Onyx

Chapter 4: Hopeless

Onyx waited patiently in that room for the shadow man to come back. She needed answers. So many questions buzzed through her mind, it was overwhelming. On top of that she was starving and desperately needed medical attention for her broken finger.

Luckily, the information overload that was thrust before her, blocked out most of the pain receptors from her finger. There was one question though, that severely bothered her. Who was the little girl and where did she come from? It seemed that after her initial encounter with the girl, she had vanished. Was she connected in any way to the slaughtering of her villages livestock? Was her crying at the base of the tree a set up to capture Onyx?

All these questions and yet no shadow man here to answer them. She wasn't even sure if he would answer them. Another question popped in Onyx's mind. Who exactly is the shadow man? What is he? Precisely 4 hours ago she wouldn't have thought of him as anything other than human, but now she wasn't so sure. He could be anything.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard footsteps coming down the hall. Nervous with anticipation, Onyx squirmed, hitting her broken finger on the stone floor in the process and yelped out in pain.

Cato emerged from within the shadows with a tray of food, his tree trunk legs in odd proportion with his small height. He set the food down in front of her then went to untie her hands. "You'd be stupid to try to run. So don't be stupid."

As Onyx started flexing her wrists she was able to finally examine her finger. It was swollen with purple and yellow bruising, set at an odd angle. She almost threw up at the sight of it.

Cato watched her with a detached interest, then sat in front of her to make sure she wouldn't try to escape as she ate her food. "It's hard for me to eat, when my finger looks like this." she said as she held up her hand.

Cato was silent for a moment contemplating something in his mind, before finally gesturing for her to scoot closer. When she did, he grabbed her hand taking a closer inspection at her finger. While still holding her hand he closed his eyes and chanted;

"קח את מה ששבור ותחזיר אותו למה ששלם פעם נוספת"

Onyx felt the swelling drain out of her finger, and the bone being popped back into place by an invisible force. The purple and yellow bruising slowly faded from her finger until it looked good as new. No sign of the broken finger she had remained.

Absolutely stunned, Onyx was lost for words. Cato just grunted and scooted back more. She felt stupid for asking because it was blatant, but unable to help herself she asked "Was that magic?"

A flicker of amusement flashed in his eyes as he nodded his head yes. "It is a simple spell, not very useful with serious wounds but very good for smaller fractures."

"Why is it not good for serious wounds?"

Cato seemed hesitant to answer. He sat in silence for a couple of minutes before responding. "Serious wounds are more complicated, therefore requires a more complicated spell. Are you going to stop asking me questions and eat now?"

Putting some dry bread in her mouth Onyx said, "I can do both." Cato did not find her amusing.

"Who is the shadow man? Where am I and why am I here? Why was the skinny guy so rude, and who are you?"

Cato just stared at her. "I am not at liberty to answer any of your questions right now."

"Why not?"

A ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "We can either sit here in silence as you eat, or I can gag your mouth and insert a tube into your stomach to feed you through. Pick your poison."