Eye of the Wind – Ch. 6 – 6: Search and Seizure

• Posted by Kyrielle Atrinati October 7, 2012 - 387 views

  As we trotted down the path, the burning in my hand increased into an unbearable fire.  The rushing of the river became tempting, and I plunged into the water, heedless of the temperature.  I dipped my burning hand into the swift current, sighing in relief as the chill numbed the skin and eased the heat for a while.

  "Henny, you're hurt aren't you," Derkeethus glowered at me when I glanced at him.  "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "I didn't think it was that bad. It was just a little prick to the hand, Derk."  I sighed, looking at my palm, which was beginning to swell.  "That briarheart might have been poisoned, though."

  "Don't you have an antidote?"

  "No.  I wouldn't know how to create one for this.  I don't even know what it does, yet.  Aside from burn like fire."  My legs were steadily growing numb in the chilly stream, and I stumbled as I made my way back to shore.  The Argonian put his arm under my shoulder, and for a ways down the path, I staggered on legs filled with pins and needles.

  After a while, the feeling wore off and we picked up speed, trying to get back to the lake where we might find relative safety on one of the small islands.  Above the stars wheeled, and I knew it was already very late.  My reserves were starting to run out and I was finding it increasingly difficult to retrace our steps.  When I lost the trail for the fourth time, I gave up and simply followed the river along its rapid course.

  When we reached the lake, I was falling asleep on my feet.  Derkeethus carried me over the water and set me down on one lower islets.  It was barely large enough for us to stand on, let alone sleep on.  But the grass and stunted juniper tree would conceal us from view to a degree.

  As Derk got a fire going, I sat looking across the lake towards a set of falls in the distance.  My hand continued to swell and burn in spite of my efforts to cool it in the water of the lake.  The blaze continued in my hand for a time, until I felt it crawling up my arm.  Searching in my pack, I found a little bonemeal, and after sticking my sword through a passing mudcrab, I ground the creature's shell into a power.  Mixing the two ground substances together, I coated the bottom of my tongue in the soft dust and sat, sucking on the stuff for a while.

  By the time the fire was roaring, the burning in my arm was isolated to the palm of my hand.  Grimly, I sat and soaked the kerchief given by the farmers and pressed it against the the tiny puncture sites.  It was too late to draw out the poison this way, but it was worth the attempt.

  We took the crab legs and cooked them over the fire, relishing in the rich taste of fresh meat.  I felt better having eaten, and lay down next to the flame, though it only seemed to exacerbate the condition of my hand, the rest of my body was less cold.

  Derkeethus stood watching me for a while, alternately looking around us for any sign of movement.  When he saw me soaking the kerchief for what had to be the hundredth time, he sighed and sat next to me with a grunt.

  "Hand me that powder you had.  And that kerchief.  No, lie back, I'll do this.  I need your sword."

  Confused, I obeyed and handed him my sword among other things.  I frowned when I saw him delicately slice open the skin of his forearm. "Derk, now's not the time to get bent out of shape about me being hurt.  I'll get better, no need to start offing yourself," I grinned.  My friend only rolled his eyes as he took my hand and dripped his blood into the palm.  Then he spread the powder onto my skin, and rubbed it in slow circles until the substance dissolved.  His fingers were surprisingly soft.  The burning in my palm ceased entirely, and he bound my hand in the kerchief, his fingers lingering for far longer than was strictly necessary. 

  "What did you just do?" I eyed him suspiciously.

  "I am part of the Hist, and the Hist restore us when we are injured.  Sometimes, we can use our blood to heal others.  This won't last long, though.  But maybe it'll keep it from getting worse," he said softly. His eyes were worried, and I could sense a mild frustration coming from him.

  Exhausted, I began to drift off to sleep.

  "When will you ever stop getting gravely injured?"  I heard him sigh as he lay down on the bedroll next to me and turned away to face the lake.  I didn't have the energy to respond, and soon my world was lost to darkness and dreams.

  I sat in the square under the Big Tree in Chorrol, the wind playing through the leaves and my hair.  My mother and I were laughing about something.  Cathedral bells were tolling.  It was Sundas and my mother's body shriveled and collapsed, a horrifying husk.  A man in the square stood and black birds flew out of his mouth, covering the sky in darkness.

  I was in a forest, and the Altmer in dark robes were being taken away by my aunt.  They were hauled up into the trees where they dangled for days.  The smell of cinnamon.

  I woke up for a moment, in a dull haze, my flesh on fire all the way up my arm and into my chest.  My fingertips in my right hand were numb, but they still moved.  Just not to my will.

  Next to me was the quiet beat of a heart. I turned, expecting to see Derkeethus, but found the briarheart nestled among the dying embers of the fire.  It was beating, its spines extended as if it were exulting in the heat and the night.

  Disturbed I turned away, to find Derk facing me.  His brow furrowed in his sleep.

   

  At length, sleep claimed me once more...

   

  Now I was on a ship, asleep in a cabin.  I awoke and found Derkeethus standing on the deck.  His arm snaked around my waist and fingered the skin under the hem of my tunic.

  "We're almost there," he said.

  "Where?  Where are we going?"

  "Fame and fortune of course!  To opportunity.  A new life..."  He gestured to the sea, his arm clad in a ragged shirt.

  The ship bobbed unsteadily on the increasingly taller waves, and a storm loomed on the horizon.  Voices howled on the wind, voices that screamed and laughed with a frenzied kind of glee.

  "Aren't you excited?" Derk asked as the decks were swamped with water and a funnel rolled across the water like a top, whipping towards the ship.  I panicked, trying to get away from his grasp.

  "Derk!  We have to get off this ship!"

  "Sh-sh-sh-shh.  What ship?" he hissed softly in my ear, sending not unpleasant shivers down my spine.

  "Stop it!  We're going to die!" I cried as I resisted and tried to pull away from him.  The planks of the ship were torn away as the funnel engulfed us, but Derkeethus only held on  to me tighter, pressing me completely into his body.

  "There is no ship, Henny," he said, and the world tumbled away in a confusion of water and wind and crying voices.  Yet he still clung to me and I felt his teeth pressing gently into the flesh of my shoulder, so I gave up and held on to him, enjoying the feeling.

  But the world dissolved around me and I fell alone through the black abyss, hands grabbing at me, plucking and pulling away until I was nothing and the world was nothing and there was nothing at all.  Nothing whatsoever.

   

   

   

   

  Only the frantic beating of a diseased heart.

   

  [I don't normally do this.  But I couldn't help myself.  The final image in this post is listed in my file as: Ch. 6 - 6 - 6.  This was not by design, but I left it that way.]