"NO!" Kitchi yelled defiantly from behind her mask.
"Kitchi... no betray! Jeevak there for Kitchi, not snake lady. Jeevak save Kitchi! Is special!" She shook as if she was trying to throw off Chihiro's accusations before righting herself. "Kitchi go now, must return!" The slightly perturbed masked creature squatted in a low crouch and kicked off, firing like a cannon away from the camp, and just like before, there was a secondary boom as she ran off.
"Nix strong! Just surprise...," she said, explaining why she was caught, apparently taken by surprise while she was thoroughly enjoying the sweet meats Kistal gave her. She was too prideful to admit her defeat and capture. Admitting she would like to be kept safe by someone, especially not in her pack just felt wrong. She hunched her body over and her right leg lifted to start scratching behind her ear as she listened to Allanon introduce Kistal and himself. Needless to say, the posture was not very ladylike. She was already shirtless, with some tribal jewelry about her neck, and her loincloth turned out to be more of a waist piece. Any thought to common decency was cast aside, but it was most likely due to her being raised as a beastman where fur could normally fulfill the role of clothing.
She shook her head as she finished scratching and stared at both of them a little annoyed looking.
"Have pack! No know where," she said, starting out a bit angrily, though it seemed to subside just as fast. If she did have a pack, she would strangely be quite removed. If Kistal knew enough about the surrounding beastmen tribes of Midrill, this one looked to have traits from the azure wolf beastman clan. Quietly, she would start to follow them, even though she was still in chains. Despite her ability to do so, she looked much too tired and too roughed up to be moving around, and the shackles looked as if it were starting to wear into her flesh from being a bit too tight for her. If any of them would try to reach towards her to remove them, she would flinch as if she was head-shy, not completely trusting them yet.
The Kallan warriors took care of Dorran’s body, wrapping him in sailcloth scavenged from the bandit’s stores, and placed him on a makeshift stretcher to be carried back home. They worked in silence, some with quiet tears. The girl that Malkhad had before the fight started, that Bidzil defended, was brought to the other kidnapped girls and was being taken care of as much as they could here before being prepared to take back to the scouting party’s cave that they hid the skiffs in. Some would look to the foreigners to see if they were ready, unsure as they were about this new arrival.
Allard chuckled, “Aye, I s’pose so. I’ll be as careful as tha situation permits,” He told Maeve over his shoulder with a broad smile before entering his tavern. As he sat down at one of the tables, a bench chair so it could hold him comfortably, he listened to Tyrael’s question. “Those were no normal bandit folk. Varuk bandits may try ta break in an’ cause havok, but what occurred b’fore ya got here was nothin’ short of a battle. Human soldiers, most likely tryin ta work some deal with a local bandit tribe. I don’t think they will be investin’ any further, for now I’d say. Gotta wait an see what tha scout party says when they arrive, hopefully soon. From what has been goin’ on an what ye say, I’d think my hunch was more a fact. I thank ya for what ya did, but I gotta know, what exactleh happened out there. Never ‘ave I seen an ocean dweller so far from their seas.”
---
“Thank you, Maeve, It would be a great help, especially if you could kelp keep her cool, she won’t dehydrate through sweat as fast, but slowly, She doesn’t need to go into shock,” she informed as they made their way to the oasis.
Lynn weakly nodded and let Valia and Maeve, among some of the other girls, take her to the bath house at the edge of the oasis, the location making it easier to bring water inside for the baths. Valia helped her walk, luckily this early in the morning the sands weren’t quite hot yet. Once at the bathhouse and in a bit of privacy, they would help her get undressed and in the tub, her tail partially hanging out of it.. Valia would stay with her as Sonia would fetch water from the oasis. Lynn normally could easily draw water from there, but was too worn to do much more than watch and talk if someone spoke to her.
“I’m sorry to burden you,” she said just above a whisper as she laid in the tub.
“Oh, pay no mind dear, of all the strange things that are going on in this town, I am happy to help where I can,” Valia responded as she began to bathe her, starting with washing her hair. It would almost look like a mother caring for her daughter if Lynn were a varuk. After the sandy travel, Lynn was fairly dirty, her hair matted, and her clothes covered in sand. Her skin all over was dry, causing the webbing at her ears fingers and toes to actually recede slightly and crack. “Just relax and let us take care of you. Your body needs much attention, you shouldn’t let something so beautiful be harmed in such a way. I wonder if my oils and lotions will help your skin recover.” She looked up at one of the other girls, who nodded and went to fetch said oils and lotions.
“My village was attacked for our artifact a week ago…,” Lynn tried to explain,
“I thought that maybe, um... the one who took it may have come here? The elder said there were more artifacts… if I follow them, I am sure to find ours. Nobody else was healthy enough to go, so I… I needed to-” “Shhhh-shh-shh. None of that right now, just relax. You are safe here,” Valia interrupted. She looked up to Maeve with a bit of a sheepish grin, “Looks like my lessons will have to wait once again I’m afraid.”
Talise wouldn’t be bothered by any of the crowd, though she would notice that there were many people recovering, including the mountain of a man that had greeted her whenever she had previously stopped by the tavern, using the ax that he had mounted on his wall before as a walking stick of sorts, some new stains yet to be cleaned off from it. A robed figure followed behind him inside. There was damage to some surrounding buildings, and the square was decimated with craters, ruts, and the ruins of the monument. She would also just make out Madame Valia, who she may remember by sight shopping around the fabric stores at the market, in the company of an isoli and a few of her students as they guided what was surprisingly a merfolk to the oasis bath house. The smell of blood from the corpses of mercenaries could most likely easily be noticed if she wasn’t busy being distracted on her immediate surroundings.
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