The Consequences of your Actions

Part II

II.

The next time he regained consciousness, he was in a crudely made bed with bandages wrapped around his torso, arms, legs, and head, with stitches made here and there. He would never forget that day, the day when he woke up to his siblings crying all over him, hugging him as soon as they notice him awake. The happiness shown on their faces had brought a warm feeling in his chest and he couldn't help himself to not hug them back, even if the action had made the poorly made stitches opened up. He didn't care about that, the only thing running in his mind at that moment was to make sure his brothers were there with him and were safe. He couldn't bother about the wounds he re-opened because of this, not when he thought he was going to do die, knowing he couldn't save his brothers and leaving them with a fate far worse than death. When his head had started to throb in pain, making him feel lightheaded and having the sudden urge to keel over and puke his guts out, alongside the fact that his wounds started to bleed through the bandages, had made their moment short-lived. His siblings were adamant to not let him overexert himself when he had just woken up, they didn't let him do anything for the remainder of the day, even resorting into physically forcing him back into bed when he tried to help around. 

He wasn't used to just lying in bed for periods of time, even if it was just for a day. He wasn't used to not doing anything productive, and he didn't like that he was in bed all day while his brothers were out there gathering food and doing chores. He was the eldest brother for Ulcus sakes! He was the one that supposed to take care of his younger brothers not the other way around! It was something he grew up doing, something that had been Intergrated into his daily routine since he was child. Not doing anything even slightly productive felt like he was only wasting the day. So, it was a bit of an understatement when he said he was a bit displeased by these arrangements for a couple of days after he woke up, but he got over it when one instance where he tried to help only to open a rather large stitch that made him stay in bed for more days after. He then decided to wait for most of his wounds to close to get up and help in some rather light work. With great difficulty in trying to persuade his brothers to quite their nagging and their insistence to make him take breaks. He knew his brothers were only trying to look after him and he appreciated them for caring, he really did, but he could look after himself just fine. There was no need for them to hover over him like he was going to greatly injure himself just by lifting a basket of berries.   

After the initial joy and shock of still being alive after such encounters, he became curious about the events that happened when he blacked out and found himself wanting to know exactly what happened when the moment the chief had grabbed Pai and created that scar on his face 'Every time he lay his eyes on that damn scar, he could feel something inside him start to stir, shouting for the blood of the person who was bold enough to try such a thing, he could find himself agreeing to it in the back of his mind where he had shoved it in the darkest corners'  Or the events that followed after, no matter how much he tried to recall it;  it kept him in a loop of trying to find out what happened, but it was all blank, nothing came to his mind as he tried to recount the events that happened prior. And when he did try to find out on his own, all he got was a massive headache and frustration bubbling up under his skin. When he had exhausted himself trying to find the answers he was searching for, he sorted to try and ask his brothers about it, they became quiet and stiff the second the question left his lips, which was an odd response to it, and had bewildered him enough that he didn't try and push when Mai had switched the subject hastily.

He thought maybe they were just shaken about it and won't tell him because they were too frightened about the experienced they had witness that they refuse to talk about. Gai had understood them, tried to understand them. If one of them were in any similar situation he had been in, and they don't remember some of it, he'd refuse to talk about it as well, not only for the fear he would feel about potentially losing them, but for wanting to spare them some details he knew would not be helpful for their peace of mind. He has trust in his brothers that they would open up and tell him what happened when they are ready to talk about it and fill him in what happened after he had lost consciousness.