Archive of Our Own ^beta

A pounding headache. Luz awoke from being knocked unconscious by the airship crash by an annoyingly painful headache. She should probably run that by Eda, make sure it's not a concussion or something.

She sat up with a groan, holding the back of her head with her hand - wait, her hand? She wasn't tied up anymore! Luz looked over and noticed the red bird she affectionately nicknamed 'Lil Rascal' pulling away the remaining ropes. She guess they were who freed her. Luz muttered a thanks before letting the bird climb onto her hand and hop onto her shoulder. Luz pushed herself up, using the strange yellowish-golden orbs around her to keep balance only to yelp when she felt as if she stepped on her left ankle wrong. Luz quickly covered her mouth to make sure she stayed quiet and, after determining no one was there to recapture her, she lowered her shaky hand to her pant leg, pulling it up just enough to see her ankle forming a nasty bruise and a slight swelling. Great…

Luz tried to get back to her feet again, gritting her teeth through the pain as she glanced around, needing a way out of here with the palismen home safe…

Turns out, the Golden Guard isn't the most annoying person to work with! Then again, he didn't seem much older than her when she saw his face. With all of this said, Luz still found him to be quite the jerk. He wasn't exactly the easiest witch to get along with.

Luz set her thoughts to the side as the blonde-haired guard in question returned with a pot of sleeping nettles.

"Alright, let's get this thing ready," Luz grinned (maybe a bit too harshly, teeth still gritted as she refused to admit her pain to the enemy, alliance or not). She just finished up the glyphs on the wall and set the chalk aside, about to sit back down.

"Something's wrong," the soldier teen said quietly, looking at Luz with an expression she couldn't quite grasp.

"Kikimora?" Luz asked in a hushed tone.

"Wha-eh-? No! You," he pointed an accusatory finger at her although his face displayed concern.

"Pssh, what're you talking about! I'm fine mister Golden Guard," Luz countered with a lie; a very poor lie, but a lie nonetheless.

The guard just deadpanned at her, glancing at the way she stood, favoring her right foot. Not to mention… he never mentioned her wellbeing was what he was talking about. For Titan's sake…

"Okay fine," Luz huffed. "When the airship crashed, my ankle got a bit wonky. But it's not too bad!"

"You've been limping," the Golden Guard said with a raised eyebrow. He sighed and stepped closer. "Let me have a look at it."

"Huh? Why?" Luz looked at him, distrusting of him even in the truce.

The guard just rolled his eyes and said "Don't be scared, I've done this before."

Luz examined him a bit before relenting and letting herself slide down into a sitting position to which he sat just across from her. She pulled the fabric of her pajamas up to her knee to reveal- okay, wow, it looks… so much worse now! Heck, even the guard grimaced a bit at it (although he did his best to hide it, Luz wasn't that stupid).

"You've been walking on this?" The guard asked her as if he couldn't believe it. "This isn't the worst I've seen but I'm shocked you aren't bawling your eyes out."

"Eh? Why would you expect me to do that?" Luz asked with a pout, not exactly helping her case. He probably thought she was childish or immature; or that's what her first guess was.

The guard was silent at first, starting to work on a makeshift splint for her ankle before speaking up again as he worked. "I've seen experienced coven scouts with injuries like this and they were bitching about it like crazy," the guard admitted with a confused smirk. "You've never even been through basic training!"

Luz just deadpanned before a thought clicked in her mind. "It's probably the adrenaline!"

"The… what?" The guard asked in utter confusion, looking up at her as if she just said the most batshit crazy sentence.

"It's a human thing. It's this… thing, honestly I don't know the terminology, but it basically suppresses your brain from feeling the pain as well as giving you an insane boost of energy! Although… the crash after is a doozy. Not looking forward to that…" Luz muttered.

"Humans are weird," the guard muttered before finishing with the splint. "There. That should work… for now. Anyways, what's your plan here again?"

"Right!" Luz remembered, getting her focus back to the 'stopping Kikimora' track. And although she didn't have a moment to say it to him, Luz was thankful for the help the Golden Guard supplied. He was definitely a bad, but sad boy…