Chapter 40: Lessons For Next Time

  As Erik came to some time later, Emma’s face was the first thing he saw. He groaned as he tried to move. His face felt wet. Emma’s cheeks turned a slight shade of pink as she saw him wake up.

  “Let me finish, then you can move,” she said.

  “What?” Erik groaned again.

  “I’m washing you. What the magical healing doesn’t do, is clean all the blood,” she explained.

  Erik then felt a wet rag splash onto his neck, Emma scraping it against his collarbone. He looked down at his own body as he laid there, seeing remains of dried blood everywhere.

  “Why are you undressed?” he asked after a few seconds, pretending it didn’t make his own cheeks flush and his heart pound a bit faster seeing the brunette in just a bra. Her colour grew to a deeper red.

  “It’s not like I’ve got an entire closet full of clothes with me, you know. I don’t want to get blood on them. I don’t want to even attempt getting blood off them with just river water,” she answered, growing more confident as her reasoning was sound.

  A minute went by without any of them saying more. They heard several of the others talking some distance away from Erik’s tent where he and Emma were. He didn’t hear Jessie amongst them.

  “How’s Jessie?” Erik said, clearing his throat of some residual awkwardness.

  “She’s taking a nap. She was exhausted after she and Grace healed everyone, themselves included. If you guys are going to fight again, you’re going to need a few ground rules, I think. It can’t get this bloody every day. This can never happen again, you understand?” Emma said with glassy eyes.

  “Are you okay?” Erik asked, seeing her expression and returning shade of red.

  “I am,” she said, and Erik waited anxiously for more. The way she said it made it obvious someone else wasn’t. “Promise me you’ll be more careful from now on, okay?” she said, tears now moistening her cheeks.

  “Emma, what happened?” Erik asked. He sat up, pushing against Emma’s light hand on his chest. The last he remembered was him shooting ‘Flash’ several times against Jessie and Grace. Had he hit anyone else? He had been growing dizzy and was on the verge of passing out when he was shooting. Sophie had been behind Jessie! Had he hurt Sophie?

  “Everyone’s fine. Jessie and Grace healed everyone, but it was closer than any of us would’ve liked. You… you almost..-” Emma burst into tears. Erik grabbed hold of her and pulled her in for a hug. She resisted for just a moment, then placed her arms around him, crying into his shoulder.

  “How is she?” Erik asked after a few seconds had passed. He’d only asked now because Emma’s breathing had relaxed somewhat.

  “She’s resting. She hasn’t woken up yet,” she explained, her voice raspy and weak.

  Sophie entered the tent, seeing the pair in a half-naked embrace. She met Erik’s glassy and confused expression, followed moments later by the crying face of Emma as the brunette turned to her. Sophie just stood there, staring.

  “Are you okay?” Erik asked, surprise still in his voice, but concern the dominant expression on his face. Sophie seemed to shake out of it.

  “Uh, yeah. Sorry, I didn’t…” she started. “Angela’s waking up,” she continued, firming her pose.

  Erik realised he had been wrong. It wasn’t Sophie he’d hurt, it was Angela. It must’ve been when he pushed her away from the water elemental scythes. He turned to Emma, wiping tears from her face.

  “Let’s go see her,” he said. Both girls nodded in response, and Erik found new clothes from his bag and dressed himself.

  His chest still ached, but he was whole again. He’d been healed, but Jessie hadn’t finished the job. She must’ve healed everyone enough to know no complications would arise before taking a rest. Because she knew he could heal faster than anyone else, if she had healed Erik this much, the others must be good as new.

  Emma dressed as well, and the three headed straight for Angela and Emma’s tent. Peter, Dunham, and Amir were standing right outside the tent, talking. Erik nodded to them, and Amir and Peter nodded back. Dunham, on the other hand, placed his hand on Erik’s chest. Erik and the rest stopped.

  “She’s awake and stable, but she needs rest.” he said, but was interrupted by a disembodied voice.

  “It’s fine.”

  “We saw what happened. You did the right thing, all things considered,” Dunham continued.

  “Really, I’m fine,” Angela’s voice sounded again from inside the tent.

  “That said, she shouldn’t have been in that position at all. You and Jessie aren’t trained for combat. You both made wrong choices, leading to an innocent getting hurt.”

  “Dunham!”

  “I know, Dunham. I know,” Erik said, staring at the man still touching him.

  “She was lucky you only cracked a few ribs. She punctured a lung as well.”

  “Don’t listen to him, Erik,” Angela shouted.

  Erik’s face paled.

  “She’s lucky her spine managed to take the hit. Jessie had a hard time with her ribs, who even knows if she can heal someone’s spine?” Dunham continued.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Erik’s lungs emptied themselves, and he felt nauseous. From inside the tent, all he could hear was a loud sigh.

  “Well, all’s well that ends well, am I right?” Dunham said, giving Erik a smile and removing his hand.

  “Thank you, Dunham. I know what you’re doing, and I appreciate it. For what it’s worth, I’m really sorry. I won’t let anything like this happen again.”

  “Not sure what you’re on about, kid,” Dunham smiled, then continued the conversation with Amir and Peter where it had dropped off.

  “Don’t listen to him,” Angela said, covering her body with her sleeping bag as the three went inside to see her.

  “No, he’s right. I’m really, truly sorry for hurting you. We can’t train like that again,” Erik apologised.

  “Thanks. And you’re right. At least for now,” she answered. “Now we know what you need to practise, though. You both fight erratically, and you make poor decisions under pressure. You could have saved me some other way, and Jessie shouldn’t have fired against her own squad. If your comrade is fighting in close quarters with the enemy, common courtesy would stop you from bombing both,” she continued, a tinge of bitterness coating her last words.

  “Yeah. In hindsight, I should’ve used ‘Earthkeep’ to block both in front of you. What we need is you and Emma. I don’t think it was General Mathisen’s plan, but forcing the two of you to join might be exactly what’s needed to save the world,” Erik said, considering the general. Was she scheming enough to have thought so far ahead?

  “I’m sure she’d be thrilled to hear you think so highly of her intelligence, but I don’t think so. Remember, she offered, and we accepted, even before she saw you in action?” Emma interjected, and Angela smiled at the other girls. She looked down for a quick moment after noticing Sophie.

  “Sorry Sophie, I didn’t have time to get dressed,” Angela apologised.

  “Why?” a confused Sophie asked. “I mean, no need to apollo-?”

  “Oh, nothing really,” Angela interrupted, raising the sleeping bag up to her neck.

  “Anyway, I’m thinking Erik should get his wish,” Emma said.

  “Oh, I get a roommate?” Erik joked.

  “No, no one wants to share a room with you,” Emma teased.

  “You wound me,” Erik dramatised.

  “I wouldn’t mind…” sounded silently from a reddening Sophie, causing Angela to grin at Erik and Emma.

  “Oh, mine heart be fixed, dear Sophie!” Erik continued his act, placing his hand on his heart.

  Sophie smiled warmly, yet a bit mischievously.

  “What I meant was to fight Hellbeasts,” Emma groaned.

  “I agree,” Angela said. “They’re both too deadly to spar full-on against each other, and the Hellbeasts are simple enough that their new abilities should keep both of them relatively safe from harm. In camp, hand-to-hand only.”

  “As you command,” Erik said, taking a bow.

  Erik and Sophie headed over to Jessie’s and Sophie’s tent, where they met with a sleeping beauty, and another half-naked woman.

  “Shh, Grace is sleeping,” Erik said to Sophie as she entered behind him.

  “Aww, she’s dreaming! Look at her feet kicking,” Sophie whispered.

  “Why aren’t anyone wearing clothes?” Erik asked as he looked down at Jessie, also sleeping, but with nothing covering her.

  “Well, it is really hot out,” Sophie answered, picking up a small, black hairband from the floor.

  She pulled her hair back a few times, gathering all the strands she could, then masterfully tied the hairband around it, a golden pony tail the fruits of her labour. This way, Erik noticed her damp neck, small beads of sweat glistening from the sunshine entering the tent’s opening. Her blue, cropped camisole was had moisture stains around her chest, and her belly from just above the navel was visible above a tan skirt. Sophie seemed to notice the man studying her.

  “Like what you see?” she teased.

  “Sorry, I… yes, but sorry,” Erik apologised.

  “Don’t worry about it. We’ve already talked about it, and I don’t mind waiting. I just feel a lucky getting the attention even while dressed,” she answered, eyeing her sleeping sister.

  “I’m a bit confused. While in Afterlife, her stories made it seem like you were the popular one, the one who got all the attention. From what I’ve seen, it seems like you’re somewhat jealous of her?” Erik asked.

  Sophie giggled in response, a better reaction than Erik anticipated from his question.

  “Yeah, she never seemed to notice. I was always the popular one, that’s true. Well, since our teens, at least. I might even be the pretty one of the two of us. She was the hot one, though. I got all the boyfriends, but whenever she was around, she got all their attention. She didn’t notice, I think. I know she’s into women, but how did she not notice? She never cared about those things, so I’d be surprised if she was the one sounding jealous in her stories.”

  “Not jealous, I’d say, just… protective?” Erik commented.

  “Oh, that she was. Still is,” Sophie winked. “When she died, I realised that I might’ve been… attracted… to a certain type because of her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I think I went for bad boys for several reasons, one of which is Jessie. I loved it when she doted on me and protected me. Considering she was more interested in girls, it didn’t matter as much if they hit on her, because she’d just get mad at them and protect me,” Sophie explained, a warm smile on her face as she thought back.

  “What are the other reasons?” Erik asked.

  “Well, dad was known to be a bit of a bad boy when he was young. You know what they say about men being attracted to women that reminds them of their mothers? The same is often the case with women, I think. Also, I was kind of a big kid. Not exactly fat, but chubby at the minimum. When you’re a kid, insignificant details like that don’t matter. If you’re heavier than most everyone else, you’re fat.

  “When I hit my growth spurt and subsequent puberty, that was no longer the case. In fact, I started getting attention from all the boys. It helped to have some extra boob and ass fat back then,” Sophie said, cupping her covered breasts with both hands and giving the man a wry smile. “Sorry, but that’s gone as well,” she said, then let go of her chest. “Back to your question, though. I grew to like all the attention I got from all of those boys who just before that same summer had bullied me instead. I remember thinking that the only way to win against them was dating them. That way, I had secured my place, as it were. I had won when I dated the most popular guy, being the most popular girl, and all the bullies looked up at me, rather than down on me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Erik said, unsure what else he could say.

  “Don’t be,” Sophie laughed. “They never hurt me, not really, and I’ve had a great childhood, at least during my teens. What’s a bit of heartache over the wrong guys, anyway?”

  “Can I ask you something else?” Erik asked.

  “Fire away.”

  “I, uh… have noticed you flirting, or borderline seducing me at times, like just a few minutes ago…” Erik said, pausing to see her reaction to the theme of the question. Sophie just smiled and nodded. “And sometimes, like in your hotel room, lying there in your short nightgown, you do it so… unabashedly, for lack of a better word. Yet, other times, you fully blush and almost shrink away.” Erik finished, only realising a few moments later he hadn’t said it like a question, just statements. Sophie laughed again.

  “I’m sorry for laughing. You’re not very good at this, are you?” she asked.

  “Not at all,” Erik answered shyly. Sophie continued:

  “This is… new to me. I’m never the one that has to take action. Previously, I was always the one being… wooed, I guess. When flirting with you, at least consciously, I constantly overthink what I just said, what I should say next, all the while worrying about if it came across the right way. Like with Angela and Emma just now, I dared myself to comment, but I immediately regretted it. Did I say it the right way? Was it too forward, especially right in front of those two? Did you think it meant something innocent?” Sophie started explaining.

  Erik, unable to hide his emotions, smiled wider the more she said. She wasn’t even looking at him as just talking about it flustered her a bit.

  “It’s easier showing myself off. Like in the hotel with my sexy nightgown, like when you ogled me just earlier. That’s what I’m good at. Being the pretty one. I’m not sure I make a lot of sense right now, because words, and now I’m overthinking it again, and—”

  “How about you and I get something to eat?” Erik interrupted to stop her from spiralling.