Crimson Pursuit [M][DragonSong]

[MorningStar]

@DragonSong

---

The dense forest murmured with an otherworldly hush as Akira Lockman stalked through the shadows. The skeletal fingers of ancient trees reached skyward, their gnarled branches casting eerie silhouettes in the moonlit night. Akira's piercing gaze cut through the darkness as he traced the subtle signs—a lingering scent, a displaced twig—that marked the presence of the elusive demon.

Silent as a whisper, Akira moved with the fluid grace of a predator, his senses heightened by years of honed instincts. The air, thick with the scent of damp earth and moss, seemed to pulse with an unnatural energy. He pressed on, the trail winding deeper into the heart of the forest, where the moon's glow struggled to penetrate the dense canopy.

A distant growl echoed through the trees, causes Akira to grin in playful confidence. The demon was near, its presence manifesting in the ominous stillness. Akira's hand tightened around the hilt of his knife, its substance-dipped edge glinting in the dim of night. With each step, the forest seemed to close in, shadows dancing with malevolent glee.

As he entered a small clearing, the moon bathed the scene in an ethereal glow, revealing the demonic silhouette. The creature, adorned in twisted horns, turned to face its hunter. Akira's eyes met the demon's fiery gaze, and for a moment, time hung suspended. In that heartbeat of anticipation, the forest held its breath.

"So good of you to finally join me," Akira remarks, a smirk playing on his lips and a mischievous gleam in his eye. "You have quite the price on your head."

The demon's visage remains impassive. "You're hunting days are over."

Then, like a tempest unleashed, the battle erupted. Akira's movements were a whirlwind of steel and shadow, a dance between the mortal and the monstrous. The forest bore witness to the clash—the clash between the determined hunter and his formidable opponent.

After some time, Akira, a triumphant glint in his eyes, believed he had cornered the demon. He tightened his grip on his blade, ready to deliver the final blow. A sly smile curved his lips, confident that he had outsmarted his prey. However, in a sudden twist of malevolent ingenuity, the demon's form shifted like smoke, leaving behind an illusory decoy. In the blink of an eye, Akira found himself face-to-face with the true demon, its wicked grin mirrored in the chilling realization that he had been played. Before he could react, the demon unleashed a deadly counterattack, leaving Akira severely, and potentially fatally, wounded.

"Ah, shit!" he cried in pain as he fell to the ground.

Gazing up at his foe, it seemed if as he had met his match. Yet, just as the demon poised to strike the finishing blow, the echo of approaching footsteps resonated through the air. Casting a triumphant, fleeting grin at Akira, the demon vanished into the concealment of the surrounding trees.

"..Well, okay then."

Akira Lockman slumps back into the dirt, losing consciousness.

[DragonSong]

If she had a copper bit for every time she found an unconscious hunter barely a stone's throw from her cottage door, clearly in need of healing aid, she'd have three coppers. Which...wasn't all that much, but it was weird that it had happened that often.

This one had been brough to her attention by Sorren. Her familiar had come yowling into her workroom, fur puffed up all along his spine and turning his tail to a bottlebrush, and she'd followed him out into the woods without a moment's thought.

"Well now." Serena sighed and knelt beside the unconscious hunter--at least, she assumed he was a hunter of some sort. She rarely got strangers this close to her cottage if they weren't. "This is unfortunate," she murmured, taking stock of the patient who had landed in her lap. She laid one hand on the man's shoulder and called gently, "Hello? Can you hear me?"

If she could bring him back to consciousness, she had a better chance of assessing his current state.

[MorningStar]

"Not now, mother dear; I'm still sleeping," Akira mumbled, gradually rousing from his unconscious state after a taxing skirmish. A subtle movement on his shoulder prompted a hesitant return to awareness. Cracking open one eye, he beheld a woman hovering above him, her two eyes captivating with their mismatched colors. Whether her hair was white or silver, he couldn't quite discern, but it framed her face elegantly. Smooth skin, enticing lips, and fashionable robes—this was undoubtedly a woman.

"Hello there," he grinned, though the sharp twinge in his torso betrayed his pain. "Are you an angel?"

Ah, the irony dawned on him; yes, he must be dead.

[DragonSong]

Serena snorted. "Not even close, I'm afraid. Up you get now, my lad." She slipped one arm behind his shoulders and ducked so she could pull his arm around her own, trying to get him to his feet as gently as she could manage. "You're clearly in need of some aid, and I'll be able to get you sorted better back at my cottage."

[MorningStar]

"Hey, not exactly my idea of fun," he mutters through gritted teeth, a forced smile on his lips. "How about we start with a drink, at least?"

Despite projecting a facade of carefree flirtation, Akira remains noticeably in pain, and he gratefully accepts her offer. With her help, he manages to rise to his feet, leaning just enough of his weight onto her for support, preventing himself from toppling back over as they move.

[DragonSong]

"Oh good, you're lucid enough to joke." Serena smiled at him and adjusted his arm slightly so she was supported about half his body weight--which, really, didn't look like something a woman of her size and stature should be able to do. "Come on. It's not far, I promise."

She started them hobbling through the woods back toward her cottage. After a few steps, there was a soft rustling in the underbrush and a soft, inquisitive, "Mow-wow?"

"Blaze, could you get the water heating?" Serena asked with a small smile for her orange tabby familiar as he slunk out from behind a bush and chirped at her curiously. The cat nodded in an incredibly human gesture and she murmured, "Thank you," as he darted off.

[MorningStar]

Akira couldn't help but reciprocate her warm smile, her comforting gaze providing the boost he needed for the short trek back to her cottage. However, that smile waned as he observed the interaction between the mysterious girl and her little feline companion.

"Okay," he murmured softly, as if questioning his sanity.

His eyes found hers once more as he leaned on her for temporary support. "I'm Akira," he introduced himself. "And you?"

[DragonSong]

"A healer," Serena responded. They reached the small clearing where her cottage rested, and she encouraged, "Just a bit further now; there's a bed where you can rest, and I can take a proper look at your wounds."

She got him to the door before another cat made their appearance--Jasmine this time, mrrrrling a soft question and flicking her tail as she picked her way out through the cottage's open window.

"I don't know who he is," Serena replied to the cat, jostling the door with one hand to try to get it open while still supporting Akira's weight. "Be a dear and fetch Sorren? The two of you can get the bandaging ready, if Blaze has already got the water heated."

"Mrrow. Mow-mow. Mrrp."

"Thank you, sweetling."

[MorningStar]

Accepting the oddity of her conversation with a cat, he pushed those bewildering thoughts to the back of his mind. His line of work had exposed him to stranger occurrences, and, despite its unexpected nature, talking to a feline companion didn't seem all that unusual in the grand scheme of things. At least, that's what he tried to convince himself.

As they approached the door, he gently eased himself away from her support, shifting his weight onto the solid surface before him. Despite the pain coursing through his body, he offered a warm smile.

"I'm okay," he reassured, though it was a lie veiling the discomfort. "And like I said, my name is Akira. It seems your little friend there was curious about that."

[DragonSong]

"What you are called and who you are are two very different things," Serena replied placidly. "Jasmine was asking about the latter. Come, I'll get you to somewhere you can rest."

With the door now open, she offered her arm again as support as she led him into the small cottage. There were only really two rooms--the workroom, which they entered, with a small oven tucked into a corner that indicated Serena also used her space as the kitchen, and a slightly larger living space that took up the back half of the cottage. Her bed was pressed against the far back wall, and she led Akira to it before telling him, "Sit. And I need to be able to see your injuries if I'm going to help."

[MorningStar]

Akira leaned on her for support once again before easing himself onto the bed. Grateful for her assistance, he started to remove his shirt, wincing as a surge of pain coursed through his body.

As he removed his shirt, he exposed a well-defined, athletic physique adorned with a collection of scars, a testament to battles both recent and past. The fresh wound, a prominent gash across his chest from his most recent encounter, would likely catch the healer's attention.

"So tell me," he asked, managing a smile despite the pain, "What is your name?"

[DragonSong]

The witch smiled a bit and nodded at him in subtle approval. "I am called Serena," she replied easily, gathering up his shirt and bundling it toward the bottom of the bed, where a silently waiting black cat gathered it up in his mouth and jumped down, trotting off with it.

Kneeling in front of her patient, Serena frowned as she looked the wound over. "Is this it? Or just the worst of it?" she asked briskly. She reached toward him, then glanced up and checked, "It's alright if I touch you, yes? I'll be as gentle as I can, but it will probably still hurt--this is deep."

[MorningStar]

Akira observed the small feline carry off his shirt, briefly entertaining whimsical thoughts of cats wearing clothes. His face likely wore a rather blank expression as he indulged in these thoughts, and as he did, he felt his vision start to blur.

Yet, the woman's voice jolted him back to the present.

"Well I won't refuse the touch of a beautiful woman," he said, trying to compose himself.

He raised his head slightly, nodding to give her the approval she needed to proceed with the treatment.

[DragonSong]

Serena snorted quietly as she started examining the wound on his chest. "As I said before, it's good to see your sense of humor is still intact," she noted dryly. From a small pouch at her hip, she drew out three vials--one with a tincture that smelled abrasive and sharp, and two with different pastes of some sort. One of the pastes had a distinctly minty scent, while the other didn't seem to smell of anything at all.

"This will sting," she warned briskly before pouring the sharp-smelling liquid onto a cloth and swiping it over the wound. "It kills infection."

Blaze came trotting into the room as she dabbed at his chest, mewing emphatically. Serena nodded vaguely at him. "Yes, thank you. Once the bandaging is disinfected, if you could bring it here, please? I think I'll have to sew this up..."

The orange tabby mewed, nodded, and trotted off again.

[MorningStar]

"Gods damn it all," he whispered through gritted teeth, feeling the sting intensify as she applied the mysterious substance to his wound. The sensation spread through his body, particularly sharp in the open gash. He clenched his jaw, suppressing the discomfort as she worked.

Once the pain eased, he redirected his attention to her. "Why are you helping me?" he asked, a sudden curiosity taking hold.

[DragonSong]

Serena shrugged, moving on to the next vial in her lineup: the minty paste. She dabbed it into his skin around the wound, using her fingertips to rub it in. After the intial cool burn, it should begin to work as a numbing agent.

"It's what I do," she replied easily as she stoppered the vial and replaced it in her pouch. Just behind her, the black and gray cats came scampering in through the doorway to the workroom, each holding one end of a wrapped oil cloth in their mouths. Jasmine dropped her end first, meowing pointedly.

"Yes, thank you, darling." Serena smiled and stroked the animal's ears witht he back of her hand before unwrapping the oilcloth to reveal a pile of freshly disinfected bandages. As she did, Blaze bounded in on her other side and dropped a leather sewing kit by her foot.

Sorren watched the man on the bed all the while, head tipped curiously and the last few inches of his tail twitching back and forth.

[MorningStar]

Throughout Akira's life, acts of kindness had always come with an unspoken price, so when "It's what I do" left her lips, genuine surprise flickered across his face. Skepticism lingered, as he couldn't shake the suspicion that there had to be some hidden motive. Nevertheless, he chose to set aside his wariness for the moment, allowing himself to unwind as she tended to his wounds.

"So," he began in a hushed tone, attempting to spark casual conversation and gauge her intentions. "Is aiding near-fatally wounded strangers a regular part of your repertoire, or am I just special exception?"

[DragonSong]

She chuckled a bit and shot him a quick, dry look with those mismatched eyes. "More regular than you might think," she responded as she laid the sewing kit out beside her and lifted the needle to thread it with a spider-silk spun strand. "Or than I expected. Here, hold still--the numbing agent should be working by now, but this will still pull at your skin and feel strange."

With brisk professionalism, she slipped the needle into one side of his wound and began stitching the flesh back together, pausing every once in a while to dab the still trickling blood clean. "This threading will dissolve into your skin in a few weeks," she informed him, "but it will likely itch something fierce once feeling comes back to the area."

[MorningStar]

She was correct; the sensation was strange.

Observing her with a mix of fascination and gratitude, he couldn't help but develop a certain affection for this enigmatic woman who was, quite literally, saving his life. Simultaneously, a sense of bewilderment crept in as he pondered her motives—acts of kindness seldom came without an ulterior motive. Yet, his attention soon shifted to the skillful way she attended to his injuries. Admiring her proficiency as a medic, he couldn't help but acknowledge her expertise.

"Well, isn't that something," he finally remarked, responding to her observation about the itching, a strained smile on his face. "So, where did you acquire these impressive skills?"

[DragonSong]

"My grandmother, mostly," Serena replied easily as she continued to sew up the wound. "At least, I think so--I don't really remember, to be honest."

Since learning the truth of her heritage, her memories had slowly been returning, but it was an ongoing process; she knew her mother's mother had raised her, she knew what--in broad strokes--had happened to drive her from her old home...but beyond that it was all rather vague.

"There." She tied off the last stitch and sat back, then reached for the bandaging that her familiars had brought. "I just need to wrap it now--and I'll probably have to change the bandages in another couple hours, but after that the salve should be working well enough that you'll just need to change it once a day."