Blood Lily Company - Afghanistan, year 1

XXXIII

At breakfast the day after, the Viking looked better. He was starting to joke with us again. So much the better.

We left, I managed to isolate Kris at the back of the patrol, out of earshot of the others. He let himself be pulled back, he suspected that I wanted to talk to him alone.

In front of us, in the middle of the patrol, Erk was chatting with Baby Jane, making her laugh and giving her his big smile, still a bit blurry around the edges.
- He's flirting with her, right? I asked.
- Is that why you ambushed me, Archer?
- No. I've so many questions about you two. And since it's been bothering me for a while, I... I'd rather ask you. You answer only if you want.
- I'm listening.
- When I look at you two, I see a tall guy, handsome and well turned out and, above all, with a mind of steel. And then, opposite, a giant, as beautiful as a young god, so hot that if I swung as Tito does, I would have tried my luck, a man who can lift two guys at arm's length to throw them with quite some force and... mentally, he's the weaker of you two. Well, that's the impression I get. So, of course, I wonder.

He looked at me, then his gaze wandered around us. I noticed that, like all of us, except Baby Jane, of course, he had a three-day stubble – well, four days, right, three is just the expression – and that his right hand was rubbing his cheek without daring to scratch.
- Well, I wondered too. I've known him since we were little, right, and despite everything, I still wonder once in a while. As long as we were in the Legion, he was fine. Oh, he had nightmares after the tigers, but they quickly passed. You see, if all of his scars are traces of what happened to him, not everything that happened to him has necessary left physical marks. You may have noticed that he has no traces of the lashes or the knife slash from the SRH.

He looked at the ground for a moment, then up at his brother's broad back.
- I have several explanations, or reasons, for why he's like this. The first, for me the most important, if you will, is that he's, basically, a sweetheart. And many have asked me why, with his healing gift, so powerful, and his kindness, isn't he a doctor?
- Why?
- Because he can't ration it. He gives everything to the others. I don't have a single scar, not even from a scratch. He heals me, regardless of the severity. It has become reflex, for him. It's worse than that, it's unconscious. After the... At Lake Como, when he wasn't quite... back, he healed me completely. He... they had put my shoulder back in place but it was swollen, sore and that night he had a nightmare, the same, and I touched him to calm down and...

Kris sighed, shaking his head. He seemed to be looking into the distance again, but this time I saw he was mostly looking deep inside himself.
- One day I will tell you in detail the story of the Varda's lifting sling but know that on that day, without his inability to ration his gift, our islands would have lost three inhabitants and gained two severely disabled persons, me included, and a large number of injured. And the doctor who took over from Erik to save the wounded that day advised him not to go into medicine. Because he is not measured in the use of his gift.

He stopped talking, I respected his silence.
- That sweetheart of a man, that big teddy bear, when confronted with malicious, voluntary, gratuitous violence, doesn't know how to manage it, how to assimilate it. Our years as legionaries have done him good, but he's still that nice sweet boy. Look how he was with the kids the other day. Or with women.

Another pause, a sip of water. We were reaching the bottom of our canteens, it was more than time to go home.
- When he's with a woman, he takes care of her, first. When someone needs to talk, he will listen to them with all his attention on them. When someone needs help, he rushes in, without always considering all the parameters. Look how it was with the journalist.

I thought about it all, but it wasn't enough for me, as an explanation. You can be nice and strong mentally, right? Kris looked at me, saw my doubts.
- I have another, more subtle explanation. He has no roots.