Oh Posh and Bother! [Rhiiiii!]

Tally · December 05, 2012, 11:27:09 PM

When Deye woke up, it was to eight different kinds of pain. An arrow had grazed him in the arm, he'd wrenched his knee about somehow and it was stiff and swollen, and he bore a pattern of cuts and bruises on every bit of exposed skin from stumbling through the pathless woods in the night. Worse, he'd had to sleep propped up against a tree in such a position that his back didn't want to straighten itself out without screaming.

This just would not do at all. For a lord of his station to be sleeping outside and to awaken in such a state! Possibly that arrow wound was getting infected, too, which he found to be so unacceptable he preferred to deny even the possibility. The wound was not and would not become infected, not under any circumstance! There. That took care of that.

Rhindeer · December 06, 2012, 12:01:57 AM

Rowan felt his heart clench at the sight before him, pausing with one hoof raised to step over a fallen tree.

It was a human! One of the few he had seen thus far! Right there up ahead! And the poor thing didn't look in very good shape, either. He was obviously banged up and looked a little bloody and Rowan's first thought was, Where is his herd? Didn't he have one? A tribe or a clan? Anything? Or had he been abandoned because he was little and sickly, left behind like a wounded deer to die or succumb to predators.

It was a horrific thought! While he didn't know much about humans, he knew they were pack animals like his own kind. But his kind took care of their old and sickly. They never abandoned their own.

Well, he couldn't just leave him there! He could take care of him! He too was herdless at the moment, so they could just create their own! Surely saving a human's life would count as a heroic tale that he could bring back to his herd!

That settled, Rowan leaped gracefully over the tree trunk and galloped the short distance between them.

"Human!" he called. "Don't be afraid! I'm here to help you, so just stay calm, okay? Everything's going to be okay now! Just don't move, stay right there." He didn't want him to strain himself, after all!

Tally · December 12, 2012, 08:27:58 PM

Suddenly a horse—no, a man—no a horse-man—came leaping right at Deye. It gave him such a start he didn't pick up on what the fellow was saying until he was halfway done with it all.

"Ah...now then, all is well. Settle down, there's no need for a ruckus. I'm..." Deye grimaced as he sat up, and his voice came out strained. "I'm quite hale, just a little...ah, deep puncture wound is all, should clear itself right up."

Rhindeer · January 20, 2013, 12:14:03 AM

"Oh psha, don't be ridiculous! You look terrible!" Rowan said with a frown as he approached. "You'll be someone's dinner in no time if you carry on like this, herdless and bleeding! Come now!"

He didn't wait for the human to respond. Stepping in close, he leaned down, grabbed the human under the arms, and tossed him onto his sturdy back in one sweeping motion, surprised at how light and tiny he felt and marveling at his odd, awkward limbs. It was so strange how they walked on two legs like a bird, so odd how they looked, like they were missing half their body; how did they even balance? Those were all questions for later, though! Because there would surely be a later, once he'd nursed him back to health!

"We'll get you all taken care of! Just hold on, careful now."

Tally · February 04, 2013, 11:22:58 PM

"What a thing to say!" Deye managed to get to his knees, but even moving that much winded him. "You...you should tell me I look dashing and fair! Keep my spirits up!"

Oh...gods above. That had taken a lot out of him. Deye hung his head and panted for air, but the centaur had other ideas for him. Regrettably, Deye's dignity suffered most. He cried out most pitifully as the centaur grabbed him, jostling some injury in his ribs he hadn't even known he'd attained.

Once up there, well, the centaur's advice seemed the wisest course of action. That, and Deye was needing something to hold on to to keep from dropping right to the ground. He had perhaps overestimated his own vigor in the face of injury.

"Aye, do go slowly, my friend." Deye's forehead fell against the centaur's back as he wrapped his arms about the man.

Rhindeer · April 15, 2013, 08:43:03 PM

"Yes, yes, slowly it is," Rowan said, and took off at a trot. Perhaps not as slowly as the human would have liked, but he needed to get him to a clean water source, get that wound treated and make sure he'd had something to drink. How long had he been laying out there, all helpless and alone? Too long, surely!

"I won't lie to you, though. You don't look very dashing right now. I'm sorry, I just don't want it to be a shock if you catch your reflection!"

Rowan glanced over his shoulder at the man and cracked a reassuring smile. "You'll be okay, though! We'll get you patched up and taken care of and you'll be very dashing after, I'm sure!"

Tally · May 13, 2014, 11:50:48 PM

Deye's teeth rattled at the pace. He'd been riding horses nearly as long as he'd been walking, but of course a centaur was not a horse and he had no saddle—could a saddle even work on a centaur. Then there was the issue of bridle and reins and...this line of thought proved entirely too bizarre for Deye just then.

"I shall avoid mirrors," he said in between grunts of pain, "until my wounds have healed sufficiently to provide me impressive scars."

Rhindeer · July 01, 2014, 12:16:59 PM

"Indeed! From the looks of your injuries, you'll have some impressive marks to show off later!" Rowan cheerfully replied. And then, as though realizing something, he peered over his shoulder at the human and arched an eyebrow.

"What happened to you, anyway?"

Tally · July 30, 2014, 03:06:15 PM

"You know, I thought it to be brigands at first." Deye's voice jumped with every jolt. It couldn't have been comfortable for the centaur either, having Deye's backside thumping upon his spine.

"But last I saw, they didn't look, ah...human. Or anything like human. You might avoid the road?"

Even knowing that Deye had run for hours, then walked, then crawled, even knowing that he hadn't stopped once until he collapsed, he still spooked himself enough to glance behind them.

Nothing there.

Rhindeer · July 30, 2014, 08:49:24 PM

Rowan tossed Deye another curious glance. "Oh? What did they look like?"

Tally · July 30, 2014, 11:50:11 PM

"Oh well, I couldn't quite be sure, you know." Deye yelped as they leaped over a fallen log and jostled his ribs.

"Agh. Was running away and all that then, wasn't I? But, well...they..."

Here he had to stop to clear his throat and collect himself. Even so, his voice cracked. "They were...eating them. The guards and...everyone. I saw them eating them."

Rhindeer · August 01, 2014, 03:51:21 PM

The woods were not Rowan's favorite place to be, but that was where he was taking the human. Deeper into the woods, avoiding the roads, and toward the brook he knew ran through here. The human needed water, for he had no doubt lost a lot of water through blood and sweat, and he needed clean water to wash his wounds with. Hopefully whatever had attacked him would not be paying them a visit, too. If it was hunting the human specifically, however, his scent would at least be covered by Rowan's, and they would not find his tracks.

"That's unpleasant," Rowan remarked when the human was done, scrunching up his nose. "Some sort of animal, then? Were they intelligent? Sentient?" Not that he expected the human to know, not when he couldn't even describe what they looked like, but details like that were helpful.

Soon, the sound of running water could be heard in the near distance, the splash and gurgle of a brook. Rowan slowed, watching his hooves where he stepped as the ground grew moist and slippery.

Tally · July 09, 2015, 06:23:34 PM

"They spoke," Deye said, and left it at that. He didn't care to dwell on what he'd seen and heard and every question just kept it all circulating fresh in his head instead of falling away into memory as it ought.

He was having trouble staying upright, even sitting astride the centaur as he was. The lapse of smooth gate into cautious plodding did him no favors, either. His voice sounded slow and thick to his own ears. "Might there...be a, a place I could set down...for just a moment?"

Rhindeer · July 29, 2015, 12:32:19 PM

"What?" Rowan came to a stop at that, the man's voice sending a spike of worry through him. He didn't sound good!

Twisting around, he peered back at him with a wrinkled brow. Then he reached out to touch his forehead. "What's wrong? Are you...you're not gonna pass out, are you? Oh gods, please don't pass out!"