Am I Not The Hero?

Chapter 14 - Draigh Silas

  His shoes got soaked with water as he waded along the shore, carrying Ravi with him. After he collapsed, Z could barely hold the bridge anymore, and they had to get back on the ground earlier than planned. Waves splashed against their legs, and sealarums around them cried out repeatedly. The smell of fish flew right into his nose, and the taste of salt would not leave his mouth. In the distance, Draigh could already see Thimur, but first, they would have to take care of Ravi.

Draigh tried to keep him awake, one of the good things he learned in Tmesis training, but he couldn't tell if he was still conscious. As soon as the water was shallow enough, he put his friend on the ground. His skin looked paler, and his lips were starting to turn blue; they had to hurry.

"How can we help him?" Draigh asked as he kneeled next to him. He laid his hand against Ravi's cheek; it was cold as if all life had vanished from his body. It was a horrific sight to see. "We could wait, Tendrá will regenerate, and he'll be fine," Z suggested.

But he didn't want to wait; he wanted Ravi to be better now, "Yeah, no, anything else we can do?" Z pondered before answering his question, avoiding his gaze and turning towards Esmeralda. "What?" They knew something, didn't they? "Whatever it is, tell me," Draigh demanded of them.

"You could give him your Tendrá, but if you're not careful, you will only end up like him," Z explained. It was risky, sure, and another body uselessly lying around wouldn't help their case. But if he did it right, he could save Ravi, so he didn't have another choice, did he? "Tell me how,"

„All right, are you ready?" Who could have guessed that transferring your life energy would be this complicated? Draigh surely didn't. But in the end, he managed to find Ravi's life point, „ready as I can be," he answered. Draigh was nervous; he had never done this before; what if he messed up somehow? „Okay, as I said, I'll pull it out first, and then you just let it flow into him."

Easier said than done, Draigh thought. He held his hand out towards Z, who in return did the same. Their fingertips crashed into one another, and a tingling sensation overcame them. When Z slowly pulled their hand away, thin yellow strings appeared between them, „holy shit," he whispered. Draigh had never seen Tendrá nor manifested his own; doing both simultaneously made it even more exciting.

Quickly Draigh turned around and reached for Ravi's forehead. Like a plug inserted into a Socket, Ravi's unconscious body pulled Draighs Tendrá right out of him. It didn't hurt or burn as he had imagined. Instead, it felt like water dripping along his arms. „How long do you think until he wakes up?" Esmeralda asked the others, but neither of them answered; it was hard to say.

The warmth of Ravi's body slowly started to return after the five-minute mark, and even his eyelids began to flutter. „Ravi? Ravi woke up," he tried to shake him, but his friend didn't say anything. „Give him a bit more time; he was pretty drained. It's going to take a while for him to feel better," Z assured him, but Draigh grew impatient.

„What if he doesn't wake up? Am I doing something wrong? Esmeralda, you have to do it. I think I'm too weak," Draigh was about to pull his hand away and stand up when something stopped him. „Where are you going, Blondie? I'm still dying, you know," Ravi held Draighs hand tight to his forehead and grinned at him. „ I don't know if I want to punch or hug you right now," Draigh told him, and the two laughed. Seeing Ravi regain consciousness soothed his mind, and he calmed down again.

The rest of the ride to Thimur was quite stressful for Draigh, with having to watch Ravi so he doesn't fall off Oakley and listening to Z's instructions about where they have to go. The further they went north, the fewer trees, bushes, and flowers they saw until it was only rocks and grass. Landscapes like these always reminded him of what once used to be his home.