Silvan Sisters: The Hunt

Chapter 26

      "Lethal, I like you and all, but you could at least buy me dinner."
     "You wish," the mercenary muses.
     "If you kept your footing," Sara spits.  "I can not believe you survived without learning how to walk."
     "I walk just fine," Charlie quips, swaying a bit as he stands.
     "Yeah, like a fish on land," she retorts.
      After spending his suns at the range with Sybil, Lethal resumed his routine of following her home. Yet, Sara refuses him any of her attention. His groveling welcomes a phase, and still, she will not give him the satisfaction of knowing how much his disappearance affected her. Instead, she doubles down on training when he arrives, and Charlie harbors dread at seeing him.  This sunset, the mercenary's decision to make himself harder to ignore keeps the pupil praying to all the gods for their feud to end.
     "Maybe if you allow him to breathe."  The voice arrives as music to his ears as the priestess walks up to them.  "Have you looked at him lately?"
     Sara scoffs, "What is that supposed to mean?"
     "Charlie, come here," Serena tells him.  Charlie moves towards her slowly.  "Lift me."  Stumbling back a step, he stares at her through lidded eyes. She repeats the command only to have him shake his head in disbelief.
     "What are you doing?" Sara snaps.
     "You'll see. Now, Charlie, you can lift me or catch me. Your choice."
     He blunders over and tries to scoop her up. The extra weight causes him to tumble, and they fall in a heap on the ground.  "Oh my, are you alright?" Sara questions.
     "I am fine. It is your pupil you should be worried about. You run him too hard for too long," Serena states coldly.  "Come." She stands, holding a hand out to him.  "Your training is complete for this sun." He lets her help him up and stumbles into her before regaining his footing. They ascend the stair, and Sara storms off, leaving Lethal behind.
-
     "Strip"
     "What?"
     "The way you behave, I can not help but wonder if you harbor injuries. I can leave the room if it helps."
     Charlie gawks at the priestess. She might be the healer of their group, but until this grain, it never occurred to him how intimate a role she played. His focus delivers a sway, forcing Serena to steer him towards the bed.
     "Okay, why don't you sit, and I will help you," she suggests. With a nod, she begins. Before she commences to undress him, she notes a small cut by his ear and a few on his shoulder. A more thorough inspection reveals a possible concussion. 
     She kneels in front of him, and he winces as she lifts his foot to unlace his boot. A few good blisters have her thoroughly looking over his foot ware with a critical eye. Setting the shoe aside, she rolls his pant leg to the center of his shin. Her delicate touch tracing over the skin offers an act he wishes he could enjoy. Feeling no abrasions, the examination continues by removing his shirt. 
     An angry bruise at his side greets her among a collection of old and new. Charlie shifts uncomfortably, seeing her close her eyes to the sight, and the added weight on his swollen feet finds them protesting against his lack of shoes.  "It is alright," she assures him, noticing the difficulty.  "Just stay there for now."
     "How did I not see," her lip trembles as she takes in the view. An array of cuts and bruises, in all different stages of healing, pepper his body. There exist very few locations that do not shade red, blue, black, purple, or yellow. Some areas look to carry the brunt of the torment, accumulating a bevy of colors. 
      Focusing on his ribs, her voice becomes strained, "Tell me this happened during this sun's training."  He blinks and swallows hard, giving a sad look.  "I am truly sorry for this."  Her hands press on the site, eliciting a hiss through gritted teeth. The pained expression it brings to her face offers him a strange kind of comfort. He watches her through watery eyes while she inspects the injury. 
     Feeling over the rib and area surrounding it, the priestess lets out a deep sigh. "You don't have a punctured lung, but it is broken. I think it is just the one so you got lucky. The good news, I can heal it, but the area will remain sore. Now for the bad news." Charlie braces himself for the worst.  "Even if healed, there will be no tying you. A broken rib can cause secondary tears in the lining of the muscle. Normally, not a problem, but you let it go without saying anything. This has now become the type of injury that will not heal quickly. My magic can speed up the process, but I refuse to risk you pulling against your bonds and creating a bigger problem."
     "What if I wander?  Isn't that worse?"
     "Truthfully, you getting up to walk about is better than your arms held above you. Now, are there any other surprises, or is this it?"
     "That's a good question. I have not been able to feel my legs since sunpeak," he admits.
      "Okay," she sighs. "I will take care of the rib first, then see about getting feeling back in your legs."
Serena pulls out the chair to sit beside the bed and places her hand back at his side. A peaceful stillness flows through her touch, and Charlie feels the bone reset as it begins to mend, the calm overshadowing any discomfort. Her hand falls away, and he finds himself missing it, even though The sharp pain goes with it as well as the bruising. She climbs on the bed to look at his back.  "What happened at sunpeak before you lost your legs?"
     "A climbing exercise," he replies.
     "The fuck." The expression catches him off guard. Serena does use vulgarities, nevertheless, the word sounds foreign in her gentle voice. "Did she cut the dam rope?" she continues.
     Remembering how the exercise played out, he cringes. It should have been simple. Elves remain known for their agility. However, he never gained any luck in that department. He got halfway through the freestyle climb when his foot slipped, and he could not recover. 
     Careening through the branches Charlie landed with a thud on the forest floor. It hurt something fierce, but Sara made him do it again. Each try saw him to the ground sooner.  After the fifth attempt, he lay there unable to move.
     She reaches around to untie his waistband.  The lack of pressure proves agonizing.  "How many crones did you fall?"
     "Five," he groans.
     "How high?"
     "Which crone?"
     "Furthest."
     "Twice the cabin."
     "Four flights? You were up four flights and allowed to fall unassisted! How are you still walking? How are you breathing?" She continues unbuttoning his pants to see the extent of the injury. 
     The entire region from shoulder blade to ass sports deep purple. Even with the pants undone, the bruising goes beyond what she can see.  "I will give you a choice. What would be easier? Lying on your stomach or standing? If lying down, I may not have to remove your pants."
     "While the idea of you seeing me naked is as intriguing as it is terrifying, the very concept of standing...," answers Charlie.
     "How can you be in this much pain and still joke?" He just shrugs. Helping him to lie on his belly, she gets to work.
     Many turns come to ash before her hands leave him. The damage to his body proved alarming, and more than once she wondered why he survived. He hears her make a noise in her throat and asks, "Are you
alright?"
     "Fine," comes her quick reply. "Tell me about your childhood."
     He thinks that an oddly random query.  "What do you want to know?" 
     "Um...  This is not the first is it?"
     "What can I say? I'm a clutz," he laughs.
     "Charlie," she returns.  "You can not lie to a healer."
     "What do you mean?" he answers nervously.
     "One of your shoulder blades contains a previous brake that did not heal right. I thought it fractured but... What do you know about healing?"
     "You cast and the pain gets better."
     "Do you know why?" Charlie shakes his head. "It remains absolutely essential to trust your healer. When I heal you, I experience the nature of the injury," she explains.
     "You what?"
     "I see how you got it."
     Charlie freezes.
     "If you want, we can stop."
     He swallows hard before replying.  "Tell me," he says shakily. "If you fix me, will it help?"
     She runs her hands down over his hips and legs.  "You have twenty-seven healed breaks, fourteen areas of deep scar tissue, and weak ankles. And that's just the lower half. Mended correctly, you will likely see a difference."
     "And you will see each one?"
     "I exist not to judge."
     "But, you will know?" he asks tentatively.
     "Yes."
     Charlie thinks a grain. "I trust you."
-
Sara fumes on the porch as she sharpens her blades. She and Serena went at it at first rise. The priestess refused to allow him to train, standing against her sister by blocking the door to his room. Even when moved aside, the entry stood spelled against opening. "Do not bother. It's also charmed to keep the peace," Serena bit as she banged and called out to him.
"Should you be at the smith or something?"
"Seamstress, and no, I told Grandma Evy not to expect me for the next two suns."
"And I assume that you want him to do nothing it that crone?" Sara's tone dripped with venom.
"Just for the sun. The following I took for me." That saw when she stormed out.
Replaying those words in her head, Sara can not accept her sister's logic. He needs to train so they can get back to the hunt. A simple potion or spell would deliver him back on his feet within the turn. Surely a full sun of rest is ludicrous.
The turns dust by and soon little sister comes up the walk with her tutor in tow. Sara, again, makes a point of ignoring him as Sybil walks inside with Lethal lingering on the porch. "Lady Sara," he greets. She gets to her feet and stomps off.
"Sara Raven get back here," the priestess calls as the sirens go off.
"I'll get her," the mercenary offers.
"No," she protests, "it will not do to have you both out there."
"I weathered my fair share of storms, priestess."
"Lethal..."
"I will find her and keep her safe." With that, he is gone.
"Where's Sara?" Sybil asks when the priestess comes back alone.
"Lethal went after her. He says he will keep her safe."
"Isn't he better at killing?" Charlie lets out without thought.
"What happened?" Forgetting the topic, little sister eyes him over. "You're holding yourself different."
He looks at Serena who gently smiles back.