Luberto

Recovering

I woke up looking at a rock face. I bolted upright and quickly took in my surroundings, realizing I was back at my parent's house, underwater. I looked beside me and saw Alberto asleep on the bed next to mine. He was sitting cross-legged, leaning against one of the end walls of the alcove. I let out a breath, looking through the doorway, and into the main room. I tried to stand, but grew lightheaded and had to sit back down. I groaned at the pain in my head and Alberto stirred.

"Luca?" He mumbled hopefully, still asleep. The faint sunlight coming through the window glinted off his scales.

I lay down on my side, looking at Alberto as he continued to ramble on sleepily. I laughed softly, and he jolted awake. "Luca?" he asked. My mom rushed into the room at the sound of his voice, ignoring Alberto and looking me over. I shooed her away, saying, "Mom, I'm fine!"

"You are not fine! Your friend had to carry you here from the surface!" She said, gesturing to Alberto. I looked past my mom at Alberto, who was looking at the floor. My mom was still talking, and I turned my attention back to her. "-Now he couldn't tell me the entire story before he fell asleep, but I do know that you got in a fight with that Ercole human. And I know that he fought through a concussion to get you here."

"Concussion?" I looked back at Alberto, who had looked up, but seemed dazed. Like he wasn't quite with us.

"Yes. You two are going to stay here until he's better. I sent your father to the surface to tell Giulia and Massimo." I looked at Alberto again, then back at my mom. I nodded, She swam out of the room, and I saw that Alberto had fallen back asleep. I would need to get the story out of him, I couldn't remember exactly what happened. But I figured I would let him rest for a while. I lay back down, looking at the rock face again. and After a few minutes, I fell back to sleep.

Over the next couple of days, I got bits and pieces of the story from Alberto as he started to feel better. But after a while, he would start to ramble, talking about his dad,  what he'd done while I was at school, and occasionally, complete nonsense, before falling asleep again. As far as I knew, Ercole had knocked me out,  and the he and Alberto had fought, Ercole had shoved him and he hit his head on what he assumed was a rock. He'd grabbed me, and brought me here. I could finally get up and move around without almost passing out, and when Alberto would start to ramble, I would sit next to him, my hand on his shoulder. It seemed to help him relax.

 After about a week, Alberto was recovered enough to return to the surface. We said goodbye to my family, and set off to Portorosso.