The Elevated Tree

11 Ache

They let me in to see her then. There was just one other elf inside the hut, a druid, squatting by Kendra's head where she lay on a mat, but they moved as I came in.

I approached slowly, drinking in the site of my friend, now frail and sickly looking, curled up into a semi-fetal position on the ground. Her skin was lighter than normal, and, as I knelt on the packed dirt, I reached out and brushed some hair that had fallen on her face back behind her ear. All but her bangs was braided behind her head, but messily, like someone just threw it up. Her eyes were closed, at first glance peacefully resting, but her skin also shone with a slight sheen of sweat that betrayed a fever. Her body was putting up a fight to the venom.
Looking at the druid to see if he'd stop me, I reached out and clasped her free hand, which was clenched up by her chest. She didn't respond, though her hand reclenched around my fingers.

A tremor shook her, and I noticed she wasn't covered with anything.
"Why doesn't she have a blanket? She freezing!" I scolded the druid.
He gave me a patient but corrective glance. "Its not a fever of the brain, child, and cannot be sweated out by heat. Her only hope....lies in an antidote, or a miracle." He looked as if he'd changed or omitted something from his reply last minute.

I didn't respond, but neither did I argue with him any longer.

My friend, my best friend, was laying in front of me, fighting for her life on her own. I could do nothing about the death coursing through her blood veins. My eyes rebelled at looking at her still form any longer and roamed the room. The dappled afternoon light fell across the far wall, giving the space a waving look. The shelves of random learning supplies lined the other wall, scrolls and quills haphazardly left for the next teaching time. A few things had been spilled, I assumed in their rush to get Kendra in here and settled quickly. We had such...innocent times here, such normal times. That it, and my memories of it, should be marred by this... this catastrophe broke something in my heart.

Now I felt like breaking something, so I eased my hand out of Kendra's pale one before I accidentally took it out on her.
Without speaking, I stood and spun and walked out where Keina and Gal seemed to be waiting for me.

"What happened?" I questioned, in a tone I hoped sounded mature.

Keina was obviously waiting for this question, or one like it, because her answer had a memorized sound to it.
"We found Terin, understood the danger she told us of, realized we had to take care of it before the Webwood's decided to all come out into the glen at the same time. Kendra and I went in, well equipped and with torches and were able to kill a few dozen of them without incident."

She paused in her narrative, and just then I noticed the state of her clothes. They were ripped in odd places, and covered in dirt and spider gore. The fact that she might deserve pity too just made me madder.

"We thought we must've been almost done when we came to a larger room where a group of them rushed us. We fought back to back until there were only a few left when we felt another presence. What I took for a shadow detached itself from the closest wall and attacked us with a fury. Kendra was still dispatching her few, she had run out of arrows by then, and only had her Katar knife. I think the Matriarch must've gotten her once then, 'cause she yelled louder, but as soon as mine were dead, I shouted "retreat!" and we shuffled back to the opening.  I spun to take the brunt of the new threat but could barely keep all its legs at bay. We made it to the opening, and as soon as I realized it couldn't fit well, I restrung my bow and loosed my remaining arrows into it wherever I could. I think it realized we needed to be neutralized because it turned to fit in the tunnel better. Thats when Kendra yelled again and lunged at the things eye pocket with her knife. That killed it, but not before it got its fangs in her one more time."