Moonword Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“Can you hear me?”

A voice.  A soft and  lovely voice, thought Tolian.  He opened his eyes.  Kneeling over him was the single most  woman  he had ever seen.  Her hair was as pure gold, and her blue eyes sparkled with a clarity that he had never known before.  She smiled when she saw that he had become conscious.

“You are badly injured,” she said.

Tolian attempted to speak, but his words refused to move past his tongue.  It took him a few moments before he could get out coherent words .

“You must help my friend,” he coughed.

“I think you require some help yourself,” she told him,  “but where is this friend of yours? I shall see that he is tended.”

“The bridge,” was all he could say.  That, and tilt of his head back in the direction from which he had come.

The woman turned away from him and called over to someone out of Tolian’s view, “Lira, take Clarista and hurry to the bridge down the road.  You will find the prince’s friend.  Assist him and take him to safety, then meet us en route.”

“As you say, Brythia,” two women chimed in unison.

Tolian attempted to get up.  His side was burning in terrible pain.  He moaned and lay back down.   The woman whom the others had addressed as Brythia was looking at him in deep concern.  She seemed greatly disturbed over his injuries.

“These are troll wounds, are they not?” she asked him.

“Yes.”

Her brow knotted, staring at the wounds. “We must remove your armor and treat your wounds immediately.”

There was something about the way she said “immediately” that sent a chill through him.

Brythia set about at once to remove the prince’s armor.  Tolian tried to help, but found that he was unable to move.  He struggled to bring his limbs into motion.  No response.  He then began to panic.

Brythia noticed this. “You must not try to move, you will only spread the poison.  Your Highness will be no good to anyone dead.  There is a fair chance that we can heal you.”

As she spoke she worked to remove his shirt.  She winced slightly when she got a good look at his wounds.

“Myrthis, bring me water,” she said to someone else who was outside Tolian’s line of vision.

Another woman leaned over Tolian, handing Brythia a jug of water.  They wore short white robes with white cloaks.  Freshly gathered leaves crowned their heads, and, Tolian realized, they wore Druidic crosses.  They were Druidesses.

Brythia smiled at him.

Tolian offered a weak smile in return.

As Brythia hovered over him, he had two thoughts.  One thought was essentially in regard to her bountiful cleavage. The other:  It seemed an utter impossibility that on the same day he battled a troll he would be nursed by a Druidess, a creature he had deemed equally mythical.  Druidesses inhabited the same sort of bedtime story realm as trolls.  There hadn’t been any praeternatural beings of their like in the Kingdom of Lorm in ages.  Lorm was civilized, meaning essentially that the land had been cleared of monsters or such was the common thought, and had been fairly well-settled in comparison to the rest of the world.  But Tolian remembered that they were in the frontiers, and he supposed that in such places there was no telling what one might encounter.

With utmost care, Brythia eased him out of his shirt.

“Could you please get me some elfroot?” she asked someone.

Yet another Druidess appeared, this time bearing a handful of dark roots.  They shimmered as the sunshine hit them and they emitted a strong, earthy smell.  Brythia  poured water over the deep gashes in Tolian’s side.  She seemed somewhat relieved as the blood and mud washed away and she could examine the extent of the damage.  She took the roots and squeezed them over his wounds.  A cool numbness developed throughout his body, spreading quickly until he could feel no pain.

“Does that feel better?”

“Yes, thank you,” Tolian said.

“You are welcome, but you may come to regret your gratitude,” she said.

She looked serious, her brows knit for a moment, and then she got up and moved away.  Tolian was left to stare into the trees, watch the antics of the two wood squirrels that cavorted high above, and ponder her words.  The squirrels raced after one another in a carefree manner, then would stop for a second, regarded each other in silence, and dash off in some unexpected direction.

“What could she have meant by that?” Tolian wondered.  A nebulous menace lingered in his mind.

He could hear  activity around him. There were definitely several people there, at least five, engaged in some sort of preparations.  He slipped into a relaxed state as waves of cool numbness pulsed through his body.  He was aware of his surroundings, yet he felt more or less unaffected by them.  Isolated.  He could not tell how long he had lain there when someone approached him.  It was Myrthis, the one who had brought the water.  She leaned over him and looked down upon him curiously.  Tolian could ascribe no motive to the peculiarity of her gaze.

She spoke with furrowed brow, “I’m afraid we’re going to have to move you.  We can’t stay here.”

Tolian tested his mouth with a question, “Why not?”

“It is not safe for us to be this close to the village for long.”

“What’s wrong with the village?”

She smiled sweetly, “They probably wouldn’t appreciate what we’re doing.”

Tolian was curious. “What are you doing?” he asked.  His own voice sounded unearthly to him, as the elfroot’s soothing chill worked its way into his brain.  Everything seemed strange and unreal.

Myrthis grinned mischievously as she replied, “We’re kidnapping their prince.”

copyright 2002, 2015 Diana Hignutt

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