Broken Chains

Zephyrian was unsure what to feel as he sensed the bond to Puck, his new wielder.

It had been ages since he last had a wielder, and the last one... there was no use thinking about it.

At first, he found this small and disgusting creature an insult to his great form, but slowly, over the time before the assault on Puck, Zephyrian's changed his opinion.

Just like himself, that small green creature had a past that troubled it greatly to this day. Perhaps it would never be able to comprehend Zephyrians own suffering over the eons, but then again, nobody who hadn’t lived through it themself could possibly understand that.

Then, in the few months where he had desperately waited and hoped for Puck to return, holding to his vow not to betray him, Zephyrian realized something. He truly liked this creature.

When Puck had returned to get him, he had inwardly jubilated.

Just moments ago, when Puck was about to die without even having lived for more than a few short years, one of Zephyrian's vows had stood against another. His decision had been clear.

To bond again had been both a great joy and a terrible reminder of the past.

But then again, this was not the past, history didn’t need to repeat itself. This was something new, the beginning of something great.

Using the senses of the unconscious Puck, Zephyrian assessed the wounds of the small Gremlin. Even though they were severe due to the velocity remaining after he fell and Zephyrian's power left him, they were manageable.

Using Puck's ears to listen for other Gremlins or creatures coming to inspect what had happened, Zephyrian could only marvel at how good those ears were. This race looked small and weak, but its senses were great, its hide was thick, and its muscles were strong and wiry.

Listening into the dark, Zephyrian could make out voices of other Gremlins coming in their direction. With what had happened here, he and Puck needed to be as far away as possible before they found this place, the corpse, and the unconscious Typhon.

Giving Puck a few mental nudges, he managed to wake him up.

It couldn’t possibly be good to fall unconscious time and time again, right?

Recently, Puck had made a habit of it though, and he vowed to himself to do better from now on.

Receiving a message from Zephyrian about how long he had been out and the other Gremlins nearing, Puck wanted to get up and start moving.

When he tried to move though, his body didn’t react at first.

Then the pain suddenly came back with full force. The injuries he had sustained in the fight had been completely healed, but not those that had come from the moment after Zephyrian's power had left his body.

More so than even that, Puck felt his entire body being damaged on a fundamental level. He wasn’t exactly clear what type of damage it was. Afterall, there wasn’t anything physically showing.

Directly answering Puck's thoughts, Zephyrian told him it was a kind of soul damage. More accurately, it was called soul strain.

Feeling a bit estranged from getting a direct answer to his own thoughts in his head, Puck asked Zephyrian if he could refrain from listening in and speaking directly into his thoughts.

Huffing lightly, Zephyrian sent Puck an emotion of pride and disdain, before suppressing the connection between them a little more.

Only feeling, but not yet understanding exactly how and what Zephyrian did with their bond, Puck decided it would be a priority to learn that himself. To respond to the arrogant emotions, Puck responded with a few well-placed mental insults.

Hearing the other Gremlins getting nearer through the tunnel leading out of the village, Puck realized he needed to hurry.

After losing a few suppressed grunts and internally cursing Zephyrian for his heaviness, Puck finally stood ready again with the sword on his back.

Then, with tremendous effort and one slow step after another, Puck gave it his all to escape a few unsuspecting and happily chattering farm workers, only minutes after having fought to the death with multiple opponents and having used supernatural powers.

For some reason, though, this fight felt even harder than the last one.

A small part of Puck asked himself all the while if he shouldn’t feel remorse for killing someone. But somehow, the answer was clear to him, in this situation with that enemy, he had done exactly the right thing.

Before leaving the place of the conflict completely behind, Puck risked one last look at the scene. The dead Karak truly looked terrifying in death, his head lying twisted and a huge puddle of blood forming below him, coloring the ice red.

More interesting was something else, though. Indirectly, Puck subconsciously had thought until now that Typhon was dead too, but no, as he looked back, Puck saw Typhon weakly staring at him with an unreadable look in his eyes.

How much had he seen? Had he been awake when his friend had tried to murder him? Did he see Puck's power?

Neither having the power nor the will to seek another confrontation, Puck simply turned his back towards the scene and shuffled awkwardly on in the darkness.

It was unclear what Typhon, and the others would do after this confrontation, but Puck didn’t care. If possible, he would never come back to the village.

And even though the Gremlin leaders didn’t like it when Gremlins killed each other, if it was unclear who had killed whom, they didn’t have the capacity to investigate.

By all accounts, he was safe as long as he managed to flee the crime scene. Not thinking about it any longer, as not to curse his own luck, Puck focused completely on moving forwards.

Fearing Typhon might directly tell the workers the way he fled, Puck shuffled on as fast as he could before finally collapsing in a hidden alcove to sleep a dreamless slumber.

Puck only woke up many hours later, every part of his body still hurting from many bruises and perhaps a few deeper wounds, but mostly from the soul strain.

In fact, he felt even worse than when he found this hidden alcove. Upon asking Zephyrian how long the strain would last, he only got an uncommitted answer of about a few weeks.

Resting for another few hours, Puck took a few mouthfuls of ice to refill his water reserves. As he had no food though, he needed to get going.

Slowly moving towards Scarlet's abode, Puck took even longer to get back than he had needed to come to the village.

Truly, a great achievement.

As Puck finally reached the abode, having completed his mission successfully, he couldn’t help but be overjoyed and bursting with pride.

When Scarlet came out to greet him and even offered him a smile, Puck thought he couldn’t be happier.