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Post by moralhazard on Apr 8, 2019 20:21:54 GMT
Kara might well have kept trying to get up. Her legs seemed fine; she didn’t see any particular reason why she wouldn’t have been able to stand. The only problem, she thought, was the pain in her head; standing would mean moving her head quite a bit, and, when each movement seemed to send fresh pain lancing through it, that didn’t seem like such a good idea. That, and Kara didn’t want to throw up; the strain on her body would be terrible for the wounds on her torso, she knew from long experience. With how shaky she felt, the last thing she needed was more blood loss.
That and – Kara could see how worried the halfling looked. It wouldn’t hurt to stay still a little longer, Kara decided. A healer wouldn’t hurt either. Kara would find a way to pay for it somehow.
The halfling was silent for so long that Kara thought she wouldn’t speak again. She straightened up, slowly, until the wound on her ribs pulled; then she stopped there. It wasn’t the most comfortable angle for her back, but with a little careful shifting against the pillows, very, very slowly, Kara found a position she thought she could hold.
Kara looked up again, slowly, at the older woman sitting next to her. There was – an intensity coming from her. Kara couldn’t place it, couldn’t tell if she was sad or angry or just upset, couldn’t tell if that emotion was directed at her or at that – creature – who had torn the shop, and Kara, apart.
Kara swallowed again, feeling a tickle in her throat and resisting the urge to cough, even though it ached. Coughing would be worse. She did her best to swallow, trying to get some moisture from her too-dry mouth. It didn’t help much. She was too tried to try and think of the best thing to say, too tired to worry about how she’d be received, too tired for anything except the truth.
“He was a bully,” Kara said, simply, throat feeling like it tore as she spoke. She coughed, unable to help it, and pain lanced through her chest and head, leaving her gasping and shaking, sweat rising on her face.
Once she could, though, Kara forced herself to keep going, with the same determination that had carried her through the fight. “I don’t want to die,” there was a certain emphasis on the word want, even through the scratchy sound of her voice. Now she paused, not sure how to explain. She rubbed one hand against the blanket that was covering her, fidgeting with it, looking down then up at the halfling again, clearly uncomfortable. She wasn’t sure why – maybe if the woman hadn’t been so upset, she could have stopped there. It hurt to talk; it wasn’t like she normally needed an excuse. “But I won’t – I can’t – let someone like that – without fighting.” Kara let her eyes close for a moment, shaking as hard as if she'd run for hours from the effort of speaking.
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Post by Malakbel on Apr 9, 2019 3:35:33 GMT
The simplicity of Kara's answer left the halfling dumbfounded. How could she toss her life away, or her wellbeing simply because the other person was a bully? Naturally it was borderline heroic and proper but it was... Not what she would call a good judgement. She was torn, torn between seeing Kara as a force of good in the world or simply someone too dumb to know better, torn between respect and almost admiration, and pity and guilt. What she was feeling right then would be different should Kara not be almost lying down in a pool of her own blood. At first she had had some hope that she would be able to defeat Ajisha's thug, but it had been a fool's hope. She should have ended the fight right then, said something. But she didn't. She kept quiet and gambled with the life of another woman for her own gain, hoping someone else would save her from her poor choices. That was why she felt such shame.
"You just fought him because he was a bully?" She said with a little bit of anger starting to show through, only to then be beaten down by guilt again "I... You didn't have to do that. I'd rather no one else get hurt because of me. Hofine she... she's not alright I..."
And then, it was all sadness when the image of the young girl spitting her bloodied teeth out came to her head, tears dwelled in the corner of her eyes, tears of rage, impotence, as her jaw clenched and kept like that for quite a few seconds.
"Life is more precious than gold, it's not worth it to just throw it away like that..."
She declared then, this time, with only sadness and regret in her voice, a bit more hoarse than before.
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 9, 2019 3:48:06 GMT
Kara was quiet. She had said her piece; there was too much here for her to know how to respond. She didn’t know who Hofine was, but she guessed the girl who’d broken her face on the bar; it had looked painful.
Kara didn’t know what the halfling was thinking. If she had, and if she were the sort to explain herself, she might have at least tried. Simply because the other person was a bully? There was no simply about it. Above all else, Kara disliked those who believed that might made right: that the ability to do something was sufficient justification, all on its own. Standing up to them, she might have said – or at least thought – was always worth it. No matter the cost. She had lost this time. She had lost many times. Kara didn’t mind; she would rather lose a fight than lose herself.
“Not your fault,” Kara managed, hoarsely. This – this was important. The halfling wasn’t the first to feel this way. Kara still didn’t know how to handle it, the guilt that people felt because of her. She never knew what to say. The fighting was simple, compared to all the – all the emotions.
Kara coughed once, twice to clear the rasp in her throat. Pain stabbed through her and Kara pushed through it, and leaning forward a little more and waiting for the halfling to look at her again. “It wasn’t your fault,” she repeated herself, meaning for it to stick. “It was my choice.” She was paler now than she’d been when she first sat up, more sweat beading on her face, skin clammy, but Kara didn’t care; she would fight the battle of her words as hard as the one outside. It was important, and while she didn’t think she was saying it right – she never seemed to – she couldn’t not try.
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Post by Malakbel on Apr 9, 2019 15:02:48 GMT
Hearing Kara say it wasn't her fault seemed to disarm her for a minute, but then she straigthened up again, hardening a bit. Her eyes closed for a few seconds as she internalized that answer.
"No"
She said then, taking a deep defeated sigh as she slowly opened them again.
"It is my fault, I should have stopped it when I could but I didn't, and because of that two people got hurt"
Saying it out loud felt good to her, getting it out of her system helped with the guilt, by taking responsibility. And yet that void was now filled with concern seeing Kara become paler and paler, to the point where the halfling came down from where she was sitting and rushed to her side with worry on her face. Her tiny hands went forward to her shoulder and she tried to convince her to relax while lying down.
"Just... just lay down and rest for a little bit alright?"
Even from the back of the tavern the main door opening would be audible, as would be the pair of footsteps that started to walk into their direction, low chatter between a woman and a man that grew louder but not quite distinguishable yet as both of them approached the rear end of the place.
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 9, 2019 15:18:53 GMT
Kara had said her piece. She didn’t blame the woman, but she wouldn’t begrudge her blaming herself. Kara herself felt no shame. She had fought her best. If she had lost, it was not due to any lack of will or effort on her part. She would rather have stopped him, of course, but one couldn’t always win, and Kara didn’t expect it of herself. Not anymore; such children’s fantasies had been beaten out of her long ago.
Kara flinched without realizing it when the halfling’s hands approached her shoulder. Blood was staining the bandages over her side now, red seeping through crisp clean white. She managed a head movement that resembled a nod, and slowly sank back into the cushions, lying back once more.
The throbbing in her head eased some; it was a dull pain, and Kara had nearly forgotten it against the rest of the pains in her body. She took the deepest breath she could against the bandages, and visualized it flowing through her, visualized the air sweeping the hurt through her and out of her skin. It helped to calm the tension in her, and less tension meant less pain. Kara chased the breath to its end, then took another, repeating the process. After a few more breaths, the clamminess of her skin would ease, some slight color returning, and the tension in her arms would relax, leaving them small and brown against the heap of blankets, muscles and veins hidden once more.
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Post by Malakbel on Apr 9, 2019 20:54:42 GMT
A lithe, pale young woman was leading a rather round shaped brown man into the room, his accent foreign with two bulging eyes on his face. The hafling approached the couple and quickly whispered some instructions to them putting them up to date, and although the conversation went both ways most of the time they were looking at her while they talked. Eventually, the medic walked forward and approached her crouching to her side. The man was carrying a small bag with some tools and quickly petitioned the hafling, whose name was then revealed to be Iara, for alcohol and fire.
What followed then was a slow but steady-handed progress, in which he requested the aid of the two other women present to hold Kara in place, just in case, as he stitched her wounds and cleansed them, and slowly he inspected her body. Even the parts that were normally to remain covered, and though this was at first a topic that was challenged by Iara and her companion when the man listed the dangers, and possible consequences of not ascertaining the damage done when it was still fresh they caved in and agreed it would be for the best.
Naturally, they consulted Kara on it.
During this whole process the conversation would go back and forth about what had caused the damage, about the state of Hofine's mouth, and about Ajisha.
"You can't keep letting her get away with this" Said Sofia
"What do you want me to do? The guards don't do anything about it, they've got to be in her pocket somehow" Replied Iara
"It can't be like that, no one has that kind of power" Protested the younger one again
"Life isn't fair..." Said Iara with a defeated attitude "But we still got to pull through it"
"So you're just gonna give up? You can't! We could hire someone, someone to fight them back" Protested Sofia
"With what money? I just gave Uryon everything I had saved up, I have nothing, nothing... And even if I did who would want that kind of job? Who would want in their sane minds to stand up to that kind of people?" Replied Iara
The medic meanwhile kept silent, and though his figure was anything but stealthy it was his quiet and steady work that helped him blend into the enviroment the same way a tree blends into a forest, only asking the question he needed to whilst keeping his mouth shut the rest of the time.
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 9, 2019 21:11:29 GMT
Kara’s body was a tapestry of old scars. The medic at least would be able to tell that she had been stitched up many times before. From the way some of the scars looked, at least a few times had been at hands much less skilled than his own; there were some wounds that need not have scarred as they had.
Kara accepted the need for the medic to look at her in her entirety without a qualm; if she had been physically capable of it, she would have stripped while Iara and Sofia still argued. There was no embarrassment in her face; even if she hadn’t been too tired for such things, she wouldn’t have complained of it.
Perhaps it was all that experience, but Kara would hold herself utterly still as the medic worked; there was no need for anyone to hold her down. She kept her eyes fixed on the ceiling and breathed though the pain, focusing on slow and steady breaths. The only indication of pain was the sweat that trickled slowly down her face, and the slight harshness to her breath.
Kara would do her best to answer the medic’s questions, but would not speak otherwise, and even those answers were as short as possible. At least in part that was due to the continued ache when she spoke, the roughness in her throat.
The worst of it was trying not to let her mind drift back to past healings and healers. Oddly the pain helped with that; whenever her thoughts began to wander a new burst of it brought her back to the present. She tried to stay as close as she could to what was happening, not only to maintain her iron control over her body, but also because the memories were much worse than the pain. Pain faded; it didn’t last. She had been hurt worse than this before and recovered; it would fade, at least most of it. But there were other types of wounds, and those would never heal.
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Post by Malakbel on Apr 9, 2019 21:46:59 GMT
The medic finally concluded that Kara was mostly whole and would heal with time and rest, though it would be best if she refrained from doing physical labor. There was no permanent damage done to her body other than probably a few new additions to the scars she already bore on her skin. He gave her some indications regarding what food to eat and to stay away from certain beverages, and did warn about complications while going to the bathroom but that they would subside in time. Not as a certainty, but as a possibility.
The halfling was rather relieved after hearing the conclusion, and her thoughts quickly began to turn towards payment, however once they started to talk about that, the man raised one of his rather broad hands and shook his head.
"There is no need for that" He said and placed one of his hands on top of Sofia's shoulder, giving her a rather unsettling smile. "I'm glad to do a favor for my friend..." He said.
Sofia in turn smiled but it had all the tellsigns of an awkward smile, and one perceptive enough would be able to identify the disgust in her eyes. Her smile, nothing but a practiced feature, a mechanical gesture that she herself had perfected over the years. Finally, the man nodded, picked up his things and after saying goodbye, Sofia showed him out. A few moments later she returned.
Iara gave her a knowing look, between reproach and concern.
"It is alright" Sofia asured her "He's harmless, really. I'm not a child anymore."
Iara just shook her head. It was at times such as those when she hated money, and whoever had come up with the concept. The halfling kneeled down next to Kara's.
"You can stay here until you can move properly" She offered
"Do you have a place to stay?" Intervened Sofia then, bringing one of her hands to her hip as she tilted her head with interest, and only a fraction of the concern Iara was showing
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 9, 2019 22:02:48 GMT
Kara listened attentively to the instructions, nodding slowly. She wasn’t surprised to hear that she would heal well; she knew her own body well, and had plenty of experience with injuries. By her guess, the wound on her side would scar. The other restrictions didn’t bother her, and the medic’s guess that there might be pain from using the bathroom was not a surprise either. In truth, Kara would have been surprised if there hadn’t been. She wondered, in truth, that he didn’t caution her against other activities, but she didn’t mind; she didn’t need such cautions. Kara’s gaze flickered from Iara to Sofia. She shifted, slowly. The wounds still hurt; the stitches pulled when she moved, but it was nothing compared to the wounds themselves, or even to being stitched without anesthetic. If she was careful – if she moved slowly – Kara thought she would be able to make it back to her rooms. She would rather sleep there than here; at least there she had a lock, and the privacy to let herself suffer the pain. “I do,” Kara answered Sofia. She pulled herself up to a sitting position, this time without a grunt; her face was already pale and clammy from the stitching, although it was clear the movement didn’t help. Slowly, she shifted her hips and legs, bare feet finding the floor. Carefully, Kara pulled herself to standing. Her face was one big bruise; the medic had bandaged just the part of her head that was actually cut, and left the rest open. She could see out of her eye, though; there was no damage to it at all, as far as he had reported. A relief. Her head throbbed as she stood, but the nausea wasn't as bad as it had been before. Her clothing was nearby. Kara reached for it, slowly. Her newly-washed black tunic was slashed open where the man’s weapon had hit her, twice, and filthy with blood, some still wet and some dried stiff. Kara didn’t hesitate to start trying to ease it back on, slowly; she didn’t bother with the shirt that usually went underneath, with how tightly she was wrapped up with bandages. Her legs were mostly free of bandages, but the tunic was long enough to keep her decent, and the medic, perhaps out of an abundance of caution, had wrapped her hips and thighs. That was easier, at least; she didn't think she had the strength to bend over long enough to ease her leggings on. "My glaive?" Kara asked, glancing around, very slowly; she had a feeling that she would regret any sudden movements of her head.
((Word count: 4768))
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Arioch
Approved
Level 6 — Barbarian
Posts: 333
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Post by Arioch on Apr 11, 2019 20:39:45 GMT
"Hey, hey stop" Said Iara once the woman began to move towards her clothes, worried that she might hurt herself in the attempt.
"Wait, she's just getting her clothes!" Sofia countered, halting her advance with one hand on the hafling's shoulder. However, her expression shared up to some extent Iara's concern about Kara's general well-being.
"What you did back there..." Sofia said then before looking to the side, inviting her to follow the same direction with her gaze where she would fine the glaive resting upon a stack of wooden boxes. "Thank you for trying" Ended up saying. "No one really stands up to Ajisha and her thugs around here, but I guess now you know why. You're not from around here, are you?"
Just when she finished asking that question Iara said her own piece
"Don't try to move alright? Just take a rest, I can fetch you a blanket if you're cold, just let your wounds heal for a bit"
Now there was no trace of any anger in her voice, merely concern with a pinch of guilt.
"I don't think she's going to die just from moving around a little bit" granted Sofia, and approached her to help. "Let me help" she proposed, and tried to help her get dressed enough should she accept.
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 11, 2019 21:00:15 GMT
Kara followed Sofia’s gaze; a little of the tension drained out of her shoulders at the sight of the glaive, whole and unharmed. It looked like someone had tried to wipe it off, but plenty of blood was still smeared on the blade. It would need a more careful washing later – Kara preferred a damp cloth – and a generous oiling.
Kara started to shake her head in response to Sofia’s question. She paused, wincing, as waves of pain rushed through her head, nausea swiftly following. She took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and let the pain settle again. “No,” she said, finally, throat hoarse again. She swallowed, hard, rubbing her throat with one hand.
Kara turned to look at Sofia, hesitant for a long moment. The medic had been enough – more than enough. Kara would never fight a medic, she owed her life to too many of them, and she understood the need for examination – but she hated to be touched, and she felt very much at her limit.
On the other hand – she didn’t think she could get the clothing on by herself.
Kara managed to incline her head, very slightly and slowly. She was visibly tense at Sofia’s touch, but just held herself still, not lashing out or pulling away. Once Kara was dressed, she just stood for a few moments. Her whole body was shaking; she was more or less drained of color again, with sweat beading on her forehead. Her head ached; it throbbed as if someone had hammered it again.
After a moment, slowly, Kara turned towards the glaive, intending to take it and go. One step – slow and even, with a wash of pain running through her – she had to stop and wait, trembling again.
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Arioch
Approved
Level 6 — Barbarian
Posts: 333
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Post by Arioch on Apr 11, 2019 21:40:27 GMT
Once Kara started to make her intent clear, walking towards the glaive like that Sofia exchanged one worried look to Iara who then reciprocated the look and the feeling as well.
"Hey, I don't think you really should be trying to walk right now" Sofia said in what was almost a whisper. She didn't mind helping Kara get some clothes on, she knew how indignified it would be to remain naked in a stranger's house, specially being that vulnerable. However it was becoming increasingly clear that she was not even remotely fit for being up and walking about just yet. With those words said she kept herself close to Kara, and reached out to her with one hand, soft and gentle towards her shoulder, her eyes trying to watch her single one.
"Lay down yes? I can go bring you the glaive next to the bed" The offered.
Iara was faster and began to walk towards the stacked boxes, bringing with her the small stool-like seat she had been using up until then in order to stand on it and reach the glaive. It could have been funny to behold but being as small as she was it was a necessity.
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Post by moralhazard on Apr 11, 2019 21:47:24 GMT
Kara stopped, slowly, looking at Sofia’s hand, then down at herself. She closed her eyes for a moment, swaying slightly, although she didn’t fall. More than anything she wanted the dignity and privacy of her room. It wasn’t much more than private, but it was hers as long as she had the coin for it, with her things – her bedroll, whose lumps she knew like her own skin, her cleaning clothes, her soap, her comb. It wasn’t any of those in particular that she was attached to – the only thing she owned that she would truly miss was her glaive – but all together they were all she had in the world, and she could have used the comfort of their familiarity.
But.
Kara hadn’t survived this long without knowing when to stop pushing herself. If she kept walking, she would fall. She didn’t mind the loss to her dignity – these women had seen her utterly defeated and smashed headfirst into a bar, then stripped naked and stitched without anesthetic by a healer. Kara didn’t fool herself into thinking that she had any dignity left. No – she might hit her head or tear her stitches if she fell. Her recovery would be painful enough without such setbacks.
Kara opened her eyes again, centering herself. She accepted the pain, and she let herself accept the physical weakness that came with it. Better not to deny the truth. Slowly, slowly, Kara turned and took a few small, shuffling steps back towards the makeshift bed. Having an immediate goal helped; she didn’t wobble quite as much this time. As carefully as she had risen, Kara laid back down, eyes fluttering shut already.
But.
There was one thing she had to do. Kara fought against the rising tide of sleep – perhaps unconsciousness would be a truer term – to open her eyes, turning her head slightly to look at Iara as she set the glaive down, and Sofia who stood above her. “I’ll get him next time,” Kara’s voice was raw, ragged, and utterly serious.
With that done, she closed her eyes and slipped immediately away, breathing slow and deep and even.
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