Ashes of Love and War - TodoMomo

||Chapter 34 ~ Part 1||

And I'm back!! Miss me? 😉 

Thank you for all your patience and hope you enjoy this next chapter. 😘

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A chill spread through Momo's chest as frigid as the snow that crunched under Todoroki and the merchant's fading footsteps. She turned her full attention back to the boy.

They couldn't stay here. The frosted pine trees wouldn't provide any protection. There was nowhere to hide. It was too open. Too vulnerable if the empusa were to return.

Momo shifted closer. Blood oozed from the boy's wounds. She pressed her hands against his stomach. "Fuyumi!"

"Y-yes."

"I need to slow his hemorrhaging." Momo's gaze darted up. "Do you know how to identify yarrow or horsetail?"

Fuyumi nodded.

"Good." Momo looked back down at the boy. He was pale, and his every breath was harsh and ragged. She swallowed over a knot in her throat. "I need you to find some. Anything will do. Even if it's wilted — find whatever you can. There might be some under the snow."

"I'll do what I can." Fuyumi's form dissolved with the soft crunch of collapsing snow.

Momo's mouth was dry. She pressed her lips into a thin line and increased the pressure against the boy's stomach until he gasped in pain. Blood gurgled up like an overflowing brook, painting her hands and the snow underneath them bright copper.

Between the slick blood covering the boy's stomach and the stark shadows cloaking the forest, it was impossible for Momo to tell the extent of his injuries. If he was going to have any chance of survival, Momo needed to get him back to the cabin.

The problem was moving him.

Momo tore her gaze away from the boy. The forest was gray and desolate. A few pine branches had been broken off from the wind or snow, but not enough for Momo to build anything useful. And there wasn't enough time to waste chopping more to create a sled.

Her hands quivered. Even if they had the time to build something, ground transportation would be disastrous. The boy's wounds could be aggravated or, if there was a hidden rock underneath the snow, he could hit his head and die before she could even get him back to the cabin. The only solution was to carry him. But could Momo do it on her own?

Due to the distribution of weight, an unconscious body could feel twenty to thirty kilograms heavier than when awake. And as Fuyumi's snow form didn't allow her to physically touch anything, Momo would be on her own. Would she be able to do it?

Momo felt like her heart was in her throat. She had promised Todoroki that he could count on her; Momo couldn't go back on her promise.

She could do it.

She would do it.

Because, even more than her promise to Todoroki, the merchant needed the boy to live. Todoroki may have gone to look for the boy's mother, but there was no guarantee that she was still alive. If Momo were to fail to save the boy's life, the merchant would have lost his entire family. She would be condemning him to a life of loneliness.

Abandonment.

Just like she had been.

Her chest stuttered with a rising tide of dread. Momo would never allow someone else to go through that terrible pain of being alone. She would do whatever it took to save the boy.

The cold, quivering sensation in the pit of her stomach seemed to disappear as determination spread through her.

"Hang on," she said to the unconscious boy as she tore her cloak off. Momo shoved her shoulder under him, lifting the boy up to wrap the cape around his back. "Do not pay the ferryman. Do not cross the Styx or drink from the Lethe. You have to remain here. Do not leave your father."