Once More, Unto the Breach

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 10

I was still going damn fast as I plowed into Ken's chest,
forcing him back into a roll along the battlements. I was
dazed from the crash landing and really didn't come back to
reality until Kalie started slapping my face lightly with
her paw.

Shaking my head I found I was propped up along the side of
the battlements, Ken was sprawled out a few feet away from
me, his neck already starting to show dark brown bruises on
his green scales.

Kalie was still slapping me gently. I waved her off. "I'm
ok," I said, starting to stand. My head gave me a hard
throb. "I think," I amended.

She nodded, helping me stand up. "What happened back there?"

I rubbed my head. "One of the dragons dive-bombed Thrysten,
clipped her wing."

"I can see that," Draz hissed, hunching over the gryphoness.
"Retrieve a healer!" I called out to one of the ever present
servants.

I looked down at Ken. "We'll he be OK?"

Kalie shook her head slowly. "I don't know, I think he broke
his neck when he landed."

I stumbled a bit. "Oh shit."

"Good understatement, unless you can do magic we may not get
out of this."

"I've done one spell," I said, leaning up against her side.
"it was complex, but most of it was pre-prepared. I just had
to go through the motions."

Kalie frowned at me. "You just don't 'go though the motions'
with any kind of magic. It doesn't work that way."

Thrysten groaned before I could respond. Both Kalie and I
turned to look at her. She was slowly melting back to her
normal form, but whimpering in pain. As she reformed, she
looked worse them when I was on her, part of her left wing
was bent back, broken badly, part from the dragon, but
mostly from the landing. She had bruises down her side and
her shoulder blade was bleeding slowly.

Draz slowly rolled her over and held her head in his lap,
slowly stroking the feathers around her eyes. She was
moaning still, her eyes unfocused.

He looked at Kalie. "Can you do anything for her?" He asked,
waving the healer away.

Kalie seamed to lose a few inches in height. "I... not
here..." her eyes flickered over to where the fold was, "I
could take her back with us, but Fox has the temps, and if
she's critical the shock might kill her."

He bent down and kissed Thrysten's head. "Can you do it?" He
whispered at her.

She moaned, her eyes slowly closing.

Draz looked back at us. "Anything you can, anything,
please."

Kalie slowly nodded. "Ok then, we need to get her inside,
laid out an a bed, a clean bed, not the molded straw we had
last night."

He nodded, "She approved our bed in the Solarium, she had it
made for us. Will that do?"

Kalie nodded. "It will have to, get ten servants, carry her
gently down into the room and get her into bed. I'll be down
to look at her in a few minutes."

He nodded again, talking to one of the servants. I looked
over at Ken, his neck was swollen badly and bleeding slowly
in spots. "What can we do about him?" I asked.

She frowned, still holding me. "We can't move him. It will
make him worse, maybe even sever his spinal cord, if it
isn't to late."

I pushed away from her, standing up on my own, my head
spinning still. Draz was slowly helping the servants move
Thrysten down the stairs. "What did he find?"

"A spell to repulse dragons, he figured he could extend it
to cover the whole valley. He couldn't read more then a few
words of it though, so it's just a guess."

I rubbed my head. "We'll need a scribe."

Kalie took my arm, leading me towards the stairs. "We were
about to send for one before you landed."

"Good, right. That will help. But even then, how can we do
the spell?"

She started down the steps, with me in tow. "You did magic,
what kind?"

I rubbed my head again. "I did a spell for Fox using Bliss
as a base."

She looked started. "Bliss? You gave Fox Bliss?"

I nodded, regretting it instantly. "I used it like it was
made to be."

She sighed. "Fine, you can tell me all the details later.
Right now then I need to see what I can do for Thrysten, you
get it translated into Prid standard. Got that?"

"Yes." I said as we walked into the dinning hall. I could
see a dozen papers scattered accost the table. Though only
one was set in front of any of the places.

Kalie turned to one of servants, "You, get the castle scribe
for Oriana," she turned to a second one. "You, take me to
the Solarium."

Both scribes ran off, one taking Kalie with him.

I sat down at the chair with the papers. Picking up the one
in front of me, I scanned over it. The written language
looked nothing like mine, and all languages I have in my
translator looked like mine to me. I wasn't sure if I could
do anything with it without help."

"Lady?" A voice asked from the other side of the room. I
looked over to find the scribe. He was just a teenager,
maybe fifteen at the most. I waved him over so we could
start.

* * *

Jadin was a chatty girl, even if nether one of us could
understand the other. She had been talking for what seemed
like hours. I knew it was less then four, that was how long
the translator was suppose to take to pick up a language,
but still.

She paused for a second and handed me another fruit. She
seemed to have an infinite supply of them. She just reached
behind her back and pulled one out. No bag or anything, they
where just there.

I supposed it was magic, just one of the things I've had to
accept as real now that I've been with Fox for half of one
of his years. The same thing that was causing the glow
around her body.

I munched on the fruit, watching as she talked just to talk.
I was starting to think that she had been down in these
caves for so long she just needed someone to talk to other
then herself, even if I couldn't talk back.

Suddenly she stopped, gaping a bit, looking over my
shoulder. Turning my head, I gasped a bit. Standing about
three feet away, looking very badly dazed, was Fox. His eyes
were clouded over, and he had blood on his hands.

"Fox?" I whispered.

He fell down next to me. "Sora, th-th-that is you, r-right?"
He stuttered out.

I nodded, "Yes."

He smiled a bit. "Good," he whispered, and fell forward into
my lap. I yelped, catching his head, gasping when I saw the
back of his head. He had blood over the back of his head,
some hair was missing and his scalp was scrapped off. His
skull was actually showing, and cracked slightly.

"Oh lord." I whispered.

Jadin nodded, suddenly sitting right next to me. Brushing
her hair away from her eyes. She touched his head lightly,
away from the crack in his skull. She whispered something
under her breath press her fingers down a bit. She continued
to whisper softly.

I gave her a glance. "What do you think?"

She turned to look at me. "I think he needs help." She said
in a very soft voice.

I jumped a bit, through tried not to jar Fox's head to
badly. There was no sign that the translator had started
working, it just did.

I shook it off. "Can we do anything though?"

She nodded. "I think," she said, brushing her hair away from
her eyes. "I'm not sure though, he looks like me, but is so
different." She then gave me a sharp glance. "How can you
talk now and not when I first gave you _the words_."

"I didn't understand them."

She gently lifted Fox's head from my lap and slowly moved it
into her own. "You can now, I am amazed, we will have to
discuses this later." She started to stroke the side of
Fox's head where his hair was ripped out at.

"What are you doing?" I asked, sliding over a bit closer to
her.

"My job," she whispered, "now get back."

It was differently an order, I slide back over to the side
of the tunnel wall. She was holding the tips of her fingers
against his skull. She started to chant a bit under her
breath. The words she spoke seemed to carry a weight of
there own, heavy in the air and echoing a bit in an area
what wasn't echoing before. Her fingers started to glow a
bit, soon growing to be brighter then the light her body was
giving off.

Her face was a mask of pain and concentrating, blood was
starting to run from the corner of her eyes and her mouth.
Finally she let out a gasp and pulled her hands away from
Fox's head.

Fox for his own part moaning softly and rolled over,
reaching up to rubbed the back of his skull. "What
happened?" he whispered, his eyes slowly focusing on Jadin.

He paled slightly, "oh shit." He muttered before fainting
again.

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.