I guess I couldn't leave you all sitting on that cliffhanger forever. Not that it was one of my best cliffhangers or anything. I must do better next time!

Review Replies:

Damien the Nephilim: Wouldn't that be interesting? Unfortunately, I don't think they had the technology to accomplish that.

warorpeace: Yes. You guessed right. I'm not going to say which guess was right, though. Read to find out!

Cottonmouth25: Yeah, I guess it was kind of a cliché cliffhanger. My next one will be better (says that before even starting to write the chapter…).

random123games: Thanks. Glad that you liked it.

MindVScape: I won't say too much, but I will say that we haven't seen the last of Stoick and Berk. Haha.

Chapter 25: Crutch

With a sigh, Heather spoke one sentence that stopped Nörrik's attempts to rise from the bed. This one sentence compelled all his attention. "Nörrik…there's something you should know."

Nörrik waited, bracing for whatever it was that Heather was about to tell him. He waited for almost a minute, but Heather remained silent. Immediately Nörrik assumed the worst. What could be so bad that she's having this hard a time trying to tell me? he wondered. "Well, what is it, Heather? What do you need to tell me?"

"Nörrik," she began slowly, testing her words, "when you fell off Toothless…well, at least, we think when you fell off Toothless, at least, we could not see until the flames died down and the smoke cleared," she continued.

"Yeah…?" Nörrik pried gently even though his frustration was growing as Heather delayed the inevitable.

"Well, we think that your left leg was somehow exposed to the flames and badly burned."

Nörrik did not like the grave tone in Heather's voice. He did not like where this conversation was going at all. "Did your mother have enough salve for it?" he asked, hoping.

"That's not…" Heather started, but stopped with a sigh, choosing her words carefully. "Nörrick, my mother…couldn't save your leg. She had to cut part of it off. I'm sorry."

These words cut through Nörrik like a knife. "No…" he whispered out as Heather's words continued to echo through his mind. Badly burned. Couldn't save. Sorry. Nörrik shook his head, partly in disbelief and partly to clear the words from his head. "No, that can't be right," Nörrik decided. "If it was, then, my leg would feel…" he began, pulling away the covers. As he looked down at the sight before him, Nörrik breathed out the last word to finish his sentence, "…different."

Looking down upon his legs, Nörrik glanced first to his right leg. Aside from a few cuts and scrapes, his right leg was fine and would heal within the next week or so. Then, his gaze shifted to his left leg. The upper half of his left leg was fine, littered in cuts and scrapes just like his right leg. However, as his eyes dropped down, he found that his left leg stopped about halfway between his knee and the space where his left foot would have lain. The end of his left leg was wrapped tightly in blood-stained bandages.

"We've tried to keep the bandages clean by changing them every day," Heather told him. "However, your leg was so badly burned and double that with us having to cut it off…well, it's still been bleeding. My mother said that you would need to keep the bandages on until the bandages come off clean. As long as your leg is still bleeding, there is a chance for infection and so it'll need to remain covered."

Nörrik barely heard any of Heather's words. His gaze had yet to leave the bandaged stump that occupied part of the space where his left leg should have lain. It just felt too weird to believe. His left leg was gone…well, most of it was gone, anyway.

"Oh, I guess it's still bleeding. My mother is still a bit busy treating everyone who was injured during the explosion, so I guess I'll change your bandage." Heather sat down beside Nörrik and slowly, carefully and gently, began to unravel the bloodied bandage from Nörrik's injury.

As much as he wanted to look away and not see the bloodied stump that he had once called his left leg, Nörrik found that he could not take his eyes from it. Sooner or later, he would've had to face the truth anyway. Might as well be sooner, he decided.

Glancing up briefly, Heather noticed Nörrik staring sadly at his injury. "You don't have to watch, Nörrik. I'd understand."

Nörrik shook his head in reply. "No," he muttered. "I have to. If I see it, that will make it real." He probably sounded crazy, but he knew that Heather would understand; she was working with her mother to take over the position of village healer someday. She would have to get used to these kinds of scenarios (although, it would probably be a little better now that there were no more dragon raids).

Heather did not protest. Instead, she finished unraveling the old bandage and lay it down on the bed under the stump of Nörrik's left leg to catch any blood that might still drip from the semi-fresh wound. She left briefly to grab the cleansing solution (really, just a container of old mead), a few clean cloths, and a small bucket of water.

In the short time it took for Heather to gather the medical supplies, Nörrik stared down at his injury. It's…real. My leg is really gone.

When Heather returned, she spread her supplies out so they would be easily accessible when needed. Opening the container of mead, Heather wet one of the cloths with the liquid. "This is going to sting," she warned Nörrik before pressing the cloth as gently as she could against his injury.

Nörrik grit his teeth against the pain. He shut his eyes as Heather gently patted the mead-dampened cloth against his injury to cleanse the wound. Once she was finished, Heather dipped another clean cloth into the small bucket of water, letting it soak briefly before pulling it out and ringing out the excess water. "This will be easier. It won't sting as much," she told Nörrik before patting the damp cloth onto the skin of the injury. Once she was finished and the skin had dried, Heather securely wrapped the last clean cloth around the injury and tied it in place. "That wasn't so hard, I suppose."

Nörrik sighed, looking away from the injury that was now bandaged once again. "Yeah, I guess," he muttered.

Heather must've noticed that his silence was uncommon for him because she placed a gentle hand onto his shoulder in a gesture of care and support. "I know that I can't fully sympathize with how you're feeling right now, Nörrik, but I can understand to an extent. I can imagine how hard it must be to lose something so…" she trailed off, but continued soon after. "It'll take time to adjust, but everything will turn out okay, I promise. You're not alone in this. Just remember that. I will always be here to support you and so will my parents…and the rest of our village, even. Everything will work out in time."

Nörrik nodded, ever grateful for Heather's constant support. She's right. I'm sure I'll adjust to this in time and, as long as I have her support…and everyone else's too, I won't have to go through this alone.

"I know that you shouldn't be walking just yet," Heather began, "not until your wound stops bleeding, but when you're a bit better, my mother found a crutch that she built from the wood of trees from our surrounding forest. She told me that you can use that to walk, but only once your wound is healed."

Nörrik glanced over the corner that Heather had motioned to as she spoke. Sure enough, there in the darkness stood it, a smooth wooden crutch, just waiting for use. An uneasy feeling settled in Nörrik's stomach as he eyed the crutch. He hated even the prospect of depending upon the crutch for the rest of his life. "It sounds like a good temporary solution," Nörrik softly answered, "but I refuse to walk with a crutch for the rest of my life. Somehow, I will find a way to walk again without depending on some crutch for support."

I know it's not much of an ending. I knew what I wanted to say and not how I wanted it to be said. I wanted the ending to come across as powerful and driving and it turned into…meh.

I do like the title ("Crutch"), though because obviously that is part of the focal at the end of the chapter. Also, though, a synonym for the word "crutch" is "support" and that is what Heather gives Nörrik throughout this entire chapter. She's there constantly as Nörrik's crutch, someone that he lean on and depend on.

Thank you all for reading and supporting Flame!

Posted: April 9, 2016