207 Side Story Chapter 13

Pure agony jolted Riftan awake. For a while, he could not register his surroundings. He felt like a deep-sea creature fished out of water, and he gasped for air as though he had forgotten how to breathe. His entire body seemed engulfed by an inferno. He bellowed in pain.

"Please, bear it a little longer! The healing is not complete."

The familiar voice reached through his addled mind. Looking over, he saw Ruth piecing his mangled arm back together. The grotesque sight made him pause before the pain registered afresh a split second later. The excruciating sensation of bone and flesh melting and seething over flames made him claw at the dirt with his other hand. He thrashed around to try and escape it, but something was restraining him.

His eyes dilating, Riftan looked about his surroundings. Bluish flames flickered around the dark cave, and an intricate diagram was etched into the ground. What appeared to be tree roots bound him to the cave floor.