Fshing lights, red and blue and white, and voices shouting, someone crying...
I woke with my heart racing.
It took me a long few moments of just concentrating on breathing slowly to get the adrenaline rush down to a more reasonable level. The first nightmare, the very first night I’d been here, had been negligible and I’d ignored it, but they were getting stronger and always the same. That was worrying.
Aryennos was still asleep, oblivious to the indignity of how I began the day.
As I had twice in the night, I did a cursory check on his breathing and pulse before summoning my Vitals reading. Everything was stabilizing nicely, all in the green, and they’d all been there st time too. That was a reassuring sign.
Trying to get up and out without disturbing him, while in my centaur form, was made much easier by how deeply he was out.
Serru wasn’t up yet, either, but the sun was.
I flexed my hands slowly, alert for pain, but found none; my exposed fingertips were still faintly discoloured, but the skin was now intact, a testament to the effectiveness of Ointment, Quickheal, Bandages, or the combination, so with any luck the more severe damage I couldn’t see would be simirly improved. If I was very careful, I figured I’d be okay without unwrapping them; I was reluctant to do so with no one avaible to help me re-wrap them if necessary, so I left them alone. Besides, it would remind me not to get careless.
My tunic was dry; I switched from Serru’s sweater back to it with some relief, and folded the cardigan, leaving it on a rock near her tent.
I built the fire back up and headed for the river with teapot, soup pot, all four cups, and my water fsk. The slope was challenging with four feet, to say the least, but I didn’t feel up to swapping forms right now, so I just went slow.
By the time Serru stirred, I had her teapot and the other pot both heating on the fire, the tter with the same mixture we’d had st night as soup—it wasn’t that hard to replicate.
“Good morning,” I greeted her, lying next to the fire with all four legs tucked into a position that felt fairly comfortable. “The water should be hot for tea. Cups are clean, as best I can with just water because I forgot to bring the soap down to the river. And soup soon for breakfast, because we need something richer than just bread and berries.”
“You’re up early,” she said, through a yawn.
“Bad dream.”
“Not a pleasant way to wake.” To my surprise, she draped an arm around my shoulders in a quick hug before turning her attention to adding tea to the pot. “How are your hands?”
“They feel okay, but I’m being cautious. How are you doing?”
“Entirely back to normal, although perhaps a little less energetic than usual.”
While the tea steeped, she helped me unwrap one of my hands to check it. The now-unbroken golden skin had a dusky pink tint to it, and it was somewhat sensitive, so at my request she repced the Bandage for the moment.
“Either the Bandage or the Ointment work extremely well,” I said. “I was expecting a few inconvenient days.”
“For simple and superficial damage, I’d call that about normal. Although it was so very infmed that honestly, I expected another day myself. Perhaps your healing abilities work on your own injuries to some quiet degree.”
“That would be kinda cool. Speaking of which, I completely recharged overnight after using a lot yesterday. That’s good to know. If I can run out, it helps to know how fast I recharge.”
“Yes. You were using your new magic on Aryennos, then? I was, I admit, somewhat distracted.”
“Once to stop pain, because even coughing with cracked ribs sucks, let alone vomiting, once to give him a healing boost, and I’ve been checking Vitals to assess his condition. He’s doing good but still asleep.”
“Even Quickheal potions can encourage sleep sometimes while they work. And he had not only your magic but two strong potions.” She sighed. “I had hoped we could get much closer to the next Quincunx site today, but I think we’ll be moving only slowly if at all, depending on how our new guest recovers.”
“I’ll give him a proper evaluation once he wakes up. It’s frustrating, but we can’t just abandon him in the middle of nowhere. If we were in a town or something where he’d have other options for help, that would be different.”
“I know. I’m not suggesting we leave him on his own while he’s injured. I’m only griping.” She poured me a cup of tea, and one for herself. “I know you miss your home.”
Home was starting to feel like the dream, somewhere far away with different rules, even though I knew it was real and I’d spent nearly my whole life there. “I doubt it’s going anywhere, or that an extra day will matter.”
It took a while for Aryennos to wake up. While we waited, Serru taught me a local song, a bouncy piece meant for keeping multiple people at a steady pace while working together, and I taught her Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’—I’m not a dedicated musician, but I can carry a tune, and Serru picked up on the rhythm quickly and with delight. In pces, the transtion worked oddly, but I managed to adapt it well enough to work. We were still ughing over it when I heard the soft groan from inside my tent.
Serru got up to check on him. “Good morning,” she said cheerfully. “Well, afternoon, really. We have tea and soup whenever you feel up to it.”
“I, ah...” I heard his breath catch. “I think I need to step away from the tents for a moment. But I’m not certain how, when my ribs and my leg both hurt so much.”
“I’ll help,” I said, getting all four hooves under me and heaving myself upwards. “Come on. If your leg hurts, try not to strain it. I’ll make the pain stop in a minute, but first I need a chance to see what injuries you have, and unfortunately, I can’t do that if you can’t tell me about discomfort. Let me take as much of your weight as you need. And don’t get all self-conscious. I’m an experienced paramedic and you have nothing I haven’t seen before.”
Serru grinned, but nonetheless offered extra hands in helping Aryennos get up and out of the tent, still naked under the bnket.
He looked a bit grey under that deep brown skin when we returned to the fire and I helped him sit down on a substantial rock Serru and I had been using as a kind of table.
A proper assessment established that he’d wrenched, but probably not broken, his right leg at around knee-level, and he had a goose-egg swelling on the back of his skull. Obviously, his ribs were cracked as well. Aside from that, some of his bruises were deep, but those and the abraded patches of skin would heal. I saw no signs of anything else, but the use of those Hardcure and Softcure potions had been absolutely justified. I hit him with another Anodyne spell bumped up above default, wrapped his right knee and a generous area on both sides in a Bandage—I was running low on those but Serru had a basic kit as well—and helped him dress in his now-dry clothes. He looked better, and happier, once he was sitting on the rock sipping tea.
“Thank you for making the pain stop,” he said. “That and saving my life. Home and my birthpce are only a few days apart but, well, expnations at work about why I’m not there get complicated when they happen too often even if it isn’t exactly intentional.”
I’d forgotten that dying meant something completely different here, but it sounded like there’d have been problematic consequences anyway.
“What job?” Serru asked.
“I work in the library in Alderrock.”
“You fell in the river in Alderrock? That’s a long way upstream. Several miles, I would say. The rains must be heavy in Evercloud right now, considering how high the river is.”
“I, ah...” Aryennos blushed and looked down. “I... wish I could give you a dramatic reason, but honestly, it was just stupid. Now and then, a tourmaline loon wanders out of the Evercloud Mountains and down the river. Or rather, a pair of them, since they bond for life. Alderrock is still pretty high even if it isn’t technically a foothills town. I heard that there was a pair that had been seen just downstream of the city. I, well, neglected to take the current speed and power of the river into account. Or my own clumsiness. Or my ck of familiarity with rough terrain. All my attention was on trying to get to a position that would let me see whether the movement I thought I saw was actually the loons, and I fell. I managed to catch hold of a rge floating branch but I couldn’t escape the current, and I lost my grip when I hit something hard. It would have been a very embarrassing way to die.”
I looked at Serru questioningly.
“It would certainly be something to see a pair of tourmaline loons,” she said. “They aren’t quite so hard to find in the Snowfell Highnds, they like the kes there, although usually in valleys that are hard to reach so they aren’t disturbed. I’ve heard them in and near Evercloud but I don’t believe I’ve seen one there. Not worth dying for, but I suppose accidents happen to everyone. A more relevant question is what to do now. You’re in no condition to make it back to Alderrock alone, and that’s not the direction we’re travelling in.”
Much of that was probably for my benefit, Serru’s way of filling me in on the situation without making it obvious that I had no idea where Aryennos’ home was.
“Even if it’s a detour, we can’t just abandon someone injured and with no idea how to survive,” I pointed out. “Other business will just have to wait.”
“I wasn’t suggesting that we should. I expected to stop in a vilge soon for more supplies, since it’s been a week and we’re low on a few things. I was going to wait an extra day for a rger vilge, but there’s a small one not far away on the other side of the river. We should be able to get basic necessities there, at least. The tavern rents a few rooms upstairs, and as far as I know it’s the nearest post office. You can catch a coach for one of the smaller local routes from there, or get a ride to somewhere you can. I don’t know the routes or schedules but it shouldn’t take more than two or three days, I think.”
“I, ah...” Aryennos said. “Yes, I definitely need to get a message to Alderrock as soon as I can. They’ll be missing me by now anyway. Thank you. And at least in a vilge I can buy you a meal or something to thank you, although I’d rather do more.”
“Not necessary,” I said. “That sounds reasonable.” I should be able to leave him safe in civilization without feeling like I’d abandoned him after taking responsibility.
Even with all care so far, I wasn’t confident that Aryennos would be in any condition to walk in the immediate future, so it was a relief that we weren’t leaving him stranded.
Serru gnced at me, her expression puzzled, then she nodded briskly. “Good. Iguana Meadows doesn’t have much but the tavern has a good cook, so that would be plenty. Would you like food to go with that tea?”
“Yes, please,” Aryennos said meekly.
We finished breakfast, and Serru took the dishes to the river to wash them while I packed up everything else.
“There’s no way you can walk,” I told Aryennos, as Serru returned. “Even if we found something we could adapt into crutches, it would hurt you and we’d be moving at a crawl. So, for purely practical reasons, you’re going to need to ride.”
“I... I don’t think I can do that.” He blushed scarlet.
“How do you think you got here from the river?” I asked.
“It’s easy at a walk,” Serru said. “And we have no need to go faster than that. Getting on can be a little challenging, however. The rock you’ve been sitting on will be useful, and I’ll help.” She reached into her bag for her extra bnket, and began to fold it so she could y it across my back.
It was awkward, to say the least, since his knee couldn’t bend properly plus he had very openly mixed feelings, but with some patience, we got Aryennos astride. He sat stiffly, his hands on his own thighs. Serru slung my bag onto her own back, which seemed logistically simpler at the moment so I didn’t argue, and started for the road, but paused at the edge to wait.
“If you lose your bance, reach around me,” I said. “I’m not going to get upset unless you’re trying to sneak gratuitous gropes and I don’t think that’s likely. Ready?”
“I... yes.”
“Good. Then let’s be off.”
