Shattered Insanity

[Anonymous]

That one made her chuckle. Within a short moment, it had turned into full-out laughter. This Vivian was a funny one! What a speech! So she was determined to help, was she?

The dragon, who had been sitting in silence this entire time, grumbled a bit and lifted her head. This was the first time she could remember someone putting up with her master's apparent insanity long enough to recognize there was a reason for it and express a desire to help. And Fayne's reaction to it irritated Bedresia quite a bit.

Then again...considering what had happened with Cyrus on the battlefield...she supposed she shouldn't expect anything else. Something like that could break just about anybody.

Fayne brought her laughs under control and turned her attention to Vivian. The rider's expression shifted into one of bemusement, though the way the shadows hit her face from the fire's light might have made her seem more like the crazy woman she was known to be. "You're wasting your time, chicky, if you're trying to get me to open up and talk. Not gonna happen. Ain't none of your damn business."

[Anonymous]

The full on laughing just made Vivian puff out her cheeks in anger and annoyance. This woman was very mean to someone who was just trying to help! It seemed inappropriate and rude of her to say the least!

She just wanted to help after all.

Vivian heard the dragon behind her rustling, but paid it no heed. There was something far more important to focus on, and that was this woman in trouble. This rude and poor woman who needed her help! She had to do her best now, she had to find a way to help...before it was too late.

"It's Vivian, not chicky, and it IS my business!" The flustered Vivian said as she stamped a foot in indignation. "I am a healer, and you are hurt, you need help." She repeated that point as much as she could. She wasn't one that could magically cure mental conditions, but she knew that just...holding it in was bad. "If you keep all the sorrow and hurt inside, it'll just eat you away like a poison. You need to talk! It's not healthy to be quiet about something that hurts. We learn that in the healer's hut on the first day usually."

[Anonymous]

Boy, this one was a determined little thing, wasn't she? Or maybe she was too thick in the head to understand that "no" meant "no." Either way, Vivian's antics were amusing – so was her frustration. Fayne idly wondered how long she would insist before finally giving up the losing battle.

Bedresia remained quiet but kept her attention on the rider. While she thought it was good that someone was finally trying to get the woman to talk, there was always the chance of Vivian pushing the wrong buttons. If that happened Fayne would physically lash out at her again, tired spell or not. It had happened a time or two before.

This was one of those times the dragon wished she could communicate with someone other than her master. Sure would make things a hell of a lot easier...

Fayne simply continued to smirk at the other's persistence. "The only thing I need, chicky," she said in a low voice, pointedly refusing to use Vivian's given name, "is for you to leave me be. Preach what you will - it's no one's business but my own."

Having no intention of continuing this pointless conversation any further, she leaned back against the dragon and let her eyes drift shut.

[Anonymous]

In this case, the woman she was trying to help was just too stubborn to realize she needed help. She at least had accepted her help when it came to healing, but she wasn't letting her heal her other wounds. It was so frustrating, but she was a healer, and she couldn't just give up like this!

At least everyone seemed quite...nice. Even the dragon seemed to be rather content and not really...bothering with them. That was good at least. She wasn't going to turn into light if this kept up, and she was quite alright with that! Vivian was glad to know that her earlier assumptions had been quite wrong...er...had been a little wrong. This Fayne was really not the welcoming sort but...she had been hurt emotionally.

"You say that but I know you're lying. And it's Vivian. I could call you...Stinkhead...no, I couldn't, I'm sorry." Vivian shook her head, not one to be a name caller. However, she'd have to figure out what was going on. Slowly she got up and wandered over to the dragon, kneeling in front of the large creature's head and holding her hand out for the dragon to sniff, before she began to stroke the creature's head. "If only you could tell me what's going on. Your master isn't very nice." Vivian whispered quietly to the large lizard. She kinda liked the dragon, at first she had thought it evil but...it really wasn't.

[Anonymous]

A quiet snort of laughter could be heard coming from Fayne. Stinkhead? Really? That's the best this kid could come up with? Other than that, though, she continued to ignore the stranger - and the dragon.

Bedresia was a little surprised that Vivian was taking the initiative now to be friendly, considering how frightened of her she had been just moments ago. But that was all right. After spending all her time around a mentally cracked ex-rider, a friendly gesture was welcome every now and again.

As if to affirm the girl's comment about Fayne, the dragon made a quiet sound that could almost be interpreted as a laugh. For a moment or two she simply enjoyed the attention she was getting - and then she got an idea. Maybe she couldn't actually tell Vivian what was going on...but she could steer the conversation in a direction that Fayne couldn't avoid.

Pulling away from the girl, she knocked her head against the rider in such a way that it tipped her over onto her back, then virtually laid on top of her to pin her down. If her master tried to lash out at her, she couldn't really do much damage. And she knew better than to aim that crossbow her direction.

Fayne never saw what was coming. The wind was knocked out of her momentarily when the dragon pinned her, and she didn't notice what the creature was doing until well after the fact. She tried in vain to force Dresi off her when she saw that the decorative dagger had been removed from her belt - of course, it did her little good. "Damn it, Dresi! Put that down!"

Okay. Fine. Bedresia tossed the dagger from her mouth off in Vivian's direction, well out of her master's reach. Hey, Fayne never said where she had to put it down, right? The dragon didn't let the woman up, either. She knew Fayne would try to physically walk away if Vivian asked about the name Cyrus that was stitched into the weapon's leather scabbard. This way she couldn't try to lash out, either, if someone angered her.

[Anonymous]

Vivian saw these two really meant no harm. One was injured, and the other was just following her friend. She could respect that! Sure, Vivian was still a little scared by Fayne but...Her want to help outweighed her fear. It was her dramatic desire to save those who were hurt. One couldn't really fault her for that, or for the fact that she knew little of the outside world and how people worked. Just a byproduct of her childhood.

Vivian was rather enjoying the fact the dragon was so placid, until the great dragon stirred and suddenly moved. The illumined girl could only watch in confusion, her head tilting slightly and her eyes blinking in mild confusion. What was happening now? This didn't seem..right. Or maybe it did. Something was going on. Maybe the dragon was trying to help her understand something. Oh she wished she could hear the dragon's thoughts! They were supposed to be rather intelligent after all.

Still she had absolutely no idea what was going on right now.

The dragon...Dresi, was doing something, she was...stealing something from Fayne? It must have been important...Fayne really didn't want her to take it. Maybe it was just the principle of the matter! Yeah, that made some sense. Then the sheathed dagger came skittering right at her and she jumped slightly. Oh...it was in a leather sheathe...right it couldn't cut her. It could hurt if it hit her though so...there had been that. Going over to the weapon she picked it up and looked at it carefully. "Who...Who is..." She ran her hand over the letters of the name, carefully reading it. "Cyrus...You're Fayne...so this isn't yours. Was it a gift?" There were few reasons to carry around something that had another person's name on it. It had to have been a gift to remind her of said person!

[Anonymous]

Damn that dragon!

Fayne tried again to weasel her way out from under the creature, but Dresi had her sufficiently pinned. After a moment or two of vain struggling, she gave it up and lay down again, draping her arm over her eyes. Childish, perhaps. But if her dragon companion was trying to strong-arm her into talking, she wasn't going to cooperate.

When the rider said this was no one's business but her own, she meant it.

Still, for whatever reason, she gave a very curt "no" in response to Vivian's question. But that was all she said. After that, Fayne clammed up. She didn't want to have to think about that bastard Cyrus – let alone talk about him to some sickeningly naïve stranger.

[Anonymous]

Even Vivian wouldn't have kept fighting if she had been laid on by a dragon. Then again, as an Illumined she was able to turn to light and just walk through things so...that was something wasn't it? As humorous as it was though, she kept herself from laughing, and was more interested in the dagger that had been thrown at her.

Slowly Vivian walked over to Fayne and looked down at her, head tilted slightly. This was personal, it had to be. The dragon wanted her to read this...she had wanted her to see this. Fayne's emotional hurt must have come from this...Cyrus. Slowly Vivian got onto her knees in front of Fayne's head. "Keep her like that...just in case please. Don't want her to hurt me." She reached down and started to stroke Fayne's hair gently. "Who is Cyrus, Fayne?" The small woman said softly as she locked her eyes onto Fayne's own, her face warm and comforting as she watched carefully.

[Anonymous]

Fayne wanted to laugh out loud at the girl's request of the creature. Oh, Vivian wasn't the one she wanted to hurt right now. She'd come up with some way to get back at Dresi for this, so help her. She had her in a position where she couldn't get out of this, and the dragon knew it.

The tone behind Vivian's question almost made her puke. Instead the rider immediately swatted the hand away and brought both arms up to cover her eyes and hide her face. "Nobody," she snapped. "Drop it."

Dresi stayed silent and still throughout the exchange. She had absolutely no intentions of letting her master get up if she could help it - and honestly she didn't see how Fayne could wiggle her way loose under her weight. She was glad Fayne had no magical abilities or this could have gotten ugly by now.

[Anonymous]

It seemed so apparent that she was trying to hide it, and trying to get her away from asking. It wasn't a very nice sight honestly, she just wanted to help the poor woman. At least she was immobilized and she could try her best! This was probably the only opportunity she'd get really.

Despite having her hands swatted at, Vivian put them right back near the danger zone and tried to calm Fayne down. This was just like comforting someone in pain, she knew it well. She only wished her magic could help. Sadly, it did nothing for emotional problems, only physical. She would just have to rely on kindness and calmness then! Hopefully she could do this though. "Doesn't sound like nobody." Slowly she moved her hands underneath Fayne's head.

"Watch yourself." She pulled the woman's head up and placed it on her lap, looking down at her still and smiling...though Fayne would probably be getting more of an eyeful of Vivian's bosom if anything. Even Vivian had to peer over a little bit to look at her. "Fayne. You have to talk about this or it'll hurt you forever. Who is Cyrus. It's okay to talk to me."

[Anonymous]

She was ready to reach up and backhand this damn woman. It would be just her luck to get stuck in this kind of situation, wouldn't it? Fayne thought about using the silent treatment to avoid the questions but she had her doubts as to whether it would work. Yet that last remark did make her pause. It's okay to talk to me...

The last time she heard that, it almost got her killed.

Fayne sat up as best as she could, if for no other reason than to avoid physical and eye contact with the irritatingly persistent Vivian. When she spoke again it was still clear she didn't want to talk, but her words lacked the gusto they'd had a moment earlier. The rider was just plain tired of dealing with this kid and wished she would give it up.

"I told you, chicky. You're wasting your time. Forever isn't all that long for me anymore, so it doesn't matter, anyway."

[Anonymous]

At least she wasn't lashing out physically. She didn't seem none to happy though. Vivian sort of was. If someone had told her that she'd be here, stroking a woman's hair while a dragon pinned the woman to the ground in a forest this morning, she would have called that person weird and silly. This was the strangest thing she'd done so far actually. It was...very odd to say the least.

"Nope! Back down you go." Vivian said as she tried to force the woman back down a little bit, head onto her knees again. She was breaking. The woman didn't sound so mean now, she wanted to tell but...this Cyrus musta broke her heart or something like that. She knew the feeling to a degree...like when her best friend had to leave and she couldn't go. Now she had but...she didn't exactly know where. Still, it was a nice adventure so far.

"I'm not wasting my time. I can hear it buried in your voice." She would discover who had hurt her, and how bad, and she would help make it better. She was good at that sort of thing after all. "I'm a healer Fayne. I can't, and won't ever hurt you. It's okay to talk about these feelings. Bad feelings need to be gotten out, and bad memories have to be let go. You can't let them fester like a poison or else you'll never live and see the world for what it is. Grand." Vivian's voice was soothing and she tried to be as calm as possible, despite the fact the woman had free arms and could punch her at any time.

[Anonymous]

The tug was unexpected and Fayne found herself back in the same position. Oddly, instead of trying to tell Vivian off a second time, she found herself falling silent after her latest preachings. The rider wasn't sure what to make of this persistence anymore. Part of her figured there was some hidden motive somewhere. There had to be. No one was this naive and sincere. But...

She opened her mouth to speak - but rather of words, a shriek of pain escaped her instead. At the same time her back arched and her hands clenched, yanking fistfuls of grass from the dirt. An excruciatingly sharp pain in the middle of her back caused this reaction, but she had no explanation for it. Such a thing had never happened before, and neither had she ever experienced a pain this terrible.

Unable to stop herself, Fayne started to flail about. Or as well as being pinned by a dragon would allow, anyway.

Bedresia was startled by the shriek, and she didn't know what to make of what followed it. All she could think of was to keep the rider pinned to keep her from hurting herself.

[Anonymous]

She wasn't fighting anymore! If Vivian wasn't this naive, this scene would look very worrisome to anyone that might wander by. A dragon pinning down a woman while another held her head in her lap. Yeah, this was totally a normal occurrence. Of course, Vivian would just explain it to anyone, though she saw nothing really wrong with this!

That was until...well that was until Fayne started to shriek in pain. That caused Vivian's eyes to go wide, and made her suddenly flash into illumined mode as she stared down at the woman, who was starting to thrash about. This wasn't something that she had experience in before, but it was pain. She just...she just didn't know what to do about it!

Well, there was one thing she could do.

"F-fayne! Fayne! W-what is happening?! D-do you know?" She looked at the dragon, then to Fayne, her hands going to the woman's head and trying to see if she could numb the pain. Okay. Pain numbing. She knew there was...she knew there was a way to do that with her magic. It had to do with the type of magic...and the head. It was always about the brain. The magic would do a lot of the work but she had to make sure it got in there.

Little wisps of power began to release from her hand, slowly sending magic into Fayne. Hopefully this would help to alleviate some of the pain for the woman. She still didn't know what was going on, why Fayne was screaming so much.

[Anonymous]

Fayne couldn't answer. Every time she tried all that came out was a strangled gasp as she tried to quiet herself down. Besides that, she wasn't sure what was going on, herself. All she knew was that there was a spot in her back that hurt like hell.

After a couple of minutes it began to taper off, then it just disappeared altogether. For a few seconds she lay there panting as she fought to bring her breathing under control. Then she started laughing. It was only a quiet chuckle, but it was clear any sanity that had started to show through a moment earlier was long gone now.

Without a word to either Vivian or Dresi, her hand slipped to the pouch that held her crossbow bolts, completely unconcerned that the other girl was enveloped in light again.

[Anonymous]

Vivian still wasn't sure what was going on, but at least Fayne had stopped yelling so much. There was a strangled gasp that kept coming from Fayne, and she kept pressing that magic onto her, hoping that it would do something, that it would do anything. She was very scared, very confused, very...worried to say the least.

The screaming started to die down but...there was something else that started up. Laughing. A lot of laughing...it was very strange to say the least and she was sure that...the pain had done something to Fayne. She was...maybe she was...Well she wasn't even sure what it was yet. A defence mechanism perhaps? Something that Fayne did when she was in a lot of pain? She'd heard of things like that before...she didn't know what it was called, but she knew it was a safety thing in the mind, to escape from all the pain and shock.

"Fayne, you have to speak, what happened, what's wrong?" The glowing woman asked as she tried to look into Fayne's eyes and figure out what was happening. This was all very weird and scary. She really hoped it hadn't been her that did this.

[Anonymous]

Soon as the other finished speaking, Fayne had a crossbow bolt out and pointed at Vivian's neck. The crazy look had returned to her eyes, as had a rather creepy smirk as she continued to laugh quietly. When she spoke her tone was...oddly sinister. Something even Dresi hadn't heard often.

"The only thing wrong is that you don't quit. You had me going there for a minute, I'll give you that. But I suggest you steer clear of my personal life if you don't want that pretty little neck of yours sliced through."

The dragon almost lashed out to knock the bolt from her master's hand, but she didn't want to risk it hitting Vivian on accident. For now she simply held Fayne in place, waiting to see how the healer was going to handle this.

[Anonymous]

Fayne wasn't thinking clearly and Vivian wouldn't fault her for that. Her heart beat so much faster and she really was going to stay for this, but she was so very afraid honestly. She had to be strong though...this woman was suffering because of this Cyrus perhaps...but she just had to remember one thing.

She could not be hurt in this form.

At least not by something like a crossbow bolt. No she had to just...she had to do something! "Y-you can't hurt me in this form Fayne, a-and I don't quit because I know what is right for you, I am a healer and y-you...you...you need...healing." Her voice tapered off at the end into a squeak and she had to just...find her back bone. She wasn't sure if she was going to find it yet.

"What happened to you Fayne?" Well, she found that at least!

[Anonymous]

The simple fact that Vivian couldn't be hurt in this ... whatever form wasn't going to stop Fayne from trying to mess with her. If she couldn't get rid of her and the dragon wasn't going to let her go, then she was going to have a little fun. It was all to obvious that the girl was still quite unnerved.

"Heh. Some healer." Her words still carried that vaguely sinister insane undertone, but there was condescension now, too. A quiet taunting. She didn't lower the crossbow bolt, either. "A person starts thrashing in pain, and you go into panic mode. How embarrassing. When I was an active rider, I encountered plenty of medics who had no trouble keeping a cool head in the same situation. Whoever trained you didn't do a very good job of preparing you, did they?"

[Anonymous]

Vivian's desire to help was a lot greater than her desire to run. Yes, she was scared of course, very scared, but she wasn't going to just run again. She had to stay strong, she had to show the elders that she was right for leaving, that she was ready for it!

Despite the fact her heart was racing.

"They trained me well! I w-was healing you! I k-know it worked be-because you stopped screaming!" Vivian exclaimed as she looked down at the woman before her. She was certain that she was helping, that her powers had helped to get rid of the pain in Fayne's back. She didn't know what had caused it of course, but she was almost certain that she should probably look into that too. "I...I have to look at y-your back...but uhm...I think I'm supposed to keep asking a-about Cyrus." The dragon had wanted her to ask about it, she had thrown the dagger at her so...she had to ask...she had to find out.