Temple of Truth

Chapter 42

"Wu Xi" Zhangs gentle call, froze him even more on the spot. What is he supposed to do?

Zhang was there standing right beside him, calling out to him placing his hand on his arm to stop him from leaving. When he just begged the earth to bury him alive.

He could see the forest, the ruins and the camp. He could see the people running around camp. He could feel that his face was hot. His feet nailed to the ground, unbudging. His breathing accelerated.

But his brain – he couldn't think. His body frozen in place, as if he wasn't even a part of it. His own body felt foreign, did not react. And he just kept staring and breathing.

"Wu Xi" he could hear Zhang call out to him again. It sounded like he was trying to coax a scared animal – a hurt and scared fawn – to trust him and allow him to help.

"- Sit down." Zhang gently asked of him.

Sit?

How? How do one need to move the body to sit down?

Wu Xi heard what Zhang was asking him to do, he knew what position 'to sit' meant. But he could only keep staring – at the camp, at the people – the forest, the trees.

He couldn't remember how to sit. But he only needed to get to the ground, that's all wasn't it? If he only could command his legs to give in, that's all he would need to do, wasn't it?

Wu Xi could hear Zhang calling out to him once more. The gentle voice, that almost makes him shudder a bit. It was beautiful and he wished to listen.

He managed to loosen his cramped legs, allowing gravity to pull him to the ground. He remembered, that's not how you sit down. Your not supposed to just let yourself fall down.

Only to stare into Zhangs eyes the very next second. He thought to see a worried gleam inside it, but he couldn't be sure. His eyes where normally like infinitely dark ponds – just mesmerising pulling you deeper and deeper.

But right now, they just seemed to darken with worry.

Just a few seconds later Wu Xi found himself sitting on the ground leaning onto a nearby tree – again.

Did he just got carried over here? But the wound – he worried. It could have reopened, and the bandage could have become lose.

Suddenly he felt a cold bottle on his lips and tried to swallow the water that was slowly running into his mouth. Zhang was carefully feeding him water, only taking the bottle away, when Wu Xi reacted. Pulling his face slightly away.

It was almost a miracle that Zhang didn't even lose one droplet of water.

"You need to drink" Zhang pushed his own water bottle closer to Wu Xi, as if telling him to keep drinking – just like that.

"I can do it myself." Wu Xi mumbled, speaking his first sentence. He gripped the bottle Zhang had pushed to him.

Just don't let it slip. Wu Xi told himself. Taking one gulp after another, noticing just how drained he was.

Just when he put down the water bottle to breath again, he suddenly felt Zhangs cool hand on his forehead. A bandage-less hand, the other one.

Surprised by the contact he could only barely hold himself back from leaning into the touch. Wu Xi knew that this situation was not exactly normal, but he should still at least try to behave.

He wasn't pulling away, but he didn't look back at Zhang either. He stared at the bottle in his hands, right in front of him. Feeling his face burning – he held still.

"You're having a fever." Zhang told him.