The Stableboy's shadow (BL)

Chapter 13

It wasn't for long.

I jolted awake after hearing the ear-splitting cracks of my hand. It was the kind of pain you desperately try to alleviate by moving your body to ease it, only to find out there's nothing to be done about it but to endure. Endure and try to breathe, and think through the mind-numbing pulses of agony your body screeches at you. I managed to stay somewhat in place.

- Keep talking, I grunted. Horses. Why those awful beasts?

I felt his confusion, the shadows around his body shaking with nausea and he gulped down what wanted to come out. Alongside the jolting throbs of my legs, which felt like nothing compared to my hand, I tried to not get influenced by his disgust of my situation. The magic traveled down to my feet, fixing the micro-fractures along my tibias.  I gritted my teeth.

- they're gracious and magnificent, intelligent creatures, he finally answered. I always felt drawn to them, I almost literally grew up in the stables. My parents are the housekeepers of the mansion, so they have to run around a lot. All the staff raised me, but I was more managed by those with stationary jobs. My favorite place was the stables. Adrian will never admit it, but I think he always liked having me around, even before I started working with him. I'm almost more familiar with horses than people. Boss says I have a gift, but it's mostly because of that. Why do you hate them?

- They're loyal to a point. Humans awaken the shadow part of them, yet I have no control over it. Bad memories.

My hand felt ten times its own size, pulsating with intense pain with each heartbeat. As the soothing part of the magic started working on my hand, the shadow of pain reached my fingers and I blocked my breath. One after the other, with excruciating pauses in-between my fingers snapped back into place, each crack more painful than the other. My whole body was stiff, and bile rose to my throat again. Between crack two and three, I let the acid out to the side. Percevin winced. Finally, the last of my broken bones repaired itself and I slowed my breathing down. The pain was still bad, but more manageable.

- Hand me the fourth one.

It took him a few seconds to snap out of it. He nodded and reached for my backpack with one hand, clumsily touching around to find the other phial labeled with a four. This one would be a repellent blood red-brownish color, and I shivered just thinking about the taste that was, indeed, as bad as it looked.

It was really a bad idea. I shouldn't have drunk it, but I didn't think twice before swallowing it whole when he handed the open phial for me. I'd be supposed to wait at least an hour. I feared dying from the pain more than overdosing on the potion. I tried once again not to breathe nor think about it. Kinda didn't work.

I swore with a cough and my waterskin appeared in my vision, I quickly opened it and started chugging down huge gulps of lukewarm water. After a few seconds, I brought it back down and started breathing again. The medicine travelled ever so slowly in my body.

- How does this whole thing work, asked the confused boy. Why six different potions?

- One heals any type of internal bleeding and damaged organs, two solidifies torn muscles and ligaments so it doesn't get worse. Three snaps bones back into place, four relieves the pain and takes care of injuries caused by three. Five and six finalize the mending on every broken bone and muscle and sooth the pain.

With the pain slowly subsiding, leaving my body heavy and somewhat weightless, I tried to let it do its work. I put my fixed hand down on my thigh. Percevin eyed me with more confusion. I didn't care to answer his unasked questions and I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. All of my body felt so relieved, unbothered by fear that yielded its place to comfort.