[Mkguild] First Steps (19/19)

[Nathan Pfaunmiller]

Here's what should be the last part of the current story, which brings us
full circle as to why I chose the title in the first place.  Hope you
enjoy(ed)!


-LurkingWolf


___________


            Gerard was sitting on the side of his bed, looking down at his
legs from where he sat.  On the right side, his leg ended in a solid hoof,
looking much like a deer’s hoof except for the somewhat larger size which
allowed him to wall on two legs more easily.  On the left side, however,
the leg ended abruptly just after his knee, a memento from his earlier
patrol.  Despite his wife’s assurances that he would find something, the
best he had managed to find so far was a single day’s work.  Today would be
another day for him to try to find a job, he mused, but he barely had any
hope left for discovering something he had missed.  There were only so many
people in the Keep, and he was no craftsman.  His best, and likely only,
hope depended on him finding work where he could sit and do something that
required very little skill or dexterity in his fingers.  The Curse had
robbed him of that as well.



            His wife had done a fantastic job of keeping Gerard’s spirits
up during the past few weeks.  She had even managed to keep the children in
order, which was always a difficult task for her because she looked like
one of them.  They had been respectful and quiet ever since he had returned
home.  Gerard hoped that this didn’t mean that they had discovered on their
own what sort of straits their family was going through.



            Gerard heard a knock on the door and sighed.  If someone was
awake to come to his door at this point it meant that he should already be
out looking for work somewhere.  He reached to the wall and took the crutch
that he had been given to support himself with.  With a quiet grunt, he
managed to stand from the bed and make his way to the door with the
glorified stick under his arm.



            *Clip-thunk* *Clop-thock*



            Gerard tried to ignore the sounds of his hoof and the crutch
landing in their slow rhythm, but the wooden floor of his house made it
difficult to move silently without his left leg to support him.  As he
reached the doorway of his room, however, he heard his wife’s voice from
the door of the house.



            “Gerard?  It’s one of the men from your patrol.  Mr. Lois?”



            The deer grunted and managed a small smile.  The enigmatic
ermine had visited with him briefly while he was being detained by the
Healer, but had not come to his door since he had returned home.  Perhaps
he had come to make up for lost time, and perhaps he knew of somewhere he
could find work for a few days.



            He had made it to the main hall that led to the bedrooms before
Lois met him halfway.  The former assassin held a wrapped package under one
arm, and he gave a large smile to the stag when he saw him standing in the
hall.



            “It’s good to see you again,” he said earnestly.  The deer
managed to respond with a smile of his own.



            “Well, I’m not quite at my best, but I am happy to see you as
well,” he replied.  “What brings you here?  Run out of other adventures to
have in this Keep?”



            Lois scoffed.  “Hardly, I think if I’d found them all I’d be
either dead, imprisoned, under torture, or some combination of all three.”  He
turned his head to the side and cleared his throat, staring off for a
moment as though considering what such a situation would involve.  He shook
his head and turned back to his friend.  “I’ve come to see how you were
doing, and to give you a gift.”  He lifted the wrapped package.



            Gerard looked at the package briefly, and then back at Lois.  “I
think I’ve mentioned that I’m trying to avoid falling back on charity,” he
noted.



            Lois laughed.  “Well, if you don’t get some use out of this
gift I am going to have to find someone else who just happens to be in your
exact same situation.”  When Gerard gave him a confused look, the ermine
waved him to follow into the dining room.  “You’ll need to take a seat for
this,” he explained.



            The stag complied, if a bit more slowly than either of them
would like.  Finally, however, he had managed to find his seat beside the
table, although the chair was turned to face towards the main area of the
house, looking at Lois where he was standing.  “What is this about, Lois?  You
seem quite pleased with yourself and I am not certain that that is a good
thing.”



            Lois set the package on the table and carefully pulled the
knots out of the strings that were keeping it closed.  He began to unwrap
it, talking as he went.  “I saw the most peculiar sort of creature
wandering the Keep close to a month ago now.  He was made of metal, and
fashioned to look and act like a fox.”



            Gerard nodded.  “He belongs to Misha Brightleaf.  The man
discovered the thing in a ruin outside of the Keep, and took it upon
himself to rebuild it.  I believe that it took him several years, but now
that he’s finished it the creature has taken on a life of his own.  Harmless
enough, I am sure, though not everyone would agree with me.  I’ve heard
that Father Hough has been quite taken with him.”



            The ermine was taking his time opening the package, and he
nodded at the deer’s description.  “The creature was called Madog,” he
explained.  “Regardless, after I saw him I was sort of inspired.  I am not
exactly a smith, mind you, but I was able to find a man who was.”  Gerard
was about to ask him what he meant when he realized that the package was
now open.  He glanced at it, and saw something curiously similar to what he
had seem a few minutes before, the difference between his left and his
right legs.  It was a surprisingly lifelike rendering of a deer’s left hind
leg, specifically the portion that his left leg was missing, except for the
fact that it was fashioned from metal.



            He stared at it for several moments, uncertain of what the
object before him was meant to be despite its clear visual representation.  He
had seen some rather intricate workings of metal created by the smiths and
artisans of the Keep, but this was something entirely different.  Where the
many ornate and complicated workings of metal he had seen before were often
stationary, and those that were not lacked any complexity, this mechanism
was visibly complicated, many finer parts visible through an uncovered
portion of the back.  He could not guess at their function simply by
looking at them, but the form in which it had been cast gave him a
reasonably idea of its purpose.



            “Lois?  You found a smith who could make…  Is this what I think
it is?”



            Lois nodded.  “It is your new left leg,” he replied.  “I
realize that you are generally against charity but as I mentioned, I will
have to find someone else who perfectly matches the design of this device
for it to see any use.  You are literally the only person who would be able
to use it effectively, so I suppose it’s not so much charity as it is
expedience, if you understand my meaning.”



            Gerard glanced from Lois to the metal limb and back, muzzle
agape as he realized what Lois was offering him.  After the past several
weeks of trying to live on one leg, he was being given the opportunity to
discover once again what it was like to walk on two.



            Amber had just returned to the room after warning their
children to be careful as they played outside of the house.  She could not
see the strange contraption that Lois had delivered, but she could see the
effect that it had on her husband.  A few tears were rolling down the fur
on his muzzle, and she quickly moved towards Gerard to comfort him.  It was
something that she had done with disturbing frequency in recent days, so it
was reflex to approach him as soon as she saw the tears.



            Halfway there, she spotted the strange object on the table, and
it brought her up short.  Although the materials were certainly different,
she could certainly recognize the form of a deer’s leg, made especially
clear by the cloven hoof that occupied the far end of the limb.  Lois
managed to turn and make brief eye contact with her a moment before he
found himself in a sudden embrace that caught him completely off guard.  Gerard
gave a halting chuckle at his wife’s reaction, and smiled to the ermine
gratefully.



            “Lois, we have been trying to fathom how we were going to live
after I lost my leg.  I have been looking for work everywhere, but there is
nowhere that a one-legged man can find work where a two-legged man could
not do it better.  I am no craftsman…”  He stopped as his voice gave away,
and it took him a few moments to recover.  “Lois, this might be the tool
Eli uses to save us from losing our home.”



            Lois smiled and nodded as Amber stepped back from him and
joined her husband by the table, hands on his shoulders.  While the ermine
did not share the stag’s convictions, he was well aware of the meaning
behind Gerard’s words.  “I am happy to help.  I may not have known you for
long, Gerard, but I know you well enough to realize that you have what
makes, not just a warrior, but a man great.  Your commitment both to your
companions and to your family will take you far, and I would not have the
loss of a leg holding you back.”



            Gerard managed a soft chuckle, but any further conversation was
cut short by a quick rap on the door.  Lois smiled.



            “I believe that would be the man I asked Coe to send down.  I
may be the adventurous sort, but attempting to help you adjust to a new leg
would be a bit beyond my depth, and I’d rather have this leg make your
situation better rather than worse.”



            Amber followed him to the door, and he deferred to her to
answer the knocking.  The man at the door indeed introduced himself as a
healer’s apprentice with Master Coe.



            “I was told that someone in this residence required assistance
with a wooden leg?” he said after his introduction.



            “Well, something similar to a wooden leg,” Amber replied with a
sheepish smile.  When the man raised an eyebrow, she simply waved him
inside.  Lois nodded to the man, noting that he was likely just a few years
past the Curse, almost certainly affected by the transgender effect of the
same.  He walked with a good bit of confidence however, so it seemed that
he had not been too attached to a female form.



            His reaction to the metal contraption was quite comical at
first, but he quickly overcame his confusion and began to examine the
straps.  Drift had thankfully made the socket similar to what would be seen
on most peg legs, and the healer’s apprentice was able to fit it with only
a few minor adjustments.  He stepped back to take a look at the result, and
gave a shake of his head.



            “I’ve never seen a thing like it,” he mused.  “I’ve helped a
few unfortunate men to fit their new legs, but never anything like this.”



            Lois nodded in agreement.  As often as he dealt with fighting
men, he had seen many others who had lost a leg and had adopted a wooden
substitute.  Some were fortunate enough to belong to a cavalry unit, and
could fight almost as well as before as long as they were in the saddle.  Many
had retired, never adjusting fully to the new limb that they had been given.
Some had given up on the peg leg and fell back on the use of a crutch
instead.  None of them, however, had used a tool even remotely similar to
the device that was strapped to Gerard’s stump.



            “It will be some time before you will be able to heal enough to
walk on that leg,” the healer warned.  “You won’t be back in the field for
a while longer, but I have been given authority to make decisions regarding
your therapy.”  He gave an encouraging smile.  “If you make good progress
in our first few meetings, I will be glad to inform George that he can
expect you back soon.  It may not be much, but I know that Metamor has its
share of wounded warriors.  I am reasonably certain that they would be
willing to provide you with a modest stipend, especially if they know you
will return.”



            Gerard chuckled.  “It certainly couldn’t hurt.”  The stag
looked down at his legs, noting how the mechanism that had replaced his
left leg bent in almost the exact same places as his own natural leg.  While
he was still struck by how foreign his legs appeared after the Curse at
times, the shape of the metal looked surprisingly familiar to him.  “I know
you say that I will not be able to walk for some time, but… would it be
possible to try to stand?”



            The healer shifted uncertainly, his expression conflicted.  “The
injury has healed enough to where standing should not damage your leg any
further, but it is still a fresh wound.  The pain will be considerable
should you attempt it.”



            The deer looked up at his wife, something he did not often have
to opportunity to do because of her short stature.  Keeping his eyes fixed
on her, he spoke slowly to the healer.  “I think I would like to try.  It
may not be much, but I want to have a starting point that I can work
forward from.”



            Amber nodded to him supportively, and stood back as her husband
braced himself against the table, trying to lift himself to his feet.  The
healer moved to stand behind him, but he did not move to assist him yet.  The
young man realized that Gerard wanted to try to stand under his own power,
so he stood close enough to catch him should he fall, but did not otherwise
interfere.



            Lois came a little closer, but he still stood a few paces away.
The ermine winced as his patrol companion’s face contorted with pain, but
he had seen the man do something similar before.  The determination that
overcame the pain was the same thing he had seem in Gerard’s eyes when the
stubborn buck had forced the Curse to shift him from his feral shape to his
bipedal form in Coe’s office.  As Gerard managed to come, trembling, to his
hooves, Lois began to wonder if there was anything that the stag couldn’t
do if he was determined to do it.



            As it turned out, Gerard found something he could not do when
he attempted to stand without the help of the table.  He wobbled for a
moment, only to buckle under the pain from his stump.  The healer caught
him before he could completely collapse, showing that his small frame hid a
considerable reserve of strength.  He still gasped from the effort before
he managed to help Gerard to the chair that the stag had been sitting in a
few moments before.



            “That is far more than I expected from you today,” he said
through heavy breaths a moment later.  “I think we’ll keep you off your
hooves for a little while more.  We have a few things to deal with before
we get to standing on your new leg, anyway.  Your muscles need to recover,
you need to get used to the weight of the… thing, and you need to be able
to deal with the pain of your stump…”  He took a moment to recover from the
exertion.  “Still, I’d say you have given yourself quite a good place to
start from.”



            Gerard gave Lois a smirk, but was back to panting after a brief
moment.  The long process of recovery was not something he could hurry, so
taking the time to appreciate small victories was a luxury he could afford.
His wife was beaming at him, and he returned her smile as soon as he could
do so without panting heavily a moment later.



            Lois was smiling as well, but he was more subdued.  Somehow,
the idea of Gerard returning to the battlefield after his injury seemed
wrong.  He had already lost a leg in this war.  How much more could the
Keep ask from him?



            And yet he realized that the Keep had been in a state of
constant war for ages.  He wondered if the Åelves had even seen a time of
peace for the Keep in their extended lives.  If he lost a leg at some
point, he was certain that the Keep would hope to have continued use of his
services as well.


            After he allowed Gerard to recover for a few minutes, the
healer began to work with him on the first basic exercises of the long road
to recovery.  Lois stayed to help for a few more moments, but he left
shortly after they started their work.  Gerard thanked him again, and Amber
echoed her husband’s words with even more eagerness.  Lois left quietly
thereafter.  He wanted to prepare some things before training with Paula
later in the evening.  He would be back, though.  Someone had to keep an
eye on that stubborn stag.
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