up In the middle of the night by a stabbing pain in her left arm. She immediately opened her eyes and saw a Hilichurl leaning over her, which looked to scrutinize her expression.

With the help of adrenaline, she jumped to her feet and moved away from the enemy, narrowly dodging a blow from it with an old rusted sword and certainly blunt.

How can this be, I had cleared the area!

Analyzing the situation, Lumine looked at her numb left arm. She had a deep gash slightly below the shoulder, bleeding profusely.

Unluckily for the enemy, Lumine was right-handed. She summoned her sword with her valid arm, and with a sharp blow neutralized the opponent.

As if by magic, Paimon made a pop at that very moment.

"Lu-lumine, are you alright?!" she asked in a panicked tone as she discovered her friend's injury.

"I'm fine, nothing serious. I just have a little cut on my arm," Lumine said, trying to convince her by intentionally hiding the severity of her injury.

In order to cover her wound, Paimon conjured up some bandages directly from her parallel storage. Lumine took them without hesitation and began to wrap them around the wound with an expert hand. The Traveler had already found herself an uncountable amount of times wounded, especially in her origin's world. In the beginning, Aether was the one healing her systematically, but as time passed by, he became even more reluctant to do it so she had to learn on her own how to take care of herself.

Once correctly wrapped, she clenched the bandage with her teeth, which made her wince.

"You should see a doctor, it looks bad," Paimon said worriedly.

"No, I'll be fine, I don't need—"

Lumine stopped short after grimacing another time in pain when trying to move her injured arm.

"Th-there's nothing to discuss, Paimon is taking you to see a doctor!"

Paimon's voice was falsely authoritative, letting her concern for her wounded friend filter through her voice. She may be slightly annoying and she may have a particularly high-pitched voice for her size, yet the little fairy always cared for her when the situation was necessitating it. She really was the best of her friends.

Understanding that Paimon wouldn't let go of the matter, Lumine sighed and stood up, defeated.

"Alright, let's go."

They both set off in the direction of Bubu Pharmacy in Liyue Harbor, in order to find someone to convenably heal Lumine. All along the way, Paimon kept glancing at Lumine to see if she was still following her and if she was still okay to walk.

With each step Lumine took, the pain was gradually rising. She hadn't felt it at first because of the adrenaline of the fight, but now that she was fighting to reach the pharmacy, she could feel how deep the wound was—and probably infected because of the rust of the guilty sword.

Once the gates of the city passed through, it wasn't relief that Lumine felt, but rather worry that she couldn't make it by herself to the building. Her breathing was becoming more and more irregular, forcing her to take jerky breaths in. The Milleliths posted at the entrance stared at her without leaving their posts, seeming to judge that the pixie next to her was enough of a help.