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Blossom coughed and hacked through the water spraying into her face as she waded deeper into the water. With Leon holding into Lance's other hand, she could grab onto Lance's waist. It'd be easier to drag him out with a better hold on his body. "P-Pull!" she screamed, tugging hard. A few minutes of effort got Lance down onto the shore. Blossom knelt next to him, pushing his sopping hair away from his face.

"O-Oh goddess," she whispered, eyes wide in fear. She put her ear to his chest to gauge his heartbeat. She paused; had he swallowed water? He didn't sound like he was breathing... Blossom made frantic motions to Leon, trying to gesture for him to back up before putting her hands on Lance's sternum. She pressed down once, twice, three times, and hesitated before putting a hand at his nose, pinching it closed. She tilted his chin up, then put her mouth over his and blew, trying to fill his lungs with air. Blossom repeated the process, not intending on stopping until Lance coughed and started to breathe fully on his own.

A flashback.

That's all Lance could possible could think off as to what the scene he was seeing in front of him.

A woman was crying on the end of a bed. Her face buried in the clothing on the bed. Her face was covered by her arms, and her sobbing wouldn't reside. The woman's head rose, revealing a beautiful face, covered in tears running down her cheek. In her hands she was clutching a letter. Lance could see her stomach bulging. Pregnant, huh?


Then, her eyes turned towards Lance. She hissed sharply at him. "You...you're the one made from him. Go away! You're an abomination! You do not deserve his life!"

Lance sharply opened his eyes. A familiar face was leaning over him, and it took him a moment to get his thoughts together to realize what was going on.

Lance hacked and coughed, more out of surprise than from the water in his lung. Water still came out, and Lance weakly rested his head backwards.

"Blossom..." he said, as he looked at her. She had probably saved his life now. He squeezed her hand tightly. "Blossom, I..."

Then, he realized what was at stake. Wait. I've got a reputation to uphold. Besides, she's already Aidan's. That'd be a violation against the friendship code.

"...I can look up your skirt."

Leon felt a huge weight of worry lift off his heart. The knight knew that Lance was halfway okay to make those kind of comments. He'd get very antsy when he'd see people in trouble and knew he wasn't able to help them directly. The Watchman approached Lance and Blossom slowly, calmly, kneeling down at their level. The Lord did something that he normally wouldn't even think about doing, but he realized that in wet clothes, covered in wounds... Lance needed warmth.

He unbuckled his cape, only keeping the Amethyst Griffon crest clip that was his last reminder of his family's linage of Archanean knights, and offered the purple piece of torn, yet dry enough cloth. "Ere, Lance." Leon said softly, as not to excite the thief too much. "Ya be needin' this piece 'o cloth more than me. I can buy m'self 'nother easily. Ya need t'get wrapped up, an' my supplies dropped wi'Anri's armor. Take m'cloak, all I wanna keep is the clip."

Sue hadn't thought of much else to do but watch them, and sigh in relief as well. Everyone was safe, no one was dead, and for the most part, yeah, they were all injured. But they were for now... safe.

And they could return to the campsite when rested. We're a long way's off, but I know we're going to make it.

"Lance... Blossom..." Sue said aloud. "Is there anything... I can do?"

"I can find the herbs... as a matter of fact.... I can see some of them around." Sue told the three she had now found herself in company with. She'd learned from the elder nomads and also FEF's healers which herbs were the best for what conditions... and although she only knew the basics, she knew enough to help him.

But she'd better gather extra... as the green-haired nomad remembered so vividly, Leon getting almost literally fried by Lance's thunder coin. She wandered into forest, not too far, to gather them, and find some sort of 'bowl' shaped object to crush them.

Andre, her steed stayed behind to rest... he was just too tired to stay by his rider's side like he usually wanted to.

Now that he thought of it, his dirty, torn-up cloak wasn't a good idea. No wonder Leon had to have Magnet look after him for all medical purposes, he never thought of these things, ever! Sighing, he took the cloak back with a reluctant scowl at his own ignorance. "Well, Lance, we better not be puttin' ya on Anri's back 'til ya get treated by Sue. We need t' rest 'nyhow, or we ain't gonna get 'nywhere at all."

The knight laid back, re-clipping his purple cloak into place. He laid his back to Anri, whom was already resting closeby Andre. Now that he thought of it, his steed was much more comfortable to rest his back against without that hard saddle and armor... wait, Anri wasn't a piece of furniture, especially when he was playflully nuzzling his nose against the watchman's hair! It would have been a noogie were he human. Stop that!

And it was upon laying down... that he begun to feel the sting left behind by the lightning magic that had travelled right to his chest because of most of his armor being there. He shut his eyes, not daring to cry out... this pain was nothing, nothing at all compared to the rage he still felt being in exile. They... be payin' for this... them heroes... they be payin for it extra.

[Oooooh yeah. *SHOT*]

Sue had come back after only minutes of searching. She was skilled at finding herbs, the basic ones, but not nearly enough to be an alchemist or anything. However, having as many as she did, the disinfectants, painkilling herbs, and even some sleep medicine to give Lance a more peaceful rest filled with pleasant dreams rather than the nightmares he likely faced right now would be all the nomad needed to help her comrades.

It's kind of nice to not have to raise my bow to save them for a change.

And also, the river nearby proved to be a good water source to get the herbs wet, and crush them into their more medicinal form. Blossom's other herbs she lined out too helped to make a sort of 'double batch' she needed.

The Nomad Trooper was unsure if eyes watched her, but Sue was finished in no time, whether there were spectators of her work or not. After mixing two ointments, one more potent for Lance and one of a lesser, but still good standard for Leon who didn't need his judgment impaired if he was to be directing a horse, pouring them into the empty glass bottles that once contained vulneraries but were washed out.

She handed the left one, the less potent one to Leon, knowing better than to think the knight rested easily with his burns, while she gave the other to Blossom. "Let Lance drink this. This is what I'd call a Concoction... not as great as an Elixir, but it's better than a Vulnerary. It will heal him the same way."

Leon's eye all the while opened a wink when he saw the ointment offered to him, cork closed. Almost like a Vulnerary, but it was from direct herbal extracts. The knight snatched the bottle, gulping it almost greedily. As it travelled through him, he could feel the relief come in almost an instant.

It wasn't like his elixirs he liked to buy, it didn't re-energize him, but the burns he had were now bearable. He'd be at least able to ride again.

Patting Anri's nose, the watchman rose up. He noticed Anri playfully rise with him, as if the steed too were awaiting his recovery. The two were ready.

"Just do th' honors 'o givin' Lance 'is concoction, Miss Blossom." Leon said, a smirk now coming across his face at last. "Then I can carry 'im wi'out too much trouble."

"What...are you doing in that tr...ee..." Lance suddenly slurred. Lance was reliving some memories, and was sleeptalking parts and bits of it.

"You're...wearing a skirt, have some...modesty..."

"Dry...yourself up...you'll get a cold...and I...can see through...your top..."

"What do you mean, 'Don't worry, I'm wearing undershorts', you should still...be more prude..."

"Pfft. You're smaller than me, and have an...underdeveloped body. Not even a...pervert would get off on you."

"What do you mean...catch...you...wait GACK!"

His last sleeptalking made Lance writhe about in his sleep, making him drop the vest Blossom had covered him with. If one hadn't noticed it before, his now naked chest had revealed some features of him one didn't necessarily think about otherwise. His lean, muscley body was well-shaped, and there were signs of years of work on it. His body was bruised all over now, partly from his earlier fighting, but mostly because of his adventure ride down the river. The wound in his chest wasn't bleeding anymore, but it should still require some attention to it.

But something that should've been noticed was a locket the size of a child's fist hanging around his neck. It seemed to be made of some sort of mineral or gemstone, and it glittered and seemed to change color depending on where the sun was shining on it, changing to dark green, red, blue, all the colors of the rainbow in darker nuances. The thread it was hanging in was sturdy and of high quality. The pendant was resting on his bare chest now, inviting anyone to want to look inside...

Blossom wasn't quite sure if it was best to wake him up as he started to writhe around, or to just let Lance continue sleeping. Blossom smoothed her hand against his face once she had finished making Lance drink down the liquid and set it away from her. She realized the vest had fallen off, so she reached over carefully to pick it up, keeping him propped against her. Her hands were a little drier now, thanks to the heat of the flames far away enough to not burn her, and she slowly set to work at tearing a thick strip out of her vest, seeing as it was still basically dry. She didn't have a waterskin, and she didn't want to risk dragging him to the river and back, so she just rubbed the water from her hair off into her vest (What? It was water!) and used that to clean his wound a little more before tearing off a few more thick pieces and using them to bandage his chest.

Blossom's attention drew to the colorful locket swinging against his chest. She carefully cradled it in one hand, and as she moved to open it, Sindar's voice took her attention. "My name is Sindar Yoru, journeyman axeman. You are?"

Blossom looked up at him. "A-Ah..." she breathed. She carefully kept Lance cradled against her as she awkwardly reached over and shook his hand twice before returning her hand to Lance's shoulder. "Blossom Riddicks. N-Newly trained to Hero, actually. I haven't... done any axe training yet, though."

Blossom returned her eyes to the locket. It looked like it could be opened up, she just... had to find the seam... Blossom ran her thumbnail along the edge of the locket, trying to click open the little necklace once she could find the slit of the two halves joining together.