They saved a young hellkin who had fallen into a pit-trap years ago. Now, they were sick and their farm was struggling, and a party of hellkin and halfbreds came and helped them. -- BKF
Fifteen years ago...
"Hey! Hey out there! Help! Please?" The voice was young, tearful, and on the very edge of utter despair. It was coming from a patch of weeds beyond the verge of the road.
It was because Naesel Dirgeye had been having a good day that he stopped. He was in a charitable mood when he headed towards the brush where he narrowly avoided falling in.
Where a small Hellkin had fallen in, forlorn in the shade of a mulberry branch. "Are you all right, sir?" said the child. "Please, I didn't mean to make you tumble. Please don't be mad?"
It was the plaintive voice that choked Naesel's anger before it could rise to his heart. He managed to roll himself about to peer at the kid. Bright red skin, oddly grey eyes, and only the stubby baby horns poking out from a mop of barely kempt hair. They were thin, roughed up, and very dirty. All the clothes they had were both in tatters and too large. The purpling at their mouth was from the mulberries they had been able to grab. The green on their teeth was a lingering stain from eating any vegetation they could grab.
Which had recently run out, if the bare branches a small arm's reach above those baby horns were any clue.
They were sitting down, but not very comfortably.
"All right. I'm going to get a rope, and throw you a loop. Try to catch it." Naesel was good for his word, and managed to land the loop in the kid's reach, first try. "All right. Get that around your middle, and I'll pull you up."
"I hurt my leg," said the kid. "It's real bad."
"I can't do anything for you until you're up here with me." With a hopeful prayer to Lenus to spare the child pain, Naesel began pulling.
The whimpers were almost heartbreaking. He wept at the kid's scream.
Yeah. That leg was broken. "I'll have to reset this. It's going to hurt." He gave the child a thick stick to bite, and did what needed to be done.
At least the poor little mite was unconscious for the splinting and bandaging. He took them home for shelter and healing. The child named Bolster stayed until the next spring. Leaving in the middle of the night.
Naesel prayed for Loki to watch over them, every night.
The Present Day.
The sickness had swept through Naesel's valley like a wildfire. Those who hadn't died were barely able to look after themselves. Naesel struggled to breathe after just visiting the privy. If 'visiting' could be used to mean "laboriously shuffling out there, getting up and down with the help of a big stick."
And yet, he still prayed for the protection of the child he once met in an old Gobelliin bear trap.
Then a bright red Hellkin with grey eyes helped him back to his house. "There now, Uncle. I'm all grown up, now." Bolster was full-grown, and his horns had a kind of swept back look to them. "I had a vision you were in trouble, so I got some friends to come and help you."
"Not... just... me," Naesel panted. "Whole... valley..."
"We know. We've got you. We've got all of you." Bolster settled him down and whipped up a hearty soup.
Outside, in the farm, there were Halfbred Harukh'ai, D'varuv, and Elves pulling up weeds and tilling the soil. There were other Hellkin bearing baskets. Bread. Seeds. Herbs a-plenty. It was as if an entire city had come to help.
"You just rest up," said Bolster. "One kind heart attracts many, many more."
[Photo by Muhammad Saad Khichi on Unsplash]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends! Or visit my hub site to see what else I'm up to.
My Prompt Forum is currently down, but if you want to send me a prompt, post it on my Discord's emergency prompt supply.