Slowly moving through the forest is a pain in my ass. I'm starting to feel a bit cold and my skin is feeling clamy. Some sort of instincts kick in and I check my heart rate by putting two fingers against my throat. Yep, my hreat rate has slightly increased. Stage two of Hypovolemia here I come! Blood loss is a bitch. But, how the hell do I know this? As far as I can remember, which by the way isn't fucking much, I was some sort of shut-in. I'd go to work, come home to eat/sleep and the rest of the time was spent playing games or reading. I don't recall ever learning about blood loss or the stages therein. I hear a whisper that causes me to free dead in my tracks and scan the forest.
"We are you."
My eyes widen and I frantically limp toward a tree and peak around it's edges. Nothing? I shut my eyes and focus on my hearing. Again, nothing besides the sounds of trees rustling and small animals scampering about.
"And you are us."
I shake my head while smacking the sides.
"You're just hearing things-" I try to recall my name, but nothing. The sudden realization causes me to drop to my ass and lean against the tree. "-Who am I?" Feeling my breathing speeding up and my heart beating faster I put my head between my knees and take in deep breaths.
"Don't panic-calm down. Freaking out will only make us bleed out even quicker." Shutting my eyes I begin to rock back and forth until I feel my heartbeat drop and my nerves calmed. Good, good don't freak out! Don't freak-
*snap*
The sound of a twig or branch snapping nearby has my heartbeat raising again. Great! I stand as quickly as I'm able, using the tree as some sort of cover and peek my head out. The person I see has my blood boiling and my teeth grinding against eachother. That pale skin, the long blonde hair woven into a braid and that getup It's her-that god damn witch! In my anger and hate I forget all about my wounds and my situation and bolt straight towards the woman, tackling her to the ground. In my rage and fury I pull back a fist ready to beat the shit out of this woman, when her hood falls off and her face gives her away. It's someone else. Her hands go up to protect her face and she looks away with an expectant look.
I close my eyes and take in deep breaths yet again and slowly climb off the startled woman, falling back to another nearby tree, staring at her. Slowly she comes to the realization that I'm not here to hurt her and she to sits up staring at me. I watch as her eyes dart to my wounds and a small frown appears on her face.
"You're hurt."
Ahh, good she speaks english. Or atleast I hope it's english we're speaking? Sure as hell sounds like it. I sit up with a groan and look down. Blood now covers my chest from the shoulder wound and the ripped up black pants are seemingly soaked with blood. Woo, great first impression! I smack myself inwardly. Sighing I manage to stand once more and turn tail, continuing my journey through this damned forest. If that lady wants to backstab me and kill me, let her.
As I walk I hear footsteps behind me. Great, she's following me. Speed up some, maybe she'll go away and I can continue this journey of self thought. Slowly I pick up my pace only to hear her do so as well. Ugh, can't she take a hint and either kill me or leave me alone? With frustration I stop and feel a small thud against my back and hear her fall to the ground. I turn around and stare at the woman that's now rubbing her head.
"That hurt! Why'd you have to stop?" I glare at her and she glares back. Content to win this pseudo staring contest, I cross my arms and plant my feet. I see her blush and turn her head. Inwardly I pump my fist.
"Why are you following me?" She stands up and brushes her robe/cloak off and gives me a displeased look.
"Oh fine don't help the lady up. Jerk." I barely hear her whisper the last part and shrug.
"You bumped into me while stalking me through a forest for I don't even know HOW long." She glares at me again and puts her hands on her hips to try and make herself seem intimidating.
"I wasn't stalking you! I followed a trail of blood thinking it was an injured animal." She eyes me up then down and smiles. "Looks like I was right." Dumb founded at the sort of balls on this chick to insult someone atleast a foot higher then her while being within arms reach I laugh.
"Haha-haha!" I hunch over from the laughing, but the pain comes back and I hiss, bringing a hand to the bolt in my shoulder. I look to the woman who's face has contorted into one of anger/confusion and want to laugh again. She just looks so cute, I can't find this situation not funny!
"Do you want my help or not? Because, the way I see it you've got maybe another hour or so before you pass out or some animal follows the very large trail you've left and eats you." She makes a point and I could really use a rest. I frown and rub the back of my head.
"Lead the way then miss." I gesture my hand towards her and she hops in the air, twisting around giggling. Ugh, this better not bite me in the ass.
25 minutes later.
Slowly we start coming up on a village that has a farely large wooden wall and from what I can tell they seem to have some treehouses. Interesting, if it wasn't for me slowly dieing I'd be a bit more impressed and maybe even awed. We come up to a ramshackled gate and this sort of creature made up of wood, vines and other foresty parts pulls itself from the wall and stops us. The little lady speaks a different language to it that sounds a bit like spanish, but with a lot more S's and A's. Beautiful, but at the same time kind of sounds like a mouthful.
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She nods and I saunder over to her and poke her in the side. She jumps at this and looks at me with a very red, shocked face. Little miss saviour has a sensitive spot!
"What the heck was that for?" I shrug.
"What'd the freaky wooden wall creature say?" She gives me an odd look and shakes her head.
"It's getting the clan healer and a couple of guards with a stretcher."
"Bah!" I wave her down. "I walked all the way here! I don't need a damn stretcher." She walks over to me with a mean glare and points a finger up at me, not breaking eye contact once again.
"You will get on the stretcher or so help me godess!" I smile at her.
"What? What will you do?" She smiles and pulls on the arrow in my shoulder, causing me to fall to the ground in pain, gripping my shoulder. I give her a mean look and throw up my hands.
"Alright! You win! I'll get on the damn stretcher." She puts her hands behind her back and gives me a big smile. I really hope annoying me isn't an inborn racial trait. She and that witch are REALLY good at it. Soon a small platoon of maybe ten guards comes with a man with large pointy ears, sporting long blonde locks (go figure) and a very neat white robe. Two men lower the stretcher and as best as I can manage, I hop on.
A very shakey, disorienting walk later and we've arrived at some sort of house built into an incredibly large tree. I mean this thing could easily fit a hundred people around it's trunk. How the hell did I not notice this thing from the outside? The guards put me on some sort of wooden table and pull out the wooden sticks that they used to carry me and nod to the 'healer' . He nods back and quickly begins examining me.
"This is going to feel wierd, but I need to do it." I look to the woman that followed me and she just shrugs. A lot of help she is right now. I look back to the man and see his hands are glowing green and my eyes widen with shock. I try to back away, but he forces me down and shakes his head.
"Sit still."
I nod, not really sure what else to do, but stare at his hands. Slowly he waves over each wound and finally my head. I don't know how to really explain what it feels like, but it kind of feels warm? I see him frown and walk over to some sort of green orb sitting in some sort of makeshift stand and he touches it. It glows and I sit up, trying to get a better look. I think he sees me trying as he grabs it and brings it over to the table.
"It's a medical device that allows me to input data that I took from you and gives me an analysis back." I nod. He scans it for a bit, then gets up and puts it back on it's stand, walking over to me.
"You're banged up, but very fixable." He waves over the woman. "By the way, I'm Keeper Sy'lasin Valtas and thats my daughter-" He gets cut off by the woman.
"Elise Valtas!" She gives me a giddy smile and I shake their hands.
"I'm-well I don't know." Both of them give me a confused expression and I manage to shrug.
"A hundred percent honesty?" Both nod. I suck in a breath and sigh. Here we go. "I came from something called a converegence point? I'm not sure what that is, but some people found me and took me to their castle or fort or something and I escaped. I was wounded escaping and now I'm here." Both seem taken back by this and I frown. Great, I realllly hope they don't try to turn me in or something. I hear a sigh leave from the keeper.
"That's okay. I'm guessing you don't have a name then?" I shake my head and I hear Elise clapping.
"OOOHHH! Can I pick one?" I shrug, why not?
"Go ahead." She claps again and begins pacing around a bit as The Keepr goes about mending my wounds.
"This is going to hurt-well a lot." I brace myself for whats about to happen as he pulls the arrow from my shoulder. Warm pain shoots throughout my shoulder as I slam into the table with a grunt.
"Thomas? No, Vulker!" Really now? I shake my head at both. She goes back to pacing. I watch as The Keeper goes to each arrow and painfully removes them and the blood starts flowing. He motions for Elise and she comes over to me and her hands begin to glow as well.
"What are you doing?" The Keeper looks at me and gives me a wry smile.
"We're using healing magic to clean the wounds, then we'll apply a poultice to it and wrap each section. After a couple days we'll finish it off with a restorative magic and you'll be as good as new!" Elise coughs.
"Buuuuut, you'll still have minor scarring. Healing magic is great, but it's incredibly hard on the body." Healing magic? Just nod you're head like you're in full understanding. I give them a nod. A few minutes go by and the pain from the wounds fades and I begin to feel tired. A yawn escapes me and I apologize.
"Sorry, I must be tired." Elise laughs and the Keeper gives me a smile.
"Healing magic is very soothing , but I imagine with all the running you've been doing and the amount of blood loss that you would be feeling a bit tired. Try to fight it for a bit longer, we need to get some fluids and a bit of food in you to aid in the healing." Again nodding, I kind of feel helpless all I seem to be able to do is nod. I rest my ahead against the table and let the two of the finish up.
"What about Edward? Or Jack?" I shake my head. I hear her huff out some air clearly annoyed. The Keeper laughs and I let a smile creep on my face.
"What about Terryn?" The Keepr chimes in and I kind of like the sound of that.
"Alright Terryn it is! Could be Terry for a nickname." Elise sighs and lets out a grunt.
"I was suppose to come up with a name!" Both the Keeper and I let out a laugh. She soon joins in and the two end their healing magic and start applying this smelly goopy shit to my wounds. They then wrap it and back away, inspecting their work.
"Alright you can stand up, but do it slowly." I hold out my hand and he helps me up. Once up I stretch a few times and give them a reassuring smile.
"I don't really know how I can repay you?" He waves me off.
"Just stick around for a bit. We don't have many young men that can help with some of the more difficult tasks. We could surely use your help." I mean they've done nothing, but be helpful to me so far and I do owe them, buuuut I don't really know them? They could just be keeping me around until those slaver bastards get here. I frown. I think the Keeper can sense my thoughts as he chimes in.
"We're not going to call the fort, if that's what you're worried about. You've done nothing to hurt or attack my people, so you're okay in my eyes." I let out a sigh and nod.
"Okay, I guess I'll stay for a bit. I do owe you after all." Elise gets excited and jumps into my arms, giving me a hug. I smile and hug her back.
"Good, but you have to promise to not agitate your wounds!" She backs away from the hug and gives me a stern almost motherly look.
"Alright, but I was promised food and I'm pretty sure I don't know how to cook." She laughs and the Keeper shakes his head. Today turned out pretty good.