Taking Shelter (Discontinued)

[Icepop213]

Maleth ran as fast as he could, trying to evade the numerous thugs chsing him. He focused in front of him, not saying a word, his cloak whipping in the air behind him. He saw an enemy in front of him and unsheathed his sword. He jumped in the air, channeling the little magic he had left into this one thrust. He slammed his sword down, creating a small earthquake that killed most of the thugs. There were still some left, and he tried to evade them. He was weak now, using the last bit of energy he had in that one blow. He tripped over a tree root and fell. He looked up and thought he saw a town ahead. He hid in his cloak and entered the twon unnoticed. He looked around for a tavern or something where he could take shelter. 'There,' he thought to himself as he spotted one. He limped to it and entered. He barely made it to the corner of the tavern before falling in a seat and grasping his leg. He lifted his hand, revealing a bloody gash.

[Ethereal-Star]

"Oh my!" cried out a soft feminine voice before a scantily-dressed blonde woman rushed over to him, her intent to aid him. Green eyes looked at the man worriedly, his black cloak obscuring some of his face, but Lorenna could see blue eyes in a handsome face that winced in pain at the gash on his leg which to the young woman looked pretty bad.

Careful to avoid the large silver sword by his side, she bent down to get a better look at the wound. "Please come with me upstairs, so I can help treat your injury." she told him gently. The 'tavern' they were in was in fact, not a tavern at all, but a brothel instead. Whether or not the injured man would notice this remained to be seen.

Around them, some of the other girls were busy with customers, so it was left to Lorenna to try to help the man. The hired muscle who were present in the establishment stood ever at the ready, one of them glancing at the sword the man carried but did not tell him to leave, seeing his current predicament and all.

[Icepop213]

"Ugh..." Maleth looked up into the woman's eyes. He stopped breathing heavily. He let her help him upstairs. 'Where am I?' He thought to himself. He looked around and noticed the men staring at him. 'Crap...' Then Maleth saw the other women. 'Wait a minute... This isn't just a tavern...' He hadn't seen the sign as he was too focused on his wound.

[Ethereal-Star]

Despite the situation, Lorenna couldn't help but giggle at his lack of perception. "No, it's a brothel house." she told him, continuing to help guide him up the stairs and into her bedroom where she kept a small medical kit of bandages, gauze, ointment and water with which to clean any wounds. The guards at the front had told Maleth to leave his weapon downstairs where he would get it back later as he was not allowed to bring it upstairs.

Guiding him towards the bed so he could take a seat, Lorenna immediately went over to her stash of medical supplies and opened it, pulling out some clean cloths and container of water first. "That is a nasty gash on your leg. What exactly happened?" she asked him.

[Icepop213]

Maleth decided not to tell her what had happened. If the men downstairs were to find out, he would be in big trouble. Insteas, he came up with some random made up story. "I was waking to this town, see, to get a drink and supplies for my journey back to Norhtwatch, my hometown, when I was mugged by a couple of robbers.They gave me this gash and left me to die." He stopped to breath. He drew baby breaths and started again, "I somehow still had enough strength to make it into this town and get in here." He was referring to the brothel. He looked down at he wound to see how bad it was. He saw the it was just a minor injury, but it hurt like heck. He winced in pain as the nice woman treated the wound. "Oh, and my name's Maleth. What's yours?"

[Ethereal-Star]

First Lorenna rolled up his pant leg in order to press a clean cloth over the wound to staunch the bleeding and held it there for a few moments, before dabbing at it carefully with some of the water that was in the flask. The cloth soon turned a dark red color, having absorbed a lot of the blood from the gash on his leg. The blonde woman finished her treatment of his wound by firmly pressing another clean cloth over the injury, then unrolling some of the white gauze to securely wrap around his leg before tying it off in a double knot. And a nice leg it was too, she noted silently, a slight smile on her lips.

"There you go." she said, lightly patting his other leg, the one that was uninjured. "Such happenings are rather common in this day and age." Lorenna pursed her lips, looking not at all surprised by his story and having no reason to disbelieve it either. "But we learn to deal with them as best we can." Making a mental note to look into the matter at a later time.

Going over to the basin to dispose of the dirty cloth and wash her hands, Lorenna looked over her shoulder at the handsome blue-eyed stranger. "I invite you to stay here while you recover, get a drink, see what the place has to offer." she said, smiling at him. "My name is Lorenna and I am one of the working girls here. Is there anything I can get you for now? Some ale or mead perhaps?"

[Icepop213]

"No, thank you, I'm good," Maleth said uncomfortably. His heart started pounding when Lorenna put her hand on his other leg. He tried to get up but fell down to the ground. He let out a yelp as his wound hit the floor. He sat there, waiting for the pain to cease. 'I need to get this letter to him,' Maleth thought as he reached in his coat and clasped his hand around a small envelope. He was assigned to deliver a letter to a man named Silas, who lived in an underground cellar somewhere in Ketra. Maleth was ganged up on by a group of mercenaries working against him. It was then that he accidentally fell on his sword. He wasn't doing the job for money, but rather for information about the whereabouts of the man who had killed his parents. 'That night...' He remembered it as if I happened yesterday. The men, how they broke into his house and held him against a wall while he watched the man slit his parents throats. How he was given a scar as a reminder. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as tears started rolling out if them. He made a fist and struck the floor. The floorboards shattered underneath his fist. 'Don't worry. I'll avenge you...'

[Ethereal-Star]

Lorenna let out a startled gasp when Maleth fell to the floor, right on his wound. Immediately she rushed over to him to take a look at the injury, to make sure it hadn't started bleeding again. Noting his hand reach into his pocket, as though to assure himself whatever it was were still there, she smiled at him. "You really should be more careful." she teased.

But then jumped back in fright when he smashed the floorboards underneath them, the wood cracking and splintering, leaving a small hole there, shards of wood lying scattered all around. The door burst open then, and two armed guards rushed in, weapons drawn and at the ready. Looking quickly at the two sitting on the floor in confusion, one of the guards who was more burly than his comrade with a thick beard covering his jaw, demanded to know what was going on. "What's going on here? Is everything alright? Lorenna?"

Lorenna stood up then, smoothing out her barely there top. "Yes, I believe so." she told the guards, looking back at where Maleth was sitting on the ground, looking angry about something. "I think he is just upset about what had happened to him on the streets."

"Did he hit you?" the bearded guard asked with a firm tone, an edge of hard steel in his voice as he looked sharply at Maleth.

"No, no, nothing of the sort. Although I can't say the same for the floorboards." she joked a little, in an effort to try to ease up the tension in the room.

The two men did not look amused however. "I'll be fine." Lorenna told them. "You don't need to worry about me."

Finally, they both relented. "If you need our help with anything, do not hesitate to call out for us." Lorenna nodded at them in affirmative. With one more look toward the downed man on the cracked floor, the hired guards took their leave then, closing the door firmly behind them.

The woman looked back at Maleth then. "You must excuse them. It is their job to ensure all goes well in this establishment." Looking closer at his troubled features, she asked him the same question as before. "'Are you sure there's nothing you need?"

[Icepop213]

"N-No, I'm fine, really," Maleth protested. He got up and sat back on the bed. He felt his eyelids become heavy. 'Am I really tired now?' He HAD been running for a while. He tried to hide his tiredness, but spoiled it with a good yawn. He ignored it and said, "I should be on my way." He tried to get up again but decided that it would be futile to try. "Uh, do you have a cane or anything?" He asked the lady. He tried to ignore her rather revealing attire. He shook his head and looked down at his hand. His knuckle had started to bleed, but he tried to hide it. This woman had already bandaged up his leg, and did a fine good job of it too.