• Closed • They Bleed for Us

[Mal]

Vhalar 9th

The Infirmary was crowded. There were hundreds of wounded, if not thousands that sought assistance. Worse still, the Etzori prepared for war with Rhakros. They saw it as an opportunity to attack, many soldiers preparing for another war instead of fighting this one on the bloody streets. Only the most serious were attended to, even the veterinarians assisting where they could. The siege of shadows upon the underground was particularly brutal, but Mal and Eld were still intact.

Well, Eld was. Mal was another story.

They had him laying on a large sheet on his belly. For nearly twenty breaks he’d been unconscious, his wounds treated as they stuck him with a needle made from the foreleg of kidnapper spiders to get fluid into his blood. He was a large, ten-foot-long fox, a gruesome-looking bloody stub wrapped up in bandages where his tail used to be. There was also fabric around his neck, and that Etzori bandana he wore was in tatters, barely recognizable. The emblem was completely ripped off.

Highmark Rockolm had sought to his care only briefly before returning to the city to help deal with the encroaching threat. Day had turned to night, night to day, and now the sun hung low in the sky by the time the Hyx stirred. He awoke to a cold, inescapable weight that clung to his mind, threatening to drag him back to Emea. His lips peeled open, and he moved his tongue, tasting blood. Various chemicals could be scented in the air as he inhaled, but again, it was mostly that crimson that permeated his senses.

All around were the groans and cries of the sick, the dying, and the mourning. They’d all been laid out in the courtyard before the medical facility that the Etzori used, in double rows. Mal took up the space of ten men, the doctors giving him considerable more room. They didn’t believe he was human underneath his form.

“Put it down”, one of them had said. “Human lives are more important. We can’t waste the medical supplies on someone’s pet, no matter how valuable.” But Mal’s superior, the Highmark for his Scout Block was there. He was able to convince them to treat Mal, and even pulled some strings to get Eld some treatment too for her assistance with the survivors. The man didn’t trust the half-Avriel, but he respected valiance, and it was clear that she exhibited such things.

The wounded warriors from Eld’s group were around too, but Mal couldn’t raise his head to look around. He just trembled weakly, body disobeying. I feel like death... he told himself.

Attempting to rescue Nightshade was the last thing he could remember in his foggy mind. Reaching out to his human form, Mal dragged out an Echo for speech. “Eld,” he murmured, that one word croaking out painfully as he called to see if his friend was alright. His voice was dry, and he was in more pain than ever before. There was no ‘sweet nothingness’ to look forward to. It was just pain.

And pain sucked.

[Nightshade Eld]

Nightshade hadn't left his side since she woke up. She wasn't sure how long she was out, but it seemed to be midnight by the time she finally woke up. Everything was painful, every moment hurt like hell and made her wish she had something to ease the pain. But the half Avriel still wasn't the most trusted in the city and had only gotten the bare minimum for treatment. She was sure to be fine with a good rest the following night. When she woke up at midnight she had a bit of an ordeal. She didn't understand what was happening, only that strange men had been surrounding her. The least to say was that she panicked and freaked out. The honest to goodness truth of the situation was that she completely flipped trying to escape whatever horrible circumstance she was in. The doctors were at least a little understanding of her mental state considering her trauma. A couple of the warriors who she had Mal had rescued worked together to surround and calm her down. It took a little bit, a lot of stray feathers, and a couple of claw marks that she furiously apologized for later. Luckily someone had had the foresight to clip her nails prior in case something like this did happen. So the claw marks were just that, claw marks. They weren't talon scratches. They were little red trails with no blood drawn. So she didn't get to many horrible looks when she came back to her sense. That wasn't to say she didn't get any.

When she heard the situation Mal was in she demanded to be brought to him. Originally her demand was declined, but eventually they allowed her to see the man they thought as some simple Hyx, considering they just thought it was a Hyx. They didn't care what the half breed did. After she was at Mal's side she didn't leave. She didn't do anything, she barely moved she didn't try to eat or sleep. Or least she didn't make any sole attempt to. A couple of the members of the group had taken up a fondness for their two saviors, the kinder ones of the group. They had seen the pair fight for them and nearly die for them and greatful to be part of the small group that had survived. So every once in a while one of them would come to check on Night. Every once in a while she was convinced to eat or drink something. But she wasn't able to be convinced to sleep. She just sat there, quietly without any words. At times she barely looked alike, more similar to a statue than an actual living thing. One of the doctors made the mistake of making a comment about putting Mal out of his misery in front of the girl. Typically Nightshade tended to try and avoid acting harshly towards anyone. But her eyes narrowed of their own accord and she glared at the man with every once of disgust and hatred in her being. There is a saying that not all people are scary, but under the right circumstance they can look scary. Typically Night wasn't intimidating. But that doctor certainly closed his trap almost as quickly as he made a bee line for away from her.

She stayed like that until midnight became day, and even a little longer. She made no attempt to leave or get some rest despite prompting here and there. That was when something amazing happened. He woke up.

"Mal!?" She asked her voice jumping up an octave and dancing with joy and she jumped to her feet and moved closer to the beast, having been sat a couple feet away. "Are you okay?" She asked gently resting a hand against his shoulder to show that she was close, but also being careful not to touch an injury.

[Mal]

The large fox-beast had many cuts and injuries. The staff here hadn't washed him, so he looked frightful covered in all those cuts from the tip of his nose to the stub of his tail and down along his haunches. They were red streaks, where the fur was dyed by natural crimson. Beneath, the more egregious cuts were sewn up haphazardly by soldiers instead of doctors. Mal had received very little 'real' treatment, but despite this he was surviving.

When he heard Eld's voice, all he could do was force his ears to stand and roll them forward, feeling her touch through the haze of pain. "I feel awful," he said. "So many died. I - I couldn't protect them. I couldn't save them." His mind shot him flashes of that small girl, that clung to him crying. He remembered looking down at her dirty, wet face and feeling the need to get her off. When he shook her off to fight, a shadow pulled her into the mist. He was traumatized by that. If he had kept her closer, would she still be alive?

It made him sick, and his stomach was roiling, tightening into knots through this whole aching ordeal. He shut his half-laden eyes tight, his body trembling. He remembered how he was forced into service many Trials ago, given no other choice but to be an Etzori despite despising everything they stood for. "I didn't want any of this." he pouted. "I just want to hide from the world. I don't want to be attached to anyone. All they do is die, and those I get involved with abuse me." Mal was a young soul, after all. Only sixteen years of age, despite his valor, he was weak of mind.

"And this world won't leave me be, to my shell of insecurities and fear." His body shook as he choked on his own saliva, hacking as he coughed loudly, that form unnerving the nearby guests. Some of the survivors came into his view, touching him as he complained. He fell silent, looking glum and confused from their touch. He didn't know what to do in the embrace of another. He'd never felt a mother's touch, or the embrace of a proud father. Mal himself grew up a poor boy on the streets of Ne'haer to a family that adopted but did not care for him. He didn't have any roots, he was a drifter, even his face drifted away and became smoke to the point that he couldn't remember what he once looked like.

"When I get better, I'm going to..." he cringed, biting his words back as he opened his eyes. He couldn't say it, not here where soldiers were around. He wanted to run away from the Etzori, back to Ne'haer.

[Nightshade Eld]

Night flinched slightly when he brought up the death count. "It wasn't your fault thought, it wasn't your fault. It was mine. If only I had been stronger, smarter. I allowed myself to be blind and I rushed into the fray without thinking, leaving everyone defenseless. It was all my fault," she whimpered quietly. Her voice cracked, she sounded out right traumatized herself. And she seemed to be completely blaming herself for many of the things that had happened which she had no control over. "I should have been better, I should have been better, "she muttered quietly her voice cracking once more.

"I was stupid, all I've ever wanted to do is play the hero. To prove that I'm note the horrible monster everyone wants to judge me as. Just because I was born with wings, just because I'm half of an arrogant race. Because that half of my family descends from creatures everyone sees as horrible beasts who cause trouble for everyone. All I've ever wanted in my life was to prove those people wrong. To play the hero. Be looked up to and admired like the stories of great warriors I was told as a child. And now? I've fucked up," she whimpered quietly wrapping her arms around Mal and carefully burying her face into his fur, while still being mindful of injuries and the pressure she applied to him.

"I'm a disgrace. Nothing but a wild child who grew up without a mother and whose father sold himself into slavery so she could be educated under a disgusting monster of a man. The real monsters in this world are those who just sit back and wait other people suffer. And I messed up the one thing that set me apart from them. I couldn't save some one. And now I'm one of them. A disgusting a horrible monster who deserves to just die here and now. I'm sure someone in here would oblige me if I asked," she said bitterly as liquids started to seep from her eyes. She actually started to cry her body shaking.

Nightshade was a good couple years old than Mal at 23, but that didn't make her anymore prepared for any of this. Even if she was older she was raised by the wilds around her, not by people. She was innocent and ignorant of the true depths of the cruelty in the world and now that she was face with it she was slowly starting to break. "I don't know what to do anymore. I messed up. It's all my fault. I messed up." She muttered repeatedly trying to calm herself but doing the opposite. Nightshade was a strong willed person, her Avriel blood helped her be even more so. But she was slowly starting to break from everything that happened. She needed someone to lean on, a friend. But the world didn't want to give her one and the people around her didn't want to become one. She was alone in the world, she always had been. She was a damned fool to think otherwise.

[Mal]

The pain, the hurt, the sorrow. It made him unhinged. With his eyes half-open and his ears pressed flat to his skull, an inner mania of tempered furor and indignation brewed like a pot set to boil. He was angry at himself, and as Eld attempted to shoulder the blame, he grew bitter with her too. “If you hadn’t been there, everyone would have been dead. You at least had a role!” he blustered in a deep voice. His words were spat like venom, and by the cringe of his brow it was easy to see he his chagrin.

His paws trembled weakly, and he tried to stand, his body shifting against Eld as she started to cry. Her words were a blur to him. She told herself of so many things that were simply untrue. “I was supposed to save them!” he raved. “It was the only job I ever wanted to do for these people, and I failed!” Mal swallowed the saliva that dripped from his chin, twitching as he started to let out a trembling moan of resentment.

“But I can’t just sit here while people are being butchered, ignored.” He started to stand, legs shaking as his wounds pulled and tugged apart from the muscle tensing beneath. A new trickle of blood matted the fur down his side, the injured Hyx desperate to do something to better the situation. His paws tensed as they gripped the earth, and he took a step forward.

His body tumbled, breath leaving the air as his chin connected with the ground. A light pop resounded, and Mal shut his eyes, legs folded underneath him as he came down. “Why can’t I...” he whined. “Why can’t I help them? Should I even try? I’m just going to fail again... and again. I should look after myself...” his mind started to draw away as he retreated into the secure net of valuing self over others. His eyes were glassed over, distraught but distant. “Yes... all I get for my efforts is a broken heart. It’s too much pain, to fail over and over...”

Within Mal’s mind, he found himself drawn to the totem of his form, the Hyx. It was like a clear spring as he felt it up with his mind, yearning for that feeling. It was unusual... that facet of his totems, the ‘feeling’ of them had never been there to access. Tilting his head, he tugged on the power of it with his will. It started to unravel, and it started to drain from him a great deal of energy that sent a tingle down Mal’s spine.

“Is this...?”

The runaway series of events that formed ran over Mal’s body and mind like a cool breeze. Wherever the cold went, his body rippled, wounds undone as they sealed up inside and out. His fur retreated to his skin in a wave radiating out from the tip of his nose and along his spine, only to grow anew, the blood gone as it sunk to the skin as a contaminant. His mind was filled with wonder as the skin around his tailbone peeled back painfully, the bone growing to match the blueprint of his totem.

As it reformed and stretched, Mal raised his head effortlessly and peered over his shoulder, feeling healthy and renewed though drained in another sort of way once the pain subsided. He was uninjured, though his body tingled with energy, his mind feeling heavy from the after-effects. “Did I do... that?” he wondered out loud, looking over his body before down at Eld. He’d forgotten about his trials for the briefest of moments, a confused look plastered all over his face. “I’m healed!” he exclaimed, ears perking up. “Eld, I’m healed!” he got to all fours and then sat on his hinds, raising a paw to look over it, and then glancing out at the dismal appearance of the men and women before him.

Wasn’t I angry moments before?

It was hard to feel that sort of passion when you were tired but full of life and curiosity.

[Nightshade Eld]

Night's first reaction was to panic when the large Hyx tried to stand up only to fall down again. She flinched when she heard a pop of all things. "Mal!" She gasped trying to figure out what she could do. She should of just stayed quite! But no, she had to complain about her own damn problems and make things worse for someone else. The wave of self hate that had been slowly washing over her crashed against her like title wave.

She barely noticed the Hyx in front of her being healed. She was to preoccupied with her own thoughts. She useless! Absolutely useless, what could she honestly do to help people when she was such a free spirited idiot? Maybe she'd mess up, but was there anything she could do to fix it. A thought peaked her interest, an idea weaving its way into her mind. It.... wasn't a very good thought.

Suddenly she was snatched from such thoughts before they could fully form. Her eyes went wide and her mouth went agape when she looked upon a fully healed Hyx standing in front of her. "But how?" She questioned. Night wasn't an expert on magic, if anything she was a complete idiot when it came down to it. "What did you do?" She asked completely clueless.

She gazed upon the beauty and elegance of the creature that was now as majestic as the first time they crossed paths. She started to cry. "Thank goodness, thank goodness. I didn't..." tears continued to fall down her cheeks. Though she wouldn't admit it she had partially been blaming herself for the loss of his tail. After all, it was her decision to hang back and try to defend everyone. He wouldn't have lost his tail if it wasn't for her stupidity.

"Thank everything that's good in this world," she said throwing her arms around his neck and starting to bawl.

[Mal]

Panic-stricken men and doctors swarmed around Mal, but kept their distance. They gazed over the Hyx's healed form in amazement, while prideful smiles left those he rescued.

“It’s a blessing from Moseke!” one man called out. “He is blessed. Moseke watches the ill this day!”

“It’s sorcery, that’s what it is!” spewed a vile woman, an elderly nurse who carried medical supplies. Her gossip spun fear in the medical staff, resulting in neglect of the once-injured majestic creature. Mal shot a wicked glance at her, glaring. She shrieked and dropped her supplies in fear, and Mal looked away, first glancing at the ground for a few moments as Eld spoke to him, and then looking her right in the eyes. Her question wasn’t entirely unfounded, though his tail flicked in surprise when she started to cry.

“Shh, Eld, don’t cry, please...” Mal said, looming forward with a tilted head, eyes of concern like jewels to his pristine coat. “I am a Becomer, I ‘became’ the beast upon my totem, but without injury, it would seem.” Her thanks to the ‘world’ seemed hardly fitting. He hated this world. It was vile and cruel, as if mortals were playthings to the whims of the unknown.

But as that heavy weight beset his mind, Mal’s heart leaped into his chest the moment Nightshade dashed forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. He was shocked at first as her wet tears forced moisture into his fur, her shocked form making his body tingle at the embrace. Dumbfounded, his mind was soon at a loss for words. “Eld...” he whispered in a shaky voice before turning his chin to slide it over her shoulder, going further to gently hug her head with the soft fur of his neck and cheeks.

“It’s not our fault,” he finally said.

“It’s just how things are.” He sighed. “If we let guilt drag us down, and...” his mind went blank, forcing him to pause in trepidation as terrifying images of that girl from before scoured his mind like stabbing blades, forcing him to shut his eyes and breath out sharply through his nose. “We bleed for them, and they bleed for us.”

[Nightshade Eld]

Nightshade nodded hesitantly. "Okay," she just said quietly. She didn't want people to bleed for her. It hurt, and she didn't want other people to be hurt. But that was just her nature, who she was. She wanted to be the hero, the shield of the weak. She just didn't know how. "I was... so scared," she whispered quietly. It had been a great many years since he last time she admitted that she was scared. Admitting it in and of itself was one of her fears. To admit that she was fearful was to admit weakness and such a thing led to her being stepped all over.

And yet she let it slip out of her mouth. Why she was able to find trust in Mal she wasn't quite sure. Cold tendrils of despair had wrapped around her heart. Yet Mal, somehow managed to make those go away. His presence was something warm and familiar. She wasn't sure why. It had become that way in the last couple of fights they had been apart of together. Even though she had no clue what he looked like as a man. He was familiar and warm, a ray of hope. Hope wasn't a thing she was able to indulge often.

She felt a weight start to drag on her eyelids. "I'm tired," she said slipping to her knees. Finally the time she had spent awake just sitting at the side of the massive Hyx was catching up to her. "I'm just gonna take a little nap," she said lowering herself to the ground. The girl was out cold in moments as sleep sunk its fangs into her and had no intent of letting go.

[Mal]

“This makes me scared, too...” Mal said, glancing down as he spoke in a hushed tone. Moments ago he had been injured beyond belief, but now he was feeling tired, ailing. The drain of Chrysalis, of refreshing his form with the information upon his totem had left him feeling empty. I don’t think I can even change forms. Vuhl’mathi had warned him of doing too much in a short time. Overstepping, he called it.

With that form against him, Mal couldn’t help but feel warm, his gut turning over slightly from the closeness. He wasn’t all that used to being touched in a kind manner. “I am also in need of rest,” he said, lips curling and cheeks dragging up to smile in an unusual, unsettling way. He watched her as she got to her knees and then moved to lay down against the ground on the sheet the medical center had provided.

I do need the rest...

Glancing off at the hospital around himself, he contemplated returning to join the fray, but he was torn between getting some rest, and slaying more of those shadow creatures with his last ounce of strength. He noticed that in this brief moment, the girl had fallen asleep. Stooping low, Mal knelt above Eld and twisted about her form as he lay down around her, pressing the woman’s back into his belly and hooking a heavy foreleg over her shoulder. Their warmth began to share, and Mal set his chin down next to her head, keeping her secure and warm. “I shall see you when we awaken on the morrow,” he whispered, cutting off the flow from his totem and shutting his eyes.

[Basilisk]

REVIEW

MAL

Skills

Story: 5/5
Collab: 5/5
Structure 5/5
These points can be used for magic.

Knowledge
Endurance: Staying Conscious
Becoming: Using The Echo while injured
Etzori Army: Uses Conscription Tactics
Becoming: Self-Healing
Overstepping: Locking oneself into a single form
Nightshade Eld: Someone who trusts you

NIGHTSHADE ELD

Skills

Story: 5/5
Collab: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Knowledge
Endurance: Enduring with light treatment
Medicine: Taking care not to cause further damage to the wounded
Medicine: Attempting to comfort the traumatized
Mal: Someone you can trust
Mal: Can heal himself quickly

COMMENTS
I liked the story, a nice look into each characters reaction to the shadows and the damage they did. Sorry for their not being a lot of knowledges, but most of the thread was introspection, which doesn't lend itself to knowledges very well.