NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter-150 Leash
Kidd’s injuries accepted Iris’s healing spell, while Walyn screamed, his wounds sizzling and shriveling. Ewan toiled around them, checking their condition with each cast, noting down his findings, and at last had some preliminary results after a few rounds. As expected, the blood-element healing spell that employed the essence of life and vitality didn’t work on Walyn, instead it worsened his situation. But it still behaved as usual on Kidd and healed his left side. Luckily, all the major fractures were on his side, and while his ears rang from their grating screeches, Ewan snapped the bones back.
Kidd recovered within minutes, but Walyn was still a problem—his status of a Wraith even rejected the orthodox potions. Even a single drop had singed him. A healing spell of the dark element was out of Ewan’s reach, so the mundane methods were his only option now. He cleaned the wounds, tolerating his flinch; sterilized the cuts, suffering from his screams; and stitched the lacerations amidst his grunting groans. Finally, he iced the bruises, applied the medicine, and bandaged him up, despite Walyn’s sulking struggle against him. He wasn’t a practiced hand at such procedures, but they were simple enough that he could follow the textbook without messing up.
With the treatment out of the way, the question of their convergence and their co-existence bore its head.
The good news was that Kidd’s senses of his right side gradually returned during his recovery. Walyn too nodded, albeit grumbly, when Ewan questioned him about the left side. The bad news was that they both controlled their halves and could exert no influence on the other side.
Neither knew anything about the phenomenon, about what triggered it, how they shared the body, and most of all, how to separate. They knew even less than Ewan who’d observed the process. Thus, the problem of each controlling one side of the body spilled over to the problem of their continuance. As they were, they couldn’t even perform basic daily-life tasks…
And so, Ewan first taught them how to walk.
“Follow my lead, cooperate with each other,” he said, squatting at a distance and leading Kidd and Walyn to walk towards him, while Iris hung by his shoulder and healed his cracked rib. “Left leg, right hand.” He directed. But the first attempt tripped them over and they fell face first.
“Again, get up,” he said. “Don’t fight for control, move in flow.”
……
“Practice here, don’t go out, I’ll be back later,” Ewan said when he went out of the protective fog. Though the potential problem with the mystic element could be a ticking time bomb, the cave required his presence too. Kidd was out of commission. He couldn’t get him any testers today, no one to chip away at the traps with his life. But he still had to guard against Rain or anyone else who knew about the cave. Unless the situation evolved into something he couldn’t control, he didn’t intend to give up on it.
The protective fog closed behind him, and he treaded down the slippery mountain trail, his boots barely maintaining the traction with the help of the paved stones. The ravaged trees, the broken branches, the ruined nests, the collapsed burrows, and the destroyed lairs narrated the story of the storm. As much as it brought relief to the sweltering days, it also wreaked havoc in its wake. Not only to the forest but to the city too, even the glimpse of the port through the trees only showed a flooded structure—the ebbing Morinfair Ocean had reclaimed its land and then some more.
At the foot of the mountain, the armed men gathered around, picked themselves up, and headed to the perimeter, to fight for their home again. When Ewan exited the mountain, he only saw their straight backs marching ahead, their chipped weapons and armors bearing the dried blood of their enemies, their resolute strides thumping the earth without hesitation. The woman and the children saw them off from behind the barricades, each with choked back tears in their eyes.
Today too, many would die. The men would shed blood and perish so that their families could live.
Some would lose their fathers today; some would lose their husbands. Some would bury their brothers, while some would never see their sons. Regardless of the invaders or the invaded, the lottery of death knocked on everyone’s door on the battlefield and played its deadly game with them. Such was the essence of war.
“Sir.” The same guard greeted and saluted him again, looking worse for wear.
“Same as yesterday? Or do I go to the frontline today?” Ewan asked, breaking his gaze away from the men walking to their death.
“Same as yesterday, sir,” the guard said.
Ewan nodded. “I’ll be around then, you don’t need to mind me,” he said.
“Sir.” The guard stopped him. “Sir Kiev ordered me to accompany you, in case you need something.”
“I’m fine,” Ewan said, his nostrils twitching. His irritation jumped then settled down again. Kiev could label it as he wished, but sending a guard to follow him, it was a leash. If the foreign Ashevas found out about this, their apprehensions about staying in Drarith and fighting in this unrelated war would soar. This was not their home; they were not fighting for their families. Either Kiev didn’t think of the possible blow up his action could cause, or Ewan’s refusal pissed him enough to not care for it. And the man was not brainless…
“Please sir, he insisted,” the guard said. “I’ll lose my position if I can't accompany you today.” He pleaded.
Ewan flashed a smile. “Okay,” he said. “Keep up then.” If he refused again, he could spook the Ensils about the cave. The guard was a Kyron anyway. Even if Kiev armed him to defend against Ewan and his means, he had enough confidence to lead or mislead the guard as he wished. After all, a leash worked both ways—the controlled could also become the controller.
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