I was tired and worn down, but I knew we couldn't rest until we got Smith within the gates of Seather. By now, it was dark out, and the sound of owls and rodents bounced around in the night.
"How are we supposed to get him into the cart?"
Himora asked.
After we finished our quick meal, we went over to Smith's body and started to contemplate the question.
"I don't know...Um, I could try to lift him with my...elemental power."
Himora and I knew that this was an absurd thought, but Himora chimed in.
"Go right ahead. It couldn't hurt to try."
I was ready.
I walked over to the pale, cold-looking body of Smith and laid my hands on his chest, then jumped back and let out a scream of surprise.
"What!? What is it?"
Himora said, turning toward me and drawing his sword.
"He's...he's alive!"
Smith was indeed alive.
His eyes opened slowly, and he seemed to be lost as to where and even who he was.
"Come on! We can still save him!"
Himora said as he grabbed hold of one of Smith's arms.
"He's...he's so heavy...like he's made of stone or something!"
I hesitated for a moment and stopped in my tracks.
I was about to say: "It's dead weight."
But that didn't seem to fit this situation.
"We have to get him into the village... somewhere."
Himora said, sheathing his sword and crossing his arms in deep thought.
"But we can't use the wagon...now."
I looked to the ground, and had my skin been any lighter, I would have shown red with embarrassment.
"I...I couldn't control my power...I'm sorry."
I felt really bad now. Not only was it my fault that the wagon was out of commission, if Smith dies now, it would also be my fault.
"If we make some kind of stretcher, we could pull him to the gates, there I am pretty sure the guards would help us. Let's-"
"No..no...me can't be seen by dem guards...dey be Dwarven men..."
At first, the words startled us, for they were weak and clouded with pain. I dropped my spear at his side and fell to my knees, taking his head in my lap.
"Smith! What are you saying? You'd rather stay here and die than be saved by men of your own kind?... I don't understand. Wouldn't Dwarves be better than any in doctoring your wounds?"
Smith's eyes were regaining some of the color that they had recently lost, a sign that maybe he wasn't in too bad of a condition.
"That's nonsense! We have to get you to that village now!... Where are you wounded? I'll try to do what I can."
Smith wasn't bleeding anywhere, so it was really hard to tell where the wounds were. He pointed to his left leg, where a small tear in his pants can be seen. At a closer look, Himora realized that an arrowhead was stuck halfway into his leg. The shaft had been snapped off.
Smith moved slowly, but eventually he reached up and pulled at his shirt. Upon ripping it at the neck, he revealed not only a rather hairy chest, but several deep sword wounds to his ribcage on the right side.
"These wounds are serious! If we don't do something soon, he will die!"
I was now in tears once again. I felt weak and powerless. I had promised myself that I wouldn't cry anymore, but that promise was now broken.
"He's...lucky."
Himora said, removing a small pouch from his waist and, from it, drawing forth several small round stones.
"If the sword wounds had struck any higher...he wouldn't be here as of now."
The stones were very small and unnaturally round, each with a different color. They appeared to be glowing and emitting a bright aura that caused me to cover my eyes as he placed them one at a time atop Smith's open wounds.
"Doesn't that...hurt him?"
Himora stopped what he was doing and looked up at me just briefly before he went back to his work, saying:
"Yeah...but if he wants to live, there is little he can do but take the pain...I'm sorry."
As the last stone was placed into a deep cut just below the area in which Smith's heart was, they began to glow, and Smith let out a string of words in his unconscious state that I would rather not repeat.
Then, right before my eyes, something happened that I wouldn't have believed had I not been sitting right next to the Dwarf. The small stones began to glow brighter and brighter until they let out one last pulsating flash before simply and almost instantly melting away.
The small stones turned into a strange liquid substance and spread themselves out over the wounds, forming what looked to me like a batch of earth-toned bandages.
"That...was weird."
Was all I could say.
I honestly couldn't find any other words to describe what I felt at that very moment, but I pushed it out of my mind to try to worry about the bigger picture.
"Now what? We still have to get him into that village, and the wagon is in ruins...thanks to me. How long will that...stuff work?"
Himora strapped his pouch back on his side and took to his feet.
"The Watherian stone is a special mineral that is produced by my people for medical reasons. It serves as a sort of medical seal and decontamination for almost any type of wound. It will keep him in a fair condition for about three hours...I'm sorry that I couldn't do more, but I am not an Herbalist."
Well, that answered two of my million questions...I know Himora was helping quite a lot, but we still needed a way to get Smith into the village now, or he wouldn't live very long.
I began to grow aggravated as seconds turned to minutes, and the small amount of time that we had continued to dwindle away.
"Aaaugh! Where the hellz did that donkey run off to!?"
It was a rhetorical question that didn't help the situation, yet I thought aloud.
"We are both tired and sore, and we couldn't possibly carry him into the village, he is far too heavy!... Oh, man... What are we gonna d-"
I stopped mid-sentence.
I felt it again.
The same chill that had set in the moment before the pixies were frozen solid.
"Himora!"
I shouted as I spun on my heel and braced my spear for battle once again.
"Yeah, I felt it, I felt it the first time as well, but I was too...well, distracted to pay it much mind."
He was right.
During the first 'chill', he had been facing Kerina, but this time it was different...
Colder.
Before we could properly search the area, a thick white mist began to accumulate around our feet and the damaged body of Smith.
"Himora! He's after Smith!"
Himora shot me a look of confusion.
"HE, WHO!? I don't see anyone!"
I was just as confused as he was, but something else caught my attention.
"SMITH!"
As we stood looking about the trees and shadows for our seemingly invisible adversary, the thick mist began to solidify around Smith's body, and within seconds, he was airborne, being held up by a thick and growing sheet of ice.