The Raven & The Wolf

Chapter Forty-Six

When the girl is laid down in front of me, I look at her, locking in my resolve. I put my hand on her forehead as I take her hand in my injured one. I close my eyes, pushing my very rarely used of late magic through my body, and out through the ground, using the earth’s filtered magic with mine. I double it back over my magical center as I loop it up, trying to keep my magic from touching my magical core. That’s the part that will kill me immediately if it does touch while I’m like this.

Cautiously, but strongly, I push my magic towards the little girl, my mind picturing her body’s layout. Her injuries light up in my mind. When I move towards her back injury I hiss, pulling back immediately. It’s a healing block and it burns like I had just stepped into a lit firepit.

Yeah, that’s not going to work for me. I push my magic at it, picturing daggers, pickaxes, anything sharp to break it. “Gordon, I will beat you to a pulp if you do not let go,” I hiss my threat to him in my magical sense, putting more strength into my spell. In response, he strengthens his spell.

I chuckle darkly. “So you want to play, I take it.” I attack with nearly a fourth of my strength, conserving my energy for the guaranteed battles I have ahead of me. I feel his spell recoil seconds before breaking around the girls spine. Wasting no time, I knit her bones, nerves, spinal column, tendons, muscles, veins, and reduce as much of her swelling as I can before moving on.

Each wound is blocked, Gordon putting more and more strength into each and every one, making me increase each level of my attack. He’s purposely trying to drain me and force me into overload. Good. I can kill him that much faster. He’s even blocking her superficial wounds, but he’s also losing strength.

Nearing completion, I have to figure out how to force Gordon from her body. I’ll stick to what I know best. “How proud are you of yourself, Gordon? Using a six year old girl as a pawn is such a pathetic thing to do.” I smirk, feeling his anger. “The real one your masters are angry at is me. I’m the one that’s already injured here. Attack me. It’s what they want, isn’t it? For me to be one of you. Well now is your chance. I’m still weaker than ever.” Not technically a lie. I still haven’t fully recovered my magic, but I’ve gotten almost half of my full strength back. I feel his magic waver, angered by my taunts. I take that opportunity and break another healing block, fully healing the little girl. I dislodge the spell from me, breaking away from it before it transfers her injuries to me.

In a desperate attempt, Gordon goes for a direct attack on me. I put more than half of my remaining strength into my spell, sending a raven image towards him. An overwhelming sense of pain touches my magical senses, while I hear my raven give a victorious cry the exact moment I feel Gordon retreat.

Once he’s gone, I pull away from the little girl, but still remain locked in my magical state while I slowly pull my magic back into a dormant state, looping it through the earth’s filter, hopefully cleansing it of anything that might trigger an overload.

Once my magic had left the little girl, I had felt her body relax as she gasps. When I finally open my eyes, she’s staring at me with wide grey eyes. I give her a calm look while I settle my magic before letting the filter drop from me. It is then that I notice the ground I have her resting on has water flowing in my drawn lines, and the ground stained green with my magic.

“Maya!” The mother yells, seeing the little girl awake.

The little girl gives me a confused look as she sits up, the end of her curls in her hair touching the dirt. “The man said you were going to die.”

Those rotten Fates. “Well the man lied.” I inform her, dropping my hands from her.

Her eyes hold a bit of fear while her shoulders slightly raise. “He’s really mad at you.”

“I know,” I tell her in a soothing tone, “but I don’t let bullies win.” In response the little girl reaches over and hugs me, wrapping her arms around my neck in a tight embrace. My eyes nearly pop out of their sockets from the pain this brings my shoulder, but I’ll allow it. Mostly because the little girl, Maya, is crying.

I gently pat her back while nearing my threshold for pain. “It’s okay Maya. The bad man is gone.”

“But he was so angry,” she sobs.

“Let me handle him, and you can worry about getting better,” I tell her, keeping my tone light and warm.

“But he’s scary.”

“I kicked his butt today, didn’t I?” I say confidently as I pull her away so I can look at her. “He’s nothing more than a bully, and I don’t like bullies, so I’ll keep fighting him.”

She wipes her nose. “But what if he comes back? I don’t want to see him again.” She starts crying all over again. “Please never let me go. I don’t want to see him again. Please!” She starts sobbing harder at her last word before throwing herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck and burying her face in my hair.

Reluctantly, I sigh. This little girl is going to go through hell for something that was meant to hurt me. I can’t allow this. I don’t want her to go through what I have. “Can you do me a favor?” I ask her sweetly.

She nods into my hair, her cries turning into broken gasps as she fights through her growing fear. I grit my teeth, trying to resist doing something that I know is horribly wrong. However, I wish someone could take my nightmares away from when I was six. Again, I use the earth’s filter as I touch the little girls mind.

“Close your eyes, and think of the happiest thing you can,” I tell her, seeing the image of a rainbow butterfly enter my mind, leaving glittered sparkles behind in a trail as it flies away. I use that image, wrapping it into a dream, and removing her memory of what happened after she fell from the tree from her mind. All she will remember is falling and thinking of her happy memory as a dream. She slumps in my arms as she falls asleep.

Cradling her gently, I stand and look to her mother. “She’s just exhausted, but she’ll be just fine.”

“What was she crying about?” The mother asks, taking her from my arms.

“She remembered her fall, and she was scared the panther would come back.” I say, lying smoothly. “When I calmed her back down, she fell asleep.”

I step out of the circle and hand her over to her mother. “I’d keep her with Healer Andrew for the night. There is some swelling that will need to be resolved before she’s fully back to scaling trees, but I believe she’s thoroughly healed.” After her mother takes her, I feel lightheaded. Yep, I’m drained. It’s been awhile since I felt like this.

“Thank you,” Maya’s mother says, pulling me into a tight hug. It’s at this moment, I realize she’s half a foot shorter than I am. I have to bite my lip to keep in a pained cry. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“You’re very welcome,” I tell her with genuine affection. I really need to make sure Healers visit here regularly. This, and the other Forest Folk locations.

“Natasha,” Gedric yells in the crowd, making me wince. I’m so going to get yelled at.

“I’m alive,” I say, waving my good arm in the air so he can see me. I’m still in a death grip with the mother.

“Alright Minda, you can let Elder Natasha go,” Drew’s soothing voice comes from behind me. “Let’s get Maya back inside, and I can look her over.”

“She’s got some swelling on her spine, but that’ll go down with some ice and rest.” I tell him quickly. “I got what I could, but I moved on to her other injuries instead of fully removing her swelling. It was a severe injury.”

“Was it broken?”

“Fractured,” I answer through gritted teeth.

“Come on Minda,” That voice belongs to Angela. She pulls Minda away from me gently and starts walking towards the steps.

“Thank you,” I mouth to her as I straighten.

“How are you not in overload right now?” Gedric demands.

“I don’t know, but I’m not questioning it,” I tell him, walking towards the building, I lean back against the wall as I slide down.

“Natasha,” Gedric warns while Drew comes over to examine me.

“I used the earth’s filter around my core. I was expecting an overload, so I was just wanting to hold it off long enough to get that despicable Servant Gordan out of that little girl.”

“Servant?” Gedric demands while Drew pulls my leg out to look at it.

“You’re going to need stitches.” Drew tells me, looking up. “What happened to it?”

At this moment, I’m grateful of where Drew’s priorities are. I never expected this to be the easiest question to answer tonight. “Silva told me that Gedric believes I’m his chosen one, and I got scared and ran out of the room. I tripped over a downed log while I was running.” I answer honestly, still feeling dirty because I had chosen to remove a part of Maya’s memory. I fully believe it was for the best, but it still feels wrong. I hate moral grey areas.

“That’ll do it,” Drew says, letting out a long whistle while he further inspects my leg. “I’ll get my kit. Gedric, help her inside. I want her to spend the night here so I can make sure she doesn’t have a delayed reaction. Also, you have a few sticks in your hair dear,” he informs me before leaving, making me flush.

“What was a Servant doing trying to kill a six year old girl?” Gedric demands, helping me to my feet.

“Can you go get my sling,” I ask him, grimacing at the weight gravity is adding. “The Fates were using her to send me a message. I’m assuming my little trick deal pissed them off. My guess is that they’re wanting me to nearly kill myself, trying to save a girl who is the exact age I was when the Fates intended for me to die. I guess they wanted me to feel helpless or something. Either way, I’m going to be drained for a few days.”

Within seconds he’s back, watching me carefully while I pant, feeling very winded at the moment. It’s been awhile since I drained myself this much. He helps me into the sling before speaking. “That’s a bit of a long message, with a lot of trouble.”

“Then why would Gordon heal block every single one of her injuries? The force behind the spell was too much for Stanya to attack. They purposely made it so I would have to be the one to heal the little girl. I guess another angle they could use, was for this to keep me weak. That way I can’t help you fight Ari.”

“But if Halthin and Stanya help me, they still lose the bet.”

That’s when I realize something Maya had said. Oh…I fucked up. “I know, and that’s what concerns me. This wasn’t random. I was meant to treat that little girl. There is no doubt about that. What I don’t understand is, why did they tell her I was going to die?”

“What?” Gedric demands, looking at me while I look towards the infirmary, my head working through the events.

I speak carefully, more to myself than him. “They told her that. They wanted me to fail. They want to sideline me.” I look at Gedric with actual concern. “They’re planning something, and they’ve set it in motion.”

“What do you mean,” Gedric asks, stepping towards me.

“It means Stanya’s worries are completely valid.” I run my fingers through my hair. “They’re not going to wait for a fight with Ari before attacking me.”