Chương 95: 94: Aftermath

Ebril 12th As I turned around to see how Laeth was doing, I felt such a sense of despair. This homestead had felt like my sanctuary, my safe place, ever since I arrived on Talamh. No matter what happened outside, we were building a community here that I loved and cared for. Now, it had been violated, and my people had been harmed. My UI said we still had an hour until daylight. I could see how much damage the homestead had sustained once I could see better. Right now I needed to check on Laeth and Seamus.

I turned around and saw Lorcan, his hand on Laeth's head.

"Lorcan, is Laeth going to be okay?" Lorcan didn't look up from what he was doing, but he answered, "He will live. He's lost an eye though." My heart dropped.

"Oh god no.." This was my fault. Even if I knew I wasn't any sort of actual warrior, I was still level 26. I should have been out there helping find my people, not hiding up in my room. Lorcan's hands began emitting a soft green glow, and Laeth let out a low moan. I was worried and felt paralyzed. Luckily, Seamus called out to me at that moment.

"Mr Jacobson, A little help perhaps?" I looked over and immediately felt my cheeks redden with embarrassment. There were two wounded men here. I rushed over to him and asked, "What can I do to help?" He grimaced and pointed to his legs, "Somethin's broke in ma ribs. I cannae' bend over to get ma greaves off." I looked down and whatever the upper leg piece was called was badly dented on his left thigh. I asked, "Is it safe to take that dented piece off?"

Seamus opened his eyes and looked down from where he was leaning against the table.

"Yeah, I don' think it pierced ma skin. But ma thigh bone might be broken."

"Alright," I said. I took a deep breath, then got to work unbuckling the metal clasps that basically made a clamshell of the front and back pieces. As the last buckle flipped open, he let out a deep grunt of pain, then sighed.

"You okay?" I asked.

"No, I most certainly am not, but hopefully that druid over there," he said, pointing at Lorcan, "can make me a wee bit better." Lorcan looked over at them and said, l can stabilize you, but Laeth took most of my mana. He was bleeding in his brain. The spear that took his eye almost killed him. That wound took a considerable amount of mana to heal." Holy hell… It sounded like he had been an inch from death there.

"Aye," Seamus said.

"He was already down when I found him. If it weren't for that damned billy goat o' yours he woulda been dead."

"What?" I said, confusion in my voice. Seamus laughed.

"I didn't see it meself, but Laeth was down, and that damned goat was standin' over him. There was gore all over its horns, and a dead goblin spearman lyin' a few feet away."

"Well I'll be," I said.

"I guess I can't put him in a pot now." That prompted a laugh from Seamus, who then grimaced in pain.

"No, I suppose ya can't. But ya should probably go check on him. Last I saw, he was chasin' after a warg. Once I grabbed Laeth, he took off."

"Where did you guys go?" I asked.

"Ma forge," Seamus said. He was breathing shallowly and grunting as he spoke, but he seemed to want to keep talking.

"It's fireproof, and warded. That Shaman couldnae take it down."

"What happened to your leg?" I asked.

"Four or five o' them decided they'd take me on themselves. They couldn't, but one o' them had a war hammer. Gave me this dent." He pointed at his leg.

"Gotcha," I said. Lorcan was approaching, so I stepped back. He laid his hands on Seamus, then I saw a weak green glow as he closed his eyes. I couldn't help myself and asked, "Does closing your eyes help concentrate?" He nodded and said, "You have a diagnostic ability." He said it as a comment, not a question.

"Mine works differently, when I activate mine, I can see the inner workings of the body. I've found it helps if I close my eyes. I can still see everything, but without the distractions." He held his hands on Seamus for another ten seconds before the glow stopped. He looked at Seamus and said, "You have two broken ribs, and your femur is fractured. But there are no damaged arteries. I do not have the mana to heal you right now, but I have stabilized your femur so it won't splinter and cause more damage."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Seamus nodded, then winced.

"Can we move him and Laeth?" I asked. Lorcan nodded.

"Alright, does Laeth need more healing?" I thought to ask before I moved him.

"No," Lorcan said, "but he will not wake for many hours, maybe not until tomorrow. And then he will need much water, and as much food as he can eat." I nodded.

"Alright, I'll take Laeth up to my bed. Then we'll get Seamus to Colin's old room." Seamus protested.

"I'll sleep in ma cabin."

"The hell you will," I said.

"We don't know if we have all of them. This place is safe." Seamus looked dubious, but he complained no more. Well, not until I reached down to pick him up and carry him upstairs… By the time I got the two wounded men into beds, the sun had peaked over the horizon. The homestead smelled of burnt wood as I walked over to join Rupert and Tieg. The men were standing next to the body of a warg with two blood-covered murder rabbits standing proudly on top of it. As I got near, Rupert looked at me and laughed.

"Look at these two! They growled at us any time we tried to move this one." I couldn't help myself. I let out a sharp bark of laughter. As I bent down to pet the two murder bunnies, they hopped off the warg and jumped over to me, rubbing on my legs. They were smearing blood all over me, but I didn't say anything as I rubbed them down, making sure none of the wounds were theirs. The two rabbits were visibly pregnant and would have their babies any day now.

After I petted them for a bit, they both jumped back over to the warg, looking back at me expectantly. I knew what they wanted, so I said, "I'll get Colin for you two. Thanks for saving the hide." Tieg looked at me oddly.

"Those two are not Leaders, but they behave like they are." I nodded.

"Yup, they keep telling me they aren't, but I think they're smarter than they should be." I took a deep breath, then looked at Tieg.

"Sorry I cussed at you earlier. What's the situation? And how did this happen?" Tieg's gaze was hard, and he looked me in the eye before he said, "There should not have been a group this large this close. They had two Shaman, and twenty wargs and riders. They triggered none of the wards that were placed in the area. We should have had plenty of warning." Rupert looked down but said, "I'll need to go check the ward stones, but John, you need to level up and take the skill.

I can charge them and tell if they're broken, but I have no ability to tell if they've been tampered with by someone who can keep them intact. That's not my path." I nodded.

"I'll do that then. I'm training every day with the only ability I have right now." Rupert winced and said, "We need to get you the spell disrupt skill too. It's one of the few skill scrolls that is for every class. They're not going to show up in the Guild Store, but the Governor should have one you can use. You'll have to go to town and talk about this anyway." I hadn't known about that.

I'd been looking at the guild store every day, looking for when the new skills and classes would show up, but the war was delaying them. If I had to go back to town, I'd ask about everything. I brought my thoughts back to the task at hand.

"Have you checked on any of the other animals yet?"

"Aye," Rupert said.

"The goats and horses are okay. The work horses broke free, they hate wargs. They're all still around. Some are hurt, but they'll live as long as Lorcan can purify their wounds soon. Your riding mares took off when the draft horses broke out. I don't know where they are but they're not here." He took a deep breath, then said, "The geese are dead, so are several of the sows and most of the piglets." I grimaced.

"The pigs are a big loss." Tieg looked at me sideways.

"What about the geese?"

"They're assholes," I said.

"We'll get more ducks next time." Tieg just shook his head.

"Have you talked to Aiden about his cows?" I asked. I hadn't seen the boy since he left the house to check on his herd at the same time I came out to look at things. Rupert looked down.

"He said they killed six of his cows, all pregnant heifers." That was an unfortunate loss.

"I'll find him, and talk to him about compensation then," I said. Rupert looked at me sideways, as he often did when he was confused or intrigued by something I said.

"That's not your responsibility, you know."

"I don't care," I told him, resolve in my voice.

"This is my land, and I'm taking responsibility for anything that happens out here." I took a deep breath, then asked about the next most important thing.

"What about the corn cribs?" Tieg answered.

"One burned down. It is probably a total loss. The other is still fine, but it is the one you've been feeding from."

"Darn," I said. That one doesn't have enough to plant all 6 fields of corn and still feed animals. I'll check and see what the Guild Store has, but they're low on seed because of the war."

"It seems strange that a breakaway group would have two Shaman, right?" I asked.

"Yes," said Tieg. When he offered no more commentary, I looked at Rupert, who elaborated, "From what I could tell, they had fewer than fifty shaman at the start when they attacked. We killed seven or eight then. Intelligence reports say ten more have been killed in excursions. Honestly, so much of this attack makes no sense. Their timing was awful, and since then they've just been running around, mostly aimless. Something else has to be happening on the other side of those mountains."

I looked back, then said, "Well, that's not something we can figure out right now. Let's get things cleaned up, then I'll head to town in a day or two. We need to figure out what we're planting soon." The three of us walked over to the corn cribs. One was indeed a total loss. The other didn't have enough to plant all six plots. With only four pigs to feed now, we could use more, but I'd need to plant at two or three things I wasn't originally planning on. I'd check the guild store later in the day.

The barn would probably need to be fully torn down, then rebuilt. Too much of it had burned. Luckily, with the warmer weather, none of the animals were staying there anymore. One bunkhouse was burned down, and another was badly damaged. When we came upon Gerald, I felt like I was looking at some demonic beast right out of legend. One of his cheeks had been laid open, probably with the same spear that almost killed Laeth.

He was covered in gore, and he pawed the ground as soon as we got close to him and his little herd. I felt bad that I'd had such negative feelings towards him. He'd saved a man and kept his herd, which he hadn't even fathered, safe. I put my hands up and gently said, "Gerald, you were a good boy tonight. I'm proud of you." He obviously didn't understand my words, but the gentle tone seemed to calm him down. As I walked towards him, he seemed to decide to stand down.

I petted the bridge of his nose and made soothing sounds. We'd need to get his cheek checked out tomorrow. Lorcan was tapped out on mana for tonight. I was still a long way from being able to heal animals so my huge mana pool was worthless right now.

"Well buddy," I said as he let me pet him.

"Guess I'm going to have to let you breed these does next time huh." Gerald let out a happy sounding bleat at that. This guy better not be turning into a Herd Leader too…