PM to join Poking Holes in Pycons

[Devi]

Spring 80th, 516AV - The Bronze Woods, East of Syliras Pale sunlight filtered through the trees, giving the morning a cool glow and colouring her skin with dapples of light. Devi breathed in the fresh air with relish. No sewage smell, no sweat, no fish or coast or bodily fluids on the air – nothing but the earthy aromas of the forest surrounding Syliras. A selection of springtime flowers were now beginning to bloom and with them, a selection of the herbs she used in many of her medicines. It was those medicines which drew her out into the forest now. Knowledge of her skill in the creation and administration of medicine was beginning to travel beyond the confines of her neighbourhood in the Maiden District. She had aided the Knighthood enough times with medical matters that heavily-armoured visitors at her door could no longer be considered uncommon. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Devi carefully shifted forward a little so she could stoke the glossy, black hair on the side of Rhavu’s neck. It was an absent habit she had gained whenever she started to get anxious. Her Nightwalker seemed in good spirits, a little over-energetic even. It had been too long since she’d been able to take her companion out for a ride herself, busy as she had been in the city. She was still relatively inexperienced when it came to directing him but then Rhavu was a little more intelligent than the average horse. He had no qualms about letting her know when she was doing something wrong. She returned to what she remembered as the correct seating in the saddle and nudged with her legs to adjust Rhavu’s course slightly in the road. She coupled it with the barest tug on the reins. If there’s one thing she definitely knew about her mount it was that he had gotten tired of riders who yanked him around by his bit. He responded by adjusting direction, though she could tell there was a lot of pent-up energy in his muscled form. Devi sensed her escort matching her course and resisted the urge to look down at her unusual companion once more. When the knock had come at her door this time she had almost missed her miniature visitor, Ball. He was a Pycon – a tiny and very obviously magical creature made out of clay. She had heard stories around the city about Pycons but had never actually met one. Before this morning she had half-suspected that they were some kind of trick rather than an actual, living race. An actual living race that she had no idea how to relate to. Words would be a good start Devi… “So uh…” She began, sticking to the familiar to start a conversation, “The plant we’re looking for looks sort of like a climbing ivy plant, except that once every few years this variety blooms with bright purple flowers. I’ve found a few scraps of information about it in some of the journals I’ve collected. From what I’ve read it has the potential to be a hell of a painkiller.” She settled a little, happy to be jabbering away about a familiar subject. “Sahfri was telling me about a sighting of some unknown purple flowers – I’m hoping these are the same. They weren’t anything her contacts recognised in any case. If not then there’s other more common herbs I can collect along the way. You Knights seem to enjoy stabbing each-other for fun – I’m close to running out of wound-salve…” Devi trailed off as she realised the flaw in her assumption and she blushed a little as she continued. “Which you wouldn't need if you don't have blood that needs clotting, which I’m assuming you don’t. Or do you? Gods that’s a rude question. I’m… uh. Right. Flowers this way.”

[Ball]

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

80th of Spring 516AV
Ball found himself in an odd situation, patrols were one thing, having civilians tag along wasn’t uncommon either. Hai even the occasional adventure beyond the walls for civilians was common play for the Pycon… Yet this was something different. This was actually guarding a civilian doing duties for the Order. Ball was confused on that, he couldn’t wrap the clay around his nexus to make any sense of it. They are going out beyond our protection and yet they can’t protect themselves? We are talking about citizens here. Ball frowned and made a note to himself to offer training sessions to citizens so they could protect themselves better – Free of charge, it was up to the Order to protect their people, but only so for so far.

As Devi trotted along on her horse though Ball followed along as best as he could on his furry mount was walking slowly and something pained the poor dog, but it was beyond the rider what was causing such a problem. It was another mental note to this time get his mount looked at. Ball feared for his mount’s life. But that wasn’t a problem currently, right now was another problem. The larger pycon was talking and Ball missed a majority of it – Some kind of purple flower… His nexus wandered once more, missing the rest of Devi’s comment and his mount's attempt to alert Ball of something dangerous ahead – lost in thought Ball took a tumble as the dog bucked hard to the right throwing the pycon off and outward into the distance.

Ball recalled the sensation of leaving his mount’s back, being weightless for just a moment before fear gripped his nexus and he recalled the Kriital and how he stupidly grabbed onto its leg and was carried off. This time though, this time was more unwillingly but no less scary. The following sensation though cause Ball to let out a pitched scream of pain, something snapped outside of his body – that didn’t scare him or cause the clayman to cry out. No, what came next though did. What snapped as a thin sapling tree still ripe with sap and green strong enough to pierce the Pycon starting at the rear of his right shoulder and going upward towards the left and existing just above his mouth, below his eye, and luckily below the nexus.

To make matters worse Ball apparently set off some kind of hunter’s trap and Ball found himself peppered with what appeared to be small sling bullets or pebbles that shot into him and lodged themselves deep into his body. It was hard to move with the grinding pebbles as it was.

The sapling trunk though, that was problematic. Ball was afraid to move it without damaging his nexus, but he could move his body enough without crying in pain to reach back and break the sapling from behind.

OOCIf I need to use a different template let me know, I know this one can be irritating to some people. I also figured I would get right to the juicy part and make this thread fast paced for us both. Mostly cause it's exciting!

Credit :

Created goes to Raus for aiding in the photo manipulation, Myself for color and transparency manipulation as well as box code. Character is accredited below

[Devi]

Devi started, unsettling Rhavu as her body tensed. Her eyes followed the path of the little Pycon through the air and onto the hunter’s trap nearby. The young woman cursed under her breath, dismounting as steadily as she was able before rushing close to her companion. Belatedly she realised that she could have set off yet more traps without thinking. Fortunately it seemed there was only the one nearby. As she got closer to the little Pycon her first instinct was that he must be dead. Such injuries in a human would surely have been fatal. Her companion’s clay arms were reaching behind himself though, his eyes most definitely aware and his face set into a grimace of pain, or at least, as much as he could hold an expression with a small tree poking out through his face. “Stop, stop.” She plead with him, eyes flickering towards the sapling in question. “It’s green wood, too pliable to snap. We’ll need to saw it.” Devi knelt down next to him and pulled a small knife from her belt. Carefully she held the wood just beneath the spot in which it had impaled the knight and began sawing, trying not to jostle the branch too much. Abruptly she was reminded just how out of her depth she was. Would it even matter if she jostled the branch? Could Pycons feel pain? As she worked she eyed the little knight, eventually voicing her concerns and trying to keep the edge of panic out of her voice. “I’ve honestly never even spoken to a Pycon before today so I have no idea of how much danger you’re in. All I know is that my usual type of patient would be just about dead by now.” She finished sawing through the sapling and carefully lay both branch and Pycon on the ground. As she did so she noted a few spots in which pebbles had sunk into her companion’s form, peppering his front with holes. “What do I need to know?” Her mind couldn’t help but scan through all of the equipment she had with her. Her full medical kit was back in the city; she had only emergency supplies, not expecting to need any of her advanced tools on such a trip. Then again, her mind retorted, would any of those supplies and tools even be of any use? Priskill’s name whispered through her lips as she clamped her mouth on yet another curse. Devi hated not knowing what to do. A little ray of hope was the only aid she could think to call on right then.

[Ball]

Ball kept trying to reach for the branch like trunk that kept him suspended in the air, it was a painful experience to try and reach backwards like that, trying to carefully keep the green wood – as Devi called it – from snapping and piercing his nexus. Yet he froze the moment she said stopped, the human’s eyes looked full of fright for just a second until she turned an intelligent gaze towards the tree and spoke. “Saw it!” He spoke aloud, even though it came out garbled and muffled due to the wooden obstruction.

Ball almost wanted to cry out when he saw her blade pull free from her belt, a brief second the Pycon thought she was going to cut him apart, yet when the blade slid through the air past him and made a jolting contact with the tree he relaxed only to grimace and yelp in pain every time her blade made a pass through the wood. It jostled into his body, rubbing clay harshly and knocking against his nexus giving him jolts of searing white pain before they faded… Only to return with the next pass of the blade.

“You keep jolting the wood like that with your knife and you will be talking to a rock before too long. Could you hold me in place and maybe then saw through the wood? If you do that you might keep the wood and me in the same area.” He groaned and spoke through jolts of immense pain.

Since Ball was already being turned into a holey pycon once she had sawed him free from the tree and was placed on the ground he flopped onto his back, “Cut my stomach open. You will find a small mound of darker clay, careful to get close to my head. I rather not be a stone quite yet. My fists still need to have a one on one meeting with my enemy’s maker.” He nodded and looked up at Devi, “Take that clay when you find it and start shoving it into the hole that is in my face. I can pinch the smaller holes shut. Will need some rest after that it would seem but I can travel I think.”

Ball didn’t speak anything of blood or organs, and from the lack of liquids pouring from his body Devi might be able to deduce without him saying a word that he didn’t have any blood.

If, or more of when, Devi cut into his belly she would notice immediately he had no organs, muscles, or even any bones.

[Devi]

Devi froze for a moment, simply staring at Ball with wide eyes. It was like he was speaking another language. It took her a moment to absorb all that the little Pycon told her and translate it into actual actions she could carry out to help him. She was not used to being so utterly unprepared for a situation. Her brain hadn’t even begun to question what a trap like that was doing so close to the pathway in the first place. “Right…right. Cut your stomach to get the dark clay. Put that clay into your head. Don’t put a knife into your head or you’ll turn into stone. Don’t turn you into stone else you won’t get to meet with your Maker’s enemy… Uh – your enemy’s Maker. Right.” Devi shook her head a little to clear it and picked up her knife again. She carefully sliced into Ball’s stomach, thanking Priskill once more as she noted that her hands at least were steady. One part of her mind grimaced internally at the pain this had to be causing. She knew Ball did feel pain now - getting him free of the branch had proven that much. The other part of her mind picked up that the only thing inside the clay body was yet more clay. Not wanting to slice through the dark clay in case that did something else that she didn’t yet understand Devi downed her knife and opened the breach a little with her fingers, peering inside for the darker clay the squire had requested. Heart hammering in her chest she pulled the little mound from his stomach. She began poking it into the hole on his face carefully when a strange and slightly hysterical thought occurred to her. This reminded her of making mud pies. When she was younger Ronan snuck her out into the woods sometimes and she would make mud pies for him using the sticky soil near the river. She couldn’t quite keep a panicked chuckle from escaping her lips. It was intended to be a chuckle at any rate. The noise she heard actually coming out of her mouth was more akin to a frog’s croak than any tone of amusement she was aware of. “Right.” She said yet again, “Is that helping?” She remembered then what Ball had said about ‘squeezing the holes shut’. Perhaps she could help with that. She began with the slice she had made in his stomach, pinching the malleable material between her fingers to urge the breach closed.

[Samuel Longwell]

Grading Complete Please edit your grade request thread so that it's obvious that it's been graded. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions/problems with your grade. Name: Ball XP Award: Riding: Dog 1 Planning 1 Endurance 1 Rhetoric 1 Lore: Being saved by Devi Notes: Grades withheld from Devi as expenses not paid. Please PM me if you return. Enjoy your grades.