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The hunt was meant to be easy— Take out some relatively weak daemons, be in and out of the grove as fast as possible.
Unfortunately, the tipster had been wrong with their info, and an ambush from a group of high level daemons have left Noctis in his current predicament: Suspended mid-air, a daemon’s tusk pinning him against a nearby cliff.
As he comes in and out of consciousness, Noctis only registers a few things: 1. Gladio and Ignis have disappeared, 2. Prompto is crying hysterically in the middle of a hoard of daemons, and 3. Noctis can feel blood dripping down his body, wetting his socks and staining his skin red.
Noctis tries to shift to grab a potion from the Armiger, or maybe a ranged weapon to help out Prompto, but the movement of his arm causes his whole body to shift around the tusk in his torso, and he screams out in agony. He tries to fix his position to minimize the pain, but the pressure of the tusk directly against his ribs temporarily paralyzes him.
This is it, he thinks.
He’s really going to die this time, for real. Ignis and Gladio are nowhere to be seen, Prompto’s stuck under one of the daemons’ spells, and the only thing stopping Noctis from bleeding out is the tusk currently piercing through his torso.
As Noctis’ vision begins to fade, he hears the familiar sound of an Imperial airship’s engine roaring. He groans in a mixture of frustration and agony. The last thing he needs right now is Imperials.
“Shiva’s sake— How the fuck did you manage this one, Highness?”
If Noctis’ lungs weren’t currently a few centimeters away from being stabbed, he’d have breathed a heavy sigh of relief at the sound of Aranea’s voice.
“Hey, Shortcake— What’s up with you?” Aranea shouts at Prompto, and Noctis doesn’t have the strength in him to inform her of the daemon’s effects. She seems to put the pieces together herself, though, and picks Prompto up off the ground. She leaps high into the air, landing behind some nearby brush in the grove. She sets Prompto down, just out of sight, and leaps back over to the daemons.
It doesn’t take long for Aranea to wipe out the remaining daemons. The others had managed to deal at least a bit of damage to them before getting taken out, and even if they hadn’t— Aranea’s skills in battle are pretty unparalleled. Noctis mentally thanks the Six for her impeccable timing.
“Hey, prince!” Aranea calls out. “I’m gonna make sure Prompto’s okay and find your buddies.”
Noctis’ eyes widen in pure terror at the prospect of being left on his own like this.
“Hey, hey— I’m not going far,” Aranea reassures. “I don’t think I can get you down on my own, and the second that tusk is out of you, it’s gonna be a race against time to stop you from bleeding out— Understand?”
Noctis nods weakly.
“Good. I’m getting your buddies, and then we’ll get you down from there.” With that, Aranea leaps up into the air, surveying the ground for any trace of Gladio or Ignis. She frowns when she realizes neither of them appear to be nearby. “Hey, any idea where they could be?”
Noctis shakes his head weakly, and Aranea huffs out a sigh as she lands on the ground once again. After a moment of thought, she tilts her head back and groans in frustration.
“Shit. There was a naga slithering around, wasn’t there?” she says, mostly to herself. She sighs again, glancing down at the ground. “Great. This manhunt just became a frog-hunt.”
Under any other circumstances, Noctis may have found Gladio and Ignis’ predicament comical; but given his current position, he doesn’t think he could laugh even if he wanted to.
Luckily, Aranea’s frog-hunt doesn’t last very long. As she searches the ground, two particularly loud frogs leap onto her feet, croaking incessantly and hopping up and down on her boots. She sighs.
“There you are.” Aranea leans down and picks Ignis and Gladio up, placing them on either of her shoulders. “You guys are so lucky I happened to be nearby.”
Gladio croaks angrily at that, and Aranea bops him gently on the head.
“Cool it, big guy. No offense, but you’re not particularly helpful right now.”
If frogs could glare, Gladio most certainly would be glaring at Aranea right now. She huffs out a laugh and heads off to find Prompto, who hasn’t moved from the brush since Aranea left him there.
“Hey, Shortcake— Daemons are gone. Time to grab the prince and get the hell out of here.”
Prompto doesn’t respond to that. He simply stares up at Aranea with wide eyes, looking a whole lot like a lost puppy. Aranea sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“Okay— I’m sure this is all really confusing to you right now, because I’m assuming one of the daemons messed with your head. But,” Aranea kneels down to Prompto’s level, “I’m here to help you, ‘kay? I need your help saving Noctis, because the big guy and Specs aren’t able to right now. Think you can manage that?”
Prompto doesn’t look any less confused, but nods nonetheless. Aranea stands up, pulling Prompto up with her. As they walk back towards the cliff, Prompto leans against Aranea for support, nearly crushing Gladio in the process. Aranea sighs.
Tonight is going to be an incredibly long night at this rate.
“Alright, highness.” Aranea cracks her knuckles, looking up at Noctis to figure out a game plan. “Time to get you down from there. Think you can hang in there a few more minutes?”
“Don’t have much of a choice in the matter,” Noctis mumbles weakly, and Aranea belatedly realizes her choice of words was less than ideal. She shakes her head, looking over to Prompto.
“Shortcake— I’m gonna get Noctis down. The second we’re on the ground, I need you to give him a hi-potion, got it?”
Prompto nods dazedly. He just barely manages to summon a hi-potion from the Armiger, and Aranea takes a shaky breath.
With Prompto in this state, she’s not entirely sure this plan is going to work, but either way, Noctis is at serious risk. She sighs, shaking her head and steeling herself. She sets Gladio and Ignis on top of a nearby rock despite their croaks of protest.
“Alright— You ready, Prompto?” Aranea asks, and Prompto gives her a weak thumbs up, only half paying attention. She tries not to think too hard about how worrying that is given their current situation.
“For the Six’s sake, can you please hurry up?” Noctis asks, glaring miserably at Aranea. She sighs, gritting her teeth and preparing to leap up to Noctis despite her reluctance.
“I’ve gotcha, kid.” With that, Aranea jumps up to Noctis, jamming her spear into the side of the cliff to hold her position. “This is gonna hurt like hell, fair warning.”
“No shit,” Noctis breathes out, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth in anticipation.
“Sorry, kid,” is all the warning Aranea gives before wrapping her free arm around Noctis and pulling him off of the tusk. She tries her best to ignore his scream of agony as she lets go of her spear, falling back to the ground with Noctis in her arms. “Prompto, now!”
Despite his daze, Prompto manages to break open the hi-potion over Noctis’ torso. Noctis groans in pain as the potion does its job, mending the gaping hole in his torso and stopping the rush of blood.
“The potion’s only gonna stop the bleeding and stitch you up,” Aranea says, adjusting her grip on Noctis. “You’re seriously gonna have to take it easy for a while. That injury’s gonna hurt like a bitch.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Noctis mumbles, voice cracking. Aranea sighs.
“C’mon, kid. Let’s get you back to the motel.”
“How’d you know we were staying at a motel?” Noctis questions.
“I have my ways,” Aranea responds, shrugging as much as she can with Noctis in her arms. “Hey, Shortcake. Grab your buddies. We’re outta here.”
Prompto blinks, gesturing vaguely at the frogs.
“Yeah. Those buddies,” Aranea confirms. Prompto nods, gingerly picking up Ignis and Gladio. He holds them close to his chest, as if he’s afraid of dropping them. “What’s with blondie?”
“Daemon inflicted him with confusion,” Noctis replies, confirming Aranea’s suspicions. “I think it’s worn off a little bit, but he’s still out of it.”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Aranea grumbles, glancing over at Prompto, who is leaning against her side as they walk and mumbling incoherencies to Gladio and Ignis. “How long do you thing Toadio and Frognis will be stuck like that?“
Ignis and Gladio croak angrily at the nicknames, but Aranea chooses to ignore them.
“Not sure,” Noctis says. “Usually wears off within a few hours.”
Aranea nods, continuing the walk to the motel in relative silence. She’s been rendered too exhausted to make any sort of meaningful conversation.
-
The situation at the motel is less than ideal, to say the least.
The boys had, apparently, not had enough gil on them to afford a larger room. There’s only one double bed and a pull-out couch, and Aranea realizes that sleeping arrangements for the night are going to be horrible.
Given his injury, Noctis gets the bed to himself by default. Aranea assigns Prompto to the cot, so he can at least get some semi-decent rest to sleep off the confusion. Gladio and Ignis are given a random Tupperware from the front desk filled with water from the bathroom sink, because Aranea has no idea how to care for frogs, and quite frankly would rather not deal with a dried out Gladio and Ignis.
Aranea resigns to a pile of blankets and pillows on the floor. She’ll regret it in the morning when her back hurts like hell, but she figures Noctis and Prompto need the beds more than she does.
Under better circumstances, she would have simply dipped and returned to her base. But with Ignis and Gladio stuck as frogs, she worries what might happen if Noctis’ injury worsens and Prompto is too confused to help.
And so, Aranea spends the night on the gross motel floor, falling into a half-sleep to the sound of frogs croaking and Noctis playing his mobile game.
Somehow, it’s better than most nights she’s spent cooped up in Niflheim bases.