Children of the Forest - Sagas of Yryan - Completed #Wattys2017

Chapter 16: The green mansion

Faolan's fingers were shaking as he tried to feel Moira's pulse. He was waiting, breathless, praying for his sister to be alive, but he couldn't feel a heartbeat. He stayed there until one of the horses came over to him and gave him a soft push. Faolan looked at it as it gently touched Moira's forehead and the horse's eyes started glowing golden.

Now Faolan felt relieved. He got up on shaky legs and stumbled over to his father, who was still lying there. A gentle rain fell from the clouds, which were now black but the drops of water looked like blood. When Faolan reached his father, he knelt down and touched the man's face. It was warm and he felt his father's breath on his fingers. He forced himself to get back up again and run through the rain, which was now quickly getting worse, over to Gram.

The man's face was covered in blood and the blood-like rain didn't help to wash it away, so once Faolan heard Gram groan he took his waterskin, held the man's head up a little and washed the soldier's face. Gram opened his eyes and screamed with pain. His hands grabbed Faolan's shoulders and then he passed out again.

'I'm sorry,' whispered Faolan. 'So sorry.' Then he left his bag under the man's head and examined the scratches. One of Gram's eyes was completely destroyed, there was no way he could ever see with it again. The rest of his face didn't look much better, but it would heal even though there would be nasty scars. The scratches were tiny but deep and blood was streaming from them. Faolan decided that he couldn't do much about it, so he hurried back over to his father. Faolan was completely wet by then and the red water dropped off his fingers, as he lay his hands on his father's face.

'Wake up!' Faolan said. 'Please, I need your help, you have to wake up!' No reaction. Faolan took his coat off, formed a pillow out of it and put it under his father's head. Then he went back to Moira. The horses were standing over her, licking her face.

'Get away!' Faolan shouted and they only looked up at him for a moment before they continued. He had to push them away to get to her. Now that his hands didn't shake as badly as before, he could feel her pulse and he quickly checked her for wounds, but there weren't any, so he took his shirt off, rolled it together and put it under her head.

Then he sat down next to her, feeling the cold red rain on his face and body, closing his eyes and concentrating. Had Moira been awake she'd have screamed because he held her hand so tightly. He made the trees grow a roof above them to keep the rain away and soon he'd turned the whole bridge into a comfortable room with beds made of grass and leaves that grew under Moira and the men. He even built a small separated corner for the horses and made sure the tree the witch was caught in could not be seen.

When Faolan was finished, he felt exhausted but he was still too scared to rest. He heard the storm raging outside, but they were well protected so he ran back and forth between his patients, looking after them. When his father woke up, Faolan gave him some water to drink and a little to eat but forbade him to sit up.

'Where are the others?' Merak asked weakly. He had trouble breathing.

'Over there, they'll be okay. We'll have to do something about Gram's face, though. You rest now, just tell me where you keep your needle and thread and I'll take care of it.' His father directed him to a bag hanging on one of the horses where he kept all kinds of medical stuff. Armed with needle and thread, Faolan went over to Gram. He'd stitched up many wounds in his life, mostly Moira's, but never before in somebody's face.

'I'm glad you're not awake...' he muttered while he cleaned the wounds with a piece of cloth and some alcohol he'd also found in the bag. He started with the scratches on the easier places like the chin and cheek before he got closer to the nose, lips and eyes. 'I'm so sorry for the scars, really,' Faolan said. He kept muttering things to calm himself down. Sometimes he had to take a break because his hands were shaking too badly to continue. When he was done with everything, except for Gram's shattered right eye, he got up again and checked on the others.

His father had fallen asleep and Moira was talking to herself in her sleep. Faolan heard her say something about wolves and packs. He stayed at her side for a while. When he was just about to get up and eat a little, he heard her say goodbye. He took her hand, looked at her face worriedly and saw her eyes open slowly.

'Hi,' he said with a smile on his lips.

'Hi. Why does my head feel as if you'd thrown a stone at it?' Faolan's smile disappeared. Now he knew she was alright, blaming him, as always. But now she smiled at him. 'Mother's gone now. She has let us both go,' she said.

'What?' Could it be that they'd both had the same dream? 'Rest here, I'll bring you some water,' he said.

'Faolan?'

'Yes?'

'I've heard what you shouted when you were falling. You said you,' she started.

'Hush now, go back to sleep. Everything will be fine,' he promptly interrupted her. She gave him a weak smile and closed her eyes.

The storm passed by while they stayed in the green house. Merak was the first to be back on his feet. He checked on Moira before he got to Gram's eye. He skilfully formed an eyepatch after he'd burned out the wound. Faolan had not dared to watch, so he stayed with Moira.

Now that his father was with him again, Faolan fell into a deep sleep. He woke up the next morning to see that Moira was back on her feet. She was still complaining about a headache but apart from that, she was fine. She'd already started explaining everything to their father.

'There you are, sleepy head,' she greeted him. Faolan yawned and stretched while walking over to them.

'How is he?' he asked, looking at Gram.

'He'll be fine. You've done well with the needle, but do yourself a favour and don't tell him it was you, he'd blame you for the scars forever,' their father said. They ate together and the twins told the rest of the story.

Then they were eager to hear about the journey of Merak and Gram, so Merak told them some things but nothing very interesting had happened. They'd lost many days because they'd walked right into a dead end. The main mountain pass had been blocked wherefore they'd been forced to ride all the way around it.

'At first, we thought it was a trap,' Merak said.

'It probably was,' said Faolan. 'If the witch was after you all along, she might have planned to catch up with you there. But since she followed us first, she might have come too late.' The others laughed at his theory, but Faolan didn't mind, at least they laughed again.

Gram didn't wake up until late in the evening. Then he was so hungry he ate until he was absolutely full, although his stitches hurt with every bite. The others pressed him to tell them about how he'd met the witch. He still had trouble remembering, but now that he actually tried, some details came back to his mind.

She'd been there when he was called to see the king. She'd still been there when the king told him there was a war coming and that he had to go get Merak. Other men had been there too, being told to get another one of their old soldier friends. They were given orders and they obeyed, never even asking for any details or reasons for the war. Before he knew it, Gram had been with Merak and the twins. From then on, it was all one big mess, riding through the mountains, always pushing on, right into the witch's trap.

'But why was she after you? And who were these other men?' Moira asked when silence had fallen over Gram.

'I don't know,' he replied. 'Every man I recognized had fought with us in the war, years ago. All good men, all holding important military posts,' he explained. 'They're probably all dead by now.'

// And here we are, this is where you may have to wait before reading on because I'm still working on the new, more detailed ending. Until then, I'd highly appreciate seeing some votes and comments, if you don't know what to say, just let me know what you think about e.g. the names of the characters, the titles of the chapters or the tension build-up etc.! Or just say hi, that's nice, too :D Thanks for reading this far!