I don't know how long I had been asleep, but I know that when I woke up, the room I was in was pitch-black, and I could hear faint snoring about a foot to my left.
I took that as Himora and lay back down, not wanting to wake him. For some reason, I was still very tired, but most of the pain had left me, and all that really hurt at the moment was my stomach from not eating since the morning we had reached the village with Smith...
SMITH!
Suddenly, I was wide awake, and I shot upright into a sitting position, the sudden movement causing Himora to shift in his sleep.
"Crap, I'm gonna have to be quiet."
I said to myself as I slowly pulled the heavy covers from atop my legs.
For some reason, I didn't want Himora to wake up. Besides, he looked peaceful in his slumber, and Himora was always grumpy if woken when he wasn't ready to be.
I know from experience.
As I crept out of the bed and made my way across the room, my eyes slowly moved from side to side, looking for a trace of light that I could use as a guide toward the door, and luckily for me, within the first few steps I had taken, my foot came down upon the shaft of my spear.
I bent to pick it up, falling into a crouching position, and in an instant, a bolt of pain shot up my tail and rattled my brain. I grabbed my head in my hands and fell forward into my elbows. The pain was unbearable, and my mind began to black out again.
I shook my head in an attempt to keep myself from passing out.
"No, no... Not again! Not now!"
I thought aloud, but it was useless.
The blackness began to fill my head, and my vision slowly faded into nothingness.
"Uungh! Dammit!"
I hissed between my teeth.
"I've got to shake this... this... whatever this is!"
It was hard to be quiet by then. The pain seemed to grow in size with every passing second, and there looked to be very little I could do to fight it. Then a thought crossed my mind, but what I had in mind was more of a last resort than a good idea.
"Dammit, Bastion!"
I cursed at myself.
"Of all the times to screw up, you had to pick this one!"
As the words left my mouth, I realized there was nothing else I could do, and before I could think twice of it, my right hand shot from my head to the knife I kept strapped to my boot.
With a flick of my wrist and a flinch upon contact, a long, thin cut opened up on my left forearm.
"Uuuungh!"
I had to hold back my scream as the pain seemed to shoot from my head to my arm and back to register in my brain.
It had worked for the moment, and my body began to focus on the pain in my arm and less on that in my tail and head.
"You...smart little bastard..."
I said to myself as I climbed slowly to my feet, more so to avoid being heard than anything else. A grin crossed my face as I slowly crossed the floor and caught sight of the light that marked the bottom of the door.
"Why do I feel like I'm in prison?"
I jokingly asked myself as I grew closer and closer to my objective. Honestly, at that point I hadn't a plan in mind, I only knew that if I could make it silently to the door, I would go from there. I had to force back a laugh as I thought to myself:
"Why the heck am I sneaking about anyway? For all I know, she could be a nice old... Well, young... Older-than-me woman just helping us out."
Then that thought fled my mind as my heart sank into my stomach. Two more voices were speaking on the other side of the door. Luckily for me, I was but a few feet away, and they were speaking just loud enough for my keen ears to make out what was being said.
"Ye know..."
The first voice began.
"Ye didn't 'ave to kick the boy in'es face, and from such a height! Ye could 'ave killed 'em!"
My mind seemed like it was in a tornado as the pain began to increase in my arm. I quietly tore a piece from my sleeve and tied it around the cut tightly. The voice was the same as whoever had caught me as I collapsed earlier. It had to be the Herbalist. At first, I didn't understand what she was talking about until something clicked in my mind, and the girl on the ice craft appeared in my head.
I could clearly see her beautiful eyes shimmering in a rainbow-like effect, adding more elegance to her already astounding face. Her hair shimmered just as her eyes had, but only in two colors, silver and red. She was but an inch shorter than myself. I had to think twice about why she, of all people, had popped into my head at the thought of falling, but then it came back to me rather rudely in a burst of pain up my tail that had me arching my back before the light of the door.
"It's her."
I thought aloud.
"But why?..."
The girl didn't seem too happy about being scolded, and she shot to her feet in protest, her voice ringing out a bit louder than the Herbalist.
"He startled me, okay?"
She said in her own defense.
"How the hell was I supposed to know that there was a monkey-boy on the bottom of my-"
A slap across her face from the Herbalist cut her off.
"Ye watch yer tongue, Hikari Zellrune! Yer mother would knock ye over if she'd heard what ye just said!"
The girl (whose name was Hikari, as I had learned) looked shocked; her head remained turned away. It had initially turned from the force of the blow, but she turned it a bit more to hide her single tear.
"I'm... S-sorry."
She stuttered, a hint of anger slipping into her voice. She continued her reasoning.
"How was I to know that he was below me? I-"
Again, she was cut off, but not by a slap, but by a raised hand.
"Hikari... By now, ye should be able to tell when the weight of yer ice changes. I will not take that as an excuse, and even if ye didn't realize he was there, how does that justify ye 'dislodging' him in such a rude manner?"
Hikari sat and stared into the bright fire that burned before the pair. Her eyes were glazed over with a thick liquid that promised tears would fall soon.
"I... I don't know... I was just stressed and tired, and the Dwarf wasn't the easiest to deal with either! After he woke, he ranted and yelled enough to wake the dead! I could barely concentrate enough to keep us airborne, let alone 'polity negotiate' with the boy upon his sudden intrusion. When I saw him, I just lashed out... I'm sorry."
The Herbalist looked content with all that Hikari had said, and she moved forward and took the now crying girl into her arms.
"I understand that ye were overwhelmed, besides t'was yer first real mission."
She emphasized the word real. After a short pause, she withdrew and held the girl by the shoulders and looked her squarely in her eyes. As she spoke, she never lowered her eyes nor turned her head; the look was so stern that I could have sworn that she didn't even blink.
"It's awfully nice 'o ye to apologize, deary."
She said, more stiffly than not.
"But I'm not the one ye should be givin' yer sorry to. Ye wait till he is away and ye speak with him yerself, ye hear?" And I don't want to hear any attitude out of ye, ye got that?"
Hikari's face twisted into a sly-looking grin, and then went into a smile that made my legs shake so much that I almost fell forward into the room with the two of them.
"Yes."
She said softly.
"I'll speak with him...and no attitude."
She added on when the herbalist's hand tightened on her shoulder.
At that, she was released, and she watched as the tall, lean Herbalist took to her feet and walked toward a dark brown cabinet. Upon reaching it, she tapped it three times, and it silently swung ajar. Two thick, earth-colored blankets floated into her arms. She closed the cabinet and turned toward the waiting girl.
"Now get some sleep, it's getting really late... And by the way..."
She said with a beautiful, beaming smile of her own.
"His name is Bastion."