Trust From Within - Book 3 Daughter of a Monster Series

Chapter 17- Living Ghosts

Liam swings his legs out of bed. It's been a couple days since he woke up, we've slowly been getting him out of bed, just getting him to move his legs, to put them on the floor. To stand. And now we're going to see if he can take a step. "Does your leg hurt at all?" I ask, crouched down beside his thigh, my magic encasing the bone, keeping it together in case it decides to slip again.

"Uh... there's a little bit of an ache, nothing too bad though," he answers, grimacing as he takes a deep breath, his hand holding over one of his ribs. "My rib hurts quite a bit."

"Shit, let me check that," Karn answers, his hand glowing blue, his pupils disappearing as he scans the bone. "Shit, there's a hairline fracture where one of the cracks was. It's on the one that was crushed, it's not much of a surprise."

"We can strap it, but it should heal by itself, otherwise the bone will just crack again, it's obviously weakened," Nate adds.

"Okay, I'll go get some tape," Karn says and teleports out. He appears holding some of that heavy duty strapping tape that's super expensive at markets. He carefully straps Liam's ribs so that he doesn't move it too much.

"Thanks," Liam sighs.

"Now, you want to try taking a step?" Nate urges him and Liam nods in response. Carefully, he shakily lifts his leg, placing it forward as he tentatively lifts his other leg, following the first, until he's a step away from the bed. "Awesome, now see if you can keep going."

Eventually, Liam is walking lengths of the room, saying that the pain is tolerable and some paracetamol should keep it at bay.

After another couple of days, Nate and I are taking him to the Overworld. One, because we want to make sure Liam is moving okay again, and two, because Nathan needs to have a run around. We've also visited Callum who was very relieved to see Nathan on all fours again, giving his head an affectionate scratch. His sister was out at the stables, so I didn't get the chance to meet her.

We decided today to venture a bit further, Nathan running ahead then sprinting back again, yapping at us as his tail wags casually. He says it's him letting his magic have a bit of control for a while. His magic is very different to mine, Karn's, Dad's or anyone else's that I've known. It's more like a wolf that needs to be unleashed, almost like a werewolf, rather than being more abstract like my own magic, where it's almost like another me. Nate describes it as it having its own mind, like mine, but his is a lot more primal, more driven by instinct rather than plan and action.

It's more animalistic.

Which is why he's a shapeshifter that can only turn into animals. He told me he loved his wolf form the most as he feels the most free in either that one or any type of bird. He can really let loose, he can sit back, and he trusts being on all fours. It was the first form he could take when he was younger. He was just a smaller wolf.

We reach another village, and Nate's voice infiltrates the bond we share. "We should go check it out."

"Why? It's just another village."

"I don't know, I have a feeling. Something's there," he answers cryptically. He runs forward, shifting back into human form as Liam and I jog to catch up with him. We walk into the middle of the village to see a market going on, and I immediately draw my magic in, the sudden onslaught of so many emotions almost knocking me over. "You okay?"

"Yep, lots of emotions, that's all."

We mill through the crowd, my eyes being constantly drawn to a tall figure in a jacket, hands buried in his pockets, and a cap tilted to cast a shadow over his face, obscuring it from view. I shrug it off and look at the little trinket Liam is showing me. It's some sort of winding spiral thing. Nate comes up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and I yelp at the sudden contact, causing him to chuckle. "I got something for you," he says in a low voice, and I feel him take my wrist, gently looping a chain bracelet around it, a few charms decorating the metal.