Brothers of the Burial Mounds (WoH×MDZS)

Meeting in the Mounds

Wuxian woke up to someone searching through his robes.

He scrambled several miles back and braced himself-

"SHIT YOU'RE ALIVE I'M SO SORRY!!"

Wuxian looked to see a boy 2 years younger than him sitting and leaning away from him. He wore ragged robes- at first Wuxian thought it was the Wen Sect robes, but dismissed the idea because they were missing the now-hated insignia of the red sun and the base color was light gray, not white. His hair was combed but really could use a thorough wash, and his wide black eyes really did look terrified that the thing he'd thought was a corpse had suddenly started moving.

Wuxian suddenly remembered everything... the attack in the woods, the fight he'd had no hope of winning, Wen Chao's taunting and... being thrown into the Burial Mounds...

"Yup I'm alive...." Wuxian muttered. His head hurt like fucking hell and it felt like he'd broken every bone in his body, but he was still breathing. "No thanks to that fucking Wen asshole..."

"I'm sorry I was scavenging I thought you had no use for your stuff anymore I'm really sorry!!"

"Scavenging?"

The boy nodded and explained, "Usually the dead bodies Wen Chao throws in here still have usrful shit on them- pocket knives, matches, paper to burn, maybe some outer robes for extra bedding and blankets. Guy's stupid enough to not search them thoroughly before chucking people in here. So I make the most of it and bring whatever's useful to my camp."

"...how long have you been here for?"

"2 months."

"2 months?!" Wuxian echoed. "How the fuck are you still alive?!"

The boy shrugged. He nodded around the piles of rot and decayed life matter and replied, "I found a stream and even though birds are rare, there're plenty of rats around here."

Wuxian grimaced at the implication, but he was quickly distracted by the pain that shot through every inch of his body, causing him to groan.

"Oh crap- I forgot you were thrown down a cliff, you gotta be hurting all over," the boy realized. He reached forward, then paused and asked, "Do you want me to have a look at you? I have some skills in medicine."

"...okay," Wuxian decided resignedly. "Is there anything else I can do...?"

The boy set to work at once, asking Wuxian to shift around and checking for open wounds. He'd soon found a really bad gash on Wuxian's leg and hurried away to get distilled water and some washed cloth, returning in half an hour.

"I know the broken bones really hurt but we gotta make sure you don't get infected," he explained. "Herbs are rare in this hellhole, if you get infected we're in real trouble."

"Ugh, whatever," Wuxian muttered. "All I really care about is whether Wen Qing and Wen Ning can stop Jiang Cheng from doing anything stupid-"

"You've met Qing-jie and Ning-xiong?! How are they- are they okay?!"

Wuxian gave the boy a weird look.

The boy seemed to realize what he'd said, and he covered his mouth in horror and fear, his black eyes widening. He demanded, "You knew who I was from the start didn't you?! You said that to test me!!"

"I don't even know your name, why would I test you? I'm clever but I'm not a fucking god," Wuxian retorted. He leaned forward to study the boy closely... now that he was looking for it, he could definitely see an echo of Wen Ning's fine, delicate features in the boy's face, and the tiny holes in the boy's robes that were an imprint of embroidery strings that had been pulled out... the base color of the robes were white, they were just so dirty they looked light gray. And if he was related to Wen Qing, his skills in medicine made sense...