Back Again

The closer I got to home the more tired I became. Eventually, Airsidh picked me up and placed me on his horse, right in front of him. I protested of course, but with him holding me on the horse I probably fell asleep before we had been riding together for even a few minutes.

When we made it back, everything finally started to feel normal again. No one was shouting my name at the sight of me, saying how happy they were that I was alive. No one even knew what I had been through…

We rolled through the front gates like champions, almost as if we had conquered the whole dungeon.

When we made it back to the stables we parked our horses, and I started to get off right after Airsidh, who stopped me. "Let me help you." He pointed to his side. "Your ribs."

I frowned with a puff of air. I hadn't been worrying about it. The pain had dulled with my sleep and drowsiness, but the moment he said something I became a bit scared to move too much. "Right… Be gentle with me please…" 'although I probably don't have to say that… He's not Keigan.'

He laughed. "Not how I imagined I'd hear those words for the first time."

I let out a dull whine, unsure of what other response I could possibly give. Besides… He did manage to get me back on the ground without hurting me, so it was hard to complain too much.

Mara came poking around the corner as I slowly got my bearings, feeling my feet under me again for the first time in hours. "You all made it home." She said, the relief more than evident in her voice as she ran up and gave Airsidh a hug, and then moved on to me.

"No…" I raised a hand between us, worried she'd squeeze me till I popped. "No hugs please…"

She slowly looked at my father and then back at Airishd, who started to explain.

He let out a sigh as if it was so much work for him to tell her what had happened. "Three broken ribs, here, here, and here, several lacerations and heavy bruising across her left arm under the armor, and… Actually I think that's it. That's it right Siya?"

"I feel like we're still moving…" I mumbled, starting to sway.

"Oh. Yeah, we were separated at least twice for long periods of time, so maybe some other stuff too." He continued.

"I feel sick…"

Mara let out a soft puff of air from her nose, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me in front of her to steady me. "Easy there. We will get you all patched up alright, let's just take a breath and get our bearings back first. Are you going to throw up?"

I groaned. "I doubt it. I haven't eaten much in the past two days…"

She snapped her head to my father and let out an angry groan.

Airsidh just laughed, crossing his arms. "Oh that's nothing, wait till you hear about everything else that happened."

I closed my eyes, letting my weight rest against her as my body tried to fall asleep again, my stomach and head pounding. 'I guess I wasn't ready to stand up again after all…'

"I thought I told you to protect her! What hap–"

"Mom I really don't feel good…" The moment I made a sound she cut off her own voice to hear my meek words.

She paused, looking back at the other two in silence for a moment before she knelt down in front of me. "Ok, let's get you to the medical room, can you walk?"

"I feel dizzy… But… I think I can." As I watched her roll her eyes it felt like the world rolled with them. 

"Airsidh grab that blanket and lay it on the ground." She turned back towards me. "I want you to lay down on this ok? We're going to take you to Cathy, she'll make sure everything is fine."

I did as she said, and the moment I laid down she moved my shirt, to look at my side. "Fairy dust… Air why weren't you paying more attention…"

He shrugged, unsure of what she meant as she lowered her voice. "We have to hurry, her organs are bleeding… That's why she's so dizzy and nauseous…"

I couldn't help but sigh. 'It's always something. Still, if I made it this long it can't be that bad.'

They worked together, using the blanket like a stretcher as they took me to the medical room and Catherine burst through the door with a bang, casually reaffirming the fact that, if I had survived the whole day's travel back, it probably wasn't that bad. "Alrighty then everyone stand aside." She said, clearing the way and starting to undress me before discreetly getting Mara to shove everyone else out of the room.

I couldn't clearly make out what was happening, but I could see her dazzling gold threads swimming around the air like eels.

"Don't worry, she's fine, mostly. Her organs were just bruised, all be it heavily, but nothing ruptured." She patted my shoulder. "Impressive reinforcement magic."

'Yeah… That's about what I expected.' I didn't dare raise my head for fear of what I might see. Even though I didn't feel any pain… The question of how exactly she was able to see my organs and their condition wasn't one I necessarily wanted answered…

A few moments later it seemed like we were wrapping things up, but I was still dreading the thought of moving around. 

"I went ahead and set the ribs, only one of them was fully fractured. For now, that should be fine, but I would like to do a full exam when she feels up to it."

The gold threads slowly tightened, but instead of being uncomfortable, it was like my insides were being put in a brace, finally feeling the nasua go away, I rolled over to my side without even thinking about it and quickly fell back asleep.

I spent the rest of the day and night, and most of the next morning, sleeping. By the time I woke up, I still wasn't hungry, but I felt better at least. My eyes were still sensitive to light, but with time the dull burning seemed to fade. It seemed like whenever I tried to focus them they would just strain even more.

'A whole day to myself. I could probably just stay in bed all day couldn't I?' I slowly started to turn over before realizing how much of a bad idea that was, choosing to roll over on my other side instead and hugging one of my pillows. My new bed was so soft compared to the rocky cavern floor that it felt impossible not to sleep when I was lying on it, and the blankets were as fluffy as I could have asked for. Most importantly though, I was warm.

When I finally opened my eyes for real I saw a glass of Anise milk sitting next to a couple of warm honey biscuits that made me drool on my pillow. 'I guess… I'm a little hungry...'

Finally convinced to get out of bed I carefully sat up and wiped my mouth, starting to eat. 'Obviously, I'm not training, so what should I do today? Nothing physical… Reading would hurt my eyes too much. Maybe I'll go bother the guards for a while.'

I yawned as I slowly kept nibbling, and before I knew it they were all gone. 'I guess I should start with more sweets, and maybe a bath.' I ran my hand through my hair. It was still sore but someone had taken the braids out and washed it, so it didn't hurt too bad. Still, 'if nothing else cleaning myself off will help me to stop thinking about how gross it was fighting undead hand to hand, so it's probably a good idea.'

 After finishing the milk I carefully made my way down the stairs, surprised at how much better my body felt, even though I was admittedly still in a decent amount of pain.

"Hey, look who's finally up." Before he came into clear view my brother's voice was already warming up the whole room, matching perfectly with my entrance into the warm sun rays shining through the window.

I let out another yawn, ending it this time with a wide smile. "Yup, it's me. Hero of the dungeon, slayer of demons, savior of some…" 'Wait, I didn't actually save anyone did I? No, I'm totally counting solving that absurd riddle.'

"Wait, Air you weren't joking?"

'Glad I'm not the only person that makes that mistake…'

Lu's voice gave me goosebumps. She wasn't in the dungeon, and so seeing her was like a shock to my subconscious, finally hammering home the point that everything was over. At the same time though, it almost felt like she was there in some strange sense, like in the blurry haze she had helped me somehow.

"Joking about what?" I asked slowly, inching my way toward the table to nibble on more biscuits that were sitting in the center.

"You actually killed the demon… On your own?"

I rubbed my eyes, "Yeah… I guess that is what ended up happening." I mumbled, practically melting. The biscuits in my room were warm, but the ones on the table were hot and fresh, making me so happy I almost felt ridiculous.

She rolled her eyes. "What happened to all that talk about letting Mom take care of it?"

Airsidh seemingly pulled a stack of ribs out of nowhere and slid it over to me, making me pause for a second before answering. "Honestly I wish I could have, things got a bit… Complicated." I slowly rubbed my side over the bandages that were tied under my shirt.

"Are you feeling alright?" Her playful attitude quickly turned worried. 

I looked back up at her, moving my hand away from my ribs. "Oh yeah sorry…" I could feel Catherine's magic swirling inside of me, her threads holding my broken bones together as they slowly healed, and wrapping around my organs to make sure they did the same.

"Oh, that reminds me. I brought back the sword I used to kill it, you wanna see?"

Her face lit up like a firework. "Is it still covered in blood?"

I inched slightly away from her, starting to become a bit concerned about whether or not I did the right thing. "Well, we cleaned it off, but the blood stained the blade black, so if that counts."

"Coooooool!" She cheered.

"Haha… Well, anyway, it's yours if you want it, it's leaning against my desk. Oh, you're armor is up there too, but it's a bit beat up now, hope that's ok."

She was already standing, bouncing up and down on her toes as she stared intently at Airsidh.

He shooed her away with one hand. "Yeah yeah, you can go." With his permission, she took off like a dog chasing a squirrel.

'What's that about?' "Are you sure you aren't our dad?"

He lightly choked on his tea, slowly lowering his forehead into one of his hands. "Why… On earth would you ask that?"

I'm getting pretty good at messing with him. I wasn't even trying that time.' "It was a joke." I grinned. "Based on how you act…"

Lu came back downstairs in a flash, showing off the sword. "Look, look, this is a demon-slaying blade, stained black with the monster's own blood."

He took a deep breath, flawlessly hiding how he was choking just seconds earlier. "I know Lu, I saw it already."

"So tell me what happened, how did you win!" She jumped again, turning back towards me.

I looked over to Airsidh, pleading for help with my eyes, still not wanting to really talk about it.

He just smiled wryly as he stood up and started to walk away.

'You little… You asked for it...' I turned back to Lu. "I'll tell you what, if you can beat Airsidh in a duel, I'll tell you everything. But he has to be trying his best."

He froze stiff, not even bothering to turn around, already knowing what was about to come next.

"Hey Air do you wanna—"

"No." He said bluntly as he continued walking away.

Lu just followed along though, and before long it was just peace and quiet. 'Serves you right.' I thought as I saw his face start to twitch.

I couldn't help but chuckle, watching the two of them. 'I bet we're the only people in the world that get to him like that. She does it so differently than I do though, she's like.' My brain froze, finally connecting the dots. 'She actually acts a lot like little Rafi sometimes. Maybe just a bit more of a battle junkie. Maybe that's why it felt like she was in the dungeon.'

Not long after the two of them left, Mara came back inside. "Ah good timing, Siya are you feeling well enough to see Catherine for an exam?"

I found myself holding my left arm again. "Sure…"

"I'm sure it will be fine."

"Yeah… I guess so…" I had told myself the same things so many times that those words had lost all meaning, and hearing them from her, they somehow seemed even less convincing than hearing them from myself.