Chapter 27

It had been 4 days since Nessa had reached the start of the Kadota Desert, she had only a few days of water left in her skin and only a few pieces of dried meat left. She was getting incredibly weakened by her wound constantly draining her strength and having already been heavily rationed for a few days with her food and water did not help her case. I need to get there soon, or I will be another victim claimed by the sand she thought to herself. She had given up looking around for landmarks 2 nights ago, the desert seemed the same day in day out. From the descriptions her mother had said during her stories, she was on the lookout for a cave that sat next to an oasis.

Water in the desert…everywhere she looked the illusion of water was there! This had led her off on wild chases more than once and had led to the same outcome every time, nothing but sand, sand everywhere. If it were not for the healing magic this woman possessed, she would not would have even dreamed of coming into the desert. Putting her hood back up to try and block out some of the sun, she picked a direction again and started walking. It was not a few hours later before she was on the verge of collapse again. My plan of a miraculous save might be my end. Rex, this was his fault!! If it were not for those stupid claws he brought out, I would not be in this mess to begin with she said to herself. The effort needed to vent took a little more out of her than she expected, feeling a little tired, I will just close my eyes and rest for a second and she drifted off quite quickly…

As she drifted in and out of delirious sleep episodes, it seemed she was being taken somewhere. Or am I dead? She could not tell the difference. What looked like hazy faces came in and out of her vision.

Day turned to night and then back to morning again when she bolted awake. Looking around, this is not the sand dune I fell asleep on, it’s a hide bed, in a dark room, s**t have I been captured by the cannibal desert dwellers in the stories? She had to move she concluded, better the be killed than eaten.

“Good offspring of Reeva you’re awake, did not think you would pull through” came a woman’s voice from behind a hanging cloth.

Sitting up painfully, she noticed the dressing on her wound had been changed and cleaned that’s odd, they want me healthy to make for a better meal? She thought. I need to get out of here. Groaning as she got to her feet Nessa looked for her gear that had been taken off her while she was unconscious and spotted it not far away from her, sitting right next to the person behind the cloth.

“You are welcome to leave at any time young one, I do not think you will get far until you are well rested and I can get that wound under control” said the woman. How did she know what I was thinking? Nessa asked herself, must be the savages shaman.

“How did you find me?” Nessa asked, trying to distract the woman so she could get her gear and get out.

“Followed the vultures, I lost your tracks after a day, you hid them well” she replied. This made Nessa stop in her tracks.

“You were tracking me? Why?” she stammered.

“For the same reason I think you were looking for me. Who or what gave you that wound? It is a most curious wound to have.” She asked pulling the cloth down. “I will not treat it until you answer my question truthfully, and I will know if you lie” she said with a smile. She was an elderly woman, looked maybe 60-70 years old physically, who knows how old truthfully, Nessa knew looks could be deceiving, for she looked 20 years old but had just celebrated her 100^th birthday before coming into earth’s realm to begin hunting Rex.

“I got it while fighting someone” she huffed, still clearly displeased she had lost so easily to Rex.

“No person has claws like that, I asked for the truth girl” she said standing up and beginning to walk over to Nessa. For someone her age she had a very graceful walk, smooth and elegant. She put her hands on Nessa’s shoulders and pushed her onto a stool that was close. Pulling one over for herself she said softly, “You came to me for treatment, and in payment, I want you to tell me who or what did that” she said pointing to Nessa’s shoulder.

“Madame Al’ik?” Nessa asked.

“The one and only” she replied bowing her head slightly. “Now tell me the whole story of that wound and I will see about healing it for you, I have seen many strange and wonderful things with the body, but never a wound that refuses to respond to conventional healing.”

Sighing heavily Nessa began at the start, when she first came to earth’s realm hunting Rex with her mother, then throwing the dagger perfectly to hit Rex in the chest, and missing her mark, then throwing the sharp disk at him, again missing and hitting his bike instead of her target. The more she thought about it the more she was confused as to why for the first time in 80 years she kept on missing. Then she continued with the setup date as the ruse to get her mother in on kill unannounced, the subject of that date made me her smile without her knowing it and I wasn’t until Al’ik chuckled that she regained her composure to continue again. the story came into the part with the fight in the backyard with the loss of Iris and Reeva and Nessa still not claiming the kill. Then finally with the fight in the camp site where Rex had woken up after only a minute after drinking enough sleeping draught to lay out a charging hippopotamus and finally the show of strength and the claws morphing that pinned her down.

“That is definitely a most curious story, strangely enough I believe you” Al’ik said, “After I found you and brought you back here, I attempted to close that wound and found myself at a total loss as to why I could not, I have an impressive memory for healing magic and even I had to go back to the old healing texts to look something like that up in its pages. It seems that was either a wound from a hell hound or an elder dragon, which should be impossible for either. The one who can bring forth hell hound familiars is long dead and was defeated by our current emperor nearly 150 years ago, as are the dragons.”

“I’m telling you that how it happened, he morphed his own hands and arms into claws that look like that but black scales not yellow” Nessa said pointing to a painting of a Chinese water dragon she had hanging on the cave wall.

“Black scales? I know of only one dragon with black scales. That is Fafnir, he became the king of all dragons after his father sacrificed himself to create our world. Unless I am mistaken, which I must admit, is almost never” Al’ik said stroking her chin. “Now that I have something to go on for wound though I read the healing texts and there is only one way to heal such a wound, treating it requires you to be awake, and it will be painful. I will have to stich all broken muscle fibers and tendons back together manually using magic weave.”

“Magic weave?” Nessa asked, “I have never heard of that type before.”

“It is one of the long forgotten types, it was created to heal deep wounds but takes someone with a lot of mana, which I have, but even I will need sunlight to help boost my current pool to pull this off” Al’ik exclaimed, “If you had any mana reserves I would also be asking to use some of yours. I will have to work slowly or I may burn myself out and not be able to finish. We will start tomorrow once the sun starts to rise. Here eat and drink, you will need all the strength you can muster.”

If someone like Madame Al’ik who was considered one of the most gifted healers in the realm was worried that she would burn out and not finish, this gave Nessa chills. What had Rex done to her.

“Why do you need sunlight to help you?” Nessa asked curious, she was intermediately proficient in healing and had never heard of using sunlight to help.

“Light from the sun is pure and was what was the original base for healing magic and it can help fill one with the energy required to heal, I have not had to use sunlight to assist me in many years.” Al’ik replied, “Now enough questions and rest, trust me, you will need it.”

Moving back to her bedroll Nessa admitted that if Al’ik had said it would be long and painful for her tomorrow she would rest, I have a high pain tolerance, how bad can it be?