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My first reaction after waking up was to sit up as fast as possible. The first thing I felt was resistance. Then came the pain.
"No, nope. Calm down, it's fine, you're fine."
I obeyed the voice without opening my eyes, laying back down. When I did open them, I could finally see where exactly the pain was coming from. A beautiful crimson stain was on my left side, from a bit higher than the hip down to half of my thigh, where the young Lightkeeper was holding a soaked tissue against the skin.
"I was about to change the dressing. How are you feeling?"
He grabbed a bunch of bandages.
"How long was I out?"
"A few hours." He looked at me expectantly.
"...I'm a little lightheaded," I admitted sheepishly, "But overall, I'm pretty good."
"That's... good. Anything else? Headaches... weird dreams?"
"Hm... no, nothing."
He only hummed approvingly. I couldn't tell if he was surprised or not.
Cut a piece of bandage, grab the bottle, pour some of the translucent liquid on the cloth, put it on the wound so I could feel the relieving sting. I watched as he repeated the steps a few times, cleaning the lenght of the whole wound from blood that was already dry before applying clean dressing.
"Do you remember what happened?"
"...Hmm... Well..."
Being part of the Adventurers' Guild is pretty fun: ask for assignments in the morning, quickly complete them, earn your daily meals (and some extra bucks), be free to roam for the rest of the day.
That, of course, included the hours that were meant for sleeping, which I had never been keen on using for their intended purpose.
This time, partially because of the small sum of Mora I would gain and partially because of my so-called "heroic spirit" — which is more like a mix of restlessness and desire to be helpful — I had decided to join a Lightkeeper squad for the night. Objective: wipe out a bunch of Wild Hunt groups which had been gathering outside of the controlled zone. Having an extra Vision — or well, a pair of extra Visions — would really help them out.
Chatting up the Ratniki was pretty easy and seemed to put them a bit more at ease. Only the captain — Illuga, I think? — didn't seem to lean into the effect. I would ask him a question, try to bring him into the conversation, he would answer and then go back to looking over with a frown.
Tough crowd, hm.
Still, I kept trying to loosen the mood up until when we got to the place.
The first two gatherings were easy to wipe out. The last one had a big guy.
I had to argue with Illuga a bit on letting me handle that one while him and the others would take the smaller ones. He needed to be reassured that I could handle myself.
My plan was simple: taunt it to follow me into the water, then freeze it and electrocute it until that darn thing wasn't a threat anymore.
The plan was going smoothly when I felt something, someone, lightly pressing on my back. I had just the time to move out the way before an attack separeted us.
"Uh... Oh, hi Lohen!" I stomped on my right heel to send a shockwave to the enemy.
Lohen was my... well, not exactly a friend. He was also part of the Adventurers' Guild when I joined and got to Mondstadt, so we were sent to a few assignments together. We got along pretty well, probably because of his... battle tendencies. And my own talent for getting in trouble.
He threw his dagger in another enemy's chest with terrific precision before turning around. "Hi Flann. Fancy seeing you here! What's up?"
"Just passing by, helping the Lightkeepers." I dodged another swing of the monster's axe and froze it over. He took the dagger out the other's chest. "Oh, you're a Knight now!"
"Yeah!" He chuckled. "Pretty cool upgrade, right? A bit better than the Guild, I'm sure."
We looked at eachother for a moment, both smirking, and charged at an enemy together, finishing it with a coordinated slash.
"You still got it." He pat me on the shoulder. "Not that I was doubting it anyway. Could work on your stance a bit though, it's wobbly. Anyway. It was nice seeing you. Take care, mmkay?"
He charged at another enemy group in the distance while I yelled: "Bye Lohen!!"
That was the mistake that got me injured.
As I was waving my arm away like I wasn't in the midst of battle, the big boy somehow managed to sneak up on me.
The stench of the fog and abyssally corrupted flesh probably got to me a bit, because I didn't notice until I heard some sort of grottural whisper that was too hard to decipher.
Then, I turned around, curious. And I saw the thing's axe ready to attack me, already mid-way through the motion.
I barely had time to react by rolling on the side, but the axe got to me first, slashing my side.
I fell. Pathetically so.
The wound wasn't particularly bad, but it stung. The impact with the cold, brine covered ground didn't help in the slightest. If anything, it made it worse.
I heard panicked shouting. I heard the thing stomping towards me. I heard ice against cursed skin and agony-filled screams, which could only mean it got struck by venom. I closed my eyes.
"Well, what did I tell you?"
I sighed, "You were right."
A nod. "Good. Please be more careful next time. And listen to me when I say you probably can't handle it."
"...I simply got distracted," said my hurt Adventurer pride.
He gave me a half chuckle, "You're lucky you managed to almost dodge it. And that the Knight was there. Speaking of him, do you know him?"
"Yes. Well, at least I think I do."
He got up from beside me, still smiling, albeit tiredly, and walked to the entrance of the tent.
"Hm. Get some rest, 'seasoned Adventuress'."
And all that was left was the soft noise of the fire in the hearth.