A flame in Kem ignites

The sun is going down and I can finally see the faint pulsing glow of the way stone. I grab it relieved the magic still has a charge. It's been hours since Guy left. The others are probably worried that I'm not back yet. I wonder if Sonja found any of us.

I head in the direction of the pulses. The mountainous terrain is never kind when going up it. 

Night has fallen by the time I make it to Sonja's. The spruce limb I enchanted with light shows me a horror. What I mistakened for the cool air coming off the mountain was actually frozen ground infront of Sonja's house. I step onto the crunchy ice looking around at the frozen surroundings.

"Sonja?! Mitus!? Elbereth?! Amaya!? Arata?!" I start shouting. I wait for a reply. No one calls back. I take a deep breath to call out again.

"Kem?" Says Amaya stepping out from the dark. She is holding her side. Her tank top is soaked in blood.

"Amaya!" I yell while running to her. I begin healing her wound even though Mitus would be better at this. "Where is everyone else?"

"We are away from the cold but..." Amaya chokes on her words.

"What?" I ask.

She is crying and shaking her head.

"Tell me!" I say forcefully.

"He... he took her." Amaya sobs.

"Elbereth? Who took her?!" Anger courses through me.

"Sonja. Gilton took Sonja!" Amaya sobs while trying to keep talking. "Elbereth is injured badly too. She is with Mitus."

My heart sinks along with my hands from Amaya's side. Gilton took my sister. I have to get her back. Now. I have to go right now. I hold the spruce branch up to Amaya's side to inspect it. The wound stopped bleeding.

"Lets go." I say to Amaya. She just nods and leads the way to the others.

Once we are back to the others I dropped my spruce limb from shock. Elbereth is laying on a blood stained blanket. Mitus and Arata are covered is scraps and bruises while trying to heal up her arm and leg.

"K... em... Kem!" Mitus' voice finally reaches me and I look at his stern eyes. "We are loosing her. She has lost too much blood and you're the only one with a matching blood type."

"Tell me what to do." I say without a second thought.

"Lay down beside her. This wound is closed up enough. Amaya get them something to keep them warm." He gets up from healing her left leg. I lay down beside her and Mitus cuts both of our hands and makes me hold hers. He moves to the right side of her beside Arata.

I have dreamed so many dreams of holding her hand. I never imagined the first time I get to hold her hand it would feel cold. Her breath is shallow and her lips were starting to turn blue. Elbereth's normally shining dark eyes are barely open and are dull. I hear Mitus working around us and her hand starts to warm. Amaya gets a robe to throw over both of us to keep us warmer. Slowly, ever so slowly, life starts to come back to Elbereth's eyes. She blinks weakly and turns her head towards me. Elbereth smiles so gently.

"If this isn't heaven, I hope it's a very nice dream." Elbereth weakly says.

"I'm so happy you're alright." I say with a few tears running from the corners of my eyes while I look at her.

"Kem doesn't cry like that." She says trying to move her other arm but Mitus stops her.

"Don't move yet. You're not healed enough." He says gently.

"This is the forest... it feels so real." Elbereth looks around some more.

"That's because it is real dummy!" Amaya yells at Elbereth while kneeling by her head. Amaya grabs and smooshes Elbereth's cheeks. "Why did you shield us like that?!"

"No one has stronger shields than me though." Elbereth weakly fights back.

"And look what that monster did to you! He shattered your shield and hurt you! And you! Kem where were you!?" Amaya is on the verge of crying again.

"Amaya!" Arata says to cut her off from screaming more. "If Elbereth didn't put that shield up we probably would all be dead. She did the right thing. We are ALL lucky to be alive."

Amaya sniffles while fighting back tears.

Mitus is the first to break the tension in the air. "Kem, let's separate yours and Elbereth's hands now." 

I nod to him. Elbereth looks at us funny then tries to move the hand I'm holding. She let's out a squeal of embarrassment and tries to get up. Everyone pushes her back down yelling at her to not move. 

"I have to cut the bond I made on your hands." Mitus says pulling out a knife. Elbereth groans and grabs a piece of cloth to bite down on and looks away. Mitus looks at me apologetically and hands me a piece of cloth. "I'm sorry. I can heal you afterwards but I don't have enough energy for the numbing spell."

I groan taking the cloth. Biting it, I look away from Elbereth hoping I don't make any embarrassing sounds or cry in front of her again.

Mitus starts to cut our hands apart and I'm ready to die from embarrassment. I try to get away but Mitus is big, Arata has my legs and Amaya has me by the hair. The screams I let out rang through the forest. The whole time Elbereth has her eyes closed and barely even winces from the pain. Mitus then is able to heal the small cut on both of our hands. 

"My poor eardrums." Amaya says rubbing her ears.

"That was... embarrassing for us all." Arata adds.

"It's alright Kem. Woman can handle pain better. If they couldn't and us men had to give birth, we would be extinct after only a few generations." Mitus says in a matter-of-fact way.

"Thanks Mitus. Thanks." I say a little woozy from donating so much blood. "I don't-" I black out.