Picking Up Pieces|Amastar, Khelek

[Kender Bard]

The girl glanced up, pain and fear in her eyes. Blood pooled from the wound but her breathing was merely labored with pain and didn't seem otherwise irregular. She cried out when he pressed around her wound.

"Please don't hurt her," the boy whimpered as he cleaned himself.

[Devon]

"If I don't press down the blood will keep pouring out," Erin told the children. Erin put a towel around the wound and then added another layer to press down on. Looking to her brother, he motioned for him to come over to them. "I want you to put pressure on it while I get a bandage ready," Erin told him. "Keep your sister calm, she is doing fine."

[Kender Bard]

The boy swallowed hard by came over to obey, pushing down on the wound. As his sister cried again, he started to murmur to her quietly, telling her how brave she was and that soon she'd be in a warm bed with mama fussing over her.

The girl quieted, save for her pained whimpers.

[Devon]

"You're both doing good," Erin said with a small smile. Erin took his bandages and dressed the girls wounds. She stable for now, but she'd have to be taken back so someone could properly handle the spear that was still there. For now, Erin would have to get her to the rest of his group. Looking around him quickly, he called over one of the other soldiers so they could safely get the girl onto a stretcher.

[Kender Bard]

Meanwhile in Khelek...

Jacob wasn't the last person to be brought back for severe care. There were other cases; some were clearly hopeless and so all Filly did was order that their pain be eased as they lived the last moments of their life. Some of the local priests were fetched to tend to these hopeless cases. Others were like Jacob; salvageable, though horribly wounded. Some had simply been desperate cases caught just in time. Some too late. It was heartrending work.

Jacob's amputations had gone successfully and he was left on a cot where those who had been tended to were allowed to sleep off their procedures. She stayed by him through the whole messy, awful ordeal and only just peeled away long enough to see if she could find the prince.

[Darastrix]

Nagi was easy to find. He was seated on a bench outside the sickroom, resting until he might be needed again to fetch someone from Amastar. He couldn't remember at what point he'd stopped trying to hold back tears at what he saw, but by then, his eyes were red and his cheeks had trails going though the dirt and blood staining his face.

What he was seeing in the village was much different than similar scenes from his youth in Morilanta. Innocents there were few and far between and everyone seemed to be ready to fight for food, shelter, or their lives at a moment's notice. Blood was a common sight back then, and Nagi imagined he could walk through a Morilantan alley and not feel ill. But this, the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children.... It made him sick to think about, so he tried not to.

Nagi shook himself a bit and looked up to see Emily coming out of the room. He mustered up a small smile for the woman, and hoped that her husband hadn't died despite Filly's efforts.

---

Schuldig got the image from the soldier's mind and teleported to the location the man was picturing. If he wanted to follow, he could, but Schuldig wasn't using more energy than he had to by taking an able-bodied man with him. He touched both of his signs upon landing, and began extending his focus southward.

[Kender Bard]

Emily swallowed when she saw the prince and her already red and puffy eyes grew moist again, but she'd cried out all her tears so none spilled over. "The healer says that Jacob should survive," she announced. "That he was found in time." The woman sniffled then abruptly grasped Nagi's hands. "Thank you, Prince Kazimir, for saving him. For all of your help. We folk never thought we'd ever see a day like this, and I don't know what would have happened in the past if we'd have. But your quick response has saved not only my Jacob but many, many others. You and your father are the best thing that's ever happened to this land. I don't have the authority to do this but I want to thank you on behalf of all of Amastar for your kindness and protection."

---

For such a large group, they had made good distance on their march. At ten miles in the distance, there was a split; the bulk of the raiders had abruptly swerved east, towards the ocean, while a smaller group headed west and fanned out in varying intervals and distances.

[Darastrix]

Nagi gave a relieved sigh at Emily's news and felt a warmth spreading through his chest at her declaration. Maybe he would be a good king one day. He squeezed her hands gently and murmured, "What's Khelek without its people? I just wish we could get more aid to Amastar more quickly."

Nagi gave another little smile and added, "I'm glad I was able to get to your husband."

Worg, please, give them strength.

With both of his legs gone, Jacob and his wife were going to need it.

---

Scouting for another target, no doubt.

~Hey, Kat,~ he sent to the general. ~It looks like they've got a ship anchored on the eastern coast several miles south of Amastar and a group of scouts fanning out west.~

[Kender Bard]

Well at least we have some ships we can finally put to use in Amastar, Katarina thought. But a lot of good it does us with no men to sail them. As it is, my hands are tied. Unless the advance scouts are very few in number, I wouldn't even risk sending the group that's up there to go after them. Keep an eye on both groups, if you can, and when we get there, then the fun can start.

[Darastrix]

~They're not in any hurry right now,~ he told her. ~So if your boys move fast, they can pay them back for the little "surprise" they dropped here. Scouting party's pretty big. Couple dozen; maybe less, maybe more. They seem to have stopped for the moment.~

Schuldig hoped they'd set up camp or something soon. He could really get his hooks in then. A sleeping, unprotected mind.... He smirked.

[Kender Bard]

By nightfall the ship that hosted the enemy had drifted further; though they weren't bothering to speed away, they weren't stopping either.

The spread out scouts, however, had reconvened into a large knot once again, but that was all. Their movements indicated they had set up camp and were preparing to sleep.

[Darastrix]

Schuldig was back in Amastar proper by that point, serving as a line of communication between the village and capitol between his bursts of spying on the enemy's movements. He'd grown more cautious as he realised how the pairs were moving; he suspected there to be at least one Mind among the groups to relay information much as he was.

Probably a scout, Schuldig mused. It wouldn't make sense for the ship to continually pester the scouts for information when one could just as easily send the Mind with them to send messages to the main force instead. Well, if he ran into another Mind and couldn't mask his presence, he'd have to silence them. Fatally, if necessary. With them bedding down, a man dead in his bedroll wouldn't be noted until morning. With any luck, though, he could sink quietly into a non-Mind's mind undetected and find out what they were up to.

He waited until most of the scouts had gone to sleep, then began brushing against their minds more directly, seeking someone with defenses weak enough that he could slip inside and dig around unnoticed.

[Kender Bard]

It wasn't hard to find such a man; all of them were glutted on their success, tired from the day to boot, and in the half-drowse between waking and sleep, they were exceptionally vulnerable.

One man was replaying his conquests that day, wistfully returning the a comely young woman he'd spotted in the fray and regretting that he hadn't grabbed her and brought her with him. His mind was totally immersed in his daydream of 'what if' and made him a prime target.

[Darastrix]

Mine.

Schuldig sank into the scout's mind, careful to keep his own emotions from projecting, lest he give himself away. Delicate, subtle work tended to bore him (which was why he seldom bothered with it), but his own suspicions coupled with the fact that this man wasn't alone made his task a bit more exciting.

Since he was already 'what-if'-ing, Schuldig sent a deliberate, slight sense of curiosity and a gentle whisper of ~What next?~ as he tried to coax the scout into focusing on their plans for the near future.

[Kender Bard]

The scout imagined how he would probably have to drag the woman onto the ship with him. He envisioned the ship as he remembered when he was last on it, including the numerous crew and the faint glimpse of something else against the backdrop, something black like the sails of his own ship, but it was too blurred to tell for certain. He imagined whether or not keeping a pleasure-slave on the ship would be worth it. She'd have to be fed and cleaned up... he decided she wouldn't be and so imagined all the comraderie he'd gain by just letting her pass amongst his friends before they tossed her overboard en route to home. He chuckled mentally.