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Gillion grit his teeth, gripping the hilt of his sword between his palms. He could taste blood in his mouth from where he had bit his tongue earlier and he spat it out. He was thrown off balance by the sudden rumbling of the creature in front of them, its roar loud which startled a flock of birds nearby. Gillion winced, ears pinning back at the sudden noise.
Jay knocked an arrow, her eyebrows furrowed as she aimed her bow. Gillion could notice her shaking from where she was standing, a wound gushing from her side from where she had gotten hit earlier. If Gillion was closer, he would’ve done something to help her ailment, but he was almost on the other side of the clearing.
Gillion readied an attack, creeping around the side of the beast where there looked to be less defense. His footsteps were loud, but it was barely anything over the sound of the monster’s panting. It hissed and snarled, stomping its front two legs on the ground and clawing at the dirt. Gillion bit down on the inside of his mouth, clenching his sword tighter.
Its tail lashed back and forth and Gillion was all too aware of the spine on the end of its tail. It was hooked at the end in a way that would be certainly deadly if it got a good enough puncture. He ducked his shoulders, jumping as the creature screeched. Jay’s arrow hit true in the center of its face, puncturing through the flesh and digging into the space under its eye.
Gillion jumped, trusting his sword upward as the blade sparked with electricity. His hair stood up as sparks danced up his arm and curled around his coral.
Blood spilled from the monster's wound as Gillion sliced against its flesh, stabbing upward and wedging his sword as deep as possible. The monster cried and hissed as electricity coursed through its body.
What Gillion didn’t see was the tail lashing out, the spine that he had previously tried to take note of wedging between the plates in his armor. Gillion made a noise of surprise, nearly dropping his sword as he was pulled forward a few feet when the beast pulled its tail back.
But thankfully, because of his armor, the spine didn’t hook as well as it was probably intended to, and it retracted without taking Gillion with it. He stumbled, a hand moving to clutch at his stomach where blood was slowly staining his skin and undershirt. Pain throbbed against his abdomen and Gillion grit his teeth.
For a moment his vision blurred and Gillion clenched his jaw tightly. The monster in front of him was no more than a blob of dark colors and Gillion blinked to try and rid the blur. His feet scraped against the ground and he stumbled backwards. Gillion brought a hand up to rub his eyes, blinking away the dizziness that took hold of him.
“Gill!” Jay shouted and Gillion’s ear twitched in her direction. His stomach flared with pain from every step that he took away from the creature, raising his sword to block another attack that he was sure to come.
The monster hissed and screamed, bashing its tail against the ground and the vibration sent a throbbing pain through Gillion’s skull. When he finally managed to blink away the black spots in his vision and the blur that had clouded his senses, Gillion felt a wave of dizziness rush over him the moment he managed to focus.
Another roar that seemed to shake the trees echoed from the creature’s mouth and Gillion was thrown off balance. His blade slipped from his hands and he tripped over his own tail, hitting the ground hard.
A headache began to throb in the back of his eyes and Gillion squinted to rid the tumbling, spinning feeling that caused him to sway. He could see the monster writhing a few feet away from him, pawing at the dirt and chuffing.
“Gill, come on, up you go,” Chip grunted from a few feet away from Gillion, hurrying over and grabbing Gillion by the arm. Gillion blinked, turning his head and immediately regretting it as the small movement seemed to rattle his entire brain, making it difficult to distinguish Chip’s form from the trees around him.
Chip slung Gillion’s arm up over his shoulder and began to help Gillion up to his feet. His knees wobbled and Gillion gripped tightly to Chip’s arm, he couldn’t see straight and every step he took felt like he had swallowed pure fire in his stomach. He swayed, foot getting stuck in holes that had been pierced into the ground.
The creature screamed again and if Gillion looked over to see, there appeared to be arrows sticking out of the monster’s skin, gushing blood.
Gillion sucked in a sharp breath, leaning almost all his weight on Chip. He coughed, the taste of blood thick against his tongue and Gillion’s stomach churned with nausea. Chip grunted, doing his best to help the injured Triton.
“Chip, little help?” Jay called from where she was standing. Gillion coughed again and squinted, his knees nearly giving out as the ground dipped and swayed. Chip let out a sharp breath through his nose.
“Be patient,” he grumbled, helping Gillion lean against a nearby tree, his sweaty palms making it even harder to grip him. “Stay here, try not to bleed out and die please.”
Gillion didn’t even know if he said anything in response, he brought his hands up to his face, rubbing his eyes and sucking in a sharp breath. His head felt light like it was full of air and if he moved his head to the side, his vision shook and he seemed to rattle. Nausea swirled in the pit of his stomach and he had half a brain's idea to heal the injury before it got worse.
Bringing his hand to his stomach, Gillion could barely see his own magic spreading from his fingertips. It was an almost effortless movement at this point, he knew how to heal himself if he was near unconsciousness. As long as he had even the slightest energy.
He grimaced, hoping that it would help with the dizziness.
It didn’t. Not even a little.
Gillion dragged his claws over the bark of the tree he was leaning against, piercing the hard wooden skin as he used it as an anchor to stand. His stomach no longer burned with the pain of being impaled, but he could barely see over the spinning of his vision. Gillion squinted, trying to see the faint glow from his sword where he had dropped it.
The sounds of Chip and Jay fighting had barely filtered through his mind. Only the screams of the beast were loud enough for him to hear it over the sound of his own heartbeat in his ears. Gillion coughed sharply, using the trees nearby to stumble back in the direction that he possibly had been before.
He had no idea if he was going the right way anymore. Everything had gotten turned around from the moment he sat down, and for a moment everything was suspended in a void of nothingness. Gillion blinked, chest heaving with the effort to remain standing as his knees practically vibrated.
Nausea swirled in his stomach, replacing the previous pain that he had experienced. His head refused to stop throbbing, his face heating up with a dark blush in his effort. His sword was somewhere nearby, he could feel the faint energy humming from it. The remnant of his previous smite still lingering on the sharp bone blade.
The blur of the monster in front of him thrashed and writhed and Gillion barely managed to duck away from its spiked tail before he was knocked prone again. Unfortunately, the sudden movement caused his knees to give out and Gillion dropped back to the ground.
The palms of his hands skidded against the grass, rocks scraping against his skin as he panted. He swayed where he sat, his entire body protesting his actions.
As he blinked and tried to force his body to move once more, the ground seemed to dip and shift from underneath his hands and Gillion swallowed down another bout of nausea.
He was unsure of how much time had passed after he had fallen back onto his hands and knees. But soon, a pair of hands were pressed to his shoulders, helping him sit back more.
“Gill, hey,” Jay crouched in front of him, her grip tight on his arms as he swayed and rocked back and forth. His head lulled to the side for a second as his vision blurred.
Gillion blinked and scrunched up his face, a small groan escaping his lips.
“I told you to stay put,” Chip scolded, dropping into Gillion’s line of sight as he crouched down next to Jay. Gillion brought a hand up to scrub at his eyes, squinting in an attempt to quell the rattling in his mind. Everything seemed to spin like he was in a whirlpool, crashing back and forth and rotating painfully.
“Monster?” Gillion slurred, letting out another groan as he squeezed his eyes shut. He could still feel the world spinning around him like he was the one moving. But he was pretty sure that he was sitting down on the ground still. When had he gotten back to the ground?
“It’s gone,” Chip huffed, clicking his tongue, “probably dead soon to some other creature if it doesn’t bleed out first.”
Jay’s hands flitted over Gillion’s skin like she was indecisive on what she should do. After a few seconds of worried examination, she brought her hands up to the straps of his armor, unbuckling it with little assistance from Gillion. He kept his eyes closed, trying to ignore the swaying feeling and the headache that was throbbing against his skull.
“It got you good, huh?” Jay muttered, her fingers brushing over his stomach where the exposed patch of scar tissue was exposed. His undershirt had gotten ripped in the fight and he could still register the slight sting from where his magic had not fully healed the wound. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, or anywhere near in serious condition.
“Right between the armor too,” Chip commented. Gillion peeked one eye open at Jay.
“Healed… it…” he muttered, barely trying to make his voice understandable. Jay clicked her tongue.
“Yeah, that’s good, it looks good,” she dragged the pads of her fingers over his skin, seeming to trace some unseen pattern that Gillion was unaware of, “it’s not infected, but poisoned.”
“Dizzy,” Gillion admitted, knocking the back of his head against the tree.
“Yeah…” Jay frowned sympathetically, “that’s probably the poison.”
He groaned, stomach churning. Shivers ran down his spine, causing him to tremble with the effort.
“I can try and heal it a little more if that might help,” Jay suggested, but Gillion jolted at that idea.
“No,” he hissed out through his teeth, fumbling to grab at Jay’s wrist, “No.”
If she healed him, he probably would throw up. And that was something that Gillion really didn’t want to happen. Other people’s magic made him nauseous, and with how badly his stomach already felt from the dizziness, he didn’t want to risk anything.
But Jay didn’t ask any questions, she didn’t ask to know why Gillion was being stubborn. She just dropped her hand from his skin and nodded faintly. Gillion sucked in a shallow breath through his teeth, holding it there for a second before exhaling sharply.
“We should head back to the ship,” Chip insisted, putting his hand on Gillion’s knee. Through his squinted eyes, Gillion could see Chip’s head swiveling back and forth as he seemed to be looking around for something. Gillion squeezed his eyes shut as tight as possible and nodded weakly.
“Come on,” Jay wedged her arm underneath his armpit, pressing her hand into the dip of his waist as she began to lift him up to his feet. Gillion swayed dangerously, his knees shaking and he groaned.
He felt unstable like his legs could give out at any moment, or he could fall with even the slightest gust of wind. But Jay held onto him tightly, doing her best to support his weight despite the height differences.
Every step he took caused his headache to give an extra throb, just to be mean to him. Gillion swallowed thickly and groaned, choking back the rising pain of nausea. He clenched his jaw, baring his teeth slightly as his lips pulled back in a snarl.
The world was spinning, he was spinning and swaying and his heart was pounding so hard he could barely hear anything else over it. Gillion coughed, choking on his own spit as he struggled.
Jay’s grip tightened around him when he tripped over a stick or a hole in the ground. Gillion’s claws caught on the grass as he nearly pitched forward.
“Come on, we’re almost out of the forest,” Jay urged, rubbing his shoulder gently and tracing small shapes into the exposed part of his skin. Gillion just groaned in response.
His body felt light like he was floating in the ocean or drifting aimlessly within a clouded void. He swallowed down a gag and tripped over another stick.
The sound of their footsteps echoed in his ears like the pounding of drums and Gillion hissed through his teeth. He kept his eyes closed, trusting Jay to lead him through the stupidly difficult terrain. Within the darkness of his own eyelids, he could still feel himself swaying, or the world dipping from underneath his feet. No matter what he could do, he was unable to escape it.
He gagged again and a round of nausea curled around his stomach. Gillion curled his hand tighter around Jay’s arm, stopping in his tracks.
“You okay?” Jay asked softly, bringing a hand up to brush his hair out of his face. Gillion groaned, not even able to shake his head in response. He hoped that the way his legs gave out from underneath him provided her with a good enough answer.
Jay made a noise in the back of her throat, helping lower him to the ground. Gillion wrapped one arm around his stomach and panted. He swayed back and forth like a drunken man and bit down hard on his tongue.
“Hey, hey, relax,” Jay placed herself next to him, smoothing a hand over his back. His skin was slick with even more moisture than normal, making it almost seem like he was back in the undersea. Gillion hissed through his teeth with a gag.
“Sit there for a minute if you need to,” he heard Chip say. Gillion was unable to tell where the other man was apart from him being somewhere in the near vicinity.
Gillion’s breath hitched and his chest rattled with the effort of each pained inhale. He coughed and let out a small groan of pain. With his eyes still squeezed shut, he had no idea where they were or how far away they were from the ship. His heart pounded rapidly against his rib cage, much faster than it usually was.
Bile rose in the back of his throat and he gagged again. Jay’s hand hadn’t left his back, smoothing gentle circles and tracing the lines of his skin that were exposed. His stomach churned and Gillion could still feel the spinning around him.
Fearing the inevitable, Gillion groaned weakly. Jay clicked her tongue sympathetically. He gagged and leaned over to the other side, heaving with a pained cough.
Stomach acid burned in his mouth and he made a mournful sound from the back of his throat. Jay rubbed his back, smoothing his hair away from his forehead as he heaved. Tears welled in the corners of his eyes as he vomited whatever he had in his stomach before.
It hurt. His stomach ached, and when he was finished he felt no better than before. Gillion knocked his head back against the tree behind him, bringing his hands up to scrub at his face.
He couldn’t help the nagging feeling in the back of his mind at how weak he was being. How shameful it was that he could barely stand, crying at his own pain.
The thought made more tears roll down his face, masked by the heavy sheen of moisture that coated his skin at all times. Gillion sucked in a sharp breath, biting down hard on his lip until he tasted his sickly sweet blood. The taste only made his stomach churn once more and he feared throwing up again.
“Sit there until you think you’re ready,” Jay insisted, “we’re not in a rush.”
Gillion had no idea how long they sat there for. How long he sat there pathetically shaking like a leaf in the middle of some unknown forest on some unknown island with his friends beside him. What an unfortunate scene he was making.
He sucked in deep breath after deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart and stop the nausea that refused to leave him alone.
If he was alone, he would’ve sat there all night, until the dizziness went away or until he passed out. But he wasn’t alone. There was no way he would force Chip and Jay to sit there with him for so long.
So, after an unidentifiable amount of time, Gillion nodded weakly, gripping tighter to Jay’s arm. His mouth burned and he hated the taste, knowing there was nothing he could really do about it if they were this far away from the ship.
“You ready?”
Another weak nod.
Jay hooked her arm underneath his shoulders, helping him stand once again. Gillion felt like a guppy in the way that he stumbled about like he had never learned how to walk. He felt Chip hook an arm around his waist as well, helping Jay support his weight.
It was an incredibly pathetic show from Gillion. The elders would be displeased with him.
Gillion could still feel tears running down his cheeks, and when he squeezed his eyes shut tighter, they continued to fall. He choked on his breath and stuttered, claws dragging against the grass.
“We’re almost there, buddy, hang on,” Chip urged, patting Gillion’s side gently. Gillion hissed through a clenched jaw, hanging his head low as they walked.
Soon, the grass and dirt that he had been stumbling over shifted into cobble paved roads. Gillion swallowed thickly and grimaced, it was hot against his bare feet, almost painfully so as the roads had been baking in the sun all day. But he couldn’t move the pace any faster to get to patches of shade or to someplace without stone roads.
He just groaned again weakly and kept his eyes shut. Gillion couldn’t even tell if shutting his eyes was helping with the dizziness. He still felt just as off-balanced as before, and he could feel the world shaking around him. But at least he didn’t have to see the way the buildings would surely distort and churn like an ocean had been created just a few inches underneath the ground.
The sound of waves crashing against a rocky shore filled his ears, and it almost served as a relief. That meant they were nearing the docks and they’d be back on the ship soon.
Gillion’s head throbbed and he did his best not to dig his claws into Jay’s side. Even if it meant curling his fingers around her shirt instead and praying that he wouldn’t tear the fabric.
“Almost there,” Jay mumbled, her voice low enough to barely filter over the thrumming of Gillion’s heartbeat. Gillion could feel the wooden boards underneath his feet shaking and rattling, and the smell of salty mist filled his nose. It served to calm his stomach, even just slightly and the feeling was relieving.
The smell of salt dared him to open his eyes just a bit, squinting through heavy lids as he glanced around. They had reached the docks where ships bobbed and swayed in the water. And Gillion felt very much akin to the way their own ship rocked back and forth with the light waves of the port. The sun was bright and harsh against his eyes, making his headache worse, but the dizziness was beginning to fade.
The deck of the albatross was almost like a blessing upon him, even despite the rocking that seemed to make him even more nauseous than before. At least he knew that he was home. He could let his guard down because he was safe here on the ship.
“You should probably lay down for a bit until you’re feeling better,” Jay reached up and smoothed his bangs away from his face once more, running her fingers through his frizzy bangs. Gillion made a noise in the back of his throat, unsure of what it meant.
The deck of the ship ducked and spun from underneath his feet, but with Chip and Jay’s help, he was somehow able to make it down the stairs to their sleeping quarters without his knees giving out.
He practically collapsed on his cot the moment it was in range, a sharp breath hissing through his teeth. Gillion reached up and rubbed his face, swallowing thickly. The side of the bed dipped and he felt a hand press against his cheek.
“Get some rest,” Jay urged, and Gillion didn’t need to be told that again.
Exhaustion weighed heavy on his limbs, causing him to practically sink deeper over the top of his sheets. The ship still seemed to spin around him, but without the strain of remaining conscious to ail him, Gillion found himself falling asleep rather quickly.