There was so much death.
It was like the fog of time had been rolled back: screams sounded the same in any language, and for the barest moment Clarence could swear he could smell the winds of home, tainted with the smell of arcane fires burning flesh. It was enough to distract him only for a moment, but that moment was a moment too long. Shaking his head with an angry growl at himself, he moved along the... THING'S back to those who had managed to make it to the upper decks before all hell broke loose below.
Leenane had been knocked out, but a quick check showed she was still breathing, well in the care of those who had carted her up. He'd need to get a closer look, but not now. He had to move on.
There was a cluster of sailors with scratches. No.
Scrapes. No.
Bruises. No.
A broken arm. He'd have to set that later. No.
One woman looked almost made of ash, clutching at where a piece of wood had embedded in her chest. Even through the layers of her clothes, even with the wood, he could see how her blood spurted in a steady, forceful rhythm, getting weaker by the second. Clarence's hands felt frozen as he clung to his bag and knelt down beside her. She didn't even seem to notice him, focused entirely on the chunk of ship she carried with her.
Weakly, she pulled at it, but even if Clarence hadn't been there to stop her, he was sure she never would have managed it. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small glass vial and popped the cork.
"Easy, easy," Clarence wasn't even sure he was speaking the southern dialect anymore, but it hardly mattered. She wouldn't have understood her own mother. "Drink."
He pulled her head back to open her mouth enough to drop the vial's contents, and some instinct still present made her swallow. Clarence put the empty vial away and stared hard at another nearby sailor with minimal injuries.
"Stay with her."
"I don't know what to do," the sailor said, his voice high and panicked.
"It doesn't matter. Just stay."
He stood up again and moved on, the cold in his hands creeping up. He took a deep breath and let it out long and slow, glancing around and counting how many faces he could put names to. Another breath, full of salty steam and the tinge of iron, and the cold steadied long enough for him to carry on, kneeling down again and again to apply cloth, to apply pressure, to apply analgesic, to bark orders to those nearby to at least hold their comrades steady as he pushed needle and thread through their skin.
So much for the might of magic, he couldn't help but think to himself, staring out across the waters to where others had already made it to the beach. Fire and brimstone were little comfort when your own corpse was failing you.
Eventually Clarence made it to the head of the beast, where their captain had been pulled-- a bit unceremoniously-- from the ship and onto relative safety. Clarence knelt down to check her for injury, but was quickly swatted away.
"Stop your fussing," Amryth snapped, staring at all those on board the behemoth. "I'm fine, help them."
"I was going to whether you ordered it or not," Clarence snapped right back, which seemed to take Amryth by surprise, because she didn't swat him again as he finished checking for more serious injuries. Her side was tender, but there was no telling right that moment how bad that actually was. No time, at any rate. "Stay put and don't do anything stupid."
"A bit late for that," she replied, all harshness gone, and again Clarence noted how similar despair sounded in any language, as well. He stood once more, and began the slow trek back down the beast's spine, stopping for those he had delayed on earlier, hoping against hope he had the bandages to spare.
A fool's hope, perhaps.
It was hard to tell the passage of time. The skies were dim and grey, the sun was nowhere to be seen, and for all anyone knew it took hours before everyone still living was on shore. Lifeboats, all in various stages of damage and usefulness, were strewn over the beach, but even those with no sailing experience knew there were far less of those than there should have been. Even more bodies were on the shore, pulled from the vicious waters only to take their final rattling breath. Some weren't even recognizable, their skin melted by the heat of the waters. Clarence walked as swiftly as he could along the shore, slipping here and there on ice of all goddamn things.
He knelt down again, looking into the remaining eye of Hrodebert. Even through the dirt and blood and sweat and terror, it was easy to see how young he was. Entirely too young, Clarence thought, to be faced with something like this. But then again, who in their shared homeland wasn't?
"Easy, son," he said quietly in the Connlaothian dialect, directing him to swallow a vial of analgesic before pushing him to lay down on the beach. "We need to take that out. It's going to hurt. Just hold onto my shirt and keep as still as you can, soldier."
Removing eyes was never easy. But letting that fester would sicken the boy even quicker, and Clarence wasn't sure of the chances of anyone here whose injuries became infected. If the ship had been in order, if all their supplies still existed, if if if...
Clarence pulled a sharpened spoon-like instrument out of his bag.
"Keep very still."
For all the hopes of glory there had been, it was hard to see how any of that could come to fruition now. All of the ships that had sailed from Essyrn were demolished, and very few crates of supplies had survived the journey from the holds to the beach. To the west, only one lone path led up the cliff face, high above the gathered heads of the survivors below. Winds whipped white snow off the edge, to fall almost cruelly soft upon those below.
The only thing that was certain now, was that they could not stay where they were.
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Summary: There are more injured than there are those whole. The ships are gone, and very few lifeboats could stand a chance back out on the waters again. Supplies are limited, but a path leads upwards, where several passengers have already gone up, leaving the others behind. What will our Explorers do?
Explorers Event Posting Order
Nephero, EckhartVonMusel, ForeverUnforgiving [HIATUS], Trenzalor, Sarang [HIATUS], Kingfisher, GoblinFae