The Coming

CHAPTER 12 - WORDS AND FEARS

...A dew-sack is a membrane sack inside an Aspect's body, where water together with sugars and other nutrients is filtered from the rest of the Aspect's Sap. Not only the contents of the dew-sacks are safe to drink but they seem to neutralize to an extent some of the toxins accumulated into a person's body. Some evidence suggests that the Aspects actively kept their dew-sacks toxin-free as a mechanism to concentrate the amount of toxins present to the rest of their sap. It was not known, however, why the dew-sacks existed or how the Aspects truly used them although some elders think they were somehow involved during the first stages of the vermin-pods' formation. The only certain thing is that all Aspects have a variable number of dew-sacks depending on their species, or stage of development...

Journal entry 01-03-31-03 from the Personal records of Ahien the Elder.

'How is he?'

'Well, he definitely received a beating. What did this to him?'

'It was a young Reaper'

'You killed it?'

'I am still here.'

'Yes I guess you are.'

Io fell silent. She knew Paschal would excuse her patronizing spirit. In any case, she was not in an apologetic mood at the moment. She looked around, over the large cave that served as the infirmary. Apart from Cain, Paschal and herself, the chamber was empty. A large fire burned at its centre while long torches were burning brightly against the cavern's walls. There were beds and benches scattered across all walls while the centre of the room remained mostly empty. Io turned her gaze towards Cain.

'Is he going to make it?'

'I can't tell at the moment. He lost a lot of blood and an infection is setting in. I did everything I could; the rest is up to him. '

'I see.'

'I wish I had better news for you Io. At this stage we can only hope. A pray or two couldn't hurt either. '

Io turned to face Paschal once more, her expression dark and empty as a cave.

'Make sure you do the best you can for him.'

'Will do.'

'Good.'

And with that she was gone. Paschal watched her go and then focused his attention on Cain again, while he muffled a low murmur to the unconscious man.

‘You better get well Lad. Although old, I am not fond of dying just yet. But that is exactly what will happen to me if I get myself in Io’s hands, should you choose to follow your great fathers before your time have come.’ He said as he checked on Cain’s pulse.

Low. Still too low. He thought as his lips made a tight frown. With the help of the light from the torches on the wall nearest to him, Paschal searched his numerous bowls, and then started to mix some of their contents up.

***

          Thunt opened his eyes to find himself to his familiar surroundings at his settlement. His wife Tara was working on their fire, keeping the flame alive and gathering the ashes for later use. She has been up long before dawn, her nightmares made sure of that. She had spent most of the time until dawn just looking at Thunt as he slept. Then, when the rest of the Den started to wake up, she went on with her usual day routine. Thunt noticed how worn and frail his once beautiful wife looked as her body was illuminated by the fire’s light and his heart sank. He got up and without saying a word, approached her from behind, embracing her in both his arms. He felt her little body momentarily tensing stiff as a rock before it finally relaxed as she turned to face him.