One Family (KOTLC Oneshots)

Strict Orders Part 2

"Get up lazy bones!" A voice called in Albun's ear. He groaned to see Fitz and Sophie around a hastily built fire boiling water and open MRE rations. Sophie poured some porridge into a cup and handed to Albun. Albun looked down at the gooey mess in his hands and couldn't help but grimace. He missed his mother's cooking.

"Don't worry. You will have real food once we get back to the base. Your family is waiting for you there." Fitz laughed, obviously catching Albun's look of disgust at the porridge. Albun turned pink and slowly put porridge to his mouth. The texture could be worked on, but the flavor wasn't bad, almost sweet. Albun looked through the cracks of the boarded-up windows seeing that the sun wasn't up yet.

"Why did you wake me up if the sun isn't even up yet?" Albun asked, looking through the cracks again.

"The fastest way to get back to base is to head through the open streets. And since there is minimal cover out there, we are going to use the night cover to move faster. It is about 4:00 right now." Sophie explained.

"4:00 A.M?!" Albun asked in shock. He had never been up that early. It must have been a new record! Albun makes a mental note to brag about it to his brother when he gets back to them.

"Trust me I wasn't happy about it either," Sophie mumbled, shooting a harsh look at Fitz who smiled into his cup.

"You should have seen her this morning. We only got up about 20 minutes ago, and that is because Sophie was groaning and threatening me for getting her up so early." Fitz laughed, imitating a sleep-ridden zombie and looking at Sophie who was glaring into the fire in anger. Albun laughed with Fitz and finished his porridge. Fitz stamped at the light and erased any clue of them ever set up camp in the abandoned building, while Sophie gathered weapons and checked Albun for injuries. Sophie's warm touch reminded Albun of his mother, checking him if he was okay when he fell outside. Her eyes scanned over Albun in worry; her eyebrows pressed together. Albun idolized Fitz and Sophie when he first met them because everyone knew about the fantastic warriors that they were — fighting for freedom and peace. But after getting to know them for a night, Albun only idolized them more. Not only for the super soldiers that they were, but because of their kind hearts to come back and save him from the rubble. He idolized Fitz's corny jokes. He admired Sophie caring for him as his mother would. He worshiped them because it felt like he could talk to them about anything. It reminded him about how they weren't just these super cool super soldiers, but they were also elves with emotions and mannerisms just like him. Sophie's voice shook Albun out of his daze.

"Albun? We are getting ready to go." Sophie announced, slinging her bow over her back. Albun nodded and stood up from the rock he was sitting on. Or at least, he tried to. But the minute he stood up, he felt a pain rise up his leg starting from his ankle. He fell to the ground in pain, his eyes holding back tears. He didn't want to open his eyes to let the tears out; he couldn't cry in front of his idols! But when he did finally open them, he saw he was in Fitz's arms with Sophie looking over him, her brown eyes wide in frantic worry.

"Albun? What's wrong?!" Fitz asked, propping him back onto the rock. Albun balanced out his voice to hopefully make sure he didn't sound like some little cry baby.

"I don't know. W-when I stood up my ankle hurt bad and sent me down to the ground." ALbun explained. Sophie and Fitz look at one another, and the Sophie rolls up Albun's pant leg to his knee to observe his injury. WHat they saw nearly made Albun puke. His ankle was mangled and swollen, with different colors of purple and green painted on it in bruising. A small layer of sweat was around the injury. Sophie had to look away to avoid puking, and Fitz let out a sharp "oooh." at the sight of it.

"Sophie do you mind-"

"Already on it." Sophie cut him of throwing him a pair of glasses from their bag. Fitz put them on and looked at Albun's entire leg.

"Wait. Aren't those Physician spectacles? Are you guys physicians as well?" ALbun asked, staring at the glasses in wonder.

"No. The glasses help us if we are on a mission without a doctor, though. These glasses are super rare, but when we were visiting the Queen of Duran, Sophie got injured and needed to go to the physician's office. While we were there, Sophie spotted that they had an extra pair and asked for them. They originally said no but right before we left Sophie said she convinced the Doctor to give them to her. We got quite lucky that they were that generous." Fitz explained, observing Albun's leg. Albun looked up at Sophie to confirm the story only to find her shaking her head. Albun looked at her in confusion as Fitz continued to look at his leg. Sophie mouthed, "I stole them." Albun pressed down his smile as Fitz got up and tore apart some wood and started to make a splint for Albun's leg.

"We got lucky. It was only a sprained ankle, not a break. But we can't have you walking on it." Fitz said, slowly getting up and putting the glasses back in their bag.

"Well, how are we gonna get back to base then?" Sophie asked, keeping an eye on the horizon. Fitz thought for a minute before getting an eye idea.

"Well, I give my little sister piggy back rides all the time. And since the base is only about 25 minutes away, I should be able to carry you all the way." Albun lit up. Heck yes, he wanted a piggyback ride from Fitz Vacker. Albun climbed onto Fitz's back and moved so his splint wouldn't dig into Fitz's side.

"Can I get a piggyback ride too?" Sophie asked, opening the door for Fitz and Albun. Fitz rolled his eyes at her, and she and Albun shared a smile.

They were pressed against the walls of the abandoned city, carefully avoiding areas that were lit or destroyed so and they couldn't cross. About five minutes away from the base, Sophie stopped and jumped into a dark alley, Fitz following close behind.

Sophie pointed to a large squadron of Neverseen in front of the main entrance, each soldier heavily armed with unique weaponry.

"Damn. This is going to be harder than I thought." Sophie cursed.