Chapter Text
Medium and Flop stopped in a city to restock their supplies. They travel by carriage pulled by a ground dragon. Medium was returning from a vegetable stand to drop off the goods in their carriage, but she stopped in her tracks. Flop, her brother, was talking to some guy. She was facing his back, so she couldn't recognize him. However, this man didn't look like he was Flop's friend from some time ago; she simply didn't know. No. He had a longsword, which he boastfully balanced on his shoulder. She could hear him but couldn't understand, but his tone was all she needed to know this man's intentions. He was in the process of robbing Flop. Flop was obviously—at least to her—intimidated. He was good at talking his way out of precarious situations, but this was one where the situation called for her machetes. She put the bags of rough fabric full of vegetables on the ground, unsheathed her two swords, and ran. "Hey!! Leave that man alone!" Medium didn't even finish the sentence, and the man turned, and when he saw her weapons, he grabbed his large sword and swung horizontally at her left side. Although she didn't anticipate him to attack, she still managed to parry the oncoming strike by a simple raise of the hand. The sword smashed into hers, stopped at the cross guard, and as the steel rang, she could feel the force travel through her wrist, then elbow, shoulder, hip, and finally her foot. The man retracted his sword, and as he swung it over his head, Medium thrust her right machete deep into his abdomen. A grave mistake. The wound might be fatal; however, it didn't stop the man's swinging blade from cutting deep into her shoulder. The man gasped as his windpipe contracted, and Medium screamed in pain. Both dropped to the ground. When he saw his sister's injury, Flop broke from his trance and rushed to her side. He caught a whiff of iron. Maybe from the clash of steels, maybe from the wounds. Doesn't matter now. "By the Emperor, what were you thinking running into him like that!?" She didn't even want to think a single thought from how much it hurt, and yet her thoughts, tears, and blood flowed like a river. And so Medium took a deep, shaky breath and stood up with a palm gripping the wound. She looked into Flop's eyes with a stone-cold glare, trying to mask her pain and fear. "... I'm okay, don't worry. Can you stop the bleeding before we find a healer?" As the thought of her wound entered her mind again, the pain worsened. She needed to concentrate on something else. An impossible task. Not only that, her consciousness wavered. She stumbled and Flop caught her. "Yes, but you need to sit down." Flop said and helped her move to the other side of the carriage and lay her against a wheel, then rushed to the back to grab something. When he was out of Medium's sight, she looked to the sky, the clouds, the roofs, anything to take her mind off the wound, but breathy weeps coming from the other side of the carriage made that futile. "Please... I'm going to die... You have to help me..." The robber pleaded Flop, who answered while he rummaged through the carriages's contents: "Stop. I am not helping someone who tried to hurt me and rob me and who hurt my sister." "I wasn't going to hurt you... Your sister attacked me first I had to defend myself...!!" "You're on your own. This is the way of the Empire; you should've known what you were getting into." Flop answered coldly and jumped from the carriage to Medium's side, and in a silent whisper followed what seemed to be a hopeless prayer from the robber. He opened a box full of medical equipment, grabbed a bandage, and wrapped it around Medium's wound as tightly as he could to stop the bleeding, each wrap getting less and less bloody. "Okay, Medium I need you to get in the carriage. Can you do it? How is your head? Do you feel dizzy? Are-" Each question built up more and more frustration in her until she cut him off. "Why do you care just get me in the fucking carriage!" A half scream half cry seeped through the cracks of her barely standing facade broken by rising panic and fear for her own life. Flop simply shut up and hastily threw the medical supplies into the carriage then crouched. She thought he would help her stand and walk but he simply picked her up and sat her on the backside of the carriage. "Go and sit closer to the reins." She remained silent and slowly moved, trying not to engage any of the muscles on her arm but sometimes they twitched and a paralyzing pain encapsulated her body. "Let's go!" She heard Flop say and they started moving, escaping the eyes of scared onlookers. "How are you feeling Medium?" "..." Flop heard no response so he looked back to see her still conscious. "Medium? Medium talk to me so I know you're still there... Please." "... It's still there." "What?" "He's just lying there, and my sword is still in him..." She said half conscious and Flop looked further back to see the robber lying on his side, curled, bleeding, with Medium's machete protruding from his abdomen. Sympathy blazed inside him. However, any words he wanted to say wouldn't surface, so he doused it and watched the road ahead in silence. He checked sign after sign, store after store, but no healer. They were reaching the edge of the city already... "Does anyone know a healer?!!!" Flop shouted - something he realized he should've done while they were in the city center but simply didn't occur to him. Between the rumbles of wheels driving over cobblestone, he heard a thump behind him, unfitting for the hard rock road. Looking back revealed to him Medium lying- no, collapsed, her body jumping up with each cobble. Flop’s heart skipped a beat. "Stop!" He ordered and tugged on the reins, then jumped to Medium's side. "Medium, can you hear me?" No response. She was breathing, but the bandages came loose probably because of the rumbling of the carriage and her blood was seeping through the gaps between planks. He looked behind them on the road only to realise how much blood she lost on the way. A trail of red splashes marked the path he took here. There in the distance he could see another carriage going full speed. Are guards after us? He thought. But that didn’t make sense, it was completely black and adorned with swirling golden trims and large scarlet gemstones. A noble carriage however, not resembling the styles of Vollachia in any way. Is it Kararagian? It caught up to them way too quickly, came to a stop way too abruptly and out jumped a cat demihuman woman in a white cape with black rims and a collar high enough it extended over her jaw which revealed the capes scarlet insides. Under that cape was a tightly fitting black collar shirt with silver-like hems. “I can help!!!” Yelled at him the rushing woman and two men, one red haired one purple haired, in the same attire came out of the noble carriage both bearing more confusion than worry on their faces than the woman bore. Unlike the woman they both had long swords on their waists. The woman crouched on her knees and extended her arms to Medium and- “What are you doing?!” Flop raised his voice at her and shoved her back before she could touch Medium. The woman stumbled and her face turned sour. She almost looked insulted. Then without hesitation she back hand slapped Flop who recoiled and almost tore through the thin fabric wall of the carriage. An unbelieving gasp could be heard from one of the knights, then the purple haired one spoke as he climbed up into the carriage. “What are you thinking Ferris? Do you realise how this could damage the perception of Lugunica among the people here?” Lugunicans? What are Lugunicans doing here? Flop thought. “I am a healer, Julius, and this woman is bleeding all over the street. You don’t expect me to ignore it do you?” The woman lashed at Julius, who climbed into the carriage to lecture her further, and crouched once again next to Medium. Before Flop could react in any way the red haired knight was already on the carriage and in his face, reassuring him. “Don’t worry sir, sit down. Ferris here is the best healer in Lugunica. You have nothing to worry about. You’re lucky we were-” Even though the red haired man was speaking right at Flop, he could not concentrate on whatever the knight was saying because just past him was a wonder happening. In between Ferris’ outstretched palms and Medium’s cut shoulder was a translucent sparkling sphere, like a noble lamp of cyan glass attracting fireflies. Inside Medium’s wound the cut muscle strings were slowly creeping towards the wound's center like thin worms scanning for soft soil before snapping to each other, mending the deep wound. Only the cut skin was left, which gently closed from one side to the other, like merging two puddles of thick liquid. Just like that all signs of a gaping wound were gone and with it the sphere under Ferris’ palms. Not even a scar was left behind. Flop was left staring with an open mouth, wonder written across his face. He wanted to say something. He wanted to thank her, or ask why they were here, but not even a sound left his mouth. Julius broke the silence. “It is very noble of you to help but now we need to be on our way.” He then turned towards Flop, put his palm on his chest where his heart was and bowed. “Sir, I apologise on behalf of Ferris for startling you. As knights of Lugunica it is our duty to maintain a level of professionalism, especially in a foreign country.” The red haired knight crouching beside him visibly cringed but still stood up and performed the same gesture as Julius. Ferris however, didn’t move a muscle and kept looking at Medium. At that moment Flop noticed Ferris lacked a sword at her waist which the other two had. The red haired knight’s long sword was notably bigger than Julius’, it was both unnaturally long and thick with a wild shaped crossguard of pure gold, long spikes angled a little down the hilt. The sword looked more ceremonial than usable. Flop finally gathered his thoughts and stood up. He wanted to check his sister's health first but felt locked in place by the knights’ politeness which overtook him. “No, don’t apologize. You saved my sister. If it weren’t for you and your magic she would’ve bled to death.”