Chapter 27 part 3

The four leaders shook their heads. "Sorry, but until we learn what the cause of that smoke is, we can't focus on anything else. It coud be vital to us," the first said.

Ralph sighed in frustration. There was always one thing or another that kept coming up. He wasn't even sure why he really tried that hard. He probably wouldn't be able to get them to talk about what they knew about he beaver-kin until they reunite with Charlie.

So, he stalked back towards Wes. "Let's go see how Amelia an Beth are doing," Ralph said, hoping that they were doing better than he was.

Even though they weren't able to communicate with the pronghorn-kin, they could at least heal those who were injured and that would certainly be communication enough. Especially since while they carried the few tents and other supplies they had themselves, they didn't have anything for those who were hurt, injured, or any of that to ride in. Everyone had to walk.

Although, part of Ralph was worried about the deer-kin who were still alive from when they saved the pronghorn-kin. Why hadn't they tried anything yet? Or maybe the distance was farther to wherever they would need reinforcements or whatever before they felt they could recapture the pronghorn-kin.

At the very least, they were getting close to where Charlie would have taken those she had been entrusted with, so at least they were almost to where they had planned on going anyway.

Ralph couldn't help but wonder if he said his thoughts out loud if they would make any sense. Maybe it was being in the sun so much, or just his body getting used to walking so much, or maybe even his use of magic the day before in addition to everything else that was making him feel out of it. He felt like he should be taking a nap, but he doubted he could get that luxury right now.

Especially since everyone was still needing to move or risk the deer-kin coming after them before they were ready. Though, Ralph did wonder if maybe Amelia or Beth could help him out with his fatigue. At the very least, it might help keep him alert rather than looking for a place to nap.

It didn't take long for them to find Amelia and Beth. Ralph was glad Wes didn't say anything to him as they had wandered around looking for the two girls. At the moment, he'd rather just let them wash away his tiredness and feel beter.

"Hey, Amelia," Ralph said. "How's the healing going?"

"Not bad," Amelia replied. "We healed most of them before we left, so there hasn't been much for us to do since we started, so Beth and I have had a pretty quiet trip so far."

"Uh, well, would you be able to heal me of being tired?" Ralph asked. "I'm not sure what it is, but I'm feeling a bit out of it."

"Sorry," Beth said. "We can't heal that. You have to rest yourself in order for that to heal."

Ralph sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that."

The girls giggled, making Ralph roll his eyes. "Why not take a rest yourself," Wes suggested. "I think we might be waiting here for a minute until they figure out what that smoke is about. One of us can wake you up when they're heading out again."

"How long would you think that'd be?" Ralph asked, not really caring. "I'm sure I'd need a long nap, and I doubt they'll wait that long."

"Well, the smoke has disappeared already," Wes remarked.

"See?" Ralph said, feeling vindicated. "They'll probably have us continuing on in a few minutes."

"Well, it was a thought," Wes said.

"Either way, you'll have to deal with this on your own," Beth said. "But look at it this way. We're almost to Petals' forest, so so once we're there, you can rest all you want."

"I know that, but I still wish I could have gotten the leaders of the pronghorn-kin to tell me what the deal with the beaver-kin is," Ralph replied, wondering if this was a mistake. Opening up to his friends like this. Usually he didn't lke their reactions, but maybe he was just too tired at the moment to care.

"Would be nice to know what's going on," Amelia remarked. "At the very least, would let me know what to expect if we stay here for a while."

"Weren't we supposed to focus straight on finding a gate?" Wes asked.

"Yeah, but we kinda got sidetracked and roped into helping these people," Beth said, sighing.

"Even if we checked for a gate now, what do you think the chances of us getting their without much trouble would be?" Ralph asked. "I doubt we'd be able to get there easily, even if it was on the other side of that mountain." Ralph pointed to the mountain which not only had the smoke coming from it, but he was sure was the mountain on which had the entrance to Petals' forest on its slope.

"Well, you never know," Beth said. "Doing all thing could also make it easier to get to the gate."

Ralph shook his head. Feeling like that notion was absurd. "Maybe, but what are the chances of that, you think?"

"There's always a chance," Amelia said, her smile so sickeningly sweet that Ralph couldn't help but groan.

"Wish I'd have gone to escort the pronghorn-kin to Petals' forest instead of Charlie," Ralph said. "At least I'd be able to take it easier."

_

Charlie was annoyed at how quickly the deer-kin had overwhelmed her. Even though she was still immolated with her fire, they'd somehow gotten her pinned to the ground, face down. A couple were even eduring the pain of their arms being in the flames in order to keep her from getting up.

She hadn't lasted even five minutes. She'd be surprised if she'd even lasted a full minute. She wasn't sure what the bear-kin had expected of her, but closed her eyes as she expected to be killed quickly. If nothing else, she'd at least be able to relax them.

Whatever happened after that, wouldn't be anything that concerned her. While she didn't want to die, she doubted the deer-kin would let her live, especially since she'd seriously injured several in this bout with her flames, and killed so many more the day before.

"What would you be willing to do in order to have us let you live?" the man that Charlie was sure was the leader of the deer-kin asked her. "First, would you put out the flames around your body?"

Charlie hesitated a moment to think about that request. While she wouldn't be able to stop them from killing her if she did that, she couldn't stop them now anyway. So, she let the fire that covered her body die out.

Then as the man's hand cupped her cheek when the flames were all out, Charlie wondered if she should have just told him to kill her. His touch was more revolting than Charlie had thought it would be.

"See, we can come to an understanding," the man said. Then as he trailed his hand down her back, he continued, "What would you say about being my fifth wife? As long as you keep in mind who's in charge and don't damage anything that's mine, you'll be able to live in luxury."

"Let me guess, if I refuse, you'll have me killed, right?" Charlie asked, trying to keep from trying to lash out at him as his hand reached her butt.

"Not necessarily," he said. "I can always let my men have their fun with you. They'll take their turns and then we can see what you think about my offer after that."

"Why wouldn't I burn them to a crisp when they try?" Charlie asked, wondering where this guy was going with this.

"Well, then you'd be burning to a crisp those whom you brought with you up here," he said, his hand moving down to her leg, before sliding up her shorts.

"Well, I got news for you," Charlie spat. "You're not my type. None of your men are my type. You can take your offer and shove it so far up your ass that you start to choke on it."

The man merely laughed as his hand slid under her panties to feel her bare bottom. "You sound tough right now, but I'm sure-"

Charlie would have closed her eyes and turned away if she knew what was going to happen. Instead, she got a clear view of the arrow that pierced the man's throat from behind. He gasped for air and it was clear he couldn't speak. Charlie wondered if he could even breathe at the moment.

She could tell the deer-kin around here were surprised as well, but when arrows started raining down on them, they quickly took action and huddled together, holding up what looked to Charlie like flimsy shields to keep the arrows from hitting them.

The men that held her down had released her and Charlie wasted no time to pulling the man's hand out of her shorts before looking around to see if she could see where the arrows were coming from when she felt a sharp pain in he back, just below her left shoulder blade.

She looked and saw an arrow sticking out of it. She couldn't tell how far in her it had gone, but she did feel like it was hard to breath. Her shoulder also felt like it had gone cold and she wasn't sure if that was shock or maybe it was poisoned, but she felt more helpless than she had ever felt before.

Even when she was held down by the deer-kin and their leader was molesting her. She didn't feel as helpless then because she knew she could incinerate them if she chose to. However, with this, she wasn't sure what she could do. She just knew that she couldn't do anything about the arrow.

As she coughed, blood came up and she was sure this was the end of her. She assumed that the bear-kin had finally decided to do something and act, but apparently she'd gotten caught in the crossfire. However, she didn't blame them for this happening. She doubted they were aiming for her, but even if they had, she couldn't bring herself to care.

It wasn't like it would do her any good, so she merely closed her eyes and waited for death to claim her. All around her, she could hear the battle going on, but she just lay there, resigned to her fate. Though, she still tried to breathe for as long as she was able to. Despite how painful it was to breathe and how much blood she kept coughing up.

As the noise around her died down, she knew that one side had won, but still couldn't bring herself to care. If the deer-kin had won, then she wouldn't be able to stop them from doing whatever they wanted to her and if the bear-kin had won, she wasn't sure what they'd do to her. Yet, she was sure that they wouldn't try to save her anyway.

She felt herself falling asleep, thinking that it was death making its claim, when she felt herself picked up, startling her and causing a new, sharp wave of pain to course through her, emanating from her shoulder and lung.

Gasping, while coughing up some blood too, she tried to catch her breath and figure out what had happened.

"Looks like you need help," the bear-kin man that had told Charlie that they wanted to see how she'd handle the situation.

Charlie could only nod. Breathing was painful and she didn't want to try speaking. She had a feeling that it would just hurt more.

"Well, we'll get you patched up," the man continued, setting Charlie on her feet and let her use him to help with her balanced, as he led her to where she could see others who had gotten hurt by the skirmish with the deer-kin.

Charlie tried not to shake the arrow in her back any, as each time it bounced, it sent a new wave of pain through her body. She could barely see the arrow if she looked over her shoulder, but she couldn't get a good look at it, since whenever she stretched her neck to see it, she would have to stop because of the pain that would explode in her shoulder.

In then end, she had to merely control her breathing, walk slowly, and let the bear-kin handle keeping her balanced. She wasn't happy that she was left at the mercy of others, but she couldn't see what option she had at the moment.

"I didn't expect to see you conjure flames like that, but why did you let the wall go?" the man asked after a minute as they neared where the other wounded were being taken care of.

Charlie could only scowl at the man. She would have expected that he'd pick up on that she wasn't going to say anything while she had the arrow in her back. Though, she couldn't say that the man look liked he expected a response at the moment. Yet, she still wished he wouldn't ask anything while they made their way to get Charlie treated.

However, she was taken in quickly, the man relinquishing Charlie to the bear-kin who Charlie could only assume were this world's version of doctors, as it was clear that Charlie had the worst wound of everyone who'd gotten hurt from the skirmish on the bear-kin side. She was pulled into a tent that was quickly set up. While Charlie expected them to cut her shirt off, she still felt pained at the thought that her shirt would be taken off so they could better see the wound.

The only comfort Charlie felt she had at the moment was that none of them were saying anything about her bra. Which had been spared getting hit by the arrow. Although, when they pulled the arrow out, Charlie couldn't help but scream in pain as she began coughing up more blood, as her lung no longer had the arrow keeping the hole it had created clogged.

She lost awareness of everything around her as she could only focus on trying to breathe around coughing, sending more blood up, which she was pretty sure was getting on her chest, covered only with her bra.

Then as something was put into her back, she suddenly felt her coughing ease up. She wasn't sure what they did, but her breathing wasn't as painful as it had been with the arrow in it. Although, she attributed part of that to the fact the arrow had been removed.

Then they wiped the blood off of Charlie with a damp cloth before placing a blanket over her before allowing the man to enter and talk with her. She also felt like she could talk again without trouble, but still would rather not have to. Even though she knew she wasn't going to get that wish.

"So, why didn't you leave that wall of fire you'd created?" the man asked as he entered the tent.

Charlie sighed. She wished he'd be able to figure it out on his own, but she didn't care enough at the mooment to not tell him.

"Because I can only keep it going for so long and the deer-kin had stopped approaching me because of it," Charlie replied, closing her eyes.

"I understand that, but it kept them at bay. When you pulled the fire to you, that's when they were able to pin you down."

Charlie sighed. "Yeah they were, but if I'd waited until I ran out of strength, I wouldn't have lasted even as long as I did. Since they stopped, I knew I'd have to get them to fight me, because I can only keep the fire going for so long before I run out of strength."

"So, why the wall of fire?" he asked. "I understand that you were able to create a large fire in a much larger area yesterday."

"Yeah, I could have, but then I'd kill a number of trees as well as several bear-kin who were hiding for whatever reason," Charlie answered.

The man nodded. "So, if we hadn't saved you, what did you plan on doing?" he asked. "I'm sure you had something in mind."

Charlie shook her head. "Not really. I just expected that they'd take me back to their camp and I could firestorm the entire camp and if I died, well I guess then that would have been the end of it. I mean, I doubt I'd have been able to escape from there and I don't have the strength to create a firestorm to get all of them, so I'd have gotten all I could before they finished me off."

"Well, you certainly have seemed to be more helpful than we anticipated, but we also can see that you're not suited for defense," the man commented. "When you're healed up, we'll have your things back at your room."

"Uh, wait!" Charlie called after him. If they were leaving her things where she'd left them, then that would mean she wouldn't have a spare shirt to change into. Which also meant that she'd have to walk around in just her bra until she could get to her pack.

Yet, the man didn't wait, he was out the door before she could even react to that fact. So, she quickly turned to one of the 'doctors' and asked her, "Can my shirt be saved?"

The woman looked at Charlie gently. "Is it important to you?"

Well, the shirt itself really wasn't that important to her, but she definitely would rather get it back, even if it was falling apart at the seams just so she wouldn't be walking back to her stuff in just a bra for a top.

"Yeah, it is," Charlie said, not caring to elaborate which part was important to her.

"We'll have it mended and returned to you shortly," the woman replied gently.

"Thanks," Charlie said, resting her head on the ground. Out of everything, she was starting to feel tired. The blanket was nice and warm and he'd used a good amount of her magic already, and so she figured a nap wouldn't hurt. If nothing else, she was sure that she'd have her shirt back when she woke up, so she'd be able to feel covered again when she went back to get her things.