[Mkguild] First Impressions (11/?)

[Nathan Pfaunmiller]

Finally, we return to the story at hand.

Hopefully, I'll be able to bring myself to be a bit more regular with my
updates.  Don't quote me on that, but I hope I can get somewhere soon.

____________________

            Gerard was slow to come around when he finally did regain
consciousness.  He lay there for several minutes after he first opened his
eyes, wondering where he was and trying to remember why it mattered.  Once
his brain finally started working again, it quickly went from wondering
where he was to making rapidfire assumptions about his surroundings.  He
could see some sort of material in front of his eyes, and quickly came to
the conclusion that the lutins had captured him and stuffed him inside a bag
while they decided what to do.  The only sane response to that conclusion
was to try to escape, and so he tore at the material in front of him,
expecting it to be a futile attempt.



            It took him a few moments to realize that he was staring up at
the tops of the trees as soon as he tried that, and he shifted to see that
the strip of material had apparently been part of a camouflaged setup on the
forest floor, set up to hide him from prying eyes.  Somewhat more secure now
that he understood that he had not been captured, he looked about a bit
until something rustled in the bushes behind him.  His hand went to his
sword, but it was not there.  His sheath was empty.



            Fortunately, Lois came up beside him a moment later.  "How are
you feeling?" he asked, voice quiet enough to not travel, but loud enough to
communicate.



            "Stiff, tired..."



            "How's the leg?"



            Gerard instantly wished he hadn't asked that.  Somehow, his mind
had managed to ignore that part of him until now, but having his attention
drawn back to it caused a lance of pain that made him grimace, almost to the
point of crying out.  He pulled back to improvised blanket that was still
thrown over his lower body, and looked for a few moments at the splint Lois
had thrown together.



            "Well, it was feeling much better before you mentioned it.  I
believe I forgot about it until then..."



            Lois nodded, musing.  "I don't think moving on that leg will do
you any favors," he commented.  "How long do you think it will take them to
get a search party out here after us up here?"



            Gerard grunted, wincing a bit as he tried to sit up straighter.
"Usually, we might see someone within a week, assuming Alex and Lucy make it
back as quickly as they can.  I wouldn't expect any such luck in this case,
though.  Not only were we attacked about this time next winter, but the Duke
is having his wedding the evening before the Yule celebration.  Anyone who
can be spared will be keeping a tight watch over Metamor's walls to keep our
lord and his guests as safe as possible.  Metamor doesn't take losing men
lightly, but in this case their reaction is more likely to involve a toast
in our honor than a patrol checking our last known position."



            Lois nodded.  "Well, that doesn't entirely nix the possibility
of finding a cave and waiting it out, but it does make it look far less
attractive."  He seemed to be nibbling his lip for a moment, stopping when
one of his much sharper teeth poked him a bit too hard.  "All right.  At
present our best bet is to move south on our own.  Staying here is a death
sentence in our current condition."  He gave a wave to his own, slightly
blood-stained armor, and then to Gerard's leg.



            Gerard nodded.  "Listen, I promised my wife I'd be back to
celebrate Yule.  While I'm still alive I mean to keep that promise."



            Lois sighed a bit.  "Any way we slice this, it's going to be no
walk in the park.  Now that you're awake we can go see what food supplies we
can rescue from our base of operations, and I should be able to carry
everything we need provided we strip the supplies down to bare
essentials.  That
leaves you and that leg..."



            "I can shift down into animal form.  I don't think that would
fix the leg problem, but it would give me two more legs to share the load,
and I could limp my way along at a better pace than I could manage with what
I have now."



            "Possibly, but we have enough problems without having to deal
with hunters seeing you and thinking you'd make a good meal.  I'm also not
sure how the break would react to that.  Considering the amount of physical
shifting that would require, we're probably looking at shifting bone
fragments, increased damage within the leg.  Most likely not the best idea
if we want the healers to get a shot at saving it for you."



            Gerard grunted and shook his head.  "Staying like this does us
little good either.  I'd probably need you to help me along, or we'd have to
find a branch to use as a crutch, and either way leaves me hobbling along,
with one keeping you occupied and the other involving you finding a good
stick we can use; probably several, I'm heavy enough to break even strong
sticks."



            Lois grunted, nodding.  "Yes, I see your point.  That doesn't
make it any easier to decide, it just makes our position a little more
clear."  He almost bit through his lip again as he considered, pacing a bit
with his eyes checking the forest for movement.



            "I'm willing to do whatever I have to, even if it makes me more
of a target.  We have to move, and I'll do what I have to if it lets us get
moving."



            Lois sighed.  "All right, I really can't see too many other
options right now.  I still think we need to do a bit better of a job making
sure that no one shoots you.  The lutins I expect I should be able to deal
with, but when we get to the south we'll have the Keep's own archers to
worry about.  Do you all have some sort of signal system that would tell
them that you're one of them?"



            "Mainly it's just a matter of warning each other.  We also tend
to avoid going feral unless absolutely necessary for the purposes of the
patrol when we're out here.  That said, the Keep's hunters will most often
check before shooting a creature whose origin they do not know.  Hopefully
that will prove a saving grace in this case."



            "I'm still not happy with our chances," Lois said with a
sigh.  "Not
to mention the fact that your leg is unlikely to appreciate any physical
shift on your part.  Still, if we're going to do it, I want you to be the
one that gives the word.  Tell me straight up that this is the plan you
recommend, and we'll do it."



            Gerard looked at his leg and grimaced.  Even with Lois' efforts
to correct the break, there were still a few areas where the skin fell on
his leg in a decidedly unnatural position.  He considered his chances one
more time.  Undoubtedly, he would be able to move more efficiently on three
of four legs, rather than on one of two.  He also knew that staying in the
north for very long would give them far too much chance of being found by
other patrols investigating the battle of a few hours ago.  The point Lois
made about the possibility of being shot resounded with him, but he saw
little chance of fixing that.  He remembered briefly the strange form he had
seen on a few other keep residents that had four legs, but kept a humanoid
torso, but quickly decided against it.  He would be unfamiliar with that
body, and the added size would make stealth far too hard.  Using his full
animal form was his only remaining option, so he finally looked at Lois and
nodded.



            "Lois, I am going to use my quadruped form," he announced.  "I
need you to help me in this; my change makes me slightly larger, so I'm
going to need to remove my splint and my armor.  We can save ourselves the
trouble of removing the clothing underneath; I don't give any thought for
what might happen to it, and it would probably be easier to rip through than
to remove with my leg injured like it is.   What we do need to consider is
that I will feel a lot of pain during the process, so we're going to want to
have something for me to chew on so I don't yell or inflict any stupid
injury on myself."



            Lois nodded.  "All right, let's get moving.  I want to put some
distance between us and this camp before night falls, and we're already
losing the sun."



            The two men worked together to remove the splint and the armor.
Lois gave Gerard a square of leather, which he rolled and stuck between his
teeth before attempting the change.  He took several deep breaths before
nodding to Lois, waiting for confirmation that the ermine was ready to help
if his aid should be required.



            The shift didn't go any better than the two of them had
expected.



            "Try to change your leg with everything else," Lois counseled
quietly.



            Gerard tried, but even then the pain caused him to bite at the
leather until he was sure that his teeth, much more suited to crushing, were
about to pierce the leather.  He managed to partially shift, but trying to
change his leg produced a mind-numbing pain that made him grit his teeth and
stop the change until he could finally bring himself to focus on the change
again.



            Lois did his part, trying to anticipate any problems before they
happened and do what he could to stop them from causing Gerard any further
issues.  The leg shifted in ways that made even Lois feel slightly queasy,
but he tried to set the shifting break as they went, giving Gerard a
slightly less dangerous shift.



            The stag nearly collapsed after an agonizing ten minutes of
fighting, but he was just short of finishing the change.  He was stuck
somewhere in between forms, but he had to take a moment to catch his breath.
He tried to tell Lois that he was almost there, but he only managed an
animal grunt, and even that sounded hoarse around his leather gag.  Tears
created dark lines from his eyes and down along his muzzle.  His chest
heaved, but he had almost done it.  He wouldn't be beaten now.



            Lois seemed to get the message and waited for a few moments
before encouraging Gerard to try again.  Gerard simply nodded when the
assassin quietly whispered his encouragement and, bracing himself, with
fully-formed cloven forehooves braced against a tree, he willed his body to
finish the change.



            He shook as the pain came again, almost convulsing at the pain
coming from his leg.  He pushed and pushed, but nothing seemed to happen,
until he finally simply collapsed on his side, certain that he had failed.



            "You did it!" Lois said, his own voice sounding breathless.  "I
don't know how, but you did it."  He moved around and carefully checked the
stag's leg.  "Well, it seems that the change did very little more damage
than the lutins did before they left you be.  It looks like we've managed a
bit of luck there.  All right; take what time you need to recover.  I
imagine you're absolutely exhausted by now."



            Gerard again tried to speak, but realizing his mistake, he
simply lay there, taking the ermine's advice.  He was going to have to live
with being an animal for a while; hopefully it would accomplish the purpose
they had intended.  For now he needed a short breather, and then they would
be on their way.



            Lois watched as the stag relaxed some moments later.  He quietly
checked him to make sure he was alive, but he seemed to be stable.  He had
evidently either passed out from stress, or simply taken Lois' invitation to
take some rest a bit too literally.  Not wishing to wake him, Lois retrieved
the cloth from nearby and covered the stag as much as he could before
camouflaging the rest.  He would wait for the stag to come back around on
his own.  There was no use trying to leave with a mentally and physically
exhausted partner.  With this resolution, Lois settled back in his tree,
hoping that they would still be able to leave before nightfall.



*          *          *



            Alex collapsed into a guard's arms as he and Lucy finally
arrived at outpost after two days of haphazard running from the North.  It
was only because of how far south the lutin patrol had ventured that allowed
them to arrive in that time; they had several times stopped out of complete
exhaustion; even running on as straight a line as they could find, their
stops had kept them from making it any faster than they did.



            Lucy had somehow managed to keep herself together throughout the
run, but she barely took two steps inside the gate before her legs folded
underneath her.  Several of the guards crouched around her, trying to bring
her around while others ran for a healer.



            Alex coughed a few times before he was able to catch his breath.
He gritted his teeth as he felt he tried to catch his breath, and finally
managed to choke out something.  It was just barely intelligible, and the
guards had to tell him to take a moment to catch his breath before he was
able to inform them of what had happened.



            The request for aid was quickly passed along, and it had come
back by the time that the guards had gotten Alex settled in a room for some
rest.  The contents of that response brought strength back into the
exhausted scout's body, enough so that he threw one of the healers into a
nearby wall when they tried to stop him.



            Crossed spears greeted him when he arrived at the gate that led
to the courtyard around the mansion of the Outpost's commander, but he was
going to have none of it.



            "Step aside!  I have a peace to speak and no one is keeping me
from that lion until I've bloody well spoken it!"  The guards were saved the
trouble of responding to his demands when Nestorius himself stopped just
behind the gates and called them off.



            "Let him in, I thought he might want to see me."



            The guards stepped back, and Alex resumed his stolid march
towards the black lion.  His ears were back and his muzzle was pulled back
in a fierce snarl, suggesting to the lion that he would not hesitate to rip
his throat out should he say something Alex didn't want to hear.



            "Nestorius, you son of --"



            "There's no need for that!  We're working for the same thing
here, we'd best do it without insulting one another."



            "If we are on the same side, than why don't you act like it?  I
have two men out there, a high-profile lutin patrol with a mage that might
be a threat to us if we don't do something now, and you deny me my request
for a rescue party?"



            "The Duke's wedding is a week away!  I have every man available
for a patrol out there already, and they're making sure that no one harms
our Duke or his bride!  If the lutin patrol moves south, they will be
stopped; I cannot afford to move anyone right now."



            "You can afford to send a messenger out and have a patrol move
up into the north and look for them!  Please, two of my men are out there,
and they may still be alive.  If they are, they are probably being tortured.
I would have no one subjected to that fate.  If you have a few men, a couple
of mages, I will lead the rescue party myself.  Please, do something!"



            "We're doing everything that we can do at the moment.  I already
told you; we do not have anyone to spare; ANYONE.  We have enough men to
guard the walls, but we cannot afford to lose any of them.  We have to wait
for another week before we can do anything, I'm sorry."



            "Isn't there something we can do?  You're a wizard, you could
help!"



            "I am in charge of this outpost, I cannot just leave.  If I
could I would do whatever I could, but we have to be careful about
this.  Moving
any of our patrols could let something through, and I will not risk the
safety of our lord!  For now, rest.  Take a few days and head back to the
Keep.  I'll send someone out as soon as they can be spared."



            Alex's chest still heaved, as he fought to retain the resolve to
rage against the lion.  He could think of no other argument he could use,
however, and finally let himself sag, perhaps a bit more than he originally
wanted to, as he stumbled back a few paces before finally being able to
steady himself.



            "All right," he said, once again feeling his strength fully
drained.  "You swear to me, though, you wear that you will send out a patrol
the moment you can spare them.  You send a messenger before the patrol leave
to tell one to move north as soon as you can.  Can you do that?"



            "I'll do what I can.  The men may need rest after these patrols,
but I'll do what I can."


            Alex, finally realizing there was nothing more he could do,
turned and stumbled out of the door.  He somehow found his way back to the
room, falling into the provided bunk in a daze.  In the back of his mind
lingered a thought he refused to give credence, but one that seemed more and
more certain now that he knew he would have to wait.  Gerard and Vincent
were lost.


!DSPAM:4e6ebe9e125781804284693!
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