A Bloody Good Time
May 21, 2019 12:22:32 GMT -6
Post by Darky on May 21, 2019 12:22:32 GMT -6
The crunch of the landing sent a squelch through the mammalian's core. The enemy had been on their last legs, but still standing despite all the previous hits and this one, perhaps, had hit something a little too vital for her to have flown so far, so raggedly. Darky had never killed, and it sent a sudden shiver down her spine to think she might have just then, a cracked rib cutting into something it shouldn't. A heart stopped, a lung punctured - the body was a fragile thing regardless of fur or scales.
But then she heard sounds, the ssashirk speaking or, well, trying to. Limping closer, the hand still pressed against the wound on her side, the mammalian watched and quietly listened, sword lowered. At first one fear was replaced by another, that perhaps the ssashirk would still get up, would still insist on keeping fighting, but it was quickly abated when it was apparent she wasn't getting up anytime soon. Perhaps at all..
A small furrow of the brow followed as she tried to make sense of the words, but many of them were too foreign, too specific - her own grasp of the language was more basic, conversational. These were meanings of another sort, almost sounding cultural.
Then, the ssashirk was still. "Ya'sog. Ka'in. Mud-gill.." Darky muttered to herself, feeling like for every one clue she got just added a dozen more questions. Were they spirits, to be spoken so reverently of? Names of people? Places?
A sharp pain cut the thought train loose from the rest of the mind and the sphinx fell to her knees, sword dug into the ground as support. Both wounds sharply reminding they were very much still there, and still very much bleeding.
And she was very much still far from the City..
Swallowing the burning, her head raised to scan the surrounding bushes. Figured this was the one day she had decided on the scimitar and not her personal sword. A minute or two passed before she spotted some light smoke against the dark green background and shuffled to her feet, slowly making her way towards the tall grass. A patch in the middle was already scorched black from the flame dagger and it seemed hungry enough to eat the rest. Apparently the flame was inherent to the blade and not the ssashirk. This was good, for she needed that.
Picking up the dagger and scouring the surroundings before breaking off a short piece of dry branch, the mammalian placed the branch between her teeth and raised up the shirt from the wound. Oh this was going to hurt. With a muffled scream of pain, she pressed the flaming dagger over the wound, holding it there for several seconds, teeth biting into the branch. When the blade was pulled away, what was left was scorched skin and charred fur, but the wound itself was cauterized.. for now. A moment's respite, gathering strength, before the same thing was done onto the palm, and the sphinx finally threw the branch away with a suppressed growl.
It was then something blue flashed through the air and ended up snaking up and down her head, like a hyper-active feline in serpent form absolutely riddled with worry and concern. Taken back, it took her a moment to realize it was the shijin, no doubt having flown the crazy distance the second their empathic link sent out that first spike of pain. "I'm okay, I'm okay.." Darky assured him, finally getting Amonuro settled enough to leave her face alone. Pushing herself to her feet, she turned towards the City, but paused.
A glance back at the ssashirk on the ground and a conflict grew - to leave her like that, or to do something about it. By rights, she had no reason to help someone who not a minute prior was trying to stab her guts (and in some ways coming quite close to succeeding in that specific goal). It would have been the safer option, for if not her, then who else would they end up stabbing down the line? Who else could fall prey to this kind of 'hunting' in the future, but without training, unable to defend themselves?
Amonuro studied her face, sensing the conflict inside and flew closer to gently fly under her chin, rubbing against her in reassurance. Darky gave a mirthless smile at him, uninjured hand raising to pet him. No, others perhaps would have, but this was not how she was taught to do war. So, the sphinx moved over to the ssashirk, finding vines to secure hands just in case, before gently applying the flat of the dagger to the worst of the cut, cauterizing enough to stem most of the bleeding. The sheath taken from the belt and the dagger sheathed, she took hold of the ssashirk and tried to hoist her across the shoulder, an action which was immediately followed by nearly dropping her with a pained gasp. Then, attempt number two, this time the shijin whipping up winds to help her, his own telekinetic mind added to her injured strength enough to get the ssashirk half-carried, half-flown along the path.
The City was a good distance away, but the Temple was closer, sitting on its outskirts. She would leave her there, the dagger in the healer's care, getting some patching herself and see if, perhaps, an exorcism was required.
Because she rather still hoped all this was for a reason. For something bigger than just a lust for blood.
(8) - (added)
((There we go~ You can have it that the dagger was returned to Haix by the healer after she recovered ))