THE MAN IN BLACK

CYRAN

The sound of galloping hooves reach my ears, long before the horse and its rider pull up in front of the cottage. 'Cyran!'

Oh hell, it's her.

Given the circumstances, I'm supposed to be grateful or something, but it occurs to me that Saelyna would try to heal me with magic. I know the wound has gone too far; I've bled out excessively, and I can't feel my arms. Anytime now, I'll go into shock.

She crouches by my side, tapping my face in a bid to keep me awake. 'Cyran, look at me'. Her face swims in and out of my distorted vision. 'You're beautiful, Saelyn. You're the best of us', I tell her. I don't know if I mean it or not. I just have to tell her. 'Shut up, Cyran, shut up', she mutters, though her voice quivers too much. Then she yells out for help, loud enough to wake the forest. 'I have forgiven you, Saelyna. Don't beat yourself up over it anymore. I've done a lot of nasty things too, but you always covered up for me. You don't have to be the perfect one…' I cough out a gob of blood.

My vision is already blacking out. 'A wolf', I manage, 'They're back. Warn the village, Sae. Please….'

Everything goes black.

CAIVAN

I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be here at all.

I stop in front of the cottage, where I had heard the scream for help.

A girl is on her knees, cradling a young man. They must be siblings, twins in fact; they possess identical hair of a dark blonde colour and are of the same build.

She turns sharply on hearing my approach. 'Please, sir, help us', she begs tearfully. Something about those large green eyes strikes me and I cannot imagine myself walking away. I should help her.

But I'm not supposed to be here.

I'm on my hands and knees as I crouch sharply. She's sobbing almost hysterically now, and I see why.

Her brother, lies in her arms, unconscious. He's not dead yet, I can still hear his heart beat, though slowly and dangerously close to stopping. A deep gash appears to be the source of his pain, three long slashes deep enough to have slashed his ribs and missed his heart by inches.

I don't tell her that though. I also don't tell her those were caused by a wolf. She probably knows.

There is no time to get him to a doctor. He would require magic for this, the kind that only an elf can channel.

'You have something that can be of help', I say. 'What?' I push back her hair, and confirm my suspicions on spotting her pointed ears. An elf, then. 'You are in possession of kingpeas, are you not?' She opens her mouth to talk, but then looks down and nods. 'Quick. I need them now. It is the only thing that can save him now. He's lost too much blood'.

She dashes into the house and returns seconds later with a small, inconspicuous pouch. She hands it to me with much hesitation, and I understand why, but there's no time to question her.

I study the pouch's contents. Shiny, little blue beans stare back at me from the dark depths, and I sigh with relief.

She's watching me like a doctor observing a patient, which I think is greatly ironic. I beckon for her to place her hand over his chest, over the wound. 'I'll place the peas above your palms and you'll repeat after me. Understand?' She nods wildly, her large eyes still pleading. She really wants to save him.

I feel envious, but begin chanting the words that I had heard my mother say years ago. 'Tu bac, se ye, alguín. Oro, oro, isi, adar'.

The girl does as said, but not with conviction. 'You have to say it right. The magic is flowing into your veins, but only as a conduit. You have to channel the flow. Listen to what you say, and feel what it means'.

She does it again, face screwed up in concentration. 'Tu bac se ye alguín. Oro, oro, isi, adar'.

Tiny blue sparks dance out of her fingers as the beans slowly dissolve into her hand. The injured man jerks violently, his back arching sharply like a bow and his head turning wildly this way and that. A fit seizes him and I pull the lady away to her feet. 'What's happening to him?!' she cries.

I have seen this convulsion seize my father on many occasions, when he returned from life-threatening missions that left him with wounds deep enough to kill an ordinary man in seconds. My mother would use the peas to heal him, elf that she was.

I don't know why, but that is what I tell the lady, at least to keep her mind at ease and allow the magic work. I don't mention that some people can't handle their whole body rebooting and just shut down.

He stops convulsing, and is still for a while. I begin to wonder if he's among the unlucky few that don't make it.

Then his eyes snap open and he's leaping to his feat quick as a flash. 'Gods, I had a terrible dream', he exclaims, 'I was attacked, and then…' He looks up at our faces with a frown; I'm sure mine is totally impassive, but his sister is beside herself with joy as she leaps on him with a crushing hug. 'Oh Cyran', she sobs, 'Don't you ever leave me again'.

SAELYNA

Cyran looks healthier than he has been in weeks. His eyes are a renewed emerald, colour flood his cheeks like they have been painted and the wound is gone. Sealed, like there hadn't even been a scratch.

I can barely believe I just harnessed magic. It still flows through my veins, a throbbing river of fire that makes me thirst for more, that makes me feel more. So this is what it feels like.

I turn back to the man in a black coat that had helped us. He's gone. There's no trace of him anywhere.

I wonder if I had been hallucinating. But he was real. He had touched me. He told me about the beans and had saved Cyran's life.

I know I'll have to find him one day. I know we'll run into each other again…I can feel it. For now, I have to get my resurrected brother back into the cottage.

CAIVAN

Like I said, I'm not supposed to be there.

So after he got back to his feet, I found it convenient enough to slip away without much ado.

I head back into the forest, whistling a tune as I go along. I wonder what Gylen has been up to. Probably hunting squinards if I know my friend.

I try to reach out to him, but he does not respond. A little tingle of alarm goes off in my head, but I push it away. Gylen has been late before, surely, this is just another day.

I can't push off the feeling that something is wrong though. That I might have to cure someone else before the moon awakes.