(Blood trigger warning, viewer discretion is advised!)
(Photo was found on Hoyolab)
Lumine took a long breath, and unsheathed her sword. It's alright, I've done this before. She thought to herself. But somehow, the idea of running into a hilichurl camp without backup is still terrifying.
She took a step forward, a leaf crunching underneath her foot, immediately alerting the whole camp. The normal hilichurls charged forward, and she noticed two archers, and a rather large hilichurl with a blazing axe too.
In one quick, smooth motion, the two normal hilichurls in front of her dropped to their knees, their blood splattering onto the left side of Lumine's face, staining her cheek and parts of her bangs. She gritted her teeth, but she couldn't do anything else about the stickiness right then.
Her eyes focused on the archers, who were aiming their bows at her, and the world froze. She waited for the perfect moment, and ran/ducked forward, narrowly avoiding the arrows. The large hilichurl (otherwise known as a Mitachurl) charged forward with its axe, positioned on its shoulder, ready to swing. Lumine darted forward, backward, forward, backward, in a pendulum motion so fast that the monster didn't have time to react. In multiple quick slashes, the Mitachurl let out a low growl, and fell to the ground.
She glowered over the motionless Mitachurl, and soon after, her attention snapped to the two archers. How am I going to take care of this? I'm not tall enough to reach its towers...Lumine thought, but her thoughts were interrupted by a blue figure, quickly flying towards the towers, a large ring behind his back.
In a swift motion, he sent out two wind-blades, knocking the hilichurls off their towers, and they plummeted towards the ground. Lumine held her breath as the impact struck, knocking the air out of one of their lungs, and instantly turning the other into a pancake.
The blue figure slowly floated down, facing away from Lumine. After he landed on the ground, the blue ring behind his back transformed into a large hat the fit snugly onto his head.
"Hmph. The almighty traveler, huh? Can't even reach some hilichurl archers. Pathetic." Wanderer turned around, and gave her a small smirk.
Lumine rolled her eyes.
"Oh come'on, had to act so cool to impress the 'almighty traveler', huh?" Lumine chuckled at his expression, "so childish...all jokes aside, nice job. Maybe I was mistaken about you being vertically challenged."
Wanderer nodded.
"Yes, you are. Very mistaken."
He was so consumed in his moment of pride that he didn't notice the archer-hilichurl aiming a blazing arrow at him. Lumine's eyes widened, and her voice got caught in her throat.
"Wanderer?"
"Hm?"
"W-WANDERER! WATCH OUT!" Lumine shouted, and rushed forward. Wanderer turned around, but it was too late. the arrow was coming right for him.
Lumine gasped, and threw herself forward, but she wasn't "long" enough. She extended an arm, and could feel the piercing pain in full color. She groaned, and squeezed her eyes shut as the inevitability of gravity pulled her down.
Wanderer couldn't believe it. He quickly snapped out of his thoughts, and caught Lumine in his arms before she hit the ground. An arrow was lodged there, firmly into her shoulder. *
"No! Lumine! Oh, you idiot!" Wanderer's mouth made an O as he looked over her, "why would you do this? I'm not even a mortal-"
Wanderer looked back up at the hilichurl, his eyes darkened, full of loathing. He raised his hand, and laughed.
"Hahaha! Wretched vermin."
The hilichurl didn't even get to react before even its dust got blown away.
After deleting the hilichurl, Wanderer's attention got drawn back towards the person called "Lumine" in his arms.
"I know you're a puppet, but you can still feel pain like humans do, right?" Lumine said softly, "so, an arrow to the left shoulder is half as an arrow straight through the chest."
Wanderer gritted his teeth so hard that he thought they might break. The blood coming out of Lumine's wound was staining her white gown, and his jacket too. He walked over to a large rock, and set her down there, the rock propping her up comfortably.
He stared in non-amusment at the arrow impaling her shoulder.
"This is going to be the second piece of cloth you own my jacket." Wanderer said, gently placing her burnt hand aside.
He ripped another part of his jacket off, and firmly held it against the arrow as he started to tug on it, hoping to get it out.
"This might hurt a little."
Lumine nodded.
"I'll be alright."
But she still closed her eyes and winced as the arrow came loose.
Wanderer immediately stopped upon seeing her reaction.
Lumine just placed her burnt hand on his, comforting him. He continued.
* * *
They walked back together. Lumine's left arm held firmly in place by Wanderer's hat ribbon. They neared their houses, and Wanderer noticed the little bit of blood that remained on her face. He took out the ripped part of his jacket, and gently wiped it off without realizing.
Lumine turned slightly pink, but was able to hide it pretty well.
Oh, how Paimon scolded her that night. And how Nahida taught Wanderer a lesson.
It's safe to say that they'll be disciplined enough that none of this would happen again in the future. Especially not on a special holiday only a month later..
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Trust-Scaralumi fanfic
FanfictionWanderer has been through 3 betrayals in his life, so it's understandable why he's unsure of whether to trust Lumine or not. But now, he's given the choice to.
