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Oran was laying on hard stone, wheezing pathetically from his impact with the cave floor. When the ground had caved in beneath them he had panicked, attempting to fly had rammed him into a stalactite. Opening a large wound on the wrist of his right wing, and leaving him to fall the rest of the way down.
He didn’t think Baldric had done much better, the man had already been somewhat injured when the ground had caved in. The last he had seen of the man was of him falling into the cave with a cut off yell of surprise.
It took effort to flip over onto his stomach, his primary and secondary shoulders hurt like they had been bashed in. His ribs ached from the impact, and hurt more when he pushed himself up to sitting. When he looked around, he could spot Baldric a short ways away, limp and unmoving on a small pile of rocks. Blood dripped down from where his head was nestled, thick lines of it running across the stones.
Oran’s legs could barely keep him upright, yet he stumbled forward regardless to the downed alchemist. The blood concerned him, one of the most important things he had been taught about medicine was that head wounds meant death. Any injury that was anywhere near the brain was to be treated as soon as possible, or the worst could happen.
With great effort he pulled Baldric off the pile of rocks, settling him on the ground with his head in the strix’s lap. The man weighed quite a bit more then he did, the fabric of his trench coat rough against only one of Oran’s hands. If he was in better health he would have summoned Gorgamungar to help him, but he wasn’t. After minor struggling, he managed to get the helmet off, revealing the sunken scarred face it was hiding. Carefully he felt around the alchemists head, keeping his claws raised as he searched for the wound.
It was a large gash at the back of the man’s head, weeping blood from it as though Baldric himself was crying. A bruise was also forming around the wound, just barely able to be seen through his thick black hair. Quickly Oran called upon what magic he had left in him, feeling the weak flow move through his veins sluggishly.
Pressing his wooden hand directly into the wound cause the alchemist to squirm and hiss in pain. He muttered an apology to him, but the contact was necessary to heal the wound, letting the magic pass between them. A soft green glow emanated from the wound as it closed, the scent of fresh pine filling the air.
It was enough, not only to heal Baldric but to also take what little energy Oran had left. His vision swam and his hand shook, exhaustion and weakness crept through his body. The alchemist groaned, regaining consciousness while the strix’s own faded.
“What happened?” The man grumbled, bringing up a hand to clutch at his head and the new scar that was forming on it. Druid magic could only do so much when he wasn’t at full capacity, healing the wound but not removing it.
“During the fight… the ground caved in,” Oran could barely make out his own words. Muffled behind the blood rushing through his ears, as loud as thunder in a storm.
“Yeah. Hrnn- I’m going to kill Tannhauser if I see him again.” Baldric growled, it had been one of the revolutionist’s spells that had cause the ground to become unstable. Causing it to break open letting the earth swallow him and Oran both, ending where they were in the cave.
“Mr. Baldric… I-” The strix didn’t get to finish whatever he was about to say, as he collapsed on top of the alchemist. Going limp and face planting into his middle, luckily probably not damaging him or the metal chest plate Baldric wore.
“Kid?” He called out tentatively, placing one gloved hand on the teen’s clothed shoulder and shaking him lightly. Oran didn’t respond, no noise came from him aside from pained breathes, his usual snores gone.
“Baldric? Oran? If your down there; there’s a secondary entrance to the cave!” Vina’s voice called from above, echoing off the cave walls confusing the location of it. “Try to meet us there, or we can come to you!”
The sound faded, too quickly gone for him to even try to grab her attention to respond. At least there was a plan, he had to get himself and the now unconscious strix closer to the entrance. And looking around, the cave was a rather straight line, any other paths he could have taken were too small to fit through.
He fit his helmet back on, the sticky blood still in it presumably matting down whatever hair had gone untouched before. His pack had fallen off him as well, and he took a moment to find it again, the contents had thankfully not been damaged.
With a simple path in mind and the knowledge that there was a plan, the only problem left was the unconscious Oran. After some shuffling and the realization that half of the strix's weight was probably in feathers, he had the teen straddling his back. Although he remained unconscious, Baldric could hear sickly moans coming from him. The first sign that he hadn’t keeled over dead without the alchemist’s knowledge.
Hollow bones and feathers still weighed a fair amount, even if the teen felt like skin and bones. Though with how much he ate that was surprising, Baldric would have assumed that he was overfed for a strix.
Since he now had Oran on his back and his pack at his front, maneuvering was difficult but not impossible. Luckily for him, the cave tunnels had rather flat floors with well rounded walls, making him think water might have carved them. Although this helped his balance it wasn’t helping him physically, plenty of him still ached.
The slightly mangled skin on the back of his head was concerning, and presumably by the blood that was what had been healed. He supposed it was the nice thing to do if he had indeed probably saved his life.
It didn’t take long before he was too tired to keep going, needing a break before he could walk any further. He laid Oran down on a more flat section of the cave floor, careful to not accidentally grab any injured parts of him.
Baldric sat against the opposite wall, taking a moment to rub at his aching legs before opening his canteen. After taking several swigs of water to help his parched throat he hooked an arm under the unconscious strix to tilt his head forward. It allowed him to slowly drip water into his mouth, careful to not do too much in case it made him choke. Once he deemed them both hydrated and himself somewhat recovered, he once more picked up Oran and his pack.
Regardless of how rested he was his feet stilled dragged slightly against the cave floor, he had too little energy to be careful with his steps. It was that same feeling that came with working for hours under the sun, the lack of energy and focus. Though even when he stumbled he held himself up, the exit had to be close.
At his back Oran groaned, finally moving after so long of being as limp as bread dough. His wooden hand, rough at the edges with thick claws, dug into his shoulder like a cat pawing at him. Baldric weathered the slight discomfort like he did everything else, at least this discomfort meant something good. It wasn’t as if he wanted the teen to die.
There had been few times in his life where he had ever thought that about someone, and truly meant it. Doing so now still felt odd, how strange that the people who had barged into his life had been so easy to get attached to.
He set that aside for a moment, focusing on not stumbling like a drunk idiot was more important. Falling on his face came with the consequence of dropping Oran, and if the teen died Vina would probably kill him. For his health and safety he had to keep the other alive, and it definitely wasn’t the fact that he himself was concerned.
It seemed as though the cave was widening again, opening up further and making the ground beneath his feet less flat.
“Baldric…?” The strix slurred, barely lifting his head from the man’s shoulder to gaze blankly around the space. Bringing up both hands to lift himself slightly off the man’s shoulders as his mind cleared somewhat and past events returned to him.
“I’ve got ya kid,” he soothed, continuing forward without letting Oran down, hoping to cross as much ground as possible. Though it didn’t seem as if the teen could walk, or even had the want to, laying his head atop the man’s helmet.
“Where are we going?” Oran mumbled, sounding as exhausted as Baldric felt and likely looking just as fucked up. The alchemist took a moment as he was walking to hope that the others of their group had made their way to the exit. If they hadn’t he was going to throw whatever acid vials and alchemist fires he had left at them when he found them.
“Supposedly this leads to an exit.” The man finally answered, huffing out a grunt as he shifted the teen’s weight. It earned him a hiss of pain from the other as the movement aggravated whatever wounds the strix had.
“...the others…” It seemed that consciousness was fading from him, leaving his voice slurred and movement sluggish. The fact that Oran was fighting through that to ask about the rest of their little group seemed almost funny.
“They’ll meet us there, don’t worry,” Baldric reassured the teen, but had no clue if he had even heard him. Already the other was asleep again, and so he pressed on hopeful that there indeed was an exit to the cave and that he wasn’t walking deeper.
It didn’t take long before voices reached him, accompanied by a soft glow he had to stop himself from shielding his eyes from. Once his eyes had acclimated to the light he could make out the two recognizable shapes within it. Vina and Tannhauser, both looking about as bruised and battered as he had last seen them during the fight. They seemed to notice him at the same time he saw them, but their startled yelling was too overlapped for him to make out anything.
“If one of you doesn’t grab Oran, I’m throwing him.” He interrupted, gaining their silence for a moment as Vina hastily took the strix from him, but took a moment to properly hold him. Tannhauser came up to his side, taking his bag in one swift motion to sling over his metal back and pulling one of Baldric’s arms over his shoulders.
“I’m glad you both are alive.” The revolutionist was the first to speak again, with how much he seemed to love his own voice the alchemist wasn’t surprised. But it was nice to finally hear something other then the echoing sounds of the cave and his own wheezing breathes.
“Oran is alive right?” Vina questioned, holding him at her front with his head resting on her shoulder. Since he could finally see the other the blood that was still coming out of the gash on his wing was rather noticeable.
“He’s still breathing isn’t he?” Tannhauser eyed the teen, the slight movements of his chest felt like it was too shallow even for being asleep. But being as Baldric was; leaning heavily on the cyborg at his side, he couldn’t quite tell any more then that.
“We’re close to the exit, Rehua can help him.” The sylph took quicker strides, moving ahead of them and into the darkness, leaving the two men alone.
“What happened after we fell?” He finally asked, eyeing the large cut in one of the metal man’s sleeves that showed the metal beneath. The hint of wire sparking that barely stood out in the bright glow of the cantrip of light over their heads.
“We took out the last of the enemies and tracked down an entrance to the cave system.” The revolutionist hummed, shifting the man’s weight further onto his own shoulders to properly fit an arm around his side. “We were concerned that you might be in danger.”
“I hit my head in the fall, before Oran passed out he healed it.” Baldric explained, grunting when the arm under his pressed into the bruises on his side. Tannhauser seemed to notice his pain, doing his best to keep a good hold on the man without applying too much pressure.
“Of course he did,” the metal man laughed, shaking his head exasperatedly at the idea. Even if he wasn’t surprised he still didn’t approve of the teen’s new self-sacrificing choices he kept taking.
“You don’t look much better though.” The alchemist huffed, earning a grumble from the other man even though he found himself rather funny.
“Ironic coming from you.”
“I’m sure you think so.”