SWNOVELXO Chapter 8: You Can't Keep Burning This Candle
There's an eerie calm after a fire on that scale. The animals leave the area and after the chaos, people fall quiet. There isn't much left to say. That is to say, when Eric woke up, he woke up to silence.
"Oh wow."
Eric's entire body screamed in pain, he sat, wide eyed, not making a sound. Had he not experienced what he had, he would've found his surroundings pretty relaxing. On the outside of the village, trees stood tall, flowers grew and grass was thick and luscious. He looked up at the sky and realized it was first thing in the morning, he had slept all night.
"Mother fuckers. They left me out here all night!"
He rocked sideways, trying to stand up, when he heard a voice say, "Don' even bother. Yer' hurt reeeeal bad. We gotta' get you t'next town over quick or yer' pro'ly finished."
Eric tuned his head to find the unfamiliar voice, it was one of the men, the men who had never spoken to him and looked at him with pure hate. He was a young a man who Eric didn't recognized, probably somebody who'd been wearing a helmet. He had short red hair, pale skin and a face covered in freckles.
"'Ere, drink, don' tell the captain but..." He moved in closer, "S'got poppy sap in it." He said with a mischievous grin, missing two teeth, one on top, one on bottom.
"We errr, we get hurt a lot in this line o'work. I been strugglin' t'sleep lately, this helps. It's watered down, don' you worry y'ain't gonna fall asleep again but, it'll help"
"Thank you..." Eric felt like razors were escaping his throat. He reached out his hand and grabbed the small rawhide flash of 'medicine' and took a massive gulp. Then another, and another before the man jumped to intervene.
"Whoooaaa, whoa, calm down there. S'ain't water. Got some fer ya but, don' use this as water... Ah well, you'll 'ave a good time for the ride now." He giggled
"What's your name?" Eric asked.
"Heh, nicer than I'd be if I were you. I'm Sven. Sven Vernisson."
"Thanks, Sven."
"You, uh, y'did good. Y'know? We really didn't think y'had it in ya'." Sven looked passed him at the tent set up for the survivors, "Y'actually got more people out than each of us on our own... Argh, I never know how t'do this... Thank you. Thank you, yer a real help."
He got up and started walking towards the tent, "Oh, shit, yeah, forgot. We'er headin' out in an hour, me an' a couple guys are gonna pick you up and put you in the captain's cart. He errr, he ain't too happy with ya though, so, y'know... be ready." Real concern filled his voice as he walked away towards the tent.
Eric sat stewing in his pain, right until the half hour mark. It hit. It hit hard. Eric's pain faded away, and kept fading until he was so light headed he couldn't help but giggle. And then he faded even more. His head bobbing up and down, the world in a haze, unable to focus on anything at all. This was the most relaxed he had ever been, anywhere. He looked up at the sky, fluffy white clouds drifting across his field of vision and melted away. He let out a deep sigh of relief.
"Oh this is good."
Suddenly, he felt his body move, looking around half conscious he saw Sven giggling with two other men, they caried a makeshift stretcher out of two thick branches and a blanket and before he knew it, he was being carried to the captain's cart. Before he left, Sven something directly to Eric. He heard it, he heard it for sure but he just couldn't figure out what he said.
The men turned and walked away. Eric saw the survivors congregating outside the tent, they had been bandaged as well as they could've been with what limited resources they had. The little girl he had saved, the first one, was sat on the floor outside by a tree. When she saw his face from the cart she couldn't help but beam ear to ear before being ushered in by one of the surviving adults. Eric threw his head back and looked up at the roof of the cart.
"I miss the clouds."
Around ten minutes later, the knight captain stepped over him, sitting down on the bench. The two men locked eyes with each other, the knight's face a stern expression.
"Uh oh..." Eric slipped out.
"Mhm. Uh oh is fucking right... wait.... are you? Mother fuckers! Do they think I don't know what they're up to? God damn it how much did you- Ah, never mind. I doubt you'll remember any of this. I'm willing to let you off the hook for what you did. Still gonna make sure you get extra laps in training though." He laughed at the end and gave Eric a smile, "You did good, kid. You did good."
Once their journey began, the rattling of the cart didn't bother Eric at all, he was too busy fading in and out of consciousness, he really had taken too much. It was at this point he realized he was in deep trouble when this finally wore off, he hadn't even hit training yet and he had already disobeyed orders, gotten heavily injured and dosed himself up on opium. He let out a chuckle at this realization, much to the dismay of the knight.
"It's gonna be a while before we get there. I had some questions for you but... I don't think you're up to it. You're gonna have to talk a lot when we get to the chapel. Heard they've got an okay healer but with how many burns you've got I'm sure you'll be left with scars. You can't keep burning this candle at both ends kid, I don't know what kind of life you've lived, but you've got the type of injures that don't just go away."
Knowing Eric couldn't comprehend him made him feel at ease in explaining himself, "I really don't know what happened back there. Never seen blue fire before in my life... Aldburg's going to hell, got sorcerers way out here in the villages? Couldn't even dream of that ten years ago... "
The knight rambled on, Eric, still barely conscious, couldn't understand a word. He talked and talked until finally, Eric fell asleep, escaping the pain in the cradling arms of a dream he wouldn't remember, his last thoughts before losing the battle with weariness was of home, his real home, and his mother's face.