The bounty hunter's care.
With the heat of the flames nearly scorching your back, you dare the creature to slam down. You stick out your hand, and challenge the damned thing. The wailing and shouting reaches a creshendo as it smashes downwards, right towards you. You jump out of the way, and the pillar crashes against the massive bonfire! Cinders fly around you as the burning wood explodes around you, hitting some of your companions with the wooden schrapnel. You take a large piece of wood to your back, but you pay it no mind. The flames, eager for their meal, quickly leap upon the creature, causing it to
scream. The sound is deafening, and you cover you ears as you stumble in confusion. The beat stumbles in wild panic, as the arms grab anything in range. Unfortunately.
That includes you. A hand grabs a leg that was too close. The arms and the mouths are covered in an incinerating heat, and they pull you towards them with an unholy strength of terror and rage. Your legs are caught at first, but soon your whole body is clamped against the creature, as the mouths extend and bite down on your flesh. You scream in agony as they bite and burn, white flashes blurring your vision. You can't hear anything but the wailing of the creature, and the crackling of the fire. The teeth gnash and chew upon you, locking you in place! The world begins to dim as pain becomes the only thing you can feel...
Suddenly, cool hands embrace you, and forcefully remove you from the burning pillar. The mouths, clamping on to your flesh, take their prize as your skin tears, and your flesh remain. Even your very blood seems to be boiling from the heat. You only faintly hear the dying wails of the pillar as you lose consciousness...
You seem adrift in an endless black. a feeling of weightlessness seems to be all-encompassing. You can't even your body with how light you are. You float around, until you see a beautiful white light. Your expression slacks as you look upon it, and you slowly begin to float towards it. A voice seems to speak to you, a soothing tenor that seems to sing to you. You can only barely make out the words.
A....Champion....Armies....Deserving.Those are the few words you managed to understand. The beautiful light is getting closer, and you feel
so happy. Tears roll down your face, and you begin to sob as
you're just so damned happy. The voice is getting louder, and yet harder to hear. The light turns to a
bloody beautifulred as you continue to float towards it. Everything is still
so fucking joyful! Your lungs can't take in the air, you're suffocating
with laugher.
Suddenly, you hear another voice. A familiar voice. It draws you away as you smell... Home. The vision begins to blur,
as the voice screams.
You open your eyes, and you instantly regret it. Everything hurts. Your back feels like it is still on fire, and your spider parts feel shattered. You can hardly move as you groan in pain. Sharp pains in your abdomen, a dull pain in your shoulder, and so much burning. You force back tears as you try to look around. Suddenly, a rough hand takes you by the shoulder, and a masked man looks you straight in the eye. He instantly lets go while mumbling something through his odd helmet. It's an iron helmet, with slits for the eyes and a spike on top. The face is covered with heavy cloth, making it nearly impossible for him to speak. He takes a step back, and begins to fidle with his helmet. You're too weak to say anything as he slowly removes his helmet. Finally, he manages to make an opening for his mouth
Damn it girl... I lost you once already, twice would have been too much.You find the energy to shout:
Dad!Your voice sounds hoarse, and weak. You cringe in pain as your back hurts once more.
Easy, now, easy! Come now, we didn't bring you back from the dead just so you can jeopardize it. Speaking of which, where'd you find these characters, anyway? They look like bandits...You take care not to overdo it, and slowly croak out that they ARE bandits. Just... under your command.
You father doesn't look reassured. Still, he sighs and calls to the outside that you're awake. People quickly come in, Thorgal coming first, looking relieved. Yunikki comes in second, looking satisfied, followed by Laiko, who seems indifferent. The new guy, the bandit you picked up after the ritual, also comes in. He looks a bit nervous, like he doesn't know what to do. Thorgal speaks:
You had us worried there, Sydney... I honestly thought you were dead. If this man didn't *ahem* INSIST on taking care of you, I wouldn't have tried... I have to say, you're even tougher than you look.Bastard.Hey, look, one show of that hook was enough, old man. No need to do any repeats. There is a hint of fear in her voice. It's quite unusual, considering she's still in full armor.
Did we kill that... thing? You're still hoarse, but you begin to collect yourself.
Mostly... It flailed around as the fire tore it to pieces, but eventually it fell...After which the insides tried to escape through that girl that was attached...They would have let it, too. Good thing I arrived in time. I chopped up that girl, put a stop to that... After which you threatened to castrate me if I didn't help out taking care of Sydney.It WAS kind of a dick move to not help, though.Wasting supplies on the dying is not what we teach in the north! If my village spent its supplies on every unprepared traveler, we would have died out! So forgive me, if I didn't feel like wandering back to my fucking wife with my tail between my legs without even having any supplies!A-Are you leaving?He is... As am I. I need to get back to mother, and he needs to explain why he failed his mission. Oh... I'm glad you're alive, by the way. Things didn't look too good....about that. Look, we had to remove the bandages you already had, and the silk shirt. I gave you my cloak but... It's not pretty, Sydney. You've got scarring from your back to your shoulder. And we're still far from finished. Once you can walk, we're going to the city. Ambrosius will fix you up properly. I'll take care of you in the meantime.Your father fully removes his helmet, and gives you the softest, most honest smile you've seen in weeks. It gives you a true feeling of safety.
The furs you're on are also awfully soft, apart from one small hard spot. You laboriously turn over, and see your little lizard skeleton. It looks as tired as you are.
Fall asleepThis will lead to your recovery, and begins the walk back to town. You will talk to nobody.Ask Laiko or Thorgal to stayYou may still need them. But you're going to need a compelling argument.Ask Yunikki what her plan is.She didn't express anything in the way of plans. What is she going to do?OtherRegardless of choice, you will still go through your recovery period, during which you will assess the damage you took, and some other things.Level: 4
HP: 0/20 (Death's Door!)
Mana: 4/9
Stress:15/100
Equipment:
Wooden shield(Well-made)( not on you right now)
Items:
Poison-box (still in your tent)
Around 100 coins and five rubies.
Wooden amulet of meditation
Wooden amulet of extremely minor healing
Magic:
Resurrect vermin: Allows you to resurrect very small creatures such as rats(1)(invests 1 of your max mana)
Reshape minion: Allows you to slightly change the appearance of your resurrected minions.
Skills:
Poison Stinger (Potentially lethal)
Major experience in blocking and swords.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: excellent
Corpse Cutting: Awful.