//Chapter 43//
1033 Words
I could not say anything.
His angry eyes did not scare me at all. What sacred me was that he was here, in this tunnel, when I needed someone the most. It seemed so good to be true.
He did not wait for me to say anything. He took Kahlee from my back. Kahlee also didn't say anything. He took her to his back.
"Second Prince." Kahlee greeted after a while, her face twisting from pain. Savin noticed that too. His face softened a bit.
He nodded in acknowledgement.
I felt tears in my eyes again. This time, it was from relief. I quickly wiped them off with a hand. If Savin saw my actions, he did not comment on that.
He didn't question me as we walked towards the entrance of the tunnel. Only this time, we didn't had to walk that much at all. Five minutes later, we were out of the woods.
We went to a house where Darav Hallowburn was sitting with someone who appeared to be his sister, judging from the resemblance of their faces. When he saw us, he scrambled to a stand and rushed towards us.
"What is going on?" He asked. "Is she hurt?"
Savin nodded. "Is there any place we can put her?"
"Yes. Ange, call for the healer." Darav gestured towards a room. The house was made of polished woods, all fixed in place to the perfect point, where there were no gaps nor cracks to be seen. There was one huge teal tinted glasslight on the roof, making everything bath in a teal washed glow. Kahlee was right. Hallowburns had some amazing stuff going on.
We set Kahlee down on the bed in the room. Darav looked at her hand. The cloth I used was soaked in blood, making the black turn mud brown.
"What happened?" He asked.
I couldn't speak. I looked at Savin. How could I explain the creatures underneath the ground?
Savin spoke in my place, like he knew I was struggling. "There were some species underground." He said.
"And they attacked her?"
"No, they ate me." Kahlee said, startling all of us. Her face was covered in a thin layer of sweat. She was struggling to focus, to be present. I clenched my hands till my nails dig into my palm.
Darav went pale. "Ate? but..."
"Leave it, Hallowburn." Savin said. The authority in his voice made me flinch a little.
The silence stretched. In a several minutes, the healer arrived, rushing with Ange.
"What attacked her?" He questioned as he unwrapped the clothing and bared her wounds. Ange gasped, covering her mouth. Darav looked at her. She went outside in a hurry.
I didn't blame her. It was not clear in the dim light of the tunnel, so I hadn't seen the injury that well. Where her fingers used to be was now messy strips of muscle and tendons. The white bone was cut in a messy way, blood gushing from them like fountains.
Not cut. I reminded myself. Bitten.
"There were some underground creatures." I said, finally finding my voice. "They had clear skin and muscles. They looked so much like humans or Elves or Elkelyns, I can't be sure. But they had no eyes, only empty eye sockets."
I watched as his eyes closed in concentration. He had cleaned the wounds with herbs after injecting her arm with a numbing liquid. She had her head back on a pillow, closing her eyes. She didn't look at her hand. Not even once.
Slowly, the muscles mended together. It looked like the ligaments were alive. New red skin stitched over the muscles on their own. When the healer was done, the only sign of damage was the tiny pink bumps where her fingers used to be.
"She will stay asleep for at least two days to fully recover." The healer said, getting up. His green brooch caught the teal light from glass light and glowed in a strange colour. "Feed this to her in the mean time." He gave Darav a huge vial of a orange liquid. "I'll be going, then."
"Thank you so much." I said, bowing my head. I felt like I could breath again.
He looked surprised at first. Then he smiled. "I assume you are going back to that place, Your Highnesses."
"Yeah." Savin said. "We have some unfinished business there."
He nodded. "Be careful. These creatures are poisonous. I managed to extract it in time." He sighed. "I wish I could study it further."
"If you want, I can bring some for you." I said. All three of them looked at me as if I had grown a pair of horns on my head. "I don't plan on letting them live after what they did to her."
Savin stared at me. I couldn't look at him, so I looked at Darav instead. "Keep an eye on her. We will come as soon as we can. I can pay extra if you want."
"No need." Darav said. I saw the healer slipping past us silently. "I can look after her."
"Thank you." I finally looked at Savin. His face was unreadable. "Let's go." I loosened Kahlee's sword from my back and laid it beside her before heading out, without looking back.
"You should also rest for a bit." He said, following me outside. "You are also tired."
I looked at him. He took a step back, as if my expression scared him. "I had to kill someone before that."
"Those creatures? Are you planning on slaughtering them? Don't be reckless. You can also die-"
"It." I said.
"What?" He asked.
"Not all of them. There is one. I want to kill it." I went back to the forest. "It planned everything. It waited till I was out, dragged her to their lair, and ate her fingers while she screamed, enjoying her pain and laughing at her."
"What?" He asked, half running to catch up to me. "How do you know that?"
I waited for him at the entrance. I remembered how Kahlee had praised Zone for his skills right here in this place.
"It showed me when I pushed my power inside him."
- Writer
