Identity Crisis
Chapter 12
"Awakening"
Previously…
From the corner of her eye, Maiysokat saw the other orcs quickly approaching Kelbreth. She closed her eyes and began casting a spell to ensnare all the monsters with vines, but her mind was still singed from the failed pain transfer, and she knew she wouldn't have power to cast on all of the orcs. Finishing the prayer, she thrust her hand toward Kelbreth and thick vines sprung forth from the ground, ensnaring the orcs surrounding him. She rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a descending strike from the orc above her, and sprung back to her feet. 'Now what?'
Kelbreth's head spun as he observed the situation, unable to push himself from the ground. At this rate, not only would he die here, but this stubborn elf would be killed as well. 'You still there?' he thought gravely.
'I am here. I take it you're ready.'
Kelbreth looked at the orc that was closing in on Maiysokat and narrowed his eyes. 'Make it quick.'
… … … … … … … … … … … … …
'You have chosen,' the silvery voice said.
Kelbreth felt a scalding heat on his thigh as the stone sprung to life and dissolved itself into him. Intense energy momentarily raced through his entire body. His form glowed eerily for a brief moment as mysterious energy abruptly washed out all his senses. His eyes sprung open with a deep breath as his body suddenly felt strong and normal. He rose to his feet and looked down suspiciously at his broken arm, the gruesome wound through his shoulder, and the ribs that had ached so much a moment before. He felt nothing.
There was no time to worry about what was going on for the time being. Three orcs hovered around him, snarling angrily as they struggled against Maiysokat's binding spell. Looking to the left, he saw the elf fighting off another orc with his dagger. She looked at him worriedly as she wielded the unfamiliar weapon, striking out ineffectively at the monster.
The half elf burst into motion, launching toward one of the orcs surrounding him and driving his good fist into its skull. Unable to dodge, the beast crumpled to the ground. Kelbreth jumped over the monster's body toward the elf. The orc attacking her had its back to him. Coming up behind it, the half elf threw his body into a spinning crescent kick, slamming the side of his leg powerfully into the monster's neck and throwing it sideways into the ground.
Kelbreth landed solidly on his feet and looked at the elf girl. She stared back at him in astonishment, still holding the dagger shakily in both hands as the man she'd thought was as good as dead stood tall in front of her. She looked at his wounds; they were just as horrible as before, but somehow he was managing to ignore them. "How…?" she mumbled, looking at him with a combination of relief and terror.
Kelbreth stepped forward and reached toward her, causing her to back away fearfully. "Mind returning that," he said flatly, indicating the dagger. Maiysokat held it out to him nervously and he took it from her unceremoniously, already on his way toward the remaining orcs. They finally burst out of Maiysokat's spell as he approached, roaring toward him vengefully.
Maiysokat clenched her eyes shut, unable to look as she listened to the sounds of flesh being ripped and blood splattering across the ground. When all fell silent, she opened them to find the orcs slain and Kelbreth still standing, wiping his blade disdainfully off against one of the corpses. He stuck the weapon back into his belt, not appearing even slightly winded. "What's going on?" she asked, too baffled to hold the question back.
'You're there, right? What happened to my body?' the half elf demanded of the stone.
'It's exactly the same as before,' the voice answered in his head, 'Except that you can't feel your wounds. Your spirit has dominated your physical senses for a short time, but they're there. Don't push your body too far. If you die, it will all be over.'
Kelbreth narrowed his eyes. 'How much longer will this hold up?'
'It is merely a temporary side effect of my combining with your form. It will wear off within a few minutes, so you would be wise to find medical attention.'
Kelbreth closed his eyes in frustration, trying to construct a plan. If he was 'walking on broken legs', there was no way he'd make it to Solos in time. Not that they had anyone skilled in medicine there anyway; it was just a band of random misfits.
"Excuse me?" Maiysokat prodded uncomfortably, annoyed that the halfbreed seemed to be ignoring her. She faltered a step back as the man turned and looked at her darkly. The bandage she'd tied around his shoulder was hardly working, long-since soaked through with blood and rain water, and smaller gashes remained all over his frame. No matter how healthy he acted, there was no denying he was in need of a doctor. Even if he could somehow survive his wounds, the pouring rain wouldn't let up for days. "Those wounds..." she said, taking a nervous step toward him. She gathered up her nerve and firmly said "Will you come with me? My friend nearby can help you."
Kelbreth looked at her skeptically, making no move as she approached him. He despised the idea of asking an elf for help, especially after what happened last time. His eyes hardened at her as he recalled what they'd done to Jared. Still, there wasn't any other option. "Which way," he asked with a frown.
Maiysokat turned and began leading him, unable to believe what she was doing. She wondered if Tinarae would turn them both out if she showed up with this halfbreed. There was no point in worrying about it now; she'd made her decision. Still, it didn't make sense that he could move in his condition. "Is he using some kind of magic?" she pondered.The elf stopped as she noticed the cat emerge from a bush nearby and limp toward them, the head from her arrow still lodged in its side. She knelt down worriedly to pick it up, but it went right past her to Kelbreth and clawed at his half-shredded pants. The man knelt down and examined the animal's wound critically, trying to figure out who in the world would have shot it with an arrow.
Maiysokat decided not to explain that part for the time being. "Looks like we have a second patient," she half-attempted to joke, turning away with a frown and continuing toward the treefolk's home. It was close; they would be there very soon. Kelbreth scooped the feline up in his free arm and held it against his chest, following Maiysokat briskly. After they'd traveled several minutes he looked at his senseless arm warily, wondering if there was going to be some sort of warning before his senses returned.
He got his answer a moment later when he was abruptly overwhelmed with a torrent of pain. The half elf hunched over and dropped to his knees in shock as every vein in his body suddenly writhed in agony, too shocked to make a sound. The cat leapt from his grip and turned to look at him, twitching the end of its tail anxiously. Maiysokat had just turned around to encourage the half elf that she could see the Treefolk's dwelling just ahead, but her eyes widened in shock when she found him curled over in pain. The radiating pulse of his agony had disappeared for a time, but now she could clearly feel it again, far stronger than before.
"No! Pull yourself together, we're almost there!" Maiysokat half-shouted, running back to him. Kelbreth forced his eyes open as he felt himself being tugged upward by his good arm and dragged onward. He clenched his fist firmly to stop himself from screaming out in pain as Maiysokat pulled him to the tree-dwelling with his arm over her shoulder. He tried to keep his feet under him, but it was difficult to concentrate, as though he weighed ten times what he did. The cat crouched and jumped up onto him, grasping on to his belt and leaping to his shoulder. The slender creature closed its eyes and a weak emerald-green glow surrounded the half elf. Kelbreth blinked as he suddenly felt lighter. Was it another of the Druid's spells?
Maiysokat flushed bright red as she dared to touch him, but they were so close… His arm felt completely different from the first time she'd touched him, the muscles tensed so tight that it felt more like stone than flesh. "Tinarae!" she shouted urgently as they approached the door, praying her friend would understand.
"You better have brought dinner!" Tinarae cried playfully as she flung open the door, but her cheerful smile deflated as she saw who Maiysokat was holding up and the desperate expression on her friend's face. "Maiy?! What are you thinking?" Tinarae said uncomfortably, retreating a step back.
Maiysokat looked at the ground uncomfortably. "He saved our lives," she said with a frown.
Tinarae looked at Kelbreth warily, recognizing him now from the other day. He was a mess. "What the heck happened to him anyway?" Tinarae couldn't keep the disdain out of her voice as she looked him over. "Oh, forget it, just hurry up and get in out of the rain!" she said in frustration.
"Nice to meet you too," he responded flatly, forcing the pain out of his voice. Kelbreth pulled his arm back in annoyance and stood sternly under his own weight, feeling like a prisoner under escort as he descended the stairs with one elf in front of him and one behind. He focused on keeping himself under control as he entered the center of a strange room at the base of the stairs. He was in too much pain to question where they were, ignoring the blurry rows of books surrounding him.
"Put him in the other room, I'll be right there," Tinarae said, digging through their bag for the medical supplies she'd packed.
Maiysokat nodded and led Kelbreth into the adjoining room where there was a bed. "You can rest here. Tinarae will patch you up soon," she said uncomfortably, clasping her hands in front of her. Kelbreth sat down warily on the bed. The cat stopped glowing and jumped off his shoulder to the floor, curling up tiredly in the corner of the room. "Y…you should really lie down," the wood elf encouraged. Kelbreth was hardly fond of the idea.
"I think I'm safer sitting up," the man quipped distrustfully, touching the wound on his shoulder absently with his good hand. Maiysokat couldn't help noticing that his fingers were shaking. Just then Tinarae came in.
"Okay you, I don't know how you conned my friend into bringing you here, bu-" Tinarae's caustic words broke off as she suddenly noticed all the widening dark stains on his clothes. The high elf wasn't the least bit squeamish about blood, but she hadn't realized how badly he was hurt. His swelling and misshapen arm had also escaped her attention until now. "Lie down," she instructed solemnly, checking him for signs of shock and finding that he had all of them. How he had suppressed it and remained conscious all this time, she found it difficult to imagine.
Kelbreth lay down, cringing as his wounded shoulder and ribs pressed down against the mat. He gave up controlling his sporadic breathing and stared at the ceiling dispassionately while Tinarae began checking him for broken bones, her hands working with all the experience and impersonal skill of a trained doctor. She eyed him curiously as her pressing fingers found three broken ribs in sequence without any vocal reaction from him. He was silent, but his whole body was tense, as if ready to fight at a moment's notice. "Try to stay calm. You'll need all the energy you've got to survive my expert medical treatment," Tinarae said coldly, winning a disapproving stare from Maiysokat.
The wood elf wasn't nearly so used to these things as Tinarae. Unable to watch the restrained agony in his alien eyes, she left the room and sat waiting in the library room, pulling a random book off the shelf but feeling too nervous to concentrate on it. She'd brought a half elf here. Here! What was she thinking? "Who knows what consequences Tinarae and I will have to deal with because of this," she worried. At length she put her head down on the table and nodded off.
… … … … … … …
Kazsht fumed into the room, slamming the door violently behind her. Her red eyes were almost glowing as she stormed across the wooden floor and slammed a furious kick into the wall, causing a split down one of the wooden beams.
"You seem to be in particularly good spirits today," Xenon said flatly from his seat at the table, where he was sitting with a folded parchment spread out in front of him. He looked up indifferently from the paper to a bleeding indent on the woman's hand. It was clearly a bite mark. The half elves had mostly been intelligent about settling down, but the one called Jason had been particularly troublesome and kept causing problems. "It's beginning to seem that controlling the hostages is beyond your ability."
"Keep your mundane thoughts to yourself. And what are you doing with that thing?" the female Dark Elf hissed, indicating the paper.
"It contains information on local affairs. A noisy human child came earlier trying to sell it. He was attracting attention, so I cooperated," Xenon said mechanically as he continued studying the paper. He had little else to do, stuck in such a place where they'd been ordered to keep a low profile until further notice. Even with Nazzt's drugs, there was a limit to how long he could stand the sun before it began splitting his head in two, so he'd been forced to cut his training time to half what it had been in Z'regon.
Kazsht glared at him. "Don't waste our resources on useless surface products!"
"I don't see the problem. It's that elf's money anyway," he returned darkly, turning the page.
"You can't even read their writing system!" she spat. His cool, indifferent attitude was a source of constant infuriation to the pugnacious dark elf. Xenon ignored her and continued studying the paper. He'd more or less decoded the unfamiliar phonetic symbols used on the surface, and could understand the paper's contents, but it wasn't worth the effort to discuss it with the hot-headed woman standing next to him.
Kazsht shook with rage. It was insulting enough that she'd been forced to cooperate with a male, and now he dared to calmly ignore her! She clenched her fist and drew it back fiercely.
Xenon's muscles tensed and burst into action as he felt a blow flying toward the back of his head. He ducked down and reached above his head, catching Kazsht's powerful punch and throwing her forward over him. She slammed onto her back on the table and slid across it, landing on her feet in an aggressive stance on the other side. Xenon rose to his feet and cast a stern glare at his colleague. "Your self control is impressive as always," he said flatly, sitting down again. Kazsht came out of her stance, hatred looming in her expression. She would not pursue the fight and he knew it. At the moment, they were too closely matched in skill. A serious duel was inevitable between the two of them, but neither would attempt such a crucial strategic move without first possessing with certainty the power to kill the other.
About an hour later Xenon got up and walked toward the adjacent room to make the hourly rounds and check to be sure the prisoners were under control. He opened the door and walked into a large garage without windows. The only other opening to the room was an old wooden door that was kept chained and padlocked and led to the outside. The dark elf walked down the center of the room and inspected each of the four prisoners indifferently. All four were clamped with manacles against the wall. A magical blade of fiery energy hovered above each one's head, set to descend if any of them made an outburst. They hadn't been there earlier; it was probably a new tactic Kazsht had developed after her recent trouble with Jason.
Xenon eyed the half elf in question dispassionately. He was chained in the far right corner of the room. It was evident from his bruised appearance that Kazsht had punished him thoroughly for biting her hand, though spirited defiance still burned in the hostage's eyes. The sight didn't move the dark elf in the least, nor did it anger him as it did Kazsht. The hostage method wasn't particularly his style; he preferred direct combat to coercion, but had no particular objection to the latter tactic.
He stopped in front of Jason and gripped his chin roughly, shoving it upward to look critically at the man's neck. The prisoners all had far more meat on them than they should based on the amount Kazsht had been feeding them. He released his grip on the half elf roughly and looked icily at the broken plank at the base of the wall, through which he knew someone from outside had been sneaking rations to them. Kazsht hadn't noticed yet; when she did, she was likely to damage the hostages beyond all usefulness. He turned to leave, not caring whether the half elves ate or not as long as they served their purpose. However, the outsider could cause trouble for them later. The next day, he would repair the wall and then track down and dispose of the meddler.
He narrowed his eyes as a piercing ache began to throb in his head. It was time again. Twelve hours was a cruelly brief time period. He strode out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving the hostages behind in the darkness.
… … … … … … … ..
FINALLY done with another chapter. I'm going to start making smaller, more frequent chapters from here on. The long-term plan is to rewrite this whole thing (this will be the second time), but it's likely to be very different the next time around, so I'll follow through with this version first and use it to test plot ideas and themes for the future. Please let me know which aspects are working and which aren't so I can keep it in mind as I continue! Thanks so much to everyone who's read this far, please bear with me ! -Kat