A Whisper to the North

Chapter XXII ✠ Pains and Pins

The blood coming from Frey's neck started to drip down his shoulders and on to Una. She was trying to gait Gwen gently across the grassy lands, avoiding every hard bump she could.

"I'm so sorry! Hang in there, Frey. We're going to fix you up soon! I promise!" Una said.

"You...sound...worried," Frey said with labored breathing and was still able to muster a small smile.

Una and Frey had passed the dyke long ago, and a few moments prior, Frey woke up. Now they are following a path Una spotted in hopes that it would lead to a village. Una was a very skilled healer herself, but she lacks the tools she needs to clean and suture Frey's wounds. He has a crushed windpipe, broken ribs, a broken middle finger. Both of his ears, eyes, and nose were bleeding. There was a large sword gash in his shoulder when they pushed him to the ground.

"We're almost there!" Una insisted as Gwen hit a bump and Frey grimaced in pain.

He was latched on to Unalike an infant. His hands were weakly grasped to her cloak, and his head was laid on her breast. He trembled and shook from both fear and blood loss. A lock of hair was missing next to his damaged shoulder when he was stabbed down. Una felt like she was with Selene again, trying to get her help, but who could she run to in this forest?

"Yvar...where...is he?" Frey begged.

Una was glad he was asking questions, even though it was painful to hear. It meant he was still alive. The sweet sound of bloody lips forming sentences was reassuring.

"Forget him. We need to get you help, Frey. You're hurt pretty badly."

"haha, really?" Frey coughed.

"Ahh!" He winced in pain.

"Try not to do that! You will only hurt your ribs!" Una pleaded.

Frey looked up at Una as they stopped on top of a large hill. Una looked down to meet his face, speckled with red dots from strangulation and the sclera of his eyes are red as rubies. He looked at Una with a strange look, the look for help for being scared. Una had seen this many times on the battlefield. If she didn't hurry, she was going to lose Frey.

"Frey, I see a town in the distance! Try to stay awake, please!" Una begged him.

He would not take his eyes off of her. He was fading.

"Frey, what's wrong!" Una cried as he coughed and blood spewed across her chest, and Frey fell back limp.

"Frey!" Una screamed.

Una pulled him close and clicked Gwen into a heavy gallop down the hill. Gwen was not used to this, so Una had little control of the reins. She was holding Frey in one arm, and in the other, she had the reins.

"The woods, Gwen!" Una shouted.

Gwen swerved right and flew out of the tall grasses and into the dark of the woods ahead of them by a divine miracle.

"Good girl, keep going. We mustn't stop! Please, Gwen, Frey's hurt!" Una cried to her as Gwen heaved and pawed across the soft moss of the woods.

Suddenly she felt her body fly forward. She was able to catch Frey and swivel him on top of her so he wouldn't hit the ground. Una felt her shoulders skid and collide into a log as her leg became lodged into a large branch and twisted. An immense pain struck through her neck like a bolt of lightning. Frey was limp, laying on her stomach, unconscious.

"Gods!" Una cried.

She looked back and saw the two horses snorting and pawing at the ground. Between them was a large maple. The tree was shaking, and dead leaves were shaken off from the branches around them. Una can see now that the reins attached to Gwen's saddle had become wrapped across the tree, separating the horses and flinging her off with Frey when they couldn't move further.