Chapter 8
When Omi returned to the village that afternoon he found everyone running around like a scrab with it head cut off.
"What's going on?" he asked the nearest mud.
"Your mother was attacked by the assassin. She's hurt pretty bad." the mud paused to say before running off again.
"Oh no...Mother!" Omi ran to his parents place as fast as he could. When he got there, there was a decent sized crowd in front, he had to push and shove his way in. Inside he meet with Abe. "Well she be alright?" he asked as they embraced briefly..
"Omi, I was just about to send someone for you." his father's voice has a depressed note to it, "She'll pull through, it was a good thing Dragadon was nearby. The healers say she may have trouble with that shoulder for now on.."
"At least she's alive, thank Odd. Are we allowed to see her yet?"
"Not yet, their still working on her. They'll let us know. By the way Dragadon is in there, she refused to leave."
"Well its kind of hard to boss a dragon around." Omi said as they both laughed, somewhat weakly. "Well, we might as well find a place to sit and wait."
So they sat and waited. Omi watched his father, who was just sitting there looking depressed.
I can't even imagine what father feels right now. That is his mate, my mother, getting patched up in there. I'm not even sure what I'm feeling right now. Shock? Yes. Depression? A little. Grief? Definately. Anger? Not yet. Omi thought.
He was tempted to reach out and try to find out what his father was feeling, but he decided against it. I don't really need to. He probably feels the same way I do only ten times worse.
His chain of thought was broken when the healer walked in.
"How is she?" both Omi and Abe said.
"She'll be fine. A little weak but she will pull through. She's a tough girl that's for sure."
"Can we see her?" they both said.
"Yes..whoa!" the healer and to jump to get out of the way as Abe and Omi bolted for the door. They found Cili sitting up wanting for them with a weak smile on her face. Her left arm and shoulder was all wrapped up in bandages.
"Don't kill the healer getting in now." she said with a weak laugh.
"Oh Cili..," Abe said as he embraced her, "Thank Odd you are alright." Abe suddenly turned toward Omi with a look of anger as his face, "Why weren't you with her!?"
"Oh sure, one min you don't want me to escort you guys and the next your screaming at me for not escorting you! Make up your freaking mind!" Omi said defensively.
"Abe please, don't start this now." Cili said, turning Abe back toward her, "Besides, I'm the one who's to blame, not Omi. I went out on my own, thinking nothing could possibly happen to me in the short time I was out. I was wrong, I nearly paid the price with my life." she had tears in her eyes.
"Cili,"Abe embraced her again, "I'm sorry."
"You were only trying to place the blame, my love."
"At any rate," Dragadon suddenly said, startling all of them, "we know what the assassin looks like."
"That's right, let me guess it was a slig right?" Abe asked.
"Nope, not even close," Dragadon said as she shook her head, "The assassin is a mudokon. A female one at that."
"WHAT!?" both Abe and Omi screeched.
"But, how could a fellow mudokon turn against us like that?" Omi said, in shock.
"She must have been raised from birth by the Glukkons." Dragadon theorised.
"And therefore was told lies about us and so only see us as the Glukkons want her to see us."
"Most likely."
"There's a chance she can be turned around then..."Omi said thoughtfully.
"Not likely if she's that set into the Glukkon ways." Abe said.
"But we have to try, whats her phyiscal description?"
After Dragadon gave them the description, Omi suddenly sank to his knees in shock.
"Omi? What's wrong?" Cili asked, then it dawned on her, "it's the same female you saw a few days ago wasn't it?"
"Yes." Omi replied weakly.
"What are you talking about?" Abe said confused.
"Great, my first love interest and she turns out to be a killer." Omi muttered.
"WHAT!" Abe screeched when he heard him, after he recovered a bit he said, "If that's the case you are not to see her!"
"Abe you can't honesty believe he would be able to.."Cili started but Abe stopped her.
"Father, she can be changed, I know she can."
"Well try if you want, you'll probably end up getting yourself hurt or worse." Abe grumbled.
"So you have no intention of helping me?" when he saw his father scowl, he said,"Very well then, I'll do it without anyones help!" with that Omi ran out.
"Abe, you need to learn to be more open minded." Cili said, Abe just snorted and Cili just signed disappointedly.
Chapter 9
Kila struggled to keep herself going. The wound Dragadon had given her was deep and she was bleeding heavily. As she attempted to cross a river she collapsed.
No, it can't end like this! she thought as she tried to get up again, but she was too weak. The cold water in the river felt strangely soothing to her. I'll just rest a moment here. Just a moment... her world went black.
Omi and Zig were walking along and Zig was trying to think of a way get Omi out of his sour mood. So he decided to try something that usually worked: he climbed up a tree and dropped down in front of Omi, hang by his tail.
"Booga! Booga!" he shouted with the silliest looking face he could think of.
"Not now Zig." Omi said, annoyed as he just walked around him.
Zig sighed, righted himself and caught up to Omi.
"So yer really think you can change her?" he asked.
"I don't know." Omi said glumly, "But I have to try."
"'Pose that's all you really can do."
"Yeah. Eek! That river water is cold today!" Omi said when he stepped into the water then promply stepped out again. Then he noticed something upstream, it took him a moment to realize what it was. "Oh geez its her and she looks badly hurt!" he said as he raced over to her, Zig was hard pressed to keep up. Omi checked for a pulse and signs of breathing. "Man she's barely alive, help me get her out of here." Omi started to pull her out of the river, but Zig stopped him.
"No don't! The coldness of the water is the only thing that's keeping her alive!' Zig shouted.
"But." Omi protested,"won't she get hypothermia?"
"Possibly, but if we take her out and she warms up she'll start bleeding again. Therefore we should tend to that wound BEFORE we take her out."
"Alright, get the healing bag I have in my shack. I'll stay here with her."
"Righty o." Zig took off as fast as he could.
"Hang in there girl." Omi said to her, though he doubted she could hear him. "Hang in there."
After what seemed like forever, Zig came back with the healing bag.
"How is she? Any change?" Zig asked as he handed Omi the bag.
"No, I guess that's a good thing in this case." Omi said as he started to stitch up her wound. The cold water made his hands numb, making it difficult to work, but he succeeded in closing her wound. He then picked her up and made his way back to his shack, Zig along side.
Once as the shack, he put her onto his bed and piled blankets on top of her to help get her warm again.
"Now..."Omi said with an exhausted sigh, "We wait to see if we reached her in time."
"You get some rest." Zig said, seeing how tired Omi was, "I'll do the first watch."
"Ok," Omi said as he collapsed on the couch.
Please pull through for me, please. he thought as sleep claimed him.
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