As Thal's strength returned, he was able to move faster on his journey home. But while he jogged through the underbrush of the forest, his mind continually replayed the events of that fateful day. The heaviness of the gnolls striking him to his knees, and then into unconsciousness. The sounds of battle against whatever attacked them as each side delivered blow after blow, and the dying sounds of the gnolls around him.
He tried to focus on what it was that had attacked them. As far as the wood elves knew, the gnolls had no enemies, and he tried desperately to remember what he had seen and heard. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' kept running through his mind with each step closer to home that he took.
Finally, he reached familiar ground and stopped briefly at a creek to bathe and rinse the gnoll blood out of his clothes and hair. He desperately wanted to see Lyri, but he knew it would add insult to injury for him to show up covered in blood. Thal didn't want to frighten her or have anyone who saw him ask too many questions he was unprepared to answer. He trusted her to have kept quiet about his whereabouts, but he still couldn't remember what had happened to Kael.
Waiting until darkness fell, Thal made his way to Lyri's home, and quietly tapped on her bedroom window. After a few moments, he tapped again, this time seeing a light come on in the room, and the edge of the curtain slowly pull away as she looked to see who was there. Seeing Thal, she quickly opened the window and pulled him into her room, tears of joy streaming down her face as words rushed out in a whisper.
"You're alive! Oh, Thal, I've been so afraid. I had a dream and there was so much blood and so many gnolls and I saw your face and Kael's face and when neither of you returned, I was so scared, but I couldn't say anything to anyone, and I didn't know what to do or who to talk to and ..."
Thal shushed her with a kiss and held her tightly as she sobbed against his chest. When she finally stopped crying, he held her at arm's length and looked into her eyes.
"I'm fine but am terribly hungry and cold. Before you tell me what happened here after I left, can you quietly get me something to eat and some chicory
coffee?"
Lyri quickly nodded and left the room. Thal slid to the floor in relief. So, Kael didn't return, and it sounded as if whatever attacked the gnolls hadn't gotten here either. A part of him was grateful that whatever had attacked the gnolls had thrown a spanner in Kael's plan, but he still had to find out who, or what, it was.
The door creaked open and Lyri entered with a sandwich and a small handmade mug, glazed St. Patrick's green on the inside. Grateful for the heat in his hands, Thal began to tell Lyri everything that had happened after he left her.
It's a new month of Words for Wednesday, with prompts provided by River.
