Fable - Ask May the Spirits guide your Journey

[Zeri Rekani]

Up.

Little by little.

The strain of lifting him was alleviated to a considerable degree once Weylin's feet gained purchase on the ground. Ha! Ha, ha! Zeri didn't think she could even help him that far, but they did it! Just a little more to get him standing properly upright and then they could get moving.

He was standing. His knees straightening out. His legs wobbly, but holding.

Then they gave out.

And he fell into her, their heads smacking roughly against one another. A white burst of fleeting stars blinded her vision in that moment, and the pain was so sudden and powerful that she gasped.

"Ow! Ow...ow..."

Once it was clear that Weylin, despite his stumble, was now standing under his own power, Zeri brought both of her hands up to hold her aching forehead. Her gaze was downcast, but it hardly mattered--she closed her eyes. And she held her forehead and waited until the initial barrage of the ache passed, simmering down into a dull throb. Through her gloves she couldn't feel the blood that had been smeared on her.

At least they hadn't gone sprawling back down to the ground again after all that effort.

"A-Are you good? You're good, right? You can walk?" Zeri said, opening her eyes as if waking from a sleep that was long and dark and anything but restful. She let her arms fall back down to her sides.

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

Broken ribs. Torn muscles in both arms. Cuts along his head. Exhaustion. Bruises. A headache following an accidental headbutt.

Weylin was not feeling good. Not in any way.

But his feet were under him. A new rush of energy like he had when the beast attacked filled him. Things weren't good for him but they could be worse. He should be able to walk on his own. At least he should until they reached their little camp again. But from there....

Weylin looked Zeri in the eyes. "No. No. Maybe." He began to try and walk away from her as they were still in kissing range of each other.

The hunter stumbled as he backed up. Every motion seemed like it would only end in him falling to the floor. But he didn't. It was not by luck or chance. He pushed his legs to stay under him through sheer force of will. Slowly he had given the two of them more space.

But the human couldn't stop.

He knew he would fall the moment his legs came to a stop. So he just began to slowly sway his way in what he hoped was the direction of their camp. His head wasn't very clear at the moment. He easily could be going the wrong way and need a certain orcess to correct him.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

Maybe. And said maybe seemed to be more than that--becoming at least a certainty with some little caveats--when Weylin took his first few tentative steps.

Okay. Good. Good. Spirits, at least she didn't have to try and drag him again. If that were the case, Zeri probably would've just had to drag him into one of the dwarven homes and he would have to rest up there. Nothing much to be done about it.

Gosh, all of this was a big, big setback. There was no way Weylin would be out and about any time soon. Maybe if they were anywhere other than the Spine it could be managed, but not here. The troll, the trickery of the ghosts, the Monster Bat, all of it stacked one delay on top of the other. Both Ma and Pa knew that she was going to be gone for a while, but there was a sense of how long it would reasonably take. They would start to worry before long--like they always did.

Zeri went to her pack while Weylin took his tentative steps. Bent down and picked it up and hauled it onto her back and drew in a small hiss of air (this bruise, ugh). Then she likewise collected her spear in one hand and turned and followed Weylin out of the narrow passageway, back onto one of the main streets of the abandoned port town.

And, um, he was slightly off course.

"Hey. Weylin," Zeri said, coming up beside him and pointing the tip of her spear in the proper direction. "This way."

Even with her pace tempered, she ended up pulling ahead of him. She would turn and walk backward to make sure he was following and then walk front-facing again and repeat.

"You're doing great, Weylin," she said. "Keep it up. The dock and our coalfire is just around this corner here. I'll get another fire going if this one's burned out. It'll feel nice, come on. Just a little bit further."

The sound of the flowing water of the underground river was becoming a touch too familiar now for Zeri's liking.

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

The hunter was just walking. Very slowly. He had lost touch with where he was going but he couldn't stop. If he stopped right now then he would stop for good. How long he would be stopped for though was a mystery. A mystery he wasn't in the right mind to solve right now.

The orcess had said something to him. What was it? He he noticed she was pointing in a direction. Not thinking much about why he managed to slowly change direction and began to follow the orcess. It was easier to keep his eyes on her than think about where he was going.

Eventually the smell of coalfire and water began to drift towards them. She confirmed as much herself. They were near their camp. Perhaps soon he could sleep.... Was it a good idea to rest right now?

Weylin didn't have time to think about it as his legs finally gave out on him. The hunter collapsed to the floor with their camp in sight. His fever had returned reddening his face. He was hungry. He was thirsty. He was tired. Most of all, he was in pain. He hoped it would all just end soon so he could either die or get on with his life.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

The fire was still burning. It could use a little more fuel, a bit more of the blackrock to get it strong again, but it was still burning. That was something. A little something, but after Zeri and Weylin had been through so much already she would take any small fortune or blessing she could get.

"Here we are, Weylin. Look, I can wash off the rabbits and get them warm again and you can have something nice to eat when you're re--"

Thump.

Zeri stopped and looked back. Saw that Weylin had collapsed. She gasped and dropped her spear to the stone dock and shucked her pack from her shoulders once again. "Spirits, spirits, hold on. Hold on, Weylin. Here."

With her hands free and her gear off of her back, she went to him. Grabbed both of his wrists and prepared to drag him yet again. "I'm sorry if this hurts. I'm going to get you closer to the fire."

And she did. She strained with effort and took struggling, waddling steps backward, dragging the collapsed Weylin across the gap from where he had fallen to the familiar campfire. The bending over and exertion flared up the agony of the bruise marring her back, and twice she had to stop. Stop and catch her breath. Stop and let the pain subside. Then she would start again until he was close.

Zeri went to her pack and unstrapped her bedroll. She...well, she didn't think that she would be doing this again in the exact same spot they had been to a full three times now, but here she was. And considering how it ended last time...she was a touch nervous. But it was okay. It was okay. She knew what to do now. Just leave Weylin alone and don't bother him so much. Keep her mind on her task: the flower. Don't let anything else detract from that.

She unrolled her bedroll adjacent to the fire. Set her blanket in a bunch by the foot of it--first she had to get Weylin off of the cold and hard stone of the dock.

"Okay. I'm going to get you onto the bedroll so you can rest easily. Nice and slow."

Zeri once more took hold of Weylin's wrists and started backing up gently to the bedroll, stepping onto it first to keep it more or less secure. She lifted Weylin up just a tiny bit, just enough to get his back off of the ground and on top of the bedroll. Then she paused and took a breather, her arms exhausted from all the exertion she had demanded of them today, yesterday, the day before that, and so on. Then Zeri got down to her knees, held Weylin under his armpits--her head beside his--slowly and gently wiggling him the rest of the way onto the bedroll.

She wiped at her forehead. Noticed then the blood that was smeared onto the palm of her glove. She took off the glove and dabbed at her forehead with two fingers, seeing the spots of red on the tips. Was she...? No. It was Weylin's. When they had bumped heads earlier. Had to be.

Zeri stood and collected the blanket by the bedroll and draped it down over Weylin.

Then sat down beside the weakened fire. In truth plopped down before it. She took off her other glove and set it down and wiped little beads of sweat from her face, barely having enough strength in her exhausted arms to do even that.

She would need to find something suitable to dress Weylin's head wound. In a minute. After she had a slight break.

Weylin Kyrel

 

[Weylin Kyrel]

Like an enormous sack of potatoes, the hunter was drug back into the camp. The pain was.... Well the pain was about normal for how things were going. He groaned. He whined a bit. He made all kinds of noises that made it ever so clear just how alive he still was feeling. And how much of a problem that was proving to be right now for him.

The orcess managed to get him onto the bedroll. The softness and warmth was heavenly compared to the cold stone of the floor. His red face seemed to calm a bit after she got him onto it.

But he was sweating. Paling. It would be clear if she looked at him that he was beginning to be in dire need of water. Between the bleeding, the sweating, and the general moving around he had lost a lot of fluids. A fever was only making it worse.

White wasn't happy about any of it, but there was nothing she could do. Her fur and maw were dyed in the blood of the beast. And it stunk. She stunk. The smell was terrible and this was even by her standards. Her human never could handle what she could. If she got close to him right now it would only make him feel worse. So as much as she hated it she needed to leave and clean herself up first.

Off the dog padded towards the canal leaving her human entirely alone with the female. She would regret this.

Zeri Rekani

 

[Zeri Rekani]

Okay.

Okay, that was enough. Zeri took in a quick, steadied breath and willed herself back up to her feet. And she knew that even after her own rest (especially after her own rest, to be honest) that she would need to go hunting and foraging on the surface. Those few rabbits and their very lean meat wouldn't be close to enough for herself, for Weylin, and for his dog--it was hardly more than a snack for one of them, let alone all three.

"I'll be right back," Zeri said to him. "I'm going to go find something to dress your wound. It shouldn't be too hard."

And she started to walk away. Stopped before she got too far. Came back and got her spear. Just in case. Yeah. Just in case. This place was bad enough as it was without being unarmed. Ironically (or fittingly?), Zeri had slept and traveled just fine for her brief journey in the Spine, and it was only now--after this whole ordeal with Weylin--that she had become intensely wary. How could Weylin stand to live here? How could he even fall asleep here? She knew it was going to be a problem for her, going forward. She would need her sleep, but she would have an awful time trying to let her guard down enough to get it.

Spear in hand, Zeri hustled back into the town. Concerned about leaving Weylin alone for too long.

* * * * *​

After a short while, Zeri came back. Spear in one hand, a neatly folded linen bedsheet in the other. It wasn't her who had folded the bedsheet, no, but rather she'd found it like that in one of the homes she checked. If anything was going to be clean, it'd be this bedsheet, she figured.

Where'd Weylin's dog go? Hm. Should come back. Zeri hadn't heard anything worrisome echoing into the town during her search, so she assumed all was still well. Or well enough.

She sat down beside Weylin, her spear set down and her pack pulled in close. She lifted the blanket and pulled out Weylin's knife from its sheath, saying, "I'm going to borrow this for a minute, okay?"

Then she cut out a big wad of the linen from the bedsheet. She wiped and dabbed at the blood on his face, cleaning it up as much as she could. Some of it was smeared and settled--not quite dry, but stubborn to remove. So she opened her pack and took out her waterskin and unstoppered it. Placed two of her fingers at the end of it and wet them.

"This might be a little cold, Weylin. Sorry."

Maybe it would be, or maybe not. Her hands felt warm, so maybe the tips of her fingers would warm the water up some and it wouldn't be so bad. Anyway, she rubbed at the stubborn stains of blood on his face. Wetting them and then cleaning them up with the linen wad. A little bit here. A little bit there. Good as it was going to get now, before she dressed the wound.

She set aside the bloodied wad and cut out a long strip of linen from the bedsheet. Pressed one end of it to Weylin's forehead. Said, "Okay. I'm going to lift your head a few times. Easy does it."

And she did. One, two, three lifts and wraps of the linen strip around his head. She tied the peeking initial end of the strip around the finishing end into a knot over the wound itself, making it snug and secure and with the pressure upon the gash.

Zeri sat back. Reached for the bloodied wad and found a clean spot in it and dabbed at her own forehead and hair with it.

As she did so, she said, "Are you thirsty? Do you think you can drink some water now?"

She set the wad down and gave the waterskin by her leg a soft pat.

Weylin Kyrel