Jagged Stones-Chapter 3

A scream pierced the night like a knife. Emmor sat up, and listened. There it was again! He hurriedly pulled on breeches and boots. After glancing outside, he saw a woman being dragged--screaming--into the woods. Emmor got a dagger and his bow, and stumbled outside.
Some concerned men peeked out of their houses, the full moon gleamed off blades and tips; it bathed their faces in eerie half-light. One man struggled out of the door, much as he had done. He ran on to the woods. Emmor followed.
Dark prints in the wet soil pointed Emmor to the beast. He followed the, without thinking, and lost sight of the other man. Every now and then, a scream, followed by a growl, would break the almost dead silence. He could hear crying, which he thought was a good thing. It meant she was still alive. That also made him hope to kill the thing. It was evil, a monstrosity. Oh! But what a fast monstrosity! Soon he was gasping for air and his lungs burned. His muscles screamed in protest, but he just ran all the more faster.
Then, after a while, he saw a light ahead of him. It was just a sliver, but Emmor welcomed it. The beast must stop at some point, and the light promised a clearing--the perfect place to rest. His theory was right. He skidded to a stop in a round clearing, and checked the sides before stepping forward. The monster might be lurking out of sight in the trees. He inspected the rest of the clearing and gasped. On a stone laid Lain, torn, bloody, and broken. His hair was matted up and full of spiders and twigs. His clothes where ripped, shoes gone, and his feet blistered and raw.
"Lain!" Emmor said as he rushed forward to help his friend; abandoning his earlier caution. Then he used his brain and was puzzled. He had heard a girl screaming, not Lain. Still, he scooped him up in his arms. Lain was heavy, but Emmor, even as weary as he was, is strong--made so by years of hard labor.
Emmor started the slow walk back. About half way, Lain was getting really heavy, and blood from Lain's cuts covered him. Even though it was getting brighter out, it was still dark, so he often ran into trees, or branches whipped at his face. Roots tried to trip him. And he got tired, so tired by the time he reached the village, but his work was not yet done. He had to save Lain.
A family ran forth, seeing he carried a limp and bleeding body. The woman looked at the face and burst into tears. "Where's Lillian?" the father yelled while the mother moaned about her lost child. "Where's Lillian?" the father asked again, shaking Emmor's shoulders. "I'm sorry. I didn't find her." he said. The father then crumpled to the ground, the fight gone out of him, now that he realized his daughter was most likely dead. The mother's wailing grew louder. Emmor was sorry to leave them like that, but he had to save Lain. Once well away from the sound of their sorrows,  he started asking around for the healer, Agnes was her name. One child saw what he carried and quickly pointed to a house, but the rest of the people he asked where dazed and worried, and couldn't tell him right from left. He carefully jogged over to her house, and banged his head on the door (for lack of the use of his hands).
Agnes opened the door and gasped in surprise. "Come in! Come in! Oh, Lain! What happened? Oh never mind! Just set him down on that table there, lets bandage him up." Once Emmor put Lain down, Agnes rubbed a poultice on his skin and cuts, and quickly covered them with layers and layers of thin medical cloth. She also poured water through his lips before stepping back and saying, "Now all we can do is wait and see what will happen."
~O~
I woke up feeling very faint and weak. My arms felt stiff and caked in mud, not to mention very heavy. My head hurt and felt light compared to the rest of my body. I looked up and to my surprise, I found myself in my room, on my bed. Looking around the room, I also saw Emmor in my armchair. My arms, it turned out, where covered in a ton of layers of bandages. Agnes's doing. She probably put some herb mush or something underneath them.
I knew that would happen, I just wondered if anyone knew my true identity. Probably not, considering I'm still alive. I also wondered if anyone knew I was a girl. That was one thing someone could find out without endangering my life. But it would be such a hassle. There would be questions I had no answer to and suspicions I would not be able to get rid of.
I tried to sit up, but that made the room and my head spin too much. With a  plop, I let myself fall back down. "Ow." I softly said. I let myself run loose and review the facts. Fact numbero uno, first and foremost--I'm an idiot.
Once that was past, there where still other things to overcome in my head. Number two--I'm not dead. Why? I have probably been discovered, but I was not yet dead, or being tortured out of my mind (believe me, its happened before). Had someone defended me? WHY? I had no friends, and was currently on Agnes's bad side. That only left Emmor, but whey would he protect me? I was no one special to him, just another acquaintance. I was tempted to puzzle that out more, but I had more pressing things to get too. Lain, I thought, What are you going to do with yourself now? As simple as that question is, it has--and always will be--one of the hardest things anyone has to answer. Even for me. Especially for me.
I could not stay. That much was obvious. But where would I go? Where would I be safe? I couldn't possibly go into the forest again to live off of berries, mushrooms, and anything I tricked into coming near me (I'll get to that, it also explains Whinnyfred). My mind would leave me, as it has before. I would be in between  half worlds, doing half things, and permanently turn into a wild creature covered by the skin that shows who I really am. I would turn wild and savage. Speaking to myself and animals (with my mind, I really can understand what they say, and they, I). But when loneliness is your only companion, you are forced to  make up something else. Lonely makes you so depressed, you have too. If only just to hold onto that last shred of sanity.
No, I could not go into the woods again. It would be too much on my already-too-fragile-mind. Instead, I would go someplace where no one could find me. Maybe Therm. Therm was a good fifty miles form here, about two days travel. Then I could go onward to someplace else and distant. I would have to leave soon after I got rid of these bandages, head ache, and the cut on my leg. The minor injuries where not a problem. I can heal faster than normal people. Most likely a defense mechanism for things like well, THIS! It sure come in handy though. Where one person would take a week to heal this cut on my leg, it would take me about four-to-five days. Of course, it also depends on the injury.
My brain started hurting again, and my eyelids started to droop. I tried to fight the sleep off, but it was no good, and I was snoozing in just a few minutes.

~O~
When I woke up again, Emmor was staring at me in that curios way of his. "What?" I asked. It was kind of snap-ish, but I was in no good mood. I had just woken up from a horrible nightmare. He adverted his gaze and said, "Well, I was trying to figure out what all went on last night. It doesn't add up right. I had heard a girl screaming, not you, and a family came to me asking for a girl, when I came back with you. But you are the one sitting here, and the one I rescued. You are defiantly not a girl"--good, he's totally oblivious-- "so what could have happened. You don't have any minor scars left, but I bet your running a fever right now. You were before. It was so high, I wanted to get a doctor or someone in here. When I said that around you, you jumped up and fought me with all of your might."--he rubbed a bruised jaw-- "Besides that conundrum, there is the fact that you were spared by the monster. Why?"
Here he fell into a very deep thinking silence. I let him think it out. He obviously was confused, so I let him puzzle himself more with his thoughts. His face got darker and darker, and his delicate mouth twisted into a frustrated frown. His eyebrows practically covered his eyes. I hope he wasn't going to take out all of that frustration out  on me. I was bruised up enough.
"Ah! So many questions, so few answers!" Emmor yelled at me. "Maybe it would help if you told me your side of the story."
Tough luck. Friend or no friend, I was not about to give that away. Instead I decided on confusing him even more. Hurrah! Besides, this guy was warming up to me (an amazing feat) and I didn't want him dead. So I told him a lie, "I remember I was sleeping when the beast came in. It grabbed me and left. I screamed, but then I remember nothing else." As you probably have guessed, I could in fact, remember all of the gruesome events of last night (or whenever it was), but I just stuck with my story. "What do you remember?" I asked him.
"It was dark and I. . . I was having trouble sleeping, when I heard a scream. I saw the Thing drag someone into the forest. I followed it, and entered a clearing. You where laying there on top of a rock. I carried you back and took you to Agnes. She healed you up. You heal very fast, you know. Even with all of those wounds. By the way, how's you head? It was cut a bloody when I saved you." Emmor replied.
Saved me! Ha! But my head did hurt and it was making my thoughts kinda slow and fuzzy. I was also dizzy, and that was bad. I would have to stay a few more days to let my red blood cells regenerate. "My head does hurt," I said, then promptly fainted. I left the real world and fell into the deepest, darkest corners of my soul where my foulest memories and thought dwelled.
I had my first dream of Emmor.
And the real Lain.

~O~

I walked alone. It was dark and I didn't know where I was or even who I was--completely in the dark. I stumbled and fell; got up, but then tripped again. Looking at my feet I discovered roots and vines snaking up my legs. I opened my ears to the baying of wolf hounds. They where hunting me! I cut myself free with a knife that appeared in my hands and ran. I ran faster and faster, not seeing anything. My instincts took control and I was caught in the race between hunter and prey. The hounds where practically snapping at my heels and everything was tripping me up. I was loosing hope and the race, fast. The biggest hound--the alpha--leapt at me. His strong paws pressed heavily against the small of my back. I tumbled and fell. They where on me, biting, snapping, ripping, and pummeling me. I managed to get up and fight them off with my knife and ran again. I stumbled over a limp thing on a forest floor. With sickening dread growing in my belly, I realized that it was the corpse of my eight year old sister. I didn't need to look to know she had disfiguring claw marks and bite marks on her face and torso.
I regained my footing and stumbled again over the bodies of my other family. Mom, Dad, brother, baby, all looking like my sister.
This time I couldn't find my feet and threw my arms in front of me, screaming, and landed in Emmor's grasp. He was bathed in a silvery-white light, shining like an angel. I could see nothing but him. He held me tightly and turned me around. The hounds, the dark forest,--everything--disappeared. Instead, it was replaced with something worse.
I was in a clearing. As ever, there was that evil rock in the middle. Emmor changed his reassuring hug into an arm restraint, and it took me a while to figure out why. Lain stood beside the rock--real Lain--and beside him stood handsome, well dressed man. He was dressed in a suit, swishing a can and fiddling with his top hat. Behind him streamed the black cape, trade mark of the bad guys.
I was reliving the worst day of my life, and it didn't even occur to me that Emmor wasn't a part of this at all.
The man checked his pocket watch and swaggered over to real Lain. I screamed with all my might, "LAIN! RUN! GET AWAY BEFORE IT'S TO LATE!" but all that came out of my mouth were garbled yips. Emmor held me tighter and pressed me against his strong chest. He forcefully took my head in his hands and forced me to look deep into his purple eyes, all the while screams echoed behind me. I could hear the handsome man speak, then a swish and a gasp. Tears streamed from my eyes, I knew what had happened. It was all over. Emmor just held me tighter. He refused to let me look, even now. I gave in and cried against his hard chest. I moaned Lain over and over. The heart break consumed me. Rage burned instead, strong and fast. I found myself struggling with all my might, not even sure why. I just had to get away, to somewhere were there wasn't death and unfair justice. I screeched and yelled, "Let me go! Let me go!" and woke up with Agnes and Emmor restraining me. Worry creases crossed their foreheads. Tears glistened in my eyes.
I fainted again.
~O~
Who was he? The question kept circling around in Emmor's head. The strange events that happened a week ago still lingered as well. What was going on inside Lain's head? Obviously something tragic had happened to him. Parents dead? Bandit raid? Those things happened a lot on the roads. Was Lain even his real name? If so, why was he calling his own name, and mine?
There was just something about him that didn't seem right; didn't add up. Still didn't add up. How did he even get the fever? He wasn't sick, just beat up. Maybe he hit his head a little too hard. . .
He turned his head and saw Lain stir a little. Agnes employed him to keep watch, since he as strong and knew how to take care of the patient. After the nightmare that must have been last week, he was kept in the room 24/7. She was taking no chances. What would happen if Lain decided to sleep walk off into the woods? Especially with the beast still around. Out there, lurking in the dark, readying to snag its next victim. It made him sick.
Lain's movement again distracted him from his thoughts. His fever had broke a few hours ago, and he was waking again, without spitting like an angry cat with fists flying. Lain yawned and blinked sleepily. "Weere armey?" he said. "In your room Lain, remember?" Emmor urged. "O ya." he said, then yawned again to shake off the rest of his sleep. "Ow long was I ou?" he asked.
"About two weeks." Emmor answered. That got Lain awake. He sat straight up. "THAT LONG?" he shouted, "Oh! Bad idea." he grumbled, rubbing his sore head. His stomach grumbled. "Hungry?"
"Yeah, a little."
Emmor got up and fixed him a plate of green beans and corn. Lain wolfed it down in seconds. He turned to Emmor and thanked him. "No problem. Are you feeling any better?" Emmor asked him. Lain replied, "Yeah. Did I miss much while I was out?"
"Yeah! A group of men came through asking or a young girl named Kay."--Lain almost chocked on the last of his corn--"They swaggered in this village like they owned the place, flipping daggers and causing trouble. We told them we knew of no Kay. They threatened us and said they would be watching. It was all kinda creepy. The emergency guard"--aka, a couple of young plow hands--"stepped in and sent them on their way before they caused any real harm. Chris joined them. I say good riddance. Still, I wondered what they wanted with that Kay person. Most likely a criminal of some sort. . ." He trailed off when he saw Lain wasn't listening. "Lain?" He had lapsed into one of his moods. "Umm, fine, I'll just leave you be." Emmor said, not wanting to intrude on those most likely important internal conflicts and thoughts. He got up and went to talk to Agnes. There were a few choice words he wanted to share about her tenant. You learn a lot about people from sleep talking.
~O~
I was being quiet because I had a lot to mull over. I was glad Chris was gone, he made my disguise difficult and I hated him almost as much as the handsome man. No, wait, nothing could compare to hating the handsome man. That hate burned stronger than any love I had ever felt, even towards real Lain.
I had no intentions of depressing myself more with thoughts of real Lain and the man, so I followed Emmor. I hadn't even wanted him to leave, I wanted to talk more and get my mind off of these sad things. My head didn't pain me so much any more. I wondered why it lasted as long as it did. Usually when I come from an experience like that, it lasts for three days, not two weeks. The fever was weird too. That had only happened once before when I was a child, before It happened. And once before, he died, Lain. There was also no defecation or urination either. That was weird, but like those other times. I wondered why Agnes and Emmor didn't question it. They were weird too. It worried me. EVERYTHING was weird and messed up, the story of my life.
I walked into the kitchen/living/dining room of Agnes's three room house. She isn't rich, that's for sure. And there, on the only chair, sat Agnes, listening to Emmor. My sensitive ears caught almost every little whisper. They were talking about me. Their heads were close together and their mouths moved up and down quickly with angered whispering. Forgetting why I strayed into the room, I grew angry at what Emmor was saying to Agnes. About me being a freak, and with pity heavy on the tongue. Bah! Why was he still here anyway? Didn't he have a house of his own?
Night was coming fast. He looked up and saw it. Apologizing for his rudeness, he got up and left abruptly. He didn't even see me stand in the doorway!
Agnes saw me though. "Come here boy!" She barked. I shuffled over. "Sit!" I sat. "Now! Listen to what I have to say very carefully." I nodded. She softened her tone, obviously not wanting to alarm me. Too late. I was pretty sure of what she was about to say. My life was over! "Me and Emmor have been talking, and we know you are keeping something from us." relief flooded all down my spine. She didn't know! But I wasn't out of the woods yet. "Are you?" she asked. "If it's important, we need to know. You may cause harm keeping a secret." I may cause harm revealing it, I thought. I put on my angry/moody teenager act (even though it's kind of girly-moody-teenager-ish) and decided on running away while I still could safely. "I don't need this." I said, standing up. "I'm going for a walk." It was dark outside by this time, but I stormed out anyway. Agnes tried to catch me, but there was no way she could, not with me running. "The beast!" She screamed at me. At least she cared about my well being. I ignored her though. Maybe I shouldn't have, but I was over confident and cocky. I ran until the trees surrounded me on all sides. I had no fear. All woods are the same, and animal words travel fast. I was "top dog" in any forest I strayed into. Nothing would attack me here except humans and Exers ( unnatural animals of magical abilities, not very nice animals). There where none in this sleepy wood. I could sense none of them.
All the other animals feared me--maybe cause' I could talk to them in their mind. It unnerves the heck out of them--except for cats. But cats don't fear most anything.
I ran. I ran along the path as quickly as I could. I opened my normally shielded mind to all of the animal voices and let them wash over me. I felt free. I didn't have to be Lain. I didn't have to think of real Lain, or Emmor, or Agnes, or Chris, or the strange men. I could just be me. No accent, no baggy shirts, no human thoughts. Instincts took over. I felt as if I could fly! As if I could run forever! Ahh! The feeling! I hadn't had a chance to just run. Not from retreat, not for money, not for work, just an honest-to-goodness run. I ran away from everyone. I ran away from my fears. I ran away from my miseries and everyday torments. I ran away from me, and fake me, Lain.
I ran to escape life itself.
I was blissfully alone! Alone except for the animals. Their warnings finally reached my deaf mind. Run! Run Kinsister! The Warkin approaches! They all screamed.
And I did run. I ran until I came to the clearing. The god-cursed clearing. Then I heard it, the beast, the Warkin. AAAOOOOWWWWLLL! I sprinted to the middle of the clearing, where the evil rock lay, certain I would not make it in time. The hunt song was getting closer. Something large was crushing plants and saplings. Come on! Come on! I though. I shouted, "OH GOD PROTECT ME!" as the thing crashed from the trees. Then it happened.
Kay screamed.