NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY: The Adventures of the Creeping Bam (BOOK 4: The Hunt)

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: KESLA

"I really wish you'd let me do this as soon as I got to you." Krakka grumbles now, giving me a frustrated side-eye while he pours his healing magic into my ribs. I can feel it working already, what the sympathetic mending didn't do when he set my knee right again starting to take hold while each breath I take hurts less than the last. I still tense each time I take in a lungful of air, uncomfortably aware it's largely in my head now, really. I'm exhausted, just like the rest of us, so while his magic's working well enough as always I ain't really feeling it anywhere near so well as I'd like.

"I was not a priority." I reply through still-gritted teeth, leaning my head back as I will this to work a bit faster so I can just relax for a few minutes. "More'n one of 'em needed you a fuckload quicker'n I did when you finally made it in here. I couldn't have you dulling what you had on me 'fore you got to 'em."

He looks down now as I start bending my knee again, working it some to loosen it up a bit more. 'Spite of him fixing it up it's still a little stiffer than I'd really like, and I might still need it before the end o' the night. 'Specially if I do go with the new plan.

"How is it?"

"It'll serve." I growl, although now it's more just due to my mood, the pain's already fading fast now as the knitting in my ribs seems to be racing towards completion. "I just wish this bloody thing'd stay fixed. It had the worst bloody timing to go out on me, I swear."

"Well I imagine you tweaked it doing something spectacularly foolish, just like the last time I had to repair it again." He meets my sharp glare with an unflinching look of his own. "Am I wrong?"

Rolling my eyes, I let my head drop back again. "No, you ain't. But I did have more pressing concerns at the time. I wasn't paying attention."

"That is how it tends to happen." He presses one final time, and when I don't wince this time he lets out a heavy sigh and takes his hand away at last. The warmth lingers for several moments after, the last lingering licks of pain already starting to fade. "What about this?"

"No, this one I got honestly. That sellsword, Mallys ... she's bloody good. She got a lucky shot in. If it hadn't been for Janna's tailoring I'd have bought it up there." I take a deep breath and draw my legs up again, leaning forward now as I lean forward onto my feet so I can plant them under me to start pushing myself up. I pause a moment while I'm crouched now, waiting for my knee to twinge and lock up on me again, but it behaves itself and I let the breath go slow as I shove myself upright. In spite o' the lingering remnants of his magic there's still a lot of joints in me complain some before I'm standing again. "Fuck ... I dunno, you'd think I'm still too young to feel this old."

"Please go easier on yourself, Kesla." he sighs, sounding every bit as tired as I am but also a good deal more regretful as he has to lean into the wall to aid him in following me up. "My Lady can only do so much, you've still gone too long without any real rest. Things have been bad enough for the others, I couldn't bear it if ..."

When he falters now I look down at him, seeing the despair welling up in him as he picks up his hammer and swings it up across his shoulder. I step close and lay my hand against his back, giving him a little push which he lets tilt him gently into my side. He lets his head rest against my now mended ribs and press a little more firmly, not really a hug but affectionate enough under the circumstances. "It's all right, old man. We're ... good enough, for now. 'Least this part of it's over."

For a moment he starts to nod, but then his frown returns and he turns a much more wary look up to me now. "Wait ... I don't understand, this part? What are you saying –"