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Wemmbu sprinted through the jungle.
He had been ambushed by a few players. And he wasn't prepared. It was too much for him to handle. He had wounds all over his body. And all of them hurt. It hurt awfully.
He ran and ran and ran, hoping to find a safe place once he made sure they weren't following him anymore. He didn't even look back. He was hurt badly. That was enough. He was losing blood quickly.
His wings were damaged. He was still grateful they didn't manage to cut it off him completely. But he knew his left wing was damaged severely. Some bones might be broken, some of it might even be misplaced from it's joints.
It hurt. Everything did. He couldn't keep it up mych longer. It was draining him. Too much energy wasted.
He finally sat down, leaning on a tree trunk. He didn't even realixe he had been in a jungle. The path leading here felt... Oddly familiar.
Too familiar.
It was too familiar.
It really was.
Where was he?
Is he safe here?
Why is there a familiar scent lingering around?
What is this place?
Has he been here before?
☆࿐ཽ༵༆༒ ༒༆࿐ཽ༵☆
Mane walked endlessly through the jungle.
Everything was starting to get boring. People didn't dare to enter the jungle anymore. No bandits, no people, nobody.
He was just about to head back when he heard running, ragged breaths, and something hitting the ground hard. It was far from him. But due to his heightened senses, he learnt to pick up even the slightest twitch of a leaf from afar.
He was sure it was someone injured. So he ran to the source of all the commotion.
'Who was this person supposed to be?' Mane thought for a moment while still running.
As he approached the mess, getting closer and closer. He can't help but notice a strand of hair on the path.
Purple.
Vibrant purple.
Beautiful vibrant purple.
Nobody else has hair a shade of purple like that.
He knew who it belonged to.
And his heartbeat quickened.
"No way it could be him, why is he here?" Mane muttered to himself, teeth gritted.
He could smell the iron-like smell from the blood that had seeped into the damp soil.
He ran faster than he ever did for months. He was scared for Wemmbu. He must be injured badly.
☆࿐ཽ༵༆༒ ༒༆࿐ཽ༵☆
Wemmbu couldn't hold it anymore. His whole body hurt. His right leg was badly injured by an arrow. It hurts. Everything hurts.
His whole form glowed a bright pastel purple as it shrunk visibly.
Now he was smaller. His hair was short and ruffled. His clothes also shrunk. Thank the universe that it didn't just make it so that his clothes stayed the same size even if he shrunk.
Shit, he can't be doing this right now. 'Not now, not now..' He begged. But his mind felt fuzzy. He felt wrong.
Everything hurt. It was too much for little Wemmbu. His eyes welled up with tears as he cried and cried because of the pain. Wemmbu wailed as the pain was unbearable. It was too much. He was tired. He was now nine years old. Sensitive. And small. And vulnerable.
When he spotted a bright orange colored figure run towards him. He knew who that was. He can see it from afar.
"Manepear...?" He whimpered as his vision started to fill with black dots and it slowly covered his vision. He went unconscious.
Meanwhile, Manepear finally got to the small limp figure. "No, no. Please don't, please don't be.." He panicked.
Picking up the unconscious boy, Mane went as fast as he could to get back to his base. He burst through the door and set him on the couch. The chuld was losing blood quickly. He can't risk losing him just yet. He had to move quickly.
Grabbing the medical kit, he went to work. Carefully dislodged the arrow stuck to the boy's right leg, stitching up deep wounds, cleaning the blood off him, and putting a cast on his broken wing.
The process took about three hours. But it was okay. He grabbed a blanket to put over the boy and went to sit on the opposite side of the couch. Passing time, hoping he would wake up some time soon.
Wemmbu woke up expecting to see himself still in the forest. He thought he would be ignored, considering the bond between them both wasn't on good terms. But instead, he saw a roof. A proper one. He was laying down on a leather couch. His wounds were treated.
"Finally you're awake, kid." A familiar voice from his left. The smell of food cooking drifted in the air.
"Manepear...?" Wemmbu glanced over to see the lion hybrid right there, preparing something he can't quite identify.
"Right over here, kid. You're safe now, don't you worry." Mane reassured the little guy, already feeling guilt creep into the pit of his stomach.
Wemmbu's mind spiraled. Is this real? Is he really doing this? Didn't he leave me saying I was a lost cause? Why is he taking care of me? Why, Mane? Why...?
He was so lost in his own thoughts he hadn't realized he had started to cry. And he was brought back to reality when a hand softly reached out and cupped his face.
"Shh, kid. It's alright. I'm here now. Does anything hurt? You can always tell me when something feels uncomfortable, alright?" That comforting voice. That reassurance.
Wemmbu wailed as his arms wrapped around the warm body. He missed him. He missed him so much. He felt two hands pat his back while trying to comfort him.
He was picked up and sat on Mane's lap as he was comforted.
Time passed and he calmed down, only sniffles and smaller tears left. He was being fed some stew. He was nine, he was sure he could eat by himself. But regardless, Mane insisted on feeding him instead.
He felt like a baby. It felt embarrassing. But he missed Mane, so what was he supposed to do?
After being fed well, Wemmbu sat on the couch. Mane prepared some tea for him. It was blue. The previous conversation,
"Mane, why is the tea blue? Is it tea or water with food coloring?" Wemmbu asked, genuinely confused. He has never seen a blue colored tea.
"It's made of butterfly pea, Wemmbu. The flower petals are colored a purplish blue. If used to make tea, the water turns blue. It's still tea, I promise I didn't give you any weird potions." Mane answered.
"But it smells like a healing potion. Are healing potions made of this?" Wemmbu kept asking questions without realizing Mane had been caught red-handed.
Mane sighed and said defeatedly. "I may have added a healing potion into the tea. Well, you need it so you get better." He replied sheepishly.
"Oh. Okay! It still tastes good, it's okay Mane!" Wemmbu smiled as he gulped down a quarter of the cup while attempting to kick his feet. It didn't work out so well, his legs were still injured.
☆࿐ཽ༵༆༒ ༒༆࿐ཽ༵☆
Wemmbu woke up the next day feeling better. The healing potion from yesterday had worked overnight. He was back to his normal self, not a child anymore. It was still dark. Mane is probably still asleep. So he took a piece of paper and wrote down,
Yo Mane I already left thanks for helping me btw :]
-Wemmbu (✿ᵔᴗᵔ)
He walked out, put on his elytra, and flew away. He knows Egg will be very worried and scold him for not telling him on his communicator.