Let It Be What It Is

[MorganaLeFay]

Set in medieval times, in a land ravished by war.


Belosia used to be a peaceful land. She had fertile ground, wide rivers and was populated with many peoples. Elves, man, and dwarves lived in harmony with the guidance of the powerful gods and their angels. Yet of of the gods were unhappy with their position, and they, plus their followers and angels, turned evil, and began to rage war on the good and innocent things in the world. Many people died, even more were turned to the dark side. Now, it is unclear which side is winning... and which side will be destroyed, forever.


Farkrie is a young (by elf standards) elf woman, with considerable healing powers. She will help anyone, no matter who they are. Yet, when she meets a person in the woods, she realizes her simple way of life is about to change.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Farkrie is out in the woods, collecting some herbs for a medicine she has to make for a plagued village nearby. Out in this part of the country, it is about as peaceful as you can get in Belosia. She sighs with content as the sun warms her as she walks, and she listens to the wind rustling the leave on the trees

 

[Vespertide]

Gwen cursed herself for her current condition. It wasn't as bad as some of the things she got herself into, but still. She was in a real toughie this time.


Great job, Gwen, just great. Now you can slowly die of a wound to the previously wounded leg. How ironic.


She pushed her dress aside, grimacing at the blood on it. This was her only dress, too. But the wound was really bad. A laceration from her knee down to the middle of her calf was bleeding pretty badly, and her pain potion was wearing off. It let her run away from the rabble of bandits that gave her this, but much more than that it couldn't do.


And then she had the brilliant idea to run into a forest. Granted, it was better cover than the open road she had been on, but still. In here, when the pain got intense, she could cause a lightning strike. Already the sky above her was beginning to darken with purple, angry looking clouds. Passerbys were probably wondering how the bright sunny day was going so stormy so fast.


It's not my fault that storm magic is rare, Gwen reminded herself. And that was my last pain potion.


Gwen leaned her back against a tree, digging through her bag for bandages. She wasn't a healer, like her mother, but she knew enough. Hastily she tied the bandage, but the blood was quickly seeping through.


Oh Ena above, it hurts! Gwen gritted her teeth, her breaths hissing through them. She checked all around her, making sure she was alone, but she had seen some impressive illusionists. She could be surrounded and she wouldn't even know it.


Gwen hunted for the pain potion bottle, and found a little left in the bottom, the dredges of the potion. It was disgusting, but it was something. Quickly she chugged it down, the taste of bile and acid finding it's way down her throat. It took the edge off, but Gwen could feel herself getting hot, and her vision tunneled. Her leg stun, the wound bleeding right through her bandages.


Even she wasn't sure how she was going to get out of this one. She couldn't will up the power to heal herself; she dealt in a very chaotic, powerful and destructive magic. The kind of thing that wouldn't be of help to her now.


Sweat built up along her hairline, and her fists knotted and wadded up her dress. The pain was constant, and the pain potion was wearing off fast. She knew no one in this part of the land; trusted no one. She had just been attacked by bandits, for Ena's sake!


If only... If only...


She blinked, and with horror realized she was passing out. No, no! She had to stay awake. The wound wasn't that bad, right? Stay awake. Must stay awake.


She looked at it again. She was really, really bad at tying bandages... Stay! Awake! Awake I must stay. Yats Ewaka!


Gwen forced her eyes open, and it helped with the pain to focus on something else. Namely, her survival.


Must stay awake... Must stay awake...

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Farkrie heard someone crashing through the forest to the north, the same direction of the village. She could already tell that the footsteps were human, and they were heading in her direction. She crouched into a fighting stance, pulling her knife out of her belt, and waited. But then the footsteps... stopped. Farkrie felt a sharp wind sting her cheeks, and she looked up to the sky to see that the sun had disappeared behind massive storm clouds. Something is not right here. She knew magic when she saw it.


Farkrie headed towards the place where the footsteps had stopped, carefully making her way to the location unnoticed by anyone else that might have been in the forest. When she arrived, she saw a young girl, even younger than what the humans thought she was. The girl was propped up against a tree, and appeared to be fighting unconsciousness. The energy of the forest was different over here. This was no normal girl.


As she made her way closer to the girl, quietly and slowly, she noticed the hastily tied bandages around her leg. Blood had already seeped through them, and was dripping down her leg. Farkrie knelt beside the girl and began to tie up her leg with bandages she had in the pack she always carried.

 

[Vespertide]

Barely aware that she was being watched, Gwen struggled to stay awake. The storm was kicking up now, but the wind and slight drizzle of rain never bothered her. Her vision was hazy, and she seemed to go cross-eyed every few seconds. A woman, maybe in her early twenties, knelt besides Gwen and, without prompting from Gwen, began to work on her leg. Gwen wanted to push her away, this stranger, but she was in no position to do so.


Gwen leaned against the tree, a sudden spike of pain stinging her leg as the woman peeled away the old bandages. Lightning crashed above them, in time with the pain. At least it kept her awake. Her breathed hissed, and it took every ounce of willpower she had not to strike the woman down--literally--and to keep the storm from getting out of control. She focused on calming the skies, but the pain in her leg and the fatigue in her head weren't helping.


The winds whistled through the trees, but the rain stopped. It was always easier to control the rain and lightning than the wind, since the wind came from the air and the sky. Gwen stared at the woman, everything going in hyper detail. Her ears were pointed, shaped like...


"You're... You're an elf..." Gwen muttered before her brain shut down. The storm immediately stopped at that point, returning to the normal, sunny day it had been a few minutes ago, as if nothing had happened. A gentle breeze brushed Gwen's wild black hair against her cheek, but that point her vision was already dark.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

She finally lost consciousness. That's not good. I have no idea how much blood she lost. In addition to the fresh bandages, Farkrie made a tourniquet to help slow the blood flow the girl's leg. She slung her pack back on her back, and gently picked up the girl. She murmured soothingly as the girl stirred in her arms, and Farkrie began to walk back towards her house. The herbs could wait. She had a more pressing matter now.


What worried herst was the unbelievable powers the girl seemed to have, for one so young. Even being around as long as she has she has never seen someone able to control the weather so powerfully, much less when they're injured. It wasn't long before she reached where she lived, as her house was right on the edge of the forest. Somehow managing to open the door with her feet and elbows, Farkrie went inside and laid the girl on the bed she kept for patients in serious conditions. In the room was a potbellied stove in the corner, a wash basin, and a small counter against the wall. Against the rest of the walls were shelve covered with various healing paraphernalia such as pots, cauldrons, glass and crystal bottles, and baskets filled with plants and herbs. Hanging from the beam on the ceiling were bundles of plants drying, some of which had pieces of cloth wrapped around them to catch the seeds.


As soon as the girl was settled on the bed, Farkrie began to light a fire in the stove, on which she had placed a small pot with water in it. As that waited to boil, Farkrie began to crush some herbs in a bowl, occasionally muttering a spell over it to increase it's potency. The water started to boil and Farkrie dumped the herbs from the bowl into the pot, a pungent steam arising from the water.

 

[Vespertide]

Gwen woke, and her vision was hazy, and she was too oblivious to say much other than, "Go away..." before falling back into a dreary form of unconsciousness.


((I wanted to reply, but if we're being realistic, Gwen can't be healed until she has those herbs down her throat. You can wake her up, but she'll be delirious and not say much. Just FYI))

 

[MorganaLeFay]

(Oh..... I'm still learning. Bear with me!)


Farkrie stopped what she was doing for a moment to look at the girl. At least she has the ability to wake up, however briefly. She stirred the mixture with a long handled spoon, and then poured it in the bowl. Farkrie sprinkled a little more herbs over the bowl and recited one last chant. Sweat obviously beaded on her forehead. She sat on the bed next to the girl and propped her up against her own body. Carefully tilting the girl's head back, she poured some of the liquid down the girl's throat, and then closed her mouth and plugged her nose until her body was forced to swallow. the girl sputtered and coughed, as expected, but didn't wake up. Farkrie rested the girl's head in her lap, and stroked the wild mane of black hair softly as she sang an ancient song of hope and regeneration. It wasn't long before the girl's eyes flew open.

 

[Vespertide]

Gwen's eyes fluttered open, and she took a deep breath. A wind rustled her hair, and she fell back into her usual routine of controlling and stopping her flow of power. Instantly the winds flowed freely, and she sat up, trying to remember what had happened.


Oh... the bandits. Her leg...


And suddenly there was a woman, looking down at her.


Gwen jumped to her feet, surprised and shocked, and not knowing where she was. The air stayed calm, though. Not like before at all.


"Okay, who are you, and where am I? I definitely wasn't here before!"

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Farkrie winced as the girl jumped up recklessly like that. If she wasn't careful, she'd reopen her wound. But this wasn't the first time she had cases like this, far from it actually. She lifted her hands up slowly, to show that she was unarmed and meant no harm.


"My name is Farkrie. You are in my house, where I brought you after you collapsed in the forest. You were gravely injured, so I brought you here to heal you. Now, you need to lie back down before you reopen the wound I worked so hard on to close."

 

[Vespertide]

Gwen watched the woman's hands slowly raise, and remembered her from before. "The elf. That's you, isn't it?"


She glanced at her leg, to the expertly tied bandage. It almost looked like her Ma had wrapped it herself. This elf must be a healer, of some sort. But Farkrie? What kind of a name was that?


"Look," Gwen told her. "I'm grateful, don't get me wrong... My Mama was a healer... But I really should be going. I prefer being outside, anyway."


Outside and not in a forest, but whatever. Her leg wasn't hurting now, probably because Farkrie gave her something for it.


"I'm Gwen. By the way."

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Farkrie's face hardened. " Gwen, you cannot leave yet. You need to rest and recover. If you move around too much your wound will reopen."

 

[Vespertide]

Gwen bit her lip. She didn't want to anger this woman, but come on! She couldn't... be inside...


She didn't know why, but being inside made her anxious. It always had. She needed the fresh air, the sky above her. She needed that.


"I'll be really careful," Gwen told her. She was itching to get outside. Already the space seemed to close in on her. "It's not like I was planning to get attacked."

 

[MorganaLeFay]

"Nobody plan those things besides the attackers. And right now, if you are attacked again, you will die. It is my duty to keep that from happening." She noticed the way the girl stood, and the longing glances she gave towards the windows and door. "We can go outside later, if that makes you feel better."

 

[Vespertide]

Later? Who is this woman, anyway, telling me what to do?


"Trust me," Gwen said with a short laugh. "I've been in much worse."


That wasn't entirely true, though. She'd been through much worse mentally and emotionally, but yesterday she had never felt more pain in her life, ever. So maybe Farkrie was right. Besides, she could use a friend, right?


She looked down, slightly embarrassed about being rude. "Sorry. Not everyday I meet an elf."

 

[MorganaLeFay]

Farkrie smiles softly. "It's okay. Are you hungry?" The girl was unhealthily pale. It would be good to get some nutrients in her.

 

[Vespertide]

Almost as if on cue, Gwen's stomach rumbled. But she just shrugged and glanced hasitly at the door. She barely noticed the hunger anymore. "No, not really. But I would like to go outside." Gwen had a small, stubborn spirit within herself, but it wasn't very strong. Not yet, anyway.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

"We can eat outside if you wish." Farkrie went to one of the shelves and grabbed a loaf of bread, some cheese, and a roll of cloth. "Walk slowly, okay? If you feel any sharp pains you need to stop moving right away." She begins to move towards the door.

 

[Vespertide]

Gwen nodded, and it took a lot of restraint not to burst for the door. But once she was outside, the sun shining into her eyes, she took a relaxing breath. Farkrie was right behind her, food and a cloth in her arms. Gwen smiled big, and made a breeze cool her face as she sat down on a stump. The area looked like it had been made for the purpose of eating outside, because it had four stumps and a large, flat stump in the middle, like a table and chairs. She looked at her leg, and felt the first of what Farkrie termed "sharp pains". But she was more worried at her ripped and bloodied dress. She didn't have another one, or anything to sew it back up. Maybe Farkrie had something, but Gwen didn't want to ask.


"What kind of bread is that?" Gwen asked, keeping any pain she felt in her leg away from her face.

 

[MorganaLeFay]

"Whole wheat grain, with some garlic." Farkrie spreads the cloth over the large stump and sets out the food. 'I hope you don't mind this, I don't eat meat." She takes the knife strapped to her belt and slices off a piece of cheese and a slice of bread and hands them to Gwen, before getting some for herself and sitting down.

 

[Vespertide]

"Why not?" Gwen asked, accepting the bread and taking a small bite of it. Discovering that it was delicious, she ate ravenously, forgetting the last time she had had food. Soon she was done, savoring her last bite. "Sorry. I eat fast."

 

[MorganaLeFay]

"The residual lifeforce from the animal can effect my magic. For others, its not that big of a problem. But I prefer to not have to deal with it." She smiles as she watches the young girl eat, tearing off small bites for herself.

 

[Vespertide]

Her stomach, after being fed a little bit, demanded a whole feast, but Gwen didn't want to impose on Farkrie, or look like a spoiled child. Now she noticed her hunger, and she almost wished she hadn't eaten. A breeze, not one of hers, blew past them, rustling the cloth a bit. "Could... Could I have some more?"

 

[MorganaLeFay]

"Of course," Farkrie cut off some more food, the pieces slightly larger than the previous ones, and handed them to her. "Do you wish to tell me what exactly happened?"

 

[Vespertide]

Gwen almost greedily took the chunks of food and stuffed them in her mouth, remembering that she had to chew. She didn't know when she was going to eat again, so she ate like a wild beast.


Farkrie's question took her a bit off guard, but she was getting used to it. "Well," she said after a few bites, "I was walking along the road when bandits... like sand bandits, only they didn't hide in the sand... attacked me. I managed to get away, but not without a present from their leader's blade." she gestured to her bandaged leg, eating a bit more. "I must have ran into the forest, and yeah."