Kapitel 81: The injured soldier

Lupa then went to look at Ester's condition. She didn't need to rush from worry as Vincent told her Ester should be fine. Her heightened hearing also picked up the faint sound of a human other than Vincent sleeping.

Lupa passed the Demonic Beast's corpse, but she gave it a few good kicks to relieve her anger towards the monstrous ape before continuing to approach Ester.

Lupa raised a smile when she heard the familiar sound of a light snore and the face of the redhead sleeping beauty without any hint of being in pain.

"Vincent healed you too, my sister. Your arm is back to normal, and you don't look hurt. Only Vincent is..." Lupa murmured while checking the arm she previously saw turned in the opposite direction.

"Ester, wake up. Hey, wake up." Lupa nudged Ester's shoulder until she opened her eyes a few minutes later.

"Huh? Lupa... wait! Where's the Demonic Beast? Where's Vincent?" Ester urgently asked as she stood up post haste by the urgency of the life-threatening fight.

"There." Lupa stood up and pointed at the monstrous ape corpse. Then she explained how Vincent healed them by using up all his healing and how he fainted from his serious injury.

Ester couldn't believe her eyes at the sight she saw, but the truth was in front of her as clear as day. The dead Demonic Beast had a spear lodged in its chest, many slash marks on its tough rocks covering its body, and a puddle of blood underneath the huge body showing how miserable its death was.

"I want to see Vincent. Can you take me to him?" Ester asked the be guided to his location. Both felt exhausted from the side effect of the Minor Heal as their heavy, tired eyes wanted to close for deep sleep.

Ester became worried when she saw Vincent. There was blood on his clothes and a bloody red piece of cloth wrapped around his injured shoulder.

"Its fine, sister. He told me to keep him alive until he wakes up. So that's our job for the next hours." Lupa said with determination to win over her tiredness.

"Lupa, you rest first since I had a bit of a shuteye. I will keep watch on him and wake him up later since he probably planned to heal at midnight's power gain. " Ester offered.

"Ohh, but the watch is in the cart. we need to go back." She then remembered the object to tell them the time to wake him up.

"He told us he was our Hero, but I don't want him to trade his life for mine." Ester gently touched his face with a frown.

"Then, we will show him how selfish he is when he wakes up. " Lupa replied with a smile, wanting to later do something to him as payback.

"Wait!... I hear something. Its human footsteps." Lupa whispered to Ester while her ears twitched and tilted sideways.

She used her heightened hearing to determine the exact location and shout, "You there behind that dried tree! I know you are hiding there, come out!"

Lupa shapeshifted her combat arms with the last bit of strength remaining in her body. Her arms grew white fur. One by one, her sharp claws extended, ready to protect Ester and Vincent. She had enough of watching them in pain.

Ester knew this meant trouble since Lupa became this serious. She stood behind Lupa, ready to grab Vincent and carry him to a safe distance at a moment's notice.

*Achoo!

An injured female soldier poked her head after she sneezed. She was the female soldier Tula, the person who Ester applied first aid on.

Lupa kept her hostile stance until Ester said, "Its the female soldier who was attacked and sent flying. She can't fight with her injuries even if she means us harm."

Tula seemed afraid with a face ready to cry at any moment. She trembled with her arms crossed, looking all around as if she was a lost soul. Her actions seemed very strange.

Lupa withdrew her claws with a puzzled frown since Tula didn't show any signs of hostility, yet her weird actions made her wary of not understanding her intentions.

Tula noticed Ester taking a few steps forward to approach her. Tula raised her arms, ran, and then lept on Ester with open arms, crying on her flat chest.

"Where am I, big sister... I'm lost and feel owie all over my body. What happened to me? I want my mommy." Tula said while crying and talking childishly.

Both Ester and Lupa opened their eyes wide in surprise, bewildered by these words and actions.

Lupa thought Ester had a sister, but she never mentioned having one. On the other hand, Ester found the childish words and actions quite strange.

"You're safe now, miss soldier. What's your name? I'm Ester, and she is Lupa." Ester said while gently caressing Tula on her injured head.

The adult Tula who was bawling like a child, didn't respond. Instead, she kept crying for a few minutes, wiping her tears and snot all over Ester's chest.

"My... my name is Tula. " Tula spoke a few moments after she stopped crying. She slowly wiped her tears, and she answered in a cute weary voice.

"Where am I big sister, Ester? I want to go home." Tula then planted her face on Ester's chest and continued, "I want my mummy."

Ester became surprised by Tula's response and her childish actions, but Ester knew how bad her head injury was. The force was strong enough to break the iron helmet in two.

It felt as if Tula lost her memories. Ester had sometimes heard her father say about unique conditions people might suffer from. One of them was memory loss and how cursed magic wasn't the only way to inflict such conditions.

"Can this big sister know how old you are?" Ester asked to confirm the theory of memory loss.

"Don't tease me, big sister. Can't you see I'm ten... wait... why is my body big? I didn't notice because of the owie." Tula started panicking. She felt more afraid than waking up alone in a pungent forest and feeling hurt.

*Shh

"Calm down, Tula, calm down." Ester gently patted her back, then continued, "You were walking with your uncle, and a bad animal pushed you. You hit your head, but don't worry. Your memories and body will return to normal in time."

"Is that why I don't remember, and I became big?" Tula asked.

"What do you remember before waking up?" Without giving Tula a chance to ask any questions, Ester tried to change to subject. Her uncle was actually dead, and the bad animal was a Demonic Beast.

"I remember my mummy tucking me in bed. I closed my eyes... then I woke up here all alone." Tula responded, about to cry once again.

"I heard the voices of someone talking. I followed the sound, but I was scared to talk to you. " Tula couldn't hold her tears anymore and started crying on her chest once again.

"Ester, you look busy with that leaky human, so I will go and bring the cart. I can rest later." Lupa knew she couldn't help. She was still learning about the human way of life.

Both nodded at each other. Lupa left to bring the cart while Ester became a baby sitter of the adult Tula with memories of a ten-year-old girl.

"This is Vincent. He saved all of us by beating the bad animal." Ester warmly said.

Tula gasped when her gaze picked Vincent leaning against the tree. She felt afraid at the sight of an injured man with blood collecting in the blood-soaked fabric around his shoulder. He looked in serious condition making Tula question how bad the animal actually was.

Tula held Ester's hand tightly and asked with a trembling light voice, "I-is big brother Vincent going to be okay? What about the baddie?"

"The baddie... " Ester turned her gaze at the corpse of the Demonic Beast. She thought it would be a horrifying sight for the young minded Tula.

Ester soon noticed Tula taking a peek at the corpse of Kass and three other soldiers in the distance. She had to change the scenery for both Tula and herself. The constant sight of the Demonic Beast kept her anxiety on edge.

"Can you help me carry Vincent to the other side of this big tree?" Ester asked. Then she gazed at the dead soldiers and continued with a light tone, "These people and your uncle need to sleep in peace."

"But I want to sleep with uncle Kass. He always reads me a bedtime story when he visits us." Tula puffed her cheeks, acting like a child.

"Your uncle is so tired that he can't wake up, so we will check on him tomorrow. Now, how about you help me, little sister?" Ester spoke while displaying a new side of her. A personality she didn't know she had.

Lupa transformed Ester into a caring big sister. This personality helped Ester to take the lead of this peculiar situation and not make Tula's condition worse.

A few minutes later, the two of them carefully carried Vincent to the opposite side of the enormous tree. Step by step, the smell grew more potent almost to the point of making their belly growl to eat.

Tula lowered the pair of curious brown eyes while helping. She noticed the strange red grass on every step her feet took.

Her muddled thoughts became more confused from the questions of what forest this was, and if she was awake in a dream or not.

Even by merely lifting Vincent by his feet to help relocate him caused Tula to question how her body could grow so big from a night's rest. This plethora of questions swirling in her mind made Tula busy enough not to get scared.

Unlike the previous sight filled with bloody grass, dried trees, and few animal corpses, the other side of the gigantic banana tree was clean.

Not a single drop of blood tainted this location, making it evident that this was the Demonic Beast's resting place. The second proof entred both their nostrils as the smell of sweetness was became more potent.

Unchallenged by the pungent smell, the sweet aroma released by the bananas ruled this location. A paradise hidden in hell.

'I want to carve a hole and live inside this tree...' Ester thought before she returned to her senses. Unknowingly, the alluring smell of the fruits arose strange thoughts for a few moments.

Ester shook her head and wiped her nose to deny the idea. She turned her gaze at Tula, but she seemed unaffected by the alluring aroma.

AUTORENGEDANKEN
VisualKoFey

The injured soldier Tula remembering memories up to the age of ten, approaches them. Ester decides Tula is telling the truth as she was the one to apply first aid. Ester then takes charge of the situation since Lupa might cause trouble.

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