"This might hurt."

  Borin held my lower body in place while Damien jerked my leg into a vaguely normal position. My scream was cut off by Olivia gagging me with a fistful of the cloth we used for dishes.

  "My father was a doctor," Damien had explained earlier as my condition was discussed. "I'm no expert, but I can at least handle the first aid needed to reduce further injury."

  As he fiddled with my leg, strapping splints to hold everything in a neutral position, I cursed him and his father for their lacking bedside manners. He hummed away to drown out my muffled screams, enjoying the chance to use his long-neglected skill.

  "Did I ever tell you I wanted to practice medicine when I was younger?" I assumed Damien wasn't talking to me, not the least because I was still being prevented from literally biting his head off.

  Borin responded, "No, hasn't come up. I guess it's hard to learn with Orwyn as a guardian, eh?"

  "True, but that's not why I dropped the idea." Damien was wrapping a long strip of cloth around my leg to hold the splint in place. The increased pressure caused an acute pain, but it soon dimmed into nothing. "Orwyn saved me. And I was young and impressionable. Of course the merchant who pulled a kid from wreckage and fed him would look like a hero."

  "New idol, new goal."

  "Something like that."

  Damien tied off the end of the bandage and, just before I could thank him, gave it a slap for good measure. Olivia put the cloth back in place for my curse before letting me go.

  "You won't be able to walk on it much," Damien explained, "but at least like this we should be able to transport you without making it worse."

  I was exhausted - going from the physical strain of our escape to the mental strain of the pain was a lot - but I knew we had no time for me to sulk and rest. "As long as it's not being abused it feels good. You learned from your father?"

  He nodded. "When I was a kid, yeah. He was our village's doctor up until the village was destroyed."

  "How did that happen?" It felt insensitive to ask, but it was such a rare occurrence I felt an urge to pry. Destroying assets rarely resulted in profit.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  All he had for me was a shrug. "Some bandits or mercenaries or border patrol or something, I never found out. They're all kind of the same in Eswar, most of the time."

  "Eswar... I've never been but with what I know that tracks." A nation that focused on a strong capital despite a neglected countryside would often end up with rural unrest within a decade. It had been the focus of the Eswarian monarchy for generations.

  Olivia looked around - we were tucked under a rocky outcropping near the lava lake - and asked, "Where are the other two?"

  "Figuring out where to go, I think," answered Borin.

  "Can Drifter navigate?" I asked. The look I got prompted me to clarify, "I haven't known him that long. It hasn't come up much."

  "Not really," our taciturn swordsman replied as he appeared under the outcropping with Orwyn.

  "He's got weird senses, though, so it's worth listening to him," Orwyn added as he walked over to our group. He looked at Damien's handiwork and said, "Hey, this looks solid. Good job."

  "It's nothing. What's our plan?" Damien was cleaning up his supplies and seemed ready to go any time.

  "East. It's hard to be sure but we're pretty sure we have the bearing right."

  I had some concerns. "Am I, uh, a problem?"

  "Ta."

  Orwyn side-eyed Drifter and continued the response. "That's why we're going East. We should hit the highway, such as it is, and at least then we have a shot of getting help or at least avoiding the worst dangers of the mountains."

  Borin added, "I'm guessing turning back or going north aren't worthwhile options?"

  "Probably not," Orwyn said as he spread his hands. "We're not sure precisely where we are or where is safe, so we're gambling on the option most likely to let us continue to Fionne. Fionne is probably safe, the highway is the easiest way to drag Virilus there. I was hoping we could duck south and cut back into the Black Desert, but pulling a sledge through that many mountains will cause us too many problems, never mind the problems with the Desert or the problem of Durin. East is probably less distance, at this point, or at least a better route. I don't know, you convinced me." He could only ramble so long without input from the person carrying half the logic.

  "Gut feeling."

  I was convinced, at least. "Good enough for me." His gut was getting stranger as time went on, but also more accurate. When he said gut feeling I was starting to interpret it as an odd sixth sense of an Awakened.

  Damien shrugged and agreed, but everyone else had some variation of a sigh or groan. It wasn't a good explanation by any stretch of the definition.

  "First we need a sledge to carry our venerable scholar along with us," Olivia pointed out, "but we don't have any wood to work with."

  Borin had ideas. "Grab a tent, string up some poles for bracing, rope to pull. It won't be comfortable but it'll work."

  "I don't need comfort," I said as I struggled to sit up, "I just need us to get the hell out of this hellscape. I'm tired."

  "Good news," Drifter said as he crouched beside me. He poked my bandaged knee, provoking a pained groan. "You get to rest."

  It was nice to see our camaraderie deepening through the difficulties of this adventure, but I was unfortunately learning that Drifter's friendship came with a little sadistic fun.