2017-05-29: A Fun and Glorious Adventure
- Cutscene: A Fun and Glorious Adventure
- Cast: Talise Gianfair
- Where: Adlehyde, after the attack
- Date: 29 May 2017
- Summary: Talise copes with the destruction of Adlehyde.
The tender touch of fingers to her shoulder sparked her into motion like a flint striking steel. She flew into consciousness with a snarl and reached up. Her hand hurtled towards her assailant's throat.
Stopped before closing around the windpipe of a wide-eyed young girl in a nun's habit. The young healer held her hands up. One of them clutched a roll of bandages hard enough to whiten her knuckles.
Talise bit down to her bottom lip. Slowly, her hand fell back to her side. "Sorry," she murmured, and the mere act of speaking shocked her in how thin and drawn her own voice sounded to her ears.
The low groan of voices rippled around her before she saw anything else. A makeshift tent, broad and packed full of wounded people, mostly villagers, sprawled out on sheets and rough pillows, many bleeding or lost in a pained sleep.
"Y-you lost a lot of blood," the young nun said with a nervous smile, settling back on her knees and clasping her hands in her lap. "And you'd drank dangerous amounts of heal berry liqueur, too. But you're going to live."
Talise nodded with quiet uncertainty. Bracing herself, she attempted to sit up from the waist. It took a lot more than it should've, sending pain shooting through aching muscles, and she groaned faintly as she finally made it, slouching forward.
A sharper pain in her side lingered, and she looked down. Her upper body had been wrapped in bandages, enough to keep her modest. It couldn't quite hide the angry red line racing up the left side of her body, peaking along the side of her neck and coming out just under her ear.
The nun bowed her head shallowly. "Unfortunately we weren't able to prevent the scarring," she murmured. "I'm sorry."
Talise closed her eyes, head lowering slightly. Things began to replay for her. The battle on the rooftop. A Metal Demon swordsmaster she couldn't defeat, and a hot blade cutting through her almost deep enough to kill.
A clatter on the cobblestones, and wide eyes staring after her.
"...I need to meet someone," she said.
~
In the distance, the city of Adlehyde smouldered in bitter silence. Not even the birds sang around her.
Every step hurt. She trudged on anyway, laborious but determined. She had to meet someone. "Dragon," she called as she dragged herself step by step up the shallow hill. "Dragon, you there? Dragon?"
Ahead, the dull thump of something reached her ears. Horseshoes on a dirt road. Her eyes widened a little as she quickened her pace, watching as the blue dun horse's head appeared above the crest of the hill, then bowed again. The big gelding trundled at a weary step over the hill.
Talise opened her mouth to say something - and it hung there as she caught sight of the tired horse's burden. A pair of shapes still draped insensate in Dragon's saddle, wrapped in bloodied cloaks and cloths, limbs hanging immobile. A scarlet-stained scrag of a grey beard spilling haphazardly over the top of a younger boy's head.
A long shard of debris, or steel, or something, driven through both of them, through the old man's back and out through the young boy.
run and don't look back.
i'll catch up with you. just get them out.
Gravity took hold. Talise slouched to the ground on her knees, and stared at her hands with empty eyes that could cry no more tears.
In the distance, Adlehyde smouldered.