Kingdom of Rust Chapter 15 (Patreon)

The needle slid through my cheek making me wince, which made the stitches pull, which caused me more pain. Sewing my cheek closed was far harder than when I did my leg, it also hurt more. Without a mirror, it took longer than I would have liked to get the last stitch in, and the wound closed. Teacher was just stepping out of the mine as I was wrapping a bandage around my head and cheek.

“Fuck sake, I’ve seen better stitching from a blind woman.” I couldn’t comment back so I just chose to flip him off, which elicited a chuckle. “Well, you survived your first encounter with occultists so that’s one in your favor.”

I could only raise a questioning eyebrow as I didn’t want to chance tearing the stitches out by talking. By now my adrenaline had faded from the quick fight but I only felt numb to killing the poor woman and didn’t have the same nauseous reaction as I had when I killed the bandit.

“I’ll tell you about it later. For now, we gotta burn the foul things they left behind.” I saw he had his lacquered wooden flask out and was drizzling a small trail out of the cave. I knew he had the flask but he had never taken a drink from it. When the smell hit me, I realized why. It smelled foul.

“Yeah, not the most pleasant of smells, but it burns good, see.” He touched the burning tip of his sword to the liquid and the fire raced down the tunnel.

Teacher was turning back toward me but my eyes went wide as I saw a blast of fire race right back out the tunnel. There was no time to react and Teacher had only managed to partially turn when the blast erupted from the mine.

Even though I was sitting on the ground the force nearly threw me to the edge of the outcropping. Coughing out dust and wheezing, I pushed myself off the ground and looked around. The entire area was choked by rising dust. Teacher must have gotten hit by the side of the blast because his body was thrown to the side but he wasn’t moving and I saw blood leaking from a gash on his head.

When I tried to get up, I stumbled as my head swam and my vision went dizzy for a moment.

‘What the hell just happened!’

Regaining my balance, I stumbled over to Teacher and checked him for signs of life. He was still breathing but his head was bleeding badly and he didn’t respond when I tried to wake him. He must have bounced his skull across a rock, or a rock had come flying out of the mine and struck him.

My pack was still in my pouch so I quickly retrieved a new bandage and wrapped it around the wound. I would have cleaned the wound and sewn it shut first, but my sewing supplies had disappeared in the dust since they had been sitting next to me at the time. While I didn’t like the guy, I didn’t want him dead.

The bandage around his head quickly soaked through with blood but there wasn’t anything more I could do for him up here. The rest of our supplies were below, back with the horses.

With a grunt of effort, I began dragging the heavier man back down the trail. What had been a thirty-minute climb turned into a three-hour slog. Teacher remained unconscious the entire time.

After I set him in the clearing with the horses, I had to take a breather. I was soaked in sweat and I could tell a few of my stitches had broken from the exertion. Once again I tried waking Teacher to no avail. I knew head injuries were bad but all I could do was wait and hope he woke up on his own. Even dragging him down the trail hadn’t been ideal but we couldn’t remain exposed to the weather up there. A dark bank of clouds was moving in from the far side of the valley so I quickly gathered the driest wood I could find and started making a campfire.

It took a few tries to get the damp wood to ignite but I eventually managed to get a small fire going. I leaned Teacher against the nearby tree in the sitting position so the canopy could protect him somewhat from the incoming rain in case I couldn’t get the shelter finished in time.

I had to remove my sleeping pack from the horse and unroll my tent to get at the rain cover. I tied one end around the tree Teacher was under and angled it off to the side using some of the wooden poles. And not a moment too soon as a sheet of rain cascaded across the valley.

The fire survived thanks to its placement under the edge of the canopy but it flickered and dimmed as drops of rain splashed in as they hit the ground. Having to keep the fire going meant I got soaked from the splashing rain which didn’t let up for a good hour.

Seeing no point in wearing my wet armor, I stripped it off, forgetting about my throwing knife as it plopped to the wet ground. Sighing, I picked it up. I looked back but Teacher was still out cold so I pulled the knife out of its sheath.

It had been pretty dark in the cave but in the dreary light that made it through the clouds, I could tell the knife was in bad shape. What I hadn’t noticed before was the blade was slightly twisted to one side. I had no idea what sort of force would be needed to bend metal of this quality but somehow I had managed it with my calling. I certainly hadn’t thrown the knife with my hand, it was holding the candle and my other hand was on my sword.

The better part of a day was spent trying to reproduce even the feeling of what I had done in the mine but nothing happened. Feeling defeated, I put the damaged blade back in its sheath and tucked it into my pouch. It was damaged beyond the point of being useful as a throwing knife and it was too short to be helpful in close combat even if the blade wasn’t bent and chipped.

“Wha-.” I jumped when Teacher spoke, I didn’t honestly think he would wake up after being unconscious for so long. “What happened?”

“Something exploded in the mine and you took a nasty head wound.”

“Oh,” he replied casually, trying to lift his arms but he was weak and they weren’t cooperating with him. “Did the fire destroy everything?” Not knowing that answer I simply nodded. He seemed happy by this fact and I winced internally at lying to him. “Get me back to headquarters,” he said before passing out again.

Of course, he would give me an asinine order like that. Well, if he died along the way, it was on him now. I began packing up the gear and somehow managed to get him on his horse and into the saddle after an hour's worth of work.

Tying him to his horse like some criminal did give me a small amount of joy. I may have made the ropes a little tighter than they needed to be… For safety sake.

The reins of his horse were tied to the rear of my saddle and I began to lead the two of us back down the trail and toward the village. I figured we needed to check in so they didn’t go sending another letter to headquarters.

The town representative looked a bit worried when he saw our condition and offered a few supplies to help us along. I gladly accepted the offer before heading back toward Roddan.

Teacher woke up a few times along the way and I managed to get some food and water in him to keep him going but his mind was addled and half the time he asked me who the hell I was and demanded to be let go before he slipped back into unconsciousness. I may have gotten a perverse amount of joy on one occasion by telling him I was taking him to be sacrificed. I stopped playing with him after that when he almost broke free of his bindings, the only thing saving me was the fact he passed out again. I was still nursing the burn on my side from his attack but I learned a valuable lesson.

***

After five grueling days of trail riding and keeping Teacher fed and alive, which meant getting practically no sleep, we arrived in Roddan. The guards made to stop me but I gave them my best Teacher glare and they stepped back as the horses rode past the checkpoint.

It helped that they were the same guards on duty as when we left less than two weeks ago. In my sleep-deprived state, it took me a few tries to find the headquarters building within the city. But it eventually came into view and I almost shouted in joy but it came out as a happy croak. I didn’t even get off my horse as I led it right to the hitching post and slid off, wincing as my stiff legs nearly gave out on me.

I tied my horse to the post and left Teacher’s horse tied to mine, then I waddled to the door and shoved it open. Samantha looked startled to see my haggard appearance but I managed to rasp out one word, “help,” before I passed out in the doorway.

***

“It’s a good thing you got him here,” Director Gabrielle said. “can you run down what happened?”

I explained to her about the occultists but told her I didn’t understand that part. She just nodded but she seemed angry that our injuries were caused purely by Teacher’s negligence. “It’s probably going to take a week or two for that thick-skulled idiot to heal. Unfortunately, we still don’t have any other Chosen in the area that you can mentor with. And while you performed admirably you aren’t yet ready to take on solo missions. Take some time to rest and heal up.”

“Would it be okay if I visited my family? I haven’t seen them since before I left to challenge the city.”

She rubbed her chin in thought, “I don’t see why not. How long do you plan on being gone?”

“A couple of weeks there and back, maybe less by horse.”

“Alright, go ahead but your stipend for the next month will be held until you return.”

That seemed a bit unfair, it wasn’t like I was the one that caused the injuries. But she already knew that so there was no point arguing that fact. So I only nodded at her in reply before she walked out of the room I was recovering in. Apparently, it was the local hospital and she had dragged me and Teacher here by herself after Samantha alerted her to the issue.

I was going to rest for the day, then get right back on my horse and go back to that stupid cave to ensure everything was destroyed. I didn’t like leaving a job unfinished and if Teacher ever found out I lied to him, it would not be a pleasant experience for me. So for now my family could wait while I made good on my lie.

There was also something in that cave I was hoping to take a look at. Teacher had been a little too quick at grabbing it and pushing me out of the way. It seemed like something was going on that I wasn’t yet privy to. And like my father always said, “knowledge is power.” Although he used it to make a quick plate, I planned on using it to defend the kingdom from more of these occultists and didn’t feel like waiting for Teacher to get around to explaining things to me.