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Post by valter on Sept 3, 2007 10:04:27 GMT -5
"Al-alright." Zihan mumbled. He tried to bend down and untie his robe, but another flash of pain hit him when he tried to bend to reach the straps. "Ah. I can't remove this." he muttered. "Hold on a second. This should work. It'll make the wounds more obvious too. Hold on." He said, shutting his eyes. The dot of golden light reappeared on his forehead, and zipped down past his body, shifting skin and purple cloth to white and blue fur, along with several angry red gashes, the biggest of which was steadily bleeding from his side. The tiger took up about a fifth of the small room, and turned his large head up to the healer, with a funny expression on his face. He seemed to be asking, "Does this work?"
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Post by Chani {♥} on Sept 3, 2007 16:45:39 GMT -5
"Eh, th-that'll do," the healer mumbled. Iliad gave Zihan a thumbs-up from behind the old man, feeling pleased at his surprise. He took the antibiotics and poured them into his hands, rubbing them into the wounds gently. He then held his hands over each one and mouthed a few indecipherable words. His hands glowed yellow and the blood flow was stopped. After all the wounds had been tended to by this spell-casting, he bandaged them up quickly. "You can... er... change back now," he stammered. "Go on up the stairs through that door." He pointed at the far wall. "Second room on your right." He turned to Iliad, who was trying to breathe with slight difficulty. It was becoming painful and complicated without chatter or walking toward a goal to distract him. "Now, em, you."
"Iliad is my name," the centaur said. "I've a gash on my haunch here." He pointed. "But the one that needs looked at the most is quite obvious." The healer nodded, looking a little worried at Iliad's chest wound. Iliad seemed to read his mind. "It didn't hit the heart or my lung, I'd know if it did." He was a tad cranky from his sleepiness and pain. It was causing impatience in him, which only boiled as the man observed it for a moment before fetching an antibiotic. He had Iliad apply the medicine to his haunch while he looked after the chest wound.
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Post by valter on Sept 6, 2007 17:40:56 GMT -5
The antibiotics stung slightly; causing Zihan to open his mouth and growl in displeasure. Of course, seeing his large canines didn't quite help the mental state of the healer at all. He padded awkwardly past the healer and Iliad, throwing both of them a toothy grin in passing, and then walked in a small circle around the door and sat down, watching the two of them.
There were three reasons for this course of action: One, Iliad had basically said that centaurs got a rough deal, and he wanted to make sure his friend was treated properly. Two, his wounds felt cold from the spellcasting, and stiff from the bandages. And three, he couldn't change back yet, and he didn't want the elderly woman above to have a heart attack if she saw a large tiger ascending the stairs.
Anyway, Zihan waited at the end of the room, meowed once, and gave Iliad a wink with one of his big eyes. Well, I guess we made it. he thought exhaustedly.
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Post by Chani {♥} on Sept 6, 2007 20:27:30 GMT -5
The slight tingling was not felt through all the wretched pain. "How long did you walk with this?" the healer asked as his hands glowed, not yellow as they had before, but orange-red. "Most of today," Iliad said shortly. "And I'm rather tired." The man nodded, though he frowned at Iliad's bluntness. He rose his hands over Iliad's chest wound. Iliad groaned, his body tensed. The pain had grew as he thought impossible, but he was held to the spot so that he could not flail. He wondered, at first, if this was a trick. He began suspecting the Desert Demons, for they seemed vengeful when Iliad and Zihan had left them, but the pain eventually subsided. Only a dull throbbing in his chest and the splitting pain of his haunch remained. The healer's hands took a yellow glow and he held them over the haunch's wound. Iliad examined his chest. The wound had not healed completely, but he was feeling almost no pain at all in comparison to what he had been feeling.
"Your chest will take a few days to heal completely," the healer said, coming up to face Iliad. "Your haunch is bruised to the bone, but the surface wound is gone. Keep your chest wound clean until it is gone, refrain from itching it..." Iliad's hand had been raising to do just that, but he put it back to his side obediently. "...and you should be just fine." Iliad nodded. "Now, we should all rest." Iliad nodded, going out the doorway first. He leaned forward to pat Zihan on the head and started up the stairs.
"I'll room with Zihan tonight," Iliad informed. The healer, deciding that Zihan must be the tiger-child's name, nodded. Iliad knew that Zihan might not want to sleep alone, after spending so much time with his tribe and now being thrust into the unrecognizable world beyond the desert. Iliad walked into the second room on the right and lied down on his side next to the bed. He curled up his horse's legs and slipped his arm under his head, preparing to fall asleep.
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Post by valter on Sept 9, 2007 20:11:21 GMT -5
Zihan purred happily when Iliad patted his head; the low rumbling noise filled the room briefly, prompting the healer to start in surprise yet again. He nudged the door open with his head, took four pawsteps inside, and then stopped and gazed at the sight before him.
Of course, living in tents in the desert, Zihan had never seen a set of stairs in his life before. He placed a tentative paw on the first step, doubting whether or not it would hold him. The step creaked loudly, prompting Zihan to draw his paw back quickly. After a moment, he tried again, and slowly, carefully climbed his way up the stairs. Once he reached the top, he looked back and flicked his ears happily at his success, before padding through the doorway into his and Iliad's temporary bedroom.
As soon as he slipped through the frame, a drowsiness seemed to overcome him, tingling in every strand of his fur. He padded softly between Iliad and the second bed, turned in two circles, yawned contently, and then curled up, beginning to drift off into sleep.
(So what should happen during the night? Abduction? Attempted murder? Imprisonment? Or just a good night's rest?)
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Post by Chani {♥} on Sept 9, 2007 22:33:42 GMT -5
ooc;; Hmm... I was just thinking the same thing. I believe we should let them sleep for tonight, since they've had a rough day and it'd be most unrealistic for Iliad to pull through another fight alive after ignoring a hole in his chest all day. But, you know, that's too boring for characters as cool as ours. =D How about a lady's getting mugged and harassed by about three guys outside the window, Zihan overhears and growls, waking Iliad, and they go out and whoop some butt? It'd be easy enough for injured Zihan and Iliad and it could turn out to be the healer's daughter or something, so that they could room there for a few nights for free. That's not so much a worry for Zihan, since he's got a nice bag of gold, but Iliad hasn't done a job in a while and he doesn't like accepting charity. So yeahh.. Sound good? If not, that's fine. Just throwing it out there.
ic;; It wasn't long before Iliad had slipped into slumber. The comfort of even a hardwood floor was satisfactory. He felt his eyes grow heavy, and everything went dark. He was sleeping serenely, though that did not last long. He kept having horrid dreams of how his best friend, something of a brother to him, had told him to leave forever. Of Desert Demons slipping in through the windows and slitting Zihan's throat in his sleep. "But Mama! I wanna pet the horseman!" a little girl protested, trying to break free of her mother's firm grip. "No, you stay away from centaurs, Anna. They're nothing but trouble," she argued, pulling the girl into a tailor's shop. The little girl gave a sad smile at Iliad and waved as she was dragged in. Iliad pretended as if he had not seen her, heard her. Iliad's right back leg twitched slightly and his breathing stopped for a moment, then continued normally.
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Post by valter on Sept 12, 2007 20:34:20 GMT -5
Ooc: Y'know, most guys consider it bold to sneak a midnight snack, much less perform a daring midnight rescue. ^^; Ah what the heck, it sounds fun!
Bic: Tired as Zihan was, he just couldn't stay put on the solid hardwood floor. It was too rough, too unnatural, too alien for him to get used to, absolutely nothing like soft desert sands. Every so often the tiger would shift, attempting to find a more comfortable position. This would do for about 3 minutes, before his limbs began protesting in discomfort again, prompting another shift, and so on.
He glanced at Iliad, slightly envious about how his friend had found sleep so quickly, although the centaur's dreams didn't seem that great. Or maybe he always slept with a frown on his face, who knew? In any event, after much twisting and turning, Zihan finally found an acceptable position and promptly fell asleep.
For a minute, anyway. Almost as soon as he fell asleep, a disturbance reached his ear. He heard several male voices, all of which sounded distinctly slurred, along with a flustered and slightly fearful female voice. His golden eyes flickered open immediately. He growled dangerously and flicked his tail, which he discovered, too late, was draped over Iliad's ear.
At any rate, Zihan twisted back upright, and changed back to human, transitioning smoothly from paw to hand, and carrying the weight of his two trademark swords. 'I better drop this one. Can't fight injured and burdened at the same time...' Zihan thought, unbuckling his Zanbato and letting it fall onto the bed. "Iliad. We've got trouble." Zihan said in a voice that was half human, half growl.
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Post by Chani {♥} on Sept 13, 2007 19:54:36 GMT -5
Iliad itched his ear and opened his eyes, looking irritable. He was dozing back off when Zihan said something.
"Trouble?" he muttered sleepily. He rolled his feet under him with a little effort and stood. He raised his arms, flexing every muscle in his upper body and even stretching one of his back legs. "What's going on?" he asked, rubbing his eyes and propping a hand on the hilt of his sword. Then, he heard the noises, too. There was a girl's voice. It was pleading. The chuckles of men. Iliad answered his own question mentally. "That's never good." He cracked his knuckles decidedly. "Let's go."
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Post by valter on Sept 15, 2007 19:17:00 GMT -5
"Already ahead of you." Zihan whispered, quietly opening their door. He tiptoed out of the hallway, still slightly stiff, but gratefully free from pain. His golden eyes glowed in the darkness, and there was a lightness and fleetness in his step that was certainly not there before.
He zipped headfirst, catlike, down the stairs, getting a rush of exhiliration from the experience. I've gotta try that again. Zihan thought, waggling an ear, before returning his attention to the task at hand. He made his way quickly to the front door, and as soon as Iliad had reappeared by his side, the Torph slowly pushed the door open.
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Post by Chani {♥} on Sept 16, 2007 22:06:50 GMT -5
Iliad had a hard time being quiet with hooves for feet, but thankfully the healer and his wife were heavy sleepers. It didn't help that breathing quietly was made difficult by his chest wound and the adrenaline pulsing in his veins.
When Zihan opened the door, Iliad was repulsed by what he saw. He gasped, which pained him. His hand flew to his chest and he winced in pain. His gasp was heard by the three men standing before them. There was a large one, eyeing a young girl in a way that repulsed and angered Iliad extremely. There were two scrawny men holding her against a wall with grins on their faces as she writhed and tried yelping past their hands. Iliad looked at his chest dubiously and sighed.
"You take the big one," he said nonchalantly. The men glared at Iliad and Zihan as if they were intruders, and perhaps they were, but Iliad didn't much. At his direction to Iliad, the bigger one chuckled.
"That child won't be able to take me," he said arrogantly. "Nor will a disgraceful being such as you be able to take on two men, no matter their size." Iliad narrowed his eyes. "I'll be surprised if you two even manage to put a scratch on my fellows." The corners of Iliad's mouth turned up. He looked to Zihan briefly, then looked back at the big man.
"Surprise," he said, whipping his sword from its sheath. Iliad would have no qualms killing men for doing this to a lady. Most might have had the morality to just turn them in to authorities, but Iliad's morals were of his own make. He dug his hooves into the ground and charged at the two men, who were already pulling out their own weapons. One with a dagger and another with a longsword.
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Post by valter on Sept 17, 2007 20:44:21 GMT -5
Zihan's ears twitched angrily at the sight from behind the door; it made his blood boil. In Gigantii, one of the worst and most cowardly crimes was to hold an unarmed woman hostage, and Zihan was prepared to treat it as such. He'd had his sword drawn and ready by the time Iliad had given him his instructions, and nodded once. "Listen Iliad, just don't overdo it okay?" Zihan said out of the corner of his mouth. He winked when Iliad glanced at him. "I don't want to have to carry you back to the healer's after this." Zihan joked, just as Iliad dashed off.
"Feh. This is ridiculous. I'm gonna kill you easily kid." grunted the big man, hefting his own weapon, a horseslayer, very much like the weapon Zihan had left behind in his room. "How does your puny stick compare to this weapon, eh? It'll crush you to bits!" boasted the man, taking several ponderous steps toward Zihan.
"Man, you sure do talk a lot." Zihan said, tilting his head inquisitively even as he leapt nimbly forward; without the encumbering weight of the Zanbato, Zihan could move far more freely.
Crash! "Come on, you can do better than that." Zihan teased, sidestepping the man's initial vertical strike, laughing as the man struggled to uproot his sword. The instant the sword came loose... Fwip! The ruffian's blade whipped out sideways. Zihan ducked, dropping to the ground on all fours and rolling over to the man's side. "You're really killing me here." Zihan taunted with a frisky bat of his tail.
Now the man was quite enraged at being made a fool of by such a childish looking creature. "Take this you little freak!" He shouted. Slash! In an unexpectedly fast motion, the man had swung his horseslayer in a complete circle, designed to cleave Zihan from the waist up. Except for one problem: Zihan wasn't there.
"The problem with this type of sword..." began a growling voice close to the thug's ear. The man turned, momentarily stunned, looking at a deathly serious Zihan, crouching on the blade. "It can only be wielded effectively in two different types of strikes. In other words... it's very predictable. My turn!" Zihan snarled, springing off the blade's edge and towards the verminous man, his blade held in front of him, aimed for the man's throat.
It would have been over then, if Zihan wasn't injured. At that moment, his side wound decided to stiffen up, throwing the Torph off balance and sending him crashing to the floor. The thug siezed his chance. Thud! Zihan rolled to the right, just missing the crashing blade. Thud! This time Zihan turned to the left, and then rolled backwards and out of reach, beginning to pant. That was too close. Alrighty, time to get serious. Zihan thought grimly.
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Post by Chani {♥} on Sept 18, 2007 9:33:40 GMT -5
"You shoulda stayed hiding in that warm little house, centaur," the long-haired man with a dagger said. "I'll shred you ta ribbons." Iliad was still charging.
"Why can't you people just shut your mouths and fight?" Iliad snarled, tiring of chatter and swinging his blade hard to his right as he zipped by the dagger-wielder. The man had moved out of the way of the blade, but Iliad reared up at the last second, clipping his friend's chin and breaking his jaw. He dropped his longsword and fell to his knees, screaming. Iliad didn't like the loud noises emanating from the agonized man and quickly beheaded him to end the screaming. Of course, he did this thoughtlessly, and it could have cost his life. The dagger-wielder had stabbed at his throat, but Iliad leaned back so that it missed him just barely. The long-haired man, obviously expecting to have caught Iliad, stumbled over the body of his friend. At the bloody sight, he was obviously terrorized.
"Andrew," he whispered horrifically. Iliad had impaled his stomach on his broadsword before the man could get past what he was seeing. Perhaps it was a cheap shot, but all was fair in love and war. The man was bleeding and gagging, spitting up blood. Iliad stomped on his head with a powerful hoof and turned to see how Zihan had faired, moving his hand to his chest, which stung slightly from the stretching it had had to do when he leaned back.
The woman stood there, watching frightfully. She was glad she had been saved, yes, but had this brawl had to be so violent? There was a headless body on the ground, a head had rolled off behind a bush, and another man was still bleeding profusely and had his skull caved in. Iliad and Zihan had saved her, yes, but she feared them much more than she did the other men. She stayed up against the wall, eyes wide, fearing to breathe.
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Post by valter on Sept 21, 2007 18:36:12 GMT -5
The grin was gone from Zihan's face now; The only thing on his mind was the battle in front of him, his sword, and the enemy. The large man, cur that he was, didn't even seemed to be fazed by his companion's demises. Indeed, he was in too much of a rage to care. "I'll split you kid!" he shouted, swinging his massive blade errantly, cleaving out a wide space for their battle.
"Save it." Zihan growled, sidestepping and weaving through the storm of swords, attempting to get close. "Iliad-" He ducked under a swipe. "-this guy is mine." He tilted his head backwards, watching the sword pass within an inch of his nose, and then made his move. As soon as the sword passed over him, Zihan sprung up and slipped behind the man, grabed his wrist, and yanked. The thug found himself disarmed, off balance, and- he shuddered involuntarily- with a sword at his throat. "Don't make me kill you. Just go." Zihan hissed, his ears pressed flat against the back of his head.
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Post by Chani {♥} on Sept 21, 2007 21:03:23 GMT -5
Iliad crossed his arms over his chest fondly, as if watching a little brother fight for the first time.
"I suggest you listen to him," he said to the man. "Zihan could have beat you blind-folded." He turned from the man to the girl. She was shivering, breathing as shallow as she could, and there was sweat forming on her forehead. She was looking back at him, scared.
"Don't look at me like that," Iliad said, not the best with conversation. She looked down at the ground obediently. Iliad noticed how rude he had sounded. "Listen, we're not going to hurt you. We're not murderers. We just kill when killing needs done. Now, where do you live?"
"In this house, right here," she said quietly.
"The healer is your father?" he inquired, cocking an eyebrow.
"Yes," she responded. "I couldn't yell for him... they would have killed me." Iliad nodded, ending the conversation. He wasn't the social type.
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Post by valter on Oct 8, 2007 9:11:04 GMT -5
"Alright, I've given you your life back. Now go." Zihan stated, flicking his tail and releasing the man. In Gigantii, the natives lived by strict laws. When your life was spared, you were supposed to leave, gratefully, and with honor. These laws had been engraved in Zihan's mind for all of his thirteen Torph years, and as such, he'd relaxed his guard and turned away from the man after he released him.
Wham!
In a move probably expected by everyone but Zihan, the thug struck the Torph with a heavy fist in the small of his back, sending Zihan straight into the ground, facedown, unmoving. After this display of shameful cowardice, the man then slid his sword out from Zihan's foot, prepared to kill him while he was down. The blade descended...
... and was caught by Zihan, who'd turned over; furious, and somewhat altered. Every hair on his body was spiked straight up, and patches of fur began spreading across his arms. His fingernails became clawlike, and it looked like he'd gotten brawnier. Also, imperceptively, Zihan's aura had shifted to red. In this halfway stage, Zihan speech was interspersed with bestial growls. "You've Gragh! thrown it all away." His leg snapped up, kicking the villian hard, and in one fluid motion; Zihan had grabbed the handle of the blade and swung it in a complete vertical circle. This time, the thug was gone for good.
With a sigh, Zihan released his pent up energy, shifting backwards into his more human form and yawning. "Well, we finished." Zihan said, turning away from the unpleasant puddle of limbs in the road. "Is everything alright? Neither of you were hurt, where you?"
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