[Mkguild] First Impressions (10/?)

[Azariah Wolf]

Here we go again, long break followed by a spurt of writing.  One of 
these days I'm going to lock myself in the room, put the Lord of the 
Rings soundtrack on repeat, and write until the following midnight.  
Might get somewhere.

-LurkingWolf

_________________________________

Alex hurdled a fallen tree as he continued his retreat, tearing limbs 
from in front of him as he put as much distance as he could between 
himself and the lutin camp.Lucy tried her best to keep up, but her magic 
reserves were spent, and her natural strength was rapidly fading.As a 
child, she did not have much left to give, and she was falling behind.

Fortunately, Alex stopped before she had to ask him to.He turned and 
watched as she covered the distance between them as quickly as possible, 
then stood with an arrow at ready, watching for any signs of pursuit 
while his companion recovered.He had many things that he wanted to ask 
her, but he didn't want to rush her into it in her current state.

Lucy took several deep breaths before saying anything herself."Gerard... 
Lois," she gasped, trying to form a coherent sentence.

Alex nodded."Gerard stayed behind to hold off the shaman.I haven't seen 
Lois since he threw the dagger at the beginning of the battle."

"He... He ran interference... Gave the other lutins a target while... I 
fought the shaman."

"Well, at least that seems to preclude any treachery on his part.That 
either means that the lutins took him, or he was delayed coming back 
around.Lucy, there's a chance they might still be alive," he said, 
looking at her.She was brushing her chaotic hair from in front of her 
eyes, coughing slightly as she tried to breath faster than her lungs 
could handle."We might have a chance to go back and try to get them out 
of there."

Lucy continued to gasp for air for a few moments before responding."I'm 
spent," she finally gasped, her voice breaking as she spoke the words."I 
have no energy left to run, and my duel drained my magic.If we return, I 
will be of no use to your plans."

"We can't just leave them to die!" Alex said.He had meant it as some 
sort of inspiration, but it came out sounding hollow, wreathed with the 
pain and guilt he felt at the prospect of two deaths in his patrol.

"Returning may mean more death," Lucy whispered."I don't want to lose 
either of them, but I can do nothing to help them in my state.I will go 
with you and aid you in whatever plans you may imagine, but I cannot 
give what I do not have, and I have precious little."

Alex looked back through the woods the way he had come, straining his 
eyes in a vain hope that he would see the missing members of his patrol 
coming to through the growth together.No such vision appeared, however, 
and he was left to make the sort of decision that no commander ever 
wished to make.He could either return, hoping against hope that some 
plan could be devised to conquer to lutin encampment and reclaim his 
remaining team, or he could move south, hoping that a rescue team could 
be sent in time to rescue what little might remain of the two after 
weeks of torture.

Lucy's words, though he tried his best to refuse them, held true.She was 
completely exhausted, and would be of little use beyond a second pair of 
eyes in any rescue attempt.His own state was hardly preferable; while he 
had not received any personal injuries in the fight, he had used much of 
his strength in the escape effort.His own contribution to a rescue 
mission would be negligible, and there was still the matter of a shaman 
that had to be dealt with.

"I...We will continue moving south as quickly as we can."Alex felt as 
though he had just signed the execution order on the two men they had 
left behind.There was no time to lament the situation now, though.If 
they had any chance of saving their friends, they would have to move 
now."Hurry, we need to find someone quickly if we have any chance of 
sending a rescue party."

The two companions continued their southward trek, all thought of 
stealth abandoned as they focused their limited energy on moving as 
quickly as possible.They hoped that they would somehow find someone 
nearby to help them, but moved with a desperation born from being 
convinced that help would not be found north of the Dike.Any chance of 
success rested on haste, and they were not going to leave that to chance.

***

Lois held his breath for a moment, eyes fixed on the shaman as he lay on 
the ground.After watching his dagger drop the target, only to have him 
stand back up a moment later.He hoped that he would stay down, but he 
wasn't going to bet on it.While he made sure that no miraculous 
resurrection was forthcoming, the lutins fled in terror through the 
forest around him, their stumbling flight and terrified cries getting 
progressively quieter as they left.As the last few voices fell to 
silence, Lois release the breath he had been holding and carefully 
unloaded a dart from his blowgun and replaced it on a ring in a special 
pouch.A dagger had not done the job, but poison seemed to keep the 
shaman down.

He began to return his blowgun to its own position, but paused to note 
some new damage that it had sustained.Two punctures had been drilled 
through the hollow tube right where he had blown into it, and a few 
small channels had been dug around it breadth, marking his tight grip on 
the weapon.He noted the punctures from his teeth with some chagrin; 
using a blowgun with a muzzle was more of a challenge than he had expected.

He retired the weapon to its pouch and jumped from the tree, cushioning 
his fall carefully to make as little sound as possible.He approached the 
fallen form of the shaman first, sliding into a kneeling position by the 
lutin's head.He drew a dagger and made sure the deed was done, several 
times in fact, before he sat back, taking a breath before cleaning and 
replacing his dagger.

Lois moved over to Gerard then, quickly checking to make sure that the 
stag was still breathing.He seemed stable enough, so Lois moved down the 
man's body, checking for any obvious injuries.He had not arrived until 
the damage was already done, so he was not certain exactly what had 
caused the man's collapse. He found nothing on the upper body, but found 
his answer before he even moved to check the lower body.One of the 
stag's legs was bent in a decidedly unnatural direction, and streaks of 
blood told the ermine that the break was reasonably severe.He carefully 
checked around the injury for any signs of bones protruding, but found 
none that were still breaking through.He found several cuts; likely, the 
lutins had handled him roughly enough to cause the injuries without 
permanently puncturing the skin.That didn't make the cuts any less 
concerning, but it was somewhat easier to deal with when there was no 
bone that needed to be carefully maneuvered back into the leg.

A careful check down the leg revealed that the fracture itself would be 
complicated enough.It wasn't a simple snap; from a clear point of 
impact, the bone had been nearly pulverized, and the surrounding area 
also sported multiple fractures.Lois winced.He knew enough field 
medicine to save a life, but he lacked the medical skills to properly 
care for such a break, and also had no magical skills to help him 
explore the fine details of the problem.He would try to stabilize the 
injury, and hope that someone with medical expertise would find them in 
time to repair what Lois could not.

It took Lois several minutes, but he managed to get a working splint in 
place, using bandages in his supplies and a suitably straight piece of 
firewood to keep the leg steady.With this done, he took a few breaths 
before considering his next course of action.

He wasn't sure where the others had gone.The last he had seen of Lucy, 
she had been engaged in heated combat with the lutin wizard.Worst case 
scenario, her body was somewhere nearby.Best case scenario, she had 
beaten the wizard back and been unable to totally deal with the other 
lutins, and had taken a tactical retreat to regroup.In between those was 
the possibility that she had been defeated, but had fallen somewhere on 
the battlefield, alive but injured.

The assassin ran a quick scan of the battlefield and the surrounding 
trees, but didn't find the child mage anywhere.That left Alex, and that 
last he had seen of the lynx, he had been with Gerard...

/Gerard's face is drawn taut, tense with pain, anger, defiance.He spits 
a defiant challenge to the lutin; pain in every word, but only physical 
pain.Panics only when the lutin shows the fetish stone.../

Lois snapped back to reality, remembering the key facts about the short 
encounter he had seen between the shaman and Gerard.The stag had been in 
pain, but he had shown no sign of pain beyond that in his leg.The ermine 
sighed.If he read the signs correctly, Alex was alive the last time the 
stag had seen the lynx, and Gerard seemed confident of his chance of 
survival.

Whatever the fate of the other two, Lois still had to make sure that 
neither he nor Gerard would come to any harm.He glanced at the stag and 
grimaced.If he had been awake and able to help with his good leg, the 
assassin realized he would still have trouble getting anywhere.There was 
nothing to be done for it, though.They couldn't stay in the clearing; 
any lutins who had been separated from the group when they fled could 
return at any moment, and a gathering of vultures was sure to attract 
any nearby encampments.

Nothing remained but the obvious, as hard as it was.Lois stood behind 
the unconscious stag and lifted him as well as he could, bracing himself 
so that he could check on his splint.It seemed to be holding, and didn't 
seem to be obstructed in any way.With a deep breath he began to pull, 
walking backwards several steps before taking a small breather.No 
complications had come out of the short pull, so Lois started quickly 
with another section of the clearing, making slow progress towards the 
edge of the clearing.

Several more sections progressed like this, with Lois taking a moment to 
breath and check the splint before attempting each successive pull.It 
took him the better part of ten minutes, but he finally had his 
unconscious friend deep enough into the forest to feel comfortable.He 
quickly returned to the lutin camp and cut out a large section of cloth 
from the tent, measuring as well as he could from memory and using his 
dagger to slice cleanly through the material.He returned to his comatose 
friend and used the tent material to cover him, as well as giving him a 
more plane surface to work on as he began to use quickly harvested 
branches from nearby trees to help the stag blend into the surrounding 
vegetation.Personal cover was secondary; once he had everything set up, 
he would watch from the trees and make sure no one stumbled over Gerard 
as they went on their way.

Once that was done, Lois settled into the tree, watching and waiting, 
while at the same time hoping that he would be able to stay awake 
himself.The fight had been taxing, and the injuries he had sustained, 
while under control, had still contributed to his exhaustion due to 
blood loss.He would give it his best shot, though.There was no way that 
he was letting anyone get to Gerard on his watch.


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