[MOVED THREAD! Authors, in order of posting: Small Wonder and Damaged16]
Makyo stayed high in the secure branches of the tree long into the night, not daring to move, hardly, as he listened intently for the sounds of those that had pursued him earlier that day. But the woods were silent, save for the occasional rustling of bushes and leaves as some animal went about its business. And he couldn't help but move a little, shivering as the air grew cold, a sure sign that winter was fast approaching.
But as the night wore on, and Makyo heard not the slightest sounds of human activity, he slowly let his guard down and slowly descended from the tree, wings working hard in his exhaustion. But he hadn't dared to sleep, not even a little. And even if he'd had the peace of mind to close his eyes, he couldn't have been able to doze in the slightest. A broken arrow shaft was still lodged painfully in his arm, sending red-hot pain racing horribly through the limb at the slightest movement. And, motion or not, it ached and throbbed at a consistent, sharp pace.
He knew it had to be taken care of, and that was the first thing he set off to do. If he left it in much longer, it could get infected or, perhaps even worse, the wound could start to heal around it if it was especially neglected. Either way, it was an agony-inducing bane he wanted to be rid of as soon as possible.
It took the better part of the night to return to the river he had visited that morning. If he could have flown, it would have taken a mere few minutes, but he was much too tired to attempt that, and too cautious, as well. Walking along the earth in the darkness, he could blend in more easily with his surroundings; just another shadow in the night. Of course, it also made for some stumbling and, thus, some soft cursing as the jolting movements agitated his wound...but it certainly kept him awake, if nothing else.
After a timeâ€"amidst all the pain and exhaustion, he'd lost track of timeâ€"he came to the river, and promptly made his way to a shallow portion of it that was close to the trees, providing an easy escape route if he needed it. Glancing around the area cautiously, he finally knelt when he was sure it was safe and dipped his wounded arm into the chilly water, which immediately induced more shivering. But it also felt good against the sore flesh, and he held his arm under the water until it had soothed and numbed the pain to some extent. That would help...because he knew what he had to do next, and he wasn't looking forward to it...
Drawing his arm from the water, he glanced over the wound, and felt it gingerly with his fingers, fingers tracing over to the other side, where the shaft would have to exit. He had never had to deal with an arrow wound before...but many of his own kind used such weapons, and he knew all about their structure. Arrowheads were designed to pierce and lodge in the muscle, and to stay in the muscle. They were tapered, so that they could slide in easily...and not be removed easily. Pulling it out the way it had come would only result in the already damaged flesh being further damaged...he would have to push it through rather than pull it, so that it exited the way it had been traveling, resulting in a clean exit wound.
Shouldn't be too difficult. As he felt the wound, he could feel the tip of the arrowhead poking just slightly through the skin...
Makyo took a deep, slow breath, feeling suddenly ill, and submerged and soaked his arm again to restore the feeling of numbness. And to regain his nerve.
Damn...how did he ever get himself into this mess? It was just his luck to be assigned to the one place on Earth where mages were hated.
--
Green hair flowed in the wind, his body twisting to avoid making any noise. Feet hit the thick branch of a tall tree with velocity and precision, a body following effortlessly to crouch where the feet had landed. It was silent.
Nikao looked about where he had landed. There was nothing around; no animal stirred and no signs of company anywhere. He continued onward, leaping effortlessly from tree to tree; seemingly flying. His hands flowed on the tree's bark as he slowly descended further into the darkness.
Something was there. He slowed his descent. Silence. He leapt off the tree branch he was on in time to come between the fae in the water and a unnaturally large wolf. Nikao's arms widened at his side to make him appear larger and he let out a sound that resembled much like an animal--though, which animal was unclear. He watched the wolf flee, then waited to make sure it was gone.
He turned to see Makyo and resumed a crouching stance. He glanced at Makyo with interest. He'd seen faes before, but never conversed with them. Or perhaps he had, years ago, when he had enjoyed the company of others in the forest. Before vengeance had plagued his mind.
Nikao could smell the blood. Very little blood, and a very faint smell, but he could smell it. Makyo's arm was the source, the blood having stopped flowing long ago and now just waited to resume when he took what was clogging the wound out.
--
Taking a deep breath, Makyo finally lifted his arm free of the cold water when he was convinced it was as numb as it was going to get. He had to do it now...and fast, before the numbness, yet again, wore off. Not that it would help much to begin with, but if it would relieve any of the pain he was about to feel, it was good enough for him. Pain or not, he had to be quick; the sooner it was over with, the better. The worst part of anything was always the anticipation, right?
He'd just keep telling himself that.
Clasping his hand around what was left of the broken end of the shaft, he took another deep breath. Alright. He'd just count to three, then he'd push it the rest of the way through. It'd only take a second. Just one moment of pain, then his body could finally begin its natural healing process. He took yet another deep breath, then began to count, keeping his eyes riveted on the wound, even though he wanted to look away. He had to watch, just to make sure he didn't do something wrong.
One...two...thrâ€"!
He jumped in surprise as a strange sound, eerily close by, filled his ears, a fierce, animalistic sound, and in a split second he had forgotten all about the shaft lodged in his arm. Well...for the most part. He bit his lip to refrain from cursing as his sudden movement made the wound ache even more, but nonetheless he scrambled awkwardly around to confront whatever it was that had just made that noise, heart beating fast and yellow eyes wide with surprise and fear. With all that had been happening lately, fear had become a very natural response for him; his nerves were frayed.
And the sight of a human didn't help those nerves much.
Cold, exhausted, wounded, and frustrated, he soon found that he no longer even cared at this point. It seemed he couldn't even breathe without rousing armies. Quite uncharacteristically, as his stare turned from fearful to blank, he found himself seriously considering the idea of just up and surrendering to the human. This was ridiculous. He was tired. All he wanted to do was get this bloody arrow out of his arm and sleep. He just didn't have it in him, not the energy nor will, to run anymore.
Well, at least not this night.
But then, as he actually looked at the human...it soon became obvious that he was different. The way he held himself, the way he looked at him...everything about him was less like an actual human and more like...well...a wolf, almost.
Blinking tiredly, Makyo tilted his head to the side slightly, regarding the man warily. Perhaps he was the one who had made that sound...? Still, Makyo was cautious. Faes were guardians of all creatures, but that didn't mean all creatures realized that. Faes were sometimes attacked, as Makyo very well knew, and had to be careful.
Besides...not all faes were benign. Just like any other creature, some were malicious...and the malicious ones could oftentimes give the rest a bad reputation.
--
Nikao looked at Makyo for quite a while, not noticing or even caring that he was staring at the fae. Finally, as Makyo began to stare back, Nikao lept up into the branch above him, the lowest to the ground, but still high enough to almost be completely out of sight in the darkness.
He watched Makyo. Something about him told Nikao that he was not like those he'd met before in the Dark Mage Village.
Nikao knew he had more pressing matters to tend to, though at the time he couldn't decide which of the two ideas he had created in his head to tend to first. And... He couldn't understand why, but the fae was different. Maybe it was because Makyo was rather alone in this forest--with the Kingdom so close--and Nikao could relate... And odd animal instinct acquired
--
Makyo jumped slightly as Nikao vanished up into the trees, no longer able to see the man in the darkness the trees provided. Numbness was once again leaving his arm, the throbbing, sharp pain returning, but he didn't dare turn his back. He didn't know what to expect, and being hunted had made him jumpy and far more cautious than he had ever been before. Before being assigned to this forest, he had never had a need to be cautious; his life had never before been in this kind of danger.
It was a harsh wake-up call for him.
He cleared his throat nervously, shifting slightly so he was crouching on the balls of his feet rather than kneeling. From this position, he could jump to his feet quickly if need be...but he didn't want to rise to his feet just yet. The humanâ€"was he a human? He looked like one, regardless of how he behavedâ€"seemed wild, like any other creature of the forest, and Makyo knew very well not to make any sudden movements. It could very well be that he was just as nervous as Makyo was, and a nervous creature was a creature that was likely to either flee or attack. And, though faes were intuned with nature and nature's children, accidents and fatalities weren't all that uncommon.
"H-hello...?" Makyo spoke quietly...but his words were no longer that of the common tongue spoken by most of the inhabitants of the land. They had shifted, changed to suit whatever language, if any, the shrouded man spoke. All faes possessed the gift of tongues; they could fluently speak any language in existence, even ones they had never before encountered, and shift back and forth between languages without even realizing it. The gift was just that naturalâ€"so natural it was almost done unconsciously.
And it could be a very unnerving ability, as well, to anyone who was unfamiliar with it.
--
Nikao watched Makyo for a while longer. He could see the wound on Makyo's arm; he could smell the blood from it and most importantly; he had heard the quiet uncertainty in Makyo's voice. No, Makyo was of no harm to him. He was not a human and was not the magic wielder who had ruined all Nikao had once lived for.
Letting his feet slide the diameter of the tree branch he was on, Nikao swung once around the branch before letting himself fall right in front of Makyo and, without missing a beat, he grabbed the arrow shaft and pulled it skilfully from Makyo's arm.
Makyo had been taking much too long. He was creating more anxiety for himself just waiting to pull the thing out and, like an animal; Nikao sensed his fear, anxiety and uncertainty. Though, Nikao knew this would hurt as well, but the fact that it had happened so suddenly may have taken away the pain. After all, pain was all a state of mind. If Makyo had not known the shaft had been taken from his arm he would not have felt half as much pain as he would if he knew. Nikao knew that. So, perhaps he had relieved some of the pain that may have came if Makyo had pulled the arrow out on his own.
Nikao leapt back and watched Makyo. "Who did this to you?" He asked, holding the arrow close to his nose and inhaling the scent. No, not one he knew. Well, it was around the forest--the scent--but it was not one he wanted to find. It was not one he cared about.
--
Pain was only a state of mind, huh?
Makyo could vouch otherwise.
Nikao came so quickly, he hadn't the time to react, and a second later...
"Are you INSANE!?" Those were the first words that popped out of his mouth, a whole hell of a lot louder than he had intended, too. Bent over, he hugged his arm protectively to his chest, feeling the warm blood trickle out. That he'd been expectingâ€"once it was dislodged, it was only expected that it should bleed, so that wasn't a concern at all. What he hadn't been expecting was for this stranger to dislodge the bloody shaft for him! The part of his mind that was still rational and unclogged by pain knew that, from the stranger's question, he was only trying to helpful. But the irrational part of his mind could only register pain and some other choice words that he'd picked up from Raijah.
Oh, he knew that shaft had been removed, all right.
But, whatever Makyo currently thought or not, Nikao had probably had the right idea. The way Makyo was carrying on, it would have taken an hour of painstaking torture before he pushed the thing out, which would have been far more painful than a quick, clean motion.
Gritting his teeth, he waited for the pain to pass, and as it settled down to a sharp throb as opposed to a searing, stabbing pain, his rationale began to return, as well. Well...that was one way to get an arrow out...it was done and over with, now...he wouldn't have to worry about it any longer.
That was good.
It just would've been nice had he been warned in advance. Though, that was probably the point...
"Ah...some...some humans...the humans that live in the village a ways away," Makyo finally answered as he slowly released his arm, turning to soak it in the stream. A delicate ribbon of blood colored the clear water for a moment, streaming from the wound, but soon it was washed away by the river's gentle current. Makyo closed his eyes for a moment, letting the cold water soothe away the pain. "They...don't care much for, er, my 'kind'."
Opening his eyes, he looked back over his shoulder at the...man? "Thank you, by the way. Ah...sorry for my outburst. I just wasn't expecting that..."
