The Heartstone Journey

Book 2 | Ch. 16 - On Duty Rest

Twenty two minutes in total was the time it took for Nick and Hunter to arrive at the scene where they fell down the waterfall. It took another five to search and find the other two laying down with a barrier up.

Rubble and debris everywhere. I questioned for a bit which of them was responsible to cause so much damage but it was obvious. My blood was seething yet I was more-so worried about the two. Hunter wiped piles of debris away with ease trying to find where Royal and Cloudy went, as for myself I found a faint trail of blood going a couple hundred feet out till it redirected around a large boulder with multiple other rocks stacked and piled around it. My heart sank from what I witnessed before me the moment I peeked the corner. I unconsciously shouted with weakness intercepting my voice.

"ROYAL, CLOUDY?!"

Hunter was alerted to the scene making a dash to where Nick wandered off finding Nick hunched over with blood covering his body with corpses of strange birds muttering the phrase "blood" before going limp all over. The two sent their immediate attention over at Cloudy and Royal seeing Cloudy still conscious muttering something incoherent before passing out with Royal laying already unconscious. The barrier that was protecting them faded with Nick and Hunter grabbing ahold of them before fleeing in case more enemies were to arrive.

"What the fuck... happened to them?"

Nick muttered confused and shaken seeing Royal's hair now much shorter than before as if he cut it to reduce the chances of getting hit. Hunter didn't say a word only focusing on finding a semi-safe spot to hide out for the time being to recover.

It didn't take very long for us to find an area that was safe from all incoming threats so I sat down beside Hunter as I tried to take deep breaths in to keep calm and not panic looking at Royal's hair. It was as purple as ever, but now it was more close to dark magenta than anything else. His eyes shut with violet underneath with a calm rhythm to his breathing. He was in a coma laying motionless beside me. My heart raced faster and harder the more I thought about the possibilities that Royal and Cloudy went through. It pissed me off. I wasn't there nor was I fast enough to save them. I may be an idiot but I'm no stranger to how much a human can endure. I wanted to open the hatch and let out all the steam writhing in me but now wasn't the time. I got on my knees to inspect while Hunter was already in the process of checking and treating Cloudy's wounds. For a moment I glanced back comparing injuries as weird as that was, my intuition was normally never wrong. His injuries were fatal but seemed to have been sewn together with great precision and delicacy. The patches of purple and blue that came from his side were definitely a sign of broken ribs possibly a punctured lung but there was no blood nor signs of heavy breathing or pain seeping from his mouth. His forearm looked like a balloon but when I held it to get a grasp where the broken bone was, there were no issues standing out. It was as if his body was healed on the inside leaving the exterior out of the process.

"What kind of phenomenon is this shit~?"

He shouted aloud.

Hunter was suddenly behind him making him jump a little.

"Gah! Shit Hunter don't do that!"

"Apologies but I see you have the same questions I have now."

"? What do you mean?"

"I thoroughly checked his condition *pointing at Cloudy* and he tenses up the second I graze him. He's in agony right now. When we were running I noticed how uncomfortable he looked when I was holding him. I'm not sure what happened but when you touch him its as if he wants to cry out in pain but is stopped."

"Really? Does he have any ruptured organs?"

"No."

"Internal bleeding?"