Faerunners

Reunions

Pain.

Cold, dull, constant pain filled him. It was unrelenting, uncaring, unending. His whole world was a black expanse of pain. It was an improvement. A grim smile ghosted across his lips, cold and dull was better than sharp and burning. He eased one eye open, wincing at the harsh blast of light that drove through his head.

He let out a breath, and opened the other eye. He was lying on a rough wooden table in the middle of a small room. A counter sat across from him, beneath the window, and piled high with bottles, jars and delicate looking tools.

A door on the opposite side of the room creaked open. “You finally awake in here?” said a thin dusty voice.

Tallis turned his head and found a gaunt woman standing in a doorway. Her hair was the iron grey of a stormy sea and pulled back into a tight bun. Her cheeks were sunken, her eyes were rimmed with dark circles, and deep creases lined her face. If she had said that she had spent the year dead as a tax dodge and only just now come back to life, Tallis would have believed her.

She handed him a glass of water. “I’m glad you pulled through. Your father won’t kill me now.”

Tallis took the cup from her, it seemed heavier than it should have been and he couldn’t stop his hands from shaking. He brought the cup up to his lips and drained it. It was the best thing he had ever tasted. He passed the glass back to her and coughed. It felt like he had a pound of sand in his lungs.

“How are you feeling?” asked the old woman.

“Like I’ve been shot and drug behind a horse,” he said. His voice was dry and brittle, more of a croak than anything.

She leaned over him, lifting the edge of a bandage that had been wound around his chest. “Is that how you feel, or how you got injured?”

“Let’s just go ahead and say both.”

She guided him to a sitting position and coaxed him onto the floor. His legs were rubbery but they held his weight. Taking his shirt and vest from a closet beside the door, she handed him the shirt and shook the vest, cocking her head as it made a faint ringing.

“Faemetal?” she asked.

He nodded.

“You’ll have to write whoever made it for you a thank you letter. It saved your life.”  

He took the vest from her and put it on. The gentle weight of it was comforting. It left him feeling safer.

“There’s not much else I can do,” said the doctor. “Give yourself a few days rest and I imagine you’ll be fine.”

“Sure,” he said, dejectedly. Where was he going to go for a few days? He had no money, no one knew, hell, he didn’t even know where he was. “This might sound stupid, but my father didn’t say where he was staying did he? Last I heard he was on his way to San tempes.”

“He’s been in my front room for two days.”

He nodded his thanks to te doctor and hurried through the door. The front room of hte doctor’s office was home to a counter with a ledger and a cash register atop it, rows of shelves stacked with glass bottles filled the left hand wall, and a low bench sat on the right. Ed was laid out on the bench with a white hat resting over his eyes.

Tallis stepped around the counter and shook him awake.

Edward woke up with a start and bolted upright, clenching both hands into fists.

“Simmer down, dad,” said Tallis, taking a step back. “It’s me.”

A tear rolled down the older man’s cheek and he wrapped his son in a hug. “I didn’t think you’d ever wake up.”