Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

After a storm comes a calm

           Jimena quickly realized that she wasn't that learned in the ways of flying in turbulent weather. The wind pulled her in one direction, and then another, and her wings wouldn't behave either, what with the feathers shorn in the windshear. I have to land. I have to land quick! <It's 'quickly'; it's an adverb so use it properly,> The voice annoyingly corrected. Not now! Jimena growled at him. I'm busy trying to not die! <Don't worry about that. It's not your time yet.>

           And maybe the voice was right, because even after Jimena was struck by lightning on her left wing and spiraled out of control and crashed into a rocky valley, she was still alive somehow. Everything still hurt so much, though. Groaning, she got up, wincing at every little stab of pain that she felt all over her body. Blood leaked out of several little and big cuts and got washed away from the rain, dying the growing puddles a sickly shade of pink. I need to get shelter, was the first thought that Jimena had. The next was, I need a healing potion. 

           She achingly dragged herself to a nearby cave and sat down in the dank but dry cavern, shivering. Soft green moss squelched under her feet and made for a good seat. Guess that's why they call them cushions of moss. Jimena just lay down for a few minutes, staring at the cave ceiling, where growths of glow lichen turned the dark rock into a starry night sky. Despite the pain, and the shivering cold wetness, and the still thundering storm outside, it was almost enchanting. But everyone needs to get back to reality to survive. 

           It was the cold that made her sit up and look for sticks. She didn't have any flint or steel to light a fire, but there were some rocks on the ground that she was pretty sure did the same thing if she rubbed them hard and fast enough. And after several tries, Jimena managed to make the spark that set the bonfire aflame. She sighed in relief and let herself get warm by the fire. Soon she didn't feel as damp after a while. 

           "Jimena?!" Jimena whirled around to see who'd just called her name, which turned out to be a mistake as little needles of pain shot through her body. Wincing, the looked at the soaked figure standing in the doorway. "Grian?!" The hermit inched forward into the cave and sat next to the fire, warming and drying himself. "How did you get here?" Jimena asked. "I saw the fire," He said simply. 

           In the light of the dancing flames, Jimena looked at him closely. There was some pond slime in his hair for some reason, and his clothes were covered in mud. A torn elytra still hung on his back. "What happened to you?" She asked him. "I was flying and then my elytra broke," He grimaced. Grian eyed her up and down, taking in her injured appearance. Something like sympathy flashed across his face for an instant. "Are you okay?" 

           "Do I look okay to you?" Jimena retorted. "I just got hit by lightning and I crashed." Grian made a face. "Ooh, and I thought I had it bad. At least I landed in a pond." "That explains your hairstyle," Jimena said; Grian touched his hair and realized that he'd brought some of the pond in with him. He shook it off and threw it into the fire, which accepted its odd meal and burned brighter. 

           Grian looked at Jimena's wing, and his eyes widened. "That doesn't look good." Jimena hadn't even checked her injuries yet, but she knew he was right. Her wing was still constantly pulsing with pain and sometimes she could hear the blood slowly dripping onto the cave floor. At least there wasn't that much blood; she wasn't going to die of blood loss. "Let me look at that," Grian said, pointing at her wing. "What? Why?" Jimena looked at him cynically. "I've had wings before," Grian said, making a face like he'd rather not admit it. "I can help you with that." 

           He got up and came closer; Jimena semi reluctantly turned around and stretched her wings out, wincing as pain shot across every individual feather. Grian gently ran his hand over it and Jimena twitched her wing away from him. "Hey! I know how to handle this," He said annoyedly. "Just trust me, would ya?" And then he seemed to realize what he'd just said and backed off. 

           "What happened to 'I know how to handle this'?" Jimena asked mockingly. Grian growled and started to untangle her feathers. Jimena hadn't even realized that some had been twisted together. And she was surprised at how much it didn't hurt when Grian did so. I guess he does know what he's doing. They didn't say anything to each other; Jimena just let Grian calmly preen her wings and stem the blood leaking out of her wounds. It was strangely comforting and familiar.

                "Well, how does that feel?" Grian asked, stepping back. Jimena fluttered her wings slightly. They still hurt, but not as much. "Better, thanks." She looked at Grian straight in his eyes, watching a flicker of red flash there for a split second. And then it was gone. Must be the fire. "How did you do that?" Jimena asked. Grian tilted his head at her. "Do what?" He asked back, but there was a hint of something else in his voice. "I got hit by lightning and somehow you make my wing better with just preening or whatever you did. How?" "You're cynical," Grian laughed it off. "I live with False; what does that say about me?" 

---

           Grian wasn't entirely sure what he was doing. Sure, he knew what he was doing when he followed the hopeful light of the fire into a safe cave for shelter. But then he'd used his magic to heal Jimena; the magic that he'd sworn to never use again. What was he thinking? But he'd just done it, and now he just had to hope that Jimena wouldn't ask about it. Or remember anything about the past that she'd lost in her amnesia. 

           "Oh hey, the storm stopped," Grian pointed out, trying to change the subject. Both of them looked outside to see that indeed, the storm had passed. "Such a scary storm and yet it turned out to be a passing squall in the end," Jimena remarked. "You were scared?" Grian laughed. "I wasn't scared at all!" "Only people who are scared say that," Jimena retorted. "That sounds like an excuse invented by someone who's trying to hide that they're a scaredy cat," Grian shot back, stepping out of the cave into the bright sunlight. "Hey, wait for me!" Jimena said, putting out the fire. 

           The two of them walked together through the wet woods ravaged by the storm. Every once in a while, they'd find a fallen tree, scorched by lightning. Or they would slip in large puddles and get covered in mud. But it was mostly peaceful. Birds chirped to each other, butterflies fluttered through the air, ants rushed across the wet ground. Calm and quiet. Some would say 'too quiet'. Especially since Grian, the infamously chaotic hermit, was right there. So of course the major source of chaos that punctuated their walk would come from him. 

           "Do we have any idea where we are?" Grian asked. "I think we're lost," Jimena said. "Maybe I should fly and look around." She stretched her wings out and prepared to take off, but Grian stopped her. "Don't fly just yet. Your wings need to heal." Jimena nodded sourly. After a few minutes, she said, "Jimmy said he knew a friend in a past life who had wings. Is that you?" "No, Timmy doesn't know I used to have wings," Grian said. Then he turned around to look at her. "Wait, he remembers past lives-?!"

            And it turned out that when you didn't look where you were going, you were bound to get into an accident. Like Grian, staring backward at Jimena after she'd just dropped the bombshell on him that Timmy remembered his past lives even though he was still walking. And he promptly walked straight off a cliff that he didn't see. "Grian, look out-!" Jimena cried, reaching out, far too late. Grian scrambled to get a handhold or a foothold, but he was falling and falling and falling through air and he didn't look down because all he knew was that he was falling to his doom like that last day on third life. 

           I really miss my wings, Grian thought. Even if he hated what they stood for. But he didn't need those wings apparently. Not when Jimena had hers. And she used them to fly to him and catch him. Of course, she wasn't a very graceful flier. She'd only recently gotten her wings and they'd just been injured and she wasn't used to carrying a whole other person with them. But her wings were enough to save the two of them from a deadly fall. 

           Jimena swooped down for a hard landing, just managing to not crash again. Panting, she put Grian down. "Next time you watch where you're going," She admonished. Grian rolled his eyes but he couldn't help but feel grateful. It's a weird feeling to have, knowing you'd just been saved by someone who you'd hated for quite some time. "Thanks," He said. Jimena smiled. She really had a sweet smile.