Tolkalee let go of the man the moment he went limp. Then he jumped to his feet as if he expected there to be more attackers. He paused a moment took a breath and turned towards the inn keeper. "I apologize for the disturbance Sir," he gave a slight bow to the inn keeper as if that was his way of apologizing. "We'll get out of your inn now, and you won't have to worry about us ever again." Then he scooped up Vera's pistol and took her by the hand leading her out with him. He was walking with a pretty heavy limp again.
"If I ever see either of your faces again, I'll have you locked up!" Of course the slums didn't really have a jail- but there was really nothing from keeping the inn keeper from throwing them in a back room.
Vera muttered her apology on the way out. She'd be lucky to survive another week in the slums after that fiasco. "Thanks," she said to Tolkalee. If anything she was feeling incredibly stupid at the moment, and incredibly grateful.
"I'm so sorry. That was so stupid," she groaned, "you keep having to save me- are you limping? Are you okay?" Her tone turned to panic.
"Don't worry about it," Tolkalee reassured her, though by now his adrenaline was wearing off and he was in an immense amount of pain. "Problems seem to follow me around to. As for the limp, it's fine. Just that old injury I told you about when we first met."
He glanced down at his leg and bit his lip. He could see blood seeping through his pants, and knew that he'd ripped the stitches. Now he had to restitch it again, and he was hoping the Vera didn't notice. She had enough on her mind right now without his injuries helping.
"Tolkalee- you've done so much for me, let me help you," Vera's eyes flicked to his limp. She saw the blood, "that is not an old wound." She tried to think of before. Before the slums, back then she had been in training. Recalling any medical training was almost useless. She'd never done well in that course, but that wouldn't stop her from trying. "You're bleeding."
"Yep, and we can not stop here to treat it," Tolkalee stated, sighing internally. "And it is an old wound. Problem is, that this is the second time it has reopened so it's taking longer to heal. I have supplies back at my hideout. You don't have to come with me if you don't want."
His ribs ached and his leg was burning, as he walked. He glanced ahead on the street they were walking, and a chill went down his spine. He moved into an alleyway pulling Vera with him. "Do you trust me?" He asked suddenly. He was very quiet now.
A small yelp escaped Vera. She had been about to ask Tolkalee why stopping to treat his wound would be so bad. In her experience this city was dangerous, but who'd be stupid enough to approach a guy who carried themselves like Tolkalee did.
"Trust you?" The words came out harsher then intended. Trust was a tricky thing, and even though Vera did want to trust him- "Yeah." The word left her mouth before she could finish the thought.
There was something off about they way he'd suddenly grown quite, and she didn't want to figure out the hard way what was about to happen.
"Good," he handed her pistol back to her, and leaned out slightly to look back down the street. "There are several people just ahead that do not like me, honestly they probably want me dead. Big shocker I know. People don't like me very much because I hold them accountable. Do you remember where my hideout is?"
"Not really," Vera quietly admitted. Most of the slums looked the same to her if she was being completely honest.
She held the pistol close to her chest, holding it tightly as if it would grow legs and run off. "But I'm sure I can find it, what do you need me to do?" She forced her voice not to shake.
"Can you use that gun?" Tolkalee asked. He didn't really want her to use it if she didn't have to, but right now he was in no condition to fight more than one person. He leaned out again to check where the people were. They were moving away. "You know what, never mind," he gave a small sigh of relief. "Come on, let's get out of here." He moved out into the street again and let Vera decide if she was going to come with him or not.
"Its not-" Vera chewed her lip, not knowing if she was ready to admit that it was a bluff. That it didn't have any ammo.
She had always prided herself on her brains, but the fact that she hadn't grabbed any bullets when she'd grabbed the gun, that was possibly the most stupid thing she'd ever done. Well next to ending up in the slums that is.
A such of relief almost escaped her when Tolkalee said that. As far as anyone should be concerned the gun was loaded. Vera quickly followed after him, safely tucking the gun back away.
By the time they made it to Tolkalee's hideout, his leg felt like it was on fire. Blood was soaked through both the bandage around the wound as well as his pants. It hurt to breathe because of his bruised ribs. He hated to be leaning on Vera, but he didn't have much of a choice. His leg hurt so much that he could barely put pressure on it. Little black spots had started floating around his vision, and he knew from experience that he didn't have long before he passed out. He hoped he would be able to stay conscious long enough to patch his wound again.
"Some old wound," Vera mumbled under her breath. She was by no means a doctor, but something told her that blood shouldn't be coming from from a wound like that. Especially if all he's done was walk on it- but of course Vera didn't know of what else Tolkalee had been doing.
Once inside his hideout Tolkalee leaned against the wall and took a moment to breathe. "Hey, across the room, in the cabinet by the bookshelf there, that's where I keep my medical supplies." Tolkalee explained. "Just inside on the middle shelf there should be a little light gray bottle that says antiseptic in it, Next to it should be a little curved needle with some thread attached, and on the bottom shelf there are three different kinds of gauze. Bring me the needle the bottle and the heavy duty gauze please."
He moved to sit on the stool he had by the fireplace, and waited for Vera to get what he'd asked for.
It took Vera a moment to find all the things Tolkalee asked for, especially since she had no idea how to tell the gauze apart. She took a best quest and hopped it was right. "Need any help?" She asked even though the thought of sewing a wound shut made her breakfast want to come back up.
One would think that living in the ramshackle city for at least a week now would would give them a stronger stomach.
Tolkalee glanced at her and noticed that she seemed a bit uneasy. So he shook his head. "No that's okay," he replied. "The other way you can help me is by talking. Any king of distraction helps with this sort of thing."
He cut his pants away from the wound. Grimacing at the fact that he would have to repare them later. "How long have you been here?" He start casual conversation as he started cleaning the wound for the third or forth time.
"A few month's," the lie slipped without a second thought. Vera almost cringed at how easily it had. "Arranged marriage to some prick." That time she did cringe.
It wasn't a complete lie, Vera did have an arranged marriage, but the guy wasn't half bad. That was untill she'd poked around a little to much and found something she wasn't supposed to.
"What about you?" Vera found a wall that she kept her eyes trained on.
"Can't say," Tolkalee grunted, beginning to re-stitch his wound. "Not like, it's classified or anything like that. I just don't remember." He glanced at Vera again. She wasn't looking at him, or in his direction. Clearly not a fan of blood, and he didn't blame her. There was nothing fun about it.
"Let's try hypothetical scenarios. Your not here. What would be your dream job?"
Vera hadn't ever thought of the what if's. "A teacher," she said quietly. "I've always loved children. I used to want to be a nurse, only took a few classes before I realized I couldn't handle blood though."
(Okay really fast bc I'm pretty sure I said this in the original post thingy, but can't completely remember- this is supposed to be slightly cyber punk, but I feel like I keep giving it an old timey vibe. So I'm sorry if its confusing. 💀💀💀 that is entirely on me)
"Not everyone can," Tolkalee said. "It took me a long time to be able to handle it, and even now I'm not okay with it."
He started wrapping up the wound in the guaze. He was lying a bit. The sight of blood didn't phase him at all anymore. But he figured that she would probably be a little creped out by his stone emotions. Life had not been kind to him.
"Do you have any family?"
(Okee dokee! I'll try and keep that kind of feel.)
"Yeah," though this time it was obvious she was lying. Vera wouldn't say, but her mom was dead, and she blamed herself for it. "What about you?"
"I just have my little sister," Tolkalee replied. His gaze suddenly hardened and what looked like actual anger settled in his eyes. "I never had a mother or father. Both were killed when I was a child," his voice cold. There was clearly more to that story, but Tolkalee didn't seem like he was in a good mindset to tell it.
Vera took his tone as a warning to not ask any more questions on the subject. She hadn't offered the truth, why should she expect him to answer any of her questions? "So why does your wound keep opening? Shouldn't you be letting it heal correctly?"
"I probably should, but I actually have a job, so I can't just stop. And my job tends to put me in situations a lot like that one back at the bar," Tolkalee explained. "I just have to be a little more careful that's all." He sat back eventually and gave a small sigh of what seemed to be reliefs. "So why'd you stick around? You could have left when you got me back here, so why stay?"
"I er-" Vera's face flushed in embarrassment, "I'm sorry, I'll be going now." She didn't know why she'd stayed. Maybe it was because she had no where else to go, or that she'd been worried about him. Or maybe even a bit of both.
(I'll be introducing a side charter/ minor villain soon :))
"No," the objection slipped out before Tolkalee could stop it. "I- uh… I mean… you don't have to go if you don't want to. I mean, if you have to then I'm not going to stop you. But you don't have to."
What the heck was wrong with him? Never before had Tolkalee been that flustered before. So how had this girl managed to flustered him that much by wanting to leave?
(Should I be worried?)
Vera stopped mid grab for the door, her hand instantly drawing back to her. "You want me to stay?" The disbelieve in her voice was hard to hide. Why, she wanted to ask.
(Perhaps :))
"I-I just-well… the company would be nice," Tolkalee stuttered. He glanced down feeling like an idiot. This had never happened to him before. He always had an answer for things, was always quick witted, but now… he had no clue what to say.
"You don't have to if you don't want to though."
Vera did want to stay. The thought of having a friend in this place sounded wonderful. "I'll stay on one condition," she decided that if she stayed she might as well help in some way, "you let your leg heal."
Tolkalee thought about it for a moment, then he nodded. "Deal," he said. After a brief moment of silence he carefully got to his feet and limped over to put his supplies away. "Do you ever think you might leave this place? The slums I mean," he asked glancing at her through the corner of his eye.
"No," Vera quietly admitted. For the most part the slums where a one way ticket. The only ways out where death, escape, or bounty hunters. And frankly none if them sounded pleasant.
Of course There where the few stories of people working their way out, but it was to rare to count on. "What about you?"
