Teodora watched as the figure, sword in hand, charged towards the mngwa and met the beast head-on. It roared in what seemed to be anger, as if upset by the unexpected interruption to its hunt. Its form blurred, and stepping out from its sides, was a pair of identical mngwas. The figure didn’t hesitate for a moment and slashed at the one that stood to the right, carving deep into its flank and spraying blood across the grass. Stepping out of range before the wildcat had a chance to retaliate, it sank the blade into the ground and stood tall as if to challenge the creature.
With a fierce growl, the mngwa advanced, slashing out with its massive paw. The figure drew its blade from the ground in a single movement, meeting the paw and blocking it with ease. The magical wildcat growled again and sent out more illusionary copies of itself, surrounding the figure. Again, it shoved its blade in the ground and waited before dodging to the side and slashed upwards to cut at the underbelly of the beast. It let out a howl of pain as it continued to dye the ground crimson.
Suddenly, the figure whipped its head towards Teodora and began to motion to her to move. The girl barely managed to react in time as her instincts made her roll to her side as the mngwa, who had somehow appeared from thin air next to her, bit towards her side attempting to take a small piece of its prey in an act of defiance towards its newfound foe. It managed to tear into her body, ripping apart Teodora’s skin and taking a small mouthful of human flesh to savor. She felt sick as the blood poured from her side and the world began to spin.
The armored figure lunged forwards and placed itself between Teodora and the magical beast in a protective fashion. In doing so, Teodora managed to catch a better look at the figure’s face. Hidden beneath its visor, what she had originally assumed to be eyes, was a burning, yellow flame that had embers flickering outwards that created the illusion of a face within. Before she could process what she was seeing, the figure slashed diagonally outwards, carving the earth up and blinding the mngwa temporarily.
It reared back in confusion and anger, no longer able to see its quarry, and roared in frustration. The figure did not waste the opportunity and stabbed the beast in its chest drawing the blade back out, only to stab it in another spot. Letting out a final cry of anger, it fell to the ground and laid still as its blood soaked the ground and caused the motes of light in the air to dim by just a bit. The figure flicked its blade causing some of the blood that coated it to scatter on the ground, and nodded its head silently towards the fallen beast, before it sheathed its sword and turned to face Teodora.
“Th-thanks for the help.” She said shakily, trying her best not to offend the ‘person’ who just took down a creature the size of a lion in a few quick blows. Not to mention the fact that everything was starting to grow darker and colder as she clutched at her side, feeling the hollow space where she had been bitten.
The figure said nothing as it removed its helmet, revealing the yellow flame underneath. As soon as the fire was freed from its confines, it flared up even higher, and the body without a head seemed to relax a little bit. It was as if it was taking in calming breaths as the flame grew and shrank, the soft yellow light never fully changing. Then, the headless body turned their full attention back to Teodora.
It kneeled down, holding a hand out for her to grab ahold of. Teodora stared at the hand, before carefully taking it and allowing herself to be lifted into a standing position, wincing and almost falling as her side flared with pain. She clutched at her wound, worrying about how she was going to most likely die here in her dream fantasy land. The figure seemed to take notice of that and gently held its helmet out for her to hold. She complied and it scooped her up into its arms, making sure to carefully position the girl in a way that she wouldn’t get hurt any further, before marching off towards a small group of trees.
“I don’t suppose you can tell me what you want? I hope it isn’t for my spine or blood that I’m rapidly losing. Dullahan myths aren’t exactly in my wheelhouse.” Teodora said in an attempt to calm herself and to make conversation with the magical being she was currently held by. While she was more than grateful that someone had come to her aid, she wasn’t about to readily trust a fey being. Especially while she was on the verge of blacking out, it was taking a considerable amount of willpower to not cry in pain as the adrenaline wore off.
As they approached the ring of trees, she heard a strange sound floating through the air. The best she could compare it to was to hearing wind rustling leaves mixing with the sound of the stream she was by when she first stepped into this land of magic. Teodora was intrigued by the odd sound as the body holding her sat her down against a tree, across from a head sitting in the grass next to a small leather satchel. The two stared at each other for a moment as the head turned its gaze back to the body and began to speak in that same unfamiliar sound as she had just heard.
The head across from Teodora looked fairly female, she had dirty blonde hair that was cut short, a pair of piercing grey eyes with a small scar that ran across her left eyebrow, and a set of slightly pointed ears. The body, as Teodora began to notice, was about a head taller than her and through the leather parts of the armor showed somewhat defined muscles. Both the body and the head seemed to be in some kind of argument as the head seemed like she was getting angrier by the second and the body was becoming more and more impatient. Finally, their argument was put to an end when the body crouched down and slapped the head across the face and made a set of wild gestures, the flame growing in size as the body made her case. Sighing, the head looked over at Teodora after shooting her body a dirty look and seemed to ask something in that same strange language.
“Sorry? I can’t understand what you’re saying.” Teodora said in short, labored breaths. She watched the head with curiosity and mild worry for her safety. “You aren’t going to hurt me, are you?”
The head looked at her body and said something to it in the other language. Her body shrugged in response and made a set of gestures, occasionally pointing at Teodora. Eventually, the body stopped and crossed her arms as she waited for a response. The head closed her eyes and after humming a bit, reopened them and said something to her body.
It pulled the satchel over and began to rummage through various pockets, pulling out a root and holding it out to their head. The head nodded and her body went back to rummaging around, pulling out a small glass vial of a purple liquid. Immediately, the head started to shout again, and the body made a sort of scoffing motion as it put the vial back and pulled out another one. It had a swirling cloud of indigo colored gas inside, as the body held it up to the light of one of the nearby orbs. The head made a sound of confirmation and turned to face Teodora again.
The body walked over and handed her the root and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, while the head mimicked having to eat and swallow something. Confused, but still willing to follow her savior’s instructions if it could save her life, Teodora carefully took the root and started to chew on it. It tasted bitter and a bit like dirt covered bark, but she swallowed nonetheless. Even though she was worried about eating anything a fey being gave her, the odd dullahan hadn’t seemed to want any trouble. After she finished the root, she felt a bit tingly on her side where the deep bite was located.
She looked at her body in wonder as the blood flow slowed down and a faint glow covered the wound like a bandage, then she looked back up just in time to see the dullahan’s body uncork the glass vial and hold it out in front of her face. The smell reminded her of lavender and dish soap as darkness began to crawl around the edges of her vision. As she began to lose consciousness, the last thing Teodora thought about was how stupid she was to trust a fey.
…
“Haa… now we’ve got to get her back to camp.” Shea sighed as she watched her body reseal the vial of sleeping gas and put it back in the bag. “And I just want to apologize again for shouting at you. I couldn’t think of a good character to act as, so I just panicked and defaulted to the standard routine. Though I will say that you could have done without the slap…”
There was a moment where the flame on her neck danced, as if she were laughing at her head before making an apology of her own. Shea’s body then made a series of hand gestures and motions, which to anyone else would look like nonsense, that she managed to interpret as her body understanding and not wanting her to worry about it anymore. Afterwards, the body followed up with a question on how she was going to transport everything and what the plan was.
Sighing, the head glanced over at the limp body of whoever this girl was that she had rescued and then shifted her gaze back to her own body. “I guess you can toss me back into the bag… again. As for what the plan is, I suppose that we ought to get her patched up. That bloodroot clipping isn’t going to last forever, and we forgot to bring extra bandages out today.”
The body made a motion towards the knocked-out girl and then between the two of them, asking about communication. She crossed her arms and the fire flickered expectantly. Shea only stared at her body, waiting for her to start packing things up. Eventually her body did relent, but not before the fire seemed to almost scowl at the head as the body gently tucked her head into the bag between various herbs they had been gathering.
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“Okay let’s take the shortcut since we wasted a fair bit of time just now, yeah?” Shea said, glancing at her body as she cradled the stranger in her arms and started in the direction of their camp. “And we might as well put a little more oomph into it as well. Grab that piece of jackalope antler we’ve got in here and fuel up.”
The body complied and reached for a small sliver of bone that was resting next to her head, then tossed the shard into the flame that gushed from her neck. There was a sudden shift in her demeanor as the yellow flame grew in size for a brief moment and then started to flicker from side to side faster than usual. Shea’s body lowered into a better position as she pushed off the ground with the grace of a rabbit, flying through the air and landing a good distance away from where she began. Quickly, the body weaved around, between, and over any obstacle that stood in her path. The trees and stone pillars grew taller as the group headed deeper towards the outer edge of the summer court’s domain.
Shea eventually stopped after a few minutes of quick dashing and hopping through the rapidly growing forest. They had reached the clearing where they had set their camp up, ever since they had started working on being noticed by a Court. Setting the stranger down on a makeshift bed made of soft mosses, Shea’s body removed her head and placed it onto the wooden table they had set up off to the side of their camp with a slight clatter as the metal cap on her head’s neck met the wood surface.
“So, I don’t suppose you’ve got an idea as to what she is, do you?” The flame swayed from side to side to show a negative response. “Great. And I don’t know what language she was speaking either. Guess we should make a blabber brew then. Toss me one of those mint sticks we made last night please, I could do with the sugar, and then start dressing her wounds as well while I try to remember how to make one of those.”
Her body walked over to a small crate and pulled a large glass jar full of greenish colored sticks out, taking one and holding one out to Shea’s head to chew on. Then, her body began to dig around some more until she pulled out a large roll of bandages and moved over to the sleeping girl. First, she pulled off the girl’s odd-looking coat, which one half of was mostly ribbons at this point, and then rolled the equally odd-looking shirt upwards so that she had access to the wound. With practiced motions, Shea’s body quickly wrapped the bandages across the girl’s side until all of the cuts were covered up. After that, she walked back over to her head and waited for what to do next.
“Before we forget our basics, let’s get some water in the cauldron and go over the ingredients we’ll need.” Her body snatched the small metal cauldron next to the table and walked over to a small stream of water to fill it. “Oh, and on your way back grab some of the extra cinderbark we grabbed today from the bag, we’re going to need a pretty high temperature to do this.”
Shea’s body then hung the cauldron above the firepit in the center of their camp, as well as reaching over and pulling a strip of reddish bark out of their bag. She quickly piled some dry wood they had chopped not too long ago into the pit, prepping it for a larger than normal fire. After checking with her head if it was enough, she laid the strip of bark inside the pit and held a stick up to her own flame to light the pit ablaze. Soon a crackling fire was burning strong as she walked over to another crate, larger than the other, and waited for a list of ingredients from her head.
“Alright, the fire should be fine, but we’re going to need to work fast so that we can also prepare a simple recovery tonic for her bleeding. I’m thinking we use a feyberry base for flavor and extra magicule concentration in the blabber brew for a quicker reaction, any thoughts?” Her body shrugged and made a set of motions before holding up a bottle with a thin, oily, bluish liquid that shone dimly in the evening light. “Hmm, alright we can use some of our crying bee’s honey as the base instead. Increasing the duration seems like overkill, but it does save us the trouble of having to go back to the briar sooner than usual. But only a couple of drops! Last time we tried to raid one of their nests, you got really bad stings all over.”
Shea’s body went to work on laying out the required ingredients for the brew. A fistful of sage, a piece of licorice root, a shard of a faintly vibrating crystal, and finally she brought out a small vial that held a dried piece of meat. She made a set of gestures, asking if it would be good to use the item she was holding despite how old it was.
“As long as it’s a piece of the tongue of something that can speak Sylvain there shouldn’t be any issues. I think. Where did we even pick that up anyway?” Shea asked, looking over the bowls that contained all of the ingredients so that her body could easily add them in without needing to worry about measurements. “I swear we did a catalog like two nights ago and I don’t remember seeing that thing in there at all.”
Her body gave her another shrug and placed the vial onto the table, before diving back into the crate and pulling out ingredients for the tonic later. Shea inspected the vial and confirmed that it was labeled in her handwriting, which confused her a bit more, but didn’t pay it much mind as it was in fact what they needed. Soon, everything was prepared and all that was left was to brew and bottle the stuff.
Eventually, the duo had everything laid out on the table and was almost ready to start mixing the actual potions. “So, before we do this, we should get our story straight. I don’t want her to wake up and find us fumbling over who we are and what we’re doing.” The flame on her neck bobbed in agreement. “Okay, I say I go for the classic archetype. Angry and headstrong with a touch of idiot that only seems to act on emotions, you can play my more reasonable half and keep being the nice one. The only part I’m worried about is explaining how we made the potions…”
Shea’s body placed a hand where her chin would be if the two parts were connected, before she reached over and pulled a small book out from the crate closest to the table. The cover read, ‘An Idiot’s Guide to Alchemy!’ beneath it, there was a small line that said, ‘Even a child could do it!’
“Firstly, ouch. I can’t believe you kept that thing still, and I can’t believe you would insult me like this. Secondly, as much as I hate to admit it, you are a genius sometimes.”
The flame seemed to dance for a moment at the complement, the body flipping through the pages and opening the book to the recipe for the blabber brew. She propped it open on a small easel that they used to dry out their utensils after washing them. Then, she made a series of gestures about the time and that they should probably start soon.
“Again, you’re right. Let’s get this done and wake her up. The sooner we can start talking, the better.” Shea said casually as her body began the process of making the blabber brew.
Her body tossed in the ingredients, carefully mixing each of them in fully before adding the next and checked with her head to make sure the potion looked right. As useful as her body’s ability to sense mana was, sometimes she needed to have a pair of actual eyes on the situation. Sparks of magic drifted off the fire and into the air as a faint trickle of smoke rose from their campsite and into the evening sky. A gentle hum filled the air as the brew began to come closer to completion. The melody reminded Shea of an old nursery rhyme her aunt had sung to her as she grew up.
After a few minutes of listening to the potion hum, it was time to bottle it up. Shea’s body grabbed one of the empty flasks from the table and placed it onto a small wire stand next to the cauldron making sure that when she poured, nothing would spill. Then she gently lifted the metal pot so that it could drain into the glass container, carefully emptying the potion into its permanent home. A red and blue colored mixture slowly crawled its way from one vessel to the next, continuing to hum as it settled into the glass bottle. Shea placed the cauldron back and corked the flask, swirling the liquid inside around to make sure everything settled nicely.
“Great job, now we need some fresh water and then we can set the tonic up to boil while we wake her up. Need to make sure we still look dumber than we are, so try to act clumsier or something when she’s watching.” Shea said as her body placed the flask next to her on the table. “Better to have an alibi prepared to explain how we made the potions instead of letting her draw conclusions. Should I throw in some yelling after she can understand us to really sell me, us, being less clever and more emotional?”
Her body made a rapid set of one-handed gestures as she refilled the cauldron with water for the next potion. Shea interpreted it as something close to yes, but also reminded herself not to overdo it for the role. The cauldron was placed back over the fire, which hadn’t lost any of its intensity during the first brew’s creation, and Shea pulled a small container with some smelling salts from out of her bag to wake up the stranger.
…
Teodora groaned as she came to, putting a hand on her nose to block out the invasive smell. “The hell is that smell? Ugh.” Her eyes blinked open, revealing a somewhat dark violet sky with the faint tinge of orange near the horizon. She pushed herself up and shook her head, confused as to how she fell asleep outside. Memories of almost dying to a mythological wildcat rushed to the front of her mind and caused her to jolt upwards and look around in a panic. Only to wince and groan in pain as she sat up and moved a hand down to touch the bandages that had been wrapped around her wounds.
Someone coughing caught her attention, causing Teodora to snap her head towards the sound. On a wooden table, there was a head who was staring right at her. Crouched down next to Teodora was a headless body with a yellow flame gushing from its neck, dressed in bronze and leather armor. Everything clicked into place as she realized what had happened to her. “...Oh, so you saved my life then?”
The body stood up and walked back over to the table where it grabbed a small vial with a red and blue colored liquid inside. It held it out for Teodora to take, gently pushing the potion into her hands as the head began to make an angry sounding set of noises that drew the body’s attention away. Holding the vial, questioning just about everything she had experienced in the last few hours, Teodora quietly watched as her apparent saviors bickered over something before the body walked off to the side and towards a fire that had a metal pot hanging over it. She looked between the body and the head, unsure of what the situation was, then finally settled her gaze on the vial in her hands.
“Wh-” She cleared her throat, “What?” That one word was all she could manage as her brain continued to spark like a faulty piece of electrical equipment. The head rolled its eyes and called its body over to Teodora’s side. It crouched back down and made a set of gestures that held no meaning to the girl before pointing at the bottle and mimed drinking to the best of its ability.
Teodora looked down at the potion in her hands and looked back up at the armored figure, still a bit awestruck by the sight of a headless body acting on its own. She uncorked the vial and took a deep inhale, her senses being greeted by an odd mix of honey and licorice as the liquid began to literally sing in that same foreign language she had heard the dullahan speaking in. A part of her wanted to argue the fact that last time she took anything from them, she had been dragged away while unconscious. But her sense of gratitude quickly made her perish the thought as she stuck the bottle in her mouth and drank, squeezing her eyes shut and hoping for the best.
It tasted much like how it smelled, like watered-down honey and some black licorice had an unholy union officiated at the hands of badly aged meat. Teodora coughed as she fought her body’s natural reaction to reject the foreign liquid solely based on its taste. The singing disappeared down her throat and caused a lump to get caught somewhere in the back of her mouth. She felt like she had a second tongue stuck somewhere in her mouth that was moving in tandem with hers. “What the hell was that?!” She asked as she continued to cough, trying to rid her mouth of the taste.
“A potion so I could tell ya that yer a feckin’ cabbage in a way yer actually able to understand,” The head on the table said with a heavy, almost exaggerated, accent. “Now if yer done gawkin’ at me I’ve got another tincture yer gonna have to swallow.”
Teodora tried to speak, but more sputtered nonsense came out of her hanging mouth. The body slapped a hand through the flame on its neck, making an almost exasperated motion with its shoulders before standing up and heading back over to the pot to watch it boil.