Paul awoke in pain.

The entire left side of his body was a tingling mass of pins and needles. Each breath hurt to take. He was certain something was broken, multiple somethings.

“euuuugh.” Paul moaned.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” Francis gently touched the uninjured side of Paul’s body. “And still soft.”

Paul raised his head in agony to take in the campsite that was setup. They were near the river again and a fire was going. Tents had been set and some pieces of meat were cooking on a spit. A kettle was boiling water.

“Didn’t think we had a kettle.” Paul gave up looking around and his head fell back with a thump. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a hot drink.”

“You’ll have to thank Gary for that one.” Francis sat near Paul’s head. “Apparently a real fiend for tea.”

Gary the gray mage was sat near the fire. The man was poking the flames and adjusting the logs in an idle way that made them look deep in thought.

Nelly, the bow woman, had her arm in a makeshift sling. She was inspecting the remains of her bow. The bits and pieces of wood were not in great shape. It seemed as if she was contemplating throwing the pieces in the fire or to hang onto a keepsake.

Mark was chopping some wood. The heavy axe was making short work of the logs. Each strike leaving a crack and thud sounding through the air which caused the split wood to fly away into two separate piles.

Tim had their shirt off and was inspecting their chest. The delicate rune work that was etched into what they would call skin was scratched. Tim was gingerly pushing and prodding the affected area. The stone like skin weirdly pliable under their fingers.

“I’m really glad we all survived that bear.” Paul grunted out from their bedroll. “That could have definitely gone much worse.”

“Yeah well, if plans always worked out like you expected then we’d all be rich.” Francis idly drew in the dirt.

“What were your plans before all this happened?” Paul raised an eyebrow, the only thing that didn’t hurt it seemed.

Francis looked surprised. “Oh man, nothing much really. Art thievery is not as lucrative as you would think. It was going to be a couple of months of down time though. I was aiming for a bit of vacation after that one.”

“Ah well, plans often fall through. But do we got a plan for today though?” Paul questioned and looked over towards Francis.

“Rest up here for the day, make our way back tomorrow.” Francis looked out over the campsite. “Make up a stretcher for yourself. Tim isn’t all that confident about dealing with broken bones.”

“That sounds just fine.” Paul attempted to relax. “Just gonna lay here for a while. Take it all in as it were.”

Francis patted Paul’s hand. “We’ll take care of you. You want some bear, or some Deer?”

“Tim did warn us about the bear, so just a little bit of that, thoroughly cooked.” Paul grinned.

“Trying new things is good for you.” Francis got up off the ground. “Get some rest buddy.”

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Francis wandered over to Tim. “You doing OK?”

Tim grunted. “Could be better. Not sure how this will affect me going forward.”

“You all were lucky!” Nelly stood up to loom over Francis and Tim. “I’ll be out for months, and never really have the same strength again.” She had a stiff upper lip kind of look to her face. “But I shouldn’t be ungrateful. A chance to recover is better than being dead. Thank you.”

Tim stared at the woman. “I think you had a clean break there. I wouldn’t worry too much about the lost strength.” Tim turned back to navel gazing. “But the thanks is appreciated all the same.”

Nelly stood there awkwardly for a moment chewing on her inner cheek. She turned back to Gary and the Fire. But marched past them both towards Mark.

“I wanted to say thanks, again.” Nelly stood a short distance away from the axe wielding wood chopper, Mark.

“Heard it from over here.” Mark set up another log. “Couldn’t leave you and them to that bear.”

“Yeah well.” Nelly shifted from foot to foot. “It would mean a lot to me if we could make it up somehow.”

Mark paused before swinging their axe. Bringing it down he rested his upper body on the haft. “Right now, all we need is to get back to town. But I’ll keep that promise in mind. Go on and keep resting up.”

Nelly nodded and moved back to the fire.

After a time, the crunch and snap of leaves and twigs broke through the stillness of the evening air. The hermit had come by for a visit.

“Hey there!” The hermit waved. “I heard the commotion and figured I would stop by.” They joined Nelly and Gary by the fire. “And I see you’ve picked up a few friends along the way.”

Gary spoke up for the first time in a long time. “They saved our lives.”

“Figured as much.” The hermit warmed their hands. “How’d the bear end up?”

“Bears, plural.” Mark tossed a log onto the burning fire. “Kiva had a mate.”

“Yeah bears tend to do that.” The hermit scratched at their beard. “So you’ve got two bears for me now?”

Mark threw a thumb over their shoulder. “Back that way, both of them are out in the open. It’s pretty smelly though.”

“Oh a little stink never hurt anyone.” The hermit chuckled. “I’ll go get on those bears now. You all stay safe.”

The hermit left them to their campsite whistling a little tune as he walked through the brush.

“What a strange man.” Gary spoke to the retreating back of the hermit. “I’ve been here for a year now and never met him.”

“Seems nice enough to me.” Mark said. “Bit starved for conversation perhaps. Came right up to us on our first night out.”

“So I need to ask.” Gary turned towards Mark. “Why did you come save us? Everett would have held off, calling it ‘too dangerous’ to help.”

“It was the right thing to do.” Mark immediately answered.

The fire crackled and popped. Smoke rose up into the evening air.

“That and you guys were ruining our plan.” Mark poked a stick into the fire.

“Yeah we did kind of go into that head first.” Gary scratched their head.

“Wouldn’t worry about it much more. Nelly already did offer to make it up later.” Mark nodded towards the woman in question. “How about you two get to bed early. You’ve had a rough time lately.”

Gary got to their feet slowly. “I’ll take you up on that offer.” He winced and held their stomach. “A good nights rest will do me good.”

Gary made their way towards one of the tents. Nelly also did the same, although into a different tent.

Mark and Francis sat around the fire for a while. Tim had retired earlier as they complained of a phantom pain.

“We need to do anything else?” Francis asked Mark.

“We’ve got the spears for poles.” Mark kept their gaze on the crackling fire. “So really the only thing left is for us to stay up until someone else wakes. In case another animal gets close.”

“Yeah, I can do that.” Francis took a seat.

The fire got low, they added a log, the fire rose once again. Tea was drank, blankets were worn, water was boiled. This cycle continued all through the night.

The morning light broke through the trees and gave everything a clean feeling. Birds were singing and the river was especially burbly it seemed.

Paul awoke from sleep for the first time in weeks and stretched. Scratched their bed fur and rolled over to get a piece of sunlight out of their eyes.

Paul’s eyes popped open and they shot bolt upright. “Holy shit I’m cured!”

Paul stood up and patted himself down. He did a little jig and made enough of a racket that the rest of the camp started waking up.

“I’m cured, I’m cured!” Paul shouted. “Did you do this Tim?”

Tim crawled from the shared tent. They were also marveling at their chest. Their rune work was unmarred by any disfigurement. “It wasn’t me. I feel great too though.”

Francis and Mark made their way over, bleary eyed, but becoming more and more alert. It was Nelly and Gary who put a damper on things as their pained grunts echoed across the campsite.

“How the fuck are you walking?” Nelly looked furious.