As Kip looked around, he was walking back into the village. Things were a bit surreal for him. One minute he was heading to warn a village of orcs, then it turned out to be War-Orcs and his death guaranteed, then he was walking through a field of Orc innards. This had to be cleaned up fast, or it would draw the attention of scavengers or worse. So, while the Orc problem was delt with immediately, it was still a big problem.

Thinking quietly to himself, he noted Mic was doing the same. Both men dealing in their own ways. Though at least Mic had faith to fall back on. He envied him a little. There was something to said about having that shoulder to lean on in times of need. While the Gods didn’t get involved, they were still there. Kip just couldn’t bring himself to tie his wagon to that though. The Gods held no promise for him. He was self-sufficient, and he would remain so. He took note that his sister was missing from her post now that he and Mic were headed back in. Best to figure out a clean up detail, it would be a big job. With one more glance at the mess around him, he re-entered the village proper, putting that issue behind him, and on to the more prudent one. How it happened.

=================================

Canson had carried the girl toward the inn, followed by the few men that would stand with them at the gateway. He shouted to have them undo and open the door for him.

A male villager opened the door peeking out, then threw it open and stepped aside seeing the pair.

Canson barged his way into the common room, “Pendra! Where’s this girl’s room? Prost! Follow us, we need her seen to.”

Pendra hurried up to the man who was headed over to the stairs carrying the girl. “What happened? What did you do?” for the first time she looked incriminating at Canson.

Canson shifted a bit at her outward confrontation. It was not often anyone would get short with him. “Nothing. She did this herself killing all the orcs in one go.” He stated as he walked up the stairs ahead of Pendra, not waiting for her, or a response.

“Room one. Take her to room on.” Pendra called to his back. Then a lean man moved past her and mounted the stairs following after Canson. Pendra just stared at the pair as they entered the room. Then thought not one second more and clambered to the room herself. She was not going to leave the girl alone with those two. Not that she had reason to mistrust, it was just an instinct, and she followed it.

Canson set the girl onto the bed, stepping back to let Prost check her over. He had noticed Pendra in the doorway but said nothing. As Prost checked the girls vitals and checked her eyes, he summoned forth a weak magic sight, his eyes shone yellow.

“Holy…” he stumbled back a bit a little pale.

“What!” Canson demanded

“Oh, uhh, it’s… well it should be nothing… but her aura… it’s massive. I cannot imagine her magic potential… But it’s currently out of wack. Imagine it like a straight line of a river flow, smooth, water all moving together in one harmonious. At the moment,” He paused a bit tilting his head more in control of himself, “her aura looks like someone threw in a bunch of rocks to create rapids. It’s churning and has some back flow too. While I am not an expert in matters of the aura, I do know this should fix itself in time.” He held up a hand forestalling Canson’s question. “I don’t know. It’s almost impossible to guess the amount of time. But with this much… flow, it could be days, or since the flow is so strong it could be minutes. There are too many variables. How well she can control her magic, ho she trained, who trained her matters. Just too many variables.” He shook his head, eyes returning to normal. He looked Canson in the eye. She will need rest, and if it takes more than two days, she will need to have small amounts of water slowly put into her. I will do that myself, no sense having someone drown her.” Then with a nod from Canson he left the room, giving Pendra a reassuring smile.

Canson stood there staring for a minute until a cough from the side broke him out of his musings. “Right. Stuff needs seeing to.” He marched out of the room without so much as a glance at Pendra.

Pendra slowly entered the room, she slid a light blanket over the girl for comfort, laid a hand on the girl’s head, then thanked her.

Once more downstairs after closing the girl’s door, and guarding the stairs from the curious, she shooed everyone out of the inn. now that it was safe outside people needed to get back to their own lives and not bother the sleeping girl.

Kyle came over putting an arm around her shoulder. “How is she?” He asked quietly.

“Prost says she’s mostly fine. Something about her magic aura gone wild. Said it would need some time to right itself.” She said still looking out the open door as people exited.

With a nod Kyle gave her a quick hug then went back to his server post. Watching as the last few people left. ‘Guess she was the real thing after all. Though I’m guessing we owe her now…’ he mused

=====================================

When that adventurer came in all blustering about seeing the girl, he HAD to see her, Pendra threatened him with a solid frying pan to shut up and sit down.

She told him all she knew. Watching as his face went from moody to accepting. Like he knew what was happening.

“Good… good, she is good. Shouldn’t be more than a day or two then.” He muttered but Pendra heard him just fine as he was not hiding the fact.

She could be his key to be healed. Her aura was even bigger than his, way bigger. But she did not have the boiling infliction. He had to know who trained her, and how. He needed it. He was very antsy. And was jittering around like a crazy person, so Pendra left to get back to work in the kitchen.

When Mel entered the inn Nick jumped to his feet and ran over to her in a manic state.

“She’s the key!” He said in a weird tone. “Her aura is perfect!”

Mel looked at him a bit put off. “So, she has a nice aura.” She said pushing Nick back.

“You don’t understand! Her aura it’s ten times mine! But she is FINE!” Her shouted that last word arms going wide.

Mel just stared at Nick. “Ten times?”

Manic whiplashing nods from Nick. “At least!”

“Sure she’s not a god playing at being human? Just to tease you?”

Nick got a horrified look on his face and looked at the ceiling.

“I’m just kidding! Just kidding.” She tutted to Nick. This was obviously huge to him. She couldn’t imagine living life in daily pain as your own magic burned at you. But she could sympathize. She led him back to the table he was sitting at and called for four mugs of broth to Kyle. He nodded and went into the kitchen.

Nick’s leg was bouncing like a jackhammer as he sat. Unable to keep still. Even muttering to himself. Mel was getting a bit worried here. It looked like he was insane. She tried her best to calm him down. Just chatting about mundane things. Then finally worried and fed up she broke out. “Look here!” she grabbed Nick’s ears and pulled his face into hers. “You’re losing it. Relax! We will do our best to help. But she needs her rest right?”

That brought Nick down a bit. He started to slow down, become more, himself. Though he still exuded a sense of excitement. She could live with that. After all, she and the others might just have to restrain him if he really did lose it.

Kip and Mic walked in shortly after, Kip asked, “I heard shouting?”

Mel slightly shook her head. “It’s nothing. He,” She thumbed toward Nick, “Was just a bit too wound up is all. Thinks the girl upstairs might be able to shed some light on his problem. Says she is almighty next to him.”

“Hey! I’m right here you know.” Nick rebutted

“Oh, right, you are.” She grinned slyly at him.

The four began to talk about their own takes on what happened, what they had seen or how it had felt.

“It’s a mess outside. Gonna take days to clean it up. I gave Canson my word we’d stay to help against scavengers and predators that might swing by. I’m just hoping there are not many around, after all there was just a troll in the neighborhood.” Kip threw in after a bit.

There were nods. “Will also give us time to speak with the girl for Nick.” Then looking at Nick he added. “Calmly.”

“Yea, yea. I kind of went off a bit there. But how’d you be if the answer to your daily suffering was at hand?” Nick tossed back

“Well, Since I have not strangled you yet, I’d say I’m doing pretty good.” He grinned

That caused the rest to laugh. Nick himself leaned back into his chair waving his hand in indifference to Kip. A bit of a smile being forced down.

After some time just relaxing and chatting, they got up and asked for rooms to drop their gear. While Nick eyed the girl’s room, he went by without incident.

They went back down for day’s end meal to a near full inn, and a lot of noise.

Things were very tumultuous tonight. It’s not every day a village gets a visit from such a powerful mage after all. Wild stories were abound. Some saying the girl was sent by the Gods, some said she was a harbinger, others even more fanciful. Through it the group made their way to a table and ordered their meals. Canson joined them halfway through. They talked about the cleanup, how there was to be a watch, and asked for help from the group, Kip nodded his accent again. They touched on the fight, none really sharing their own feelings of doom before being saved.

“Did she really say, “I’m not cleaning that up.” Before she feinted?” Mel asked to Canson’s nodded reply. Then she chuckled. After a bit more the five just listened to the tales flow around them, caught up in their own thing.

Nick of course kept shooting glances at the roof all meal, and conversation long.