Ball of Nothing

Truen reached the vicinity of the medicine sage's house. The good news was that Zero still hasn't woken up. The bad news was the Truen was at his limits. The magic channels in his body had ruptured and almost sixty percent of his body was immobilised.

Lily saw how Truen's face morphed from worry to relief in an instant. The sight of a young boy of about twelve sleeping soundly in a tree made Truen relax. The brunet's long eyelashes cast a shadow on his youthful face with the sun in the background. Mii materialised with a poof and was surprised to see a small flower fairy beside the elf guardian.

"I made it..." Truen uttered before falling face first into the ground, startling both fairies.

"That idiot!" Mii cursed while Lily contacted Gaia. The flower fairy quickly contacted Gaia and Mii went over to inspect the fallen elf. In their flurry of activities, neither fairy noticed the old sage stepping onto a conjured cloud and floated up to the tree. Hua Tuo carried the sleeping boy in his arms and set him down on his cloud mount. Then, he moved over to the collapsed Truen and did the same.

Mii was taken aback. Wasn't this the old man Truen cautioned Zero against? What was he doing here? How did he find them? The worst part was how the strawcherry fairy was unable to protect either of them.

On the other hand, Lily was glad to see the sage. "Yes, he is here now. I will report back once they have awakened."

Mii looked at Lily who bowed at Hua Tuo.

"Thank you for reaching out so quickly. I wouldn't know what to do if it wasn't for you… Truen he… he's in a very bad shape…"

Hua Tuo measured Truen's pulse and sighed.

"Such foolish young ones. Buddha will owe me one after this. Not only has he sent me one, but two idiot students. One who doesn't treasure his life and the other who doesn't know the meaning of life."

Mii relaxed at that. The old man was probably an ally and she had no reasons or means to confront him about the kidnapping stunt. With that, the fairies followed behind Hua Tuo back to his tiny house without questions.

***

Back at the house, Hua Tuo got to work immediately, ignoring the moontaur sisters who were skulking around the magical barrier Hua Tuo set up. He got to work quickly on the elf.

"More than sixty percent of his magic channels have been corroded from overuse. He's lucky to live with Gaia's blessing. Just because he's a living wood spirit, does he think he can recover from absolutely anything? This fool!"

Hua Tuo complained loudly and Lily could only remain silent. She felt guilty as she looked at the treatment. Mii had vanished again and Lily didn't question the strawcherry assistant. Fairies were whimsical creatures and Lily had her moments too.

The treatment was intense and Lily wondered how Zero hasn't woken up despite all the lights and noises coming from beside him. Zero was sleeping on the cloud mount as Truen occupied the only bed in Hua Tuo's house. The cloud definitely looked more comfortable than the straw mattress but Lily didn't comment about it.

Hua Tuo boiled pots of medicine plants over the small stove outside and ground some dried leaves to make pills. Occasionally he would cast a healing spell over the elf. The faint tinge of blue light from the spell created a soothing atmosphere in contrast to the angry muttering of the old man.

Exhausted, Lily vanished too and left Truen to the Medicine Sage God's care.