1.4

"Why should I refuse to satisfy this curiosity that has suddenly come upon me?" he asked himself.

And so, forgetting for an instant all that was going on around him, he tasted the liquid left by his fallen enemy.

In a single sip his heartbeat calmed down, with this he was able to think more clearly, smell, see and breathe better. The wounds on his skin also partially healed. His fangs increased in size. He felt less tired, the enormous burdens he was carrying no longer seemed significant enough to crush, stop or hang him. From his back the slumbering, malformed muscles of two wings awoke to the point of wanting to come out.

At the precise moment that Rey got his tongue covered in someone else's blood, he felt that his body triggered functions he had never known before. But the internal mechanisms were always with him, they were part of the nature inherited from his mother, only that until now they had remained dormant and someone else's blood was the key that turned them on and made them work so to speak.

Although he was amazed, even more was the concern he felt for his friend herself that compelled him to return to the moment. Rey threw two questions into the air that undoubtedly held more importance:

"Where are you! Can you hear me?".

The little feline, as soon as he heard his name being called, decided to take advantage of every exhalation he gave in order to make his vocal cords vibrate, even though they were weakening with each passing moment.

Rey moved closer to where the crying was coming from. Close enough to kneel down and hold out his hands, he examined his companion and immediately drew conclusions.

"He's breathing faster than normal," he said to himself as he felt the heat of a wound and several exposed organs. "He's in pain. He's in pain." Rey tried not to move the small body. "He's not responding to me anymore...he's dying. No, no...no. No. No!".

The infant, ever the optimist, was now thinking of the worst-case scenario, but it all made sense in his head. He had won an impossible fight, without fighting or having the conditions. Life had the right to claim something in return for his unearned fate.

....

Drawn by the unimaginable, never-before-heard whimpering of the little one she was chasing, between the body of the beast and the rocks at the entrance to the cave, an intangible shadow poked its head out. There she was, not life, but the one who in a certain way opposed her and was dressed in black. Curious, she looked inside with her violet eyes, as if to confirm what her ears could not believe. The small shadow that hid a dagger between the robes she was wearing did not know how to react, nor how to comfort someone who was suffering. She was also too shy to attract attention and reflexively disappeared from the place, as soon as she perceived being detected.

Gritting her teeth to the point of grinding them, Rey knew she could not let herself be entertained by unimportant things when she still had to find a solution for her companion's condition. Atypical as the situation was, more darkness at the cave entrance posed no threat, nor did it help. The little boy, directing his attention to the one who needed it most, with a left arm movement pierced the palm of his opposite hand with a piece of the broken spear. Showing no discomfort from the pain, he hurt himself as much as he could for the purpose of making himself bleed:

"Take of my blood!" he said in a trembling voice, breathing deeply to try not to let out the water that dripped from his nose. "Go on, swallow... It will do you good to take blood! Like it did me... See, open your eyes. Look at me. My wounds are getting better."

The blood from his hand dripped into his furry companion's mouth, ran between his teeth, bathed his tongue, but continued to the floor.

It was the only logical solution in his head, the little guy believed his companion would be able to recover, just as he had healed if they did the same.

"Where did I go wrong, why is everything going wrong? He's not swallowing," thought the little boy. "Yes, that has to be it. I have to turn his face up and drop my blood in the middle of his mouth."

Blindly, Rey grabbed his companion's head and turned it upward. Dropping the liquid into the half-open mouth, he was met with a sound hardly compatible with life. The sound so characteristic of someone drowning in water. A bubbling, gagging and intentions to vomit. Suddenly, a whole stream of fluids gushed out from inside the feline's stomach and splashed over Rey's body. Only at that moment, the little guy realized that he was causing more harm than help and stopped his attempts to force his companion to drink blood, to caress her with his hand as if he were apologizing.

It was hard to accept, but the nature of the two of them was different. As different as their bodies were. One had fur, the other did not. One had big teeth, the other didn't. One walked on all fours, the other did not. Of course, one had no business recovering, while the other did. No matter how much blood the feline received, the feline's condition was not going to improve.

With eyes bulging with resignation and water that made them look crystallized, the little one exhaled all the air in his lungs, accepting the obvious.

"I have a second choice," he thought as she wiped tears from his face. "I can wait for the daylights to return, wait for the arrival of the elders, but I don't know if this darkness wants to lose its battle against the light. Aaah, the falling water doesn't want to do its part either. It's just me, no one else. I'm not leaving you behind, even if I have to live for you."

Resigned, Rey realized he could do nothing but stay awake to care for the little guardian until he himself came out of critical condition. To encourage him when he lost the will to go on living, to share body heat whenever he was cold, to feed him if he was hungry, and to clean him whenever needed.

...

The water seemed to fall with less ferocity, it had become a soothing sound. A lullaby that, together with the tedious monotony of silence and tiredness, gradually took back the will from the eyes of the little lycanthrope puppy. Even so, he remained unwavering. Warming his mate's body, breathing for him whenever necessary. Yes, Rey would close his mouth with his hands, put his lips over the feline's nose and inflate his lungs as many times as it took.

...

"For the first time I feel happy," Rey thought as he scratched his heavy eyes, then glanced at his companion. "Your wounds have improved in appearance. They don't stink anymore; they're not still bleeding either. He can breathe and no longer feel cold. Should I clean his body one last time?"

Rey lay down on his knees resting his hands on the ground and began to lick the feline's fur. "Even though my tongue isn't rough, it still gets the job done."

His cleaning completed, walking to the exit, Rey touched what were large bones and with it wondered:

"How inconvenient it is not to be able to know how much time is left. Although it has been so long that the flesh of the huge beast decomposed. It tastes barely to me" Bringing a piece of bone to his mouth. "Is it because perhaps I feel indebted? It is because of her that I still live and have been able to eat without leaving the cave. Even though I no longer crave it as I did at first, because of the bad smell and the bad taste, I can still consume it. I also got these clothes with which I protect myself from the cold... I know that many questions do not make sense, but I would like to know the reason why my situation ended up like this. I could learn. No, I need to learn. But, for now I must be patient."

...

"Ah, I'm skin and bones," he said to himself as he poked the skin on his retracted stomach. "I have no flesh under my skin, maybe... I'm decomposing."

He touched his face, looked at his hands.

"But I'm still alive. It doesn't make sense that I'm rotting. I've lost so much weight from stopping eating, not even the bones are left of the dead guardian. Oh, at last the water stopped falling."

The little boy took as deep a breath as he could.

"It's time for the ground outside to sleep. I think it's safe to go out and get more food for myself. Although, come to think of it, she doesn't go limp like I do. Maybe she's asleep... yes, she seems to be. Now that she's asleep, nothing can harm her, it's a divine protection that comes with this strange place. In any case, I won't be able to keep running away, I don't want to leave him behind. I also don't want to die from not eating and if everyone sleeps, this is my chance to prepare for tomorrow.

Rey took his first steps out of the cave.

"The path of a strong man is lonely if he does not know how to take care of those who accompany him. Not so, Heroclades. Let loneliness embrace me on this journey. Will I overcome hopelessness and stay sane in the process?" he asked himself. The ground was hard, not trying to swallow him.

Using half of the spear as a staff, Rey managed to move forward without stumbling. In his heart were the answers, he could sleep like the others and wait for tomorrow. It was the easiest way, he would not have to face hunger, nor any other enemy that might be awake. But it wasn't the right thing to do.

"Treat as if your life depended on triumph to achieve a goal, it's the right thing to do," he said to himself.

The little guy walked slowly and even if he wasn't being guided by his companion, this time he wasn't bumping into floating rocks, he wasn't tripping over roots, he wasn't alarmed by the various noises of the night. All because he was acting calmly.

"Before, when I was running with a thirst for freedom, I used to run into everything," thought the little boy. "Now, it's different. I don't have to worry about leaving no trail. I can explore this forest, train and become strong. The trees, it seems, are the only ones who stay awake, even after so long... he said they were my best teachers. But how can I learn from them?

As if it were a helmet, Rey carried on his head the skull of the huge animal against which he had fought. He protected himself from the cold with a dense cloak made of leather and striped fur. Several bone knives made up part of a rustic belt slung over his right shoulder, though his feet were still bare, and nothing else covered him.

Sniffing with his nose and feeling with his hands, Rey continued to move deeper into the darkness, taking as a reference that the cave was at his back.

Gradually the night stopped being so dark, Rey could make out silhouettes around him.

"Oh, it looks like it's getting light. I must go back," he said to himself. "Little by little I can see everything around me, although the objects do not retain the same appearance."