James was having some sort of fever. That would explain the fever dreams. The kids were there sometimes, but sometimes it was Talia, rubbing at his face with a tepid cloth, her eyes just as wet.
It was never any of the other claws. He drifted in and out of consciousness, tried to speak sometimes, but found his tongue heavy and unwieldy.
The first time he had an extended bout of lucidity was the first time he found Hansworth there with him, sitting and locking his jaw in obvious rigidity.
"Hans..." he'd heard how husky his own voice sounded. "Where the hell are we?"
The man startled, then stared at him with renewed hope in his dead eyes. There might have been tears there too. James decided to burn that image straight out of his mental library.
"We are not far from Uluth town, young master. The guards have gone to investigate the state of the town after the rumoured dragon attacks. It does seem fine to me, so we'll probably stay there for the night."
"Okay...good..."
Even his brain was listless. He was finding it hard to focus, to remember why he'd wanted to come to this place. 'What was Hans saying about dragons? Does he intend to kill me? I can't be near another battle zone. Especially not a dragon's—'
The room had been shifting before, but now it started to fade, or swathes of it were covered in black vertical lines. He frowned, tried to blink, and then the light near blinded him.
But why even was his head aching. Hadn't he been shot in the stomach after he'd tried to evade the arrow. And if he'd survived such a shot, shouldn't a healing potion have returned him to normal functioning by now.
Even as the darkness expanded and took over more of his awareness, he moved his hand over his torso, trying to feel for the wound that had caused his problems. He found it, the part of his torso that pained like there was still a hole there even if he knew the high grade potions they'd used should have healed it in a couple of hours. But it couldn't have been the cause of this massive pain in the—
"Ho-how long...ve I been out, Hans?"
Hansworth looked back at him once more, frowning in concentration. He sighed when he saw how much James was struggling just to hold on to consciousness.
"About two days, young master. You can rest now. If you want to, we can talk later at an appropriate inn."
He wanted to say it was okay. He wanted to reply, damnit, but his tongue had gone leaden again and he could see only a crack by now. Black, was all he could see in a second, and then his mind was quiet. He hated it though. That weakness. That importence.
A sharp pain in his torso had James crying out, his body lurching forward on reflex.
"Oh, by all the gods, WHY!" he cried, his brain seemed to want to break out of his skull, and his heart beat so strongly it could have punched through his lung.
"What the hell are you doing?!" a familiar voice yelled.
"You all look like warriors, yet you failed to do the one thing this patient needed."
"And what was that?" Talia growled in demand.
"A bit of pain to pull his mind out of the clouds. As far as I can tell, he has no wounds to be healed, and even the inside of his body seems fine."
"You could have just told us that."
"And you would have continued to pamper him like this, and maybe he would have never woken up. Now, I've really earned my pay. When a person has a concussion, its never a good idea to let them sleep, they may never wake up. Try to keep him awake for at least twelve hours. Maybe give him a strong tankard of ale."
"I...What kind of healer are you even?"
"One who values their drinking time. If you'll excuse me."
James had watched the whole conversation in stunned silence, and not because he'd been stunned by the pain. Since when had Talia become his main caretaker? Wasn't Hans somewhere in here? Weren't those two servants his father had chosen for him somewhere here too? Though he really should make an effort to learn their names, he supposed. Talia still hadn't turned to face him.
"It's still just afternoon though," she shot towards the departing healer.
James chuckled despite himself. She froze like a hare caught in a trap, and slowly, ever so slowly, turned to face him. Hansworth pushed himself off a wall he'd been leaning against, and five other looming figures filed to step behind him. Aric was there too, the damn bastard.
A hand, tiny and soft landed on his forearm, and he turned to see that Eno and Nino were on the other side of the bed.
It was a massive four poster bed in the middle of an even more massive room. The gaudy tapestries, and paintings and wall curvings gave the room a sort of over the top character. Like whoever had designed it had been thinking to make it as classy as possible, but instead had made it too classy that it had turned tacky. James would never understand the tastes of this world's nobles.
"Are you alright Jam...I mean my lord?"
"You can call me James, Talia. That's what my friends call me."
Silence answered his proclamation. Then she growled.
"We are not friends!"
He laughed, and this time he found himself coughing, almost coughing up blood. He waved away Hansworth's, and the kid's concerns.
"There is the Talia we know and love. To be honest, seeing you be all caring and tender was creeping me out."
"Then maybe I should punch you right in the head, because I swear it was more peaceful when you were quiet."
James only chuckled lightly this time. "I see. Anyway, you decided to stay."
Her expression turned serious. "We can't leave the job half finished. Besides, one of my men—"
She shot a glare to Aric, who looked exactly how James felt. The bastard must have not slept for ages, though it wasn't because he was worried for James. The way he was standing behind Hansworth instead of Talon. Something must have happened there, though James couldn't be bothered to find out.
"Hans, report on the dragon's movements."
A sigh from his right, and he looked over to see Nino bury her face in her palm.
"Barely woke up for two days, and its straight back to work with you?"
James shrugged. "This is the whole reason we took this route."
"You intend to fight the dragon?" Talia stepped forward with more than a little concern on her face.
James looked over at her, startled at the question and the concern in her voice. Then he snorted.
"Your concern is appreciated, but its still creepy. Besides, do you think I'm crazy? Who the hell in their right mind would think to attack a dragon?"
Talia raised her hand in frustration, "I give up. Do whatever the hell you want."
She stepped away and went to lean on the wall where Hansworth had been. The rest of the mercenaries went to follow, except Aric who just looked lost. Jonas came for him though, and pulled him to the wall with the rest of their band. Hansworth stepped forward to report. It was eery how much the boy obeyed James's instructions. It was like he was subconsciously seeing himself as his knight or something. Perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing, but James wanted more than anything a couple of friends just then.
"It comes at night, sometimes. Never in the day, yet for some reason the town still stands. Nothing has been torched to cinders, as far as I can see. Only a few people have gone mad or catatonic from getting too close to the dragon's shadow."
"Hmm..." James chewed on his lip and looked to the curtained window in thought.
"I'm sorry, young master," James turned to regard the swordsman. "But did you know? Did you know the town was mostly intact?"
"Hmm?" James frowned. "I suppose I did. Or at least I suspected. The dragon's presence disrupted magical communications, so we couldn't know what was happening, but if the dragon had put the town to the torch and gone away, the communications should have come back on and we would have been upraised of the situation. Besides, there are not that many dragons left on this continent, are there?"
There was a moment of realisation from most everyone.Then Hans asked.
"But still, do you know why the dragon is here?"
"Vaguely, at least, but its all conjecture on my part."
"So you plan to drive the dragon off, without fighting it?"
"Hmm? Of course. Even if I or anyone were strong enough to fight it, the town wouldn't survive such a titanic clash."
"Tsk. Is that why the local lord or whatever has not done anything about it?" Talia asked.
James smiled at her. "Not really. I suppose he's of the mind that if he ignores the problem, it will go away. Or maybe he's waiting for the capital to send help."
"Why not just ask your father for help?"
"I already told you why he can't do that, Talia."
Not to mention pride, bowing his head to someone higher ranked. Someone who when they were still a count was considered almost the same as just a local tiwn noble. The Halden might be rich, but their influence was not further from their city and a few swathes of land around it.
He continued to smile at Talia, and she continued to glare at him.
"Tsk, your stupid smile is creepy."
And followed by her subordinates, she left the room, slamming the door as she went.
"I suppose I should leave the three of you to talk then," said Hansworth, and he followed the mercenaries out.
"Talk?" James frowned at the fox children. "Talk about what?"
"I'm not going back! I don't want to go back there! They are terrible! I want to stay with you!"
"Calm down Nino, tell me what's wrong?"
"I was a slave, you know, in my own home?"
This did not make any sense. He turned to Eno, hoping he could help him make sense of this crap.
"And I'm going to stay with her," he said with tears in his eyes.
'Oh for crying out loud! What the hell is going on?!'