Completed Lacerations and Donations (Ariella)

[Inoadar]

Inoadar got the fire going and started to boil some lake water. He tore Ariella's ruined dress into strips for extra bandages and rags for scrubbing wounds. He saw her step from behind a tree with her saddle blanket wrapped around her. They stood now on the edge of the clearing.

"I wish I could tell you this won't hurt. I will clean my own wounds first, so you can see to what extent I need to go. It's best to do it before the nerves begin to get sensitized again. They are relatively numb right now." He knew this from lots of experience. He picked one of the rags from the boiling water, held it in a leather glove, and set to work scrubbing his wounds. At one point, he stripped off his own pants, figuring this would help her deal with her self-consciousness.

Several times, as he scrubbed the wounds, he hissed in pain. It was as much from the heat of the boiled rag as the aggravation of the torn flesh. He knew that what pain he displayed would probably be worse for the Kelvic girl. His training in the Second Edict served him well to resist pain, it always had. Such a program of the self-infliction of pain naturally developed a high-threshold. And Inoadar had been one of their best.

But he thought it would give the girl confidence that the pain was not that bad. He hoped it would serve as a challenge to her pride to see him take it so well. He had to cut away some tatters of flesh, knowing they would die and fester if left intact.

When he was finished, and had applied some of his dried bandages, he turned to Ariella. "Well, let's get this over with." He waited to see how she would sit, so he could get a vial in a hidden position. When he got to one of the larger wounds, he knew the scrubbing would open the wound. This was not only good due to the bleeding helping to flush out the impurities, but it would allow him to collect a sample of her blood.

"If you believe you can endure the discomfort better in tiger form, I guess I wouldn't have any issue. But I am naturally concerned that you will instinctively lash out with your teeth or claws. Which do you think will be better?"

[Ariella Rainecourt]

If he had been anything but human, Ariella would have transformed in a heartbeat. It was true that she would retaliate instinctively and thus doing so would put him in extreme danger, she couldn’t allow herself to do that to a human. Perhaps if they had something to strap her paws and neck down with, but there was nothing like that here. The girl bit her lower lip and took a deep breath upon coming to the decision to not return to her tiger form. It meant that she would have to attempt to somehow maneuver the blanket around whilst he tended to her injuries, which surely would not work out as well as she hoped.

As he scrubbed his wounds, she imagined the terrible procedure on herself and how horribly it would hurt. It made her want to run and lick her wounds somewhere alone, where at least she wouldn’t bring any more trouble to the innocent man, and there would be no boiling water to endure. Humans were intelligent, though, much more so than her. Her instincts told her to trust him.

At least he isn’t old. Then this would be truly dreadful. The thought made a little smile sneak up one corner of her lips. The touch of humor eased her embarrassment and gave her the courage she needed to step slowly towards him and the fire. When she caught sight of the boiling water, though, she paused and looked back at the man with fear in her feline eyes. How can this possibly help? That water is going to scorch me to death.

Yet in him she found confidence. After all, he hadn’t even hollered when he did it, so it couldn’t be that terrible. A few more strenuous steps and she stood before him. Hesitantly, and with great care to still cover her chest and thus retain some scrap of dignity, she let the blanket slip to one side. It revealed a series of scarlet gashes that streaked across her pale skin and dripped blood down her also wounded legs.

With the blanket tucked under one arm, she held one section across her torso with her opposite hand. In that moment, she couldn’t decide which was worse, the damage from the wolves or the awfulness of having to let him see her like this. She took comfort in the fact that she was doing it for his safety, and there was no other way around it. “Please be careful.” She urged and looked the other way, her cheeks flushed with red.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar took Ariella's leg just behind the knee, deliberately looking away from her near nakedness. He needed her to trust him. To trust that the impending pain was not some cruelty he was inflicting. He couldn't have her thrashing and switching forms instinctively, deciding he could have done more, but chose not to out of some sadistic whim.

He felt her tense with a whimper. He thought very seriously about hitting her on the head with a rock to knock her out. His gaze strayed to the bracer with the loops for his poisoned darts. He had had to take it off to scrub his own wounds. Too bad there was nothing to numb the pain further. He chuckled grimly to himself that he stuff to make it worse.

He made the first swipe with the hot rag and Ariella jerked with a gasp. She moaned through tears that she wouldn't be able to do this. Her voice took on the desperate tone of someone that MUST do a thing they know they can't endure. He wanted to yell at her to 'toughen up', to 'be that tiger she had within her!' but he choked off that remark, knowing that was exactly what he DIDN'T want.

His gaze shifted back to his bracer. It suddenly occurred to him that his usual set included "Pillowsap". He could knock her out with that! It was an injury type and only needed a wound for delivery. 'Well, there are plenty of those!' he grinned. She was apologizing for her lack of fortitude, but he patted her back and said he had an idea.

It was a simple thing to deliver the toxin into one of the wounds on her back. He didn't even have to prick her with it. He simply opened the dart, as if refilling it, and poured it out into the wound. He came around to face her, stroking her brow and telling her to relax. He made some mention of a nearby fern with anesthetic properties, reassuring her that he would make this as painless as he could as he watched her eyes begin to flutter sleepily.

He continued with a droning babble about generic descriptions of how to squeeze the fluid from the plant until she dropped into the embrace of drug-enduced sleep. The first thing he did was get his vial and work enough fresh pulses of blood into it to fill it. He capped it then and set to work scrubbing her wounds with hot rags and cutting away ruined shreds of flesh. He'd rinse the bloody rags in the boiling water and reuse them, using the remains of his bandages to place over the freshly scoured wounds and tying them into place with rags he had boiled sterile previously. They were dry, for the most part, and served the purpose quite sufficiently.

She occasionally squirmed a bit in her sleep as he went, but never shifted to her tiger form. By the time he was finished, he figured she'd be coming around in less than a bell and quickly assembled his things, planning to leave. He looked back at her with a strange sense of obligation.

'Where is this coming from? You owe her nothing!' he chided himself. 'You owed her nothing when you came to her rescue, getting yourSELF torn up in the process, I might add, and certainly owe her nothing MORE at least! She'd be the first one to agree! She returned the favor and you are EVEN.'

He sat and gazed at her. In her tiger form she was a magnificent specimen. But now that dynamic creature would be completely vulnerable. 'Not your problem! You've done more than you needed.' He continued to gaze at her. In her human form she was also a magnificent specimen '...and also completely vulnerable...' His mind ran through an utterly self-serving and sexually oriented barrage of justifications and rationales of "debts" she still owed him and how he could easily "collect".

He gazed at the hint of her lovely charms enticingly hidden beneath the simple blanket. He went to his saddle bags and got out replacement clothes for the torn up ones he was wearing. He started to unbuckle his belt, his eyes focused hotly on the rise and fall of her breathing. He walked over to her, paused a moment and set the shirt and pants next to her.

He then went and cut the tails off the four dead wolves, assuming that Ariella would not know to do this for the bounty money available in town. He thought about leaving two behind as her share, but by the same token, she would not know why they were left behind and would probably think it nothing more than some sort of grisly joke. 'Well, if I see her again, I will owe her half the bounty, if they are still offering it.' he told himself.

He returned to his horse, Handy, and went around to face him, patting his head and speaking in a soft tone, mocking himself, "Your Master is getting soft, old boy. A donation of clothes for a donation of Kelvic blood. Sounds fair to me. What do you say we walk this soreness off."

Handy nickered in contented agreement as they set off, walking back to the Southern Trading Post.


OOC - continues, after next post, both here
and here.

[Ariella Rainecourt]

Ariella awoke from her induced slumber shivering from the cool of the evening. The blanket had helped, but by now she had rolled over and lay like a newborn in the grass with her mare beside her, snorting impatiently. The red and orange colors of the sunset streaked across the sky and welcomed her back into consciousness, though, like always, the girl wasn’t interested. One hand reached out and snagged the blanket, pulling it back over her weary body. “Hush, Snow.” She groaned, to which the steed nickered a retort.

Just as she was drifting back into her dreams, the impudent horse nipped at her toes, which lay just outside the safety of the blanket. ”Snow!” Ariella wailed as she shot upright and yanked her feet back, cradling her toes. The movement brought back the pain of her earlier wounds and she clenched her fists to endure it. Seeing that she was needed, the mare ducked her head down close to Ariella as she muttered angrily, allowing her to use it as a means of lifting herself up from the ground.

It was only then that she noticed the clean set of clothes that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Memories of Nolan and the wolves came rushing back, filling her again with empathy and guilt. Where did he go? she wondered and looked around for some sign of the human, but to no avail. The fact that he had left her something was comforting, though, not because the kindness warmed her heart but because it meant he had probably not left in a hurry; he was okay, wherever he was.

Glancing down at her bloodied limbs and torso, then back at the fresh clothes, she thought it a shame to ruin them on herself, but there was no alternative since reverting to her tiger form would render useless the bandages he had so carefully mended her with. So, with the greatest care, she dressed in the clothes the man had left her and pulled herself into Snow’s saddle. Lacking the strength to sit upright, she slumped across her horse’s neck and nudged her on towards the city. Ariella absolutely loathed cities, but she hated not being able to hunt even more. In order to regain her strength and be able to do so, she would have no choice but to stay within Ravok’s walls for a while.

[Abstract]

Grade Awarded!

Inodar

Skills

~ Observation - 2
~ Weapon: Crossbow - 1
~ Weapon: Whip - 1
~ Climbing - 1
~ Unarmed Combat - 1
~ Wilderness Survival - 1
~ Medicine - 2

Lores

~ Ariella: Tiger Kelvic
~ Helping a Kelvic for Blood

Other

N/A

Ariella

Skills

~ Unarmed Combat - 2
~ Acrobatics - 1
~ Climbing - 1

Lores

~ Nolan Parnelle: Crossbowman
~ Attacked by Wolves

Other

N/A

Notes

Just a note Ariella.. you mention your character wanting to hide herself when shifting, but that wouldn't happen with a Kelvic. They literally have no sense of 'modesty', so don't mind being naked in the slightest...

Otherwise, nice thread! Inodar, it was funny seeing you with such a selfish character, compared to the other two I'm threading with XD ...or threaded with.

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