The wind howled like a hungry pack of wolves as the heavy rain pelted down. Thunder roared and lightening dominated the sky. The hurricane was so sudden that no one was able to prepare for it. Aleron, knew that it was going to cause a lot of damage. Even if the head shadow beast hadn’t told him to search the area for strugglers, he would have done it anyway. It is a shadow beast job to maintain balance between wild life and humans without being seen. However, due to the horrid storm, Aleron took his human form to help anyone that needed to find safety. He was a bulky man, much larger than an average human but no one seemed to notice. Luckily as he walked through the Weeping Willows forest, he hadn’t found any wildlife in peril or no humans caught in the storm. As the weather became worse, he considered heading back to safety himself.
“Somebody…help…” a voice echoed in Aleron’s mind, changing his plans.
Aleron was to be able to hear the voices of everything in the forest, making his job easier. However, it was unusual to hear a child’s voice, and by the sounds of things whoever it was badly hurt. Aleron couldn’t ignore it, he immediately began searching for the little kid. He slowly walked through the forest for several minutes, listening and hoping to find who needed help.
“Help…me… it… hurts…” the voice muttered again.
Although the voice became clearer as Aleron got closer, it also got weaker. The weather was getting worse and the freak hurricane was going to make the child suffer even more. The wind pushed harder against him, blowing his golden hair into his face and making it more difficult to walk.
“Hello! Is anyone there?!” Aleron shouted, hoping someone would hear him over the wind.
There was no reply, which didn’t surprise him. It was very slim that Aleron would be able to find anyone at all and began to think he should head undercover before the storm got worse. However, he then smelled blood. A lot of it. Following the smell, Aleron continued to walk knowing that he was getting closer. Finally, he found a small figure stumbling towards him, dragging their feet unsteadily and slowly as a trail of blood formed behind them. As Aleron got closer, he noticed that it was a young boy that couldn’t be any older than ten years. He kept his gaze down, his brown hair that lightened at the tips falling messily into his face. Even from the distance could tell the boy’s injuries were severe and each step he took became slower, shorter and looked extremely painful.
“Wait there, I’m coming,” Aleron called out to him as he ran against the wind.
The boy stopped walking and looked up at him, his big green eyes filled with tears.
“H-h-hel-p-p…” he muttered before his eyes glazed over and he collapsed into a heap on the ground.
“Shit,” Aleron exclaimed as he used his enhancement magic to bolt towards the child, reaching him in a few seconds. He immediately knelt down to the kid and rolled him onto his back. Once he did his eyes widened in shock. “No way…Brayden Valero? But how? I thought…”
Aleron had been told that he was killed by Kazmir nearly sixty years ago. However, the kid was without a doubt Brayden Valero, the youngest son of Hestia Valero, the Duchess of Luminea. He shook his head, reminding himself that it was not the time to focus on how impossible the boy’s appearance was.
“Brayden, are you alright? Can you hear me?” Aleron asked as he examined his injuries.
Brayden did not answer, he didn’t even open his eyes and was completely unresponsive. Clicking his tongue, Aleron checked his pulse. It was dangerously weak as his body was freezing cold and deathly pale. He was still breathing but it was very shallow and rapid. Aleron’s eyes darted to the massive and deep wound on his left side torso. The three jagged cuts spread from his chest all the way to his back and were bleeding rapidly, leaving a massive pool of blood underneath him. Aleron immediately knew that those wounds were none other than the claw marks of Kazmir. It became clear to him that Brayden had lost too much blood and had gone into shock.
“Not good, he’ll die at this rate,” Aleron said, taking off his shirt.
His shirt was at least twice the size of Brayden, so he ripped it and wrapped it around his body, compressing and covering the wound. Aleron knew it wouldn’t completely stop the bleeding but should slow it down long enough to rush him to a hospital. Picking him up carefully, Aleron cradled Brayden in his arms and holding him close to his chest. Using enhancement, he ran as fast as possible. The rain so cold it stung when it hit his bare skin, but he did not stop moving. He was going to save him, even if it meant breaking the most sacred Shadow Beast law since the Eighty-Year War. Bringing an Oviri to their hidden city.474Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRwsHqZ2vIV
Aleron sighed as he took his iced coffee from the vending machine. As he suspected the other Shadow Beasts were not pleased with him bringing Brayden to them. He was yelled at for about two minutes, as it was, they rarely let humans into their small city. They were afraid that an Oviri, even a child like Brayden would bring back traumatic memories that threatened the existence of Shadow Beasts. After Aleron hastily explained who he was and where his injuries came from, they changed their mind. Not only was Kazmir and his actions were considered an abomination to their kind, but they were also once quite close to Hestia Valero, who had helped them on many occasions. They immediately removed Brayden from his arms, placed him on a stretcher and rushed him in for emergency surgery.474Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvhZZFD4J3q
That was five hours ago, and Aleron hadn’t heard anything since. He ended up replacing his blood-soaked clothes at one of the hospital stores and stayed behind to wait and hear what happened. He felt like he shouldn’t leave, so he sat on one of the uncomfortable chairs and waited patiently for the results. As far as Aleron knew, things were pretty grim. Kazmir was a professional assassin and the wounds caused by his attacks were near impossible to heal. If Aleron had taken Brayden anywhere else, his chances of surviving were next to zero. Only Shadow Beasts had the medical equipment and knowledge to do anything since Kazmir’s poisonous magic was so potent and complicated.
After a few minutes more of waiting in silence one of the doctors who took Brayden called Sophia walked into the waiting room. She took no notice of Aleron, so he walked up to her.
“How’s Brayden doing?” Aleron asked.
“Oh good, you’re still here,” Sophia turned to him. “We’ve managed to stabilise him. We managed to remove most of Kazmir’s poison, and it took about seventy stitches, but we were able to close that wound. However, even though the surgery was a success, I still fear he’s in a critical condition. He’s breathing on his own which is good, but it’s a little shallow and uneven, so he needs a little help.”
“What of his other injuries?” Aleron asked.
“There were some dark bruises, a dislocated wrist, a few broken bones and what seems to be some mild bruising of the skull,” Sophia explained. “He shows no sign of brain injury and all of his other injuries are minor and not life-threatening. Where on earth did you find him though, wasn’t he considered dead about half a century ago?”
“I was just checking for potential casualties in the forest as the Head Beast ordered when I came across him,” Aleron stated. “He was still conscious when I found him, but he collapsed moments later.”
“Still, it’s quite surprising,” Sophia sighed. “To be still alive with those injuries, it’s nothing short of a miracle. Regardless, we’re keeping a close eye on him in one of our isolation and observation wards. It is possible he could go downhill as likely as he is to recover.”
“Is there anything more I can do? I’d feel bad leaving him like this,” Aleron asked.
“If possible, we’d like you to stay on standby until he wakes up,” Sophia claimed. “He may be a little distressed when he realises what’s happened to him. Since you were the one to find Brayden, we think it may be comforting to have you there.”
“Of course. I was the one who brought him in without permission. It’s my responsibility to see it through to the end,” Aleron nodded.
“In that case follow me, the observation room we have for him has a resting place. You should spend the next few nights here while the storm comes down.”
Aleron agreed and followed Sophia down the halls until they reached a door with Brayden’s name jotted down on the small white place. They entered the small room filled with computers, a fold out couch set up as a bed and a large one-way mirror. After closing the door behind him, he looked through the mirror to see into the next room. He could see Brayden lying motionlessly on the bed. He was hooked up to at least three machines, a ventilation mask to help him breathe, an IV drip to replace the blood he lost and one that was checking his heart rate. As far as Aleron could see, his forehead, left wrist and his entire upper body were wrapped up in bandages, and he looked very pale. It was very difficult to see him like that. He was just a small kid so he could imagine the pain when he woke up would be unbearable.
“It’s quite awful, isn’t it?” Sophia sighed. “It’s so horrible that a child as young as him is in this state. I really didn’t think Kazmir would ever stoop so low. It took nearly two hours to remove the poisoned tissues from his body. However, we couldn’t remove all of it.”
“Was it really that bad?” Aleron asked.
“Yes, I said before it’s a miracle he’s still alive. I have my suspicions that not all of his injuries were caused by Kazmir but somebody else,” Sophia explained. “We are lucky that he has abnormal self-healing abilities and started breathing again an hour after his surgery.”
“So really all we have to do his wait?” Aleron stated.
“Yes, I believe he’ll wake up in a month or two, once he does, we can start therapy to regain his strength and most importantly prepare him for the massive gap between his consciousness,” Sophia claimed. “He has a very long road of recovery ahead of him, so only time will tell.”474Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5fbN18wmXX
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