Chapter 24

When Shadow blinked his eye open, he was sitting on the couch in his living room leaning against Silver's shoulder and Jay resting on his leg. The right half of his vision was black and his head ached terribly. He reached up to his face and felt the bandages covering his eye and neck. The part that covered his eye felt wet and when he brought his hand in front of him, the tips of his fingers had blood on them. He looked outside to see the first rays of the dawn light shining through the window. On the opposite side of the couch, Shiro began to stir. She lifted herself up on her arms and rubbed her eyes as she sat up. When she spotted Shadow, she gasped. Before she could say anything, Shadow lifted a finger to his mouth and she nodded in understanding. They sat in silence for a long while before Jay and Silver began to wake up. Jay lifted his head up and yawned before looking up at Shadow. He smiled in joy and shot up immediately. Silver lifted his head off Shadow's shoulder and stretched his arms. Shadow let out a sigh of relief before he rolled his shoulders and stood up.

"Man, I slept so well!" he exclaimed.

"How are your injuries feeling?" Silver inquired.

"They sting and the bandages are getting old but other than that they feel fine." Shadow walked over to the kitchen.

"Let me change your bandages real quick." Silver offered.

"After breakfast. Is that knucklehead, Emperion, here too?" Shadow asked as he got out a frying pan, lid and spatula.

"Last I saw him, he was stomping off to the training room."

"He probably passed out while training." Shadow stated, turning on a burner and setting the frying pan on top of it. He reached into his void storage and pulled out an unopened package of uncooked bacon. He set it on the counter next to the pan and grabbed a knife and cutting board.

"Is that..." Shiro started.

"Your bacon? Yes, it is. I stole and hid it before you broke open your door and started screaming like you always do." Shadow confirmed.

"I do not just start screaming." she huffed. Shadow turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"You kicked open your door and started yelling at me for eating raw bacon at dusk."

"If you didn't want me to, enter through the door like a normal person at a normal time of day!" Shiro complained. Shadow turned back around to focus on the bacon.

"That is normal for me, remember? I would break into your apartment at unreasonable hours all the time as a kid."

"Yeah I remember. And what's with the apron?" Shiro asked, pointing at the white apron lined with pink frills tied around his neck and waist.

"I was just about to ask the same thing." Silver agreed.

"What's wrong with wearing an apron when I'm cooking?" he spun around. "Is it unnatural to want to stay clean when preparing my food?"

"No, but... doesn't that seem a little... girlish?" Silver questioned.

"It's an apron! It doesn't matter as long as I stay clean." he countered.

"Fair enough." Silver sounded satisfied.

"Was he always this much of a whiner when you were kids?" Jay asked.

"Pretty much."

"I can hear you, ya know." he grumbled. After he finished cooking all the bacon, he distributed it among five plates and handed them out to each person. He took Emperion's plate with him as he checked on the training space. He was surprised to find it empty. He walked back down stairs and set the plate on the island counter.

"Where's Emperion?" Silver asked.

"Dunno. He wasn't in the training space like you said." He sat down at a stool and rested his chin on his left hand, dangling a bacon in his right hand. "I guess we can eat his share of the bacon then." he shouted.

"Dude, we're right here." Shiro stated.

"Wait for it." Thumping footsteps sounded from the stairs behind him and down came and a hurried Emperion. His breathing was heavy and he smelled of sweat. "There he is."

"What's this about my share of the bacon?" he demanded, walking over.

"Here you go." Shadow offered the plate up to him as he munched on his own bacon. Emperion happily took the plate and sat down to Shadow's right.

"It's good to see you up and about, Shadow." Emperion stated.

"That's new. It's so unlike you to care about someone else." He turned towards Emperion.

"Well then don't make me say embarrassing things." he mumbled through his bacon, blushing.

"I didn't but ok, I guess." Shadow turned towards Shiro. "So Shiro, do you want to rethink your answer to my earlier question? The one about staying here or in your apartment." Shiro froze.

"That's right, there's a crazy demon hating maniac back there."

"Well, there's no rush. Take your time to think about it. You'll be safe here until you decide." Shadow stretched.

"And where exactly is here?"

"My house in Demon City." Shadow stood up and dragged his stool to sit in front of Silver. Silver nodded and set his remaining bacon aside. Silver slowly unwrapped the bandages around Shadow's neck and set them on the counter.

"It's not bleeding anymore but it hasn't closed up yet." Silver grabbed fresh bandages from the first aid kit they left on the counter and started to rewrap Shadow's neck. He flinched and nodded. Next, Silver unwrapped the bandages around his eye. Silver lifted up his chin to inspect the cut.

"Can you open your eye? If it hurts too much, don't force yourself." Shadow slowly opened his eye. A small cut was visible across his left eye that finished the rest of the injury.

"It looks really bad. I don't think you'll be able to see out of this eye ever again." Shadow frowned. "Again, the cut has stopped bleeding but it hasn't closed up yet. You can expect some scarring from both injuries. You should also refrain from using magic until you recover." Silver finished. He wrapped Shadow's eye again and threw away the used bandages. Shadow stood up and put the stool back in its spot.

"So... what to do for the day?" Shadow wondered.

"You should stay here and rest for the day. If you take my advice you should be fine by tomorrow." Silver insisted.

"No, that's boring!" Shadow protested. "Since I have nothing better to do, I'm gonna scale the rest of the mountain." he determined.

"That's a terrible idea when you're injured." Emperion criticized.

"If you're so worried, you can climb with me." Shadow huffed.

"I-I'm not worried! Do whatever you want." Emperion crossed his arms and looked away.

"Well I'm heading out. Feel free to join me if you want." Shadow waved as he headed towards the door.

"But I said to not use magic!" Silver called.

"I'm not." Shadow assured. He closed the door behind him with a slam. Silence befell the room as the rest of the people just stared at the door.

"Is he seriously going to climb half a mountain without magic?" Emperion wondered.

"He's too reckless for his own good. I'll go watch him." Silver said, standing up and leaving after Shadow. Shadow was casually crawling up the steep side of the mountain when Silver found him.

"It's only going to get steeper from here. Are you sure you want to climb up the mountain?" Silver wondered.

"Of course. If I wasn't sure I wouldn't be doing this. If I get used to the thin air on top of the mountain, it gives me an advantage over the others. Plus, it's good exercise." Shadow explained. He carefully placed one hand and foot in front of the other and climbed higher. Silver floated behind him, keeping an eye on him.

"Why are you so concerned, anyway? Is there something you don't want seen on top of the mountain?"

"If you fall, and I fail to catch you, it could be fatal." Silver worried.

"I have wings, you know." Shadow paused for a moment. "Man, the sun is brutal today and I haven't even been out here for a minute. That's summer for ya', I guess." He lifted a hand from the side of the mountain to wipe his forehead. And once again, he started climbing. He climbed all through the day until it was getting dark. Silver had provided his lunch and dinner as he climbed.

"Aren't you tired yet?" Silver asked.

"I am so exhausted." Shadow huffed.

"Then why are you still climbing? You'll kill yourself from exhaustion if you don't rest."

"Can't you see it? I'm almost at the top. God, the air up here is so thin. Is breathing up there even possible?" Shadow suppressed a yawn and continued to climb. Just as he was about to reach the top, his right foothold crumbled away, out from underneath him. The sudden slip slowed his reaction time and he ended up tumbling a ways down the mountain before Silver caught him. Shadow was pretty dizzy after that, so Silver flew him down the mountain back to his house. Silver dragged Shadow back through the front door and into a living room with everyone in it. Shiro and Jay were sitting on the couch while Emperion was lounging on the bean bag to the right of the TV. Everyone looked over as Silver entered the room, dragging Shadow behind him.

"Oh my god! What happened to Shadow?" Shiro burst, shooting up.

"He took a bit of a tumble near the top of the mountain. He's covered in cuts and scrapes but other than that he's fine. He's lucky he didn't reopen his previous injuries." Silver explained.

"So... dizzy... room... spinning..." Shadow mumbled. Shiro just sighed and put her hands on her hips.

"That idiot's actually gonna get himself killed one day." Shiro huffed.

"Hopefully not but you can never be sure, can you?" Silver agreed.