Tales of Arcadia: Mordred's Curse

Part 19

The Halls were awoken at almost precisely 4:30 by the doorbell.

Jordan led the way downstairs, muttering "someone better be dying".

He opened the door and Krel collapsed at his feet- he'd clearly been leaning against the outside.

"KREL!" Cara yelped, shoving past Jordan and dropping to her knees next to him.

She pulled one of his uninjured arms around her shoulders. "What happened? Who did this to you?"

"I... Don't know- someone broke into my house and when I caught them, they shot me with- this!" Krel said, wincing a bit as he spoke.

"Mama-" Cara looked up at Sofia just in time to see her kneel at Krel's other side.

"Third and fourth degree burns- it's good you got here as fast as you did," she murmured. "Let's get you to the couch- you'll want to be sitting down somewhere more comfortable for this."

"Come on," Cara said softly, bracing Krel as he got up.

"Fair warning- the pain is going to intensify during the healing process," Sofia said.

"Wait, what-" Krel barely had time to process this before the pain in his shoulders and side spiked, and he cried out, curling in on himself.

Cara squeezed his hands as hard as she could. "It's okay, you're okay," she mumbled anxiously- in her distress and distraction, her old accent slipped to the surface.

The pain lasted just long enough for Krel to almost get used to it, and then faded entirely- as did his energy.

He sighed, exhausted, and Cara gently pulled him close, guiding his head to her shoulder and rubbing his neck and back.

"Do you think whoever it was got what they wanted?" Sofia asked Krel.

"I couldn't tell. They didn't have anything when they left," Krel replied.

Cara gently caressed his cheek as she thought. "Mama... I don't think it's safe for him to go home," she said, still with a trace of her accent.

"I don't think so either..." Sofia sighed and switched to Aquan, "He can stay here for now, but I'll have to talk about it more with Dad later on if he can spend the night."

"Thank you," Cara said, deciding the situation probably didn't need any more pushing.

They set up a place for him to rest on the couch, considering it was really, really early in the morning, and, in fact, the weekend.

"Thank you," Krel said to Cara, resting his head on her shoulder as Sofia went back to bed.

Cara smiled and turned, getting her arms around his neck before he could straighten back up. She went on her tiptoes and kissed him.

Krel froze instantly.

"Did... Did you just-" Krel laughed.

"Yes," Cara smirked matter-of-factly.

She raised her eyebrow. "I mean, you didn't have the guts," she grinned.

Krel hugged her with an overjoyed laugh.

A moment later, he pulled back a bit and kissed her back.

Cara made a very quiet, happy squeaky noise, going up on her tiptoes again.

A moment later, Krel decided to pull away and flop back onto the couch to try and get some sleep.