I woke abruptly to the sound of glass shattering. My body laid prone on some type of padding. I dawned on me that in all my years, I had never slumbered away on such a cloud. Somewhere off ithe distanc, quiet yet tense tones reached my ears. I guess the poor person got berrated for dropping the bottle.
A few seconds later, a strong sterile odor hit my nostrils. My lungs itched and burned terrible.
"Ahhh." A groan escaped my lips. My vision blurred and fire shot through my nerves as another dose of chemicals hit my lungs. When I could see again, I quickly realized that Moose stood over me with a look of concern on his face.
"Nurse! Kygo's awake!" he half shouted over me.
Behind him I could see the moon through the window. I could hear the nurse shush him just as loud in return then I heard footsteps.
"Why can't I move?" I croaked. My words came out garbled and slurred but somehow Moose understood me. My tongue felt oddly thick in my mouth.
"The doctor used a paralysis spell to prevent you from moving. They said they did all they could for your foot," Moose explained quietly. His tone of voice worried me. What if they had amputated? How could I train and "become great" with one foot?
The moon shone through the stained glass windows behind the nurse at the foot of my bed. I tried to kick off the sheets but my body didn't respond. Moose placed his hand on my shoulder. "Calm down. Youll be able to move again soon. You should know the teachers finished debating who to train two weeks ago."
"How long have I been in here Moose?!" His brown eyes wouldn't meet mine. "Three weeks Kygo. But the doctors told the teachers you would make the best recovery possible."
Three weeks from one fight. I felt pitiful. Crippled. I had been gifted this opportunity to succeed despite the cost and now I was worse off for it. "Everything is worse than before." Tears welled up. I couldn't stop the pit of despair growing in my chest.
I silently wished I could dissappear or even just die. "My patient needs his rest so you need to leave. Please inform his teacher of his condition. You can come back tommorrow," the nurse informed Moose.
"I am going to get the doctor. Just wait right here." She said. She let out a quiet chuckle at her joke then side glanced at me. "Sorry." Then she left too. I groaned internally. Bad time for nurse jokes. As nothing else could be done, I turned my attention back towards the moon and after a half hour or so my mind slowly slipped backoff into a dreamless sleep.
The next time I woke up, the sun had replaced the moon. The rays were bright and strong flooding the hospital wing with light. I tried to move and found that despite being extremely sore, my body listened to me once again. I turned my neck and saw Rowan splayed out in a chair. Looks like he was taking this friend thing quite seriously. I had to admit that at least part of me enjoyed the idea of having a friend.
Most of my life had involved thieving and conning to survive and I wasn't the only one. There is no loyalty among thieves. An old quote to be sure but true nonetheless.
A shadow fell across my bed. "How are you feeling today boy?" The last person I ever expected to see stood beside my bed peering down at me. Abraxos stood grim as ever his white and gray beard blocking my view of his face. I would recognize that voice anywhere though.
"What do you think old man?" My throat felt dry. I flopped like a fish as my body shook with a coughing fit. A second later Rowan leaned over over again with a worried expression painted on his face. "Can I get some water please?" I asked.
"Of course. Rowan, help me sit him up."
With their help, I was sitting up for the first time in three weeks. A few sips unlocked my throat.. Immediately my stomach informed me that it needed more than water to survive.
After consuming a few mouthfuls of a tasteless muck too, Abraxos slowly caught me up to speed on current events. Turns out that I had been passed over by every single instructor. I pushed my growing anxiety down again.
"So what now?" I asked. Before Abraxos could speak Rowan interrupted excitedly. Abraxos glared at him livid, for a second. I knew he hated being interrupted. The old man had no problem smacking me around during training for such a thing. Discipline, he called it. I half expected him to slap Moose but he did refrained.
"There are certain contenders," he said using air quotes with the last word, " that don't fall into a single trainable category. Not suitable to be just a knight or a pikeman or an ranger. There are not many people alive who can call on magic in such varied ways without extensive training."
Abraxos must have seen the confusion on my face because he held up his hand to shush Moose before explaining. "After your fight, Damon requested that some of us elders trace your magic to see how strong it is."
"You can do that?" I asked. He nodded before continuing. "Imagine our suprise when we found two distint magic traces. One in the arena and the other in the tunnel where you first appeared. Not to mention the fact that a certain knight from your previous ward reported that you have illusion abilities too."
I felt shocked. Then I remembered. First the premonition, then the ghost arm knife throw and finally the air blast. I shuddered, picturing my opponent falling on my blade over and over again. "Is that rare?" I asked finally.
"Clearly the Queen thinks so. That is why you have been chosen to be trained through the Accord." He finished.
"The what?" Moose and I asked in unison. Abraxos sighed. "The Accord is the kingdoms elite branch of the military. A kingdom held to gather by one string is quite weak but you add six or seven different strings and suddenly..."
I nodded. It made sense. "A tenfold chord is not easily broken." The old man nodded. Moose however appeared as confused as ever. "Moose, members of the Accord train in more than one specialty."
"More than that. I believe four specialties is a minimum. Alot of different skills and tactics are taught. Magic, stealth, hand to hand, weapons training, just to name a few." Abraxos said. "Moose has also been accepted."
I had been worried but that last comment removed all my doubts except one. "How's my leg? Were they able to mend it?"
Abraxos gently leaned over and removed the cover from my feet. "The doctors did everything they could." My feet had indeed been amputated while I had been out. Both of them.
"Moose..you knew this didn't you? That's why you looked away. Why didn't you say anything? " I asked. I felt hurt when he nodded sheepishly which was strange because I really didn't know Moose that well. Part of me already trusted him though. "Don't pity me Moose. Promise me." He nodded.
"The best magicians and armored created these new legs for you." From my hips down to mid-calf my legs looked normal, but under that, silver prosthetic legs stuck out. I wanted to cry but I fought back my tears. Self-pity was a disease street kids learned to fight off along time ago.
"In fact your legs are imbued with runes that will enable you to walk normally. In fact we believe they are the best prosthetic ever created. You will be able to run faster, jump higher, climb easier and kick harder and best of all they will be easily hidden by boots." Abraxos explained. The room felt tense as they waited for my reply.
I shoved past the pity. " Ok then. When does training start?" My reflection could be seen clearly in my new legs. Moose sighed with relief at my reply. I gave him a hug. I needed it more than he did to be honest and he understood that.
"We will get through training together Kygo. Just you wait and see. Number one and number two in the class." he said pointing to me and himself respectively.
I couldn't help but share his feelings of excitement despite my legs. Doubts still floated like dense fog in my mind.
Soon the nurse came back and shooed them both away. I couldn't rest though. I was too damn excited. Tommorrow, I would begin training to get used to my legs. Then in a week, formal training would start. Maybe it would not be so awful.