Trial By Fire
Chapter Three
The Healer of Clare Canyon
Quatre stood in the doorway of his little stone cottage, waiting. The sun marked it as mid-morning, just rising over the cliffs behind his home, the waves pounding at the base of those cliffs. He'd felt them coming. Not Trowa, of course. He could never feel Trowa.
But Wufei was easy to feel. No... Wufei was *impossible* not to feel... as brazen and *loud* as the fire he controlled.. There was another there too, one full of fear, pain, and slight hope.
And usually, Trowa travelled with Wufei. Quatre waited patiently, knowing they'd be here soon. He was simply glad that Heero had travelled on a few days ago. His quiet friend would not have been pleased to meet with Wufei or Trowa.
He wasn't sure how he felt about maybe seeing Trowa again. He still hadn't rectified the whole situation in his mind. As far as he could tell... they were still at as much a stand-still, an impasse, as they had been when they parted so many months ago.
Within moments, the two figures, on horseback, appeared from the treeline in the distance. It was easy to pick out Trowa, straight backed, trailing slightly behind the other. Only another moment, and the two were upon him, right up to the cottage. Wufei held a bundle in front of him.
He opened his mouth to say something, but Wufei beat him to it, thundering to a stop just in front of him. Quatre could see the bundle he carried was a thin young man, and he could see the raging red burns.
"Wufei..." he growled, Teal eyes glinting angrily as the obvious first assumption came to his mind. A badly burned man and a sometimes reckless man who could control fire....
"Not me. They had him to the stake. We couldn't let him die like that." Wufei cut him off, voice brusque but worried. "Can you help him or not?"
Quatre nodded, an about face in demeanor. Gone was the hostility; he was a healer first and foremost. "I can. Bring him inside. Trowa, go fetch water. Sea water, not from the well."
No one questioned the orders. They knew that when Quatre agreed to heal someone, he took it very seriously indeed. And they knew what was required. There would be payment... but not until later.
Wufei carried the injured man inside, leaving the horses to wander free. They were well trained and would not go far.
"On the bed," Quatre waved to the high-raised bed towards the side of the room. He fetched various tools of his trade; Herbs of various sorts, cloths. A pestle and mortar to crush them. He set them on a nearby table, then began to systematically undress the man so that all the wounds were visible. The man winced in his sleep.
"How long as he been under?"
"He passed out yesterday, just at twilight when we rescued him. We've rode all night. He woke up one or twice, but he was incoherent and passed out again."
Quatre nodded. "Yes, understandable. I'll give him a medicine to help ease the sleep, control the pain, before I tend to the burns." He quickly chose three different herbs, mashing them together with a little hot water until he had a thick, warm paste. The paste he then forced into the man's throat, working until most of it had been swallowed.
Trowa came in the door, holding a wooden bucket of sea-water. He set in on the table of herbs and materials. Quatre nodded, then placed his hands over the worst burns... the ones on his legs, where the skin had blackened and began to die. He murmered to himself as he worked, simply holding his hands there, a feather light touch against the dying flesh.
The other two watched silently. They had come to Quatre for the simple reason he was one of them. He used magic knowingly. His gift was a unique, strong one, one that he focused towards healing. Somehow, simply laying his hands on someone, he could make their bodies work better, faster to fix what was wrong. Whether that be forcing out an illness, or mending a broken bone... or rejuvenating burned flesh. Slowly, Quatre drifted his hands, his touch, up following the lenght of the burns. In their wake, the flesh was alive again. It was still twisted, scarred, and slightly red amidst the new pink skin. Quatre's gift was great, but it could not do more than the body he worked with could handle. Unlike traditional healing gifts that drew on the healers own power, his talent drew energy from the injured person. If that person was weak, then Quatre's power could only do so much. The fact that Quatre could heal this young man so much spoke to Wufei... this young man was strong. He would fight to live.
Trowa and Wufei waited silently. An hour passed, then another as Quatre slowly moved up the thin, burned body in front of him. The burns were less horrible up his body, so the scars faded as they traveled up his left side. Quatre finished with the burns on the side of the face, working until most of the skin was new, with just a thin red line near his ear to show others what he'd been through.
Quatre panted as he removed his hands and turned to his table.
"That's the best I can do. We'll soak the cloths in sea water and cover where the wounds were. It'll help make sure I didn't miss anything and keep it clean while his body continues to heal on it's own." A few moments later, with Wufei and Trowa helping, the entire side of the man's body was plastered with wet, cool cloth.
"He should be fine until the morning." Quatre placed a steadying hand on the table.
Wufei moved out of the way, wincing a little. Quatre's trained eyes spotted it.
"Were you hurt?"
"Arrow in the shoulder," the black haired man said. "It's why I lost concentration and he," he waved to the man, "got hurt. It's nothing."
Quatre cursed under his breath, and quicker than one would think, he'd moved forward to jerk back Wufei's black shirt to reveal the little ragged hole near the right shoulder.
"Nothing, he says," Quatre muttered, placing a hand over the hole, and another on the exit wound on his back. "Unbandaged, open for all sorts of festering infections and it's nothing." Wufei winced as he felt the flesh knit back together, the skin smoothing back, becoming whole again, with no scar; Wufei was strong, so Quatre's gift worked quickly and easily on him. He disliked magical healings for the odd, almost painful, tickling sensation that accompanied it, but he had to admit it had it's good sides.
Quatre dropped his hand, then swayed.
It was Trowa's turn to curse as he caught the blond as he healer collapsed.
"Put him to bed," Wufei advised. "He'll sleep 'til the morrow, too."
Trowa caught his arm under Quatre's legs, sweeping him up and carrying him towards the bedroom at the back of the house. He turned down the bed and slipped the healer under the quilt. He lingered, though. Brushing a lock of sandy-blond hair from Quatre's face, he dropped a silent, soft kiss to his forehead.
"Always working until you collapse. Your heart is much, much too big, Cat," he whispered.
~*~*~*~
AN: Yay!!! Thank you to all the people who reviewed, and everyone who's put this story on their favorite/alert lists! Cookies to everyone!!!!