Prompt: You need heal

Thanks to Miao Zhang for permission to use his beautiful image, “You Need Heal”!

Colm staggered through the mist, stumbling over roots and crashing into tree trunks, slashing with his short knife at brambles that clutched at his bloody, ripped tunic and wrapped around his heavy black leather boots. He’d lost his sword when the largest thug cut through Connor’s throat, continuing his swing to block Colm’s desperate lunge. The killer’s heavy sword slid along Colm’s blade and jarred against his wrist. Hand numb from the blow, Colm dropped his sword as he staggered back and fled.

Colm blinked the blood and tears out of his eyes and saw his brother fall again and again and again. He grabbed a thick sapling and doubled over, spewing vomit mixed with blood. He fell to his knees and sank backward until his head hit the ground. “Connor,” he cried out. “Connor!” A whisper. “Connor!” The sound might not have left his lips.

He woke, aware that time had passed, but not how much. The light seemed no different through the thick fog. His wounds still burned, and he felt dizzy, the earth rocking against his head in time to his aching heart’s beat. “Connor,” he groaned, rolling his head to the side, searching for the strength to sit, to stand, to move.

His eyes fastened on the wooden staff planted against the thick layer of fallen leaves, then past it to the dark green leather boots that wrapped around impossibly slender calves. He didn’t move as his eyes travelled up those legs, bare to the hips but draped in delicate vines. An ornate belt wrapped around a waist he could span with his hands. He carefully swept past deep cleavage and broad shoulder plates to a delicate face paler than her long pink hair. He didn’t know which was more mesmerizing, the curve of her lips, the blaze of her green eyes, or the slender pointed tips of her ears that gently curved away from her head.

“You need heal,” she said in a silver-toned voice, swinging her staff down in front of him. It was topped with a blazing orb of green and yellow light. Colm tried to lift his hand, to speak, but he couldn’t move.

“You need heal,” she said again. His eyes were locked on her face, and he realized her lips had not moved. His eyelids fluttered and his eyes rolled back in his head. The last thing he saw was the light radiating over him.

To be continued, perhaps

Time writing	~20 minutes
December word count	7,941