Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

"Sander? How's Master Sander?!" 

"He... he still doesn't wake up... Master Egill says his condition is critical... Wolves have torn many of his inner tissues and also because of his age, his wounds do not heal as quickly as yours. I hope he regains his senses." 

Dag closed his eyes, stretching his neck on the pillow under his head, made of some flattened, blood-soaked clothes that some of the soldiers had kindly offered to heal their savior's wounds.

With more clean bandages in his hands and another bowl full of ointment, Egill returned again to Dag, this time accompanied by Karl, who placed a hand on Freydis's shoulder, asking her to move back.

Before doing so, she lowered herself towards Dag's face and kissed him gently on the cheek, stroking his blood-soaked blonde hair and then stepped back, leaving the two healers the space to perform their task.

"Dag, put this between your teeth and bite it hard. It's going to hurt a little bit" Karl said, who gave him a piece of rope, similar to the one used to hold the Iron Emerald sails high.

Dag sighed deeply and while he did so, he could feel the ointment of Egill acting in his chest with the dark fluid, that moved along the wounds, closing the torn fibers of his muscles, and repairing the damaged skin.

"Try to stay still, Dag. I will slowly remove the rock fragment stuck in your eye. The more you get agitated, the more you'll feel pain. If I did it too fast, I would cause your eye even more damage and the wound would certainly not heal" Egill said, explaining with sincerity what he was going to do.

"I'm ready, do what you have to do" Dag replied, his voice tenacious, though frightened.

He took a deep breath, after which, Karl placed the piece of rope between his teeth, that tightened.

Trying not to make sudden movements, operating in the absolute silence of that empty room, Egill opened Dag's left eye, moving his upper eyelid upwards.

Dag tried to keep his left eye open, with which he noticed the disgusted expression on Karl's face, which looked away and grabbed both of his friend's wrists, in an attempt to hold him still if he began to shake.

A pointed and elongated fragment of rock was stuck in the white of the eye and fortunately had not affected the pupil, which although it was full of blood, had returned to its normal color.

From his leather bag, Egill pulled iron pliers, the smallest he owned. 

"Always look in the same spot, Dag. I recommend you, stay still" the Master Of Healing repeated, bringing the pliers closer to the eye, from which Dag saw absolutely nothing but a huge dark red spot covering everything.

With a masterful delicacy and surgical precision, Egill grabbed the rock fragment with pliers and after making sure it couldn't slide sideways, he began to pull it out.

"Aaargh... ummpf...." 

Dag clenched both fists, forcefully biting the piece of rope and trying to hold back that pain, which was the most excruciating he had ever felt in his entire life.

Trying to do as fast as possible, thanks to his steady hand, Egill extracted the fragment, whose lower end, when it came out of the white of the eye, left behind a kind of yellowish jelly, which mixed with blood present on the cornea.

"Umpf... umpf..." 

Dag continued to pant, maintaining his usual self-control, never looking away from the same brick on the ceiling, which he had begun to look at at the beginning of the surgery process.

"Very well, Dag! Very well! The hole caused by the fragment does not look so deep and your pupil is intact! Stay still a little while, you're doing great!" Egill replied, who threw the fragment into Karl's hands, who when he saw it up close, held back the retching, not being used to that kind of thing.

Another sweat thread poured from Dag's forehead, which was beginning to have serious difficulty keeping his eyes open when he finally noticed that Egill left the pliers and took one of the clean bandages.

"I'm done, now your body will do the rest of the work. I've used all my skills to heal your wounds, I think that will be enough" the master Of Healing stated, closing the eyelids of Dag's eye, smearing some of his miraculous ointment on it and resting a piece of tissue on its top.

Ensuring that it was tight on the wound, he tied it with a thin piece of rope behind the young Master's head, while his face slowly began to regain color.

Karl grabbed the rope that Dag was clutching between his teeth and pulled it out of his mouth, allowing him to breathe well again, while regaining the use of his arms and legs, which, although sore and stiff, still seemed to work properly.

"Master Egill, I think that now you should rest. You took care of all the wounded incessantly, I'll handle this. Go to sleep, I'll wake you up tomorrow morning" Karl said, suggesting Egill to rest his tired body on a kind of bed next to Dag's, consisting of a large stone slab slightly raised from the ground.

"Yes, I think I need some rest. If you need my help, don't hesitate to wake me up, kid. I leave it to you to take care of the wounded" Egil answered, who, after leaving all his old surgical tools on the table, dried his hands with one of the white rags and lay on the bed next to Dag, falling asleep after just over a minute.

"How many soldiers have left, Karl?" Dag asked, touching slightly the eye patch on his face.

"Twenty-four, Dag... the Crows Of Odin are almost all dead, only two of them have been saved. In addition to them, two of the Sons Of Freya warriors have also died, courageously sacrificing their lives to allow you entering the barrier without any problems."