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A small whine left the hilichurl’s mouth. It had been cast away, left to die in the confusion of the battle. The arrow lodged in its shoulder burned like hell, so it just stayed there and waited. What was it waiting for? Some sort of make believe hero? Death? It didn’t know itself, so it just kept on waiting.
The hilichurl waited for hours, for something to come. It cried for the first few, then ran out of tears to spill. It looked up at the sky, with its beautiful colors. It had never really appreciated the purples, oranges, or pinks, and wished it had, at least once.
The hilichurl’s head was a blur. It thought of its tribe, its home, all in ruin. The searing pain in its shoulder shot all the way up its arm, making it difficult to focus on its situation. Maybe that was a good thing, but the hilichurl figured it wouldn’t matter anyway.
It eventually fell into slumber, agony its only blanket.
~♡~
In the meantime, an adventurer by the name of Zack had just gotten into a fight with a group of some small slimes, coming out victorious and unscathed. However, he immediately slipped and fell, twisting his ankle and hitting his head. He groaned loudly and stumbled back into a tree. He composed himself sooner or later and decided to wash up at the river to get the mud off of his clothes and sword.
The cold water soothed Zack’s head and he drank from the river slowly. He noticed the blue sky fading into more or less the color of windwheel aster petals and decided to find shelter for the night. Zack picked up his bag after making sure everything was still inside it and got up with the help of his newly cleaned sword.
Zack walked much more slowly than he usually did, quickly becoming frustrated by his speed. He had to take rests multiple times, which irritated him even more. He looked up at the sky each time, drinking in its gorgeous hues. It had mostly faded to a color resembling lavender melon, he noticed.
Zack started up a small fire, using it to warm up his hands and reheat his chicken-mushroom skewers. He kept zoning out as he looked at the crackling fire, and didn’t know why. He had been doing that quite a lot the past few weeks. He felt like something was happening. Would he meet someone? An enemy? An old friend? He didn’t understand this feeling and didn’t like it, so he brushed it off the best he could and continued eating.
~♡~
Suddenly, the hilichurl woke up, hearing shuffling near it. It, painfully slowly, reached for its club and held it over its chest. Its club was the only thing it had left, it couldn’t lose it. All it could do was watch and wait to see what would happen, hoping its blurry vision would clear.
It felt like it was waiting for hours to see what had scared it awake, but nothing showed up. Still, it waited. It swore it could hear the pop of a fire, and was growing increasingly frustrated that its already erratic sleep had been disturbed.
Still, it waited, club tight in hand.
~♡~
Zack swore he could hear something beyond the bushes, and decided to investigate. He tucked his bag in his jacket and held his sword so he could easily defend himself if anything attacked.
He walked slowly, the need to drag one of his feet creating strange marks in the dirt he tread on.
Soon, he noticed a mass laying on the ground and approached it. He gulped nervously, but relaxed when he saw it was merely a hilichurl.
“Oh, I can make quick work of this,” he thought.
“YA! YE ZIDO!” Zack scrunched his nose at the strained and pathetic shout the hilichurl made, watching as it tried to stand. He had decided to study Hilichurlian once a few years back when he was ill to pass the time, and kept doing it on the side. “Did it mean it’s going to attack me?” Something about the distress, the fear in the hilichurl’s cry made Zack feel a sort of guilt. He looked at the hilichurl on the ground, shocked by the way he was feeling and thinking because of it.
Zack slowly lowered his sword, holding his hands out in the air to show the hilichurl he no longer had anything in his hands. He cleared his throat and winced as he said, “Mi nye zido. Mi da.” He knew his sentences were broken, and could only hope that the hilichurl would understand him. The hilichurl seemed to calm down, but did not make any moves to attack.
“Ye da?” It asked, looking up at Zack.
Suddenly, Zack’s breath became stuck in his throat. He noticed how beautiful the hilichurl’s golden brown mane was, the way its strands flowed like the sea. The hilichurl’s muscular body, how perfectly those pecs and thighs suited it. And that loincloth…
Zack felt himself start to sweat as his face grew hot. He could only nod as he bent down to the hilichurl’s level.
His mouth felt like he had just eaten a charcoal-baked Ajilenakh cake, and his hands shook as he extended his hand to stroke the hilichurl’s mane, gasping quietly when it leaned into his touch. “I’ve got you, you’re okay now,” he whispered as he noticed the arrow in the hilichurls shoulder. He inspected the wound after guiding the hilichurl into his lap, frowning. “Poor thing. It looks like you got a squished Jueyun chili all over you.” The hilichurl whimpered quietly as Zack tried his best to clean its wound, and Zack gently rubbed its back. “I know. I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Zack spent quite a while cleaning the damage the arrow had left, and was quite surprised when the arrow just… fell out. “Well, hilichurls are different from humans, maybe that’s normal?” Zack pressed gauze over the spot where the arrow used to be, finally wrapping the hilichurl’s shoulder up in bandages.
“All better, see? You’re all bandaged up now,” Zack said gently, expecting the hilichurl to get off of him. Instead, it turned around and buried its head into the crook of Zack’s neck, much to his surprise. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around the hilichurl’s waist and leaned back. Without thinking, he placed a gentle kiss onto the top of the hilichurl’s head.
Both of them immediately froze, only able to stare at the other.
“I-I’m so sorry, I-” Zack was cut off by the hilichurl’s finger pressing gently against his lips, shushing him. It slowly leaned back to take off its mask, and leaned forward to kiss Zack. He ran his fingers through the hilichurl’s mane and stroked its cheek, the hilichurl doing the same.
Neither party wanted to let go, but their lungs could only take so much. The hilichurl giggled at Zack’s bright red face. “Celi Boya.”
“M-My face isn't that r-red…” Zack mumbled, covering his face with his sleeve. The hilichurl giggled again and kissed his cheek, Zack turning even more red in return.
“Celi Boya!” the hilichurl said again.
Zack decided to ignore it and said, “I wish I had a bouquet of rainbow roses for you, have you ever seen them? They’re beautiful.” Zack paused before continuing, “But not as much as you.”
The hilichurl shook its head ‘no’ before using Zack’s chest as a pillow and quickly fell asleep in the young man’s arms. Zack kept his hand on the hilichurl’s lower back, looking up at the sky to observe the stars.
“...Mi muhe ye.”
~♡~