The Tales of Scora

Chapter Twelve

(Quick author's note! I honestly feel like this chapter is pretty lame, but this is just the first draft so I'm not too worried. Thanks to everyone who's tuning in!!)

  "Here, this should work," Beira said softly, everyone following her into an alcove in the side of the mountain they were ascending; they settled down deep inside the recess, the stone walls blocking the harsh wind that only got colder as the night grew nearer.
"Shh, it's alright," Raelyn hummed.  No it isn't. She thought, as Drago sank to the cave floor, miserably sobbing.
"I'll make a fire..." Beira said, and everyone fell into tense silence, Drago's sobs being the only sound to penetrate it.
"Let me look at your wings, okay?" Raelyn whispered, a hand on Drago's trembling arm. He didn't reply, and simply turned onto his side, facing away from her as he cried. Taking a heavy breath, Raelyn held back her tears, gently examining the deep cut on his wings. "Chibi," she called softly, and the healer promptly arrived. "Can you heal this?"
"I should be able to, but it might take two days..." She frowned. "I get nauseous when I heal."
"That's alright, do what you can, okay?"
"What about you? That cut looks deep, you'll need stitches." Oh yeah. I'm injured. Raelyn thought, feeling the burning strip of pain along her back.
"I'm fine," she replied, "worry about him." She leaned in to whisper, "He's in enough pain, he deserves to have his injuries healed first." Chibi nodded, and kneeled down, placing her hands carefully on his wound.

Raelyn winced, pain shooting up her back as she limped away, kneeling on the ground a little ways away from the campfire; she needed a minute alone. She unclasped her cloak and took it off, her eyes welling with tears at the sight of the ragged slice down the middle. "Just wonderful," she muttered, sniffling softly as her face crumpled. She took her satchel off her shoulder, searching through it for something to sew the fabric up with when she realized something was missing. "Wait, no, no no no," her eyes widened in panic as she frantically looked through the bag and its pockets... her wedding ring was gone. It must've fallen out during the struggle.
She hid her face in her shaking hands, quietly sobbing. Could today get any worse? "Hey..." It apparently can.
"What, Ren? What do you want?" Raelyn snapped nasally, wiping her face but not looking up at her knight.
"I know you don't want to talk to me." Ren said gently, weakly sitting beside her.
"You're right, so why are you here?" Raelyn retorted, glaring at her. "Ailia's dead, Kiernan's cloak ripped, and to top it all off, I lost my wedding ring—!" Ren held out her hand, and Raelyn finally gazed up at it. She gasped softly, eyebrows raising at the sight of her ring in Ren's palm.
"I found it while we were leaving," Ren smiled sadly, placing the gold and amethyst ring in Raelyn's trembling hand. "I'll leave you alone, I just... I knew you'd want to have that." Raelyn watched as Ren pulled herself up and started walking away, and opened her mouth to speak, but floundered. "Oh, and... I know you hate me now but I'm here... if you need to talk about what happened."
"Thank you," She called quietly, and Ren simply brushed it off. Raelyn slipped the ring back on her finger, smiling sadly at the memories. She sobbed softly, "I don't hate you," she breathed to herself, gazing over at Ren, who was taking a seat by the fire. "I could never hate you..."

"Shh, Rivka, I'm here," Rydel whispered as the teen cried on his shoulder. Beira sat beside them and simply stared into the fire, fidgeting as thoughts whirled around in her mind. Ailia was gone, which meant so were all of their herbs and a lot of their medical supplies; as well as the antidote to Belladonna. But Raelyn needed stitches, and Drago would need his wounds dressed, and all they had were whatever they could scrounge out of their medpacks, a few measly bandages, and nothing to clean the injuries with.
"All done for tonight," Chibi said softly, pulling her hands away from Drago. "I'm so sorry..." Her words made him sob loudly, and everyone's hearts broke further.
"Someone needs to help Raelyn with her injury." Ren said as she returned to the fire. "It's pretty deep; my hands aren't steady enough, and I don't know if she'd let me."
"I'll do it." Beira sighed, digging through her bag for something to suture with. "But we can't stitch it until we can clean it, so unless we have some sort of disinfectant, we can't do anything."
"Don't we have—? Oh..." Chibi began, her expression dropping. "Ailia had everything..." She breathed, tears welling in her eyes.
"I might have some alcohol in my pack." Rydel whispered.
"No, that'll just make it worse and make her bleed more." Beira shook her head, cradling her head in her hand. "We're just going to have to dress it for now, at least until we get to Mistralania."
"But what if it gets infected?" Ren asked, anger lacing her tone.
"Ren, don't be sharp with me. There's nothing else we can do, we don't have a choice!"
"Guys, enough." Raelyn said, stepping over and wiping her cheeks. "I'll be fine. How much longer until we get to Mistralania?"
"About a day, maybe not even." Beira replied.
"I can wait a day." Raelyn smiled weakly, her expression darkening immediately after.