Hunter smirked. “What? Afraid of a little girl?” Lithe as a cat, she lept lightly onto the dragon’s back. With a sweet smile, she pinched one of the membranes on his wing. There was a loud snap and the wing went limp. She did that to the other wing, and then jumped lightly down, elbowing the dragon in the leg. More snaps and cracks. She moved slowly across the dragon, neatly breaking every single one of its bones in the calm way she had whenever she was using her ability. She didn’t harm any of the internal organs. Not enough to be be fatal, but enough to be painful.
The dragon howled in pain and pulled back swiping at her before falling down and letting out a whimper. Kye groaned and tried pulling himself up. he was only barely successful, and he was staggering slightly, but he wasn't dead. "You think that keeping me alive will cause me more pain. Wrong. If you leave me alive It will only ensure that I will come after you again, and again and again," the dragon hissed. It was in far more pain than it wanted to let on.
“Sounds good to me,” Hunter said, smirking at him. “Now, you just wait until you heal, and the you can come after me. Okay? Not before. Doctor’s orders.”
She walked over to Kye. It was blinding, the lights that covered him, both inside and out. Hunter closed her eyes, and when she opened them, they were back to their normal blue. She hauled him up and put his arm around her shoulders. “Whose the hurt one now?” She asked, smirking slightly.
"Ow," Kye grunted as Hunter dragged him up. "You are not gentle, at all. At least I was nice enough to not try and hurt you more."
The dragon glared at Hunter and Kye through the slits of it's eyes. "You may think you have won little princess. But you haven't even come close. I was only the first. You should have just let me do what I was going to do. I was going to be merciful and give you both swift ends. The others will not be like that."
Hunter ignored the dragon, but as she passed it, she kicked it swiftly in the jaw.
“Yeah, well this is payback for all those times you tried to ask me what was wrong, so shut up.” But she helped him along more gently.
"Sure," Kye gave a half smile.
Cutting it a little to close for my comfort, there kid.
Everything is to close for your comfort.
You aren't the only one who will die, if you die.
That's the only reason I'm still alive.
You need to stop being so- Did you say that's the reason you're still alive?
If I weren't trying to make sure you didn't die, I would have given up a long time ago.
…
A sudden movement behind them pulled Kye from his thoughts. The dragon had dragged itself to it's feet roaring in absolute pain as it did so. "Oh, come on, give a rest will you? You're beaten, stop trying to humiliate yourself farther."
"Silence fool, you know nothing," the dragon shrieked as it lunged one final time.
"Hunter move!" Kye suddenly snapped shoving her forwards and throwing up a barrier just barely around himself. It wasn't rooted in the ground and the force of the lung sent Kye flying backwards, hitting a rock and rolling to the ground. The dragon was limp on the ground, though not likely dead.
Hunter gave a loud, angry snarl. She stepped up to the dragon. “Do you have a death wish?” She pulled the eyeball from her pocket and held it to the dragon. It froze, turned to stone, and she put it back into her pocket. Then, turning back to Kye, She clenched her jaw when she saw that he wasn’t moving. “Idiot,” she chided.
She couldn’t move him. Couldn’t do anything to help him. She was too tired and weak. Her ability had drained her, as she hadn’t used it in a while. But, just to be safe, she used it one last time, brushing the rocks to fall, creating a small cave. She leaned back, exhausted. But she couldnt sleep. Stabbing her side with a rock when she almost fell asleep, Hunter started to tend his wounds, wincing slightly as she did so.
"Now we're even,"Kye mumbled after a little bit. He didn't move and he didn't open his eyes, he was probably only half conscious by this point.
“Are we?” She asked distractedly, carefully wrapping his ribcage. “I haven’t been keeping track.”
"You saved my life, from the blowy upy rock head monster when we first got in this cave," Kye breathed quietly. "I just returned the favor, by saving your stubborn ass from mister stupidragon." His breathing slowed down a bit and slightly evened out. "Was he telling the truth when he said you cared?"
Hunter didn’t answer right away. “Why don’t you tell me,” she said finally, securing the bandage and tending to a long cut on his arm.
Kye didn't respond, he'd fallen completely unconscious now.
"You do really care for him don't you?" a voice said from next to Hunter.
Hunter started. She turned. “W-What?” She asked.
A "person" sat on their knees next to Hunter and Kye. They were glowing, in a similar way to the Barriers Kye used. "I would be Kye's demon buddy in case you hadn't noticed," the person replied looking down at Kye. "But you didn't answer my question. Do you care about him? Because he sure cares about you. More than his own life. He's just silently stubborn and won't admit it."
Hunter scoffed. “No one cares about me. They just need me to help them, and then they leave me here. Again. They say they’ll come back to get me, but they never do. How is he any different?” Her eyes were sad, but her tone was hard.
"Oh, I don't know," the demon thing sat back a little. "I just know he cares enough to try and get you freed from your father. Even if it costs him his life. He's a stupid stubborn idiot like that. But, you still haven't answered my question."
Hunter ignored that last part of what he had said. “Well, he shouldn’t. There’s no escape from my father. Ever. And he’ll just get hurt. Maybe…” she sighed. “Maybe I’ll jusy have to wipe his mind when this is over so that he doesn’t try to. He’ll get both of you killed, and that’s worse than him not remembering me.”
"He wouldn't look at it that way," the demon stood up and walked around a little bit. Well, more floated than walked. "Plus I kind of protect his mind, so you would more likely wipe my memory and not his. You're avoiding my question though. I'm a lot more open about being stubborn, would you please answer the question already?"
“I could try,” Hunger muttered. She glanced at the demon. “What was the question again?” She knew full well what it was, but she wanted to buy time to think of a good enough lie.
"I asked, if you cared about him," the demon rolled his eyes. "Though seeing how you full on broke every bone in that dragon's body, I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that question."
“The why did you ask?” Hunter muttered, carefully cleaning a long gash on one of his arms. “Seriously, how does he get hurt like this from getting thrown at a wall multiple times?
"That dragon had claws you know," the demon spoke up defensively. "It's not like it was using a pillow to throw him around. I'd also like to point out that this-" it smacked a rock several times. "-This is not smooth. It's like giant pieces of sandpaper."
“Yes, but six broken ribs, twelve cuts in need of stitches and countless scrapes and bruises, as well as a concussion and possibly a fractured femur? It takes talent to be able to get hurt like that.” Hunter was glad that he demon seemed to have forgotten about the conversation earlier.
"He is a magnet for trouble. And…" the demon trailed off and went silent.
“And what?” Hunter asked, sitting back on her knees and glancing at the demon.
The demon looked up at Hunter calmly. "And, not all of those are from this fight. He doesn't show weakness most of the time because he doesn't want to slow anyone down. He already always feels like a failure because of how he's treated back at home. And he doesn't want to be a weight for you. He refuses to treat you like you can't do anything, and he knows that you would be just fine without him. But, he doesn't want to let anyone know that he needs help. Because usually, he's mocked for it, and it pretty much conditioned him to bite his lip and ignore it. We were kind of thrown into this directly after a war and he wasn't given the chance to heal properly from his injuries there."
“Of course he was,” Hunter said, her voice hard and emotionless. “Seems like something the gods would do. Throw someone from an awful situation into an even worse one.” She scowled. “And he was never a burden. He saved my life a few times. He won’t be a burden to me.”
"He and I both know that, its just," the demon sighed. "He might never ask for help, not after the way people treated him back home. Sometimes I wonder how he manages to walk through the streets with his head high, while being called a demon and a monster."
“I know the feeling,” Hunter muttered. She stood and stretched, feeling her muscles cramp from sitting on the ground for so long. “Believe me, I know how that feels.”
"You have to stop telling yourself that you don't care," the demon said suddenly.
