I cradled Nyo against my chest. He felt so small, so fragile. I wanted to protect him forever. Which was weird since I'd only just met him. I would've liked to stay like this forever. If only he wasn't bleeding all over my clothes.

He was still stiff in my embrace but it was better than before. I slowly started rocking him back and forth. He relaxed ever so slightly in my hold. I ran my thumb softly across his cheek, drying the tear stains which were still there.

He looked up at me, confusion filled his gaze. Maybe he was wondering why I was hugging him, or why I was trying to help. I didn't know, didn't ask.

"Hey...is it okay if I call you by your name," I asked him. He nodded. "Alright, can you tell me where the worst wounds are?" "D-don't k-know," he whispered softly. "Okay…, is it okay if I take of your cloak so I can clean your wounds?"

He shook his head. "Do you want to take it of yourself?" Silence. "Don't look," he mumbled before moving out of my hold. I turned around and stood up. "I'll go check on my team while you undress okay, just call me when you're ready," I told him.

"Thank you," I softly heard behind me before I walked out of the cave. The moment I came outside the girls rushed up to me. "Did he come out?" "Did he talk with you?" "Is it bad?" "Will he be okay?" "Can we go inside now?"

"Yes, yes, don't know, don't know, no," I sighed. Why are they always so energetic? “Girls calm down a bit please.” Luckily my right hand man Semion stepped in. I nodded to him as thanks.

I quickly told everyone what had happened in the cave and that I was able to get him to accept our help. We talked for a bit and decided to stay here for the night. We walked back into the cave but I told them to stay near the side of the cave where the entrance was. Then I waited for Nyo to call me.

After what I think was about 3 minutes he called out to me in a quiet voice. When I got to where he was seated on the ground, I kneeled down beside him. Even though there was little light, I could still see some of the wounds.

They looked gruesome, especially the ones on his back. He shivered and I decided it was time to start checking and caring for his wounds.

“Okay this will hurt but I’m going to clean and rub ointments onto the wounds on your back okay?” I asked him. He nodded and I took some water out of my bag and proceeded to pour some onto his wounds. He shivered again.

When I found most of the wounds were clean enough I took the ointments out of my bag and rubbed some on my hands. Then I carefully put my hands on his back. The moment I made contact with his skin he yelped and moved away from me.

“I’m sorry but I need to be able to touch you or else I can’t help,” I told him while moving his way. “Can I try again?” He nodded so I put my hands back where I touched him before and after he didn’t flinch away, I began rubbing it on the wounds.

I was really curious to how he got those wounds. I wanted to ask him but knew I probably shouldn’t… “How did you even get wounds like these? Who in their right mind would hurt someone like that?” …What can I say, my curiosity betrayed me.

He stayed quiet and for a while I thought he wouldn’t answer but then he took a deep breath and whispered something.

“What did you say?” I asked. “Attack,” he whispered again. “Someone attacked you? Do you know who it was?” He shook his head. “Not a person.” My eyes widened. “Did you get attacked by demons!? How are you still…?” I stopped unable to finish my sentence.

“To…many…q-questions, head hurts.” he whispered back. “Sorry, I’ll be quiet now, just tell me if it hurts to much, okay?” “Hmmm”

I continued cleaning and rubbing creams on his wounds, until I was quite satisfied with my work. Then I moved onto his chest so I could wrap his whole upper body, except the arms, in bandages at the same time.

After a while he started leaning more and more against my hands, so I moved closer to him so I could support his body with mine.

“Does it still hurt as much?” I asked him. He shook his head, “little better.” “That’s good, just relax, I’ll take care of the rest of the wounds while you are asleep.” He jolted upright and quickly scrambled away from me, proceeding to fall over and scream out in pain.

I ran to his side and cursed when I saw some of the wounds had opened up again. I very carefully took his shaking form into my arms and shushed him. This was going to be a long night.