I was breathing hard as I left the mine, still carrying Lil as well as both of our packs, which were filled with our supplies as well as the rocks we had collected. Now that I was in the open and could move downhill, I could speed up a little, but there was no way I could run. I didn’t know if there were any more of those large wasps following me, but if there were I didn’t want to deal with them out in the open. They would have much more advantage, even if I could prevent them from popping anywhere they wanted.

  We really needed to get home. The sun had gone behind the mountains, though it was still light out. The air inside the mine had been quite cool, but it wasn’t much warmer outside with the sun going down. Sweat was pouring off me, and my arms and legs were shaking. There was no way I could carry Lil all the way back.

  So instead I began to look around desperately for a place to shelter and rest, and maybe even spend the night if necessary. I would prefer to get as far away as I could, but with most of the trees being dead all around and the buildings not much more than splinters, the only place I could find was a couple of buildings made of stone. I picked the one which looked most intact.

  Inside the building, I found a smaller room, but the door to the room had a tree, dead of course, partially blocking it. But, I decided that would be a good thing, probably. If anything came looking, I didn’t want it to find us. That was okay until I looked up and realized once again that there was no roof overhead.

  Hopefully, that won’t be a problem.

  I was finally able to lay Lil down carefully. I noticed that the ground here was covered in grasses and even a few flowers, so she wasn’t lying directly on the dirt. She wasn’t yet conscious, but she was moaning and twitching. I was already worried for her, but this only increased my concern.

  I was desperate to do something, anything to help her. I had been stung by various insects over the years, including wasps, so I knew how painful those could be. With the size of these wasps, however, I was sure that those stings were much, much worse. And, I realized again, she was stung at least twice, maybe more.

  As I was sitting near her, trying to decide what I could do, she screamed loudly, then faded out to anguished groans. But, she still wasn’t awake. She was thrashing and flailing so I reached over and hugged her close to me, and started talking to her to calm her down.

  “Just hang on Lil. It’s going to be alright. I’m here for you. I’m so sorry this happened, but I won’t let anything hurt you again.” The tears were falling freely from my eyes.

  I wasn’t a healer, but I knew a healer could help. Then I thought about the various times I had thought I was injured, only to realize soon after that I wasn’t as hurt as I thought.

  Could it be? Could I have some kind of healing affinity I wasn't aware of?

  I knew my mother had two affinities, so it was possible. But I had no idea how healer Kinning even did his healing. For that matter, how did any mage use his or her affinity? I knew I reached for the empty feeling inside to work my null magic, but that canceled other magic. What would I do to send out other magic, healing in this case? Even if my body healed quickly on its own, how would I do that to someone else? I really had no idea since I had no teacher. How does healing even work? Does it just speed up the body’s own healing processes? Or is the mage making corrections to the body that they had studied and learned how to do?

  Yes, I was stalling… a little. I didn’t want to try something and make it worse. I didn’t want to accidentally remove her magic and weaken her body.

  Lil yelled out again, her body contorting in pain.

  I couldn't wait any longer. So, I tried to concentrate. I first felt for the warm emptiness inside without trying to reach for it. I found it quickly, but it didn't feel very empty. I wasn't sure why, but the reason didn't matter right now. Then, instead of using it to pull or cancel anything, I concentrated on the feeling of health, wellness, on feeling no pain because the body was whole, with no venom inside. When I felt that for myself, I gently pushed that feeling into Lil.

  I was still hugging her to my chest, trying to keep her thrashing and convulsions under control. But as I continued to concentrate on her being healed and pain free, I started to feel something, some power or warmth flow from me into her body.

  It was very slow at first. In fact, when I started to feel it, I got too excited so it stopped and began flowing the wrong way, back into me.

  Oops! This is a lot harder than using my null affinity. This is my sister I'm trying to save. I can't let myself be distracted. I won't!

  She was starting to shake, so I held her tighter, and whispered, “Hang on, Lil. I'm here for you.” I don't think she could hear me, but I had to say something.

  Closing my eyes and concentrating again, this time determined not to let myself get distracted by anything, I began to push healing warmth into her. I kept this up for several minutes until I could feel her body start to relax.

  I had to take a breath, not realizing I had even been holding it since I felt her begin to improve. I took a break to check her over. It was dark in our little room, even though there was still a little light in the sky. She wasn't tense anymore, but I could still feel slight tremors.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  So I began again, this time focusing my desire to remove all of the wasp venom and to heal whatever damage it may have caused. I kept at it for a while, not really sure how long. When I stopped to check her again, she was relaxed and breathing evenly. I couldn't feel any more tremors, even though it was too dark to see anymore.

  I hoped it was enough. It felt like it, so I could finally relax myself. That's when I realized how totally exhausted I was. I didn't dare go to sleep, though. We weren't protected or safe here, and I was still worried about Lil. So I decided to stay awake as much as I could, to keep watch.

  It was a long night. Of course I was too tired myself to stay awake the entire time, but I lasted a couple of hours before a noise woke me from dozing. I listened for a while, but the noises seemed to be far away. I kept this up throughout the night, sleeping for short periods before being awoken. I was especially alert each time I felt Lil change position. I was laying next to her in the small space, both to preserve body heat as well as feel if she moved, since it was too dark to see.

  The next morning, I awoke with a gasp. Lil was sitting up, looking around in confusion.

  “Lil? Are you okay? How are you feeling?”

  “Where are we? This isn't home.”

  “We are still in the abandoned village near Rocky Knoll. Do you remember yesterday?”

  She looked at me in confusion and then concentration. “Oh. I had such horrible dreams. But they seem so real. It's hard to tell what was real and what wasn't. It's all jumbled up in my head.”

  “I’m so sorry. But you’re going to be alright.” I reached out and gave her another hug, which she returned this time. “I’ll tell you about it, if you want, when you are ready. But first, we need to get up, eat a little and leave. I want to leave this place and get home as soon as we can.”

  We were soon on our way back home. I decided to go around the knoll rather than up and over it. It was much wider than it was tall, so I wasn’t sure we would save much time. But it would definitely be easier, in any case. The south side had a small river not far off so we went that way in order to quench our thirst and refill our water skins.

  As we were walking Lil didn’t say much. She was thinking a lot, so I mostly left her to her own thoughts. I did comment once in a while, when I saw something interesting. I was still worried about her, even more so when she hardly noticed as I pointed out some pretty orange flowers.

  The day was overcast all morning, but it didn’t look like it was going to rain, at least I hoped it wouldn’t. The closer we got to home, however, the clouds darkened and became more ominous. Lil hadn’t wanted to go very fast to this point, so I gently encouraged her, and tried to increase my pace.

  The first drops of rain started as we came into view of our cabin. It was fairly light rain, so I wasn’t too worried about getting drenched.

  I was wrong. An hour later we finally opened our door, but the rain was coming down heavy now, and we were soaked. At least we were home, and could get out of our wet clothes.

  After changing and getting a fire started we started to feel a little better. We didn’t have a fireplace indoors, but Dad had built a stone cooking area just outside the back door and underneath the roof, which he had extended to be over it. Though it was outside, it had allowed us to cook food and get a little warmth, even in wet weather like today.

  Dad and Fin were not back yet. My concern turned to them, since they would be traveling in this weather… unless they stopped and found some shelter. But that would make them even later.

  I decided to work on making a stew for supper. We were hungry, and I knew they would be if they got back tonight. And if not, I could reheat it tomorrow.

  When that was nearly finished, I went to check on Lil. She had lain down and fallen asleep, so I decided not to wake her right away. I moved the stew so it would stay warm but not keep cooking, while I gnawed on some roc jerky and waited.

  Our adventure to Rocky Knoll had been both good and bad. We have learned more about our valley and found more ruins. The mine had been interesting, especially the rocks we collected. The wasp monsters had been really bad, but could have been so much worse. I learned how to do a little bit of healing, at least I believed I did.

  The rain eventually eased up and turned to a light drizzle but the sky continued to darken into evening. I went and woke Lil up so we could eat. She needed nourishment. As we were eating I heard some voices outside, so I ran to the door and saw Fin pulling a long sled with a deer on the back.

  Fin, not Dad!

  Dad was helping a little but he looked to be in pretty bad shape. He had dark rags tied around his arms and legs, some of that was fresh blood, but they were both soaked with rain. They both looked extremely tired and ready to drop.

  I rushed to help them get inside and unload their things. Fin was in good enough shape to change out of his wet clothes on his own, but not Dad. So Lil and I went with him to his room to help. We first had to untie the blood-soaked rags. Then we took off his shirt. We had to be careful because it was also full of blood and was sticking to his wounds in places.

  My parents had often joked about how hairy my father was, but I hadn’t seen him completely shirtless, that I could remember. He had thick dark hair covering his chest and upper arms. Yes, I would call it fur, it looked like the fur from a black wolf or bear, though more curly. I could also see his large bulging muscles, making me a little jealous. Maybe that wasn’t the right emotion, maybe appreciative and uncomfortable, at the same time.

  When I got to his lower clothing, Lil excused herself, not wanting to see any more. As she left, though, I asked her to bring us some water for cleaning. Then I helped him remove his pants, leaving only his loincloth.

  Seeing his wounds still oozing blood, I decided to speak up. “Dad, I need to tell you something important.”

  He stopped and looked at me, still looking very tired. “Yes?”

  “I uh… while you were away… Lil and I… Well, I’ll tell you about it later. Anyway, I may have learned how to do some healing today. I would like to try here,” I said pointing at his leg, which looked to be the worst one.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, suddenly more alert and serious. “Of course, I won’t say no, but I would be truly amazed.”

  “No, I’m not sure, but I’d like to try. If it works, we will know for sure.”

  “Alright.”

  A while later, after cleaning off the blood using his already filthy shirt and the water Lil brought, we came out of his room.

  We both had huge smiles on our faces.