“Don’t be sorry Mak, you are safe now,” spoke a warm and familiar voice. I opened my eyes and turned around, even with my vision blurred by tears, I could recognize the enormous form of Gus. “I got Katherine on the log for you. Are you going to sled down the hill? That is pretty dangerous.” he said with a gentle calmness. The wolfsnakes hissed at us but kept their distance as Gus towered over them with his enormous maul. I tried to thank him but all that came out was whimpering, I went over to Katherine and secured her to the log. Gus walked over and tied a rope around it and began pulling it towards the cave. “Krimsun was injured pretty badly in the explosion, Reggie went to go find help,” Gus explained as he head towards the cave. “Good thinking with the neck brace,” Gus commented. “I may not look like it, but I have a knack for healing magic, Katherine is going to be okay.” Then he noticed that I was trailing behind. “You are in no condition to walk Mak.” I tried to protest but he quickly scooped me up and place me on the log with Katherine and pulled us into the cave.
Calling Krimsun “pretty injured” was a massive understatement. Covered head to toe in gauze and missing her entire left arm, I was amazed that she was still alive. “Looks like everyone is still alive, job well-done team,” Krimsun spoke weakly, but as calmly as ever. “Shhh, get some rest captain, Reggie will be back soon with help.” Gus chided and he cast a minor healing spell on my leg. “I’m sorry I can’t do more, I used up most of my energy on Krimsun and I need to save some for Katherine. Can you make yourself a splint?” I nodded and got some supplies out of my portal and got to work. Gus quickly determined that Katherine had a moderate concussion, but with some healing magic, would be fine after a couple weeks of rest. “I… I don’t know how to thank you…” I was finally able to speak. “No trouble at all Mak, just doing my part,” Gus said with a smile. “Are you doing okay? It looked like trying to lift Katherine really messed you up.” I looked down at my leg, “I’m okay now, but a lot of pain. And some bad memories.” Gus nodded, “Alright, I’ve been there too. If you need to talk about it, let me know.” Then he went over to attend to Krimsun’s gauze.
After a few hours of waiting, there was a sound from outside the cave. Gus slowly walked up to the entrance and prepared to take a swing at whatever came through the door. “I’m back, the medica—WOAH!” Reggie said as he quickly dodged a swing from Gus’s maul. “What was that for!?” he asked indignantly as he checked his hair with his hands. Gus awkwardly scratched his head, “Heh, sorry. Didn’t know it was you.” Reggie’s eyes turned to Katherine, then back to Gus. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak Gus responded, “She’s alive, we all made it, somehow.” A look of relief passed over Reggie. “Thank goodness.” He turned towards me and spoke, “You two may be a rat and a freak, but you aren’t half-bad fighters. We can definitely turn a profit with this group!” As unappreciated as his remarks were, they were probably the closest thing to praise he would ever say to me, and so I simply nodded and fiddled around with my splint, trying to keep from thinking about what happened.
An hour later, the sound of something huge, no, multiple somethings flying through the air was heard outside. Then a gust of wind blew into the cave and almost knocked me over. We looked outside and saw that two large white scaled dragons, carrying a Dwarf each, had landed. “Where’s the injured?” said the first Dwarf in a no-nonsense tone. Gus gestured towards the cave. The second Dwarf motioned to Gus, “Would you be a dear and help carry in the medical supplies?” she said in a grandmotherly tone as she made her way into the cave. “Well well well, if it isn’t young Krimsun. I haven’t seen you in this bad shape since you tried to fight a dragon! Lost your touch have you?” the elderly Dwarf chided as she spotted the injured elf. “Hello Glentha, I can see that you are as insufferable as ever, these Nequese are getting craftier. Completely caught me off guard.” Krimsun’s replied, muffled by her bandages. “What was that dearie? “Oh, Glenda! Thank you so much for coming to save me!” No need for such talk, just doing my job.” She said with a smirk. “Gnorfdul, would you be ever so kind as to put the young lady on the dragon? It looks like she will need to be brought back to headquarters for treatment.” She instructed the other Dwarf.
Being uninjured, Reggie and Gus were instructed to walk back down the hill to collect the reward and return with the horses. Then Glentha turned to me, “Well, either you missed one or this is the new recruit I heard about! My word, we live in strange times. Your leg is in pretty bad shape, you should ride back with us.” Glentha gestured to the dragon that Katherine had been strapped onto. “Yes, ma’am,” I said nervously as I limped towards the mighty beast. By dragon standards, these were fairly small, just big enough to carry two or three people, but I had never seen a creature so massive before! It didn’t even seem to notice me as I approached until I got with about five feet of it. Its head snapped towards me and puffs of smoke shot out of its nostrils. I instinctively flinched and shut my eyes. But instead of fire being shot at me for the second time today, I felt a slight gust of wind and saw that the dragon had lowered its wing so that I could climb onto its back. “Oh, uhh… thank you,” I said as I made my way onto the giant reptile. “Don’t mention it small one.” the dragon replied in a terrifyingly deep voice. As I secured myself to the saddle, I began to get excited at the prospect of flying on something that wasn’t as likely to fall apart as one of my machines.
“I was better off with the wolfsnakes.” I thought out loud as I held myself tight to the back of the dragon. “Easy now, Celirax!” Gnorfdul said calmly, “We have injured passengers.” Katherine was still unconscious, and as much as this worried me, it was probably for the best right now. After a few minutes of holding my stomach, I eventually acclimatized and was able to relax a bit. Peaking over the side of the dragon I was awestruck by the landscape. Rolling green hills, beautiful untouched forests, deep blue lakes, and snowy mountains in the distance. It was breathtaking, all that I had dreamed of and more. Sadly, the trip back was quite short, it couldn’t have been more than ten to fifteen minutes before Exordium was in view. Once we landed Katherine was rushed to the infirmary. “Can you walk there yourself?” Gnorfdul asked me. I stretched my leg a bit and winced at the pain, it hurt a lot, but I could walk. “I can. Thank you.” The Dwarf nodded and I headed towards the infirmary.
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