Accidental Healer

I sat on the stairs of Damon's smithy fiddling with a small piece of string. Aggy was sleeping soundly in the corner, no doubt exhausted after hours crying. Nick was gone in search of some way to feed the little one.

His solution? Milk a mother deer. No one else had a better idea, so off he went.

It was hard to stop fidgeting.

Ellison's voice was layered with reservation. "To me, it seems pretty obvious. Our faction has no law around what its members do. In fact, it seems quite the opposite, Layton has made it clear on multiple occasions people have the anonymity to go where they please."

"Law or not, they asked if they could go, and Layton told them to stay. What followed was a hostage situation that very nearly led to a war with a peaceful faction." Jared countered sternly.

I cringed.

Jared failed to mention that it was me that nearly started that war, and if I'd come to him first the entire conflict with the Trasnik could've been avoided. Plus, we still weren't sure if nearly was the proper word to use. For all we knew Trasnik and his faction were already planning a counter attack.

"Maybe so, but again, Layton is a faction leader not a king or ruler. There was no expectation of his word as law, or at least not yet. To this point, decisions have predominantly been made as a council."

Cassie clicked her tongue.

Ellison turned toward her. "Do you have something you want to add to this conversation, Cassie?"

"It just feels wrong is all."

All eyes turned to her.

"What feels wrong?" Jared prodded.

"I mean, who cares about technicalities? It doesn't take half a brain to know what these two did was as stupid as it gets." She set her hands on her hips. "I mean we are literally surrounded by random warring factions. What the hell did they think was going to happen?"

The two in question wilted, Sadie buried her face in her hands while Xander sagged lower staring blankly at the wall. I just kept focusing on my string.

"Maybe, but is that the standard we want to set in this faction? What's done is done. These two might be fools, but they aren't criminals." Jared responded, his voice rising slightly.

"Well I say they are criminals. Look at them. Even they know that what they did was wrong." She pointed towards the two in the corner.

I listened to the arguments. It didn't feel like it was just Sadie and Xander who were on trial here.

"So what should we do Cassie? Exile them? Which is basically a death sentence. Throw them in prison? Publicly shame them?" I could feel the tension between the three rising.

Cassie threw up her hands. "From what I've heard this isn't even Sadie's first time putting others at risk just to try and get ahead. No one died this time, but what about the next time?"

"That's not an answer Cassie."

"Fine! Yes, kick them out! Maybe if we were more established we could take more risk but as it stands these two are a liability we can't afford!"

"So then execution?!" Jared guffawed. "Really Cassie?"

The shouting grew louder and pretty soon it was joined by Aggy who was roused by all the shouting. I leaned forward and elbows on knees and buried my face in my hands.

There was a loud knock at the door. I peaked through my fingers, no one seemed to have heard the noise.

Bang, bang, bang. More loud knocks, that sounded more like kicks.

All at once all but Aggy grew quiet and I shoved myself to my feet and opened the thick wooden door to find Nick beaming ear to ear, wearing a goat like a scarf with two kids under each arm.

"Goats!" He shouted, peering around the room. Sensing the somber tone, his smile faded. "I mean, I know I promised deer milk but then I saw this momma goat here and figured that's just as good."

He stomped into the room and dropped the two kids onto the wood floor with a light thump.

Their legs grew stiff as boards and they rolled sideways. He ignored the kids and hoisted the mother from his shoulder and placed her on the floor with more care.

Recognizing her chance to escape she took one step before her momentary bravery faded and her legs locked up too and she toppled headfirst onto the wood planks stiff as a statue.

Nick's laughter cut through Aggy's crying and the stunned silence.

"Fainting goats!" He crouched down next to the mother goat clumsily pinching at its udders.

"I'm not really sure how this works, but I'm pretty sure it was lactating on my neck earlier so I know it's got the goods."

The room just stared.

Nick glanced backwards. "What?" He scratched his head. "I get it, you guys think I should let it stop fainting first. It won't, in fact, Layton you might want to hit this thing with a quick healing spell. I'm a bit worried about its heart."

Judging by how the goat was literally waterfalling raisin sized poo all over the armory floor I figured Nick might not be wrong about healing it. My hand swept out and three healing spells washed over the family of goats.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Good job Nick." I sighed crossing the room to pick up the crying child. "Why don't you take them outside and see if there is someone who can help you milk it?"

Nick scanned the room.

"Riggghht…" quietly he wrapped stiff momma around his shoulders and picked up the kids, closing the door behind him.

I bounced lightly, cooing gently doing my best to help settle the poor hungry child. She fussed a bit more but it didn't take long for exhaustion to take hold again. I'd made a habit of regularly casting heal but finding the goat did wonders to ease my anxiety, healing mana wasn't food afterall.

"Jared, I think I saw something on the interface that would let us make a faction wide announcement?" I kept my voice hushed, hoping to let Aggy keep sleeping in my arms.

"Thats right." He said barely over a whisper.

"Great." I turned my attention to Sadie and Xander, Sadie flinched but Xander maintained the same blank stare as before.

"Man. The last couple days really didn't go the way I expected."

What was I supposed to say here? Could I really tell them how I felt, like a giant hypocrite? Like everyone was just ignoring the fact that I'd screwed up too just because of who I was?

"Alright. What do you two think should happen to me?"

Sadie's eyes snapped up. "You?" She croaked.

"Yeah. What should my punishment be?"

For the first time, Xander finally pulled his attention from the wall. "Your punishment? Why?"

"Well for starters, I should've given both of you more clear direction on why I didn't want to be followed. I was vague and dismissive."

"Layton, don't be silly." Ellison cut in, but I shot him a look and he backed down.

"If I would've given you both the attention you deserved this could've been avoided. Second, I was stupid enough to panic and start an unnecessary conflict with a potentially friendly faction." I bowed my head to look at the sleeping Aggy. "And third, I should've come for help—no, I should never have left without help in the first place and put myself and our faction at risk."

"It wasn't your…"

"No dammit!" It came out like a hiss. "It was my fault. I have to be held accountable."

I looked back to the two sitting on the floor. "So. What's it going to be?"

Awkwardly they looked at each other, neither wanting to speak first. The truth was, as kind as my friends were to my face, I heard their whispers. The conversations they'd in hushed tones where they didn't think I could hear.

No one dared say anything rude or unkind but the passive tones spoke volumes to me. "He's just a kid, he'll learn, what can you expect?, he's doing his best."

At each decision that he made, they gave him the benefit of the doubt. Sadie and Xander weren't all that older, but did they get the same treatment?

Not even close.

"Come on, let's hear it."

Xander started crying and buried his face in his hands, so I ignored him and looked at Sadie who was at least keeping it together.

"What am I supposed to say? You saved our lives for the second time." She couldn't meet my eyes. "Nothing, you shouldn't have a punishment."

"Our faction saved your lives, not just me. Xander, look at me."

Xander did his best to comply, wiping his eyes with his shirt and hiccuping slightly. He sniffled a bit more but to his credit he met my gaze.

"Haven't we been through enough already?" His eyes were red from lack of sleep and crying, and he was still caked in dirt and grime. The floor creaked as someone behind me shifted their weight.

They had been through a lot, even if it was their own fault. I might not look as bleak as they did, but the night and morning had been torture for me. The question I had, was even if I did agree with Xander, would our faction see it the same way?

"This can't happen again." I tried to ignore the fact that I must've looked like a chiding mother with Aggy bouncing in my arms. "From any of us, including me. We're too small, and too weak. Both of you are important pieces here, we need to do better. I need to do better."

Sadie still wouldn't look up and her words were barely audible. "I'm sorry."

"Xander?"

He forced himself to his feet, a good several inches taller than me, and fixed me with a steely gaze.

"This won't happen again."

"Good enough. For now, go wait in the back there." I nodded in the direction with my head. Their eyes searched the group waiting for someone else to speak, when no one did they quickly shuffled through the archway into the back room.

Once they were out of sight Jared spoke up. "Are you sure you want them back there? What if they leave or eavesdrop?"

I shrugged. "Where would they go? And I don't care if they hear, I sent them back there for their own privacy."

Ellison scratched his chin. "That didn't go quite like I imagined it would…"

"What did you expect?"

"I'm not sure. But not that."

Cassie eyed the archway coldly. "I second that."

"What about you Jared?"

To my surprise, he chuckled. "Honestly? I'm not all that surprised. I mean, you made a bronze statue that says "forgiveness brings peace" for crying out loud."

Ellison nodded, with a grin.

"Fair enough. How do you think our faction is going to respond to this?"

"Well that depends, what's phase two?"

"I think you already have an idea." I teased. "We need to make it clear that this type of behavior—while allowed—is at the risk of the individual. Jared, can I trust you to put something together?"

"Consider it done."

"Great. Make sure people understand, the greater good of the faction will always come first." I laid Aggy back into her makeshift crib of two chairs facing together with piles of blankets.

"Now, as you are all aware, I have a special objective." Cassie was still eyeing the door and only half listening but both Ellison and Jared acknowledged my special objective to gain two of five (seven once the final two raids completed) territories neighboring us through diplomacy.

"Obviously that goal became a little harder after the situation with Aggard. I don't intend to make the same mistake again."

"What do you have in mind?" Ellison urged, taking a seat on a bench against the wall of the cabin smithy.

"We need to stop living like we are in the old world. This new world has means that we don't understand. Aggard was proof enough of that."

Which reminded me. Once we were done here, I needed to make a visit to the Orc prisoners and see what I could figure out about her methods. If others could reproduce it, I wanted to be prepared.

"We have the biggest stick and we need to look like it. That's where our new friends, the dark elves, come in."

"You want to use their professional appearance to dissuade other factions of their chances at victory?" Jared guessed.

"That's it. We have some real freaks in our faction, but until we get them suited up nice, the elves will be our brute squad."

"Sprinkle in some of our more intimidating elites and we should present quite nicely." Ellison agreed.

"And if it doesn't dissuade them?"

I turned to Cassie. "We are a peace first faction, but we can't grow stagnant. Maybe in time we'll be large enough not to have to use force, but until that time, we move forward."