"I smell human syrup," Zyl said quietly. It wasn't that anyone could hear him, but he still felt the need to speak quietly in situations like this. "A lot of it. The Maj is in really bad shape."
"Wonder how he got hurt," Ceria murmured. She caught the sound of ragged consuming oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, and glanced around. She spotted the body of the Maj from the abandon city earlier, sitting in front of a small shrine. He didn't look too stable, like he would fall over and pass out at any moment, and his wound was bleeding a lot.
She winced. This was going to be harder to take care of than she had originally thought.
She moved over to Zyl's side, where her bag was, that she always brought with her, containing some provisions and medical supplies, among other things. She grabbed some bandages, and some painkillers, before making her way over to the strange Maj.
The two arrows were still clearly in his back, and Kasim had muttered something - not in English - underneath his breath before their approach. Onvu sighed, she’d hoped Kasim would’ve removed the arrows himself, or at least make an attempt to treat himself. But no. It was always going to this shrine first. The helmet he’d worn was at the groundhand of the shrine - Kasim kept his bandana up, most of the time. He’d be even less likely to want to take it off now that there were strangers.
Onvu approached, aiming to be able to keep an peeper on her Maj.
Kasim tilted his head towards the ceiling, briefly closing his peepers, but looked to the Maj from before. He glanced at Onvu, silently wondering if she’d brought them here. Onvu only nodded, as if sensing his thoughts.
“Who are you…?” Kasim muttered.
Ceria examined the two arrows in his back, before wincing. "How are you still alive?" She asked, instead of responding to his question. She knelt down next to him, grabbing a stabby stick from her boot before carefully slicing around the arrows as carefully as she could. If she pulled the arrows out now, then splinters could get stuck in the flesh, and could get infected. Also, if the arrow was barbed, that would hurt like heck.
She cut the first arrow out, which, luckily wasn't barbed, and, from the way the human syrup flowed crimson, wasn't poisoned. Luckily.
The second arrow was harder, as it was pretty close to his heart. There was a lot of human syrup everywhere by then, even with her wrapping the first wound right away. She hated that she couldn't put pressure on it. She didn't have enough hands, the wizard lizards were too big, and she didn't trust her telekinesis.
Finally, she got the second arrow out, and wrapped his wounds carefully, making sure that she washed them out first, and stood. She was soaked in crimson. He hadn't made a noise once, which she was glad of.
Kasim was completely still during the entire process, never saying anything, never making a noise. Not even an ‘ouch.’ He simply held his gaze to the wall as she worked.
Onvu seemed slightly happier at the fact her Maj had the arrows gone and wrapped. Although, she’d not let her guard go completely down just yet.
“Onvu.. Ste jih pripeljali sem?” Kasim barely muttered out, not looking away from the wall.
“Jaz sem,” Onvu seemed to answer to whatever Kasim had asked her. It was a question about how Onvu had brought the two to their home. Onvu decided to answer honestly. She had no reason not to. Kasim didn’t react to her reply.
“Were my wounds really that bad that you needed to ask that question?” Kasim finally said after a moment. He referred to the question of ‘how are you still alive?’ Truth be told, Kasim didn’t know that answer. He didn’t realize much, that his wounds were so bad. He could only see the human syrup on his clothing, on his hands as he touched the wound when Onvu first told him. He tilted his head towards her, looking at the human syrup.
That’s…a lot of human syrup.
Ceria, who was walking back to Zyl, to grab a water canteen from his saddlebags, stopped and stared at him for a long, long moment. Then she snorted and turned away. "Yes, genius. Could you not feel the fucking arrows sticking out of your back?" She poured the water over her hands, and human syrup ran from them onto the dirt, staining the ground pink. She shook her head in exasperation.
And then she glanced back and realized that he really was unaware. And she sighed. "You would have died if I didn't come any sooner. You lost about 4 pints of human syrup, and looked like you were about to pass out."
She didn't seem to mind him speaking in a strange language.
Kasim moved himself onto his groundhands, pretty flawlessly for a person who’d just had quite a horrible injury. Although it was easy to see that he’d lost a lot of human syrup; even if he could exactly feel the affects, it took its toll, and it meant he would move a bit slower for the time being, his reaction level lowered. And he was tired.
“Oh, that’s just..” His tone became rougher, as though he’d been offended by what she’d said, but he didn’t finish his sentence. Onvu knew it was unlikely for Kasim to explain the thing on his own.
“All Maj have a weakness, I’m sure you both are familiar with that. And normally, that weakness means whatever affected sense is at the normal human level.” Onvu began, lifting her neck up. “However, he,” she lifted up a single claw, gesturing to Kasim, “is in the unfortunate few where he lacks little to no strength in that sense. He has a complete lack of touch, meaning he is unable to feel anything.” Meaning non-fatal injuries that would’ve been good for most people, could very easily become fatal to him.
This time, Kasim seemed a bit bothered by how Onvu had went ahead and explained. He looked away, pushing himself back to the wall and resting against it.
The brain bubble of dying to him was wonky-donky. The fact that if he - if Onvu hadn’t grabbed them - he could have died on this day. Judging by his silence, he was in thought. He did have Onvu to thank though, for that.
Ceria shook her head, stripping off her bloody jacket and crumpling it into her bags. "If that's the case," she said, after listening to the wizard lizard's explanation, "then you're really lucky that you haven't died already." She flashed the other Maj a grin. "You're lucky you have your wizard lizard with you."
Pulling her hair back from her face, she climbed back onto Zyl's back to grab another water canteen, as her last one was empty.
"Should we stay any longer?" Zyl asked, turning his head to look back at her.
She shrugged. "Probably," she muttered. "We should be good people and make sure that he doesn't get an infection before we move on."
“He is, truly,” Onvu quietly replied from her spot.
Kasim tilted his head up and sniffed the air. He had other interests. Although the dried human syrup scent was still thick in the area, but he wasn’t worried about others following the trail. Outside, the scent had to have been swept around a bit, making it harder to follow. His real focus were on these two.
“You’re city folk, aren’t you?” He observed. He could still catch a scent off of them - the type that he only caught from city dwellers. “Why aren’t you back there? And why…” His thoughts momentarily drifted off to the scenario before. “..Why did you have people pursuing you two?”
At the way the Maj called them city dwellers, Ceria stiffened. She hated being called that, especially by a strange man who didn't seem to hold her kind in high regard. Her fighting instincts rose to the surface, and when she spoke, her voice was tight with annoyance.
"Yes, we're city folk," she said in a cool voice. "What gives?" She didn't expect him to say anything. Sliding off Zyl's back, she took a sip of the water from the canteen, musty and warm as it was, tasting faintly of the metal that had been containing it. "And we were told to go find something that the government wanted from the old city. As for why we were being pursued," she raised her shoulder into a half-shrug, "Your guess is as good as mine."
"My maj has a wonderful talent for pissing people off," Zyl said, speaking for the first time to the other two. "She probably screwed something up and made them come after her."
"Wow. Thanks."
Kasim sniffed. “Your scent. That’s what gave you away.” The scent of an individual was unique, yet Kasim could easily tell when someone had lived in a city, or at least had been in one recently. It wasn’t noticeable by normal humans or people with regular scent strength. But to Kasim, it was easily among one of his most disliked scents - from a combination of memories and legitimate dislike of the scent. Mostly the latter.
Kasim briefly stiffened when she explained that the two were to find something from the old city. It wasn’t for very long, but Onvu, due to her close distance to him, had noticed how his fingers curled briefly, brushing against the residue sand on the ground. He seemed to have gotten himself under control quite quickly, though.
“Looks like you’ve been booted off of your city, then.” He lifted his head so that he was looking at the ceiling. His tone carried a faint air of amusement to it.
“Hmm. Sounds like a few people that I know,” Onvu said, her gaze sweeping across the human containment unit. She did know some peculiar individuals that seemed to have a knack for making people mad, whether it was on purpose or not. At times, it could be Kasim, although it wasn’t often she witnessed it, due to the pair’s reclusive nature.
The scorn in the Maj's voice made Ceria stiffen, and she opened her mouth to say - what? What would she say? That she couldn't help her scent? That wouldn't do anything. Besides, she knew that the city stunk. If this guy had something against her for being from the city, she would show him.
His next words made her clench her fists, and the amusement in his tone was what made her snap. "Does it? I hadn't actually noticed, thank you for pointing that out, Captain Obvious."
Zyl let out a breath from his nose, shooting out a few white sparks in the process. "Ceria…" He said warningly.
His maj turned to send him a glare.
"Calm down."
Kasim looked back down as to watch the exchange. Surprisingly, he didn’t interject between the whole thing. Instead, he moved to fiddling with some small pieces of sand on the floor.
Onvu sighed. “He didn’t mean anything by it,” she said. “His..and my tone too, can sometimes come a little off at times. We just don’t talk to others often and thus tone can be an issue sometimes,” Onvu had attempted to apologize. Even though she knew that Kasim most likely had a hidden undertone to it all, as opposed to just wanting to poke fun at someone who had been kicked from their city.
"See?" Zyl asked, nudging Ceria. "He didn't mean much by it." His maj had issues with her temper a lot of the time, and so would take things at their face value, not at anything else. Which could be troublesome sometimes, especially when she was supposed to be acting polite around important people.
She just rolled her peepers at him. "He'd better learn, then, or he'll offend some very important people in the future," she said snappishly.
If his expression were visible, he’d be smirking right now. Either way, it was somewhat visible in his peepers as he looked up.
“Oh, offend important people? I’ve already done that! Why do you think I don’t reside in any city?”
Onvu glanced up, watching from her position.
“At this point, what ‘important people’ can I-“ He was interrupted from a growl by Onvu. Though the wizard lizard kept to her spot, her peepers were on Kasim, narrowed and all.
“Enough.” She said, her voice low, and Kasim seemed to fall silent right after that.
Ceria was livid. Her fist clenched at her sides, and she scowled with such ferocity that it was a miracle she didn't implode. She looked ready for a fight, and certainly felt like it, too.
"It's a miracle you've survived this long," she hissed, feeling power tingle at her fingertips. "I shouldn't have helped someone like you." He reminded her too much of all the bullies she'd had to face, as well as entitled dips***s and… well, other people.
Zyl huffed out a breath through his nose, causing silver sparks to flash. He looked at the other wizard lizard, and muttered, "They should really be separated before someone gets hurt."
"I heard that," his Maj snapped. He rolled his peepers.
It’s a miracle I’m even here at all, Kasim had wanted to say, but Onvu’s warning had seemed to shut him down. Normally, he would have retorted back. His peepers cast back down to the ground.
”How about we all just..switch to a different topic? Clearly, remaining on this isn’t good for any of us. Like..” Onvu paused, thinking. ”Introductions. My name is Onvu.”
"My name is Zyl," the white wizard lizard said, his wings rustling as he re-settled them. "And this hothead here is Ceria." He nudged said person with his wing, and she scowled at him.
"I can introduce myself, thank you," she snapped, and he huffed what seemed to be a laugh.
"If you say so. You seem to be unable to talk civilly at all right now."
