It's About Time for A Rest

[Christian]

Cristin could do nothing more now that he placed the moss and the painkiller on both of the patients. He sat, his legs cross in front of Kayla, looking at her, watching her. He was still concerned about that leg. He could see that she was becoming less pale, which meant that the bleeding had stopped and she was recovering. She was an elf, and they did heal quickly. He would look back at Sentinel every now and then, but he seemed to be doing well. Dragons healed faster than both him and Kayla. Cristin continued to watch Kayla, his mind shifting through his memories of her. Everything kept switching back to him firing the arrows at her and watching her fall to the ground. There was nothing he could do but wait. “ You know, Sentinel, I didn’t mean to shoot you.” He said calmly, while still looking at Kayla, “ You don’t have to believe me, but I thought I should tell you.”

[Kayla]

His mind becoming more and more clear, Sentinel turned to the task of inspecting his injuries. After testing all his legs and examining his talons, he concluded that he was not paralyzed. His side was badly wounded, though with that moss and plant junk on it he couldn't see how badly. His shining scales were dulled with now-drying blood, at least the ones that had not been ripped off. At least he would hopefully be shedding soon. Still, those scales were his pride and joy. Next to his wings, anyways. His left wing was perfect, the almost translucent membranes stretched tautly over his delicate, but deceptively strong, bones. His right wing, now, was another story. His eyes narrowed to mere slits as he took in the damage. Grrrrr he couldn't even move it! The arrow had punctured his wing right near the joint! With a smooth, reptilian movement, he craned his neck around and glared cooly at the elf for a full minute. If he thought for one moment he would get off so easily, he was sorely mistaken. Dragons did not forgive easily.

[Christian]

“ I suppose you have the right to glare, after all, I did shoot you. But it was instinct, just like it is when you see food. Surely you can understand that. I am taught to kill and I taught to be ready and taught to efficient. In your case, very efficient. Personally, you don’t have to forgive me, but I would rather you not try to eat me when you are able to move again. And your right wing, it will heal, you just need to realign the joint.” Cristin said calmly. Every motion that the dragon made, Cristin could hear. He could hear looking at itself, inspecting itself, trying to move. He didn’t even need to look at him to be able to tell what he was doing. Cristin kept watching Kayla. He did hope that she woke soon. He began to speak to her anyway, as if she was awake. “ It was the only to stop you. As much as I deserve to be beaten, I cannot afford it. I have already been beaten today. I feel I have done too much damage for one day.” He said calmly, shaking his head.

[Kayla]

Sentinel snorted disdainfully. Instinct! Ha! Well, someone should teach that elf not to go around shooting things at a moment's notice. And eat him? Please. Like Sentinel would ever degrade himself to actually touching Cristin. Ignoring him for the moment, Sentinel continued to inspect himself, seething at the tall stranger all the while. Once Kayla awoke, he would get what was coming to him.

She couldn't move. It was as if she were made of stone. She couldn't feel, either. She was only aware of her own thoughts, cloudy as they were. Who was she. Kayla Yes, that was her name. What happened? Why couldn't she move? Where was she? Her eyes might as well have been stitched shut, because she still couldn't see. She could hear, though. A low voice, murmuring on. What was it saying? Who was it? Why couldn't she move?

[Christian]

Cristin continued to watch Kayla. He could see that she trying to move and her complexion had fully returned. Now she just had to wake up. The time passed and day came to dusk, and dusk turned to night and soon the stars and moon filled the sky instead of the sun. Still, nothing from Kayla. He knew she was not dead, nor dying. He shots and his potion were not powerful enough to do that. He could only wait. Yet, he hated waiting for it in most instances ended poorly for him. In most instances. Hopefully not this one. Another thing that struck his as odd was that the beings that so plagued him night and day had not come for him. They waiting, he was sure of it.

[Kayla]

Laying incapacitated, Kayla had plenty of time to think. So far, she had come to the conclusion that she was probably drugged, but she couldn't remember why. She couldn't reach Sentinel either. Something nagged at the back of her mind, but it still lay undiscovered, as if behind a heavy veil. Finally, she broke through the fog, and her eyes opened. Blinking rapidly, her vision quickly cleared to a view of sparkling stars and a full moon shining down through the trees. Turning her head groggily, a strange sight met her eyes. Across from her was a young dragon, silver hued, and apparently injured. Something seemed to be the matter with his wing, and he was looking at her intently. Next to her was a tall, armor-clad elf, brown hair highlighted almost gold with moonlight. He, too, watched her intently. She felt a thought intrude her mind. 'Kayla? Are you okay? You've been knocked out for quite a while.' Sentinel! Like the breaking of a dam after a winter flood, her memories came rushing back. He had shot Sentinel! And her! She jumped up to her feet, ready to fight him. Instantly, she knew she had made a mistake. Pain lanced up through her leg as she stood on it, and the blood drained from her already pale face. She felt herself falling, then darkness fell again.

[Christian]

Cristin rose with Kayla, but he knew she would fall. She was still too weak to move and she was still injured. Her leg could certainly not support her. It didn’t and Cristin gracefully caught her as she fell, laying her back against the mossy side of the tree. He shook his head and laid her head carefully against the tree. He took a step back. She would return in a moment. She was awake now. This was the reaction he had expected. He didn’t think she would actually stand up, but she was a strong woman, he should have expected it. Cristin sat back down in front of her. He gathered some sticks together and found an old dry log and carefully lit a fire, so it would warm her body. It was going to be a bit of a chilly not. She had lost blood too, and it was always better to stay warm.

[Kayla]

Sentinel watched as she rose, fell, and was caught. He figured she would do as much, it was in her nature to react like that. Hopefully she would come back into consciousness soon. The elf finally had the sense to light a fire. At least he could do that much. He sensed that Kayla was over her madness, but she would still be plenty angry when she came to. He grinned almost maliciously to himself. This would be most amusing.

With a groan, she opened her eyes again. This time, she remembered everything. She could feel the wounds in her limbs throbbing, her leg definetely causing most of the pain. Now there was a fire flickering steadily in the night, casting strange lights around her. She could see the silver flash of Sentinel's eyes watching her through the growing flames. Then she turned to the elf, a cold, rational fury growing inside her. She would like to see him explain his way out of this one.

[Christian]

Cristin saw her open her eyes. This time she didn’t jump up or try to kill him. Well that was good. She did however stay most insistently at him. This made him rather uncomfortable, but he supposed it was something that he deserved considering the fact that he had just shot her dragon, and now he had shot her. He spoke, in a calm and sorrowful tone, “ I am sorry about shooting your dragon. I did not know it was he. I saw a dragon and fired. Usually they aren’t considered friendly. And as for you, well I am sorry for them as well, but that was the only way to stop you from doing something you were going to regret. That is all I can say. I made a mistake, I am sorry.” Cristin stopped speaking and he knew she had something to say.

[Kayla]

Her eyes snapped angrily. "Well, that's all nice and good now, isn't it? 'Sorry' won't heal me, or Sentinel, and it certainly is nowhere near enough compensation for what you've done. Did no one ever teach you to look before you leap? I mean, what in the blue blazes were you thinking!?! Oh, there's something up there, let's shoot it, it obviously wants to hurt us! He wasn't even attacking you or even getting close to you! He was way up there! All he did was fly over you and you go all psycho and shoot him! Is that the reason you wander? Because if you stay in one place too long, everyone gets shot?" She was just beginning to warm up, her voice dripping with a powerful combination of anger, sarcasm, and scorn. "And now you've done it. Now he can't fly until his wing heals! Oh, and he won't forgive you, you know. Even with your limited intelligence you should have begun to figure that one out. And yes, he is a dragon. Yes, their kind is not exactly known for their goodwill. But you just shot him so quickly, I doubt it even registered that it was a dragon you were shooting until the arrow was through him already! So I'm not buying it." Ignoring the throbbing pain in her head, she continued to rant at him. "Oh, and then you get the brilliant idea of shooting me. Quite intelligent. I'm practically a quadripalegic now! Oh, wait, you missed a leg. Want to finish the job? I'm not moving this time, so it should be even easier. Okay, so I'll give you the whole drugging me thing. That was understandable. I wouldn't want to face me when I get like that. What just kills me is that you didn't think of that until the third arrow! Third! Holy crap, you'd think that would be one of the first things you'd try. If you didn't want to kill me, the next obvious step would be to get me unconscious somehow, not stick me full of arrows to see if I would bleed to death or something. This is going to take me at least a month to heal completely! You just had to shoot me in the places that would cause the most damage to my lifestyle, didn't you? So now that you've practically maimed me, and you've incapacitated my only friend and companion, what's your next move? Oh, and did I forget to mention that not only are both of us a full day's walk from home, but we are also now unprotected in the woods at night. Smart. Real smart. You just have this so well planned, don't you?" Finished for the moment, she crossed her arms indignantly, ignoring the pain it caused, and glared at him moodily, practically daring him to try to defend himself.

[Christian]

Damn. She had an awful lot of things to say. He made a mental note not to let her sit alone anymore and think about stuff like this. Frankly, there wasn’t anything he could do while she went on, and on, and on…. and on. However, she seemed not to realize that most of what he did was unavoidable, but he mine as well not tell her that. She might try to reverse that on him too. He stroked the fire calmly as he listened to her. Well, some parts he toned her out. He didn’t need all that information. He was quite away of the mistakes he had made and there really wasn’t anything else he was going to be able to do. The fire was blazing and shadows jumped across his face.

Finally, she shut up. Well crap, how long had she gone on for? Oh you couldn’t remember. He sat there for a moment. He figured he shouldn’t figure both barrels at her like she had at him. After about a minute, feeling who knows how long to both of them, Cristin spoke. “ Well, for one, if we are in danger, everything in the forest just heard you. I doubt however that we are in danger, maybe a spider or giant or giant cockroach. But that is about it. So shush please about that. I can’t do anything else for you, so no matter how much rant on and no matter how much you yell and scream; it will do you no good in the end. So get some sleep.” Cristin said calmly and went back to stroking the fire.

[Kayla]

Sentinel finally finished inspecting his injuries. With effort, he walked over to Kayla when she was done with her rant and curled up next to her. 'That was quite impressive. One of your better rants, I would say,' he commented dryly.

Resting her hand gently on his neck, she replied, 'Well, he probably wasn't listening. Guys never do.' Her anger slightly abated, she turned to him. "I doubt we are in too much danger at this point. Besides, you gave us away first by lighting the fire. And I don't really like sleeping. I've had enough of that for now, thanks to you," she said sardonically. Turning to more practical matters, she inquired, "Now, what did you do with my pack? And my weapons. I feel practically naked without them. So give 'em here."

[Christian]

Cristin watched as Sentinel as he managed to walk over to Kayla. He smiled. At least he could walk. Cristin smirked at Kayla’s last comment and shook his head, “ I am fairly certain that you are not naked.” Cristin remarked and went off into the darkness for a moment and returned with her pack, but not her weapons. “ I don’t mind you having the pack, but weapons, well I don’t know if you still want to kill me or not, so those I will keep out of your sight and more importantly, out of your hand.” Cristin said calmly, “ And you do need to rest, no exceptions. Your body heals faster that way. You know that.” Cristin finished.

[Kayla]

She glared at him sulkily across the fire. "Listen, if I still wanted to kill you, you would be fighting for your life right now. What I was doing....well....it's just....let's just say I wasn't exactly in my right mind and leave it at that, okay? Just let it serve as a furture reference not to tick me off. Ever. And you're sort of getting close to it right now. That dirk is special to me. I always have it with me. Would you like it if someone shot you, drugged you, and then you woke up in pain and they had taken that great whacking sword of yours? I don't think so. It's more of a security matter than anything. You have my word that I will not try to kill you using my dirk." Turning her attention to Sentinel, she looked at the wound and the bandage placed on it. "Well," she said grudgingly, "at least you are not completely incompetant when it comes to wounds." She looked at her own leg wound. She gently pulled off the moss, wincing at the sight. Blood still seeped darkly from the jagged hole in her skin, glistening as it slowly dripped down her leg. Her arm and shoulder had similar fates, though the wound where the drugged arrow had entered was rather ugly looking, considering the fact that she had ripped the arrow out halfhazardly. She'd have to keep an eye on that wound. Pulling out a small roll of bandages from the pack, she began to clumsily try to form a sling of sorts for her arm.

[Christian]

Cristin stood up and walked back into the forest, returning after a moment with her dirk. He sighed and handed it to her, “ Oh, and yes, I have been shot, drugged, and my sword has been taken from me. Worse things have happened to me than you can dream of and that some would even want to dream of. Do not believe this is the worst that could have come of today.” Cristin said calmly and sat back down. He ran his hand along the hilt of his sword. He looked back up and saw Kayla trying to put his arm in a sling. That was funny. Sure wasn’t as easy as it looked. He knew that. He sighed and stood up and walked over to her. “ You know, you could just ask me to help you.” Cristin said, kneeling down beside, “ Surely your pride couldn’t be hurt that much.” Cristin remarked, gently taking her arm with one his hands and then outstretching his arm and looked at her, his eyes asking permission to help her.