(A/N: Damn, we're reaching powerstone milestones faster than I expected. At this rate I might actually have to do some extra editing and writing for this weekend. Remember 150 is the goal. Keep them coming. I'm trying to drown in them.)
XOXO
Onyx grunted, bloodied bolt yanked free entirely. His slow methodical breaths had already stemmed the blood loss, but he was in no position to keep that up.
It'd been brief, for less than a dozen seconds, but he'd made use of a different breathing technique back at the Gatefront. It'd not only accelerated both reaction time and his brain's ability to process information but eased whatever natural limits his body had. Humans, elves, hell dragons and everything in between. Perhaps there were homunculi without them but in his experience, there were very few naturally occurring races that operated without limits employed to keep the body's own strength from destroying itself.
The rebound from such a technique was extensive for even the most well trained body. If anything, this body's lack of muscle had spared him from the worst case scenario.
His limbs felt like dead weight, the simple act of raising them a challenge. An ungodly burn assailed both his lungs and heart. His brain pounded against his skull. Soreness held the rest of his body in a chokehold, flaring up at the slightest movements now that the adrenaline had passed.
They'd stopped among some trees and bushes scattered throughout the grassy plains to the south, but they were still far too close to those ruins. Once he attended to this wound, they'd be back on the move.
"Sir Onyx?" Irina, blindfold back over her eyes, said from his side. "If you need it, I can help."
"You know how to clean a wound?"
"Only scratches and bruises." She admitted. "But I want to help however I can."
Eh, why the hell not? He decided after barely a moment of consideration. With how crappy he felt all he wanted to do was kick back and get a moment to relax and she wanted to help. Their wants were perfectly aligned.
He called her over, handing her what she needed and guided her hands up to his wound. Her brow furrowed as blood quickly coated the cloth in her hands, only now realizing the severity of the wound. All the same, she powered through the surprise, cleaning the wound far more gently than he ever would've bothered doing.
She maintained that calmness as he walked her through putting a full stop to the bleeding and stitching it up before finally securing it in a roll of bandages.
"This is pretty good work." He said, not quite rolling his shoulder, but testing his range movement. It went without saying that he'd be favoring his left arm in battle for the rest of their trip.
"I'm glad you think so." Irina said with a unsure smile while carefully peeling off her bloodied gloves. "Um, Sir Onyx? Might I make a strange request?" She asked after placing the gloves in the grass beside them, her fingers playing with themselves.
"Go for it."
"May I feel your face?" She questioned, launching into a longwinded explanation.
That's it? What part of that was strange?
"Sure." He said, her explanations cut off.
Despite having just faced the stress of dealing with attending to a wound and making the request herself, she was slow to act on it, hands shying from his face whenever they drew close. "You take any longer and I'm going to start thinking you had something else in mind with that request."
Her cheeks reddened but the teasing got the intended effect, her hands soon finding his face.
Cheeks, jawline, chin, then up to his temple. She started from the outside, making her way towards the center of his face bit by bit. Her hands were soft, much softer than this body's had been even before he'd started building up callouses through constant training, and her touch softer, fingers carefully gliding over his features.
The familiar chill of goosebumps spread across his neck and the hair there stood up, as a faint shiver ran up his back.
"I don't mean to pry but I am curious." Irina began as her hands found his eyes, both of them already closed. "Are you acquainted with another who shares my condition? It's just that you seem so well adjusted to accommodating someone like me that I thought you must."
"Once, a long time ago, but it's more like I've been in your position." He explained. "I had a teacher, some crazy old man who used some odd magic. He took me and a bunch of his other students at the time to some forest, used his magic to rob us of our sight, then told us to survive for a month."
Rough times but good times. He'd lost count of how many times he nearly died that month, but the unorthodox training method had paid off in countless ways.
"That…that sounds rather cruel." Irina said, fingers dropping from his eyes and running around his mouth. He hadn't noticed it much before, but he had something of a rough stubble coming in. This body was slow to do it, but it appeared it was capable of growing some facial hair.
"Maybe." He agreed. That old man had been one cranky bastard with the meanest streak possible. "While I may not know what it's like to go your entire life without sight I do at least understand what it's like to have to rely only on your other senses to get through the day."
On that note, Onyx raised his left arm, pangs ignored as he returned the same treatment she was giving him. "It's only fair that I get a chance to memorize your face too, right?"
A small smile took the place of the surprise that came with his touch. "I suppose so."
Once she was satisfied, Onyx put an end to their impromptu break, gathering up the medical supplies and standing up, Irina's hands looped around his arm. They needed to put a lot more distance between them and the Gatefront.
They strode forward.
That's what he would've liked to say anyways.
Numb and weakened, his resistant legs could only manage a trudge that would see them getting nowhere fast. Yeah, that specific breathing technique was definitely a no go until he whipped himself into shape.
"Perhaps we should risk a longer break?" Irina suggested, matching his pace rather than following his lead at this point.
As much as he hated to be restrained by his own body of all things there wasn't much he could do.
Cool mist gathered at his feet, drifting ahead of them.
He being the operative word.
With a loud neigh, the spectral steed emerged from the mist, rearing up before dropping face to face with him.
"Here to offer us a ride, buddy?" Onyx asked. The horse stepped forward and nudged him. More specifically his waist, teeth pulling slightly at the pouch containing leftover wild fruits and vegetables, but he didn't open it, stepping back with another neigh. "Sure. I keep them around for you anyways."
The horse gave something of a snort before turning, saddle positioned in front of them. It looked like they wouldn't have any trouble pushing forward rather than wasting daylight.
XOXO
Embarrassment.
It was something she'd spent plenty of time throughout her childhood getting used to, blunders common place throughout her day to day. While she liked to think she had a rather good handle on the emotion, despite not experiencing it much in recent years, the heat currently resting upon her face begged to differ.
As the odd steed that accompanied them trotted along, taking it rather slow given Onyx's injury, every step would've knocked her off balance.
It was thanks only to Onyx she hadn't fallen. He sat directly behind her, the space between them nonexistent and his hands nearly resting on her waist as he held the reins of the saddle.
This was just like in some of the books that'd been read to her over the years. She'd imagined it of course: a chivalrous knight galloping in on his steed to save her from some danger. Of course, in those fantasies she wasn't blind, the horse wasn't quite so odd, and the knight wore full armor.
Oddly enough, she preferred this unexpected reality to that.
Onyx smelt of blood and sweat, a mix that while wholly unique to him, was not one she was unfamiliar with, Father often ending up the same way after training. He certainly wasn't armored, the feel of his bare chest against her back impossible to ignore. And he spoke nothing like some chivalrous knight following a code.
But, despite being as far from that childhood fantasy as possible and the short time they'd been together, Irina had concluded one thing that truly took her by surprise.
She enjoyed his company.
That was not something she could say about anyone else. Father, as much as she loved him, was a warrior through and through. He made attempts between his responsibilities but there wasn't much for them to truly talk about. Those in charge of watching over her when he couldn't either treated her like a porcelain doll that could break at any moment or ignored her as much as possible to avoid putting themselves in a bad position.
Embarrassing incidents might have stopped as she grew older, but loneliness remained her unwanted companion.
And then this odd kind man didn't just come along, save her life, and agree to a request no one in his position should, but he treated her completely differently than others did. He took jabs at her lack of sight rather than treating it as some taboo to be avoided. He was a warrior and yet conversations with him were varied and genuine, he asking her just as many questions as she did him. And at the top of it all, despite being indebted to him, and she very much was despite what he said, she never felt like she was…beholden to him.
Yes, he'd flat out pointed out multiple times that leaving his side meant death but that was just the cruel reality of the situation. It didn't feel so much like she was stuck being indebted to someone kind watching over her or beneath the strict eye of someone who expected her to do exactly what they said at any given moment.
Rather, it felt like she was traveling with a friend.
Onyx's hands pulled back slightly and the horse's trot slowed to a stop, cool winds passing them by and ruffling nearby foliage but the area around them otherwise quiet.
"Before we ran into each other, I was headed to some ruins." Onyx explained, not even giving her chance to wonder why it was they stopped. "I think I see them now. They're not too far from the main trail."
"If you want to make a stop there…" Irina trailed off. She didn't really want to suggest it but at the same time it didn't feel right to keep away from what he wanted to do.
"Eh, those old buildings aren't going anywhere. Your father on the other hand…"
Nothing more needed to be said beyond that implication. She wanted to believe that Father and the others had secured a portion of the castle to hold out but even if that were true, she knew him too well to ever think he would sit around waiting for reinforcements that may or may not be coming. She'd been doing her best not to think about it but over a week had passed and-
The horse began to move forward once more, her head falling back against Onyx's chest. She lingered for a moment before quickly righting herself, hoping her lasting embarrassment remained unnoticed.
"Th-This steed of yours-" She began, hoping to get her mind off things with some light conversation, only for the horse to neigh, trot jerking slightly.
"Like I said before, he isn't mine." Onyx said, chuckling as he used an arm to keep her steady. "This bastard is too smart to be owed by anyone. I like to think we're friends." A snort left the horse. "You can keep acting all high and mighty, but you sleep in the house that I built and eat beside the fires that I start. You're my friend whether you like it or not." The horse responded with another snort.
Irina wasn't sure whether or not it was a good thing that the strangest thing about Onyx wasn't the fact that he could carry on a entire conversation with a horse. She supposed it was no stranger than a horned horse that could appear at will according to him. There were tales of all sorts of things, but she'd never heard of such a creature.
"Does your friend have a name?" Irina asked.
"Probably." A neigh left the horse in response to the answer, the click of hooves to stone stopping as they slowed once again. Onyx hadn't moved the reins, so why-
"Torrent."
Irina's heart dropped, a hand instantly finding Onyx's wrist.
"Really?" Unlike her Onyx didn't sound the least bit taken aback by the new voice. "Thanks for letting me know, Cyclops." The voice, soft and feminine, released the faintest hum of acknowledgement. "Good to finally have a name to go with your long face, buddy." Another neigh came from the horse as it picked its trot back up, both acting as though a stranger hadn't jumped into the conversation.
"Who was that?" Irina asked.
"Right, you haven't met her, have you? I don't know her name but she's a bit like Torrent, she just appears whenever she wants."
Irina furrowed her brow. "I thought you said a cyclops was a giant monster?" She was rather certain that was normal human woman if the voice was anything to go off of.
"I just call her that because her left eye is always shut."
"…Forgive me for saying so, but you can be rather rude." Irina pointed out, shaking her head, more amused than anything else.
A demi-human, a steed that could appear at will, and now a woman that did the same? She supposed an odd man would keep rather odd company…which probably meant she didn't fall under the category of normal either at this point.
Well, she didn't mind the label. In fact, as much as she prayed that Queen Marika and Grace watched over her father, a part of her, a small selfish and ugly part, was almost grateful for everything that landed her in Onyx's company.