The Injured Boy

"Hey", Gulin poked him with his branch, "are you alive?" But there was no response. So, Gulin poked him again, this time harder, enough to bend the end of the branch. But still, nothing.

"Gulin!" he heard his father yell out. Gulin turned to see his father running towards him, wielding his walking staff in one hand and Gulin's unsheathed sword in the other. When he arrived, he looked down at the body at Gulin's feet and then towards the branch in Gulin's hand. "Did you kill him with that?"

Gulin dropped the branch and shook his head vigorously. "No, I didn't even get the chance to hit him. He just…fell", Gulin said, omitting that he let the man fall to the ground instead of catching him.

Gulin's father put down the weapons and flipped the man gently onto his back, and for the first time, Gulin saw his face clearly. Underneath the blood and the dirt, he saw a smooth and delicate face of a boy who looked barely older than 15. Gulin felt a tinge of embarrassment from being startled from a kid not much younger than him.

His father leaned in and placed his middle and fore finger on the boy's neck, feeling for a pulse. A moment later his father retracted his fingers and began slide his arms underneath the boy.

"What are you doing?" Gulin asked as his father lifted him up.

"He's dying", his father began walking towards the temple and Gulin's eyes widened upon realizing what his father was planning to do.

"He tried to attack me!" Gulin said.

His father glanced at him from the corner of his eyes and snorted. "Are you saying you didn't threaten to 'spank him if he got closer'?"

Gulin blushed, "you heard that?"

"I also heard your footsteps running towards him after. Besides, his pulse is too weak to hurt you even if he had any intentions of attacking you", his father carried the boy into the temple and placed him on Gulin's mat.

He then instructed Gulin to boil some water. However, when his father turned around, he was still standing there. "Why are you standing there? Go do what I told you to", he said.

"I attacked him first. What if he thinks we're his enemies and after we save him he-", Gulin paused, glanced at the boy and then dragged his thumb across his throat. "Kills us in our sleep", he whispered.

His father placed a hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes. "We don't let people die, Gulin. If he chooses to kill us, then so be it. But there's a chance he's just a scared kid who's hurt, and we do not let people die just because we're afraid. Understand?"

The boy groaned softly and Gulin looked at him, his face clearly in pain. His father was right, they should help him, regardless of the risk. He then turned back to his father nodded.

"Good. Now start a fire and boil some water", his father said. Gulin wasted no time and did as he was told. As he struck the two rocks together to create a spark to ignite the specks of dry wood, Gulin heard his father shuffling inside the temple and looked back inside. His father scrambled around the temple looking for something; rummaging through their belongings and turning bags upside down to dump out their contents until he finally found what he was looking for. He unfolded the leather pack and took out a needle stored inside of it. His father than sat the boy up and Gulin saw that he was shirtless with a large bruise on his chest.

"I need that water son!" his father yelled out and Gulin returned to concentrating on his task of boiling the water. When he was finished, he brought the pot of still rolling water to his father and placed it on the ground near him. He then looked at the boy who was sitting up weakly with his head drooped down and got a better look at the enormous bruise in the middle of his chest. It was a dark deep purple in the shape of a palm.

"What is that?" Gulin asked his father, leaning in closer to inspect it. His father dipped the needle into the boiling pot of water and stuck it into the palm shaped bruise. The boy winced.

"A terrible poison I haven't seen in years", Gulin's father removed the needles and tossed it aside. Dark blood then began to trail out of where the needle had just punctured.

"Can you save him?"

His father breathed deeply. "I don't know. All I can do is remove as much of the poisoned blood as I can and hope that it hasn't reached any vital organs yet", his father pierced the boy with another needle and pulled it out to let it bleed. He continued to repeat the process until the bruise stopped bleeding dark blood and began to bleed red. The boy winced slightly in pain each time. By the time Gulin's father was finished the bruise had lost most of its deep purple colour, but the outline of the palm was still visible.

"That's all I can do for now. The rest is up to him", his father spread a foul-smelling ointment on the boy's back and laid him to rest. "We'll have to sleep in shifts until he wakes. I'll take the first and wake you later."

Gulin rubbed his eye with his finger and yawned before laying down on the other mat. It had been quite the day, he thought to himself as he drifted fast asleep without imagining that he was somewhere else. It was the first time he had fallen asleep that quickly in a long time.

It was dawn when Gulin woke up. The sun was just beginning to rise and was spreading its orange glow into the temple through its open doors. Gulin stretched his arms up and sat up. He looked around the temple and saw that the boy was still asleep. His father sat next to the boy, his eyes completely alert and awake.

"You can sleep some more", his father said when he noticed Gulin was awake. "I'm still okay to stay awake longer."

Gulin shook his head. "You need to rest more than I do. If he gets any worse, you're the only one who can save him. Can't have you tired when that happens", Gulin stood up and leaned backwards to stretch his back. "Come on, go to sleep. I got this."

His father looked at the straw mat and nodded slowly. He then went to the mat and laid down; then again, almost instantaneously, he began snoring softly. 'How does he do that?', Gulin admired. He picked up the water skin and took a long drink of water. He looked down at the boy. His face was serene and calm compared to last night when it was writhing in pain.

"Who are you?" he asked out loud before taking another drink of water. It was strange. Why was out in the forest so late? How was he able to move so fast despite his heavy injuries? Who injured him into this state? Gulin would be sure to ask the boy when he woke up. If he woke.