♦
This story continues from Part IV: The Scouts Return.
♦
Reese was still alive, but he looked awful. His face had a worrying greenish tinge, and he seemed to be only narrowly holding onto consciousness through a haze of pain. His right forearm was horribly swollen and bruised: Till worried he had broken both bones. After the Gauradan’s club had delivered its hammer blow, Reese had then somehow risen to his feet, run a short distance, and with his left hand thrust a spear into a larger and stronger creature, and held it fast. That really had been the last of his strength - and it was pretty much the very last thing he should have done. Ost Forod was a remote hill community of hunters and herdsmen. People had lost limbs over injuries like this. Till had seen her mother do it.
“Reese… Reese, it’s me. Reese, you’re safe. Hang in there.”
As she tried to rouse him, suddenly her mother Rienne was beside her, kneeling in the grass. Dimly, Till sensed that Kane, Fingeleth, Reese's companion Tanner, and the horses were not far behind.
They were all still barely a stone’s throw from Ost Forod. What are the Gauredain doing here…?
As Till started to tell her mother about Reese’s arm, to her surprise, Rienne pulled her around to face her, and stared at her face intently - Till stifled a cry when she grabbed her shoulder.
“Till. Where are you hurt? You are absolutely covered in blood.”
“Agh- I’m fine! It’s - it’s not mine. It’s the wolf-men’s-”
Rienne had already moved on, noticing how Till had reacted when she touched her shoulder. Now she was examining her upper arm with efficient intensity - and Till winced with pain as she touched and probed.
Within moments, she felt her mother relax.
“Not dislocated - not broken,” Rienne announced. “Possibly a minor fracture, but I think you’ve just had a bad sprain. I’ll need to take a closer look. For right now - rest it. Kane- could you make her some sort of sling please. At least for the walk back to town.”
Till was partly relieved, but also disheartened. This was not a good time to have one arm out of action... but it could have been far, far worse.
Like Reese.
Having assured herself her daughter was alright in a matter of seconds, Rienne had already switched her attention to him. Till watched her mouth tighten severely, confirming most of her own suspicions.
“This one is nasty. We’ll need to be very careful how we set it.”
Rienne looked around at the group. Kane was helping Till into a makeshift sling using his cloak, but the others were just standing around.
“I want a stretcher brought from town. Water too. And quickly.”
♦
Kane and Fingeleth raced back to town on the horses for a stretcher; meanwhile Till, Rienne and Tanner remained with Reese. Presently, help was brought: more of the townsfolk were up and about now - and there was considerable sheepishness among the men that two young unmarried women and a healer had been put in harm’s way while they were still yawning and combing their beards. They did their best to make up for it now, and Reese was borne back into town by a significant crowd of men, women and children, Rienne and Tanner remaining close by his side.
Till allowed the crowd to move off without her, back up the hill to the old fortress. She suddenly felt incredibly tired.
Kane and Fingeleth had begun to head back with the rest of the crowd but, noticing she wasn’t following, they lingered.
“Till… are you coming?” Kane’s voice.
Till didn’t respond. She found herself drawn to the corpse of the fallen Gauradan. A few of the townsfolk had already inspected it with a combination of morbid fascination and fear - perhaps to make sure it was really dead - but none of them had actually touched it. Tanner had reclaimed Reese’s spear from the corpse for him, but that was it.
Till stepped closer.
It… was a man.
Big and tall for a man, and draped in untreated wolf hides for clothes in the crudest manner imaginable - but still, clearly, a man.
Till had never really thought about them like that.
She had never been up close to a Gauradan before this morning. She had only glimpsed them at a distance, from boats on the lake: shadowy figures flitting among the trees on the far shore. This one’s skin was ruddy: it was painted with strange blue patterns, and strung all about with small bones, whether from man or beast she could not tell. His face was still contorted in the agony of his death; and his white eyes lay open. They gave the unsettling illusion of consciousness, as if they were staring through Till at something behind her… invisible to the living, perhaps.
Why had the Gauredain been pursuing Tanner and Reese with such ferocity? Why had they risked coming so close to the town - and so far beyond their ancient boundary-markers on the western shore?
How had they even crossed paths?
“Till…”
It was Kane again. Till found herself horribly fascinated by the dead man’s strange pale eyes. She couldn’t help wondering if he and the other Gauradan had been brothers, or old friends, or...
It was a strange wrench to tear herself away.
It was Fingeleth who took her by the arm.
“Come. Let’s go back,” she murmured gently.
“We still need to hear Tanner’s report,” Kane reminded her.
Till allowed herself to be steered by the two of them. But not before stooping, and snatching something from around the fallen Gauradan’s throat. They made their way slowly back up the hill to Ost Forod.
Its eyes she left open. It was then still early morning. By lunchtime, carrion-birds had taken them both.
♦
The story continues in Part VI: A moment's peace.
♦
