Shattered Bow, Splintered Wood (open)

by **Shena'doah** on April 25th, 2010, 6:33 pm

Once she caught her breath and all her muscles had stopped aching, she rolled over onto her side and curled her body as she climbed to her knees. She strained to recognize Hirem for a moment and quickly realized that a bow was sailing through the air in her direction. ”Oh hell…” she muttered briefly as she prepared herself to catch the bow with outstretched hands. As it neared, it looked as though it might fall short and she reached out to grab it whilst trying to stretch her body as much as possible without falling over the edge. By the time she had the bow safely in her grasp, Shena’s recognition of the height was practically nonexistent until she glanced downwards.

The glance had been somewhat of a mistake as she quickly seemed to lose her sense of balance and nearly fell forward. In quick defense to right herself, she flailed her arms a bit and threw herself back as best she could. It was a brief moment until she had regained her bearing and was looking back across to see Hirem charging in her direction. ”Oh shit…” she hissed as she scrambled to her feet to get out of the way so she wouldn’t risk preventing him from getting a good grip on the wall if he made the same sort of landing she did.

When he did make it across, Shena squeezed her eyes shut tightly for a brief moment and winced. That had to have hurt in more ways than one but she quickly moved to hover over him to make sure he wasn’t going to slip. If he did she assumed the best she could do was use her bow as leverage to keep him from falling. She didn’t remember her effort being quite so agonizing as it seemed when she waited and hoped he could make it up. Of course he did make it, since she wouldn’t have allowed otherwise, and she wasn’t sure who was more relieved. She raised her arms as though she might hug him but realized his state and thought maybe it might have not been such a good idea.

Her gaze examined him for a moment and she looked at the darkened and soggy looking cloth wrapped around his leg. ”I told you to keep it from getting wet.” she chastised even though she was sure it was blood and not just water. ”You ready to jump to the other side?” she asked and wondered if he wanted to lay there any longer.

by **Hirem** on April 25th, 2010, 6:52 pm

Hirem grunted as he pulled himself into a sitting position. Recognizing her comment was about his leg, he glanced down at the wound, and grunted as he saw fresh blood seeping into the cloth. He probably pulled or moved something the wrong way during his run and that must have caused the wound to open up again. He pat his leg aimlessly, thinking carefully on how he was going to deal with his leg. He could go to Yahebah and get it treated... but it was a long way.

He sighed as he pushed himself to standing, and stretched his muscles for the hell of it. "I think that we could ease ourselves down using..." At that point, he peered over the edge and he cursed quietly. This side of the wall was much different than the other one. They had climbed up the wall that had jutting bricks, awkward stone placements and showed a sign of laziness. The other side was a uniform, crisp and smooth wall of stone, with absolutely no discernible handholds to anyone with an untrained eye. They made these walls sure that no one was going to climb up... or down.

Hirem turned his gaze back to Shena, and shook his head. "We'll have to jump it then. I'll go first this time." Without waiting for her approval or not, he quickly backed up as far as he could on the wide wall. He wouldn't that much of a running start, but distance wasn't important here. He braced himself for a moment... two... then he quickly charged forth and jumped, this time on his uninjured leg.

While the previous jump was more of a desperate flight, this was a speeding crash, and Hirem knew it. The ground was rushing up to him, and he tried desperately to remember how to survive this. He angled his body at the last few seconds to be able to roll about his shoulder, and he prayed to Yahal that this would work.

He had assumed that falling into the soft and white sand would be soft. It was not. It was like falling onto a bed of a thousand sharp nails, each one deadly and aimed straight into your soft flesh. Hirem let out a cry of pain as his shoulder hit the sand first, then his body slammed into the sand, crashing into the bed of sand. His entire body erupted in pain, and Hirem grimaced horribly, laying still on the sand. His breath was still there, shallow, but there. Aside from that, nothing seemed to be broken, but it was still agony to even move the slightest inch from his current position.

by **Shena'doah** on April 25th, 2010, 11:03 pm

She moved to the other side and looked down. That was right about the time he had trailed off at the mentioning of easing down. Shena really couldn’t see them easy down anything. His suggestion to jump made her frown because there was another way that required less energy but she couldn’t tell how far they were up. Nor could she see what lined the walls that would possibly make it a wise choice to jump out and away.

Judging by the looks of it and the dark shadow she assumed to be Hirem laying on the ground in the sand, his plan worked well enough but she wasn’t sure how to go about landing. ”Just do it the same way when you make an emergency dismount off Emi…” she muttered to herself, counseling herself about how to tuck and roll. Even if she didn’t do that, landing in the sand shouldn’t be quite so bad. Should it?

Slowly, she circled around a couple times before stopping at the opposite edge and just going for it, making sure to do exactly as Hirem had until he disappeared when she’d closed her eyes the second he launched himself off the wall. Soon she was in the air and quickly making her descent. ”Ahhh!” she yelped as she neared the ground, realizing there was a body beneath her and getting closer. Before she could even think of forming the word, “move”, Shena landed bluntly into Hirem.

It took a moment for her to right herself, pushing her bangs out of the way and looking at Hirem and then back at the wall, then at Hirem again. ”That wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. See?” she said and patted him on the chest a few times before it occurred to remove herself from sitting atop of him.

”You know you look pretty banged up, you should be more careful…” she said crooningly at him, obviously jesting and perhaps suggesting that is served him right.

by **Hirem** on April 25th, 2010, 11:15 pm

Hirem felt the air quickly leave his lungs as the woman landed atop him, and he blinked furiously in agony. As she made her comments, he desperately attempted to breathe, and finally a sliver of air flooded his lungs. He greedily inhaled, trying to regain feeling in his arms. He made a sound that trailed off almost instantly, but it sounded suspiciously like a nasty swear.

He started to breathe more easily, but it was still hampered with the light woman sitting on his chest. His hands brushed at her arms, but there was no strength in them. His back ached with pain and he could barely find strength to move. Finally, he simply let his body lay limp, letting his head fall into the sand. "Dear Yahal..." He wheezed, his voice sounding very pained. "I deserve everything."

He didn't say anymore after that, he just took several deep breaths, adjusting to this new weight. She wasn't incredibly large, but it took the breath out of him to have someone sitting on him after falling off a wall. He observed her for a moment, and it suddenly came to him that a beautiful Benshiran woman was sitting atop him on a cool night. "Shena... move?"

by **Shena'doah** on April 25th, 2010, 11:40 pm

Practically unbeknownst to Hirem who was right beneath her, she looked around and realized how significant such a day had been. Maybe this was what she needed to finally get the courage to go elsewhere. Leaving the desert would be a hard thing to do as well as something that would take some emotional effort. But she wasn’t welcome in two cities now and the others left weren’t even a little inviting. Shena heard Hirem’s muttering to Yahal and smirked, he really did deserve it, but she would just play like she was unaware of that for now.

”We can rest here for a while if you need to. It’s cool so we can relax.” she said as she pulled her legs close to her and hugged her knees. ”You know, for a bigger guy, I would have guessed you had more energy in you.” she commented rather politely and gave him a sharp glance then smirked and looked away again. He really was a mess, and would need more help than she could give him as far as his leg went. She took her first deep sigh and nearly coughed and hunched forward and the sharp pain when her lungs expanded and put pressure on her ribs. It seemed as though her body was slowly coming back into its range of sanity, the numbness beginning to fade. She didn’t say anything and just sat there holding her breath for a moment.

She turned her head to look at him again and quickly scooted off of him and gave him a dirty look. ”You’re exhausted, wounded, and beaten for goodness sake!” she practically growled at him in her own exasperation.

by **Hirem** on April 25th, 2010, 11:58 pm

Hirem angrily pushed himself up into a sitting position, putting a hand to his chest as he took more steady breaths, drawing in as much air as he could. "I... wasn't thinking about that." He groaned, and shook his head angrily. Today was a frustrating day, even if he did meet a new companion. "Let's just get to your camp and then I'll leave you be."

Without waiting for her, he pushed himself up into a standing position. He didn't even make a single step before he stumbled, and fell to his knees again. He sighed, and sat down on the sand, turning his head to her. "No man is invincible. I've endured a lot of hardships here... I'll be glad to leave the city behind."

He pursed his lips together and let his hand roam through the sands, picking up individual grains of sand then tossing them away in aggravation. "I would offer you another apology, but I don't think you want to hear it." Hirem was frustrated, tired, but he knew he wasn't being completely fair to Shena. "Okay, I'll offer an apology for that." He smiled lightly, lost in his own thoughts.

by **Shena'doah** on April 26th, 2010, 12:34 am

She sat there in the sand looking after him, her brows furrowed deeply as he seemed to go right into a rant. There was no way she was going to walk that short distance to her camp right now and she didn’t think he could anyhow. So she just stayed where she was, glaring at him as he turned into someone very cranky. ”Labran was much nicer…” she commented over her shoulder at him, not caring if he heard her. Of course Labran didn’t have guards chasing after him for some mysterious reason, and he certainly didn’t go off on a tagent.

One brow lifted slightly as he somewhat collapsed in the sand and she couldn’t help but smile about having predicting such a thing would happen. ”You and me both.” she replied flatly as she turned to look at the wall they’d just jumped and took a slow deep breath to keep from coughing again. Shena frowned slightly and felt at her sides and along her ribs, there was definitely soreness there and pain if she pressed hard enough. ”Well that feels fun…” she whispered and turned back around to look at Hirem.

He reminded her of a pouting child, knelt there tossing grains of sand. It took some real effort for her not to suddenly laugh at him because he would surely take offense to such a thing. His statement that he wasn’t going to offer her another apology didn’t surprise her any. ”That’s more than acceptable as far as I’m concerned…” she said, nearly trailing off when he said he could apologize. Her jaw clenched and she picked a handful of sand up only to throw it at him, which it dissipated long before it could have reached him .

”We are resting.” she said as though she were calling the shots and demanding him to do so. ”When you can walk appropriately without stumbling, then we can go to my camp.”

by **Hirem** on April 26th, 2010, 12:50 am

Hirem sighed, and settled himself into a more comfortable sit, glancing back at the wall. There didn't seem to be any guards there, so they were free to rest for now. He tried to get into a resting mindset, but all he wanted to do was get away from here. Still, Shena wanted to rest here, and he felt he owed her a lot from today.

He let his back fall against the sand, and he gazed up into the starry sky, a passive look on his face. Now that they had actually escaped from Ahnatep, there was no reason for this woman to stay with him, and he didn't want to be cruel to her. "I guess I'm just confused about my future... I've learned to doubt a lot of things I held true."

He suddenly pulled himself up, and stared her in the eye. "I promised you my story, an explanation for why the guards were chasing me." His eyes took on a softer tone, almost regretful. Truth be told, he knew what this story did to people. It made them fearful, or disgusted by his actions. Still, he owed her and she deserved to know what she had been attacked for. "Do you wish me to tell you the tale? It is a long one, and you may not like the sad truth."

by **Shena'doah** on April 26th, 2010, 1:05 am

She chose to ignore him for the time being while he looked around and seemed to be making sure the guards weren’t around. Shena hadn’t thought about the guards, actually, having just been too grateful to be out of immediate harm’s way. Still careful with taking deep breaths every now and then, she shifted so she could lean back slightly against the sloped sand. It truly did feel good after spending part of the heated day running for her life and then other parts… well she did that just about the whole day excluding the nice nap she had in an abandoned shack. Good times…

His comment about feeling lost made her smile and look up. ”I’m beginning to think Yahal is an old ass that has nothing better to do but give false hope. We are like little ants in the hot desert being tortured under a magnifying glass.” she commented thoughtfully through completely sincere on the matter. Benshiran religion had failed her in any other way so she gave up relying on it.

In hearing his next comment, she nodded, ”Yes… you most certainly did.” she said, giving him a sudden deviously curious look as though he’d suddenly piqued her interest. ”Good grief man, just spit the bloody story out.”

by **Hirem** on April 26th, 2010, 1:16 am

Hirem decided to let the comment about Yahal slide for the time being. They were on slippery ice as it was, and he didn't need to antagonize her further by criticizing her views on Yahal. Despite all he had been through, he still had a firm belief in his god, even though he was doubting whether he factored into Yahal's plans. He smiled for the show, and cleared his throat.

"Several years ago, I was a scholar in Yahebah, studying our history." That was how he began the story of his quest, and he launched immediately into all he had been through. His dream, his travel through the desert, his realization of his quest, all of it. He spoke clearly and truthfully throughout it, meeting her gazes with an equally strong one. He was speaking as sincerely and honest as he could, and tried to get that fact across to her.

When he described the last few months of his life, his words sometimes faltered as his eyes grew thoughtful with rememberance. His men abandoning him, his attempted murder, he kept explaining everything to her that he could. He couldn't gauge her emotions, but he knew he wasn't going to get a positive reaction when he finished his tale.

When he finished, he was suddenly reminded of a summer's night, a long time ago, of telling a similar story to other people. In a quiet act of remembering that day, he bowed his head as he finished the story, awaiting her judgement.