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Strays and Fevered Dreams [HK]

Started by Zero, August 19, 2016, 10:15:30 AM

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Zero

Cole had been laid out in his tent, being tended to by his mother. For a young man that had only hours ago been in the peak of physical condition and the prime of his life, he looked now as if he had been kissed by the grim reaper. His silver skin was sallow and like fire to the touch as his body burned with fever. Much of his armor had been stripped from him and Kyandria cleaned the blood from his skin and wounds with a cool cloth, trying to soothe him as much as she could.

A gaping wound slashed across his left hip and down his thigh, whatever had caused the wound had exposed bits of his hip bone and nearly tore his thigh muscle clean off his leg. He was extremely lucky he'd not been disemboweled. As it was they were worried if he would ever walk normally again. A mercenary with a distinct limp was hardly marketable. One that couldn't walk at all was even worse.

It wasn't supposed to happen like this. No one understood how things could have gone so very wrong. Of course someone had to take the blame, and right now Cole was definitely the easiest target. After all, he was the youngest and newest working man. The fact that there was no way he could argue, defend himself, or fight back was a huge bonus as they poured out their side of the story to the boss. It was quite the fanciful explanation, and entirely bullshit, but their scapegoat wasn't about to counter their tall tale.

They all came to the most logical conclusion: Cole had to go.

Three men were dead, two had substantial wounds, and Cole was in such poor condition they were certain he was a dead man anyway. If the boy was just going to become dead weight there was no point in keeping him around.

Half the men in the company suggested putting him out of his misery – and taking anything he owned, little as that might be. The other half just wanted to get out of Zantaric.

In the end the only thing that saved him from having his throat slit and his body dumped in the jungle was Kyandria. Even as a slave, she browbeat his father into helping her remove him from harm's way, even if his father agreed with the men that suggested that he was dying and a quick death would be kinder.

Together they moved him to a litter and dragged him through the streets. Kyandria was the one that found out about a supposedly gifted dryad healer with a tender heart; a rare thing in Zantaric. Most would have turned him away as too expensive to help without some form of compensation.

As soon as they reached Lavender's home, Kaleb took a last look at his son and left since he had fulfilled his obligation of dragging him there. Kyandria knelt down next to him, smoothing a hand over his burning forehead tenderly, a flicker of some undefinable emotion in her red eyes as her baby boy didn't so much as stir at the motherly touch. She had resented him all his life, but he was still her child. Her only child. She couldn't let him die without trying to save him.

It was the very least a mother could do for her son.

"I should have left you on a doorstep years and years ago." It was the only apology for raising him in such a life that came to her. She removed the pendant from around her neck and carefully placed it around his. He tossed his head fitfully to the side. Rising up she banged her fist loudly against the door and then left to return to her master. Kyandria felt she had done all she could.

Medievarad

It was said a Dryad didn't need much or any kind of sleep, provided they were exposed to enough sun beforehand. And while Lavender always tried to get as much sun as possible, the skies of Zantaric were grey and filled with water. So, sleep was now a requirement. And it was such a bother. But one she had needed to accept. The vines that made for her roof had grown shut over the past days at her command, incase of rain, her furniture wouldn't get wet.

It was a frustrating thing to have your free time halved. And the bad weather affected her outlook, normally, her skin was bright and her hair was fair, but now, everything seemed faint about the dryad healer. But her mood never changed.

She was halfway through a cup of water, which was spat out against the wall, when she heard a loud banging on her door. Who would disturb her at this ungodly hour of, she frowned slowly, unsure what time it exactly was. But nevertheless, she hurried to the front door. One who knocked that hard either had a nasty surprise or was in need of desperate help.

And today was one of those days it was a mixture of the two. The small dryad pushed the door open, before her eyes widened and her jaw dropped in shock. Softly gasping before she rushed to the half drow's side, kneeling down next to her as her hands got a soothing golden glow. This man was dying, so she had to tend to that first before she moved him.

The dryad looked at his face as she healed his most severe wounds from their critical state, to at least stabilize him. "Can you hear me?!" She called out with a light and airy voice, still healing him as she did.

Zero

Cole's only version of reality had been heavily skewed by the fever. Nightmare landscapes muddled like looking and hearing through a layer of water. He had no memory of what had brought on this dreamlike state and was only dully aware of the agonizing pain that wracked his body. Words being spoken that he couldn't understand and movements that his mind fled from.

At least, that was everything that he could grasp before a painfully glowing gold light pierced the foggy darkness. He wanted to retreat from that too, but found that he couldn't as his body groggily responded to it.

His head turned as his eyelids fluttered open briefly. There was someone beside him, but his vision was too cloudy to really make them out very well, but he could hear them speaking to him. The voice was unfamiliar and he might have been afraid if he could think clearly enough to truly understand that he was with a stranger.

"I'm sorry." It was all he could manage to mumble out as his eyes fluttered closed again, head collapsed to the side as he lost what little consciousness he'd been able to muster.

Medievarad

Lavender didn't listen to his words, whatever he said didn't matter to her, the only thing that mattered was that he could still speak. It told her that he wasn't going to die just yet, she glanced towards him as he seemed to lose consciousness once again. That was bad.

And she doubled her effort to have his flesh knit together again, making sure he at least didn't bleed  to death.

And as soon as she realized it was safe to transport him, she pulled him on her back with a soft groan, moving to walk inside her small residence, where she immediately put him down on the table, knocking aside plates and glasses, it didn't matter, she could always buy new ones. The stranger took priority.

And she proceeded to heal him inside. Most of his major wounds were not as severe as before after half an hour and she sat back, pale and with dulled eyes as she went about to find bandages.

Zero

The body was willing and pliable to the dryad's magic, muscles slowly fusing themselves back together enough to remove the threat of death.

Cole groaned in pain when he was moved from the ground outside to the table within the healer's home, but otherwise he didn't show other signs of having much life in him at first. As Lavender continued healing him as he lay on the table he did become more animated, at least in the fact that his head would move from side to side, a plethora of expressions crossing his face as he murmured incoherently to people who weren't there.

When she eventually sat back Cole had begun shivering, a thin sheen of sweat coating his body as the fever that had consumed him finally broke.

Medievarad

She returned with bandages and frowned softly as she saw the sheen of sweat on his body, immediately turning around to hurry and find a blanket.

She returned rather quickly, starting on bandaging his wounds, using several poultices as she did to keep them from infecting. As she was done, Lavender spread the blanket and let it descend on Cole, before slumping back in a chair next to the table, panting softly.

Zero

Cole's body twitched while she worked at spreading her medicines over his wounds, and he tossed his head with another pained groan as she wrapped the bandages in place. A string of words left his lips, but they were barely intelligible and in the drow language of his mother.

His eyes had begun fluttering again, until they finally opened about halfway. Staring up at the ceiling only produced a very confused expression as he had no idea where he was or how he got there.

"Laurent? Mikhail?" His eyes were unfocused, obviously still quite dazed and not fully grasping his surroundings as he asked for two of the men that, in his mind, he should still be with. He had no idea that both men were dead and he was lucky to be alive.

Medievarad

She ignored his feverish dreams and proceeded with her work regardless.

As he opened his eyes and spoke however, she sat up, standing on her toes to leanbforward enough so he could see her face. "I do not know those names. You're safe here," she answered, giving him a.weak smile.

Zero

"Here?" Cole questioned, blinking at the strange face before looking at his surroundings more closely as it slowly dawned on him that he absolutely was not in camp. No one from camp was nearby either. He was alone in a strange place with a strange person. That didn't seem safe to him at all.

A look of panic crossed his face, eyes darting here and there looking for someone, anyone that was hiding. Maybe the boys were playing a great joke on him. Ha. Ha. Ha. So funny! They could stop now.

Medievarad

She rested her hand on his shoulder, her magic flowing through his body to ease his pain, aswell as calm him down. Yet she visibly paled even more as she did, and soon, she was forced to withdraw, since she was on the brink of passing out. "You're safe here," she repeated in a hushed voice, tryi to atleast comfort him, her eyes sliding closed again.

"You were severely wounded.. I found you at my door," she explained, before swallowing heavily. "Your life isn't endangered.. But you're not completely healed.. Rest."

Zero

Well Cole could confirm that she wasn't lying about being severely wounded, even shifting his weight on the table had him gritting his teeth, hissing out a pained breath as he instinctively tried to clutch at his left leg.

It was hard to try to put the pieces together of what had happened, exactly.

At least until he realized there was something around his neck. Cole lay back on the table, bringing a hand up to wrap around the small pendant. He couldn't ever remember seeing his mother without the little trinket. If he was wearing it then his mother must have been the one to bring him here. That only half made sense.

None of the men would have considered hauling him there worth their time, but he was a little surprised his mother would bother either. She had never shown a particular love for him, but he had always had a sort of...understanding with her. If she gave him the necklace then he knew something else - no one was coming back for him. He didn't know if he should laugh or cry about that.

"I'll...try." Cole swallowed thickly, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to relax. The woman was obviously a healer. He hadn't really looked at her too closely in his panic, but she sounded exhausted to him. "I think I'm okay now."

Well, maybe okay was a stretch, but he wasn't going to try to run away and hurt himself more on accident.

Medievarad

She hissed a soft scolding under her breath as he tried to even just move around a little. "Just stay still," the dryad added with a faint grimace. "I need to recover.. So I cant heal you when your wounds open," she murmured. "It took everything to save you, so don't be stupid," she murmured softly.

She glanced up at him as he told her she was ok. "You aren't," she murmured faintly again. "Else you wouldn't be here," one eye cracked open at him. "Just sleep.. I'll stay here."

Zero

"I'm not..." Cole's eyes were still closed, but his face screwed up into a bit of a childish pout at being told not to 'be stupid'. Of course now that he realized how bad moving, even a little bit, hurt he had figured out that laying still was probably the smart course of action for the time being.

He turned his head just enough that he could crack his eyes open and look at her again. "You don't have to stand guard like I'm an unruly child, you know. I promise I ain't moving, lady." Cole heaved a great sigh and closed his eyes again. A few minutes ago he couldn't stay conscious, but now his mind felt too busy to simply fall back asleep like everything was fine and normal.

His body was exhausted and disagreed with that.

Medievarad

"You're not an unruly child," Lavender croaked in response. "You're a hurt young man," she opted instead, smirking faintly. "And I need to take care of you."

She took a deep and pained breath, before exhaling again. "So rest. I'll be right here."

Zero

"Can't take care of me if you don't take care of yourself." Cole mused, eyes still closed and voice sleepy despite his reluctance to go back to sleep. Honestly he was afraid he wouldn't wake up again. Or that he'd have more strange nightmares.

It didn't matter how much he didn't want to sleep, within a couple minutes his face smoothed as his breathing became the deep, even rhythm of sleep as his body demanded rest.

Medievarad

The Dryad didn't respond to his words. Even though she whole heartedly agreed with him. It was a matter of being unable to, rzther than refusing to answer.

Anf as soon as she heard the shift in his breathing, she leaned back in her seat, drifting pff aswell to get some much needed sleep.

Zero

Cole remained passed out for several hours, his body working very slowly on the process of recovering from his near-death experience. Eventually he began waking slowly, making small movements in his sleep which caused him to whimper in pain.

He groaned softly before turning his head with a gasp, eyes fluttering open as he remembered some of what had happened earlier. It wasn't any better waking up in a strange place this time, really, but at least he didn't start panicking like before. His first instinct was to look around for the weird woman that had been caring for him.

"Hello?" Cole croaked softly, his voice a little hoarse.

Medievarad

Lavender, who was positively exhausted did stay out as long as Cole did. Past experiences however, taught her to be a very light sleeper. And when her patient stirred and called out faintly, she sat up weakly, her skin having regained some of it's natural colour.

She sat up with a faint murmur and a deep breath. "I'm here.. I'm here," she shushed faintly.

Zero

Cole still wasn't entirely sure where 'here' was. Yes, her house, but where was her house? In the middle of the jungle? The middle of the city? A temple?

Sighing at the sound of her voice, he relaxed back on the table. "How long do I have to lay still on this table?"

Medievarad

"Long enough," Lavender responded as she tried to get to her feet, before slumping back down. No good, still to weak. She didn't like that at all, unable to properly move with a patient right next to her. One in severe condition, which was just another added risk.

"How.. Are you feeling?" She croaked the question weakly.

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