<div dir="ltr"><div> 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. </div></div>