SURVIVOR

Written on October 5, 2024 (♏︎)

Author's Notes: Written for Whumptober 2024 for prompt No. 5: Survivor (Heatstroke). Features an OC generic unit belonging to a friend.

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Argath did not recall why he was being carried, but he knew he ought still be on the march. They were in the desert–the sky still bright, the Marquis unrecovered. As he struggled to right his body, that was the thought around which the rest of him swam: that he might become the only survivor of the entourage.

"I told you we shouldn't have pushed through with him–Zeklaus isn't like the Beddha. We should've sheltered!"

"Wymond–easy"

Argath felt his skin prickle, his limbs shake. There was a tremor that thrilled through him as hands stripped off his shirt.

"We've got to cool him: set those humours back from boiling..."

He was on the sand now–in the shade.

"You're sure?"

If he came back to Limberry alone, would they think he lived for having fled?

"It's the magicks we have at any rate."

Argath failed to stifle a moan as the fingers upon him burnt a web of ice crystals against his back. The sudden cold left him aware as to the extent of his fever. He heard an indistinct shout he took to be Ramza.

A new fear intruded: the thought that the entourage might have no survivors at all.

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