From the Ashes

[Gildarts]

The words spurted forth from his lips before he could even realize what he was saying. His ears were ringing and his mind was softly rattling, elsewhere.

Suddenly the younger of Gildarts' comrades, Zack Fair, was before him. The soldier's expression was hopeful as he looked at the wizard, whose expression surely mirrored the same. Zack Fair neared Gildarts close enough to pull him from the ground which his body was groveling, and while he did so, the soldier got close enough to see the veteran's eye, congealed shut with his own blood.

As Gildarts stood, a white chunk flew from his lips, and fell to the ground and hid itself within a crack of the many rocks that lay around them. In the mage's mouth, his tongue felt around the gap, and did indeed note that the reason that one had been pushed out, was because a new, non broken one, was slowly growing. "It isn't a good fight until someone loses a tooth," Gildarts offered a hint of a smile to the youth Zack, but the vet's eye remained firm and stoic, as he looked down at the kid's wound, causing the uplifted corner of his cheek to crash back into a low dipping frown.

Gildarts may have looked like he was covered in blood, but some was not his, and other parts of his body had started to numb themselves. The veteran was used to this sort of pain, and perhaps that was what he feared the boy Zack to eventually become... Like him.

Drip drip. The soldier's blood spattered a bit, "Best cover it, and of course add pressure." Generic advice, sure, but it let the boy know that the older prime was looking out for him.

Gildarts looked through his eyepatch of hardened blood, and didn't bother to attempt to loosen it to free his gaze, the blood from his temple had stopped spurting and instead had formed itself into a soft glistening layer.

Luckily, now, Gildarts was standing, testing his foot and prosthetic in the uneven surface caused the burns around his leg to chaff. No wince was evident on his face, for he contained it, but the strongest Prime had learned today, that everyone bleeds.

The ringing in his ears grew louder, this time Gildarts, however, knew the source. The malefactor from within him was calling loudly, asking for permission, then willing itself to take it. It grew almost unbearable, and Zack had started his first few steps down the shifting mountain of rocks when Gildarts suddenly stooped, and cringed as he fell on one knee, not from the physical pain, no, the mighty prime would never be defeated by something so mundane... Instead the mental strike of a sinister creature infiltrated the prime from behind his visage, trying to get control.

"Let... Me... In..." she whispered so coyly in his ear. He shook it away, his hair was too greased by charcoal and flame to even shake a millimeter.

Zack had found the strength in him to retrace the last steps he'd taken, to come back to the bent over prime, he was going to ask 'Can you stand (alone)?' but Gildarts was already grunting his way into a forced stand. His brown eye held on Zack, remarking the boy's noble intentions quite highly, and as though reading his mind, Gil responded simply, but leaving little room for doubt, "Aye, I'll be alright. But what do you think will happen to them?"

The brown eye wandered to the rubble of the mountain, where surely, their comrades bones lay buried. The skull that had stuck to his hand lay protruded atop a red-rimmed rock. Gildarts, despite his experience, may not have been informed on how frequently Primes respawn in the Nexus, and given his condition, he might've just forgotten in his consideration for the dead. Gildarts had not barely been introduced to them, and had barely picked up Zack's name on the way up here.

Piqui's howls finally breached Gildarts' ear, from her position, buried in the satchel. Her creamy fur looked particularly sooty, as she popped out from the large Prime's shoulder and with an attitude, bit his ear in protest, "GILDARTS! What was with all that rumbling I was taking a nap! You're lucky this bag seems to be magic or else you'd be in for it," the kitten with wings unsheathed her claws and took up a position too close to the stubble on the Prime's chin.

After, Piqui continued to pout, but the young she-kitten seemed to taste the blood on her mouth, and was no longer blinded by her anger, for she now saw Gildarts as he was: Beaten to a pulp.

Gildarts had winced at the nibble she'd done to his ear, but it seemed he always expected pain when it came to dealing with that of the opposite sex. "I know Piqui, I'm sorry, luckily you were safe for the most of it. The dragon is down there now," he informed her, "We can only hope it does not lay waste to the town from which we came."

It was almost comical to see a warrior of Gildarts size, with a below-average sized kitten perched on his shoulder. Her eyes wobbled for a moment, "You could've--- I COULD HAVE DIED! Humph! Trouble and peril just seem to follow you everywhere, don't they!? Hey.... Who's he?"

Her nose pointed to Zack, while Gildarts had tuned out the nagging, for his eyes fell on a bone-perhaps human, perhaps not- not far from his feet.

The kitten's mind was spinning, "WHOA THOUGH, just you two guys fought a dragon!?" Piqui exclaimed.

"There were others, sadly they did not make it." Zack interjected when he thought Gildarts' pause too long. No doubt Gildarts was nobly regarding the fallen.

It was always a sad occurrence, to be deserted by the dead. But, always a miraculous one, to be able to join the living.

Guilt grinded at the Prime's bones, while the took his first step over another's.