A Parasite

"That doesn't seem like a reason for you to be attacked."

"That's where it gets..complicated."

"Fair."

He didn't know nearly enough about the situation to say otherwise.

Memories flashed through the man's mind as things flooded back to him. He could feel his body melting as he tried to fight off the feeling of exhaustion. "They did this to me." His parents had been the one to poison him and even send people after him regardless if they harmed him or not. As long as his was barely breathing it was good enough for them, it had always been that way. Looking at the two people beside him he reached out a hand as he tried to introduce himself. There wasn't anything else he could do for them in his current condition so at the very least he could be polite.

Seeing him trying to reach for him Xilo took his hand.

"I haven't properly introduced myself yet, my name is Flint."

"I'm Xilo and the quiet one is Relia. Nice to meet you Flint."

Letting go of Xilo's hand, Flint felt his energy slipping further away from him with each passing minute. "At this rate." Eventually he would have zero energy left if this kept up. "Was I really that big of an obstacle?" He was never stronger than his older brother however he excelled a lot in other areas. Leadership, planning and other general knowledge that common people favoured over strength. He knew that the general public favoured him, he never wanted to take the prince position from his brother though. He had even said it publicly and privately plenty of times. "That wouldn't stop them, I know." A part of him knew it wouldn't matter though, once the people swayed towards him a target was put on his back.

Feeling his breathing speed up he felt a slight panic attack.

"You okay!?"

"Yeah..yeah just got lost in my thoughts a little too much. I want to ask a little more about this place, I don't really know where I am."

"You're currently in the front yard of the Soaring Blades Clan, I found you in the city and brought you here since you seemed to be sick like everyone else here."

"Everyone else?"

That was almost impossible, the poison they had used on him was quite rare and would take more than a miracle to cure. Scanning the rest of the people here though his face lit up in surprise. "They really are similar." He could feel everyone's energy draining from their body as time went on. The similarity ended there though, he was in a much worse condition. Sitting himself up he pushed past all the pain he felt as he held his head. "I'm so weak now." He had only been running for a month but his energy was drained drastically.

"Yeah, a lot of people right now are sick, didn't you know? You also seem to be sick like them but give us some time and we can help you out."

"No, sorry I didn't know. I'm not really from here, You're cure also won't work on me so save the effort. We might have similar conditions however mine is sadly different. A parasite was placed inside my body and connected itself to my heart, the only way to remove it is to kill it but that would also kill me in return."

"....."

Xilo didn't know what to say to that.

"What country is this?"

Changing the subject, Flint tried to gather more information.

"We're in Ukel at the moment, why?"

"That's...."

It seemed he had run a lot further than he initially thought to have ended up in Ukel. It wasn't his initial plan when he first ran away but different people constantly chased him everywhere. Standing up, Flint tried to move a little bit. In the next second though he collapsed instantly as Xilo caught him. Carefully, Xilo dropped him to the ground and let him lie down. "He can't move." Trying to get him to stay where he was, Xilo and him talked a little bit more until Flint eventually agreed to stay still. After that Xilo heard Relda coming to check up on them since their time was up.

"Before we go, did you want us to get anything for you?"

"No...it's okay. Go do your job, these people need help a lot more than I do."

"...hmm, okay."

With that Xilo took Relia's hand as they left the tent and started their day. Searching around the town Xilo kept thinking back to Flint each time they returned but he left it alone. He did ask Relda to check up on him every once in a while and it seemed like he was there still. "Poor guy." He felt a little bad but Flint was right. In a scenario like that there was nothing he could do. Letting the day pass on they found a few more people compared to last time. This time with no extra little attacks either and eventually night was coming again.

"A few more days of this and we're done here."

As the two of them walked back to the Inn together Xilo mumbled that while holding Relda's hand. "I should viist Flint again tomorrow." There was still some more things he wanted to ask of him. In the couple minutes he had to chat with him he had felt that flint wasn't a bad person. He couldn't say it for sure but helping him out a little bit wouldn't hurt. "He did promise to stay there but..." He seemed really eager to leave when they were talking.

"Where would he go though?"

Saving those questions for tomorrow Xilo walked inside and went through his usual routine as the night passed by. Once it was day again Xilo woke up as him and Relia set out once more. Tearia had almost finished making everything so if everything went right today would be their last day in this city. "If we're lucky." Hoping that would be the case they made their way to greet Relda.

"Hi, Relda."