Emotions, within crippling anarchy

They made it out of the ruins. It was perhaps the easiest task to do, once they got unmistakable directions from an inhabitant. After that, they flew about half-a-kilometer away from the ruins. Anxiety didn't allow them to celebrate their escape though, and the crack of dawn harassed their pupils too.

"Why did we bring her along? She was about to die anyway." Audera complained.

"She won't die if we won't let her," Bardeelus argued, "Besides, even if we don't like her, we gotta respect her dedication. That shit took courage."

He didn't bother to wait for her answer, and even demanded for everyone to be quiet afterwards. He sensed a heart-beat close by, which couldn't belong to a human, but it was a deer's instead. 

Bardeelus could tell, even though he didn't see the deer. He heard enough of them to know that their heartbeat was a tad slower than that of a human's; Under fifty beats a minute.

If other people were in his shoes, they'd probably get confused in comparison, as the attention to detail was very important. The thing is, if a human walked across the forest, their heartbeat would be bouncing up and down mercilessly. They can't travel as easily as deers could.

Deers inhabited this forest, and their legs wouldn't let them struggle across this terrain. Their 'brisk' walks were as light as they could be, so a deer's heartbeat would only be high, if it got spooked and ran off. 

"Meat for breakfast… Now that's living." He thought, and focused his powers towards the target.

He felt better now, so it took little effort to muster up some strength. He killed the deer effortlessly, even though it was about twenty-five meters away, right in front of them.

Since they had no time to waste, he immediately started barking out commands. "Try to get a campfire going, you have that flint with you, use this dagger too, it should help you break some sparks out."

He handed the dagger to Audera, and although she was still hesitant to help this girl, she did like the idea of a good breakfast. For that matter, she cooperated. 

Erdeta was asked to collect some branches in the meantime, as they obviously needed it to get a campfire going. 

In the meantime, Bardeelus sat on the ground and embraced Driola. He didn't want to let her head touch the ground, which crawled with insects.

The carcass of the deer was still about twenty-five meters away from them, and he didn't want to lug that thing around either. It would be a waste of time, but he didn't want to tire his friends either, so he came up with a little solution.

"Walk for me deery-boy, hope you're a boy. Wait, what am I saying? Who's gonna eat the balls if it's a boy? Not me!" He muttered.

"What are you babbling about?" Audera asked from a distance. 

Bardeelus whistled, and then pointed. "Look over there! Meat that delivers itself."

Although this might be something cruel to joke about, he still did something efficient. He put the deer's heart in place through some thought-out-commands alone, and got it to walk towards them.

To some, this would be a great portrayal of power even. The deer was still walking as normally as a deer could, as if its internal organs hadn't been damaged, once its heart exploded earlier on. 

This was amazing, and would be considered biologically impossible by some, but Bardeelus was as powerful as he was clueless! He got the job done, and didn't think much of it.

He killed the deer again once it got close enough. The ladies got a fire going quickly, and afterwards they started working on this carcass. 

Audera wasn't new to hunting, and she wasn't void of any survival skills either. She pulled the deer's liver out, and immediately started roasting it. Livers were a survivor's best friend, as they were easy to cook, and would help anyone who recently lost a lot of blood; It was an essential food, with low risk factors. 

She sliced some tiny portions from the liver, and roasted them over the fire within minutes. Afterwards, she fed them to Driola, and made sure to prevent her from choking; Driola was still unconscious, after all.

"Thank you," Bardeelus nodded, "You finally got back to your senses, helping people isn't always as dangerous as you make it."

"It is dangerous… but I'm not heartless, like you're presuming." She sighed, and was noticeably sad. "If she does anything stupid, though, I'll push this dagger through her heart myself. My mercy has limits."

"Fair enough," Bardeelus cackled, and then said. "I know you're not heartless, though. Dunno if you like women or something, but a heartless person wouldn't risk everything to help her friend. You saved Erdeta's life, not me. In this embarrassment of a country, unconditional emotions are precious."

She blushed after that point, and didn't say a word. It was hard for her to look anyone in the eye, so she just focused on roasting the bits of liver, as if she was dedicated to saving this enemy.

They force-fed Driola for a while afterwards. It took about fifteen slices of liver-meat to pump some life-loving blood through her heart, and after that point, it was inevitable for her to wake up.

Once she woke up, she saw the deer's head somewhere close to the campfire, and asked. "Why does my mouth feel like that deer's asshole? Did you give me raw meat? That's… smart."

"The liver had some blood dripping out of it, so it was really fresh. Blood doesn't taste that good, though." Audera said.

Bardeelus was perhaps the happiest person here, so he couldn't help but joke. "Don't worry woman, we haven't decided on the deer's asshole yet. So if you have weird taste-buds, it's all yours."

It was difficult to ignore that joke, most started cackling, while Erdeta was laughing enough to wake up the dead. Booty-hole jokes were always funny to her. 

"So nice to see you laugh again," Audera whispered, but barely anyone heard her.

Anyway, as Driola got more and more conscious, she started eating without any help. After about an hour, she munched through three separate chunks of meat, which all together were two-kilos heavy!

Recovery was inevitable, but in the meantime, she noticed that her left wrist started bleeding a little bit. 

She couldn't afford to bleed again, so she asked. "You haven't mended my wrist yet? Wow, for a 'pure necromancer', you sure are a greedy little bastard."

Bardeelus was baffled after that point. They've awkwardly avoided these demonic and power-based topics until now, and that perhaps was a mistake, regardless of how humane it was. If he asked some questions from the beginning, Driola's healing process would've been a tad more effective!

"Huh?" He grunted, painfully confused.