[b]"GINGER! CALL ROSIE! HURRY!"[/b]

That was all she heard....the frantic and heartfelt cries of her Princess calling to her maid, calling out desperately for the salvation of this weary and wounded knight from the gripping arms of death slowly approaching to enfold her....and drag her unwillingly and mercilessly into that dark and lonely abyss where melancholic spirits dwelled with echoes of mournful sobs. But before long, that very darkness, cold and bitter, was consuming Crystal's attendant, Irina's eyes growing heavier and heavier during the violent and hasty ride back to the palace grounds...her tattered and practically destroyed body slowly numbing to the infernal shocks of pain that ravaged her ever so vile, only a grimace or an incoherent groan given before fading out into silence...everything around her, even the ensuing chaos, nothing but silent murmurs in her ears, before long able to hear....absolutely nothing. By the time the castle nurse had descended the palace steps, a grim look upon her face with several of her ladies in tow....Irina was already out cold, appearing absolutely lifeless....

[b]"Oh dear Goddess...."[/b] Nurse Rosie slowly brought a hand to her lips, quivering in such a terrible grip of fear to grasp her as she gazed upon in horror of this battered woman, bleeding from damn near every orifice of her body. [b]"Girls! Get her on the stretcher! Stat!"[/b] With haste in her voice she called to the other women clad in white, but soon to be soaked in the very lifeblood trickling from the ghastly wounds of Irina as they hoisted the damaged knight from her steed and laid her quickly but carefully upon the wooden stretcher, already lifting it up with Irina's weight bearing on them and hauling her up the stairs and into the castle, Rosie sprinting before them, shouting to the top of her lungs to any and all, [b]"Clear the way! Clear the way! We have wounded!"[/b] And such misfortune the nurse's cries brought to all who dared to look upon the shattered face of the Princess' protector, their faces becoming those of fear, worry, and misery, a few shedding tears upon seeing Irina, limp and seemingly gone, her broken arm hanging off to the side, as if to display the mayhem further inflicted upon her. And of those people who were roused to attention by Rosie's frantic screams, two of them...were the bumbling guardsmen, both the portly Pindel and lank Versetti...eyes widening in such terror to enfold them. [i]"My Goddess....Lady Knight!"[/i]

The fat one was the first to sprint after the frantic precession of nurses, the wooden klunk of his spear dropping to the marble floor...whereupon a ghastly trail of Irina's blood was left following behind her terrible visage of a half-dead warrior....possibly hanging onto whatever life was in her...by a mere thread. [i]"Oi Pindel! Where ye goin'?!"[/i] Versetti shouted back to his mate, confused as much as he was scared, only to gain a hastened and sharp reply from his friend, [i]"No time to ramble, Versetti! Go alert the King! Go damn you!"[/i] Versetti only gave a quick nod and a brash gulp of air down his slender neck, before darting off towards the throne room. By the time he would reach the king, news would already spread through the castle of Irina's grisly fate, unaware of her attackers, unaware that this vile deed was played out by the deceitful bastard, the Lord of Narsil, and...unaware that the Princess has vanished again. [b]"Alright, easy now!"[/b] The nurses were already to the castle's infirmary, lifting the stretcher onto a large wooden table, where on all sides of Irina, Rosie's servants were setting out various sharpened tools, bandages, and whatever else their lady might need to keep this knight from straying into the darkness of the Abyss. [b]"Dear Goddess...who did this to her? May they be brought to justice! Eight broken ribs, a possibly punctured lung, and her left arm is completely fractured!"[/b] The head nurse could've gone on about all the horrors that plagued this injured woman before her, but there was no time to waste. [b]"Mayful! I'll need a scalpel and some rose water! Goddess help me if I let this one die. And you, fat one!"[/b] A firm finger pointed towards Pindel, right as he had barged through the door, pausing a moment to catch his breath after such a run to the aid of one of his fellow knights. [b]"Guard the door! I can't have anyone interrupting this procedure, understand?"[/b]

[i]"R-right!"[/i] Pindel gave swift reply, already putting himself out the door and standing firm, albeit...sick to his large stomach over what he had just witnessed.... Meanwhile, Rosie was already making the first incision into Irina's torso, a bit relieved that the woman was out cold, so there would be no use for harsh anesthetics to jeopardize this daunting of tasks...but in her years as the castle nurse, unconsciousness of a person was never a good sign. [b]"We'll try to do the best we can, but the rest....is up to the Goddess... May she be forgiving and let this poor soul live another few years..."[/b] And with that final prayer, so followed the long and meticulous, not to mention grueling hours of operation, the nurses doing their damndest to patch up wounds, mend broken bones, and save the life...of a slowly withering Irina. As Rosie had put it best....the rest was up to the Goddess now...