“Thanks Mik, but she wouldn’t make it.”
Hyden was starting to panic in fear for the animal’s life. One of the pups yapped and growled at him. Its stance was awkward, half afraid, and half protective. Its neck fur stood on end, but it was ready to dart away if it had to.
“You’ll have to heal her yourself!” Vaegon called down matter-of-factly. “You have the ability, I know you do!”
“What?” The idea seemed ridiculous. “How?”
“You’ll have to calm yourself down, Hyden Hawk. You have to relax and clear your mind.”
Vaegon sat at the edge of the ravine, not too close to the drop, but close enough that he could communicate with Hyden without having to yell.
“Once you do that, I’ll talk you through it. If you really want to help the wolf, then we’ll get it done.”
Mikahl watched in wonder as Vaegon talked Hyden into a relaxed state. In the back of his mind, something was nagging at him, but the revelation of what it was never came. The elf was speaking of envisionment, perceptual clarity, and intangible likenesses. Mikahl had no idea what any of it meant, but he was listening raptly whilst watching his friend below.
If by force of will alone, if he could’ve made Hyden understand the confusing things Vaegon was describing, the wolf would’ve already been rambling away with her pups. As it was, he heard the expressions, and the careful instructions that followed them, but couldn’t even begin to grasp what they meant. Still, the intensity of the situation, and his deep-felt hope for Hyden to succeed, held him glued to the scene unfolding below.
Hyden Hawk felt it tingling, felt the magic start to work his will in the wolf, but the amazement of the feeling, caused him to lose concentration. Now, he was frustratingly trying to calm himself down again, so that he might find that level of mental clarity once more. Deep breaths, envisioning a completely empty space, a void, as Vaegon’s smooth flowing words had suggested. Hyden Hawk formed the scene that was actually before him in the void of his mind’s eye. He was overcome by an electrical feeling, as the magic found him once again. He kept from losing its flow this time, and into the wolf’s flesh he delved.
He wished he understood the creature’s anatomy better, and resolved to ask Vaegon how he might learn of such things. He had heard Mikahl speak of the great library at Lakeside Castle. In all his life, he had never held a book, much less tried to read one. He had seen books at Summer’s Day, on peddlers’ tables, and in some of the finer merchants’ tents, but not even once had he picked one of them up. He could do numbers till the sun went down, but he could neither read nor write a single letter. A book was as foreign a thing to him as a castle or a ship, or the inside of a wounded ridge wolf. He vowed to learn all he could, and he knew that the first step was to learn his letters.
Some of the wolf’s wounds were obvious to his untrained eyes. The dark clots of pooled blood he removed, and the holes in the wolf’s thick, furred skin, he laced together with glowing yellow strands of magic, using the same type of stitches he had seen his mother use to patch the holes in his and Gerard’s britches when they were boys.
The slight crack in the big bone, which connected the wolf’s spine to its hind legs and tail, he would have overlooked, had Vaegon not told him what to search for. He filled the tiny fracture with the strange, yellow magical glow in the same manner he had once mortared a loose stone back together on his grandfather’s fire-chute. The work was intense and taxing, and when he finally finished, he collapsed in a physically drained, yet pride filled heap of sweaty exhaustion.
“It worked!” Mikahl exclaimed excitedly. “The wolf is getting to her feet. You did it!”
Vaegon dared a look over the edge, and sure enough, the mother wolf was on her feet nuzzling and licking Hyden Hawk’s face. This delighted Vaegon. He had actually only suspected that Hyden could perform the deed.
“Amazing,” he muttered, and for the first time, he held absolutely no doubt that Hyden Hawk was destined to be as powerful a wizard as the great Dahg Mahn had been.
Hyden scratched behind the appreciative wolf’s ears absently. He could barely move. The pups nipped playfully at his other hand, while he lay there lost in the moment.
He had done it! He had actually healed the injured wolf with magic. What would Gerard think about such a thing? It was ironic, Hyden thought, because it was Gerard who had always wanted to be a great wizard. Now, here he was, healing wolves and flying with hawklings.