Laying back in the hard, wooden chair, Neoma watched Luna pace quickly back and forth, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head. “Why are you so worried?” she asked, messing with the edge of her shirt for a few seconds. Luna sighed, looking back at her.
“I’m not worried! Just… hyper, I guess?” she tried, rather weakly, to defend herself, giving a small shrug. “I feel fine, don’t worry about that. I just want to walk the pain off… alright?” Neoma shook her head, but her attention turned back to the sleeping girl, who she had let take the bed with little protest.
Just as Neoma looked over, Aella’s eyes fluttered open. She stared blankly ahead for several seconds before seeming to come to her senses. “Mm…?” The girl made an attempt to sit up, but ended up falling back onto the bed with a
. “Ow. Why am I in a bed?”
Luna was the one to first pop up, giving a small grin as she did. “We got in a fight! Neoma says it was a draw, but I don’t care what she says, we definitely won!” Luna bounced in her spot, but Neoma was scoffing and rolling her eyes.
“Please, the fact that no one died completely makes it a draw, Luna.” Neoma waved her off, turning back to Aella. “The shifter fled from the battle, you don’t have to worry about him for awhile… or maybe ever again.”
“Why was there a fight?” Aella asked blankly. With a small frown, she rolled awkwardly onto her side, her eyes dropping from Neoma and Luna to her burned hand. The question on her face at that was rather obvious.
Neoma gave a small cough. “Well, we ran into a… ah, priest, I suppose. I don’t believe he was all that happy with us being here, and one thing led to another.” She tilted her head back and forth a few times. Luna bounced again, moving over to the bed with an eager grin on her face.
“Yeah, he honestly wasn’t
strong, though. His friend was much stronger! Kinda tiny too…”
“What were they like?” Aella questioned curiously, her attention directed away from her injury. By the way they were talking, it didn’t seem like they were too scary, even though they got into a fight. “And are both of you okay?” she added.
Luna thought about it for a moment. “The guy was alright. He got my leg pretty good. It’s alright now, we bandaged it up and everything! The girl was kind of weird. She might have been an angel? I don’t know, she wasn’t as… egotistical? Most angels are, but I can’t say so for sure.”
“Really? An angel? Did she have wings and everything?” Aella tilted her head, shifting to try and sit up. She almost immediately winced. “Ow… What about Cináed, what happened to him?”
“Yeah, an angel! Well, like I said, I don’t know if it actually was one, she certainly didn’t have that all holy feeling to her, but she was angelic-like.” Luna shrugged and went back to pacing.
“As for Cináed… we don’t know what happened to him. He fled the moment we got attacked.” Neoma actually spoke up for that, looking almost irritated. “Good fuckin’ riddance, too.”
“Wish I could have seen her.” Aella pouted a little over it, then looked back to Neoma. “Do you know if he was hurt or something? I don’t feel right.” She paused. “And I can’t feel my arm, either.”
Neoma looked a little amused, but she did think it over for a moment. “He didn’t seem hurt at the time. Kind of wish he was. Might keep him away long enough to get to our land.” She glanced over to the girl’s hands, getting up to sit on the edge of the bed. “Which one can’t you feel?”
“This one.” She poked at her left hand. The skin looked badly burned, and there was a distinct black patch circling around her finger. “I can’t feel anything all the way up to…” Aella trailed her finger up from her elbow experimentally, though the visible burns only extended a bit past her wrist. After a hesitant poke, she stopped a few inches below her shoulder. “Here.”
Neoma gently grabbed her hand, turning it around a bit to look it over. Luna turned away for a few seconds; however, curiosity got the best of her, and she trailed over to watch. The worst part was definitely the middle finger, Neoma was quick to take note, where the ring had been. The girl was lucky she couldn’t feel it. Her hand had harsh blisters on it, and arm, up to her elbow, was a slight, burnt red. She shook her head. “It’s pretty bad. I’ll have to bandage it up later, but the fact that you can’t feel it does mean we can wait a moment. Let you wake up… You’re burnt pretty badly, though. It must have been the ring.”
“There’s no burns up here,” she noted, touching at her upper arm again. “I should be able to feel that, right?” She tried wiggling her fingers and was reward with the faint twitch of her thumb, but nothing beyond that. “Do I need to do anything?” She seemed more confused than horrified, but that was probably more from it not having registered with her yet than anything.
“In theory, you should be, yeah, but…” She thought about it for a moment, fingers moving up to the unburnt area and giving it a small poke. Then she gave the skin a small prick with her sharpened nail. Only a small bit of blood leaked up, then stopped after a few seconds. “Magic is weird, you know? There might be more damage under the skin that we can’t see. Stay here. I’ll go get something to wrap it up in.”
“Kay…” Aella relaxed back into the mattress. “I’ll stay right here. Luna, you gonna stay with me?” she questioned, looking almost pleadingly at the girl.
Luna practically jumped on the bed, giving a small nod. “Of course! Neoma can go get what she needs! Besides, I don’t know much about medicine, so I would probably get in the way in that point.”
Aella gave her a bright smile. “Yay, alright! Have fun, Neoma! Hope you find the stuff you need.”
~ ~ ~ ~
Strolling silently out of the building, Neoma sighed, stretching and shielding her eyes from the sunlight. Damn 1800s, not having efficient sunglasses. She shook her head, already making a mental list of things she would need. She couldn’t use her shadows to make anything, as they might infect the girl’s wounds, so bandages, for sure. Maybe honey too, just until they got home and could use some actual disinfectant… It shouldn’t bother Aella too much, especially if she couldn’t feel anything.
Following the (rather dirty, if she could add) brick road, she looked at each building. Most were houses, surprisingly clean in some parts. She shook her head, but shoved through the crowd of people, nearly tripping over her dress once or twice. This thing was a bigger pain in the ass than her sisters. Now
was impressive.
Well, at least the shoes were a little more comfortable. She shook her head, glaring at someone who bumped into her. She mumbled some sort of curse to them in French, but besides that stayed silent through her need to insult them. French was a nice language, much easier than English. Ironically, she was mumbling the majority of this to herself in English… mostly because the people here didn’t actually speak it.
Stumbling again, she gave a loud “Shit,” hiking her dress up for a moment. This was giving her problems, goddammit. Well, it seemed she was a little closer to the store, at least.
Just as she noticed that, she noticed something else: the skinny priest kid from before, the one that had attacked them. She tried to smirk, but really, she just kinda looked irritated. Sighing, she turned to face him correctly, dropping her dress to sweep across the ground. “What.”
Dillon stopped a bit away from her. Despite the injuries he’d gotten from Luna earlier, there was only a bit of stiffness in his stance. He held out a vial, letting it lie in the palm of his hand. Apparently, he didn’t feel the need for a proper greeting this time around. “I thought you might need this. For your cat.”
“…My cat?” She looked at him questioningly for a moment, then: “Oh, Luna. Why would she need this?” She was genuinely confused, but accepted it nonetheless. Hey, who was she to not accept free stuff. Even if she never used it.
“Luna,” he corrected himself. “It… hasn’t taken effect yet? I suppose that would be a good thing, but…” He looked slightly uncomfortable as he said, “The blade I used on her had a paralytic on the tip. I would let it slide, because the ones I use normally wear off quickly, but I found out that they’d been mixed up.”
“… Why would…” she started, looking down at the pocket she had placed the vial in. After a moment, she sighed. “No, she didn’t say a damn thing. Thank you, though. It probably has taken effect, she just…” She paused for a moment to think of the right word for it. “Is stubborn. Yeah, very stubborn. She wouldn’t have said a damn thing on the matter.”
“I know the type,” he said with some amusement. “If you give it to her within the next few hours, there shouldn’t be any permanent damage. Tell her I apologize for her needing it at all?” His voice went up with the last few words, like it was more of a question than a statement.
She sighed, something that almost sounded like a frustrated groan, then forced a small smile onto her face. “Thank you. I’m sure it will probably take a little longer, so I have a bit of time to get bandaging still…” She paused, like, oh right, he’s still here. “Anyway, uh. Do you know the way to the local market?”
He nodded. “I do. You were heading the right direction already. Follow this road a bit further. It’s right on the corner of the crossroads. There’s a big sign for it, very difficult to miss.”
“Noted.” She nodded, looking around. “Thanks for the help. The shifter fucked up one of the girl’s arms. I need cloth and honey, so…” She shrugged, giving him a slight, tired glance. “I suppose I’ll see you later then.”
He frowned a little at that, but just nodded. There was a moment of hesitation, like he wasn’t quite sure what to say. He just settled for a quick “Good luck” before taking a few steps back to leave.
She turned, almost hesitantly, like she really didn’t trust him enough to turn her back on him. However, within no time, she was pushing back through the crowd, hands gripping at the antidote he had given her. If the paralyzation didn’t kill Luna, she was going to herself.
~ ~ ~ ~
After the painstakingly long time it took to grab everything she needed from the store (Which, for the record, was surprisingly useless. She always forgot that this era was probably the definition of filthy), she was heading back to their inn, fumbling with the small jar of honey and the cloth she would have to use as bandages in her hands. A small mental reminder told her that the antidote to whatever Luna had was in her pocket, and the mental reminder of ‘yell at her till your throat hurts’ came right after.
Then she remembered her familiar’s personality and shook her head. No, she wouldn’t be able to do that if she wanted. “She just didn’t want to be a worry, huh… She needs to learn that I wouldn’t mind her coming to me, fucking hell…” She trailed off as she stepped into the room with quick, controlled footsteps.
As soon as Neoma entered, Aella’s voice - pitched even higher than usual - rang out. “Neoma!! There’s something wrong with Luna and I don’t know what to do and I’m really glad you’re back because it’s scaring me-” She paused to take a breath, looking completely panicked. It wouldn’t be surprising if she collapsed from a heart attack on the spot, honestly. She made to bolt to Neoma’s side, but was still too shaky to make it that far. She ended up sitting down hard onto the floor after a few steps, looking vaguely confused.
Neoma blinked a little at the fearful look in her eye, sickly sweet panic getting caught in her throat. She took a long breath. “Hey, It’ll be okay. That priest we fought with? He… er, ‘accidentally’ paralyzed her. I’m not so sure about if thats true. I-I’ll just give her the antidote, then we’ll take care of your hand.” She sounded so confident, up until she stuttered. Nonetheless, she walked over to the girl, who was laying back on the bed with her eyes closed. “Moron…”
The blonde scooted around to continue facing Neoma. “You got an antidote?” The confusion was clear in her tone, but there was definite relief on her face. “How did you find out what you needed?” After a pause, she added a bit meekly, “Sorry if I scared you a little. I didn’t know what happened to her, and it was really scary when she stopped moving…”
“Yeah, I got the antidote. He’s actually the one that gave it to me. So, I don’t think he meant to paralyze her, but its still questionable if he meant to do something….” She trailed off, almost bitterly. It caused Luna to chuckle, her eyes slowly rolling toward Neoma. She was coated in a thin layer of sweat, her face worryingly discolored.
“You’re too bitter. Just give me the goddamn antidote,” she said in a somewhat joking tone.
Neoma stared at her with a straight face before pulling back. “I change my mind, I’m just going to sit here and let you become immobile.”
Luna chuckled weakly. In the end, Neoma turned back to her and poured the antidote into Luna’s mouth.
“As for you, Aella…” She paused for a moment, turning her head slightly. “Don’t worry, it takes a lot to scare me. You just worried me a little more. That’s completely different.”
“Okay…” Aella shifted a bit and carefully started to push herself up from the floor, scooting over to sit on the edge of the bed instead. “So she’ll be okay now, since he gave you the antidote?”
As Luna (who we’re just now mentioning was being lifted by Neoma so she didn’t choke and die because, haha, how counterproductive and ironic would that be) slowly finished off the antidote, Neoma answered, “Yeah, she’ll be just fine. Now, let me see your arm.”
She attempted to lift her arm toward Neoma, but it… didn’t really work, seeing as she couldn’t feel her elbow. The limb just kinda flopped awkwardly before she dropped it back into her lap with an apologetic look. “Um…”
“…Here.” She walked over to the girl, leaning down to gently take her arm and lift it. “Can you feel anything? At all?” she asked, mentally wincing as she looked over it. She was careful, for once, not to say anything to herself. The girl did not need to know just how bad this was. Instead, she chose to mumble about a different topic. “I wish Silas were here… He’d fix this up right away. Hell, Ee’s probably more help than I am with this…”
”Just when my shoulder moves.” Aella seemed vaguely disturbed, but certainly not to the level she should have been. It was rather eerie. “Who’s Silas? I don’t think you’ve talked about him before.”
She glanced up. “Hm? Oh, he’s my youngest sibling. He’s a sweetheart, really, and he’s good at healing people.” She grabbed the honey she had brought along. “I don’t know if he’d be able to fix all of this, but he could at least heal the outside and some of the muscle…”
”He sounds really nice!” She eyed the jar curiously as Neoma reached for it. “What’s that for?” Shifting around a little, she tried to lean far enough to peek inside. “Is that honey?”
“Yeah, it’s honey. Honey has antibacterial properties, and people have used it for years as a natural healing agent. It’s not the best thing, but I don’t think they’d let me buy alcohol.” She sighed and shook her head. “Besides, it’ll help the bandages stick.” With a surprising amount of caution, Neoma wrapped the bandages around her hand, her eyes straying from the burn wound back up to the blonde’s face on occasion. She couldn’t help but shake her head. “And… That should be it. Be careful with that hand, okay? Don’t let it get infected or anything.”
As she finished wrapping the limb, Aella cautiously ran her fingers over the bandage, then settled fo rubbing her upper arm. “I promise I’ll be careful.”
Neoma looked back to Luna, who had curled up and fallen right back asleep, the soft rise and fall of her side the only visible movement. She shook her head. “She’s going to be out for a while.” She stood up, wiping the honey off on the dress. That… didn’t work like she wanted it to, seeing as it just made the clothing and her hands sticky, but she was just going to throw it away later anyway. “Try getting some sleep too, okay?”
“Okay,” came the quiet reply. Aella leaned back on the bed, looking up at Neoma with half-lidded eyes that… weren’t silver, at least, but certainly a much duller shade of blue than they had been Yeah, not much longer at all. It simply took that metal reminder to calm herself down, drifting completely into a daze. previously. “When are you going to sleep? You seem tired too…”
“No, its fine. I don’t need the sleep, especially not at the moment.” She waved her off, moving over to the chair opposite of the bed. “I have stuff I need to plan out, things to meditate on, blah blah…”
“If you’re sure… Good night, Neoma.” The girl smiled at her before shifting carefully onto her right side, eyes fluttering shut.
Watching her roll onto her side, Neoma turned her head to watch the clouds move across the sky, drifting off into her thoughts. They shouldn’t have much longer here, should they? Yeah, not much longer. It only took that reminder for her to calm down, calm enough that she drifted off into a timeless daze.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
