Chapter Seventeen

Pain pulsed through my body as I tried to wiggle my fingers. To my surprise, I opened my eyes and stared at the sky as the cloud's passed by. My right arm was floating in the rising water. Every movement felt like it was being smashed with a dozen slag hammers at once. With tears in my eyes, I forced myself to sit up, screaming in pain as I dragged my lower body out of the water. Most of the blood had washed away but my leg and arm were still bleeding. There was a trail of red in the water, flowing downstream with the current. Holes in the shape of a large jaw were imprinted on my pants and far in my leg it almost hit the bone. My arm had deep gashes from the teeth or claws of the beast. I tried to stand but fell to my knee, putting pressure on my leg was far too painful. I tried to concentrate on what the doctors had taught me when it came to slow bleeding or quicken the healing process. Quickly searching through my memories, one of the methods has popped out at me.

"Witch-hazel, a paste made from the bark and leaves of the plant Hamamelis Virginiana also known as Witch-hazel," I said to myself.

The plant was very common around these parts, I crawled up the bank of the river while dragging my leg behind me. The beast was nowhere to be found; it left a blood trail heading back to the meadow. I remembered seeing a Witch-hazel shrub close to the cave where we found little Keven and I could tell it wasn't too far away. Slowly pulling myself to the top of the bank, I looked around before standing on my one good leg and moving as fast as I could toward the cave. I was so focused on finding the Witch-hazel that the pain had almost completely left my mind. I had finally reached the small clearing by the cave entrance, where the sun was shining brightly on a single Witch-hazel shrub. I grabbed two small rocks, throwing them over to the shrub before I limped over and sat underneath its branches. The shrub was tall and branchy with little green leaves and small, stringy yellow flowers. I stretched my legs out beside me with the rocks in front of me. The pain started to hit me like a wrecking ball as I was carefully examining my wounds. I focused on my arm before moving over to my leg, the gashes were deep but not all of them were caused by the beast. A shiny object was embedded in the mussel of one of the gashes. I reached for it, my hand shaking as I slowly pulled it out. My head started to feel faint as I tried to shake it off and blinked my eyes, trying to clear my vision to see the object. It was about an inch of the tip to one of my blades, it must have been embedded in the wound when I was fending off the beast. My arm was dripping blood as I held the blade between my fingers and I cut one of my pant legs off. I pulled down and tore off one of the branches to the shrub. Removing the flowers, leaves, and bark; Placing the leaves and bark on the flat side of the stones, I used the other stone to crush them into a paste. Using a sharp twig as a needle, I shredded another piece of bark to use as thread. Threading the makeshift needle I stitched the gashes together before lathering a small amount onto my pant leg, wrapping it around my forearm, and tying it tight.

"Stay awake... stay awake, you can... you can do this," I said to myself.

Picking up the tip to my sword again, I cut away the other pant leg. Revealing the bite mark on my leg, I examined the wound thoroughly. The teeth marks were on the top and bottom of my leg. The water from the river had washed away all the dirt from inside each hole. The bites on my leg weren't as deep as the ones on my arm. I rethreaded the needle and stitched up each hole. I took the rest of the paste, slathering it all over the pant leg before wrapping it around and tying it as tight as I could. The bites on my leg weren't deep enough to hit bone and they didn't hit any arteries. I couldn't see the slice on my back, but I could tell that it was only a flesh wound. Standing up I shook some of the dizziness out of my head and started to slowly wobble to the meadow. The beast very much didn't want me anywhere near the center of that meadow. Whatever it was guarding had to be in the center where the grass was the longest. I grabbed hold of every tree I passed, leaning on them for balance. I continued to drag my leg behind me, my head was struggling to stay up and it felt as if I was going to pass out again, I couldn't afford to let that happen again.

Coming up to the meadow, I wasn't sure how much time had passed. It was bright, yet cold, misty, and yet somewhat warm in the sun. Looking around, for a few seconds I wasn't sure if this was the meadow I was looking for. After seeing the damage that the beast and I had caused to I had concluded that this was the meadow. Almost all the grass was cut down, trampled, or completely flattened to the ground. I could see one of my blades sparkling in the grass as the sun shined down on it. Breathing became harder as there was something else, very visible in the middle laying on top of the grass. The beast in the middle of the meadow, completely motionless. I dropped to my knees and crawled over to my sword; the tip was still intact on this one. After I had it in my grasp, I slowly crawled over the beast. Keeping my distance, I couldn't tell if the creature was still breathing. Its abdomen wasn't moving so the air wasn't passing through its chest. Instead, it wasn't moving at all, one of its open eyes stared at me and I stared back. Only this time I couldn't see anything, almost as if the soul that was once there wasn't there anymore. I reached out with my sword poking it in the side of the face by the eye. I didn't receive a reaction, it was dead. Getting closer my hand emerged in a large puddle of cold, not quite liquid blood. The creature came back here and bled out, I crawled over by its snout. The dirt looked like it had been disturbed lately by an animal with big claws trying to dig. I used the tip of my sword to move the creature's head away from the hole and my hands. I started removing the loose dirt with my hands before continuing the creature's work. Deeper and deeper I went, the sun burning my back as I continued to dig. Felt like hours had passed before my nails had scratched the surface of a little tin box. Pulling out the small box, wider than it was tall. It had a stone carved into the top and brown rust had overtaken the exterior of the box. I broke the seal and forced it to pop open. Inside was one small leather pouch that contained a metal-like substance that I have never seen before. I pulled the pouch out of the box tucking it in my shirt as I grabbed my sword and used it as a crutch. I tried to run back to the village, my leg wouldn't even allow me to put any amount of pressure on it. I wobbled through the forest, trying hard to avoid the thick brush, the sun had nearly set by the time that reached the borders of the village. I had stopped in my tracks when I heard voices in the distance.

"Can't believe we are on gathering duty tonight," a man said.

*giggles* "You said duty," a younger man said.

"Hey! help... please," I said quickly limping over to them.

"Holly, mother of god," the man said.