Dorothy and the Monster 2

Chapter Two

Dorothy

I WATCH NERVOUSLY as the healer walks through the door, flanked by Vorgath's brothers. An older woman with deep wrinkles etched into her skin, her gray hair is pulled back in a tight bun. She wears a long, flowing gown in shades of green and gold and her eyes gleam with otherworldly knowledge. She holds a bag clamped closely against her.

"You must be Lady Dorothy," she says, her voice deeper than I expected but somehow melodic. "You can call me Bilahk. I've heard so much about you. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances."

I smile back, relieved that someone is finally here to help. "Thank you for coming," I say, "The pleasure is mine."

Her expression turns serious. "Tell me, what symptoms has he exhibited since he's been brought back?"

I let out a sigh before I speak, "I can't really put them all into words. He's just very unstable and sometimes makes sudden erratic sounds, as if he's scared of something." I can hear the frustration in my own voice as I continue, "In the few minutes before you arrived, he was clawing at some sort of invisible figure, and when I tried to calm him down, he did this to me,"

I open my sleeve up slightly to reveal the red marks on my skin.

"I'm so sorry about this, Dorothy," Grimgar says quickly, regret in his eyes. "I shouldn't have left you alone with him."

"I'm okay, and it's not your fault. He doesn't even know what he's doing."

The elderly woman keeps nodding before turning her attention to Vorgath. He's calm now. He's been like this since his brothers left in search of the healer. Long moments of calmness, followed by sudden outbursts. It scares me that he might not be himself again. I wonder what they did to him over there.

Bilahk drops her bag on the floor and moves to his bedside. She carefully lifts Vorgath's limp arm, examining the bruises and cuts that cover his skin, then makes a grunting sound that suggests the situation is worse than she expected.

She walks back to her bag and brings out what looks like a bundle of dried leaf sticks.

"Step back, will you?" she asks, and we quickly obey.

When she's beside Vorgath once more, she lights up the bundle and a strange smell engulfs the room. I can barely see her face behind the smoke.

She says some words I cannot make out. The looks on the faces of Vorgath's brothers suggest that they don't understand what she is saying either. After a while, the smoke disappears as quickly as it came.

I look down at Vorgath. His face is covered in sweat, and I realize how thin he's become. They must have cruelly starved him when he was in captivity.

Bilahk turns to us. "This is serious," she says, her voice grave. "But I have seen worse. With time, he can recover, but the variables depend on so many things."

"What do you mean?" Grimgar asks, concern etched all over his face.

"That evil vagabond, Zorak, has placed a curse inside him." Her facial features harden as she mentions Zorak's name. "The way the spell works, it's like a poison. And it seems the curse has rooted itself deeply within him." The woman stops for a brief moment, as if she's trying to find the right words to tell us the scary part.

She continues, turning to me, "What you have just seen is nothing compared to what he'll show when he regains his strength." She pauses again.

Vorgath's brothers look at each other and then turn to me. I don't know what to do or say. I'm still trying to process all of it.