When I woke up, I was in a bed in the town hall. I could feel bandages wrapped around by forehead, back chest, shoulder and arms, and my right arm was in a sling. I moved to sit upright and accidentally took a deep breath, and almost cried out in pain. My ribs are still broken, so I took quick shallow breaths as I looked around.
There were many burnt out candles and bloody bandages on the table next to me, as well as a pitcher of water. I was in such a daze when I woke up, I didn't notice that a damp towel fell from my forehead onto my lap until now. I picked it up and, with the least movement possible, I set it on the side table to my left.
I slowly removed the sheets and turned so I was sitting on the edge of the bed, and I saw Maddie asleep on the floor next to the bed. I was about to bend down to tap her shoulder, but that put too much pressure on my ribs, so I used my foot to tap her hand, which was closer to the bed.
"Psst! Hey." I said to her as she stirred, "Hey, guess who?"
"Mrgh?" she groggily said before looking up and me and flying off the floor towards me, "Prez!"
She hugged me so much I almost thought she broke more of my ribs at first, and I clenched my teeth before reciprocating with a side hug. When she let go she apologized profusely, "I'm sorry, I should've kept my distance, you're still recovering, I'm sorry."
I smiled back and changed the subject, "So how long was I out?"
"Oh, umm. About four days."
'Damn, that long' "Did anything important happen while I was out?"
"Well, Mr. Smith got his forge runnin', and we now have bronze tools and weapons for Bravo, Liam and Conner."
I sighed as deeply as I could without aggravating my injuries, 'I wish I could've been there to see it.'
"By the way Prez, what exactly happened? We got some details from Bravo, but Conner said that it'd be better if you told everyone what happened."
"I think it'd be best to tell everyone at once. It's a good bit" 'It would also be a good time to tell everyone about the magic thing, and about what's been going on.' "Can I go outside, or am I being kept in here?"
"Umm, I don't know. You should probably eat something first."
"Then let's go and ask Holly to cook something up, I'd like to join everyone for lunch."
Maddie still looked unsure so I added, "Besides, its only my shoulder and ribs, I should be able to walk around just fine." And that finally convinced her to help me out of bed.
'Damn I feel like an old man.' I thought as I was helped out of the bed and outside. As I squinted against the midday sun, I heard the metallic ring of a hammer in the direction of the forge and the shuffling of leaves around the small town. Then I heard a gasp and the ringing stopped as my eyes adjusted to the light, and Holly, Jack, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Conner were all around me asking questions.
"Everyone, one at a time, he's just woken up!" Maddie yelled out, and everyone was silent for a while before Mrs. Smith asked, "How're ya feeling?"
"I'm alright. Hurts to breathe a bit, but aside from that, I'm fine."
"So, you're not fine?" Holly asked.
I didn't want to worry everyone, but that ship had sailed, so I just said "Yeah, kinda."
"Then you should be in bed, what're doing out here?"
"I got hungry, so I wanted to get some food."
"You could've asked Maddie to get you some."
"Yeah, but" I was making things up on the fly now, "I wanted to stretch my legs. My legs are fine."
No one asked any other questions until Jack asked, "So what happened, Conner here's been leaving us in the dark for the last few days about what went down."
"I thought you should hear it from him," Conner said in his defense, "besides, I don't know everything anyways."
"I'm," I started, responding to Jack's question, "not sure. It's still a bit fuzzy. Maybe I'll remember it all later, but for now let's get some lunch."
After that I sat down with Maddie and Conner outside, and we all ate some vegetable sandwiches with bread that Holly had finished making earlier that day.
"Wow, this is good." Conner said, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, it's all very fresh." I added between bites, "The garden Holly's been tending has made some great crops."
We sat in silence for a while longer, and when we finished eating Maddie asked, "Prez, are you sure you're alright? Maybe you should go lie back down."
"Yeah, I'm sure." I responded, "Why do you ask?"
"Well, you have some blood going through the bandages on your forehead."
I put my hand to my forehead, and noticed it was very hot. When I looked at my hand, there was a slight red stain on it. "Ok, I'll go lie back down. I don't want to make things worse."
Maddie helped me back to the town hall and got some fresh bandages and a wet towel for my forehead before leaving. I was waiting for a moment to slip away, but one never came while I was up and about. I didn't like to lie to them, but they wouldn't want me to try anything dangerous right now, and I had a plan, but it might not work, and they'd want me to stay in bed.
The truth is I did remember everything, down to the finest detail of the encounter, but I want to wait to tell them everything, the full truth. With the sense I have about things, and the magic stone, but I didn't want to just tell them. It would be best to show them.
Maddie, Holly and Troy came in to check on me throughout the day, and Troy told me he was in the caves with Liam, Bravo and Jake when I woke up, and that they brought back more ore and found a large geode deeper inside. They didn't see the drafis this time, but Troy said, "Next time we go, I want to see where the drake-thing lives, maybe there's something there. So, hurry up and get better, got it?" as he left with a smile.
I returned a thumbs-up to him as he left, to ease his worries. I looked out the window and the sky was dark, so I closed my eyes, and let my exhaustion take me off to sleep.
When I woke up, it was still dark, in the early hours of the morning. I pulled the sheets off me, and looked around, making sure no one else was in here with me, before standing up and leaving the building.
I found a piece of bark and quickly put a message saying where I was going, and then headed off to the place with the glowing lights.
By the time I got there the sun had started to rise, so it wasn't as late as I thought it was, but that didn't matter. I knew no one had followed me, so I took out the amber, and sat down in the middle of all the lights.
I sat there cross-legged for about an hour, trying to get the stone to do something new. I wanted it to heal my wounds, and I figured it could. It could reshape plant material, it could probably do the same with people. I tried focusing inward to get it to fix my bones, but I didn't have a clear enough image so nothing happened.
By this time the sun had risen completely, so the others would be here any minute now. I sat the amber down on the grass to confirm it would still cause the grass and flowers to grow, and it did. Then I had it create a perfectly straight branch, like my walking stick, and it could. But no matter what I envisioned, it wouldn't heal my shoulder or ribs. I even placed it on my chest and shoulder, but nothing happened.
It was then I felt concern from behind me, so I knew they were near and panicked. My plan was about to fail and make me look like a fool, and I accidentally breathed in sharply and tensed up, causing pain to rack my body.
I heard their footsteps behind me when I realized the pain was quickly subsiding. I didn't know what I did, but it was working. I stood up and turned around, removing my bandages across my body.
I saw Maddie, Conner and Troy first, followed by Holly, Jack, Mr. Smith and Bravo. Troy was the first to speak, "Prestin, why did you," but he cut himself off, "What happened just now?"