Chapter 9: Like a River Flows, Surely to the Sea

Brian felt the warm pressure of two fingers on his neck. A sweet female singsong voice slowly faded into his perception. "-ello... Hello... Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at home?"

His eyes were again crusted shut and his voice coated in sticky phlegm. After two attempts he was able to croak out, "Nerd."

The sweet, pleasant, and still oddly singsong voice continued, "Ah, Kurt said you would enjoy that one. But, nerd? Just for knowing the lyrics to one of the biggest songs on the radio?"

Brian continued to clear his throat with soft painful coughs. "That song's like forty years old. Only music nerds would quote that."

The now amused but still sweet voice interjected, "Hey now, a gentleman shouldn't make a lady feel old like that. Besides, it only came out a few years ago by my timeline." Her voice still had the odd singsong sound to it, a cadence that he was unused to hearing in English but mixed with the merged vowels of a Cockney accent.

Brian wasn't sure what he expected to see when he finally managed to force his eyelids open, but it wasn't an angel. Well, not a literal angel like those whirly bastards coated in eyeballs, but a ruby lipped, umber haired beauty with honey-dark skin and the most clear and entrancing hazel eyes he had ever seen.

The angelic vision was counting his pulse, two fingers on his neck and a small hourglass in the other. She was watching the sand trickle through the timer instead of looking at him so he had a moment to take in her captivating features before she noticed he was looking. She had long silky dark brown hair that fell in gently spiraling curls cascading over her shoulders. The firelight reflected like burnished bronze off her dark brown tresses that hung delightfully as she leaned over his chest to reach his neck. Her skin was smooth and clear with a single black dot on her right jawline that enhanced the perfection rather than marred it. Her lips and eyes had the shade that suggested lipstick and eyeliner, but seemed to be natural. She smelled faintly of sandalwood and anise.

The last grain of sand fell from the top of her small timer and she nodded satisfied. "Your pulse is good and your fever is down now. Looks like you'll pull through. How do you feel?"

"Like I got run over by 'Truck-kun'."

Her perfectly shaped eyebrows knitted together in momentary confusion before letting the odd phrase pass, "Well, that's about what I would expect. You've been balancing on the edge of death's door for over two weeks, so I'd be concerned if you said you felt good." She began examining his fingers and toes, "You can feel your fingers and toes? Can you wiggle them?"

Brian assured her that he could and demonstrated wiggling them, causing the kennik children to stir and then go back to sleep.

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"Good, then that's wha-"

At that moment Charlotte swung open the double doors and called across the room, "Akansha! I thought that you were still back on the island working at the hospital. What are you doing here, aside from fixing our resident pincushion?"

Charlotte dashed across the room to attach herself to her friend in a powerful hug. "Ouch!" Charlotte banged her head on the taller woman's ornate chestplate due to her overeager embrace. "What's with the armor?"

"Well, I was told that you were getting into trouble over here so you needed someone to patch you up." Her musical laugh filled the room, and to Brian's surprise, warmed his heart. "Actually, no. They convened a conclave of all the guilds leaderships a couple weeks after you left for the continent and they agreed to start mobilizing more than just the Explorer's Guild. The mystics over at the Academy started warning that things were advancing faster than ever and the guilds voted to approve some extraordinary measures. I got released from my residency at the hospital and they gave me this gorgeous suit of armor and matching hammer." Akansha opened her cloak to show off the elegant and ornate plate armor with a creeping vine motif. The base plate was painted with a deep bronze lacquer and the raised vine motif was a polished brass. The large plates of the chest, shoulders, arms, and legs covered a hauberk of thin, dark lacquered chain mail, and it all rested on a suede jerkin and trousers. The elegant hammer was decorated in a similar vine motif and shared the same colors as the plate armor. The slender shaft was painted with the same lacquer as the plate armor and had the same raised brass vines that climbed it from the leather wrapped handle to the small but effective two pound steel head.

"Huh. I didn't know you knew how to wear armor and use a hammer." Charlotte said as she admired the craftsmanship. The armor was very practical given its ornate decoration. It suggested her feminine shape, but didn't expose her flesh to attacks like some fantasy artists would have wanted. There were also no 'boob' protrusions in the chestplate to form a weak point for arrows to be caught and penetrate. The chestplate formed a smooth curve over her chest with a slight ridged peak in the center over her breastbone to help deflect piercing blows away. The only concession to artistic fancy was the crown-like helmet which hung from her belt. The helmet was open on the top but extended to provide protection down the cheeks and nose. The vine motif extended above the forehead in looping whorls. The color scheme looked amazing next to her skin tone and hair color.

"You got here after I did. You wouldn't know it, but I was all ready to be a valkyrie riding off into the sunset to bonk heads, but they needed me at the hospital more. Which I can't really fault, you'd be surprised how much medical training transfers over to this magical mojo stuff. But now that we're extending to the continent my skills are needed here more."

Suddenly remembering Brian's condition, Charlotte asked, "How's our big lug? Is he going to be alright? Everyone's been worried about him."

Akansha turned to give Brian her best reassuring doctor smile and said, "He's not ready to wrestle any bears just yet, but give me a few days with him and he'll be right as rain."

With that she handed a small phial of a milky yellow substance to Brian. "Drink this. I've got to go find the guy who's been keeping you alive so far. Michael is his name? Before I give you anything else I need to know what he's been using on you. I'll be back in a little bit."

Charlotte followed the taller woman out of the room and Brian drank the bitter, salty contents of the phial as ordered. It wasn't until the doors closed behind the statuesque vision of beauty that the air seemed to return to the room and Brian could breathe again.

The small fuzzy moppets at his feet exchanged glances and squeaky chirps of laughter as they regarded him with amusement.

(End of Chapter 9)

Written by Charles Caplan, all characters and situations are fiction.