[Vfw-times] MK Winter assault 13b

[COkane8116 at aol.com]

Daemion is right in the middle of a scene of disorganized chaos. 

Several of the kids are crying in absolute terror right now; many of them are 
obviously very badly shaken from the ordeal they just had to go through. 
Daemion is doing better than most, though; he listened to Uncle Jono and he 
considered what all could happen, and he went out and did it. And Uncle Jono 
did help beat the bad guys, but that Perry guy and Uncle Jono's friend Jo 
also helped lots. 

What has Daemion spooked is that even the grown ups are looking scared now. 
Jeremy's dad looks especially bad... but then again, Jeremy got shot, so you 
can kinda expect that. 

"He's wounded!" Kevin is screaming. "You've got to help him!" 

Jo is already pushing her way through the children over to Jono, who still 
has Jeremy in his arms. "Set him down, I need to get that arrow out... 
Jeremy, are you feeling okay?" He doesn't respond, instead looking pretty 
listless. This is a bad sign; patients that don't feel good usually don't end 
up all that good. "I need some of Jeremy's friends to help me out here," she 
says, looking up at the kids. 

Friends, she said. She needs help! And he knows he has to. He's the one who's 
going to be a healer too, someday... so before anyone else can volunteer 
Daemion jumps forward. "Need somethin'?" he asks. This is his big chance. 

Joanne has her herbal bag out already and is getting out the materials for 
one of her bandages. "Daemion. Kevin, you too... I need you both to talk to 
Jeremy, keep him talking back to you, so he doesn't think about hurting, 
otherwise he's going to hurt more." Kevin nods and puts his hand on Jeremy's 
shoulder, looking very worried. 

Daemion settles down next to his fellow snowfield veteran, looking concerned. 
"Hey, Jeremy, you doing okay?" he asks, getting a listless shake of the head. 
"Harder to dodge than the snowballs?" he asks. 

Jeremy manages a smile. "...yeah..." 

Joanne is muttering to herself, examining the wound. "Nothing serious hit, 
arrow isn't poisoned just a compress, maybe. Okay, I'm going to have to pull 
the arrow out," she calls out. "It's going to hurt him a bit more, so he has 
to be ready." 

"She's got to get the arrow out, and it'll hurt more, but only briefly," 
Kevin tells his son, hand still on shoulder. 

And Daemion watches, realizing concretely for the first time that this is 
serious stuff. 

Of course, this was pretty much set from the beginning. That's actual blood 
from Jeremy's back, and he's got an actual ARROW stuck in his BACK! This is 
definitely the Real Thing. This is what real Healers do. There's Joanne, back 
there preparing to help treat the wound. There's Kevin, sitting next to 
Daemion, hand on shoulder like Dads always do and Jeremy's sitting there, 
looking listless still. 

And Joanne said that that was bad! That's something to do. He has to get 
Jeremy talking, thinking about something. What is it that Jeremy always does? 

Dares. Jeremy loves to make dares with people. 

So Daemion settles back down next to Jeremy, looking at him very seriously, 
straight in the eye, like you Always do for this sort of thing, and says just 
barely audibly, "Dare you to stay quiet." 

Jeremy grins, then clenches his eyes shut. "You're on." 

To his credit, Jeremy doesn't scream when the arrow is pulled. He visibly 
winces, and tears roll down from his face, but he doesn't scream. "...told ya 
so..." he tells Daemion. Daemion knows that this is the part where he's just 
lost the dare, so he does his best to look grumpy. Of course, inwardly he's 
grinning in triumph. _I got him to keep from screaming!_ 

"All right, now I need to put the compress on, and then bandage the wound," 
Joanne says. "It's going to hurt a whole heck of a lot but then it'll stop." 

"She's got to make the pain stop coming, so she's going to make it All come 
at once, but then it's going to run out, so you're going to be fine," Kevin 
tells him. 

"Double-dog dare ya this time," adds Daemion. _If it worked once. 

This time Jeremy does let out a quiet "ow!" when the compress contacts his 
wound, but he keeps it quiet. "Beat you again," Jeremy says, obviously worn 
out from the ordeal, but grinning triumphantly up at Daemion. 

Daemion, however, is grinning back. "Yeah, turkey, guess you did." _And I got 
to be a real healer. He only barely takes notice of Kevin chuckling and 
saying something about "now we'll Both have war wounds to remember" - his 
focus is completely on his friend, who he just helped. 

Yeah. I'm gonna be a healer. 

*** 
  
 Dan pushed his way through the mass of people hurrying though the winter 
darkened hallways of the Keep. Incredulous as it had seemed to the insect 
morph, the alarms had sounded. The idea that someone was stupid enough to 
attack Metamor in mid-winter, let alone in the middle of the blizzard that 
was raging outside the stone walls was ludicrous. Yet the bells and horns 
were sounding. Someone, or something, was trying to breach 
the outer walls. 
  
 The alarm had interrupted a planning meeting between the botanist and one 
of the Duke's bureaucrats, discussing some plans for a new garden to be 
constructed on the grounds of the Upper Keep. Plans that Dan felt could 
safely be shelved until after the holiday season. Yet, as if there was 
nothing special about the time of year, the bureaucrat had insisted that the 
meeting had to be held on that day. He felt almost sorry for the clerk, 
seemingly having nothing better to do then spend the holiday season working. 
Though he had not planned anything special for the Yule. Just a quiet dinner 
with a few friends. Still, Dan was annoyed that the man had little enough of 
a life that he scheduled work in what was a time for celebration. Dan had 
almost been glad when the bells started to sound. It gave him an excuse to 
escape from the annoying child whose only purpose seemed to be telling Dan 
how the gardens must look. 
  
 Now he was pushing through the corridors, making his way through the 
multitudes of others. Soldiers rushing to their posts, some with armor half 
on, covering gaily colored holiday dress. Messengers scrambling to deliver 
news and reports.  Civilians moving to the secure shelters, safe havens in 
case the walls fell. A general sense of panic and fear filled the air as 
people rushed around, not quite sure what was happening outside.  Through 
this chaos Dan moved, making his way towards the Lower Keep and the armoury. 
  
 The armory, where he'd meet up with his reserve unit, be issued weapons 
and, if needed, join the regular guard in the defense of his home. If he 
could even make it across the Keep, through the throngs of people choking the 
halls. With a grimace, Dan shoved past a bottleneck as people crowded around 
the door leading to one of the cellars designated as a shelter. 
  
 As he approached the junction connecting the Upper Keep to the lower, a 
hand grabbed Dan's shoulder as he struggled through the crowd. Turning, he 
found himself facing an angry looking cat in the uniform of a keep guard. 
  
 "Get to the shelter. No time to get personal belongings." shouted the 
solider over the crowd, in a voice that sounded as if he had been yelling the 
same phrase a lot recently. 
  
 "I'm trying to get to the armory. To join up with my unit." explained Dan, 
shouting to be heard over the throng of the crowd around them. 
  
 "Sheesh. Haven't you heard? They say the outer walls aren't going to hold 
much longer. We've got a full scale assault going on here. You don't have 
time to make it to your unit." said the guard, before turning to a large man 
wearing the uniform of an 
officer of the Metamor guard. "Captain Christoff, Sir. We've got a soldier 
separated from his squad here. What should we do?" 
  
 The officer walked over to join Dan and the guard. Looking the insectoid 
over, Christoff asked "What is your name and what unit are you with?" 
  
 "Dan D'Alimonte, with the 33rd irregular infantry, Sir." 
  
 "A reservist?" 
  
 "Yes, Sir." 
  
 Christoff seemed to ponder for a moment before continuing.  "Well, we're 
going to need every warrior we can get." he decided, then turned to the 
guard. "Jace, see that he gets a weapon. We're almost done here. Once 
everyone is in the shelter, we'll head over to the entrance to the Upper Keep 
and join the defenders there." 
  
 "Sir, are we not going to help the men on the walls?" asked Jace. 
  
 "The walls aren't going to hold much longer. Apparently, there is a whole 
Lutin army hitting them hard. I've gotten orders not to leave the Keep. We'll 
fall back and leave it to the stones of Metamor herself to protect us." 
  
 "And the grounds?" added Dan. 
  
 "Not in this weather. Too cold, and in the dark, with the snow flying it 
would be almost impossible to tell friend from foe until you stuck a sword 
into them. We're going to force the invaders to stay out in the storm. By the 
time they could breach a gate, they should be half dead." 
  
 Dan, hastily equipped with a spare spear borrowed and a few scraps of armor 
that he could make use of, began to help get the last of the stragglers into 
one of the many cellars designated as emergency shelters. As he directed 
people down the narrow stairway and through the heavy wood and iron doors, a 
though of something forgotten nagged at the back of his mind. Busy, Dan 
pushed the though from his mind as he occupied himself with his duty. 
  
 They had cleared that halls, and Christoff was splitting his company into 
two squads, one to stay and guard the shelter and one to join the defenders 
at the doors to the Lower Keep. In a flash of realization, Dan's heart 
dropped. The nagging though flooded back into his head and made itself clear. 
  
 "Captain! Captain!" he called out suddenly. "There is still someone trapped 
outside. One of my friends." 
  
 "What do you mean?" asked Christoff, looking up from consulting with one of 
his lieutenants. "Anyone with any common sense wouldn't be outside in this 
weather, and even if they were, they should know enough to get inside when 
the alarms go off." 
  
 "Not if they don't have that choice." said Dan, hastily explaining to the 
solider about Laracin. The treemorph, asleep for the winter and trapped in 
the soil by his roots, would be an easy target for the invaders. 
  
 "Maybe they will overlook him, thinking he is only a regular tree or 
something?" suggested Jace. 
  
 "No. Dan is right." said Christoff. "If they have to lay siege to the gates 
for any length of time, then they are going to need firewood for warmth. 
Anything burnable will be burned." 
  
 Dan only nodded in agreement. 
  
 "So, what are we going to do?" asked Jace. 
  
 Christoff turned to face his men, raising his voice to be heard. 
  
 "There is still one Keeper stuck out in the cold, folks." He called out. 
"I'll be damned if I am going to leave him to die at the hands of some dirty 
lutin. Any more volunteers?" 
  
 The captain's face broke into a smile as all around him hands, paws and 
weapons were raised. Every solider not entrusted with the safety of the 
shelter had volunteered. Forming them up, Christoff began to lead the small 
band towards the nearest door outside, proud of the courage shown by the 
fifteen men behind him. 

** 

  End part 13b 



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