Growing Pains: Chapter 7

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Without knowing what to expect, Caledonia and Sammal had brought Eirwyn to the bedroom they found once they explored the house a little more. It was a simple bed set into the ground with steps leading into the depression in the foundation. There were piles of comfortable pillows and neatly folded blankets beside the steps that stretched all around. They brought Eirwyn there and laid her down with pillows to support her head and a blanket to cover her body. 

 They had hardly reached the bedroom door before they heard her stir and she grunted aggressively, “No! I will not sleep.” 

 Sammal turned to look over her shoulder, her ears and tail perking in surprise to see the healer standing. It was a relief to see Eirwyn with her skin and ears again, to look at the kainu’s eyes and see lids covering them. The creature they had stumbled upon in the woods seemed farther away now than ever, like some distant memory that she hoped stayed wherever it retreated to. 

 “You just healed yourself, you should rest,” Sammal said, trotting back toward the edge of the recess. “Whatever you did with that crystal—that has to have taken a lot out of you.” 

 Eirwyn cast the blanket aside, grabbing it by the corner with her mouth and pulling it away with a snap. She walked up the steps, stumbling over her own hooves, but she didn’t stop as she shouldered past Caledonia and slammed the bedroom door out of her way. 

Caledonia met her gaze as she scurried past him, she had no idea what had upset the healer so much, but she was just as worried about it. If Eirwyn was stressed, they all should be. 

By the time Sammal found her way back into the main room of the house, she found Eirwyn standing in the center of the room, her horn glowing faintly with the use of magic. Jars and satchels floated to her, and Sammal had to lower her head quickly to avoid the copper ring that flew across the room toward the healer. The ring was large enough to have fit around Eirwyn’s waist, but it settled on the floor in front of her instead, over a map of the continent that had just finished unrolling. 

Eirwyn’s legs trembled, the magic that caused her horn to glow began to fade, and she let out a vicious curse under her breath. The items fell to the floor, a satchel that sounded full of rocks hit with a loud *thud* followed by a spool of thread that rolled across the room to stop at Sammal’s hooves. The sprite knelt to pick it up and walked over to set it on the floor beside the copper ring. 

“What are you doing?” she asked. 

“Magic,” Eirwyn grumbled as she reached for the spool of thread and dragged the satchel closer. It was as big as Sammal’s head, and when the healer opened it she saw that it was filled nearly to the brim with raw shards of violet crystals, none bigger than one of Sammal’s own clawed toes. 

“Are those more of that crystal you used?” Sammal asked, her eyes wide as she looked over the items that Eirwyn had spread out in front of her. 

“Yes,” Eirwyn snapped, glancing at her angrily. “Are you going to talk the entire time? I need to focus.” 

Her instinct to respond was squashed by her fear that she might upset Eirwyn further, so Sammal closed her mouth and shrank back, jumping when she felt something solid against her leg. She turned to see Caledonia standing behind her, letting out a soft, reassuring rumble. 

Together they watched as Eirwyn fished out a chunk of crystal, her eyes focused as she tucked another shard of crystal between her teeth. It glowed faintly violet and she tied a string around the crystal, the other end dangling from the end of her horn. She lifted her leg, hesitated as she looked down at her ankle and gave her head a hard shake. She bit her ankle and held it over a silver bowl on the floor, spitting a wad of hair and skin into it. 

Blood trickled down her leg and dripped from the claws on her hoof. As she leaned her head down, she dipped the crystal into the blood, swirling it so blue hairs clung to it. She spoke in a language that sounded like the slithering of a snake’s belly across the forest floor. It chittered and clicked like the prey animals that hid in burrows from the snakes. 

The healer moved her leg so blood dripped onto the copper circle, and the air above it shimmered with power as the circle was completed. Eirwyn leaned over the map with the bloody crystal on its string, and the crystal glowed from within, casting her face in violet light. The crystal circled the map once, twice, three times before it jerked down hard enough that Eirwyn grunted as her horn was yanked. The crystal began dragging along the paper, following a river that Sammal could see and smearing blood along its northern bank. When it stopped moving, Eirwyn leaned back and looked further up the river. 

“They’re travelling toward Dorn’Drugar,” she growled. She spat something in a language Sammal could not understand and the sprite jumped, her nerves on edge from what she had just witnessed. Magic was unnerving at the best of times, seeing it performed in front of her, using such items, it frightened and fascinated her. 

“What’s in Dorn’Drugar?” she asked in a small voice. 

“Cocksuckers and vermin,” the healer snapped. “Rats, the lot of them. They consort with humans and their ilk, selling whatever they can get their grubby hooves on. It’s been rumored that something was brewing in the bowels of that country, but the governing body doesn’t care enough to regulate what happens there, as long as they get their cut.” 

Maybe it was the blank expressions on their faces, maybe the silence that followed her words, something drew Eirwyn’s gaze to the two children and she explained in a dramatically slow voice, “Cri-mi-nals, they’re all criminals! You’re as dense as you are young.” 

She reached up to pull the crystal string from her horn, letting it fall to the floor as she struggled to her feet. 

“Where are you going?” Sammal asked anxiously. “Shouldn’t you rest?” 

 “I’m going to get my skin back,” Eirwyn growled, her expression drawn as if she had to focus hard to put one hoof in front of the other. “Not going to let that…that *bitch*--” 

Caledonia moved faster than Sammal could recognize something was wrong. He left her side and pressed his shoulder against Eirwyn’s flank, propping her up so she wouldn’t fall. 

“Get off of me!” the kainu snarled, recoiling from Caledonia until she fell back against a bookshelf, knocking the lowest shelves loose and spilling the jars and bowls onto the floor. She took several deep breaths, pupils wide and ears flat back against her skull. The fur along her spine was raised up, and she held herself as if she were in pain. 

“Eirwyn, we don’t mean any harm,” Sammal said, her own voice shaking. She didn’t understand what was happening and she wanted to help, but as she drew closer, Caledonia flicked his short tail and looked over his shoulder at her shaking his head. She stopped, feeling helpless in her worry, but trusting Caledonia that he knew what needed to happen. 

The room fell into an uncomfortable silence, where only Eirwyn’s labored breathing could be heard. They waited, still as death itself, until the kainu turned her head away, let out a slow breath and moved away from the bookshelf. 

“You’re young and foolish but not dumb,” Eirwyn said begrudgingly. Her voice was still tense, but calmer now. “I am sorry I snapped at you. This changes nothing about what I said, I have to go after them.” 

Sammal feared being yelled at again if she spoke, but Caledonia couldn’t ask the questions she wanted answered. So in a small voice, with her head low, the sprite asked, “Why is it important that you get your skin back?” 

Eirwyn paused, breathed deeply, and let it out slowly. She didn’t look at Sammal as she said, “There are more disciplines of magic in this world than stars in the sky, each is minutely different than the next, there is no way to know what someone could do with something like a skin. They took my horn, my scales, everything that makes *me* who I am. Blood magic is a terrible thing, and it can be used in terrible ways. All they need is a hair to wreak havoc on its owner. I have made enemies over my lifetime, powerful enemies who would cut off their own limb to see me suffer. I would rather not risk my life hoping my skin winds up in the hands of some magically-stunted elf.” 

She started off toward the kitchen, but she paused and looked back at Sammal finally. She asked, “You…I’ve seen you before. What is your name?” 

“Sammal,” the sprite said. She lifted her foreleg, giving it a little shake as she said, “You helped me with my knee years ago. Milarose brought me to you.” 

Her eyes widened for a moment and she asked, “Milarose—is he with you?” 

“No,” Sammal replied solemnly. She looked to Caledonia as the younger drakiri moved to stand at her side again. “He saved Caledonia from the poachers and they caught up with him. He let himself be taken so he could save us. I-I don’t know if he’s okay, but he was hurt really bad when they took him.” 

Eirwyn’s jaws clenched and she shook her head. “That idiot. I told him to be careful when last we spoke. Even more reason to go. You two can stay here, you’ll only slow me down.” 

Indignation swelled in Sammal’s chest and she stepped forward, brow furrowed as she said, “No! If you’re going to find Milarose, we’re coming with you. He sacrificed himself for us, we can’t just sit here and twiddle our hooves.” 

“I am not babysitting and listening to you two babble about how tired you are three days into it,” Eirwyn said as she walked into the kitchen. 

“Caledonia can’t even talk!” Sammal argued resentfully. “You’re too weak, I’m too small and he doesn’t have a tongue anymore, we’ll be lucky if we can even catch up to the poachers, let alone stop them when we find them!” 

“I’m not doing this out of some righteous need to stop the bad guys,” Eirwyn retorted, appearing in the doorway to the main room again. “I’m doing this to save my own skin—or to get it back…you know what I mean. I don’t care who else is wrapped up in all this poaching business, I’m getting my skin and I’m leaving this place for good.” 

Sammal’s ears flicked back and she asked, “What? Why would you leave?” 

“I’m not going to stay in the home where I was attacked and abducted,” Eirwyn said. “You’re young, you might not understand why I cannot. This house means nothing to me, I will find another and I will rebuild. Those who need me will find me. That’s all there is to it.” 

Eirwyn was right, Sammal didn’t understand, but she thought she could eventually. She felt the same way about the barn. If they ever went back, it would never feel like home again. Not after she watched the primal crash through the wall and attack Milarose. 

She shuddered and stamped her hoof on the floor in a childish but validating gesture as she said, “We’re coming with you. We don’t need you to help us, we know they’re travelling along that river, so we’ll follow it too. We’ll find Dorn’Drugar and we’ll find Milarose.” 

The healer stalked back into the room and came to stand right in front of Sammal, towering over her as she hissed, “We, we, we, this is an awful lot of *we* for a half-grown sprite with a bum knee who can hardly do more than stand on her own four legs. What will you do? You and this tongueless child, will you talk the poachers to death? Whine at them about how much you miss your papa before they drop dead from annoyance? You have no skills, you have no weapons, you have and are *nothing* to these people. You said Milarose got Caledonia away from the poachers, you would disrespect his memory by bringing him back to them?” 

Grief struck her as suddenly as lightning and she took a step back, looking down and away from Eirwyn. She had spent so long trying to convince herself that she was useful, but Eirwyn had all but torn that confidence down with a handful of words. 

“Heh ot eh,” Caledonia rumbled in his surprisingly deep voice. 

Eirwyn’s gaze snapped to the primal crossbreed, looking him over critically now. “You sound ridiculous, stop trying to speak,” she said. 

“The poachers took his tongue,” Sammal said, but she couldn’t bring herself to raise her gaze again. 

Eirwyn passed by them, her long tail twitching in annoyance as she stooped to pick up another of the crystals—a larger shard than the one she had tied to her horn. She passed it to Caledonia, who took it between his teeth and then tilted his head back slightly so it moved further into his mouth. “Keep this in your mouth and focus.” 

Caledonia did as he was told, and in a few moments the crystal began to glow, the light showing through the broken and chipped parts of his teeth. The hair on Caledonia’s shoulders and neck stood on end, his tail trembled and he tossed his head once. But when the crystal fell from his mouth, a healthy pink tongue darted out to lick his nose. 

“I never thought I’d be so glad to taste a rock in my life,” Caledonia said. 

Sammal felt a relief she didn’t entirely understand when her friend spoke. Yes, she was glad he could communicate now, but she also felt relieved that he was no longer suffering. It must have been painful and she had seen how he struggled to eat without his tongue. She hoped he would be better now. 

“A mineral, but I’m sure it’s all the same to you,” Eirwyn said. “You were saying?” 

Caledonia frowned and worked his jaw a couple of times, as if getting used to the feeling of his tongue in his own mouth once more. After a moment he said, “Milarose isn’t dead. The poachers wouldn’t kill a dracus, their scales are big, their teeth and claws are too. We can try to get him out. You’re wrong about us not having anything. We can always do something. We only fail if we don’t try.” 

“That is young-people horse shit,” Eirwyn said flatly. “But if you want to risk your necks in the woods, fine. I will not be risking mine. If you get left behind, you better hope you know how to forage or hunt.” 

“You said it yourself, we’re young and foolish, not stupid,” Caledonia said with a curt nod. 

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