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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 1236952" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #247] Medic![/PLAIN]"I'm done talking," Ixin said and her voice was unusually gruff. She tugged savagely at the frilly cuff of her shirt and then ripped it away from the sleeve. "We will continue this discussion after we have rejoined our comrades.""What are you doing?" Vade asked the mage, his childish face scrunched up in confusion."The smoke is what we need to worry about at the entrance," she told him as she pressed the torn cuff of her shirt against the dripping cave wall to wet it. She ripped the strip in half and pressed one into Feln's hand. "Everyone needs to rip off a square of cloth from their clothing - just enough to fit over your mouth. Then wet it as I have done and cover your mouth. It will aid with the smoke.""There is another way," the girl said and all eyes turned to her (including Feln's although it was only out of habit; he could still see nothing at all). "I heard Braath the Lesser instructing some of his followers to take the eggs out the back way.""Eggs?" Morier asked and the girl shrugged."I don't know what he meant by that," she admitted. "But I believe there is a way out of here that doesn't involve smoke and fire.""But it does involve exploring these caves further," Ixin stated the obvious and the girl nodded."Yes," she said. "I do not know where-""What is your name, girl?" Feln interrupted, the scowl on his face making his "elvish" disguise look bestial in the glow of Vade's sunrod."I am called Ilea," she said and Feln nodded once."Ilea, there is another outside this cave right now who has dedicated herself to finding you," he told the girl. "She has done this at the expense of everything, risking her life - and mine - because she believes you are the key to saving an entire kingdom. I may be blind but even I can see that there is no advantage in charging around these caves without every able sword.""You may fight yourself to death here girl, if you wish," he went on. "But I am going to get the woman who believes in you and honor her by allowing her to be part of this decision... I urge you come with us at least that far, before abandoning those who saved you."The girl said nothing in reply, but her young face seemed to burn with a beautiful intensity that made Ixin seem plain by comparison. She sighed and it filled the cavern like the sound of wind chimes. Without saying another word, she ripped a small strip of cloth off of the blanket that Vade had offered her.Windstryder scanned her surroundings quickly even as she fished out her last healing draught. She could see no sign of any more bug men, but she was too savvy a hunter to trust that there were none just because her eyes told her so. And anyway, she had seen at least one more of the things coming up out of their bolt hole, so she knew that the danger wasn't passed.Ignoring one of Thornstyker's first lessons, the elf administered to the Janissary before tending to her own wounds. She poured half of the potion down the half-elf's throat and saw some of the woman's wounds close in response to the healing magic. The Janissary's eyes fluttered, but she didn't regain consciousness. Scowling, the ranger poured the other half of the potion over her own wounded elbow. The elixir bubbled and hissed, and she felt her wound knitting itself closed. The pain lessened by half, but the injury didn't heal completely.She shoved the spent vial into her pack and muscled Ledare to a more defensible position amidst some trees. Once there, she unpacked her healer's kit, knelt over the Janissary and went to work. Windstryder's attention divided itself between suturing Ledare's wounds and surveying the surrounding area for trouble."Stay low and you should be alright!" Ixin called through the smoke. The nest that she and Vade had put to the torch was almost entirely burned away now and the sandy floor of the antechamber was strewn with smoldering remnants and charred insect carcasses. Ixin's natural resistance to fire kept the burning embers and hot ash from posing a threat to her, but the smoke was thick and foul-smelling. She had made her way across the cave and cleared a path between the entrance and the passage leading into the underground complex where the rest of the group huddled coughing on the smoke despite the improvised filters that they pressed over their mouths."I don't like this," Vade whined as he peered into the fire-lit chamber. He was already close to the ground and the smoke was bothering him somewhat less than his taller companions. Feln gave the halfling's shoulder a squeeze."I need you to be my eyes," he said through his wet cloth. "Take Ilea's arm. She'll take mine and we can go through as a group." Vade looked skeptical, but he nodded."Okay!" he said after he remembered that the half-orc couldn't see him nodding.Morier watched them dart off into the smoke, felt the heat of the fire pressed on his pale face, and the cool darkness of the caves pressing on his back. He glanced over his shoulder and seeing nothing pressed the cloth more firmly against his mouth and lurched into the inferno."Is she alright?!" Vade sobbed as he caught sight of Ledare's bandaged form. He darted forward and Windstryder interposed herself between him and the Janissary."She'll live, but not if you go pawing all of her stitches open," the ranger told him."What happened?" Morier asked, although the numerous corpses dotting the hillside answered that question for him. Windstryder quickly told them what had occurred outside the caves and Ixin explained the her what had happened inside. The ranger didn't give mage a chance to finish, however. As soon as Ixin made mention of the girl, the elf darted forward."Come here, let me examine you," she said, grabbing Ilea by the elbow with one hand while brushing the hair back from the girl's face with the other. "Come, little one, you must have been frightened. Are you alright? Have you been harmed?"Ilea looked intently at Windstryder and bared her shoulders to display the red lines caused by flogging. She said, "Braath the Lesser and his lieutenants were free with the lash. But he seemed more interested in collecting my tears and blood than in doing me permanent harm. At least so far...""Why do they want you to be their prisoner?" Vade asked the girl. "You are just a child."Windstryer kept right on talking, ignoring the halfling's question and forcing Ilea to do the same by drawing her in close so that they stared into one anothers' faces. "See that ugly ogre over there?" the ranger asked, angling her head toward Feln who still looked like an average elf thanks to his Hat of Disguise. "He and I will let nothing hurt you. Also, we travel with a Lord Janissary and her companions. You are in good company now."The girl looked around and shrugged."What do we do now?" Morier asked, his eager hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. In response, Windstryder looked pointedly at Feln and circled her fist around and waved backwards in the air. Feln, of course did not respond in any way."Um... Feln's blind," Ixin muttered into the elf's ear. "Oh," Windstryder said and Vade giggled a bit at her expense.</blockquote>

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