Valiant

Chapter 52: For Everything Else

Away we ride, plunging through Baelik's heart, to the place where no man dares call home. The trees swarm around us as we ride, caging us in their wooden arms. When I am sure we have not been followed, I slow Vindr to a halt, letting him graze on the grass of the clearing as Nora and I gather firewood. A brook babbles nearby, cheerful despite the terrible gloom cast upon the dark place.

With a ring of stones for my fireplace, I strike my flint repeatedly against Starfyre's blade, and the sparks repeatedly vanish against the wet wood. Screwing my face, I attempt again, and again, trying to quell the rush of frustration rising in my stomach. Finally, with a huff of exasperation, I sit back on my heels and glare at the stubbornly unlit wood

Finally, a thought occurs to me, and I curse myself for not thinking of it sooner. I must have been hit on the head harder than I thought, I muse as I stretch my hand over the cold campfire. My hand tingles as usual, but with a little concentration, the tingling begins to be shot through with needles of pain, causing me to wince and falter for a second. The air around my palm cools down and I curse as I start from the beginning.

Nora comes over to me, placing a hand on my back. Her hand is warm and soft on my shoulder blades as she peers beside my head at the empty fireplace. At her touch, the inferno in my stomach belches pure heat through the scar in my hand, tipping the pain into reality, making the air hiss and shimmer in the darkness. Then, a bit of kindling curls and smokes, before finally bursting into greedy tongues of light. The rest of the fire soon follows, steaming and popping, and I release the connection with my power.

Nora had taken Vindr's saddle blanket and laid it before the fire to stretch out on. Wearily, I unbuckle my armor straps and lay my under-clothes bare to the world. Sighing in relief, I roll my shoulders and pop my neck. I gasp, reveling in the euphoric sense of weightlessness that inevitably follows my freedom from the heavy steel shell. Truly, among my most favorite sensations is the feeling of stripping armor from my body at the end of a long day. In the brook, I wash the blood gore from my body, shivering in the icy grasp of the water's touch. I move as quickly as possible, and at the same time, Nora returns from upstream.

Nora sits curled in a ball, gazing into the fire with eyes wide open. A missed speck of blood on her arm has hardened into an ugly brown, and she remains completely still. "Nora?" I ask, and she starts like I had poked her with a brand.

"Raphael, I don't think I'm going to get any sleep tonight. You go on and get some rest."

I open my mouth to protest, but my muscles give way to the heat of the fire and the hard, autumn chill on my back, relaxing instantaneously. I am asleep before my head hits the ground. My rest is a hard, black slumber, leaving me with the impression that I had just closed my eyes before I open them again.

The first thing I see is a dull, grey light on the horizon through the trunks of skeletal trees. Dawn has not yet risen, I know. The fire has cooled to red embers that malignantly heat the air around them. My back feels cold and stiff, as do my triceps and hamstrings, and my left foot crawls with limb-sleep.

I wonder why my front side feels so warm with the fire so low, and I am surprised to find Nora's body curled against my own. Her body is contorted into a ball at my chest, with her back against my chest, rising and falling softly with breath. My arm lies draped over her, resting with my bicep at her waist and my hand at her kneecap. My other arm lies under her head, stretched flat over the ground towards the edge of the fire.  

My first thought is panic. How did this happen?! I didn't sleepwalk, did I? Oh, gods, if she wakes up now-

At this, she uncurls a little against me and glances over her shoulder toward me.