Darkest before the Emerald Dawn

"Why are you here?" She yelled once more with a tone of visible anger, which was one that Erai was all too familiar with…though Vauntuss found this act to be new.

"Calm down, Erie. It's okay Vaceris, we were just watching your battle" Exclaimed the slightly shorter figure in an attempt to quell the tension.

"Wait…Herce, is that you?" Vaceris asked the figure.

"Yeah, sorry about Vauntuss's attitude. He was just worried about you."

"We were looking for a way out of the forest when we noticed a large amount of your magic coming from this place."

"Erie thought that you might be in danger so we made our way here."

"But when we got here, the beast tried to ambush you." Herce explained. 

"Oh…I thought that you were someone else, or that you wanted to steal our Mind Core" She replied.

"We don't need your core, we already have our own, besides ours is the Body Core" Vauntuss corrected her.

Suddenly the interaction between the friends was ended with a loud and harsh scream coming from Shynerai as he yelled and thrashed on the ground before falling unconscious.

She rushed over to him and was mortified when she saw the bite wound …it was getting worse, and he was feeling every second of it. In a panic, she tried carrying him back to camp in spite of how exhausted she was...

"What are you doing now?" Vauntuss wondered, while watching her in silent struggling.

"Look, he was hurt by the Aggressor and his wound isn't healing, so I don't have time to deal with you at the moment" She replied.

"Wait…Vaceris!" Shouts Herce as she tries to talk to her.

"Sorry Herce, but he needs my help".

As she carried him off, the two stood there, trying to figure out what to do. Vauntuss remarks on how she never acts this forceful or brash as Herce suspects it's because of Shynerai.

"Well…if he's that important to her, then we have no choice" Says Vauntuss as he starts rolling up his sleeves.

"So you want us to help them?" Herce asks him, in an attempt to understand his motivations as well as to find out why he is so insistent on helping Vaceris.

"Yes. Besides it would be a shame if he died before we got a chance to fight"

The two began walking towards Vaceris.

"He is the one that I have chosen, and if he disappoints, then he will die by my blade", Vauntuss thought as he approached the dying Daumier.

"Vaceris put him down. I'll carry him the rest of the way, you can go and get some water from the stream. Herce is going to need as much as she can get if she is going to help your little friend".

Looking at the hurting Erai, her heart was gripped with guilt and fear and her face was starting to reflect these feelings.

"Don't worry, I'll save him, I promise.", said Herce as she comforted her with her hand on her shoulder.

Fearing for his life, she decides to accept their help, albeit reluctantly.

Several minutes pass with Shynerai now inside the shelter at the camp.

Vicious screams roared from the makeshift camp as he thrashed about in agony while Vauntuss and Vaceris tried holding with Herce treating the wound.

She had mixed a bunch of herbs and roots that she managed to gather into a balm, which she proceeded to apply onto the wound.

A visible wisp of what looked like the poison gas from the Bronze Aggressor's breath attack began flowing out of the wound all the while Erai continued to writhe.

A few more minutes passed before he began to calm down as the last of the venom left his body.

Herce told Vaceris that if they had acted any later…than the venom would have done irreversible damage to his body, though she was intrigued as to why they didn't simply give up on the exam and ask the teachers for help, interested by her possible response, Vauntuss turns to hear her out.

Vaceris responded with a sullen expression and a sigh before she spoke:

"He wouldn't let me." She said as she stared at the ground in what looked like she was trying to hide from shame.

"I was willing to…but he wouldn't let us give up, he felt that we could still pass, or rather he felt that I could."

Vauntuss scoffed at the idea.

"If you had a chance, then you wouldn't have needed him to put himself in danger to protect you…Are you pleased with yourself for the sacrifice he made shielding you?"

"Of course not." She said as she fell to the ground with tears welling up.

"I don't want to see anybody getting hurt because of me…but because of me he almost died, and it's something I can't change as much as I want to." Vaceris responds as tears begin running down her cheeks onto the ground. Seeing her sadden friend, Herce sends Vauntuss a vicious expression, which makes him halt his verbal assault.

Hearing the faint sniffles of an upset Vaceris, the half-awake Shynerai rose from his bed and stumbled out of the shelter. As he left the shelter he Shadow-steps himself to where Vaceris was sitting...only to find her crying, the sight of which caused an eruption of bloodlust.

Sensing the growing hate coming from him, Vauntuss stood forward to confront him.

As he stepped forward, Erai propped himself up so that he was shielding Vaceris, the confused Vaceris told him to go and rest before his wounds opened up as she wiped her tears away.

"If…someone wants to upset my teammate, then they answer to me." He let out against Vauntuss as if to call him out.

"Hmm…hahaha, not in your sorry state you are." Vauntuss remarked as he continued to laugh.

The enraged Erai 'Stepped' towards and threw himself at him, launching Vauntuss into the Piercebone growth…before stumbling a few feet towards Vaceris, and falling unconscious, with a small pool of blood forming around him.

Vauntuss quickly shook off the flight and prepared to end Erai, but Herce gestured at him to stop… and well, he did albeit reluctantly. When he reached him, Vauntuss dragged him back into the shelter with Herce informing him rather angrily to stitch him back up.

Confused, Vaceris was still shocked by Erai's bizarre behavior, but Herce simply told her that:

"Looks like he'll do anything to protect his friends".

"But I wasn't in danger", she replied with her tears leaving dried streaks.

"I guess he just felt that you were", Herce responds as she looks at the injured juvenile being dragged into the shelter.

Several hours pass.

Shynerai woke up in the middle of a cool night, a crisp breeze met his flush face as he stepped out of the shelter, finding Vaceris resting nearby. The crackling flames of the fire occasionally caused her to turn in her sleep. It took a moment for him to realize that they were no longer in the treeline and were now settled on the forest floor.

While walking his first steps were without strain, he couldn't shake the nausea and the persistent flaring heat from within. With his top sitting loosely over him, accommodating the bundle of bandages binding him and holding his left arm in place. As he moved about camping space, he noticed the bandages on Vaceris.

Wrapping her hands, he wondered what could have scarred her, was his incantation faulty in some way or did he react too late to protect her. Approaching her with masterful stealth, she continued her sleep as he reached her, finding his jacket in her grasp, he gently loosened it. 

After grabbing his coat, he used a blanket he was sleeping with to cover Vaceris before leaving the shelter.

It didn't take long before he felt the cool air harden with a growing chill, like that of a late winter night, and at the center of this boreal shift was Vauntuss, standing guard over Herce who was sleeping beside him.

"Why are you here?" Shynerai asked him with a stern expression whilst also having obvious wear and fatigue present in his voice.

"I am led to understand that when someone saves your life, the appropriate response is gratitude towards them."

Shynerai's strength was barely enough to clench his fists and so he turned away, throwing his jacket over his shoulders and walking off. Vauntuss warned him as he did that if he continued moving around with such intense injuries, he could end up dying, which would be a wasted effort considering what Vaceris went through to save him.

Despite this, he continues off, deeper into the forest, though with an unusual look of frustration now present on his face.

He paced through the forest for some distance before finding himself by a meadow with a series of scattered ponds that were fed by the stemmed flow of a stream, cut off by large rocks. He stopped to rest in clear moonlit pools as he collected his thoughts.

'We slayed the Aggressors and found the Mind Core, but we ended up being attacked all because I let my guard down. Uncle Shadow trained me to be mindful and because I wasn't, it put my teammate in danger.' His frustration was fierce and could not be hidden any longer as he stared at his reflection in the flowing water.

He continued to eye his sullen face until the image of the full moon reflecting off the water came into focus. As he looked up into the sky towards the moon, he felt somewhat at ease despite all the thoughts racing through his head.

With the image stealing away his attention from his uncertainties, it also brought him an understanding of the bigger picture. When he stopped pitying, his expression changed with a heavy brow showing intense concern…specifically that this was already the second day, which meant that they had only one more day to return to Aria.

Despite the reality that they were likely waiting for him to wake up after his treatment as well honoring his request to by not giving up on the test, weighing heavily on him, the sight of the moon brought nothing but peace in his mind…

With that, he sat beside the shimmering pool and he began to meditate, remaining silent and unshaken until daybreak greeted him through the sound of waking life around him. Early that morning, Shynerai was on his way to the camp just as both girls woke up to find Vauntuss packing before he informed them that they had to get going.

"This is the last day of the exam so we'll be heading out soon."

As they finished stretching, Herce and Vaceris went over to the river for a quick wash, but the realization of Erai's disappearance sends a wave of dread over his caretaker though Vaceris eased the concerned Herce, simply remarking with a hopeful smile that he is probably getting breakfast.

Not entirely sure what to make of her words, she instead took them to mean that he wasn't in any danger.