Aftermath

We made a fair bit of money from the monster parts. It was enough to pay off Derek's debt; we bought Grace a new shield to replace the one that had been destroyed by the Great Goblin. We were also able to buy some wood and some type of epoxy resin. All the new items were being unused and untouched right now, though.

I was laying on our old floor, covered by a blanket. No one knew what to say to me; I could tell that everyone was blaming themselves for leaving me behind. I didn't blame them at all, but I couldn't get over the fact that I'd almost died. I kept replaying the scene over and over again in my head. The monster's hand around my throat, it's hot breath hitting me in the face, the terrible laugh that it would bellow out every time it thought it said something funny.

All I could think about was that if it weren't for an extreme bout of luck, the monster would have popped my head off of my body, and thought nothing else about it. Sarah was making meals as usual, but the shine in her eyes was gone; she used to enjoy cooking. But I hadn't taken a meal from her in days. Laura would try to come over and cheer me up, but I would roll over and ignore her.

It wasn't because of her; I just couldn't look at her without remembering how scared she had been, how frightened I had been. A week passed like this. Everyone was having their meal quietly in the room where I was lying down.

"Are you sure you don't want any?" Sarah asked me. They were all worried about me, I had seemed ok after the incident, but when we got home the next morning, I was like this. I closed my eyes and just listened to the clink of spoons against bowls. Slam!

"Enough!" It was Grace. She was standing up and had slammed her bowl of food onto the floor. It made me and everyone else jump. For the first time in a week, I sat up. "Do you want to find another party?" She questioned me? The question hurt it felt like she wanted to kick me out of the party because I was in this state, but she went on.

"I know we left you! I'm so sorry about that! I will never forgive myself for what we did!" She was crying angrily. 'How do you cry angrily?' "So if you're going to stay mad at us and find a stronger party, then I understand. We were weak; we couldn't help you when you needed us most. But I think I speak for everyone when I say in the past few months we have come to love and respect you." She dropped to her knees in front of me.

"So please, just tell me what you need, and I will help you do it." I looked around the room and noticed that the others had all begun to cry. Tim had his head hung in shame. I know he was taking this the hardest; he felt like he'd broken his promise to me. It was at this moment that I saw all of my friends like this that I realized I was causing the people that I cared about pain. I placed my hand on Grace's head before speaking to the group.

"I'm sorry." Everyone's faces twisted into ones of confusion. They didn't know why I was apologizing to them; they had left me alone to face that beast. "None of this is any of your faults. I went through something terrible, and Grace, you did too. We all did!" I turned to look at Laura. "I'm sorry for ignoring you, I know you've just been trying to help me, and I'm sorry I've made it so hard for you to do just that." I picked up my bowl of food that Sarah had prepared for me and started to eat.

I didn't notice how hungry I was until now. I scarfed the entire thing down before turning to Sarah. "Thank you so much for the meal." I then got up and walked over to Tim. I pushed on the top of his head until he looked me in the eye. "You did not break your promise. You saved Grace. I don't know how that fight would have turned out if you hadn't made the right decision to get out of there with her. We might all be dead right now." I leaned over and hugged him.

"I will need your help—all of your help for a while. I'm scared, but I know that we have to keep going out there if we want to survive in this world. This cruel, frightening world. So, please. Stay with me." There was a silence while everyone went over my words in their head. Derek was the first person to make a noise. It started with a single Hah. Then the single hah cascaded gradually into a fit of giggles.

"I'm sorry, but stay with you?" He said. "We were never going to leave! We all thought that you were!" He continued laughing for a minute before he stopped. He came over and held out his hand to help me up. "Of course, we'll be there for you, dude." At this moment, I couldn't have been more grateful for Derek's semi-boisterous personality. I took his hand and stood up.

"Thank you. How about in the morning we start working on this floor?" I asked the group, everyone's spirits had been raised higher. Seeing me up and about, even Tim looked like he was brooding less. They all agreed that we would do it the following day. I still had nightmares that night, but when I woke up and saw my friends around me, I knew that the danger was over, and for now, at least, I was safe.

For the first time in a long time, I was the first person out of bed. I decided to use this alone time to go to the back yard and plant the seed Shina had given me. Once I'd planted it, I started the process of making it grow, but once I did, I noticed something strange. No matter how much magic power I drew in, or the amount of intent that I put into the process, I couldn't make it grow any more than a couple of inches. It was the tiniest green sprout by the time I gave up.

I looked down at the tiny green leaves, puzzled with what was happening. 'Did I mispronounce the chant?' I wondered, but there was no way that was right; after all, I could easily use that skill in the heat of battle. There was no way that I mispronounced it with absolutely no pressure on me. The next step was to check my tattoo for the skill, making sure that it hadn't been damaged in any way from the injuries my hands had sustained.

There was no break or tear in the tattoo, either. 'Well, this is confusing. I'll ask Master next time I see her.' I gathered some twigs up and made a little makeshift fence around my new sprout. I was distracted doing this when Tim snuck up behind me. He put his head right over my shoulder without me noticing.

"Whatcha doing?" He asked in a sing-song voice. It was nice to see him being a little more cheerful again, but he still scared the dickens out of me. I settled my racing heart taking note that it was just Tim.

"Just doing a little bit of gardening," I said, making myself give him a friendly smile. Tim looked confused about that statement, though, and I knew why. It was the same question I was asking myself that was written across his face.

"But can't you just use your skill to make it grow?" I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head.

"I guess not. I can't get it to grow any further than this." Tim stood up and scratched his head.

"I wonder why?" I agreed. 'Why indeed?' Tim didn't ask any more questions of me, though; he just quietly started picking up twigs and helping me build my micro fence. We were almost done with it when he turned his head to me again. "You know I'm really happy you're ok. I honestly thought that we'd lost you." I understood what he was saying, but the statement wasn't quite right.

"Between you and me... I'm not ok. I'm scared. Graces outburst yesterday snapped me out of my stupor, but I'm honestly terrified. Every time I close my eyes, I keep seeing the moment I almost died." Tim hung his head sadly, thinking that he'd said something wrong. 'He cares so much.' I thought and smiled. I reached over and squeezed his shoulder. "I'm glad that I have you to talk to about it, though."

Tim looked immediately pleased like he'd received some great praise. 'Like a puppy.' I inwardly laughed at the comparison. The others had begun waking up, Sarah was the first one. She walked out and saw me smiling and touching Tims' shoulder, and I think she misread the situation because she immediately ran in and got Grace to see. I only noticed when I heard a couple of girlish squeals from behind us. I let go of his shoulder and smiled at my friends standing in the doorway.

"Good morning!" I called out to them. They responded with their greeting of the day and made themselves busy. Grace always began her day by training in the yard, and Sarah would start cooking breakfast. I offered to help Sarah, and this time, the Archer didn't refuse my help. She was just happy that I was out of bed again though, I figured she'd start refusing me again before too long.

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