~•The Way Back Home•~

Chapter 2

~•Ella PoV•~

White spots danced across my vision, as my eyes tried to adjust to the new bright lighting. Once they did, to my surprise, the monsters were gone, and crouching in their midst was the dark figure who had saved us before. " Where'd they go?" Kiley asked, looking around the room as if she was expecting them to pop out any minute.

" Despawned. They're gone, I can promise you that." He wavered to his feet, leaning against the wall for support. He reached for the bite on his neck. " Gone? You mean, like, dead? How did you do that?" CJ questioned, gawking at the boy in amazement. " Sorcerery. I've studied it since I was small, but even a simple move such as this drains my power greatly. There's a small kingdom where a couple of my friends live a little ways away. I can't transport us there, but it's not safe to stay here. We should leave as quickly as we can before more mobs decide to come." He whimpered, his grip noticeably growing stronger on his neck. " Are you gonna be alright?" I asked meekly, noticing his attention redirect towards myself. He looked confused, so I elaborated.

" That's likely to cause infection, and the arrow in your arm is depleting your blood supply by the second, and not to mention that that trick you did there had made you even more weak." He shook his head. " There will be potions at the kingdom that'll cure the zombie bite. It takes a while for the infection to spread. I can walk for now, but I'm afraid that's all I can do. Can any of you fight?" We all glanced at each other, knowing none of us had ever even held a sword in our lives, much less wielded one, although we knew Kiley was good at hand to hand combat, but I didn't see how this would help in this situation. I was the first to shake my head, and the rest followed. " Well we all start somewhere." He muttered, almost low enough to where I couldn't even hear it. He closed his eyes, a dark purple flash originated from under his eyelids, and when he opened them, they were entirely purple. Four sharp objects materialized in front of him, and it took me a while to realize that they were all swords. They were only iron swords, but they would do. They remained a light lavender hue even after the spell was cast, and i didn't even bother to wonder why. They honestly just looked cool, and I couldn't wait to be able to use them. My attention was redirected to the sorcerer when he gave a low moan, clutching both his arm and his neck. I shot him a look of sympathy and stepped forward, although he didn't realize I was coming so close. I stopped a mere foot from him, daring not to intrude into his space too much. Once he reopened his eyes they had dimmed back to their regular colours, but me being so close surprised him, and he jumped slightly. I gave him a small smirk, and then reached down to the arrow embedded in his arm. Even with a light touch he cringed, retreating from my gentle hands. I held up a finger, asking him to wait and he just stared at me blankly. I reached into the survival bag that we had rescued from the plane after we had started to build our not-so-decent shelter, and pulled out a long strand of cloth bandage, and a bottle of antiseptic solution. I returned to the sorcerer and asked him to sit, since he was looking a little woozy. He obeyed, sitting Indian-style on our floor, but making sure not to let me leave his sight, especially the bottle in my hand. I scooted close to him, paying no mind to my friends behind me whose attention seemed to be glued to me. My firm, yet soft hands grabbed his wounded arm and he grimaced, but complied, allowing me to take it. I nodded and averted my gaze to his arm. " What's your name?" I asked silently, out of the blue. I had to keep him busy, to distract him. " My name? Joel. But everyone calls me Joey." I wrapped a strip of bandage around the arrow, pressing lightly onto the already clotted injury. " Joey?" I laughed.

" Like the baby kangaroo?" He gave a small snort, and I chuckled. " Yeah, exactly like that." I tightened my grip on the arrow shaft. " One," " What?" " Two," I counted. " Wait! Wait, a second!" he yelped, trying to pull back his arm, but decided not to once he realized how bad it hurt.

" Three," With one quick thrust, I pulled the arrow from his arm, and covered the wound with the bandage, making sure that I applied enough pressure to stop the reopened wound from giving away to much of his much needed blood. Joey gave a soft cry, and grasped the hand that covered his injury, my hand. It was warm, but power seemed to radiate off of it, no matter how weak he claimed he had been. I could feel it surging throughout my veins, and it scared me. So I pulled away. Luckily, his grip stayed, so the pressure was still being applied to his wound. He whimpered quietly into the sleeve of his shirt that he happened to be biting on. " Are you alright?" I asked, running my hand through his surprisingly coarse, but soft dark hair. He nodded. I clutched the green glass bottle in my hand, regretting what was to come next, but I knew he needed it, just so that the arrow wouldn't cause infection. My shaky hands grabbed a new section of cloth, and poured a small amount of the antibacterial liquid onto it, and I waited until it had pretty much soaked in. I then quickly replaced the bandage on his arm with the one in my hands. His eyes went wide, but he managed to stay quiet, surprisingly. I nodded, grabbing his arm softly in my hands. I grabbed the roll of bandage and began wrapping it slowly around his arm, making sure to have it tight, but not too tight.

" Ow!"

" Sorry," I looked up, and peered deep into his light amethyst eyes.

" It's fine... What's your name?" He asked me after what seemed like a long pause. I continued wrapping the white bandage around his arm and he winced at my touch. " Ella," I replied softly, pulling away and admiring my decent doctoring skills.

" Well, Ella," A sly smirk crossed his face. " Thank you,"