A Cruel Choice

"Are you alright?"

Grabbing Tearia's body, Xilo made sure nothing bad had noticeably happened to her as she caught her breath. Looking at the man Xilo had brought over she took a step back out of fear. Whatever she felt was similar to the poison going around right now except it was worse. "Centered around his heart." She was positive she noticed a small docile creature there before she lost control and took a step back. "That thing is taking more than Astral Energy." It was absorbing his life as well and using it to grow itself into something much worse. If he was lucky he might live another year or two at most and if not he could die within a couple months.

"So, what the hell is that thing inside you or maybe it's more like, how did that get inside of you? There's no way it just magically slipped in. A creature like that is too weak on it's own to do anything except die."

She didn't have any idea what that creature exactly was apart from a few stories she had read from medical stories. They never really went into too much detail in them except for most of the hosts lifespan once it happened. "What did this guy do?" Someone had to have hated him quite a bit to plant that kinda parasite inside him. "Though I'm curious how." Since they couldn't do anything on their own, that meant it wasn't natural. So either someone had to get pretty damn lucky or secretly hated him a lot.

"If you're reacting like that, I assume you've got a good idea of what it is. How I got it is a bit different and something I really don't like remembering. Since Xilo saved me though, the least I can do is answer a few questions."

Taking a breath, Flint waited a second for any kind of interruption before he started his little story. It was quite a painful one to remember but it had stung less over time. He knew his family had always had a pretty big dislike for him since the topic of next heir came around. At the time he was still a little naive so he still trusted his family then. However one day he got poisoned and was bedridden for weeks while his family tried to "heal him." During that time he was stuck in bed unable to move from the amount of pain he felt he had realized what happened. Before he was healed his family kept asking him to agree to stuff or try to force him in a certain direction.

Each time he agreed to one of their claims he felt better the next day. It might have taken him a minute but he did eventually figure out it was his family that had poisoned him and were controlling the speed at which he healed. Once he knew that his trust had largely broken for a lot of people. From then on he no longer accepted random drinks or food from people, especially his family. With years passing, he and his best friend we're discussing some things together. She had been his friend since they were both children and for the most part largely sided with him when his family turned on him. It was a risk but she said she was willing to take it.

"When it came down to it though.."

Sitting together at night going over some paper's for another expedition some were going to take, she offered him a drink. Not thinking much of it since he trusted her, he foolishly drank it without inspecting it like normal. "That was my downfall." He had noticed she was a bit off the whole day however he had chosen to ignore it. Once he had taken that drink he finally figured out why she seemed so off. He felt his whole body burning as he dropped to the ground. His vision turned blurry as he felt a small insect crawl around inside his body. He had tried to kill it at first but it was too small for him to hit without really hurting himself.

"That whole time, I heard her a little bit away repeating sorry over and over as she cried."

In the end it seemed like his friend really wasn't ready to take the risk. Fighting against that parasite in his body he eventually gave up as he felt his body pass out. When he woke up he was on the outskirts of town all alone. Once he realized that, he got up as he finally felt the dangers of the creature inside of him. He felt incredibly weak and powerless as he took his first steps. His first thoughts were to visit a doctor but he didn't even know where to go. He felt like taking another step would kill him however he still continued to walk. After having his trust betrayed a second time he refused to return back to that City. "Fine if they don't want me." Deciding to leave that awful place he felt a couple's presence approach him as danger attacked him.

"A couple of strangers came and attacked me, even with all the pain and weakness I was able to beat them to even my own surprise. After that I started to run away in any direction I could go. Maybe I went too much into details but that's how it happened basically."

Listening to his story, Xilo felt a little shocked. "His own family..." He almost couldn't believe that they could do that but he didn't have another choice. The proof was right in front of him staring him down. Turning to Tearia, Xilo tried to distract himself from his thoughts as he asked her a question. He wanted to know if there was anything she could to help him even if it seemed pointless.. Sadly, she just shook her head, this was something even she couldn't do anything for. In almost every scenario she envisioned she would just end up speeding his death up and that wasn't something she wanted to do.

"Sorry to turn the mood a bit sour."

"Eh, don't think much of it, What happened to you was horrible. I'm sorry that you had to go through that as well as being unable to help you."

"I already expected such results, don't worry. There's probably a few doctors in the world who could realistically help. I guess in my mindless running I've been trying to find one before my time is up. It's getting late though, I should head back and rest up, I don't wanna take too much more of your time."

"Oh, do you want me to help you back again?"

"No,no I just wanna spend some time alone if that's alright."

"....yeah, that's fine."

With a bit of hesitation Xilo let Flint go by himself as some thoughts lingered in his mind.

"Thanks for letting me meet you all, i'll see you all again sometime."

Hearing all of their goodbyes Flint walked out of the tent slowly as he walked away from his tent and into the night of the city, it was time for him to leave.