Chapter Text
A peaceful morning came as the sun rises on an unfamiliar land. In front of Fionn's eyes that are newly-opened, the warm smiles of his friend greeted him, much to his surprise. He had a shocked and surprised expression, since he would expect him to be the one awake at this moment. "Good morning, Fionn!", exclaimed Hugh, seemingly fixing things in his bag. Mira sat next to Fionn, and patted him on the shoulder. "What's with that look on your face? Did you see a ghost or something...?", she asked. Fionn looked at her and laughed uneasily. He looked around the place that they were in. As far as he remembered, they weren't at a riverbank. They were back at camp before he fell asleep. He was confused. "How did we...?", he would say, but Sub crossed his arms with a grin. "Who knows? The air's pretty light in these places, eh? And the view too."
Fionn looked at the glimmering river. "Yeah...", he said with a smile. Despite the constant awe, Fionn remained confused. He then remembers more before he fell asleep.
The group of elementals hurriedly ran back to camp, the safest place in their opinion as of now. A bunch of guards started chasing all of them after they tried to get something important -- a scroll from the past -- inside a heavily-secured mansion. Turns out, once they were about to reach their goal, it was an ambush. Luckily, they managed to escape before someone was badly injured.
Sub sat on the ground, exhausted of all the running. "Well... that didn't go well...", he said, panting. Mira's ears twitched. "We should've thought of a plan before going in.. OF COURSE there's gonna be an ambush...", she exclaimed, visibly annoyed at not getting the special item. Hugh stretched his arms. "... and we almost got in HUGE trouble...", he said, fixing his clothing and brushing the dust off with a faint smile. Fionn looked at them, checking if there was anything wrong, and sees a small scratch on Dark's face. Fionn walked to him. "W-we need to take care of that," he said, as a way of complying on healing him. Dark took notice of the scratch on his face, then smiled at Fionn, shooking his head. "No need. Don't worry, it's pretty small...", he replied.
Although Fionn really wanted to help, he couldn't talk back. He sighed. He looked at Momo, who seemed to be gripping her wrist, as blood trailed down from her hand. This shocked Fionn, and he quickly ran to her aid. Momo looked at him, her head tilting a little in wonder. "Hm? What's wrong, Fionn?", she asked in her usual soft voice. Fionn pulled her wrist, revealing a quite deep cut. "I-I should be the one asking you that...!", he said. Momo looked at the wound, and giggled. "Don't worry, it's not a major thing. It'll heal eventually," she said. The young wolf looked at her. "Then let's heal it now...", he said, and closed his eyes.
Slowly, the wound on Momo's wrist closed and disappeared. Fionn opened her eyes once again, a little dizzy from the healing. Momo got worried, since she felt fuzzy things being sent directly from Fionn's mind. "T-thanks, Fionn... Are you alright?", she asked. Fionn nodded, sweat fell, covered by his fur. He looked down. Why was he exhausted from just simple healing? The wound was quite deep, but he healed more than that before...
...was he getting weak?
The wolf shook the idea. He can't be. He might be needed.
But looking at the others, they would be worried about this.
Fionn's headache grew worse as he sat awake, so he decided to go to sleep. Walking to go take a nap, he takes notice of his bag. He almost forgot. He took out papers from his bag, each were drawn on with figures of Fionn's loved ones, his father Roel Wolffe, his mother Shayla Searc, and his strict Uncle Ru. "Goodnight, everyone...", he said with a weak smile, before slowly falling into deep sleep. Maybe he might see them in his dreams once more. After what's been going on, that was what he wishes. For his family to comfort him like family would.
Fionn opened his eyes once he remembered. Still, there were no good reasons on how they ended up on the riverbank. The others seemed to be strangely carefree about this, so he decided to just join them along. They would do fun things, things that never occured to them before, due to the fact that everyone had their own ways. Now, they were all together, having fun, being family. Everyone didn't seem to mind anything else.
He wanted to stay like this.
In the forest, it was almost afternoon. Hugh watched Fionn who was still asleep, weirden out about why he was still asleep at this hour. Mira walked towards them, and sat by the two. "He's still asleep? ...strange...", Mira said, crossing her arms. Hugh nodded, as Fionn continued to sleep. He wasn't moving, just... sleeping. This bothered them since he would be the first one to wake up usually, aside from Liam, of course.
"I should have stopped him from healing... maybe he overworked himself over it...", Momo said, continuously worrying over Fionn still sleeping. She thought that maybe the reason why he was still asleep was because her wound costed him a ton of energy to heal. Dark scratched the back of his head, looking at Momo. "I'm sure it's not that... I mean, we've seen him heal lots of things worse, right?", he asked, trying to lighten up Momo's mood. The girl nodded slowly. Falaos was repeatedly glancing at Fionn, waiting for him to wake up like the others are. Sylvan stretched his arms. "Maybe... he's just tired from our little mishap last night?", he said.
Time ran rapidly, and night came. The youthful wolf was still asleep, he didn't open his eyes one bit. The others started to worry. "Something's wrong...", Mira said, probably sensing something. She looked at the group, and motioned Momo to come over. The girl walked towards them, and sat by Fionn. The mind elemental tried to read the wolf's mind, if he was active.
"He's dreaming," she replied, her eyes closed as she held onto the wolf's hand to form a connection. After a moment of silence, her eyes opened wide. "I... can't seem to get him to wake up," she said. She looked at the others in confusion. "I can't get a hold of his thoughts either... all I can do is get in and talk to him, but what I say isn't reaching him...", she continued. Mira gulped, and looked at Hugh. Hugh was starting to get terrified. "Is there anyway we can get there, as well? C-can... you get us in?"
Momo looked down. "I think... but--," she said, but was cut off by Falaos. "Do it now. We can't waste time...", he said, desiring to get his friend to wake up as quickly as possible. Momo gulped, then nodded. She knew it'd be risky, but it wouldn't bad to try. "Who... wants to try first?", she asked. Hugh raised his hand.
Momo held Hugh's hand, and she continues to concentrate. "Close your eyes," she said. Hugh gulped, nervous and uneasy, but does as told and closed his eyes.
Hugh opened his eyes, to see Fionn. He took a step forward, but every step he takes, Fionn looked like he was getting more and more distant and far. Surrounding him was the others, their friends, seemingly messing around by a riverbank. The wolf looked happy. "Fionn!", Hugh exclaimed, but it did not reach the young wolf. He repeatedly kept shouting, and once Fionn heard him and looked back at him...
Back to reality, Hugh opened his eyes. Momo gulped, and let go of his hand. "I-I'm sorry...," she said in a weak voice, her eyes became less energetic. Doing a spell she hasn't tried before, it was understandable. Hugh smiled. "I think he heard me," he said. The mind elemental smiled, before collapsing down the ground. Mira and Dark ran to her aid, and Hugh was surprised by this. "The spell must've exhausted her...", Mira said. "Let her rest. Atleast now, we reached him...", Falaos suggested. Dark carried the girl up and walked to get her to her sleeping place.
"What did you see?", Mira looked at Hugh and asked. Hugh looked down at the ground to remember the dream of his friend. "We were there... everyone was having a good time. I've never seen Fionn so happy...", he replied. Mira looked at the sleeping wolf. "He's in his fantasies. We'll get him up eventually."
Hugh nodded. "Yeah... of course..", he said. If only it was easy.