A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind)

Thaddeus thought he might have seen Roric's finger move a couple of times and his breathing seemed to be deeper and less thready than it had been, but that was as far as any improvement in his grandson's condition went. Thaddeus fought hard to not grow disheartened as time slid by with the absence of any meaningful response from his grandson.

The morning of the fifth day since he had sent his agents out, a servant burst through the door of Roric's room and startled Thaddeus awake in his chair by the bed.

"What is the meaning of bursting in here like this?" Thaddeus blustered out tiredly.

"I'm sorry Sir, but I thought you would want to read this immediately!"

The servant held up a tiny piece of paper and Thaddeus recognized it as that of a message sent by the use of a carrier pigeon. He leaped up forgetting his bad leg and grimaced as he snatched the paper away from the servant. He squinted as he read the message scrolled in tiny print on the little paper hurriedly.

"They've found her Roric!" Thaddeus said excitedly.

He glanced over and saw twitches of movement occurring all over his grandson's face.

Thaddeus crafted his next words carefully, "They've found where Krista is living Roric. She's set up a small shop in a little town. Here I'll leave the note on this table beside your bed. You'll want to read all the details for yourself of course."

Thaddeus laid the small page on the edge of the table near the bed. "It's right here on the table beside you Roric. It will tell you where she is so you can go bring her home here to Thunder Ridge."

The morning unfolded softly and filled the room with the strengthening day's light. The room grew warm from the sun and the fire flower responded by releasing its heady perfume into the air.

The hand lying on top of the covers twitched and then moved slightly and after a moment of stillness it lifted and reached out toward the table. The little piece of paper disappeared in the grasp of the large hand that brought it back to the bed and with help from the other hand pulled it apart in order to read it. One hand rolled the little paper up then and closed over it tightly.

Outside the room Thaddeus couldn't restrain himself any further and pushed the door open and stepped in.

His gaze met mine and he exhaled in a sigh of relief, "Praise the Lord, in heaven above, your back with us boy! You gave me an awful scare! Please don't do that again!"