Sword and Snow

I moved quickly enough that when I moved to kneel beside the man who had been injured I practically slid the last meter in the dirt. I quickly went about using what medical techniques I had to figure out what injuries he had, but it didn’t take long to find the deep knife wound in his side.

I quickly split my focus four ways to the best of my ability. First, I kept my Domain active, just in case, while sending quiet reassurances to Emery that I was fine. Second, I kept a small amount of medicinal Qi flowing to the man’s wound to staunch the bleeding somewhat. Third, I began working toward extracting the poison that had presumably begun to rampage through the man’s system. That was the toughest part.

Fourth, I turned to the children, who were all still huddled up together in a protective ball. I tried to give them the most reassuring smile I could manage. “Hey,” I said, trying to coax the oldest kid to talk, “if you feel like you’re able, I need you to tell me what’s happened here as best you can.”

The same boy that had warned me of the attack before raised his head toward me and tried to put on a brave face. “Um…yeah, okay.” He said, tentatively. He pointed to the man I was working on healing. “Is Mister Milarn going to be alright?”

I glanced at the man and then back to the child. I wasn’t sure whether it would be best to be honest or reassuring at the cost of honesty. I took a deep breath and went for honesty. “I think so. I can’t be sure because the bad man over there used poison. I’m trying to remove it and heal the wound the best I can, but I’m not actually a doctor.”

The boy looked stricken but nodded. “He was nice to us. He was like our designated babysitter in the caravan.”

“And the bad guys took him with you when they took you all?”

The boy nodded. “Yeah. They did something that put us all to sleep or something. None of us remember what happened, and then we just woke up here. Mister Milarn said the same thing.”

I looked down at ‘Mister Milarn’, his face in a grimace of pain. It looked like some of the effects of the poison had already taken their toll, as he appeared to be nearly paralyzed. I supposed it could have been shock from the pain as well, though less likely. Without the poison, he may have eventually bled out, but his wound had thankfully not hit any critical arteries, nor internal organs. I doubted it was intentional on the demon’s part, but the wound appeared to stop just short of his lung.

“I see.” I opted to put a smile on my face and try to be reassuring at this point. “My partner and I came to help you all after we saw your caravan. They made it to Bastion, but there were…losses. I don’t know who made it there safely and who didn’t, but as soon as Mister Milarn and my partner can walk, we’re going to take you all there with us.”

The boy nodded. “Okay.” He was clearly putting up a tough exterior, but looked worried. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“If you can round up the other kids and get them ready to move, that would be a big help.” I said. With a thought, one of my Snowflakes moved in carefully and slipped through the rope bindings that held them all. “See who is able to walk on their own, and make sure there’s no one who is injured.”

The boy nodded, then turned to move toward the other children.

“Oh, by the way,” I asked, and he turned around again, “what is your name?”

“Grant.” He said, and plastered on a smile before turning away again.

“I’m Avuri. Let me know if any of you need anything.” I said, as he continued to move away.

I redoubled my efforts on the man’s wound then. Drawing out poison that had spread through much of a body was difficult and taxing work. It seeped slowly through his body, even as I pulled it with everything I had. It took several minutes before I saw the ooze-like substance begin to seep from the open wound, and it was several more before the whole dose had been removed.

I wiped my sweat away from my face before it could sting my eyes, then focused on closing the man’s wound. It took less time than removing the poison did, but was still very battlefield level medicine. The man would certainly need stitches when we made it to Bastion, as well as probably a few treatments along the way to keep it from bleeding.

Mister Milarn was still unresponsive for the moment, so I opted to check on my own knife wound. The cut wasn’t too dangerous, but I had pulled it open either during our fight or while treating the other man. I took a moment to reclose the wound, took a few deep breaths to calm myself, then stood to look over the kids.

Thankfully, no one was hurt badly. There were a few rope burns from their bindings, and a few of the younger children were complaining of headaches, but I imagined that was the aftereffects of whatever the demons had used to put them to sleep for their kidnapping.

“Avuri?” I heard Emery call from outside the tent. I told the kids that that was my partner calling, and that I would be right back.

I slipped outside the tent to see Emery hobbling toward the tent, clearly unsteady on her feet. Every time she took a step, she shuddered and twitched from what I assumed was residual pain from the lightning strikes she took.

“You idiot.” I said, exasperated, “You shouldn’t be trying to walk yet.”

“Like I have a…choice.” She paused mid sentence for a tremor to pass through her body. “We can’t stay here long, and we have a whole group of people to escort. I can’t be laid up for that.”

I rolled my eyes. “You can be, and probably will be. There was a small cart just outside the camp. I should be able to pull that with you and all the kids in it.”

Emery stared me down seriously. “I’m not getting in that thing to be jostled around while you pull us to Bastion. All the knocking around might actually kill me.”

“You big baby. You’ll be fine.” I said, turning back toward the tent. “In pain, I’m sure. But you’ll live.”

Getting back to Bastion was slow going. I was, as I had predicted, perfectly capable of pulling the cart with all ten passengers. Mister Milarn had recovered enough after an hour to help Emery and I corral the children into the cart and get on our way.

I moved slowly and deliberately while we weren’t anywhere near the road. Covering the not insignificant distance back to the smooth and well trodden path was going to take a while, but it would have to do. I didn’t want to jostle Emery as she was still sore, but I also didn’t want to push myself too hard and make my injury worse. As is, we were already stopping every hour so I could redress mine and Mister Milarn’s wounds.

And on top of all of that, there were several young children in the cart. I didn’t realize it when I had first entered the tent, but of the eight kids that had been held captive, half of them were either three or four years old. I definitely didn’t want to upset or hurt them while we traveled, so I put a little extra care than perhaps was necessary into my light jogging.

Unfortunately, it was early evening by the time we had made it to the demonic Cultivator’s camp, which in turn meant that when we finally left from there it was nearly sundown. And at the pace we were able to move…well, we certainly weren’t going to make it to the town unless I ran all night.

Which, I offered, but was turned down. The kids needed sleep, and it wasn’t a bad idea for the rest of us either.

Since we were already off the beaten path, we picked somewhere relatively random to bed down for the night. It was mentally exhausting, but I kept my Domain active as often as possible and stretched both it and my natural Qi range as wide as possible to keep an eye open for danger.

When sunrise came, I thanked whoever or whatever was listening for not making that night difficult. Emery woke up that morning feeling much better, though still slightly tingly, and was able to help me pull the cart in turns. It let me catch a brief nap on the cart during the morning, which was pleasant.

Despite being knocked around by the rough not-road, I managed to sleep rather well, complete with some rather pleasant dreams. When I woke up in the early afternoon, I put those lovely dreams out of my mind for now to continue focusing on the task at hand. Keeping my eyes from drifting to Emery as we walked and talked aimlessly was much harder in the afternoon though.

The sun was setting when we finally saw Bastion peeking over the horizon in the distance. With a light smile, I told everyone to hold on tight and turned up my jog speed just a little. Once we made it to the much smoother road, things went a bit quicker and we were able to cover the last stretch in good time.

The gates were guarded by more Cultivator guards than there had been when we left, and there was a serious hush around the gate. As we approached, three guards leapt from the gate and landed before us, and halted our path.

“You’ll have to excuse our extra security. Things have been…strained the last couple days. What’s going on here?”

Before Emery or I could speak up, Mister Milarn spoke. “I’m part of the caravan that was attacked yesterday, as are these kids.” He said, moving aside from the front of the wagon to show the kids arrayed behind him. “Emery and Avuri, the two women here, managed to not only free us, but took down the demonic sect that snatched us. It was incredible.” He finished, his eyes glinting in the early evening light.

I waved him quiet. “He’s telling the truth, but before any of that, he and I are both injured. If you have an actual Cultivator doctor in the town that could work on us, I would be grateful.” I pulled my robe to the side a little to show the cut cloth, dried blood, and the wound itself all in a single motion.

The guard in the middle stepped forward and swallowed before speaking. “Look, ma’am, if that’s the case we can see if we can bring a doctor out to you. But for now…could you both rein in your Qi?”

“Oh!” I said, and immediately began to pull my Qi back toward myself. Emery did the same as well. “I’m genuinely sorry. I’ve been using it to monitor our surroundings while we made our way back. I’ve been ‘on’ for so long that I forgot.” As my Qi settled back much closer to my body, my instinct fought the desire to relax still. Instead of letting my Domain and Qi go, I just settled it close around my person instead.

The guard smiled weakly. “It happens. You aren’t the first Cultivators to approach the city feeling like you’re ready for a battle. But the distance we felt you at had us all concerned, I won’t lie.”

I nearly laughed, but held it back with what I hoped was a warm smile instead. “Sorry, sir. Despite that, I’m really just in the Sky Realm. Nothing to be afraid of.”

He eyed the group of us warily at that admission, his eyes lingering on Emery who was still covered in dried blood and was even lightly charred in a few places. I was pretty sure I didn’t look much better.

“Well, come into the gate house for now. We’ll bring the kids’ families that are in the town to check the children over and figure out what to do from there.”

Emery and I both nodded. Mister Milarn did so as well, but asked, “Is it alright if I stay with the kids for now? Supervision is fine, but I’m not sure the little ones will take well to being taken somewhere without someone they know right now.”

The guard nodded. “That should be fine, as you aren’t a Cultivator.”

“Should I pull the cart in, or…?” I asked, trailing off.

The lead guard motioned for one of the other guards, a woman Cultivator, to step up and take over. I nodded and handed off the makeshift wooden handles we had made out of the old yoke.

“Thank you for your work.” The woman whispered to me, hiding a smile. “You did good.”

I just smiled, grabbed Emery’s hand, and began walking to the town behind the guards.