A Darkening World And A Sleepy Protagonist Chapter 15 (Unedited)

“No touching.”

“You need to let me treat his wounds, please move aside.”

“No, We can treat him Ourself”

“Child, I just want to help him. If I had ill intentions I would not have taken you two strangers from the streets and brought you into my home.”

The wet feeling of something dragging across his arm followed by a deep sigh is what awoke Neal from his deep rest. 

Opening his eyes he would bear witness to Azarias locking eyes with a stranger, both staring each other down in a power of wills seeing who would back down first. 

Neal looked over the stranger who sat by his bed side holding a damp cloth in his hand. Azarias is holding onto the strangers wrist, stopping him from using the cloth to clean Neals dirt covered skin. In Azarias’s other hand was Neals own arm which had a clear spot of saliva on it where Azarias had licked his arm. 

This…just what was going on? It was hard to process since Neals head ached, as well as his whole body. He felt sore and uncomfortable, just wanting to go back onto the painlessness which was sleep. 

“Azarias…” 

“Neal!”

Upon hearing Neals voice Azarias broke his gaze away from the man he was staring down and wrapped his arms around Neals neck, rubbing the side of his head against the side of Neals head happily. 

Neals soft hair tickled Azarias cheek, but he didn’t mind as he was so happy to see Neal awake. 

“It is good to see you awake” A gentle voice that sounded like it was caressing his ears filled them. Neal looked over to the stranger, a young man with hot chocolate colored hair tied back in a loose elastic. Matching his hair was similar deep brown eyes which were warm and comforting to look into. He had a very big aura of ‘calm and healing’ and seemed fairly young as well, perhaps not that much of a age difference to Neal. 

Azarias cast a glare in the strangers direction, Neal unaware of fit, clearly untrusting of the other. Unlike Neal whom was pretty unguarded despite what happened, Azarias is very on edge worried other people would come to hurt Neal as well. He didn’t have a very good impression after running into those young men earlier. 

“I can see you are a bit confused. My name is Havin, and I brought you here after finding you passed out on the streets. You seem to have gotten into a very unlucky situation, I can assure you in here you don’t have to worry about those trouble makers” Havin had a warm smile which made Neal relax a little, although he was still processing the change of area. His head aching to much to focus to hard on anything. 

Azarias continued to glare, not liking this person at all. He wanted to carry Neal away, but he was to weak to carry Neal so he could only sit here stubbornly swatting at Havin’s hand whenever he tried to reach over to where Neal laid. 

Havin could only sigh at the childs behavior, wondering how he would treat the wounds if he wasn’t able to lay a finger on Neal. The best he managed was picking him up from the ground while the little kid hit his legs, once he had put Neal down on the bed he hadn’t been able to touch him since. 

Convincing the child he was just taking Neal somewhere to heal was hard enough, now how was he to help him heal?

It was interesting to view the strange pair that appeared in the small village. The child with strange markings and the boy with the looks of a young beauty, it would be no surprise if people began to think of him as a woman.

“Oh..thank you, Havin?” Neal felt this was a kind action, although a bit on edge due to how things usually went once the harshness fell into a calm. Why was this boy helping him? He didn’t have anything of value to give him after all, maybe this was truly a kind person for once?

“I’m Neal and this is Azarias, thank you for helping out. I am not sure what I would have done if they came back while I was knocked out.” He wouldn’t be able to protect Azarias while asleep.

As he said this he rose a hand to give a quick ruffle to Azarias hair. In response Azarias smiled and nuzzled into him more, breathing in the calming scent of lavender he had grown to love so much. 

Havin found the two rather cute, although wondered why it was they had wandered out this far. This village was the last one before the abandoned lands which were now taken over by fierce beasts, it really wasn’t the ideal place to be. Especially now with that sickness going around. 

“Your welcome..though I have barely done enough to make up for those trouble makers actions, please accept my sincere apologies. I will be sure to deal with them later.” He gave a small bow of his head in apology, causing Neals face to redden slightly a bit flustered and surprised by the sudden apology.

“Ah…no..no, you don’t need to apologize for them…your not the one who did it. Its enough you are helping us right now by allowing us in your home.” Neal quickly spills out as politely as he could, although his voice was slow and lazy. He couldn’t help it, his head hurt and he wanted to go back to sleep. 

“No. I must apologize. Anyway you should get back to resting, your body needs time to heal” Havin is sure Neal has some  fair bruises from getting hit so hard he passed out but he couldn’t be sure how serious it was since Azarias refused to let him examine him. 

As he lifted his head he saw Neal had already drifted off, arms loosely holding Azarias in his arms. 

Azarias is glad Neal is alright, although he still worried from how badly he was hurt. For now he focused on keeping that man away from Neal, recalling how he spoke of teaching those men a lesson. Something wasn’t right about this person, despite the kindness he shared Azarias didn’t trust him one bit. 

He could sense a kind of violence behind that outward healing aura he seemed to be surrounded in. Azarias didn’t like it. 

Havin stood up, deciding treatment would need to wait intill Azarias fell asleep. It would be easier dealing with it that way than arguing with the child and disturbing Neals rest. Just as he stood up a man suddenly burst through the door carrying a woman in his arms. 

He looked out of breath, looking around wildly intill his eyes landed on Havin standing there not looking surprised in the slightest despite their erupt arrival.

“Paul, wh-“

“Its Leah! She fainted suddenly and nothing I do is able to wake her up!” The man spoke out in a panic. Taking a step towards him, swaying slightly as if off balanced. 

“Put her in that bed over there, I will look her over” Havin pointed to the empty bed across the room which the man immediately responded to. Quickly heading over and placing the woman on the bed gently, as if she were an egg that would break with the slightest mishandling. 

This was a common thing as of late, villagers passing out for a certain period of time before waking up different, unfamiliar. 

Havin headed over to the bed, the man down on his knees beside it and holding one of the womans hands. He looked to Havin with a hopeful gaze, yet their was dread as if worrying this was the thing they had yet to find a cure for. 

After looking over the woman Havin gave a sigh,  giving the man a hopeless sad look. 

The pupils in Leahs eyes have already begun to change shape, their was no denying what this was. 

“This..it doesn’t look good.” With those words the mans expression fell as dread filled him, tears beginning to fall from his eyes. He glanced between the woman and Havin, reluctantly accepting the dark reality of the situation as his hopes got crushed in that single instant. He has lost his wife to that horrible plague, never would she wake up the same. 

“We don’t want this in the same room as Neal, its disgusting”

Havin’s eyes widened as well as the mans as they both looked over at the child that had appeared and raised his little hand before slapping the womans face within her rest. 

“You little bastard! How dare you insult my wife and hit her!” The man roared, letting go of his wives hand preparing to slap the child. To overwhelmed by grief and rage to think about his actions very clearly.

Azarias barely gave him a glance, instead looking over to where Neal was sleeping in the bed. He was ready to go back and snuggle up beside him, not carrying at all about the enraged man before him.

“Paul..” A weak voice had him freeze in his tracks, head turning to look at the woman looking around with half opened, confusion filled, eyes. She seemed as if she was out of place, confused on how she got here. 

“Leah!” Paul quickly embraced his wife, holding her tightly to him as he began to cry tears of joy upon her awakening. The pupils that had begun to change were back to normal, which shocked Havin to the bone as this was something that has never happened before.

Usually after passing out the infected would sleep for around a day to a week then wake up with strange pupils and a completely different personality with no trace of their original selves to be found. The infected even forgetting everything about their lives up to the point of passing out. 

“Azarias…why did you slap her?” Havin asked quietly to the boy whom was looking rather pleased with himself but quickly changed to a glare as he heard Havin speak to him. 

“It reminded Us of that annoying guy who was after Neal so We slapped it.” Azarias stated simply before heading back over to Neals bed and crawling up into it. 

The same smell and vibe was what was within that woman, he couldn’t help but want to hit her because of it as the mere thought of that man angered him. It was only a bonus it ran away, of course it probably would have run off even if he just touched it since it was fairly weak and easy to intimidate. That didn’t mean he felt bad about his way of doing it, by all means that slap felt good to do. 

It was a good thing it left because Azarias would have tossed the woman outside if it decided to stay. No way would he be able to sleep comfortably with Neal if that thing was here. 

“I see..” Havin wasn’t sure what to think. Surely that childs slap was not the reason she was cured.. right? It just didn’t make enough sense to him.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you, I didn’t know you came over to cure my wife!” Paul suddenly apologised to Azarias who frankly wasn’t even focusing on them in their direction anymore. He had been upset about his wife being hit by the child, but after seeing her wake up after he felt it to be some kind of miracle. 

Perhaps he smacked the evil sickness out of her, whatever the case his wife was all better now and that was what mattered most. So he would let go of his anger on the matter and instead enjoy this blissful feeling of the unrevealed happiness of getting something back you were sure you were losing.

He hit and insulted his wife yet this man was seeing it as some special cure? Sure their has been no hope for this sickness that suddenly appeared, but clinging onto this kind of hopeful cure was ridiculous! What was the sense in hitting to cure? Is it bullying the sickness to death or something? 

It made no sense but that was what Paul believed. So he and his wife left happily thinking of the luck they had to bump into this amazing child, telling anyone they bumped into on the street about it. 

Havin realized he should have stopped them before people started slapping their passed out loved ones. However he let it be since their would be less conflict if they thought it was because of Azarias bold actions that Leah was cured. Plus it would bring hopes up in the village if talk of a cure spread around.

Besides he still needed to deal with those little trouble makers.

As the rumor began to spread through the village Neal and Azarias slept peacefully, completely unaware of what was soon to come from the result of Azarias’s actions.

–

“Finally I can treat his wounds..” Havin raises his cloth an begins gently cleaning the dirt of Neals arms.

“Ow..” He winced in pain as Azarias swatted at him in his sleep, a scratch mark appearing where sharp nails had sliced into. 

“Why is this little child so difficult to deal with! He is sleeping, how in the..” He just wanted to help, just what was wrong with this child? It didn’t seem normal, never mind the scales and strange colored hair and eyes. 

So instead of cleaning up Neal he headed outside to begin scouting the town to relieve his pent up frustration on the causers of this mess done to the travelers.