Put back together

33. Get lost in the endless labyrinth of your thoughts

Warning: Mention of past character death, non graphic animal death, blood, slight suicidal thinking.
It got pretty angsty this time.

Stay safe!

Roman tried to swallow down the sick feeling crawling up his throat.

The pain in his arm was stronger again and seemed to spread from the cut, down to his hand which was shaking ever so slightly and up to his shoulder.
He held his arm tight to his chest but the position was starting to get exhausting.

If they happened to get attacked right now he'd be about as useful as a newborn baby.

His eyes flickered over to where Elliott had curled up behind Logan's collar. In even intervals puffs of smoke came from the dragon's mouth.

Scratch that, he'd be even less useful than a newborn.

They really had to get other weapons. He let his gaze scan the ground for a fallen branch that could be turned into a bow.
Taking from the trees directly would be suicide even if it would have been easier to get good wood that way.

For a bow you couldn't just use any type of wood. It had to be strong, thin, long and bendable. Otherwise it wouldn't work.

And even with the right wood, they had no strings.

Making arrows was a problem for entirely different reasons.
Finding wood for that would be easier but they would also need something to make arrowheads and feathers for the ends.

Making darts would require the same materials.

They could most likely buy weapons in Terona but only if they actually made it there alive.

It was around noon now. Two and a half days more they would be here and that only if everything went well.

He had no idea what would happen if Virgil got weird again or one of them got hurt bad enough to not be able to walk properly.
The cut in his arm hurt like hell and had rendered him defense less but he could still walk without a problem.
A leg or foot injury could cost them their lives if they weren't lucky.

Roman didn't want anyone of them to die or get hurt like that. He couldn't let that happen.

Somehow he felt like he had know the others for forever or at least more than a few days.
Maybe it was because going through live-or-death situations together tended to bond people to eachother or because he already knew so much about them.

He knew that Patton had grown up on a farm with his two mothers, that his one mother used to travel a lot but then got sick and that he had come to Corinn when he had been fifteen years old.

Logan had told them about how he had grown up in Natica, about how the society in the library worked and had told plenty of stories about the people who had raised him even if he had never really said something about his actual parents.

Roman didn't know all that much about Virgil yet though. Virgil didn't talk much especially not about himself.
He had only mentioned his mother and brother offhandedly.

Roman wanted to know more.

"Where are your parents anyway?" he asked.

Virgil looked up surprised.

"Mine?"

Roman nodded.

"They... They're dead," Virgil looked away from him. "Have been for a long time."

"Oh... I'm- I'm so sorry," the forest seemed to fall quiet.

"It's fine. I hardly remember them anyway," the mage said but Roman could almost taste the lie.

Silence layed itself over them, thick and heavy and pressed down on the prince's shoulders together with guilt.

He shouldn't have asked. Roman tried to think of a way to change the topic or apologize.
He couldn't find a good one.

"Sorry," Virgil finally broke the silence. "I didn't mean to bring the group down."

Somewhere to the left, a bit too close for liking, something shrieked and Roman could see dark drops of something hit a tree.
Blood.

"What was that?" Patton blurted out.

"A bunny," Virgil murmured. "Now it's an Ex-Bunny."

"What killed it?", Logan nervously pushed up his glasses.

"I did. It got to close and reeked of bloodlust," Virgil's deep voice was hollow.

Roman frowned.

"How did you do that?"

"Magic. How else?"

"Is that why we haven't been attacked since you've woken up?" Logan asked.

Virgil just shrugged.

Roman noticed Patton move closer to him, away from Virgil.

"How did you know it was even there?" Logan asked again.

"What do you think?"

"Magic?"

"Ten points to Ravenclaw."

Logan raised an eyebrow.

"I hope you know that I have no idea what that means."

Virgil shrugged again.

"You're clearly a Ravenclaw."

"I'm pretty sure that I'm human," Logan argued but Roman guessed that Virgil didn't actually mean an actual raven's claw.
He had no idea what the mage could possibly mean.

"More or less," Virgil shrugged.

"More or less? I am human. How would I be more or less human?"

Logan didn't get an answer this time.

Again silence streched over the four of them - five if Roman counted Elliott but he wasn't sure if a baby dragon should count or not.

Probably. He kinda considered them Patton and Logan's child so they should count as part of the group.

"Naaaan," came a delighted noise from Logan's collar.

In that case Elliott definitely was the happiest person around even if likely was Patton a close second.

Logan didn't really smile as far as Roman could tell so it felt like he shouldn't even get third place in this ranking but then again the remaining two were an orphaned, part-time insane mage who lived all alone on a cursed death Island with only a skull to talk to and a maybe orphaned prince who might have already lost his entire kingdom, all of his siblings, friends and in general everyone he really knew and had begun to wonder if it would be easier to just cut his throat or jump off an Island than keeping going.

Roman sighed. That ranking was pointless anyway.

He tried to come up with something else to keep himself occupied. Preferably something that wouldn't remind him of the fact that he was basically on a suicide mission.

He only noticed now that the light of the lantern was grey now.

It must've changed gradually for him to miss it so completely.
Roman wondered when it had begun to drain of it's colour.

He didn't like the grey.

It was cold and dim compared to the other colours and made it harder to make out details of things that had been perfectly clear before.

Roman could use a therapist.
But tbh so could the rest of them.

Keep in mind that all of them are unreliable authors and that all of their assumptions and theories can be wrong!

As always feel free to comment, ask questions or roast me for spelling errors!

Have a nice (gay) day!