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Sand and Stones May Break My Bones (P)(Marakai)

Started by Blink, June 13, 2017, 03:43:30 PM

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Blink

Half blinded by the crimson liquid streaming off her forehead Jaela trudged her way through the desert looking for some kind of solace. Mirages had aleady begun to cloud her judgement as she swore she had just seen a purple lizard slither through the sand. In the distance she thought she could see some rock formations that may offer shelter in some form, but again it could easily be another hallucination.

How long had she been out here anyways? Recalling the previous event's Jaela began counting her days hoping to find the answer to this very question. After one too many nights all of it seemed to blur together in some kind of hazy dream. There was the morning she awoke to a small scorpion climbing on her leg that she so stupidly swatted at. Next thing she knew her thigh was throbbing and a rather large rock was flying at her head.

What had transpired would make even the most skilled elemental want to slap her. The scorpion that had stung her was clearly poisonous, causing Jaela to not be in the right state of mind to use her abilities. What she thought was a small pebble to throw at the insect was actually much bigger, and instead of hitting the bug she managed to hit herself with it... right in the forehead.

"Silly me" she giggled, although the humor in her voice was all but gone. "Sand and rocks, sand and rocks... stupid sand and rocks" she repeated as she made her way towards the hopeful resting place. Normally the dunes of Essyrn were where Jaela felt most at peace, knowing she had protection quite literally everywhere. Except right now all she was thinking was how much she hated all of it.

The sand she used to love was now sticking to her sweat and blood covered wounds. The stones she used to think her best defense the very cause to her current state. And what a state it was indeed. Not only was blood coming from her forehead but Jaela had wounds all over her body. Her thigh where the scorpion had stung her was inflamed and the skin beginning to purple and blacken. Her arms and legs scratched and battered from the sandstorms she was not able to protect herself from due to her current condition.

Eventually the rock formation became more distinguished and Jaela was releived to see it was not an illusion. However, she was also quick to pick up on the fact it was occupied. Pausing for the breifest of moments she considered turning around but then shrugged and began limping her way into view.

"I assume that this is not the bathhouse" she mumbled before falling forwards, no longer able to hold the weight of her body beneath her. Catching her palms on the stone covered ground Jaela only added more wounds to her already battered body, yet barely even flinched at the pain. Instead she lifted a hand, extending a finger as if to make one final point. "If one of you could be so kind as to point me in the right direction that would be fantastic."

Her hand then lowered back down to support her weight as she barely held herself up from faceplanting into the ground. Even her back arched as she drew in heavy breaths, clearly exhausted from walking the unknown distance. At first it may have seemed she was crying, the way her body was jerking about but upon further investigation it would be obvious that this strange girl was actually... laughing.

Marakai Trin

"I cannae believe we're stuck in this Gods forsaken desert again...." Itachi muttered, standing atop a rock, looking out into the dunes. In his hand he held a flat, palm sized stone, and at that point he was idly flipping it up and down like an oversized coin.

It wasn't until his thumb began hurting that he finally decided to hurl it, and his sharp eyes watched it's path as it flew over the sand.

In an ironic twist, today's target practice casualty was a scorpion, no bigger than his fist. The tail and stinger was knocked clean off of it, and the bandit smirked as he watched it scuttle about in confusion before it died.

"Boss!"

Itachi slapped his forehead, and whirled around.

"WHAT, ya blundrin' fool? I come up 'ere ta get away from you lot, an' so ya follow me?"

"Boss, I'm sorry, but I think you're gonna want to take a look at this. Some girl wandered into camp...she looks like hell."

Itachi blinked. "A bird, y'say? Well, why didn't y'say so sooner? Lemme take a looksee, and I'll find out how she can be helped. Mebbe she can pay, eh?" Without waiting for a response, he very nearly skipped down the rockface.

It's about time something happened.

When he came up on Jaela, he let out a low whistle. "A bird, indeed. Pretty li'l one, too. Whatcha gone and gotcher self inta,  hmm?" he asked, more to see if she was coherent than to actually strike up a conversation.

He could see the windburn from the sand, and various cuts and bruises, but from her kneeling position it was difficult to see much else.

Blink

Still laughing at first Jaela made it seem she wasn't even going to acknowledge his question. But slowly her shaking subsided and she managed to meet the gaze of the man addressing her. This was not a pleasant position to be in, on her knees before some stranger as if she were beneath him in some way. It did not sit well with her at all, and it was taking everything she had not to jump up and introduce herself how she normally did in a typical 'Jaela' fashion.

"The real question is...." being as dramatic as ever Jaela paused, a smile on her lips as she made an effort to stand. "... are you hallucinating too? What kind of bird am I? Can I fly?"

Again Jaela was merely projecting her inner frustrations onto the men, poking fun at their questions like they were the ones who had just stumbled into the camp. After a few moments of effort, she finally managed to get her feet beneath her again, legs shaking as she placed the last bit of weight onto them.

Playing further into her barrage of crazy she went to bow, as she always did when meeting new people. But while swinging an arm behind her back she fell forwards again, unable to hold her weight any longer as she went crashing into the dirt.

Marakai Trin

While she spoke,  Itachi mentally took notes. Either the woman was clearly insane, or (un)clearly delusional.

Physically, he facepalmed, and at this rate he'd have a permanent hand print over his face. When he spoke, he was much clearer than before.

"When I say bird, I mean girl. Specifically, the pretty ones, but I'm not picky."

Possible concussion from head injury... he thought, as he knelt down to help her stand again. He needed to get her away from the other Craol, if he wanted to properly examine her.

"Let's move elsewhere, and let me have a look at you..." he said quietly, just loud enough for her alone to hear. "The way your face is covered in blood, you've been wandering with a damned hole in your head for quite awhile."

Blink

Accepting the help offered Jaela stood again, placing a little more weight than she would have liked to on him. She paid no mind to him calling her a 'pretty girl' as she did not see herself as such. Vanity was never something she paid attention to but instead relied on wits over brawn.

When he mentioned moving elsewhere her eyes widened a bit as she resisted inserting yet another witty remark. But then he pointed out her face was covered in blood, something she had completely forgotten about until now.

"Wonder how that got there" she joked, lifting a hand to touch her face for the first time. Beneath her fingertips, she could feel the grit of the sand along with her own fractured skin. "Well, that's inconvenient" another remark as she began walking in whatever direction he led her in.

Marakai Trin

"You lot stay 'ere, and be'ave yerselves. I'm gonna 'ave a looksee at wha's wrong wit' this 'ere bird." He gave the group of men a good long look, and nodded to himself. He led her gently off to the side, close to where he was standing before.

"I'm gonna need you ta sit 'ere. Take off wha'ever clothes yer comfortable takin' off so I can see wha's all wrong wit' ya. I'm guessin' the blow to the 'ead idn't all tha's wrong wit' ya, yeah?"

Itachi let her go only after making sure she could stand on  her own, and stepped back up to his previous perch.

"Jes'...lemme know when yer ready, eh? Ya don' need ta be wandrin' out'n the des'rt at night."

Blink

Again Jaela started giggling as he walked away from her, amused with this entire situation. Leaning back against a rock she placed her weight on it, spreading her palm over the surface of the stone as she made it seem she was balancing herself. As much as it was driving her insane to get the help she knew she needed it, or else face never getting out of this desert alive.

Forever the opportunist Jaela perked up a bit more, if that were even possible, at the mention of not being wandering the desert alone at night. Oh yes, that was a concern, the cold always such a fickle thing.

She began first with removing her gloves and arm guards revealing the extent of the cuts and bruises on her arms. She then followed by the white sleeveless jacket trimmed with green, although it was more colored with blood and dirt now to expose her torso. Reaching down she then rolled up the shorts beneath her skirt, exposing the scorpion wound in all its glory.

"Have you ever seen a rainbow?" she asked. Not only referring to the hues of purple and red on her leg but to the fact that she was ready for him to turn around. "I think it gives me character don't you think?"  In truth she knew it was bad, the darkening of her skin sending a chilling reminder of something she had seen before. This was decay as the scorpion's venom had corrupted the flesh around the wound.

Marakai Trin

Itachi turned around at the sound of her voice, and immediately grimaced. He could see the large welted lump of flesh on her thigh, and knew immediately what the problem was.

"Yeah, bird, I seem rainbows b'fore, an' that'un don' look like it does ya any justice." He slid down from the rocks,  ending with a few short steps to kill the momentum.

"Scorpion sting, a few days old. Ya been seein' an' hearin' things what ain' there, I'm guessin'? Lost track o' time an' whatnot. I'll have to treat tha' first, or yer gonna be losin' tha' leg. An' I ain' carryin' yer ass through the desert."

He made his way to stand right next to her, and kneeled down to look at the wound in question. "Ya got necrosis startin'. I'll hafta cut it open an' get the infection out. An' I ain' gonna lie to ya, it's gonna hurt like a sonovabitch. Ya may wanna sit and get comfy while ya can, cuz if ya fall while I'm workin', yer gonna have more'n a sting an' some cuts for me to fix."

Blink

"Matter of opinion" she laughed at first before he went on.

The small woman then shrugged, not thinking she would really be that inconvenient to carry. "Now that you say it I do recall seeing a scorpion on my...." her sentence fell flat as her eyes shifted from side to side. Again she found herself replaying the incident that had transpired what she thought to be the day before. However, who knew how long ago it actually was that this happened now.

Snapping back to reality Jaela whipped her head up, the pupils of her eyes straining to focus. Following his instructions Jaela slid down once more, lowering herself onto the hard ground. "You don't find screaming melodic?" At the tilt of her head, Itachi would see that maybe Jaela wasn't only delusional from the scorpion sting. There was much more going on in that brain of hers, the gears constantly spinning.

"Do your worst" she motioned towards her thigh, thinking there was no way he could ever inflict more pain than she had experienced before.

Marakai Trin

"O' course I find the sound a screamin' melodic. Music ta me ears, but tha's cuz it usually means I'm makin' money. Now ya might be actin' all tough an' all now, but yer gonna be singin' a diff'rent tune when I start diggin' the infection out. Now hold still, hear me?"

While he spoke, he pulled his case of surgical equipment from somewhere within his oversized coat, and popped it open. The first thing he grabbed was a long wooden dowel, with multiple old tooth marks on it.

"Bite down on this if'n ya feel like screamin'. Dun' worry 'bout the tooth marks, it's sterile."

And while that was said, he pulled out a shining steel scalpel.

"Dun' move."

And then he started cutting, slicing down the spongey, inflamed flesh. Immediately, the pungent smell of rot filled the air as thick pus dribbled down.

Itachi's face resembled stone as he set the scalpel on the ground and instead pulled a small instrument with a hooked end, and began scraping the inside of the wound, pulling all the ick and gross out.

A second scalpel removed the necrotic flesh around the wound, and her leg was bleeding heavily. Hurriedly, he grabbed a jar of premade poultice, and packed the inside of the wound with it. An entire roll of bandages went around the wound to both protect it and to hold the poultice in place.

He looked up from his work, his bright green eyes searching for her own. "Ya still wit' me, bird?"

Blink

Again Jaela giggled when he mentioned she would find this... uncomfortable. Jaela had experienced pain before, torture in fact. She knew how to handle herself when in discomfort, or so she thought.

When he handed her the dowel she simply set it to the side thinking she would not need it. "I may be many things kind sir, but I am no canine. Although I have heard that some..." she paused to breathe and as he cut at her flesh Jaela felt a pinch of pain.

"... some people find acting like a dog kind of enticing." Winking at him through the pain she could see how focused he actually was. Well, at least he seemed he knew what he was doing and she hadn't just let some idiot slice into her leg.

As he picked out the instrument with a hook her eyes only slightly shifted before he began scraping inside the wound. Picking up where she left off her words were very fast spoken and her pitch kept rising as he dug further into her flesh. "Let me tell you I have seen some... verystrangepeople... IN MY TRAVELS!"

When the scraping was over Jaela was able to bring herself to look down and see the profuse amount of blood escaping her leg. At this sight, her demeanor completely changed and her skin fell pale and her lips purpled. A cold sweat had already begun to form on her brow and it was obvious that even after he had packed the wound the sight of that much blood coming out of her own body worried her.

She didn't even have anything to say at first as he asked if she was still with him. Instead, she nodded before leaning her head back on the rock to try and regain her wits.

"Chirp chirp" Her chest rose and fell as her breathing began to steady. "Still here"

Marakai Trin

His concentration had been so greatly focused on his work, he hadn't noticed her speaking while he was working on her. Now, hearing a coherent response when he was done was a welcome relief.

Well, perhaps coherent wasn't the right word. But in any case, it put a smile on his face.

"Good on ya. Now wha' I'm gonna due is jus' ask you some questions, an' yer gonna answer 'em ta the best o' yer ability, yeah? Jus' ta make sure that 'ole in yer head didn't do nothin' permanent, like. So, tell me yer name an' age an' what ya do fer a livin', eh?"

Blink

With head still back her eyes rolled at his questions. "Awfully nosey..."

"I much prefer bird."

Jaela then chirped again to poke fun at her nickname. "As for my age...." She lifted a hand in front of her face as she pretended to count fingers. "... old enough."

Lowering her hand she rested it on her stomach and coughed, wincing from the pain. "What I do for a living, well one has to live to do that sort of thing right?"

Marakai Trin

Itachi arched a single brow, tilting his head to the side. Then he chuckled, shoulders and chest shaking with his laugh.

"Well, those answers don' help much wit' me prognosis, bu' if'n yer feelin' good enough ta be dodgy, I'd say ya ain' got a concussion." He lowered one arm, and brought the remaining hand to his chest.

"Me names Itachi, leader of the Craol. Most wanted in all of Adela fer almost nine years runnin'. I'm 25, an' I'm th' bandit tha' likes to play doctor as a hobby."

He lowered his hand and tilted his head to the side with a grin. "So look at it this way: yer no' gonna lose nothin' by tellin' me anythin'. 'Ell, right now all ya gotta do is run yer skinny self to Ketra an' tell'm where I'm at fer a payout....though I'd just break out. Again."

He shrugged a bit. "Way I see it, one good turn deserves another. An' I've done ya two, so far."

Blink

So Itachi was it? Immediately she began laughing as he continued introducing himself. Turns out the two had more in common than they thought. Same age, same home, some honesty. "Jaela, also from Adela, also 25."

"Never heard of you though." She played it off as a joke, but in truth, Jaela hadn't been to Adela in years. She couldn't even tell him where exactly she was from in Adela because she never had a chance to learn the name. Any memory of who she was before the Black-Hearth family took her was all but tortured away.

"I run errands" It wasn't a lie, but not the full truth either.


Marakai Trin

Itachi smiled, and nodded. "Well, then, that wasn't so damn hard, now was it? Still bein' a li'l dodgy, but I ain' gonna force ya to come completely clean. Still, bothers me ya ain' heard o' me. I might hafta do sommat abou' tha'. Hmm..."

Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "Oh, right. Yer gonna need somethin' fer the venom, or ya might end up right back where ya started. Gimme a sec, yeah?"

He knelt down to his case of tools, lifting the top layer up to reveal the rest of the box, completely full of small,  black, unlabeled bottles. He ran his hand over several before seemingly grabbing one at random.

"' Ere. Drink up, Jaela." He handed her the small corned vial with a smile.

Blink

Her eyes had already begun to trail off but the snapping of his fingers caused her to focus again with a bit of a flinch. Watching on as he fumbled through his case Jaela was fascinated with all the instruments within it. Finally, he plucked out a black bottle lacking any kind of label and handed it to her.

"See this is why I should have never told you my name." She pursed her lips and scrunched her nose as she took the bottle from him. "Bird had such a lovely ring to it."

Popping off the cork she then brought the bottle to her nose and took a whiff. "Well, it's not rum... or whiskey." Rebelliously she then set the bottle down in the dirt beside her before crossing her arms over her chest. "... it'll do me no good."

"Ow' bout ya drink it instead...Aye? What say you?" Now she had resorted in mocking him and the unrefined way he spoke. Perhaps it was to try it out herself, not really knowing what kind of accent she would have if she had stayed in Adela. Even Jaela could say despite her very unpolite attitude she at least knew how to speak common properly enough.


Marakai Trin

When she refused to drink the contents of the bottle, he sighed. Well, there went that idea - she was either being simply stubborn, or she was smarter than he'd given her credit for.

"Well, it's yer leg. Ya wanna lose it, that's yer decision, no' mine. Be a pity to undo all th' work I did ta fix ya up, though."

When she turned around and used his own manner of speaking, and suggested that he drink it instead, he merely arched a brow and stared at her for a long moment. When he did finally speak, his voice was clear, lacking the unrefined twang.

"You think it's funny to mock people for the way they speak? Jaela?"

He then gave a small smile, and tilted his head slightly.  "Well. That bottle is a venom suppressant. It might help you, it might not. I've got the actual anti-venom as well, if you're nice. And if you're really nice, I've got a nice big bottle of rum in my tent...not to mention food and water, since you seem to be lacking any yourself."

So, the facade was dropped. Let's see her reaction to that.

Blink

Narrowing an eye Jaela took in his reaction to her refusal to drink the liquid and returned the look he was giving her. It was as if in this moment the two were sizing each other up but in all honestly neither could get a real reading on one another.

But then he completely changed the way he spoke and Jaela was thrown off by it. "He was pretending!?" She thought to herself as she sat up a bit straighter, her leg still straightened in front of her.

"I think it's funny to mock everyone" she half joked.

When he tilted his head she mirrored his movement, tilting her own head to keep her face level with his. Everything he claimed he had actually sounded quite delightful, especially the water. In any other instance she might have played along, even may have gone to his tent full of all these things knowing that she could at least protect herself.

However, in her current condition, she was in no shape to do anything other than sitting right where she was. Her eyes then flicked towards the small bottle she had set on the ground as she weighed her options. It wasn't worth it even if it may help because for all she knew it could be something entirely different than what he stated.

"How about a wet cloth instead?" If he could at least bring her that she could know if he really did have fresh water. It would be killing two birds with one stone, confirming something while also having the chance to wipe some of the dirt and blood off of her face.

Marakai Trin

"Yeah, well, you're lucky I'm me, and not one of the real people that have that accent. They'd have left you for dead, and stripped your body of anything even vaguely useful. And that's the best way things could go. Glad I got out of that place when I had the chance."

He glanced to the side, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're welcome, by the way, for not being a completely unrefined savage. Hmmph. I'll get your cloth. Don't go anywhere, bird."

He grunted a bit and stalked off, stepping over and around the littered stones with deft movements.

A few minutes later he returned with a bulging waterskin, something that resembled some homemade soap, and an old cloth that had seen better days. These he dropped beside her.

"Here. Wash up if that's what you want. Give a yell if you need anything. I'll be nearby...and don't worry about me peeking. I'm not that sort of guy...I may be a royal pain in the ass, but not much beyond that."

He peered down at her with a long, thoughtful look like he wanted to say something else, and then shrugged and made his way back to the others. His next words were half yelled, easily loud enough for Jaela to hear.

"'Ey, ya louts. Ge' some more food on th' fire, we gotta guest, an' th' 'princess' ov'r there's gonna need ta eat! Now HOP TO IT!"

The sound of multiple pairs of feet scraping on stone and sand would indicate multiple responses to his command.

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