12

(ODESZA, WYNNE, Mansionair- Line of Sight)

Tells

Those bug things cut the shit out of my side, but I wasn’t noticing much of an effect after getting fixed up. Sure, the scar ached pretty badly, but it wasn’t anything ridiculous. This run wasn’t gonna be short, probably going a few miles around the lake, not to mention finding a doctor. Vetia’s limp arm slapped against my back. Bone shards poked my hand through her skin in the arm I was holding. Warm blood poured out of her mouth, coating the left side of my body. She was half-caked with dirt, dead leaves, and a lot of blood.

Don’t throw up. Oh lord, it’s so disgusting. It’s so gross. Please hold it together. Push back the queasiness. Ewwwww, all the blood and her limp noodle arm are making this run feel so much longer! Just keep running. Just run. Running makes you forget.

Thank God my muscles were so much better at running, not to mention my lungs weren’t actively trying to kill me. I was a machine, chugging along without worry of slowing down. Sure, I wasn’t as fast as Brenden or as strong as Adam, but I probably had way more stamina. Too bad Desmond didn’t have anything. Or not, he didn’t seem like he had any significant powers or abilities like me. Maybe Vetia had something too. Or maybe she was just a regular woman now. That’d suck.

My thoughts were wandering way too much for how strenuous the run was. Branches and leaves slammed into my face, leaving little cuts all across my skin. I was hurdling bushes without knowing what was on the other side, all while I had my friend on my back. All of that without much effort. I dodged around a group of colossal trees and leapt over a fallen log-

Oh, a chunk slopped out of her mouth down my shirt. It’s slapping down my body. And it's stuck to my leg. AAHHHHH!!!!!!!! I HATE IT! Every time I land or take a large step, I swear a new type of popping and snapping comes from Vetia, along with another gush of blood. How much blood does she have?! TO THROW UP THIS MUCH?!

Down the hill, down through the forest. I had been going down the entire time.

How am I not at the bottom yet?! I’m fuckin’ zooming!

The hill began to flatten out and I carried the momentum of my breakneck speed. The stream of blood finally stopped and raspy breathing filled my left ear. Finally, light at the end of the forest ahead. I put everything I had into the final sprint until I finally emerged in the middle of a dirt road.

The village was barely a mile away. I ran alongside the wide wagon ruts until log farmhouses lined the road. There were no signs or anything to figure out what these buildings were.

A person, or a kid? A kid with a beard? No, no, just a really tiny old man.

“Excuse me. Hi. I need a doctor, or a healer, somebody to help her.”

This two or three foot-tall, pale old man with a wide-brimmed straw hat and simple tan clothing looked up at me, taking his time. He had a stern, uninviting look on his pink face with a long, pointy nose, no ears, and an additional eye on each of his temples. He pointed to a log building made of the same dark, nearly black logs from the forest, but a white tree with silver and green leaves was growing through the roof. “Healer inside, might not do dead girl any good.” And he smiled delightedly at me.

I shot him a look like “what the hell?” and took off without another thought.

Fuck that guy.

At least I could still hear her breathing, though lightly, in my ear. That was all I needed to get me focused back on my goal.

I barrelled down the road and burst through the door of the building. A sharp pain shot rattled my head as it impacted the tiny door frame. I crouched through the door, carefully making sure I didn’t hit Vetia’s head on it, even though it was freshly bleeding from knocking it around when I was running through the woods.

Multicolored sheets blanketed the floor. Flowing, natural designs like tree branches and roots were woven into the fabric, each one with distinct variations like they were original stories written onto each and every blanket. In the center of this single room was the white tree. Silver glimmers peeked through the cracks in the bark as if it were a kintsugi tree.

“Sen malteshin ah kal,” a slow, elderly woman’s voice spoke from beneath the tree. Her tiny hand peaked out from the flowy green robes she was wearing. She held it out flat, palm facing the floor.

“What?”

“Triali, then,” she sighed. The little elderly figure slowly turned her head and stood. Her face was obscured under a tall, pointed green hat with a green veil that descended from its dark brown brim.

She couldn’t have been more than two feet tall, hunching as she walked like a rickety old dog with quick but unsure steps.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Follow me, young one.”

The old lady led me out of the strange temple and into a smaller one right next to it. My head skimmed the ceiling of this building as I gazed around the dark building. Tan curtains were drawn open between clean beige cots of varying sizes. All of them were only a few inches off of the floor. Most of them were tiny, built for the people of this town, but the two next to a window at the back were normal sized.

“Lay her down in left bed,” the old woman said to me. She stopped to speak with a younger man at a table by the door. He seemed younger at least. It was hard to say for sure with them all being so strangely inhuman. He wore a wide brimmed straw hat like the old man, but he was far less wrinkled with a long beard and a grating, nasally voice.

I set Vetia down in the bed and the old woman hobbled over.

“What hurt her?”

My brain shut off for a second at that question and I stared at the old lady blankly. With a shake of my head, I got my thoughts back together. “She was fixing our friend and her arms… um, broke.” I raised the middle of her noodle arm.

“Leave arm still.” The old woman put her hands out in surprise as I realized I definitely shouldn’t be messing with Vetia’s fucked up arms.

She lit her finger and did a really quick few motions like Brenden did with his magic, except hers was light green. A sheen of green light formed in front of her eyes, which slowly passed over Vetia’s whole body.

I stayed silent, unsure of what was going on, but pretty sure what she was doing was helpful. I leaned down, trying to see her face, but it was still obscured since the overhead lamp light was blocked by her witch hat. She was calm as could be, even with me sitting there rapidly tapping my foot in anticipation for some kind of answer.

“Shock burn on all abdomen organ. Graveled all bone. Long healing process. All organ heal within hours. Brain require couple season to recover.” She was composed almost to the point of apathy until she finally offered a strangely timed smile, the rest of her face obscured by the veil.

“Uh huh. What about her arms?” I asked her, half wondering if I had missed her mentioning them or she just ignored the most obviously damaged part of Vetia.

“She will never use two arm in future. Damage is too much to fix. Replacing two arm bone would require seasons of care, unless fireblood bone acquired. I cannot fix two arm without two fireblood bone. Poikla people need my jzanmah.”

I was starting to have a hard time understanding her. She had a slow and breathy accent where all of the P’s and B’s dropped, sounding the same. All of her words sort of melded together into a strange mumbled string.

“Fireblood bones? Where do I find those?”

“Scouriad fireblood.”

“What do scouriad firebloods look like?”

The old woman looked at me like I was stupid. “Many different appearances of all forms of humans.”

“Okay. We’ll get the bones and then bring them back.”

The old woman looked at me skeptically. “Do you know of fireblood? How fireblood bone heal? Their many danger?”

I casually shook my head and shrugged.

“Fireblood are danger. Find Geren. Geren live in blue flower field near ravine. In cabin with cage pile. Fireblood hunter. He will educate. Freshly harvested bone and limb replace lost, broken piece of body and… bond. Become like old limb. I think word is assimilate.”

“That word sounds right.” I paused, unsure of what to say. “We’ll… get those bones.”

She peered at me from beneath her veil. “How do you say you?”

“Uuuhhhhh, huh? You?”

She squinted. “You. What is you? Triali word is… name.”

“My name is… Tells?”

“Mother Yeline is how you say me. Poikla is grateful for collection of fireblood.”

“Yeah. No problem.” I awkwardly shifted while she started doing magic or something with her hands. Then they glowed and started radiating waves of green jzanmah over Vetia.

“Where is home, Tells? Few visitor visit Poikla.”

My mind completely blanked. What was I supposed to say? Could I tell the truth? Would she call bullshit if I made up some fake place? “Uh, um, it’s, I’m from, uh, Boston,” I blurted out.

“What is Uhboston?”

Fuck, is she trying to make small talk?

“Just Boston. Yeah, it’s like, just the place I used to live, you know. It’s just, uh, near water for fishing… and stuff.”

She looked at me like I was a complete idiot. And I didn’t necessarily disagree.

“You have many friend or one? They arrive soon?”

“Three. Yeah. I’m just gonna go and wait. So they don’t get lost. Um, thank you.”

Mother Yeline disappointedly nodded and turned her attention down to the noodler. I stared down at her too, seeing the state she was in for the first time. Her cheeks were sunken in and her face was pale, somehow even more pale than when we first got here. The right side of her face and body were caked in dry blood, her hair matted and stuck to her head.

Is healing magic really so taxing on her? Brenden was using spells over and over during the walk.

I sighed and stood up.

As I was walking out past the clerk, he clicked his tongue. I turned my head in confusion at the odd sound.

He leaned forward. “What will you owe us in favor for Mother Yeline’s service?” His voice had some really shrill peaks like a squeaky chalkboard.

I just kind of stood there thinking and going “uh” for a solid five seconds. “Fireblood? Like, bones and limbs from it?” I wasn’t really sure why I made them sound like questions.

“Fireblood will suffice. Should you offer fireblood to Poikla, Poikla will reward. Return tomorrow while Mother works. No visitation until.”

“Kay.”

I ducked out the door and strolled to the entrance of the village where the others would be coming in. The homes were all made of the same dark, almost black wood from the forest, but the village didn’t feel dark. Almost every home was surrounded in varying shapes and colors of wildflowers. I leaned down to inspect a patch of beautiful bright orange flowers with hundreds of tiny glittering petals that almost looked like burning fire, or magma.

“Yo!” Adam’s voice grabbed my attention from down the road, where he and the others were slowly limping along. I quickly hopped up and ran over to help them into town.