Lost

[Celeste]

Celeste slowly opened her eyes and looked at Caleb. She was shuddering badly "my wing hurts . . .alot,". other than the slashes across her wings and body, her broken wing was the worse injury. She started to sit up and grunted in pain. "Oooh" she closed her eyes again.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Lie still," Caleb said, looking at her gashes and realizing he had no water with him to clean the wounds. There was a well just inside the town, but he wasn't about to leave her here alone smelling of blood. "I'm going to touch your wing...please endure it," he warned her quietly. It somehow felt like the beautiful feathery limbs were something sacred that he absolutely should not touch, but if it was broken, he wouldn't be able to move her anywhere until it was taken care of.

His hand touched her just behind the shoulder, fingers pressing very gently along the bone. Her feathers slid under his fingers like he was touching silk... He reached the first joint and followed with his fingers along the second bone, very, very gently.

[Celeste]

Celeste took a sharp breath as Caleb brushed the break. she took several breaths trying to keep calm. Keeping her eyes closed she whispered "you're the first, to ever help me . . ." her voice was strained but level.

[Soran Nightblade]

Caleb paused at her words, his fingers resting very still over the break. She couldn't possibly be serious...she looked like a being people couldn't help but want to approach. She had a strange, almost ethereal draw about her. Even at the inn, he'd felt almost compelled to speak to her.

"I'm sure I'm not the first," he said tensely, sliding his hand away from her wing. "Lie still. It needs to be splinted," he said, getting back to his feet. He turned to the tree Celeste had been sleeping in and jumped up, catching the lowest branch and pulling himself up to it. He climbed to the end of the branch and broke off the pieces he needed to form a support for the splint, then dropped back to the ground.

His slashed-up leg wobbled in protest as he landed. He swallowed a curse, but regained his balance as he returned to Celeste and knelt next to her wing. He lay the branches he'd collected on the snow in front of him, snapping off the leaves. "Can you see me alright?" he asked her, wondering if she was losing too much blood.

[Celeste]

Celeste opened her eyes and looked towards Caleb "yeah, save for the tears in my eyes" she mumbled "most people don't approach me for fear of my magic . . .it's so weak though" She sighed and tried to draw on her energy but it faltered and stopped "I have bandage in my pack"

[Soran Nightblade]

Caleb's eyes shot down to hers at her mention of tears. Heat rose to his face, and he was grateful that it was dark. It occurred to him that she might not even recognize him, which was probably ideal. He forced his attention to the bag she'd mentioned, which was lying on its side in the snow next to her. He pulled it open and found the roll of bandages. With strong but steady hands, he carefully bent her wing into its folded position and pressed the bone straight, knowing the movement was probably horrible for her. He held the wing in position and placed the wood pieces along each side of the broken bone before wrapping the bandage fully around her folded wing. He looked down at her watchfully several times as he looped the fabric around the wing until the break was braced securely, and then he tied off the bandage. "The best I know how to do," he breathed apologetically when he finished.

[Celeste]

"It's fine" her voice wavered with pain "I couldn't have done it myself" Celeste smiled softly "I was lucky you where nearby, huh?" She thought to herself about her family, how everyone looked after each others missed that, but she may never have that homey feeling again.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Possibly not so lucky," Caleb muttered. "I have terrible luck with cats." He shook his head, reminding himself to get off that subject. "Do you have medicine in here?" he asked, leaning back toward her pack to look for anything he could use to clean her wounds.

What was he doing, getting so comfortable around this strange being and going through her things?

[Celeste]

"No" she replied and looked away. "I'm sorry you have to help me . . .I'm just so lost . . ." Celeste closed her eyes and shuddered. It was true she was lost, and now hurt, what good was she?

[Emora Deen]

Stephan looked at her and frowned. “She’s not dead,” he muttered. “I lied. She’s somewhere, I don’t know where. Back that way I suppose.” He nodded his head in the direction he’d come. Then, he turned away from the demon without so much as a second glance. He sipped one sword in the sheath on his back, and the leather brushed up against the jagged cut that had claimed one of the leather straps that held the sheath on his back fell and he frowned when he felt the sheath slip loosely behind him. He’d have to get that fixed. So wearing it as he would a backpack, he held onto his other sword incase the crazed woman tried to attack him again.

[Celeste]

"I have wronged you, Sir" Yoruhana said softly, she took a bundle of bandage and handed it to him "I have no use for it" she then took off into the air like a stealthy hawk.

[Emora Deen]

Stephan looked down at the bandages in the snow and then lifted them up, putting them in his pocket. “Great,” he muttered, wondering if all the women in Ighten were partially psychotic… He was thankful for the bandages; the only problem was he couldn’t reach the area on his back that was wounded. So he supposed he’d ask for help in the next town, and pray to receive it.

[Soran Nightblade]

"I know this area pretty well," Caleb said. Understatement of the year. "Where are you trying to go?" He frowned at the pouch that didn't contain what he needed. He could clean her wounds with snow, but it might take a long time. "Would you let me carry you?" he asked tensely. "There's a well in the town." There he went talking about Hepian like it was still a place where people lived.

[Celeste]

Yoruhana followed Stephan in the air, she felt off about allowing him to have tricked her, Maybe he had told a lie to drive her away. She wanted to know why, But her meeker side was not helping, She regretted that some of Celeste's weak nature had rubbed off on her and it was making her soft.

***

"I have no destination . . .and I really don't mind" Celeste said meekly, she felt comforted in his words, feeling he wouldn't hurt her. Celeste relaxed for the first time in months "Thank you . . .um?"

[Soran Nightblade]

"Caleb," the man said tensely. He leaned forward and threaded one arm under her knees, the other behind her back, and lifted her. She felt warm and light in his arms. It's this way," he said quietly, as if she had a choice in which way they were going at this point. He began carrying her back into the town. "What are you doing in a place like this," he asked her. The further he walked, the more his leg ached, but he walked steadily to avoid jostling her injuries.