The Stonehearted Knight-Chapter 462: Wine and warmth

Hex woke up with thousands of needles wriggling inside his brains and stripped of every muscle responsible for movement.

...or so it felt.

Darkness had fallen and gusts of cold night air brushed against his skin, burning more than the zenith’s sun.

Not even his mastery over the Ice element helped him from shivering every now and then.

If not for the warmth streaming from close by, he would be in much more discomfort.

Fragments of the battle returned amidst the irritating pain.

And even then he heard the sound of twigs snapping and someone munching something...like snacks.

It was a familiar sound.

He turned his head, each degree of rotation hurting as much his throat being torn away would feel, and observed his surroundings. At least the side with the fire burning.

He never imagined feeling peace at the sight of Gronke munching something while sipping a very rich and alluring smelling drink, for lack of a better word.

Involuntarily his throat moved, desiring to taste the smell of a garden in the summer of the mountains. He drooled without drooling, his body too dry to even produce saliva.

The hollow noise escaping his throat, aside from burning his flesh, worked though. Gronke glanced at him.

"About time," the large man grumbled, setting his snacks and drink on his other side, which Hex assumed had put the big guy in a bad mood. Stopping his snacks and drinks never worked well with the guy.

More the reason to appreciate him as Gronke approached Hex and dragged him closer to the fire.

Hex cried out in pain, earning another, more audible, snort from the big guy. In his defense, the branch they were on, was ragged and splintered. Gronke might have peeled another layer of skin by dragging, which Hex wished to point at it.

Before he could though, he was pulled up half, without any consideration whatsoever and pushed against a wooden block, prepping him up and nicely for the gourd pushed into his mouth.

"Drink up," Gronke muttered, not even hiding the pain in his eyes, no doubt over the loss over his precious drink.

Hex obliged. Partly because of the lack of choice. But also because it tasted every bit as delicious as the aroma promised before.

Cough.

It also burnt more than it promised. Hex sprayed plenty of drops of it, earning a rough wipe down from a very displeased Warlord.

"Don’t waste it," he snapped at Hex. "This took us quite some time and treasures to brew. If I knew you would waste it, I would have fed you my first option."

"Which was?" Hex inquired with a less burning throat. Either his body’s regenerative powers had kicked in or the wine worked in more ways than one. Or both.

Either way, he sensed some energy and power return, even if it happened a fiber at a time.

"A diluted version once it went through my kidneys."

"Your piss?" Hex snorted in mock outrage but reeled it in. The healing progressed too slowly. Glaring could hurt. Who knew?

"Time?" He asked, trying to limit his words to a bare minimum.

Lucky for him, Gronke understood him perfectly.

"You were out for three hours since I found you. We still have a few hours left." He said.

"Druids...Dryads."

Two words. And half the pain. Nice, the healing worked fine.

"I suspected as much," Gronke replied, pointing at the other side. A mass of fur lay there.

"Vonfang?" Hex asked, once he recognized the mass of bloated flesh beneath the hair.

"Yeah. He fell from above when I was below. Still alive and little conscious. I gathered that an ambush occurred, so I came up once the last batch finished brewing. We still could do one more but I prioritized this."

"I will remember the favor," Hex said, relishing being able to say this many words with so little pain.

"I hope so," Gronke replied, resuming his munching of his snacks. He propped his mouth and then, after a little pause, offered him some.

They tasted like sweet and sour bits of life, each bite filling the void inside his stomach. They were a bit dry though, prompting him to take another swig out of the gourd, which of course caused Gronke to glare. Hex hoped the big guy would get used to losing his food and drink for a while. This wasn’t the last time as far as he was concerned.

"So, he is dead, I assume?" Hex asked, pointing at Vonfang. He didn’t sense any life energy coming from him. Neither could he sense any energy or element around him. His final attack destroyed the air itself. It explained the state he woke up in. And it explained the slow recovery as well.

"And the others?" Hex lost consciousness before he could verify whether they had survived or not.

"The horseman and bird lady weren’t here when I came," Gronke started, jolting the part of memory where Hex remembered kicking their corpses down. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"And the Dryads? The three Wrixian women?" Hex added, doubting Gronke paid any attention at the start.

"I didn’t see any women when I came. Only logs of wood and splintered barks."

That made sense. He hadn’t seen them transform into hideous wooden creatures after all.

"Yeah that’s them. Where are those bits and pieces then?" Hex asked, readying to gather them once he regained the ability to walk and lift things.

Silence.

Hex turned and saw Gronke staring at him.

"What?" He asked, confused. The big guy looked...panicked?

"They are there," Gronke replied softly, pointing at the blazing fire.

Huh?

It took a second – maybe because of the headache – before Hex understood.

"You...used them as...firewood?" Hex asked, somehow not believing the words coming out of his mouth.

"Yes," Gronke replied, far softer than he ever heard the guy speak.

They both turned toward the fire. Not a single word followed. Only the crisp sound of fire sputtering could be heard.

Hex took a snack and bit down. Gronke did the same. They ate. And then drank. And then ate.

"Where is Elron?" Hex asked after their bellies were filled and their throat wetted. They didn’t look at the fire, only allowing it to warm them.

"I don’t know," came the soft reply.

Whatever. Hex threw their third teammate to the back of his mind. As he had done with everything else.

He waited for his body to recover before resuming their trek to the top. Only the fire cracked and warmed him at the moment.