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Jaiden should’ve known today would be rough. She didn’t know why she dismissed the fact she woke up with a racing heart, or how her legs hurt after only a few minutes standing, or how light-headed she got whenever she bent down to grab something. These all were blaring warning signs that she had been blind to.
Jaiden stepped outside the front door and began her journey. She had spotted a cave nearby the other day and wanted to explore it and scavenge for resources. It wasn’t long of a walk, but she was already fatigued. She brushed off her tiredness as simply not having slept enough.
She explored deep into the cave, mining any ore she came across and killing the mobs that she couldn’t run from. After 20 minutes of finding nothing but dead ends, Jaiden decided to turn back and head back home. She tried to ignore how incredibly exhausted she was, but she couldn’t deny how much effort she had to put into simply lifting her pickaxe. She was nearby home, though, and just needed to climb out and walk a couple hundred more blocks before she could take a long sleep.
She was too distracted by putting in the effort to sling herself up the different rock ledges leading up, that she hadn’t heard the hiss of a mob behind her. Suddenly, an explosion behind her slammed her against the wall she was trying to climb up, making her lose her grip and progress. She could feel the sting of the fresh wound on her back and wings, and she had to bite down hard to not let out a scream.
After a few seconds of steadying her breathing she roughly pulled herself up the stone ledge, sunlight finally seeping into her view. As she walked up to the next ledge to climb, she could hear a rattling of bones accompanying a hoarse groan.
Just as she started turning, an arrow shot into her arm, causing her to drop her food with a shout. Damn the apples, she just had to get out of here. She summoned her shield and quickly pulled it in front of her, blocking an attack of a zombie much closer than she had anticipated. She quickly swung her sword at it, slicing a large cut down its torso. An arrow whirred next to her ear, thunking into the rock behind her and just barely missing her hair. She moved her shield to cover her from the arrows and she slashed one, two, three more times at the zombie, finally killing it.
An arrow thunked into the center of her shield, and she could hear a crack begin to form. She muttered out a curse before running over towards the skeleton, breaking its bones and watching it fall apart, not before getting shot with another arrow in the leg.
Jaiden didn’t care to fight anymore, just turning and climbing up the ledges of the cave as fast as she could. She could hear more mobs nearby, and could see the sky turn orange as the sun began setting. Her vision blurred, exhaustion threatening to pull her down to the ground. A small pause to lean on a wall temporarily sufficed, giving her enough energy to push herself up and out the mouth of the cave, giving one last kick to the spider that was trying to bite her bad leg off.
With the darkness of the oncoming night, the exhaustion of the day, and the sounds of mobs up ahead, home was beginning to feel a lot further than it did this morning.
Jaiden persevered, limping as fast as she could reasonably go back home. Exhaustion creeped back into her body, even the adrenaline not strong enough against it. Her vision blacked around the edges, and everything sounded more quiet. Then, she was suddenly sent flying towards the left as a creeper exploded to her right, sending her tumbling and crying out in pain. She got up as fast as she could, hearing the sound of skeletons, zombies, and creepers all around.
She tried running home, but she was too weak to go fast enough. She could finally see the distant light of her house, so close yet so far. An arrow stabbed into her lower back, a zombie grabbing onto her arm with bruising force and biting down. A swing of her sword knocked it off her, and an unlucky shot of a skeleton nearby punctured its head and made the creature dissolve into a puff of smoke.
Then, she suddenly heard the dreaded sound of a creeper hissing behind her, and she was crashing down. Her hearing went out momentarily, replaced by loud ringing. Her vision was blurry, and tainted red on one side and blood dripped into one of her eyes. She was down on the floor, only able to crawl slowly towards her house. She was lucky in the aspect of the creeper killing the other nearby mobs too, but she knew more were coming soon.
Roier was sitting quietly on the couch with Cellbit when the message suddenly appeared on their communicators. Roier’s eyes widened as he read the message. Jaiden had been downed?? where was she?? Roier looked over to his husband, not surprised to see him already trying into the communicator at light-speed.
Cellbit> Jaiden?
Cellbit> Where are you??
A few tense seconds passed.
Jaiden> nwsr home
Jaiden> fprest
And with that, neither Roier nor Cellbit hesitated before running towards their warp stone, teleporting to Jaiden’s house as quickly as possible.
Jaiden closed her eyes, so, so, tired. Her fingers dug into the dirt below her, trying so hard to pull her closer to home. She barely registered the yell she heard, only hearing a muffled version of it before the sounds slowly morphed into the yells of her two friends. She responded in a weak cry of her own, praying that was enough for them to find her, because she knew she had nothing else left.
“Jaiden? Jaiden!? dónde estás?!” Roier yelled, voice shaking.
“Jaiden! Where are you!?” Cellbit yelled alongside him, holding onto his husband’s hand tight. Suddenly, a broken cry caught both of their attention, the pair immediately running towards the sound.
“Jaiden!” Roier shouted once she was in sight, and oh god, what a sight. She was covered in her own blood nearly head to toe, arrows scattered on her body along with burn parts, the faint smell of redstone under the overwhelming smell of iron-y blood.
Roier dropped to his knees, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her up as fast as he could. He adjusted his hold until he held her princess style, then quickly ran back to her house. Cellbit stayed close, diamond sword in hand protecting them from any mobs that would dare to come near.
Roier practically kicked Jaiden’s door open, Cellbit cringing as he heard the hinges squeak loudly. Roier dropped down onto the floor once in an open-enough space, letting her half lay down, her upper half propped up by his arm holding tight.
Cellbit’s backpack was already off by the time Roier looked up at him, searching for anything that could give her health. Roier smiled as he was handed two health potions and a golden apple.
He popped the cork off the first health potion and gently brought it to Jaiden’s lips.
“Drink Jaiden. You got this, c’mon, stay with me.” Roier half encouraged, half pleaded. A relieved sigh was exhaled once Jaiden began slowly drinking the health potion. He saw the minor cuts close up as they were magically healed, but one bottle wasn’t nearly enough. Roier tossed the now-empty bottle to the side at the same time Cellbit brought another health potion to Jaiden’s lips. Jaiden drank it as fast as she could, desperate for the pain relief it gave whenever she swallowed down a new sip.
Now with two bottles down, they could confidently say Jaiden wasn’t going to die, and were able to slow down for a minute. Roier kept her propped up with one arm, allowing her to fully lay against him. He reached his other hand into his bag, shoving stuff around until he found large bandage wraps.
Cellbit had already begun taking the arrows out and wrapping the wounds, starting with the one on her arm and continuing to the one on her leg.
“Jaiden, stay awake, no mimir.” Roier said as he gently shook Jaiden, making sure to keep her awake until he knew it wouldn’t bother anything. Jaiden let out a whine of pain, but her tolerance had been extremely high for most of the interaction.
The pair patched up what they could from the front, disinfecting wounds and wrapping them carefully. Once finished with that, Roier reached over and held the golden apple up to Jaiden.
“Hey, Jaiden, take a bite. This will help you feel better, I promise.” Roier said, looking down at Jaiden sadly. It took her a little bit, but eventually she gathered up the strength to lean forward and take a bite. She let out a sigh of relief as the effects immediately flowed in, the constant, sharp pain all over her body fading into a dull numb feeling. She found herself able to actually think, whatever property of the golden apple helping with the large amount of blood she lost.
“Jaiden.” Roier said softly, yet firmly, pulling her attention away from the golden apple. “Your back is hurt really bad, your wings are too. I’m gonna help you sit up, and you’re gonna lean on me while Cellbit patches up what he can, okay?” Roier explained carefully, a soft smile on his face, but Jaiden could see how tense he was. She nodded silently.
Roier placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pulled her to sit up, letting her adjust into a comfortable position. She then leaned forward, resting her forehead against his shoulder. Roier brought one hand up to her head, gently playing with her hair in a soothing manner, while his other hand entwined itself with one of her hands.
Cellbit shuffled himself and the supplies behind Jaiden, looking the wound over before doing anything. The explosion had burnt the back of her shirt, which was the only good thing because he could access the wound and Jaiden could still be comfortable and modest. Cellbit pulled some aloe vera cream from his bag before applying a generous amount to her back. He was careful to be gentle on her wound, but he knew he had to make sure the ointment was covering everything. Jaiden hissed in pain, her right hand squeezing Roier’s left hand, and her left hand coming up to grab Roier’s sleeve tightly. Roier whispered quietly to her, quiet enough that Cellbit couldn’t hear, but he could see Jaiden slowly calm down.
Cellbit grabbed a bandage and walked over to the kitchen sink, running cool water in it until it was wet. He then returned to Jaiden, hesitating suddenly.
“Jaiden, this bandage needs to be wrapped around your torso. I assume you would prefer to do it yourself?” Cellbit asked, guilty that she would have to bandage herself but knowing it was really the only thing they were all comfortable with. Jaiden paused for a moment, then nodded.
Cellbit stood up, walking over to the restroom and setting the bandage on the counter.
“Do you want us to grab you some spare clothes too? It’d probably be nice to get out of these bloody clothes.” Roier asked with a giggle, she truly looked like a goddamn mess right now. Jaiden smiled and nodded again, gently squeezing his hand again.
Once Cellbit returned, Roier told him to go and grab a change of clothes for Jaiden, to which he quickly began walking upstairs and towards her room. Roier dropped his right hand from Jaiden’s hair to hold her other hand.
“Jaiden, you need to stand up. I’ll help you, okay?” Jaiden lifted her head from his shoulder and nodded. She collected herself for a moment before planting one of her feet on the ground. Roier let go of one of her hands, allowing her to grab onto his shoulder. He brought the hand to her upper arm, using it to make sure she wouldn’t drop back down.
Jaiden placed one hand onto his shoulder and the other gripped his forearm. She leaned on him heavily as she pushed herself up, him assisting and pulling her up to a stand. The two paused for a moment, allowing her to recollect herself and wait for her blood pressure to return to normal. They then slowly walked towards the restroom, Roier guiding while Jaiden limped. Once standing there and stable, Roier loosened his hold on her.
Cellbit appeared behind the group, holding some oversized pajamas for Jaiden, two wing slits cut into the back of the shirt. He placed it on the counter beside the bandage before walking back to her living room.
Roier looked down at Jaiden with a smile. “I’ll be right outside the door, okay? Take as long as you need, and just shout if you need me.” She looked up at him and nodded, loosening her hold on him before taking a small step back, giving him space to exit. Roier leaned forward and placed a small, quick kiss on her forehead before walking outside the room, hearing Jaiden shut the door behind him.
Roier and Cellbit waited patiently in her living room, cleaning up the supplies they had used earlier and wiping the blood off the floor.
A few minutes later, Jaiden emerged from the bathroom. She was wearing the new change of clothes, and they could see the bandage wrapped around her torso peeking out from the wing slits in the shirt. Her wings were curled close to her back, but weren’t fully closed. Her wings clearly needed cleaning, but the time of night made that not very high on the list of things to do.
“Jaiden, tudo bem?” Cellbit asked as he stood up, walking over to her with a kind smile. He offered a hand to support her, which she gladly took.
“I’m okay now, as good as I can be.” Jaiden replied tiredly, looking up at Cellbit with a soft smile. Cellbit led her to the main room where Roier was. “I’m sorry for the bother.” She said quietly, averting her gaze to the floor.
“Jaiden, no, you aren’t a bother.” Cellbit quickly replied.
“Jaiden, we help because we care, it’s not a bother to us!” Roier replied just as fast. “Who told you that? Who made you think that?” Roier asked with a concerned gaze, bringing a hand up to cup Jaiden’s face and gently bring her gaze back up from the floor.
“No, no one did anything. I just worry.” Jaiden admitted, a little wobbly.
“There’s no need to worry. You are never a bother to us.” Roier replied with a sad expression, reaching down to intertwine his hands with hers. She looked up at him with a worried expression, but after only finding love in his eyes, she softly smiled.
Jaiden leaned forward and thunked her head onto Roier’s shoulder. “Thank you.” She whispered.
“Always.” Roier whispered back, bringing a hand up to gently hold the back of her head. “You need to rest, pajarito.” Roier said quietly after a moment of silence. Jaiden sighed, but nodded.
Roier offered her an arm for support, to which she quickly grabbed hold of. He led her upstairs, supporting her along the way. Cellbit followed behind the pair, letting them have their moment.