Breath came like fire burning in his lungs, but he couldn't stop. The air was cold, sharp, painful to breath in and hold, yet already his heart was ill-prepared for its current state of duress. It cried out in exigency, unable to hold on much longer if his body did not stop. Feet beat the ground, until it seemed the very soles would tear through the thin fabric of his shoes. As if that wasn't enough, the body he lugged in his arms weighed him down. Every limb threatened collapse. But then he could see the shape of the village slowly scrolling up in the distance.
Almost there. Just a few more yards...a few more steps. He slowed his legs, which quivered like rotten wood. Feet were blistered, reddened and sore even with his shoes. He scaled the hill towards the village, the bundle in his arms groaning, stirring, clearly out of his own senses. "Stay with me now, sir. Stay awake," the man said. The limp body, grunted, fighting hard to follow instruction.
"Make way! Make way! Somebody get a healer, please!" the man called. His legs immediately collapsed upon arrival, almost knocking the wounded man in his arms to the ground yet again. A woman rushed to them.
"Gral! Oh Gral! What happened? Who did this!?" she exclaimed as she knelt beside him, catching up the wounded man's arm with one of her own. She assisted Gral in pulling him to the side of a shack. Several people came to attendance, all murmuring to one another. Gral had no answers for the woman, and replied as such.
"I found him like this, Mina. I was on my way back from the river when I found him. He was lucky I did, when I did. Or he would have died out there. I don't know who did this to him...good gods, he can barely remain conscious long enough. Speak to me, Nadam. Say something! Please."
Nadam groaned in agony. His face was severely bruised, bloodied and torn from something that appeared to have small but sharpened spikes. His body fared little better, his arm was limp and useless, mishappen in several places from having been broken like a toothpick. His nose was also broken, smashed into his face and he had difficulty breathing out of his mouth, where he tried to gather the strength to spit up the blood that accumulated there. One ear was missing, seeming to have been torn off. To the surprise of many, he still had both eyes and a functioning mouth. "Water... Water..."
Mina rose to get some, returning just as quickly with a waterskin, which she gingerly rose to his swollen and shredded lips. "What happened, Nadam? Did you see who did this too you?"
After drinking, Nadam groaned, coughing severely. "He wouldn't stop. I begged him to stop!" he sobbed. "But he kept beating me... He asked me where the fortess was...someplace called Rheidyn's Gate...and kept on beating me until I told him. But...it was hopeless...that place is a myth. When I told him that...he only beat me more, tortured me until I acknowledged that it was real... I thought he was going to kill me... " Nadam closed his eyes, scrunching his face in pain. He screamed when he tried to move.
Gral stopped him. "Stay put. The healers will come soon. They will take care of you. You'll be all right. You'll see! Who..who did this?"
Nadam leaned his head against the shack wall, closing his eyes. "A man...with...steel hands," was all he could say before falling unconscious from the pain.