Phoenix Fire

18 - We've all lost someone

KAENA

I could heat the bell toll as Hild and I made our way through the courtyard. 

There must have been at least three dozen bodies that we passed on our way to the steps, all covered in white sheets and lying in a row. Hild stopped stock still when she saw them. 

"Come on Hild." I urged, walking ahead, but she didn't move.

"This one's smaller." She whispered.

"You'll make yourself feel worse, oh no, don't do that." She had knelt down beside the body and pulled back the sheet.

She stared, her eyes wide with horror. I could see the pale face of a boy, his blue veins popping out of his head like all the other victims. Hild had refused to look directly at any of the bodies before, so I doubted she even knew what the effects of the illness looked like. Your skin went deathly white and blue streaks appeared all over your body where your veins were. 

"It's the boy, from the lower village." She said in a hoarse voice. "The son of the man we visited yesterday." She pulled some of his brown hair out of his face, like an older sister with a sick brother.

"Hild there was nothing we could do." I told her, going to stand beside her. "We have to go."

"He was so..." She struggled with the concept, "so alive. Shouting at us." She gave a dry laugh. She got up and began to follow me to the castle. 

"Wait." She said, turning around to go back.

"Hild, come on, we'll be late for Gaius." I felt a little cruel for saying this, but there was no point in dwelling on what we couldn't fix.

She bent down again. "His eyes are open." She murmured, before using her two fingers to shut them. She covered up his face with the sheet. She looked up at me, a fire in her eyes. "They were such a lovely brown. Now they'll never open again."

"You're right." Was all I could manage.

"I am going to devastate the person behind all this." She told me, finally catching up to me. I felt a knot in my stomach. I was almost certain it must be Garwynn. She had caught up to me. This was why Camelot was plagued, I could feel it.

"I know. I'll be right there with you." I replied. She began to look back, but I put my arm around her shoulder and firmly guided her up the steps. 

It was when we finally got to Gaius' chambers that Hild finally exploded, throwing her dagger into a table.

"Excuse me, that one was hardly burnt!" Gaius protested.

"A CURFEW!" She yelled, absolutely fuming.

"Arthur caught up with us on our way here," I explained, glancing at the new body laid out on one of the tables. She was a female courtier, probably in her early twenties. 

"HE'S SHUTTING OFF THE LOWER TOWN!" She screamed, throwing another knife.

"Wait who is?" Merlin asked, pulling the knives calmly out of the table, and passing them back to Hild.

"Uther." She snarled, throwing another as she said it. Merlin obediently pulled it out and passed it back to her. Despite the horror of the plague I couldn't help but smile at myself a little. It looked like a game of fetch with a dog. While I got bored of Hild's temper, Arthur and Gaius got infuriated, and Gwen just looked astonished if it happened around her, Merlin seemed patient. Understanding. Like he knew this was the only way she could understand her own emotions. Sometimes I figured for such a small person, perhaps she exploded like this because the feelings she had were just too big for her body.