Chapter II

Cyrille gasped at the sight in front of her, suddenly feeling like vomiting. The smell of blood was all around her, and it made her feel nauseous; it reminded her badly of rust. She turned her attention to the man on the floor. He looked dead, but Cyrille wasn't sure. Then, against her better judgment, she made slow steps to the figure.

Goodness, there's so much blood! This is stupid. I should just leave. He's probably dead anyway. But what if he isn't? Would that be considered as murder? Oh for the love of God! Pull yourself together, Cyrille! Just see if there's any sign of life in him. If he's alive, he's going to need medication. And fast. But if he's dead, then maybe you could just go to the police station or something.

She took a deep breath with her mouth so she doesn't smell the blood. Then, she approached the figure. She put a hand under the man's nose to see if he was still breathing. There was a tiny gush of air, but she wasn't entirely sure if that was the man's breath or just her imagining things because of her nerves. So, she decided that a pulse check should be safer. She put two shaky fingers to the man's wrist, but she couldn't really feel anything but the trembling of her own hands. She took another deep breath and tried to steady herself. Then, for the last time, she checked for a pulse. And there it was. It was faint and barely noticeable, but there it was. Panic settled in.

Oh my God! He's actually alive! I was just trying to ascertain that he was dead so that I wouldn't have anything eating my conscience when I managed to get out of this place. This cannot be happening! But shouldn't I be happy that he's alive? That's right, I should think positive. Relax, Cyrille. You had a first aid seminar for health class last term. Even so, this looks way beyond my capability. But I have to try. I can't just leave him here. Alright, think. The first step is to assess the situation. She checked for the source of blood and saw two puncture marks on the man's neck. Crap, it's a snake bite. The poison's probably running inside his bloodstream as I speak. It's going to kill him if I don't hurry, but I don't have anything with me, and I doubt I'd find anything useful here.

"AAAHHHH! I hate this! I hate being so damn helpless!" she screamed. "He's going to die and I can't even bloody help him!" she said with her fists clenched tightly in anger. She kicked a nearby rock and it bounced off the wall. She tried kicking a larger one but hurt herself in the process. "Ugh! What is wrong with me?" she yelled. Her voice echoed through the entire area. Suddenly, a voice, barely a whisper, came out of nowhere.

"Shut... up..."

"Who... who said that?" a scared Cyrille asked as she looked wildly from left to right.

The man felt an urge to roll his eyes and would have done so had he not been in that state. "O-ver... here... you... dun-der-head..." he said with a pause at each syllable. It was clear that the owner of the voice had a great difficulty in speaking. He felt like he was already out of breath just from saying a single sentence.

"Oh my God you're conscious!"

But this girl is an idiot, thought the man. Of all the bloody luck in the universe, I end up being found by an imbecile. Is this how it ends for me? Is this justice? That I should die when the thing that could possibly stop my death is just inside my robes? If I don't die of blood loss, that is. I should have a small vial of anti-venom here somewhere. It won't heal me, but it would stop the poison from circulating in my system. If only I could somehow tell this silly girl to give it to me. But perhaps...

"Look... at... me..." he said with all his strength, and the girl was startled into submission, for once not arguing. As they made eye contact, she felt images flash inside her mind. She saw herself grab a small red vial inside the man's robes. She saw herself tipping it to the man's mouth until he finished it. Then, she somehow understood that it was exactly what she had to do. She went to the man's side and knelt beside him. She then started locating the red vial from the man's robes. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw it. She raised it up to the man's eyes for confirmation. When the man nodded, she helped him drink it. She somehow understood from the vision earlier that this was a kind of anti-venom. After he downed the entire bottle, she was still worried about the blood loss. What now?

Screw the statute of secrecy, he thought. I'm a dead man anyway. "My... wand..."

"Wand?" she asked with a hint of uncertainty. He must be delusional, she thought. She looked around for anything that resembled a wand just to satisfy him. She saw a thin wooden stick on the ground. Well, this looks like a wand to me. She picked it up and was surprised because the wood suddenly felt warm in her hand. Unbeknownst to the young girl, the wand was acknowledging her as a fellow wielder.

"Er... Is this the one you want?" she asked as she held it up for the man to see. The man gave a small nod. She approached him slowly and placed the piece of wood in his hand. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of much help, but I really think that you should be brought to a hospital. You've already lost so much blood. I could take you to one if you'd let me."

"No... no... hospital..." the man muttered absentmindedly. His brain was focused examining the feel of the wand in his hand. Then, with what little energy he had, he raised the wand and placed it against his throat. Cyrille was alarmed. She heard him mutter something that sounded suspiciously like Latin, and then he fainted.

"Please tell me that you did not just murder yourself!" she said. "But that wouldn't make sense because you just asked me to help you." She then noticed that the blood had stopped flowing. The bleeding has stopped? But how? Wait, I shouldn't be thinking of that now. I still have to figure out what to do with this strange man. I ought to take him to a hospital, but he wouldn't let me. Perhaps he's a criminal? Or maybe he's hiding from bad people? She continued pondering on the many possible reasons why he didn't want to be taken to a hospital when she caught sight of the wooden stick that the man held earlier.

He looked attached to this stick for some reason. Maybe I should take it with me, just in case he looks for it again when he wakes up. She picked the stick up and rolled it in her palm while still deep in thought. It's obvious that this isn't just some random wood he picked up somewhere. It's too refined. But why would he run around buying something like this? I don't understand anything anymore. I don't understand how I ended up here. I don't understand how I'm going to get us out of here. I hate this! I wish I were back in the woods. I wish I were in a familiar surrounding. I wish I didn't have to worry about a man whose life may be in my hands!

She was now fighting the urge to cry because she could feel the tears coming. She closed her eyes and thought of the woods, her safe haven. She thought of the clear blue lake that always seemed to calm her senses. She thought of the days when she used to hide there to escape the world. Then, very softly, she heard a whisper in her mind. Once again, she felt the warmth of the object in her hand. The voice she had heard was so soft that she thought she had imagined it. It seemed to have said Portus. She absently repeated the word in her mind without knowing what it meant. Then she saw a flicker of light through her closed eyelids. When she opened them again, nothing seemed to have changed. She sat down beside the man's unconscious form and hugged her knees to her chest. The room was as still as before, except—

"Why am I drawn to that stupid rock?" she asked, thinking that she was starting to become a bit delusional as well. She stood up and attempted to kick it away, but the moment her feet made contact with it, she felt another strange sensation. She felt the same kick in her senses that brought her there in the first place. In a moment of panic, she made a dive for the man's body. She tried to cling onto him in hopes that she wouldn't be whisked away to another place, although she didn't have the time to question how this was logically possible. It was almost like...

"Magic. That has got to be the reason why this happened, because the only other option is that I'm crazy and delusional," she said as, for the second time of the day, she crashed down hard on the floor. This time though, she wasn't alone. The man in black was with her and was still out cold. She took a good look at her surroundings and felt a huge relief when she noticed that she was back in the woods. Everything was going to be fine. Or so she hoped.