RP:Forget Reality, Waking up is Hard to do

Part of the Thy Kingdom Come Arc

Summary: Alex wakes up to find Aira staring at him with her super creepy eyes, finds out the current status of Frostmaw and then goes back to sleep.

Medical Tent

It was no surprise that Aira was unaware of Alex's arrival in the war camp despite being a resident of the medical tent herself. True to self, Aira kept the nurses on their toes, constantly sneaking out and wandering about, popping stitches, and most likely hindering her own healing. Try as they might to tame the huntress they eventually gave up, letting her do her own thing without argument. Aira walks through the war camp in her usual attire now-leggings, soft leather boots, and a piece of fabric knotted around her chest leaving her midsection completely bare. On her stomach (and mirrored on her back) was an impressive scar in the shape of a sideways v, the skin that was stitched together appeared to be burned. As the huntress passed a ground of healers making their way out of the camp to collect more medical supplies she heard them whisper to one another about the raven haired bard who arrived on the back of a dire bear. Copper irises widen and without another word she sprints towards the medical tent and frantically searches the beds for Alex.

Alex leaps over the rushing water of the creek landing on the other side with a splash as he continues rushing ahead of a companion in a fit of laughter, throwing playful taunts while dodging briars and fallen branches that cover the forest floor. A solid "Omph!" exhaled as the wind is nearly knocked out of him while tackled down by the cute blonde headed girl chasing after him who disproves his taunting with her own going on about how she'd finally caught up to him and he wouldn't be getting away this time. The raven haired boy was bright red with a blush from his admiration and energy and fought fruitlessly against the slightly older girl's grip that kept him pinned to the ground. Ice blue eyes meet with ivy greens through the laughter and soon pearly white teeth are hidden when the duo settle down and stare at one another, the girl leaning in slowly and closing her eyes to try and claim a kiss from the dirty human boy.

After frantic searching and a few shouts from at the healers Aira pushes open a curtain to find Alex lying upon a cot, a scowl forming on her lips. She quickly closes the curtain once more, forgoes the chair and sits beside the bard on the mattress. Slender fingers move to entwine with Alex's as her other hand moves to smooth some raven locks off of his face. Her copper eyes remain unblinking as she continues to look down into his face, holding his hand, and praying to the gods that he is okay.

Alex 's eyes close and he quickly wets his lips while trying to catch his breath, he swears he can feel her breath on his chin and neck causing his heart to beat so hard against his chest he worries it will burst out at any second. A thundering boom rings out through the woods breaking the peaceful silence of the forest and causing Alex to jerk his eyes open as he looks to the girl to find her just as panicked, "The regime!" she cries out while thrusting herself off of Alex to charge through the woods, the boy quickly following her while crying out for her to come back. Sprinting through the thicket as the booms grow louder and more frequent the children finally break the tree line to find a massive plume of smoke lingering above their village, military siege engines launching flaming projectiles onto their homes. The shriek of the girls cry deafens the boy who struggles to recover in time to see her charging forward, "Allysa! Stop! Please! Wait!" he pleads from the tree line frozen in fear while the blonde haired girl closes in on the village. She never saw it coming, the shrapnel that caused her to go limp and fall to the earth. But the boy with the raven hair witnessed it all and even though he screamed as loud as his could, he couldn't hear it. The ringing in his head grew louder and louder until finally he snapped awake with a jolt that left him wincing in pain, his left hand rushing to grab at his broken rib cage before he takes notices of the other already being held by someone else. Following the appendage he finds the unblinking stare of Aira and winces once again in surprise and fear before feeling a wave of relief rush over his battered body, "Ow..." is all he says before resting his head back on the cot. The swelling in his cheeks has mostly gone down after a few days in the medical area of the camp but the bruising is still ever present and every part of his body is sore. Without any idea of how he ended up here he considers it a safe zone if the elf is by his side though the spinning in his head prevents him from questioning her.

Aira jumps slightly as Alex wakes startled, inhaling sharply as she finally blinks rapidly. "Alex..." she whispers, her metallic irises finally closing after seeing those icy blue eyes. It was confirmation that he was alive, a fear that had been looming over her for the past several weeks. The tightness in her chest loosens and she slumps over. 'He's okay. Injured, but okay,' she tells herself internally before looking down at Alex once more. Her hand gently squeezes his before her other comes up to caress his cheek with the gentlest of touches. "Shh, be still," she coos.

Alex doesn't retract away from her touch since the sting is only slight, the purple tinted flesh twitching slightly as he swallows hard with a very dry mouth obeying her orders to remain still but completely disregarding the shushing sound, "Where am I?" he asks with genuine curiosity, everything past the first two minutes in the garden with Ayras a complete loss.

Aira retracts her hand from Alex's cheek, untangles her fingers from his hand and moves to pour a glass of water from the pitcher beside his bed. Returning to his side she offers the water to the bard and would assist him should he need it. "You're in Xalious," she explains in a quiet voice, one adopted in such situations. Instead of elven, she chooses her more rough common language for the human. "In the medical tent at the war camp." Aira pauses as she swallows hard, "The nurses say you've been here for a few days, I'm sorry I didn't know..."

Alex definitely needs the assistance to drink the water and winces once again as he is lifted up though just after he takes his first sip of the refreshing water that literally taste like life itself a stupid smile that pains his face spreads across his lips and he quirks back to her excuse with, "Neither did I". Trying to remain upright despite the dizzy spell he turns to his left to try and pop his back, succeeding but unsure if it was a good idea as the crack is very loud and very painful leaving him whining like a lost dog for a second before looking back to Aira. "War camp, huh?" a slight pause, "Hildegarde's or can I assume I'm a fresh new P.O.W?"

Aira places the glass back down on the small table before offering Alex a lopsided smile. "Please, you think I would allow myself to become a prisoner of war?" She shakes her head incredulously as her platinum blonde hair spills across her shoulder. "No we are at Hildegarde's camp, preparing to take Frostmaw back." A beat as she studies the bard for a few quiet moments. "I'm so happy to see you."

Alex resists the urge to let himself fall back down flat onto the cot, his back already sore from laying for so long... or maybe it was from the ass whooping he had taken but regardless he stayed upright despite his spine aching and his ribs feeling like tiny little shards piercing his insides. "Hildegarde" he repeats quietly under his breath while his eyes fall to examine the floor for a brief moment before bouncing back up just as Aira expresses her joy to see the bard. "Even in this condition?" he jokes with a laugh that causes him to huff and groan, "I'm happy to see you too, love. Though I wish it was in a happier mood. I wasn't supposed to end up like this, at least it wasn't the plan." The spiraling sensation begins to die down as he glances around the room to take in his surroundings, "Take back Frostmaw, huh? Call me a pessimist but it looks like we're a bit lacking in the resources department to be jumping into war." A comment criticizing the less than desirable medical camp before he casts her another look, "What's the word then? How is Hildegarde? Has she announced a grand plan or do we plan on marching up to the front gate and asking politely to come back in?" -We-. An odd statement for the bard to make. In his current condition he was no use to himself much less the resistance fighting back against Balgruff, as of now all he was successful in doing was taking up their cot space which should be used for wounded soldiers, not fool minded bards.

"Lay down," she commands softly, standing from the bed and moving over to the chair. She would drag it across the floor to be right beside the cot so the couple could continue their conversation. "Yes, even if this condition. I mean, if prefer you whole and healthy, but I'd take this over the alternative." Once again, those fingers which let forth a deadly arrow and yank the innards out of her kills, move gently through his raven locks. "The rest of the camp is rather large, you are simply in the medical tent. It's where I've been staying too, but, I've been sneaking out when I can, of course," she adds with an innocent grin. "I have not been made privy to the plans on storming Frostmaw but I'm sure Hilde has something big in the works. There are plenty of people who are here and support her."

Alex yields his mental battle with himself over whether he should lay down or not allowing him to succumb to exhaustion and fall backwards onto the cot where with gritted teeth and squinted eyes he takes a few deep and heavy breaths before taking in what she had said. "Yeah", he states with a cool tone in regards to Hildegarde having a plethora of allies standing by her side, truth be told the bard knew he wasn't a necessity to anything the resistance was doing. In fact, since he exile from Frostmaw he had followed Leone's orders and recruited Khitti to aid in the cause but then mindlessly wandered the woods for a month or so before ending up having his body bashed to hell by that vampire in the garden. Despite this, the human couldn't shake the feeling that he owed it to the silver dragon to continue doing whatever he could to aid her in her efforts due to the kindness she had showed up upon their first meeting. The more he thought about it the harder the thoughts pressed on his mind, Hildegarde and the camp didn't need him, he wasn't a very good bard and wasn't close to anything resembling a real fighter, even back home he was mostly known for his undercover work delivering parcels and relaying messages to those who could actually do something with the information. A smirk forms as he reminds himself to stop being so pitiful and selfish, none of this was about him and he was wasting what little bit of energy he had trying to make it that way. Letting his neck roll to the right he faces Aira, "If you don't mind, I'd like to go back to sleep for a while. Maybe I'll dream how the hell I got here. If you happen to come across Khitti, could you have her come see me? Also, find out where Adagio is? Oh... and Rattimus. You still have him safe, right?" Another heavy breath taken to clear the rush of thoughts and give Alex a moment to focus on the most important thing right now, Aira, he smiles with a wink to the elf, "I love you, Aira. Thank you for being here."

Aira nods her head in understanding at Alex's desire to go back to sleep. "If you don't mind, I think I'll stay with you a bit. Make sure you don't slip into a coma or anything," she teases, reminding him of the first time she spent the night with him. Really, she wasn't ready to let him out of her site, not yet. When he asks her to find Khitti her chest tightens a bit but she nods--the vampire is still a sensitive topic to the high elf. She will also check on Adagio. As for Rattimus, "He's curled up in my bed snoozing at this moment. I shall fetch him later." At his profession of love she leans forward to press her lips to his forehead. "I love you, too, Alex."

Alex knew well the distaste between Khitti and Aira but to put it in blunt terms, the human didn't give a damn. The vampire was his closest friend and the elf had claimed his heart, one without the other simply wasn't enough and so he chose to pretend they got along swimmingly - at least that's the scene that played in his head. The reassurance that Rattimus was well and sleeping as he always was brought relief to the human and though he still worried about his vampire and bear he found the compassion of his beloved and the well being of the rodent enough to let himself rest and that is what he does, within minutes the human is fast asleep to escape the pain.