Ventus

"Ughhh," Mark heard a light moaning sound coming from his back. He couldn't turn around to see what made the sound, because the cause was strapped on his back.

"Good morning, Amelia," Mark spoke to Amelia, who was on his back.

Amelia felt strange. The last thing she could remember was shoving Mark out of the way of a fire attack that the ugly man had launched. She thought she would have died, but she could tell that she was still alive from the beating of her heart. She started to feel around her body with her mind to see what happened and,

"My legs," she whispered, "they're gone."

"They were destroyed when the attack landed," explained Mark.

"For how long did I sleep?" Amelia asked, she was a little scared to find out.

"A month and a half," answered Mark. Talking to her felt natural after two months of being with her, even if she was incapacitated for most of the time.

"Whew, I thought I would be out longer than that. Normally when a person loses half their body," she paused there, feeling depressed over losing her legs, before she took a deep breath and continued, "their body would explode from their Mana rampaging."

Mark spoke on a normal tone, even though he too felt sad at the loss of her legs, "I used Water healing to stabilize your body."

"Thank you," she wasn't ready to end her life yet, there were still plenty of things left that she had yet to do. She had tried to help him, yet in the end, he had healed her and was now taking care of her.

"What do you plan to do now?" Amelia asked and felt that she had asked a similar question before, only the situation was quite different this time.

"Hmm, I will first finish my first goal, reaching the capital of Heaven's Wind, and then I will start on my new goal," Mark felt that speaking to Amelia was somewhat… enjoyable. It was similar to the time when he had a friend, but slightly different. He couldn't pinpoint what it was, but it was certainly a strange occurrence to him. Amelia was everything he was scared of in one person, a female, uses fire, and seemed to be kind.

"What's your goal after reaching Heaven's Wind?" Mark thought for awhile after hearing her question. After a few short moments of deliberation, he decided to tell her.

"I will find a way to heal your legs," he replied to Amelia's question.

Silence came after Mark's response. Amelia felt happy, yet she also felt guilty. She was happy that he was trying to help her, but she felt guilty that she was almost forcing such a burden upon him. A long duration of time passed before Amelia responded.

"Thank you… again," she was promising herself that she would find a way in the future to repay Mark's kindness, after all, for her, they had only known each other for a few short weeks. Normally, even after spending months with someone, most people of this world wouldn't even bother to turn a glance at them after they were no longer of use. That was just how most people of this world were, cruel. If it didn't help them, then it was in their way. If it was in their way, they just got rid of it.

Mark, too, would have normally acted the same due to his past experiences, but maybe because of his immaturity caused by hardly interacting with others, or because deep down he wanted someone to talk to, he chose to help Amelia.

.....

Mark wasn't that far away from reaching the capital after Amelia woke up, according to her calculations, only a week remained.

For whatever reason, Mark found himself wanting to talk more with Amelia, so he did. While they were traveling they were always right by each other, so talking helped pass the time.

Amelia was happy that Mark finally started talking to her, even if it was after she lost her legs. 'It's not like losing your legs would affect your ability to speak,' thought Amelia. She lost something and gained something, and the exchange felt like it was worth it when she talked with Mark.

He didn't tell her anything that was related to him, they mostly spoke about how they felt about certain things. She did manage to get him to spill out a little bit of his past while they were talking, though.

"You don't have to worry to much about healing my legs. I know that it is nearly impossible," She had said to him when they were talking about his future plans.

"It's not impossible, though. I am living proof that limbs can be healed some way or another, so you will get your legs back," Mark had said back to her.

"You lost a limb??" She was surprised to learn that he lost a limb. He didn't have a single sign showing that he had.

Mark paused his walking for a moment, but continued shortly after. "I lost right arm," was all he said to her. There talking halted for many minutes, but the awkwardness eventually passed.

.....

They grew closer to each other as they talked, mentally speaking of course. Their bodies couldn't really get closer than they were now, unless it was direct skinship which neither of them even had the thought cross their mind. Amelia's Mana was very weak after losing her legs, which caused her Mana to go haywire, but she could still heat the surrounding enough for the water that Mark would drench them with to dry off in a little over twenty minutes, so they didn't need to worry about washing themselves.

Mark felt that the week passed by far faster than it normally did for him. What used to feel like a long journey of strenuous effort now felt like having a nice picnic. He was also glad that he had more time with Amelia planned for the future, although he did feel bad that he couldn't heal her legs immediately.

Standing before them was not the usually walls with a gate, but instead a temple. It was very large, and surrounding and connected to it were many smaller temples. If Mark had to compare the temple with something, the only thing that would come to his mind were the massive skyscrapers from his previous dimension, except the temple was far wider.

The Mana within his soul had stopped pointing, so he could only assume that this was the capital of Heaven's Wind, Ventus.