As Fox lay in bed recovering from his fever, he couldn't help but think back over the events of the past few days and weeks.
He had gone with Taala to confront and kill the moneylenders who were destroying his life. With her poison arrows at the ready, she stalked the walls of the ruins of Ost Baranor where the meeting was to be held. Fox approached the man known as Jasper Mudbottom and his two goons beside him. He knew full well that they meant to kill him, not having the full amount of gold to pay back.
It turned sour very quickly. They punched him in the stomach, and knocked what little coins he had to the ground. As Fox bent to pick them up, Mudbottom swung down with his sword and nearly cut his right arm off. Fox screamed, and at that moment Taala released an arrow which pierced Mudbottom right through his left eye. A fight quickly ensued, and he remembered little after he was stabbed again in his right shoulder.
He drifted in and out of consciousness, the pain unbearable. He remembers being lifted onto a horse, and hearing the voices of Taala and of his brother.
Surely I was hallucinating?
As the fever hit him, he heard his brother's voice again, as if he was looking after him. How could this be? He was long dead, surely?
Was it days, or years later when he awoke? He could not tell. He opened his eyes, and there he was, flesh and blood in front of him, smiling his mischievous smile as if he had never gone away. His brother Ted had come back from the dead.
I must remember to punch him.
