Terrance’s POV
“Argos! No!” I screamed, sitting upright. Then I screamed for an entirely different reason: pain. “Gaaah!” I flopped back, adding to my pain. Everything hurt. My ribs, my back, and my neck all had dull aches while my arms and legs were screaming with pins and needles.
“Easy there, son. Easy.” A gentle voice coaxed from my right, and I tried to blink away the tears in my eyes to see what happened. I managed to clear them eventually, but the pain was only intensifying as I lay there. Trying to disguise looking around under the thrashing of pain, I tried to figure out where I was. Blankets on and below me, surprisingly soft though a bit scratchy. Roaring fire to my left in a grey stone oven. Flat wooden ceiling and walls. Old lady bent with age to my right, someone looming above my head.
“Where? H-h-h-howwwww?” I managed to stammer out through chattering teeth, finally realizing the weird disconnect. I was colder than I had ever been, colder than even the body storage, but the skin on my left was starting to feel like I had been out in the sun too long.
“Easy, easy.” The lady said as she shuffled closer. I could see the arthritic bumps in her fingers, though they still easily formed a claw to hold the bowl she was carrying. “Scott found you out in the snow, and we need to get this in you before you pass on.”
“What is it?” I shuddered without meaning to.
“Warmed bone broth.” She said, noticing my involuntary flinch. “Don’t worry, its mostly sheep bone. But there’s nothing better than warming someone up, and you desperately need it. So you lay back while Scott holds you up, and I’ll tell you about where you are. When we get you out of danger, then you can share your story.”
Surprisingly strong hands slipped into my armpits and hoisted me into a sitting position before a warm body pressed into my back and his legs slipped under mine. I tried to fight, but his hands clamped around my wrists and I was no match for him in my current state. Before I could process everything, my teeth were clicking against a wooden spoon as a hot liquid was unceremoniously dumped into my mouth. My instinct was to spit out the painful liquid, but Scott or whoever was behind me had transferred both wrists to one of his hands and used the other to clamp my mouth shut.
“Hurry and swallow. I know it hurts, but if we don’t get it into you fast it’ll be much worse.” He whispered. “I know it feels like its boiling, but it’s really not. You’re just that cold.” Having no other choice, I swallowed before letting out some rather forceful breaths from my nose.
“Here we go, round two.” The lady said, immediately giving me another spoonful. “Crownhill’s best bone broth. Open up so the bear can head into his den, roaaaar.” She coaxed me like I was a small child.
“Dear, he’s obviously too old for child games.” The voice behind me said, allowing me to quickly swallow the broth on my own. I agreed with him, but couldn’t say anything as my stomach was churning with the addition of the warm liquid. Surprisingly, I could feel a bit of the heat leaching out.
“I know that, but it makes a good distraction from the pain. Now stop telling me how to do this Scott.”
“Yes dear.” He said, and I could hear the humor in his voice as I took another spoon.
“Now, I guess I should be the first to welcome you to Crownhill. We don’t have a large village this close to the Lost Lands of course, but we do have the best sheep in the kingdom. You arrived just in time, as I doubt you would have survived a three day blizzard on your own with no supplies. Heck, you probably wouldn’t have lasted another hour in this cold.”
“Th-thanks.” I chattered out between spoonfuls, grateful for their generosity. My stomach was still churning and my limbs were being pierced by a thousand tiny needles, but I was alive and that’s all that mattered. I couldn’t feel it through the pain, but a quick glance to my left pinky let me know the onyx ring was still there.
“I’m Ellie, and my husband Scott is behind you holding you up. Can you tell us your name?”
“Terrance.” I muttered.
“Well Terrance, I don’t know how a little one like you got out and about, but we’ll get you fixed right up. Our Jonas went to the mother’s embrace long ago, but his things should be ok for the next few days. He was a bit bigger, but better too big than too small when it comes to clothes.”
As the old lady prattled on, I tried to plan out my next moves. These people seemed nice, and at least these two old coots wouldn’t hurt me after saving me, but that didn’t extend to the rest of their village. I couldn’t tell them where I was from, or I’d be lucky if I was just burned at the stake. I could try and hide my magic as a special form of healing, but I didn’t have the skill to hide it completely. Better to use a smaller lie anyway. As I ate more of that rather flavorful broth, I could feel my body responding. Mana was low, but I didn’t have to spend it fighting back frostbite anymore. My hands and feet were going to be hurting for a good long while though, as the battle had no doubt taken its toll. The gentle fog of death energy on my right side let me know at least two of my ribs were badly bruised, but not quite broken. The one on my left was, which explained why shallow breathing was hurting less. It was a thin line, so at least it didn’t splinter and threaten the lung. What was really concerning were my muscle and fat reserves. Using a focus would have drawn attention, even as far away as I likely was, so I had to channel the death energy somewhere.
“You look to be about ten, that right? That should put you right at the low end of the group. We had a few bad winters and just couldn’t have any children for a while. The next oldest after you is six, way too young to send you to their group. What do you think?”
“I think you should stop worrying about where we are going to place him with the kids and worry about how long its gonna take for him to recover.” Scott rumbled behind me. “Forgive my wife, she gets an idea in her head and you’ll have better luck redirecting an avalanche than getting her to stop or slow down. Now, where ya from Terrance? And who is Argos?”
I lowered my head and let my eyes lose focus for a bit as I panicked inside. I had to make a good story, but mentioning Argos sent a spike of pain through my heart. I really must have been out of it if I had brought him up. Oh well, let’s see how close to a bard I can be. “I’m. I’m not sure.” I stammered. “Everything is fuzzy. I see tents, and know we had to constantly move. Fierce beasts, living and undead. Trees everywhere.”
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“And Argos?”
“A. What’s the word? Another like me. Always there.”
“Was he your friend dear? Do you know if he’s still out there? You seemed distraught when you yelled for him.”
Distraught? Damn right I was distraught! Get ahold of yourself! You can’t let the rage out. We’ll deal with them later. Much later. Blend in and heal first. “I remember a jaguar. Chasing us. We fled, hoping to climb the mountain and escape. It. It caught him, and. The. They fell.” I let the tears flow, sniffling as my hand clenched the blanket.
“Leopard?” Scott asked. “And why wouldn’t you head back to your people after it fell off a cliff.”
I sat and shook my head for a minute, letting the pressure build. Sniffling, I used the back of my hand to wipe away the snot as the old lady flinched.
“Scott!” She hissed. “No need to push the boy.”
“There’s every need.” He hissed back, and I knew I had at least one person on my side.
“It’s ok, I understand.” I sniffed. “There’s a clan that uses trained leopards to help hunt. They drive prey beneath the trees, and the leopard drops down on the unsuspecting from above. I saw their spiked collar on the thing, and knew they would be following.” At my explanation, I heard a deep sigh come from behind.
“I’m sorry son.” Scott said, rubbing his hands on my shoulders to generate some heat or comfort me, I couldn’t really tell.
“It’s ok. You couldn’t know.” I said and let the conversation drop. As I did, surprise took me for a second. The broth had actually done wonders, as I could actually feel warm. Heck, my feet were starting to sweat just a little bit.
“Thank you for the broth.” I said, looking at Ellie gratefully. “I feel so warm now.”
“Oh you’re welcome dearie.” She answered, groaning as she got up from her kneeling position. I felt bad as I watched her sway a bit, especially when I heard one of her knees crack.
“Are you ok?” Scott and I both asked at the same time, getting a gentle smile.
“I’ll be just fine. Scott, could you take Terrance here to Jonas’ room and get him some clothes? We’ll have to use a bit of twine for a belt until we can get him some proper things.” She turned to look at me. “Are you still hungry? I’ve got a bit of stew that’s been simmering, perfect for putting some meat back on them bones of yours. I’ll get you a bowl, and see how much of our bruise balm we have left.” Nodding to herself, she turned and shuffled off to the kitchen.
“Need help standing? Those ribs look awful painful.” Scott asked.
“Please.” I asked, only giving a few grunts of pain as he gently helped me up. As he did, I finally got my first view of Scott. He was tall with thinning grey hair, though still maintained a beard. His bushy eyebrows had fused into one giant one, and he had pale blue eyes. Still, I could sense something strange about him. Something I had come across before, but couldn’t quite place.
“Easy there.” He said, helping steady me as I took a few wobbly steps. My coordination was a bit off, but what was really giving me trouble was how my legs felt like cooked noodles. With Scott hovering over me and gently directing me, we made our way deeper into the small house.
“We’ll keep a chamber pot in the room for you. All our houses have an indoor area we can dispose of it, but when temps get this cold we close it off and only empty the pots once a day with a chaser of boiling water to clean it through.”
“Are the storms so bad you can’t walk out to an outhouse?” I asked, surprised.
“Oh yeah.” He agreed, leading me to the first door on the right. “Sorry it’ll be a bit stuffy, but we only clean Jonas’ old room once every few months. We’ll air out the blankets after the storm passes, and don’t underestimate when the mountain sends us a whiteout. We tried using a cord, but when your hand goes numb in a few minutes the cord doesn’t help too much. Thank Callumen that they have some smart people down in the capital. Came up with our little answer, and we haven’t had a death since.”
As he talked, he headed over to a dresser and started searching through a few drawers, eventually settling on a plain grey shirt and brown pants with two pairs of socks. “See how this sock has bits of rough leather sewn into the bottom? You’ll want to keep them on the outside. These’ll keep your feet warm and keep you from falling and breaking a hip.”
“Gotcha.” I nodded, trying on the clothes. Like Ellie had guessed, they were rather large on me but Scott helped me fix it right up. Rolling the pant legs, he slipped one pair of the socks inside the leg and the other on the outside, making sure it couldn’t unroll and trip me. “Hold on to the pants for now, I’ve got some twine in the kitchen.” He muttered, helping me pull on the shirt. Of course, as soon as I got the shirt situated my pants had dropped down to my ankles while the shirt was just below my knee.
“Well, it ain’t pretty, but it’ll do. Come along, let’s get you some stew.” He said, leading me back to the kitchen. I took a quick look over my shoulder, noticing two more doors at the end of the hall. I assumed the one on the left would be the couple’s, as it would put it butting up against the kitchen. The other would be a buffer room for Jonas’ from the cold, and was probably where they sent the waste.
As we passed through the room where I woke up, I noticed there was a couch behind where Scott would have been when I awoke, and two rocking chairs on the other side of the room. The one with the knitting supplies was probably Ellie’s, but how she managed with her hands stumped me. From the looks of it, she was halfway through making someone a pair of gloves.
Heading into the kitchen, the first thing I noticed were the steaming bowls on top of the small table. It was towards the inner walls, with two matching chairs and a small stool set around them.
“Sorry about the stool, but we traded off the third chair for extra room.” Ellie explained as she watched us walk in. Behind her was a stone wall with a small fire going under an iron pot, and along half of the outer wall was a full stack of firewood. The other half of the wall was a small L shaped counter with three cabinets below it.
“Scott dear, could you take the stool?” Ellie asked. “I think Terrance could use the back of the chair.”
“Oh you don’t have to.”
“Of course.” Scott answered, talking over me as he lead me to the chair. “You’ll need all the support you can get with those ribs. Sitting on a stool won’t kill me.”
“Thanks.” I said, wondering about the strange feeling in my chest. It was weirdly warm and constricting, but not like it was trying to hurt me. Mentally shrugging it off, I took my seat and blew on the stew while I checked it out. Small bits of meat and colorful vegetables were floating in a dark brown gravy. I popped the first bite into my mouth as the others sat down, my eyes widening in awe. The potatoes were soft without being mush, while the carrots and some green things still had a bit of crunch to them. I had no idea what the meat was, but it was tender and seemed to have soaked up as much gravy as it could.
“This is amazing.” I muttered just as my stomach let out a massive growl and I threw all propriety away and started shoveling it in as fast as I could. A new spoonful was waiting as I finished chewing the previous one.
“Easy there son.” Scott chuckled as Ellie smiled. “It ain’t gonna outrun you.”
“Sorry.” I said sheepishly.
“Bah, never apologize for loving my food so much you can’t resist.” Ellie reassured me as Scott got a grave look on his face.
“Boy, you’ve done it now. Her head’ll get so big it won’t fit through the door. Don’t worry dear, I’ll bring in a few blankets and make you a nest on the floor here.” Their simple banter back and forth and the feeling of finally having a full stomach had my eyelids drooping in no time.
I don’t know how long it was, but soon enough I was blurrily blinking at an empty bowl, wincing as my head snapped back upright as I fought off sleep. “Come on, time for bed.” Scott gently said, helping me up. A tightness on my waist scared me for a second until I realized that it was the twine that Scott had promised holding up my pants. When did he put that on? Oh well, it was on and my pants were up, that’s all that mattered.
“Good night, Terrance.” Scott said after he tucked me into bed.
“Good night, Scott.” I said, yawning halfway through. “Thanks for saving me.” I wanted to say more, but I immediately dropped off into sleep.