The Wicked & Divine

Chapter 23-- Down the Rabbit Hole

WARNING: this chapter contains triggering themes of sexual assault, proceed at your own risk

Amalia's work on my leg was both impressive and repulsing.

One had to recognize that mending flesh was no easy task, Amalia clearly had the stomach for that much and more. An hour after they had both left, one of the men guarding had entered with no warning, I had remembered that conditions that they both come in were strictly to sew my leg back up- not to restore my motor abilities.

As soon as the knob began to turn I thrashed myself back down onto the thin mattress and let my gaze fall onto the stone floor. It took all of my focus not to twitch, part of regaining control of my limbs included an incessant twitching that seemed beyond control.

He was with no doubt a very impressively large man, I could see why Karl had been a ball of anxiety. If we were caught and our attempts were rendered futile, we would all be facing some very serious injuries- death the least barbarous of the list of things I could think of.

This wouldn't have seemed like a concern if I had also gotten my abilities back, but I had yet to see even a small spark in my palm. I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly forlorn, Karl said this was much more restrictive magic "great mother" had done, it would most likely wear off in a few days, which I might add by then it was planned that I would be far down the corridor to Hell.

It was all quite arcane but nothing I didn't believe was much different from anything else further ahead.

So it was completely up to what I could do as a human, I had to counter in many factors-

The snow, I could hear the storm going for a while now. Now, I had gotten my fair share of snow, but never with a torn leg and not some sort of water resistant clothing or an extra layer to wear under. Amalia had retrieved warm clothes I would don for the journey, but there wasn't much to spare and I would have to be prepared to be mind-numbingly cold.

The distance-maybe if we had some sort of map to tell the distance to a nearer town. The closest town Karl and Zelig were familiar with was three hours away on foot, could we survive this? In the dead of night and in the snow? Karl was hoping to be able to grab horses, but this increased the odds of us being caught.

The way out- all Karl had told me was that there would be a path in the north of the village that would not be occupied. Soon, the men would leave to go set up the post they would hang me on, this would leave a small window of time for us to escape. We were 4 in numbers, more easy to spot than 1 person. I was left to think about the rest of the more necessary facts I was left without, how big was the village? was I close to other houses or were the living units spread out?

Much more, the basics of this rural lifestyle. Clearly, they were dedicated to some form of ancient germanic-paganism. Had they completely separated from modern society? the only technology  in the room was the old clock- and that wasn't saying very much.

Moreover I began to think...why hadn't I been found yet? If Zelig had to drag me from the tracks all on his own then it couldn't have been that far. Assuming in the scenario that I am indeed being looked for, then wouldn't it have been easy to locate this village? I hated to be a pessimist, but any voice of logic would voucher that my chances of succeeding were not propitious.

I was beginning to think that I had fallen down a rabbit hole and into a world in another realm, or perhaps, in another time.

The man stands fixed stiffly to the floor, scowling at me and muttering acrimoniously, short strings of what I knew not to be compliments puffing out of his reddened and discolored skin. For just a moment, he inched forward with eyes that confused me, gulping and huffing air. Like a dog pulling against restraints, he began lapping his tongue at cracked teeth.