Advertise/Affiliate Other Forum Main Page The World Before You Play

All Creatures Great and Small

Started by DragonSong, December 20, 2023, 11:17:56 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

DragonSong

Krysta smiled, glad the relatively tiny offering seemed to sate him at least a little. "You're quite welcome," she told him. "I'll try to find something, ah...more once we have you healed up a bit--"

As if on cue, she heard a familiar voice hiss from outside the den, "Krysta."

"Ah! That'll be my friends." She held a hand up to him. "Be right back, just...one moment."

MadEmperor

Ivan nodded and rested his head on his draconic forepaws to wait. He truly did feel better already, at least as far as hunger was concerned. There was still much to do to alleviate his physical suffering and return his strength to him. At least now, he had made a friend.

By the time she returned, he had allowed himself to fall asleep.

DragonSong

"Stars above!"

"Shhhh!" Krysta glowered at Galon as she led her friends into Ivan's makeshift den to find him dozing.

The other pixie gaped at her. "But he's huge!"

"I said hush!" She put a finger to her lips. "He probably needs the rest. It seems like he's had a rough time of it."

"You could certainly say that," Brix muttered, her eyes darting over the arrows still lodged in the creature's flank.

MadEmperor

Asleep, there was nothing about the beast to suggest the human soul within. He looked like nothing more than a wild monster, if an entirely unique one. The raised voice of Galon made the creature stir slightly, but he continued to doze. However, if he were awake to say so, he would prefer to get his wounds treated sooner rather than later. It was dangerous to leave them untreated for much longer, even with his enhanced vitality.

DragonSong

Krysta gestured for her friends to wait, then fluttered her way forward to hover above Ivan's leonine muzzle.

"Err, hello?" She hesitated, then buzzed forward to tap his nose as forcefully as she dared. She didn't want to annoy him, but she also didn't want to startle him awake with medical attention. "Can you hear me?"

MadEmperor

Ivan groaned awake, his colorful feline eyes fluttering open. It took him a moment to remember where he was and what had happened to him.  With a great feline yawn, he said, "Yes. I hear you."

His gaze drifted to her nervous friends. "Don't be afraid. I have no reason to harm you." In fact, he had every reason not to; his survival depended on their willingness to help and he had no intention of acting like nothing more than a beast.

DragonSong

The other two pixies still kept their distance, looking to their princess uncertainly, but Krysta smiled and nodded at him.

"Good. We're going to start doing our best with those arrow wounds, but I didn't want to startle you. Ready?"

She bobbed up to hover around his shoulders, gesturing for her friends to join her. They did so, albeit warily.

MadEmperor

"I am," he answered with a nod. As he steeled himself for the intense pain to come, he made an effort to suppress his long-held distrust of all things magical. It was something he couldn't afford to feel, as now he was a creature of magic himself.

"Thank you again for your help. You will have saved my life and gained my unending gratitude."

DragonSong

Krysta's magic was no small part of her--nor a small power. But she didn't use it often for healing, outside of the occasional bruises or scrapes collected by herself or her friends on their ill-advised adventures.

Still, she did her best to send a wave of silver energy out over the massive creature's back, until the bulk of his form seemed to be covered in a half-transparent, shimmering blanket. Hopefully, aside from the tingle of magic itself, it would dull any sensation while she and her friends removed the arrows from his hide.

Which was a task she set to as fervently as she could, though she certainly moved slower than Galon and Brix, as her attention was split between the physical and magical. Consequently, she was much less chatty than she had been previously--and neither of her friends seemed entirely comfortable speaking to a creature that could easily crush them on accident if he wasn't careful.

They did, however, seem to have the presence of mind to call out when they were moving about on his back, letting him know their progress. Though Krysta was moving slower than her friends, occasionally sending another soft surge of power over Ivan's body to reinforce the dulling magic, they still managed to get the work done fairly quickly between the three of them.

Roughly half an hour later, several haphazard piles of arrows and barbs had been scattered around to either side of Ivan's body, and all three young pixies were panting with effort.

"Cobwebs," Krysta huffed, and Galon nodded, already starting to rummage through the bag Brix wore slung across her shoulder. Raising her voice, the princess added to Ivan, "I can't--can't keep this barrier up much longer. I'm gonna have to drop it, but all we have left to do is bandaging."

MadEmperor

Thanks to Krysta's dulling magic, the process of removing the arrows was far less painful than what Ivan had prepared for. He was still conflicted over the use of magic on him but he accepted, without complaint, the blessing of relief from the pain he had been enduring.

"I can endure a little more pain if that is what it takes, but it will be nothing like what I was suffering before," he said gratefully.

As they tended to the bandaging, they would notice that his wounds were making visible progress towards healing on their own. His altered form had clearly given him certain advantages. In fact, that was likely how he survived in the first place.

DragonSong

Krysta allowed the magic to fade, her whole body sagging and the faint glow from her wings dimming slightly with the strain. Seeing how quickly the wounds that they had cleared were beginning to close, she could only hope that the antiseptic effect of her barrier would prevent infection--or perhaps he had a natural resistance.

She took her portion of the armfuls of cobwebs and began working on what wounds were still open. "It looks like you're healing quickly, now," she noted hopefully. "I'm sure you'll be feeling much better soon--maybe even by morning."

MadEmperor

"That soon?" Ivan asked, surprised and perplexed. He was completely unaware of the potential for healing that his new body possessed, though the fact that he should be dead already was not lost on him. "With these wounds, I expected a lengthy recovery."

DragonSong

"Well, it's just a guess." Krysta fluttered around to hover in front of his face and better address him. Her glow was still dimmed, though she was no longer panting. "But judging by how fast the wounds started to close once we'd removed the arrows, yeah, I'd say tomorrow. How do you feel?"

MadEmperor

Ivan thought for a long moment, judging the state of his body. "Hungry for more than nuts and berries, but otherwise surprisingly well. It seems this unusual body is quite resilient."

He glanced over at the pile of arrows and bolts that had been pulled out of him and winced. "The fact that I survived at all is proof enough of that, though I still believe I would have died before long if not for your kindness."

DragonSong

Krysta smiled at him and bobbed in the air in a gesture that somehow carried the connotation of a polite nod. "We couldn't very well just leave you," she said with a shrug.

Taking wing from Ivan's back, Galon gave her a very pointed look before Birx took his arm and towed him around to hover near their princess.

"I'm afraid I'm not sure how much help we'll be in getting you, well...enough food," Krysta admitted, biting her lip. "But—I did ask my friends to bring some of this."

She produced a cinched pouch that Brix had given her along with the healing supplies, and opened the mouth wide enough to release a faint glow—much like the one that haloed her and her friends. "Pixie dust," she said, as though that explained everything.

MadEmperor

Ivan glanced into the bag with bemused hesitation. He didn't know what the glowing substance was for, only that his faith denounced it. However, he had the good sense not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"You'll have to enlighten me as to the purpose of 'pixie dust.' I am largely ignorant of the ways of the Fae," he asked curiously, the part of him that was a scholar intrigued by the substance.

DragonSong

All three diminutive fae creatures blinked at him with identical expressions of bafflement.

"You...don't know what pixie dust is?" Brix asked disbelieving. It was the first either she or Galon had spoken to the massive creature; though she spoke in Sylvan, it was a simple thing to feed her natural magic into the words to ensure they were understood, as Krysta had done.

The princess herself gave a quick shake of her head and cast her friend a vaguely quelling look. Right. Apparently it was not common knowledge among mortals. Okay then.

"It's...well, ah, technically it is a fine powder made up of millions upon millions of shed particles—we call them "scales"—from generations' of pixies' wings," Krysta explained carefully. She fluttered her own moth-like wings to emphasize the point. "Practically, it is a powerful magical reservoir that we can use to enhance more difficult spells." She cocked her head and smiled slightly. "Like growing a chestnut to the size of a melon. For example." She shrugged. "None of the three of us are very good hunters, but I thought it might be better than scavenging for hours." She glanced down into the bag again, then mused, "I suppose you could eat the dust itself—"

"NO!" Both Galon and Brix shouted so loudly that a startled finch took to the air from a nearby tree.


MadEmperor

While he didn't shout, Ivan seemed equal in his rejection of the idea, shaking his head with wide eyes. "I would very much rather not eat that. Enlarged fruit would be much preferred."

"As for hunting, I was a capable hunter when I was a man. When I feel a little better, I will try my hand—err... paw—at hunting like this. I don't expect you to feed me for any longer than necessary."

DragonSong

Krysta shrugged easily, and both her friends seemed to sag in relief behind her. "Suit yourself--probably wouldn't be a very good idea, now I think about it."

"We can, ah, go get something to use it on, if you wanna stay and make sure the healing took," Brix offered. Narrowing her eyes and lowering her voice, she added to Krysta, "And if you promise not to do something stupid."

The fair-haired pixie rolled her eyes. "I promise, I promise," she huffed, flapping a hand at them both. "See if you can find any snowpears--I think that one tree near the barrier still has a few."

Galon nodded, glancing at Ivan before asking quietly, "You'll be okay on your own?"

She rolled her eyes again. "I have been so far, Gal. Go on!"

MadEmperor

Ivan was mildly amused by the attempt to not be heard. His ears were far too keen for that, not that he didn't understand their reluctance. "On my honor, she has nothing to fear from me," he vowed.

Inwardly, he winced at his own words. He had once vowed to serve Ansgar's church until his dying breath and to reject magic in all its forms, no matter how innocent it appeared. Yet all it took to shake his devotion was the fear of death. He felt like the worst kind of hypocrite.