Wounds

It was now winter. This experience has changed me forever. I wasn't jaded like some people because I had only killed two people. The first one was perverted and the second was desperate. The second one had been beyond reason and I had been forced to kill her.

She had nothing on her, which was probably why she was so desperate. She was starving. I had buried her body. I had also not taken anything from her. Taking something from someone so weak and tired was not honorable. I wasn't proving I survived, I was putting her out of his misery. She was not a threat at all.

The fire nimr had grown from what I saw of it. It had always been eating fresh corpses when I spotted it. After it had eaten, it left, eyeing me warily. I also eyed him on edge. We always just backed away slowly from each other.

Today, I was going scavenging for anything green I could find. I was surviving off of salted meat I hung from sturdy drying racks. The drying racks were inside the cave to the far left away from the waterfall. I made them from sturdy branches I cut down using a flint axe.

I was sick of yams and meat so I was trying to find anything aside from them. I took my iron sword along with my animal spear just in case. The iron sword had a sheath and I attached the sheath to my clothes with cord. I strapped my spear oncmy back with cord so my hands would be free. I had patched up my old clothes again but come spring, my old ones would be too worn and tattered.

I worked my way around looking for edible things in a circle. I gathered some roots and holly berries. Holly berries were poisonous so I would treat them as such. "Wow, how pitful do you have to be?" Hearing a voice, I immediately climbed a tree. Flashbacks entered my mind but I tried to remain calm, remembering that he was talking to someone else.

An angry voice sneered. "I mean, not only are you useless in magic, you can't do anything for your brother. So useless you can only beg for his life." I looked around for the voice and found him. He was wearing nice clothes like nothing I ever saw before. The girl was laying at the young man's feet, whimpering. Her brother laid over by the side unconscious.

I turned ready to leave, after all I had learned my lesson about being impulsive. Not only did I not know their skill levels, I also didn't know about their situation. I climbed down the tree when I heard him call out. "Hey you, in the shadows, aren't you going come join us?" I froze for a moment before a young man stepped out with white hair and green eyes.

The man answered saying "Since you are so eager to see me, sure." I listened for a bit, and heard two piercing screams. I decided I did not want to stay any longer, climbed down the rest of my tree, and ran. My feet were pounding as I sprinted as fast as I could. He suddenly appeared, swinging his blade at me. I couldn't dodge -was I going to die here?

A loud growl came from the shadows, leaping at the man. It was the fire nimr! He changed his trajectory last moment to hit the nimr instead. The blow connected but was shallow because he did not have any force behind it. I unsheathed my iron sword, swinging at him. I was a complete novice, but it was better than my spear. He dodged all of my blows easily and danced around as both. After a while of this I was panting with exhaustion.

The nimr finally pinned him down. I aimed my blade at his neck ready to kill yet again. Just as my blade found his neck, his knife found the nimr's belly. The nimr collapsed to one side, whining. "Why?," I asked shocked at what the nimr did. It just whined and closed its eyes. I scourged the nearby area for herbs but found nothing. I cried, it was a deep belly wound. I could see its life draining away. I sobbed as my core flared up, water spiking inside my range.

I felt something wonderful brush against my core. I welcomed it with open arms, wrapping my core inside of the other core. I sobbed for a bit longer before realizing; I could feel the nimr. I knew him now and how much longer he had to live. It was longer than I thought. I left immediately, gathering the necessary herbs to heal him. They weren't magic of course but they would give him a fighting chance. The wound was deep but not fatal if treated.

I was crying because I believed he was dying soon. Knowing how much time he had gave me a chance. I gathered wild garlic and onions to help with the process and tore off a piece of my shirt to tie it into place.

I kept watch over several days staying near him only going back for food. I took the man's sword, his canines, and his shirt.

Lots of people believed you should only use your beast partners if you couldn't defeat them yourself. If your beast was in tattoo form when you died, it died with you. No one knew the reason why. It just happened.

I worked out a name with my nimr while he was healing. We tried several different ones but settled on Erik. Once he was healing, he vanished forming a tattoo on me. On my back, was the picture of a crimson nimr howling in triumph.