My eyes fluttered as I groaned in pain. It felt as if I had been drug over rocks by a horse. I looked to my right and saw Marketh's lifeless body. I grimaced as I recalled the gruesome battle that had taken place. I looked at my left shoulder and confirmed that it was still impaled by Marketh's arrow. I looked up through the canopy of leaves above me and guessed it was late afternoon. I drug myself up to lean against the stone. Once I had successfully propped myself up I took stock of my injuries. I didn't know how long I had been unconscious but based on the state of my wounds I guessed it had been about a day. The blood and vomit on me had dried, my wounds had started to scab over, and the bruises from when I was thrown from Nepril had turned a deep purple.
I leaned against the stone behind me and closed my eyes. I wanted nothing more than to fall asleep and let the pain fade into my subconscious. As I sat there and debated on giving up and letting sleep, which in my state would likely mean death, overtake me I found myself thinking about my father. I thought about him teaching me how to plow and seed the fields. I thought about him teaching me when we built our barn. I thought about him teaching me how to shoot a bow and wield daggers. As I reminisced about the days before my father's death, the days before my isolation, one saying of his came back to me. The same saying he'd tell me when things got hard and I wanted to quit, the same saying that kept me going these last four years.
"Acelith," he used to tell me, "pain and difficulty in life are inevitable. The difference in men is not who experiences less pain and difficulty but rather who perseveres. In this world giving up is not an option. Giving up is our weakness showing through and this world does not tolerate weakness. The future may hold a more forgiving place but it has not yet arrived. Whatever you do in life do it with strength."
I opened my eyes and steeled myself as I exhaled. I clenched my teeth as I used the stone behind me to pull myself to my feet. As I staggered up the mountain towards my house I repeated my father's words through gritted teeth like a mantra.
"Pain...is inevitable...giving up..is..weakness...this..world..does not..tolerate..weakness...whatever you do..do it..with..strength."
I repeated these words to myself as I struggled up the mountain, using my right arm to grasp trees for support as I went. I could feel the wounds on my body reopening as I went causing blood to start flowing again. Stumbling further up the mountain I started to lose hope that I would have the strength to continue. A few minutes later I tripped over a rock, hit my knees, and screamed in frustration. Looking up from the ground I saw Nepril's stable, or what used to be Nepril's stable, about 20 yards up the mountain and to my left. I struggled back to my feet, hitting my knees on the first attempt. On the second I managed to climb to my feet and stumbled towards the now empty stable.
When I reached the stable I leaned against its wall to catch my breath.
"I need to get this arrow out of my shoulder and get some medicine on these wounds before they get infected," I thought, "I just hope I have the strength left in me to do what needs to be done."
I staggered through the door of my house. I dug through my medicine cabinet to find some bandages, plantain, yarrow, and my mortar and pestle that I use specifically for medicine. The plantain helps draw out any infection that may be there and the yarrow helps the blood to clot. I ground up some plantain and put it onto my leg wound and did my best to bandage it one-handed, I then repeated this process for the gash on my back. I didn't worry about the yarrow for those wounds as they had already scabbed over before my struggle up the mountain. Once those were doctored to the best of my ability I ground up some yarrow and plantain together.
I clenched my teeth together as I tried to pull the arrow out, causing a small amount of blood to leak out. I gasped as I let go of the arrow and tried to prepare myself for what was to come. I had hoped the arrow had only embedded a shallow amount in my shoulder, I was wrong. I was going to have to push the arrow the rest of the way through. If I tried to pull it out I would end up doing more damage to myself. I knew it's what needed to be done but it didn't stop my feet from going cold and my stomach turning over at the thought. I closed my eyes, took some deep breaths, and tried to get control of myself. If I didn't take care of the arrow I would die from the subsequent infection. If I tried to pull it out I would tear the surrounding muscle to shreds potentially affecting its use forever. The best option, no the only option, was to push it through.
"Pain is inevitable," I told myself.
I gripped the arrow and prepared myself. I started to apply slow steady pressure and gritted my teeth. I grunted as I slowly increased the pressure, beginning to feel the arrow slice through my shoulder. I cried out as the arrow pushed further through my body, blood leaking down my chest. I screamed as I felt the skin on the back of my shoulder start to split open, losing my grip on the arrow. I could feel the blood start leaking down my back now and I could see I heavier stream form on my chest. I panted and tried to steady my shaking hand as I took hold of the arrow again. A long groan passed through my lips as I pushed the head of the arrow the rest of the way through my skin. I grunted as I snapped the head of the arrow off and let it fall to the floor, blood flowing down my back and dripping onto the floor now that nothing was there to stop it. Pulling the shaft of the arrow back through the way it came I tried desperately to maintain consciousness. I packed the mix of yarrow and plantain into both sides of the wound as best I could with my trembling hands. After completing that to the best of my ability I bandaged my shoulder as tight as I could manage, hoping a combination of the pressure and yarrow would prevent me from losing to much blood. I stumbled over to my bed and collapsed onto it. As the world went dark again I heard my mother's voice.
"The way of the warrior is not one I want for you. It is full of nothing but pain and heartache. In the end, most end up dying in pain and alone."
"But pain is inevitable and here I am, dying in pain and alone anyway," I replied before succumbing to the darkness closing in on me.