RP:Almost Home

Part of the The End's Not Near Arc

Summary: Hureig finally wakes after months of care in Alithrya thanks to Liza and Reginae and believes Reginae to be Queen Hildegarde. The naga catches Hureig up to sped with what she knows about Frostmaw's current state of affairs and Alithrya's recent attack. The Frost Giant presents a very odd idea indeed. Perhaps they should hire an assassin to trip up whoever wants to get Reginae out of the way.

Guest Rooms, Alithryian Palace

Reginae had been checking in on Hureig periodically during the past month. The naga in charge of his health claimed he was no longer dehydrated but he was in a coma of sorts. Whatever had happened to bring him to the brink of insanity, punching statues and accussing naga of kidnapping dolphins might be to blame. The physican hasn't made any notes about his brain activity. It's not her field, but she's restored his body to 100%. The only pressing matter has been muscle degeneration. To fight that process the nurses have been rotating Hureig. The restraints had been removed, since it didn't seem like he would wake up any time soon. One such nurse has just arrived in one of the space rooms in the Palace currently operating as his living quarters. She's fair skinned with aqua hair braided across the crown of her head, like a wicked cool headband. She's naga, glistening green tail carrying the tray of fluids and food compounds they've been force feeding the Frost Giant. She writes her observations on a note pad, speaking them outloud. "No change today." She slithers forward to unhook the empty bags and start to switch them out with the new containers. Her little hum fills the space. The rest of the palace is quiet with no signs of life except for the odd sound of glass down the hall, in the room Muzo has taken up for his experiments.

Hureig had spent the majority of his time in a deep, restful sleep, his mind swimming the deep oceans with his kin and kind. Diving deep. Surfacing in glorious spray. Chasing down smaller fishes and biting them in mid swim. It was glorious, and as far as the Frost Giant knew, it was as close to a Heaven as he would come. But soon other things began to pollute those pristine, salty waters: gangly creatures that wore furs, that spoke in some barbaring language, that smelled of land and not the sea. At first, he merely fled from them, his tail finning fast enough to keep them at bay. They became clearer, though, to his porpoise eyes. The smells became of ice, and the blurry bodies became Giants. They needn't swim after him, for their words, the barbaring that became understandable, followed him wherever he swam. Loyalty. Duty. A Queen. Frost Giants. You are...You are! His heaven, his beloved place, his refuge from the world, became a hell. It became a prison, as black, dark, and rotten as some foul cesspool. There was only one way out, and though he tried his best to stay far, far from it, the large sun that burned on the water's surface became his only option for survival. And on that day when the waters became sludge, when they were so brackish and poisoned that they would not flow through his gills, when no life, no kin, no fish or crab was around him, he fought with tired fins for the surface---and when he surfaced, when he broke the calm waters in his mind, his eyes opened to see the ceiling of the infirmary. "You...will be missed..."

The nurse was mid hum when Hureig’s eyes opened. She stares down at him, only now leaning over him to check his vitals. His heart rate spiked in the moments before his eyes opened. Her amber gaze locks in his, a palpable mix of panic and joy. “Good morning.” She whispered, unable to hear what he’d said when he woke. A bright light appears, dialed into his pupils to see if they would retract. Oh good, they did. Functional and responsive, yes. She pulls back out of his overhead view and jots her notes in the notepad before asking the next nurse to go fetch the Queen. Her guest was awake. It took Reginae a few minutes to arrive. She’s calm and composed, surprise lurking in her features undercurrents. “Hureig.” She addressed him, keeping a professional distance before breaching the barrier of the door frame and entering the room. Were his eyes still backlit with madness or was he himself again? The nurse gave her the report of what happened in hushed whispers. She’d been changing his fluid bags, his eyes opened, responsive pupils. “Thank you, Liza.” Regi whispered, moving past the woman to the Frost Giant’s side. What could she say? She waited for him to react to her presence, locking him in her intensely penetrating azurite stare.

Hureig was more shocked at what looked down at him than the nurse that spoke to an awakening comatose patient; the nurse was ever the professional, but she was also very much naga. Something deep, something primal warred with the conscious control of his body as though the naga were to be feared at least and fled from at best. But they had him bound, tied, and, when his arms and legs were sluggish to move at his command, drugged it would seem. Pufferfish. They must have slipped him a pufferfish. His kind feared...his kind knew very little about pufferfish. Mountains, ice, snow, and bone chilling cold, they knew by the tomes filled, but not pufferfish. He calmed as quickly as he startled; she showed him courtesy with the good morning, he would do the same. "Good...morning?" he did not say goodbye, or so he did not think, but the nurse had departed either way. When she returned, she was with another Naga and a name. "Hureig..." It seemed familiar and common enough. His mind was accustom to it, if nothing else. When Regi came to his side and looked down to him, her feminine features were instantly recognizable. "My Queen Hildegarde! You...have seen better days."

Liza laughed loudly from the corner of the room, covering her mouth when the Frost Giant referred to Reginae as Hildegarde. Reginae’s left eye twitched. A Dragon? He thought Hildegarde was a...naga? Maybe there was still some broken circuits in that brain of his. She closes her eyes and sighs. At least he doesn’t think he’s a dolphin and he’s not punching statues. His hands no longer have bandages. Enough time has passed that the wounds have healed. “Could be a side effect of the sedative?” Liza offered in a bubbly voice while she used the pad of her thumb to push her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. Reginae nodded her head in agreement. Also the coma didn’t help, she thought, tugging her frown back into a tentative smile. “Sadly, I’m not the fabled Hildegarde, but I’ll take the complement in terms of looks.” She fluffed her white hair, tied back by two ebony serpent pins. “I’m Reginae, Queen of the Naga.” A bold claim, more like...stand in for the time being. “We met before in Frostmaw and you came down with some sickness and made your way here. Do you remember, Hureig?” She repeated his name with a certain tone, that alluded to the fact it should be his name.

Hureig cocked his head upon the pillow when the Queen proclaimed he had gotten his Queens confused. The resemblance was uncanny. She had eyes, a nose, a brow, some cheeks. His Queen had all of these things. Regi had all of these things. That could only mean one thing. And, then, a name was given, and his thin brow furrowed in thought. "Not Frostmaw...Larket. It was Larket. The lowlanders looked at us as those we were the odd ones. I, a Frost Giant, and you, a nag..." It all came crashing back, the error of his recognition hitting him harder in the head than any blow ever could. "Ah. My apologies, Queen Reginae. I can only see the beauty and grace of Queens right now. Every other feature is murky..." He smiled, or he attempted to smile, as to smooth over his faux pas.

Reginae smiled mischievously. My, such a wicked woman she was, planting false information so his brain would correct it. Liza gasped, watching Hureig’s face of realization. Was he having a heart attack!? The poor nurse rushed to his side and poked his shoulder with a cold instrument. It didn’t puncture any skin but DANG it was cold. Liza’s face screws up, eyes shadowed by aqua hair as she nodded with satisfaction that he was not having a heart attack. Aramoth be praised. “Indeed, Larket.” Regi’s smile shifted; less proud, more kind. “Welcome back, my friend.” She patted his opposite shoulder and gave Liza a sideways glance that said, very politely, to scram. The naga nurse blinked, confused for a moment, before getting the idea. “O-oh! So sorry! You’ll be wanting to eat real food now?” She looked at Hureig with kind glossy eyes. “What do you...like to eat?” Regi chimed in. “She can get you anything you like in the whole realm. Liza is a wizard. How are you feeling? The weird...floating feeling should wear off fairly soon.” It might be too early to explain he was trying to attack anyone that came into range. One thing at a time.

Hureig was not accustomed to others tending to him. It was a strange feeling when he was poked and prodded, but he just smiled up at Liza as she went through her testing. "Thank you. Thank you." He rambled off a litany of gratitudes each time Liza did anything, if only because it was more polite than asking her what the gods she was doing to him! His gaze went back to Reginae, and despite waking up in a strange land in a strange contraption, her kind smile set him at ease. "Eat...eat? Eat! Oh! Food. It feels like I haven't had any food in ages." The offer for anything was too much, too kind. "Don't fret over anything special...Liza, is it? Just throw whatever you have to spare on a plate for me. I am feeling well. I felt like I've slept for months!"

Liza flushes each time Hureig thanks her, breaking their eye contact and moving away to fidget with something. In the end, she rushes off with that order in mind. A real frost giant?! Thanking her?! A Naga?! While Liza rushed off to the kitchen to see if they had anything fresh to serve their revived patient, Regi cooly corrects his time. “Nearly two now, I think.” She beams when Hureig says he feels well. “What’s the last thing you remember? How in the world did you get here? You were soaking wet and covered in seaweed. Strange, even for a Frost Giant. Where you travelling to Rynvale?” Her blue eyes hold him curiously in their slit pupil gaze. “We found you and detained you. You were suffering from some kind of….madness?” She quirked a white brow, watching his face to see if this rang any internal bells for the male. The foggy feeling should be receding as she advised. Liza unhooked the bags of medicine, unstrapping and removing all medical equipment from Hureig before she left to find food.

Hureig lost all semblance of his calmness when Regi began to question him. It was not that the interrogation was disheartening. Answering a few questions was the least he could do with everything they had done for him. But her story: two months sleeping, soaking and seaweed, just appearing out of nowhere. He thought back as far as he could, as far as his mind would let him, and the scenario he recalled was spotty as his sentences. "I remember I was in Larket. Larket...something happened. The ground became water, and then water became water. I don't recall much after that..."

Reginae pulls back with her questions, nodding with his answers and acting like that was satisfying enough. “It might take some time for your memories to come back. I wouldn’t worry about it. Liza says you are fit as a fiddle and ready to leave as soon as you like, or rather as soon as you can stand properly. I’d suggest giving it a day or two to completely wear off.” Her smile is reassuring, she’s coiled atop her tail, torso hovering over white scales like some kind of anti-gravity chair. It’s silly looking. Liza comes back with food and they all eat a bit before the nurse suggests a little more rest for the Frost Giant. Reginae says her goodbyes and leaves Liza to make Hureig more comfortable. She added pillows and extra blankets to his stock pile and draws the curtains in the room to cloak it in faux darkness. “We’ll come back and check on you in the morning.” She promises with a squeak and shuts the door behind her. The next Afternoon both Reginae and Liza make their way into the room with another serving of food. This time it’s some rich broth soup and they all eat together. There’s little talk of memories, just conversations about recent local events. The attack, the odd magics, and some of the weird things going on in Frostmaw. Weird drugs have turned up with off effects. People are becoming Zombies, it’s creepy. After they eat, Liza collects their bowls and shuffles off back to the kitchen. Reginae stretches her arms and moves to the side of the bed. “Ready to try those long legs of yours?” She asks, holding out her arm to support his weight in case his legs (and Liza’s Muscle exercises) have failed him after all this time.

Hureig wasted little time in regaining his strength. He was never the strongest, or tallest, or the most brawnly Frost Giant, but he could remember hoisting large boulders onto his back with the greatest of ease. Now? The plate, the food, and even conversation seemed to wear him out! No. It would not do to be so weak. Not in this world. Not during -this- time. So when he was left to his devices and a night time of sleep, he was up on his feet---and then on his knees. It took him even longer to get back onto his thin legs, and he decided that standing with the bed frame holding his wobbly legs straight was good enough exercise. He did this throughout the night and the morning; every so often he would throw his legs over the side of the bed, hoist himself up tall, and stand there. His legs were weak. His back hurt. His lungs burned and his shoulders ached. But by the time Regi and Liza came back around, they were greated by a winded but standing Hureig. All the exertion had famished him, and he did his best to listen as the Nagas brought him back to the present state of affairs. He was lucky to have downed the broth by the time the conversation turned to Frostmaw's woes. His mind, his eyes, his attention, and his urgings were all turned to his beloved city in the mountains. He nodded and frowned. He grunted and growled. While he was sleeping, his Queen and Country were going to hell in a handbasket! Needless to say, when Regi offered her arm and the option for a walk, Hureig was up on his feet and holding onto the Queen Naga. "To Frostmaw!" He bellowed before he took his first step, before he realized that walking was more complex and much, much tougher than just standing alone. "To...the door." The Frost Giant's zeal was deflated, and his ever present smile dimmed. "You've told me so many woes about my country. Please. Tell me about this land. If your beauty is any measure of its tranquility, then this land's peace must be eternal."

Reginae’s smile didn’t dim as Hureig’s goal changed from Frostmaw to the door frame. She didn’t need to remind him about the time he’d been out and it’s toll. Her arm was a firm anchor, never wavering under his weight or instability. She encouraged him through bouts of sad news about her country as well, his compliment not lost on her. She graciously dips her head in thanks. “I’m not the official sovereign head of Alithrya but I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. We had a meeting and some naga...assassin mage appeared?” She explains the rest of the situation in very muted tones. No one knew where the magic was coming from, everyone was unsettled. Foreigners were not welcome on the streets because of rising anxieties related to this. It wasn’t something she wanted the rest of the naga to be concerned about but she was trying to downplay the danger. “We’re all in a state of madness.” She laughs, “But please don’t fret about it. Hildegarde and her forces are hard at work to find a solution.” What an admirable woman, Hildegarde. A warrior if ever one existed. “Your Queen is strong and she’d likely tell you to make your way in time. I know you must be anxious to return home and join the fight but it would do you both better to regain your strength before doing anything foolish.”

Hureig couldn't argue with Regi's logic, mainly because he was too winded to speak by the time his decript hand grasped the door frame. But even if he could, he wouldn't have. Much to the chagrin of all those he tried to help, his mind was already working with what little information he had been given to scheme out some sort of plan. "Hmm...Assassin mage. I have very little regard for either of those things, and to put them together in one is...damnable." he spoke mainly to keep the conversation going, for his eyes were glazed and his words were more autonomous than banter. "But, we can work with the former. Yes. Yes. We can work with that." And just like that, all his warmth and emotion returned to his face and his voice. He smiled a big, bright, dumb smile, one that could melt glaciers high up in the mountanous ranges. "I am not sure what you have done for me over these months, but these two meals alone deserve my help. So, I will give it until this situation is finished. So here is what I'll need from you: fifty thousand gold coins, some personal piece of jewelry that cannot be mistaken for anyone's but yours, and safe passage to Cenril. I am going to contract an assassion to kill you." he said it all matter-of-factly with a big, friendly smile. "Once we find a naga assassin-mage who is willing to take up the job, we will be a step closer to finding the original bastard."

Reginae blinks at the punchline to this plan, formerly smiling in the light of his optimism. Urm. What? "Only one hitch to the plan" She offers, while holding on to his arm even though they'd reached the door frame in record time. "We -think- the magic is old magic. Like...before most creatures were created kind of magic? I'm worried the naga assassin we killed was serving a master and might not have need of gold..." Hopefully Hureig isn't too deflated by this knowledge. "I'll still be happy to provide the gold to see if we can figure out a solution though!" She encourages him, not wanting him to think his plan useless. It could actually provide some answers if they could find someone to take the bait. How would he find a naga in Cenril willing to kill Reginae? "Fifty Thousand Gold, you say?" Steep price. "How about Twenty five thousand. Do assassin types deal in half and half payments? Half now, half after the mark is dead? Ideally, I don't want to be murdered." She laughed, the soft vibration rippling between their arms.

Hureig was quiet as his plan, his beautiful, amazing plan, was torn to shrds. Not only had he very little information, he wasn't even listening to what was given to him! But in the planning of things there was always ups and downs, highs and lows...it would be no small thing to flesh out a plan to kill a monarch. "Old magic. No need of gold. Hmm..." The hand on the doorframe moved to his chin, his scruffy chin at that, and worked his jaw as though it was where his ideas sprung forth. "The only thing foul beasts like that want is more foul power, and I am fresh out of powerful googas and baubles." He worked his jaw furiously to the point that he had to stop and flex it to make sure it was still in its proper position and place. "Yes, yes. That is a good idea. Half now, half when the job is finished. This can go one of two ways: we can stop the assassin before or let the assassin think you have been killed and catch them when the next installment is given. It is up to you, but I do believe we could gather more information from event if the assassin thinks you are dead."

Reginae ponders this idea. “I bet I could speak with Muzo about creating a replication of the ‘power’ in the assassin we did kill if it wants power more than money?” The idea of getting the naga to betray it’s source of magic seems highly unlikely. The naga at the meeting didn’t even speak, just attacked. There were no demands made or further threats. It was so strange. “We could devise a clever poison that makes it ‘look’ like I’m dead and offer the assassin the ‘poison?’ What do you think?” She muses, turning to smile at Hureig mischievously before adding. “Do you want to try and walk to the door across the hall or do you think back to the bed would be better?”

Hureig hummed and rubbed his jaw when Regi spoke of the replication of power. These were matters of intelligence, espionage, and spycraft, knowing what someone wanted enough to dance to the tuen you yourself set. These things were too dark and too skulky for the above board, fair minded Merchant Knight that hung on Reginae's arm. But plotting her faux assassination? That seemed imminently doable. "Nothing brings out your enemies like your untimely death. There would need to be much preperation so the coup is unsuccessful, but that is just the easy part. Yes. You should 'die.' Your enemies can be brought to heel when they are brought to the light of day." He gave her a very curt, very Frost Giant of a nod; it was a good plan. "I am at your pleasure, Queen Reginae, so the question is really up to you. Would you rather join me in the hall or in the bed?" No sooner did the words come out of his mouth did his off kilter mind register how so very wrong that question could be taken. "I mean...Uh....Huh."

Reginae was thinking these matters over carefully. She’d need to talk to Muzo then...pretty quickly, as a matter of fact. He was a naga she could trust. He’d never lead her astray or lie to her for his own personal gain. A truly upstanding fellow - Just like Hureig! He’d come here and offered his help, even though they would have kept him alive if he’d seen fit to bolt the second he came to. When he stumbles over some phrasing she quirks a brow and holds him steady for a beat, waiting for some clarification before deciding it best not to explore the subject further. “I could use a vacation?” She offered hopeful to steer the conversation back to her own death. “No one could know, except a small group that would assist me in laying the pieces in the right places. Hureig would of course be in the know if she could help it. After all, it was mostly his brilliant plan! “Maybe your physical exertion is trifling with the rest of your faculties,” She laughs, leading him back to the bed he’s occupied for the couple of months he’d been their guest. “Let me check with my scientist and see what we can cook up.” She nodded, hopeful and excited for this funeral. What was a naga if not cunning and creative? Reginae would wholeheartedly admit that she’d underestimated Frost Giants. They were more than just a pretty face after all.

Ever the gentleman if not so well with words, Hureig made no protests when she guided him back to the bed. He was grateful getting off his feet, truth be told if the deep sigh wasn't enough of a sign. It would be a long and hard swim against the current to get back into his former shape and his former life. Something hit him, a memory of sorts, hard enough to nearly throw him from his bed had there not been a strong, indepdent Naga Queen in front of him. "Little Queen Hildegarde! A mammoth calf. Was there a mammoth calf with me? She wouldn't leave my side! Has she been taken care of? Have you seen her?" His mammoth calf would've no doubt made her way back to Frostmaw if she had not been caught and kept by the Naga. So worried was he, so fraught was the thought of his charge not near him, that he looked to Regi with tear streaming eyes. "She is just a babe!"

Reginae is taken aback, leaving her arm where it was to support him back in the bed but tilting the rest of her body away so as not to be caught in his whirlwind. "There wasn't a calf with you, no." She looked around the room then, as if one might spontaneously appear as having always been there. Nope, no calf to speak of. "I-I-I bet she's safe back in Frostmaw." Reginae offered, hopeful. She wasn't accustomed to dealing with emotional outbursts and felt underprepared to soothe him. When he looks to her with that tearful expression, she pats his hand repeatedly. "She likely refused to swim the currents that brought you here, and found her way home. All the more reason to recover." She hoped and prayed to Aramoth that his calf was safe on the other side of the bloody world or she'd look like a monster. All his hard work wouldn't be in vain though, even if the calf perished. The tip of Reginae's tail twitches carefully and she retreives her arm once it's clear he's stablized in the bed. Physically. She couldn't claim knowledge of his emotional state. It's such a messy affair. She unwraps spare bandages for him to comically blow his nose into if he'd like before clearing her throat and announcing that she needed to take her leave. "If we find a calf on the grounds or anywhere nearby, I'll have her brought her post haste!"

The Frost Giant appreciated her kind ministrations, as awkwardly as they were given. It had been a long, strange, and exhausting trip waling from the bed to the door and back. His eyes were red and swollen, his nose close to that state as well, and at times the best medicine for this situation was a good nap. "If she were here, she would've already found her way to my bed...and likely gored a few nagas in the process." He attempted a joke and attempted a smile, but both ended as flat and out of place as...well...a frost giant in naga-landia. "I think I will take a nap. I am quite beat, and tomorrow will be even harder yet. I will begin martial training tomorrow. Perhaps you and I can cross blades, if you are adept in such matters. Don't be afraid...I wasn't a good swordsman before the long nap, so I am sure I'm terrible in this state."