Yellowhair: An Elf Hollow Prequel

FIFTEEN | DragonSworn

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

DragonSworn

On the fourth day in the camp, once she was awake, Krendal asked Qello to try putting weight on her feet and she was amazed. They are not hurting as much. Maybe I can walk! Her knees were still sore from use with her crawling, but she didn't need to crawl, if she could walk. Sore knees would matter so little. If the bad bruises and cuts still hurt when she left, she would not let them slow her down. She noticed an awareness of power that seemed alive in her throat. The recent sensation seemed to be coming from inside and more often these days. It was there, for a second, but then Krendal touched her shoulder.

"Want to try walking a bit? Here. Walk in bare feet. We want them open to air. Hold my arm." He clamped her hand on the top of his forearm, then put his own hand overtop to hold hers. Qello experimented, testing her weight and Krendal cautioned her, "It'll hurt a lot in the first few steps, but try to go further, so you see what I mean—the pain will ease somewhat." She placed each foot gingerly, watching the ground, her gasps of agony helping to hide her thrill at finally being able to walk, again, on her own.

Krendal gave Qello distraction, by talking about things he had planted at the edge of the field. She could hear him, but could not pay attention. Only part of her mind took in the old herbalist's words. "Much knowledge is wasted, if not revealed through questions arising from the heart of within. That's what causes momentum. Learning fits one's own role when guided by our inner sparks connected with All." Krendal paused by a rock with the finest white flowers—so tiny they could have sat on any ant's kitchen table. "Do you know this rock moss flower?" Qello couldn't break the concentration she needed to place her feet down without crying out and Krendal continued, "But as you don't speak, I'll has to think of a way so as to know what next gifts might emerge to meet your needing and wanting—to bring those out for you. Do you know what's your purpose? Has you been helped with your learning a course, so far?"

Qello studied the ground for sharp angles and stones.

"I will have to just guess then, in sight, for how I might help you." Krendal drifted off thinking. "Problem is, some of us get much more subtle energy fields than others. So, some can be hurt with the wrong kind of training. I'll think on it much, Lass."

Qello howled with another stone jab into her footpad.

Krendal thought aloud, calmly, and barely aware she was shrieking inside. "I think yous susceptible to seeing and hearing more than appears to be on the surface, or what most folks could see, feel or notice. One has to know that it's there to do that."

There were tears in her eyes from rushes of needles stabbing up both of her legs and from something she knew Krendal was saying, but her breathing and thinking were laboured by pain. With each step, she blocked out this feeling and each surge of pain began to calm down. They took several more steps.

Suddenly, Qello winced throwing her head back, as she spotted a face, and lost concentration. She saw bright colours, in between trees and her foot struck something hard. As it did, she cried out. Across the field, very close now, only the length of ten camps was—The boy! He is here, now, right in these trees!

The boy had startled also and turned round, hearing her squawk. She bellowed, again, louder, and the herbalist cringed and looked up to see what was wrong.

Yellowhair was staring straight into the face of the hill-boy. Krendal knew she could see how that face was twisted and marred by scars, cast all across the whole of one cheek of the lad.

The moment the boy realized that he had been seen, he snarled like an animal, barring his teeth; his nose wrinkled—lips curled away. Qello jumped, involuntarily—surprised; and moved herself closer to Krendal. The snarling made the boy look like one of the monsters she'd imagined from so many stories of Luu's in the past, and from other storytellers that had come through Kempor Village.