Rostris: The Hunting Demigod

Scars and Bruises and Burns

     Mhmhm. Hmm. "Ow." Waking up with another pounding headache cannot be a consistent thing for me. I won't allow it. I try to sit up but I struggle with the poison and all. I look down and see that Laelap isn't with me anymore. Huh. She always stays with me when I sleep. I see a long cane on the side of the bed, so Mom must've put that there in case I wanted to get up and walk. I reach over for it and try to lift myself up and lean on it. She also must've brought me to my bedroom when I fell asleep so that I wouldn't have struggled in the pain while awake. "Huhuhuh," it took me like five minutes just to do that and now I'm out of breath. Like, seriously out of breath. Once my breathing slows down, I slide one foot in front of the other, slowly. Very slowly. I've never felt this helpless and miserable in my entire life. I call out for Crius but hear nothing. I try again. Silence. I thought Mom said that Crius was here? Maybe he's still sleeping. I call out for Laelap instead. She comes running from the hallway connecting my bedroom to the living room. "What were you doing in there?" She starts to wag her tail like a maniac and starts to bark really loudly. "Shhh, you might wake up Crius if he's here." When I said Crius, she started to bark faster. "Is he here?" I taught Laelap a few years ago how to say yes and no and when I asked her my question, she let out a medium range bark, which meant yes. "Take me to him."
     I creep down the hall, barely making a sound because of how slow I'm walking. Or because my hearing is still ringing slightly. I finally reach the end of the hallway in ten minutes. My hallway should have only been thirty steps. I put my hand on the wall on the side of me and turn to look into the room. There, I see Crius, stirring into a wake-up. He must have heard Laelap barking. I give her a meaningful look and she sits down. He sees me looking and calls to me quietly. He looks horrible. Meaning his wounds. The burns just creep out of his shirt up to his neck and stop at the side of his neck. He must be covered in them. It pains me to see him this way. "Hey." I smile at him as I struggle to walk over to him and end up tripping on my ankle and fall. It felt more like skydiving. Falling out of a plane and landing abruptly and painfully. I felt my stomach stretch and open my arrow wound. It also opens some of the stitches of the claw wound. Blood starts to spill out and into my bandage as I try to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding as much as I could. It doesn't help.
     "Rostris!"
     I hear Crius call out to me but I can't hear anything anymore. As my eyes start to close again, falling into a blackout, I quickly see Crius get up and struggle to run to me.
     I feel myself regain consciousness, again. I open my eyes, thankful that I can see a little better now. I rub my hands around where I'm lying to figure out where I am. I'm on a couch. The couch with the furry material. I'm in the living room. I touch my stomach and can feel a new bandage on. There's no more blood coming out and I can feel the bumps of stitching under it.
     "Hey."
     I turn my head to the right to see Crius sitting on the floor, next to me. "What happened?" I can't exactly remember what happened before, I'm still a little light headed from the loss of blood.
     "Well, you were coming over to me and tripped. But you ended up reopening your stitches and wounds on your stomach, losing a lot of blood."
     "Huh. The things I would do for you." I chuckle and this makes him laugh.
     "Oh, so now you're the jokester. Okay. Well riddle me this. Why on earth would you risk coming all the way from your bedroom to me in the living room?"
     "Because... I... have contemplated about you. I've finally opened myself to trusting people and I'm willing to get close to them." He smiles as wide as the ocean and tries to get up to either hug or kiss me. I wouldn't know because I stop him. "Hold on. You need to stay seated. You must be in so much pain from getting up so fast and lifting me on the couch. I can't believe you even did that. How are you feeling?
     "Well... as you know I am in pain, but the pain is worth it. I mean it is a little embarrassing that I wasn't much help in saving you those two times."
     He hangs his head down and blushes. I try to put my hand on his shoulder and say, "Hey. You did your best. And I am incredibly grateful for it... and you. I never expected myself to ever fall for a person in my life. But then I met you and you make me so happy. I even was able to convince my mother to free you of charges."
     "I never expected myself to meet someone either. I'm glad it was you though. Let's just suffer and heal together."
     "One more thing: I don't know if I'm going to make it out alive. Especially now that I had opened my stitches again. But if I do, would you be willing to stay and hunt with Laelap and I, you know indefinitely?"
     "Rostris, are you asking me to be your sweetheart?"
     "Gosh, Crius! No one calls it that anymore. It's 2019 remember? Haha. But, technically, yes, I am."
     "Well, I'd be honored. Especially to the greatest huntress and archeress of all time."
     He reaches for my hand and plants a soft kiss on it. He had a pillow on the floor next to him and holds my hand till we both fall asleep.