[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Despite Muroki's nudges, Delano remained still. Umeme frowned, not knowing what was going on. "Lina, what happened?" she asked, "he was fine when we were walking... he might be asleep, but then he would have woken up by now." Afraid to prod him herself, Umeme watched as Muroki again tried to wake his brother up. But no matter what they tried, Delano wouldn't move or react in any way, making Umeme starting to doubt that he was simply resting.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki also frowned as a result of the confusion that took over him. For one thing Delano was still breathing, but on the other side he wasn't waking up when Muroki kept nudging him. "He must have passed out." one didn't need to be an expert in order to figure it out. "We should have known that he wouldn't stop to rest again if he needed to." the way he knew Delano, it looked like his brother simply overworked himself. Walking over to the waterhole, Muroki filled his mouth with water before returning and using the water on his brother's face. While he doubted that his brother was in any sort of a danger, he didn't like seeing Luna so concerned and decided to try and wake Delano up another way.

[DGFone]

When Muroki splashed the water on Delano, Umeme sighed in relief when she heard him groan, signaling that he was waking up. Things were looking like they will be all right after all.

Delano was forced awake when the water hit his face, and he let out a low groan of pain as his feeling started to come back to him. Not only did his leg feel as though it was on fire, but now his head felt like it shrunk significantly. He slowly opened his eyes, trying to see through the blurriness in his vision. "What... what happened?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper. He could see faces in front of him, but he couldn't focus too well to make them out yet.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki carefully looked at his brother as he drifted back into consciousness. Hearing him groan and seeing the way he looked, he had no doubt that Delano had passed out as a result of the exhaustion of limping such a long distance on only three legs. "You kind of passed out." he said, feeling better now that the worry was gone from her expression. She leaned over and nuzzled Delano, relieved that he was okay and that nothing was wrong with him.

[DGFone]

Umeme grinned when she saw that Delano was going to be alright. She again nuzzled Muroki, glad that he knew what to do. "You did well," she whispered to him, "thank you." While Delano was still passed out, she had started to worry how Lina would take it. But now that Muroki managed to wake his brother up, Lina looked as happy as she can possibly be.

Delano felt Lina nuzzle him, and he returned it gratefully, but still leaving most of the moving to Lina. "I... I'm sorry," he whispered, chocking over his words, "I didn't want to give up, because I thought..." he closed his eyes, feeling ashamed again, "I didn't want to disappoint you... I didn't want to look weak." He coughed a little and shoved himself closer to Lina, feeling cold and wanting her warmth.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki smiled at Umeme, gladly accepting her nuzzle but not saying anything in return so to not interrupt Delano and Lina. His sister-in-law of course was finding the reason to why Delano didn't ask them to stop and rest again a rather stupid one, but she didn't let it show so to not hurt his pride more than it already was, even if it was just in his mind. [b]"You wouldn't have disappointed me if you had just asked to stop and rest, we would have all been okay with it..." she knew she didn't need to ask Umeme and Muroki in order to know that they agreed with her. She snuggled closer to him, wanting to help him dry faster from the water.

[DGFone]

Delano huddled next to Lina, shaking slightly. "I know that you would have waited..." he sad quietly, "but I didn't know if... if I would have been able to keep going." He coughed again, feeling sick to his stomach. "I want to all of this to be over," he whispered, "I hated being held back, and now I just want to be able to walk freely again. So I didn't want to stop.. I was afraid to."

With Lina next to him, Delano felt slightly better, but it did little to dull the pain he now felt all over. As he rubbed his head to try and make the pounding go away, he though that maybe they were tight and he really needed to stop more. But it was too late now. As another series of coughs tore through him, Delano gave up trying to block the pain. Everything he tried only seemed to make things worse. So he gave in and stopped trying to fight it. He lay against Lina just in time as he once again fell unconscious.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina offered Delano a smile, "Of course you would have been able to keep going had you stopped for some rest..." she couldn't help but agree with him when he said he wanted this whole thing with his leg to be over, not because of how long it was taking them to get from one place to the other but because of the depressing effect it had on Delano. "Perhaps we should ask Kasi about the healer his mother goes to see..." it was something they should have probably done a long time ago. This time when Delano passed out she wasn't worried, because she knew that he was simply tired from the walk over and that he would wake up again soon enough.

[DGFone]

Umeme nodded. "Yeah, we need to have some look at Delano," she agreed, "it's rather stupid of us for not dong something earlier." But in her mind, she understood somewhat why they didn't do anything. After they got Delano back, they all believed that things would get better and they won't have anything to worry about any more.

She looked at Delano again and saw that either he fell asleep or fell unconscious again. But this time, no one was trying to wake him up, and Lina, who he was resting against, looked rather happy to be next to him. Umeme thought that something was odd with him, and finally realized what it was. "He finally looks peaceful," she muttered, "mangled and dirty, but... peaceful." She smiled and leaned her head against Muroki's. "It really is nice here with the four of us," she said, "finally together again." It would have been better for Delano to be awake to enjoy the moment as well, but considering how he was just moments before, it was probably better that he was out of it for now.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina smiled as Umeme made her comment about how peaceful Delano looked, though she couldn't help but chuckle as Umeme also said that he looked dirty and mangled. Him being dirty wasn't funny at all, but the way Umeme said it was rather amusing. "Yeah, it is nice..." she said, looking at her sister and brother-in-law. The two looked perfect with each other and, as far as Lina was aware, they never fought even once. Hopefully there will be no more arguing between her and Delano from now on.