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Bennett was taking a stroll down Wolvendom's overgrown path, whistling a tune that happened to be stuck in his head. It was a very nice day with clear skies, perfect weather to go on an adventure in pursuit of treasure or run through the woods for a hunt. Whatever he would do, he was set on spending the entire afternoon with Razor. It seemed like forever since the last time they had seen each other.
Sure enough, that familiar voice called out his name from nearby. When he turned his head, he found his friend standing on top of a rock cluster with an absurd amount of leaves, sticks, and wolfhook berries intertwined within his hair.
Together, they set off in search of prey without any further question. A boar could be seen from not too far off, snuffling around a tree and completely unaware of them. Perfect. The two boys exchanged a silent glance to confirm that this was what they would go after, a glint of daring in their eyes and determination to take it down.
But right as they began to make their attack, Bennett clumsily tripped over a root in the ground and face-planted into a bush. The prey was scared off.
"Aw man! That was totally my fault! Stupid bad luck," Bennett pouted as he removed himself from the shrubs. This mishap didn't discourage Razor, though. He took off after the boar and soon disappeared deeper into the woods at an impressive, almost inhuman speed; living with wolves truly had its apparent advantages.
When Bennett finally found him again, he was not expecting to see Razor tangled in a dense thicket with the boar nowhere in sight. Brambles, branches, vines, and other tendrils left him stuck and unable to move, from his head down to his feet. His hair was the worst of all, resembling a massive, silvery bird nest that had completely intertwined with the plant overgrowth.
"Wha- How did this happen?!" Bennett immediately came as close as he could.
Razor looked back and forth between his arms and tried to tug at the plants surrounding his limbs. Realizing that his efforts to escape were in vain, he looked back at Bennett, "Too many plants."
"I'll say! Here, let's get you out of there."
That was easier said than done. In fact, Razor was so trapped that thorns pressed against his skin, enough to break the surface and bring him many deep scratches. But he wasn't fazed by that part of the whole ordeal, it was more the fact that he was suddenly confined from moving however he wanted.
Having no other choice, Bennett withdrew his sword and began to slice away at the brambles. He was fearful in doing this, though, scared that he would cut through more than just the plants as his friend continued his own attempts of escape, "Stop moving, let me help you."
Razor complied and went still, watching intently as Bennett continued his work. This only lasted for about a minute, however, before Razor tried to make more movement in hopes of getting out. Blood was starting to trickle down his arms and torso, once again from the many sharp thorns around him.
"Hold still. You're just making it worse and I really don't want to-" but it was too late. Whether it was from Bennett's clumsiness, his bad luck, or Razor's constant squirming, the sword slipped and caught Razor's arm by mistake. "Aah! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, I really didn't!"
"It's okay. Bennett is trying to help," Razor was somehow giving off a faint smile in the midst of this. Surely this wasn't something he thought they were bonding over, right?
Perhaps it was an act of bonding, an obscure one by all means but still an instance of it nevertheless. Finally, after much time had been spent in this predicament, Bennett was able to release his friend's limbs from the mess. A glint of excitement flashed in Razor's eyes at this newfound freedom, and he immediately rose to his feet again.
"Wait! Your hair-" Bennett cringed as he watched his friend attempt to run away, only to be pulled back by his hair that was still very much tangled. Razor gave a grunt of pain as he stopped immediately and tried pulling his locks free.
"Take it slow. You're going to have to be patient with this," Bennett took several strands and made a cautious effort of separating them from the thicket. Razor was frantically trying to pull himself from it all the while.
"This is bad! Bad! I want free!"
"Calm down! Do you know what the word 'patient' means?"
Razor's only reply was a blank stare, as if he misunderstood the question. An indicator that perhaps he had never heard that word in his life, or if he did, he forgot.
"Alright," Bennett sighed. "Patience means that you're okay to wait. Sometimes through something bad, sometimes until the moment is right."
"Patien... Patience?"
"Yeah! Like, um, here's a good example! When we're hunting and we have to wait until the best moment to attack, we're being patient."
By the looks of it, it seemed that Razor understood. And so, after much time and a lot of patience in working together to untangle his hair, Razor was finally able to completely remove himself from the thicket. All that was left to do was treat his many open wounds, remove the thorns from his skin, pluck the burs from his clothing, and perhaps clean up his appearance. He was considerably rugged after the incident even by his own standards.
"Okay, we have to- Wait! You can't just run off! Razor, you're bleeding!!" Bennett shouted in surprise as Razor immediately took off sprinting toward something else that had caught his attention. Trying desperately to catch up, Bennett had no other choice but to run after him. It seemed he was never able to go fast enough.
Just as he managed to come directly behind Razor in this ridiculous chase, the wolfish boy stopped abruptly and a collision occurred. On the ground, Bennett looked up and found that they were at the mouth of a cave.
"Alright, great... You've... hah... finally stopped," Bennett was out of breath. "Please, let me treat your-"
"Secret place, good for hiding things. I show you," Razor disappeared inside.
"Aw, come on!"
It was a small, dim cave illuminated by traces of sunlight alone. There wasn't much to it, it wasn't the largest of places and it seemed to have nothing inside. Bennett watched his friend move aside several rocks and uncover an even tinier cave, one that only seemed big enough for small animals. But Razor managed to flatten himself against the ground, inching his way forward on his belly, then went into the compact space for a brief moment.
Surely that had to have hurt him in some degree, even if he showed no reaction. With all the thorns and other injuries throughout his skin, there was no other way.
Bennett warned, "I don't think this is a good idea. You're hurt."
Then, dragging his claymore out with one hand, Razor emerged from the hiding place again with cobwebs all over his clothes and dirt coating his torso, mixing in with the blood. Bennett immediately understood why the weapon had been hidden; it looked significantly more dangerous and valuable than the previous one he used.
"New claymore is special. Very good at protecting Lupical," Razor explained without taking his eyes off the blade.
"I see that... But we have to treat your injuries first, okay?" Bennett crouched down and looked away for a brief moment to dig out some first aid supplies from his bag. "I bet it hurts a lot. Can you tell me which- Huh? Hey! Where did you go?!"
Razor was no longer beside him as he once was. Instead, a loud and concerning clang sounded from a distance away. Bennett slowly turned his head in foreboding, praying to the archons that his bad luck didn't do something horrible, but no, it was not that. It seemed as though Razor had gotten into a bit of a scuffle with some hilichurls and nothing more.
For a second time, he swung at them and dealt serious damage, trying to make it a quick fight. The moment he touched the beasts with his new claymore, three of them dropped to the ground unable to continue the fight.
Bennett begged after watching him finish the final one off, "Razor, please let me help you. You're even more injured from that fight."
Razor nodded in acceptance and plopped himself down on the ground, extending the arm that had received the most damage. The wounds were fresh, still bleeding, just like all the others but to a worse extent.
"Actually, wait. I think you're going to have to wash off first," Bennett stopped examining the new gashes from the hilichurl fight and studied his friend's overall appearance. It would have been much harder to treat him if he didn't clean them first.
And so they made their way to have him do just that, where the main trail in Wolvendom ended and Cider Lake began. Bennett stayed on land and turned so that his back was to Razor, leaving him in his own privacy to cleanse himself.
So much time had passed waiting for Razor to finish that Bennett couldn't take it anymore; he worried about the possibility that his bad luck caused something dreadful to happen in the lake. But no, when he peeked over his shoulder to check, he saw Razor standing in water that went up past his waist without any sign of struggle.
"Look, a fish!" Razor held up a fish and smiled at him, very proud of his find. The act of him raising his arm made Bennett realize just how many thorns had gotten lodged in his side from the thicket.
"You're not there to hunt for fish, you're there to get clean!" Bennett reminded him with a facepalm. "Get out and come dry off so we can finally treat your injuries!"
Razor began to approach the shoreline and Bennett turned away again, long enough for him to at least cover his lower half. Before he put the rest of his clothes on, though, he approached Bennett and presented his bare arms and torso.
Fresh streams of blood rolled down his skin along with water droplets, replacing that from before. Fortunately all of the wounds were clean and therefore much easier to deal with.
"Let's start with the thorns first," Bennett suggested and removed the right materials from his first aid kit for this procedure. "Are you ready?"
Razor hummed in agreement and sat on a nearby boulder. At the first thorn, however, he flinched and drew in a sharp breath. This was going to take a while.
"How about I start with the smaller ones first? Let's see... you have one, two, three, four..." Bennett began to count all the thorns and continued to work away at removing them. Razor was able to tolerate this for the most part, but his endurance was starting to run thin after a while. Each removed thorn left a new pooling dot of blood and even then, he wasn't known for being able to sit still for long periods of time.
There had been thirty-eight in total. Bennett was quick to bandage the area and secure it with the proper treatment, then studied Razor's face to see if he was left in any significant pain from it. He seemed like he would manage okay.
"Alright, you can put the rest of your clothes on now," Bennett handed him his cloak and gloves, which he took and put on.
Just as Bennett was about to move on to his other wounds, a rustling in the bushes nearby caught Razor's attention and he started to take off running again.
"No, stay here! What about all the scratches? And the sword cut? And the wounds from the hilichurls?!" Bennett sprang into action, but once again, he couldn't keep up. It was an odd scenario this time, as Razor was chasing a squirrel and Bennett was chasing him. Over the uneven terrain, across overgrown and cluttered paths, it went on for so long that Bennett felt like they were traveling across all of Windwail Highland.
He finally stopped again, panting all the while as he hopelessly watched Razor follow the squirrel up a tree. This was where Razor slowed down, inching his way forward on a branch and reaching for the animal.
"Get down from there!" Bennett approached the tree and looked directly up at him. He must have been several feet in the air, very high off the ground. "It's not worth all this for a stupid squirrel!"
But the moment Bennett touched the trunk, Razor came toppling to the ground beside him with an awkward landing that left his face in the dirt and one of his hands crushed beneath him.
"Oh no!! Are- are you okay?!" Bennett immediately knelt beside him and put a hand to his shoulder. When Razor lifted his head, it was clear that his nose had taken damage as it continued to bleed a steady stream and drip off his chin. He touched the area and looked at his fingers, realizing that something had gone wrong.
"This is all my fault! I'm so sorry, Razor! It's my bad luck, I just know it!"
"Nose is bleeding. It... hurts," Razor cupped both hands over his face.
"Yeah, it's gonna do that for some time. The only thing we can do is wait for it to stop," Bennett agreed and once again reached for his first aid materials, this time opting for a cloth for cleanup and a thin strip of adhesive tape to stabilize the injury.
Sure enough, the blood flow was slowing to a stop with the help of the cloth.
"Alright, hold still. I'm going to put this on your nose so it can heal better," Bennett informed him and then leaned in close to place the adhesive tape across the bridge of his nose. Once it was done, he grinned, "Heheh, look at that. You're just like me now."
Razor tried to hand the cloth back to him.
"No, keep it with you just in case. Now we're on to the rest of your- Hey, hold still! Remember the word, patience? You're not really showing- Razor, I swear!" the same thing happened once again, only this time Bennett launched himself at Razor and tackled him to the ground to stop a great chase from happening for a fifth time.
Razor grunted in annoyance as he tried fighting free from the hold, ignoring him and trying to escape a moment longer. They wrestled for some time until Bennett secured his arms around his waist and pleaded for him to stay put.
"Finally! See, that wasn't so difficult! You really like to run, don't you?" Bennett groaned and collapsed on the ground with his face in the grass after he finished all the treatment at last, exasperated and exhausted from it all. Razor affectionately patted his head and they sat there like that for a while.
"Bennett, wake up. Eat first, then sleep."
"Okay, good idea. I'm starving!"
It didn't take much time to find success in this. Bennett had already caught a rabbit and somehow managed to find a bird as well, so did Razor. They hadn't found any larger animals like boars since the last one ran away, so they focused on the smaller and more common ones.
"You did it," Bennett grinned at the sight of Razor crouched next to the tree with another squirrel in his hands. The squirrel was chittering and moving frantically in an unsuccessful effort to free itself. But just as Bennett raised his sword to make the final blow, the squirrel escaped from Razor's grasp and scurried across a log to safety.
"Aw man! How did it get away?! You were holding onto it tightly, right?"
"No," Razor frowned and tried to flex his fingers. They seemed much more stiff than they should have been. He looked at Bennett, "Hand is weak. It... hurts too much."
"What? How long has this been going on for? And why didn't you say anything?"
"Wolves not climb trees, wolves always stay on the ground. Razor will, too."
"So, it happened when you fell from the tree earlier? Here, let me see if it's swollen," Bennett moved to take hold of the injury but before he could, Razor backed away with his face scrunched in up in a snarl.
"Do not touch."
"It's to help you. Please? You know what it means if something swells up, right?"
"Hm... Fine. Not long."
Gently, Bennett removed the glove from Razor's hand and felt his eyes widen at the sight. It was definitely starting to swell, with some discoloration that indicated a serious injury.
Out of curiosity, Bennett carefully poked around at the bruising to see where the most damage had been done, which would help him know how to treat it.
"Bennett! No more!" Razor growled with a raging hostility in his eyes and yanked his arm away, a fury that Bennett had never seen directed at him. It scared him in all honesty, how angry Razor could be when provoked accordingly.
"I'm- I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"
Razor turned so that his back was facing him, "Bennett won't touch it anymore!"
"Let me at least put it in a splint! You shouldn't- Hey! Please don't run away again!!" Bennett chased after him and slowed to a stop when he saw him at a wolfhook berry bush.
"Wolfhook berries always help Lupical. They can help Razor, too," Razor defiantly looked away and picked a piece from the bush, careful to avoid the pointed end.
"You're going to need more than wolfhook berries for your arm," Bennett picked up two nearby sticks that were thick enough to stabilize the injury when tied to Razor's wrist as a splint. He removed another cloth from one of his pockets and tried to approach him again, but Razor stubbornly backed away.
"Fine, let me show you," Bennett grabbed another stick from the ground. "See this stick? Let's pretend this is your bone. There's a chance that your bone looks like this right now," he paused to snap the stick in half before he continued, "See? Broken. You could have broken a bone."
"Razor fixes it, no help."
"Trust me, you're going to want help. I've broken many bones before, I'm an expert at dealing with them!"
"Not help! No touch!"
"Are we really going to argue about this? It's going to hurt no matter what we do! And this is a serious injury!
"Hmph! I do not need help. No more talking!"
And just like that, he was gone again. Bennett made no effort to go after him once more, deciding to give him space for some time. Not that he was worried about breaking Razor's trust, but it was very clear that he would have to think of a better way to help him in a way that was both efficient and somehow respected the boundaries he so blatantly established.
Bennett was used to injury. Not just the simple scrapes and bruises, though those were a daily occurrence even for him, but also the more extreme injuries such as being struck by lightning or hit by a falling tree or... yes, falling off the side of a cliff that one time in Dragonspine... He likely would have died if Albedo hadn't been there.
Knowing that Razor had grown up in the wilderness his whole life, a rather unsafe environment even in the protection of his Lupical, this meant that injury didn't faze him either. But this was a problem. This meant Razor thought it was okay to carry on about his daily activities the best he could, that even though he couldn't do much with his hand, it wasn't enough to stop him.
Though, it would be enough to stop him if it went untreated long enough, Bennett realized. In fact, Razor hadn't even been able to keep a tight hold on that squirrel- everything that came with living in the forest was hindered. Worst of all, he wouldn't be able to defend his Lupical in times of danger.
With this being Bennett's main point in winning their disagreement, he turned around and began to continue his search. This seemed pointless after a while as there was not a single sign of him anymore, until a peculiar sound echoed in the distance. Whatever it was, it was soon followed by the sounds of Razor howling in pain.
"What? What is it?!" Bennet followed the sound of his voice. "Razor, where are you?!!"
In the midst of his frantic efforts to find him, a rockslide from one of the nearby paths came rushing toward him. Bennett quickly leapt away and tried to keep running, even faster as he was on high alert for his own safety. Why of all times did his bad luck have to show its vengeance? This haste to avoid it resulted in him twisting his ankle over a large rock on the ground, leaving him with skinned knees and elbows. Certainly he would have torn open his palms if he weren't wearing his gloves, too.
At least he avoided the rockslide, he thought optimistically and got back up. He started to run again to look for Razor, but a sharp twinge of pain struck his ankle and it gave out again.
It must have been another sprain, relatively serious and definitely not something he should have been walking on. Oh, well. That was something to worry about later, after he found Razor again. He passed several trees and stepped through a cluster of bushes to see him clutching his arm. That initial relief that came with finding him was quickly replaced with concern.
"Bennett," Razor whimpered with teary eyes and gingerly held out his hand to him, "Now you can help me?"
"What happened this time?" Bennett limped over to him.
Razor gestured to an Abyss Mage that was knocked on the ground without its shield, fatally wounded and unable to attack them. It muttered something in its native language and then teleported away.
"An Abyss Mage! You fought it by yourself?”
A nod. He seemed fairly shaken-up by the incident, not only physically but perhaps also mentally; that was expected. Though Bennett didn’t know all the details, he was certain that Razor had some type of troubling encounter with Abyss Mages at some point in his past, which would explain his lifelong hate for them.
It didn’t matter the circumstances, Razor would fight any Abyss Mage the moment he had an opportunity. And he would win.
Comfortingly, Bennett slowly reached for his hand, “Alright, let's make your splint finally. You’ll be okay again, I promise.”
Razor looked scared and confused by this action, watching silently but in pain as he let Bennett fashion a splint. It got to be too much for him and he immediately tried to undo the splint, "Stop! Bennett is not supposed to make it hurt!”
"Hey, don't touch that! I'm not the one hurting you! I promise this is to help you, okay?”
Razor shook his head in disagreement. The motion of this caused a tear to roll down his cheek.
“Here, let me show you how I make one for myself. I got a little hurt on my way here, no big deal. Watch," Bennett demonstrated how he made a splint for his ankle, which had really started to throb by that point. He gave a bright smile and said, "See, it wasn’t so bad! Now it's your turn!"
Seeing that Bennett had endured this, Razor was more convinced that he would be able to as well. Once the injury was secure and he found a way to tolerate the pain the best he could, Bennett nodded, "Alright, let's go into town to get healed the right way. All of this is just temporary."
"But... I'm not city human."
"That doesn't matter, we kind of need it, haha!"
"Just one time... Then we leave," Razor reluctantly agreed. Together, they slowly made their way to the gates of Mondstadt and received the proper treatment.