RP:Post-Rescue Cuddlepile
Part of the Thy Kingdom Come Arc
Summary: Hildegarde crash-lands in the middle of her camp following her and Kovl's rescue of Josleen! Josleen directs the medical staff to tend to Hildegarde's wounds while Pilar tries to ease her pain and Kovl sulks. Once Hildegarde is bandaged up, Josleen cuddles up to her and is joined by Pilar and Kovl, until one by one, they all fall asleep.
Frozen Pathway
Hildegarde, now carrying both Josleen and the little Kovl in her massive scaly clawed hand, directs her massive body towards her camp. She cannot linger for long in Frostmaw and she has no intention to either, this was only a rescue mission after all. The dragon lacked the current means to turn it into a full-scale invasion. As the dragon approached the camp, however, she bellowed loudly; flying low towards the camp. Too low for it to be relatively safe. Giants and elves alike ran out of the way of the oncoming dragon, doing their best to warn others out of her way as the giant beast came to a skidding halt across the snowy and rocky earth of the camp. Ever the knight and ever conscious of her duty, the knight had done her best to keep that particular hand out of harm’s way so that her friends could be protected as her massive scaly body came crashing down to the earth. Having left a trail in the earth, the dragon rests there like a great silver meteor. The low and pitiful groaning of a beast in pain rumbles from her throat, her hand held shut to protect her friends as her sole eye fluttered shut.
Josleen stroked Hildegarde throughout the steep descent, whispering words of encouragement to help the dragon stay focused despite the pain and blood loss. When they reach the camp she cries for help, shouts for “Healers!” She pushes out of Hildegarde’s claw and circles back to chest and hind quarters to study the large arrows and wound. Already others converge on the dragon crash site and Josleen directs a giant to please help her with the arrow. Of course they do not yank the arrow out--never yank out an arrow! She runs over to Hildegarde’s cheek and says, “This is going to hurt, but we need to gently enlarge the wound the safely pull the arrows me, make sure it won’t tear through anything vital or injure bone.” She pats Hildegarde’s large neck and in an apologetic tone says, “We won’t have enough anesthetic to dull all the pain, but I’ll see if I can rig up something local for the wound site.”
Kovl angles his wings to glide from Hildegarde as she makes her crash landing, making his departure from the fallen Hildegarde as effortless as possible before he drops to the ground himself. The pixie leans against a nearby tent post, much too tired to move a muscle to help the Steward of Frostmaw. He has expended his energy and arcane reservoir on the massive illusion he casted at the fort. His brain begs his body to assist Josleen at Hildegarde's side in any way he can, rush a farewell, and depart before the two can begin to ask questions about the circumstances which caused Kovl to leave Josleen at the fort, but his body does not comply. It's okay to rest... a while. The pixie watches Hildegarde's pained look, and he is helpless to assist. Kovl cannot help but blame himself for the harm befallen upon her. If he would have just been... alert during their infiltration and escape, there would have been no need for a rescue.
Pilar could only watch helplessly as Hildegarde came down, down, down, slamming into the earth and snow and plowing down several tents. She ran to the Silver's side, Lisbeth already far ahead of her, and knelt by Hildegarde's face. "Oh, Hildegarde..." She pulled Hildegarde's head into her lap and stroked her scales. She was exhausted from her constant illusions, kept up to maintain appearances, but even if she wasn't, what could she do? She was not yet capable of manipulating one's sense of touch... Was she? Concentrating, she poured her magic into Hildegarde, willing the dragon's nerves to stop registering the pain, to go numb. She had no idea if it would work, but all she could do was try.
Hildegarde ’s sole eye opened as Josleen speaks to her at such close proximity, the serpentine eye affixed upon the small bard. Even with being told that there would not be enough to dull all the pain, the dragon replied, “Proceed,” she rumbled the word out, holding Josleen’s gaze for a long moment as if to say ‘proceed right damn now’. And soon her massive head was being tugged into the small lap of Pilar, which caused the dragon to rumble with effort. “Kovl?” she asked, knowing that Josleen was alive but not yet quite aware about the little pixie. And then that tingling feeling of magic began to radiate through her and she made a rumbling sound: though it was unclear if it was an unhappy rumble or a pleased rumble. It was just a dragon rumble.
Josleen wastes no time instructing giants to pull flesh and muscle this way and that. She douses her arm in alcohol then squeeze the limb alongside the arrow shaft until the bard is bicep-deep in Hildegarde. She pushes on the arrowhead to dislodge it from a rib. “Pull it out slowly, slow, slow, hold. Slow. Wait.” As the giant pulls the arrow, Josleen guides the arrowhead with her hand to do the least damage to Hildegarde as possible. Once the arrow has been removed she orders a shaman to deal with the bleeding, stitching, and bandaging. Her tone isn’t as kind as usual. Even in battles she’s been a better, more patient medical leader. Today, she fails herself. The near-death, the rescue, Hildegarde’s wounds have wound up the bard to 100% tension. She’s at the brink of snapping. She sprints towards the dragon’s hindquarters and repeats the slow and tedious arrow extraction. This one is at risk of tearing into intestines, and Josleen’s knowledge of dragon anatomy isn’t masterful which heightens her stress. She’s figuring the procedure out as she goes along, and the giant makes the mistake of pulling when Josleen said ‘stop’. The arrowhead tugs on entrails, though thankfully doesn’t tear the tissue. All the same, Josleen explodes, shouting, “FOR SVEN’S SAKE, BRUNO! Pay attention!” She snarls at the giant, which is very unlike her. She’s running on fumes. Her wiring’s short circuiting from exhaustion and stress.
Kovl feels a sense of dread as Hildegarde says his name. In his mind, the wounded dragon lifts her head to scold him for what he has done, to blame him, to instill guilt. "Yes?" His voice is worn and uncertain. He gazes on as Pilar seemingly comforts the dragon and Josleen corrects her assistant out of love for Hildegarde. The pixie has never seen Josleen work, and his experiences with an angry Josleen have been too few to expect her outburst to 'Bruno'. He hopes, for their sakes and his, that Hildegarde will be okay.
Pilar didn't have the stomach to watch them fool around with the wounds, despite the gore she'd already seen. At least she didn't have that good a view, anyway. She vaguely remembered meeting a Kovl, but couldn't place a face to the name. When a voice responded to the dragon's call, she looked about for the source and almost missed the pixie hanging out by the tent pole. Ah, right, she remembered him now. She turned her attention back to Hildegarde, cringing at Josleen's shout. She never liked when people shouted.
Hildegarde ’s wound is partially numbed by Pilar’s magic, but not completely. She could still feel the movement and a little aching sensation but it would have been much worse without the magic, of that she has no doubt. “Making sure you’re well,” she grunted out the words, making it clear – albeit gruffly – that she was only looking out for the pixie. With Josleen shouting, though, the dragon knew something was amiss. Her experience could not have been an easy one. She understood what it was like to be a prisoner of war, but she didn’t know for sure what Josleen had been subjected to. “Jos,” the dragon rumbled, lifting her head up and out of Pilar’s lap so she might crane it to look at the bard. The dragon nudged her silvery maw forth – ignorant of how terrifying this might appear to those who don’t know her or those who have never been so close to a dragon before – to gently touch Josleen and speak as quietly to Josleen as her form would allow.
Hildegarde whispered something to Josleen.
Josleen and Bruno pull the second arrow free just as Hildegarde turns to Josleen. Shamans rush to the wound site to dress it. Their giant size better suits the task at hand. Josleen would need a ladder and a buddy to bind the wound. She turns to face Hildegarde as she feels the silver move, not in the slightest afraid despite witnessing the brutal slaughter of Trajek in Frostmaw. She rests a hand on Hildegarde’s scarred nose, then her forehead on the back of her own hand, heaves a great sigh. The dragon’s tone communicates more than just a name, and the bard knows Hilde’s right. She looks at Bruno over one shoulder, and says, “Sorry, Bruno.” Having done what she could, the healer crosses into the crook of the dragon’s broad, bent neck. Her back slides down the scales and knees bend to her chest. She leans back on the silver hide and rests her eyes. Josleen smiles weakly at the knight. "I know you won't." But not everything is under even a queen's power.
Kovl glances quickly to Pilar before watching as Hildegarde whispers to Josleen, and though pixies have an innate extraordinary sense of hearing, his ears are burning to know what she is saying. While he was relieved at Hildegarde's reasoning for calling his name, this whisper can mean anything, and he begins to think of excuses and lies to avoid any questioning that may be directed toward him. "I'm fine." Josleen's answer soothes Kovl again to complete the rollercoaster of mixed emotions the pixie experiences. -I'm torturing myself.- The pixie closes his eyes and takes a few breaths, still recovering from the toll his illusion took on his body.
Pilar let Hildegarde go with reluctance. The Silver should be resting, but if she wanted to speak to Josleen, that was her business. Without her touch, her magic would no longer have an effect, but it was just as well. She was out of mana, anyway. She looked between Jos and Kovl, unsure of who to offer her comfort to, though she ultimately chose the bard. After all, she was the one who'd been captured and gods knew what all else. Pilar walked over to Josleen as she sat down, and knelt, placing an arm around her shoulders. "Miss Josleen, is there anything I can do for you? Do you need to be seen by the doctors?" She wanted to ask what they'd done to her during her imprisonment, but didn't wish to drag painful experiences back to the surface. Her overactive imagination made her suspect the worst, and so she would treat Josleen with the utmost care and sensitivity.
Hildegarde had moved just before the second arrow was removed and thus had to use all her remaining might to not roar in the face of Josleen with her pain. As Josleen sat down against her scaly hide, the knight waited for Pilar to join Josleen before her massive head curled inwards to cover the pair protectively. If they needed to be seen by anyone, Hildegarde would let them but for now the dragon was maintaining her defensive position over Josleen – and now Pilar. Lisbeth, however, had prepared for Hildegarde’s return and wandered over to the small and exhausted Kovl to kneel beside him and offer him some of the herbs he and Josleen had salvaged from Frostmaw; magical restoratives that might ease his exhaustion. The dragon made a low and near contended noise.
Josleen's body language welcomes Pilar, who she knows to be a kind woman. “I just need to sleep. I couldn’t sleep up there. Sleep and kind faces, that’s what I need.” In Frostmaw, the giants spat at her. How did they come to hate so much? Josleen will fall asleep right there, and in a few minutes need to be moved to a bed, or a bed brought here. She’ll sleep wherever Hildegarde wants her, and in the morning, return to her duty at the medical ward. ….Well, maybe in the afternoon. She’ll be sleeping in, that’s for certain.
Kovl opens his eyes and gazes toward the frost giant who offers to assist him. The pixie shakes his head, "No, no. Don't waste those herbs on me. I stole them for your allies, and I cannot in the right mind take them. All I need is rest." The pixie closes his eyes again and starts to shiver as the snow he sits in begins to chill his bones. "And warmth," he adds.
Pilar allowed Josleen to fall asleep in her arms, and continued to hold her until she nearly fell asleep, herself. She jolted awake, and shook her head to clear away the drowsiness. She gazed at Josleen's face. Was she leaner than the last time she saw her? The poor bard must have suffered so much... Pilar hugged her a little tighter. Hearing Kovl, she bid him, "Come, join us." What was one more body added to the cuddlepile?
Hildegarde would lift her head should Kovl wish to join the group and draw comfort from it. But after a while, the dragon would begin to assign people to beds. If they would not separate, they would be given her own private and larger tent to rest in; which the dragon would curl around for further protection.
Kovl 's wings twitch at Pilar's suggestion to join them, carrying himself tiredly to the group. He rests atop Josleen's stomach, feeling her warmth and wishing her to be okay. He has put her through a lot, but Kovl considers it a piece that he can have solace in: everyone survived. He whispers, "Thank you, Hildegarde." As it gets late, Kovl agrees to retire in one of the tents, and he curls around a lit lantern to keep Frostmaw's harsh climate from taking him. The pixie enters into a deep slumber he's not felt in a long time, undisturbed by any distractions that may occur around him.
Pilar eventually carried Josleen to Hildegarde's tent and laid her down in the bed, covering her with furs. Making sure there was water within reach, should the bard wake and desire any, Pilar sat in a chair and started her vigil. Which didn't last long, as soon, slumber took the vampire, as well.