Wounded Wood

[Mr Lachlan]

Tomias Lachlan sat slumped against a sturdy tree, beads of sweat clinging to his skin. The sturdy tree stood tall amongst the other trees of the wood that almost reached up to the very walls of the capital city, Fearun. His shoulder held a broken arrow, the end of the wooden shaft having snapped when he attempted to move through the wood. He hadn't got very far, only twenty feet toward the capital city - well, what he thought was toward the city.

In truth he was rather lost, but the sharp yet aching pain in his shoulder took his mind off the fear of being lost. A dark crimson had spread across his shirt from the wound and was still spreading, the material sodden with his blood and shining the dim light as he gasped for air.

His breaths were rough and rasping, sometimes not really collecting much air before he gave a cry of pain. His throat was sore and his collar was damp with his sweat and blood.

Occasionally he gritted his teeth, breathing noisy as it rushed through his teeth, when the pain became almost unbearable. Ooh, when that centaur came round next time he'd be dead.

[Deia]

Deia was on her way to the capital. Best place to be, better than waiting around in the woods doing nothing at all. She hefted Atana over her left shoulder. It had taken forever to go through strength training so the girl could wield a no-dachi, but now it seemed she could pick up just about anything. When she didn't have work, it made her money to have drunks place bets on how much she could lift.

Thinking about where she could go next, she saw a body with an arrow through it. The ex-Asharu had to do a double take before she realized the person was actually not dead, though probably not to far from it. She circled two times around man and tree, almost vulturelike in appearance, her blue hair shifting back and forth in the slight wind. The girl brought a hand up to remove a dark-colored scarf from over her mouth, which she wore instead of the usual Asharu preference, making it easier to speak. "Well, you're in a fix, aren't you?" she asked with a grim smile. "I'd almost feel sorry if I'd never been in the same position."[/color]

[Mr Lachlan]

Tomias gasped slightly, forcing an eye open to blink at the female figure. He panted as an arm desperately stretched out for his fingers to slip around the shaft of his great axe.

"Stay..." he breathed, before losing the will to continue the words. It's not as if they normally worked anyway. If they were intent on killing him, telling them to stay back wouldn't do much good, would it?

[Deia]

Deia eyed his weapon, figuring what he was trying to do. "Don't worry yourself to death. I'm not going to kill you. No one's paid me... yet. And besides, you aren't worth it. You're half dead already." She was waited to let that sink in.

The former Asharu knew pride, and she knew that she was stubborn and would want to get herself to town. Taking that into account, she was set in not helping the man unless he asked for it. It wasn't going to help her any if he died. Since leaving him here to rot away would make her look suspicious, it really wasn't to her advantage to leave him here. So she stood there still, hands on her hips, making her normal cynical comments about the situation. Then she stopped, curious. "What's this from? War hasn't come to Lore, I know that much." She didn't think about him perhaps being to weak to answer.[/color]

[Mr Lachlan]

Tomias blinked at her, blood spilling over his bottom lip. He coughed once before frowning at her.

"What...?" he hoarsely choked, wondering what on earth the woman was doing.

( Writer's block)

[Deia]

((*holds up crucafix* Don't let me catch it! Be gone ye evil writer's block!))

"Are you going to just die all over that tree there?" She wasn't going to offer help. She didn't do that. Sure, Asharu ninjas trained her, but she was no longer one of them. That was made pretty clear when she yelled "I'm out of here. You're all a bunch of sissies." She wasn't as soft as them. She was tired of the world and its stupid petty arguments over right and wrong. Right was what was best for you, wrong was what wasn't.

Deia shifted the weight of the no-dachi over her shoulder. No wonder this man had thought she was going to kill him. That weapon looked quite dangerous. Who wasn't scared of a sword near the size of its wielder?

"I asked you what happened and what your name was."[/color]

[Mr Lachlan]

"Ah..." was the only response she got as another wave of blood erupted over his lip. He reached up an arm in an attempt to save himself from the cold death that was going to claim him. Slowly his back began to slip sideways across the rough bark, his body slowly slumping sideways to the floor.

"H... Hel..p... I don't... Want to die." he spluttered after he forced his left eye open once more. His fingers dug into the soft earth of the forest floor, trying to hold onto his life.

[Deia]

Deia let out a sigh. Alright, so she wasn't going to leave a man to die in the midle of the forest. Well, not quite the middle. It was rather close to Fraerun. Still, she wasn't that heartless. She held out a hand to help this man up.

"Alright, stranger. I'm not cruel, like those ruby dragons I've worked with. Really, you're quite a sight." When she had something to talk about, she could be talkative. Most people didn't want to talk to her, though. She had such a one-sided and straightforward way of looking at things. No good, no evil, and she was bullheaded about the whole situation, too.

"I'd pick you up and carry you, but I don't want to completely destroy your dignity." The ex-ninja knew a thing or two about male egos from soldiers she'd done business with. Help from a girl was unheard of. And female mercenaries were just as, if not more. They all looked at her sideways, called her insane, and then laughed. Immediately after that one ended up through a wall. Then they all got quite for a while.[/color]

[Mr Lachlan]

His gloved and metal fingers clasped hers tightly as he tried to pick himself up. Forntunately he had reached out with his right arm, not his left, and his wounded shoulder didn't hinder him much - seeing as it was his left shoulder.

The movement brought along the haggard breaths once more, as well as the choking on his own blood. The arrow had only just punctured his left lung, but even a small puncture caused much pain and a rather reduced air intake.

[Deia]

Deia pulled, almost hard, until the man was the rest of the way up. She was taller than average for a girl, and well-muscled as she should be for her trade, but was still smaller than most men. "There should be a healer or fifty in Fraerun," she said, knowing there should be at least one, but not knowing quite how many there would be.

"I still don't know your name, stranger," she added, but gave her own. "People call me Deia."[/color]

[Mr Lachlan]

Tomias panted slightly, finding himself leaning against the woman to remain standing. He thought for a while, trying to understand her words through his muddled mumble.

"A.. Knight." he gasped, "Sir... Lach..lan. Tomias Lachlan.."

[Deia]

"Well, then 'Sir Lachlan Tomias Lachlan,'" she said with that not-quite-funny sarcastic humor. "If I wasn't afraid the strain might kill you, I'd ask you what happened to you."[/color]

[Mr Lachlan]

"A monster..." Tomias murmured under his breath, allowing his eyes to half slip closed. Perhaps the arrow had been poisoned... Or the wound had just got infected. Whatever had happened to his shoulder, Tomias wasn't the best person to merely get on with his life. He'd either make a scene or whine about it a lot when he felt better.

[Deia]

"Monster? Hah. Looney. Way I've always heard it, the only monsters in A'Dense are in one of two places. The first's Tefenus. Second's Vierra. And last time I checked, we weren't either place. Now, some consider certain people monsters. Rubies, for instance, they'll kill you on sight, not a reason to it. Trust me, I've worked with them before. Diomes, on the other hand, they're nasty little buggers. Faye wtih an attitude, kill you with their tricks, they will. But no, no monsters. Perhaps you were seeing things, hm?" She raised an eyebrow. After all, she'd worked with all four of the northern nations, now that the Kurash were no longer under consideration and there were four, as well as stayed in Tyraan and the Pirate's isles for some time. Asharu training happened in the west. Therefore, she had experience, especially as an Asharu (who had their own sorts of poisons and were trained to recognize the many frightening Cheshen ones) with the effects of many substances on the body. She'd been hit with an arrow tipped with something once, she still wasn't quite sure what, and seen the funniest things for a few hours. Deia was determined not to run into that again, but it was apparently a very rare poison. Still, this Lachlan character claimed to be a knight, and could have run into such arrows.

((XD And now she's under the impression that he's a looney hit with a hallucinogenic arrow. Oh, hoorah for imagination.))

[Xytanica]

Eliptica walked with the lithe grace of her race, her feet bare, her soft white robes flowing about her, her jade green eyes slightly unfocused, as though she was seeing things only she could see, and wasn't paying attention to the outside world. Her silvery white waist-length hair swirled about her curvascious figure, her bangs occasionally drifting across the silver cresent moon on her forehead.

The light playing through the trees fell across her pale skin, the mottled golden-green light making it seem softer and fuller. She was jolted from her reverie, her jade eyes sliding back into focus in a brief jade blur, by voices ahead, one of them extremely pained. The other was a female, apparently helping the wounded man.

A few silent steps brought her to the edge of a clearing, where the leaves and branches of a drooping tree blocked her from view. She watched as she stood there, her jade eyes flicking from man to woman. The man was grieviously wounded, she saw. That arrow wound must be something.

She stopped to think a moment. She could use her magic, but she didn't know if her magic alone would be enough to heal so large and deep a wound. In her unicorn form, she knew she could heal him with a touch of her horn, or at least vastly speed the healing process, far more than with her magic. 'Might as well,' she thought, and stepped back from the trees. Slowly, she shifted. Within seconds, she was a unicorn, a silver, spiraling horn in place of the silver crescent. Her body was blindingly white, her mane and tail silver, her eyes the same jade green.

In that state, she stepped out from the concealing tree, though she made no sound, and her hooves left no mark. 'Will you accept my assistance?' she asked, projecting the thought, as she couldn't speak normally in this form, of course.