Upon hitting the ground, Kieran’s mind was propelled into a deep state of rest. He had pieces of visions, and some memories, but everything was a jumble. Kieran couldn’t sense everything going on around him, but there was one thing he could sense in particular, a healer. He could feel the energy—warm, enveloping, and lively. At the moment, it felt like the juxtaposition to his, which seemed cold and fading away from his grasp. When the others put him on a stretcher, he could feel that his healer was leaving, and he sought out her energy again, even though it was only in the form of his hand moving a bit.
In room 204, one of the other nurses brought up the form that the man had started to fill out. The nurse who arrived had been there in the triage, and came upstairs to give the active nurses and doctors the information they would need to treat him soon after the other nurses left. “His name on the paperwork is Kye-err… ran Fern-ear. He said he was in some sort of minor car accident at check in. He didn’t get much else filled out, apart from a partial address.” The nurse revealed. He had walked into the triage, and while he should have rightly had a wallet and car keys on him, he had neither. In this world, people never left home without their phones, wallets, and keys. However, Kieran wasn’t from this world. The things he made sure of before he left the house was that his clothing was appropriate. In his world, he had ‘essentials’, a small blade for self-defense, some rations, parchment, and a piece of charcoal for quick notes—though, he had found the invention of the pencil to be one of his favorites, and stole one from time to time to bring back to his world and use.
The nurse departed, returning to the triage so they could continue to scoff at the people who were in car accidents, though a bit more sedated now. Kieran, meanwhile, was aware of someone asking questions. He could hear a voice, and though he tried to answer, he was not in control of his body at the moment. The one thing he could determine was that this was his healer. The energy had returned, and Kieran wanted her to stay. He managed a small groan when she pressed on the edges of the wound, but along with pain came a sudden dissipation of pain. The wound seemed to fade away from Kieran’s mind, and a few moments passed before he began to wake. Kieran’s eyes opened, and he saw his healer, his savior, standing in front of him in…a large blue shirt and pants?
The hospital! he reminded himself quickly where he was, having been thrown off by the feeling of the girl’s healing energy. Looking at her now, he had absolutely no doubt in his mind that she was a healer. And yet…she was hiding here, in this world, where the technology they had could take care of so many injuries. Taking a few moments to process what the nurse was saying, Kieran gave her a small nod in response. “Thank you, miss….” He paused, hoping that she would answer with her name. He could probably track her down another way, but he wasn’t nearly as good at navigating this world, and apart from walking into the hospital and asking about nurses with brown hair who magically had the ability to heal patients, he wouldn’t get very far.
When she gave her name, Kieran began to sit up, finding that he was a bit sore—and shirtless. “Kieran.” He supplied, holding his hand out to shake hers. He looked down and found that he was now shirtless, and his wound was literally gone. He had thought it would be covered, giving the illusion at least that there was still an injury, and he eyed the spot curiously before looking back up at the woman. “Do you happen to know, where my clothing is?” He questioned. It might be standard procedure for the clothing to go in a bag under the bed, or in a closet, or something, but Kieran was completely unaware. “It appears that I over-reacted in coming here…” He added, curious what her reaction would be. He had felt her energy before, when they were down in the triage. Would she acknowledge what she was? Did she even know where she was from, or what she was capable of doing?
-.-
As with her usual fits, Rhys was oblivious to the way the elements were reacting around her. She was focused on her pig of a boss, and she thought she was controlling herself rather well. When the polite customer reappeared and began to address her boss as well, Rhys turned towards him with surprise. Fortunately, his interruption alone was enough to settle some of the fire and wind elements that were getting out of control. He said that he was waiting on another fill of his glass, and Rhys automatically reached out to get him more, but he pushed the now-empty container of wine towards her boss instead.
The man was furious, and he looked like he was going to cause a bar fight and destroy his own establishment to put this visitor in his place. Fortunately, Rhys didn’t have to suffer through the man’s wrath, because the newcomer took her hand and led her from the tavern. She followed for a few yards, and then pulled her hand away from him and stopped. He had dragged her from her job, and while it might have seemed like a blessing, it was curse all the same. Now she had no access to the money, and the cloak that she had kept in the back between shifts. She was sure that her boss would not allow her to return for her supplies—and he would likely demand the money in her pocket from the tables she had been serving. Her pay was pittance, but she felt dishonest holding onto the money that was meant for her boss to pay for stock and such things as well.
A few men came out to fight, no doubt to get their money back, and likely to try to get Rhys to return as well. It could not have looked good for her to simply walk out in the middle of a shift. While she hated acting the part of a defenseless woman, she didn’t protest Devon pulling his blade to defend them. She watched the fight, though it was honestly more of a slaughter. He cut down drunk after drunk, and Rhys was grateful that her boss hadn’t sent more. She stared at the blood on the ground, still pooling from a limb that was cut off, her own arms reaching across her chest tightly.
“Yes.” She answered automatically, speaking softly. She was alive, and she wasn’t being berated by her boss anymore, so that was a good thing. At the same time, she wasn’t alright. “But no. No, I’m not alright.” She turned to face him, turning away from the bodies on the ground, as they had been making her feel a bit queasy. “I appreciate you trying to stand up for me. I’m sure you thought it was the best thing to do, but now I have no job. The only other place here for women to work is a brothel, and I don’t have the supplies to simply wander off to another town and try my luck there. So while you might have thought you were doing me a favor, I would rather be a bit unappreciated but with a roof over my head and food in my stomach, than starving to death in the forest, alone.” Rhys wasn’t trying to be extremely bitter—that had come naturally from the life she had led.
Of course, Devon had done more than that, saving not only Rhys, but the other inhabitants of the alehouse before they were able to make the connection between the growing flames, the harsh winds, and the thin woman being yelled at by her (now former) boss. In Rhys’ mind, this man had seen a damsel in distress, and probably got some sort of weird ego boost by ‘saving’ her from her dire circumstances. Rhys turned from Devon and began to walk. She didn’t think he would care to spend more time with her, and she wasn’t in the best mood for company anyway, given the circumstances. If it had just been her, she would have likely destroyed the whole building and killed everyone in side, and yet she didn’t recognize this. She imagined that she would have been berated, and then she would have resumed her duties. Life would have gone on, and she would have continued to have a job, and a roof over her head.