Chereads / Chelonian Tales / Chapter 32 - Book 1, Chapter: 31

Chapter 32 - Book 1, Chapter: 31

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I woke up late in the morning, having slept a lot more than normal due to the exhaustion from walking across the desert with a wounded leg, and protecting Spruce during that time. Speaking of which, when I looked around, I saw the little person brooding in the corner of the hut, still silent and slightly frowning.

"Where's Ike?", I asked. To what there was no answer back.

I sighed, got up with some difficulties, and walked out of the shelter. I was starving, and I didn't want to waste our ration while we were not traveling.

Outside the hut, I met with a girl with red hair and tanned skin, both of us almost stumbling on each other at the entrance to the hut.

"Oh, sorry", I apologized scratching my hair, embarrassed.

"You should be resting now, what ae you doing?", the girl looked concerned at me.

"I was hungry so…", only then I noticed she was carrying a couple of bowls of stew.

"Y-Yeah, I can tell…", only once she said so, I noticed I was drooling. I quickly wiped the saliva away with the back of my hand, blushing. "I brought you some food, here", she gave me a bowl and entered the hut presumably to give the other to Spruce.

I walked to the center of the settlement again, and seating on a stone, I started to eat the stew. Before I knew it, it was all gone!

"Ow… have I finished it already?"

"Hehe, you eat a lot, hu?", the girl from before said, smiling. "Sorry, but we don't have more breakfast, you woke up too late."

"It's fine, thank you."

"Don't worry, though, your swordsman friend went to hunt with our men. Surely they will bring us some food."

"Oh, Ike went hunting? I should have gone with him…"

"No, no!", the girl crossed her arms, pouting. "You have to rest until your leg is better"

I smiled. She was a kind girl.

Then, a couple of children bypassed us, running one after the other.

"Uah?!", one of the kids tripped on a rock, and was about to fall down face first, when I quickly stretched my hand and conjured a bubble of water, dampening the fall. "Uh?", the kid, looked confused when the bubble vanished in blue waste, leaving him completely dry and unscratched behind.

"Well, I might not be able to move quite well right now, but I'm still not useless", I smiled back at the girl who brought me food.

"Wow…!", the girl stared with starry eyes at me. "You really are a true shaman, aren't you!", she pulled her fists closer to her chest, mouth gaping.

"An apprentice, yeah."

Then, in the blink of an eyes, I had dozens of children surrounding me, and curious tribesmen asking for help with a myriad of things, and I was drowned in a crowd of dozens.

I spent the next hours raising ceilings and stones to help the adults with my shields, playing with the children with conjured water, and I even tried to teach a couple of curious siblings how to conjure spells, though in this last case I had little success.

By the time Ike came back with the hunters carrying game, I had spent a good time with the tribespeople, and got to know a lot of people, but I was getting tired already.

"How's your leg doing?", Ike approached me as asked.

"It hurts a little when I move it, but it seems alright."

"Humm… Let me just…", he conjured a few herbs and leaves, and pressed them in my wound, before closing it all with a conjured cloth. His magical energy could keep those spells for a few hours only, but it was enough to clean the wound, and alleviate most of the pain.

"What, you're a healer too?!", the tribespeople, having witnessed Ike's treatment of my wound, all started to gather around and ask for help with their own illnesses.

"Sorry for that, we haven't had a shaman in a long time, and problems keep piling up", the girl who brought me food said, sitting beside me with a sorry smile.

"It's alright, it didn't bother me at al."

"You're kind. We've seen many shamans passing through our land in search of the rock with wings, but none have ever bothered greeting us, or treating us."

"It's the least we can do, you're helping us a lot too. By the way, how's your name again?"

"…Quartz", the girl looked down, her cheeks turning red as she gripped onto leather of her dress.

"It's a nice name."

We spent two whole weeks with the tribe, helping them at the same time they helped us. At least two of us did that…

Then, it was finally time to depart, and we stood at the edge of the rock formation under which the tribe had their settlement built in, staring at the kind people who sheltered us for all of that time.

"You are good people, we all came to understand that in the time we've spent together" Red Ochre said.

"We only did what was minimum", I said, shaking my head in negative, blushing a little bit.

"No, the others that we have came across did the minimum, not you. Therefore, here, there is one thing I'd like to lend you, that may help you in your journey" the old man offered us a thin red rectangle with strange symbols written in it. It seemed old, very old.

"What is this?", I asked, examining the strange thing.

Something that may help you in your journey... If you're willing to take the risk."

"Thank you", I said, pocketing it without thinking too much about the object.

Then, right as we were about to leave, when the whole tribe was waving us goodbye, and we replied in kind, one person stepped ahead of the crowd. It was Quartz.

"Coyote! You will come back… right?"

"Of course!", I smiled.

And then, we resumed our journey to the Rock with wings. We were close then… to the place of my memories.