Linri was panting heavily. He immediately got up. He was back inside his tent. His broken arm was put into a sling and his body was covered in bandages."Are you alright?" Lyra had a look of concern in her eyes. She was worried about her son and that was why she had stayed with him while he was sleeping.
Once he heard his mother"s voice Linri got out of his daze and looked at her. Seeing her worry made him feel guilty.
"...I"m fine. I just had a nightmare" hearing his hoa.r.s.e voice did not ease Lyra"s worries one bit.
"What kind of nightmare? Talking might help."
"I... I was killed... by some kind of shadow. I don"t want to talk about the rest." Linri answered her with great difficulty. Normally he would not talk about this stuff and keep it a secret but right now he was mentally exhausted. So he did not think about it carefully and blurted it out.
Hearing that Lyra hugged Linri strongly and patted his head gently.
"Shh.... It"s alright now. n.o.body can hurt you. Me and your father are gonna protect you."
Feeling her motherly love Linri let his worries go and hugged her back with his right arm started crying.
After some time he finally felt like a burden was lifted out of his chest.
"I"m fine *sniff* You can let me go Mom" Lyra looked at her son and saw the light in his brighten up so she let go unwillingly.
"Now tell me, where were you and what were you doing last four days? Don"t you know how dangerous the forest is? Why did you even leave the camp?"
"Mom calm down. Please. I will explain it slowly one question at a time." Lyra was obviously furious with her idiotic son.
"First of all I fell into a deep ditch. Broke my arm and was trapped there. I shouted but no one came so I tried to get out by myself and succeeded eventually. Secondly the forest didn"t really feel dangerous because of this bracelet. I didn"t encounter a single dangerous thing so it can"t really be called dangerous now can it? I am myself actually quite surprised that nothing happened. Lastly I felt stuffed at the camp so just wanted to move my legs as always and this is the story." Linri looked at his mother"s eyes.
She was still looking at him with furious eyes. Eventually she just sighed and patted Linri"s head again.
"Just do not leave the camp in the future, okay?" Lyra"s voice was so gentle that it could be compared to Solas". Even better thing was he knew that this was not pretence and her real self.
"Okay, mom"
"Just keep sleeping for now. Your dad should be back in about 2 days and we will leave immediately after that." Linri was shocked to hear this. Arkady did not return yet? Could something have happened?
Lyra had left the tent when she saw Linri did not answer him so she thought he was still tired and was going to sleep.
Now that he thought about it he noticed that he did not write when Arkady returned from this expedition. So he felt a little relieved.
He wanted to sleep but he was afraid of going to that "dream world" again so he forced himself to stay awake.
"That was touching. Never really thought you were the type to cry" Solas" voice sounded in his mind.
"There is something we need to talk about, but not now. I am too tired to play mind games with you." said Linri. He then imagined an energy line connecting him, Solas and Lozna together. He proceeded to cut it.
Linri did not know if he was successful but he did not really care any more. He was too tired for this thoughts.
"Coming in!"
The voice belonged to Jaime. He also felt guilt towards her as he made her worry and kept stuff from her. He wanted company right now so he was not against her coming here.
Seeing there was no response Jaime peeked inside slowly and saw Linri looking at her. Seeing that he was awake she came inside with a bowl in her hands.
"What"s that?"
"Obviously it"s soup. What else can we feed to an injured person?"
"Soup? In this hot weather? Be honest, are you trying to kill me?" now that she joked with Linri she felt relieved. Seeing him come back with a broken arm and all those bruises, had made her worry.
"The weather is not important. My mother always said there was nothing that a bowl of chicken soup can not cure. This is not a chicken soup but that"s beside the point." She sat next to Linri as she put the bowl of soup and spoon to the ground.
"Anyway, did you succeed?"
"Give me your hand and we will play a game. It"s called fire truck. Only thing you have to do is say Red Light when you want me to stop" Linri had a mischievous smile on his face when he said that and he reached out his right hand towards her with his palm pointed upwards.
Hearing the name of the game Jaime was surprised and blushed a little. She "knew" what kind of game fire truck was. She wanted to hit him so much but he was injured so she reined her instincts. She was genuinely concerned for him but he was thinking like "that"
"Are you out of your mind! I am not playing that kind of game with you"
"What kind of game?" Linri had an innocent look in his eyes when he answered her.
"You-You know "that" kinda game" While talking Jaime put a speck of hair behind her ears. She looked cute while doing that. Linri also found her fidgeting funny but he decided to stop messing with her, for now at least.
"Ms. Voxx, I do not know what "that" kinda game is but this game is very simple. Only thing you have to do is just put your hand above mine and pull it back when you can not hold on any more. See simple right?"
"You are really not going to anything?"
"Cross my heart and swear to the G.o.d I am not gonna do anything else."
Jaime slowly reached her hand towards him with hesitation. She looked like a little fawn trying to see if the lion was tricking her. This time Linri was the one that blushed but he did not say anything. Once she placed her hand fully nothing happened so she wondered what he was planning.
"See I told you nothing was gonna happen" Linri had the eyes of a hunter looking at his prey.
He slowly rose his body temperature. Seeing that there was no weird reaction from her he thought maybe she did not notice so he raised his temperature to 50 Celsius. Jaime immediately let go with a shriek.
"What did you do?" Jaime was rubbing her hand and looked at Linri like he was a swindler.
"You are really asking me that? Don"t you remember my old secondary?"
Immediately Jaime understood what was going on and she felt happy. He had succeeded. He managed to get his abilities and he could protect himself from now on. Though she was still curious about one thing. Why was he so battered up?