The Aching Respite

JP with Tarmen, Alexis, Gonyaul and Voah:

Gonyaul assisted Tarmen back to Nicolaus. The scene was disheartening and definitely made it clear they were currently in the process of losing with style. Once the jungle man was stationed in the queue for medical attention, Gonyaul returned back to Voah’s side.

He brought with him a waterskin for her, Alexis, and any others at the front that needed a drink. He also provided a dampened cloth to Voah and Alexis in case they wanted to wipe their faces of battle. Unfortunately he only brought the two, from the back, and not enough for everyone there.

It was evident the plunderers were leaving them alone now that they were in the mines. Were these Odenine also scared to go near them he wondered? Or were they more concerned with ravaging the settlement for goods.

Voah rested in the crook of the cave walls. Wad it strange they she was getting used to finding comfortable spots in underground tunnels? She thanked Gonyual again and took the waterskin and the pouch of Neph’Kin food.

She bled from her arm and her side where the spears had sliced her. She wasn’t sure if it was a better or worse injury and he had suffered far worse, so she let others go into the care of Nicolaus before her. The only treating she could manage at the moment was washing the wounds with water. Later she would look for bandages ir strips if cloth to wrap them.

The whispers slowly began to fade. She wondered if they would ever really go away and if she would have to find these mushrooms to cultivate them as a means of permanent treatment.

There wasn’t much she cared to say about their shitty situation so she remained silent unless spoken to.

Alexis quietly thanked Gonyaul for water and cloth, still looking outside the cave.
Only when there were no death screams to be heard anymore, the mercenary finally shifted her focus.

She took a sip of water, then reached over to Voah’s quiver to inspect the arrows the brigands were using. No barbs. That was something at least.

She took one of the arrows and put it between her teeth. Then she prepared herself and grabbed the shaft of the arrow protruding from her calf.
With one jerk she pulled it out, emitting a pained shout between her teeth clenching on the arrow.
Then she quickly took off her boot and tightly bound the bleeding wound with the cloth Gonyaul had brought.

She needed to be halfway functional, and that would be a bit easier without a length of wood stuck in her leg.

Nicolaus had enough on his hands already.

What a waste of humanity’s potential for goodness and progress. All these Odenine were able bodied and of sound mind to produce goods and services to better the world; however, instead they decided to be a blight. They could have negotiated, or simply asked, for aid. Perhaps even worked for compensation. But no, their pride and arrogance led to all this chaos and death; not just for Aquilo, but also themselves. It was a bold strategy to lose a third to a half of your men in an attack when that is all you had. There were so many better ways that even Gonyaul could have thought of for them to decimate their mining settlement with losing few if any.

His daydreaming was cut short when he heard Alexis shout in pain. He looked to Voah and Alexis and reached inside his outfit to his ‘fake breasts’ and pulled out clean bandage wraps he had bundled to sell the disguise.

He handed them to both ladies, wishing there was more he could do. “I help wrap?”

Voah looked to the older woman as she heard the pain vocalized. It hit a note in her heart. She felt bad about Alexis' code but at least she was alive. That was what mattered right?

When Gonyaul offered them help, Voah simply nodded to Alexis and sat silently in her own suffering.

Seeing that Alexis was already in process of bandaging herself, Gonyaul turned his attention solely on Voah. He bit his lip with a slight grimace at the sight of her just resting there content with bleeding untreated. He took a deep breath and softened his expression, that’s why he was there.

He knelt down next to her and using one of the extra water-skins he brought carefully washed her wounds and then using the fresh bandages bound them properly. He was getting better each time with this process; he sure had a lot of practice as of late.

He whispered, not wanting to aggravate her any further than this mess already had. “I think Hoy help you. We together again no?” In the back of his mind he was thinking that he had not seen this Hoy person anywhere during the battle where he was, they must have been where Voah had been earlier helping out.

He helped clean the blood, sweat and dirt from her face lovingly.