Boneswulf...Part 6

I sat up from my newly prone position. My hand was still clamped to the wrist of the arm that had blown off the creature. I held it up to take a closer look, saw small tendrils of smoke billowing up from about a dozen places and tossed the arm to the side before getting up and moving to see if Ravyn and Herne were OK.

Moving over to their prone figures, I could see that they were both still alive. Now it was Herne who was moving more than Ravyn. She had flown backwards onto him, but had hit her head on the wall behind her. Her eyes were technically open, but her dazed look indicated that she was pretty much out if for the moment. I bent down to check on her, saw the smoking ruin of the hilt in her hand, so I gently pried it out of her clenched fingers and tossed the relic aside.

Herne groaned and shifted where he was laying.

“Herne, you OK? Where are you hurt?”

He shook his head to clear some of the cobwebs, and immediately regretted it as he leaned away from Ravyn quickly and retched. After his convulsions stopped, he eked out a soft answer, “I hit my head on something pretty bad. I have splitting headache. What’s happened?”

“Well, the creature attacked, killing Fang. You leaped to the attack, but it looks like you banged your head when you were thrown aside. Ravyn stabbed the thing from behind with one of your blades, I believe. She took nasty hit early on though, and then when the explosion happened, I tihnk she hit her head as well.”

“Where did that thing go?”

“He left his arm behind, but he staggered down this tunnel, I think that’s towards Ground Zero, if I have my directions right.”

“So despite losing its arm it still walked away?”

“Yeah, but it looked pretty bad. I was just checking on you two before I went after it. Are you going to be alright here?”

“Help me to move Ravyn, I need to check her head for any serious damage.”

I helped to move her into a better position, allowing Herne to actually sit up. As I rolled her to her side, careful to keep her neck aligned, he checked the back of her head. His hand came away bloodied, but he seemed confidant that nothing was broken, just a scalp wound and a likely concussion for her as well.

He rummaged around the knapsack that he always carried and pulled out a small wooden box. He openned it after fumbling with the delicate clasp, and pulled out two small vials of a cinnamon colored liquid. He pulled the cork on the first one and downed it in one big gulp. His gasp indicated that the stuff had a potent kick to it. He openned the second vial and held it up to Ravyn’s nose first, which seemed to rouse her just a little bit, and then used one hand to plug her nose and the second to force the liquid into her mouth. She swallowed the stuff, sputtering and seeming to come around a little bit more.

“What’s that stuff?”

After wiping the remaining liquid from around her mouth with his sleeve, he responded. “It’s a concoction of the Frau’s. She claims they are healing potions, but I don’t know, I think she tries to make them so damn nasty tasting that the injured get up and get moving so as not to have to take any more of it. Seriously though, these should help to get us moving soon, the Frau makes some potent stuff.”

“Good. Look, I better at least check and make sure that bastard isn’t bringing any reinforcements. I’ll be back to check on you guys soon.”

“Fari enough. I didn’t like the idea of that thing wandering away in any event. Best to go put it out of its misery and be done with this.”

“Agreed. You have one blade left, just in case, I’ve got mine over here, but let me take Fang’s as well, since this thing has destroyed one blade already.”

I walked over to Fang’s body and said a silent prayer for him as I drew his blade from the sheath on his wrist. I then walked over to where I had left my blade, picked it up, and turned to follow the one armed Grendel, hopefully to his lair.

(Finale of the Boneswulf arc tomorrow...)