Ellis looked away as well, tapping agitatedly on the wooden floorboards. He couldn't plan any kind of escape with Nia passed out, and the man wasn't providing any kind of decent conversation.
After a grueling five minutes of silence, Ellis felt as though he were about to explode with dullness, "Why are you here?"
"They destroyed my home, my family, my entire village." The man said quietly, anger creasing the valleys and hills of his worn face.
"You were lucky to have survived." Ellis responded, frowning.
The man responded with a bitter chuckle, "Lucky to be alone for the rest of my life? Lucky to wonder why I was the only survivor out of all my friends and family?"
"You're not the only one who's lost something, old man! Those soldiers have killed a lot more people than just your family and your friends, they've destroyed almost half of all the villages in Landrian. Thank about all of those people who are lonely out there! And they're still destroying, they're still killing people!" Ellis wasn’t sure where all this vitriol came from, the vampire was just guilty after all.
The door to the cell suddenly flung open, interrupting Ellis's unusually wise lecture as he jumped to his feet, stomach twisting in fury as he realized where the soldier was heading, past both his and the other man's cell.
Ellis suddenly went crazy, desperate to distract the soldier from Nia, flinging himself against the metal and hissing and yelling, anything to get the soldier's attention. It didn't seem to work.
The pale man finally stilled, fists clenched tight on the metal, gaze piercing the soldier. The old man remained on the floor, arms crossed over his broad chest, head down.
The soldier seemed fairly young, probably eighteen or so, around Nia's age. He bent over her, fingers pressing against her tan neck, the other hand on her chin so her face was turned to the wall away from Ellis.
"Just leave the girl alone, Remmy." The old man said, tiredly rubbing a hand across his brow
The brown haired soldier didn't look up, grabbing Nia's wrist and pressing his fingers against it.
"Just checkin' her pulse. We weren't sure if we overdosed her, I mean she's still sleepin'..." The young soldier replied, glancing towards them.
"She's fine." Ellis hissed, gripping the bars even tighter. All he wanted was for the boy to get away from her.
Ellis noticed Nia's fingers twitch slightly, running across the unfamiliar floorboards, though her eyes remained closed. Unfortunately, her movement did not go unnoticed by the trained soldier, and he tackled her drowsily flailing limbs the moment Nia cried out a shrill, "El-!"
Remmy's hand covered her mouth instantly, using his body to keep her own down. Through her drugged stupor, the girl was barely able to move at all, the soldier’s strength unwarranted.
Ellis heard her muffled screams against Remmy's calloused hand, yanking Ellis's attention back, Nia's head still turned away from him. Ellis then realized, with a start, that Nia didn't know he was there.
She must've thought she was all alone. After all they’d been through, he couldn’t let her think that.
The vampire opened his mouth to call back to her, but the old man suddenly got up, grabbing Ellis's wrist and shaking his head, "If you let her know you're here she might freak out more and get into even more trouble." He whispered, frowning, "They don't exactly excel in patience."
One of Nia's hands shot out suddenly from under the boy once more, attacking the wooden boards underneath the wrestling pair, desperately running her hand again and again over the floor, pulling slightly at the boards.
Ellis had no idea what she was trying to do, but he shoved himself harder against the bars, silently cheering on his companion. He was positive that any second now giant vines would burst through the floor and attack the kid.
Any second now.
Ellis waited more, patience wearing thin, teeth grinding together. But still, no sign of any killer attacking foliage.
He only continued to watch, worried if he said anything that Nia would panic again, his stomach twisting as he watched Remmy cradle Nia against him, one hand still covering her mouth and the other holding her wrists together.
"Shh. Calm down." He said impatiently, rolling his eyes.
Nia gave one final tremor of a fight before collapsing visibly, whimpering against his hand.
"You gonna be quiet, now? Don't want to make the General mad. Just doing a checkup." He continued, stroking her hair as though she weren’t a captive prisoner.
Ellis couldn't take sitting in silence anymore, "Kid. I'm here, you'll be ok."
The old man cringed with disappointment, dropping his head into his hands.
Nia’s head instantly tried to turn to face him, her tiny limbs flailing again, causing Ellis to wince as Remmy flattened against her, successfully holding her body down as she flailed, crying out something against the soldier's hand as he flashed a glare at Ellis.