forum A Thing You Won't Remember

Started September 18, 2022 by @ElderGod-yellowqueen

tune

Romulus took his cue and stepped well back from her, giving her plenty of space. "Thank you." His smile shrank just a bit. "Once we're done here today, we'll move on to the next place. Hopefully it won't be so awful."

Lear gave just the slightest shake of his head. Not yet. He wanted Romulus to be able to focus on one thing at a time.

About then, Ruir stuck his huge shaggy head through the tent flap. That was the signal, apparently, because both men stood and slid on their gauntlets.

"We'll return soon." Lear said softly before heading out.

Romulus stepped over to Ruir, resting a hand on the Wulf's neck. "Be careful today. I cant promise nobody will try to come after the camp. Carth will fight till he's dead, should that happen, and if all else fails, Ruir will be back and forth all day." He wanted to reassure her that all would be fine, but he wasn't sure himself. "I'll look for you when we get back, if that's alright."

Elia pursed her lips but didn't say anything. She believed the prince should know as soon as possible, the more time he had to prepare and think of a plan. But it wasn't her place to say anything, and for once, she held her tongue on this matter.
She jumped back in surprised as the Wulf stuck his head in the tent. She was still trying to familiarize herself with such beasts. She stepped up to the other side of the Wulf and scratched behind his ears.
She looked up at Romulus, frowning slightly. "You be careful. I'm tired of you collapsing in front of me. It's flattering, really, but you are heavy and hard to move."
She bit her lip, in obvious thought, before she moved to him, lifted on the top of her toes, and kissed his cheek. She stepped back quickly, clasping her hands behind her back.
"Don't take too long. Who know what I'll do if I get bored? I can't promise you'll return without the camp being completely redone."

Ruir nuzzled her shoulder, before looking at Romulus and bumping his chest. Romulus smiled at them both. "Ruir agrees with you. I'll be careful." He chuckled softly.
The kiss caught him off guard, but he smiled at her a little wider.
"As long as you're still here when I get back."

Lear and the other men rose up then, the assortment of Wulves and horses champing to get going. Romulus leapt up onto Ruir, the duo once again towering over everyone else.

They were gone with the sound of thundering footsteps and clanking armor.

"Oh I'll be here." Elia smiled at him. "Maybe I'll be naked in your bed, enjoying myself. All the more incentive for you to get there and get back."
She winked at him as he left. She stepped just outside the tent, arms crossed over her chest, and watched as they rode away. She inhaled, held, then exhaled, before leaving the tent and going to find Lily and Calvin.
She did not, however, find them in a position she wanted to see. She stood outside their tent and waited for them dress themselves. She didn't need or want to know what they were doing. She only said she would need extra hands in the medical tent and left quickly. They would join her when they had finished whatever it was they were doing.
She found herself helping to prep bandages and making extra salves. She was cleaning and prepping beds. She made sure extra tent were prepared in the case more children were brought back. Everything was ready
All there was to do was wait.

The day did not go well.

The first hour or so, a guard rode back into camp with one kid. The child was okay, but shaken.

Things went downhill very quickly after that.

The guards were coming back every few minutes with more people, not just children, but adults, men and women. They all had one thing in common.
Burn wounds.
The guards came back with their armor scorched, the fur on their mounts singed. Eventually, one of the soldiers came back too burnt to go back into the city. Then another. Then another. And so it went.

Black smoke ruled across the sky in large clouds, and it became apparent that Calegon was burning.

One of the soldiers took the time to tell Elia that the crime circles had been caught by surprise, but had decided to take the entire city down with them. They had lit everything they could get their hands on, and the Haradrim were engaged in rescuing people from the blaze.
Around noon, Carth received orders to start sending the people who'd been treated back into town. Soldiers came back in to escort the people back to their homes to help fight the fires. The kids were allowed to stay, they'd been rescued and would be placed in better homes, but the adults all wanted to get back to their own places.
The pattern of wounded people and wounded soldiers continued into the early afternoon. Finally, the wounded soldiers outnumbered the wounded people, and most of the folks were able to go home, their wounds treated.
After that, it was just a steady stream of wounded men coming back, some able to walk into the med tent under their own power, others simply crashing to the ground off of the backs of their mounts as they came into camp.
It wasn't until dark had fallen again that Romulus and Lear came back into camp.
Lear's bright red armor was completely black, covered in soot and ash. His horse looked exhausted, and seemed ready to drop out from under him. He didn't look much better, and slid out of the saddle before just sitting right where he landed, staring at the ground.
Romulus somehow looked worse. He had his helmet off, and his blonde hair was grimy with the same soot and ash. There were burn marks all over his armor, and Ruir had bald patches in his pelt, ugly red blistered sections where the Fur has been burnt off. The Prince didn't ride into camp, he had walked with an arm over Ruir's shoulder, and now the two just stood there, leaning on one another with a faraway look in their eyes.
He looked completely defeated.

Elia grew more frantic as more and more burn victims were filed into the tent. She had them put into groups, those with minor wounds and could wait for treatment, those with severe wounds that needed immediate treatment, and those that were too far gone to be saved. They didn't need to be wasting resources on someone that wasn't going to live anyways. It was a hard call to make but a necessary one. They could other lives with the resources. It was lucky that most of the citizens were treatable and most had minor wounds. It was the soldiers Elia was more concerned about. Not only were their more in number but their wounds were far greater as well.
Elia and the others worked well into the evening. Her clothes were covered in blood, vomit, and other fluids. Her hair was becoming unraveled from its braid and pieces were pulled out. She was covered in sweat and gore. She was filthy and exhausted but there was more work to be done. She would work until she dropped.
She had a routine down. Wash hands, assess the damage, treat, and move to the next. She had assisted in a couple limb removals, their skin had been burnt beyond repair. Their screams made her want to cry but she had to remain strong. She couldn't hold everything together if she was seen falling apart. She helped tie tourniquets and hold down limbs. She applied burn salves and bandaged them. She cut away skin that had been too damaged and applied salves and offered tonics.
She was swaying on her feet now. It was hot and humid in the tent. It smelled horrific, the mixture of salves and blood and fluid. She had used up all of her energy caring for these people and she still had more to help. She hadn't had a drink of water or a bite to eat since the day before and her body was starting to punish for her. But she couldn't stop. There were too many.

There were only 30 soldiers, and not all of those ended up in the medical tent, but many did, and the number seemed so much higher because of the high traffic all day. Calvin and Lily had tried to get Elia to take a break, but she had seemed determined to give her all to the situation. Carth had been running all day, despite literally running all day the day before, and he was worn out as well. But finally, every wound had been treated, every soldier seen to, and the tent was quiet as the men recovered.

Lear pulled together the strength to stand, and walked into the tent. He looked around, nodding grimly, before he saw Elia. He immediately went over to support her, because she looked like she might fall over at any moment.
"Here." He said gently, his voice sounding ragged, like he'd been yelling orders all day. He slid an arm through hers, letting her lean her weight on him.

Elia didn't fight when someone was suddenly by her side, she didn't even jump as she usually did, showing how exhausted she was. She leaned into him, putting most of her body weight on him. She managed to look up at Lear. "I should be the one supporting you right now, not the other way around." Her voice was hoarse from yelling and talking all day without an ounce of water.
She didn't remove herself from him. She couldn't. She didn't have the energy to pull away. She needed to change. She needed to wash. But all she wanted to do right now was curl up and sleep for days. "Where's Romulus? What happened out there?"
Turns out, no matter how tired she was, she still wanted answers.

Lear didn't fight the questions, but he did lead her out of the tent, half carrying her. "He's here, but let's get you some water." They made it to the meeting tent, passing Romulus on the way.

He didn't move, or even seem to notice them, his stare locked on some distant point no one else could see.

Lear pulled her past them, and plopped down at one of the tables. He pulled off his helmet, and one of the less injured guards who'd had a bit of time to rest brought them a jug of water. Lear took several big swigs, before offering it to her. "I don't have anything you could catch."

He made sure she drank a little bit, before answering her questions.
"We came into town and raided several places all at once. Almost nobody escaped, and we were doing well, but one man wasn't quite dead. Romulus had ordered mercy if possible, and we didn't finish the criminal off all the way, and…" He swallowed hard. "He managed to get the word out as we were forming up our next raid. The gangs and crime lords immediately went to scorched earth tactics, burning down their lairs and places of business, before setting fire to the entire town. Houses, shops, churches, schools, you name it, they lit it." He rubbed his grimy face. "We spent the rest of the day fighting fires and trying to rescue children. But." His voice cracked, and he had to pause a moment. "We lost way too many today. It's never gone this badly before. In the 8 years I've been with Romulus, no place has ever been so desperate to keep their crimes." He was shocked by it, honestly, the darkness of the day and the deaths weighing on him.

Elia basically collapsed on the seat she was dumped on. She didn't even notice that they passed Romulus, her vision seemed to be failing her as black spots entered her eyes. She took the water jug from Lear, not even questioning it, before taking several deep gulps of water. She started choking on how much she drank. She coughed, spewing out some of the water she had consumed. It took a couple of minutes for her breathing to normalize.
She looked up at him as his words sunk into her. it truly reminded her how evil people could be. "What's going to happen to the city now?"

The same soldier brought them a plate of food. Fruit and a different meat, maybe beef. Lear ate slowly, his stomach upset by all the violence.
"I'm not sure." he said sadly. "Romulus hasn't said, but I think it's in the hands of the city leadership now. Calegon is clean of crime, that much we know, but for how long? We would need to station a lot of men here to keep order after this, and what Romulus is trying to do is going to be so much harder now and-…" He put his face in one hand. "And I still haven't told him about that hell-spawned letter…"

Elia picked at the plate. She ate very little, her stomach rolling over as she thought back at what had happened back in the medical tent. "The worst could happen has happened. It's best to tell him now. Waiting will only make it worst. The more tike he has to prepare himself the better."
She crossed her arms on the table and put her head down. She needed to bathe terribly. She was covered in filth and she hated it. Or she at least needed a change of clothes. But she wasn't sure she could get up, much less walk to her tent and change into cleaner clothes.
"Where is he?"

Lear nodded. "I know, I just…" The pressures of the day, and what was about to happen to his best friend, landed on his shoulders all at once, and Lear's grimy face suddenly had two tear streaks clearly visible down it.
"I don't want to break him any further than he is, Elia." He got his voice under control and held out a hand, palm up. "I know, I know, he needs prep time, I just…" He smeared the tears into the grime on his face and clamped down on his features.
"He's outside. We walked right past him. He and Ruir have just kinda been leaning on each other, for a long time."
Lear looked at her. "Listen… I don't exactly know what state of mind he's in. We've all 3 had a rough day, but his is about to get worse." He wasn't sure where he was going with that, what he was trying to say, but as he thought about…
Just be gentle with him…

Elia could only nod her head. She was tired to do anything else. She no energy for a verbal fight even if she was interested in one, which she wasn't. She understood the day they all had she had interest in making anyone's day harder.
She was concerned about Romulus. She understood to some degree how hard this was and wanted to be there for him. However he needed her.
"We should tell him now. The sooner the better." She made to stand.

(Sorry for short response. Just got tow work.)

(My night is about to be busy too, youre good!)

Lear stood with her, supporting her again. He turned towards the door, only for Lily to come in.
She'd been working alongside Elia all day, but her hair was wet and she was clean.
"Elia, Lear, Calvin heated some water." She looked nervous, and she kept her voice low. "I cleaned up and noticed the Prince out there, and we wondered if you 3 would want to bathe." She paused, before she realized what she'd said. "Separately! Not together of course, I didn't mean-"

"You're alright, Lily." Lear cut her off gently. He turned to Elia. "If you'll go clean off, I'll tell him… he may not want to talk to me for a minute afterward and I trust you to handle him like that."
Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Lily nodded quickly. "Calvin has the hot water in one of the empty small tents, it's private enough. We don't have a tub, but I just rinsed and used a little soap and it was fine…" She wanted to help, so badly, and the three adults all looked so distraught, the poor girl wasn't sure what to do.

Elia leaned against Lear as they stood together. Her legs were shaking trying to hold her. She looked at Lily and smiled at her with gratitude. She needed a bath badly.
She nodded at Lear. "I'll take care of him. Go tell him and wash up. I'll bring him to the tent when you're done and care for him."
She let go of him so he could go tell Romulus. She hung out at the mouth of the meeting tent, waiting for Lear to tell their prince. And when he walked off and gave her the cue, she walked, well, stumbled to the prince, and placed a caring hand on his back. She circled around him to his front. "Come on darling, let's get you out if this armor and cleaned up." Her voice was gentle, caring. She wanted nothing more than to take care o him.

Lear wanted to argue she should be clean first, wanted to push for her to wait for Romulus to come to her, wanted to do any number of things, but he found he didn't have the strength left. He nodded at her and turned to walk to Romulus.

The Prince was still leaning on Ruir, who reeked of blood and ash.

"I got him, Ruir." Lear dismissed the Wulf with a grateful smile, and the big beast limped off to go clean up as his type does. Romulus stumbled a bit, but Lear caught him, and the Prince realized where he was for the first time in a bit.
"Oh… Lear…" His voice was barely above a whisper, and Lear's heart broke for him again.
"Romulus, they've got some hot water, Elia wants to help you get cleaned up." The big man didn't respond, so Lear went on. "And I need to tell you something." He rattled off the contents of the letter, making sure Romulus understood what he was saying. The Prince didn't flinch or crumple, just sighed deeply and kept staring.
"The letter is under my pillow if you want to read the physical thing… I'm sorry, Romulus."

Romulus nodded at him, before patting his shoulder. "Not your fault, Lear. Just go get cleaned up."

Lear swallowed hard. That was Romulus telling him he wasn't mad, and that meant so much to Lear right now, it almost tipped him. "I'll go down to the creek they've been drawing the water from, I prefer it cold anyway." He hugged the Prince, their armor clanking together. It was a rare gesture, but this was a rare moment. "Elia will take care of you."
He turned and made eye contact with her, before lurching off to go get cleaned up on his own.

Romulus had gone back to staring at the ground when she stumbled up, he didn't notice until she spoke.
"Elia…" he acknowledged, and then walked slowly, heavily, where she nudged him, not really moving under his own power, just letting her guide him.

Elia took his hand and led him to the tent Liky had prepared for them. She was leaning against him, not able to support her own body weight.
She closed the tent behind them, clasping it together so they couldn't be interrupted. She turned to the prince. Her hands went to his armor as she started to undo the calsps and pull it off of him. She was silent as she did so. She wasn't sure of he wanted to talk and she wouldn't make him.

Romulus was fine, still just staring, until she started to try to remove some of the heavier pieces. He flinched, then very gently pushed her arm away. "Let me."
As the pieces came away, he was left in sweat soaked undergarments, which he then removed. In the dim lantern light of the tent, his skin was a bright red. He moved as if every inch hurt once it was exposed to the air.

He looked like he'd been cooked.

In dashing into burning buildings all day, his black armor had absorbed the heat, and over the course of the long day, Romulus had acquired low grade burns over most of his body. His focus had helped it not hurt so bad, but now, as he pulled the armor off, parts of him were just red, and parts were badly blistered.
He eventually stood there, grimy, burnt, tired and sad. He'd left his shorts on, not wanting to just strip unless Elia was fine with it.

Elia let out a string if curses as she took note of his body. "Romulus, why didn't you say anything. I would have grabbed bandages and cream for you."
She looked at him, eyes desperate. "I'm going to go grab some medical supplies. I'll be right back, alright." She left the tent at a run, grabbed the supplies she needed, and was back in just a couple minutes. She made a motion for him to take off his shorts, most he was burned anywhere there that was covered.
She stripped herself of her dirty garments, not wanting to risk an infection with him. She was left in her undergarments but made no move towards, not sexual anyhow. She only grabbed a cloth and wet it before oh so carefully cleaning his skin. A few tears leaked out of her eyes as she looked at the damage done to his body.

Romulus didn't look up at her. He mumbled "Sorry…" in response to her frustrations, before going quiet again.
He dropped his shorts when she asked him to, not even really reacting. Luckily nothing important was burned, that part of the body was well covered.
The Prince sat on one of the log chairs, so that Elia could reach all of him. He didn't move after that, didn't flinch, didn't grunt, didn't react. Just stared at the ground and did what Elia told him.

Elia's heart hurt as she watched him. He had no reaction to her. Not even a flinch. She still tried to be as careful as possible. She didn't want to hurt him any more than he was hurt.
She applied the salve to his burns, using most of the container. She bandaged the worst of the wounds. She backed away when he was fully clean and bandaged. She leaned down to kiss his head softly before turning away to wash herself. She took her time washing herself, stretching her aching muscles. She never once took her focus off of Romulus. She wanted to make sure he was alright and nothing was hurting him.
When she finished, she kneeled in front of him. "Darling, talk to me. What's on your mind?"

Romulus appreciated that she was so gentle with him. He appreciated that she wanted to help at all. That she was willing to talk to him. To be around him.
Her kiss on his head drew his eyes up off the ground onto her, and he watched her wash. Not in a creepy way, not in an interested way, not even like he was really watching, so much as she'd changed the direction he was staring.
She knelt in front of him, and usually that would be a problem. That always distracted him.
But now, even naked, with her in undergarments, alone in a tent… the thought didn't even bother to cross his mind.
She called him darling again, and that did it.

"Why do you keep calling me darling?"

Elia placed her hands in her lap. Part of her wanted to seek him out, to touch him, to offer and seek comfort. But she didn't want to risk him so she kept her hands to herself.
She smiled sweetly at him as he asked his question. "Because you are caring and kind. Calling you by your name doesn't always feel right. You need something more. And, well, Lear is love, you are my darling. It's an endearment I feel suits you well."
She wanted to kiss him, to soothe his worries, but she decided against it. She didn't want to force him into anything or risk hurting him.

Romulus looked down at the ground again. "That doesn't seem right."
He thought for a moment. "Why would you want a term of endearment for me? I'm the son of the usurper king. I'm your enemy. I'm a wannabe royal, really." His voice wasn't angry or challenging. It just sounded like he was stating facts.
"I'll never really get people to love me. Maybe they'll like the things I do, but even then, I'm screwed. I can't get things right, no matter how I try. I try to fix things and people die. People get hurt, lives get uprooted, cities burn…" He swallowed hard, the tears glistening in his eyes.
"No, you shouldn't call someone like me 'darling'."