Nelida's Grace

Chapter 5 - Neni's Escape

The sanitarium wasn’t a large building as far as land was concerned, it was 3 stories tall, and had a beautiful, relaxing garden area, all observers on the outside probably thought the “crazies” that lived there were living an idyllic life. But there was the basement. The dreaded basement was reserved for “treatments” of those who needed to be helped out of their delirium or just set right. Neni tended to find himself there more than any other patient, it was actually these visits that began to affect him. His nightmares came more often or he had entirely different dreams that were so real he would be lost in them, even while awake. No wonder people never leave here.

Jorik was the physician that saw to all their ailments, he was a particularly nasty halfling that reveled in his treatments of the patients. He used them as an excuse to experiment, many patients lost their lives during these treatments, and they tended to be the ones whose families stopped paying or couldn’t afford the increased costs. Neni was presently in one of these treatments as he lost his temper with one of the orderlies that smacked old Tara. The orderly was left with a broken nose and a black eye. It was worth the second-worst beating he had ever taken since arriving here.

He was presently tied down to a table, the leather ties were tight, biting into his skin, the predicament he was facing was the unique cap they had strapped to his head. The cords that lead away from it appeared to be made of silver and copper wound in a tight fashion. The interesting thing was the tank they were attached to. It was a large glass tank, filled with water, and two very large creatures were swimming in it. Every minute, Jorik would nod to one of the orderlies and they would thrust a wooden staff into the tank, inciting the creatures into a frenzy, which in turn would send a shock to Neni - forcing his body to lock up tightly for close to thirty seconds. Neni was on his fifth round of treatment when the explosion happened. It shook the entire building, even causing dust and dirt from the mortar to fall from the ceiling. Jorik’s and the orderly's heads snapped up, looking up as if they could see through the floor. After what seemed a lifetime they took off upstairs, leaving Neni strapped to the table. It was the second explosion that rocked the building so hard it tipped the tank, which in turn, collided with the table Neni was, knocking him to the ground, with a resounding noise of glass shattering followed by a torrent of water and then a powerful shock that nearly forced him to lose consciousness.

Fighting through the pain, he managed to wiggle and writhe himself free. Looking at the creatures they were slender, elongated with a long dorsal fin that appeared to be continuous around the tail tip. The teeth on these creatures were plentiful, pointed, and appeared to be very sharp. They undulate out of the water, their jaws moving back and forth as if gasping for air. Neni blinks the fogginess from his head, and feels the hair on his body stand up, realizing another electrical charge was coming his way, he quickly tosses the cap off his head, rolling to the side, towards the door, standing as soon as he gets his feet. “And people say I am mentally ill” he muttered as he began to run out of the room and up the stairs.

He gets to the main floor, and the smell of acrid smoke permeates the air. A pungent foul smell hits his nostrils, the smell of burnt flesh. The screams of his friends from the past fifty years could be heard, the gaping hole where the front door used to be, was shocking to him, the edges were charred and still on fire in some places, but the path of what destroyed it ran through the foyer and out the back, leaving a trail of burnt bodies, furniture, and decoration on its way out.

Heading up the stairs, wanting to get to old Bimbart, Neni manages to take the stairs two at a time, arriving at the top of the stairs, he sees a group of halflings slowly moving down the hallway, most of them armed except for the one in the middle. “Bimbart!” Neni hears the man say, the voice eerily familiar. “Bimbart! I have come for what is mine!” He yells. Neni crouches and slowly follows the armed group down the hallway. He watches as they sidestep the chaos of patients running through them, noticing that they stop every old halfling that passes them. That voice though, Neni knew he had heard it before, with the same amount of anger. As they approached the room he shared with Bimbart, the figure turned, recognition immediately dawning on Neni. Crassius, the one responsible for his imprisonment, the one that attacked his family’s farm, the one that forced his father into servitude. One of the evilest halflings he had ever met. With a slight perceptible nod, two of the burly halfling thugs run into the room. Neni looks around, trying to find something to assist him in the battle to come, he sees the closet door open, and an orderly cowering there. He runs over, opens the door, grabbing the broom “You done with this?” he asks and quickly breaks off the brush, feeling the heft, he takes off down the hall.

He races down the hall, Neni can hear the fighting in the room, the sound of a short sword striking wood, followed by the sound of wood breaking across something. As he gets closer to Crassius and the two other thugs, he realizes they are intent on what's going on in the room, they haven’t noticed him. He goes into a slide, foot up, catching one of the thugs in the knee, toppling him over, using his broom handle quarterstaff to vault him off the ground, to punch the other in the head, knocking him unconscious, Neni lands on both feet, spinning to look Crassius in the eyes. The look of honest shock was there, without a moment to lose, Neni spun, foot sweeping Crassius to the ground and breaking the broom handle over his head, he turns and runs into the room, seeing Bimbart take a sword thrust into the abdomen he doesn’t slow down, he tackles him, using their motion, continuing through the window, and tumbling in the air, to the ground below.

Call it fate, call it Uva, the good goddess, looking out for them, they don’t hit solid ground, but land in some of the bushes in the garden. It still manages to knock the wind out of him, but he was able to regain his composure quickly and grab Bimbart. Looking down, he noticed the specks of blood on Bimbart's lips, realizing the gurgling noise he heard wasn’t the waterfall and brook from the garden, but from Bimbart due to one of the branches sticking through his chest, he wasn’t leaving with Neni. Softly he hears “Boy, I knew he would come for the gift our father gave me, but it’s to be yours now.” with what little strength he possessed, Bimbart reached up and touched Neni on the temple with his right-hand saying. “Imtuga achtccumat an dragain duit, Neni.” a blue light emanates from Bimbart, starting from his back, slowly moving up to the neck and shoulder area, down his right arm, to his hand, and then the light hits Neni with a force, lifting him up off the ground, Neni could only float there, arms and legs hanging limply. The burning sensation he felt on the left side of his skull was immense, it was as if someone was carving something into his head. The words Bimbart imparted on him, which he didn’t understand, slowly appear in his head “I bestow the power of the Dragon to you, Neni”.

As Neni’s feet touch the ground he collapses to his knees, trying to catch his breath, the noise of someone wailing “No!” pulled him out of his delirium. “No! It’s supposed to be mine” turning to the window he just fell from, Crassius stood there, hanging onto one of his thugs, blood flowing from the broken nose Neni gave him. Not knowing what he was talking about, Neni glances down at Bimbart, his life gone and he runs, climbing the wall quickly and fleeing into the city.