POV: David Miller
I stirred, eyes opening as I woke up from my nap. The sun was high in the sky, and nearly blinded me with how my head sat, but my arm was relatively okay, so I blocked out the sun with some pain.
“Shit. I’m not dead.”
I tried to pick myself up from the ground, and I felt something move in my back as I collapsed, screaming.
“Fuck!” Yeah, I couldn’t move from where I was, and it was a miracle that I was even able to sleep with the amount of agony I was in. I was able to move my head to look around, and so I did that since there wasn’t much else.
I had landed in a clearing of forest… I think. Everything looked fairly normal, except for a blue tint and I couldn’t tell if that was how the area looked or if I was facing the sun too long, but it was close enough to back home.
I lied there for a while, maybe an hour just listening to the wind and what sounded like birds when something else began to come closer. A pair of voices, one low and resonant, the other somewhat raspy and animated, and they seemed to be talking about something. It wasn’t any language I knew of though.
I could actually make out a few sentences but I couldn’t translate them if I wanted to.
“Apwd ti as ti or od'e eiksijs api'e vwtly pcfd?”
“Weeckojq dpsy lobs lijq sjicqp di fsusobs uwfs, as dwms dpsk di dps qcolt pwll. Dpsfs'e vicjt di vs wd lswed ijs pswlsf dpsfs.”
Shadows came over me, and not in the metaphorical sense. A large person blocked out the sunlight that shined through the leaves, and I would’ve recoiled in fear if I wasn’t badly injured.
He had broad shoulders, what you would see on a left tackle, literally olive green skin, dark brown hair, and a slight underbite that all made a person who cut an imposing figure.
His friend, who sauntered up to his side, was the near opposite, lanky with skin the color of fresh oak, and dirty blond hair. He was fairly thin, and while he was also probably threatening on his own, he just looked like a shrimp compared to the big guy.
“Wfs yic imwy? Wjy kwnif ojncfose?”
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It took me a bit to recover from the shock of seeing such a massive person, and if they didn’t understand me, then that might make things worse.
“What are you saying? I- I don’t understand.”
They didn’t either, and the skinny one turned to the big guy. “Ps koqpd pwbs w uijuceeoij. Lsd'e qsd pok vwum.” With that, they attempted to carry me, not knowing about my spine. This led to me screaming as I was moved from the ground, the two being startled, and dropping me.
A look of realization came over the big one’s face, and he pointed his hand at me as it began to glow with a white light.
“Wha-“ I hadn’t even been able to finish the sentence as I began floating in the air, in significantly less pain than when they tried to carry me, but still somewhat sore. It was like he was hauling me around on a gurney.
With that unceremonious exit from where I was stuck, we moved through the forest, and I muttered to myself along the way.
“What the hell just happened? I broke my spine, I fell asleep, and now I’m being floated around by-,” I looked up at the one that seemed to be using magic. “By an orc.”
It wasn’t all bad, though. The blue tint I had seen was just from the sunlight, and after about fifteen minutes, I actually got a good look at the area, and it…
It was beautiful. And I hated it.
Everything was so brightly colored, and the flowers all smelled like comfort food or candy. Nothing seemed like it was a good idea to trust and that idea cemented itself when I saw a small rabbit hop up to one of the flowers. It snapped shut, and all that was left of it was the tail.
The gangly one frowned as he saw it. “Twkj rliasfe.”
I was content to avoid moving as long as I didn’t bite it from a big bite, and I couldn’t have even if I wanted to.
They cleared the edge of the forest and we entered some sort of town, people wandering about and looking over at me. I couldn’t blame them.
Honestly, I don’t remember much else besides entering a nearby building, passing out almost immediately.
———
POV: Graman Boulder
We were told there were no healers in the guild hall except for me, and looking down at the human… I had to do something or else he would either die or suffer through his life.
“Aran, hold the levitation spell please.”
As he took over, I cast a screen of mana that could cover the man’s body to let me see the extent of his injuries and he was in awful condition.
“What are you frowning for?” Aran frowned at my ‘patient’ who was floating in the air still. “He looks fine to me.”
“The key word there is ‘looks.’ If you could see what I see right now, you’d be wondering why this man isn’t dead six times over.”
What I was referring to were the sheer amount of injuries sustained and healed by the guy’s body. There was a sealed over puncture wound in the skull that seemed to have traveled through and through, not killing him somehow. There were minor fractures in each individual bone, near perfectly fixed tears in the skin, and, perhaps most surprising of all, a puncture wound smaller than the one that was in the head. Whatever the thing was, it had gone through his heart and out his back. That wound was sealed, just like the others.
The only things not repaired were a broken spine, likely from a fall, and some ribs that were just…shattered. Even worse than any of that was the mana contained within him, just lying stagnant. What little that did flow was mostly what was keeping him alive without mutations.
“I can heal him, but he’ll be in a lot of pain and we’ll need to see a doctor or herbalist that’s better qualified than me…better than letting him die.”
The mana screen flared green and blue, passing through him again, and his face contorted in agony as loud crackling sounds came from his body. When it all stopped, he looked… peaceful, somehow. As if he wasn’t on the verge of death.
The screen also drained the excess mana with a flash of light and it began to flow normally.
…
“Let’s let him rest. Rannan should hear about this.”