Floating lives (Closed)

[Saloo]

Shay closed his eyes, trying to block out the pain.

"This may hurt."

At hearing that, he opened his eyes, just as he felt Alex stab something into the wound on his leg. He cried out, clenching his fists and closing his eyes again. He was just glad that the poison had a slight numbing effect. He suddenly felt a tingling sensation spreading through him. He wondered if the poison was spreading, but then he realized that this tingle didn't hurt.

He felt something warm on his body, like soft sunlight on his skin. The pain faded away, as did the painful tingling brought on by the poison. He felt his muscles relax as he opened his eyes. He was still panting and sweating from the remaining effects of the pain. He opened his eyes and saw Alex looking down at him with a worried expression.

Shay noticed that he held the stick, the so called "protective charm" that they found on the road, in his hands. It was still glowing softly and his blood covered one end. The blood suddenly vanished as the glow vanished and the stick returned to normal.

Shay rested a forearm on his forehead and laughed softly to himself. Ha... I wonder why gods would protect someone who knows they don't exist... he thought. He took a deep breath and sat up. He was still dizzy from the blood loss, but the effects of the poison seemed to be gone.

[Akion]

Alex looked at Shay and noticed that he wasn't in pain more that he seemed to be looking much better, he smiled as he pulled out the stick. The stick gave a final sparkle as the blood which stained it's bark vanished, leaving the stick looking as inert as it had done when they'd found it on the dirt track.

Seeing Shay sit up Alex made a movement to slow him down, "You may be feeling better but you still have a gaping wound." He once more wrapped the jacket around the wound. "We need to get you a Surture. It's not good to leave it open like that."

[Saloo]

"Though I really don't like the idea, it looks like we're stuck here for the night at least," he said, doing his best to steady himself. "I guess it's time I see how good at surviving you are. I can suture the wound myself, but I have some trouble moving at the moment. I'm going to need a bit of help. You can make a fire, can't you? We're going to need it for this, if we want to do it right."

Shay took a moment to take a look at the good sized tear in his calf muscle. The Quatle missed the bone at least, but it was going to hurt like hell to walk for a while, even if he managed to repair the rip itself. This was turning into a bad trip.

[Akion]

Alex nodded and headed into the woods, leaving the branch on the side by Shay's leg. Replacing the branch was the dagger which Alex had picked up in the inn earlier.

A while into his exploration of the forest he made another mark on the tree he'd just passed nothing but a small notch just so he knew where he was going roughly. Looking around he saw another small piece of bracken and picked it up, adding it to the small collection of kindling he was carrying on him now.

Walking back slowly making sure not to drop the kindling he found his way back to the place where Shay now lay resting, placing the wood down he headed in the opposite direction towards the road where he'd noticed a patch of tall grass growing moments later he returned with 2 handfulls of grass and layed them down "Now all we need is some rocks." he said wearily, "Oh and maybe somthing to light it with."

[Saloo]

Shay paused in his work. He seemed to be pulling various tools out of his belt pouches, looking for something specific. He tossed a small, square object to Alex.

"Use that to light the fire. See the little button on the side? Hit that and it'll give you a good spark." He then continued searching through his various pockets. "Where the hell did it get to?" he muttered. "Ah! Here it is!" He pulled a small blue box out of one of the pockets. Inside was an odd collection of medical supplies.

[Akion]

Alex looked at the box and tested the spark box out a few times; finding the spark to be better than he himeself could of produced quickly he accepted it as the quickest way forwards.

Making a circle of stone Alex layed the grass on the floor as a base before setting up the kindling to allow for a slow and steady burn. Pressing the button on the box he'd been given he managed to get the spark to light up the grass he looked at Shay and handed him back the box "There you go a nice fire, I hope that it's ok."

[Saloo]

Shay nodded as he pulled himself closer to the fire. "It's fine. I just need something I can use to for a heat source," he said, pulling various things out of the little blue box. Using a cloth from the box, he cleaned the wound, wiping the extra blood away.

He applied a white cream to the wound. With as steady hand as he could muster, Shay started to stitch up the gash in his leg. He had his teeth clenched as he worked. He seemed to have done this many times before. With quick work he closed it, the cream numbing him enough to be able to finish. After applying another ointment from the box, he wrapped his leg tightly in bandages. The little blue box seemed to hold much more than it looked like it could.

[Akion]

Alex simply sat by watching as Shay skillfully stiched up his own leg, Alex grimaced as the needle sink into Shay's flesh each time. Having a phobia of long thin pointy things penatrating was not an unreasonable one, Alex hated the idea of it, He'd had the same thing done to him many times before but he hated the idea of doing it for one's self.

As Shay finished Alex looked at the bandaged leg and then to the now dark crimson jacket which lay discarded on the ground, "That's never going to wash out is it?" he asked with a grim smile, "I am guessing I don't mind a palet change to my clothing... If i wear it."

[Saloo]

"Heh... Sorry about that," said Shay, leaning back and letting his leg rest. "I doubt the blood there will come out. I wouldn't suggest wearing it anyway either. Blood stains are... Noticeable." Shay sighed. The last of the pain was finally being numbed and it was a relief.

Shay started to put his tools back into the little blue box. "You didn't get hurt anywhere, did you Alex?"

[Akion]

Alex shook his head, "Nothing I'm not used to, a few cuts and lots of bruising which'll be saw in the morning but compared to you I'm doing ok. I used to get hurt alot at home, I've never been one for being good at avoiding accidents, more I walk right into them." Alex shyly rubbed the back of his head in embaressment, along his arms were a few scars from his past bad luck and also fresh cuts from the encounter with the Quatle; mainly from the flying debris caused by the explosion.

"But yeah, don't worry about me I'll live." he said looking over his arms "I doubt any of these will scar." he read wincing as he ran a finger along one of them, none of them were deep enough to make him worry.

[Saloo]

"That's good. Less that we have to deal with." Shay laid down on the ground, using his hands as a pillow behind his head. Looking up, he could see that the sun had really risen now. He didn't like the idea of losing a nice day like this, but neither him, nor Alex had slept in 24 hours. They needed rest if they wanted to get anywhere. The guards were likely to be too busy doing clean up to even remember that they were there, at least for the time being.

Heh... They should be thanking me for taking one of those things out for them, thought Shay. They were going to have to rest here for a while. He doubted that his leg was going to let them go very far at the moment.

There was a rustling in the trees at the edge of the clearing. Shay quickly rolled over just in time to see an old man enter the clearing. He wore odd green robes with a symbol on them that Shay didn't know. He had small black eyes and a long beak-like nose. He looked around the clearing.

"Alright. Which one of you has it?" he asked, seemingly annoyed.

"What the hell are you going on about?" asked Shay. The old man seemed to ignore him.

"Where's my stick? I dropped it and I know one of you has it so-" He stopped suddenly as he saw the stick in Alex's hand. "Ahh! My stick!" he shouted as he hobbled over to Alex. He held out his hand. "Hand it over boy."

[Akion]

Alex looked at the old man hesitantly and then down at the stick he held in his hand, "Umm but sir we found this discarded on the road, it's been hours since we found it, why try and re-claim it now in the middle of no where? Also what's so special about this stick? why not simply make another?" he asked the old man with a slight glare.

Alex was visibly tired and obviously not in the mood to be putting up with an old man demanding a stick from them, let alone a stick which he'd found on the road and which had now saved his new friends life from the poison of the Quatle.

[Saloo]

The old man grumbled. "Why do I want it back? Well, isn't that a stupid question. If it's just a stick, then why do you want to keep it so badly, eh boy?" The old man sighed. "Look boy, if it were my choice, I would let you keep it, but it's not. Leaving it here with you goes against the Code."

The old man looked at Alex closely. "Wait a tick... You're that world hopping boy!" he said suddenly. "I see... Well, if you have a problem, take it up with the council. I'm sure you'll get there eventually, but until then," with a surprisingly quick motion, the old man snatched the stick away from Alex. "I'm not allowed to leave anything in this world that's not native and that includes the stick, got it?"

With that, the old man vanished, taking the stick with him. Shay stared at the place where the man had been. "Okay..."

[Akion]

Alex looked at the spot where the old man had been and then to his now empty palm and then to Shay. "Well that was... odd?" He said hazarding a guess, sitting down he looked around and sighed thinking about what the old man had said.

"He said I was a world hopping boy... What did he mean by that? And who or what are the council?" Alex said pondering most of this out loud. Whilst Shays input would of been useful he was not sure if Shay even believed that Alex was from where he said he was. "What do you make of all that Shay?"

[Saloo]

Shay shrugged, obviously just as confused. "I have no clue what he talking about. There is no 'council' in this country. Anyone who live here long enough knows that ATTAC runs everything. No idea what he means by 'code' either. Maybe he's from some obscure cult that I don't know about."

Shay sighed. "Way too many weird things have happened since I met you. If I believed in such things, I would say you're from another world." Shay laughed. "But I don't. I won't say magic's not real, I see that all the time, but gods and other worlds? Yeah, right."