Fantasy Under The Blood Moon (Allycena x dandan)

[Allycena]

Smoke.

Something was burning.

It was hot.

Suffocating.

Her eyes shot open at the sound of popping and cracking. Chaos erupted just outside of her window. Her body wretched itself into a seated position, dark clouds began to roll into the room she and her younger sister shared. Once she got to her feet, they carried her to the window where she saw people running in every direction. Their faces held expressions of panic and distress. It was frightening to see, but what was more frightening was the sight of the monsters who had created such madness.

“ilchultúrtha..” the young woman whispered with fear shining in her eyes. The rumored shifters were some of the fiercest and most dangerous beings to have ever walked the earth. They were merciless berserkers, plundering any villages they pleased to get what they wanted. Some could shift into just about any animal you could think of, others were just bound to the wolf spirit that resided within them. They seemingly held no sympathy or remorse for those they wronged, took lives and innocence away from those undeserving.

She gathered up all the courage she could to run into the blaze that was consuming the rest of her home. “Mama?! Mama!” The inhalation of smoke made her break out into a coughing fit. “Papa?! Lani?!” She jerked her body back just as a broken piece of wood fell in front of her. Her parents weren’t answering, her sister was nowhere to be seen. She ran around the flames and across the gathering area of their home to make it to her parent’s room. As she passed by the kitchen area, a pool of hair caught her eye. Her mother was lying on her back, soot covered her skin and her chest wasn’t rising. “Mama?!” Another cough escaped her as she knelt and shook the mother furiously. “No.. no!” Tears pricked her eyelids and began to run down her cheeks. She knew her mother was dead and there was nothing she could do with the time that she had. When she got to their room, she found her father face down. His body was engulfed in flames. She squinted and backed away quickly as the heat was too much to bear. All she could think about then were her siblings. Her hopes to find them alive were dwindling by the second.

The human finally escaped the burning home, running away from the fires that destroyed all that she had. Her feet carried her only a few feet before tripping over something in the grass. The ground was hard, a cool contrast to the hot air in their once standing home. Dark orbs traveled to witness Lani laying with her dress pulled up to expose her body and a ghastly wound on her face. The only eye visible was still wide with shock even in death. The horror was frozen on her face. It was gut wrenching. It was sickening. “Oh Lani..” the older sister scrambled to the younger, tugging at her dress to cover her battered body. She didn’t deserve to be defiled and disrespected as she had been. The girl deserved to keep what little dignity she had left. With a shaky bloody hand rising to cover her mouth, she leaned in the opposite direction as the contents of her supper the night prior attempted to rise in her chest. Suddenly over all the sounds of terror, she heard her name. “El! Elara!” It was the sweet melody she needed to hear. It was her brother searching for her. The woman sat there exhausted and defeated.

Luka ran around the corner of the home to see his two little sisters. He had been out on a hunting trip with friends early that morning. This was definitely not the scene he expected to come home to. The man bolted to Elara, kneeling next to her to check her for life threatening injuries. Luckily the most damaging thing she was plagued by was smoke inhalation. As his cerulean eyes landed on the deceased and assaulted body of Lani, he had to look away immediately. This ignited a feeling inside of him that he wished he never had to feel. Rage. Pure, unfiltered rage. It spread throughout his entire body. He saw the distress on his sister’s face, the spirit she had within her fading quickly. His body shook with tremors of fury. No one killed his family and brought destruction upon his people without consequence. Luka would die trying to get his only living family out of the chaos, he wouldn’t give up. He had to make sure she was safe. She was his responsibility. He knew they would take her, but he would do everything in his power to protect her.

“Come, on your feet! We cannot stay here, Elara! You must trust me, please.” Luka pulled her up to stand, never letting go of her hand. Elara was verbally unresponsive, she didn’t have the strength to speak nor did she want to. All she wanted was for Luka and herself to get out of there quickly and safely. He tugged her around a few buildings, bobbing out of the way of swinging flames and curtains of death that wafted their way. It was atrocious and mind boggling. She tried her best to keep up, running as quickly as her legs could carry her. Her brother stopped for a moment, watching the Lunerians rip apart their small village. They didn’t haven’t many options, so they had to make due with what they had. So he backed the two of them up toward the back of the building that covered the path to the berserkers. He pulled her into his arms and held her tight, planting a kiss upon the top of her head. “I am going to distract them. I need you to run as fast as you can. Don’t stop for anything, don’t look back.”

Elara ripped herself from his embrace with wide eyes filled with tears. She shook her head with disbelief written all over her face. “No. No, please. You can’t leave me too.. Luka, please!” A whimper sounded from her. With his own sadness shining brightly, he took a deep breath before shoving his favorite dagger into her hands. “Never forget me. I will always be with you, whether that be in this body or in spirit. I will never leave you. I love you, sister. Now, go!” With that, the male ran out from behind the falling structure, waving his arms. “Aye! Over here!” Two large men stalked in his direction, Luka didn’t back down or coward away. He readied his sword and held it tightly by the handle in a fighting stance, prepared for any outcome. Unfortunately, the brother knew that he would not make it out of this alive, his main goal was to get his sister out safely.

The younger woman peeked at the scene unraveling yards in front of her. If she did not leave now, she would never see the rising sun again. With all the strength that she could muster, she ran out in the direction adjacent through the middle of the town. She pushed her body to carry her away from danger. Luck seemed to be in her favor until she smacked into a figure that grabbed her by both arms. A yelp of surprise exited her mouth as she fearfully gazed up at the man that had a hold on her.

 

[dandan]

Unlike the entourage of shifters running through the woods with nothing but prey on their minds. Atop the treeline, sat on a sturdy old tree—whose name was lost to time and whose existence has seen the rise and fall of civilisations, entire villages come up and down throughout the ages. A male no older than thirty winters, one leg lazily hung off the branch while the other he used as a prop for his arm as he skinned an apple with his blade. He watched with beady, dark brown eyes, the shifters chased after an enormous beautiful white elk. The large, golden horns were what they were after, as they were worth a lot on the black market.

Ilmidris. Is what the locals in the area called it. They were on the outskirts of Lunera, deep within the bosom of the Elroron Forest. Trees densely packed together, it was a wonder how the shifters jumped over large tree branches and roots jutting out from the soil like spears.

‘Where?’ The deep, distorted voice spoke in his mind.

With his sharp vision, the male spotted the elk heading northwest, ‘Northwest of Luna.’ He retorts, taking the skin of the apple and eating it whole before chucking the skinned apple over the trees.

Getting up on twos, he jumped from tree to tree without disturbing the leaves. Like a cat, he prowled closer and closer to see the elk back in his view. Without the ability to fully shapeshift into what he wanted, he was utilised as the search party’s ‘bird’ thus dubbing him ‘The Owl.’ Lunera was chock-full of shapeshifters of all varying sizes, but the few halflings that existed among the rest were treated less than dirt. It was fate that the Owl found himself fostered by the former head of Gislivik Guild, but it wasn’t any easier having grown up a halfling; to be stuck in a mortal human form but graced with the abilities of all shapeshifters possessed was a blessing and a curse all the same.

With the unmistakable, ear-piercing cry of Ilmidris, the Owl moved closer to the party. Just below him, he saw a party of ten. Having all shifted back into their mortal forms already, the elk was unconscious. No unnecessary bloodshed was needed. A simple piercing of a paralysing agent was injected into the animal by one of the shifters. Without any time wasted, they broke the antlers off in a clean cut. The Owl watched as one of the shifters mounted the antlers onto the back of Arryn—the leader of this small entourage—who was in his large wolf’s form. Fur as black as night, eyes as golden as the sun.

Arryn looked up into the eyes of the Owl. As if to say he could leave, the Owl took that notice in a heartbeat. He was gone before the shifters could call out to him. Leaving them behind in a flash, he retraced his steps back to the village.

Lunera looked like any village, it had its markets, houses, the grime and dew that stuck to every board. From the outside looking in, one would assume it was simply another village to pass through and be gone by the next day—nothing of importance. However, the underbelly of Lunera was infamous for its black market, even more so when the shifters of Lunera provided quite rare goods between lands and warring countries - business thrived here no matter the outside world’s state.

“Draec.” A villager greets the shifter upon his entrance to the village, “Caught something good today?” They inquire further.

“Where’s Eadneynn?” He retorts, opting to ignore the villager’s question.

They nod their head toward The Chalice and Rat. A tavern and inn combined into one. It wasn’t the only inn, but by far the more popular and thriving one of the existing taverns and inns within Lunera. Before Draecwiu could continue further toward the establishment, a large hand landed on his shoulder. Raising his dark brows, he looks up to see Arryn already shifted into his mortal form, wearing what he assumes is clothing.

Arryn was a towering boulder, if one could describe a person as such. He was a mountainous man, a wide, athletic build, and like all shapeshifters, stood at an average height of 6’2” - only he was 6’6”; Making him one of the tallest villagers in Lunera. Midnight raven hair piled on his head in waves, golden eyes looking down at Draec.

“We got business.” He spoke.

It wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order. Since Eadneynn retired a decade ago from being the head of Gislivik Guild. Arryn became the de facto “leader,” so to speak. Shrugging his hand off his shoulder, Draewiu looked up at him.

“Eadneynn comes first, you know that.” He retorts.

“Eadneynn waits.” Arryn’s voice grows low, as to caution Draec from making a stupid decision.

Clenching his jaw, Draecwiu couldn’t hold his own up against a large body, even if he could, he would most likely lose, anyway. “Fine.”

Almost like a switch, Arryn’s demeanour grew friendly in an instant. Large, pearly-white teeth smile down at Draec. He wraps an arm around Draec’s shoulders and starts to direct him farther and farther away from the Chalice and Rat. Arryn spills about the antlers, their worth, and spreading the loot among the guild. Draecwiu tuned out the shifter’s voice, he looked back once to see a person hiding beneath their hood, watching them from afar.

—​

Draec doesn’t remember how it went.

Gislivik Guild had changed a lot over the years, from being a passive guild to stealing only from the rich, to burning down villages, ransacking entire people’s fortunes, slaughtering entire bloodlines without consequence. The Owl was not innocent, either; helping the shifters by acting as their lookout, giving warnings of aid coming to help the survivors.

Barbarians. Murderers. Destroyers.

Every name under the sun was branded upon Gislivik Guild and her kin. Becoming stoic and cynical is what brought The Owl to continue to survive under such circumstances. He looked out over ahead, perched high up in the treeline. Apparently, one of the shifters stumbled upon the village, it was hidden between the factions of two warring states, but not anonymous enough for there to be a thriving market—and not just any market, it held wares that Gislivik was searching high and low for years.

‘What do you see?’ He could hear Arryn’s words.

With the weight of guilt pressing harder upon his shoulders, Draecwiu’s beady eyes shifted temporarily to see in the night. Torches sprawled throughout the village’s paths, lighting up entire vulnerable spots; they were practically begging to be invaded. It was only by chance that Lunera’s children stumbled upon them first. The guards looked easy enough to take down without bloodshed necessary.

The Owl spoke of what he saw. Among the treeline, in bushes, and behind cover, the other shifters confirmed his sightings. Arryn commanded Draec to stay up in the trees to watch out for others that may stumble upon their ‘conquest.’

Draewiu watched atop the treeline, with one arm wrapped around the trunk of the thin tree precariously on the verge of collapsing beneath his weight. He could hear the other shifters in his mind; some already itching to attack, others wanting to refill their coffers once more. That’s when Arryn gave the order to attack the village.

The Owl’s vision suddenly became clear in the night. He looked up to see the full moon on display. The clouds that were covering the skies earlier had cleared entirely. This posed a great danger, not for him, but for the others. Despite being shapeshifters of various kinds, the full moon still affected all the shifters. Usually they had precautions to deal with an uncontrolled, unwanted shifting, but Arryn was too stubborn to heed the warnings from the healers of Gislivik.

Because of his halfling state, Draecwiu only dealt with his abilities going haywire throughout the full moon. Meaning his usual control over his own body was about to become less controlled. Before he could warn the others, Draecwiu’s neck tensed up following the rest of his muscles, causing him to fall from the tree, several meters through the air, to a loud thud into the earth’s crust. Almost immediately, the same happened to the other shifters already encroaching on the village.

Arryn watched as his brethren turned feral in mere seconds. Losing his own composure and control. What was meant to be a quick conquest of a village to aid them in ridding of their valuables quickly turned into something more sinister. Braziers and torches fell over, with the shifters immediately turning on the innocents.

In his blurred, hazy state, Draec managed to get back up on his two feet. Branches, leaves, and dirt clung to his backside, some entangled in his tied up hair. He stumbled out of the treeline to be greeted with a fiery smile of the village rendered to nothing. Angry or not, Draecwiu had to help the others, who? The shifters. But all control of themselves was lost to the moon. He watched as one of the shifters took out an entire family, and he turned on the shifter by bringing his blade into their torso.

He pulled the blade from them only to see it rapidly heal up, but it rendered them unconscious. Draecwiu gripped the sword tightly in his left hand. The other clenched as he looked away from the bodies of the dead. Making his way around the burning building, he was searching among the fire for any of the other shifters or any remaining trapped villagers, only to be stumbled into by a maid.

The yelp fell from her lips, he had dropped his sword in favour of catching the woman from falling to the danger of the fire growing nearby. When their eyes locked, Draecwiu could see the fear in her eyes, almost as if he was the one responsible for her village burning, which wasn’t far from the truth.

“You need to leave.” He gruffly spoke, unaware that she had just lost her entire family to his own brethren. “It’s—” His face scrunched up in pain as his hands fell from the woman’s arms to his side. One of the shifters had gripped an enormous claw into his side.

“Run!” he yelled at the woman as the shifter took Draec and threw him into a building already on the verge of collapsing. The shifter was Arryn, and apparently his wolf had an outing for him.

 

[Allycena]

The man she looked up to wasn’t a beast like many of the raiders tearing her village apart. His grip was firm but not enough to be uncomfortable. Why wasn’t he trying to kill her or worse? His hold loosened and dropped altogether as she saw a darkness bloom from his side. She flinched at the loud yell he gave and instinctively ran in the opposite direction just as a giant black wolf whooshed past her and threw him into a failing building. Orange embers flew into the air as the structure tumbled down around his body in a heavy crash.

Elara tripped over the body of a fallen villager, losing her footing almost entirely. Luckily she didn’t fall. She looked to her left, then her right, then behind and all around her. There were huge blurs of fur and glowing eyes running amuck before her eyes and she was mesmerized by the horror of their conquest. She had never seen these creatures before, they seemed much larger than what the stories ensued, stronger and faster than she could fathom. There weren’t many escape routes out of the burning village, so she just chose the closest one and went for it as quickly as she could.

Her feet picked up the pace again, her heart raced and sweat lightly coated her dirtied skin. Auburn hair jostled back and forth behind her, falling from its loose braid. A shout for help distracted her for barely a second but there was nothing she could do, the person’s head rolled yards to her right. Her feet kept pushing to reach the line of trees toward the back of the village. Loud huffing pulsed behind the woman, so loud that she could’ve sworn it was all in her head. Hot tears slid down her cheeks as she ran as if her life depended on it. And well, it did.

Suddenly, searing pain emitted from her left calf as she tumbled to the ground. Like a moth trapped in a spider’s web, she kicked at the beast’s head in an attempt to make its jaws release. This only seemed to anger the shifter, causing it to clamp harder. Elara clawed at the ground. Something snapped and crunched and she let out a loud scream. The dark liquid oozed from her leg and the grey wolf’s jowls. Its claws dug deep into the earth beneath them, rooting its place there. She looked around, trying to think quickly to get herself out of its hold. Her leg was surely broken, there was no mistaking that. There was a short hoe off a foot or so away and she reached as far as she could. After finally grabbing ahold of the instrument, Elara swung it directly at the shifter’s head over and over again with all of her might. The metal end pierced its head hit after hit until it finally released her leg and stumbled back and forth before scrambling away blindly.

The human felt the sting of hot air and dirt in the open wounds on her calf as she dragged and pushed herself onto her hands and knees. She let out another strangled cry of agony and forced herself to crawl past the line of trees. The trees grew more dense after the first ten minutes she crawled. After another moment or so, her body gave out, falling flat behind a large rotting log. Light faded from her vision, the branches above her blurred until darkness took over.

 

[dandan]

Hitting hard against a pillar, embers flared up in anger as the roof collapsed beneath his disturbance. The crackling of the wood gave alert to the male, who was dizzingly trying to stand up. Barely out of its length, Draecwiu threw himself out of the way; putting his arms up as a barrier against the hot embers as he broke through the wood of the door. He landed on the ground with an ‘oof!’ before getting to his knees. His armor was shredded to pieces, he yanked off the front of it and threw it to the side.

He barely got a survey of the area through blurred vision when a black figure emerged to block his view entirely. With his vision getting clearer, he looked up to see glaring golden eyes staring back down at him. Managing to get out of the shifter’s vicinity, he could feel the whoosh of wind just a mere inch from his face. The Owl tumbled backward, enough to find a discarded knife and grip it in his left hand.

It wasn’t much, but he defended himself against Arryn. Just enough to get away from him and escape into the forest. Whatever interest the shifter had in Draec was soon gone as he heard the screaming of a villager nearby. He looked down to his side in a moment of safety to see his wounds already healing up, the bleeding, however, was not stopping.

“Shit.” He spoke, putting the knife into his boot, he immediately went to work. Pulling out a special ointment he got from the guild’s healers and wiped it haphazardly against the wound. It was like glue, it immediately packed up the bleeding and stopped it altogether under a minute.

Draecwiu needed to head back to Lunera. Something this grim would surely entice Eadneynn and the court, if it came to that. With a renewed vigor, Draecwiu started through the trees, opting to just head through the forest on foot instead of in the branches. While it would take longer, he—the shifter stopped in his tracks.

It didn’t take him long to come across the woman he had seen earlier. The one who had gripped him, fear in her eyes that he had etched into his memory. It looked as though she achieved so much in such little time with a wound on her leg, he didn’t notice before.

‘By goddess, this will come to bite me in the ass.’ He thinks and kneels down next to her. Looking over her for further wounds, but only the broken leg and a large bite mark is all there appeared to be. It was sheer luck for her that he had come across her when he did. Draecwiu pulled out his ointment from earlier.

Would this work on a mortal? He stopped himself from uncapping it. From the loss of blood, and the crawling in the dirt is likely what rendered her unconscious. Too much blood loss for a mortal. There wasn’t much he could do for her besides set it right. With a rip from his shirt, he made a tourniquet around her wound and tightened it. Unknowing if this would wake her up again, he cared not so long as the bleeding stopped.

Draecwiu went about shifting the bone back into place with a grimace. He placed the makeshift cast around the woman’s leg and used pieces of his torn shirt to hold it into place while he put ointment around the wound. By the goddess’s grace, the ointment was working to heal the woman’s leg, but barely as it worked slower for humans.

He picked the woman up, bridal style, and started back in the direction of Lunera. He didn’t have the time for anything else but to inform Eadneynn of the full moon and the shifter’s unknowing massacre of a village they hoped to simply rob of their riches.

 

[Allycena]

“Elara.”

The woman heard her mother’s voice calling out to her, down the path through the woods that led to their home. The sound was so faint on the wind. It was nearly night. A small glow appeared next to her, then in front and behind and to the other side. One, two, three, four.. The fireflies seemed to be guiding her along.

“Elara, where are you?”

She heard her voice again, it was a little louder this time as she approached the personal refuge. “Mama?” she called out before she pushed the door open and stepped inside. Lanterns dimly lit the inside of the home, emitting an eerie glow. Shadows danced behind the flickering flames. It was awfully quiet then as she only heard herself breathing. With each breath, it felt as if her heart skipped a beat. Her eyes scanned the room, following the mud smudged across the floor until they reached a figure in the rocking chair facing the wall.

“We have been waiting for you all day, girl. You had us sick with worry,” the figure said.

“Mama..” Her hand reached out to touch the woman’s shoulder, the action caused her to turn around to face her daughter. Elara let out a startled cry, covering her mouth as she bore witness to Elena’s chest ripped open, the baby cradled in her arms was missing an arm. Blood dripped from her skirt onto the floor.

“Your father is out looking for you, he will be back soon,” Elena said calmly as if nothing was wrong. Shock took hold of Elara’s body, she was speechless. “El?” Her brother’s strained voice drifted through the open door. When she turned around, she was met with the sight of a ghastly wound on his neck and his leg was battered. There was a mess of hair springing out from behind his shoulder, it rounded his body to reveal Lani with her battered face and ripped dress. All of their eyes were black, dark as the night sky. Elara stumbled toward the back door out of fear and despair, they followed closely behind her. She backed away until her back met with something hard. She slowly turned her head to see a man, his skin was horribly disfigured, peeling and flaking off. He had no hair, he was barely recognizable. “Papa?” Elara uttered with tears then streaming down her cheeks.

“We have been looking everywhere for you,” he said, reaching for her. She jerked away from him, bumping back into the grotesque family behind her. She felt their hands all over her, pushing and pulling until she fought her way out of their unforgiving assault and ran. Suddenly only a few yards away, her left leg gave out and she collapsed. Sharp pains climbed through her calf and knee, settling into her hip. Upon looking down, she discovered her leg was broken, the skin was punctured and torn, blood freely leaked down into her boot. Elara looked up with a terrified expression on her face, seeing her brutalized family running toward her. She let out a terrorized scream as they closed in on her.


Her body jolted, her light brown eyes shot open. Her chest rapidly lifted and fell with each frantic breath she took. Elara felt the stiff cot beneath her and heard it creak as she shifted to look around the room. There were bottles and bowls everywhere, dried plants hanging from the walls and ceiling. The air stunk like fresh mud and it was dimly lit. Her eyes drifted to the fur placed over her body, she felt a soft breeze through the window next to the cot as her skin was lightly dampened with her sweat. Was she feverish? The woman made a move to sit up, then to swing her legs off so her feet could touch the floor and she instantly regretted her decision as her leg protested the movement with a sharp sting and profound ache. Then, the memories of her village massacre replayed in her head in flashes and her cheeks grew even damper with the couple of tears that trailed down them.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a voice cut through the silence from across the hut, startling her. Her heartbeat began to pound in her ears as she looked in the direction of the sound. “Who’s there? Where am I?” she asked, voice unsteady as her body trembled.

 

[dandan]

Elroron Forest. A natural defense surrounded the outer edges of Lunera. It was dense, lush, and full of life. It acted as the barrier against foreigners that might come across their lands. Their village was a place filled with much more than the eye could see. Bards wove tales into their tunes after making it out of the forest, alive. To say it was alive wasn’t far from the truth. It shifted itself every few weeks; only shifters, civilians of Lunera, or seasoned veterans that waltzed through it, knew the way out or in.

And now… now, the Owl was down by the stream, naked from the waist up, failing to scrub the blood and ashes from his long paofu robe with handmade soap from Tosa, the healer. In his umpteenth attempt to get the stains out, he tossed the garment aside and opted to wash up himself instead. Getting the dried blood off his midriff, the dirt from his face, and that of which clung to his nails. The cold water woke the man up as he washed the soap from his face a fourth time.

Water dripped from his face and down his body as he looked over at the garment again, his brow already furrowing in irritation. Little sleep and little food only added to the mix of annoyance etched onto his features.

He could not return to Lunera last night. The forest had shifted practically overnight. Whatever was of this full moon, he didn’t recognize the new trails set out or the new trees sprouting up. Thirty harvest moons and this was the first time it had stumped him dead in his tracks. Plus, with the new baggage he brought along, he needed to help her first.

Tosa, the healer, had lived in Elroron Forest for a long, long time. He has been there since before Eadneynn was born. Though the healer looked quite young, many mistaken him for a man in his twenties, but no one knew his actual age, nor did he care to tell it. Tosa was very boyish-looking, kind golden-brown eyes that twinkled with innocence, a smile that could melt the most stubborn of hearts, short brown wavy hair sat atop his head. Depending on his mood or theme of the day, his outfits varied.

Back in his hut, he was watching over the woman that Draec had brought over. No less a mortal. While he was familiar with mortals coming upon his hut, it was on the rare occurrence they were seeking him out specifically. Tosa had set down roots in Elroron for a reason, to help the weary travellers coming through such a place. Perhaps his brother in Lunera gave Draec his special healing ointment. It was the main reason for helping the woman stay alive when the owl arrived on his doorstep.

He sat in his chair, just beside the fire crackling. Tosa was thinking of what clothing he could lend Draecwiu, considering the halfling was wearing shredded garments. That’s when the woman, lying on a second-hand cot, was making sounds. She was likely dreaming, perhaps a nightmare by the faces she was making in her sleep. Apparently, he was correct by her sudden movement to get up so eagerly off the bed.

“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.” He spoke, not meaning to frighten the poor woman. She startled at his voice.

The frantic tone of voice spilled from her as questions. One would ask those upon waking up. Tosa was familiar with such questions.

He leaned forth in his chair, enough to have his face in view for the woman’s nerves to ease a bit, “You’re safe.” He soothly speaks, “I’m Tosa, the healer. Or that’s what the people call me.” He cautiously smiles.

Tosa gets up slowly. Compared to her, He was much shorter than the woman who was now sitting up in the cot. He made his way over to the kitchen, just in the woman’s view. He was waiting for his tea to brew and poured himself a cup before making his way back into the den to retake his place in the chair.

“You’re lucky to be alive, you know.” He starts, taking a sip of the hot barley tea; its toasted flavour savoured on his taste buds. Tosa sets it on the table, “I did the best I could to set it right, but you might take a few weeks off that leg, just until the bone mends itself.”

 

[Allycena]

His tone was gentle as he spoke. He wasn't trying to make her any more uncomfortable than she already felt. That was clear with how he reassured her that she was safe, but how could she trust anything he said when she wasn't familiar with him. Truly still being alive should've been sign enough, but she was skeptical. The man slipped from his seat across the room to step toward the kitchen area of the hut, he was much shorter than she was anticipating which she found interesting. Was he human as well?

Elara took this time to survey her surroundings a bit more, taking in any detail she could, down to the very crack in the floor near the far left corner and the wet, bloodied rag on the table a few feet away. Was that her blood? She swallowed the lump forming in her throat, it felt dry and scratchy. The short man returned with a steaming cup of what she assumed was tea in his hands. He sat back down facing her, speaking to her once more. She was lucky to be alive, he was right about that. But how? How was she still alive after a brutal attack like that? Her village was in ruins, surely she should have been as well, but she was still breathing with a beating heart. He reached over to set the cup on the table next to him, telling her of her injury.

There was an aching in her knee and ankle, dull after the sharp sting died down. She now remembered it vividly; she was yanked down to the ground, jaws were clamped around her leg, there was pressure and then a crack. She had felt worse pain before, but there still wasn't anything like getting bitten by a giant beast. It could have very well ripped her leg clear off if she hadn't acted when she did, that hoe did more than she thought it would, even though it didn't seem to injure the creature. If anything, the act distracted it from its mission, albeit probably a blind mission at that. She didn't know for certain if these shifters had conscious minds in that form, and frankly, she didn't want to. All she wanted now was to get as far away from the entire mess as she could. But where was she to go? Presumably, there was no home to go to, no family. Griff could have been dead as well, he couldn't run very well after he lost two of his toes to a giant boulder and a drunken dare. Perhaps Xena would look for her, they had grown close enough to consider each other important. Would they even find her?

The woman looked down to her leg again, leaning forward to inspect it. It was dressed handsomely with tight cloth, splinted and elevated. Elara returned her gaze to him. "Are you one of them?" she asked before clearing her throat.

Elara had never officially met a Lunerian before, that she knew of anyway. Then, her thoughts drifted back to the man who caught her mid run in the middle of the chaos, the one who had told her to run. Why would he urge her to do so when he was part of the reason why her village was decimated? To her, in that moment, he appeared to be disturbed as well and just as frantic as she was. Elara knew he was Lunerian by how he dressed, no one in her village dressed quite like he did. His black hair was longer than most men she knew, his eyes were like rich earth but they illuminated in the raging glow of the blazes surrounding them. His concern was what really shocked her, but in that dire moment, she had to shift her focus more to surviving. Speaking of, where was he?

"How did I get here?" The human asked another question, needing clarification on how she ended up in a healer's hut. There were a lot of questions swimming around in her mind.