A Darn Good Time [Open]

[Zerene]

The thin light off in the horizon was the only thing guiding Zerene. She brushed away a branch before her face, only to have it smack her back as she heard some scuttling up front. The sudden loosening of her hold, caused a rather loud snap back. She stumbled backwards, more out of surprise than actual force. She landed with a dull thud on her behind.

With what force she had left, she suppressed a scream. Her wound had flared alight once again. The once dull pain on her thigh was replaced with a sudden shock not too different from when the wound was first inflicted. She had taken the arrowhead out, knowing that she had a long trek before her. Even though she had made a makeshift bandage, she was still bleeding out. Her shaking hand gently touched the back of her thigh, coming out wet and darker upon the gloves.

This was no time to panic, she had to get away. She had to get help. All this was easier said than done, especially with her partner so far gone. Those men, with their chains and cages, had taken her friend. He had struggled enough to catch their attention so that she could escape.

The side of her fist slammed into the tree besides her. The anger soothing the pain that shot through her hand and dulled the other wound as well. Her teeth clenched as a response to the second shock. She had cried in her escape, tear stains soaked her cheeks. It took so much effort just to avoid choking in her escape.

The men were no longer shouting, she wasn't even sure how long she had ran. It could have been hours by now, but she failed to take note of the sun during her little hobble around the woods. All she had left was this horrible silence. She scooted along the ground as quietly as possible, pushing her back against the tree. She gripped her lance and took quick shallow breaths of anticipation. It could be just an animal, but she didn't want to take any chances.

Fear was taking hold now. Her hand instinctively brushed aside a lock of hair, matted by blood from a head injury. Closing her eyes didn't help and she practically jumped up at another scuffle close by. Killing another person, it was horrible, she had yet to get used to it. By this point, her life was on the line. With that thought, she steeled herself for what she was about to. Using the lance to get her back on her feet, she began to rush out of the clearing in hopes of catching them off guard. Her lance was ready in a strike as awkward as land combat was to her, she had to try.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kyle]

Great, he's lost again. Kyle let out a sigh as he came into a clearing in the quiet woods. He needed to pick up a map next time he had the chance, getting lost was never good, is he was lost for too long he may die and no one would even know. Just thinking about that made him kind of depressed. Looking around the clearing he could not see too much of note, but his dog seemed to find something interesting. Kyle gave a quiet call to bring it back. Whatever it was it't couldn't matter too much compared to getting out of here.

Suddenly Kyle heard some sounds from across the clearing and out rushed a person wielding a lance and she appeared to be attacking him! Kyle's eyes widened in fear as this stranger ran out, and he dropped his bow and his pack that held his quiver to the ground, landing with a soft thud, and also put his hands up, almost quivering with fear. Kyle's dog positioned itself between the attacking person and Kyle, growling menacingly, to try to protect it's master, which it could amply do in most occasions.

[Palenax]

Let's see... So this part of Elibe was now Lycia. Founded in part by... well, she couldn't really remember his name. It was founded by that midget with the oversized compensation sword. One of the... what was it the Humans called them back then? "Six Heroes"? Yeah, that sounded right. Nax yawned, raising a hand to cover her mouth. Interesting as this dependence on the Heroes was and the subsequent historical events that followed, this was hardly the real kind of thing that she'd returned to investigate.

Elibe had changed quite much in it's 100 years. The air was all wrong, like the magic had been warped and drained from it. Infact, that might explain the perpetual frozen nature of that Ilia country. The north portion had not been so snow covered before the war. Regardless, that magical drain could be felt by the Fire Dragon quite clearly. It seemed like any time she bothered to exert some magical force, the air started to feel constrictive and stagnant. It'd take quite some time for her power to regenerate in these conditions to allow her to leave again.

The blonde "human" turned her head as she heard the sounds of someone moving around rather loudly. "A hound? Hm..." Allowing her curiosity to take over, the rather bored woman strode over to a clearling, seeing a Human with his dog on guard and barking. "What's all this then...?"

[Zerene]

The color drained from Zerene’s face, appearing even lighter than usual, as she realized her mistake. This man wasn’t the enemy; she didn’t recognize him at all. The dog was an even clearer marker for her folly. Before she could do any real damage, she tossed her lance aside. Her body reacted from the unexpected excursion to buckling under itself. Her knee simply gave way, slamming the built up momentum and force back at itself.

She cried out in panic and pain, falling over on her side as she slid a bit on the ground. There was a heavy and distinct thud as her thigh flared up to a new level of pain. Not even the adrenaline in her system can keep it down at this point. That was when she broke down, gripping her leg and applying pressure to the wound in a desperate attempt to stop before it got too intense. Then she truly sobbed.

Why did all this have to happen? Why couldn’t she just be a loyal little soldier and do what she was told? The answer never does come, especially when she questions her own actions. She always chocked it up to her idiotic recklessness. Now look where it brought her, almost killing a man in cold blood. The tears she shed were for herself, the mistakes, stress, and loss. She had nowhere to go and she knew that even if she got out of the wilderness alive, she would spend the rest of her life looking for Arman.

At the thought of Arman, she cried even more. Her best friend was in the hands of those men and she couldn’t do anything. She probably wouldn’t stop unless the ground below her turned to mud. The pain in the leg seemed so far off now compared to the one in her heart. Even though it hurt to breath, she continued.

“Arman, those bastards took Arman,” she mourned, choking on her tears by this point. She couldn’t even taste the saltiness much less cared if she died while trying to explain herself.

“They chained him up and put him in a cage, I can’t save him, I can’t leave him like this!” she wailed, letting out something akin to a yowl at the end. That wyvern had done more for her than any human she had met. She knew that she wasn’t going any further without getting him back.

[Kyle]

A new person appeared to the side Kyle only had time to give the new arrival a quick glance before turning back to the person attacking him as he braced for impact. The expression on Kyle's face turned from one of fear, to confusion then finally concern as his would be attacker threw their lance aside and fell to the ground crying in what appeared to be pain as she gripped her thigh.

Being stunned by her Kyle couldn't react right away, but stood there and took in what he saw briefly. The attacker was a girl, maybe a couple years older than him, and she had a bad wound on her thigh and she was also bleeding from her head. She no longer appeared to be an enemy at all, especially with the tears streaming down her face while she cried for someone name Arman. Kyle looked back over at the new arrival, a confused expression on his face, and she wasn't attacking him, so that saw a pretty good sign. He should probably help the girl though.

Picking up his pack, Kyle went and keeled next to the girl. Taking out some fresh wrappings and his vial of vuenary and a herb that helps reduce pain, he would give her the herb "Chew this."he said. It should help her a little bit, but he didn't know exactly how much pan she was in. He then doused the bandage in the tonic and would proceed to wipe at the wound on her head looking into her eyes with concern on his face. Kyle then examined the wound on her leg and pushed away his dog who had been eagerly sniffing at it. It looked bad, but he couldn't tell the extent of the wound. It would probably need stitches. He turned back to the newest arrival and asked. "Can you sew?" While he attempted to move her hands to apply pressure to the wound himself. He could sew of course but sewing up a person? Just thinking of it nearly made him shudder, He would hate if he ended up messing up and scaring the person for life. It was probably dumb luck that the last time someone needed stitches that someone else who could sew was there. Now he might not be so lucky. He turned back and would

[Palenax]

Well, that was something. A woman had charged out of the bushes at the guy, cast aside her spear after a moment, and then collapsed on the ground in pain and despair. Though her despair did not seem to be aimed much at her own situation, instead worrying about someone named Arman. The guy with the dog rushed over to her, starting to administer first aid after a moment. He turned his head back to Nax, asking her a rather simple question.

"Can you sew?"

The golden haired woman approached herself now, kneeling to look over the human's wounds. "I can, but I think I have a simpler solution to this." She reached into her cloak, pulling out a bottle of that wondrous concoction, Elixir. "Apply some of this to all of her wounds and she'll recover faster."

After talking with the boy, she turned her head to look at the girl once more. "Tell me. Who is this Arman? Who took him?" She covered a hand of her own in a bit of the Elixir and started to apply it in places that were worse off near her position. The miraculous creation was quick to stop bleeding and start patching up the skin, though it didn't necessarily alleviate the pain right away.

[Zerene]

Zerene was barely able to comprehend the moments that followed. Another person seems to appear into her vision and they were actually helping her. This was definitely a positive change when encountering strangers. She barely registered what the young man said and when she did, she swore she almost tried to bite his fingers off. Then came a different sensation, it stung like crazy, but the pain wasn’t nearly as bad as she knew it would heal.

The fading of her wounds did remind of a different set of pain. He cheeks burned from her tears and even now, they seem to keep on streaming. She was going to go blind by that rate. The worst of it all was the throbbing of her heart. In some ways it burned with each pounding and she could only clench her jaws and look down. With nothing to lose and much more to gain from releasing her thoughts, she began.

“Arman is my best friend,” she began, her words still labored. She told them all about the people that tried to capture her and Arman. How he managed to fend them off. With all that she was spilling out, there was something she unintentionally left out. She failed to mention or imply that Arman was her wyvern partner.

[Palenax]

Nax gave a soft sigh as she listened to the story that poured forth from the lips of the injured girl below her. A sad story, to be certain. Slavers had ambushed the poor girl and her friend Arman, taking the poor boy captive while she'd barely escaped. And judging from the wounds she had before, it was quite lucky that she ran into the Fire Dragon and the other human. The wounds were deep and still in the process of bleeding and everything else, she'd have likely either died of the wounds or of some feral creature deciding to feast on her after she'd passed out.

The golden haired woman looked briefly to the direction that the warrioress had come from, not spying anyone giving chase or even hearing sounds of it. More likely they reached the same conclusion that Nax had. Well, regardless.

"It'll be alright. I can help you and Arman, but you need to get better first."

[Kyle]

Kyle gave a sigh of relief as the newcomer pulled out a vial of the rare elixir and began to apply it to some of the more serious wounds. Kyle also took a little to spread it over her wounds faster, it was working much faster than his potion would have. He sat there as she laid there, crying, telling them her story. With that happening it was no surprise that she had attacked him. So it seemed that they had taken her friend Arman. Losing someone would be tough. He didn't know what he would do if he lost his dog. It would probably be too much. Kyle then tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, crying wouldn't help get Arman back any faster. "I'll try to help." That was about as much as he could promise. HE wasn't very skilled with the bow, he was only a novice at tracking and setting traps. It seemed the only thing he was good for was cooking. Maybe he could cook the slavers to death or something.

[Zerene]

“Thank you,” Zerene managed to sputter out. She was honestly touched by their offer. During her recent travels, she had developed a habit of being cynical and now with Arman caught, it was for good reasons. At the thought of being able to reunite with her companion, she became more eager than she should be. Her hands still shook; she was extremely exhausted by this point. It was true she wouldn’t be much use in her current state.

“They’re still around here you know,” she warned, her eyes darting around the landscape. At least that was what she thought. She had long lost her sense of time and direction. They should still be here right? If she could get an aerial view, she could easily pick their camp out or at least one of their ambush spots like she so stupidly stumbled upon.

During all this time, her hands were searching for her lance. Her vision was hazy, but it was clear she had flung the thing quite far in her condition. She struggled to swallow so she can say just a few more words. Her body gave way though as she began to lean over, wondering why the ground was getting all the closer.

[Palenax]

“They’re still around here you know,” The warrioress spoke up, starting to rise again. She groped about in the air, as if trying to reach for the lance that she had tossed away earlier. Nax moved in close after a moment, catching the blue-haired girl handily. She sighed, looking to the other human.

"There's nothing to it, she needs to rest. Is there a village close by?" The Fire Dragon carefully took up Zerene in both of her arms, briefly stepping over and kneeling down to pick up her spear as well. She'd help the girl to recover her friend, but right now, Zerene's own health needed to be attended to.

[Kyle]

The girl proceeded to thank the two as he wounds began to slowly heal. She attempted to get up, but the other woman cam and just picked her up! Then she held her in one hand and picked up her lance too! This woman was strong, much stronger than he would have though based on looks. Speaking of looks, the two lo- No. Think of something else. Kyle went over and picked up his pack and the stray arrows that had fallen when he dropped his pack in fear and called his dog to follow him again. The woman asked if their was a town nearby, great, another thing he was useless for. Maybe his father was right. . . Maybe he should just. . . quit. He was starting to get a little dizzy, but he held it back with all his might. Kyle just shrugged his shoulders. "I'm lost." He was such a disappointment to others, he had to be. He let out a sigh, a look of deep sadness in his eyes as they fell to look at the forest floor as he followed the woman. "Need any help?"[/font] he asked gesturing to what she was holding, his eyes still plastered to the ground.

[Zerene]

Zerene racked around her head. A village would be a nice stop. It would be perfect for getting supplies and the like. She had seen one while flying above, but her map was with her stolen pack. She could only give aerial directions at best.

"There," she coughed,"a village rests just southwest of the mountain range." She struggled for breath for a few moments, taking a few gulps before continuing.

"It's nestled between two rivers. I think we're close to it."

[Palenax]

"Need any help?"

Palenax briefly looked to the other Human, considering a moment before starting to toss the spear over to him. "Here, catch." It wasn't too much trouble to carry both the girl and her spear, but that did make things lighter at any rate. After a moment, Nax looked down to Zerene, listening to her as she tried to recall a village she'd seen.

Nax hummed in thought a moment, she'd been flying as well not too long ago. It sounded like the village she'd seen herself. "Yeah, I think I know where you mean. Let's see, that would be about..." Nax began to take stock of her position, it helped that she'd gained a natural awareness of directions over the years. The mountain range was back along the road she'd entered the clearing from, so she began to head that way first. After a moment, she started to travel vaguely in the direction of Zerene's instructions, not worried too much about her own situation.

[Kyle]

Kyle listened as the girl that almost tried to kill him told of where a town was. And as he tried to visualize the area that he'd seen, it appeared that he was heading in the wrong direction to get to the village. It was a good thin it seemed that he ran into these people. One could only survive so long in the wilderness alone.

Apparently accepting the offer to help, The older lady threw the lance towards him and he caught it quite haphazardly looking around to see if there was a way he could connect it to his pack, but just ended up putting it in a loop between the back and his back. Holding the lance almost felt safe compared to the bow, maybe if his dad let him later, he might try to use one.

Looking back to the older woman he was still surprised at just how strong she was she was able to carry her in her arms without falling forward, even with all of the extra weight she had in the front. And it was quite apparent it was a bit more than normal. It was a bit sad to him because if he tried there would be a good chance he'd just fall over and her the poor woman even more. So he just silently followed her making his dog stay close to him; the dog seemed to be more tense than usual for some reason though. Weird.