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Flame couldn’t tell exactly where he was, he could feel himself trembling. He needed to find Theo to train him with carts but he was too cold. He could feel his limbs getting heavy as he followed behind Theo and Parrot, harsh trembles going through him. He could feel his Flames dimming and he felt his tail swish behind him nervously.
“Okay, you can come out now.” Parrot said
Flame reached into his inventory and pulled out his milk bucket, ignoring the tremors, and drinking the milk, turning on invisible. He couldn’t imagine just how terrible he looked. He hadn’t been able to clean himself up since he was exiled. His hair was matted and his clothes stained with dirt and dust. His tail was limp behind him, the flame ember dimmed.
“Flame?” Parrots voice held surprise and a tinge of concern
“Hey” Flame croaked
“Aren’t.. Aren’t you exiled?” Parrot said, hesitant
“Yeah- I am that's why I was invis.” Flame coughed
“Are you supposed to be here? Like you sound terrible” Theo said
Flame shivered, the flame on his tail dimming. He opened his mouth to speak when he collapsed forward, falling into the snow. Or he would’ve had Theo not jumped forward to catch him. Flame rested his head in the crook of Theo’s elbow, letting out weak wheezes.
“Parrot, he’s really sick.” Theo said
“That’s not our problem right now Theo. We have to find Wemmbu.” Parrot said, turning away.
Theo paused, looking at Flame in his arms, how cold he was for a hybrid. How cold his skin was and the embers running low on his tail. The tremors and coughs helped Theo make up his mind.
“Parrot, I’m not leaving him.” Theo said, looking up at Parrot.
“What?” Parrot said, surprised.
“I- I’m not leaving him. He came here to us for a reason, whether it was for help with this sickness or something else entirely he came to us.”
Parrot hesitated thinking back to the time in the nether, “Fine, fine. Take him with us on the happy ghast.”
Theo blinked “Are we serious”
“We can’t wait, we need Wemmbu.” Parrot said, voice heavy
“Parrot-”
Flame blinked slowly, their conversation going over his head, not being able to understand anything. His blindfold covers his one way of signaling to the two hybrids. He breathed heavily trying to shift in the grip, but everything felt far too heavy. He could feel darkness filling his vision and he heard a whimper. Not realizing it was him who had done it.
“Parrot, look at him! He’s whimpering. I can't help him on a happy ghast!” Theo said, raising his voice
“Okay. Okay. Take him back to the capital city to our potion shop. When I’m done with Wemmbu I'll help.” Parrot spoke
Theo nodded, and lifted Flame, who let out another pained whimper.
Parrot turned and walked, ignoring the bit of guilt that filled him, and Theo turned his own way as well carrying Flame towards the capital city.
Theo laid the now unconscious Flame down on the bed beside the ladder, removing his hoodie and resisting the urge to gasp at the amount of scars and dirt littering Flames body. Theo made quick work of changing Flame out of the dirty clothes leaving him in a set of his own lounge shirt and shorts. Theo made quick work of forcing a regen potion down Flames mouth, wanting him to have some sort of medicine to start bringing him back to good health. Theo hesitated a moment before moving to the bathroom and filling a bucket of water and grabbing a rag and brush. Theo returned back to the sleeping hybrid and gently began washing away some of the dirt and grime that was on the other. Wanting to make sure the other was comfortable. It took longer than Theo expected before he finally finished cleaning the grime off the other man. Theo pressed his fingers to the hybrid's neck, checking his pulse. It was faster than average but not terrible. Theo began to brush the matted hair out, going slow and thinking to himself. Theo letting out content chirps every once in a while as he brushed the hair out. After a while, and a few trimming, Flames hair was in a braid and still out. Theo laid a fresh rag on Flame’s forehead and went down the ladder to make soup for when Flame woke.
A while later, Flame’s eyes had opened and he was met with darkness, he felt sluggish and delirious. The blindfold covered his vision as he sat up. He moved the blindfold up blinking as his eye adjusted to the light, his right eye remaining unbothered. The milky white color did not notice the change. He blinked at the sleeping Theo across from him, feeling a sense of warmth at seeing someone waiting for him to be awake.
“Theo?” Flame mumbled, voice cracking
Theo blinked awake making eye contact with Flame. “Oh, you’re awake. You’re blindfolds not on dude.”
It took Flame a long moment to let the words click and he shrugged. “Too late now”
Theo hummed and passed him a bowl of stew that Flame took with shaky hands.
Flame leaned forward and ate, Theo content to preen his feathers.
The silence was interrupted by the door opening and the loud voices of Parrot, Wemmbu, and surprisingly, Spoke.
Spoke moved up the ladder, his head peering over and making eye contact with Flame.
“Flame! I heard you were sick! Are you feeling any better?” Spokes voice held a chirp as pushed himself into the room fully.
Flame stilled, his eyes revealed to the void hybrid in front of him, and Spoke hesitated. Staring at Flames eyes.
“I- i’m feeling better.” Flame cracked out
“Theo! I need some help!” Parrot called, Theo sighed, standing and moving down the ladder.
“Sooo Flame, how long have you been sick?” Wemmbu asked, sitting on the bed. Spoke like Wemmbu got in the bed but jumped into it
“HEY! Get off of me Spoke!” Flame complained, coughing.
“No! It’s a family reunion!” Spoke said, happily laying there
“You’re gonna get sick!” Flame coughed
“I don’t think Spoke can actually get sick” Wemmbu said, moving Spokes legs away from him.
“That’s a lie” Parrot said, climbing up the ladder carrying a bowel of soup and Theo behind him with papers.
“Don’t tell them anything Parrot..” Spoke said, face flustered
“I wanna hear about it now actually.” Flame coughed
“Oh my god, yall show up and he starts coughing more than he did when it was just us.” Theo complained, setting the papers down on the table and moving to Flames side.
“Here Theo, you can uh- feed him the soup while we talk about plans.” Parrot said, awkwardly
Theo shook his head and took the bowel, shooting a look at Spoke.
“That means get up dude” Theo said
“What! Why does Flame get to sleepppp” Spoke whined
“Because he’s sick stupid” Wemmbu said, standing and pulling Spoke off the bed. Spoke whining the entire time.
Theo helped Flame get situated before moving to start planning with the other three in the room. Flame chipped in every now and then, but it didn’t take long for silence to come from one side of the room.
Parrot looked over, the sleeping figure of Flame, curled up under the blankets and dead to the world, had him care more than he’d like to admit.
“Flames asleep” Parrot said
Not long did it take for everyone to pick a spot near Flame, content to curl up and sleep the day away. Ignoring the weight of war on the horizon