Trenton opened his eyes, slowly rising to a seated position. With the sudden burst of energy each morning, it was difficult to keep himself still, but for the sake of all of his nearby companions, he did his best. They were sitting in one of the rooms, Trenton and Garrote given the two beds to lay in. Leo sat on the chair against the side wall, his head in his hands, his breaths soft and steady. He was almost assuredly sleeping. Off to Trenton’s left, Kiva was hunched over Garrote, her demeanor bleary. She’d clearly been up all night tending to Garrote. It probably didn’t help, either, that Millie was hovering around Kiva’s legs, trying to get a peek at what was happening.
“How’s he looking?” Trenton asked, resting his back against the wall.
“It’s-” Kiva started.
“HORRIBLE!” Millie cried, moving over to Trenton and clinging to his arm. “HE’S DYING!”
“He’s not dying…but his arm isn’t looking good,” Kiva butted in, her voice hoarse. She’d probably been trying to keep Millie off of her the whole night. Off in the corner, Leo still slept peacefully, the sudden disturbance doing little to pierce the haze surrounding him. Trenton slipped off of the bed, freeing his arm from Millie, and walking over to Garrote, Kiva moving to let Trenton get a good look.
“Holy sh-” Trenton muttered.
“Yeah, I know. I did what I could, but there wasn’t much to save,” Kiva said, rubbing her creased brow.
Garrote’s arm was a disaster. Most of the strands of flesh had been cut, leaving him with very little below his shoulder. What flesh that was still attached to his body was torn, bruised, and tender, Kiva’s magic barely managing to close the seams together. His shoulder also looked like it was tilted at an off angle, the bones presumably having been broken completely out of place.
“Is there anything else we can do for him?” Trenton asked, looking up at Kiva.
“Not much. I’ll need a couple more hours to realign his shoulder, but I have no means of making the limb functional again. I put all of the flesh and bone onto ice and placed it into a time box, so if there is a solution, we’ve got the material for it. But for now, he’ll have to make do. I’ll look into finding a more experienced druid in Zerital. Most of my training was…haphazard and ill advised.”
Trenton cupped his mouth, looking down at Garrote, “Why can’t we find another arm and sow it on? With all the bodies laying around, there has to be at least one that’d be compatible.”
“Doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. Trust me, I tried. From what I understand, each person has a unique presence signature, one that can’t be mimicked or identified. The moment you try to attach a foreign object to someone's body, their presence will attack it, recognizing the lingering presence of the original limbs over. The limb will work for a short time, but it’ll start to rot within a couple days. Not only is this incredibly painful, it’s dangerous. It can kill you if it’s not treated right away. This is why it’s often said that it’s simply not possible. It’s to dissuade young dumb druids like me.”
They sat in silence for some time, Kiva returning to work on Garrote’s shoulder, Trenton at a loss for words. Finally, when he’d pieced his mind to some semblance of cohesion, Trenton spoke again, his words softer than before, “Are you alright? Your wounds were deep last night.”
Kiva looked over at him, giving him a strained smile, “Fine, more or less. Call me selfish, but I tended to my own wounds the moment you took over. I had a feeling I’d need to be tending to at least Garrote, so I needed to make sure I was able to be moving. I’ll see to more permanent fixes once I can get Garrote fully dealt with. For now,” Kiva winced as she twisted back to Garrote, her hand involuntarily darting to her side, “I’ll be alright. A couple days should be enough to see the both of us fully fixed up. I’ll need to rely on you for fighting and traveling until then. I don’t imagine that’ll be a problem?” She asked, throwing her eyebrows up with a coy grin.
“No, of course not. Everything goes perfectly when I fight alone. Always. Everytime. No exceptions,” Trenton said, returning her smile. She tried to laugh, but ended up going into a fit of coughs instead. Probably best to leave her to her work. Once she was better and fully righted, Trenton informed her of his intentions, scouring the base for any survivors with Millie.
Kiva nodded, turning her focus away from Trenton. Trenton glanced over at Leo still slumbering in the corner, his mind returning to the brilliant flash of light last night. Whatever spell he cast, it must’ve taken an extraordinary amount of energy. He would probably be sleeping for a while yet, best to just leave him. Trenton exited the room, bidding Millie to follow. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but she’d need to be used to gore if she was to be traveling with them. They’d undeniably be seeing a lot more of it.
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Over the next handful of hours, Trenton and Millie picked through the compound room by room, identifying bodies and scrounging for anything they might use. They didn’t find Urime among the corpses, but there also weren't a lot of bodies in general. It reminded Trenton of what the man had said last night. They must’ve been feeding the bodies to the mouth of the dragon. It probably acted similar to an incinerator. Why it was so far up in the sky was beyond Trenton, but it didn’t really matter. There was no way to tell who was consumed and who was simply killed.
Most of the compound was unnotable, Trenton and Millie taking the time to loot their remaining food storages and gaze upon the section that Leo destroyed last night. Eventually, Trenton and Millie stumbled their way into the stables area. This section, much like every other area, had bodies strewn all about, trails of blood and viscera streaked across the floor. But unlike every other area, this section had the corpses of both petrichor and dragon’s maw agents. It seemed that the stables guards were able to hold out better than the rest, probably because of the animals. Whatever drug they must’ve slipped into the water supply probably did little to the unique biology of the stormas.
Despite this, pretty much every storma was already dead, most of them with burns or slashes. There was, however, one storma that still remained alive. In the furthest back room, past a large steel door which hung off of its hinges, was the massive storma that carried them into the base, the bodies of dragon’s maw agents practically coating the floor. It was sitting there panting, its long tongue hanging out of its mouth, its expression rather placid. It looked at them with its beady eyes, its scales glinting with the morning light. Millie’s eyes lit up the moment she saw it, running over to hug its leg.
“Doggie!” She cried.
Trenton looked up at the creature, taking note of its features. Before, he had likened it to a mix between a horse and a lizard, its legs taking on the unique joint structure of a horse’s while still keeping the muscle and fat of a lizard. But looking up at its face, it did kind of have a dog-like quality to it. Its face still resembled that of a lizard's, sharp and angled, wide snout, slanted nose, but its eyes and body also reminded Trenton of a dog, its body a mix between fat and lean tissues.
“Can we take him with uuuuuuuuuus?” Mille called out, her eyes pleading.
“He? How can you tell?” Trenton asked, looking up at the large beast.
Millie shrugged, “Intuition.”
“Right, I should have guessed.”
Trenton thought about the request for some time, reasoning the pros and cons in his head. They couldn’t rightly leave it there alone. With no caretakers left, it’d probably die within the week. At the same time, they didn’t have a lot of resources to spare. The new surplus of food, assuming it was safe to consume, would make their trip safer, but it definitely wasn’t enough to support the storma for another month of travel. Although, the storma was traveling remarkably fast before. If it could get them there fast enough, then the low food supply wouldn’t even matter.
“Sure, we can take him,” Trenton replied, hoping he wouldn’t come to regret his decision.
Millie hopped around exultant, taking Trenton’s hands and spinning him in a circle whilst screaming, “THANK YOU,” over and over again, the stroma not seeming bothered by the noise in the slightest. It was rather calm considering everything that had happened. When Millie finally cooled off, she walked back over to the creature, turning suddenly back to Trenton.
“He needs a name,” Millie said.
“Do you have any ideas?” Trenton asked
“Hmmm,” Millie scratched her chin, squinting at the stroma, “how about Meepie?”
“That just sounds like your name.”
“Okay, well then how about Sargo?”
“No, not Sargo.”
Now exasperated, Millie tried one more time, “Tartile. Final answer.”
“I’m not really feeling it,” Trenton said, rubbing his chin. Something about the creature was calling to him, but he couldn’t figure out what. Suddenly, it hit him, Trenton recalling the word that Drya had told him. “How about Blithe? I think the word fits him a lot.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Improper joy and indifference.”
Millie thought about it for a moment, clearly still upset that Trenton had denied all of her suggestions. Then, when she could physically furrow her brow no further, she threw her arms in the air, satisfied.
“I like it!” Millie shouted, clambering on top of Blithe.
Trenton walked forward, allowing the creature to inspect him up close. Blithe lowered his head, staring at Trenton, sniffing him, then, seemingly satisfied, he stuck out his tongue again, licking Trenton’s face. The tongue was rough and leathery, but Trenton didn’t mind. His body was more than durable enough to withstand a bit of pressure.
After a couple minutes of scavenging, Trenton found and fastened Blithe’s saddle, giving them a means to guide Blithe. He wasn’t entirely sure if Blithe would even obey him, but after trying a couple basic commands, Blithe started forward, carrying the two of them outside. Leaving Blithe in Millie’s temporary care, Trenton rushed back through the compound to fetch everyone else. With Blithe at their side, they would be able to make it Zerital much quicker than anticipated, or so he hoped.
When Trenton entered the room, he found that Garrote was already fully bandaged and prepared, Kiva softly sleeping on the bed next to him. One by one, Trenton gently picked the three sleeping passengers up, placing them atop Blithe’s back, making sure they were stable and comfortable, before going to grab the next. When everyone was atop Blithe, strapped or held, they set out, Blithe slowly prancing across the sandy dunes to the north.