Callie's Heroes

PART II - GRISLY RESPONSIBILITIES

The remaining seven each took stock, and mutually decided to delay departure for another fifteen minutes so everyone could use the bushes and rest a bit more. Pixyl, in particular, looked extremely tired, despite the jolts of refreshing energy she had received, which surprised Callie and the others. After a little resisted investigation, it turned out she had been quite injured by her collision with the Drakeling, and worse, had been hiding it the whole time. It was only the uncharacteristic fatigue as well as Ambria catching her wincing that gave it away, and she was forced to admit she was hurt.

Ambria and Lhawni checked her over, finding the entire left side of her torso had become a single large bruise. With all the males gone, the Pixie sat nearly-topless on a log, wearing only her binder, still trying to assure the Healers she was fine, as they took turns chastising her for not saying anything sooner. A thorough Diagnose spell yielded not only the massive bruising, but a pair of cracked ribs, too. Nothing was out of place, thankfully, but even something as simple as breathing caused pain, and Callie couldn’t imagine what her friend had been enduring as the battle went on and after the adrenaline wore off.

Lhawni worked on the ribs, easily melding them together again, while Ambria applied a low-powered general pain block, just to make it easier for the Pixie to breathe. While they did that, Major Celeste scolded Pixyl for not disclosing her injury, slipping into trainer-mode. She emphasized that you couldn’t hide injuries, because you might be called on to do something nobody is aware an injury would prevent. Unfortunately, because Pixyl had waited so long to get treatment, the ugly purple bruising wasn’t able to be lessened with healing, and it would likely take a few days to fully fade and be a little tender in the meantime.

Callie laughed, a bit of a melancholy tone in her voice. “You know, when I touched the unicorn horn, it healed all my scrapes and bruises. Pretty much instantly in fact.”

“It did?” Ambria asked, her eyes going wide.

Lhawni shrugged. “Unicorn horns heal on touch. The blood will restore youth, too, so it is used to heal the aging attacks of some undead. There’s lots of other parts that have their uses too. The tail hair, hooves, and hide can all be used in armorsmithing. Bones even, adding all kinds of magic to things. At least that’s what I’ve heard from others, so I’ll assume those stories are true.”

“Apparently the horn at least works,” Celeste said with a shrug, as she turned to look towards the Valley.

“Do …” Callie started to say, amazed that the words were even coming out of her mouth. “Do you think we should bring the body back with us? We have the body bag, if it’s big enough.” Then she added, “I mean, I suppose it would be nice if some good could come from this.”

Everyone looked at each other, unsure how to answer that rather morbid question.

“Yes,” Pixyl flatly said, breaking the silence. “If any of the stories are t-t-true, it’s too valuable to leave.”

“That idea is a little gruesome,” Ambria mumbled.

“She’s right, though,” Lhawni added, gesturing towards Pixyl.

Major Celeste frowned, and then looked at Callie. “This is your mission, Sergeant. It’s your decision. The body bag is big enough to hold an Ogre if need be, so it should hold the unicorn. With the weight reduction, we’ll be able to get it back easily enough.”

Callie likewise frowned, but then remembered again the moment of warm healing she felt when she had touched the horn. If it was somehow able to keep healing people long after death, that in itself was a nearly priceless magical item. But if there were other uses for the unicorn, too … Yes, it was gruesome to think about, but as a pragmatic soldier, one could say they had a duty.

“Let’s get it,” Callie finally said, sloughing off her backpack.

Jesca and Ambria both groaned, feeling queasy at the whole idea.

Fishing through her pack, Callie pulled out the tightly wrapped body bag. She didn’t see how it could possibly be large enough to hold an Ogre, but then realized they were retrieving a damn unicorn corpse. The answer was magic. Simple as that. Trying to understand more than that would likely just drive her mad, like everything else around here that didn’t make proper sense. Gently, she tossed the bundle to the Major.

Nobody was excited to go back down the hill, but grudgingly they did, re-tying the remaining rope to assist. Overhead, the Drakelings had re-emerged, a half-dozen circling lazily in the afternoon sky, looking for something uninfected to make a meal of, while others could be seen far off picking at the still-fresh Basilisk corpse. Pixyl was wary, given how tasty she apparently was to them, agreeing with the recommendation to stay close to the rest of the party and out of the air.

It didn’t take long to reach the unicorn, still lying silently on the ground, and still beautiful.

“I feel really bad about this,” Jesca said quietly, an uncomfortable look on her furry face. She then looked up at the others, defensively adding, “I know we should bring it back. Really. But I’m still allowed to feel bad about it.”

“We all do,” Celeste said as she squatted down by the creature’s head. Hesitantly, she reached out with her swollen hand, gently resting it on the horn’s tip. There was no visual indication of magic, but a radiant warmth spread through the Major. In less than a trio of eye blinks, the ugly purple bruising on her hand faded. Carefully, Celeste flexed her now-flexible fingers.

“Wow!” Ambria said simply. Then she looked at Pixyl. “You touch it.” Then she held up her hand. “Actually, show us your bruises as you do.”

The Pixie scowled at the attention, but dutifully unwrapped the armor around her torso, handing it roughly to Callie. She grudgingly pulled up half of her tunic with one hand, exposing the nearly-black bruises covering her side. Far less reverently than the Major, Pixyl grabbed on to the horn’s end. Within moments, the bruises began to fade, much to the giddy fascination of Ambria and Lhawni. Within ten or twelve seconds, they were gone, only a vague discoloring remaining. Pixyl’s face also showed significant relief from what discomfort had been leaking past Ambria's blocking spell.

“I guess it still works,” Lhawni said with a shrug.

Celeste set to work. She pulled the knot on the body bag’s binding, and instantly it seemed to spring open, reminding Callie a little of an emergency life raft suddenly inflating. The result was something akin to a large duffel bag, designed to open flat. The material was incredibly strong, though, and seemed to vaguely hum in her hand as Callie touched it, obviously magical. It must be the hide of some magical creature. She’d have to ask Fizzlebek at some point, curious what other things could be crafted and similarly enchanted to reduce weight. Backpacks, maybe?

With expertise betraying that she had done this before, Major Celeste directed. Nobody was happy, and the Major pushed everyone to just focus through the task. Celeste and Shul’an did most of the work, being the strongest, with Jesca, Callie and Lhawni holding the edges in place as the body was slid into it. Callie felt awful, fighting with competing emotions of regret and duty.

Eventually, the body was in place, and Celeste folded a flap over the top of the bag, covering the unicorn. She aligned the sides with each other, before directing Shul’an to pinch the overlapping fabric together on the other end. As they did that, the Major worked on the opposite side. They worked quietly, and once the last edge was sealed, the bag seemed to hum with power for a few seconds, before the whole assembly seemed to stiffen, and the pinched edges sealed even tighter. Looped handles on either end had been built into the bag to allow two people to pick up and carry the whole thing, and there were several loops for long poles on either side if they had them. The Major advised everyone to watch for trees or fallen branches to serve that purpose on the way back.

Quietly, reverently, everyone walked back to the bottom of the hill, the Major and Shul’an carrying the precious pack. With the bag stiffened, it didn’t droop in the middle, almost like carrying a body on a litter. The magical weight reduction assured the whole thing didn’t weigh more than perhaps thirty kilograms, easily light enough for the two to carry, each using a single arm. Celeste and Shul’an went up the hill first, using the rope to pull the unicorn up after them, followed soon by the rest.

Once on top, everyone now took the delayed break, ducking away for privacy before beginning the hike back. Nobody had much to say, their eyes occasionally darting to the black object lying on the ground a short distance away. In their heads, they knew bringing the unicorn back was for the best, but their hearts were still heavy, that responsibility, as well as the day’s events in general, weighing on each of them.

Callie looked up at the sun, judging the time as late-afternoon, perhaps around four or five. The walk back would take about two hours, but it would certainly still be daylight by the time they arrived. Depending on how much the unicorn slowed them down, plus with the need to be cleansed of any possible parasites and clean up, they would miss the evening meal. That was a shame, but it was better to not rush, rather than risk someone tripping. They’d find something to eat, even if only general dried rations.

Finally, they set out. With their Wilderness Survival perk, the Rangers had an excellent sense of direction in the forests as long as they had the camp as the original reference point, as did Lhawni with her own Goblin racial trait. No longer needing it in place, Callie had collected the magical beacon from next to the tree where Tazrok had conducted his symphony, slipping it into her backpack alongside the tracker and the giant eel’s teeth. They walked quietly, with Shul’an and Celeste carrying the unicorn, but planning to rotate Jesca in if one of them got tired or sore. Lhawni assumed her cute animal form, leaping easily over and around the fallen tree limbs with ease, while the others had to occasionally scramble. Pixyl grudgingly accepted a ride on Jesca’s shoulders, and would switch piggybacking to whomever wasn’t on unicorn-carrying duty, taking to the air if needed for a bigger obstacle.

After twenty minutes, Jesca asked everyone to halt, which they did. She set Pixyl on the ground, looking back the way they had come, a concerned look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” Callie asked.

“Something is following us,” Jesca replied quietly.