“Luke…” Luke thought he heard someone say. “Luke…” the voice came again. Luke felt like he was in bed, back at home again. He woke up and found he was in his old room. Charles, Donald, and James were sleeping soundly in their beds.
It was just a dream, Luke thought, the nightmare is over.
He got out of bed and walked down the hallway to the kitchen where his mother was sitting at the kitchen table.
“Luke, you’re awake,” she said happily. His mother had never sounded so happy, but Luke was glad to see her smile again.
“Mother, I had the strangest dream,” he told her as he rubbed the back of his head.
“Oh Luke,” his mother smiled, “It was not a dream.”
Luke wrinkled his brow. “What?”
“Your dream, it was not real,” his mother carried on, stirring her tea, “You really are on some crazy quest, and you have made new friends. That girl, Skylar, sure is amazing, isn’t she?”
“You…know about the quest?” Luke asked.
“Oh yes. And me and the boys are still at home, slowly starving to death.”
“W-what?” Luke felt guilt pang in his gut, and he started to feel the panic rise in him. They were…starving?
“Uh-huh,” his mother smiled, “Without you, where will we get our food? Slowly but surely, we will starve to death. Unless, of course, you come home.”
“N-No, this can’t be real, it’s just a dream. How can I be here but not here? How can you know everything that’s going on?” Luke felt his hands touch the sides of his head, and he shook it as his mother continued to speak.
“Because Luke…” His mother said softly, but then her voice changed. “I am not your mother,” the voice was shrill and loud, laughing maniacally.
“You will soon see what I am…” Luke looked at what once had been his mother, but now was a woman he didn’t know, with raven black hair and purple eyes.
“Soon…Luke Joseph Doogan, you will see what will become of you, your friends, and this whole world!” The woman laughed, and grew, swallowing the entire house.
“Luke! Luke! Luke!” his brothers and mother chanted as they circled around his head, their faces contorted with hunger and fear. Luke closed his eyes and covered his ears.
No, no, no, he thought, this can’t be happening. They have to be safe.
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“Luke! Luke! Come on, Luke, wake up!” Luke heard someone shouting, and he slowly opened his eyes. He was no longer in his nightmare, but in the real world. He recognized Skylar’s voice and realized she was calling for him..
Luke looked around and saw the strangest thing he’d ever seen. Skylar was in a fallen cage, her leg trapped under a bar. The woman who had offered them shelter was on the ground in a heap, and there was a cauldron bubbling with…locks of hair beside it?
Luke didn’t have time to think, though, and got up quickly to help Skylar.
“Help…please,” Skylar begged, indicating her crushed foot.
Luke ran over to her and struggled to lift the cage enough for Skylar to get her foot out. She quickly retracted the injured foot, and Luke dropped the cage again, sweating from the weight of it.
“Thanks,” she muttered, wiping sweat off her brow. Luke quickly got to work finding his sword and cutting off the lock that held the door to the cage shut.
Luke helped Skylar get out, asking what she thought the damage to her foot was.
“It…might be broken,” she said, sitting down and slowly taking off her boot, “Nothing I haven’t handled before. At least it’s not blood.”
Luke looked at the ruins around him, though, and noticed that the house they’d been staying in was gone, and they were instead surrounded by high walls of dirt and grass. At the top, however, Luke could see the forest, so he guessed they were in the same spot.
“What…what happened?” Luke didn’t even know where to start.
“You don’t remember?” Skylar asked, then said, “Of course, you don’t. That witch put you to sleep a couple of times.”
“Witch?”
Skylar sighed, looking at the mangled mess that was her foot. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when we get out of here. Now first, we need to make a splint.
Luke looked for a long thick enough stick to work, while Skylar began to cut her pantleg off with her knife just below the knee. She then ripped it into strips, and they got the splint made in no time.
As Luke reached into his pack to look for the rope they’d bought not too long ago, he heard a noise.
Luke turned to see the woman-no, witch-slowly getting up.
“You will pay for what you have done today,” she said, and this time her eyes were no longer pink but red. Red as blood. “I have powerful allies, and I will bring them your heads.”
The witch lunged at Luke, who drew his sword just in time, holding her back as she pulled out a long dagger and went at him with it.
Luke disarmed her, using leverage to force the knife out of her hand. “Ma’am, I don’t even know what happened!” Luke shouted as she ran toward him, her arms outstretched. Then the witch stopped, her eyes wide. She looked down at her stomach, and blood began to dribble out of her mouth. When the witch fell forward onto the ground, Luke saw the arrow sticking out of her back.
Luke dropped his sword, his eyes wide. When he looked over at Skylar, she dropped her bow and covered her mouth. “I…I didn’t mean to kill her. I just…”
Luke walked over to Skylar, letting out a breath of relief. “It’s alright, Skylar, it’s alright.”
At the sight of her conflicted expression, Luke pulled her into a hug, muttering to her that they didn’t need to go anywhere near it if they didn’t have to.
Skylar and Luke couldn’t dare look at the body, and Luke started scanning the pit they were in for a root or something to strap their rope onto. He finally found it, a curved root that was as thick as his waist. Luke fashioned a constrictor knot, then threw the rope as high as he could. It took a couple of tries, but eventually, it latched onto the root and Luke pulled tight to make the knot constrict, making a safe rope.
Luke pulled his weight on it, testing to make sure it was secure. Then Luke thought of a plan.
He helped Skylar limp to the base of the rope, telling her to stay there until he said so.
“Alright,” Luke clapped his hands together, rubbing them and preparing to climb up the rope. “I’m going to climb up there first, then you’re going to tie the bottom of the rope around your waist and I’ll pull you up. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Luke grabbed the bottom of the rope, first tying a knot for Skylar to tie around herself, then began to climb the rope. It took him ages, but he finally made it to the top, panting for breath and rubbing his hands which were now sore and burned from the rope.
“Okay, now get ready,” he called down to Skylar, who began to tie the rope around her waist. Skylar tugged on the rope twice, letting Luke know that she was ready.
Luke pulled on the rope with all his might, slowly pulling Skylar up until she was at the top. Luke grabbed onto Skylar’s hands and pulled her over the lip of the crevasse, and they sat there for a while, mostly to let Luke catch his breath.
“Alright, and off we go again,” Luke sighed, as he helped Skylar up. She put her arm around his shoulder, and he put a hand on her side, as they slowly limped forward.
The trip to the steam should’ve taken not even an hour, but because of Skylar’s foot, it took twice as much time.
When they finally reached the little stream, Luke almost collapsed under the weight of Skylar. The sun would be setting soon, and all Luke wanted was to sleep. He hungrily crawled over to the stream after helping Skylar sit and gulped down so much water his stomach could’ve burst.
“Luke, can help me get a drink,” Skylar asked nicely, and Luke helped her limp to the edge of the small creek.
Skylar’s foot looked pink and swollen, so as she was getting a drink Luke took the splint off her foot. He reached his hand into the water to pour it on Skylar’s foot when he gasped.
“Skylar,” Luke almost whispered, and they both looked at his hands, which had before been covered in scratches and burns, slowly healing themselves. Luke’s eyes widened, and his mouth was agape.
Skylar looked at the little creek, then smacked her head.
“What?” Luke asked, wondering what she was so shocked about.
“Of course!” She said to herself. “This must be the River Sanitatem!”
“The…what?” Luke had never heard of the River Sanitatem, but he had heard of the River Bogsasho, which must be…
“I am a complete idiot,” Luke said, and he put his other hands in the water, and Skylar put her injured foot in it, following his example.
“The River Bogsasho is a river of healing, but I thought that was only a myth,” Luke said as he watched his wounds heal before his eyes.
“Me too,” Skylar agreed and gasped as the bones that had been broken before slowly put themselves together. “The River Sanitatem was the first thing of water in our world before the continents split apart. The ancient ones would drink and bathe from it every day, and each of their wounds healed instantly from the touch of the water. I always thought it was just one of those crazy creation stories. Obviously, Luna created the Earth when she had had enough of the Sun, Solas, and they split off to take care of different times. Solas became Day, and Luna became Night.”
Luke frowned, his eyebrows knit as he tried to understand Skylar’s creation story. He believed otherwise but figured it’d be best not to argue with Skylar.
“But wait, we shouldn’t use this river lightly,” Luke said, pointing to the water. “It is a sacred spot, and should only be used in desperate situations, not when I need to heal some burns on my hands. I-I’ll put some in our spare canteen, but for emergencies only.”
Skylar agreed, and after Luke gathered the water, they set up camp for the night. In the light of the fire, Luke and Skylar rested themselves against a tree and got comfortable for the night.
“I’ll take the first watch,” Luke offered, ignoring the fact that his eyelids already felt heavy.
“Wake me when it’s my turn,” Skylar yawned, stretching out, and was immediately asleep.
Luke fought it for some time, but he eventually drifted off...
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