Dragon's Key

Chapter 7: Consequences

Gwen rushed over to Tristan now that Gabriel had lowered his weapon.

"Tristan are you alright?" Gwen asked, trying to focus on the knight's injury to block out the emotions whirling in her mind.

"Yes, I do not think that it penetrated much past my gambeson," Tristan replied.

The arrow had struck Tristan in a gap between two plates of his armor, penetrating the chainmail and the gambeson underneath. Gabriel cut the arrow's shaft to let Tristan remove his armor. The gambeson around the arrow was red with blood. Gabriel assisted Tristan in removing his chainmail and getting his gambeson over his head. The arrow had penetrated an inch into Tristan's shoulder with two metal pieces sticking out of his skin at angles on either side of the arrow shaft.

"It is barbed, but thankfully it didn't fully penetrate," Gabriel said, sighing in relief. "Tristan, I am going to pull it out."

Tristan nodded in agreement, a part of his gambeson tunic in his mouth. With a muffled grunt from Tristan Gabriel removed the arrow leaving a bleeding puncture wound.

"You will need to suture the wound," Max said. "Mari, would you get the injury kit out of my bag and bring it over to Gabriel?"

Marigold flew over to Max's bag and retrieved a leather case, bringing it over to Gabriel and Gwen. Gabriel took the kit and pulled out a needle and thread.

"You need to sterilize the needle," Marigold stated.

Putting her hands out in front of her, Marigold spoke something, in what Gwen assumed was Draconic, and a small flame burst to life between her hands.

"Put the needle in the flame," the fairy commanded.

Gabriel did as he was told and started stitching Tristan's wound. Tristan did not appear to react to the pain of the needle at all.

When Gabriel finished with Tristan, he returned his attention to the girl.

"We would like answers as to why you are here," Gabriel said.

"Can't we just let her go?" Gwen's voice was filled with emotion.

"Very well. You may go, but we are not accompanying you back to the capital," Gabriel said, relenting.

The girl smiled at Gwen and began walking along the road back toward the capital.

"Can we just get out of here?" Gwen asked wanting to get away from the bodies.

"Yes, we shall continue our journey," Max said already walking back toward the horses.

The group continued along their way. Gwen was in a daze, not paying much attention to whatever the boys were talking about. Her mind continued to play over the scene of those men's deaths. She wondered about how easily her companions were able to take life. Did they feel no remorse? They were kind and friendly to her, but what if it were all an act? The question that scared Gwen the most was would she become so nonchalant about killing too?

While Gwen's mind raced, the Sun began to become lower in the sky.

Eventually the group decided to make camp for the night. As the group prepared their campground, Tristan walked over and sat next to Gwen.

"What is wrong Gwen? You were really quiet following the bandit attack. Is something the matter?"

"Yes!" Gwen exclaimed. "Something is definitely the matter!"

The emotions that were stirring inside of Gwen were suddenly condensing into anger.

"Those men. You killed them!" Gwen stated.

"Yes, they were bandits and would have done the same to us," Tristan responded with an even tone.

"So, you feel nothing about having taken another human being's life?!" Gwen was now fuming. "All of you can kill and then just go on with your day like nothing even happened! What about me? Am I just some experiment?! Will you just kill me when you get tired of me?!"

Tears began to stream down Gwen's face.

"Why me? Why did I have to be the one to end up in this crazy world? I'm just a normal girl. I go to school, I go to tennis practice, and I hang out with friends in my free time. I never asked for this," Gwen was now sobbing, the anger and frustration morphing into sorrow.

Tristan tried to comfort Gwen, but Gwen sent him away. She went into her tent and laid down. She would get to the Dragon Key as quickly as she could and then she would be home and be able to forget that any of this had happened.

That night Gwen had trouble sleeping. Images of the dead men haunted Gwen's dreams.