But as my inflictions were becoming more tolerable, the fire that now lingered within was burning more than ever. I could feel the magnitude of the scorching flames that were inside me. As I continued to study the person responsible for all of this, my focus soon came to.
I recognized that hair, the glow about this man, or god, rather. The embers bounced off his handsome cheeks. His soft crimson eyes watched me with intent.
“Y-You’re… H-Hestio, are you not?” I uttered.
“Shhhh,” he softly whispered in response to me.
I could suddenly feel the burn within me begin to subside. My thoughts were able to gather themselves. Hestio had come down to the surface to help me. He wanted to awaken me and fix my wounds, to alleviate my suffering. But why? This was an extravagant risk he was taking. And at what cost?
I laid still, just allowing him to do his work to aid me. But before I could feel the fire within me fully retract, Hestio was running off.
“Wait…” I weakly called out to him, but to no avail. He was long gone and had fled off into the distance.
“Ugh!” I grunted, feeling the sharp tightness in my chest. I moved my large hand over to hold it. The blaze still lingered, causing a newfound pain I was experiencing, but at least it was more bearable than the torment I felt as a result of the wounds from the fall.
I clenched my chest muscles tightly, wanting to squeeze my own heart, as if a possible resolution was to rip it out of my chest to remove the incinerating agony I felt.
Although I knew this wasn’t an option, my not yet lucid mind was contemplating the very idea of it. But before I could rationalize my thoughts, a set of voices and gasps distracted me from thinking about the fire scorching inside me.
“Oh my gods! Are you okay!?” one of the females shouted, sprinting over to kneel beside me.
The other followed right behind her, lightly pressing her palms into a deep laceration on my torso.
“Argh!” I grunted out in pain, causing her to retract her hands from touching any part of me.
“Can you stand?” one of them asked. But I could no longer even speak. The words I wanted to say were unable to be communicated out of my mouth.
The two women just stared at each other in horror with bewilderment.
“Should we bring him back to the grotto?” one of them suggested.
“I don’t think we really have a choice. We cannot just leave him here unattended. What if a wild boar or some other vicious beast comes and attacks him? He wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Then it’s settled. Come. Help me prop him up.”
Before I knew it, the women were hoisting me off the ground. Each of them took one of my enormous arms and wrapped it around their bodies. My armpits nearly spanned their entire backs as they held me up, slowly escorting me to their desired destination.
I did my best to not drag my feet into the dirt ground and cause more resistance to them. I was stunned they even had the strength to be able to keep me standing, let alone lug me forward.
As they dragged me onward, they carried on in conversation, glancing at one another while I remained silent between them. “Who is he? I’m certain I’ve never seen him around these parts before.”
“He is colossal!” one of the women exclaimed. “I’ve never seen a warrior or a king the size of him. He cannot be human.”
“So, you think he is a god, then?”
“What other explanation is there? No mortal has the girth this man has.”
“If he is a god, then why is he here? Who could have caused this damage to him?”
“I’m not sure. But if we want to find out the answers, we need to hear them from him. Let us take him to bed, get him some food and rest, and hopefully he will be able to recover and explain the reasoning behind his presence here.”
“I suppose that is the only thing we can do. After all, if he really is a god, just as we suspect, it’s our sworn duty to care for him until he becomes stable once again.”
“Precisely.”
I could only partially make out every other word the women were saying next to me. I found myself dosing in and out of consciousness. Luckily, in a matter of minutes, I could feel myself being lowered onto a soft surface, with my head being pressed against an equally delicate set of fabrics. Instantly, I felt myself able to relax more, trying my best to ignore the burning sensation that I still felt lingering within me.
***