faderift | DIPLOMACY WAR TABLE MISSION: BURN BOOK (CLOSED)

"No," Colin says quickly to Athessa, "let me do that. Get my bag from the saddle."

He eases Edgard to the ground and gives him a reassuring smile.

"It's my job."

Edited 2020-09-08 02:52 (UTC)

She gives Colin a look that says if you say so and does as she's told, also taking a moment to make sure that Sunbeam hasn't taken any hits they weren't previously aware of. All clear, she unhooks the bag from the saddle and brings it back, setting it at Colin's side and opening it for him.

Reluctant as Teren is to accept help from anyone for any reason, Marcoulf has at least proven himself Not The Worst as far as people to be helped by go. With her good arm, she allows him to help her hop down, then grips her injured arm with the arrow still in it.

"Be a good lad, break it off," she mutters to him, without getting too close to anyone healer-adjacent.

Quick fingers take out what he's going to need, the first being two potions. He passes one to Edgard.

"Drink all of this while I take a look at Teren." Speaking of whom, he gets up to look around for her. With two wounded and one healer, he needs to triage, and Edgard isn't about to die. Or go anywhere.

"Here," he says to Athessa, handing her a tool. "Cut off both ends with this. I'll be right back." Then he's on his feet to walk toward Teren and get a look at that arm.

Edited 2020-09-08 05:59 (UTC)

In the shadow of Blanche's sturdy form, Marcoulf raises his hands as if to thoughtlessly indulge the request—

Then stops. The look he gives her is inscrutable in the dark. And then Colin is there, and so it is unnecessary to apologize or explain.

Oh, good, a tool. But wait—

"Both ends?!" Athessa calls after him, brows drawn low with a furrow in between. Whatever. She sighs and crouches, getting a better look at Edgard's leg. Time was she'd just snap off the head of the arrow and yank on the fletching. Of course, during that time she'd also have cut a groove in the shaft, packed it with gaatlock, and set fire to it before pulling so it'd cauterize the inside on the way out.

"Hold still." She uses the tool and its pincer-like blades to snip off the pointed end of the arrow.

"Both ends!" Colin calls back.

"Wait!" Edgard cries alarmed. He takes a huge swig of the potion, not even bothering to ask what it is. "Careful! I'm not ready." He hisses at Athessa pushing her hands away and squirming out of her reach.

He takes another swig, draining the potion. "Alright." He says revealing his leg to her. "Do it, but tell me everything you're doing before you do it."

"Stop being such a baby," Athessa protests when Edgard halts her progress, frowning at his fearful aggression.

"I'm gonna cut the ends off the arrow so Colin can remove it without it snagging on the head or the fletch."

Teren regards the approaching Colin like a nervous horse watches an unfamiliar human, ready to bolt or kick or bite at any moment.

"It's just an arrow," she snaps, more harshly than she probably intends.

"It's never just an arrow," Colin says gently, but it doesn't take long to determine the wound isn't near any major veins or arteries. It'll take a little more to see whether it's more serious, given the arm is narrower than the thigh--the arrow is more likely to have hit bone. If it's just hit muscle, both patients have been very lucky. He offers her the potion.

"Take this if you want it. I'll see to Edgard first." Since she's not in imminent danger and is handling the pain better.

Edgard frowns at Athessa's gruffness, but doesn't squirm away.

"I am injured, I'm allowed to be a baby. Now, be gentle! Please."

A sharp pain radiates down his leg and he hisses air through his teeth.

"Be glad I'm not breaking the arrow off with this—" She draws the Qunari dagger from her belt and holds it up for him to see, its wickedly curved blade glinting with a distant flash of lightning. With a flourish, she returns it to its sheath and places the tool Colin provided in place to snip off the fletching end of the arrow. "—or with my bare hands."

Gruffness doesn't really read well on Athessa, coming across as impatience more than disdain or dislike. She puts gentle pressure on Edgard's leg to prevent the arrow shaft from shuddering overmuch when she snips the shaft this time.

Grudgingly accepting the potion, Teren tosses it back and proceeds to grit her teeth in anticipation of having the arrow removed, even as Colin scurries off to do something else.

Should've just had Marcoulf do it, damn it.

Colin sits on the grass beside Edgard and adds his own hands to steady the shaft as it is snipped.

"Go ahead."

Snip!

The second that's over, Colin grabs an elfroot salve to spread over his fingertips.

"I'm going to lubricate the shaft," he says evenly, "to help it slip out more comfortably and hopefully to give you a bit of a chuckle at the way I've said all this."

His fingers work the shaft (of the arrow) delicately, focusing on the side that has not passed through the leg.

"You've had practice, seems like." Edgard laughs, quirking his eyesbrows, but its cut off by a wimper and a wince.

He breathes in and breathes out a whisper of curses in orlesian.

The gleam of a different sort of humor comes to Colin's eye.

"That's between me and someone else," he says with the tiniest smirk in one corner of his mouth. "All right. I'm going to need you to hold very, very still. Athessa is going to help you keep still by holding your hands against the ground because your body's first instinct will be to fight whatever's causing the pain. Would you like something to bite down on?"

He moves into position between Edgard's feet, holding the lower leg with his left arm.

Athessa smiles sweetly at Edgard (the cheek of it perhaps lost on Colin, who missed her earlier impatience) and positions herself behind him. She can hold his hands down, and if that fails she'll be situated well enough to get him in an arm-lock and restrain him further.

Edgard shuts his eyes a moment and then opens then again, his face hard.

“Yes, something to bite down on would be good.”

He eyes Athessa warily, but gives in.

Colin takes a small rod from his bag and places it against Edgard's lips for him to bite down on. When that's done, he takes a rag and wraps it firmly around the part of the shaft that has already passed through, giving himself more traction against it.

"All right. Taking it out now."

He begins a slow but steady pull, testing first how much resistance there is, but when it turns out to be rather easy, he pulls it straight out. Once it's out, he quickly checks the shaft for splinters that might have been left inside the leg, then casts it aside.

"That's over," he says warmly. "Now I'm going to heal it."

He places his hands directly over the wound. A blue-white glow surrounds both his hands and the wound, and soon it is closed.

"There's going to be swelling, since your body needs to catch up with the fact that the wound is healed, but it should go away within a day or two. Test it out, see if you can walk. I've got to see to Teren now."

The pain starts as unbelievable escalates to excruciating and then under the blue light dulls. If he weren’t so uncomfortable, he’d be incredibly impressed. He spits the rod out on the ground.

“Thank you, Healer.” He says it genuinely calling after the person in question who’s off to help the other patient. He squirms out of Athessa’s grasp (shooting her a dirty look) and rises lopsided on the uninjured leg to test the newly healed one. It’s stiff, but so far so good.

(Aren't all looks from Edgard dirty ones?)

"Mind yourself when that potion kicks in," Athessa says to him, standing back but not so far back that she can't cushion his head from hitting the ground if he keels over. "Wouldn't want you getting lightheaded and loopy mid-step."

(No, stop judging him! This treatment, I tell you!)

Edgard rolls his eyes, but heeds her words holding onto the nearest griffon.

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keenly - 2020-09-09 22:47 (UTC) - Expand