Y/n woke up in a daze to darkness. Admittedly, she panicked for a second and even hit her head on the roof as she tried to lift herself up, but after remembering that she had slept in a hole in the ground she was able to feel around with the back of her hand for the leaf wall and crawl back out. A sharp pain and burning sensation in her hands brought her back to her senses and she remembered everything that happened beforehand.
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He'd been searching for hours. It's hard to tell if this spell was working at all. "Stupid old book... Do spells change over time?"
He'd retrieved Y/n's palisman before they burned it and stopped at the market to get food since he figured she would probably be hungry after a long nap and being exhausted for so long. A couple of apples and stuff would surely suffice.
Her tracks led all over the place which made it really difficult to find where she had gone, but he followed them carefully even when they became confusing to follow and eventually, found where she had been hiding. The magic that made the tracks glow blue made it easier to see where they led and the footsteps had slowed down around this area and stopped to turn around for a moment then crawled down into a little hole under a tree root, blocking the entrance with a pile of leaves.
He kneeled down and tried his best to quietly move the leaf pile so he could peek inside and confirm it was who he was searching for. At the sight of morning light entering the burrow and emitting light onto her face, he confirmed it and let Y/n be, carefully moving the leaf pile back to where it was and taking a seat close by. They were close to the edge of the forest in Latissa so the trees weren't dense enough to block out all the sunlight in front of them.
The sunrise cast warm rays through the forest and onto his face. Though it was hard to see from his point of view and through the mask, the sky around the sun was still visible and he took the chance to admire the warm colors on the horizon.
He sat there for hours until the sun was already overhead until he heard a thump and the leaves move.
Y/n had finally woken up and crawled out hissing in pain and holding her breath while she bared the pain she experienced by dragging her beat-up hands across the dirt to pull herself out of the tight squeeze of the burrow. Unfortunately, she doesn't know any healing magic so she has no way to heal herself right now, but had planned to make it to town to find something or someone to help, assuming anyone is willing to not turn her in to Belos.
Y/n sat on her knees when she finally got out of the hole to wake up and process some things for a second, but immediately sensed a presence close by and whipped her head around to find the familiar gold-and-white-themed uniform and the golden owl mask. At the sight of him, she tensed up and stood defensively. "Ah, you're awake now." He said, calm and passively.
Y/n fell back and hesitated, "How did you find me?"
He presented his book to her before placing it back down next to him. "Old, spellbook stuff." He says and stands up with a staff in his hand. "This is yours if I'm not mistaken." Holding her palisman before her, she gasped and takes it in hand.
"Melanie!" She exclaimed in relief as a little black, white-footed cat transformed and hopped off the staff and onto her shoulder where she took the cat in her arms and cradle her close to her chest. "Thank god, I'm so sorry I couldn't get you back then. I thought you were gone." Melanie purred softly into Y/n's chest and dug her claws into her shirt.
"I also got you food for you to regain your energy." He holds a bag up to her, with it filled to the brim with fruits and vegetables.
Though he helped her, Y/n was still cautious. "Why are you helping me? Is it part of some scheme? Are these fruits spiked with some sleeping spell?"
He flinches in shock. "Why would I let you get away if it means I would have to go through all this trouble to catch you again!" His voice cracks and he clears his throat. "I felt bad for what us coven members did and felt obligated to give you a second chance in some sense... Whatever spell you used in your words worked because it guilt-tripped me real good."
"I never used any spell..." She retaliates and turns back to her palisman to give her attention. "And I don't trust you."
He sighs. "Just take the food if anything. I paid good money for it." He says and shoved it into her hand. "You can believe me or choose not to but I'm not gonna turn you in. But whether I help you get out again will depend. Just don't get caught again." He was about to walk away before looking back real quick. "Oh. If you need healing, I can offer a bit of assistance."
Y/n looked down at her messed-up hands. Covered in dirt, fur, blood. She had already dealt with the pain enough to forget it was there. She really wanted to refuse but it was starting to get really bad and she knew she had to treat them, but she couldn't heal them herself. "There's a river up ahead, go rinse your hands off a bit so the process is less painful." He says and points outside the tree line.
Y/n hesitated and looked down to Melanie then set her on the ground and head down to the river he mentioned. It was a surprisingly clean river so it didn't hurt Y/n too much to clean her hands in, for which she was thankful. Golden Guard followed behind her at a good distance and waited for her to finish, watching intensely from behind as she crouched over the edge of a rock. "So, when you say painful, how painful do you mean?" She asked, nervous to deal with more pain. "I didn't think healing spells would hurt that much."
"Oh, I didn't say anything about spells, did I?" He grabs both Y/n's wrists aggressively with one hand and pours some sort of bottled liquid onto her palms. All was done do swiftly so she couldn't have time to react and pull away. Due to her hesitant reaction before, he figured he should just do it quickly without giving her a warning.
She would have described that pain to be worse than drowning in lava, but in reality, it wasn't worse than a really hard high-five. The shock just made her mind exaggerate. "AAAAAAAAAAOWA!" She yelled so loud that birds in the surrounding area flew away in fear.
"I said it would hurt." He shrugs and puts the bottle back into a bag he had been carrying with him.
"You never said it would hurt that bad!" She snapped and yanked her hands away. "What did you infect me with!?"
"I infected you with a potion that will help you heal faster. There's no guarantee that you won't have any scars though, you seem to have waited too long to treat them." He says and takes out some white rolled-up bandage wraps from his bag, and gently took her hands again to wrap them up. "Just be careful until they are completely healed and keep replacing these." She takes more bandage wraps as he hands them to her and puts them in her pocket. "If that's all, I'll get back now. But one more thing." He squeezed her arm. "I never wanna see you in the castle again... For your own safety!" A lump formed in Y/n's throat and she slightly leaned back to get away from him. He says something so caring with such a threatening tone. "See ya." He waved lazily and took off on his palisman.
Y/n watched him leave and look back down at Melanie. "Should've asked him to fix my nose for me too..."
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Published: January 29, 2022
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(Discontinued) The Firefly I see in Front Of Me | The Golden Guard x Reader
FanfictionY/n was always looking up to the emperor's coven, admired the work they did the the effort put in to everything by their leader. She wanted so bad to be a part of it all but after so many attempts over so many years, she could never get in. If she c...
