I hobbled along while using Kala as a crutch. We moved around as far away from the other inhabitants of the camp as possible. I was in no condition for a confrontation, and Kala couldn’t do much if she was having to protect my noodle limbed ass at the same time. Luckily it seemed that most of the soldiers were doing something else at this time of the day. Whether that was drills or they were being deployed somewhere was unknown, but it was relatively clear on the path back. Only one asshole was present on the path to make a disparaging comment, and we just ignored him and moved on.
Back in the safety of our little cave, Kala put me down on my cot before sitting on hers with a sigh. “Thanks for lugging my ass back here.” I said to her with a slight smile.
She smirked back. “I would say no problem, but you’re heavier than you look.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Wow! You really just said that?” Her amusement was plain on her face, and her laughter was only barely contained. I chuckled and shook my head. “I’d slap you on the snout if I had the strength to do so.”
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I have all the power right now.” She gave a smug smile.
I rolled my eyes at her. “Just wait till I get some rest in, as soon as I'm back on my feet you better watch that tail of yours missy.”
She narrowed her eyes slightly at me, then a devious smile spread across her face that made me a little concerned. “You know, I think I'm feeling a bit cold, and I see a perfectly good warming rock right in front of me.” She rose from her cot to stand before me.
“Kala, what are you...” She cut me off by putting a hand on my face and pushing me down on the cot. Before I could even protest, she sat on my stomach, prompting me to wheeze as some air was forced out of my lungs. “What the hell, Kala?” She ignored my complaints and pulled her legs up before laying down on top of me, smooshing me under her form.
I tried to push her off, but my noodle arms weren’t strong enough to move her. When I attempted to roll her, she just put more pressure on that side of my body to keep me still. “Kala, get off.” My demands went unheeded.
“Shhh. Rocks don’t talk.”
I tried to worm my way out but couldn’t seem to manage it. My cot was creaking under the combined weight of the both of us. “Kala you’re going to break my bed.”
“Only if you keep moving so much. Accept your fate or sacrifice your bed.”
I tried one more time to get her off of me, but the only result was making her shift slightly. A defeated sigh escaped me. “I will get you back for this, I hope you realize that.”
“Mmhmm, now shush, I'm trying to take a nap here.”
I rolled my eyes as she snuggled into me a little more, trying to sap the heat from my body. It wasn’t entirely uncomfortable under her. Her scales were surprisingly smooth and didn’t scratch me whenever she shifted a little. She wasn’t so heavy that she was crushing me, it was an evenly spread-out weight that felt kind of nice really. The only thing I could really complain about was that she was a bit too cold for my liking, but that seemed to be slowly correcting itself as she absorbed more of my body heat.
I laid under her for a few minutes before noticing a change in her breathing as it became much slower with a steady rhythm. She had actually fallen asleep on top of me. I smirked at how ridiculous she was. My thoughts turned devious for a moment, thinking about getting my revenge right now by shouting in her ear and startling her awake. However, laying there, I realized that it was quite comfortable.
Having someone this close to me, someone I could hold without fear of ulterior motives or suddenly finding myself under attack, I... I missed that. Just the simple pleasure of being able to relax in another’s presence, it made everything else seem so far away. All my worries were nothing, all the hatred and pain outside didn’t exist.
The tension flowed from my body, and soon my eyes became exceedingly heavy. I could feel her heart beating and the rise and fall of her breath. The rhythm was a melody which sought to hypnotize me, and I found myself timing my breaths with hers, slowly falling in sync. My eyes closed all the way and sleep found me in record time.
My rest was undisturbed by worry, nightmares, paranoia, or ghosts. For the first time in a long while, I truly slept. It was a wonderous sensation, a deep sleep. It’s something that can be so easily overlooked by those who experience it every night, but the moment you lose it, it becomes a treasure that is sought after like it’s the holy grail.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Kala started to stir on top of me, causing me to begin the process of waking up as well. This rise from slumber was not sudden or jarring as it normally was, but gradual and soothing, leaving me feeling refreshed.
Kala pushed herself off my chest and I opened my eyes to see her stretching while sitting on top of me. I realized that I had been drooling a bit while we slept, so I quickly wiped the spittle away before she noticed. She finished her stretch, complete with a high-pitched groan and sigh.
“Ahh, that was a good nap.” She gave me a pat on the chest. “You make a good warming rock when you’re quiet.” She said with a smug expression on her face.
“What does that make you then? An ice pack for my body?”
She tilted her head slightly. “Why would you put ice on your body? That just sounds horrible.”
“It helps with soreness. Are you going to get off me or are you planning to sit on me forever?”
“Hmm, I don’t know, you do make for a comfortable bed.” She said in a teasing voice. I just looked at her as unamused as I could manage. “Alright, alright, I’m getting up.” She pushed off me and stood with another stretch. Finally being able to breathe correctly was a liberating feeling. Sitting up found that I had regained some of my strength, still felt weak, but at least it didn’t feel like my limbs were as stable as soggy cardboard.
“Feeling any better?” Kala asked.
“Yeah, a lot, still kind of weak though, but at least I think I can stand on my own now.” I made an attempt to get to my feet and managed it. Most likely wasn’t going to be running, jumping, or doing any fancy footwork anytime soon, but walking on my own two feet was possible again.
“Good, because while you make a good warming rock, I'd prefer not to carry one around with me all the time.” My eyes narrowed at her for a second, then quicker than she had time to react to, I flicked her on the snout. “Eep!” She made a strangely adorable sound before rubbing the spot I hit. “What was that for?”
“I said I would be getting you back for that, and this is just the start.” My own devious smile spread across my face, and she squinted at me. I laughed it off and went to the door to see how long we were asleep. It came as a surprise to see that the light streaming in from the opening of the tunnel was slightly orange.
“Damn, I think we slept through lunch and straight into dinner.”
“What?” Kala came over to confirm as much. “Wow, guess you were a better warming rock than I gave you credit for.” She says with a sly grin.
“Do you want me to flick you again?”
She skipped away from me down the tunnel with a little laugh, stopping a few yards in before turning back. “How about I get some dinner to make it up to you?”
“It would be a start.”
She smirked and pivoted on the spot to leave the cave and go pick up something to eat. I waited for her to return, hunger gnawing at me as my body realized just how long it had gone without food. It seemed tonight's dinner would be another soup as Kala returned with two more bowls of the stuff. No meat was added to it this time, but there was a bit of bread there to compensate for the loss of protein.
We ate our meals and shared a bit of conversation with one another. Kala was asking a lot of questions about my little deep dive into my own head and the weird shadowy serpent that lurked therein. I tried my best to describe what I saw, but the nature of the thing’s body was ambiguous, so no exact answers were given. Didn’t stop Kala from trying to squeeze every last drop of information out of me that she could.
When that subject was exhausted, we moved on to a little bit of arithmetic to further her understanding of numbers and counting. I went out with her to collect a few rocks for the lesson so she could have something physical to help her. We ended up with fifty odd rocks so that was plenty for a start.
We started with some basic math of single digit addition and subtraction as well as some different strategies that she could use to help her learn. It was steady progress. She figured out a method that worked for her, a combination of rocks and fingers to keep track of the numbers while she added or subtracted them. It would be a learning process to get her to a point where she could just see them and know what they totaled to, but the basic skills would still be handy.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The lessons continued until the sun had long since set. Neither of us felt particularly tired considering our lengthy midday nap, but if we didn’t sleep at an appropriate time, it would throw off our whole schedule. Both of us got into bed and retired for the night. We took our sweet time falling asleep, each tossing and turning as we willed our bodies to rest at a reasonable time.
Eventually Kala managed to fall asleep, and I followed her lead sometime later. My own sleep was not as peaceful as the nap had been. Visions of blood, fear, and dead bodies flittered in and out of existence in my head. Pleading eyes sitting in the corpses of men I killed stared at me, and no matter where I turned, they were always there.
Blood flowed from the body of one as tears simultaneously ran down his face. The eyes were unfocused yet terrified, fear forever burned into his features. I recalled the first time I died in terror or my own demise. The adrenaline flowing through you in those final moments is so potent that you can practically feel every part of your body slowly expiring as all feeling is drained from it. I condemned them to that fate, the hope of a peaceful death in their bed, surrounded by family and loved ones torn from them.
In the hellscape of my sleeping mind I could hear them call out to me one question over and over. “Why?” A simple question with an infinitely complex and illusive answer. Why did they have to die? Why didn’t I just leave that one alive and run away? Why was this happening? And the worst part was, I was asking myself that question too.
I didn’t belong here. I didn’t want to be here. Yet I was, and now I had killed someone in this world that wasn’t even mine. If I never came here, he might still be alive, might have had a chance to return to his family or start one if he didn’t have it already. There was no sense to any of this, so the question could only be repeated and amplified by the carrion voices of the dead. Why, why, WHY?!
Then as quickly as the nightmares started, they ended. I woke with a start and found myself panting in a cold sweat. That nightmare was intense, more so than any of the other restless nights I've had thus far. It took time to calm myself down enough so that I wasn’t practically gasping for air. My heart was the last thing to return to a normal rhythm while lying in the dim light of the room.
I could hear Kala’s gentle breathing across from me. It brought me some measure of comfort to know that she was there. There was solace to be found in her as she drove away the last of the nightmares with her presence alone. There was no way to know how early in the morning it was, but I would wait for Kala to wake up before doing anything that could disturb her sleep.
I dozed for a little while, finding small pockets of rest here and there but never for very long. It felt like a long time before Kala started to stir in her sleep. A few minutes after she first started tossing in her sleep, I heard a groan coming from her bed.
“James, you awake?” She asked quietly.
“Yeah.”
“Morning?”
“Probably.” She groaned and pulled the sheets over her head. “Seriously? You slept for like fourteen hours yesterday.”
“Hrng... morning bad.”
I laughed at her childish reaction. “You are ridiculous.” I got up and got dressed, giving her a poke on the side of the head until she decided to wake up as well. She groaned at me more than a little bit, but she eventually got up. “Come on sleepy head, you’re not nocturnal, at least I think you aren’t.”
“I am, totally nocturnal, now let me sleeeeeeeep.” She feigned going back to bed, but I grabbed her tail as she turned.
She jerked slightly and went rather ridged when I did that. “Nah, you’ve slept enough for two days, beauty sleep has its limits.”
“Uhm, could you let go of my tail, it’s... sensitive.”
“Oh, sorry.” I released her and she regained her composure, though she still seemed a little stiff with her movements. Hope I didn’t cause her any pain.
“Okay, if you’re not going to let me sleep, I guess I'll get breakfast then.”
“Sounds good.” She went out to claim our morning meal, seemingly a little quicker than necessary. I waited around for her to come back, then we both shared a meal together. It seemed that today's menu was bread, meat, and a very sweet apple. We had some general small talk while we ate and finished the meal rather quickly.
“So, back to Sert then?” She asked after our initial conversation had ended.
“Yeah, have to make sure I'm not about to become a bomb, and I want to learn more about this whole magic thing anyway.”
She nodded and we left our little sanctuary for the cold world outside. The soldiers of the camp, never tired of the chance to throw insults around, did so with abandon, like always. I tuned out the majority of what they said, but I realized that some of the insults were now being directed at Kala as well. Words like traitor and pet were used a lot, along with a sprinkling of curses. My jaw clenched as they targeted her, it made me angrier than anything they could say to me.
Fortunately, the verbal abuse would only last a few minutes as we made our way to Sert’s lab. The voices trailed off as we entered the tube and made our way through it. I gave a polite knock on the door to announce our presence to the satyr who I couldn’t decide if he was closer to a mad scientist or an actual doctor of his field.
“Who’s there?” Sert asked from inside.
“James and Kala.”
“Ahh, come in.”
I pushed the door open and stepped into the lab. There were more papers and books spread about than yesterday and Sert barely looked up from them as we entered. “Morning doc. What’s all this?” I asked with a gesture to the piles of papers.
“Just trying to find any reference to your current situation. Thus far, I have found no such mention of someone being possessed by a magical entity on the same scale as you.”
“But it has happened before?”
“In a few cases, lesser spirits have been found in the bodies of some with weaker command of magic. Though the effects of this possession were usually negligible, they could be both beneficial and detrimental depending on the temperament of the spirit in question.”
“So not much help for my case.”
“Indeed. We will be blind going forward I'm afraid.”
“Guess it could be worse, I could be exploding.” I gave a slightly nervous chuckle.
“Speaking of, how do you feel right now?”
“My body is still recovering, but I don’t feel like my insides are about to melt.”
“Good, now let us run a few tests so we can find out how best to proceed.” He put all the papers into a neat pile and went to grab his more practical tools. He came back first with a small crystal with some basic etchings in it. “Let us begin with testing what sort of aptitude your newfound magic has. This crystal will take a sample of your body's energies and then glow a certain color in correspondence to what talent you have. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say what talent that entity has, considering the magic is coming from it.”
Oh, well I think I can make a safe guess. He handed me the crystal and we all gathered around to see what color it would turn. I held it for a second before it started to glow a brilliant gold color.
“That will be enough, please put it down.” Sert instructed.
I did so, then followed up with the expected question. “So, what’s the color mean?”
“The color means that the entity is adept at healing magic above all else, and thus, so are you, as long as you have its magic at your command that is.”
Yep, expected that. I found myself a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be throwing fireballs around. “Okay, so what happens now that we know this?”
“Well, I’m sure our resident healer would be ecstatic to know there is another to assist her now. I feel she should be the one to instruct you on the use of your magic.”
He makes it sound like there’s only one healer in this camp. Which means... “Is the healer’s name, by any chance, Velshi?”
“Oh, are you acquainted already?”
“I guess, she patched me up after my first few... violent days here.”
“I see.” He let a pause exist for a second before continuing. “At least introductions will not be needed. I will see if she is available to talk about this in person. Please wait here, and do not touch anything while I’m away.”
He got up from the chair he had been using and left through the door. Kala and I were left in the room with all the potentially hazardous materials. We took to awkwardly staring at all the things around us, but not touching them. I was absorbed in trying to look at all the runes carved into a decent sized crystal while Kala looked at some illustrations in a book.
Just as I was starting to feel a bit bored, the door opened again. Sert walked back into the room with a familiar orc lady walking behind him. Velshi looked upon us with recognition from her natural vantage point. She was definitely over six feet; add another half foot and you would probably be close to her actual height.
“James, right? It seems I’m going to be seeing you quite a lot now.” She said with a slight smile.
I gave a little chuckle in response. “Yeah, though this time is for some preventative medicine.”
“Indeed, I'm told you are in a very unique position where you only just acquired access to magic. I also hear it happens to be healing magic you specialize in.”
“If what Sert here says is to be believed, that is indeed the case.”
She smiled a little wider. “Well, who am I to refuse the first self-proclaimed ‘human’ healer. I must ask if you are ready for my teaching, though. We have no time to leisurely introduce you to the subject of magical control and healing. It will be quick and cut-throat, are you prepared for that?”
“Sounds very Spartan, I’ll do my best to keep up.”
“Spartan?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Basically, a warrior people from my history. They were renowned as some of the most disciplined and well-trained soldiers of their time. Their training methods were often extreme to the point of fatality for those who could not complete them.”
“I see. While my instruction will be extreme, I will try not to make it fatal for you.”
I huffed a little with amusement. “I appreciate that.”
She stood up straight and adopted an air of seriousness. “To make it official, do you, James, accept my tutelage and submit yourself as an apprentice under me?”
I took a resolved breath before answering. “If you will have me, then I will be your apprentice.”
She gave a flat expressionless nod. “Good. Sert says he wants to run a few more tests first, so I will wait outside for you.” She turned to Sert. “Try to make it fast. While I don’t have any patients that need my immediate attention, being gone for too long will still be a detriment to my own work.”
“Of course, Velshi. I will be expedient in my analysis. After which we can discuss times for James to be with either one of us. I will inform the general of this new development as well.”
“Thank you Sert, I’ll leave you to it then.” With that, Velshi left the room so Sert could finish his planned analysis. I wondered how intense my training with Velshi would be. My mind went to army drills and used that as a framework to form any hypothesis out of, but I would be finding out what it entailed soon enough. Seems my major would be changed to the medical field.