Heckno12@KahleenCuthald Oh I am sorry, I can change it if you want :(
Raylah
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7 yrs ago
Currently super swamped by work and having cold on the top of it, so posts will be delayed
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I am also away for the weekend.
And apologies for the multiple posts today, I was really bored at work :)
And apologies for the multiple posts today, I was really bored at work :)
Thyrri almost managed to calm herself down, the pleasant atmosphere of dimly-lit room slowly sending her to nearly meditative state. But, as usual, someone had to barge in and disturb her peace. At first she thought the warriors are coming back from the arena, but when her eyes focused on the incoming figure, she had to suppress a sigh, realizing it was her cousin Aamaya. One of the very last people she wanted to see right now. Hew intricate jewels jingled quietly as she walked towards the pool, smiling as always. ‘Oh cousin, what are you hiding beneath that smile?’
“Thank you for your concern, dear cousin. But who would dare to assault a woman of my title and relevance?” she responded a bit ironically, even though Aamaya was technically right. “As for the Thanatos man, I think you should have more information than me, as you watched the tournament. I haven’t seen anything and sadly haven’t been able to speak to him, he was found unconscious, already having had lost a lot of blood. I would advise you to either talk to some of the other combatants or wait until he wakes up to see if he remembers something.”
She wondered why Aamaya had such sudden interest in a common Luthran warrior. She was the one who put those men in the arena in the first place. The princess was probably just shocked and offended that someone dared to defy her and go against the orders she had given.
Thyrri was actually surprised by the kindness that sounded from Aamaya’s voice when she asked if Thyrrri was all right. What was she supposed to tell her? The princess and the entire royal family were the main problem. Aamaya, while kind and caring at the moment, was blind and oblivious to the issues around, so used to her privileges that it was beyond her imagination that there was a different way to live.
“I am fine, thank you,” the healer answered with the sincerest smile she could manage. It wasn’t a complete lie though, she was feeling much better now, having recollected herself from her short breakdown. She had a strange feeling, as if her mind had made some sort of decision but didn’t bother to tell her yet. “I’m just weary from all the violence. I guess that man’s injury was the last straw for me, seeing someone nearly die for amusement.” She got out of pool and grabbed the towel from Aamaya’s hand and wrapped it around her body.
Just now she realized she had torn her dress apart while trying to take it off, so she had nothing to wear right now. With a sigh she walked to the back door to the spa, peeking out into the hallway, trying to summon some servant. Soon enough, a young girl appeared walking the corridor, carrying a large pile of fluffy towels. Thyrri called her over and gave her specific instructions on which dress she wanted the girl to bring. The maid run off and Thyrri returned to the pool, sitting on the side with her legs in the water, creating small waves as she moved them around.
Aamaya looked like she was about to leave when the door opened, and a redheaded woman entered. Thyrri recognized Laurel, Eve’s bodyguard, and smiled at her, seeing that she is all right. Although not completely all right, Thyrri had to correct herself, jumping up to her feet. The red on Laurel’s head wasn’t all just her hair, but also blood running from a large cut, heavily encouraged by the stream of water she was pouring on her head.
“Why didn’t any of the healers look at you?” Thyrri asked her as she moved across the room towards the warrior. Laurel said something about not wanting to bother the healers and Thyrri just rolled her eyes. “So you would rather bother our corpse disposal crew? By the gods, woman, stop it and sit down,” Thyrri directed tottering Laurel to one of the benches. The girl was clearly in shock, most likely had a concussion. The healer examined the wound, it wasn’t very deep, but as every injury on the head it was bleeding a lot. “This will need stitches,” she sighed, looking at the bandages in Laurel’s hand.
Fortunately, the maid had just arrived with Thyrri’s dress and she quickly put them on. “All right, we need to get you back to the infirmary, there is not enough light here.” She helped Laurel put a soft bathrobe on and helped her to the door. “I wonder,” she said when she was passing Aamaya, “how does one get such injury from a tournament where blows to the head are forbidden?” Laurel mumbled something indifferent, but Thyrri’s question wasn’t meant for her. “With your kind permission, princess Aamaya, I would like to borrow one of your guards for a moment, to help carry this woman to the infirmary.”
A few minutes later, Laurel was lying in bed, her head stitched up and bandaged properly. There was not enough space, so she had to share room with the injured Thanatos man, who was still unconscious. Thyrri leaned to the woman, noticing she was waking up. Laurel blinked a couple of times, trying to get up, but Thyrri pushed her back into pillows. “I am sorry, but you really need to stay in bed for at least a few hours. If you get up, you might faint again and injure yourself even harder. I will let princess Evangeline know where you are.”
Thyrri also checked on the Luthran, who looked slightly better – still pale, but his pulse was strong and steady and his injury didn’t bleed anymore. She sat on a chair, watching her two patients and thinking what to do next. She should go and let Eve know about Laurel, that was for sure. Maybe even talk to Mother and Father of Luthra. She yawned and closed her eyes, just for a second to rest a bit, and fell asleep nearly immediately.
@Aamaya I, unfortunately, will not be taking the Queen role for Primfira because I cannot come up with anything for her. So sorry. If someone hasn't taken the role in about two days, I will certainly try again. :)
I actually think that we can even go without the queen of Primfira, if the rest of Primfirans agrees - the king could be widowed (from mysterious reasons :D) and maybe looking for a new queen? Of course, if someone wants to take the spot, then why not, but I think it isnt necessary to have a king and a queen from each country.
Thyrri was busy in the infirmary, but fortunately not as busy as in her pessimistic expectations. Yes, there had been injuries, but most of them were just small cuts and bruises. She was just finishing examining one of the Exodus warriors, who had one huge bruise across his chest. Thyrri’s fingers were carefully touching man’s ribs, gently pressing here and there, while the man’s eyes were tight shut and he gritted his teeth. “Well, it seems that at least three of them are broken, but on the bright side, they all seem to be in the right place and none of them pierced your lungs or any other organs. How did this even happen to you?” She only had time to watch the beginning of the tournament, before the first contestants with light wounds started coming in. Of course, there was the official doctor, Abhay, designated for the arena, but Thyrri didn’t trust that guy. All too often, some of the wounded disappeared without a trace, or suddenly died from massive loss of blood while their injuries weren’t life-threatening.
One of the young girls that served as assistant brought her a wide and long bandage. “All right, sit up and hold your arms up a bit,” she directed the warrior and started wrapping his chest tightly.
“It was that woman, she caught me off guard,” the man mumbled, biting his lip.
“Just take short breaths, it will hurt less. What woman?” As far as Thyrri knew, there was only one woman in the tournament, Eve’s bodyguard Laurel.
The warrior confirmed her suspicion. “That bloody redhead. She fights like a beast.”
Thyrri finished the bandage and forced the man to lay back down, ordering one of the assistants to bring him some water and a light snack. She didn’t even have time to look out of the tiny window to see if Laurel is still up and all right. Eve would be devastated should something happen to her. Another Exodus warrior was brought in on a stretcher, squirming and holding his knee. ‘Wow, they are really getting beaten up, what a shame for our majestic kingdom,’ she thought before rushing towards the man, wiping her hands into a large leather apron she was wearing over her dress.
Quick glance on the new patient revealed that his knee was dislocated. When Thyrri tried to push man’s hands away from the wounded knee, he just squealed and shook his head in horror, desperately trying to push himself away from her. “Hey! Get it together! It’s bad enough that you lost in the tournament and now you are going to disgrace your country by acting like a baby?” she hissed at him, trying to get his attention. She didn’t like being mean to a suffering person, but sometimes there was just no other way to get to them through the pain.
The man sobbed, but his hands let go of the knee, grabbing the sides of the stretcher. “I… apologize, m-my lady. But the… Earthicans… they fight like w-wild animals. And the Luthrans… even worse.” He shut his eyes and bit his lip so hard that a small stream of blood appeared running down his cheek.
“Well, they’ve had to fight much harder for their survival than we did,” Thyrri whispered, more to herself than to the warrior. “Open your mouth and bite on this,” she pushed a thick piece of leather between his teeth and started to examine the knee. It was already badly swollen, and the sinews contracted, she had to act fast to put it back into the right position. “You two, hold him, and you, grab his ankle,” she summoned one of the men who brought the stretcher in. “When I tell you to, you will pull quickly with all the strength you have, and twist it a bit in this direction, understand?” Thyrri moved to the patient’s knee and laid her hands on its sides, ready to press on it to make sure everything slides to the right place. “All right, one, two, three!” Luckily her new assistant had been strong enough and the joint returned to its original shape with a creepy clack. The man squealed into his gag, his body arching up and then passed out from the pain. Thyrri sighed with relief, everything appeared to be all right.
She glanced at Abhay, who was just tending to a man with a broken arm, a member of the Primfira delegation by the looks of him. She slid down to one of the chairs in the room, not even interested in the tournament anymore, just wanting to close her eyes for a moment. But a moment was all she was granted, as mere seconds later one of the maids ran into the infirmary, yelling about someone needing a doctor. Thyrri quickly jumped to her feet, her weariness forgotten for now.
The man was unconscious on the ground, which wasn’t a surprise given by the pool of blood around him. He had some bruises and smaller cuts from falling down, but the blood came from a small wound in his abdomen. “Fuckin hell...” Thyrri couldn’t help herself but to be furious. “Get him on the table, now! Dulled weapons? Just for fun? When the fuck will they learn that this is not a damn game?” she gritted her teeth as the assistants transported the man.
“Get him out of the armor,” she commanded and checked the man’s pulse, which was weak, but regular. One of the girls skillfully cut the strings holding pieces of the armor together and removed the breastplate. The small cut would have looked almost innocent had it not been for the dark blood pouring from it in small waves, slower and slower, as his pulse was slowing down. Thyrri quickly cleaned the wound the best she could and grabbed a scalpel, attempting to widen it a bit so she could check the situation inside. If the blade had pierced on the man’s organs, like his liver, or even penetrated his intestines, there was very little she could do. With this volume of blood lost, the body couldn’t recover from such trauma. But so far it seemed that only one of the veins had been disrupted. She gritted her teeth. It was too small to stitch up and too big to close on its own.
“He is going to die anyway,” Abhay stood next to her, frowning at the patient. “And he is a Luthran scum,” he pointed to the sign on the breastplate. “Not worth wasting your time on, my lady,” he added, bowing his head down to hide an ironic smile.
Thyrri ignored him, concentrated on the task at hand. She put some thin metallic bars into fire burning in a small fireplace, normally used to boil water. While their tips slowly turned red, she did her best to clean the wound from all the dirt and dust from the arena and most of the blood. When the bars were ready, she used them to cauterize both ends of severed vein, sealing them shut and finally stopping the blood from pouring out. She did her best to stich the wound. It was going to leave a scar, a small price for being alive if you asked her.
When she made sure the patient is taken care of, moved to one of the separate rooms, she could finally let her anger take over. A sturdy clay mug on the table was just what she needed, grabbing it so tight her ankles turned white and smashing it against Abhay’s head, for a moment not caring whether it would hurt or even kill him. “How DARE YOU call yourself a doctor, you worthless parasite?!” she yelled, throwing the rest of the mug away and grabbing a scalpel. Abhay stared at her, petrified, water mixed with a bit of his own blood dripping from the top of his head. As she moved closer to him, he took a step back, his back pressed against the wall. “I am warning you,” she hissed, her face just inches away from his, the scalpel resting on his neck. “If that man dies or he happens to disappear mysteriously, I will personally make sure that you follow him right away, do you understand?”
Abhay tried to nod vigorously, making the scalpel pierce his skin and forcing a single drop of blood out. “Y-yes, my lady. I would never…” he stuttered, but she interrupted him.
“Save me your pathetic excuses. And remember,” she stepped away from him, “right now you could provide the royal family with much more blood than he could. And you know there is never enough of it. Hey, you,” she turned to one of the assistants, a young petite girl, who stared at Thyrri with horror. The healer realized that she was still holding the scalpel and was covered in blood. She forced her fingers to let go of the sharp object. “You will go and find the Mother or Father of Luthra, preferably both. You can hardly miss them. Tell them one of their men had been injured and it would be in his best interest should they come and check up on him. Will you remember that?” The girl just nodded and darted out of the room. Thyrri threw one last angry look at Abhay and walked away.
She quickly moved through nearly empty service hallways of the arena to the spa area. There was a large pool of warm water, meant for the gladiators and other warriors to wash off sweat and dirt after the fights. The room was empty for now, but Thyrri probably wouldn’t notice if there was a crowd staring at her. She quickly took her clothes off, tearing through the precious fabric, her fingers shaking as she put her hair up before entering the water. She washed the blood off at one of the drains, her whole body shaking as she watched the pink water disappearing. ‘What the hell was that?’ she could hardly think. This was nothing like her normal self, getting so furious, wanting to hurt or even kill someone.
It was only the sound of tears dropping into the water that made her realize she was crying. ‘I can never get away from this. No matter what I do or where I go, I will still be a part of this barbaric kingdom, where some people’s lives are only worth the blood running through their veins.’ But what could she do? She was not a fighter, not even a brave person and she realized now. She was a simple coward, closing her eyes from this whole business for years, looking the other way as if it didn’t concern her. Her eyes shut tight, she enjoyed the quiet sound of water splashing against the walls, having no idea what to do now.
@Raylah Kate's Mad Science Lab is some people's nickname for it.
Like Skyscrapper is the nickname for Parris Securities, LLC company headquarters.
I love it :)
Thyrri and Aziza
Thyrri left Eve when the guard announced the tournament beginning. Although she could go and sit with other royals in the luxurious area, she had no desire to do so. After all, she didn’t truly belong there. She snuck away from the crowd and into one of the tight service corridors, nearly knocking a large plate with empty glasses out of one poor servant’s hands. Mumbling an apology, she headed for the contestant entrance to the arena, where all the technical background for the tournament was located, including the infirmary. No matter the rules, there were always more or less serious injuries when men started to hit each other’s heads with sticks. The room was on the ground level, and had tiny windows below the ceiling, originally designed just for air circulation, but if you stood on one of the chairs, you could very well see the inside of the arena. The tournament hasn’t started yet, the contestants were just hailing the royal families. Thyrri sighed. Such unnecessary violence.
Aziza was feeling tense. She had nothing to do, which definitely wasn’t a normal state for her. There were no new orders, even her alter ego Parull didn’t have any tasks at hand, since the guests were still on the party and haven’t started using their rooms yet. For now, she wandered the hallways, doing her best to appear busy, spying out for any potentially useful information. It was only luck that she caught a glimpse of something unusual – the Earthica princess, Evangeline, walking the hallways with a member of Exodus royalty, holding hands. Aziza followed them until they disappeared in the private section of the palace, one she could not officially get into. She had tried before, but apparently the guards knew every servant who was allowed entrance and didn’t let anyone else through. Aziza could kill the guard easily, but hiding the body was annoying and the missing man could draw unnecessary attention while she was supposed to stay undercover.
There was another way in though, not as simple, but much more fun. She turned back to the stables and snuck into one of the empty boxes. The loose plank was still in the place, her hiding place remained undiscovered. She took a small package out and double checked that no one was watching her as she put the plank back in place. The air was clear, except for a horse from the adjacent box, who put his head over the railing, hoping she would give him an apple. Aziza patted his head, whispering, “You’ll get one when I get back.”
The yard with carriages was empty and Aziza took the advantage of it and causally walked towards one of the less-decorated ones, entering it without looking around, almost as it belonged to her. Inside she quickly stripped off her dress, sighing in relief as she could strip the stupid Parull masquerade off with it. She put on her normal dark leather outfit, strapped the dagger to her thigh and a bandoleer with throwing knives across her chest. Carefully folding the dress, she stuck it under the seat in the carriage and snuck out like a ghost she now was.
The front wall of the palace private section was well lit, but Aziza used the shadows on the yard to move beyond the corner unseen. From there she started climbing the wall like a giant dark spider. She reached the roof safely, crouching and continuing on all four. Although she never personally visited this part of the palace, she had talked with other maids and servants, which gave her an approximate idea of the layout. As she got above Thyrri’s room, she started to climb down to its window slowly, careful not to make any sound. She was able to overhear most of the conversation the women had, while hanging on the wall by her fingers, slightly disappointed that it wasn’t anything more interesting. But still, even the information of those two flirting with each other could be potentially useful.
After they left the room, Aziza crawled in and looked around. The room was pretty spartan for a member of Exodus royalty, save the opulent dress hanging in the corner. Aziza bent down and picked something shiny off the ground, smirking as she recognized a hairpin with a few strings of red hair still stuck in it. Hiding it away in one of her pockets she listened beyond the door for a few moments. Originally, she considered taking a look around the palace, since she was already here, but she wasn’t exactly inconspicuous in her current attire and she could hear several people walking the hallway. She turned back to the window and climbed to the roof, smiling happily. This was what she was trained to do, born to do even.
She took a peek into princess Aamaya’s quarters and also the king’s and queen’s but didn’t have enough time to search through them properly, so she didn’t find out anything useful, other than Aamaya’s favorite bath oils and perfumes. Aziza tried to save every fine detail into her memory for future use before heading back.
Some time later, again as smiling and friendly Parull, she was bringing drinks and food to the common guests in the arena. She could see Primfira king and queen in the royal section and also princess Valeri, chatting with Aamaya. Aziza didn’t show any sign that she noticed them, but her heart rejoiced from finally seeing her king. Perhaps now things will get moving a bit.
Kate
“There’s a problem with the potatoes.”
Kate giggled. Sure, the world had been run over by a horde of flash-eating zombies, but she is dealing with the real problems – the potato problems. “All right, I’ll take a look.” She headed over to the field where potatoes were grown this year, she could see an elder couple standing there, clueless. She would always get the old and weak to work her fields, the rest were either out scavenging, training or on guard duties. Kate didn’t mind, older people usually knew their way around gardening and planting things, or at least were willing to learn. It was the young who barely remembered the world before the disaster, who thought there were some mysterious trees which produced bean cans and MREs. Sadly, Mr. and Mrs. Bryant were incredibly rich before the outbreak (the fact that they stated to everyone who was still willing to listen to them), and had servants fulfilling most of their needs. When they joined Parris Security, they seemed deeply offended by the fact that there is some work expected from them, let alone hard manual labor. They have already been positioned on multiple spots like laundry duty or helping out in kitchen, but always managed to complain for so long that the person in charge had them transferred somewhere else. Kate had to put up with them for over four weeks now, and they seemed to produce more damage than actual work.
“So, show me your potatoes,” she told them, ignoring their miffed looks.
“We have no idea what happened. Perhaps it is some kind of a disease?” Mrs. Bryant pointed towards the row.
Kate frowned and kneeled beside the plants. Any kind of disease that could spread to the rest of her carefully nurtured crops was very dangerous. The green top of the plant looked fine, it had already started to dry out which was the sign the potatoes are almost ready to harvest. The dirt was dug aside to reveal the tubers. Kate reached for one to examine it up close and then laughed with a bit of relief. “Yes, this is indeed a dangerous disease. It’s called ‘the mice’.”
“The what?”
“The mice. You know, the tiny rodent with teeth,” Kate used bent her fingers next to her mouth in an attempt to show what a mouse looks like. “They must be pretty hungry to go after the potatoes, they usually prefer other vegetables. By the holes in the ground it looks like there is just a few of them, seems like they only picked this one plant.”
“But… what are we supposed to do about it?” Mr. Bryant scratched his badly sunburnt head – he would refuse to wear any kind of hat or a scarf, claiming the he doesn’t want to look ridiculous.
“I have no idea, I’m a fucking botanist, not an exterminator. Go file up a requisition for a cat or something.” She turned to leave, giggling quietly imagining them actually go to the supply officer to ask for a cat. In the normal days, the mice could turn into a problem, but nowadays as the nature slowly took back over the world, the increased numbers of bird of prey and other predators kept the rodent population on a manageable level.
Exhausted by the human interactions, she headed to her safe place. Over the years, her originally tiny private garden grew to several smaller fields and even a small orchard, that should start producing apples and peaches in the next few months. With all that, she needed a place for experimenting and preparing new breeds of plants. After long discussions, Carson allowed her to take one entire floor in the industrial building and even sent a raid to gather the equipment she requested. Now her kingdom had lots of artificial lights shining down on rows of tiny saplings and sprouts, sprinkler bottles with water prepared at each table, lots of mysterious tools lying around - it looked almost like a lab. And, in all honesty, most of the equipment actually did come from a pot growing lab, although it was put to a better purpose nowadays.
@Aamaya How does this look for the King of Primfira?
Oh I love it, it is just the kind of king Aziza would admire :)
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