Heirot

Sinead held her maiden's hand and went on stroking her forehead. She could care less about her dress. "Don't overexert yourself. You're safe now. Everything will be fine," she repeated to her calmingly as the door opened and two doctors and a nurse rushed in carrying a long stretcher. They seemed wary of the dog, but apparently Sinead's stern look frightened them more, because they game close and set the stretcher next to Tenele. Sinead helped support her head as three pairs of hands found their way under her to shift her onto the platform. The hound snarled threateningly as they touched her, tempting them all to flee the scene, but Sinead's reassuring gaze insisted that they continue. "Her back is wounded," the nurse noted, knowing the gash on the girl's back when she felt it and quickly moving her hand to a less sensitive spot. Sinead kept her hold on Tenele's hand so the girl would know she was there as the stretcher lifted up and htey began moving toward the infirmary. "My magic speeds your body's own healing process," Sinead explained to her as they walked. "I fear you don't have the strength right now to heal so quickly. I hate to leave you in pain."

Tenele nodded slowly, closing her eyes periodicly. She forced herself to open them back up. "We've got to get him back," Tenele told her. She might want to hate Vlad, but as much as she was angry with him and hurt by him, she knew she couldn't let him just be a priosoner to Verin.

She turned her head up slightly, to where her head was tilted back. Her eyes looked for the hell hound that was following them almost protectively. So Vlad couldn't love her, but his dog apparently liked her. How amusing, she thought bitterly.

The hospital wing was just as she remembered it. How fondly she seemed to this side of the palace. A well used room for her, and it saddened her to admit such a thing. Though, there was no vampire here to threaten the nurses or the doctors as they treated her. No cool skinned attractive man to climb into her bed once they were finished to hold her so lovingly. Tenele closed her eyes, willing herself not to remember that right now. It only made her all the more confused.

Had he loved her? Or had it all been an amusing game of pretend to him, to make his boring eternal life a little more interesting. He'd always bragged about how amusing and entertaining he found her. So he had played her strings like a puppet master and lead her heart along, and when it came to his honor and his pride he'd finally decided that it was time to let her know the truth. She wanted continuously to tell herself he hadn't meant it, as she had the moment he'd spoken it. But, the tone in his voice, and the words repeated like a never ending chorus.

She was fading now, and felt herself between the realm of sleep and the realm of awake. "Mother," she whispered very faintly, shaking her head. She'd often accidently called Sinead such as a child, but it had been a long time since she'd done that. Her mouth opened to speak more, but the words never left her lips. She closed her eyes and let herself slip away. It was probably for the best. The cleaning of her wounds would not be a pleasant experience.

An hour later, things had quieted down in the clinic. Tenele lay sleeping with her wounds bandaged. Her first drink and meal of fruit juice and a porridge made of bread and milk were sitting on the stand next to her cot. The hound, for its part, was resting on the floor next to the cot. The doctors had insisted that it leave, but none had been willing to push the issue after the beast narrowly missed biting off the reaching hand of the assistant that attempted to remove it. The greater rested in a knot with its chin on its hind legs, one gleaming eye open and one closed. It looked surprisingly doglike, but then, none of the staff had seen a hellhound resting before. Most hadn't seen one at all.

Sinead had wanted to stay with Tenele as long as possible, but once the doctors assured her she was stable, she had rushed off to meet with her advisors for more discussion of the outerlands. She tried to keep her mind off of what might be happening to Vlad. She didn't normally worry over the vampire, but if what Tenele had said was correct, the vampire was in far over his head.

Talon opened the door slowly, peeking in almost warily at his sister lying sound a sleep on her hospital bed. She was bandaged adn dressed in a warm cotton gown. That was good, since winter had set in finally, and the hospital wing always tended to be a bit drafty. His long silver hair was pulled back into a tight pony-tail, and he was wearing his usual fine black robes. He opened the door a bit more and closed it behind him softly. He didn't want to wake her, especially if she needed her rest.

His face displayed every bit of concern that he was feeling as he crept towards his sister. She looked like a wounded angel sleeping. The evening sun was poring down on her, and her unkept hair was shinning despite the fact it wasn't clean. They'd been kind enough to clean her skin off with a spung, but her hair would have to come later.

Talon was more than half-way across the room when he noted the wolf sleeping close to the bed. His eyes narrowed questioningly, but he ignored it, and moved to step closer to her bed. Poor Talon, he hadn't been told about the hell hound.

The hound cracked its other eye open as Talon approached Tenele's side. Sharp pointed ears raised up to observe him, and a feral glint sparkled in its eyes. As the man took a step closer, the beast began a low, rumbling growl that could give most grown men nightmares.

Talon arched an eyebrow at the hell hound, tilting his head around the foot of the bed to see the beast. "What are you growling at?" he muttered warily, ignoring the beast and stepping closer. Talon wasn't really in the mood to deal with the dog, and not exactly knowing why it was there, he chose to once again ignore it. He was too worried about Tenele to be afraid of it. For the moment at least.

The hound did the wolf equivalent of raising an eyebrow, uncurling from its place on the floor. Standing, it was tall enough to stare the man down over the top of Tenele's cot, which was no normal thing for a wolf. Its lips pulled back into a snarl that wrinkled its muzzle, which was easily the length of a forearm.

Talon paused at the side of Tenele’s bed. He raised his hand in a signal that he meant no harm, but he seriously doubted that the beast understood sign language. It wasn’t hard for him to notice now that this was no ordinary wolf, and it seemed very intent on making sure nothing came near Tenele. It was like the wolf version of Vlad. “I’m her brother, dumb mutt,” he told the beast, keeping eye contact. “Of course you don’t know English… What if I put a collar on you?” Would you like that?” Talon smiled mischeviously.

Tenele’s eyes fluttered open and she stared at the familiar ceiling. She sighed heavily, knowing full well where she was. Her eyes stared dully at the ceiling, before turning on the presence next to her. She saw her brother, his face stern and worried as she had expected it to be. He was standing over her bed, his hand resting on the pillow next to her head. He was probably resisting the urge to put his hand on her forehead.

“Look what the cat drug in,” Tenele said softly, moving to sit up further in bed. Talon’s hand found her shoulder and held her firmly in place.

“Don’t even think about moving,” Talon told her.

“I just wanted to shift positions,” she argued. “I’ve been lying in the same spot too long.”

“Bare it, your back is stitched and I won’t have you tearing them,” he told her.

Tenele didn’t bother arguing as she normally would, which was a shock for Talon. He had expected her to fight him until she finally got her way. Instead she just sighed again, and nestled back into a more comfortable position. Talon was almost sad she didn’t argue with him, it told him that something was wrong. “When did you get a pet?” he asked her, glancing to the wolf who probably was itching to lunge over the bed since he’d placed his hands on her.

Tenele tilted her head in the direction of the wolf, and almost jumped out of her skin. She hadn’t expected to see it right there. “Its Vlad’s. He won’t go away. Its my luck, he probably can’t.”

Talon’s brow furrowed. “Vlad’s trapped and can’t watch over you, so he sent his hell hound to do it?” he asked her.

Tenele closed her eyes, pretending to almost be a sleep. “No, Talon. Not exactly,” she muttered.

Talon didn’t like this at all. Something was bothering her, and it seemed Vlad was mixed somewhere in there. Talon moved to sit on the edge of the bed next to Tenele, almost forgetting hell hound.

The hound let out something closer to a roar than a bark, something that seemed designed to dig at the nerves of human stomachs. It snapped its head forward over Tenele's body, its jagged teeth going for Talon's arm.

Talon jumped back, almost tumbling over the cot next to Tenele’s. Tenele gave an exasperated sigh and brought her hand, palm flat, around and smacked the hell hound on the nose soundly. “No,” she told him firmly. “No biting…. Not Talon at least.”

The creature actually froze, seeming uncertain how to react to Tenele's treatment of its nose. It looked at her with bright red eyes, its lip pulling upward as if to snarl, but it didn't. It moved its head away from the cot and began roaming in a slow, stalking pace around the room, its eyes set on Talon.

Talon eyed the beast a bit more before moving back to the position of sitting next Tenele. "Not exactly? He seems very intent on protecting you," Talon told her.

"It might not like you," she told him. “Talon, I don’t feel up to answering your questions.”

The mere fact she didn’t want to talk about it made him worry all the more. “Alright, I won’t push you. But, Sinead is going to come ask you the same questions eventually.”

“You can sit in then,” she told him. “That way I don’t have to repeat myself.” Tenele tilted her head away from him and watched the wolf for a moment. “I’m tired Talon. I want to sleep.”

Talon nodded slowly. “Okay,” he told her, brushing her hair with his fingers. “I’ll let you rest…. Do you want me to have someone come get the mutt?”

“I wouldn’t try that,” Tenele told him. “Just go tell the Queen I’m alright.”

“What about your food?”

Tenele glanced at the food on the bedside table. “I’m not hungry.”

Talon left a bit reluctantly, but what was he to do. He walked towards Sinead’s conference room, which was probably still in an uproar about what had happened. He couldn’t help but feel that there was something seriously wrong with Tenele. She was too agreeable and then not agreeable all at once, if that made any sense.

The guards let him in the conference room, knowing him well. He stood in the back as he listened to the arguments and bickering between the advisers. He leaned against the wall, casting his silver eyes on them as he folded his arms across his chest.

Meanwhile, Tenele was attempting to pull herself into a sitting position, pondering the possibility of escaping the bed to go to the restroom. It was alright getting out of bed and going there, it was coming back that presented the problem. All her energy had been used to get there, and on the way back she nearly ran out of it to the point that she almost fainting in the walkway. She used the beds as a way to get back to her own, and when she reached it she sat down slowly.

"This is pathetic," she muttered, looking down at her bandaged body, and the long cotton gown she wore. "What do you think, Stalker?" She ran her feet over the marble flooring, enjoying the smooth feel of it against her feet.

The hellhound watched her escapade calmly, apparently not motivated to do things like help her walk, though he was large enough to carry her easily on his back. If he had a reaction to his new name, he didn't display any, just standing very still and observing her with fiery eyes as she moved around the room. The name was rather appropriate.

It was some time later in the day when Sinead finally made her way into the room. She had Talon in tow behind her. Stalker rose gracefully to his clawed feet as they entered the room, assuming a rigid stance with head lowered at Tenele's visitors, though he didn't become aggressive, yet.

"How have you been holding up?" Sinead asked her as she crossed toward the cot. "I'm sorry for being gone all day. The conference room has been a constant activity this week." Her voice was calm and confident, but there were signs of exhaustion around the queen's eyes. "Dear, do you feel well enough to have a chat? Just us three, or I can ask Talon to go if you like," she said, putting a hand on Tenele's forehead. Stalker paced around to Sinead's side of the cot, snarling at her.

"Oh, will you stop," Tenele hissed to Stalker, giving him a hard glare. "She's not going to hurt me. Though, why you care I haven't figured out."

She glanced at Talon, and then her eyes rested on Sinead again. "He's going to interogate me about it later, anyway," she said softly. "He can stay...."

Tenele pushed hard to move into a sitting postion, her body shaking as she did so. Talon came around and helped her, nearly lifting her up to sit with her back against the headboard. She sat back slowly, wincing as she did so. "Where do you want me to start?"

Stalker apparently decided he was content to stand demonically still and observe Tenele's visitors with bloodthirsty eyes while listening to their conversation. Its pointed ears twitched faintly as it observed them, but otherwise he seemed more like a ferocious gargoyle than a creature of flesh and blood.

"This may sound very dull and political after all you've been through, but to decide our actions against Outerlands, we need to know exactly what happened in their capital. What do you believe their goal was in luring us there?