Return of the Sword Bearer: Battle for Eireamore

Chapter 1 RotSB

            She smiled slightly and stood up on her shaky legs.  She ran to the back door of the kitchen and out into the early morning summer day.   Her steps caught as she watched a smirk appear on her youngest brother face, who obviously seen the whole scene with the master baker.  She ducked her head and continued on her quest.

She closed her eyes and locked down the memory and placed it where she always kept it.  Some place where she didn’t have to relive it anymore.  The past is the past and she believed in living in the present.  She made her way along the forest floor to the man lying with his eyes closed with his hands clutched over the wound trying to stop the bleeding.  It was like trying to stop a river with a branch, totally useless.  The blood seeped through his fingers and out from under his hands.  A small puddle was starting to appear beneath his body. She could tell she did not have much time before his soul left his body and journeyed to the otherworld.  He was as pale as his shirt he was wearing. She grimaced and knelt down beside him.

            “Lie still.  I’ll try to help you, she said in a raspy voice.

            The young man moaned a response.

            She reached out and held her hands over the wound.  She closed her eyes and let the healing power of the earth flow through her.  It felt like a warm fire flickering through her to her outstretch hands.  She could feel the cold of the wound leave his body and enter hers as it passed through her and entered the earth.  She could feel the struggle of life and death within her body but she ignored it and continued to let the magic flow through her.  She doesn’t know how long it had been because she would lose the passing of time when she heals. But she could finally feel the cold of the wound dissipating and becoming as warm as the healing fire; for which, she had chosen to call it.  A few minutes later the healing was complete and she was tired and weakened with the struggle of life and death.  She pulled her hands back and reached for her staff, which she had dropped down on the ground beside her.

            She turned her head to make sure the man did not see her and rose to her feet on shaky legs.   She wanted to escape quickly before the man recovered and discovered her true identity.   She turned to head back into the cover of her treasured forest when a hand grabbed her arm and spun her back around.  She was shocked to discover he recovered so quickly.  As she spun around the hood of her cloak fell down and revealed her face.  She heard a gasped and she knew her freedom was almost over.

            She closed her eyes and then slowly opened them to look up into the sea blue eyes of her youngest brother.  He was two years younger and he had filled out in the last four years.  He was now a young man of eighteen.  He had the same dark hair of their father but he looked more like their paternal grandfather; in fact, Finn would be his grandfather’s twin if he had sandy blond hair.  He had a kind face and he was handsome that she was sure had the young women of the palace swooning over him. She gritted her teeth at the discussed thoughts that all of those innocent women at the hand of a man, who did not value them.

            “Caitlin,” he whispered in shock.

            “Finn,” she replied sharply. “Let go of my arm.”  He let go immediately and stared at her.

            Caitlin O’Maoilriain knew what he saw when he looked at her; an ugly, disfigured person. She had her long light brown hair pulled back because it made it easier to take care of and her deep violet eyes held her anger that he held for him and the rest of her so called family.  But she knew he was staring at the scars that lined her left-side of her face and that also ran down her neck; in fact, the scars cover her left arm and her torso.