Chương 74: Chapter 69

Noise filtered into Sobelle's ears when she finally regained consciousness. She reflexively reached for a bed frame that did not exist and realized that she had dreamt about never leaving the village. She didn't even know if she had a relationship with Chael or not, as she had somehow forgotten when she was in her dream.

'Chael...' Sobelle realized in horror that she had left the merchant in this village for who knows how long while she recovered. Did the Goblins come back? If so, then how did Chael scare them away? She hoped that nothing bad happened to her lover and was about to leave to check only to then immediately fall down when she tried to stand up. An involuntary grunt managed to wheeze itself out of her mouth when she crashed on the ground.

She sucked in air and winced from the pain in her lungs, it burned and she wondered just when she had gotten injured in that spot. She hadn't been hit on the chest as far as she knew. The answer to her question came quickly, and it was a harsh one. She started to cough, and it hurt her throat every single time she did so. Even if she tried to stop it, she couldn't and the sounds just kept going, air continued to leave her lungs in violent bursts that left her gasping.

Blood forced itself out of her throat after a while, and she gagged. Diseases. That explained why her lungs burned and why she coughed so suddenly; it was because she was sick. Weakness filled her limbs as she tried to climb back to the straw bed she had been sleeping on, and once she finally got back, sweat began to bud on the skin of her forehead. She was exhausted, like she had just finished countless hours of training instead of crawling back to bed. How did people live like this?

She'd never been sick before, but she has seen other people be afflicted with diseases in the past. Her mother used to work on them, so she had first had experience of seeing someone beg for mercy while their wounds were being treated. Men cried whenever they went through such an arduous thing, and Sobelle was no different. Tears ran down the side of her head as she realized that she was on death's door, and at the fact that somehow, she had left herself vulnerable to the greenskins after she passed out.

But more than anything, she cried because she lived. Relief surged out of her chest after she let out all her frustrated tears, and everything felt right for a second. Then it all came crashing down and Sobelle was back to when she woke up moments ago; her mind went to Chael and she wondered where the merchant went. And whether or not the greenskins had gotten to her at some point.

Her lover had clearly taken care of Sobelle after she passed out, and since their cart was still here, it was probably safe to assume that Chael hadn't abandoned her and just temporarily went out. The structure they turned into a temporary camp looked like it had been maintained as well; there was a curtain of weaved grass by the door, which covered the entrance and protected them from the wind. It also kept the heat of the hearth inside while forcing the cold to stay out.

A chair that had clearly been looted from another house was now on the corner of the room, and on top of it were various tools and trinkets that Sobelle couldn't quite see due to her position in the ground. But from what she could see, there was a mortar, clay vases, bowls, needles made from fish bones, and even threads. Her eyes inevitably went to the makeshift loom not too far from her.

Its body was made from branches tied with grass fiber and it had teeth created from the bones of rodents, or maybe it was the bones of Sobelle's previous hunts. One of those two. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Next to it was a wicker basket full of the grass puffs that exploded into thick, cotton like hairs that Chael had shown her while on the road.

Sobelle's mind made the connection on its own and she realized that this was how Chael made the threads on the table. What did she use them for? Sobelle couldn't help but ask herself this, she wracked her mind for an answer but couldn't find it before the 'door' was pushed aside and in came Chael. She did not look as stressed as Sobelle thought she would be, instead, she looked almost happy. Calm.

As though these last few weeks of making items alone hadn't been hard on her, like she enjoyed the process of taking care of Sobelle rather than the opposite. It all comes crashing down and her tranquil expression disappears once she locks eyes with Sobelle. Panic washed over her features for a second before she dropped the bowl she was holding and rushed to Sobelle's side. She tackled her lover and started crying. Sobelle, for her part, just rubbed her back in a daze.

She eyed what Chael dropped and saw that it was actually a wicker basket that held fish. Where did Chael catch them?

'The river. Where else?' Sobelle silently scolded herself for asking such a stupid question before finally asking Chael something she had been meaning to.

"Are you okay?" Just as Sobelle said this, Chael pulled back from the hug while her arms remained on Sobelle, as if she was afraid her lover would disappear. She squeezed Sobelle's shoulders hard enough to make her wince.

"Chael? Are you okay?"

"Are you okay?!" A teary tone came over Chael's voice as she mimicked Sobelle's question.

"You almost died! Your head was such a mess that I had to cut it Sobelle! What were you thinking?!"

"I was trying to help us." Instinctively, Sobelle reached for her scalp and found that her long brown locks had disappeared. She felt bandages in their place.

"Protect us, I was the only one who could kill those things. I needed to kill them, otherwise we wouldn't be here and we'd be..." She trailed off as her mind flashed images of what happened to women captured by the greenskins into her psyche. She flinched, the memory of what she saw still felt raw even after weeks. Would she start to get those horrific visions during her sleep again? The ones where she was captured by greenskins?

She didn't want to spend weeks trapped in the worries her very mind conjured up to scare her.

"How long have I been asleep?" Sobelle asked just as the possibility of being unconscious for several days crossed her mind.

"It's been long, right? I can see that you've prepared a lot of stuff so..."

"No, we've only been here for two days." Chael reached forward. Sobelle flinched when she felt the merchant's hand touch her stomach but she didn't resist, she felt disappointed when Chael just lifted her shirt.

"But look at this, you're already starting to heal." Chael was right, Sobelle's wound—she remembered it as the one she got when the Hob Goblin struck her on the side with the stone axe—had healed considerably. There were black spots along the edges of the yellowish-pink skin and when she touched it, she noticed it had the same texture as overcooked meat.

"You used fire to close my wounds?" She asked while touching the charred spots on her skin.

"I don't hate it but..." She shook her head.

"No, thank you. I appreciate that you've done so much for me. I don't think I'd even be alive right now if it wasn't for you."

"No, I didn't do much. If you hadn't held on, then all my efforts would have just wasted. All of this? It's thanks to you." Chael leaned forward and gave her lover a hug that only lasted for a second.

"Thank you for choosing to stay with me in this mortal plane, I'm sure the Gods wanted you by their side already. Yet you fought and stayed."

"I..." Sobelle wasn't sure if that was the right way to think of things as she would have known if the Gods truly wanted her by their side because they would have told her directly. She did not say this and just hugged Sobelle, "let's thank them for letting me stay instead of forcing me to go live with them."

"Mhmm!" Chael sniffed. She wiped her eyes.

"I'm thankful of them and their decisions, of course I am! I would have lost you otherwise, as they and the spirits were the reasons why you even lived." When she heard this, Sobelle opened her system and checked for blessings. [Aid of Recovery: 5/43/21] [Aid for Rejuvenation: 2/21/56] [Ritual of Protection and Recovery: 3/56/33] She had been blessed two times, and then she also had a ritual on top of that. Sobelle smiled wistfully, magic was a strange thing wasn't it? If her mother had magic when...

"Thank you. For everything." Sobelle hugged Chael but she directed her words to the Gods, the spirits, and the land itself for granting her another chance at life.

"I wouldn't be here without all the things you've done."