Mantrin Imperial Guard - 005 Ethos of Solbrecht

Chapter 8: Raindrops, Part II

Salu and Moa

As a doctor, Salu knew all too well that he should not let himself be led by fear. Fear of making decisions in matters of life and death. Fear of having a patient die under one's care. Despite knowing this all too well, having lived by this litany from the moment he set foot in the hospital where his parents worked, he found himself in the veritable grip of it.

After cleaning himself up by the lake, and Moa staying at his side the entire time until the trio that committed the act of murder had removed the bodies while waking up half the village in the process, they returned to their room where they each sat down on their own bed in quiet. With his hearts struggling to find a steady rhythm, his breath coming in short uneven bursts, he stared at the rug occupying the space between his and Moa's feet.

The pale rays of Solbrecht's moons cast a faint sheen over the Fjetanha girl's black toe claws. Her tufted ears had lowered to a horizontal position, her long plumed tail laying on the mattress like a piece of rope, and her arms resting in her lap in a gesture of defeat like his own. There was that slight sparkle of her eyes. The glitter of her canines when she opened her mouth to speak. When she did, she sounded much more timid than usual. She bared witness to this coldblooded murder, he was certain of it.

"Salu? This place is starting to freak me out. I think we should leave."

Of course they should. The only thing that had kept them was their patient who walked the road of recovery with firm steps. Dahru responded well to the medicine, his condition improved to the point where he was capable of walking without aid and making conversation. Leaving in the middle of the night would be unwise for various reasons, even if the guards hadn't been there to prevent an unseen escape. Which again raised the unnerving question if they would let them.

Weighing the different possibilities, his conclusion was that with the guards on high alert for the night, they might as well try to catch some rest. Then there was the other promise he had made to share his knowledge with Aiyee and Kumah to increase the community's chances of survival. After all, two members of his own family had found their new home here.

If his strong sense that the group had joined Wyr'Mo'Gwi's cause, or was at least on the verge of answering their call, wasn't enough reason to be worried, the internal lack of knowledge regarding the art of healing only added to it.

"We will, Moa," he answered, keeping his voice as steady as possible, despite his shivering in a room in which he had spent the first part of the night sweating like a Logri in midsummer. A fresh load of it moistened his sloppily applied poetyo, as well as the broader strips of cloth wrapping the mattress. Shifting his gaze toward the thin curtain in front of the open wall panel, stirred by that still present humid breeze, his ears picked up the rustling of grass and the light thread of one of the patrolling guards, as well as the whisper of voices. "I... I have one more promise to keep, but tomorrow will be our last day here." "I hope," he added in thought.

Untucking the already loosened strips of both parts of her poetyo, his companion dropped them on the floor and returned to the same position as before under the thin sheet.

"Try to get some sleep, Salu," she whispered after a soft yawn.

Easier said than done, given the fact that he already spent two nights of difficult sleep in a bed that felt like he had Solbrecht's equivalent of ants crawling all over his skin. On top of that, the disconcerting thoughts he had before, conjoined with the mental images that had been etched into his mind, threatened to gain the upper hand over rational thought.

During the next cycle, or so he guessed, of lying awake, Moa also sounded much more fidgety than before, tossing and turning before finally finding a position to return to her gentle rhythm of light breathing and the incidental soft snore. Trying to use her rhythm as his own, he managed to lapse into a restless slumber.