>>5336770Sarasiel nods to you, and you move.
“Stay with Ryke, Fredric!” You hold your blade ready in two hands.
The cries didn’t sound like they were too far from the waterhole. You slash and cut your way through the thicket of trees. Sarasiel paved the way forward, crushing small trunks and parting thin greenery. After a bit more deforestation, the mystery reveals itself.
A steepled hat partially submerged in thorns and shrubbery. “Ohhh…” The hat moans. Was the hat talking?
“Hello?” You approach. No, this definitely wasn’t just a hat. Common sense was enough to tell you that much. You grab the hat, pull up, and…
A void. A dark void with two, thin yellow lines. No, they were better described as balls of light. They blinked.
A hand grabs your arm. “Ah!” You struggle to keep steady.
“Hey!” Sarasiel grabs your waist. “Be careful.”
“H-help… m-me…” The talking void’s grip slackens. Its gloved hand falling into the bushes at your feet.
“We have to help him.” You lean down and grab the injured person’s hand. “Get the other. I hope we have enough leverage…’
You do. It’s easy enough to get the creature out. You don’t inflict any new injuries onto it, at any rate.
Sarasiel carries the fellow on his back down to the waterhole. You return down the way you came. After shuffling a few things around, the talking hat now sits on a makeshift bed with Ryke as the pillow.
Fredric removes its bloody robe, applying medicine to the scraped portions of its miasmatic flesh. He was unsure if it would actually work, but he wanted to try to help anyway.
“Hey, Lorelai. Can you get the legs?” Fredric hands you a roll of white gauze.
You nod, doing as requested. Though, just touching its flesh, it was strangely ‘solid’, but not. It felt almost sticky, more viscous in nature.
As you dress the wounds, you notice something. They’re deep. It’s not the sort of chunked flesh you’d expect from a powerful bite. It isn’t a gash either, like you would see with claws. It’s a singular cut. The same sort of injuries run up and down the waist and leg.
“Hmmm…” Fredric stands up.
“Are you thinking the same thing I am?”
“About the injuries? Yes. They weren’t done by any monster that I know of around here.”
“Goblins.” Sarasiel says, peering over toward the hill. “They’re quite adept with short swords.”
You knew Sarasiel was right just from experience. But, even still, these were deep cuts. Bucklin was injured, but the cut itself didn’t seem that deep. Then again, you were too busy fighting for your life to pay too much attention.
One thing was for certain, though. It wasn’t safe here. But, it also wasn’t safe to move the patient with the injuries it hwas. What were you going to do?
>It was better to escort Fredric and the patient to Nestad for better care. Tell Garland about what happened, maybe he can do something.>You can’t risk moving the patient too far. It’d be best to move him into Fredric’s house and do some recon with Sarasiel. >Write-in 