Follow The Raven

~Remy's Point of View~

"Can't we please stop, for one moment? We've been in this blasted forest for over a month now, we're obviously not in a rush," Lara complained in a huff, trying to get over a particularly large fallen tree. Damian groaned from the front.

"We already had our 'make-believe' lunch break an hour ago. We keep moving," Damian said over his shoulder as she groaned this time around. I held out my hand for her as she hesitated hopping off the tree trunk. She took it without hesitance and hopped off, only to buckle on the landing and fall on her butt, where she just huffed in annoyance and leaned against the tree trunk that caused her the trouble in the first place.

"Lara, you're freezing cold," I said, grabbing a hold of her hand with both of mine as I kneeled next to her.

"Oh, I've been like that all morning," she said waving if off like it was nothing. Upon closer inspection, she had lost some color, her usual pale skin now extremely livid, bordering on the yellow side. Her lively eyes were now puffy and obviously strained. She looked exhausted, even though she slept well last night.

"You're burning up," I said feeling her forehead and the nape of her neck. She tried to get back up but lacked the energy to do so, and just fell back down.

"Could you help me up please?" She asked as I stood up again.

"You do not look well, Lara, I don't think it wise for you to continue moving," I said as she continued to try to stand back up, only to fall back down.

"Yeah, well tell that to the hothead over there," she said motioning to Damian, who once realizing no one was following him, turned back around and walked over to us.

"What is this?! Doesn't anybody listen to me anymore? I said no to the breaks!" He said clearly annoyed.

"Yes Damian, you've figured it out, no one listens to you," Lara said overdramatically, as he just glared at her.

"Lara is sick, Damian," I stated, trying to keep things civil for at least an hour. An impossible task with these two.

"And how do you know she's not just being difficult," Damian questioned crossing his arms.

"She's yellow. That's a good start," I stated, as if speaking to an idiot.

"Sweetheart, is this really a good time to get sick?" He asked kneeling down to be at eye-level with her. She just glared at him.

"Well sorry, Your Highness. Next time I get sick, I'll make sure it's at a more opportune moment," she said, mimicking him and crossing her arms stubbornly as well. I shook my head, and of the three of us, I am the youngest.

"She can't go on, Damian. Not until we at least know what's wrong with her and she gets better," I said, feeling her forehead again.

"Fine, there's a small clearing up ahead, we'll set up camp there," he said with a loud sigh, picking her up.

---

"You're the doctor, what's wrong with her?" Damian asked after having set her down on a log and wrapped her up in his cloak, a very rare sign of compassion on his part.

"None of it makes sense. She has a burning fever, but she's freezing cold. We could say that the weakness is from lack of food, but its been like this for over a month, why all of a sudden is she falling ill? Starvation shows up within the week. And she was fine this morning, all of this just happened so suddenly. None of it makes sense," I repeated racking the borders of my brain for anything that would explain this.

"Could it be because she's still turning?" Damian questioned. I shook my head.

"Doubtful, we assume that's the reason she was sick back on the ship. She's used to this world now, I doubt its a strong factor anymore," I said.

"I'm right here you know, you could actually be talking about me to me," she said from her spot behind us as she was steadily going through the pile of firewood I picked up and tossing in the lighter twigs into the little fire.

"Alright, what's wrong with you?" Damian blatantly asked, sitting across from her. She shrugged.

"How should I know? I rarely even notice when I hurt myself, unless someone points it out to me. You expect me to know when I'm sick, and what I have on top of that?" She questioned, continuing to pick at the fire with a twig. Damian grabbed her arm suddenly, and she noticeably flinched at the sudden movement.

"What is it?" I asked standing up and looking over his shoulder as he rolled up her sleeve. The veins in her right arm were abnormally dark, purple in color and some were protruding.

"That's not normal," I said looking at her arm, her sleeve completely rolled up and the veins getting darker approaching the shoulder.

"Normal and Lara do not fit in the same sentence. Ever," Damian said sighing heavily.

"Take off your shirt," Damian ordered.

"WHAT?!" Lara and I exclaimed at the same time.

"Whatever's wrong with you is somewhere on your body, so at least pull your shirt off your right shoulder so we can possibly find the source of what's wrong with you," Damian explained. I was blushing furiously as she did what she was told, showing her right side with veins even darker than those in her arm. Damian sat down behind her and looked at her back.

"Sh*t," he muttered, gently pulling her shirt up a bit more. I walked over to stand behind him, to see what was causing this.

"What is it?" Lara asked, turning her head to the side to try to see herself but naturally failing.

"It's a leech," I said, looking at the nasty black annelid stuck to her skin, right between her spine and her right shoulder.

"And a nasty one at that," Damian said leaning back against the tree behind him and glaring at the leech.

"You mean the blood-sucky thingie?" Lara asked, pulling her shirt down and turning to look at us.

"Yeah, the thing they used for bloodletting," Damian said as she nodded.

"Well are you going to take it off before I bleed to death?" She questioned as she watched both of us just sitting there.

"And how do you suppose we do that, sweetheart?" Damian asked, clearly pissed about this new situation.

"Slide your nail under it so the jaw and suckers let go," she said hesitantly, obviously picking up on the fact that it wasn't that simple, not anymore.

"That's how you get a leech off in the living world. Leeches in this world are much worse, much more complicated," I said, sitting down next to her and putting my head in my hands.

"Are you going to explain it to me or am I just going to sit here and guess?" She asked breaking the silence.

"It's complicated," I started.

"Naturally," she cut in.

"Leeches in this world not only suck on your blood, but they also poison it, so when the blood circulates back to the heart, you die. We can't do anything until we have a set plan, but then we can't just sit around waiting for a miracle because that thing is still working on you," Damian explained, putting no sugar over it.

"So if you take it off, the wound will naturally start to bleed profusely, my heart will work harder to try to fix it, and the poison will just kill me. But if we just leave it, the poison will still get to the heart and kill me," She said, basically saying the whole dilemma.

"Basically, yeah," Damian said nodding.

"Is there any win situation in this, or am I just screwed?" She asked, looking between the two of us.

"Do we have any options?" I asked later that night, after making sure that Lara was asleep.

"You know the options," Damian sighed leaning against a tree.

"Do we have any other options?" I alliterated, hoping that there could possibly be one more option.

"Whichever way you spin this, there are only two options," Damian stated.

"Both of which have less than good results," I said, pacing incessantly.

"Yes, but the second has a higher chance of working," Damian said watching me pace around the little area, a bit away from Lara.

"How do you know?" I questioned, not at all happy with this entire situation. I was tempted in blaming Damian for this whole thing about an hour ago. Had he not brought us into this blasted forest, she would not have a leech killing her at this very moment. But realistically, he had been right in bringing her out here, it kept her away from the far greater dangers that the civilized world would have posed. However, we need the civilized world right now, for any chance that Lara might survive tomorrow.

"Look, I don't want to talk about this. We'll put it up with her when she wakes up. For the time being, keep the fire going, I'll go try to find some food," he said coldly, pushing himself off the tree and walking back into the forest. I glared at his back, turning my attention back to Lara. Through the past two months, her heart has stubbornly fought back and kept her alive. Not as alive as a human in the land of the living, nothing close to that, but still alive enough not to classify as dead or undead. If she dies in this world, Lara will forever cease to be, her soul won't go straight to Hell like the souls that die in this world, it will be the same as if a normal person walked through a gate: complete decimation of the being. Something that, in my opinion, should never even be thought of when thinking of Lara.

But if we don't do something and do it fast, Lara might not be here anymore this time tomorrow night.