Untamed | Halsin x TAV One-Shots

Prologue II

A/N: Scenes to follow include mentions of sexual assault. Please be aware if you choose to proceed.

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HALSIN

Something, I missed something.

I run through all the details in my mind as my hands rummage through the mess of bottles, documents, and supplies.

How it came to be that the Oak Father saw me fit to become Archdruid, I will never know.

I knew when she first opened her eyes that she was guarded, wary of me from our encounter in the woods. She had every right to be. But as I gave her space and time to heal, I had hoped that I was gaining her trust. At least enough to seek answers to the questions that riddled my mind since that night. If nothing else, Nettie deserves the credit for getting her to open up as much as she had.

But I had failed her. I missed something and now she lay in my bed, soaked and shivering with a fever from a damage I should have been fully capable of healing, and whatever is causing it was persisting– worsening despite my best attempts at the spell.

The shame rose in my throat like bile.

Unable to find anything that could point me in the direction of the cause of her ailment, I slammed my hands down on the table with a snarl. A fine Archdruid you are, I chided myself.

 "Master Halsin?"

Nettie pushed through the wooden doors into the ward, her eyes immediately landing on me. Her expression turned worrisome as she registered my frustrated state.

"Just Halsin, Nettie," I softly reminded her. Formalities never really suited me, even long before I was Archdruid. "How is she faring?" Emlyn, I reminded myself, her name sweet on my tongue like my favorite honey.

She began to dig in the supply cabinets, draping clean rags over her forearm. "Sweating like a pig, but she's resting. I was able to get her to eat some broth a few hours ago, but I'm worried about her lack of hydration."

I fold my arms over my chest and heave a sigh to calm myself. "Did the wound ever have a chance of becoming infected?" I knew the answer already, purple and green coloring like the ones Emlyn was displaying were no indicators of infection. But I had to be sure.

As predicted, Nettie shook her head. "I cleaned the area once every morning and gave her fresh bandages. I swear upon my oath to the Oak Father it never had a chance of infection."

I nod, equal parts pleased with my apprentice and the strides she has taken the last few years under my guidance, and troubled at the sudden decline of Emlyn's state.

"I've never seen anything like it." She shakes her head thoughtfully as she heads toward the door. "It's as if a viper had suddenly bit her on the inside."

My eyebrows knit together as I blinked, registering her words. "Come again, Nettie?"

She hesitated in the doorway and shrugged. "I know it doesn't make any sense, but the splotches look just like when Rath was bitten by that viper last year. Purple and green splotches around the bite area. But how Emlyn would have been bit by a viper without us knowin' it sure beats me."

My head snaps back around to the mess I made in the room as it clicks into place. I claw my way through baskets and pantries, digging through compartments until I find the suspected item.

"Master– I mean, Halsin? Are you alright?" She gaped at me, bewildered as if observing a bear destroying the ward.

"I believe you are onto something, Nettie," I explain and examine the roasting fork that had been used to puncture Emlyn.

The image of her tiny owl body limp in my arms as I carried her to the grove flashes in my mind's eye. The fork speared through her was thankfully too far to the right to hit any major organs, but I knew the damage would be worse once she recalled her wild state.

I bring the prongs closer to my eyes to examine them better. I held my breath and tilted the weapon into the light of the nearest torch, a silent prayer to Silvanus repeating in my mind when suddenly the firelight caught the sheen of a clear, but oily substance that coated the end of the fork.

"Oak Father restrain me."

"What is it?" Nettie stepped closer, eyeing the roasting fork in my hand.

"I had wondered why they hadn't pierced her heart or lungs. Thankful despite it, however, it hadn't made sense if they were intending to consume her," I began, recounting the events that I witnessed before my intervention. "That goblin was smarter than he let on. He must have had suspicions that she would have escaped their hands, and this was his way of ensuring her demise, one way or another."

I squeezed the metal in my fingers until it bent, anger lapping through my veins. How close that goblin was to succeeding where I had failed.

Viper venom. The more strategic and deadly goblins had recently taken to hunting vipers and other venomous creatures to harvest their venom glands and coat their weapons with so that even if their foes survived the attack, they wouldn't last long.

"Come, Nettie, with haste." I let my long strides carry me from the ward toward my chambers, silently praying to Silvanus that we were not too late.