âSiyaâ¦â
I heard a familiar soothing voice⦠But it sounded all too upset for it to actually calm my pain. âAgisâ¦â âAhhghihââ I coughed, instantly hunching over again in pain. âWhy does it still hurt⦠This is my spirit form or whatever isnât it?â
I heard him snap his fingers and suddenly I was laying on a soft bed, which had replaced the large marble table underneath the gazebo on the mountain. âYou really are pitiful⦠It makes it really hard to be angry with you you knowâ¦â
I opened my mouth, but my eyes continued to water as I failed to talk, and I just gave up.
âI see talking is still hard for you.â
âAnd youâre as annoying as everâ¦â
He sighed. âTry not to move around too much and just rest. The reason for the pain, as far as I can tell, is because the dragon wanted to hurt you as well with its breath, so it affected your soul⦠Itâs still pretty mad about you eating it I guess. But again Iâm no expert⦠Really⦠What were you thinking?â
I wanted to answer⦠I really did⦠But I couldnât, so I just ended up laying still and letting my eyes water as my body tried to cool itself. âItâs a fair question⦠Iâm scared of heights⦠And I canât swim⦠But I jumped down a waterfall into a raging riverâ¦â
He sighed again. âI was all prepared to chew you out for being reckless⦠But I can hardly do that now⦠Honestly⦠And it was while you were doing something for Rafi tooâ¦â
âWait⦠What is he actually mad about? I also poured everything I had into my first attack without even knowing what my opponent was⦠Which was reckless⦠The funny thing is Iâm honestly pretty sure I would have lost doing it any other way, even looking back now⦠My daggers couldnât kill that thingâ¦â
âI donât even want to help you heal, maybe the pain will help you learn to stop being so careless with your own life. I get that youâve already died once but I didnât think that would completely remove your fear of deathâ¦â
âMaybe if you gave me a strong body I could fight without being carelessâ¦â I tried to growl at him, but just ended up crying more from the pain.
He growled instead. âUgh⦠Until you make that face, and now all I want to do is take the pain awayâ¦â
âSo are you going to help or notâ¦â
He sighed as the golden bear he had summoned so long ago appeared once again, prancing through the field like a vein horse, walking right up to us and stepping over me before plopping down on top of me and licking my neck like a dog. The pain faintly lingered, but the injury was gone. It was a little gross⦠But I was still as grateful as I was crushed by its weight. âCan you tell her to get off pleaseâ¦â I wheezed out.
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He sighed again. âSheâs healing your physical body the same way right now, so Iâm sure youâll be fine once you wake up. She canât heal injuries like this more than a couple times a month though, so be more carefulâ¦â He scolded me.
âI donât get it⦠Sheâs just a spirit, right? I thought she died a long time ago.â
He shrugged. âYou seriously havenât noticed? Do you think youâre the only one that reincarnates? Sheâs Fritz.â
My brain stopped for a second. âWhatâ¦â âOh, no⦠Yeah, I can see that⦠Fritz doesnât exactly act like a horseâ¦â âWhy are you taking credit for this though, Fritz would have healed me even without you telling her too. Isnât that right Fritz?â She hummed softly rubbing her head against mine for a moment.
He just sighed again. âYou arenât listening to me at all are you.â
I paused. âItâs not thatâ¦â âI promise that in the future⦠I will endeavor to handle similar manners⦠In the most efficient way possible.â
He stood up with another sigh and scratched the bear's head before walking over to me resting a hand on my forehead for an unusually long time, giving me nothing to do but stare up at him.
âU-uhm⦠What are you doing? Itâs not like I can get sick hereâ¦â
âItâs a secret.â
After another short moment, he smiled, pleased about something, and slowly nodded to himself. âAt any rate, I think itâs time you go back.â
âHey, come on, You arenât even going toââ The whole world suddenly turned upside down, splitting my head in two as my eyes opened in my body again. I was in a tint on a caught, my shirt bunched up around my neck and my whole torso covered in what I was assuming was horse saliva, Fritz standing right next to me. âSo grossâ¦â âThankâs girlâ¦â I groaned, checking to see that my voice had indeed recovered.
I quickly threw the blanket off my legs and stood up, fixing my clothes and heading outside. âOk, letâs try and salvage this situationâ¦â
As I stepped outside the tint it became clear that we were still pretty close to where I was pulled out of the river. There were several knights with crazy high stats and crazy strong horses, then there were the familiar faces of Mo, Isy, and Bear.
âSiya!â Isy yelled, jumping up and rushing to give me a hug, making my chest ache from the compression as if it really had broken my ribs, my body remembering the pain even after recovering from the wound.
âToo tight!â I squeaked out.
âS-sorryâ¦â She muttered, quickly backing away.
I wiped my eyes and closed them, taking a deep breath to stop them from watering anymore. âMy manna still hasnât come back yet⦠I feel miserableâ¦â âHow long have I been out?â
âAbout 20 minutes I think,â Bear said calmly, gesturing for us to go and sit down.
Following his suggestion we made our way around a small campfire that still smelled faintly like oats and cinnamon. âAnd no one has gone to Moâs estate yet, right?â
She nodded. âNo. I thought something might be wrong. Besides, they thought the demon was a more pressing concern. Especially since you were the one we were trying to rescue.â
âOk. Good, thatâs the right call⦠We should speak in the tintâ¦â
I slowly stood up, growling from the pain and achiness that spread through my whole body every time I breathed. As it turns out, jumping off a waterfall and then getting rid of the water that would have cushioned your fall⦠Isnât it too healthy for your knees. âOn the bright side⦠I think I can safely say Iâm not really afraid of heights anymoreâ¦â
I sighed, walking in the tint last, even though I was the first to stand up. âOk, plans have changed. While I was pretending to be Mo there was an attempted coup at her estate. A branch family tried to kill her father and take over. I stopped it and saved his life a few times, so then he passed the position of family head down to me⦠Uh⦠You.â I corrected myself, pointing at Mo, whose eyes quickly widened.
They all stared at me blankly, except Bear who just smiled, crossing his arms. âAnd, this was before you turned a whole tree into a spear and rammed it through a demon and set it on fire, riding it like a boat down the river.â
âUhâ¦â I chuckled, starting to feel a bit embarrassed. âY-yeah⦠This was before thatâ¦â
âSo⦠Whatâs the plan?â Mo asked.
âRight, so the new plan is to say that the demon kidnapped me and that you were with your father the whole time. Whereas the you that was with these guys was an illusion created by the demon to call for help so that more people would get lured towards it.â
Isy scratched her head, starting to struggle to follow. I couldnât really blame her⦠I did call it the stupid plan for a reason. It wasnât concrete to begin with and it only got slopier. Still, it did seem like things were going to turn out rather favorably.