Hideous

Well…shit.
 
Has today gone well, Abbil? I have literally no idea right now. This giant and his allies were far from an easy kill, even I took a few more hits than I would like. There was one poor fool archer who couldn’t hit a barn door with an axe, he didn’t last long, but the rest of them were able adversaries all.
 
That’s the difference between an archer and a hunter. I track and shoot prey. I’m used to the smell, chaos, dirt and death of an argument. Fey this one may have been, pretty too for all that, but I stood still and he just missed. No place on the battlefield. Maybe he was someone’s brother, which might explain why the archer to the south was so angry. Oh well. Orlando put paid to the dunce swiftly enough after I’d eased the target up for him. I almost felt sorry for the elven fool, but only almost. His death is just another to add to the catalogue of blood we’re compiling.
 
The battle was hard, but that was far from the hardest thing about this day. I’ve fought before, I’ve been knocked down before. I’ve been exhausted before; I’ve slept on a horse before.
 
I’ve never had my body contorted into a hideous, deformed…thing before. Whatever spell that giant threw at me, it twisted me in ways I can’t even begin to describe. The pain was…let’s call it acute. Have you ever felt your bones shrink? Imagine someone taking your forearm in an arm-wrestling grip and literally forcing your hand down into your elbow, crushing the arm bones as he goes. Think about how that would feel. Then imagine that same pain every time those shrunken bones tried to stretch to pull the strings of a bow.
 
Now, obviously I’m far too skilled to let it affect me, I still put the druid down as the Lord of the Hunt requested, but only after Simeon had raised me from the floor more than once. He’s nifty with healing, I’ll give him that. That bell thing he does, not so much.
 
The only thing was
 
BURNT EDGES MARK ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE REMAINDER OF THIS PAGE
 
Rafi went down too. Obviously. Orlando too, but thankfully Ceri was there to help him. Orlando killed four of our enemies today. I only managed one. It’s not a competition, obviously. But…
 
The main question I find myself waking up to tonight, even given all of the above is…why didn’t anyone pull me off the horse when I fell asleep? They just left me there, my broken, twisted back curved against Aoife, who I have to say was very comfortable, there’s something to say for a warm body next to you.
 
Nevertheless, that’s coming back on them one day, Abbil. I’ll enlist Sabali’s help with that I think, he’ll know what to do.
Once I’ve got him, of course.