Fifth Night of Unrest

Inside the tent, Sarale giggles when she sees Vajor's pink face and sits down in his lap.

SARALE:

"don't be embarrassed. Aktlass was just teasing."

VAJOR:

"I know. It just made me feel like a teen again. It was.. unexpected."

Sarale giggles and rests her head on his chest forcing his hands away from his face. He wraps them around her and rests his chin on the top of her head while eyeing the rolled up paper.

SARALE:

"Vajor?"

VAJOR:

"Hmm?"

SARALE:

"I'm sorry."

Vajor's ears twitch and he looks down at her.

VAJOR:

"fer what dove?"

Sarale looks up at him and frowns.

SARALE:

"I know.. when I left. You must have been so scared. I… I didn't think about that. I just…"

Vajor turns her head and kisses her, cutting her off before pulling back and looking in her eyes.

VAJOR:(smiles)

"It's alright. What's important is yer here and yer okay,"

Vajor rubbed her back.

VAJOR:

"oh. Uhm, earlier, you dropped that rolled up paper." 

Sarale looked where he was pointing and her eyes widened.

SARALE:

"oh no! I completely forgot! Oh~ John's gonna be so mad."

VAJOR:

"What is it?"

Sarale looks up at him and shrugs.

SARALE:

"I don't know. He just told me to give it to Tunda and it's for his eyes only."

VAJOR:(head tilt)

"well, maybe tomorrow mornin' ya can give it ta him."

SARALE:

"Yeah…"

Sarale yawns and snuggles closer to Vajor.

SARALE:

"I'm so sleepy."

VAJOR:

"Well get some rest, I'll be here when ya wake up."

SARALE:

"Mm.. okay. Night Vajor, I love you." 

Vajor's eyes widen and his jaw drops slightly before he melts into a soft smile and he settles down holding her close to him and pressing his lips to her hair.

VAJOR:

"I love ya too dove."

Sarale snuggles closer and drifts off to sleep with Vajor close behind.

Elsewhere in the dark of the forest, Tunda wanders the forest. He holds his sling in one hand with a handaxe at his waist. His body sluggish, his eyes heavy and hollow, and his mind racing with fear and pain. His bag of holding slowly fills with gatherings from around the woods to make treats and sweets for the fae, lost in his thoughts as he makes his way deeper in until he finds himself near a cave that dipped into an underground space. Tunda suddenly hears a chittering behind him and turns to see a paw directly in his line of sight. He purposely falls back, letting a homunculus jump over his head and skid into a tree.

He quickly corrects his posture again and sees another Homunculus heading straight for him, swinging from the trees. He steps out of the way of its attack, when another one rushes in after to attack him. it swings at him and misses, giving Tunda an opportunity to pull out his hand ax and swing at the last homunculi, taking its upper body clean off and shattering its core. As soon as the homunculus falls, a dagger passes his head and knicks his cheek, before penetrating a tree. A voice calls from a narrow trail that leads to the cave.

VOICE:

"You slippery, unfounded, brute! Who gave you permission to be here?"

Tunda looks to the cave to see a drow clad in a midnight colored cloak with royal violet stripes trailing the sleeves and collar. The drow removes his hood to show golden eyes with many scars and fresh stitches etching his charcoal colored skin as his cotton white hair falls lazily over one side. Tunda couldn't bring himself to not stare at the drow before him.

DROW:

"Answer, Goliath. I haven't taken your tongue just yet."

TUNDA:

"... you know you are unnecessarily pretty for a scary bastard, y'know that?"

DROW:(disinterested)

"You think I don't know this? State your business, before I gut you here and make you one of mine."

Tunda stands in a mocking manner swinging his ax. 

TUNDA:(sarcastic)

"one of yours? Pff! you're gonna have to take me to dinner first."

DROW:(shock)

"uh!!? I... what???"

The drow flinches at Tunda's words as his nose and ears turn a soft purple with confusion on his face.

DROW:

"uh... urgh!! capture him!"

The dagger the drow threw wiggles out of the tree behind Tunda, and knicks his shoulder before returning to the drow's hand, his command sending the two remaining homunculi after Tunda. The smallest one jumps for his head while the one on all fours rushes him. Tunda doesn't hesitate to bring his ax down on the four-legged homunculus to chop its head in two, then quickly brings it back up and swipes at the small one, cutting it through the middle and letting it crash onto the other.

TUNDA:

"hah! the hell is that, anyway. I faced an army of your friends just this morning, they don't scare me." 

The Drow backs away and with a click of his tongue he casts Darkness on the surroundings, blinding Tunda for a long while.

TUNDA:

"Shit!"

Tunda rushes through the cloud of black smoke to chase after the drow until he makes it outside the area of darkness only to find himself near a muggy area. He could tell he was near water now.

Tunda looks around to check his surroundings to find himself a good distance away from the camp.

TUNDA:

"Fuck... I better get back quickly."

JOHN:

"You should save your drow friend from drowning first."

a boy's voice echoes from one of the treetops. Tunda quickly looks up to find John, the wanderlust fae, hanging upside down from a branch as if he were sitting straight.

TUNDA:

"Drowning? Who?? Where!?"

JOHN:

"over that way. Said she wanted to go for a walk, and ended up swimming instead. Any good that did her."

The sound of panting and whimpering can be heard through the forest and drawing closer as Ithildin bursts through the trees and bounces at Tunda, before running back the way he came and stopping to make sure Tunda was following. Tunda quickly grabs hold of Ithildin and mounts him. Ithildin races through the trees till they reach a murky pond about one hundred yards from camp. Small ripples and bubbles can be seen near the center of the pond and Sarale's clothes sit neatly folded on its bank.

Tunda dismounts Ithildin, strips off his shirt and shoes and rushes into the water, sheathing his hand ax and quickly dives in without a second thought. he looks around the murky water, hoping to find at least a silhouette of someone. he gets deep enough to see the dark of the water when he finally spot a dark figure entangled by weeds the seemed to sprout from an odd figure that started to sink deeper into the darkness. He rushes to the figure and grabs hold of Sarale. her eyes were blurred and her breathing had stopped.

Sarale was trapped in the entanglement of weeds that were getting pulled down by a strange looking horse with spine-like teeth and foggy dead eyes. He panics at first from seeing it but then realizes it was dead. He quickly takes his ax and slices the entanglement off and rushes to the surface with Sarale in his grasp. Once he surfaces, she taps her face to get her to wake with no luck. He huffs and swims to the bank of the lake and drags Sarale away from the water to collapse and gasp for air. He ignores his exhaustion to save Sarale and resuscitate her. He pumps a few times on her torso until she spits up the water in her lungs.

Water fountains up from her mouth with a mixture of blood and debris as Sarale coughs up the contents of her lungs. Her eyes squeezed shut in pain. Her neck, torso, and limbs are covered in welted bruises in the shape of vines and seaweed, as well as large bruises from being slammed against underwater boulders and stone. She turns her head and struggles to roll onto her side as she gurgles and suffocates on the fluid she expels, failing to move at all as her body feels heavy and riddled in pain. Tunda, ignoring her obvious pain and forces her to roll to her side.

TUNDA:

"Sister! Sarale, hold on. I got you. you'll be alright soon."

He quickly grabs a bottle with soft red liquid in it and pops it open as he waits for her to cough up everything she could. Sarale gasps for air with a wheeze. Her chest moves in an unnatural flail as she exhales. Tunda sees this and forces her back on her back and quickly rolls his shirt under her neck to open her airway better as he tries to feed her the bottle. Sarale's eyes flutter open and focus on Tunda. They were full of panic and pain as she weakly tried to swallow the tonic and failed. Her throat was raw and swollen from the trauma it had received. Sarale whimpers and her eyes flutter shut as she starts to lose consciousness.

TUNDA:

"Sarale! Sara! C'mon! Stay with me! Shit!"

Tunda thought hard on what he should do and a thought crossed his mind that made him panic from the guilt of the idea, but he held his resolve and made a prayer.

TUNDA:(grumbles)

"I beg the heavens, please let me be forgiven for my actions. Vajor is gonna kill me if he knows about this... they'll all kill me for this..."

Tunda pours the contents of the bottle in his mouth and holds it, then leans over Sarale to hold her nose and let the fluid drain into Sarale's mouth, forcing it down her throat and making her swallow it until it was gone. Sarale squirms and her eyes fly open swallowing the contents down and coughing at the burn in her throat and lungs. She whimpers in pain, her face flushed in embarrassment. He finally frees her lips and helps her sit up into his lap, letting her lean against his chest before pulling another bottle out to give to her.

TUNDA:

"Think you can do this yourself now?"

Sarale nods and reaches for the bottle. Her voice hoarse from coughing.

SARALE:

"I can try."

She takes the potion and sips it gagging at the flavor and wrinkling her nose.

SARALE:

"Why do they always taste so awful?"

She downs the rest and coughs, wincing at the pain and shivering from the cold. Her skin prickling with goose flesh as a slight breeze blows through. Tunda sits back with a sigh of relief when a familiar voice calls to him.

KARMA:

"Tunda?"

Tunda winces in panic and whips his head around to see Karma staring at him and Sarale. Their tail was ticking gently across the ground as they stood still by the woods. Sarale looks at Karma with wide eyes.

SARALE:(mutters)

"Uh oh."

TUNDA:

"Oh Shit."

Sarale's eyes dart between Tunda and Karma nervously, her voice is whispered and horse from nearly drawing not too long ago.

SARALE:

"Karma, please don't be mad at Tunda, it's not his fault."

KARMA:

"I'm not mad. I just want to make sure I'm seeing everything right."

TUNDA:

"wh-what do you mean?"

KARMA:

"Explain why you two are currently sitting so close to each other half naked in this cold air."

Tunda looks at Sarale and quickly backs off until he hits a tree. Sarale covers her face, flushing lavender.

SARALE:

"It's not what you think, I swear! T-tunda saved my life!"

Karma glances at Sarale and sees her body beaten, picking up on her ruined voice and the mess of vomit, blood, and debris near her.

KARMA:

"You hush and lay down. You look like hell, girl."

SARALE:(*wide eyed*)

"b-but, laying down hurts."

KARMA:

"you ain't healing which means you're not well enough to use your blessings yet. lay down and quit bitching. Use Tunda's shirt next to you to cover up."

Sarale looks down at the shirt then at Tunda nervously when Ithildin inches up behind her and lays down for her to lean against. She grabs the shirt and covers her chest looking down like a scolded child. Her lower lip quivering and she sniffles, staring at her feet and wincing as she starts to cough from the movement.

SARALE:

"Yes ma'am. I-I mean…! Mm~!"

Karma squints their eyes at Sarale then looks away and sighs before looking at Tunda. Tunda shivers a bit and looks Karma in the eyes, knowing he shouldn't feel guilty for what he did. Karma's calm expression made him understand that but the fear still weighed on him. 

KARMA:

"Well? what happened?"

TUNDA:

"... I came here because the fae told me Sarale was drowning. I followed the dire wolf to the lake here and found her submerged with a dead kelpie... she had stopped breathing when I brought her to the bank, so I resuscitated her and she struggled to drink the healing potion. I couldn't think of anything else but to force her to drink it that way..."

KARMA:

"... so you force fed her the first potion you had and when she could sit up again, you gave her the other one?"

TUNDA:

"yes."

KARMA:

"Alright. So you saved Sarale's life and needed to do an emergency recovery. Got it. You know why she was in the lake?"

Tunda shakes his head.

KARMA:

"m'kay. Sarale. you're gonna be in a good bit of trouble when we get to the camp. Tunda, Give Sarale her clothes so she can change."

Karma summons a set of white eyes that look at them in silence.

KARMA:(*to unseen servant*)

"Collect the Kelpie from the lake's depth and carry it to the camp to give to Aktlass."

The set of eyes go into water and vanish under the ripples of the water. Tunda rushes to Sarale's clothes and gives them to her.

SARALE:

"I'm sorry."

Sarale's voice sounded smaller as she shifted to face away from him with some effort and started dressing. Exposing her back to him to reveal elven words carved into her back, each one degrading and an insult of some kind, intermingled with whip scars. Tunda suddenly holds his breath for a moment before tears start flowing from his now pain filled eyes. He quickly stands to step back holding his mouth as hiccups escape him and he chuckles as he falls to the ground forcing himself to hold back his laughter with moans of sorrow. Karma quickly rushes to him and holds his head to their chest to help him calm down. They noticed what he had glanced at to cause his fit since it was unexpected.

TUNDA:(*gasps*)

"N-no! No! I'm sorry ! I'm sorry, I-i-i... your... you did nothing. it's not you...!"

KARMA:

"Just get dressed quickly."

Karma had started crying as well as they hold Tunda. Their eyes filled with remorse and guilt.

KARMA:

"Sarale... Don't leave us for so long again, okay? We were really worried about you, you know."

Sarale nods, her eyes filling with tears upon seeing her family so distraught.

SARALE:

"okay."

She dresses as quickly as she can and Ithildin offers her his back to ride. She climbs on his back when something dawns on her.

SARALE:

"oh, I almost forgot. When we get back to camp, John wanted me to give you something, Tunda. He said it was for your eyes only."

Tunda calms down enough to look at Sarale. He sees a small parchment in her pocket. He could see the starry mana escaping it.

TUNDA:

"... you mean... that parchment in your pocket?"

Sarale looks down and spies the rolled up paper.

SARALE:

"oh, yeah…"

She pulls it out and hands it to him before laying flat on Ithildin's black and hugging him in exhaustion, her eyes growing heavy with sleep. Tunda takes his shirt and puts it over her to give her more cover. The Unseen servant returns with a large horse-shaped plant getting dragged out of the lake and starts heading past everyone and goes straight to the camp.

KARMA:

"We'll follow it back so you two can rest up some. You both need sleep. Be sure to give your offering in the morning."

Karma starts to follow the dragging body.

TUNDA:

"Yes, Karma..."

Tunda guides Ithildin through the woods with Sarale on his back as they make their way back to the camp. On the other side of the forest, John hung from a tree branch upside down watching the group leave the lake with the Kelpie.

JOHN:

"... I guess I owe her one now." he swings back into the tree and vanishes.