A Warrior's Redemption

  *****

  I could feel a gentle breeze touching my cheek, as I heard the sound of a musical instrument floating on the breeze. My body felt at peace, surrounded by a firm softness. I had made it to heaven after all. I hoped it wasn’t a mistake that I had been allowed in, because it felt too secure and peaceful here to leave. Even if it was a mistake to let me in, I decided that I would bask in the moment as long as they would let me. I turned on my side. Big mistake!

  The attempt to turn on my side caused pain to flood through me, which brought my eyes wide open. Not heaven after all, but not hell either. I looked around and began to take an inventory of the room in which I found myself. I remembered the arrow wound and I located the source of my pain behind some white cotton bandages on my lower left side. The broken off arrow shaft was gone. Everything else seemed to be where it should be and functioning, which was a relief as I remembered fighting off the vultures.

  Turning my attention to the room I was in, I discovered it to be simply decorated but very homey, despite the lack of ornamentation. The room was very clean and well maintained. Just then the door opened and a girl with blond pig tails walked in with a tray. When she noticed me awake I watched her eyes grow comically huge. The tray and its contents crashed to the floor as the girl disappeared down the hall calling out for what I took to be her mother, as she frantically declared to all that the stranger was awake. Soon an attractive middle aged woman appeared in the doorway with the girl, and a smaller boy I hadn’t seen before, who peeped around her dress at me.

  “Well, it’s good to see our guest finally awake! I must apologize for the mess Dorie made of your lunch,” she said, as she moved to clean up the broken dishes on the floor.

  Moving to rise up, I groaned aloud with pain. It felt like there was a hot poker in my side that someone was twisting around savagely. Suddenly the woman was at my side helping me to sit up.

  “Dorie, fetch those pillows. Now!”

  Reluctantly, the girl approached with two large pillows, which her mother took and put behind my back. I lay back against them feeling about as capable as a sick kitten. I was completely vulnerable to these people, but thankfully they seemed more interested in my wellbeing than my demise. Maybe that was because of the money they could get for turning me in, came the corresponding dark thought.

  “There now. I bet that feels better, to get into a different position.”

  “It does. Thank you,” I said finding my voice, which sounded very scratchy.

  I croaked out, “Ma’am, I can’t stay here. I’m wanted by some very bad people that would cause harm to your family. If you help me get up, I’ll get out of here right away.”

  I moved to get out of the bed, but she stopped me.

  “Now, you let us do the worrying about our own safety. You sit right back in that bed and relax and get your rest. Dorie, go get some more broth for Mr.?” she asked, turning to me with a question in her eyes.

  “Roric.”

  I watched a spark of recognition pass across her eyes for a moment and then it was gone and she turned to the girl and said, “Dorie, get the soup for Roric, if you would please and make sure to bring some of the bread that I made this morning too.”

  A big man stepped into the room. He had to be over six and a half feet tall if he was an inch, but it wasn’t his height that was solely impressive. The man was built like a bull with corded, bunched up muscles that stretched out the seams of his shirt. His voice sounded like the rush of a blacksmith’s bellows when he spoke, “My name is Eliak. This is my wife Samantha, my daughter Dorie, and my sons Elim, Jash, and Niall.”

  Besides the little boy I had seen before, I saw two older and stalwart looking boys standing out in the hallway beyond their father.

  “Eliak, this is Roric,” Samantha said.

  When she said my name a similar look of recognition also passed across his features, which caused me to wonder what they knew about me. Had they seen my face on a wanted poster? Were they even now thinking of collecting a reward for my head?

  Eliak asked, “Your father, was he called Lorn?”

  I nodded my head in confirmation as I decided to trust these people a little further.

  Eliak nodded in return, “I knew your father. You are welcome to stay in our home as long as you like, Roric son of Lorn.”

  And with that they made their exodus from the room leaving me with the soup and bread that Dorie had brought.

  They knew my father! I searched my memory, but I could not place them anywhere in it. The body’s necessities took over and I started to consume the food in front of me with a passion. However, eating had the effect of making me very tired and I drifted off to sleep against my will, my questions remaining unanswered.