"He’s fine... and he will live."
The healer turned to face Elowyn, his expression steady. "You did not poison him. That dark blood he purged was laced with an insidious venom. Had the toxin remained pooled around his lungs, his heart would have failed before nightfall. The bitter tonic you brewed simply did its job. You have no reason to tremble. You saved his life yet again."
Hearing those words, a sudden, dizzying wave of relief hit Elowyn so hard her knees buckled. She sank onto her knees, a wet, disbelieving laugh breaking through the sobs trapped in her chest. She had been trapped in self-loathing, convinced her careless hands had destroyed him, when all along, the medicine was simply just taking effect.
"Where did you say you discovered the young man?" The healer inquired, his tone dropping into a grave, ominous register. Though he had eased her immediate panic, his amber eyes burned with a dark, unsettling light. "His wounds aren’t ordinary."
"Really?" Elowyn whispered, her eyes widening in horror as she looked back toward the shelter, already up on her feet.
"Did he say anything at all when he woke up?"
Elowyn tried to remember. "No... he only asked who I was, then he went silent. I tried to get his name, but he looked so lost."
The healer nodded slowly to her words, processing the dark implications. "We should let him rest undisturbed for now. Unfortunately, I don’t have the necessary medicinal supplies needed to accelerate his healing, and in his broken state, it’s hard to reach his beast. The connection is completely blocked. We will just have to pray his body holds out when he wakes up."
Elowyn couldn’t help but agree.
She hadn’t even considered that. That man couldn’t possibly be a shiftless outcast like her. But the thought chilled her to the bone. What kind of horrific cruelty could tear a man’s bond with his internal beast so thoroughly that it could not even be reached?
"Are you up for a small trek?" the healer asked, gesturing down the path. "Let us check the snare lines down by the frozen creek and gather fresh water before the mountain temperature drops."
Eager for a task to anchor her frazzled mind, Elowyn grabbed two wooden buckets and fell into step beside him. Together, they descended the slippery, snow-draped ridge.
The pine forest was hushed, save for the bitter wind whistling through the canopy.
Lingering behind his graceful, measured steps, Elowyn hurried her pace, coming up beside his shoulder as the snow crunched beneath her boots.
She looked up at his serene profile, a quiet swell of curiosity overriding her usual caution.
"Mr. Healer... are you always like this?"
"Like what?" he replied softly, his eyes scanning the snow-laden canopy ahead.
"I mean... do you always go around the mountains like a miracle worker, tending to every wounded beastperson you stumble upon? Is that why you dwell out here alone?" Find the original chapter at g.com.
One of his russet-furred ears flicked back toward her. "No... I certainly do not make a habit of playing savior to every beast I encounter. As I stated before, perhaps there was a higher reason our paths crossed in that storm. "
Elowyn clutched the handles of her wooden buckets tighter, emboldened by his patient tone. "When do you plan on returning home?" She inquired gently. "And when the time comes... could you take the stranger with you? The lowlands where you come from must have great healing spots. He would recover so much faster under the care of your people, or wouldn’t he?"
The fox healer froze in his tracks.
Elowyn pulled up beside him instantly, the sudden stillness of the forest pressing in around them. He didn’t turn to face her. For a long, agonizing beat, he stood like a statue carved from ice, watching the pale mist rise from his breath.
"No," he replied at last, his tone utterly flat and final. "I cannot take him with me."
That was his entire answer.
"Oh, I see." Elowyn pressed her lips into a tight line, swallowing her disappointment. "It was only a thought, but... please ignore I said anything at all. I don’t know the first thing about the Capital or its ways, so I’m certain you have a good reason."
"What about you?"
The healer looked back at her over his shoulder, his amber eyes dropping briefly to her hands before returning to her eyes. "Do you not have a home to return to? It is painfully obvious I cannot reach your beast either, which means venturing out into the blizzard was practically suicide. It’s not in my place to ask, but are you also stranded?"
Elowyn let her gaze fall to her boots, her stomach dropping into a familiar, hollow ache. "No," she murmured softly. "I was banished from my home."
The healer took in her slumping shoulders and the quiet grief in her voice. He didn’t offer empty sympathies, nor did he pry into the cruel circumstances of her exile.
"I see," he replied, his tone softening just enough to acknowledge her pain.
Without another word, he turned back toward the path, his measured steps breaking trail through the fresh powder as she fell into step behind him.
The silence between them felt infinitely lighter now. It brought her profound comfort that he hadn’t pried or assumed she had done something terrible to deserve banishment. It was a different reaction in comparison to what she had been getting from other tribes.
Eager to glimpse a bit more of the mysterious healer behind the calm mask, Elowyn broke the quiet. "Are you married?"
The healer didn’t slow his stride, though his russet-furred ears twitched back toward her voice. "Yes," he answered, his eyes softening. "I have a wife... and three children."
Elowyn’s eyes widened, a sudden, bright smile breaking through her lingering sorrow. "Really? Oh, that makes so much sense! I kept sensing this fatherly warmth in you, I mean, in the gentle way you guide me and handle our wounds. Your family must miss you." The source of this chapter is g.com.
The healer’s steady footsteps slowed just a fraction as her words settled into the crisp air. For a fleeting second, the stoic impenetrable mask he wore softened, revealing a glimpse of profound fondness beneath.
He paused at the edge of the embarkment, gesturing down toward a narrow, snow-draped ravine where a muted gurgle of rushing water echoed beneath a thick sheet of ice.
"We’re almost there."
They picked their way down the slippery slope, the healer navigating the frozen rocks with effortless grace, like he had done this more than once while Elowyn carefully balanced her two buckets. Down in the hollow, the frost clung thick to the pine needles, and the air carried the sharp, clean scent of crushed juniper and frozen earth.
Setting his own pack near a snow-covered boulder, the healer crouched beside a bend in the creek where the current ran swiftly beneath the surface ice.
With practiced ease, he drew a small iron chisel from his belt and tapped rhythmically along a weak fault line in the ice until a clean, dark hole splintered open, revealing pristine, crystal-clear water flowing beneath.
"Here," he said gently, stepping back to let Elowyn approach with her buckets. "Fill these first before the edges freeze over again."
Elowyn nodded and knelt by the opening, dipping the wooden rim into the stinging cold of water. The healer watched her for a quiet second, admiring her quiet grit and efficiency, before turning his focus to the winter brush.
Approaching a snowdrift a few paces away, he unearthed a thin wire snare attached to a thick willow root. He tested the cord’s spring tension with two practiced fingers, ensuring no ice had jammed the mechanism, before glancing back toward the creek.
Elowyn had already filled both oak buckets and hauled them away from the slippery bank. But just as she carefully lowered them onto a bed of pine needles, her body froze. She raised her eyes, and a strangled gasp tore from her throat.
The sound immediately drew the healer’s attention. Ditching the snare line, he rushed to her side in an instant.
"Elowyn? What is it?"
"H-Healer—" her voice quavered as she raised a pale hand, pointing straight into the dense timber ahead.
The healer followed her index finger, his amber eyes scanning the white clearing until they locked onto a breathtaking, supernatural anomaly. Rising out of the deep snow drifts was a massive, radiant tree—its sprawling branches dripping with rich, vibrant green leaves and blooming moss. It seemed utterly untouched by the winter storm, pulsing with a deep, quiet life force that repelled the bitter frost around its roots.
The healer could hardly believe it.
"That tree..." Elowyn whispered, her voice shaking with sudden awe and dread. "It looks like the exact same tree where I found the stranger."