The Dark Age Chronicles: The Fall of Night.
Pain and Hope

“Alright, Ihloden. Who ishe?” Nurilah asked. He had slung the man over his shoulder and carried him toNurilah’s house. Nurilah took one look at the pair as they walked through thedoor and headed to the sick room. “Get in here,” she said shortly while shebegan stripping the sheets off the bed and heading back into the kitchen tofull bowls of water and gather extra sheets. Ihloden placed the man down asgently as he could on the mattress. Together they went to work swiftly;striping the body for the torn and blood soaked clothes. Ihloden took in a deepbreath as the sight of the man’s body. There was six large and deep puncturewounds extending from the ribs down to his hip; in a lazy curve. What was worstwas that they were oozing a thick dark stream of blood.

Nurilah whistled softly atthe sight and nodded for them to switch places so that she was at the puncturewounds. “You take care of the rest of wounds,” she said in a low grim voice, “Iam going to see what I can do about these.” Ihloden tried not to look asNurilah flicked out a small knife and began cleaning the holes. It was gettinghim nauseous. As he began to explore the rest of the man’s body; he did notfeel any better. Whatever had happened to him; it was clear that the Fangor hadgotten an easy meal.

There was huge and nastygash behind the man’s head, extending from ear to ear with part of the scalpripped off. Ihloden swallowed back down the bile as he wiped the black bloodoff the ragged flesh. When he was done with that he placed a thick bandagebehind the head and started to attend to the smaller gashes on the man’s faceand arms.

“I think he was whipped bybranches as well,” he said, as he yanked out splinters of wood from the man’shands. “These cuts all have grass and twigs lodged in them.”

Nurilah glanced up at him, “Looks like he wastrying to grab onto something with the wood stuck into his hands. His fingernails are also broken.”

Ihloden winced when he saw the broken remainsof the man’s fingers. They looked like raw red stumps. “It must have happenedwhen he got caught by the Fangor,” Ihloden mused, soaking each finger before hepulled out splinters from under the man’s nails. Nurilah was already back toher work, “Thank goodness that he is unconscious,” she said. They both shared abrief ‘You know what this would have beenlike if he was awake,’ look and then went back to their grisly tasks.

Nurilah finished finally andwiped the sweat from her face with her sleeve. Ihloden rubbed his head too,only then realizing how hot and sweaty he was. He saw Nurilah staring at theman.

“His ribs are broken,” she said softly.Ihloden swallowed hard. Nothing was said while she held the ribs carefully andwrenched them back into place. The man jerked every time she yanked and therewas one heart stopping moment when the young man stopped breathing and thecarefully set ribs got moved out of place again while Nurilah applied her chestpumping actions to get his heart back beating. Then they worked back to set theribs and then bind them tightly, re- checked the man’s many gashes and finallythe head wounds; then they set out medicines for the fever watch. All that wasleft was to see if he would make it through the night.

“I met him in Overed,”Ihloden said sitting down wearily at the table, “He insulted me in the streets.That is all that I know of him.”

“Well he is travelling as someone he is not,”she mused, sitting opposite to him, “His clothes says ‘ordinary traveller’.However his face and body says otherwise. ‘Nobleman’ but not very likablenobleman since he has some old scars on his body. And apparently he has to beable to defend himself, because his body is well defined for a noble life, ormaybe he just has a whim to know how to fight.”

“I guess we will know whenhe gets up,” Ihloden said passing his hand roughly over his face. He glancedout the window; it was already heading well into the dusk-dark of the evening,“I am going home to tell my folks that I will be staying here for an indefinitelength of time. Then I will be back.”

Nurilah smiled a little andnodded; “Ihloden, what you are doing it is for the best.”

Ihloden got up and headedfor the door, “But it does not make doing it any less easy or makes me feel anybetter. I am after all, still being a liar.”

“You and me both,” shereplied. He nodded and sighed and closed the door behind him.

It did not take much toconvince his family to let him stay over at Nurilah to help with the night watch.“Be careful Ihloden,” his mother said laying her hand on his shoulder. He couldsee the worry in her eyes. He knew that the memory of his own fevered nightswere still fresh in her mind. He reached over and hugged her.

“I will be careful mother,”he said into her hair.

Shila also patted hisshoulder, “I wonder why he was here,” she mused, “It is a long way fromOvered.”

“I was wondering that aswell,” Ihloden admitted, “But we will have to make sure he stays alive in orderto replace out how he got caught by a Fangor.” They both nodded and waved to himas he left the house and headed back up the road to Nurilah’s.

The first two days wentalong as well as could be expected. They were able to keep the fever fromrising and the only real problem was that the young man kept tossing and as aresult the wound on the back of his head kept opening up. They spent moresheets on his head than on any other wounds. He had felt the Griffin seekinghim out through that weird contact that they had now and he sent an ‘I amalright,’ feeling along their contact. He tried not to let any other emotion gothrough, since he did not want to worry it and risk it being seen if it decidedto come and look for him. He then put the Griffin out of his mind and went backto the task of trying to keep the man alive. It was on the third night thatthings came to a head. The man had grown still during the day. His skin colorhad changed almost drastically from his normal, sick pale white, to an almostdeathly pale white. His lips were also very pale. Nurilah had not left his sideat all, but sent Ihloden to get everything for her. When he had gotten backfrom washing and hanging up the sheets the man’s breathing had become fast andshallow. Nurilah looked up and him and shook her head. “It does not look likewe are in for a good night,” she mused.

The young man was tossingfitfully on the bed. They sat on either side of him sponging water over hisbody and wiping it down, the cloth warming up after only a few swipes. Ihlodentried not to look at the dark red stain at the head of the mattress where theyoung man’s blood had formed an almost permanent stain. He winced every timethe man turned his head from side to side, and a fresh streak of blood wasseen. He stopped long enough to open the bandage and re-tie it firmly aroundthe wounds. Nurilah had the dismal task of keeping puncture wound undercontrol. The holes were starting to turn a greenish color and the smell of themwas enough to make him gag every time he got wind of it. He didn’t know how Nurilah was standing beingso close to them.

It was hot and stuffy inside the room, despitethe fact that all the windows were tied open and the door was also open.Ihloden tried to shrug off the beads of sweat that rolled down his back andchest. He saw Nurilah wasn’t doing any better than he was. Nurilah looked atIhloden, “I may have to clean these again,” she said. He nodded as she began topeel the skin off when the young man suddenly gave a soft but high pitchedscream and his body shot straight up from the bed. Ihloden rocked back on thechair falling over. The man began to convulse.

Nurilah dropped the knife and shouted,“Ihloden get up and help me get him down!” Ihloden sat there in shock for a fewseconds, the convulsing body sending shivers down his spine. He then shookhimself and sprang up from the floor and grabbed the man. The man’s body wasstiff and almost too hot to hold. He strained against the man to push him backdown on the bed. He heard Nurilah grunt herself. The man then gave a strangledsigh and flopped back down. Unfortunate they were both still holding the strainagainst the man. They collapsed on the man with short grunts. They sprang offthe man quickly and Nurilah gave an exasperated cry and beagn feeling along hisribs. “They are out again,” she sighed and then while Ihloden held down the manas best he could; she set back the ribs. They both sat back on the chair andlooked at each other. “This is going to be a long night,” Nurilah sighed again.

Dawn found them both stilltrying to help the man fight for his life. They paused long enough to try torub the sleep from their eyes before emptying the warm and bloody water fromthe basins and refilling them. Ihloden tried to speak to the trees in a momentwhen he had a few seconds to himself, but they were strangely silent. Heshrugged and went back into the house, to replace Nurilah rubbing her facevigorously. “You should go out and take a walk,” he said. She nodded andstepped out of the room. The young man had stopped moving now. His breath wasstill shallow and quick while his lips remained dry despite the water that theyfed him. It was not a good sign. Hereached over and began to wipe the man down again. Suddenly a wave of question andconcern rolled over him.

“Griffin!” he exclaimed. The Griffin butted upagainst the window, it head was too big to fit in it. “Sorry I did not come tosee you,” Ihloden apologized, “I was a bit busy.” He moved aside for theGriffin to see the young man on the bed. “He was attacked by a Fangor. We don’tknow why he was in the wood.” He said in reply to another wave to questioningemotions. The Griffin watched as he went back to wiping down the boy. A few minutespassed then the Griffin sent a wave of emotion to him. He felt compelled to goto the Griffin. He looked back at it, but it was not looking at him. Its gazewas focused on the man. The emotion came stronger. He looked from the man tothe Griffin confused. The Griffin kept its gaze on the man, sending thecompelling emotion again.

“You want me to bring him toyou?” Ihloden asked incredulously. The Griffin affirmed his sentence. Nurilahwalked in just then.

She started then gave a short laugh, “Griffinwhat are you doing here? It is not very safe you know.”

“He wants me to bring thisguy out to him,” Ihloden said.

“Why?” she asked, moving tothe young man and checking his temperature. Ihloden shrugged. The Griffin gavea short screech and a wave of annoyance ran through Ihloden. “He really wantsus to do this,” he said.

Nurilah shrugged this time, “Well let’s takehim then.”

The Griffin sent a strongwave of relief through Ihloden, enough to make him feel almost dizzy. Nurilahheld the man under the armpits and Ihloden took his legs, and they walkedgently, step by step moving the young man out the house and toward the Griffin.They laid the man down on the grass in front of the Griffin. The young man’sbreath was coming faster now and even shallower than before. The Griffin turnedto the side and spread its wings over the young man and sat down, so that thewings covered the man, from head to foot. Suddenly Ihloden knew what it wasdoing. It was the same thing that the Griffin did for him that night when hewas attacked by the Lady and the blue fire. It was healing him.

“Ihloden…” Nurilah began butIhloden reached up and patted her shoulder.

“It will be alright,” hesaid smiling, “He knows what he is doing.”

Nurilah looked him then at the Griffin andnodded. Just then the Griffin raised itswings and got up. Nurilah knelt as the young man’s side as the Griffin steppedaside. Ihloden walked to Griffin and patted its head. She looked up at themsurprised.

“His fever is broken!” she exclaimed. TheGriffin nodded to her and gave a smug screech. The young man gave a low groanand his eyelids began to flicker. The Griffin gave another short screech andbegan heading back quickly into the Forest. Nurilah and Ihloden equallyquickly, took the young man up the way they had before and carried him backinto the house.