From: andrea@cm.deakin.OZ.AU (Andrea)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [DQ] Kadrys becomes Generica's most unlikely nurse
Date: 20 Aug 92 04:47:21 GMT

Kadrys looks up slowly as 'Raelf glides down towards the ground. Eyes sombre
with guilt meet the vampire's dark gaze for the merest moment. Then 'Raelf
shines the light of an amulet over the square and its occupants, searching for
signs of life in questers and gargoyles alike. Kadrys' mouth twists in an
ironic grin as he notes that even the dismembered bodies of the gargoyles show
some slight reaction to the probe, which is more than he has done.

'Raelf quenches the amulet's glow and steps off his board, which hovers nearby.
"How's SunStorm?" he asks quickly.
Valgar replies "Seems to be barely alive, and very heavy.  We should move him
inside."

'Raelf plays the light across the shrunken giant. It sparkles faintly where it
strikes his flesh. The sword too has a faint glimmer and there is the hint of a
thin streamer of glow between the hilt of the sword and the giant's heart.

"Oh bogus.   This is going to take more than I have.  Hello, Kadrys."
"'Raelf.  What goes?"
"Giant's badly hurt,  Sword's badly hurt, Valgar and Lancos are injured but
not critical, can you do anything for them?  I have to gather earth, remember
our earlier conversations?  ... I'll explain later."

'Gather earth...' Kadrys thinks. 'Yes, I remember our conversations. And I
remember more than that. I saw how you ... dined upon those two gargoyles. It
looked to me as though they were taken apart, in a way I could never manage.
Taken apart element from element. A form of feeding unusual enough to put mine
to shame. Just when I think I've seen it all...'
"Ohh, I understand..." Kadrys drawls aloud, smiling quietly. "Good hunting."

Kadrys turns toward Valgar first, drawn by the old familiar scent...
Valgar's chest has been scored several times, both the narrow deep scratches of 
talons, and wider stripes of blackened bruising, the marks of a lashing tail
most likely. Painful, but not immediately dangerous. Valgar's upper arm is
another matter. Several large chunks of muscle have been torn right out. It is
from these that the blood is flowing the most rapidly. Kadrys shrugs out of the
tattered remnants of his shirt. "At least I don't have to worry about tearing 
this up for bandages..." he grins wryly at Valgar, as he twists ragged strips 
of cloth into a makeshift tourniquet. "This'll hurt, but you've already lost a 
lot of blood..." he mutters, taking Valgar's other hand and pressing it into a 
carefully selected site on Valgar's arm. "Keep pressing there. Harder. That's 
it. Keep the pressure on that vein until I can tie this off..." He knots the
cloth round Valgar's upper arm above the wound, tight enough that the flow of 
blood from his torn muscles slows to a thin trickle. Kadrys notices that there 
is more blood oozing out from underneath those strange leather forearm guards 
Valgar wears. 'How could he have been wounded _underneath_ those guards when 
they haven't even been scratched?' Kadrys wonders to himself. He reaches out a 
hand to take off Valgar's leather guards and see what has happened to his
forearms, but Valgar tears his arms out of Kadrys' grasp with all his remaining
strength, grating flatly "Leave them be!" Kadrys desists, though his eyes
narrow speculatively. As Valgar wrenches his forearms away from Kadrys, his 
face twists with pain as his elbow bends. Kadrys examines the elbow and frowns. 
"You've got some bone chips in the joint... Not much I can do about that here.
I _could_ take the pain away..." Valgar glimpses a flicker of red in the 
black depths of the vampire's eyes, as faint and fleeting as heat lightning,
"...but I doubt that you would want to trust yourself to me that completely..."

With a shrug and a faint, sardonic grin at Valgar's silent refusal, Kadrys 
directs his attentions to Lancos, binding closed a gash on Lancos' scalp, a
memento of the fighter's head striking the wall of the Inn. The gash is not
large or serious, though it bleeds relatively freely for its size, as scalp
wounds usually do. Kadrys reflects uneasily that the slice across Lancos'
stomach will have to wait for some real healing. "You certainly came the best
out of your duel with the gargoyles' leader..." Kadrys says aloud to Lancos,
both in congratulation and in an effort to take the man's mind off his
condition for a moment. 'He's much paler than he should be from only those
cuts.' Kadrys worries to himself. 'Concussion? Shock?' He looks round
impatiently for 'Raelf.

Kadrys watches as 'Raelf begins to heal SunStorm, using skills rather more
sophisticated than the tying of a few rag bandages. 'Raelf begins to blur 
slightly, surrounded by an aura that touches and permeates the sword and its 
bondmate, before extending outwards to brush delicately across the onlookers...
Kadrys' skin tingles faintly at the touch of that elusive magical tendril.

Somehow, they all understand the exchange between the mage and the sword -- 
their speech echoes in the watchers' heads in their native tongue, an accident 
of the casting, or some leftover magic fluctuation, or a side effect of the 
aura that touched the edges of their perceptions. Kadrys shudders and squeezes 
his eyes closed a moment as the sounds wash over him, thinking: 'Tarrhaynish... 
Ahhh, gods below, when was the last time I heard the language of my birth?' 
Then time seems to hiccup, and split into two parts. The three observers are 
afflicted with sudden deja vu as the ritual of healing spirals and loops in on 
itself, entrancing, bewildering...

Valgar steps back, shielding his eyes, as the sword begins to glow.
The plaza is filled again with light.  The wounds vanish.
The blood is gone.  The armor is still torn up.
SunStorm's blue eyes open slowly.

Time seems to slow, oooozing together with an almost audible slurp.

Many things have changed. SunStorm is healed, and more. His empty body has
been filled with the spirit that once dwelt in his sword. But there are other
injuries that require healing urgently.

'Raelf turns back to Lancos, who is pale and shaking. Incipient shock. Some
blood loss. He touches the wounds, concentrates, FLICK-FLICK, and the man in
green is suddenly whole. The mage exhales, marshalling his strength. He brushes
his fingertips across the gleaming crystal on his brow, blinks and looks
pleasantly surprised for a moment. The renewed SunStorm approaches 'Raelf from
behind as he attends to Valgar's wounds.

"What do you want, ShockWave?"  'Raelf reaches out, touching Valgar on the
shoulder, focussing his will,  ... FLICK-FLICK - Valgar's injuries are gone...

"Tell me how giants eat food.  I'm new at this."

'Raelf grins, matching an involuntary sharp smile from Kadrys, and
Lancos and Valgar carefully suppress laughter.  They rise, and lead the giant
back into the Dragon's Inn.

"Serene!  Food for four, please."
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