((Collab with
Shinko due to action.))
The owl tore at its prey, inciting both knights to charge at it, blades ready. Hearing their approaching footsteps - and rattling of their armor - the owl took off before they could strike, tearing up the hound some more as it did.
Orrin cursed under his breath, wishing he’d brought his crossbow. Noticing his fellow knight approaching, he asked “How’s the hound?”
Sieg knelt next to the black hound, examining it with the gloves that were still coated in the solidifying mixture. It’s breathing was heavy, and it whined softly with each exhale. However, to Sieg’s surprise as he was checking it’s body, he realized that it’s fur was damp with something besides blood. He yanked his glove off, and touched the hound’s back experimentally- he could.
“Orrin, I can touch him; I shouldn’t be able to, but I can!”
Orrin had to resist the urge to take his eyes off the owl and do a double-take. “
What?!”
Sieg pressed his hands into the damp place on the hound’s fur, and then pulled his hand back and gave it a sniff- it smelled like the stuff they’d been rubbing on their swords earlier…
“I… I think the solidifying mixture got on the hound… but
how?”
Realization hit the half-dwarf, and he exclaimed something in Dwarven. “I dropped the potion when it ran by me. It must’ve spilled on the hound!”
Sieg swore in Elvish. “So that’s why it couldn’t get away!”
He glanced up at the owl to check that it wasn’t coming for them again. It was circling overhead- he’d have to trust Orrin to keep an eye on it. Then he resumed his inspection of the hound. It’s wounds were bad- Sieg wasn’t really sure how much punishment a supernatural creature could take, but if it had been a mortal dog he’d have definitely said it was losing way too much blood.
Orrin watched the owl carefully, observing its movements and the direction of its flight. It broke out of its circle, and started diving towards a spot near the edge of the woods, but what was it after?
Again, realization hit the Stallion knight. “It’s headed for the kid!” he shouted. “We have to-”
Suddenly, there was a loud sound of collision. The owl’s was halfway phased through a tree, its wings jutting out and flapping frantically. It tried to move forward, but its talons seemed to get caught behind the trunk.
“The potion got on it. Its stuck… That buys us some time.” He turned to the half-elf. “Yer faster. Go! I’ll guard the hound!”
Sieg didn’t even bother with a verbal reply. He lurched upright, bolting towards the trees where he’d left the little boy. He could hear the child screaming, but it wasn’t the incoherent cries of fear one might have expected.
“Stop! Please, please, I’m sorry, we’re
all sorry! We didn’t mean it!”
Sieg finally reached the child, positioning himself between the boy and the thing that was rattling the canopy overhead. Leaves and sticks rained down on them as the owl tried to yank itself free.
“What’s going on?” he demanded of the child. “Who are you apologizing to?”
“To her!” he said, pointing up at the owl, which had finally managed to yank itself loose and was circling above the trees. “I could hear her in my dream, she’s just angry and scared!”
Meanwhile, Orrin kept a close eye on the hound. Fairly confident that the owl wouldn’t come back, he bent down for a moment and stroked it gently.
“Come on, Nightsinger… Hang in there…”
The hound gave a soft whine, lifting it’s head weakly. It looked directly at the owl again, and tried to croon a few notes of it’s song. But it was panting too hard, and with a whine it let it’s head fall again. The crimson light flared around it’s body, and it’s form began to fade.
“No…” the Stallion knight pleaded. “Nightsinger, don’t!”
The black hound glanced at Orrin, and put a paw out to his knee. The creature’s rough paw pads touched his armor for a fraction of a second, and it pointed it’s nose towards the owl again. Then with a final flash of scarlet it went limp, and it’s body faded from sight.
“No…”
Unaware of the tragedy unfolding in the clearing, Sieg turned to the young boy. “That owl-thing talked to you?” the half-elf demanded.
“She’s not a thing!” the boy sobbed. “She’s someone from the village, I know her!”
Above the forest, the owl decided that its prey was too well protected. It gave a hiss in annoyance, turning and flying off into the woods.
“Wait!” the boy shouted, reaching after it, but when he tried to stand he stumbled and lost his balance with a sob of pain.
The clanking of armor could be heard approaching the two, and Orrin came into sight, his gait having less energy than usual. He spotted them, quickening his pace. “How’s the kid?” he asked his fellow knight.
Sieg looked up, frowning slightly at Orrin’s demeanor. “He’s alive, but he hurt his ankle when he fell from the rocks. You know how to treat bone injuries, right?”
Glancing out into the clearing, Sieg asked, “Where’s…”
The half-dwarf was silent for a moment. “I... I think it’s with the girl.”
Oh. Oh no...Sieg clenched his teeth. They’d come here intending to defeat the black hound, but now circumstances had shifted so completely that it felt like a punch in the gut to realize the spirit was dead. Talk about being careful what you wished for.
“I see,” he said softly.
The little boy, meanwhile, looked up at Orrin. “I-I didn’t mean to come, I was asleep, and, and then she came.” He buried his face in his hands, sobbing. “My leg hurts, it really hurts!”
Orrin looked over at the boy. “Don’t worry, I’ll give it a look. Before I was a knight, I started learnin’ how to be a bone-healer.” He bent down by the child. “Can ya be brave for me?”
The boy looked up at Orrin, then hugged him around the waist and nodded.
Orrin let out a chuckle. “Yer gonna have to let go of me.” He looked up at Sieg. “Could ya help hold him still?”
Sieg nodded. “Of course.”
He gently extricated the boy’s arms from around Orrin’s waist, and sat down so that he was holding the boy in his lap. The youngster whimpered as his leg jostled. “Easy, easy,” Sieg said softly. The child hugged around one of Sieg’s arms, and he put his free hand on the boy’s head.
The half-dwarf started removing his gloves. “I’m gonna have to feel it, so this’ll hurt.” With his hands free, he gently held the boy’s foot, probing it to determine the position of the bone as the child whimpered. “Yeh, the ankle’s out of place. At least it’s not broken.”
“Should be able to put it back into place easily enough then?” Sieg asked, stroking the boy’s hair to calm him.
Orrin nodded, then looked at the boy. “Now, this is goin’ to hurt
a lot, but it’ll be able to heal once I do it. Ya can be brave for me and take it, right?”
The boy whimpered a little, tightening his grip on Sieg’s arm. The half-elf reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a small kerchief- normally he kept a few on hand to wipe his face after exertion, but he offered this one to the child.
“Here, you can bite on this. It’ll help.”
He swallowed hard, but took the folded scrap of cloth and put it between his teeth, resuming his death grip on Sieg’s arm. Slightly muffled, he said, “Okay.”
Sieg put his free arm around the child, and gave Orrin a nod.
Orrin turned back to the foot, taking a breath. He checked the joint one last time, pausing to ready himself, holding the leg still with his other hands. He moved the foot in place, trying to do it as quickly as possible, and with no more force than he needed to. The boy’s entire body spasmed and he screeched with pain through the kerchief in his mouth, squeezing Sieg’s arm hard enough for the knight to feel it despite the gambeson and armor. Sieg held the boy as tightly as he could while still remaining gentle and comforting.
“Okay, it’s set,” the half-dwarf said. There was a beat of silence, broken only by the sobbing of the little boy, then the Stallion knight hung his head briefly before looking over at his friend. “Do ya have any more of those handkerchiefs?”
“Yeah, a few,” Sieg said. He took his free arm off of the child for a moment and pulled his belt pouch off entirely, offering it to Orrin.
Orrin took the pouch, opening it and giving a nod. “Alright, now we need somethin’ to keep it still with. I guess we can find plenty of sticks around here.”
“The owl knocked some out of the tree while it was stuck, there might be one strong enough right nearby,” Sieg replied, glancing around. He started to shift so that he could help Orrin look, but the boy redoubled his grip on the half-elf’s arm. “Ah…”
Orrin smiled inside his helmet. “I’ll go look. I’ll know what to look for, anyway.” He turned to the boy. “Try to keep that foot still until I come back, okay?”
The child sniffled and nodded. “You… you’re not gonna hurt her, are you?”
The half-dwarf gave a reassuring smile before remembering the boy couldn’t see it. “Kid,” he said, “we’re knights. It’s our duty to keep people from bein’ hurt and help them out as much as possible.”
The child looked up at him with wide, moist eyes. “But, but you were trying to hurt her before! With your swords!”
Sieg looked down at the child. “You said something about that before didn’t you? You said you knew the owl creature, that it was someone… from… the village.”
His amber eyes widened, and he looked up at Orrin sharply. The half-dwarf looked at Sieg in return.
Oh no… Orrin turned to the child. “Who
exactly is she?”
The boy swallowed hard, unable to meet Orrin’s gaze. “She was a girl in the village, my age. We, we didn’t mean to, we didn’t want it to happen, but we chased her in the woods and she,” he sobbed brokenly. “She died and it was all our fault, she, she died, she wasn’t supposed to but she did. I heard her in my dream, she was so sad and angry, she asked why we didn’t help her, why we didn’t save her, and then, and then-”
“Hey, easy,” Orrin said, calmly. “Ya don’t have to talk about it right now. Right now, let’s focus on yer foot.” He set the boy’s foot down gently, then stood, still looking at the two. “I’ll be right back.”
Sieg nodded, his eyes clouded with worry. “We’ll be here. I think this is going to be a very long night.”
Orrin nodded, then ran off toward the tree where he saw the owl stuck earlier. A couple minutes later, he returned with a number of sticks. “Got ‘em. I’ll have that foot bandaged in a jiffy.” He bent back down and got to work, wrapping the foot firmly but gently, doing his best to make sure it was supported with the materials he had. “I think that’ll do it,” he said, tying it off. “What say we get ya back home?”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Sieg said. “I think this young man’s parents will be missing him.” With a half-hearted smile he added, “At least tonight we won’t be getting yelled at.”
“I want my mommy,” the child whimpered.
“Don’t worry. Ya’ll be back with her very soon.”
The knights chase the owl away from the hound and realize that Orrin must have dropped the solidifying potion on the canine. They protect both the hound and the boy, and the owl flies off. However, the hound fades away, and the boy pleads with the knights not to hurt “her.” The owl was apparently someone that died after the children chased her into the forest. Now why does that sound familiar?