Sucessful Rescue|Skyheort | Talen'sul

[Northen Light36]

Thanks to Saph's presence, no one even looks twice at the group, even with Acqua in the state she's in. After all, if Lord Saph's dealing with it, things are probably under control. Therefore the group make good time back to the Veatherfall house, even with Talon having to carry Acqua, who's still sleeping, though she woke up on occassion during the trip.

Since Talon has his arms full, Saph knocks on the door. It doesn't take long for Amaro to open it. By the looks of him he'd just gotten home, heard the story and had been about to go after Saph and Talon.

[Kender Bard]

"Amaro," Talon says simply. His spirits aren't very high for a warm greeting, and, in a strong way, he felt as though he'd let his friend down.

Didn't he say he'd look after the girl? Wasn't that his duty?

How did it get so out of hand?

"Is Alethia up?"

"Yes!" came a shout from within the house. "Do you have her?"

Alethia came up to the door, looking over Amaro's shoulder. "Oh Acqua..!"

"Clear the bed so I can set her down and then you can work on her," Talon said tiredly. Alethia nodded, running off to do just that.

[Northen Light36]

Amaro glances over Talon, noticing the man's lack of energy. "I'll take her, Talon," he offers. "You look like you could use some rest." Glancing at Saph, Amaro adds, "Thank you." Reconising the dismissal, Saph nods.

"You're welcome. I'll stop by in a day or two, see how things are." With that, Saph leaves the family alone.

[Kender Bard]

Talon nods, handing Acqua over and avoiding Amaro's eyes.

"In here," Alethia instructs; she'd made the bed as comfy as she could and fetched a pitcher to fill with regular water, as well as a rag. Talon trudged inside and sat down heavily, resting his eyes for a few moments.

[Northen Light36]

Amaro carries Acqua in and lies her down on the bed. The change is enough to half-wake Acqua and she looks around sleepily as Faith leaps up onto the bed. "Hi sis... Hi Amaro..."

"Hey kid," Amaro replies.

"When did you get home?" Acqua murmurs.

"Not long ago," Amaro replies. "I'm sorry kid."

"Not... your fault," Acqua says around a yawn that makes her wince. "I shouldn't have been so trusting..."

[Kender Bard]

"What happened exactly?" Alethia asked as she began to douse the worst wounds with her healing water, careful to use her rag to catch any excess so none of it went to waste.

[Northen Light36]

Acqua flinches a little at Alethia's touch, but she tells her story. "Well, I was just walking around a bit and this guy came up to me. We talked for awhile, then he offered to buy me a drink..." Acqua flushes and doesn't look at Amaro. "I know I shouldn't have accepted, but there didn't seem any harm in it... Anyway, we talked for awhile, then I started feeling a bit out of it, so I said I was going home and he offered to walk me back... We were about... oh, around halfway home and he knocked me down... He said... something... then kicked me..." Acqua winces at the memory and adds, "The next thing I knew, I was chained to a bed..."

[Kender Bard]

"What!?" Alethia yelped. She jumped up and nearly knocked her pitcher to the floor as the distressed housewife made a mad dash for the kitchen, hoping to slap together an herbal remedy for such... accidents.

[Northen Light36]

Acqua winces, cringing inwards in an instinctive fear reaction. Amaro grinds his teeth, but forces himself to ask, "Acqua, did he... did he...?" Amaro can't get the question out, but Acqua gets his meaning. Shivering, she shakes her head.

"No..." she whispers and Amaro sighes in relief. "He wasn't interrested in that," Acqua adds softly. "Said I was too ugly and he... he just wanted to hurt me..." Amaro growls.

"Talon, stay with her," he snaps before walking out. He needs some time to cool down and he can at least calm Alethia. "Alethia, he didn't do what we were thinking he did," he tells Alethia, taking hold of the woman's arm. "Thank the forces for small mercies," he adds softly.

[Kender Bard]

"Oh," is all she says, a fistful of leaves in hand. She hastily stuffs them back in the jar she'd taken them out of, and replaces it. "Oh, well, yes, good." Extracting herself from Amaro's grip, she hastened back to the other room to continue her ministrations.

"Nnn!" Talon jerks awake. He'd fallen asleep in the chair he was sitting in. Swallowing, he just nods to himself and forces himself to stay awake.

[Northen Light36]

Acqua huddled in on herself through out the rest of Alethia's attention, cuddling Faith and ignoring any other attempts to get her to talk about what happened. After a few tries, Amaro gives up and lets the girl be, turning his attention to Talon. "Talon, you're exhusted," he sighes. "Come on, go to bed."

[Kender Bard]

Talon shakes his eyes, giving his eyes a firm rub. It just didn't seem right to sleep. There were moments were, to stretch and head off to bed, would seem almost disrespectful, and this is one of them. "I'm fine," he lied as easily as he breathed. "I just need to relax."

Skip dashed into the room, sniffing at Talon's feet and wagging his tail, glad that the Master was home. Spice peeked almost shyly into the room too; he'd heard a lot of loud talking and moving about, and his mother had seemed all afright in the kitchen. It set the boy's stomach in knots, but his inquisitive nature wouldn't let him just walk off and pretend it wasn't happening. He wanted to see what had the grown ups in such a tizzy. Looking at Acqua, he sucked in his breath a little and went wide-eyed.

[Northen Light36]

~The kit is here,~ Faith comments suddenly, noticing Spice. Amaro instantly moves to block the boy's view.

"Spice, what are you doing up?" he asks. "Did we wake you?"

[Kender Bard]

"Uh huh," he says, trying to lean around and look past Amaro. He's learning about the morbid fascination where you can't stop looking at something you know you should. "What's wrong with Aunt Ahk-wa?"

[Northen Light36]

"Acqua just had an accident, Spice," Amaro tells the boy. He's sure as hell not explaining kidnapping to a child. "Your mum is looking after her though and she'll going to be better soon, so how about I take you back to bed, all right?"