Kurtis looked like he wanted to protest, but a sharp look from Fritz stopped him in his tracks.
“Okay, we’ll go,” Calen said through gritted teeth. A wicked grin curled at the corner of Fritz’s mouth.
Dann stared at him, his mouth agape. “What are you doing?”
“Rist is hurt, Dann. We need to get him away from these assholes and make sure he’s okay. That’s more important than fighting with these three. Can you get him to his feet? I’ll carry the bags.”
Dann replied with a resigned nod.
Calen gathered their supplies, and Dann got Rist to his feet with a few bouts of protest. They made their way towards the edge of the clearing, in the direction of Wolfpine Ridge. Calen noticed what he thought was an apologetic look in Kurtis’s eyes.
“Keep walking until the sun starts to rise,” Fritz called after them. “I’ll know if you don’t.”
They trudged through the dense forest in silence, exhaustion in their bones. Calen carried the bags while Rist used a combination of Dann and his spear as walking sticks. Every once in a while, Calen checked behind them for any signs of Fritz following them. He thought he saw something a few times, but he couldn’t be sure. It wasn’t worth finding out.
As the sun crested over the top of the mountain, a small rivulet came into view about thirty or so feet ahead. Calen hadn’t heard it as they approached. With fatigue causing a slight throbbing in his ears, he was finding it hard to focus.
“This is ridiculous,” Dann said, his voice a mixture of tiredness and irritation.
Calen sighed. “We need to stop at the water. We need to drink and take a look at the wound. We can’t leave it too long, or it might become infected.”
Dann nodded. Rist grunted.
After they sat for a while in silence and filled their bellies with water, Calen rolled up Rist’s trouser leg to inspect the wound.
“The arrow went clean through,” Dann said. “I broke the head off on the other side and pulled the shaft out. He was lucky.” Dann dunked his waterskin into the rivulet as he spoke, sighing with exhaustion.
“Lucky?” Rist said, coughing. “How, by the gods, do you consider this lucky?
“Well, you didn’t bleed much, which means the arrow didn’t hit anything important. The arrow came through, which meant I could pull it out. Otherwise, it would still be in your leg. And it hurt just enough to shut you up for the last few hours,” Dann said, grinning to himself.
“I swear, I’ll put one in you if you don’t wipe that grin off your face,” Rist snapped.
“Should have left the bloody thing in,” Dann said, shrugging.
“Will you two shut up?”
Both Dann and Rist jumped a little, taken aback by Calen’s abrupt and irritated tone.
“Rist, Dann just pulled an arrow from your leg, hauled you to your feet, and dragged you here.” Rist hung his head, ashamed. “Dann—”
“Yes?” His tired face gave its best impression at a cheeky grin. Calen wasn’t in the mood for it.
“Stop being an asshole.”
Dann opened his mouth but didn’t argue. Calen reached into his bag and pulled out some of the herbs and plants he had gathered the other day, while he was looking for firewood. He mulled over the different options, trying to remember exactly which ones his mother had said were good at stopping infection.
Two, he knew immediately. Cretia’s Breath and Bluebottle drops. He pulled them out and set them down on the rock to his left. He muttered to himself as he sifted through the rest, “Mullder, docleaf…” None of them were as good as brimlock sap. But they would do.
When he had picked out all the ones he needed, he used a rock to grind them into a paste. He added some water from the rivulet to get the consistency he wanted.
“These herbs will act as a poultice. It should keep infection at bay while the wound heals,” Calen said, still grinding away at the plant mixture. He noticed a hesitant look on Rist’s face. “It’s that or we cauterise it with fire. Dann, could you get a fire going?”
The colour drained from Rist’s face. “Let’s go with the plant thing.”
“Good choice!” Dann choked, coughing up some water in between bouts of strained laughter.
Despite the multiple protests and gasps of pain, it didn’t take long for Calen to apply the poultice to Rist’s leg. He tore a strip off Rist’s shirt to act as a bandage once it was dried in.
“We should get going.” Dann dragged himself to a seated position. “We’re going to have to walk through the night and all tomorrow morning just to make it back in time.”
Calen’s stomach rumbled. “Can we eat something first?”
“I second that,” Rist said.
Dann sighed. With a grunt of exhaustion, he got to his feet. “If you can get a fire going. I’ll go and see if I can find something to eat. Some food and rest might not be a bad idea before we get moving.”
Calen had just managed to get the fire going by the time Dann re-emerged from the trees, the limp body of a beaver slung over his shoulder. There wasn’t going to be much food to go around.
“We eat, then we rest until the sun passes the peak of that mountain.” Dann winced as he pointed up towards a craggy peak in the distance. “Then we need to move.”
“Agreed, Rist?” Calen said.
Rist grunted, a grimace twisted on his face.
The sun had already begun to set when Calen, Dann, and Rist started the long hike back through Ölm Forest. The combination of a warm meal and exhaustion meant they had rested far longer than intended.
“Well, we’re not going to pass The Proving. But given what’s happened so far, I’m pretty happy just to be going home without an arrow wound in my leg.” Dann’s attempt at humour was met with a swift kick in the ankles from Rist.
“Too soon.” There was a no-nonsense tone
