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Hours of searching passed, and still no sign of Laios.
“You would think that something of his size would be a lot easier to find,” grumbled Chilchuck as he and Izutsumi examined the foliage close to shore. “Damn him, making trouble for us as always…”
“He’s probably scared you’ll punch his nose in,” Izutsumi said, sniffing the air. “All three of them.”
“Well obviously I’d like to, but even Shuro wouldn’t be able to reach just one of his faces now,” Chilchuck sighed, cupping his hands around his mouth. “So he better SHOW HIMSELF DAMMIT!!”
No answer. Only the sound of the waves lapping against the shore reached their ears.
“Wait!” Izutsumi sniffed the air again. “There’s something…I smell something!”
She darted over the crest of a hill towards the beach. “Ah—!”
“Huh?” Marcille gasped and darted over to where Izutsumi and Chilchuck stood staring down the hill. “Did you find something?”
Chilchuck yelped and put his hands out. “Marcille, wait—!”
Marcille froze. The waves cresting on the beach were steadily washing away a thick trail of blood in the sand.
“Laios…” she murmured. “LAIOS!!”
Before anyone could stop her, Marcille threw herself down the hill to the beach, scanning the area frantically. “Laios!!”
“Oh shit…” Namari gasped.
“Marcille slow down!” Called Shuro as he and Senshi caught up to the rest of the group.
“He’s hurt!” Marcille cried frantically, “I, I have to—!”
She spotted the trail of blood leading into the forest, the brush trampled into a wide path. Marcille took off, pushing through the undergrowth and ignoring the way the branches and leaves tugged at her hair. “Laios! Laios it’s me!”
Suddenly, she was face to face with—
“Huh? Falin! And—Laios!”
The giant three-headed monster weakly lowered its head behind Falin’s frozen form with a whine, the ice block half-buried in the dirt. Blood dripped steadily from its faces, pooling on the ground in large puddles.
“Don’t you dare hide from me!” Marcille ran up to him. “Just look at what the demon did to you!!” She held her hands up above her head, trying to reach his wounds. He’d shrunk—he was about the size of Falin now, but Marcille still couldn’t reach his faces. “Don’t worry, okay? We can…we can fix this! I promise!”
Laios’ rhinoceros head let out a low rumble that sounded distinctly pained, hind legs leaving deep gouges in the soil as he slid backwards.
“What? What’s wrong? What is it?” Marcille frowned. “Don’t you…don’t you want me to help you?”
The wolf head let out a pitiful whine as Laios turned away and slowly dragged himself to the trees.
Marcille gasped. “No, wait!” She threw her arms around his hind leg and dug her heels in. “Don’t leave!”
Laios let out a wheezing cry, shaking his leg slowly. Marcille hung on, biting her lip.
“Laios, why are you doing this?” Tears welled up in her eyes. “If I don’t heal you now you’ll bleed out and die! Please…”
She started to sniffle. “After…after all the trouble we went through to get Falin back, are you going to make me cry over your dead body again?”
Laios froze. A long moment passed as Marcille’s sniffles turned into sobs. And then, one of his tails lifted up and tentatively nudged at her head.
Marcille let out a watery wail and hugged Laios’ leg tight as the snake part of his tail started to stroke her hair, letting out soft, sad little hisses as if he was trying to apologize.
Slowly, Laios turned around and bent his heads towards the ground. Tears still streaming down her face, Marcille reached up and buried her hands in the bloody feathers of the phoenix side’s neck.
“You’re—you’re so…stupid,” she hiccuped as she ran her fingertips over his wounds. “That plan could have gone wrong in so many ways…”
She sighed. “But then again…my plan wasn’t so good either, huh…”
Marcille placed one hand on the side of the rhinoceros’ cheek. “Everyone was so worried about you, you know,” she murmured. “I…I thought…”
Her other hand grasped a handful of feathers and fur. “I thought we’d lost you,” she whispered. “And that it…that it was my fault, for releasing the lion.”
Suddenly, Laios shifted, and Marcille gasped as she was surrounded by two snouts and a beak, Laios’ forelegs encircling around her back in a surprisingly gentle embrace for his size, the nose of the wolf bumping against her cheek and the beak of the phoenix running through her hair as the chin of the rhinoceros rested lightly on the top of her head.
“Oh.” Marcille was crying again. She wrapped both arms around the rhinoceros neck. “It really is still you, huh?”
Marcille was a hugger by nature, and she’d always thought Laios and Falin’s hugs were the nicest and warmest of all—they were always big and strong and comforting. Now…well. Things were certainly different. But Laios’ hugs were still warm.
“What are we going to do with you?” She murmured.
“Marcille!”
Ah. The others.
“Guess we’ll have to figure it out together.”