I must have been much more tired than I realized. I think I actually fell asleep. The sun was starting to set now and a meal was being served out. From the sounds of some questions that were being addressed to Istan and Gray it seems like most of the story had already been told. I was grateful that they did not wait for me to tell the story. I am more than willing to let Istan handle this one. Even if he ended up overly embellishing it as I am guessing he has done.
I felt Leafia stir next to me as I started to clear off the growth that had covered me while I napped. It was less than normal, even for the winter time. I must have been absorbing all the limited power and giving almost nothing off in return. I looked over to Leafia and could tell that she was waking up too. I hope that it was the smell of the food that woke her and not me shifting positions.
“How are you feeling?” I asked Leafia quietly.
“My right arm hurts a lot.” she responded as she gingerly reached up and started to rub her right shoulder.
“But,” I said in confusion. She did not have a right arm anymore, how would it hurt?
“It will get better but it is never going to completely go away,” Faun said, approaching us.
I was surprised to see her up and moving, she was worse off than any of us besides maybe Tide when we left the village. She clearly understood my concerned look. “Emily gave me some food and medicine to help me clean the toxins out. She told me to rest but I don’t think I will be able to sit still for some time.” There was a slight shudder in her shoulders. “I never want to be stuck inside a cage again. It’s just not right.
“But as I was saying. Your body does not understand what happened with your arm and interprets the lack of sensation as pain.”
“Should I give you some medicine for the pain?” I asked, looking at Leafia with concern.
She was looking at her stump of an arm. It was clear that there was still some disbelief that her arm was really gone. “I .. I guess.” She hesitated. I decided that it was not something I should pry into. This was a big change and it was clear that it would take time for her to adjust.
“I should probably get a cup of water for it,” I mumbled to myself. The large water skin was clearly visible leaning up against the rock that Emily was sitting on, but she was busy finishing up dinner and keeping Mist from hurting herself and/or destroying the camp; it did not seem right to ask her to help me. I guess I would just have to get up.
I heaved a sigh as I shifted my feet under me. But before I could actually get up Faun interrupted me. “I will do it.”
“But you are still recovering,” I protested. “The only reason I did not want to move was that I was tired and it felt nice to be lazy.”
“I have not been able to move for months. I don’t know how long it will be until I am able to sit still again.” The sadness in her eyes quickly faded and I saw the smirk that always made me wary. “Besides, you have always been lazy. How else could you sit around for 500 years just to avoid talking to people?”
I wanted to refute her statement but… I could not think of anything to say and she was already walking away to fetch the water.
Dinner was ready to eat just after I gave Leafia the medicine. This was a simple medicine. I was sure Emily could have made something nearly as effective out of willow bark. I probably should have had her make it with how much of the power I just gained from my nap was used, but I removed some of the impurities to reduce the chance of Leafia getting a stomach ache. That was the last thing that we needed. It was already bad enough that we were going to be asking Leafia to ride all day tomorrow. If Faun had her way she would force Leafia to stay off her feet for a week, not that she had any right to talk about resting while recovering right now. Any time we healed an animal she always took the follow up care very seriously. I would give them the medicine and let them go anytime they felt up to it, but Faun wanted them to stay still for much longer than anyone besides her felt was needed. But even I could tell less than one day was not enough rest to then go riding a whole day.
“We all need to get to bed as soon as dinner is over,” I said after everyone had sat down with their food. “We are all tired and it is going to be a long day tomorrow.”
There were some quiet grumbles coming from Leafia, as another bit of food fell back into her bowl. Leafia’s blood loss was affecting her coordination, and her success rate at getting food into her mouth was just under 50%. From looking at her the only reason that her grumblings were still quiet was that so far all of the food had managed to find its way back into the bowl. If I did not know better I would say some wind spirit was guiding her food back into the bowl. But I still did not see how a wind spirit would ever be able to form. Air was just too thin to hold that much energy.
But ever since the battle this morning the air still seemed to be filled with the remnants of power we left from our fight. The residue should have dispersed long ago back into the plants water and soil we take our power from. The residue in the air was slightly different from the energy that made me and the other spirits up. After it mingled with whatever filth Maximus used, it transformed slightly and was lingering. It was not fading. It felt strange that I would still be able to feel that power at our camp away from the city. But the wind was blowing our direction.
I watched a slice of potato fall off Leafia’s spoon once again. This time I could tell that she was not going to be as lucky. I decided to prevent the tragedy of the food falling onto her lap and quickly reached out and caught the food.
“Let me help you with that,” I said, holding the piece of potato in front of her lips. Her face turned bright red but she still took the food from my hand. I guess it was too much for Leafia to be eating from my fingers. But it was also messy for my hand. Might as well use the spoon I already had. I switched which hand held my spoon to be able to give Leafia another bite.
I did not understand why her face was still red just from eating from my spoon. I was just happy she felt well enough to blush, she was healing faster than I expected. But food was more important for Leafia than a mortal’s strange concept of pride or virtue or whatever was making Leafia embarrassed, so I just kept feeding her.
Leafia had eaten the rest of my food and a good chunk of her own food before she said, “I don’t think I can eat any more.” I put the spoon down and we sat in silence as the others continued to quiet conversations or performing some task to get ready for sleep.
Leafia’s weight shifted to lean on me. I liked this feeling of closeness and was about to shift to put my arm around her when I realized that she was already asleep.
I guess it was a really hard day for her. I quietly carried her to her tent, got her into her night clothes and gently laid her in bed. I wanted to stay with her again tonight but she needed a good night’s sleep. Also I had had my promise with Tide to keep.
