Hideout

Emile and Luna hustled down the tunnel with Blood in their arms. Blood wasn't particularly heavy, in fact, he was a pretty small and frail boy, but Luna was equally as small and Emile's body was still recovering from his week of abuse.

"Where are we going?!" Emile struggled to spit out.

"Somewhere the Chief can't find us!" Luna directed them down a long corridor of onyx rock, taking them far off the course they've been traveling.

The air turned sticky, a disgusting heaviness permeated the atmosphere of the depths. Sweat began to trickle down the parties brows as the incessant heat filled the narrowing pathways.

Luna turned down another tunnel, but it led to nowhere, a deadend blocking their path. Luna approached a boulder in the corner of the room and kneeled behind it, suddenly disappearing behind the monolith.

Emile trudged his way over to the boulder and found a barely human sized hole in the ground behind it. Luna's head popped into frame, she kept her arms held up and waited for Emile to drop Blood.

Twenty minutes later Emile dropped to the floor, fifteen feet away from a small strip of lava. He stretched his body out and laid on the floor, the heated stone was surprisingly comfortable, like laying on the beach on a summer day.

Blood lay next to him, already asleep. Emile wasn't sure if he fainted on their way here or if he fell asleep moments after being placed on the heated bed beneath them.

Emile closed his eyes and excitedly awaited the embrace of rest.

"So you know this kid?" Luna asked.

'She's like a curse'

"Yeah, he's my—friend? He's my friend." Emile said.

"You're on vacation with him?"

'Or I'm just cursed'

"Yes—actually—we are stu—researchers, we are researchers who are interested in the area beyond the Hollow Mountains." Emile lied through his teeth.

"Wow! That's really cool. What do you guys research?" Luna asked again.

'What do we research? How to enact political unrest?'

"We are researching the—we're researching alternative medicines to heal people."

'Wait can I say that? Surely everyone is researching different ways to heal'

"So are you on vacation or are you here to research?" Luna asked her third question.

'Am I just not allowed to sleep?'

"Him and I have a personal interest in the forest beyond so we decided to go together." Emile said, "By the way, why'd you help us? Aren't you gonna be punished?"

"I'll be fine. You guys are like toys to him. Losing you means nothing." Luna shrugged, "Actually, I should probably head back. I'll see you later!"

***

Emile and Blood spent days in Luna's hiding spot, at least it felt like days. Emile didn't miss being a gladiator, but it did keep him informed on the passage of time.

Luna has yet to return, either she's incapable of coming back or is worried of being followed. Since coming here Blood's awoken two times and Emile made sure to ask him every question he could think of.

First, what has Blood been doing all this time? The morning after Emile disappeared Blood explored the same tunnel as Emile, although he chose to go right when Emile went left. This led Blood to the village that was attached to the pit.

After asking around, Blood discovered the pit and heard of an unannounced fighter appearing the night before who was lucky enough to survive without fighting. Blood asked for a description of the fighter, realized it was Emile, and broke someone's legs to get thrown into the pit.

Second, why is Emile's essence recovering so slowly? As it turns out, even though the inhabitants of this planet are not required to eat, eating increases essence regeneration so most people still do it.

To summarize Blood's explanation, all life is forged through essence and all food is made of life, whether it be meat or plant. By existing, people naturally process the essence in the atmosphere which replaces the purpose of eating. So, eating essence rich foods allows the body to process another form of essence making the body's essence regenerate faster.

Third, are Blood and Emile going to return to the Graves or continue their assignment? Blood, through some delusion of his own, insists on completing their assignment.

Emile didn't know if it was because of his sick passion for slaughter or if he misunderstood Emile's capabilities as a healer, even though Emile repeatedly told him he couldn't regrow bones; either way, Blood was determined to continue.

In addition to Emile's interminable questions, his essence once again started to pool. At the start, Emile chose to heal Blood before removing the crystal that held his arm together.

Emile was not a fool. He knew Blood's arm was not going to work and, in fact, would probably need to be cut off completely. Emile's Breath of Life kept the arm alive, reinvigorating the cells within it as blood couldn't be pumped to the arm.

But the major issue at hand with Blood was the type of damage done to his body. Emile never intended to be a doctor, but he knew enough to know that one needed a shoulder to actually reattach the arm too.

Whatever gift tore through Blood's body completely vaporized it. His shoulder wasn't cut off and left to deteriorate on the ground, his shoulder no longer existed, along with his bones and muscles and nerves.

Breath of Life affected the cells of a living thing, Blood has lost his cells all together. So, as the only qualified medical staff present, Emile gave Blood an ultimatum:

"I'm cutting your arm off or we're going back and that's that."