As morning arrived, Johann groggily got up from his bed. He felt something important had happened, but he couldn't immediately grasp his hazy memories of the previous night.
After washing his face in his water basin, his tired mind finally started slowly setting into place and working to remember and organize his thoughts.
He had been shocked by the sudden chaos of the previous night, so his mind had been in a blank as he followed his father's orders. Johann frowned as he focused to piece the scenes in order.
He first ran through the empty streets and poorly lit alleys, cutting the most direct path he could to the healer's house since things seemed urgent. Once he reached the two story house with a wide first floor and a considerably smaller, but still respectable in size, second floor, he rang the bell at the door frantically.
He hadn't really been thinking, but rather reacting on instinct to his father's demeanor, so when mister Peter came to the door, Johann had hesitated as he tried to remember what he needed to say.
"Woah! Johann, easy there. You're way too pale. Did something happen?" the healer had said in a calm tone, which Johann now realized was probably meant to help him calm down and talk properly. Which had worked.
"Dad said to tell you there's an emergency at the Hügel!" Johann said, his voice still shaky. Mister Peter asked him for details of what had happened, so Johann told him of the hurried arrival of the soldiers, as well as the reddened 'bundle' he had seen being carried.
As Johann remembered that scene, he realized the so-called bundle was probably a person, and felt worry tighten the pit of his stomach. He powered through that discomfort, trying to reconstruct what happened next.
Mister Peter nodded as he heard Johann's words, and told him he'd grab his tools and head over with all haste. Johann said he still had to call Sir Sieghart, so he left ahead, running toward Georg Manor, the mayor's house and stronghold, to inform the Captain of the Guard.
Johann got to the main street and followed it running up to the manor. At the gate, the guard who had stopped him recognized Johann as the tollhouse manager's son, and asked worriedly as he saw the state the boy was in.
"Johann, what happened?! Are you okay? Did something happen at the Hügel again?" the guard inquired hurriedly, which hadn't let Johann answer at first. After the guard finished his bombardment of questions, the boy began saying what he had to.
"My dad told me to run and call mister Peter and Captain Sieghart over. A bunch of soldiers ran into the Inn carrying something, and my dad sent me off as he started telling everyone what to do." Johann had explained things as best he could at the time.
His discomfort grew as he realized the amount of urgency his father had behind each instruction, and what that probably meant if it was for a person. An unconscious person. He held on for a bit more, since he felt he was almost done remembering all he needed.
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The gatekeeper sent one of his colleagues to the barracks to call the Captain over, and said colleague ran as fast as he could. The gatekeeper then turned to Johann to calm him down, while praising him for his efforts. He told the boy the knight would arrive soon and he could go back together.
Johann took a while to recover his breath and slow down the drumming of his heart, and just a bit after that, a huge man came running and greeted Johann.
"Hey, little Johann! Let's go now. Do you mind if I carry you so we can get there faster?" the man asked. He was an exceedingly tall man, with a somewhat rounded but also very strong physique, and flaming red hair and beard, the same color as Martha's, his daughter's, hair.
Johann didn't oppose the suggestion, and he was carried by the giant of a man on one of his shoulders, practically flying through the streets, as memories became blurrier and faded from focus.
*****
After he recalled the events of the previous night, Johann finished getting his tired and stiff body off the bed. He headed outside his room slowly and timidly, afraid of what he might see or hear about.
As he got to the hallway, his mother, who was dragging her feet towards her room, greeted him.
"Morning, Johann. Did you sleep well? *Yawn* What a busy night." Sofie stopped near Johann and said tiredly, with barely any energy behind her voice. She was slouching and resting one hand on the wall for support, still wearing the previous day's clothes.
"Morning, Mom. I'm still tired and hazy. Did things go well?" Johann told her and asked with a slight tremble in the base of his voice, clearly afraid of what might be the answer.
"Oh, they stabilized the man for now. He's still unconscious in a room upstairs, but mister Peter, your father and Captain Sieghart are watching over him" Sofie told her son, who became visibly relieved and even straightened his posture a bit.
"Okay! Thanks, mom! I'll go see them and see if I can help!" Johann said. The rebound from being relieved of his worry made him seem excited as he turned towards the stairs.
"Tell your dad I'll just rest today! I'll close the dining hall for the day!" Sofie's voice reached Johann as he climbed the stairs, and he shouted back an affirmative reply.
As Johann walked through the second floor's hallway, he heard the three men's voices talking to each other about the patient.
"So, it was really done by people?" Captain Sieghart asked for confirmation. Johann was startled by the question and decided to hear more before heading in.
"That is the most likely, yes. These wounds were made with blades, not claws or fangs, so they weren't caused by animals. And they weren't made by the rusted weapons an undead might wield either." Mister Peter explained what based his conclusion in detail.
"Then things are as bad or worse than we suspected. *Haah* I'll have to inform the Lord Mayor immediately. May I bother you to write a report of what you told me?" the knight sighed tiredly before asking of the healer.
"Of course. It's no bother at all. It's important to let the Lord mayor know, but I still need to watch over my patients, so you'd be doing me a favor instead." mister Peter responded dismissing the worries about convenience.
"Thank you for your help. I'll inform the Lord right away. Jules, would you bring Peter's report when it's done? I believe your position also deserves to take part in decision making" Sir Sieghart talked to Johann's father next, asking for his presence later that day.
"Certainly. I'll bring the report with me as soon as it's ready." Jules agreed. As the adults' conversation was coming to an end, Johann got worried about being discovered eavesdropping, so he hurriedly pretended to walk in normally before the Knight Captain could get close to the door.
*****