Arc The Lad Fan Fiction / Arc The Lad Fan Fiction ❯ Road in the Darc ❯ The Warning Shot ( Prologue )

Yay! I've only gotten so far in Arc the Lad, ToS, I just want you to know that. This will have spoilers ! THIS IS NOT THE ANIME, BUT THE GAME! Haha ^__^. This is set when Darc got Nafia and Lilia from the ship and Nafia got shot... however, from there everything's different. For one, Nafia lives (god, she's a cool character, I couldn't bear her dieing) and for two, Darc got shot up at that part too. Haha! I might get some of the words wrong, cause I just rented it and I forgot a lot of the names and stuff... some walkthroughs are helping though.

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Darc closed his eyes as the thud of human bodies rang throughout his ears, ignoring the gasps of the two women behind him. They were just humans, he rationalized, his dragon-like hand moving to rub his birthmark. This was a habit of his that was excercised whenever nervous. Turning away from his newest prey, he opened his ruby eyes to sweep over the two women. He guessed he would have to learn to accept those embarrasing veils that covered his mother's body, so brightly colored that his eyes hurt just thinking of them. Lilia wasn't much better, her attire either red, see through, or blue. Not saying they were barely dressed, like Delma was, more or less that it made him sweat just thinking of how much clothes they wore. The atmosphere around this country was smeltering to begin with.

"Come on" he said, his voice raspy and rough as usual. At times he hated his voice, wishing it was as natural and smooth as other Deimos, yet he took pride in it other times, knowing it was a good way to intimidate his `followers'. True, Volk's voice was raspy, but all Lupine had rough voices. Pushing these thoughts from his head, he turned to look behind him at the girls, who were eyeing him unsurely. Scared of him, were they? Angered at the thought, he turned slightly more, seeing just behind Nafia.

And there was a sight that shot a wave of alarm throughout his body. One of the Dilzweld soldiers was raising his pistol, aiming straight at Nafia. If he had never met the woman before, if he had been full Deimos he would've disregarded the emotions running through him. But even with the anger he held from this woman, no, the hatred, he was worried, and did the first thing he could think of.

Darc was beside her in a second, just as the ringing bang of the bullet being shot echoed in his ears, able to hear it seconds before the humans could. He pushed her out of the way, and the bullet lodged in Nafia's shoulder, rather than her lower back, where it would've. Growling in frustration, he drew his sword and made his way slowly but surely to the human. Even with the little strength that the soldier had, he pushed himself onto his haunches and shot again, the bullet shooting through Darc's middle. It was a light wound, compared to the still shallow claw marks from Delma's betrayel not long ago.But the agent that the weapon was made of caused the wound to sting, the skin around it turning into bright red from irritation just afterward.

It didn't take long for the half Deimos to stick his sword through the stomach of his attacker, too worried about Nafia to relish in the blood that flowed from the soldier's mouth. That was what Deimos enjoyed, right?

As he turned to the two women, he found Lilia tieing one of her ripped off see-through sleeves around the woman's shoulder. Darc growled in annoyance, moving to the two girls to throw the sash back open. "Stupid human, the weapon is still in there." He found her skin inflamed as much as his own, if not more, so he carefully used his clawed hand to remove the bullet. It wasn't in deep enough to cause major bleeding by removing it, the bullet having entered at a slight angle. Satisfied, he retied the sash and stood up, ignoring the shooting pain in his stomach. Was the bullet still inside, or had it gone straight through as he had thought?

"Darc, you're wounded!" Nafia exclaimed, pushing herself up with her good arm. "I know, human, it's not that bad." He rolled his eyes at her lateness, sheathing his sword once more without even wiping the blood from it. It would be stained by the time he got to it. "First, we need to get out of here, then I have to find somewhere to leave you." His previous worry was gone, and he shot a cold look to Nafia. She frowned slightly, then seemed to come up with an idea. "We can go to Yewbell, Darc... that's the village I live in, and I can care for your wound properly."

Lilia looked between them, biting her lip, before touching Darc's arm lightly. "Darc, please?"

What, was that supposed to make him sentimental or something? Darc couldn't help but be reminded of how Lilia acted so arrogant, not as much as Delma, but so sure of herself. She wasn't special, the only reason he saved her was because he owed her. Slightly angry, the half deimos growled warningly at her, before he noticed the alarm stop flashing. It seemed that no one had caught on to the fact they were there. "Alright" He agreed, moving at a light jog towards the exit.

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Back in Yewbell. Finally. Nafia took in a deep breath as she walked into the town. She had convinced Darc to let them approach from the opposite side of the city. Of course, the road there was much longer, but she worried of the people in the city attacking him because of his Deimos appearance. Biased, yes, but for good reason. Knowing the people in Yewbell, they hated Deimos, and bringing one into town would result in getting Darc killed in a time of weakness. Of course, he wouldn't admit it, but as they had neared ruins he had collapsed, before struggling to push himself back up.

He was bleeding badly, and Lilia was still in the ruins roughly patching it up. Once inside, Nafia would take care of the bullet and then her own wound. She suspected that there was a poison on the bullet, maybe some dangerous dust that had infected him. All that ailed her was the throbbing in her arm and the red tenderness of the skin around it. And he had taken it out before it could truly hurt her. Moving to her house, she pushed open the door and took out the medical supplies. She would have to get Darc back to moderate health by the time Kharg came home. She knew that the Dilzweld army wouldn't be able to complete their plan without the Wind Stone and Lilia.

She would also have to leave Yewbell, to another country entirely or the army would attack them. But if Darc and Kharg fought together, maybe...

Ignoring this, she moved back to the door. It was nightime, since they had taken more time to get home. Luckily, most of the people were at home asleep, and the only people awake would be the people at the pub, who wouldn't be walking by her house. A few minutes later, Lilia and Darc came stumbling into the village, and Nafia moved to help them. Darc glared at her, growling roughly, but she ignored him. She didn't worry about him hurting her, he had gotten himself hurt saving her before. Didn't that mean that, despite his hatred for her, he felt obligated to take care of her, even long enough to chew her out?

She had to admit that she felt guilty that he had turned out like he did. Yes, he was a handsome boy, but she saw the scars all over his body, and she knew it was because of his appearance. As Kharg grew up, she had worried of him being hurt if the villagers found out he was part Deimos, but he had grown up with nothing but the birthmark and slightly pointed ears. And because Darc grown up in Deimos territory, his Drakyr scales were apparent, long brown horns inherited from his father sproute from his head, yet they weren't insanely long, just long enough. His hair was soft an silky, her hands running along some of it as she supported him into the building. His back was scarred with three stab marks, evenly split, a recent wound. And then there were two large gashes on his shoulder blades, which were healed over but still new wounds. Had he had wings at one point?

As soon as the got inside, she shut and locked the door, and windows. She would tell the inhabitants of the village as soon as Darc was all better. Then she told Lilia to take him into Kharg's room. She followed soon after.

The whole house was still the same as she had left it just the day before, a very light sheen of dust on the wood in the room was the only sign of no previous life that day. Darc reluctantly sat on the comfy bed, scrunching his eyes and tensing in a sudden spasm of pain as his abdomen folded into the sitting position. "Lie down." She instructed, pulling the armor bands off his arm and legs, his sandles were soon disposed of, and then his chest armor was lay on the floor beside the bed.

He shot Nafia a look, but did as she asked, seeming a bit relieved as the inflamed muscles stretched back into their normal places. Nafia untied the hasty bandage, made from Lilia's other sleeve, and she took a look. The skin at the edges of the wound were blackened. Poison. The skin around that was purple, the force of the bullet from near point blank causing an angry bruise. Around that, the skin was reddened, then faded back to tan. Nafia took a lotion from her medical kit and smoothed it over the wound, causing a painful hiss to come from Darc.

"Shhh." She soothed, putting a small hand over his clawed one, before she took another thin liquid from the box, covering her hands with it. Then she took a dagger and covered it in the same liquid. Darc's eyes opened, since they had screwed shut earlier, and he eyed the dagger suspiciously. Did he really think she'd hurt him? "I have to get the bullet out, as you explained earlier." He seemed relieved by her reply, and settled down once more. She put the edge of the dagger into his wound, carefully as she could, and tried to judge how far the bullet was in. Quite deep. She pulled the dagger back, and looked at Lilia with a worried look on her face.

"Turn onto your stomach, Darc." She told him. He opened his eyes, sitting up slowly to growl at her. "What the hell are you doing NOW?"

"It's too deep, I have to cut in from your back." Lilia gaped at Nafia, then made a strangled noise. "But wouldn't that hurt him more?!" she questioned, pulling at the hem of Nafia's sleeve. Nafia looked grimly at her son, before she took his hand in hers, caressing it with her thumb. "Trust me, it's that or go through a lot of organs first.

Darc closed his eyes in thought, creases of worry on his forehead as his scaled hand shook hers off to rub his birthmark. "Alright, but you better not kill me, woman."

Lilia excused herself from the room, and Nafia started.

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How's that for an introduction? I don't know much about medical stuffs, and I would've made her use tweezers but I dunno if her village would have those... -makes a face- anyway, this isn't a chapter, but an intro... please review soon!