It's Only A Flesh Wound [Zeal]

[Nidassasyae]

Fall 3

Pain.

Nida had never before truly understoof the meaning of that word. Not until today. Her world was one of black and red, of the blood and darkness that obscured her vison. Panic choked her, and she was only aware of an insistant voice that kept shouting at her, "Change back! Change back!" Whether it was her bondmate's or simply her own mind, the Kelvic could not tell.

Her body dissolved into a million points of light, each busily zipping about to form a body so much smaller and frailer than that of her leopard self. This did not diminish the pain in her belly in the slightest, it magnified it.

Nida knew she screamed. She must have, for her throat was hoarse and rough. But she could not remember screaming, or shifting, or anything that was happening around her. All she was aware of was a pair of arms that lifted her up, and the gentle caress of the Sea of Grass before she completely sucumbed to unconciousness.

---

Pain.

Nida's vision swam as she awoke to the same pain that had driven her to unconciousness. The flattened grass around her was stained in blood, her blood. She was lying naked upon one of the the grassy pathways of Endrykas. A vicious gash, courtesy of a glassbeak, left her abdomen open to the cool night air. But Nida didn't care. Her thoughts were focused soley on the fact that she was alone.

"Sel?" her voice croaked out. "Sel!" her voice was louder this time, but barely. It carried a note of pure desperation in it. She wished she could find a mirror, to check if her Chevas mark was still there. To see if her Bondmate, her husband, was still alive.

But the darkness came again, and swallowed her whole. The Kelvic's slitted cats eyes closed.

[Zeal Aldercraft]

Her screams cut through the hard walls of Zeal’s chest and sliced his heart open. No one should ever scream like that; especially a woman.

The healer in him begged that he find her, the Drykas male, demanded it. Hurriedly, he stuffed the last cloth of herbs for the Healing Tent into the worn leather pack on his back, then withdrew his dagger from the bottom of the bag’s dark interior. With the comforting weight of the bone handle balanced against his palm, he followed her screams.

They were relentless. At first her voice was so high pitched, the wailing pierced his ears. His heavily booted feet slowed him down; his thick legs wouldn’t move fast enough. Precious time wasted away while he narrowed in on her. Too many chimes passed. Even more sickening was the rasp that her wails gave way to. It made him dig deeper to find her. He ignored the worry in his mind, closed his eyes and focused on the sound of her voice. He was getting closer.

He tore a path up over the hill, through the tall grass, blazing a trail to her. She needed his help and he would reach her.

Then he did. At the bottom of the hill. He held his breath when he got his first glimpse of her. The dark stain of blood pooling around her body made his gut clench. Her tiny frame lay wrecked in the center of all that horror. He leapt the final distance between them, closing the gap as her agonizing cries ceased.

His solid frame hovered above her while his trained healer’s eyes scanned her naked body. Inch-by-slow-inch, he sought out every abrasion on her pale skin, careful not to touch her. He couldn’t tell how bad off she was without turning her over, but the wound on her belly seemed to be the worst. Blood spilled from the deep gash. It was a wound he’d seen many times in his father’s tent. Glassbeaks were a dangerous risk of life on the Sea of Grass and people avoided them for good reason. So many of his people had been slayed as the result of attacks. He wasn't going to let her be their next casualty.

The rhythmic rise and fall of her chest was reassuring, but even if she hadn’t lost too much blood already, infection could be deadly.

He had no choice. He touched her slender face with gentle fingers.

[Nidassasyae]

At the touch, Nida's eyes flew open. Their usual predatory stare was unfocused, and she appeared to be struggling to keep them open. The Kelvic gazed blearily at the strange man hovering over her, a bone-handled dagger clutched in his hands.

"Are- are you... going to kill me?" she asked fuzzily, the corner of her now bluish tinted mouth quirking up into a crooked smile. The man wasn't someone she knew, even her blurred vision was capable of understanding that. He was tall and handsome and scruffy, and so completely and thoroughly human. At this very moment, she wouldn't mind if he killed her. She wouldn't mind anything, if it stopped the pain.

"If you'll wait a moment... you can save y'self the trouble. I'll be dead soon anyways," Nida slurred, her smile widening dreamily at this strange man. She tilted her chin down slightly, calmly observing her wounds. There were scratches and punctures criss-crossing her arms and legs, but they weren't overly important compared to the large gash across her abdomen. "Well that's not very pretty," she remarked decicively, her head lolling back against the grass.

"Don't people usually pray before they die?" Her voice tapered off at towards the end, finishing her sentence with a soft sigh. The darkness was insistant, and it began to cover her vision once more. Her eyelids fluttered closed as it began to overpower her.

[Zeal Aldercraft]

He looked into her eyes briefly when she opened them and realized she wasn’t human; she looked like she was Kelvic. The lack of focus in her icy blue gaze, disturbed him more than he wanted to admit, but her strength encouraged him. She was at death’s door and still, she mustered the strength to throw a dart of accusation at him. It meant she might make it. It was the first time he’d allowed himself to breathe since he heard her cries.

The Drykas answered her without taking his eyes off her wounds again, not wanting to waste even one more chime. “I don’t pray, so you better hope I can save you.” He followed her eyes to the wound on her stomach. “Don’t waste your strength talking.”

He was far from an expert; he was barely competent in his healing skills. He was capable of treating her wounds, but he’d only done so under the watchful eye of his Ankal, never out in the open. Whatever he did it needed to be fast, the elements were stacking up against them. Out of the sterile environment of the healing tent, there was more than just infection to worry about. They were out in the open, she was lying in a pool of her own blood. Her blood would lure the glassbeaks right back to her and he’d have no way to fight them off if he was up to his elbows in sutures.

He needed to stop her bleeding so he could move her somewhere safe, but he couldn’t move her until he stopped the bleeding. He cursed under his breath.

Inside his pack was the small amount of wild indigo he’d started to collect for the Ankal; he took it out, opened the cloth and removed the leaves of the antiseptic herb. Most of his water was gone, what little he had left he needed to wash her wound. Zeal wiped his sweaty palms on the front of his pants with another curse and then rubbed some fresh herb on them. It wasn’t in the form they used in the tents, but he had to hope it would do something to fight infection, even in its natural state.

He rubbed some more of the wild indigo on the blade of his knife and the needle in the healing kit he always carried in case anything happened to his Strider or one of his dogs. This was the first time he was going to use it on a Kelvic. He emptied what was left of the water in his waterskin over the top of her belly, washing away the worst of the dirt and some of the blood. His face paled as more blood spilled onto her flat stomach.

How did he tell her the pain from the sutures might be worse than the wound?

[Nidassasyae]

"Thank you," the Kelvic murmured, understanding that this stranger intended to help her, not end her life. Her teeth gritted against one another as water was poured on her wound, and she pledged to herself that she would not scream again. Not in front of this human. The thought that those screams were what had brought him to her - and possibly saved her life - never crossed her mind.

As she blearily registered the glint of a needle and knife in the man's hands, Nida realized that she might just have to rescind that pledge. Her blue-tinted lips mouthed the word "Petch" but no sound came from them. Oh petch, petch, petch. She'd been attacked by wolves, bears, the dire animals of the Talderan tundra, glassbeaks, and even men. Those attacks made sense to her, they were easy to wrap her mind around.

But the idea of someone sewing her up, like they would mend a ripped shirt, made her body go stiff in fear. It was irrational, like all of Nida's fears, yet that didn't make it any less frightening.

In fact, the idea of unconsciousness was looking pretty good right about now. But the darkness on the edges of her vision decided to be unaccommodating. It hovered over her, blurring her sight just enough to reassure her of the painless void that she could slip into any moment now. But her eyes were sharp enough that, even through the haze, she could follow the sickening movements of the needle as it was smeared with some sort of herb.

[Zeal Aldercraft]

Snap.

Zeal was so lost in concentration that the sound didn’t faze him the first time he heard it. He steeled himself against the nagging worry in at the back of his mind and prepared to do the sutures despite it.

Crunch.

His muscles rippled with unease. He had to stay focused. She needed his undivided attention. With the needle gleaming between his fingers, he lowered his head and guided it towards her pale flesh with a steady hand.

Snap. Crunch. Crunch.

He jerked forward and dropped the needle in the crumpled grass beside her. With Lhex’s curse on his dry lips, he slowly turned his head to the side, searching the tall stalks surrounding them for the source of the sound. Nothing his naked eye could see waited in the grass, but he didn’t need to see it, he could feel it; the air around them hummed in anticipation.

His will wavered. Whatever doubts he had about taking care of her wounds out in the open came crashing down on him. He knew the risk he was taking could cost the girl her life. There was no place for ego in a healer.

Thud.

What the...? He jumped to his feet and spun around creating a shield with his body. It wasn’t much of a wall, but whatever was out there would have to go through him to get to her already broken body.

The small dagger was still in his other hand, but there was no way it would protect them against a glassbeak if that was what lurked in the grass. He wished he could see further out without having to leave her side, but the grass blinded him to everything that wasn’t right in front of him.

Then everything went still. His heartbeat and the sound of her ragged breathing were all that he could hear. He strained for more, but nothing came. Slowly his heartbeat started to return to its normal rhythm.

Whatever it was, was gone.

Quickly, he squatted back down beside her and paused with the knife ready. He waited to see if a sharp beak would pierce through him once he’d made himself vulnerable. When he was still alive a couple heartbeats later, he went back to work before he lost the chance. With his needle gone, there was only one thing left to do. He was going to have to pack the wound, bandage her and try to get her back to the healing tent where he should have already taken her.

[Nidassasyae]

OOCSorry this is late and is so blah
She was running. Nida did not know what was chasing her, but she felt fear course through her body. She knew that to stop was to die, and she had no choice but to continue on.

Her bare legs pumped up and down as quickly as she could make them, sending her sprinting through the underbrush of a darkened forest. It was deep into the night, and no stars shone in the sky. But the Kelvic did not notice that, her body focused on fleeing.

Then suddenly the forest was a field. A neverending field of tall grass that swayed gently in a non-existant wind. It was still dark, and she could not see ahead of her.

But still she ran.

She could not stop, or shift to her beast form, or even think. Her entire body was filled with a intense fear.

Then she was running towards a shadowy figure. Its arms were outstretched to her, beckoning her forwards. But no matter how Nida pushed herself, she could not reach the figure. Her legs grew leaden with exhaustion and overexhertion, and the girl could no longer flee.

She collapsed onto the grass, her body refusing to move another inch. The Kelvic felt a sharp pain in her abdomen, and watched helplessly as her lifeblood fed the tall grass around her. The shadowy figure advanced, and as it suffocated her in its embrace, she had the horrible realization that she knew who the shadow was.

---

"Seliarus!" Nidassasyae gasped, escaping from the dream. Her body tried to lurch forwards, until a blazing pain in her abdomen threw her back. She barely noticed her surroundings, taking them in through tear-blurred eyes.

She was in some sort of tent. Not her Nehsmay's tent, Luke's, or any tent that she recognized. And she was alive.

Hysterical laughter bubbled up within her, replaced quickly by wracking sobs. Why did that human save her? Why couldn't he just have let her die? Her Bondmate had left her, he must have left her. And that dream... she could not decide whether it was a good dream, or a nightmare. The thought scared her, and she continued to whimper softly to herself, as an animal in pain might.

[Zeal Aldercraft]

Zeal didn't trust himself to ride back with the unconscious girl on his Strider, so he'd carried her the entire way back to his pavilion. Fortunately, she was so tiny, she weighed near to nothing and they hadn't been that far away. Now, in the safety of the tent and under the watchful eye of his Ankal, Zeal unwrapped the wound and removed the cloth he’d used to pack it. He’d washed his hands thoroughly, swabbed the edges of the cut with antiseptic solution and was stitching her up with silk thread as she slept on the cot. He was careful to tie off each stitch as he worked his way up the long gash. Sweat rolled down the sides of his face as he concentrated. He took his time, making sure the wound was closed securely, so that if she were active, there’d be less chance of splitting it open again. Using clean cloths, he rewrapped her abdomen and left her to sleep off the worst of the pain.

His muscles ached everywhere. His body wasn’t used to so much physical activity and he’d done more in one day than he’d probably done in a very long time in the tent, but his concern for her was deep. Now that she was as safe as she was going to be, he found himself wondering how she ended up out in the Sea of Grass alone. He wondered if she’d been out there with someone who hadn’t made it, but he hoped she’d be well enough to find her way to wherever she was going.

Rumbling in his stomach reminded him he hadn’t eaten in a while. He thought the girl would be hungry when she woke up too, so he went to get some food from his mother. The tent smelled so good he could hardly wait to eat and his painfully empty stomach begged to be filled. Unable to wait, he shoved a huge piece of bread into his mouth and chewed it the whole way back to the Healing Tent. As he wandered back inside, he was surprised to find the girl already awake, but not in good shape. He dropped the plates on the Ankal’s writing table with a clatter and hurried to her side as she clutched her side and started to whimper.

He hadn’t expected her to wake up so soon and hadn’t thought about giving her something for the pain since she’d been sleeping. That was a mistake he wouldn’t make again. Her cries tightened his chest. He fumbled for the bottle on the table by the bed. Unscrewing the lid as he sat on the bed beside her, he was careful not to move too quickly and startle her anymore.

As he held the bottle to her lips, he murmured softly. “Please drink this, it’ll help with the pain.” He tilted brown bottled against her dry lips and waited.

[Nidassasyae]

The Kelvic shrank back from the strange bottle. There was earnest concern in the man's eyes as he held the vessel to her lips, which should have been enough to assuage Nida's fear if she had distrusted him. But it was not distrust which made her resist the draught.

"Will- will it make me sleep? Please don't make me sleep again. Don't make me dream again," her pleading voice rasped like sandpaper on stone.

Nida attempted to put on a brave front, to look as if she weren't in immense pain. But to an experienced healer like Zeal, her strained and agonized expression must have been terribly obvious.

After a few heartbeats of this, the young woman faltered. She inhaled sharply and gritted her teeth. Her small and calloused hands curled into fists, her knuckles turning white as she clenched her fingers hard enough to imprint small half-moon shapes into her skin.

For a split second, her pain-dulled eyes cleared. "You saved me, human. Why?" Then the agony took her again, and she wanted nothing more than to end it. Now Nida's cat-like gaze fixed upon the bottle Zeal held. She would have gladly succumbed to the oblivion the draught promised, if not for the potential nightmares that would accompany it. Still, the pain that wracked her body was slowly convincing her to drink.

Her mind wandered, trying to fix itself on something other than nightmares and pain. It pulled her eyes over to Zeal, and her gaze traced over his tired countenance. The Kelvic's mouth twitched upwards in a crooked smile, which could easily have passed for a grimace.

"You look terrible, Doctor.”

[Zeal Aldercraft]

Zeal watched the frail girl with a growing fascination. He could tell that she didn’t want to drink the drugs he offered her, but she was obviously in pain. It bothered him that she was fighting with herself, but he couldn’t force her to take it.

He held still, his blue gaze steady on her face, gauging her reaction as he answered her. “It might make you a little tired, but it’ll make your misery manageable. You don’t have to sleep if you don’t want to.” He laughed, despite the seriousness of the situation. “I doubt anyone could make you do anything you don’t want to.” Now that he knew she was out of the worst of the danger and her pain could be managed if she let him, he regarded her with an entirely different set of eyes. While he still kept the location of every visible scratch on her body in the back of his mind, he could see the way she squared her jaw at him, not quite trusting him. She was pretty courageous to be letting him help her despite the obvious unease it caused her. It made him want to hurry up the healing process so she could get away from him, which is what she seemed to need. He didn’t question why. Life in Endrykas wasn’t easy; life everywhere in Mizahar was dangerous. If he knew the cause of her nightmares, he'd also be plagued by the need to drive them away, and he was only one man, with a very narrow set of shoulders.

When she asked him why he’d saved her, it added substance to the angry storm of thoughts that had already been brewing. He hated that she had to feel that way to stay alive. “I’m a healer, it's my job.” And that was true; he was a healer, and it was his job. He left out the part where her cries had raked open his chest, making her impossible to ignore. She was better off not thinking he was something more. Because he wasn’t.

Her terrible smile caught him in a strange way, he didn’t know how to read the painful lifting of her lips. Another laugh caught him off-guard when she accused him of looking bad. Considering the shape she was in, he must have been a mess.

He scratched his fingernails along the stubble on his chin and raised his heavy brow. He grinned and showed her every one of his pearly white teeth. “I look better in the dark.”