[coronatiger]

1st of Tityra, year 412

O Ashtar, Mother of Snakes, Keeper of Death’s Door, hear my confession!

Loud noises woke me in the middle of the night, but when I realized it was just Wolfram casting his spirit summoning spell, I quickly relaxed. I saw no reason to get up, since no danger loomed, and one delicious reason to remain where I was, under my cloak with Yana’s arms still wrapped around me. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. I didn’t expect to see any spirits that might appear, anyway, not at this time of the month.

Apparently, the apparition of a man appeared almost as soon as Wolfram finished the spell. He made no sound, and he seemed not to perceive anything but the totem pole, which fascinated him. Kraa felt the tug of Wolfram’s spell too and made its usual ruckus. Somehow, the spirit raven’s antics prompted Wolfram to dig a hole in the ground and unearth a stone slab. Wolfram and Xipil – who couldn’t resist the temptation to see what was going on – wisely decided to wait until everyone was up to dig further. Wolfram helped the spirit man to move on.

I think I had just dozed off when a great horse thundered up to the totem pole. I opened my eyes and was surprised to discover that I could see the spirit horse. Something about the horse felt wrong to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand Your warning before the horse had kicked Xipil. The acrobatic lizard man scampered up a tree to safety.

Hylda pulled the magic needle from Grogg’s neck, waking him. There was no need to explain the situation to the troll. The scent of horse made him wild, and he overturned the rowboat to get to it. The rowboat made a wet crack as it bounced off my left leg, just below the knee. As much as my leg hurt, it was nothing compared to the twisting of my heart when I noticed Yana’s despairing expression.

I swore loudly after Grogg, rubbed my leg and tried to get up, but my leg couldn’t support me. I waved away Yana’s assistance, reasoning that I couldn’t put her in danger by having her lead me to the battlefield. I used the rowboat for support to stand up instead and immediately felt foolish for not allowing Yana to help me that far. Realizing that I had forgotten to put on my knife belt before getting up, I whimpered a plea for help to Yana and hoped it was too dark for anyone to see me blush, not that anyone was paying much attention to us.

Grogg obviously couldn’t see the spirit horse and was forced to hunt by smell, but he has a very sharp nose, particularly when it comes to horses. The horse had toppled Wolfram’s totem pole and was now leading Grogg in circles around it. Wolfram himself was exhausted by all his digging and spell casting, and he wobbled towards where he thought the spirit horse was going. He was in his spirit bear shape, so he was able to see the horse. From the safety of his tree, Xipil shot a beam of starlight towards the spirit horse, and although he missed, I knew he wore the spirit-seeing ring in front of one eye. Before You gifted me with spirit sight, I had asked Yana to attach some cloth straps to the ring so I wouldn’t have to use a hand to hold the ring in combat, and now Xipil took advantage of Yana’s cleverness.

I limped towards’ Xipil’s tree, fastening the belt around my waist and ignoring the jolts of pain that shot up my leg with every hop. The spirit horse tried to charge Wolfram, but Grogg managed to grab it and used his considerable weight to force it to the ground. Wolfram lashed out with his claws, lacerating the spirit horse. He saw me support myself against the tree trunk and whip out a throwing knife at the prone horse. Even in his bear shape, I saw surprise on his face, as if he didn’t know I had throwing knives or the skill to use them.

With Grogg on top of the horse, there was a slight chance that I might hit him instead of the horse, but right at that moment, I didn’t care. I was still mad at him for scaring Yana so by breaking my leg, but the blade wasn’t coated with venom, so even if I penetrated Grogg’s thick, scaly skin, I wouldn’t harm him noticeably. Of course, with You to guide my hand, my knife struck where You wished, and as it hit the horse, I focused my will and forced the horse to come into the physical world. Now that he could see it with both eyes, Xipil didn’t have any difficulties hitting our opponent with his next starlight beam. Wolfram finished the horse before I closed the distance.

I picked up my knife and sheathed it, calling out to Yana and Hylda to put back the rowboat. The deluge had diminished, but I still wanted a roof over my head while I provided first aid. Xipil leapt down from his tree and went over to taste the dead horse. He muttered something about revenge.

Selfishly, and prompted by the pained look on Yana’s face whenever she looked at my leg, I attended to my own wound first. I gave a short prayer of thanks when I realized that the break wasn’t as bad as I had first thought. I wasn’t even bleeding. When I felt the rowboat slam into my leg, I feared I could lose the use of it for months, but after examining the injury, I believed I’d be back on my feet in a week or two. Or perhaps just an hour, if I used the healing salve.

Wolfram and Xipil began tending their own injuries. I couldn’t inflict the pain of the healing salve on myself just yet. The two of them seemed competent enough, but I still asked if I should take over. Before helping me move over to Xipil, Yana expressed her displeasure with Wolfram’s timing. She had a few choice words – for my ears alone – about how foolish he was for summoning the angry spirit horse while everyone was injured. I nodded and told her I agreed.

I only had to adjust their bandages slightly and I commended Xipil and Wolfram on their work. Now that the battle was over, and nobody was bleeding, we needed to relax and let our bodies begin healing. I wasn’t as mobile as I would have liked, but Yana was a good assistant and followed my directions, making Xipil, Wolfram and me comfortable. Wolfram wanted to use the healing salve, but I told him his body had to stabilize first. He also called to Grogg not to poke at the hole he had made, for Grogg used the downtime to inspect the dig. Grogg wisely chose to lie down and sleep with the needle in his neck.

A bright ball of fire suddenly appeared some distance to the south and surged west with a loud rumbling and an incredible speed. Xipil asked me if I thought Nulius’s priests were the source of the fireball. “Don’t know, don’t care,” I replied mellowly.

When I had achieved that state of calm that I had sought, I looked at Xipil and Wolfram. They were quite relaxed, too. It was time to upset myself again. I removed the bandages from my leg and applied a dose of healing salve before putting the bandages back on. I knew I had a couple of minutes before the pain became too unbearable, so I hurriedly checked on Grogg. I was still a little mad at him, but after putting some time between myself and the incident, I realized that he hadn’t meant to harm anyone by overturning the rowboat.