Child in the Snow ((Quills!))

[Anonymous]

Alexis smiled shyly and entered. He glanced around and said to himself, "It's nice here...." He rubbed his hands together, blowing on them to make them warmer. Then he said, "Miss Tayr, this is a nice place." He looked at his hands. "And I still look frozen, even though I'm not." His skin was still white as the snow, like a cloud.

[Anonymous]

Tayr slipped her pack off by the door and hung her snow-speckled cloak up to dry. Seeing that Alexis had made himself comfortable, she sat herself on the floor near the fire. She didn't know what the kid found so nice about the place, since it was just a poky two-room affair made even smaller by the various trappers' tools hanging from the ceiling, not to mention the dead things that were the products of the trade. And, well... They didn't make anything smell too good. It was definitely a home, though, which might be what the boy liked about it. Children were pretty simple sometimes.

She looked over at Alexis. "Huh, you are pale, aren'tcha? Probably Serenian. From Serendipity. 'S another country," she tried to explain. "My granddad were Serenian, 'e were all white and skinny like you. Me, I only got the funny-colour hair. Huh." She paused and frowned as something else important came to her. "Hey, if that cut were done by steel, we'll 'ave to be real careful with it. D'you know how ye got that?"

[Anonymous]

He nodded. "Serendipity, huh? Sounds like a cool place." Alexis looked kind of startled at the memory as she asked the question about his injury. He looked like he was trying hard to remember. "Um....I'm not sure how I got it, but I'm pretty sure it was an animal, or maybe I fell or something." He looked down at his arm, which didn't look good obviously, but didn't look infected or anything either. "I don't remember...but, does it look bad?"

[Anonymous]

Tayr shrugged. She'd been to Serendipity maybe twice on duty and while it was nice enough, it wasn't home. She didn't have much of an opinion on it, really. It was just another place.

"Well, that's good," she nodded. "If it were an animal, it'll heal up just fine." She heard a thump from the little bedroom and some muffled complaining, and shook her head. "If dad can find them bandages, we'll wrap it all up and there'll be nowt to worry about." She smiled. "And then we can get some grub down ye, fill that little belly."

[Anonymous]

Alexis smiled again. He looked up at her with his violet eyes, tilting his head slightly to the side. As he spoke, he tried to remember the past. "Miss Tayr, thank you very much. It's so nice of you to help..." He trailed off, his face puzzled. Suddenly he winced, holding his head. He shut his eyes. It was as if something was being forced into his mind without his consent. Something foreign and unkind. He shook his head. His face slowly went back to a normal expression, and he frowned slightly. "I-I'm okay...my head...I got a headache. Sorry..." He looked up at her, still puzzled. "Why?.."

[Anonymous]

Tayr smiled gently and patted the boy on his shoulder. "I'd 'ave to be right heartless to leave a wee lad like you..." Something was wrong. She leaned down to look closer, a comforting hand on Alexis' back. Thankfully, he seemed to recover fairly quickly, so she wasn't too worried. If it was just a headache, it probably wasn't anything serious.

He wanted to know why his head hurt? Kids were so funny, thinking adults knew everything. She shook her head with a faint smile. "Trouble if I know, lad. Could be the cold, could be the injury... Could be anythin'. Body's funny that way."

She looked up as her father, a slim man whose hair still had streaks of dark green amongst the grey, finally came out of the bedroom, clutching a roll of ancient, yellowing bandages, a cloth, and a bottle of dubious liquid. For their apparent age, the dressings were still clean enough to dress a wound and Tayr took the items with a wordless nod. She turned back to Alexis. "Now let's see about that wound."