As Luck Would Have It (Allyria/Fabre/Henri)

[Deleted]

The days had not been easy, nor had the nights been restful.

He wished to say that Leon had not so burdened him, but he'd be lying. He could carry the boy for a mile before he'd have to rest, and perhaps they had gotten off track a couple times. The plains were harsh and cold, and he hadn't a clue how to survive. But Leon knew one or two things; how to avoid poisonberries, for one, and suck the juice from only the nice ones. He could tell Henri how to set up a tent. They could kneel by puddles of still water and drink up when they had to, or find creeks. The dogs could hunt on their own and provide for themselves well enough. Henri had fought one for a rabbit, and cooked it over the dead bush Leon had spent an hour lighting. They shared its lean meat between themselves.

He didn't want to live this way. How could anyone live this way? He was starving.

The thought he had seen something the night before. What day would that be? A day, a night, another day, and then--yes, last night was the night he'd seen some orange against the sky. But they were too tired to move any further. His legs and arms ached with the pain of simply carrying Leon, simply walking such a distance. Tomorrow would bear good tidings, or at least he had thought as he fell asleep before night had even broken out.

It was just dawn, and the sun's gentle peach light had tossed long shadows from the eastern mountains shortly before it alit upon the hills north of Corday. All was alight with the waning sun of winter, the waxing moon of spring still hanging in the air north of Korasus. And in the same direction, a thin trail of wispy gray made a reversed waterfall up into the pooled clouds. But with airs instead of waters, of course...

What a queer thought.

He woke Leon, and the dogs--who growled at him for interrupting their slumber.

He carried the boy up the hill, to where a ring of rocks surrounded two girls and a fire still smoking.

[Allyria Allenmorde]

That blasted star that hung so lazily in the sky, making its way from one side of the planet to the other was enough to get the half-drokagr up and moving. Allyria rose, stretched, and looked at the horizon. Her eyes were half open, her hair was disheveled, and her back hurt like hell. She cracked it and breathed deep, then stood up and dusted herself. She turned around to pick up her journal and saw two men a few meters away.

"Azuloth!" She cursed. "Fabre, we've got company."

Allyria fell over next to Fabre, picked up her journal, smacked her sleeping friend right on the ass, and scrambled to her own feet.

Perhaps her reaction was too much. But remember the rape comment from before. And these two were clearly men. Well... one was more a boy. But one was a man. Then again, they looked like they had been through the ringer.

Oh Azuloth... these guys look even more pathetic than we do. They probably just want our help.

Apparently we're doing better than I thought...

Allyria got a little bit of a self-esteem boost.

---

Allyria Allenmorde
15-ALL
HP 300/300
Sm: 44/45 -1
MP: 168/173 -5

Sudden Sight
- Failed.

Allyria's S-E
28/50 - Moderate, but the day just started and can really go to shit easily.

[Deleted]

Theme Song

---

lWith her ponytail flopped over her face, curtaining her from the morning sun, Fabre had slept peacefully through the entire night. The locks served as a thin cover for her face against he dirt ground, as she slept comfortably on her stomach. Fabre spared Allyria this night. She didn’t sleep on the drokagr, but was rather nudged up against the smaller. It worked well enough to keep from suffering painful nightmares. When Allyria woke that morning, Fabre groaned out something like, “Five more minutes…” though that more accurately sounded like, “Fib mo mu…” Fabre lazily adjusted her hair to cover her face completely and tried to sink back into a deep sleep as Allyria shuffled around.

“OH!” Was the first reaction to being smacked, but was followed by somewhat of an inappropriate swaying of her moneymaker. Groggily, Fabre giggled and hummed some, “Hit me baby one more time…” into the dirt before sitting up to give a slow, sultry – ridiculous – look over her shoulder.

“Oh…” Fabre quickly realized that she was in fact not receiving a, “Good morning sweet thing,” From her travel companion, but a, “Wake your lazy ass up this is serious,” ….

Even so, Fabre didn’t think the two men that stood before them looked all that serious. She shrugged them off as being even more sorry looking than a sniveling sickly Allyria. So, she took her time getting up. Fabre fixed her hair and, combing through it with her fingers and rubbing the dirt from her face with the fabric flap of her pouch. Then she stood up and brushed off her chest, moving down to her knees to get everything off. Finally, Fabre acknowledged the strangers, “What do you want?” Fabre gave them a pleasing smile while slipping her hand between her legs and grabbing the dagger strapped to her inner thigh. She whipped it out and kept her fake smile leering at the men, “We really don’t want any trouble. So speak up now if your intentions are pure.”

---

Fabre Hulin
Str:10
Vit:10
Agi:12
Ch:11
St:10
T:10
D:10
En:10
P:10
K: 11

HP:200
Sm:25/25
Mp:200

[Deleted]

He didn't have enough time to get out a "Hello" before they'd sprung to attention.

The Drokagr was first. She stumbled around with the haze of sleep but got to her feet fast enough. Was she just a half-breed? Her skin was awfully light, not at all like the dark ones he'd seen working in town. He would call her attractive. Or at least--his mind would correct--attractive for a Drokagr.

The other one made him wonder which one he found more attractive. He'd never had much of a thing for large bust size, or women that wore so little. Typically, in his lands, no one wore that little unless their body was their commodity. But she was... well, seductive would be the best word for it. More seductive than the whores in his streets. She had snapped to attention quite fast, and that way she reached between her thighs to draw out a dagger made him, uh, snap to attention quite fast.

He spoke quickly and without stopping, only the way he was trained to speak in such a situation. "Oh don't bother, I've had enough bandits for this week--My friend here, the one I'm holding in my arms, got his leg shot by one, and he's not doing very well, not very well at all--It's not a long story but I just need to know if either of you know how to patch him up?" He gave his best smile. He'd think the evidence on his body would erase any doubt of theirs that he was simply a person in dire straits who meant no harm.

Though perhaps the dogs at his side would make them suspicious. They seemed to be staying calm. Perhaps they didn't perceive these girls as any sort of threat.

"Please? I can give any explanation you need, but he needs help now."

[Allyria Allenmorde]

Well...

This is awkward.

"Uhm... Ok. Just lie him down over there I guess?"

Allyria was by no means prepared to save this boys life. She knew a little bit of how to apply a field dressing, but this kid looked fucked. Like, who shoots a twelve year old? He looked twelve. What did he do? Allyria wanted to know how he got shot. It looked bad.

Provided Henri put the boy down she'd walk over, rip a piece of cloth from Henri's shirt and tried to tourniquet his right calf. The idea was, in Allyria's mind, to slow the bloodflow to the leg. The arrow was missing, which meant he had probably lost a lot of blood. He'd also need a poultice or something to help ward off infection. A piece of dragonfruit would have to do for now to fortify the kid.

He was probably going to get worse.

She managed to slow the bleeding with an actual tourniquet. She removed the old bandage to see how bad it was.

When she looked she winced.

This kid was probably beyond help.

---

Allyria Allenmorde
15-ALL
HP 300/300
Sm: 43/45 -1
MP: 163/173 -5

Sudden Sight
-Failure.

First Aid I - 15+5+15=35

[Azuloth]

Leon is: Dying
-All further checks to save Leon suffer from -15 threshold.

[Deleted]

One could never be too cautious. That was how Fabre was still alive really. Yeah, maybe it was crude suspecting some hobo-looking marshmallow head carrying a dying kid as being a threat, but Fabre had seen shit. She knew things. Seen things. Done things.

Fabre would pull a knife on a toddler if she suspected its diaper to be hiding explosives. Call her paranoid. It was better than being made a fool.

Either way, Allyria seemed to buy it and the marshmallow haired man seemed genuine in his pathetic nature. So, Fabre joined Allyria on the ground next to dying lad.

Yuk.

She wanted to hurl at the sight of his leg. Upon closer inspection, it was a sickly shade of yellows and browns and purples and woah these color patches were unlike anything she’d ever seen – I should totally record this. Fabre wanted to grab her journal and start taking swabs of whatever was going on in the boy’s wound, but sighed and decided she should at least TRY to be useful. Thus far – on their journey – she had been even more useless than her companion. HEY. Wait what… Aw man that is so true.

Fabre couldn’t quite tend to anything like Allyria. She had no idea how aid worked. Instead, she observed and did what she could to help Allyria take care of the boy for a bit before pulling out her only Dragonfruit. The girl looked between it and the boy with a scowl before she finally sighed. Fabre cut it into bite-sized pieces with her dagger and force fed them to the boy while muttering curses under her breath. She hoped this would help at least a little.

He sure as hell better not fucking die and waste my fruit.

---

Fabre Hulin
Str:10
Vit:10
Agi:12
Ch:11
St:10
T:10
D:10
En:10
P:10
K: 11

HP:200
Sm:23/25
Mp:200

Gives Leon Dragonfruit - Restores 15MP, HP, & Stamina
First Aid I (learning from Allyria) - 

[Deleted]

He lay the boy down within the ring of stones. He'd never seen this stone ring before. Maybe he hadn't ever looked? Maybe he had looked, but just didn't remember--it probably blended in with the environment. The rings weren't all too common, but he had run into one or two, every once-in-a-while. He was curious as to their purpose--but how would one ever find out?

He watched as the Drokagr woman worked. She ripped off a bit of his cloth vest, which had already been ripped once when Henri had wrapped the boy's leg. When he'd pulled the arrow out, he didn't expect so much blood to come out; he'd acted on his feet, wrapping it in the vest shred and applying pressure. It had been soaked through, but not leaking--so he had feared taking it off.

When she took it off, he felt like retching.

"It's infected," he mumbled. He felt week in the knees. He knelt over Leon's head, and pushed the hair out of the boy's eyes. "You didn't say..." No good blaming him. "Are you in pain, Leon?"

"A bit, my lord," the boy said, "But not so much. Only really hurt when it came out. Been numb since then."

Henri nodded. Allyria tightened the tourniquet, and he could feel a shudder run through Leon's body. The other woman was helping now, giving the boy Dragonfruit to fortify him. Henri didn't know what he could do.

"Am I gonna be okay?"

The instant he asked that, Henri knew the only thing he could do. Psychology. "Yes," he said, "Relax. You're going to be fine. You're in very able hands." He looked sideways at the half-breed. Could he trust her? He breathed in, assuring himself that, whether he did or didn't, she was the only option available. He was incredibly lucky to have found anyone. He could trust her, if he'd let himself.

"What can I do?"

He watched her work, tried to understand what she was doing. Why the tourniquet? To stop the flow of the infection into the rest of his body? "Just... breathe, deep and calm. Relax your leg." The tourniquet would only work right if it could completely stop the flow. He put a hand on Leon's chest, and with the other, cradled his head so the Dragonfruit would go down easier. "You'll be fine." She just needed to stop the flow of blood, right? Then he'd be fine?

He couldn't believe things could go sour so quick. He refused to believe it. "You're going to get home all right."

---

Henri Corday
15-ALL
HP 300/300
Sm: 43/45
MP: 153/173 -20

- Assists Allyria

- Rolls for learning First Aid from Allyria:

- Uses "Cooler Heads Prevail"
- Eases threshhold for saving Leon by 15.
- 20MP

[Allyria Allenmorde]

Ok. I can do this.

"We should probably remove the infected flesh. Fabre, your dagger please."

Allyria was going to attempt surgery. It would be her first time. She knew enough though. The fire was smoking, therefore still hot. She put some fresh dry grasses on the fire and brought it back to life. The coals glowed. Provided Fabre gave the half-drokagr the dagger, she'd stick the blade into the coals and wait. She needed it hot enough to burn flesh. In the meantime she examined the wound, tearing more of his pants to see how far the infection got. In a few moments the dagger was ready.

"You'll need to brace his legs and his torso, and his arms. If he thrashes too much... Leon, that's your name right. I'm Allyria. I need to cut some of your leg off. Not the whole thing. I'll save what I can. This is going to really hurt."

He could even pass out. Hopefully this other man will have the wherewithal to check to make sure he's still alive. Ok... I'm ready.

Provided the others were holding him down. She'd make her cuts, excising the infected and rotting flesh from the rest of it. She'd cut as much as she had to, burning his leg as the dagger point touched him.

---

Allyria Allenmorde
15-ALL
HP 300/300
Sm: 42/45 -1
MP: 158/173 -5

First Aid I: SURGERY TIME: 15+5+10+10 = 40


Sudden Sight:

[Deleted]

She wanted the D.

Allyria didn’t really look like she could handle the D – the fucking dagger holy shit Fabre get your crap together a boy is dying right in front of you--- What’s that on your face?!? Don’t you fucking smile at your own stupid joke.

So yeah, Fabre gave Allyria the dagger, but not before giving her one of those, “Do you even know how to use one of these” looks. She then gave an exasperated and loud sigh at all of the sap the man was doing to keep the dying boy’s hopes up. You know, she really didn’t value lying. It was so rude.

“You’re going to get home all right.”

“Can you not.” She deadpanned Henri with a look of disgust on her face. Fabre hated when people decorated reality with things that couldn’t be observed with the eyes. Sure, if they took notice in the nice things then they could dream about them. But when face to face with death and its vices, you’d be a fool not to acknowledge its presence.

Fabre took her place by the boy’s legs and gripped them hard enough to pierce the skin with her blue nails. She was not having her face bruised by a dying boy’s last kicks in life. She held him to the ground and watched Allyria go about making mince meat of his already gaping wound.

“Can I use your blood as paint samples? Perhaps, you know… more of you if things go south?” She was definitely going to be repaid tenfold for having shared her dragonfruit.

---

Fabre Hulin

Str:10 Vit:10 Agi:12 Ch:11

St:10 T:10 D:10 En:10 P:10 K: 11

HP:200 Sm:23/25 Mp:200

First Aid I (learning from Allyria) -

[Deleted]

He braced Leon's arms and torso at the half-breed's direction.

The other woman was not helping. He glared at her when she spoke to him so insolently the first time, but didn't want to say anything. She was helping, at least, a little bit. But she didn't know Leon, she hadn't suffered with him for the past few days, hadn't stood his questions... she hadn't seen how strong he had been and how he'd fought to save Henri, how Henri had fought to save him. Something had bonded the lord and the boy in those days.

As the half-breed heated the woman's dagger, Henri mumbled a bit to Leon. "Father will send out a search, I'm sure of it. Won't be long, I'm sure." But he wasn't sure. His lord father was suffering more and more dementia lately; he'd receded further into his chambers for longer periods. He could be entirely unaware of Henri's presence for weeks at a time, and worry not. Now wasn't the time to think of that.

The half-breed warned Leon, and the boy tensed a bit again. Henri tightened his grip around the boy's torso. Henri's left arm cradled Leon's neck in the crease of his elbow, so any seizures wouldn't cause too much damage to the head. Both hands secured the left shoulder in place, with the right arm compressing the chest. It was a strange, sterile embrace.

When the strange woman started to talk, Leon's heart rate went up. Or perhaps it was the dagger digging into his skin without anesthetic. Either way, something was happening, and it wasn't good. The blood on his leg was gathering as the half-breed cut into it. It soaked into the ground, staining it a muddied rust brown.

The boy's lips had turned a ghastly shade of purple barely distinguishible from the rest of his pallored skin, and his fingernails had the same pale tint. His skin was clammy, cold and covered in sweat. His breaths were coming quick and light. Henri could feel the boy's muscles pushing against the ground, as if he was trying to get up and defend himself against some sort of attacker. His eyes were darting about as in panic, their lids fluttering as a hummingbird's wings. "Leon?" Henri whispered. "Leon! Calm down!"

But the stable-boy's eyes rolled back in his head, and all his muscles at once stopped their shaking. Henri looked over at the leg. It was mangled. He gritted his teeth together. The damn half-breed might have killed his friend. No good fucking Drokagr bitch, he thought.

He lay the boy gently on the ground, and felt his neck. There was a pulse, but very very light, as with the breath from his mouth. Henri felt like screaming, but he could say nothing. His throat had choked itself shut. Tears streamed down his face as he struggled to keep it together.

---

Henri Corday
15- ALL

Roll for learning First Aid from Allyria: rFMHAhL8

[Allyria Allenmorde]

"... It's worse than I thought. The infection's deep in his leg. I'm going to have to remove it up to the knee. He'll die anyway if I don't."

Allyria got on that tourniquet and pulled it tighter, just above the knee. Bloodflow stopped completely. The cuts she had already made were leaking putrid pus, the blood was the wrong color. It was bad. She gulped, choked in her own head for a minute, and then hew flesh from bone with the hot dagger. She removed the knee cap, cut the ligaments and tendons, and separated it as best she could without breaking the bones.

Then she burned the nub shut. The smell of burning flesh penetrated her nostrils and her memory. A memory that would stay there forever. She was just thankful the boy had passed out already. When she was done she wrapped the leg.

"He'll live..."

He may not want to though...

She wrapped the wrest of the leg up in cloth, and tied it off. There was still some uninfected flesh there. It's how she knew he was going to make it. That's if he came out of shock.

"Wake him up. Before he goes into the deathless sleep."

Allyria kept replaying the surgery over in her mind. Could she have saved more of his leg? Could she have saved the whole leg? Second guessing herself, focusing on the memory.

---

Allyria Allenmorde
15-ALL
HP 300/300
Sm: 41/45 -1
MP: 153/173 -5

Removed Leon's Lower Leg.

Sudden Sight
GGbV7av|-Failed

[Deleted]

Fabre just kinda sat there holding onto Leon’s ankles as best she could while one of the legs was in the process of being severed. She wanted to watch, but she also felt like the air in her stomach would begin pushing into her throat at any moment. Fabre almost lost it once, dry heaving for a second before she turned her head and tucked it against her shoulder. Curiosity still gripping hold for her to peer from the side as Allyria worked on removing the limb.

The colors of his blood, from surface layer pawn red to clotted dark purple and infected browns, soaked into the dirt, dying it a near black. It was disgusting. It was beautiful. Fabre couldn’t quite separate the two at this point. Granted, she was feeling a bit light headed and nauseas from it all.

---

Fabre Hulin

Str:10 Vit:10 Agi:12 Ch:11

St:10 T:10 D:10 En:10 P:10 K: 11

HP:200 Sm:22/25 Mp:200

First Aid (learning from Allyria) -vrhfY8we

[Deleted]

Henri stayed at Leon's side for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes. Blood was pumping hot through his ears. He couldn't look at the leg... The stump where the leg had been. Was it my fault? he wondered. 

Leon wasn't waking up. But after the wrap went around his knee, his breaths became longer and deeper, as if he was only asleep. Henri lay his head down, so that he was resting on the side of the hill, with his feet near the embers, above his head (though he didn't know this would help). Leon's skin was still cold, so Henri took his vest off and laid it on top of Leon's chest. "I don't know what else I can do," he said. "He might just need to rest more. Fought too hard. Only a boy." The adrenaline pumping through his veins chilled his muscles, made it hard to speak. He clenched his jaw a couple times.

Something felt... odd.

It was a feeling he'd never felt before. He didn't know what it was. The situation was too strange to decide on a single event. Perhaps it was relief; he'd been sick to death thinking about what would become of Leon. Now, at least, he knew the boy would live--even if his leg was gone. But he'd felt relief before. He looked at the human girl. She was lovely to view, but gave him a bad feeling. The feeling, though it was in the pit of his stomach, wasn't a cold one, a rotten one, an empty one... It was a very warm feeling, as if some flame had been lit within him, lighting his inner conscious.

He looked at the half-breed, and the feeling seemed to grow. It wasn't love, surely, because... no, because first, it didn't feel quite like the love he'd felt for anyone before, and second, she was a gray-skin. He couldn't possibly love her. But something had drawn him to her, and he couldn't quite name it. Perhaps it was a need to thank her? He owed her something--his friend's life, yes, he owed her that. But beyond that, he was sure that he'd inconvenienced her in a major way. After all, for someone to wake up to a life-threatening surgery... "Th-thank y-you," he said, his nerves still not ready to allow him to speak. "W-w-w-" He took a breath, steadied his jaw, "What's your name?"

[Allyria Allenmorde]

Allyria stared listlessly for a moment. She thought about the leg that she had to slice off. She thought about the boy and the quality of his life from now on. The knife, she kept looking at the knife. She wiped it off on the grass and passed it back to Fabre. The day had just started and she was already tired. Allyria wanted to get on the road already. Sorath, then Morith. Then she could start her new life.

She felt a sense of kinship and belonging that she hadn't felt since she left Korasus. Now that she had a moment of calm after the surgery. She wondered where it was coming from. It was familial familiarity. It reminded her of how her father had told her that she would never die so long as she spent enough time around her own kind. He had said that the Drokagr were only immortal among their own kind.

There were only humans here.

She pushed the feeling aside and called it longing.

"Allyria Allenmorde. You're welcome, I did my best to save him. It'll be up to him now. What his life will be like I mean."

---

Allyria Allenmorde
15-ALL
HP 300/300
Sm: 40/45 -1
MP: 148/173 -5

Sudden Sight
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