CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT: EARLY NIGHT

The moment he got inside he was assaulted by Evany. She hit him with a stick and he yelped while trying to dodge, but she hit him again and again.

Finally the shots to his already pained body made him collapse hard to the ground. He lifted his heavy arms with quite some effort and held his hands over himself to protect his face with the last bit of strength he had left. But when the next blow didn’t come, he lowered his hands as much out of curiosity as it was for his strength had deserted him.

Silently he looked up, and the first thing he noticed was the tear-streaked face of Evany in the flickering light. She fell to her knees next to him. And all he could do was lay there, dazed with pain. He wanted to reach forward to pat her and tell her it was okay, but the day’s events had caught up to him.

When the girl’s hands reached towards him, he recoiled and lowered his face. But he didn’t miss the shock on the girl’s face at his withdrawal. Regret was written all over her face.

Not a word was said as she surveyed his torn cloak and the tattered upper arm of the sleeve.

With a searching expression, she looked at him with an open mouth.

Finally in a very small voice full of anguish, Evany said, “I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to... I was just so... I’m so sorry Calin... are you okay?”

It was too much, Calin’s walls finally broke down, and he shook his head. Tears were not far from his eyes.

“Shhh,” Evany said softly and shifted closer, “Shhh it’s okay, you’re safe now. Let me look please?”

There was no real choice for him. His body was quite unresponsive as he relented. First off she checked under his cloak, scanning his chest for major wounds. There were none, and she eased, but then her gasp made him start: she was looking at the damage to his gauntlet.

And that was the last thing he wanted to do; to tell the story of his pure dumb luck of not getting killed.

The girl looked set to ask about it. But Tyas came in close. The man had a first aid kit in his hand as he sat down next to Calin. The man wasted no time in dabbing at the wound on Calin’s right arm with a salve. Evany spun on Tyas and glared. “How could you drag Calin back into danger? That was just wrong. Both of you could have gotten killed.”

It had been Calin’s idea to go back. He tried to chip in but Evany turned her glare at him and said, “No, don’t, it’s been like this for almost most of the previous night and most of today. We’ve been running around after Tyas, being chased half across the countryside. Hardly knowing why and then you go and do this!”

“Evany—”

“No Calin, I need to say this.”

Finally Calin grabbed her arm, much to the protest of his exhausted body and smearing the salve Tyas was applying across his arm.

“Evany! It was my idea! Leave Tyas out of this one, he’s only been trying to help us. Without him we wouldn’t have found Kara.”

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That blew the wind out of Evany’s sails and Calin breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to him and a heavy frown furrowed her soft brow as she gently asked,

“Why... why did you go back?”

He looked over to the fire where Kara was warming herself, but the question screamed from her eyes as well. Another sigh escaped him and he said, “You will be mad at me if I told you.”

“I am mad at you!” She glared with a fist poised to strike, but then her features softened immediately as she corrected herself. “...I was mad at you... but please tell me.”

He considered telling them, but flinched at Tyas when the salve burned slightly as it settled into the open wound on his arm.

A few seconds later he gave in and started recounting the events that led them back into the fort and the others silently listened.

***

After a while, he had wanted to unhook the thin camping mattress from under his rucksack, but the effort was too much for him.

To his utter gratitude Kara and Evany took it upon themselves to get his crude camping bed ready.

Calin understood both their reasons for doing so. Evany for assaulting him when he was already hurt and Kara for the fact he had pulled a rescue operation for her.

As fast as he could manage in his current state, he settled into his sleeping bag and dragged his left gauntlet off, but to his dismay the right one was stuck. With a discouraged groan he gave up.

He looked back to Tyas, who was busy repairing both their damaged cloaks. Though, why the man had even thought of bringing thread and needles was a mystery.

With a shake of his head, he drank slowly from his water bottle, welcoming the cold liquid on his parched throat.

Calin was not quite ready to tell the next part of his story, but he scraped his courage together and started recounting his fight with the creature. It was exactly as he feared. Both the girls were animated about how stupid he was for going back to fight the creature and how they couldn’t fathom men’s pride and such.

Within minutes he was already frustrated to his core when he finished. Just for some understanding on the girls’ part of why, he exclaimed,

“Kara, Evany, enough! Please, I think going within five hundred meters of those creatures is too close, but I had to. Kara you won’t know what I’m talking about, but Evany for crying out loud, can’t you think of any reason why I would go waltzing back to kill one of those creatures when I could escape?”

A moment passed and Evany’s eyes suddenly lit up and her gaze went down in slight embarrassment before she said, “Because the thing could track Kara… Sorry...”

As much to vent his pent up frustration at the situation rather than at Evany he groaned and said,

“Finally! Wow, it’s hard to make a point with you two.”

Not a second later, he smiled at the two girls, but he spotted Kara’s confused face and said,

“Those creatures, they have incredible noses. It’s not perfect, but if they got your scent, which with you staying in that cell for who knows how long, would have given it more than enough substance to find you quite a distance away...trust me I know...”

He had learned that the hard way. It still amazed him how easily those creatures had found him each time after the first encounter. It didn’t make sense. He did not miss the grim nods from both Jerry and Tyas.

Kara sat up straight and then she crawled over to Calin and pecked his cheek and embraced him in an unexpected hug while whispering, “Thank you. For everything.”

A grimace splayed his features at the aches that sprung up all over his body in the hug, but he smiled sincerely and said, “You’re welcome...”

After letting him go, she blushed ever so slightly as he no doubt assumed she realized he was hurt. Then something sprung to his mind and he looked to Tyas and asked,

“How on earth did you defeat a fully armoured man?”

It was hard to keep his curiosity contained as he waited, but the man smirked while he dragged the thread through another part of the green cloak. Eventually much to their irritation, the man said,

“Well... It worked to my advantage that he was halfway drunk.”

Though not entirely satisfied with the answer, Calin couldn’t help but smile at the short explanation.

“You all should try to get some sleep,” Tyas said all of a sudden while dipping the needle and thread in again. “We need to get going early in the morning.”

Calin was the first to wholeheartedly agree to the suggestion.