Of Scars and Slugs

Love Has Multiple Meanings?

Her dream starts off tranquil with her walking through one of the caverns that borders the end of Slugterra's known caverns. She isn't the only one there. Other slingers are with her to try and fend off the Dark slinger and his marauders. Her violet eyes scan the area and land on the ringleader himself. Her eyes narrow as she loads Jokul, her frostcrawler, into her blaster. She shoots the growling ice slug at the man's back, only to miss as he dodges it. With a snarl, the Dark Slinger shoots a Darkfurnace, a ghouled Infurnus, slug at the bluenette. The girl leans back to avoid being hit by the ghoul, however, she fails to see the falling flames from the corrupted slug's wings. One of the embers falls into her right eye.  

Lily wakes up with a scream, jolting up from the sofa. Jokul is the first one to check on her since he was sleeping on her stomach. The blue slug looks worried when his slinger calms down, sweat beading on her face, he chirps anxiously to Lily.  

"I had that dream again," she murmurs sadly. Jokul chirps again, gaining the attention of Boon and motions for him to come help. Lily's hand covers her right eye. "It still hurts..." Jokul and Boon sit on the pillow she's using and try their best to relieve her of any pain that her still healing wound is causing her.  

The door to Lily's bedroom opens and an alert Junjie walks out, prepared for battle. He sees that everything is fine, then notices Lily laying on the couch with two of her slugs. The bluenette looks at him with her violet optic and forces a smile.  

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" she asks. 

Junjie shakes his head, "No, I was already awake. What happened to cause you to scream like that? It sounded like you were in pain." 

Lily's eye drifts to the ceiling and she sighs. "I had a nightmare, a reoccurring one." Boon and Jokul share a sympathetic look before nuzzling into their slinger's neck.  

"It seems that this reoccurring nightmare happens more than most should, judging by your slug's reactions. Would you like to talk about it?" 

"I guess." Lily sits upright on the couch allowing for Junjie to sit next to her. "It's always the same," she starts softly, "it's from when I got my injury. I was in the far east part of Slugterra, helping a few slingers fight against from marauders. We hadn't accounted for their leader to show up. I was foolish, and tried to take him on myself. We were no match for him, his skill far surpassed ours. I never want to take him on again. I didn't even get a single hit on him! I just saw an opening and went for it. I fired Jokul at him, but he dodged and fired a Darkfurnace." Lily sighs, her breath shaky, "That's when it happened. The Darkfurnace's flames hit my eye and completely destroyed it. Boon and Jokul both did the best they possibly could to try and heal my injured eye, but I'm still left with this gruesome scar." Again the woman's hand places itself over the covered wound.  

"Perhaps if you had Boon heal you while he was transformed, then it could work," Junjie offers. 

Lily shakes her head, another sad smile on her lips. "I tried that, but thanks for the help." The male nods is head in acknowledgement. A Comfortable silence falls between them, aside from Jokul's chittering at a still sleeping Flitt. Lily closes her eye and leans her head back.  

"If I may ask, why did you retire from slinging?" 

"With out my sight in my right eye, my depth perception is thrown off. I'm afraid I'll accidentally hurt my slugs." 

"I see," Junjie muses, "If I may ask another question, is that also why you hide your wound?" 

"Yes," she whispers. "I used to be quite a slinger, not nearly as popular as the Shane or Mario Bravado, but I was on television a lot for professional dueling competitions. Word got around fast about my injury, and my loss against the Dark Slinger. People started to give me the same look that they give to those who've suffered a lot, but they don't know how to approach them to comfort. You know what I mean?"