Private Tales Crossing Over

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
"I was hoping we wouldn't have to try and remove yours until we could reach someone with needle and thread," he replied. He grimaced at the thought of pushing the arrow through Syuri's side.

"But I'm barely going to walk, let alone carry you, until this is out."

Keernan looked down at the arrow shaft still in his thigh. There was no pushing that one through; it was well lodged into bone.

"I can shift and take it out, but I'll need to bind it as tight as I can as soon as I'm back in this form," he explained. He could cheat, but it was going to be draining.
 
Syuri groaned. She wanted the arrow out, but she knew he was probably right. Then again, who knew when they'd reach someone, and if they were still being hunted - which she assumed they would be - they wouldn't stand much of a chance. Still, at death felt much less imminent than it had done before they'd escaped. They were both alive, and together.

"I can walk.." she sighed, though for how far she didn't know. The weakness had settled into her very bones, and she knew that very soon, soo too could a fever. "Can you tell if there are any villages or towns close by?" she asked, reaching out with a grimace to pull her pack closer to her, waking the ginger feline in the process of fishing out a scarf to hand to him.

"For your leg."
 
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"I don't know," Keernan said. "If we're not far from where we lost her hounds then we might be able to find the road again and carry on."

"If not...if not then I might need to do it and burn the wound to seal it. I'll need a bit of time to recover."

Staying awake through the night hadn't been difficult. He wasn't afraid of the fae themselves, he was afraid of the fate they had prepared for him. The two sparks had held an echo of the pain they had suffered. It had felt the same as the Alaryssian pulling at his soul, only amplified a thousand times.

He had wondered if those two people had died from the process or just the pain.

"If you could hold that," he said of the scarf. Keernan took a deep breath and shifted into his water based form. The arrow remained wedged in his translucent leg. It didn't just fall out, he had to pull on the shaft. Even I'm this form she would be able to see how much it pained him.

Keernan tossed it aside in anger and shifted back. Blood flowed freely from the open wound.
 
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Syuri did as he asked and watched, her eyes wide with awe as she looked directly through him, the vision of the trees and shrubs on the other side of him distorted, like rocks on a riverbed. She flinched as he shifted back, seeing the bloodied arrow hit the ground and the blood flow from his wounded flesh.

She gingerly shifted herself and did what she could to help him wrap the wound as tightly as they could.

"From now on.." she muttered and allowed him to help her to her feet with a shuddered breath of pain. "We don't trust any fae."
 
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"No. We don't," he said firmly.

Keernan tested his weight on his wounded leg. It hurt and walking away was only going to make it worse. There could have been a river of lava ahead and he still would have walked away from this place.

Rushel's troupe might not have given up on them. The Aralyssian could still be hunting him. He would keep putting one foot in front of the other.

"I was only supposed to show you a new town," he reflected. "It turned out that going anywhere with me was not very safe at all, didn't it?"
 
Syuri laughed though it pained her and she hissed.. "No, it wasn't.." she answered with as much amusement in her tone as she could muster as she moved. "But it was worth it. And most certainly not boring." she grumbled.

It wouldn't take her long to tire, and though she tried to keep moving, she was slowing and leaning a little more of her weight on him than she'd wanted to. Exhaustion soon clouded her mind, her eyelids heavy and her steps clumsy.

"Are we.. there yet?" the little elf groaned.
 
"We're nearly there," he said firmly. They had found a road and along the way Keernan had started to recognise some landmarks.

"We just need to..."

He felt Syuri go slack and he was forced to bend to catch her under the armpits. His fresh arrow wound protested at this, but he held his footing.

"Oh dear."


"Are you with me?"

Syuri would wake to the sensation of Keernan's finger gently stroking her cheek. It was warm and there was a thatched roof over their heads.

"The good news is you were asleep for the worst of it. Bad news is you lost quite a lot of blood."
 
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"Hmm.." Syuri smiled weakly as she woke to the soothing touch. She attempted to lift her hand to his, though her brow furrowed when she found it to be a more difficult task than she anticipated. Her limbs felt heavy, but she felt the tight bindings around her side and a sigh tumbled out in relief.

"Wonderful.." she answered grittily with some semblance of a smirk. "Where are we?.." she frowned. She couldn't remember passing out, and guilt knotted in her chest at the thought of him having to carry her. "How is your leg?"
 
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"It has been better," he replied simply. He managed a half-hearted smile. It was the kind of injury that would remain an echo of the event for a long time.

"Hurts to put much weight on it still, but I can walk around a little."

Keernan was perched on the edge of a plush fabric chair beside her bed.

"We are in the human town of Delastoe. Further than you'd planned to travel, I grant. However it's quite large as towns go. I'm sure you'll find it fascinating when you're up and about."
 
The elf's brows rose in surprise. She'd never stepped foot in a human town, and the intrigue forced her up onto her elbows with a grimace to better study her surroundings. Most things were similar, though the furnishings were far more comfortable, she noted, and the place lacked the visible nature that the elves seemed to live amongst.

"Delastoe?" she asked. "They don't mind us being here?" she asked, having heard different accounts of the humans of Arethil. Those she'd met that'd passed through her own village had always been friendly enough but kept themselves to themselves, but she'd heard some terrible stories which she'd always assumed to be told in the effort of keeping her from leaving home.

"Thank you.." she said as she looked back to Keernan's face. "For carrying me here." she frowned, glancing down at his leg. "Have you had time to rest?"..
 
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"I have rested it as much as I could," he replied. He always healed fairly quickly and someone had given him some stitches once Syuri was safe.

He had watched them push the arrow through. Watches Syuri toss and turn in pain even though she had passed out. It had been far more painful than a few stitches.

"You seem quite alert and you're not particularly warm, so you might have escaped a fever. Don't try and stand up yet.

"The people here are fairly welcoming of any travellers who can part with some coin for shelter and food. I don't tend to have very much...so their hospitality won't last many more days," he admitted.
 
Syuri gingerly lowered herself back onto the bed and lifted a hand to touch carefully at her side. "Hm.. Seems so. Not bad for my first time being shot." she laughed under her breath and winced again. "Okay, no more laughing." she sighed. There was no way she could have stood, either. Her muscles were stiff and heavy and would barely allow her to move let alone get up.

"There's a coin purse in my pack, though fair warning, Mango doesn't like to part with it." she smirked. She held out her hand to him.

"I didn't think we were going to make it out of there.." she said quietly. "I thought they were going to take you from me, and I felt.. Robbed." she frowned. "I care about you, and they didn't have the right to take you. You shouldn't have been willing to go with them."
 
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Keernan sat in silence, his gaze falling to his own feet. He idly scratched at the side of his chin, running a thumb through his beard. It needed a trim.

He knew where her sentiment came from and that it wasn't meant as a complaint about his choices. It still made him feel a wash of guilt for leading them into danger again.

"It seems that we can't trust any of their kind," he said, looking up at Syuri. He looked tired. He felt tired.

"At least, any of them that want something to do with the spark inside me." Keernan took a moment to steal himself before continuing.

"There was a moment on the way here when I thought I couldn't carry you any further. I thought I was going to collapse and have to watch you die in my arms. It would have been my fault."
 
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Syuri simply shook her head in sage silence as he spoke of how untrustworthy the fae were. She was naïve and sheltered, and she had a lot to learn about the world outside of the little village she'd grown up in, but she was learning quickly that trust was a thing to be earned and people had to prove themselves worthy of it before it should be given.

She was also learning how much the elf sat in front of her could make her heart ache, and it damn near cracked when he told her of how far he'd pushed himself. She reached for him with her good arm and shook her head. "No. No it wouldn't have been your fault. You didn't fire those arrows nor did you give the order to do so. I chose to come with you, I wanted to. And you didn't collapse, you kept going and I'm alive because of you.

A shuddered sigh spilled from her lips as she studied his face. She wanted to sleep more, but she also wanted to sit here holding onto him. "Will you come lay with me?"
 
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Keernan smiled at her and nodded slowly. He took her hand in his own and opened his mouth to reply. A sudden movement cut him off and made him jump in his seat.

"Chrrp!"

Mango, having jumped up onto the bed and startled Keernan, walked up towards Syuri's face.

Keernan didn't have any footwear on so - much to Mango's chagrin - he immediately stood up and slipped under the blankets beside Syuri.

She was warm, but just from being wrapped up on the bed. It wasn't enough to make him suspect a new fever had started.

"On the other hand, I learned a lot about myself," he said, trying to change the tone. He leaned gently against her shoulder, tilting his head to place a kiss against her temple.
 
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"Well...I always knew that I was strange," he said. It was an odd way to start the explanation, though it did bring to mind their first meeting.

"I said I died. It turns out that I only half died. That half got filled with the spark, the primal spirit. It's not a separate thing. It is me now. It's why the two he took wanted to resist and helped us when I called on them."

"I know that it's a piece of a dread Fae king who reigned terror for thousands of years, but I don't feel any of that. Just old knowledge and curiosity for more."
 
Syuri couldn't help but chuckle at his self-awareness, though it led to a cough and hot lance of pain and she groaned. He was strange, but his strangeness made him who he was, and she was growing more and more fond of it.

She slipped her fingers through his, listening to him speak with a soft frown as she tried her best to understand how this magic worked. "I wonder how it found you in the first place.. But I'm glad it did." she smiled sleepily, his warmth against her comforting.
 
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"I am glad it did too," he replied.

Keernan reached down and gently pressed his palm to the wound in his leg. It was still sore, but there was no trace of the heat of infection. Being in his water spirit form, the damage done by an arrow passing through him had been reduced.

All of his forms were more durable than flesh and blood and the damage suffered never quite translated back to what he would have taken as his usual self.

Syuri did not have such a luxury.

"And I am glad that you stood your ground against fae hunters when you could have run. I wanted you to at the time, but I am rather glad not to have died by being torn in two."
 
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