Broken Chains

Something hit Puck in the back of the head.

Mumbling unintelligible, Puck wanted to swat the unwanted disturbance of his sleep away, but instead, he felt another hit in the area of his buttocks. Rolling around to his other side, Puck's subconscious wanted to leave the range of whatever was disrupting his sleep, but it was to no avail. One hit after another rained over his body, and he had no option but to wake up and look for the cause of the disturbance so that he could sleep on in peace after that.

Rolling around again to his backside and then pushing his upper body upward on his hands, Puck blinked sleepily into the darkness.

"Why was he in an open cavern in the ice? Where was his normal abode? Why…?"

Only then it all rushed back to him, and Puck truly started to wake up and come alive again. Slowly, Puck tried to push his terribly aching body to his feet again, but it took one, two, no, three attempts till he managed it. A mix of exhaustion of body and spirit made that normally easy movement harder than it should be. Another thing aiding his clumsiness was the cold that had started creeping into his body from different spots that hadn’t been covered up enough by the pelts. Thankfully though, Gremlins were made for the life of the eternal ice, and even if they normally only wore scarce leather stockings, they wouldn’t get cold in the eternal ice. Only when unmoving would they get cold, but even then not too much, at least not where they lived. Thick skin and fur on big parts of their bodies kept them warm.

Thinking about what happened Puck reasoned, that the sleep must have taken him after all, hopefully, too much time hadn’t passed.

But what had awoken him? Blurly remembered something hitting him awake again and again, but even though he could see in the darkness he couldn’t find it. He suspected that had nothing or nobody woken him up, his exhausted body and spirit would have made him sleep for another 20 hours.

His whole body felt like …

It was a feeling Puck had started to learn from the other mornings of this week. Sometimes it wasn’t even the moment itself where you pushed your body beyond its limits, but the morning of the day after that that hurt the worst. Only, Puck now learned, it was even worse when you didn’t sleep an entire night, but only one or two hours after pushing your body beyond all limits.

Puck felt like he wouldn’t be able to take ten steps. But he needed to, else he wouldn’t be able to do the task given to him. Now, perhaps even more than in any other moment in the last week, Puck felt near the point where he would give up, his body and mind at its limits. But then the consequences of failure and the memories of his past in the Gremlin village came to his mind again. Whether it was the life without friends, purpose, or with the constant disdain of the other Gremlins, he would not allow himself to get back there. And the first step was, to hold on to this small purpose, to his first task.

Straightening his back, a fire started gleaming in Puck's eyes again, that had been there for the past week. Just a moment ago it had seemed so entirely missing, but now it was back. Slowly starting to pack his things, Puck gathered momentum again.

By the time everything was packed up again, he was as ready as could be. Even the cold had left his appendages completely again by than, his Gremlin body doing a wonderfull job in combating the cold.

Deciding that he would leave the pelts and a few other things here to be lighter on his feet, Puck set off. By the time he reached the outskirts of the village, he could confirm that he indeed had awoken in time.Puck had a sneaking suspicion that Scarlet had lend him a helping hand and had woken him up.

His right foot had become a real problem though, seemingly the one part of the body where there still was permanent internal damage left of the attack months ago. With every step, his foot would give in a little more, and Puck had to substitute for that with his walking stick, making Puck's arm burn with effort.

Puck wasn’t sure if he should be thankful for the fact that at least his foot had stopped hurting days ago, but likely that only was a bad sign too. If something didn’t hurt anymore, it often meant the Gremlins had to remove that appendage soon in a grisly scene that gave Puck the creeps every time he thought about it.

Now thinking truly rationally about the situation, Puck asked himself if he should stop his mission. Every great disability was disastrous for the Gremlins, as they had no way to heal things like that or compensate for them.

Wanting to kill two birds with one stone, Puck decided to try something out, turning around again, he spoke into the corridor he came from.

“I know you’re there, come out, please.”

Getting no response at first, Puck let himself drop on his butdocks again and started to wait. It was only about fifteen minutes later, long after Puck had already started doubting his asumption again, that something moved at the periphery of his vision.

As expected it was Scarlet.

For the first time after getting to know her, Scarlet seemed angry, and that truly gave Puck the creeps. Scarlet speaking up first, Puck twitched instinctively from her aggressive tone.

“Is that how you thank me for waking you up and stopping you from failing your task? I truly would have thought better of you; perhaps I should have taken another disciple again, something other than the stupidest …”

Puck interrupted Scarlet in an act of bravery, rushing to bring out his reasons for his actions.

“I know, I know, I should do this alone, but I truly think I have a matter that can’t be pushed away.”

Not letting Scarlet come to word, Puck simply pulled up the right leg of his baggy and shredded trousers up and presented his foot.

“I truly fear to cause permanent damage if I go on like this, my foot is giving in more and more. Would you have a look, please?”

Scarlet, closing and opening her mouth a few times, in the end only nodded and went to a knee to inspect the injury.