#you know it's just... the luuram inspiration and all that

[sack-thing]

A Bad Dream

A little scribble, 1,654 words. Not new actually, but I edited it slightly and it's time to repost it!

It's a bonus that would happen during chapter 10 of Year 3, focusing on Luu Kah's pov (I wanted to write him breaking down alright) but Weylin's in it too.

I wonder if I should post it on AO3? Anyway there we go~

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The past two days felt like they had no end. Luu Kah went and checked on Délia one last time before leaving for the night. Only Roy would stay in the room, at her side, in case something went wrong; he had volunteered for that even though the doctor said things should be fine.

Délia was asleep, but she seemed to be in a stable state indeed. It felt better to see her resting like that than breaking down in the desert like the day before because of her injury. And because of the news that Ramsey had been petrified by a basilisk—a monster apparently known in Leuda to turn its victims into stone forever.

Luu Kah left the medical house, leaving Roy with Délia, and decided to go for a walk in the village. The rare Selkies he saw on his path seemed to look at him in curious ways. But whatever the reason was, he didn’t have time to bother with them.

He was thinking about what Délia had said when they were still in the Lynari desert. Before she fainted, she wanted to go and look for Ramsey, even if his body was currently turned into stone. She argued that they couldn’t leave him like that, that he’d be left alone in the middle of the miasma if the petrifaction was to dissolve. At that point, Luu Kah reluctantly said that it wasn’t supposed to… But if it did, the thought was actually terrible. He wouldn’t survive. The team chose to go back to Leuda because Délia’s state was critical, but they did leave Ramsey like that after all. He was still in the middle of that damned desert, all by himself, surrounded by miasma and probably monsters.

Luu Kah reached the end of his walk path and stood there at the top of a cliff, facing the ocean, only half paying attention to his surroundings.

Délia was right. They needed to get Ramsey out of there. Délia couldn’t do that in her current state, but he… He could do it. The thought of leaving Ramsey like that was unbearable. Now that they had made sure Délia would be fine, Luu Kah could do it and, at the very least, bring Ramsey’s body back to a safe place.

- - -

Luu Kah was sharing a tent with Weylin that night. There was no way he could fall asleep even if he wanted to, which was convenient since he was about to leave anyway. He had waited for a good hour to make sure Weylin was asleep; she hadn’t moved nor made any sound in a while now. Luu Kah set into motion. He grabbed the crystal pendant, the desert’s map, his clothes and his weapon with as little sound and friction as possible. He was ready within a minute and left the tent.

The air was surprisingly cold at this hour compared to the heat they had to endure during the day, but he could bear with it. It was time to go back to the Lynari desert. He wasn’t with Ramsey when he got petrified, but he remembered Weylin and Linitaa’s explanations and would find the place again thanks to the map. For now, his first destination was the village’s exit. There he would wake their papaopamus, Sally, and maybe he could borrow a cart or something to have her drag it. He was going to have a day of travel before reaching the desert, and he needed something to carry Ramsey when going back.

Luu Kah made it to the caravan and Sally near the village’s exit. He put a hand on the animal’s head and stroked her fur gently to wake her up.

“Sorry girl, I’m gonna need you for a while.”

He barely started to get her ready that he heard steps coming close. He knew those steps and didn’t bother to look back.

“Where are you going like this?”

It was Weylin’s voice. Of course. It would’ve been too easy. Luu Kah closed his eyes; he knew she already had the answer to her question.

“Please, don’t tell me not to go.”

“Do you really think I can simply let you go and have you too turn into stone?” Weylin asked.

Luu Kah shook his head. “I’m not gonna get petrified. If I get there tomorrow night, maybe the monster won’t be around.”

“You don’t know about that. I’ve never heard of monsters leaving their usual area at night.”

Luu Kah gritted his teeth before turning to face her. “What I know is I can’t leave Ramsey there like that!”

Weylin clenched her fists. The gesture sent back a few memories to his mind, of when he was a new caravanner with Ramsey and they sneaked out at night one time, only to get into serious trouble against some monsters.

“I am not happy with that either,” she retorted, “but what are you planning to do? Drag a stone body, in the middle of a desert, surrounded by monsters? There’s no way you’ll be fast enough to avoid the countless threats there.” Luu Kah couldn’t see her face under the helmet, but he was pretty sure she was sending him a death glare. She raised her voice. “That desert is dangerous enough as it is. Letting you go there and take the risk to end the same way as Ramsey is out of the question. We have nothing to protect us from that curse.”

Luu Kah felt himself boiling. “Who cares what happens to me, it doesn’t matter! Right now, just as we're having this useless conversation, Ramsey is—“

Before he could finish his sentence, Weylin stepped toward him to grab his shoulders and shake him. “Stop that, Luu Kah! What do you think you can do if something happens to you? You won’t save anyone like that!”

He froze, as if she’d just made a point on something he hadn’t thought about. He didn’t like that. Sometimes he hated Weylin’s rationality. And apparently, she wasn’t finished.

“Do you hear yourself talk? I’ve already told you before: your life is your priority! And what about Ramsey, what would he think? Do you think he’d be happy to hear you say that? Would he be happy if you sacrificed yourself for nothing?!”

Weylin was yelling. It was unusual. That’s right, she was the caravan’s captain. And as she had told them in the past, she had responsibility over their lives, at least to some extent. What happened to Ramsey probably shook her more than Luu Kah thought.

Weylin was still holding him as he stared at the ground and felt his eyes becoming hot and wet, despite the cold air blowing on his face. He tried to mutter a response. “But… I just wanna bring him back to a safe place… What if we never saw him aga—“

Luu Kah suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t speak. He could barely manage to bring his shaking hands to his face, even though he didn’t know what he wanted to do with them. He didn’t get what was going on. It felt like he wasn’t there anymore.

A monster that turns its victims into stone forever. He had tried to block the thought so hard. Or rather, his brain understood the words, but that was it. He hadn’t truly registered them within their current situation, and he realized it was for a good reason. Now that he just said what it meant out loud…

It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t. Ramsey was always with them, always with him. They couldn’t lose him like that.

“Luu Kah… Breathe,” Weylin said, her tone softer than before. “Focus on your breath. Slowly.”

He heard her voice. Maybe she already tried to talk to him before and he didn’t hear. He was breathing again now, but it was fast and unsteady, and he still couldn’t properly take in enough air as sobs made their way into his breath. Weylin made some space between them but still held him, hands on his shoulders. Tears rolled down on Luu Kah’s cheeks as he hid his face in his hands.

It was awful. That wasn’t part of his plan. He’d never wanted Weylin to see him like that. He’d never seen himself in that state either, actually.

“It’s going to be fine, Luu Kah…”

He didn’t know what to do with those words. It wasn’t fine. Not if Ramsey was gone.

Weylin gently moved him until his back rested against a rocky wall, and now held him with only one hand. His whole body was shaking along with his sobs.

“Listen… Even if we’re not looking for Ramsey right now, I promise that we aren’t giving up on him.” Weylin said. “Monsters won’t have interest in him as long as he’s in that state.” Luu Kah felt her hand grab his shoulder with a little more strength before she resumed. “And then… Surely a cure must exist, even if no one around here has discovered it yet.”

Luu Kah wasn’t sure if it took a few minutes or an eternity before he managed to stop crying and somewhat find a regular breath again. After that, he felt completely empty and weak. Weylin didn’t speak much more; she just stood by him. Then after a while—he didn’t know how much time had passed again—she placed a hand behind his back to make him walk to the tent with her.

Once they got there, Luu Kah was exhausted and crashed on his cot. His mind was still blank and he couldn’t process coherent thoughts anymore. Weylin said a few words, something about how he should rest, before she turned off the oil lamp.

Luu Kah couldn’t stay awake even if he wanted to. Before falling asleep, the only coherent thing that crossed his mind was his wish that those past two days were only a very bad dream.