Suspicious Blood Trails (Caelica/Derick)

[Caelica]

OOC: Takes place in Ilia, in the city of Carrhae. I think it's kind of messy, I might redo it because it's bothering me >.<

The sun peeked over the mountians of Carrhae, reflecting off the snow in the air, and on the ground. Caelica walked forward, somehow knowing where she was going in the field of white. Caelica was tired, and hungry—she had just returned from a scouting job not too far from Carrhae. Her comrades from her guild that had accompanied her had returned to the town early, leaving Caelica to return by herself without any means of transportation.

Suddenly, the sound of a horse whinnying cut through the silence of the mountains. Caelica looked up to see the horse shoot out of a grove of snow covered trees. The horse stood out from the rest of the landscape, its brown coat with odd red splotches quickly racing past her eyes. As the horse drew farther and farther away, Caelica could see a trail of red forming behind it—blood. To be safe, she drew her blade as she continued on to the city of Carrhae; whoever, or whatever attacked that horse, she did not want to be unprepared if she encountered it. As she walked past the grove of trees, she could see that the blood led somewhere. She walked closer and closer to Carrhae, the trail of blood continuing under her feet. As the city finally came into view, so did the source of the blood. A man was leaning against the stone walls of the city. His face was pale, thin, and he had multiple wounds. “Woah, he sure is messed up.” Caelica told herself. She walked up to the man and poked him with her scabbard—she didn’t want to risk being suddenly attacked. She sighed. “I guess I just can’t leave him out here…” Caelica tried to drag him but she was just too tired. Even if she wasn’t, her 16 year old female body wouldn’t allow her to. Luckily, an elderly man on a carriage came out of the city. Seeing the injured man, he offered to give him and Caelica a ride.

The elderly man brought them to Caelica’s guild, which was the closest place to the city entrance with a medic. Caelica thanked the man, and as he neared away, she kicked open the door to the guild. A white haired man was standing at a desk in the lobby. He casually looked up from his book at Caelica, who was covered in blood from the man she was carrying.
“Well you’re quite late, late Caelica…” The white haired man said.
Caelica pointed to two other girls, who gave her mischievous grins. “Yep, I am, aren’t I Relius? And I can thank those two over there.” She answered sarcastically.
“And who do we have here?” Relius inquired about the injured stranger.
“Some guy I found at the city gates. I couldn’t just leave him there.” Caelica said, leaning the wounded man against a wall. She picked up the man’s lance from the snow covered ground outside then closed the door with a shiver.
“Well I suppose we’ll get him treated right away. We might get a few favors from him in return.” Relius said, entering a room to get a medic. Caelica’s stomach started rumbling, the feeling of hunger surfacing again. She left the guild without another word, in search for a place to eat her breakfast.

[Derick]

Pain. That was the first thing Derick felt, followed by the cool sensation that accompanies a healing staff.Without opening his eyes, Derick took stock of the situation. His shoulder, midriff, and face burned like crazy, and he also felt feverish. Frowning, he strained his mind, trying to piece together what had happened. He remembered the prison...his commander...stealing a horse. The last week or so had been riding as fast as he could through Bern's countryside, clumsily slipping out of the saddle whenever he found a stream so that he could drink as much as he could. He shifted uncomfortably as his shoulder flared up, and a voice from across the room startled him

"Oh, so you're awake?" Derick's eyes snapped open, a thin, middle-aged man in white robes was standing in the doorway. He had shrewd eyes, salt-and-pepper hair cut short, and his demeanor indicated to Derick that he was well-experienced and very comfortable with treating battle wounds
"I-...Yes." Derick replied hesitantly, he had always sucked at meeting new people.
"Those were some impressive lance wounds you took, you most certainly weren't wearing that armor when you took those hits." as he said this, he gestured over his shoulder towards the armor that Derick had stolen from his sergeant.
"Well...no, I didn't have that option at the time..." Derick paused for a moment, weighing out where he was before throwing caution to the winds, "I was being punished".
The healer's eyebrows rose, "Punished? By Bern?"
Derick glanced over at the armor again, the seal of Bern's military was emblazoned on the right shoulder of the armor. "Yes...I disobeyed orders..." Derick mentally prayed that the healer wouldn't inquire further, even if he wasn't in Bern, nobody likes a traitor, especially when that traitor betrayed his own to satisfy a senseless craving.
"I see...Well, you've come quite a way, you're in Ilia now. You've been passed out for four days, it was a wonder you lived with the infections in your wounds. Why, if Caelica hadn't found you when she did..."
"Caelica? Who's that?" Derick slowly interrupted, he could feel his body crying for more rest, and keeping his eyes open was a struggle.
"Oh, I'm sure you'll meet her soon enough, get some rest."
After the healer left, Derick sat quiet for a long time, wondering what was to become of him before falling asleep.

[Caelica]

Caelica was off for the day, but she had nothing to do. It was so boring in the guild, and there was nothing to do in the snowy town. Everyone she could've done something with was still working. With the boredom showing on her face, she decided to look around the familiar halls of the guild. As she walked, the elderly guild healer appeared from around a corner. The healer stopped as he saw Caelica.
"Well, hello there Caelica" He greeted.
"Hi there!" Caelica answered with a smile. She saw the healer carrying some medicine. "Who's that for?" She asked, looking at the medicine.
"Oh, this was for that man you brought here a few days ago." The healer told her.
Caelica looked confused. "What man...?" She tried to recall. "Oh that's right! I remember him."
"Well, I was just going to check up on him. Would you like to accompany me?" He asked Caelica.
"Might as well."

She followed the healer until they came to a door. The healer opened the door slowly, revealing a dimly lit room. Caelica let the him go first, and she followed after he took a few steps in.

[Derick]

Derick eye's snapped open when he heard the door creak. He had been dreaming...or was it a nightmare? The memory of the dream passed as quickly as it came, and Derick shakily wiped the cold sweat of his forehead. Looking up at the door, he smiles slightly in recognition of the healer. "Hey there, I'm feeling better already!"
"That's good, it means that the potion I've prepared is already working, I have another for you to take, however, we need to beat that fever."
Derick took the bottle that the healer proffered to him, and chugged it quickly in an effort to avoid the horrible taste. He winced and blanched as the acrid flavor burned his tongue and rendered his taste useless. "Anything else?" Derick inquired.
"I only ask that you eat some of the bread and drink some of the water I brought you, it should make the potion much more effective." With that, he turned and left the room.
Derick glanced at the bread and moved it aside in favor of the water to wash out that awful taste. He started to take a sip of it before he noticed the girl in the corner who was observing him with calm, calculating eyes. "Who are you?"

[Caelica]

Caelica walked out of the shadows and into what little light the room had.
"I'm Caelica..." She said carefully. One couldn't be too careful with strangers. "I'm the person who found you dying outside the city a couple days ago. And I guess I'm asking the same question..." She sighed. "Who are you?"

[Derick]

Derick mentally shrugged, he was in Ilia, which more or less didn't care what went on in Bern that wasn't "we hate Ilia"-related. "I'm Derick, a former soldier of Bern."

[Caelica]

"B...Bern?!" Caelica exclaimed--however she didn't look too surprised. "Oh well, not that I really care anyway." And she wasn't lying, it didn't really matter to her if he was a former soldier of Bern. She looked around the room, and noticed Derick's bread was untouched. Suddenly, her eyes widened, then closed as her stomach began to growl.
"Well, since it doesn't look like you want that bread, you want to go eat lunch with me?" Caelica offered. She turned to open the door to the room, eager to get something to eat.

As she tried to step out however, a man was blocking the doorway.
"Relius? What is it now?" She asked, irritated.
The man brought a piece of paper out from behind his back. "We have another client, and since all the others are out..."
"I got it, I got it..." Caelica said, walking out of the door with a slouch. She took the piece of paper from Relius's hand but stopped before going any further. "Well looks like I won't be treating you to lunch." She said to Derek, over her shoulder. She gave a small departing gesture before leaving to go get her stuff.

"Well," Relius began talking to Derick after seeing Caelica depart for her room. "everything you were carrying around is still here, and is still your property. That includes a bloodstained horse we captured at the outskirts of town. But now tell me, what are you planning to do from here on?"

[Derick]

Derick sat up slowly, "I haven't really thought past getting out of this bed." Derick paused, considering his options and plans when he realized he really didn't have any at all. "Why?"

[Caelica]

Relius squinted at Derick. "Well, you do owe us your life, and since you weren't in possession of money or anything valuable, I was hoping a little favor would've been a nice payment?" Relius pulled a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Derick. "Please, read it and take this 'favor' into consideration." Relius said, taking a step out into the hall.