Drake had never seen his always calm and confident wife looking so panicked as she burst through their home's front door, but it only took him one glance at his son's bloodied bandages to understand.
Jumping up from his chair and ignoring the pain in his half-crippled right leg, Drake hobbled over as quickly as he could while anxiously calling out, "What happened?!"
"I-I… there was… and t-then…" Anna was flustered and out of breath after having raced back home. What's more, she really didn't know what happened back in the forest, so she was having trouble explaining.
Seeing his wife in such an incoherent state, Drake forced himself to calm down and try to get a grasp on the situation.
Having adventured together with Anna for a few years after they had met, during which time they had hunted their fair share of First, Second and even Third Order Wild Beasts, Drake was no stranger to all kinds of injuries one could sustain, but even with that experience, he couldn't tell what had happened to either his wife or their son.
Since he had no clues about how they were injured, he could only rely on the expertise of others. As such, Drake reached out and took Lucas down from Anna's back and said, "Go get Old Herbalist Erwin. I'll look after Lucas."
Considering his wife's tired, dishevelled state, Drake would have preferred going himself to let her rest, but with his old injury, it would take him twice, if not three times as long to reach the town's best healer compared to Anna.
Despite her aching body, Anna nodded and ran off as soon as she handed her son over to her husband, not daring to delay for even a moment.
Taking his son to his room, Drake laid Lucas down on the bed before checking his breathing and pulse. Finding both to be shallow yet steady, Drake finally felt his heartrate coming down slightly. Next, he examined the severity of Lucas' wounds, quickly determining that while his boy's shoulder seemed to have been dislocated, his wife had already re-set it.
As for the various cuts and bruises Lucas had, while they looked quite scary, only one of them needed stitching. The rest were just scrapes that with proper bandaging would heal on their own, though they would probably leave some scars.
Understanding that the situation wasn't as bad as he first feared, Drake managed to gather his wits, though he naturally didn't relax yet as his son was still unconscious and his wounds still needed to be tended to.
Getting up and hobbling over to the kitchen, Drake lit the stove before placing a large iron pot on it and filling it with water from the nearby barrel. He then hurried over to a cabinet where he and Anna kept some bandages and blood staunching paste, as well as a needle and sinew-thread, thanking the Heavens they had kept up the habits from back in their adventuring days of keeping such items on hand at all times.
Throwing the hooked needle into the water, Drake impatiently waited for it to boil while gathering some clean cloths from the clothesline hanging outside.
Gathering up all the items he thought he needed, Drake made his way back over to his son's room and tore off the latter's ragged clothes, a relatively easy task for a Fourth Step Vein Opening Practitioner like himself.
Once the dirty clothes were gone, Drake carefully cut off the bloodied bandages and began cleaning Lucas' wounds with the hot water before he stitched up the biggest cut on his back.
Just as Drake finished applying the blood staunching paste and wrapping his son in fresh bandages, Anna returned together with Herbalist Erwin.
There was naturally no Spirit Doctor or Alchemist in a small place like Redwood Town, so the old Herbalist was undoubtedly the most experienced and knowledgeable healer available. Fortunately, thanks to her position as the Town Guard Captain, Anna was quite familiar with Erwin and was able to invite him over from his nearby clinic without delay.
Walking into Lucas' room, the old man tapped Drake's shoulder to have him move aside so he could perform an examination of Lucas without saying a word. Knowing that Erwin was a somewhat taciturn fellow, Drake simply tied up the last bandage and stepped back.
Drake desperately wanted to ask his wife what had happened in the forest, but he held his tongue as he waited for the old Herbalist to finish his work first.
After what seemed like an eternity, with Erwin checking Lucas' pulse, opening his mouth and eyes, and palpitating his body in several places, the aging Herbalist let out a low grunt before getting up and turning towards the anxious couple, "Your boy's body is fine, probably thanks to your quick treatments."
Hearing this assessment, both Anna and Drake breathed a sigh of relief; however, Herbalist Erwin's next words caused their anxiety to rise again.
"His lack of responsiveness is worrying, though. Even though he seems to have been knocked unconscious, he should still react to certain stimuli, but he's showing no signs of doing so at all."
Anna was particularly nervous when she heard those words, because she knew that her son had been struck in the head and his eyes had gone blank at the time, so she asked, "Is there anything you can do for him, Erwin?"
Stroking his beard for a time, Herbalist Erwin seemed to descend into thought and it was only a few breaths later that he replied, "If the problem is the boy's mind, then I can prescribe you a type of refreshing incense. It is quite expensive, but I assume you two don't care."
"Of course not! As long as it helps our son recover, I am willing to pay any price!" Drake declared.
While they weren't exactly wealthy, he and Anna had some savings and fairly good incomes, so spending a few Gold Coins to treat their only child wouldn't be an issue.
Nodding, the old Herbalist continued, "I should warn you two though, if the problem is with the boy's Soul… there's nothing this old man can do to help. In any case, I will prepare the incense back at my shop. You can pick it up tonight around closing time."
Having said so, Erwin took his leave.
Finally having a moment of relative calm, Drake brought his wife over to sit by their son's bed and asked, "Anna, can you tell me what happened now?"
Taking a deep breath, Anna tried to organize her thoughts before recounting what had happened to her and Lucas earlier that day.
By the time Anna had finished her story, Drake couldn't help furrowing his brow as he stared at his son's sleeping face. Everything that Anna had told him was too far beyond his level of understanding to make sense of, and it was exactly for that reason that he couldn't help feeling worried.
Just as Herbalist Erwin had said, if the problem was simply a shock to Lucas' head, causing him to fall unconscious, there was still hope for his recovery, but if the problem was related to his son's Soul, then forget Redwood Town, there might not be anyone capable of helping them in the entire Rockwell Kingdom!
The only hope Drake and Anna would have to treat a Soul injury would be the few Spirit Doctors who lived in the capital, and even then, there was only a slim chance it would help. Injuries to one's Soul were simply too difficult to treat for those who were not very powerful Cultivators, and there were no such Masters in the Rockwell Kingdom.
Drake wanted to comfort his wife, but he knew that she was even more aware of the severity of the situation than he was as she came from a much better background than him.
Right now, any words of reassurance he offered would simply come off as cheap and meaningless; so, instead, he held her hand, gently brushed their son's hair, and muttered softly, "We must have faith in our son. Lucas inherited my stubbornness and your strength, so we can only believe in him and wait."
Sniffling lightly, Anna tried her best to hold back her tears and simply nodded before leaning her head against her husband's shoulder.
It wasn't long before Drake heard gentle, even breathing coming from his side and realized that his wife had passed out from exhaustion. Unable to do anything to change the situation, and unwilling to just leave, Drake held onto the two most precious treasures in his life while he silently prayed to the Heavens for his son to recover.
…..
On the first day, other than to pick up the incense from Herbalist Erwin, Drake and Anna spent every waking moment next to Lucas.
Perhaps they were hoping he would soon wake up, or perhaps they were frightened he would pass away if they turned their eyes away. They probably didn't even know how to express what they were feeling at the time.
Fortunately, because it was Lucas' ninth birthday, the two of them had taken a day off from work already, so they didn't have any other business to attend to. In the end, the two parents sat in their son's room the whole night, leaning on each other for strength and comfort as time slowly ticked by.
The next day, at the crack of dawn, Drake went out back to his smithy and hung a sign saying he wouldn't be taking any new requests for the next three days due to an emergency. While he still had a few orders he needed to finish, there was nothing urgent he couldn't delay for a couple of days, so he simply closed up shop and returned to the house to prepare a morning meal for him and his wife.
Unfortunately for Anna, she had to report to the Town Lord's Manor today as she had work which could only be handled by her as she was the Guard Captain. Still, she was determined to complete the duty roster for the other guards, as well as a few other items which needed her attention by mid-day before requesting a longer leave of absence so she could tend to Lucas.
And so, a second day began to pass by.
Drake spent the morning watching over his son, changing his bandages, applying more medicinal paste, and keeping the soothing incense burning.
At mid-day, Anna returned with a frequent guest in tow.
Eris Newton, the daughter of Baron Charles Newton, the Town Lord of Redwood Town, had insisted on coming to see Lucas when she heard about the accident.
Anna and Drake were old friends with the Town Lord and his wife, with Anna being something of an aunt as well as swordsmanship instructor for Eris. As a result, the little girl practically grew up together with Lucas and saw him very much like a little brother. Naturally she was worried when she heard he was hurt and begged her father to let her come pay him a visit, a request the doting Baron agreed to without much thought as Eris had been to Anna and Drake's home many times before.
Little Eris couldn't help shedding a few tears when she saw her unconscious little brother and kept asking Anna if there was anything she could do to help him. Only after the skies began to get dark did Eris reluctantly return home, promising she would come visit again tomorrow.
By now, many people in Redwood Town had heard about Lucas' condition, and small offerings of support trickled in for Anna and Drake, who had quite a few friends in town as a result of their professions and friendly characters.
Touched by the kindness of the people around them, Anna and Drake's hearts lightened slightly as they thanked all the townspeople who came to wish them and their son well. Still, when night fell, and the parents watched on as their son continued to sleep, showing no signs of waking up, their anxiety returning to gnaw at them once more as the silence surrounded them.
A third day came and went.
Lucas' physical wounds were beginning to heal, his pulse became stronger, and his breathing became steadier, but when Herbalist Erwin gave him another checkup, he remained as unresponsive as before, nearly causing Anna and Drake to despair.
A fourth sleepless night passed, and the two parents began preparing themselves for the worst.
Eris visited early that morning, bringing with her an extremely precious healing medicine that had been gifted to her for her tenth birthday by her mother.
Anna and Drake were extremely grateful to the little girl as they knew such a treasure could only be refined by a Spirt Alchemist and must have cost a fortune to acquire. Unfortunately, they could only turn Eris down as the two of them knew the elixir would only be able to speed up the healing of one's body, not their mind, and certainly not their Soul, which by now they were all but certain was the problem with their son.
With heavy hearts and wet eyes, Anna and Drake sat by their son's bedside for a fifth night, praying for a miracle they knew was impossible as they slowly passed out from both physical and mental exhaustion.
And so, the fifth morning came…