Chapter 6The Morning After

  Jonah awoke to a world of pain unlike any he had ever known. His vision swam back and forth from darkness to light as blurred shapes crowded around him. The darkness closed in completely upon him and he heard a loud ear-piercing scream that seemed to surround him. His parched lips and swollen tongue ached from thirst but no matter how hard he tried, he could not speak. There was a fire that consumed his left leg entirely. The fire felt as if it were flowing out to the rest of his body, threatening to consume him completely. Vaguely he wondered if he were dead, trapped in the Hell that Father Mallory warned him of as he was growing up.

  Jonah felt something press against his mouth as if to block the flow of air. He struggled, trying to move the object that would prevent him from breathing and, swinging his fist in desperation, felt it hit something that was meaty. He tried to strike out again but felt himself being restrained as he fought, not knowing what was attacking, but knowing that he must escape. He tried to calling out, to make a noise with his mouth, anything, but his voice would not come. Jonah noticed that other shouts had joined in with the all-encompassing screams as he fought, but he could not make out what they were saying. In what he felt was a st-ditch effort, he shed out futilely once more, but found he was too tightly restrained.

  Held down and unable to move, he realized why he was having so much trouble uttering even the smallest sound. The constant screaming he was hearing was his own. He tried to make it stop, struggling to make his parched lips shut while fighting to ignore the intense pain from his leg. Surrounded in darkness for what now seemed to be an eternity, he wondered if the pain that consumed him had also made him blind.

  Finally, the screams cut off, Jonah realized he had managed to succeed in his efforts to end the horrendous sound and he was able to hear the voices around him a bit clearer. As he managed to calm from his panicked state, he realized that the darkness he was experiencing was because his eyes were squeezed tightly shut. The pressure on his mouth was released with the cessation of his screaming and he stopped fighting against whatever was restraining him. Keeping his body tense, Jonah struggled to open his eyes so that he could see his captors. As light once again burned his vision all Jonah could see were three blurry masses around him. Gradually the shapes came into focus as his eyes adjusted to the light which wasn’t nearly as bright as it had first seemed.

  As his vision cleared, Jonah found himself looking at the familiar shapes of Lilly, Rasheed, and Basheer. He could tell that they were saying something, but was still having trouble making out their now hushed voices as they talked around him. Jonah rexed as much as he could, tensing up only at the waves of burning pain radiating from his left leg. Jonah could now see that Lilly sported a rapidly swelling bruise on her right eye, no doubt caused by him.

  That was when the memory of the battle came flooding back to Jonah. Realizing that Alissa wasn't with them he cried out a horse cry as he tried to sit up, causing Rasheed to tell him not to move.

  “Alissa.” Jonah was finally able to croak out painfully.

  “Aye d,” Rasheed responded as Lilly turned away for something. “She is well. She is next to you asleep because she refused to leave your side. We’re sorry for being so rough, but you’re screaming as you woke up could have attracted unwanted attention. You have been out most of the evening and it is close to midnight now.”

  “She is well?” Jonah struggled say as a smile cracked his parched lips.

  “Yes d, she is, thanks to you.” Rasheed said as Lilly returned with a small cup.

  “Here drink this,” Lilly said as Rasheed lifted Jonah's head to make it easier for him to drink. “It will help you sleep as well as numb the pain from your wound.”

  Jonah drank quickly at first, trying to ease the thirst that filled him, but Lilly controlled how fast he could drink by how much she tipped the cup. Once he had finished all of the bitter tea, she nodded, satisfied. Rasheed eased his head back down, setting it gently on a soft pillow.

  “Sorry for hitting you, Lilly.” Jonah mumbled softly as sleep took him.

  Lilly sighed as Jonah fell back to sleep and reassured Rasheed that he should sleep the rest of the night before indicating that they should get some rest as well. She led Basheer over to where they had their bedrolls id, and put him to bed before going to clean the cup that Jonah had drank from. When she returned, Rasheed was already fast asleep under the bnkets of their bedding. Once she made sure both Alissa and Jonah were properly covered, she climbed under the bnkets next to her husband and was asleep within minutes.

  #

  The next morning Alissa awoke feeling refreshed. Her mother was by the fire preparing breakfast with her back to Alissa. She gave her mother a cheery greeting and checked on Jonah who was still appeared to be out cold beside her. Seeing that his color was good and that he seemed to be breathing normally, she went to help her mother with the meal preparations.

  As she rounded the fire, she saw her mother's bcked eye and gasped in shock.

  “Are you okay, Mother?” She asked, a look of concern crossing over her face.

  “Oh this?” Her mother replied pointing to her eye then nodded toward the sleeping Jonah. “You can thank your white knight over there for this. He woke up around midnight st night-”

  “Jonah woke up?”

  “Yes dear, he did. Now if you will let me finish, he had to be restrained until he regained his senses because he shed out at me. Incidentally he has a mean right hook. As for me being okay, yes, I am. It will take more than a bckened eye to take me down.”

  “How did he seem? Was he okay? Did he remember anything? Did he ask anything?”

  “He seemed about as fine as could be expected for someone waking up for the first time in the condition that he is in. We will know more when he wakes up today. I don't know how much he remembers of the battle, he asked how you were before passing out from the tea I made for him, so he clearly remembers trying to protect you.”

  Alissa and her mother continued to talk about various topics until breakfast was ready to be served. Lilly went to get Rasheed so that he could be the one to wake Jonah, just in case there was another incident like the previous night. Alissa called for her brother and he came running. She served him his portion of breakfast as their father went to wake Jonah.

  This time Jonah awoke groggily, the effects of the drugged tea still in his system. He sat up with some help from Rasheed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

  “Water,” he said through cracked lips. His tongue felt dry and swollen in his mouth as he looked around the camp, his head swimming from the aftereffects of the tea.

  Alissa brought him some water over to him as well as a small pte of food. He tried to gulp the water down, but Alissa took the cup from him and told him to sip the water slowly so that he would not get sick from drinking too fast. Once Jonah had drank most of the water, Alissa handed him the pte to hold, but not the fork that came with it. Instead, she used the fork to feed him slowly. Jonah protested, insisting that he was perfectly capable of feeding himself, but Alissa would have none of it. She just sat there, listened to his compints until they died down before continuing to feed him. She informed him with a half-smile that he should be grateful she was willing to take care of him before eating her own meal. Jonah, in between the process of having the food shoved at him, told her that she should be concerned with eating her own meal because he was capable of feeding himself, but Alissa persisted and soon he gave up on his protests. As soon as his pte was clear of food, Alissa told him to finish drinking his water and went to get her own breakfast to eat.

  Jonah finished his water and id back down trying to get comfortable. He felt the distant throbbing in his injured leg and wondered how the wound was. He shuddered as a memory of the pain that he had initially woken up to invades his thoughts. He hoped that the pain from the previous night was the worst of it and that he would not have to experience agony of that magnitude every again. Realizing he needed to relieve his bdder, he attempted to get up to make the trip to the side of the wagon away facing away from everyone. A sharp pain fired through his leg though, as he tried to move, causing him to gasp and drawing attention from Alissa and her family.

  Lilly, reached him first. She scolded him harshly telling him that he was not to try to move around on his own till his leg had some time to heal. Alissa then joined in on the scolding while Rasheed stood behind the women with a look on his face that told Jonah that he was on his own. After the two women calmed down, Jonah looked quite embarrassed as he tried to expin his intentions in trying to move on his own. Alissa blushed at his expnation and looked to her mother who called Rasheed over to assist Jonah in getting to a pce where he could do his business. Rasheed showed none of the embarrassment that Jonah felt as he aided Jonah in his quest to relieve himself.

  When he was finished, Rasheed helped him back to the bedroll where Jonah colpsed, exhausted from the effort of getting around. Soon he had fallen asleep again and Rasheed went back to his family to finish up his breakfast. Soon everyone was done eating and the family worked together to break down their little camp, packing everything up with trained efficiency. Before packing the medicine case up, Lilly pulled out a fine white powder that was in a pouch with a small spoon tied to the side and gave it to Alissa.

  “Here,” she said handing the powder to her daughter. “If Jonah compins of pain while we are traveling give him this. It takes one spoon full, he can take it pin in power form, but if he prefers, you can mix it with water. Regardless, he will need some water, be it to wash it down with or to mx it.”

  Alissa nodded at her mother’s instructions and tucked the pouch away in one of the pocket pockets hidden in her skirts. She turned to her father who had awoken Jonah once again and was telling him that they were about to move on. She walked over and offered to help as her father tried to get Jonah standing and onto the back of the cart. Rasheed told her to just grab the bedding that Jonah had been ying on and make a spot for him to rest on the back of the cart. She did as he instructed, finding a fairly level spot where Jonah could lie down in retive comfort, then she assisted her father as best as she could to get Jonah into the cart. She climbed in after him and tried to make him as comfortable as she could. He asked her if he could be propped into a sitting position so she found a light crate and moved it behind him to give him something to prop up against and as soon as he was settled in, the cart took off, taking them into the third day in the wastends.