Katherine woke to pain. Her hand pressing at her side, as it was hard to breathe; instead of stopping at her shirt her hand caved inwards letting her fingers to feel the broken rib, more like missing section of rib. She tried to stand, but her legs felt strange as if they weren’t there.

  The large monster was still there, but mostly motionless not like death hand claimed it, but as if it was trying to conserve energy or heal itself.

  On the other side of the clearing she found Shade. Katherine tried her connection with him to sense his condition as she tried to crawl to him using what strength she had. “Come on, Shade,” she croaked, coughing up more blood that she needed to keep inside her. “Don’t leave me alone.”

  She didn’t look like he was breathing, his connection to her soul was fragile as if it was only holding onto her by a hair. His fur matted and torn, smelling like he had gotten a few doses of acid into him the biggest one in the center of his chest that was brutally craved and gored. His closed eyes made Katherine hope that he wasn’t feeling anything.

  Katherine had studied Shade's basic anatomy, hoping to help him with minor injuries—like pulling a sliver from his paw or trimming his claws. But as she drew closer, the sight of the gaping wound in his chest, roughly the size of her doubled fists, left her feeling utterly powerless. The injury was far beyond anything she could fix.

  Unable to lift him, Katherine gingerly lowered herself beside Shade, her body trembling from pain and exhaustion. She curled herself around his battered form, cradling his head gently against her chest, her arms encircling him protectively. His fur was sticky with blood and tinged with the metallic scent of acid; her fingertips brushed over the matted patches as she stroked him with trembling hands, careful not to press too hard. She whispered softly, her voice hoarse, “Stay with me, you snugable little kitty,” hoping her words would comfort him, or at least let him know he wasn’t alone.

  The cold ground pressed against her side, and every breath sent a wave of pain through her ribs. She tried to keep herself between Shade and the lingering threat of the monster, using her own body as a shield in case it returned. Darkness pressed in at the edges of her vision. Katherine scanned the shadows, desperately searching for a patch of deeper darkness that might let her pull them both away—but the clouded night offered no escape, only a faint rustle of leaves and the distant chirping of insects.

  Her eyelids grew heavy as fatigue and blood loss dragged her down. It took all her willpower to keep her eyes open, watching the monster in the distance and willing herself to hold on just a little longer. Warm blood pooled beneath her, soaking through her torn shirt and mingling with the damp earth. Every heartbeat felt slower than the last.

  Just as her vision began to blur completely, a flicker of light appeared at the edge of the clearing—a gentle, pulsing glow, too soft to be the monster’s eyes. Before Katherine could focus on it, her exhaustion finally won. Her eyes slid shut, and the world narrowed to muffled sounds. The last thing she heard was a distant voice, blurred by pain and darkness, calling out, “They’re over here.”

  ...

  The three pyrelings ground to a halt as Roland and Lira leapt off their mounts. “Stay back for a moment, Roland,” Lira said, pull the sword she had at her waist out of its scabbard. “I want to make sure that the drake won’t hurt us.”

  Lira hopped on the drake’s back like Katherine and Shade had done and plunged her sword into the back of the beast’s neck at angle making a cleaving motion making sure all the neck tendons and mana strands were severed, causing a screen to pop up giving her confirmation of the kill.

  You have killed Lesser Forest Drake.

  Lesser Forest Drake was a part of another party’s quest.

  Party Leader will assign loot when they are able.

  “Done Roland, go check on them,” Lira said, loud enough for Roland to hear at the distance that he was at. Carefully getting off the beast and the scales were uncharacteristically slick. “You start on Shade. I’ll do what I can for Katherine.”

  Roland made his way over, using the large horse- shaped pyreling as a torch, guiding it to Shade and Katherine’s bodies. “Gods above,” Roland, gasped as he stepped back from the scene of their horrifically injured bodies and the blood trail that led to them from when Katherine had apparently crawled to him before they had arrived.

  Lira minimally wiped the drake’s acidic blood off her blade before moving to triage Katherine’s injuries. “How are you still alive?” Lira gasped, wide-eyed hand over her mouth as she saw the gaping hole in the side of Katherine’s chest where a spike from the drake’s bulbous tail had gored her.

  Kneeling beside Katherine, Lira began pulling out items for a ritual to hopefully close the open wounds and get Katherine and Shade to a transportable state. “Patron, help me,” Lira quietly pleaded as she drew out the ritual. Trying to keep herself composed as her friend lay feet away bleeding out and drowning in her own blood.

  Lira and Roland did their best to treat the acid burns and sealing the smallest of the wounds as Lira was the more effective person at healing someone at the moment, but as she was close to Katherine the sight of her gored, with broken bones, and even parts of her missing, she was not the best at healing in the current sense.

  “We need to get them to the manor,” Roland pointed out, he was shaking more than Lira was, but only because he was a pacifist as far as Lira knew.

  “I know,” Lira snapped, still drawing her ritual doing her best to not look in his direction. “But as they are they won’t survive the trip.”

  Placing the last few items into the spots needed Lira asked Roland to place Katherine and Shade inside the circle. The circle in the center was a pentagram, on the outer edges were circles with bowls occupied by various objects that Lira knew had special significance.

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  “Alright Roland, this is the part that you won’t like,” Lira remarked rolling up one of her sleeves.

  “Oh no, I’m not doing that,” Roland protested, backing away.

  “Roland, I don’t know the first thing about creature husbandry, you do,” Lira replied, rather coldly as she explained. “With how hurt they are it is probably causing soul damage. I only need a little bit. You won’t be removed from learning other magics; I just need to the property of your mana and soul matrix that helps heal creatures, The mana being used is mine and it needs to be given willingly.”

  “Fine,” Roland grumbled, rolling up his sleeve his unwillingness to let Katherine get hurt more than she already was override is dislike oof participating in a witchcraft ritual.

  Lira pulled his arm over an empty bowl, and Lira started chanting cutting his arm, letting his blood fall into it. “With knowledge freely given. The mind leads a path to the soul, the soul to healing,” Lira chanted, as she moved to another bowl slicing the meaty part of her forearm. “Let the air around us beath into the fires of life, as the currency of the soul is given to spare the dying. The water of the after shall not touch these souls at it is not their time.”

  As Lira chanted the wind started to pick up, the bowls caught aflame. Each line and rune began to glow in the same color violet as Lira’s eyes illuminating the night in an unholy glow. Bits of dirt started to cover them only for a moment before the ritual stops and the dirt falls away. “We can get them now. They should be good enough to carry on the pyrelings.”

  As if on cue, the blue pyreling used its magic to try to pick up Katherine, but it wasn’t possible at accomplishing that except for giving Katherine a more flushed facial color. Lira sighed, believing that the pyreling really wanted to make a contract with Katherine and doing this would tip the scales to gives her less of a reason to object.

  Lira leaned down and put Katherine on the pyreling as it was getting agitated by not being able to pick her up itself. As Katherine was placed securely enough so that Katherine was not going to fall off the pyreling took off not even waiting for Shade to be put on it as well.

  “What is it doing?” Lira asked, almost shouting to attract more unwanted guests that might try to eat them.

  ...

  Back at the Ducal manor, the duke was awakened by a steward tapping gently at his door. The steward explained that several of the manor's healers were being roused in the middle of the night to tend to a newly arrived member of the staff. The duke, already sensing the seriousness of the situation, instructed the steward to have a tent erected outside. "Tell them to set up a tent. I doubt she'll want to track blood across the floors," he said, his tone both practical and quietly sympathetic.

  As the healers hurriedly assembled the tent, the least experienced among them stepped outside, peering into the night. "They're coming," she announced, her voice trembling with a mix of anticipation and anxiety as the distant glow of a pyreling flickered through the darkness.

  Within the hour, Lira, Roland, and Shade’s limp body arrived at the tent. Roland carefully lifted Shade off the back of the pyreling, his hands shaking with exhaustion and worry. Another healer hurried out to meet them, pausing only momentarily as she saw the scene. She knelt beside Katherine, who was already receiving treatment. "Young mistress," the healer greeted gently, trying to mask her own shock at the extent of Katherine’s injuries before ushering them into the tent.

  Inside, the air was heavy with tension. The healer glanced up from her work, her brow furrowed in concern. "Whatever you two did helped," she said, nodding at Lira and Roland, "but her injuries are still severe." She hesitated, her voice wavering. "Acid burns cover the backs of her legs and lower back. She'll recover, but the road ahead will be long and difficult."

  Lira’s face tightened with worry, her eyes never leaving Katherine’s pale form. "What about her soul?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "How much damage has she taken?"

  The healer blinked, momentarily confused by the question. "She shouldn’t have any soul damage," she replied, uncertainty flickering in her eyes as she tried to reassure Lira.

  Roland, still holding Shade’s motionless body, frowned and looked directly at the healer. His tone was sharper than usual, edged with frustration. "Considering I’m holding her familiar right here," he said, his voice tense, "I believe you’re mistaken." The undercurrent of doubt was clear—as was Roland’s protectiveness, not just for Katherine but for Shade as well.

  ...

  Days slipped by in a blur as healers rotated in shifts, their quiet urgency filling the tent where Katherine and Shade lay side by side. Roland, ever watchful, worked closely with the healers, lending his expertise to the delicate process of taming the wild energies within Katherine’s soul and easing the pain that threatened to consume both her and her familiar. The air buzzed with nerves and exhaustion, the soft murmurs of ritual and medicine mixing with the distant sounds of the manor waking to another day.

  Then, without warning, Katherine’s eyes snapped open, her gaze wild and unfocused. Disoriented and desperate, Katherine's mind raced with memories of the battle—her only focus was Shade's wellbeing. The healer who’d been examining her jumped, letting out a startled shriek. Katherine tried to push herself upright, her body trembling as she struggled to climb out of bed and reach Shade, who lay still in his own cot mere feet away. Katherine’s heart pounded in her chest as she fought against the weakness in her limbs, the scent of antiseptic mingling with the earthy aroma of Shade’s fur nearby. Her battle-hardened resolve collided with her battered body, and her legs buckled beneath her, threatening to send her crashing to the floor.

  The healer caught her just in time, arms encircling Katherine’s waist to steady her. He exchanged a worried glance with a colleague as another healer stepped closer. “Easy, Miss Monroe,” he soothed gently, guiding Katherine back onto the bed. “You’ve been through an ordeal.”

  Katherine bristled at the restraint, panic clawing at her insides. Shade’s condition was all she could think about—every other concern faded into dull background noise. She tried to twist out of the healer’s hold, snapping with angry desperation, “Get off me, cupcake!”

  “Miss Monroe, seriously—you need to stay in bed,” the healer insisted, his grip firm but caring as he struggled to keep her from moving. Katherine’s anger masked the deeper panic rising in her chest. She shouted at the healer, too frantic to realize they were both supporting her weakened body and keeping her from stumbling. “I will not get back into that damn bed until I can fucking see my familiar!”

  As tension mounted, the healer holding Katherine exchanged another nervous glance with the colleague beside him. At that moment, a commanding voice rang out from the back of the tent, cutting through the chaos: “Attention on deck!” Katherine froze, reacting instinctively to the authority in the newcomer’s tone. The speaker—a broad-shouldered man in healer’s robes—stepped forward. “Now, Katherine, I understand you’ve gone through a traumatic encounter. However, I won’t tolerate the kind of tone that makes me think you’re threatening staff.” His words were firm, but his eyes softened as he saw the look of betrayal and fear in Katherine’s expression, her tense body bracing as if for another blow.

  He offered a gentler apology, his voice lowering. “I’m sorry I did that,” he said, his tone quiet and sincere. “Young Miss Lira warned us you might react violently, given the state she and the beast master found you in. She passed on the proper information accordingly. My name is Arnold, by the way. I’m one of the healers in the duke’s employ.”

  Katherine’s attention snapped back to Shade, her panic ebbing just enough for her to speak. “How is he?” she asked, voice trembling but determined, eyes never leaving her familiar’s limp form. “I can’t feel him like I should.”

  Arnold moved closer, his posture reassuring. “He is okay,” he replied softly. “Roland has been hands on with the healing process for him. Unfortunately, you two were so damaged to the point that your souls were at risk of a lot of harm.”