Halo (Etrian Odyssey Fanfiction)

Chapter 1

So, he was hurt after all. He did get hit. But hit by what? How bad was the wound? What should he do? Most importantly, why couldn't he remember? He sat back on his heels and carefully pushed his hair away from his face to keep it out of the wound, his eyes panning around the area to see if he could recognize anything, idly wondering where he was and how he got there in the first place.

His vision was still blurring at the edges, his head ached, he was so tired. That's right, he was going to lie down, because he was tired. He was bleeding, but it didn't appear to be too bad, and it wasn't bleeding heavily enough to concern him. Surely resting for a little would be good for him, right?

It was a trial to lie down on his side, as his whole body felt strange, lagging in a way, but the cool feel of the clover against his cheek was soothing, and he instantly started to relax and sink into the natural bedding, his eyes drooping as he felt something hot carve between his eyes from his temple.

God, he was so tired, so dizzy. Just... a few moments of shut eye. Then he'd be perfectly fine. He would wake up and remember everything that had happened and why he was wounded so severely. Sleep would be perfect. His energy would be renewed, the bleeding stopped completely, maybe... maybe he would even be able to trek back the way he came to see if anyone else had been hurt besides him.

Surely, he hadn't been alone. He could feel it, somehow there was this ache in his chest, this feeling of loss, of terror and fear, he knew, even if he couldn't remember it, that there had been others with him. He had to find them. After. After a few moments of rest.

While he laid there, slowly fading from consciousness, he was blissfully unaware of the novice guild trekking through that same forested area. Their bold leader had broken away from the main group, and was sweeping around the perimeter with a sharp eye, carefully easing his way between the trees and searching for any sign of danger, any monster or foe that could put his friends in harm's way.

Instead of finding an enemy, when he stepped between two trees and into the clearing, he found someone lying unconscious in the clovers. A young man, possibly in his late teens, with soft features and long light green hair that was fanned around him, knotted in places, his bangs stained red, pale green leaves stuck through it, likely from trudging through the forests of the Labyrinth.

He appeared to be unconscious, and as the protector came closer he was distressed to find that the red in his hair was in fact blood, which was streaking down over the young man's face from a terrible wound on his head. His clothes were ragged, dirty, and stained in mud and blood, torn in some spots, and suspiciously without any armor, weapons, or supplies at all.

What fool would come into the Labyrinth without any way to protect himself? The protector knelt at the unconscious stranger's head and reached out to carefully push his bangs to the side, revealing the wound clearly, starting from just above his left eyebrow and dragging crookedly across his forehead to his left temple, where it buried into his hairline and finally stopped just above his ear.

It was such a raggedly made gash, there was no doubt it would leave a scar, no matter how good of a medic treated him. The wound itself, however, appeared... somewhat unusual. At first glance the protector would have assumed it had been made by hitting the ground, or perhaps an outcropping of jagged boulders, but now that he was closer, he saw no debris in the wound. Indeed, it was a very uneven cut, bleeding heavily and deep enough that his heart was pounding in panic, but it was a relatively clean injury.

"Dyria!" the protector heard his younger brother's voice call for him, and lifted his head up with a heavy frown before calling back.

"I'm here! The clearing just to the east!"