Za'rhin held the boy tightly in his arms while he rode through the jungle. It was passed midday, the sun was merciless and the air humid; leaving a fine dew upon blue skin.
Jah'ren was breathing in uneven gasps and his body shivered with fever, making the warrior ride even faster in an attempt to get his young friend to safety.
Za'rhin wanted to get to Booty Bay where he knew he could find a healer, but the young hunter's condition made him reconsider and try to find some shade instead. He lifted Jah'ren down from the raptor as they found some chill in the shade of an old troll ruin. Kneeling beside the hunter he uncorked his water flask and tried pouring a little of the fluid into Jah'ren's mouth, but the water did little else than run out again between blooded lips.
"Yah don look good, mah friend," Za'rhin whispered, frowning as he held the hunter's head in both hands. "Ah wish Ah knew yah'd be alright."
He wrapped his cape around the trembling body and sat down with his head in his hands.
"What do Ah do?" he asked himself, rubbing his temples. Then he turned his eyes towards the sky, whispering desperately: "Great Loa of the jungle. Help me!"
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again the god had replied. The prayer was answered by a shout from within the forest:
"Katari! Were yah be goin'?"
A white tiger broke through the bushes in front of Za'rhin and stared at the warrior, interest in its green eyes. Then it sniffed Jah'ren's foot and licked the blue toes carefully.
Za'rhin did not even reach for his spear when the branches parted again and revealed a redhaired troll.
Two pairs of eyes locked for a moment before the newcomer spotted the body beside the warrior.
"Jah'ren!" he exclaimed, pushing the tiger out of the way. "Parnko!"
*
Za'rhin followed the tall troll who had presented himself as Jandi through the jungle to where a cabin stood between bushes and trees, not too far from where the jungle met the ocean. As he saw the cabin Za'rhin sent a small thanks to the Loa who had heard him and found help. The warrior had heard talk of Jandi and his twin brother, Kor'alli, from Ba'ka and Jah'ren when he travelled with them.
"Lay him on mah bed," Jandi said, pointing at a mat on the floor covered with old blankets.
When Za'rhin had done so he watched the other troll fumble as he tried to light a fire in the rusty stove that functioned as kitchen, but trembling fingers dropped the matches.
"Was dem homans?" Jandi asked, pressing his warm forehead against the cold metal of the stove.
"Troll-hunters."
The redhaired troll slammed a fist into the floor and swore under his breath, before he picked up the matches and, this time, successfully lit one.
"Dey be dead," Za'rhin said, thinking it might be a comfort. "Dey died in pain."
Jandi nodded, as if to say that was what he wanted to know, and turned to his friend laying on the bed.
"We wash him," he told the warrior. "An' den Ah ride for help. Ah know da fastest way to da Bay."
Jah'ren moaned in pain as the two, as carefully as they could, washed his face and body. His clothes were so caked with blood and mud that Za'rhin drew his knife and cut them off him. There were bruises; purple on the young hunter's blue skin, and cuts; now closed due to the trolls' rapid healing, but several of them were still swollen and seemed infected.
After they had done the roughest work, Jandi stood up and sighed.
"Ah leave mah Parnko in yah care, Ocean Blood. Dar be food," he pointed to a piece of meat hung up in a corner. "Water in da barrel outside. Ah'll ride as fast as Ah can. Do what yah can for Jah'ren."
Za'rhin could not do anything but nod, he was tired and the knowledge that the wounds on his young friend were very serious weighted heavy on him.
Jandi had not yet gotten his own mount, but he rode Za'rhin's raptor as he made his way towards Booty Bay. The jungle's everchanging weather had turned even warmed and the humidity in the air told the hunter it would be just minutes before the sky opened. He knew the jungle enough to feel the weather now, and he loved the rain that left the forest scrubbed clean, but now he prayed for it to wait.
He had barely reached the path that eventually would lead him to the harbour when the first drops of water made their way down through the canopy. In few minutes the rain was so heavy he could hardly see anything at all. Heavy raindrops slammed into the dry dust on the ground; slowly, but surely turning it to mud.
*
Za'rhin heard the rain banging on the roof, but Jandi had built his cabin well and inside it was dry and snug. The warrior went to open the door, and looked at the tiger sitting outside where it had been told to keep watch.
"Yah wanna come in?" he asked. "Yah can keep watch tru' the window."
Katari seemed to consider this. Then the tiger shook the water from its pelt and crept through the doorway.
Za'rhin watched it take up position by the cracked glasspane that served as a window before he turned back to the task at hand.
"Ahm sorry 'bout dis, Tata Parnko. But Ah need to hurt yah."
One of Jah'ren's shoulders had been dislocated when he was chained up, and the hunter screamed in agony as his friend forced it back into place.
"Sorry... Ahm sorry," Za'rhin whispered, stroking the green hair comfortingly.
Then he placed his knife in the fire and let it lay there while he prepared bandages. Swallowing hard, he grabbed the knife and put his weight on the boy's body to keep him from tossing around. His hands shook as he gently cut the bloody scab covering one of the more infectious-looking wounds.
"Ah got yah, Jah'ren. Don worry. We get yah fixed."
He could heard how his voice trembled, but continued to whisper softly as he held the struggling body fast and dried away the puss and blood oozing from the wound.
"Ah be sorry Ah did not find yah faster, Tata Parnko..."
As he cut open the next of the worst wounds, Jah'ren's hand suddenly grabbed his wrist and held on tightly for a second before the hunter sunk back into unconsciousness.
*
The night fell. Za'rhin sat beside the mat, holding on to one of Jah'ren's hands. He had bandaged the hunter as best he could with what he had. There were just so many cuts that needed healing. Even his wrists had been wrapped in soft cloth to cover the sore, raw skin where the chains had left their bite in Jah'ren's arms.
Katari was still sitting by the window, looking about to fall asleep. In the soft darkness of the cabin the only sound was Za'rhin humming to himself, trying not to sleep. The still heavy rain almost drowned out his voice, but if anyone had been listening they would have been surprised to hear the melodies of elf-songs.
It was past midnight before there was a sound outside which roused Katari. As the door opened, Za'rhin was ready to great Jandi with relief, but instead grabbed for his spear, taking care not to make too much sound. The troll in the doorway could very well have passed for the redhaired hunter, but there was something amiss.
"Jandi?" a stranger's voice asked as the lamp by the door was lit.
It was Jandi's face beneath the wet bush of fire-red hair, only more hard, more scarred. Za'rhin relaxed his grip on the spear and let Jandi's twin take in the scene before him.
"Ah be Za'rhin," he said. "Jandi has gone to Booty Bay to get help for Jah'ren."
Katari rubbed against Kor'alli and purred deep as he patted the tiger's head, paying no attention to anything else than the body on the mat.
"Jandi should be back soon," the warrior told him, still getting no answer.
"Homans?" Kor'alli asked eventually.
Za'rhin barely nodded before the troll was outside again, shouting for his pet.
"Kor'alli!" the warrior yelled, running out in the rain after the young troll. "Where yah be goin'?"
The flamecoloured hair danced, wet and tangled, around his head when Kor'alli turned, eyes burning with fury. His face was as hard as stone, lips curled back in a snarl.
"Kill," he growled. "Ahm gonna kill some homans."
"Dey be dead."
"Ah kill some other," the hunter turned to the forest again, shouting: "Trakkor! We be huntin' homans, let dat squirrel be!"
"Don go," Za'rhin pleaded. "Da be no point in killin' anyone now. Jah'ren need yah here. Yah be his friend."
There was a dangerous spark in Kor'alli's eyes when he answered:
"Ah be him Parnko!"
"Ahm not lettin' yah go," Za'rhin sighed, wondering if he ever was so hard-headed and stubborn as young.
"Den stop me," Kor'alli spat, turning to go.
As Za'rhin grabbed his shoulder, the hunter twisted, but he had underestimated the older troll's strength and swore in Zandali as he was pressed into the mud and wet grass. Struggling against Za'rhin's arms he tried clawing and biting, but now the warrior had had enough and held him fast with all the force in his body.
Za'rhin did not let go until Jandi came rushing to drag them from each other.
"Dat be mah brotha!" he told Za'rhin urgently. "Kor! Wat yah be doin'?"
They were both ushered into the cabin where a elder human priest was kneeling beside Jah'ren.
"A homan?" Kor'alli barked. "Yah brought a homan, Jandi?"
His brother grabbed the muddy troll by the shoulders and without a word he stroked his tusks against the other's cheek, leaving a line on Kor'alli's dirty face.
"Sorry," Kor'alli sighed, the fury draining away, and sat down on one of the two chairs in the room.
Za'rhin places a hand on his shoulder and slumped down on the floor by the door, exhausted.
The human priest turned his head and looked at the three worried faces behind him.
"I think," he smiled. "That you should all get some sleep. It seems your friend condition is not so bad as I first though. I believe he will survive."
***
Thanks for reading ^^
This story is coming to an end, but I needed some softness :D although Za'rhin isn't a very good or very careful nurse. But he's seen battles enough to know what to do with wounds.
Kor'alli and Jandi, and off course the fluffy Katari and naughty Trakkor belongs to the darlin' KraeHi, who lends them to me for spanking ;D