Aefia slumped forward almost instantly. Her eyes shut tight as if she was anticipating it for quite some time, and her fingers were twitching for control as she slipped. The poison took control over her consciousness for the next five minutes, that depends solely on whether she would be able to recover in time or not.
As soon as Aefia's bloody fingers had left his palm, Helio turned alert. And just in time for her to plummet onto the wooden floorings, he wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her from falling further. Her dead weight leaned onto him with her forehead colliding with his shoulder. Her blood stained his white shirt.
He slowly lowered her down from the latch and sat her on top of his lap, while he stayed kneeling on the floor. He adjusted her position, her leg splayed over his lap. Slowly enough, he used his own sleeve to wipe her face as much as he could.
As he did, he started to get more and more angered with the situation. He shifted his grip on her, as he pulled out the crumbled leaf at his right hand.
"Puppet!" He quietly whispered at her ear. Since both, owner and elemental animal shared the same mind, if he whispered like that, he would surely be calling out the conscious one of them.
He waited in silence as the tiny wolf appeared in front of him.
"How did she end up this late?! See! This is why I told her to hurry up!" Puppet shouted while zooming towards Aefia, checking her vitalities like breathing and her heartbeat.
"She is alive! Stop that!"
"But she is dying! So I can't stop that!"
"And I am trying to help!"
"Then why aren't you healing her?!"
"That's the thing!" Helio replied while biting down on his lips. "I don't know whether this is the curse or the venom or whatever! I can't recklessly heal her without knowing the specific cause! Otherwise she may become ill the other way."
"How do you not know?!"
"I wasn't with her! Alright?!"
Puppet paused to think for a while.
"You better work fast. She poisoned herself with a fatal poison for ten minutes of 'no pain', and she has venom from touching those beasts. Not only that, she had intoxicated herself with sleeping pills for about eight months, and that is still in her blood vessels. But due to the poison, she had only five minutes left before she dies." It slowly explained while settling over Aefia's shoulder.
"For eight months?!"
"It was her wish to die early..."
Silence broke out with a deafening intensity. Helio looked towards the leaf that was at his fingertips. Without further hesitation, he flicked it. Using his element, he had found a way to extract the essence within the leaf. Particularly because this was more of a common type of artifact, it was much easier to do so.
As he squeezed the leave within his fist, a very dim golden light reflected from the leave, which then bursted outwards as soon as the extraction was complete. When he opened his palm, there was a small vile filled with the golden liquid.
The bottle was quite pretty, with tiny dragons from the stopper to the main body of the glass container. Not only that, the mouth was wax-sealed. It would be hard to open for any regular human being, but for an elemental animal who had the power to wield fire, it was a task no hard then walking.
As the wax melted into the floor, Helio bit onto the wooden stopper and pulled it off.
"Well you have got the cure. Now what?" Puppet asked while folding its arms.
Helio didn't give an ear to the little creature, as he forced his thumb between her lips, then her teeth.
"Hey! Stop that! You are going to bruise her!" The little wolf shouted in protest as it flew forward to stop Helio from using any pressure. However, its strength was nothing compared to a humans when in such a tiny form.
Regardless, the vile was tipped over and the liquid poured onto her mouth, until it was empty. Within that time, he kept his thumb at her teeth to avoid her jaw from suddenly snapping. When he was done, he slowly closed her mouth, brushing off the stray drop that slipped from between her lips.
It mixed with her blood, turning the drop into a colour that seemed like red paint was mixed with gold paint in a mixture of dirty paint water. The glittery colours moving with the blood to mix and diffuse within that drop. He used his thumb to wipe it off.
Puppet on the other hand, sat at his wrist, completely petrified by the sight. The elemental animal looked back and forth between Helio's face and then at his fingers. It stayed silent for quiet some time, before flying into the air to stay level with his eyes and then blurted out the most astonishing words.
"Do you like her by chance? Don't act like you don't know."
He stayed silent while looking at the wolf who floated like a genie in the air. A moment of pause later, he let out a sigh while sweeping his gaze back at Aefia's face. Rubbing his thumb up and down at her throat to force her to swallow.
"Are you just going to ignore me?! I am her elemental animal and if it weren't for me, she won't have reached out to you. So you better answer my question." Puppet spoke while coming to sit at Aefia's shoulders. "I will ask again... Do you like my owner?"
"What if I did?" Helio replied while adjusting her head at his arm, lifting it back towards his shoulder. "It not like I would dislike her as a human with a personality."
"No! That's not what I mean!" Puppet raged while following him as he lifted her limp form, and stood up. "Do you have feelings for her?!"
"Just shut up for the sake of god! I just saved her from dying you know?!"
"Well it's just a question! Answer it!"
"You are annoying as ever!"
"Fine!" Puppet folded its arms and looked away. "Well you know very well that I can hook you up with her, right?"
"Do I seem to care about it right now?" Helio asked while squinting his eyes at the tiny wolf. "I am concerned for her health more than that."
Then, silence fell heavily for a long moment... Again.
"How is she doing?"
"Recovering." He answered while setting her dead weight down on the bed. "I can understand if she is stabbed and is bleeding from her head. But why does she have such a large cut on her back which spans her entire back?"
"That... She has a huge enemy behind her life right now. You can ask her the remaining when she wakes up later." Puppet answered while dissapearing into thin air. Leaving the entire room in silence. Immediately afterwards, it reappeared holding a miniature vile filled a rare sort of liquid.
"Here. For saving my owner's life." The little creature bowed its head slightly. "Maybe I am in debt to you more then anything. Please take care of her for a while. I have something to look after." It started to flicker and pixelate.
"Huh—wait!" Helio shouted while trying to reach out into the last fragments if he could. However, even if he caught it at his hands, it was a little too late and it continued to disassemble itself. He let out a sigh and looked at the bottle at his hands.
It was liquid magma that was directly extracted from the Wolf element's core. If another person with an element was given it, they can wield every unlocked skills from the given element for the next thirty minutes without a stop. All that was needed to be done, was to rub it at the two wrist and elbows where the veins were. The rest, the energy from the applied amount would spread into the veins.
For the task that Puppet had entrusted to him, it was just a very small price. However, knowing the elemental animal in depth, it was going to return with a much better gift if he managed to complete the task properly. So he stayed silent about it for the time being.
As soon as he looked away, Aefia twitched. Her finger moved for a bit, and then fell back to their motionless state. This caused his gaze to turn instantly towards her, and he reached out towards her face with his hands.
However, the next moment caught him off-guard, as she grabbed his wrist and jolted upwards while breaking into a cold sweat. She didn't say anything at first, just continuously trying to catch her breathe, which panicked him almost instantly.
"Aefia? Are you alright?"
His voice caused her to stop breathing completely. She lifted her gaze towards his face. Her eyes were unfocused—a normal aftereffect of the artifact. Slowly enough, she calmed down and hunched forward in exhaustion. However, her grasp on his wrist didn't go easy.
He stayed quiet, contemplating between what to tell her since whatever she did now, she won't remember later on.
Before he could utter any words, she lifted his hand towards her face, pressed her lips against the palm of it.
"Wait... What the heck?! Hold on—" Helio shouted while trying to pull back his wrist, however, she lunged forward and hugged him before he could do anything else. Even without a mirror, he knew he was burning up.
She didn't say anything, and just buried her face in his shoulder and tightened her arms around him. Moments later, his shoulder turned soggy.
The dried blood that had crumbled against her skin, dusted onto his white shirt and then fell towards the bed in a powdered form.
At that same moment, he happened to remember that, during this 'drunk-like' state, Aefia would do thinks that she wouldn't normally do, however—she would have intentions of it. So unlike the Aefia who would be in her right mind and trying to hide herself behind her acting skills, this state of Aefia would turn more transparent for the short moment that she stays this way.
He offered a smile while bringing his arms up to hug her back.
"Is something bothering you?"
"Yes."
"What is it then?"
She clunched his shirt tighter. "I hate my life... Not going the way I want it to. I wished that when I had reawakened, I would try my best to live my life the way I wanted to. To reclaim the things that I had missed out on..."
"Is that the thing that is worrying—"
"I remember you said I could cry at your shoulder if I ever wanted to." She responded while her voice turned less and less panicked. "In the contrary... I don't feel safe showing my weaknesses to someone who might end up betraying me one day."
Helio let out a smile. "Do you trust me that much?"
"Maybe I trust you more than how much I trust my own actions. Particularly since you were the first few people on my life that has taken care of me up until now, and still not leaving my side. So I trust you enough to bring me back from the brink of death every time."
Finally, she shifted, and moved backwards to sit on her knees. Her hazy red eyes stayed locked at her own hands, and a smile settled onto her face.
"I believe that I am still in a debt towards you after how many times you have saved my life."
Helio felt a little embarrased about the situation. However, he didn't wait long to respond. "Since I have the healing element, it is the least I can do for a friend. If you were a complete stranger, I wouldn't have even batted an eye."
"..."
When he turned to look towards her, he found the facial expression to hold a meaning of hurt.
Aefia titled her head while furrowing her brows, still holding onto the smile which trembled invisibly. But then, she swept her gaze away from his face not so long after.
"Then I guess we have a different kind of relationship. I was a complete stranger not long ago, time does move fast."
"Wait! Don't get the wrong meaning!" Helio shouted while leaning forward. "Its just that I am willing to go this far—and further—solely because it is you and not someone I don't know. I am pretty helpful... However, I have never met someone in my life who didn't beg for help during difficult times. If you clearly remember, I was the one who approached you first. That should be enough to make you realize you weren't a complete stranger to my eyes."
Aefia's eyes widened in response. But based on her next action, it seemed that she realized about her current state and started wiping the places on her face she remembered she had blood stains.
"Sorry... My appearance may be a little dishevealed."
"Oh, don't worry about that. You still look good as always."
"Really?" She asked with a new sort of expression. "But I still need to get rid of these blood stains..."
"Ah! I completely forgot..." Helio stood up, walking towards a near-by table. Then coming back with a glass of water. "How about in the meantime, you rest up. I will go get you a dish of water."
He stood up, placing a soft kiss on her forehead before leaving the room.
Aefia looked back and forth between the glass and his retreating back. The haze from the aftereffect slowly retreating, and in that moment, her eyes shut on themselves. The glass trembling at her fingers while she slowly set it aside and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.
When she opened them again, her eyes turned widened in shock due to her forgotten memories.
When exactly did I wake up... I can't remember a single thing...
Furthermore... Where is Puppet gone? It isn't like it ever did that... To dissappear when I wake up?
And... Exactly why did I forget everything after I happened to just... Find myself like this?
"Ugh! My brain is swaying!"
Aefia stood on her feet while silently muttering to herself. "I need to return to Elanor's place in time." She muttered to herself while dusting her clothes to their renewed form. Recovering every tear here and there.