Peacebringer

Chapter Fourteen - Dark Creatures

Havi and Asha hurriedly walked to the medical house, a makeshift hospital for the resistance. They had plenty of people who knew enough about medicine to keep it fully functional. When I spoke to Havi years later, he told me all about how efficient they were with dealing with minor injuries. It also helped that certain kinds of spinning could help with certain illnesses and injuries. Water spinners, for example, were well known for being good at helping with burns. The resistance members had learned about this mostly through trial and error. Before that, magical medical care had been a practice mostly left to witches and wizards, enchanting bandages and salves to promote healing.

The house was fairly small. Asha was surprised it wasn't bigger with how often the camp was attacked. At the time, she guessed that maybe the healers were just that efficient. While that was true, it was also because many of the injuries caused by rangers were not treatable. This makeshift hospital was more for injuries like scrapes, bruises, and broken bones.

They entered through a small wooden door at the front of the house, and they saw a short hallway with a few rooms branching off from it. Havi lead her to the room at the very back of the house.

It was painted a lovely shade of green on the inside, and Finn was in a bed against the back wall. He appeared to be sleeping.

Asha looked carefully at his face. There were bandages laid carefully around his jaw, and going down his neck and shoulder. His entire arm was wrapped in cloth, and it seemed like there was some sort of a salve underneath the bandages.

"Finn..I..." Asha was having trouble speaking again. Her throat and eyes would be rubbed raw by the end of the day. "I'm sorry." She knelt by his bed and took his good hand in hers. Now the tears were pouring. She sniffled, letting out a quiet sob.

"No need to be so dramatic!" Finn's eyes sprang open and his face twisted into a cheeky grin.

"YOU WERE AWAKE?" Asha squeezed his hand as she yelled at him.

"Ouch! Are you going to destroy my other hand too? Relax!" Finn continued smiling, even though it was obvious his face hurt.

"I just...I thought I killed you." Asha wiped her eyes.

"Nah, it takes more than that to kill me. And by the way, when were you going to tell me that you're a FIRE SPINNER?"

"I didn't know." Asha shrugged. "I found out when you did!"

"That was some pretty impressive spinning though," Finn remarked. "Even though I took the worst of it."

"You should have seen the rangers run though," Havi interrupted. "The ones who weren't decimated got out of there as fast as they could! They burn like dry leaves. I don't think they'll bother us for a while!" Havi beamed. Asha smiled shyly.

Why am I being so weird around Havi? Asha thought to herself. She had never felt like this before. Is this what LIKING someone feels like? It was a combination of feeling lightheaded, nauseous, and deliriously happy all at once. It was weird. She had never been shy before. I hate feelings, she thought. She had butterflies in her stomach and residual tears on her face. It had been a weird day.

Asha noticed Finn's smile lessen a little when he saw how she looked at Havi. She wasn't sure if it was confusion or surprise. She just hoped he hadn't caught on.

At some point during this incredibly awkward moment where everyone was staring at everyone else making a variety of facial expressions, one of the healers walked in with a tray of medicine. I only wish I could have been there to see it in person.