Below the Peak (Sola)(97)

What were he and his father doing in the forest anyway? She pondered. Coming into the elves’ territory and do what? It didn’t make sense. No sane human dared to enter in elves’ lands.

Nara looked at the boy’s face again, her eyes questioning him.

The night blended to another day, the sun gloating from the sky at the misery which gloomed her room. Nara hadn’t left her room, specifically the boy's side. She hadn’t done much other than taking care of him by removing his dirty tunic and wiping his face and torso as much as she could. She checked on his wound from time to time, sterilizing it from his sweat. The boy had grown scalding hot during the day. His body consumed by fever. The fever seemed to spike by the hour.

“Go bath, I will watch over him,” Izza said, as she strolled into the room.

“I’ll do it later” Nara replied tiredly. She hadn’t bath or change her stained blood clothes from yesterday. She didn’t want to leave the boy’s side. Nara was afraid if she even left for a minute, something horrible would happen. She was the only person familiar to him. Human. She was the only person he could talk to without being terrified. He had already been traumatized by strange creatures and if he woke up and an elf was the first thing he saw…it might be too much.

“Okay” Izza muttered softly then quietly left the room.

Nara was again putting a damp folded cloth on his forehead to bring down his fever when she saw the scar on the side of his shoulder. Gently, she pushed one of his shoulder up to get a better view. Her eyes widened. Long old scars ran down his back. She quickly removed her hand when he stirred.

What did the freak happen to him? Nara frowned, anger boiling her blood. Who has done this to him? Her questions weren’t answered until later in the evening. His fever had gone considerably down, and he woke. “What were you doing in the forest?” she asked him when he had finished eating the soup she had prepared for him.

“They pushed us in” the boy replied then grimaced from the ache on his side. Nara expression turned disgusted. What evil man pushed a child into the hands of cursed spirits.

“Who?” she asked.

The boy’s face grew terrified as if seeing his tormentor. “My father’s master.”

“This master, is the one who gave you the scars on your back?”

The boy looked down and nodded. “yes, the Muri man.”

Nara turned impossibly rigid. Although she didn’t want to believe him and wanted to refute his claim, she knew it he spoke the truth. She had heard of masters who mistreated their servants. However, what the Muri master had done to the boy caused her to feel terribly ashamed and guilty. Nara looked away, fearing the boy would realize she was also a Muri and judge her to be cruel too. “Where is my father?” the boy asked, worry plain in his face and voice.

“Your father” Nara stalled… “Uhh” Her throat tightened, voice refusing to come out. She swallowed, glancing away from the boy’s imploring eyes. The boy had more than enough on his plate. He was still extremely weak and wounded. She didn’t think to suggest that his father was probably dead would be a good remedy for fast recovery.

“Nara” Calemir called her. Calemir had been standing by the door for a whole good minute unnoticed by the two as they talked. He had visited the site where Nara and the boy had faced the cursed spirits. Terror had sunken in his bones when he had gazed down at the rotting corpses of the creatures. The creatures had never left the forest borders. They were bound there. But with the event, it appeared that was naught. This was a problem, a very huge problem. To make matters worse, there had been another attack. He had gotten word that the attack had where Finn had been patrolling in a village just outside Uruloki. The two attacks happened on the exact same day. Calemir clenched his fists, looking grim. Nara whipped her head in his direction while the boys wore out features stretched, his fatigued eyes widened with the shock of seeing him. Calemir glanced at Nara. “I need to speak with you.”

Calemir took in the state she was in as she walked up to him. Distraught shrouded her face, her stained clothes telling him she hadn’t done anything other than watch the boy since yesterday.

“What’s wrong?” Nara asked, keeping her voice low between them as she stood just a foot from him.

“The boy’s father is dead” he muttered, his eyes meeting hers. Calemir hadn’t stopped just at the curses spirits corpses inside the land, he had gone into the forest to search for answers or a clue of what had made the spirits enter the grounds. Upon his search, he’d found a body of a human man, discarded under a tree. Usually, cursed spirits devoured their victim’s flesh, but they hadn’t with the man, except leaving his chest torn and gaping with their stench cloaking him. From overhearing the boy asking about his father, he knew the man was the father.

He is here. A sickly sensation rolled in his stomach as the three hissed words slithered in his mind. Who was here? Who was this HE?

Nara’s sigh dragged Calemir back to the present. “I thought so.”

She glanced down at their feet for a moment before lifting sad eyes to his. “I-I don’t know how to tell him.”

“I really can’t” she added quietly, her chest tightening with sadness and sympathy for the boy. She gritted her teeth as anger slowly surged in her veins. She closed her eyes and counted, trying to maintain her composure. She was angry. Her eyes flew open when Calemir put a gentle hand on her shoulder, his voice was soft when he said, “Let me talk to him.”