Drink Up (Naeya)

by **L'orlei** on September 25th, 2012, 7:52 pm

Drink Up

Timestamp: 31st of Fall, 512 AV

Moments after Naeya leaves the Taviasa

Somebody help! Hurry!

L'orlei was sitting next to her blanket which also doubled as her shop, rearranging the various herbs, ointments, and other items into a manner more pleasing to the eye when the man started shouting for help. The man was running up from the docks, and L'orlei wasn't far away. She usually set up shop in the area in order to catch people coming in and out of Mura, since most to the women who lived on the island didn't really need her type of products. But travelers could benefit from what she had to offer, so the harbor was really the best place for her to be.

When the man yelled for help, L'orlei immediately looked up. What she saw was actually two men, one of them helping another down the docks who seemed barely able to walk and was mumbling something she couldn't make out. Their names sounded in her mind as she jumped to her feet, Adam and Marshall Heindsfeld, and the konti ran to them as quickly as she could. The older man, Marshall, who could barely walk collapsed just as L'orlei reached them.

"What happened," she inquired as she dropped to her knees at the man's side, quickly placing her fingers on his neck to get a pulse. It took a moment, as she wasn't the most skilled at emergency care, but she eventually found it.

"I don't know. We were just tying off the boat and all of the sudden he collapsed. I was barely able to get him on his feet and down here!"

His pulse was racing, and his body temperature was high. Too high. "Sir?" L'orlei also noted that the man's skin was very red, "Sir? Marshall, can you hear me?" Marshall's eyes flickered open for a moment, before shutting again as he his breathing grew more and more labored.

"Help me get him into the shade." L'orlei shouted as she started to lift the man. "When was the last time he had something to drink?"

She didn't wait for an answer, though Adam mumbled something about being unsure. It was clearn the old man hadn't had anything to drink in some time. L'orlei knew how dangerous the sun could be, she often sold remedies to protect one from it, but the best defense against heat was water.

"Naeya, run over to my blanket and get him some water," L'orlei shouted in Kontinese when she spotted Naeya exiting the Taviasa. She didn't recognize the girl, but assumed that she was from the island and spoke the language. She was konti, afterall. L'orlei and Adam dragged the older man into the shade of the building, and once again she checked for his heartbeat. If that stopped.. well, there wasn't much she could do. And her gnosis, she knew, wouldn't be of much help.

"Adam," she said, not wasting time with explaining how she knew all of their names like she usually did. "I am not trained for this.. run inside and see if there is somebody else who can help."

by **Naeya** on October 3rd, 2012, 9:11 pm

Fire and Ice Jewelers. Kaytil. Kaytil, at Fire and Ice Jewelers.

Naeya stepped outside of the Taviasa with these words swirling around her mind. She was intent on remembering the jewelcrafting recommendation the Konti city official had given her, as she both missed practicing her trade and needed the extra mizas for her eventual trip back to Riverfall.

Her plans to head straight to the Jewelers were quickly foiled, however, as an unfamiliar Konti shouted out Naeya's name. How does she know...? Naeya squinted in the sunlight, trying to identify the woman from her incredibly short list of contacts in Mura. Well, she's not one of the Pearl Divers triplets. Nor is she the Taviasa official I just spoke to... Thoughts of her as-yet-unknown grandmother and aunt also entered her head, but Naeya shook them off. She'd seen enough images of these relatives in her mother's chavi to confirm this.

Nope, she concluded, this Konti was most definitely a stranger.

How, then, did she know my name? And what string of words did she shout afterwards?

Unfortunately, Naeya was not a Konti who spoke Kontinese - a rather inconvenient trait when it came to communicating with many of the Isle's citizens. She had limited knowledge of the language from her mother, but understood only a few of the most basic words and phrases. All she could do in response to the stranger's call was observe the situation and interpret it as accurately as possible.

Green eyes darted from the Konti to the young man, and then focused in on the older man who was being dragged over to the Taviasa's comforting shade. Naeya didn't need to have grown up with a healer for a mother to be able to see that the older man was far from healthy. They must want my help, she determined, a decision which was reinforced by the younger man running purposefully past her and into the building.

Perhaps he needs to be made more comfortable with, say, a cushion? Or... a blanket! Her gaze landed on a nearby blanket, covered in assorted jugs, jars, and elixirs. She couldn't know who it belonged to, but she was sure that whomever owned it wouldn't mind if she borrowed it for a chime. Or three.

She hurried over to the grass where the blanket lay. With a furrow of her forehead, she glanced from the older man to the mixture of items lying on top of the blanket. I'll take them off in a moment, she decided. After carefully gathering up the blanket's woolen corners so that the objects stayed relatively motionless, Naeya quickly walked over to the ailing man and set her newly formed bundle down beside him.

"I'm here, I'm here!" she exclaimed in Common, looking at the Konti with a concerned expression on her face. "How can I help?"

by **L'orlei** on October 3rd, 2012, 10:26 pm

L'orlei glanced over at Naeya as she brought not the water, but the entire blanket covered in stuff over. Maybe she just wasn't sure which one was the water? The girl confused her even more when she spoke not in Kontinese, but in common, and it took L'orlei a moment to respond. Maybe she was just speaking common for the benefit of the two humans? Yeah, that was probably it. How rude of L'orlei not to think of that herself.

"Water, he needs water. He's..." she couldn't think of how to say the word in common, so when she said, "..dehydrated," it was in Kontinese. "He's had too much.. um.."

Damnit, L'orlei thought to herself, I can't remember the word for sun. Syna would not be happy with me.. wait. Syna! That might work.

"Too much of Syna. He needs water, and.. not more Syna, or he will die."

It was surprising how bad she was at the language, considering she spoke it every day to sailors coming in and out of the island. But things were different when she was trading, she didn't use common words, she used business words. And everybody understood the language of the miza. But under pressure, she found the correct words hard to come by.

"Hold up his head while I give him water."

L'orlei grabbed the water from her blanket and tried to coax it down the man's throat, forcing his mouth open with her fingers when he failed to do it himself. She had to stroke his throat to help him swallow, but in the end she managed to get a little bit down. After that she poured some of the water on his skin, hoping to help cool it off.

"Hold him, L'orlei said to Naeya as she turned away from the man and began rummaging through the various vials and jars on the blanket. She had something that might help, and had sold it before, though it was designed to shield against the sun, not treat damage from it. But it contained a plant that she knew was good for treating burns, and while it wouldn't help the internal damage going on, it would at least help to alleviate some of the pain on his skin. "Found it," she exclaimed when she finally came across the correct jar, picking it up and turning back to Naeya.

"Take this and spread it on his face and everywhere else if there is enough," she said as she pointed at his face, though she forgot to speak in common that time. "I am going to try Healing him." L'orlei doubted she could do much, but it was better than nothing. While Naeya tried to figure out what she had just been told to do, L'orlei closed her eyes and laid her hands on the man. She wasn't experienced in using her mark, not much anyway, and it took her a chime to find her center. But as soon as she did she felt the energy flow out of her hands. The gnosis mark on her forehead shimmered to life as she did it, and she felt the power of the goddess flow through her. It always felt pleasant when she used her mark, and she hoped that at the very least she could pass some of that feeling on to the man.

OOCI have a feeling this thread is going to be amusing as we attempt to communicate to each other.

by **Naeya** on October 15th, 2012, 10:41 pm

When, in spite of Naeya's noisy arrival, the Konti remained silent for a moment too long, she began to wonder if she had misinterpreted the entire situation. Had the Konti called out to someone else? Perhaps to another woman who just so happened to share her name? She hadn't seen any people nearby when she had left the Taviasa, but that didn't mean there wasn't someone around. And, being Riverfall-born, Naeya had no concept of common Konti names. For all she knew, every third Konti and her sister could be a "Naeya."

She was about to turn and peer back the way she came when the Konti in front of her spoke - in the common tongue, this time. Naeya sighed in relief. Whether or not the stranger had wanted her specifically, at least she was no longer being ignored and could begin to help. She knelt down and waited patiently as the Konti stumbled over her words, knowing all too well the difficulties of speaking a foreign language.

Too much of Syna? It only took Naeya a tick to sort out what the Konti meant. Too much religion didn't sound particularly deadly - unless, she supposed, one managed to really anger Laviku. Besides, a closer look at the man's face seemed to indicate the cause. His skin suffered a deeper redness than what she'd normally expect to see in a human (one who wasn't profoundly embarrassed, at least).

As the Konti reached for water, Naeya braced the ailing man's head in her palm so that his neck aligned as straight as possible with his spine. It surprised her how heavy his dead weight was, and she soon brought her second hand up to his chin in order make his head easier to hold. Once the Konti was finished trying to give him drink, however, Naeya allowed the man's head to slump forward slightly as she moved an arm to keep him from sliding sideways on the wall. Her worried frown matched the look of worry in her eyes as she studied his face, and she prayed that Rak'keli would not allow him to die on them.

Naeya recognized the lilt of the Konti's next instructions, but not the words. Kontinese rather than Common this time. As she took the jar from the woman, she stared at it like it was about to come alive. What in Avalis' name am I supposed to do with this? She had just decided to simply ask the Konti to repeat herself when the woman's eyes closed in concentration, cutting Naeya's words off in her throat. Maybe I'll just figure it out myself... There was no time to waste, after all.

After taking the lid off of the jar (the easy part), Naeya peered warily inside. The shadows skewed her vision, but she thought it could possibly be some sort of liquid. Does he need to drink this? Hadn't they just been through trying to getting the man to drink? It was hard enough with two people. She didn't know if she would be able to get anything else down his throat, alone.

She poured some of the concoction, which turned out to be more of a thick semi-liquid (with... floating chunks?), onto her left palm, and set the jar down on the grass. She prodded at it with one of her fingers, and hesitantly touched it to her tongue.

Worst. Decision. Ever.

"Gah!!" Her mouth immediately puckered in distaste as a look of horrified understanding entered her eyes, and she turned from the two strangers to spit desperately on the grass behind them. "Oh my - ugh!" A repulsed shiver ran through her body, and she shook her head back and forth for several ticks as though attempting to rid herself of the taste's memory. Goddess... Never again.

At least she could rule out drink. The only person capable of getting the poor man to drink this concoction would have to be an assassin - one born without even the slightest hint of conscience.

She turned to the Konti with a look of helplessness in her eyes, truly lost as to what she was supposed to do. "I'm not quite sure..." she said in Common, trailing off uneasily at the end.

by **L'orlei** on October 30th, 2012, 7:22 pm

L'orlei did not respond, at least not initially, to Naeya's question. She was trying to block everything else out, that was she could focus on what she was doing with her gnosis mark. As soon as it was activated she felt the link between herself and the man grow, and she was able to sense what ailed him. Perhaps not the exact problem, but she could tell the severity, and tell what she was able to heal. Wherever her hands passed, his skin did seem to lighten somewhat, though she couldn't completely return it to normal. It wasn't just sunburn that was bothering him, his skin was flushed for other reasons.

L'orlei let her goddess gifted power sink deeper into the man's skin. The heightened pulse, she couldn't calm it, the elevated temperatures, her magic had no effect on. Her gnosis was meant only for minor scrapes and bruises, mild fevers, and disinfecting wounds. The man had spent too much time in the sun, without any water working too hard. If the other healers didn't arrive soon...

"Petch," L'orlei finally whispered, and though the two konti might not share the same language, a funny thing about swears were that they were pretty much universally understood. "I can't help him."

At that moment Adam returned, sweating from the exertion of his run for help. "Healers are on the way, they should be here soon! Is he alright?"

Again it took L'orlei a moment to respond, as she considered his answer. The healers could certainly help him, but there was no guarantee that he would be alright. His sun exposure was very severe, the stroke would be hard to recover from. His body was in an extreme state of hyperthermia, it's temperature highly elevated, and he was dehydrated. But L'orlei wasn't a doctor.. she had never dealt with situations like the one before her. She didn't know she wasn't supposed to give false hope.

"The healers will do everything they can," she responded in the common tongue, not really answering his question. "See if you can get him to drink some more water."

As L'orlei stood and took a step back, hoping the other healers would arrive soon, Naeya could easily sense that she had left something unsaid. This was her first life or death experience, and there was nothing she could do. She dreamed of being a member of the Opal Order one day, but they had to deal with these situations every single day. It was all she could do not to break down and cry out of sheer nervousness. As the man tried to get his father to drink, L'orlei continued to back away a few more steps before sinking to her knees and just watching.

The healers from the Opal Temple were quick to arrive, and instantly took control of the situation. Reimancers began to summon fresh water to help re-hydrate him, while more powerful healers than L'orlei began to apply their power to him. When he was stable enough to move, they whisked him off to the temple. There was still no guarantee that he would be okay, but his chances were much better with the Order attending to him. L'orlei watched them go before her eyes slowly drifted back to Naeya.

"Thank you for helping me," she said in the konti language, still not realizing that Naeya didn't understand. "He's in good hands now."