I pulled Goliath's body out of the river and carried him to the shore.
I laid him carefully on the damp grass. His slender body remained completely soaked. His pink hair had stuck to his face, and several patches of blood mixed with the water that still dripped from his wounds.
His eyes remained closed.
"Goliath..."
There was no response.
I let out a long sigh.
My entire body felt the accumulated exhaustion of fleeing from the lion and then enduring the furious current of the river.
I let myself fall seated on the grass as I raised my gaze.
The sky was beginning to tint orange. The sun was slowly hiding behind the mountains, casting long shadows among the trees. It wouldn't be long before nightfall. And we were in the middle of a completely unknown forest.
A forest full of creatures that, in my current state, could probably kill me with a simple movement.
I brought a hand to my head.
"Perfect..."
Then I remembered something. I looked toward the river. My only towel had disappeared with the current. I lowered my gaze to my body. I was naked.
I sighed again.
"I need to find something to heal him... and also a shelter."
I looked at Goliath again. This time I noticed something different: his arms were wrapped around his own body, and he was trembling.
"..."
I gritted my teeth.
"If only you hadn't attacked that thing..."
I clenched my jaw tightly. For a few seconds I felt the rage rising again. But I ended up releasing the air slowly.
I couldn't blame him entirely. I was also partly responsible. After all, I was the one who had allowed him to wander off.
Besides... he was only trying to show me his abilities.
"I suppose it was my fault too."
I stood up. After a few minutes of rest, I approached Goliath again and lifted him. His body was much lighter than I had expected. I settled him over my shoulders as if he were a sack of potatoes.
"Don't get used to it."
I began to walk along the riverbank. The landscape was tinted orange by the light of dusk. The trees cast increasingly longer shadows, and the constant sound of the water mixed with the distant song of some birds.
After walking for a while, I found a small spot. There were several trees around, and the underbrush grew tall enough to block the view from outside.
It wasn't exactly a perfect shelter. But it would have to do.
"Here."
I set Goliath down carefully and laid him on a pile of dry leaves. Then I began to gather branches and leaves that could serve to light a campfire.
It didn't take me too long to gather a small pile.
I knelt and began to rub a stick against the dry wood, over and over.
A small spark appeared. Then another.
Finally...
Fwoosh.
A small flame began to grow.
"Finally..."
I let myself fall seated in front of the fire. The warmth began to spread slowly through my body. I closed my eyes for a few seconds. My body felt heavy, completely exhausted.
Even so, before resting I decided to check my status. I raised a hand.
The window appeared before me.
[Name: Varka Lakan Saberius]
[Race: Primordial Homunculus]
[Specialty: None]
[Stats]
Strength: 5 + 1
Defense: 5 + 2
Magic: 10
Luck: -1
I stared at the numbers. A small smile appeared on my lips. They had increased, it wasn't much. But it was something.
"At least it wasn't completely useless."
My eyelids began to grow heavy. My head slowly fell forward.
Then I heard a faint moan.
"...Ah..."
I opened my eyes. I looked toward Goliath. His body was trembling harder than before.
"Shit."
I stood up immediately. The cold water of the river had completely soaked his clothes and, with the sun disappearing, the temperature was dropping rapidly.
Even someone with absurd strength could be vulnerable to the conditions of the environment. Especially after spending practically all his energy in a battle.
"I can't let him stay like this."
I brought him closer to the campfire. His clothes were completely soaked and torn.
With delicacy, I began to strip him of each of his garments.
When I unbuttoned the last button of his shirt, the fabric opened to reveal the bareness of his torso.
His skin, pale and speckled with a faint rosy flush at the pressure points, looked smooth, irresistible to the touch, but retained a subtle firmness in the relief of his well-defined muscles: that perfect combination between visual fragility and the hidden strength of a body that shouldn't exist.
I slid my fingertips down to the edge of his pants.
I tried to pull them off carefully, but the garment refused to abandon the curves of his hips and stubbornly caught on the prominent curvature of his thighs.
I let out a broken sigh, a mixture of impatience and frustration held back by the desire to have him free of restraints.
"What kind of pants are these...?"
I decided not to beat around the bush anymore. I pulled with a firm and decisive movement, until the dense silence of the campfire was broken by a dry rip.
Shiiirst.
The seam gave way and left almost the entirety of his left thigh exposed: a strip of smooth, firm skin, dangerously attractive, that stole my breath.
"What I needed..." I cursed in a whisper, feeling how the air temperature rose.
No longer caring about preserving the clothes, I pulled with restrained force until I completely stripped him of his pants.
There Goliath lay, exposed under the dim light of the fire, wearing only his underwear. For a brief instant I frowned, unable to decide whether my anger was because of the torn garment or because of the overwhelming effect of his beauty before me.
Only his underwear remained. It had a small drawing of...
Kitties?
I stared at it for several seconds. Then I let out a dry laugh.
"No way..."
I looked at Goliath. Then I looked back at the little kitties printed on the fabric. The same guy who had spent the whole day calling a monster that had almost killed us "kitty"... wore kitties on his underwear.
I brought a hand to my face.
"What could I expect from you...?"
I shook my head and placed the rest of his garments near the fire so they would begin to dry. Then I arranged Goliath so he could receive the warmth of the flames without being too close.
A few seconds passed. Little by little, his tremors began to diminish. His breathing became calmer, and finally... his body stopped shivering.
I sat in front of the campfire. For the first time since we had escaped the Snow Lion, I felt I could breathe easy.
I looked at Goliath, still with his eyes closed, letting out his warm breath into that dark night.
"Good..."
I leaned against the trunk of a tree.
The fire crackled in front of me. The orange light illuminated the small clearing while darkness began to take over the forest.
And, for an instant, as I watched Goliath's calm face under the firelight, I allowed myself to think something I shouldn't have thought.
"He's beautiful."
I looked away immediately.
"Damn it..."
I closed my eyes tightly.
"No. No. No."
This wasn't the time. This wasn't the place. And, above all, this wasn't the kind of thought a fallen conqueror should allow himself.
But when I opened my eyes again, my gaze inevitably landed on him once more.
His pink hair, still damp, had partially dried from the heat of the fire. His half-open lips let out a slow, steady breath. The light of the flames danced over his pale skin, drawing shadows that accentuated every curve, every line of his body.
I turned around abruptly.
I looked at the river, at the stars beginning to appear among the branches, at anything that wasn't him.
I clenched my fists.
"Just you wait, Reinhard... I promise I'll make you eat your words."
The fire crackled.
Goliath breathed.
I stayed awake all night, watching the fire, watching the forest, and watching, much to my dismay, every movement of that boy who slept beside me.