Accidental Healer

I took my time getting back home. My fragile companion had stopped her fussing and apparently decided that I was friend not foe.

Together, we sat on a cliff ledge—the fox nestled in a tight ball on my lap—watching the light from the sun slowly make its way up the mountains to the east. There wasn't a cloud in the dark blue sky.

My little friend kicked lightly against my leg but didn't wake as the birds chittered softly from the trees. She must be exhausted after all she'd been through.

It was a long night for both of us and I leaned back onto my palms breathing deeply. I marveled at how quickly the fox had grown to trust me. Was it the effect of my Resonante bias?

The poor thing had no chance to fight my influence. It was just so small. I looked down my nose into my lap.

I raised an eyebrow. The fox was awake, curled in a ball with one big green eye watching me closely.

My lip curled into a small smile. "Hello there." I whispered.

The eye snapped shut.

So, maybe not quite completely trusting just yet? I couldn't blame her.

"What should I call you?" I wondered aloud.

My face scrunched up, thinking back to one of my favorite childhood movies.

"What do you think of the name Vixey?" I asked. As if in response, the adorable little eye peeked open and then slammed shut once it saw me watching. She buried her head deeper into her red fur.

"You are a shy one." I chuckled, then I remembered how I found her and turned somber. "Right well…we should be getting back now Vixey, are you up for another little ride?"

Being as delicate as possible I scooped her up with both hands cradling her body, and we began the last stretch of our journey home.

***

It was well into morning when Vixey and I strolled into Jessie's farm. She was already out and about speaking with some faction members that I hadn't met yet.

The conversation looked important and I wasn't in a particular hurry, so I was content to sit and wait on the porch in front of her farmhouse.

I rested Vixey back into my lap.

"What do you think? A bit different from your old home." Vixey curled back up. "You know, it wasn't that long ago that all this used to be trees."

It was like a whole different world now. Sometime ago they had cleared a second field that was already planted and little green plants were poking from the dirt. The first field was all stubs of whatever had been harvested.

A full harvest in under a month. Mana was incredible. Pretty soon we could stop eating fish and deer meat day in and out.

Three tall silo's bordered the fields and skeletons of new buildings were joining the barn and country homes.

"You want to know a secret Vixey?" I asked conspiratorially. "This is my favorite part. The leveling up. Not me, but the world. Taming the land to provide and sustain us, building advancing."

A chill ran up my arm.

"Taking something raw and polishing it. We have to protect this Vixey, we can't let anyone take this from us."

Her ear twitched slightly and I used my thumb to lightly pet her head. Her fur was soft on her head and she nuzzled in tighter.

I wasn't ready for the moment to end.

But the world continued to turn, and Jessie waved away the people she was meeting with and jogged lightly toward us.

"Layton!" She called. "Sorry for making you wait. We bought some seeds to plant fruit trees and we…..HEY! What is that you have there?" she completely lost her train of thought the second she caught a glimpse of Vixey in my lap.

She leaned over and squealed. "Are you kidding me? A baby fox? I could die, it's so adorable!"

I winced slightly. "Her name is Vixey, I'm looking for a place for her to live."

Jessie stood and planted her hands on her hips. "Layton, where did you get her? Where are its parents?"

My face darkened. "She is an orphan, I saved her from a badger that had already killed her parents."

Jessie gasped and covered her mouth.

"I'm not sure what she eats but I couldn't just leave her alone. Can she stay here with you?"

Her voice was muffled through her hands. "Of course, yes!" She reached out her hands. "Can I hold her?"

Vixey felt so snuggly and warm in my lap, I really didn't want to share her with Jessie. But I knew that I couldn't take her with me to the neighboring territories. So, reluctantly I scooped her up and held her out to Jessie, who snatched her and held her greedily to her chest.

The poor little thing didn't even fight. Feeling slightly concerned, I decided I would be safe and cast a healing spell on her. Vixey's little green eyes popped open but she still didn't fight.

"Why here and not Ben?" Jessie asked, petting Vixey and bobbing up and down.

"I don't know." I shrugged. "It just didn't feel right. She seemed to fit better here."

Jessie didn't ask questions. She was too distracted. With a grunt I pushed myself to my feet.

"Make sure she is fed."

"You're leaving?" Jessie called after me.

"I have to, there are things that I need to get done." I walked backwards away.

"Wait! What do foxes even eat?"

"You'll have to use trial and error I guess. I believe in you!" I turned and bolted off before she could ask anymore questions I couldn't answer.

She'd figure it out.

For now I needed to find and apologize to Ellison. After a bit of asking around I learned that he was in the armory, with Damon and Durkil. Traveling with higher stats was still a thrill and in seconds I was barging through the front door.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

All eyes turned to me.

There were more people than I expected.

"Hey everyone." I waved awkwardly, and jumped when the door closed behind me.

"Layton, I'm glad you're here." Durkil, who was sitting on the stairs when I entered, stood and urged me further into the room. It was crowded and smelled like sweat. And a swell of bodies congregated around something in the center of the room. "Can you please tell Damon that I don't have to be here for them to examine my armor?"

The group in the center of the room parted, revealing Durkils dark blue armor set hanging on a stand with Damon crouched next to another small man and they were both examining what looked to be a hinge on the pauldrons.

Damon stood slowly rolling his eyes. "Durkil, Alex is fine. He can handle Enora, we're nearly done here anyway."

Durkil huffed and plopped back to sitting on the stairs. He doesn't seem very happy to be here. Was Elise right about him and Alex? Eh, I really didn't care all that much.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, resting a hand on Damon's shoulder and scrutinizing the armor set.

"We're trying to get a better grasp on forging armor by studying the liberators armor." Damon shot a glare at Durkil. "Emphasis on trying."

It sounded like a great idea to me. Damon hadn't had the best luck with Armor yet, but there were a surprising amount of smiths from the refugees from Jordan's faction that brought their own skill sets, and they were making great progress.

"Sounds awesome! More armor is exactly what we need right now." I really didn't want to get involved in their little squabble though so I just got to the point. "Is Ellison here?"

Damon pointed to the back room. "Back there."

Satisfied to let them handle things I twisted through the mess of people and poked my head into the back room. It looked much different than when I was here last. Somehow had added hanging shelves where tools were neatly organized and there were now forges in both corners, with one slightly larger forge in the center to make three in total.

There were two dimensional chests resting near the archway with labels above them.

"Scuttle" and "Quality"

The room also seemed larger than it had before, likely to accommodate the group of eleven men working here each day.

Ellison was in the corner with another Guildian inspecting a weapons rack. They hadn't noticed me yet. I made it halfway across the room before bumping, the noise caught their attention and they turned toward me.

I pursed my lips and looked down at my feet.

"Arnor, can you give us a minute?" The Guildian didn't ask for an explanation—he just set the sword he'd be holding back on the rack and made a hasty retreat. I nodded to him as he left with a small smile.

There was chatter coming from the front of the armory but the two of us stood in awkward silence, neither wanting to speak first. Unsure of what to do, I pretended to examine a pair of tong's on the table I had nudged.

I could feel Ellisons eyes burning a hole in the side of my head. Was he really going to make me talk first? I sighed heavily and muttered. "I'm sorry I was a Jackass last night."

My apology felt loud and the room fell silent again. Ellison didn't respond, but I could still feel him watching me.

I kept looking at the tongs like they were the most interesting things in the world. Why wasn't he saying anything?

"I think I get it now."

"Get what?" He finally said.

"Why you wanted to know what I'd do."

"And what did you come up with?" He asked.

I finally looked up at him. "You want to know if I'd keep going. Right?" I met his eyes.

"You want to know that I can keep being me when things get dark. That's it, isn't it?"

"Yes….and no." He looked thoughtful. "I know what you'll do when things get dark. Because things have already gotten dark. You couldn't have handled it any better."

I searched his face. "Then what?"

"That's up to you, Layton. What will you do if your world ends?"

Did he mean if my parents died? No. It was deeper than that. It wasn't just my parents anymore. My family had grown. What if I lost my faction? What if god forbid Alex, Durkil, Elise, Damon any of them died?

What if Ellison died? Or Mischief…

"I would never let that happen."

Ellison shook his head. "Of course, I know you would die to protect the people you love. But what happens when the inevitable occurs?"

I slapped the table. "What inevitable? Nothing is inevitable, we just grow, that's it."

Ellison stepped forward and rested a hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it off.

"Layton, there are powers in this world beyond our comprehension. Even in this world, there will be others. Strong, just like you. Eventually, you're going to face loss."

"Why are you saying this? I came here to apologize."

Why was Ellison forcing me to face these thoughts now? I had no idea what I would do, how did someone prepare for that?

He rested his hand on my shoulder again. I tried to pull away again but his grip tightened.

"Because I believe in you. Because you can handle more than you are giving yourself credit for."

I glared at him. "What? Just because I don't want to think about my friends dying?"

He grabbed my other shoulder and forced me to look at him. I could've easily resisted, but I didn't.

"No one wants to think about that, Layton. But you can't be afraid of it!" His calm demeanor cracked, just slightly. "You don't have that luxury anymore!"

That was it. It clicked. Ellison wasn't just worried about me—he was worried about all of us. About what I'd become if I lost too much. My shoulders slumped, the anger melting away.

"Ellison, I'm scared all the time. And maybe that's okay—I hope it never changes."

Now it was Ellison's turn to be confused. He shook his head.

"If I can conquer my fears, everything else feels easy." I grinned at Ellison. "Maybe I could actually teach you a thing or two about that?"

He let my shoulders go, placing his hands at his hips and looked about the room. He chuckled.

"Maybe you're right."

I reached out my hand. "Are we good, Ellison?"

We clasped hands.

All that was left to do was our best. If nothing else, I could live with myself if I just did that.

***

Patching things up with Ellison was a relief. He had become a close friend and mentor to me in a short time and it gave me anxiety being at odds.

Feeling much better about things I felt like seeing how the rest of our faction was progressing. Center street was truly becoming that now and people shuffled about completing their daily tasks.

It wasn't uncommon for someone to whisper under their breath as they passed me.

"I think that's him." or "He's so young, I'm not so sure."

Being noticed. It was a strange experience. High school I had a small group of friends and mostly kept to myself, and in my first year of college my social life was non-existent. Now everyone seemed to know who I was.

In some ways it was nice to feel noticed. I felt like I was a part of something important, like I had value. I always wondered what happened behind closed doors when decisions were being made, and now, I was the final say in those meetings. Well ok, Jared was.

But I was there—it was kind of cool.

The town was so loud, and construction was happening everywhere. Hundreds of people in our village had some kind of class related to infrastructure. Many started out with carpenter skills and classes evolved each day offering new and exciting possibilities.

Many involved quality of life for builders, some earned telekinetic abilities while others improved the quality of a structure allowing for interesting improvements. One building I was particularly excited about getting finished was a city hall where we could hold more comfortable planning sessions.

Jared was personally overseeing the project and it was turning into a fairly grand design. With their many hands they mostly cleared 4 city blocks of trees and stone and marked it all up with stakes and rope indicating where each building would go.

There were already retaining walls to help battle the slope of the mountainside. The city hall was going to be built in sections. Jareds visions were…ambitious, to say the least. But for now, it would just be a square building with room for additions.

It would probably be done before the third and final raids started.

That reminded me. The sun was already past the halfway point in the sky, it wouldn't be all that much longer before the raid appeared today. It wouldn't hurt to check in on Enora and make sure that they were ready.

Once this raid was wrapped up, I could finally set about getting us closer to the stone quarry.

Whether they were dead or alive, I was going to find my parents.