sun, through snow || vbs au (updates weekly!)

017 || to be brave

❃.✮:▹ pov: the medic ◃:✮.❃

We'd been waiting for a while for An and Akito to return.

Toya had assumed a defensive stance near the door, blade in hand, doing what An had taught him that one time. We were in complete silence because we were too scared to do anything.

We waited 5 minutes.

Then 15.

Then a hour.

Then 3 hours.

Then until it was midday.

I could see the sun up in the sky. "Toya, do you think we should check on them?" I said suddenly. Toya whipped around. We'd been talking for a small bit, but about fruitless stuff, trying to distract each other from the predicament we were in.

"...I think it's about time, yeah." He said with a small nod of his head. "Okay. Do you think they're safe?" I said, my eyes creasing in worry. Toya looked at me sympathetically, clearly thinking the same thing as me.

"They'll be okay. They're strong." He said, sounding sure of himself, but I was pretty sure he was just putting some kind of facade on.

We walked outside the cave we'd slept in, then been rudely awoken in. I could see the sun shining down on the green grass, and smell the soil. There was footprints leading to a path through the woods, so we decided to follow it.

"It's the best lead we have." I said with a sigh. "Should we start calling out for them..?" Toya said. I shook my head. "We wouldn't want to attract unnecessary attention." He nodded in agreement.

I looked to the forest, as we went deeper away from our base. Toya still had his trusty sword gripped tightly in his slender fingers.

Finally we got to the clearing, where they were supposedly fighting.

And there was nobody there. Only a metallic stench in the air, and bodies of Viper soldiers.

I looked around, feeling like I should search the bodies just in case. Toya prodded a few with his sword, just in case they were alive, I guess. But they clearly weren't.

"This would be the perfect advantage for a trap." I said with a sigh. "Well, then they would have already captured us." My friend said, stoicly.

Worry brewed in the bottom of my stomach. An, where were you? If you weren't one of the bodies...

"An!" I screamed. Toya looked at me weirdly, but then sighed. "I... I don't think it's any use, Kohane. They... they're gone." I felt a stabbing pain in my gut, like someone had just slammed one thousand knives into my inside, but they didn't.

Tears started to form in my eyes. Toya walked over to me and wrapped my shaking, sad body in his arms. He whispered stuff I couldn't hear over my own choked sobs, but they seemed relatively comforting.

When I looked up to him to say thanks, he was looking in a completely different direction. "Footsteps?" He murmured, looking to the forest. He released me from his hands, and went to look at them.

I wiped the tears out of my eyes and went to see what he was doing. "Maybe they're still alive... None of the bodies were theirs, right?" Toya said, having some sort of revelation. I perked up immediately. "You think so?" I murmured. Toya nodded. "It's very likely."

"So, we'd need to get to them early before they do anything to them...?" I suggested. Toya nodded. "Grab the stuff."

"We're going to save our friends."

I ran back to the cave, to grab the bag of food I was entrusted with. Toya was a small bit behind me, grabbing his sword, and passing a knife to me. "It's not much, but it's the best we have. Are you okay with the knife?" I nodded. "You're better at fighting than me." Toya smiled, and nodded.