Welcome to my seemingly endless journey.
A trip that will take you to places I might have visited many moons ago.
It´s a tale that came back to me when I meditated on one of my past lives. A life I told you about in my unbelievable true story.
As promised in that story I will now share this story with you.
Chapter 30
The fire monsters are just a few steps away from discovering the lord of the forest. He shouts something in an unintelligible dialect, they all look towards the place where the huge man lies. The flames show me his full size for the first time, No wonder I mistook his arm for a tree trunk.
The flames approach cautiously, as if afraid they are afraid. Then the giant rises. His face is a grimace, but he stands and growls. His voice booms and the fire monsters flinch, but their faces don't flinch. Then one of the torches makes sure I can see a face. They wear painted caps. That's why their necks were not visible.
Recovered from the shock, they stretch their arms and grab something from their backs. Swords and axes emerge. Then there is the sound of an owl again. The forest giant raises his arm and points to one of his attackers. On the spot, it shrinks into one and falls to the ground. Then he appoints another, who suffers the same fate.
The fire monsters react in shock. A huge chaotic scream displaces the silence. When the lord of the forest raises his arm for the third time, only the backs are visible. These are rapidly moving away from the scene of the disaster. The two wounded are carried away in a way they will remember for a long time. They are pulled by arms and legs in order to escape the wrath of the lord of the forest as quickly as possible.
I see the leftover flames shoot through the forest, they are soon out of sight. Only then do we rejoin the battered giant. It didn't matter if they caught him. “That was a quick improvisation master, ehh Mart,” says Numico as his eyes drift to my bow.
My hands are sweaty from the tension as I sling my bow over my shoulder again. Before I can react, the lord of the forest growls. The sound makes me shiver and the hairs all over my body stand on end. I recoil. Did we do the right thing to save him? Hadn't the fire monsters become victims of his immense power?
Was that why they tried to destroy him?
Then I hear Numico's reassuring voice. “Do not fear Martio, his wounds torment him. This torment makes him growl, but rest assured he is infinitely grateful to us." I hear them talking in that crazy language again and decide to keep some distance despite Nurnico's confidence.
Little by little my thoughts calm down. It would have been possible to kill several fire monsters, now I have only shot arrows into their knees to scare them off. What if the time comes when I will have to kill? Will I be ready for that?
We are not forbidden, but only a few have ever taken the life of another human before. Only when there was no choice. It dawns on me that on this journey I may also find myself in that situation. Taking another life is a responsibility that I used to want nothing to do with.
But now?
Now the chance of it happening to me becomes real. Now that I see how easily I dare to hurt people, I expect to be prepared to do what is necessary at the moment of supreme.
Before, I had always thought that I would voluntarily let myself be killed. Not out of fear of confrontation, but because every life was worth the same. Also, that of him who seeks my life. He too has the right to life. It wouldn't be for me to take that away from him. I'd rather leave my own life than take his.
Could it be that Numico.....?
Is it the responsibility I feel to protect him that has changed me? Have I come to attach more value to this bodily shell, a shell only required for the short period we spend in this world? The more I think about it the more I come to the conclusion that I have come to find life more and more valuable.
The locked-up sadness, the isolation from the world, in which I have been so long. It seems as if they are slowly but surely crumbling. Is that what makes life worth living now?
Before, I was always so proud of the high degree of pacifism that I advocated.
I would give my life if I had to because taking a life was something only the great were allowed. Only now do I see it might have been my fear of living that made me make this choice. It would be a legitimate reason to leave this life, which I subconsciously feared, in what I thought was an honorable way. Only now do I realize how scared I was, afraid of having to feel the pain that was locked deep in my heart.
Numico's voice startles me from the reverie I was lost in. "Martio come closer, your knowledge of herbs and wound care is many times greater than mine and this is a wound that needs attention."
"Make a fire Numico, I need light and clean water, only then can I see the seriousness of the situation," I reply startled.
Numico turned out to be handy with the flints and in no time he had a small fire burning. The forest man was initially afraid of the fire, but Numico reassured him and explained that we are not fire monsters.
“We control the power of fire, but we will use it only for good,” he declared. “Give me a big stick and then get my pack so we can boil water,” I say. I put the branch in the flames. When it burns well I take it out again and examine the leg of the woodman. The teeth have sunk deep into his flesh. Even the attachment points of the muscles are visible, but at first glance the muscle, although slightly damaged here and there, does not appear to be torn.
I search my pockets for a knife. With this, I can remove some wooden points, which have broken off and now stick out like dark spots in the bloody muscle mass. Even though I know that the man will not understand me, I calmly explain what I am going to do with every action. I try to demonstrate as much as possible so that he has some understanding of what I'm up to. Surely it would not be pleasant if he suspected me of wanting to injure him more seriously than he has already been injured.
The blade glows red in the night after being in the flames for some time. This way I am sure that it is both disinfected and will immediately cauterize the wound. I fold my face into a terrible grimace and grit my teeth, then take a puff of breath. Anything to make it clear to him that the next venture will be a painful one.
Then the moment is there. I see the tip of the knife disappear into the muscle. A hissing sound and the sweet smells of fried meat curl into my nostrils as I deftly remove the first wooden point.
The tense jawline and the heavy breathing betray that the giant is not insensitive to pain. Yet he remains surprisingly calm throughout this entire operation. Numico apparently found our camp without any problems, because soon he is behind me. He throws down the carriers and hurries to put a bowl of water on the fire. I am now ready for the last point, once this is removed I clean my hands with the heated water.
I take a vest, a leather thread, and the herbal cream from the carrier bags. I cut the vest into strips with the knife and dip the leftovers in the water, which is now boiling. I fish it out with a stick and wait for the worst of the heat to dissipate. With this cloth, I clean the wound as well as possible.
The giant still doesn't make a sound. I look at him admiringly. He tries to smile gratefully, but the laugh fails. Once the wound is fully bandaged there is only one thing left, rest much rest.
The size of the wound required more balsam than I expected, I needed to make more; "Numico I have to find some herbs, you stay with our friend, I'll try to come back as soon as possible."
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