Lila lived a mile from the Aeon Mercenary headquarters. Tyrell's sister was very close to her, so Tyrell would come to help out from time to time. Today, he just had some yard work to do. Alec, the Aeon recruit, was not at all happy.
"Why do you even bother, Commander? The soil here is so rocky and barren everything will die anyway." Tyrell did not turn to him. "It is the effort that counts. That is all that counts on the battlefield. You will win, you will lose; it only matters how hard you try. You say that the plants will die? You don't know until you try."
Alec just shook his head. He looked off into the distance, longing for something better. "I became an Aeon to fight, not garden."
"An Aeon's duty is to the people. If then need a guardian, we take up the sword. If they need a farmer, then by Q'Rohda's name we'll take up the spade." Tyrell dug the pick into the soft earth another time to prove his point. Alec swallowed his pride and angrily drove his shovel into the earth. He struck a rock.
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"That was a pointless day! All we did was plant flowers and dig holes!"
"We also built a fence and helped that old man weed his garden and chased off those wild dogs." Alec was fuming now. Tyrell and he had been working for at least five hours. The sun had started to set and the lanterns around the city were being lit. "Today was a learning experience Alec." He huffed.
"I'll buy dinner. There is a great pub not to far from here. And the food ain't too bad either!" Tyrell laughed a great belly laugh as Alec stormed off ahead of him. Alec paused. A group of kids were playing on a roof. The falt roof had a rail to protect them from falling.
"Peace still exists deep inside the veil of war, does it not." Alec was shocked by Tyrell's ability to change moods at the drop of a hat. "It does..."
Suddenly, disaster. A boy of about twelve years ran into the rail at full speed. The blow bent the rail back. He fell three stories unhindered by anything or anyone onto the hard dirt road. Alec sprinted off in that direction. Tyrell was close behind him.
"He's bleeding badly. At least three broken ribs, definite internal damage, fractured femur." Alec mutter to himself as he began to clean and dress the wounds as quickly as he could. The bandages kept falling off. "What's the point, Alec? Look at all the blood, he's already gone."
"I wont let him die! Not when I can help."
"But your bandages are not working."
"Fine then, I'll use magic!" Alec removed his gloves and placed his hands on the boy's wound. After saying the ceremonial chant, his hand began to glow a pale grey. But nothing happened. "His wounds are mortal, Alec. You can do nothing."
"Why the grudge?! Okay, I get it, you are getting payback! But we can save him!"
"No we can't! Don't you see? His wounds are bleeding too fast to bandage, and the breaks are too bad to fix with Light based magic. We can't save him, but we can try."
"And what's the difference!?" Tyrell walked over and touched the boy's forehead. "It's all a matter of perception." Tyrell's hands began to glow. The right hand glowed green, and the left one began to glow with a sky blue hue.
The blood stopped pouring out and the boy's breaks began to see themselves together. "Best bandage that while you can." Alec jumped to action and quickly wrapped the wound.
The two stood back as the parents wept over their son. "We lost him..." Tyrell watched the tears. "You will win and lose sometimes. Today we lost."
"If I had been more level-headed -"
"He would still have died. Alec, you and I did all we could."
"We should have been able to save him. We had to save him."
"It matters not the outcome, but that you tried anyway." Alec dropped to a knee and punched the ground. "If I can't save a boy, how can I save my comrades!?"
"You try, just like you tried to save that boy!" The father came up to Alec and Tyrell. "We're you the ones that tried to save my son?"
"Yes sir." The man held out his hand towad Tyrell. "You tried...that's..that..." The man fought back tears as he went to rejoin his wife. "Our spells should wear off soon." Alec shot a glare up at him. "I put him in a death state just so you could wrap that wound. He will wake up soon." Alec's tears returned as tears of joy. "He's?"
"I didnt think it would work, but while you are wrapping that wound, you still had your magic in effect. That last boost of magic was all he needed to recover."
"But why did you not help me at first."
"It was a test." The two men looked at the family, who were now weeping with happiness.
"And you passed Alec."
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