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Wanderer opened his eyes, the ache in his joints had not lessened in the time he rested against a tree, in anything it had gotten worse
“So this is it, this is how I die? Pathetic,” He held his head with one hand and steadied himself on the tree with the other. His head pounded and felt like it was weighed down with rocks. Just the thought of walking any farther sounded like a nightmare, but he had to keep going.
This body was going to give out at any second, he needed to find somewhere secluded. His large hat shielded the sun, but added more weight to his already aching joints. Taking a step forward, he pushes on. Just get to a cave so I can curl up and die. Was he scared? No, he was just, so, tired. So tired he could hardly keep his eyes open as he continued to stagger down the path. Tired enough that Wanderer considered, for just a second, crumpling into a heap at the base of a rock. Unfortunately, his pride would not allow for anyone to find his body before life left it at last. He continued, hoping he had put enough distance between him and the Akademiya since his dramatic departure.
“Hat Guy!” the traveler and their aggravating pixie had seen him in the morning before he left. “Paimon thinks you look really pale!” that incessant shrieking would make anyone's head hurt, he grumbled to himself.
“I’m not human, it is impossible for me to do that?” he asked, confused. He also wanted to add that he was already pale, but decided against it when a flash of pain behind his eyes made him stop dead.
The traveler noticed his reaction, curse their flawless perception “Paimon’s right, you don’t exactly look…well,” then came the dreaded question “Are you sick?”
He shook his head, and reliving the earlier conversation, he in the present did the same, this led to him almost losing his balance on the path.
Back to this morning “Again,” he began, tired of repeating himself “I am not human I dont get-” in some god's cruel idea of a joke, he was cut off by his own chest wracking cough. He was going to wait it out, but it just wouldn’t stop. More people were looking at him now as he struggled to breath between gasps. His head might have been melting with the flame of a hundred suns, but he still noticed the traveler reaching out to grab him.
With speed that shocked even Wanderer in his fever induced state, he grabbed the traveler by the arm, stopping them dead in their tracks.
“Don’t” he warned “Don’t. Touch. Me.”
He looked around them. Great, a crowd, just what he needed. With the little dignity he still had, he released the other's arm and stood up, willing himself to try and not fall over.
“But Wanderer, you are obviously not feeling well, are you sure you are not sick?”
“Positive,” he spat out, going towards the door. He had to get out of here.
“If you are not sick, then what is this? This is not normal for you! You are even grouchier than usual!”
Wanderer rolled his eyes, and regretted it when the headache came back stronger than before. What was wrong with him, he’s a puppet, he can’t get sick…right?! It must be a curse, someone finally come to strike him down. But if he was sick, what would that mean? Humans were weak, but they had the ability to survive illness, he saw it with his own eyes. Humans could also succumb to their illnesses, grow weak and frail and… die he had seen it with his own eyes.
Oh gods, was he dying?!
“Hat guy? Hat Guy!” someone was calling out to them, he knew that voice, but who?
“Something’s wrong, get Nahida!”
“No, stop,” he mumbled as someone was trying to gently lead him back inside. “Stay back, let me go!” A burst of wind pushed everyone back.
He stood swaying in the sun, and then ran.
Back to the matter at hand, he shook his head after running through how he got here in the first place. Another headache, pain seemingly cracked his head open.
“I really need to stop doing that,” he looked around, he didn’t recognize this part of the forest, let alone how he got here. What was I looking for again? Right, cave. Find a cave, succumb to whatever this is.
Stumbling into the closest one, the entrance covered in a thick curtain of vines and moss, he looked around again before falling to his knees. He leaned himself against a rock, and closed his eyes. His vision flickered, slightly.
When he opens them again he sees something, or many small things moving around the cave.
“We ..ound… ara”
“Are …sure?”
“Kusanali… told aran… find nara… hat!”
“This … Big Hat nara!”
“Is Big Hat Nara friends with the Golden Nara?”
“Yes! Must be!”
Am I dead? Wanderer asked himself, that or the strangest dream before death he has ever heard of.
He flinched as something slapped against his face.
“What are you doing?”
“Kusanali said to put leaves on big hat nara,”
“You have to get it wet first!”
“Nara’s too hot! He’ll burn the leaf!”
“Wet leaf to cool nara down!”
“No burning!” a wet leaf was clumsily placed on his forehead. He sagged against the rock, it felt so nice and relaxing. He closed his eyes again, feeling himself fade away.
When he came to, he was lying in a soft bed. It wasn’t his, and that made him even more confused. His room was much smaller, his bed was smaller, and were those stuffed animals?
“I’m so glad you were able to find him, the Aranara can only do so much.
“No problem! Paimon will do anything if it means she gets fed”
“Hey! Paimon did not just do this for food! The-the Aranara gave us food, that's it!”
A young child’s laugh filled the other room, “I understand, thank you for your help, but I am going to go see him now,”
Nihida entered the room and shut the door behind her, she skipped over to the bed, seeing Wanderer’s motionless body
“Staying still won’t stop me Wanderer, i know you are awake, i heard you moving around,”
“Stay back,” came his response, he was shocked at how weak it sounded. He tried to scoot away from her, who had now jumped up and sat on the bed. He only succeeded in wrapping himself in the blankets like an enraged caterpillar.
“You should have left me in that cave to die with my dignity,” he mumbled under the blankets.
“D-die?!” Nahida shouted horrified, he heard a dull thunk of something being set down. “I didn’t see any wounds on you when you got here, what happened?!” small hands grabbed at the edge of the blanket.
He heard her huffing as the blanket was still cocooning him, she braced her feet against the bed, grabbed the blanket and pulled. She was trying her hardest, but the blanket didn’t budge.
“You are.” she tugged again “Being. Very. Difficult!” she huffed, annoyed.
“Just leave me alone,” he shifted under the blankets and heard a yelp as Nahida was tossed from the bed onto the floor.
She clambered back up just as fast “No! You are already sick, if you are injured it might get worse,”
“I’m not human, I don't get sick!” he was getting tired of her pestering
“You have the flu!” she shouted back, finally tugging the blanket free.
“What?” she was expecting him to keep shouting, even shoving her off the bed, she was not expecting shock.
“Do you remember what happened this morning?”
He rolled his eyes again forgetting how much it made his head hurt, he only grumbled and turned onto his side, away from Nahida.
“Students at the Akademiya thought you didn’t look well earlier this week, and then the traveler caught you after you passed out,” she was fidgeted with the hem of her dress “then you started coughing really hard, you looked really scared,” she finished, then added, looking at the ground “I was worried something had happened to you,”
Wanderer propped himself up on his elbows “Well I’m here now, you happy?”
Nahida didn’t say anything, sliding off the bed, which he now guessed was hers by the amount of stuffed animals piled onto it. He walked over to the nightstand and grabbed some things. She silently handed him a glass of water and a wet washcloth for his forehead.
As he was lying back down, Nahida was saying something about that one forest watcher coming by later to give him medicine.
“Wanderer!”
“Huh?”
“You aren’t even listening!” she stood there pouting, arms crossed. “I need you to promise me!”
“Promise you…what?”
“Next time you get sick, promise me you won’t run?”
“This was a one time thing, don’t expect me to-”
“Promise?” she asked again, insistent.
Sighing as loudly as he could without coughing “Ugh, fine! I promise,” she jumped up onto the bed and hugged him.
“Yay! That's great! I was going to go make lunch, what do you want? Tighnari said to give you water, but I did that already so…” she kept going on and on, and Wanderer couldn’t help but smile, just a little. (Don’t tell anybody!)