Game of Hearts (Original Version)

Chapter 7

"Axel." You stopped, crossing your arms.

"We can't help him. I have to get you home, and—" You began to walk back to the boy, and Axel grabbed you by the arm, "If you go help him I swear to—" You pulled away from him and continued back to help him.

"Hey, are you okay?" You called out as you tentatively approached him. He was still around twenty feet away, so you figured you'd try just talking to him first. He did seem easy to anger and unpredictable earlier, and after everything that happened to you today, you were done risking your neck.

He looked up at you with tired, teal eyes, and was about to say something before collapsing face first into the marshy dirt. You sighed, and walked over to him, thinking now might be the best time to check on him since he couldn't put up a fuss about it. You knelt down by him and turned him over, undoing the fabric tied around his waist, then lifting his shirt to see how bad the wound was. It didn't look very wide, but it was deep and pouring blood now that the pressure from the fabric was off it.

"He needs stitches." You said as Axel walked up, seeing that you were bent on helping this man who tried to kill you.

"Well, good thing we have lots of thread and needles around." He said sarcastically as he came over.

"He's going to die if we don't help him. He's losing a lot of blood."

"Good. Let him die in peace then. We need to get moving. We're loosing sunlight, and I do not want to be in the Woodlands forest overnight."

"I'm not leaving him to die. He saved—"

"And then threatened your life. I know. Now let's move."

You hardened your gaze, and he sighed.

"What do you want to do then?"

"Get me some water. I need to clean the blood off before we can do anything."

"Where am I going to get water?"

"We're literally surrounded by water." You shook your head, thinking he was just being difficult.

"There's no way I'm going anywhere near that water. Are you crazy?"

"Axel."

"Fine, I'll go into town, by some skins of water, and a needle."

"Maybe you could get some healing balm from the gypsy camp—"

"No, they uh...they moved on. When I was looking for you earlier, they were the first place I went, and they up and moved their caravans."

You sighed, "That's too bad, I could really use some help." You had gotten pretty good at patching up scrapes and cuts over the years, but you had never dealt with anything life threatening like this before. If you had been able to get to him sooner it probably wouldn't have been so bad, but it was clear that this wound had been open for hours. That he was able to keep on his feet for so long was almost as shocking as it was impressive.

"Alright, wait here, stay hidden, and I'll be back as soon as I can." Axel said, dropping the leather bag of supplies you had gathered in town before transforming into a wolf and sprinting off in the direction you had come from. He was fast, but you worried about how long your silver haired friend here had left. The best you could do was bundle up the old cloth he was using, and use it to apply pressure to the wound to hopefully lessen the bleeding until Axel could get back.

You decided to try and make him more comfortable, and lifted his head so it was resting on your knees while you leaned over him to apply pressure to his abdomen. His eyes were closed peacefully, and his silver hair blew lightly in the breeze, and you couldn't help but stare at his features. He looked young, maybe a few years older than you, and he had a few light and faded scars on his hands and arms, and even a few were visible on the small portion of his abdomen you could see, as well as some deep, bloody scratches that you could see through his shredded sleeves, but his face was almost perfect aside from the dirt. There was dried blood above his right eyebrow where it looked like something had been bashed against his skull from the bruising, and while that was pretty big, it was also the only thing on his face to distract from it.