Post by Demetra on Feb 17, 2018 3:08:33 GMT -7
| ”Get out of my way!” The words were a warning only a moment before the redhead pushed her way through the crowd by force, the body of a young boy held bridal-style in her arms. She kicked open the door of the hospital and immediately called for a healer, bright red blood cascading to the floor as she made her way to the front desk. The nurses swarmed her and began to tend to the boy, one lifting his from her arms while two more brought over a stretcher which he was lain upon carefully. He was grievously wounded - beneath the torn fabric of his shirt his skin was marred with deep gouges that were bleeding steadily. He was unconscious, and with the seriousness of the wounds it was a miracle he was even alive. Two of the nurses wheeled him away quickly, presumably to a room where he would be tended to immediately, and with the immediate threat gone the adrenaline started to ebb. She hadn’t noticed it at first of course. She rarely noticed wounds as they happened and would often only notice when she saw the stain. In this case it had taken her longer, as the boy’s blood had been hiding the fact that she was bleeding too. The entire front of her outfit was stained a deep red but she didn’t think it was from her because the fabric wasn’t torn. Her back, then? She fell to her knees as her legs gave out from under her. How far had she run, carrying the boy, to get back to town? She’d used her magic to make herself faster, to make herself stronger, but she hadn’t realized she had been bleeding out too. She had cast barkskin, but the creatures had been stronger than she was. She hadn’t had time to take out her shield, so she’d used her body instead - crouching over the boy so she could lift him up and get him away from there. How he’d managed to fall into the cave was easy to guess. Demetra herself hadn’t even seen the opening until she was practically on top of it. A stupid kid chasing a firefly would have walked right over the edge. She was surprised he’d only managed to break his leg. He’d been down there almost the full night, though of course he’d been missing for almost three days at that point and he was too weak to do much by lie there whimpering at the bottom of the hole. All she’d been paid to do was to track him, find him, and bring him back to his parents. She’d been planning to just tying a loop in some rope and lowering it for him to put his good foot in so she could pull him out, but when the first creature had awoken it had slashed the rope and the boy in one fell swoop and she’d reacted before her better judgement had a chance to kick in. She’d jumped down into the cave and shielded the boy, which must have been when she’d gotten swiped herself, and then using more of her magic she’d managed to jump them both out of there and hadn’t stopped running until she got to the hospital. Looking back on it all, she felt that perhaps she’d gotten carried away. She had no personal attachment to the boy or his family, and they’d paid half up front simply for her taking the job. She could have gone back and told them he’d already been dead when she got there, or that she’d never found him at all. She could have just taken the money and run. Maybe she should have. She was on her hands and knees now and the remaining nurse had run over to her when she’d fallen. She was trying to get her attention, help her back to her feet, and Dee probably wasn’t making it easy on her. She coughed and tasted the coppery sweetness of blood in her mouth, but used the nurse’s offered hand to pull herself up again, chuckling a little. All this for some pocket change, hah. It was supposed to be an easy job. She pushed the nurse away and walked under her own power for a whole five steps before she stumbled and had to catch herself on the wall, chuckling again. It was a mirthless laugh. She accepted the nurse’s help the second time it was offered, and was led to a room where she was told to lay down. She made a move to lie on her back before the distressed gasp from the nurse reminded her she shouldn’t do that, and instead chose her stomach. She didn’t realize how tired she was until her eyes were already closed. The next time she opened them, she was healed. Turned out the doctor was worth her salt. Unfortunately for Dee, kindness didn’t come for free. She ended up spending the whole of the reward money on the healing, but if she could survive on the gratitude of the parents she would have eaten like a king. Instead she had no more than she started with, which meant she had just enough for a night at an inn and a warm meal before she would have to find another job. Preferably one where she wasn’t tempted to do something stupid like be a hero and lose all the money she just got. Little did she know the next job she took would encourage quite a few heroics, but it would also lead to one of her most treasured friendships and would last for many years. So, it wasn’t all bad. |