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She may have been only for some weeks on the land of the Dendro Archon, but by now, the path towards Gandharva Ville is already familiar and she has it well memorized, and is now able to walk it even in the darkness of the night.
They are still a little bit far, barely passing the Archon statue that belongs to the zone, but even with the current added weight that she’s carrying her feet are quick to traverse the terrain.
“I’m sorry…”
With Collei’s head resting over her shoulder and so close to her head, even when her words are a weak and tired whisper they are still easy to understand and hear.
“You have nothing to apologize for.” She starts to go up the hill that is the final part of the walk before arriving at the Ville, and she secures her arms well around Collei’s legs.
“Right now please focus your energies on resting.”
Being carried on Lumine’s back Collei now just nods, and while Lumine can’t see her, she knows that by now Collei is already dozing off, and soon will fall asleep, maybe even before they arrive at Gandharva.
This doesn’t surprise Lumine, all the day they had been out on patrol, and the exhaustion then combined with Collei’s sickness acting up, it was bound to leave the young girl with no energy left.
Now in silence and with only the sounds of the animals of the night around her Lumine keeps on walking, soon she will arrive and after that even though the night is already advanced she will find herself busy. Once she arrives she knows that Tighnari will be already waiting for their arrival, she had sent Paimon to notify him the moment that Collei seemed to start getting unwell after their long day.
And after she leaves Collei under her master’s care Lumine will either go to the near wetlands to collect the lunar lotus needed for Collei’s medicine, and other herbs nedded, or, in case that the medicines aren’t running low she will go back to one of the places they patrolled an deal with the Fatui camp that she had encountered before, but had kept secret from Collei.
“Lumine! Is Collei okay now!”
She winces at Paimon’s screams and hopes that she hasn’t woken Collei up, still in her frenzy and unaware of her current situation Paimon comes floating form the entrance of Gandharva towards her.
“Paimon. Shhh, Collei’s sleeping.”
The pixie is quick to stop and her hands go to cover her mouth.
“Also, one would think that it is but common sense to don’t go around screaming in the middle of the night.”
If Paimon’s loud inhale means something is that Tighnari’s comment was enough to get the little fairy all fueled up and ready for a discussion, but luckily she quickly remembers the situation at hand, and forsakes the screaming that was to escape her mouth. And instead simply settles with a huff of indignation.
“Cut it out you two, right now there are things that are more important than a senseless discussion.”
Any other day the clashes between the ranger and her companion would be nothing more than entertainment for Lumine, but right now Collei has priority over the amusement that she would get out of their fight.
“Sorry.”
Paimon resigns herself to simply float silently at her side, and Tighnari waits for her to finish her walk and finally enter the settlement.
In an instant he’s over her, checking on Collei who luckily keeps on sleeping even with the commotion.
“Paimon has already provided me with a rundown of how things went down so I already have the majority of the information. But has anything else happened between Paimon leaving and you arriving?”
He moves his arms in a gesture for her to pass Collei to his arms, but Lumine doesn’t want to risk waking her up with the jostling of changing Collei from her current position. So she keeps on walking and is thankful when Tighnari easily gets her message and simply walks beside her.
“Her coordination on her legs got worse and that, with the combination of her exhaustion made walking almost impossible. But aside from that, there was nothing else.”
He just nods and murmurs to himself, his ears twitching occasionally, but no more words are uttered, and in silence, they walk towards Collei’s house.
They enter and Lumine is glad to find that the room had been prepared before their arrival, the bed is already arranged for her to just let Collei rest over it and she won’t need to make unnecessary noises if she had to move the sheets and other things around.
She does need Tighnari’s help to be able to slowly and delicately leave Collei over her bed without simply dropping her, but in a matter of seconds, the girl is already laying on the soft mattress of her bed, and hopefully now that she’s laying on a comfortable place, getting the rest she needs.
Lumine looks around and she finds that over the desk Collei’ medicines are already prepared, but aside from that she also finds a glass of water and a plate of food that lay over the desk. Ensuring that the moment that Collei wakes up, even if none of them are with her she will have food and water to help her recuperate.
She absently gestures towards the medicines, “I was to ask you, are you still good on the herbs that are needed for the medicines, or would you like for me to go and get more?”
He doesn’t take his eyes away from Collei but his ears do slightly turn to where she is standing.
“You appear to be in a rather high need to go out, even after spending the whole day out in patrol.”
Floating on a corner Paimon only voices a confused sound but waits for her answer.
“Let’s just say that I still have some pending issues that I need to do. And while I’m doing them I could easily go and collect some herbs in case they are needed.”
He easily reads in between the lines of what she’s saying and just nods.
“A little bit of everything wouldn’t come in bad.”
With a short farewell and a get well to the sleeping girl she leaves, cloaked by the darkness of the night.
She will come back by midday tomorrow, hopefully by that time Collei is once again awake.