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It was excruciating and took many sleeps, but it was done. Long stretches of getting worse before getting better had torn Tiso away from standing up much longer than he wished.
He was finally standing without needing to lean heavily on Quirrel or the caves walls. At long last he was getting slightly better.
“Now all you have to do is walk. Try slowly, okay?” Quirrel’s hands were hovering ready to catch him.
“I assumed I was going to stand here my whole life.” Tiso joked a bit, not making Quirrel laugh.
Tiso looked at the floor trying to focus his eyes. That effort bore no fruit as the rocks below continued to look like flat terrain. He took a step and stumbled. He stuck out his right hand to balance himself with Quirrel putting a hand on his back to keep him from falling backwards.
“Easy now. Easy.” Quirrel tried to ease him into slower steps but Tiso just kept going. He shambled forward and he was guided to the cave’s exit.
Tiso leaned against it and looked ahead. It was definitely the Kingdom’s Edge. He could tell by the smells even through his tattered hood. All he could see was gray and bits of black.
“I can't tell where anything is.” Tiso looked concerned and was startled when Quirrel pulled his hood back so his antennae could peek out better.
“Hey-”
“It should help your senses adjust faster. It's no eyesight but it’ll help, trust me on that.” Quirrel spoke quickly to shoot down any argument.
Tiso’s antennae were much more perked up than Quirrel had seen before and it seemed like they were doing their job.
“We’re going to be heading to the tram. Our small friend left their tram pass with me, intending to meet up with us at the stag station of the town of Dirtmouth to retrieve it.”
Tiso hummed. He’d get to meet with the little squib again. Perhaps they were owed some thanks.
Tiso pushed against the wall and started walking wobbly again. He stopped after a few steps and said, “Which way?”
Quirrel watched his unsteady stance and shook his head. “Can I hold your hand?”
“Absolutely not.” Tiso answered quickly. The decline made Quirrel think even faster.
“How about you hold my elbow? Guiding you will be much easier.”
Tiso thought for a moment, squinting at the nothingness he saw. He sighed, and reached blindly towards Quirrel. Quirrel could tell he had a very vague understanding on how far away he was. Once they locked arms, Tiso’s antennae were practically touching him.
“You smell literally like a rock.”
“I’ll take that as a strange compliment.”
The walk became much easier, but Quirrel still took it slow for safety purposes. Tiso stumbled when he stepped on rocks, thankful the hold was strong. If he could he’d hold on with both hands. The unconscious feeling bothered him immensely.
He wanted to move his arm but the will couldn't connect into action.
He uncomfortably shifted his shoulder, gripping tighter as Quirrel helped him down off a steeper hill.
Tiso couldn't help but stare at Quirrel. He couldn't make out any of the features on his face, so he asked.
“What do you look like?”
Quirrel hummed, thinking while they made their way down the dark trails of the deep Edge.
“I’m around your height, if not a smidge taller. I am a pillbug with a blue shell. I have a rather plain mask with two simple holes. I’m a touch fat and I wear a deep blue bandana around my head to protect my antennae as you do.”
“Sounds nice.” Tiso admitted, making Quirrel look away in a smile. Tiso couldn’t see, but he could hear the little laugh Quirrel tended to do whenever he was smiling. Quirrel’s laugh turned to a sigh as he looked down at the scraping bugs on a jump below. He up and ignored the bees and booflies who were somehow slower than an injured bug and his cohort. These were unignorable.
“This will have to be a jump. We can step over the rest. I’m a touch worried about your crack rebreaking from impact, though...Hm…”
Tiso listened to the skittering and screeching below, trying to look at it made his head spin from the quickly moving colors. Pain seared behind his eyes.
“How far is the jump?”
“...About 2-3 arms length but that's a very rough estimation.” Quirrel’s arm tightened around Tiso’s arm, begging him not to do anything risky.
“I can make it.”
“Are you certain?”
Tiso steeled himself, blinking hard for a moment. “Yes. I made it this far: I can make a measly three arm jump.”
Quirrel looked down at the jump. “I’ll try to catch you and make the impact as soft as possible, alright?”
Quirrel was able to carry Tiso with ease. He had carried Tiso to the cave, wrapped in a blanket Ghost had found (stole?) from somewhere deeper in the Resting Grounds, but he felt Tiso would refuse it if he was conscious.
“Gotcha.” Tiso nodded. Quirrel held his arm tightly, and said, “On three, I want you to jump as hard as you can forward.”
Tiso readied himself as Quirrel made the count.
“One! Two!”
Their feet left the ground as Quirrel yelled “Three!”
Sightlessness and weightlessness was a strange feeling to Tiso and it lasted mere seconds. Quirrel’s arms wrapped around him but his feet still hit the ground much to his torso’s chagrin.
“Augh!” Tiso yelped as his shell clicked, the lower part of the crack moving backwards a bit. Quirrel stuck his landing and helped Tiso not double over. Last thing they wanted was the crack to go deeper in. He grabbed both of Tiso’s forearms while Tiso wrapped one around his stomach.
“You’re okay, it’s okay, it's not bad!” Quirrel tried to ease the gasping ant. Tiso tried very hard to stay on his feet and straighten the shell without sitting. Quirrel moved to try to get him to sit but Tiso jerked his left shoulder again.
“I got- hah- '' Tiso forced his back to straighten and his shell clicked once more. Thankfully the force moved it in the opposite direction for the better. “Ah- Ah.” Tiso breathed for a moment.
“I'm- okay.” Tiso said through gritted mandibles.
“Do you need to rest?”
“I’ll rest on the tram.”
“You can rest now. It’s literally fine.”
“I can make it-” Tiso took another step forward and was startled when Quirrel grabbed his left arm to steady him. He couldn't feel the grip at all but the tug pulsed through the parts of the arm he could feel, sending shocks of numbness up his arm.
“Switch sides, that feels too strange.” Quirrel did as told, letting their arms lock again. Quirrel sighed, and kept leading the way.
“Take a long stride here, careful.” Quirrel warned. The two men stepped over the remaining gaps of maws without Tiso sticking his feet in to be untimely stripped of him as well, so that was a win.
They continued the walk to the tram, both of them eager to get there just to sit. “Have you ever rode on a Tram before?”
“No. I feel a Warrior should carry themselves to battle.” He didn't add that he was well aware that they weren't going to battle. He hoped they weren't. Not yet, once he was back to full strength though?
“So I take it you’ve never rode a stag before either.”
“That would be correct.” Tiso mumbled. He could tell they entered somewhere quite cold, antennae moving down.
Quirrel removed the tram pass from within his bandana and swiped it at the calling station. The light on it glew, and Tiso grabbed onto Quirrel tighter when the ground started to shake.
“WHATS GOING ON?” He called over the loud metallic swinging of the tram rushing in.
“IT'S OKAY, IT'S JUST THE TRAM!” Quirrel’s raised voice barely eased Tiso’s fear of the unknown.
The loud noises stopped with time. The tram door opened with a soft click. Tiso’s head still felt tense and aching. He wanted to put his hand against his face but he couldn’t. He settled for trying to rub his head against his left shoulder while Quirrel led him to the door.
“Big step, easy.” Quirrel watched Tiso’s attempts to put pressure on his face. He led Tiso to a seat and could finally let him go. Immediately Tiso’s right hand found his face, giving the space between his eyes rubs. Quirrel watched Tiso’s attempts to get comfortable, hovering near the start button for the tram.
Once he finished rubbing his face, Tiso felt the gauze marking his arm’s dexterity and glared at it. He was attempting to move it again, surely.
Quirrel looked at his left arm, stiffly taking up empty space at his side and noted “I know, when we get out of here hopefully we can find someone willing and able to do your...operation..”
Tiso put his hand in his lap and argued. “I don’t know who’d do that to be quite honest.” Tiso thought for a moment, then got an idea.
“Give me your nail. I can do it myself right here right now.”
“ Excuse me?” Quirrel pointed at him despite gestures not working in communication.
“Give me your nail and I’ll take care of it.” Tiso extended his hand in no sure direction.
“Absolutely not! That’s asinine! You’re still recovering!” Quirrel swiped his hand, putting his hand on the heel of his nail.
Tiso made a fist and gave the side of his tram seat a bat with it. “Nobody else will do it! You won’t do it! Let me do it!” Tiso added, a touch quieter “It’s not like I’ll feel it.”
“We’re in a dirty tram! You can’t see, and even if you could I wouldn’t let you perform hacksaw surgery on yourself!”
Quirrel drew his nail and said, “I'm putting this where you won’t be able to get it!” He put it in the opposite corner of the tram, the furthest point away from Tiso. He heard Tiso grumble to himself as he made his way to press the glowing button. He slapped it, and held onto the bar close to Tiso to keep himself from falling as the tram burst to life again. It wasn’t much quieter than the outside, but Quirrel was able to lean in a bit and ask, “Are you even right handed?”
“No.”
“Ambidextrous?”
“No...”
Quirrel felt a touch guilty. The rest of the tram ride was without conversation. When the tram stopped, Quirrel helped Tiso up. He decided to leave his nail inside the tram in case Tiso got any ideas. It wouldn’t be stolen by anything in this Basin because as far as their little friend told them all that inhabited this area were slow crawlers.
He didn’t think anything like that would be interested in an expensive nail.
“Oh gods, why does this place smell like dirty water and oil…” Tiso complained the second they stepped out, antennae shivering due to the chill.
“I don’t exactly know...” Quirrel answered, not saying he just didn't remember. He gave Tiso a warning about the steepness of the basin as they made their way down.
The basin was deep, but not large. Especially with the directions Quirrel was given, it was mainly a long straight walk after a few hills.
“Metal?” Tiso questioned the sensation against their feet when they got to the Palace Ground. He scraped his foot against it for a brief moment, but they both kept moving.
“This is the ruined palace of the pale beings. I think the king took any means to make his light the brightest. Even if that meant paving the way to his palace in highly reflective metal.” Quirrel theorized, almost imagining the king walking this path with his searing light shining as if a wall of white was behind him. He could almost remember what it looked like before, but his grounded hold of Tiso kept him in the present.
Tiso looked down and saw nothing but glistening silver. “I’ll take your word for it.” Quirrel hummed, guiding Tiso around the crumbled armor. Quirrel tried not to look at it for too long because being here made him confused enough as is.
They passed the wall that seemed blown open and Quirrel had to help Tiso not walk face first into the bell. Quirrel gave it a prolonged ring, startling Tiso.
Their arms locked tighter at the rumbling of the stag. Quirrel greeted the stag with a little wave when he screeched to a stop.
“Hello there, how curious to find two traveling so deep in the bottom of the world.” The stag looked between Quirrel and Tiso, and took in Tiso’s still healing injuries and distant looking eyes shaking while attempting to take in the large stag.
“Oh, it’s you. I remember you resting in the Crossroads not long ago, resenting the idea of using the stagways. My services are always open to all...Are you alright, though?”
The stag leaned down a bit, old legs shaking. He looked closer at Tiso, as if his eyes were failing him too.
“Wounds of battle, earned you know!” Tiso defended himself, not directly answering that question.
“He could be better.” Quirrel answered for him. The stag gave a gruff hum, and addressed Quirrel.
“Well, I’m here to help travel, not bother. Where are you two needing to go?”
“Dirtmouth, please. We have company and urgent procedures to have safely done.” Quirrel moved to hop on, but then realized he wasn’t certain if Tiso could go up. Jumping down was one thing, going up was another. He could jump far and gravity did the rest. Could Tiso even physically pull himself up?
“Stag sir, is it possible for you to kneel down? Tiso cannot see and his abdomen is quite cracked. Pulling himself up with one arm may prove impossible. It’d be in his best nature for your backseats to be closer to our level.”
Before Tiso could even possibly stubbornly argue, the Stag knelt before him. “I don’t need him to kneel. If I’m using these lines, I won’t be pitied.”
“Tiso the bug’s already knelt. The polite thing to do would be to have some respect for the elderly’s knees and get on.”
Quirrel climbed on, grabbing Tiso’s hand to pull the terse bug into the seat. He had to awkwardly maneuver himself so he’d still be on Tiso’s right hand side. The purpose of being in the back was for Tiso to have a better, bigger thing to hold on to but he wanted to make sure Tiso could still hold his arm.
“Ready?” The stag asked, slowly rising to his full height.
“Yes, please try to take it easy on the bumps.” Quirrel asked kindly.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Thank you very much, sir.”
The stag started to speed forward, pushing them both back in the seat. Tiso hummed uncomfortably at the wind in their faces. If Tiso was feeling physically better, he’d probably enjoy the rush.
“At least the ride is fast.” Quirrel gave Tiso a pat on the shoulder. Once he put down his hand, Tiso’s fingers interlaced with his. Quirrel was a bit shocked at this, looking up at Tiso who was just staring forward.
Quirrel smiled a bit, giving the hand a small squeeze. “You’re okay.”
As the stagways curved and moved them up towards the surface, Quirrel thought about how soon Tiso would be back in bed recovering. Annoyed at himself for not being fine and able. Quirrel wanted to be there to make sure things were fine. They would be.
“I’ll make sure of it”
The two left the station hand in hand (after gently helping Tiso off the stag) to ask for some assistance and meet with their dear friend.
Quirrel enjoyed the hold, as he knew when Tiso noticed he would pull away or lock their arms instead.
For now, they held hands. It was all he needed as he walked Tiso from the calm to a new storm.