From the Heavens (Final Fantasy XVI)

𖥸 X 𖥸

"...ra...!"

"...Ly..!"

"Lyra...!"

Hearing her name and feeling a hand against her cheek, Lyra opened her eyes. She was greeted by the sight of a frightened and panicked Clive. He was holding her against him, her upper body being lifted off the ground. She could see the beads of sweat on his face and small cuts on his cheeks. "Clive..." She lifted a hand and placed it on his cheek to examine the small cuts. "Are you all right?"

Clive was more than relieved to see her eyes open and hear her voice. Overcome with emotions, he gingerly placed a hand behind her head and pulled her close to him. He buried his nose into her golden locks and exhaled. "You're all right..."

"Minus the shoulder," she confessed.

Forgetting she had been stabbed, Clive pulled away from her. He let go of her once she was sitting up on her own. "Let me see." He moved around to get a good look at her back. He saw the bleeding wound through the tear in her clothes. Blood stained the fabric around the hole. He didn't have any bandages, having run off the moment after he pulled Gav to safety to find her. "We need to get you back to the hideaway."

"Trust me, it will heal before we get back," she told him. Although she couldn't heal herself, her body's natural healing ability was much greater than a human's. A wound such as this would heal completely within the hour.

She was about to get to her feet when all of a sudden, Clive picked her up in his arms. She was quick to wrap her arms around his neck, surprised at being picked up. "It's all right, Clive. My shoulder's injured, not my legs. I can walk."

"Let me," he told her.

She gazed into his sapphire eyes before nodding. She kept her arms around his neck as he carried her through the woods in the direction he came from. To break the silence, she asked, "Is Gav all right?"

"He's injured, but he'll survive," Clive answered. "It's because of you we were able to pull him up before the branch broke. What you did was...horrifying."

"It was the only solution I could come up with on the spot. If we both fell, I would have only been able to protect one of us." She lowered her head. "I'm sorry for frightening you, Clive."

"As long as you're safe," he replied. He fell silent for a few seconds before saying what he wanted to on the bridge. "I could never hate you, Lyra. I understand why you didn't tell me."

"Regardless, I never wanted you to find out the truth in such a way. I should have told you..."

"No, it's all right," he reassured her. "I also must thank you for protecting me from Garuda."

"You would have done the same for me," she replied. Glancing at his face, she remembered the small scratches littered across his cheeks. "Did the imperials do that, or did something else?"

"I..." Clive was a little embarrassed, but it didn't show in his voice or on his face. "Running through the woods haphazardly is what caused the scratches. They'll heal in—"

She didn't let him finish before she healed the small scratches. "They're minor cuts, making them an easy fix."

He smiled faintly. "Thank you, Lyra."

Soon, they found Cid and Gav. Both men were more than relieved to see Clive had found Lyra. He sat her down on a large rock.

Cid smiled at the woman, lowering his cigarette. "It's good to see you are in one piece, my lady. If it had been anyone else, they would have been skewered on a rock."

Gav sighed in relief. "Oh, fuck... I thought you had died!"

Lyra laughed. "I'm more resilient than I appear. The only casualty is my shoulder."