I had died and gone to hell. Vivid dreams haunted me, a thousand tiny mounts biting at my skin, the earth itself passing dizzily beneath me. Freezing water on burning flesh, and a blanket of leave rising to swallow me into the dark.

     But then suddenly, I was back. One eye was swollen shut and I struggled to pry open the other the a crusty film. Panicking as soon as I felt the cool water I was submerged in, I started and flinched only to be wracked with burning pain. My entire body felt beaten and burned, and I attempted to cry out in pain, only to managed a hacked sob. "Whoa! Humie! Lay still, Lay still, shhhhhh there now. Antu's got ye now. Shhhhh dere you are." Two thick firm hands gently settled me back into where I was in the water.

     As the pain settled into a full body stinging and ache, I blink blearily with my one good eye and tried to take in where I was now. I was in a shallow pool of water, seemingly dug into the side of a clear and cool stream. A blanket of moss covered everything except my face. My head rested on a stone that raised me up to breath, and my body lay in the cool silt of the streams shore. Little pinches and itches twinged here and there through the pain as well. Through the haze a porcine face with squinting smiling eyes peered at me from above. "Don' try ta talk fer now ey humie." The grunting cheerful voice said.

     Cupping some of the water in his hands, the grunter poured a slow trickle into my mouth. It was the best damn thing I had ever tasted. After a few drinks I managed to hiss a few words through my stinging throat. "You called yourself Antu?" At this his piggy face scrunched up even more in apparent glee. "Ya, I'ms Antu. I'ms glad ye can still hear me after errything that happened a few days ago." "A few days ago?" I croaked. I had been out for a few days? My memory reminded me of how I came to be here in the first place. "Where is Olvia? Did she survive?" At this mention Antu's eyes lost just a bit of mirth, but quickly regained a determined expression. "I'ma guessin that be the Elfies name."

     "When ye called down whatever dat was errything was light, an noise, and fire." He punctuated his story with wide movements of his hands. "Felt like that camp been tossed straight into a bolt o lightnin from de heavens it did. The whole time that big humie was beatin on ye, I wuz tryin to undo my hand to try to help ye. Then you jus kinna. Made him go boom." He said, laying a pudgy hand on the back of his head. "I managed to get loose after the lighnin started flying outta ya, so I grabbed the Elfie frum where she lay, and best believe I ran outta there like a bat outta hell."

     I lay there stunned. That couldn't be true. I had no magical ability, the art was far beyond me. Even our village doctor only knew one or two little tricks to help him. I couldn't have defeated the whole camp. Let alone call down some gods damned lightning! But I hadn't the strength to argue. "Is she okay?" I asked. At this Antu motioned to a mossy pile beside me, where I could just make out a pointed ear and shock of golden hair from where I rested. "They did a nasty number on er. She asnt wakened yet. Fraid she suffered too many knocks to the head. Elfies don't take those too well. Fair folk they be eh? She's alive though. An I swear on my snout I'ma gonna deliver the two o ye to the next elfie town. Not a few days march frum ere, though it'll be a week er two still if she dunn wake."

     Though it pained me, I managed a weak smile. "Thank you Antu. One last question." I could taste how raw my throat was becoming, in spite of Antu doing most of the talking. "How am I alive?" Antu's shoulders hunched into a shrug, his hands going wide. "I ain't got a slightest clue how yer still thumpin. Atter the noise stopped and I brought the Elfie neath an oak some ways a way. I figured I'd go back an see what became of ye. At least give you a proper buryin back to the mud since ye gave me a way out. When I was pickin my way back through the ash, fire, n bodies there ye were. Lookin as sorry as someone who rolled in de cook pit fer an hour, but yer chest still rose. Barely believed me eyes." 

     At this he gave me another cheery smile. "Nough talkin fer now eh humie. Get sum sleep eh? Let the minnows work at yer bad flesh. I'll get sum grub fer us and elfie ere." He then stood and plodded away, heavy hoof falls going into the brush. Exhausted, I let go, and sank back into the peace of sleep after a while.

     I owed that damned grunter more than I could ever repay.