Healing the Broken

Mixed emotions stirred within me. I was shocked and horrified that goblins were real and they had captured us. Yet, I was relieved that a queron stone hung from one of the goblin’s neck.
The goblins harshly lowered the chains holding us up to the branch in the tree. We hit the ground hard. It knocked the breath out of me. Arjun grunted out loud, he had slammed into the ground as hard as I did. The metal net still enclosed us. One of the goblins walked up to the net and thrust his two jagged long yellow fingers through the mesh part of it. Its finger nails clenched on one of Arjun’s curly locks and twined it around.
Arjun abruptly jerked up, and jammed an arrow into the belly of the goblin. It howled but pulled out a dagger from a satchel around its waist and stabbed Arjun in the abdomen. Arjun screamed in agony as he fell to his side. Blood gushed over his hands as he tried to keep pressure on the wound. The goblin held the dagger dripping with blood and caressed the dagger from the base to tip with its tongue. Trembling, I cringe backwards. The horrid green-grayish creatures all began gurgling and showing their yellow- brownish sharp teeth. I knew they had to be laughing.
A wail rumbled through the air, and they instantly stopped laughing. Their eyes widen with terror. They hastily released the chains from the net. Three of the goblins hauled the metal net, dragging us across the ground. Some archet fruit were also swept up and plopped down on my head . Arjun pressed his lips together as he continued to try to keep the wound from bleeding. I crawled over the fruit to get closer to him, trying not to tumble over. I tore the bottom half of my pants; the plant material I made it from would act as a perfect patch. It was closer to leather than any other kind of material, but it would stop the bleeding.
“Take this,” I leaned over him, and place the cloth over his wound. “hold it to the wound.” I slid the cloth under his hand.
Some of his blood smeared on my hands. I didn’t know how long he could survive, but I knew it wouldn’t be long if I didn’t hurry and figure something out. That meant soon before the goblins decide it was mealtime. The Goblins tossed us onto a wooden wagon. The wooden wheels creaked as they ran over rocks and two mustang horses hauled over the rough, ragged ground.
Time past as the the goblins pulled us through this strange forest. I saw several tadicka plants passed by along with other plants. If only I could get close enough to grab them off their branches. The sun was already beginning to sink beneath the lands. Arjun kept his one revealed eye closed, but would squinch every now and then as he grunted. The ground rumbling below us became unbearable. My bones were throbbing as I was constanly batter by the wood beneath us. They felt like they would shatter each bump we crossed over. The goblins stopped the wagon and began gathering branches and lumber.
Argun opened his eye, probably realizing the halt, and did his best to lift his head to see what the Goblins were doing.
“They’re building a fire,” Arjun said. “It could be for heat, but it’s most likely for a meal.”
I widen my eyes .
“Don’t worry,” he said. “You still have a chance. They probably sense that I’m dying and want to eat my meat while it’s still fresh.
I didn’t know what to say anything I said would just be false hope.
“You said my mother wanted something? What did she want?” he struggled to say.
“She wanted to cure you from the disease,”I said.
He look at me skeptically and laugh. I could hear the pain in his laugh. “Well she did a good job at that. Seems like we were on opposite sides. I want to sell you and she wanted to protect you. How can you be so sure that this is my mother you are speaking about.”
“I’m not.” I said, grunting as the wagon rolled over another bump. I was surprise Arjun didn’t grunt as well. “All I can tell you is that she said she was looking for a cure to save her son from a disease. That is what she told us.”
“If that is true. Why did she die protecting you?” I could hear the anger in his voice.
I sighed. “the truth is she sacrificed her life to save the woman who was protecting me. So in a way she was still protecting me. I was told she wanted to protect me because I was a savior.”
I kept the part that Bahara believed I could save her son to myself.
He chuckled and then began grunting probably causing pain to his injury. “Well she was mistaken. Look where we are now.”
He was right. I didn’t know how I was going to save myself let alone Arjun.
Two of the goblins approached us and grabbed onto the net we were prisioned in. They mostly carried us near the fir place, but then swung us the rest of the way. An oof was released from Arjuns lips, and I grunted as we slammed into the ground. Arjun face rammed into a sharp rock, and the glass from his mask shattered. I fell next to him, barely missing the same rock. Arjun began trembling and his eye quivered under his eyelid. Sweat trickled down his forehead. I guessed it was from a head injury.
I gazed down at him as he trembled. He look like he was only sleeping, but having a terrible nightmare that was causing him to shake. A wave of sadness overcame me. I didn’t want him to die. I couldn’t understand myself. Was it because he had shared his past with me or was it because I realized he might be Bahara’s son? Blood spilled down the his face on the side from where his mask was on, and I was sure then that it was probably a head injury. I gently picked up his head and placed it on my lap. I struggle to pull the shatter mask off. I gasp. The gash embedded into his forehead didn’t make me gasp, but beneath the mask were inflated, dark-purple veins in swirl formations, bulging from his skin like earthworms. Around the swollen veins his skin was red in some places and blue in others. Even his eye was flooded with redness, and his pupil and iris were absolutely white. I knew his face was damage from the disease, I just never seen this type of disease before. He must have been in agony for so long.
In my lap he look so innocent and helpless, and I was reminded he was still a boy not much older than myself. I couldn’t help but pity him. Just like me he had been a orphan in this world. Although I had been beaten by an old lady who hated me and gave me welts for petty things, Argun had continue to live with his pain. There was no Danj or Kye to rescue him from the cruel world. I had heal many people: ill, injuried, and broken, but somehow I had just found him. Empathy surge through me like a rushing current. I had to save him. I tore some more of the cloth from the bottom of my pants. As I wrap the plant bandage around his forehead, the goblins were busy scavenging for more fire wood.They threw down some of the wood near Arjun and I. Some of the sticks and twigs bounced up, hitting us.
“Wake up, please Daya,” Arjun mumbled, and I knew he really was having a nightmare, but I wouldn’t be able to free him from it. He continued mumble like that for several more minutes. The anguish continued to intertwined with his fretful voice.
“I’m going to get us out of here,” I whispered. “Just don’t die on me.” He suddenly stop trembling and mumbling. At first I panicked, but I place my finger under his nose and realized he was still breathing.
I began to scan the area, looking for a way to escape. The goblins had already started the fire and continued to feed it wood. If only I could use plant alchemy as a defense tool. Maybe I could. I had almost forgotten about archet fruit that had been enclosed in the net with us. Maybe it didn’t work as a meal filler but it could definitely work to intoxicate and put the goblins to sleep. But how was I going to do that? I thought about throwing the fruit into the fire. If the fruit burned I was sure its chemicals would spread in the air through the fumes. But how? I was decent at spearing, but I didn’t have any spears. I remembered there were twigs that had manage to fling through the mesh openings of the metal net.
I dug out the flesh from the archet fruit with my fingers and then rolled it into a ball the size of an eyeball. I picked up one of twigs and stuck the rolledballed piece of fruit on the end. I watched carefully as the goblins walked to and fro. When I knew all of them were preoccupied and weren’t looking, I speared the fruit into the fire. I did this seven more times. When I heard the crackling of the fire, and begin to smell watermelons, I tore off more cloth and wrapped it around my nose. I hid my face from goblins so they wouldn’t become suspicious of why I was blocking the fumes from my nose.
After a couple minutes the goblins begin to settle around the fire. They snorted and grunted in their language. One of the goblins stood up and picked up a pile of sticks and threw it at another. The other goblins snorted at him, and he sat down. They were savaged creatures. I wondered why they weren’t being affected by the fumes. Maybe it was because their body systems were more tolerant than humans. Two of them glanced at me, snorted at each other, and started for Arjun and I. I Cringed back. Did they know about the archet fruit? They slightly open the metal net and grabbed on Arjun’s legs, trying to yank him out. They realized he was unconscious. I grabbed onto him, wrapping my arms around his chest as if I was giving him a behind hug. I held on as long and tight as I could until they rip him from my grip, but right then, they all just stopped and sniffed in the air. They all fell to the ground one by one.
I leapt out the net when I knew they were all unconscious. I first gently dragged Arjun across the ground to the wagon, trying not to damage his head anymore. I lifted him onto the wagon. There was one last thing I needed to do. I uneasily crept toward the goblin with the queron stone hanging from around his neck. So this how they enter our world, terrorizing people and kidnapping children. I cautiously reached my hand toward the stone, and the goblin jerk and mumbled. I winced back. He mumbled for a few more seconds, then stop making sounds and movements. I hastily yanked the queron stone off of his neck.
I dashed for the the horses, and hoped onto one of their backs. It whinnied, but fortuantely didn’t throw me off its back. I gently stroked the horse, hoping it would trust me. I lightly kicked it, and it obeyed, and trotting and leading the other horse in the way in which I directed it. I needed to hurry before the goblins woke up and came after us. More than anything I needed to find the tadicka plant we passed by to save Arjun’s life.