Chapter Twelve

Carson readied himself for whatever was coming his way, his sword at the ready.

He noticed the bear walk up beside him, getting in its fighting stance, which involved digging its massive claws into the ground and showing its massive teeth.

Carson kept an eye on the bear, just in case. He hadn't survived this long by being careless.

The trees parted, and a Terror wolf's head popped out of the forest and into the clearing.

Carson was just about to spring forward and cut the wolf down, not wanting to give the wolf time to call for backup and end up being surrounded, but paused when he noticed the wolf wasn't going to be attacking them.

For it was being carried on the shoulder of a young girl, who happened to be naked.

The wolf's body that was hung over her body covered her front half, but not to the extent that he couldn't make out details.

The girl was far more capable than he gave her credit for. Terror wolves always traveled in packs and were known to have the ability to make even the bravest of men scared out of their minds.

So being able to take not one but two of them out was far more of an accomplishment than she was likely to realize.

Of course, Carson noticed the second wolf; the girl was dragging behind her before he turned away, not wanting to be considered a pervert by the girl.

"Oh, you're awake. I'm glad," the girl said, sounding genuinely glad that he was ok.

Did I make this girl worry about me? I indeed utilized almost all my soul energy, and now it's entirely full, so I must have been out for 3-4 days then.

That poor girl must have been taking care of me this whole time, not knowing what the problem was.

"Uh, thanks for saving me back there. I don't think I would have survived if you left me where I was," Carson said, still averting his gaze from the naked girl while trying his best not to think about the fact that this same naked girl undressed and then washed his clothes for him.

"Silly, you don't need to thank me if you hadn't been there, I wouldn't have survived either, you know," the girl said while heaving the wolf off her shoulder and onto the ground.

Carson turned completely around this time, feeling embarrassed by the girls' lack of modesty.

"Hey, Big Bear, this ones yours," the girl said, tossing a wolf corpse at the bear.

Carson caught all this with the corner of his eyes as a huge wolf flew towards the bear to his side.

The bear, which was not facing the girl, turned around just in time to stand on two legs and catch the wolf corpse with its two paws.

The bear slid back a few feet by the impact of the heavy wolf, slamming into it as she caught it.

"Oops, sorry Big Bear, didn't mean to throw it that hard," the girl said apologetically.

The bear gave her an annoyed look before going about ripping a huge chunk off the wolf with a single bite.

"Hey mister, I know you're embarrassed, but could you take a look at my back? It hurts?" the girl said, sounding genuinely hurt.

"I've covered myself up, so it's ok to look now."

Carson noticed the girl had covered herself up, but in a way that made her even more alluring to those who would look upon her.

She had her right hand holding her left breast, while the arm was covering the right breast and her left hand was covering between her legs.

Only her arm was too slim to cover much of her breast, exposing the majority of it to Carson's eyes.

"Turn around," Carson said, annoyed while making a twirling motion with his finger.

The girl complied, but Carson caught the slight smile on the girls' lips right before facing away from him.

Carson's heart skipped a beat when he noticed the girl's hair down her back was a far darker shade of red than it should have been.

He quickened his pace to her side, dread filling his entire being.

Carson gingerly pulled the girl's hair back; the hair was drenched in her blood.

When Carson noticed the gore on her back, he couldn't believe the girl was still standing, let alone moving around.

There were 4 long gouges down her back, from her right shoulder down to her left hip.

Carson couldn't believe he didn't pick up on the girls' pain when she first showed up.

He thought back to when she first showed up, recalling everything in perfect detail.

Didn't she wince when she first crossed into the clearing? But I was too busy focusing on other details.

When she greeted me, wasn't her voice laced in pain? Damn, did I let the girl's body distract me from noticing something that was staring me right in the face, and didn't she suck in a breath in pain when she dropped the wolf's corpse?

I'm such an idiot, was the conclusion he came up with.

Carson led the girl to the lake. He needed to wash the wounds immediately before the infection could take hold.

"Take a seat, I need to get your wounds cleaned before I can patch you up...I'll have to sow the wounds shut...sigh...it's going to hurt, a lot," Carson said warmly as he guided her to the spot he wished for her to sit.

He pulled out a cloth rag he kept in his pocket, just for this purpose, and dipped it into the cool water of the lake.

He gently peeled her hair off her back and slung it across the girl's shoulder, so it wouldn't hinder him while he cleaned her back.

"What's your name?" Carson asked while cleaning the girl's back, trying to keep the girl's mind off the pain she must be going through.

"Sarah," the girl said, flinching as Carson cleaned her wounds.

Carson rinsed the rag that was soaked in her blood in the lake, not liking what he saw.

The girls' wounds were even worse than he had originally thought.

He could see the bone in some places along her back, where the wolf's claws dug into her back, ripping it apart.

Now Carson couldn't believe the girl was still alive, let alone sitting there barely wincing as if he were taking care of a shallow scratch one might get from a cat.

"That's a pretty name. You have a family name?" Carson asked as he slowly dabbed the rag on the wounds on her back.

The girl shook her head lightly.

"No, just Sarah," the girl said softly.

"Do you remember who your family was or how you ended up outside the cities walls?"

Sarah shook her head again.

"I don't know," Sarah replied and went quiet.

Carson remained silent while rinsing the ragout in the lake after getting it soaked in blood.

He wanted to know more about the girl's past, but he wasn't going to force it out of her.

In time she would open up to him and let him know why someone as beautiful and as talented as she had ended up out here by herself.

"The only thing I remember is waking up in a destroyed abandoned house, underneath a roof that collapsed on top of me, a few days ago," Sarah said after a long silence.

Carson continued washing her back in silence, thinking about what she said.

Maybe she was in a fight and lost her memory.

It was possible, fights between two people with powers usually ended poorly for the one that loses.

"Hey Sarah, you have any idea what you were wearing when you woke up?"

If he knew what the girl was wearing, it could tell him a lot about where she may have come from, or if she was part of a hero organization from one of the cities.

"I was wearing a lot of dirt, but that was about it," Sarah said, shuddering at the thought of being covered in dirt and grime again.

Carson's body froze, his rag hanging in the air unmoving.

Carson's fingers clenched and shook as his mind played out the worst possible scenario it could. Was this girl a victim of...his thoughts were interrupted when a soft hand touched his cheek.

"Don't worry, nothing like that happened, I'm certain of it," the girl said reassuringly to him.

Carson blinked, then stared directly into the girls' sky blue eyes, searching for any sign of deception or uncertainty from them.

The only thing he saw in her eyes was pure conviction in that belief.

Carson took the girl's hand that was on his face into his.

"Alright, if you say you weren't molested in any way, I'll believe you...but as of now, I need to sew your wounds closed for them to heal properly.

He squeezed her hand apologetically before slapping a pommel of a knife into her palm.

Sarah blinked as she stared at the knife. "And what's this for?" Sarah asked curiously. "Bite down on the pommel and turn around," Carson commanded. "Ok," Sarah replied, doing what she was asked. Carson was only half done when the screaming finally stopped.

The girl fell unconscious, not able to sustain the pain she was going through.

He felt a surge of relief wash over him when the girl finally gave up consciousness.

If Carson wasn't a seasoned warrior, who had been through hell and back many times now, he wouldn't have been able to handle the cries of a young girl that he was currently sewing their entire back shut.

He noticed her skin was rather tough.

Carson had to use some of his soul energy on the tip of the needle, to even be able to pierce through her skin.

If it wasn't for the fact that she fought against a pack of Terror Wolves, she probably would have come out of the fight unscathed.

Terror wolves were widely known for controlling and using their soul energy on the tips of their claws, making them far more deadly than the average beast.

If a beast were able to learn how to use their soul energy, they could easily cut through even the most powerful defenses, like it were paper.

Sarah

Sarah could feel nice, soft fur against her skin and a warm breath coming from the mouth of a sleeping bear, that oddly smelled like iron.

The memory of getting her wounds on her back, being sewed back together, made her shudder.

She snuggled closer against the bear, trying to forget the agony she was in when the man mercilessly kept at it, even after she had begged and pleaded with him to stop multiple times.

The bear must have sensed her discomfort and wrapped its arm around her tighter.

Surprisingly, the wounds on her back did not hurt anymore. Just a small aching pain could be felt.

"That bear must be very fond of you. It went over to you as soon as I got done sewing you back together..and washing your hair," a man said off to her side.

"Oh no, it's the voice of that evil man, save me Big Bear," Sarah said exaggeratedly.

However, the bear must have taken her words seriously because it started growling in a very menacing way.

Sarah poked her head up from the bears' embrace and glanced at it.

Big Bear looked to be glaring daggers in the man's direction while showing off its massive teeth.

"Calm down, big guy, I was only kidding," Sarah said as she climbed up the bear's arm to pet its face.

"Your such a beautiful bear and your fur is very nice and soft," Sarah said while running her hand along the bear's face.

The bear stopped growling as Sarah stroked the fur on its head.

It had a look of pleasure on its face and moved its head against Sarah's hand as she gently patted the bear.

Sarah noticed she was wearing the man's cloak.

Only on her, it was far bigger than what it was on Carson. It only covered the man's neck and draped down his back to his knees.

On her, though, it went all the way down to almost touching the ground and wrapped around her body, covering every detail.

He must have done something to the cloak to get it to cover my front like this.

Sarah noticed there were stitching holding the cloak together in places that looked to be made out of leather.

Sarah noticed the man was sitting by a lit fire; while poking it with a stick, chunks of meat being cooked above the fire made Sarah's mouth water.

I believe the man said his name was Carson, but I was delirious from the pain the man put me through.

"Hey, Carson?." "Hmm," Carson replied.

Yup, confirms it, his name is Carson, or he just answers to any name thrown at him.

Oh right, I did just ask him a question, so I better think of something quick.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Sarah winced when the first thing that popped into her head was whether he had a girlfriend, and she ended up blurting it out.

Oh crap, why did I just say that? He's definitely going to take that the wrong way?

"No, no girlfriend, but I do have a wife and son. He's about your age, actually."

Phew, close call...wait, did he just say he had a son my age? He must have started real early then.

Sarah hopped off the bear's arm and walked towards Carson.

She sat down next to him, trying to get her thoughts in order.

She had so many questions to ask this man but had no idea where to start.

Eventually, she just asked the one question that had been eating at her the most.

"How long has it been?" Sarah asked quietly, lost in her thoughts.

Sarah hugged her knees to her chest, setting her jaw on top of them.

She stared into the flames as if they could give her the answers to her deepest thoughts.

"You mean since you passed out? Not long, couple hours at most," Carson replied.

Sarah shook her head.

"No...the white light," Sarah said, her voice filled with sorrow.

Carson slowly turned to face Sarah, his eyes focusing on every detail the girl's face might reveal.

"You mean the Nova Wave?"

Sarah shrugged her shoulders, not knowing what the Nova Wave was.

"A white light filled with energy, flowing like the tides of the ocean, extending the night sky like the endless sea, washing over everything with its brilliance while taking the lives of the unworthy," Carson said from his memory of the Nova Wave, remembering it like it was just yesterday. Was I unworthy?

Carson

Carson was in deep thought as he watched the night sky.

The girl had fallen asleep after a time, lightly snoring by the fire.

The girl said she had memories of the Nova Wave, but in a different life, as if the memories were of her but in a past life or something.

That only told Carson one thing, someone had dumped memories into the girls' mind, trying to silence her.

It wasn't unheard of for a hero to manipulate someone's mind to cover up a crime they may have committed.

But to put someone else's memories into another usually fractured the person's mind, turning them into a vegetable, unable to even have a coherent thought and something a healer could not fix.

Carson's sword materialized in his hand, the point touching the ground.

His hand squeezed the pommel as he made a promise to himself.

If I ever find out who messed with this girl's mind, I will cut them open and make them watch as I rip out their insides one by one!

Carson's sword sank into the ground as he imagined stabbing the person who harmed Sarah.

Carson heard a howl in the distance, and a promise of death flashed across his features.

He pulled the sword out of the dirt and got to his feet.

"That's right, you wolves harmed this girl as well, haven't you," Carson said in a deathly whisper.

His eyes flashed as he walked towards the woods. "Big Bear, look after the girl; I'm going hunting."

The bear looked up from where it was sleeping, watching the man walking towards the trees and disappearing from view, using his ability to become invisible.

The bear huffed before getting to its feet; it walked to where Sarah was sleeping and laid down beside her, wrapping an arm around her while doing so.