Burnt to a crisp

[Kell Lo'Tharan]

Kell slowly drifted back into consciousness, he'd been lost in what he'd thought was death for a while now, only now had he began to realise he wasn't dead. The only reason that he knew he wasn't dead was the pain, the excruciating pain of the burn wounds running from the left side of his head, to shoulder, to arm. Fireballs were a bitch, especially when you had no way at all of blocking them, leather and iron armour wasn't going to do much against a ball of magical fire, but then again he'd not been expecting to come up against a ball of magical fire, nor the crows producing them.

He'd been taken by surprise, the crows seemed to be haunting him, a constant threat in the darkness. First they'd invaded his own lands and chased him and his companion, putting fear into both of their hearts. Not content with that it seems three of them had ambushed them while he was within the haunted farm, whether they had been there waiting for anyone or were following him specifically he wasn't sure, but whichever it was it seemed that crow attacks were quickly becoming the bane of his existance. This time however unlike the last they'd been successful, they'd completely decimated him, how he was still alive was a matter of wonder, with that much fire on him and three crows over his body it was a surprise he was still in one piece. 

While he could be considered in one piece he definitely wasn't whole, the burns were constant points of pain, sending waves of heat and agony rolling through his body. Still with his eyes closed Kell moved his right arm, it was blissfully untouched by the pain, placing it first on his torso and finding the edges of the burns, progressing further up his chest and scanning across the flesh by feel for where the blistered skin ended. It seemed his torso was relatively unscathed, the left shoulder and upper arm were another deal entirely however, they were charred flesh, with a feeling similar to the last time he'd tried to cook salamander. A choked laugh escaped from his mouth, followed by another, and then it turned to hopeless sobbing at his sorry state.

[Kell Lo'Tharan]

It was only once he was done with the torso that he moved to his own head, his fingers gingerly feeling along his scalp, so shockingly devoid of any hair. An odd feeling for the young half-Drokagr who had always kept his hair longer as a preference, now however there were only bald patches and sparse hairs just beginning to grow in, another part of him lost. 

His now bald head revealed other wounds also, scorched flesh dominated the left side of his head, the entire side having taken the brunt of a fireball. One ear was now gone, burned and melted into the flesh of his head to the point where there was no chance of it functioning correctly again, he must look like some deformed freak with all the burning down his left side and back with one ear seemingly missing. The appearance of it wasn't the problem, Kell didn't overly care about his appearance, deep tissue burns wouldn't heal overnight, if at all. If they never healed properly then he could say goodbye to having adequate hearing, he could say goodbye to most of the functionality in his left arm entirely, he'd have to learn once again every task he had to perform using his right hand. 

Even through the bandages wrappings he could feel the wounds, feel the loss, it was almost too much for him to bear. He could only look away when medics and doctors came to treat his wounds, not being able to bear seeing them uncovered, nor the faces of the people treating him looking at him with pity showing naked in their eyes. It would be a while healing before he could use his arm once again or do anything to strenuous, but he was alive at least.  

 

[Kell Lo'Tharan]

He barely listened as the medic rattled off the damage, he had already figured out the most of it himself, the only words that he did hear of the whole paragraph was, "....and eventually you'll fully recover usage of the affected parts, although the scarring will be incredibly severe." That was enough to give him some hope, he could live with some scarring, all he really wanted was the ability to use his arm and hear once again. It turned out that the ear would work, it'd be horribly deformed and the entire outer of it was missing, but it would work at least so his hearing wouldn't be affected. 

Kell's face trembled into a small smile, which the medic took as a good sign, patting him on his unaffected shoulder lightly before leaving to deal with another patient. He'd been here a while now, all they seemed to do was spread some sort of soothing cream on him and bandage him up once again, the burns were lessening slightly although they still provided more pain than he'd ever felt in his life up until this point. Although his childhood may not have been the best and his experience since wasn't overly sheltered, pain was something he'd never felt much of, he was blessed to have been relatively untouched by that condition. Unfortunately however that meant that he was not used to it, and the throbs of dull pain interspersed with crackling and heat like lava cracking through a layer of molten rock to send sharp hot pain running through his body. 

It was decreasing though, every day he got a little better, he wondered how Kevin was dealing with his absence, he'd said he'd only be gone to Innorsford for a small while in order to do some training. He was confident Kevin would have matters well in hand, but he missed the grouchy old smith, much as usually never admit it to the man's face, he missed his own lands also. The whole experience of nearly dying brought forward a greater fondness for the things that made his life worth living. 

[Kell Lo'Tharan]

Kell moved his neck slowly, trembling in anticipation as he took his first look at the melted skin of his upper arm affected by the crow's fireball. The medics told him it was significantly healthier now than it had been initially, but still it was cracked in places and oozing pus, in others it was beginning to heal into rather gruesome looking scar tissue. He winced when he first saw it, but on the second observation made himself examine it as if it was merely the results of an experiment and not his own arm. It was bearable if he did try to move it, the pain was still intense but if he kept the movement slow and careful to keep the pain to a minimum he could bear to move the arm, even if the necessary slowness of his movements was infuriating. 

Only once he felt sufficiently better did he ask for the story, "Glaive troopers brought you in on a patrol of the haunted farm, building was going up in flames and you were in the middle of it. Nearly lost you twice to those head bones but lucky the alliance lent us one of those healing mages to stop you passing over. Healing magics worth more than any regular medic can do, should thank them for not being dead right now, we probably couldn't have done it half as effectively as the one mage did. Useful to have around they are, now if only we had more." Kell thanked her with a small smile and an oh so slow nod of his head and he hurried off to deal with one of a dozen other patients.

Healing magic, he'd been saved by a mage capable of healing through usage of their wellspring energy. Now that was something to think about, it was possible to heal with magic, and if what the medic had said was correct then by all accounts it was far more effective than what the medics could do in a critical situation. If he could learn the way to heal using wellspring energy then that would surely be a useful spell. That was something for him to think about as he lay in the bed recovering, if he had the ability to use healing magic then maybe at least he would be out of this bed faster.

Even without any healing magic Kell made it out eventually, with instructions to keep it bandaged and avoid any strenuous activity he was met by two villagers from Nelara, the two driving a solid wooden cart that he was to lay in the back of. He'd sent word to Kevin several days before saying he'd require an escort home due to his injuries, but he hadn't said much more than that, he was going to have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.