Thal was certain he'd passed by those rocks, their dusty forms jutting up from a ragged cluster of bone-dry weeds, and so he felt assured he was at least roughly retracing his steps. He'd passed a town at some point during his wandering from the north, but he'd avoided it half on instinct and half just because he was enjoying the freedom of being alone in such an open area. Now, however, with a gravely wounded young girl in his arms, he had need of civilization.
Every so often he wondered if the girl was what Megiddo had wanted to show him, and if so why, but these thoughts were shrugged off for the moment as far too heavy. Though his limbs did not tire from walking or carrying, he grew weary of mysteries.
The old man was just very strange. But hey, so were they all.
He'd found what looked like a road after a few hours of wandering and so took to following it. It would be another hour until he could just make out shapes on the horizon that seemed less natural. The sun glared lower to the west and was beginning to color things in orange hues. The near-sunset light seemed to emphasize the dark gashes in the girl's body when he looked down at her. But at least she didn't seem to have gotten worse.
The girl's tattered body shone with salt from the evaporated seawater, sand still stuck to the insides of her arms and legs. Her green hair swung long behind her in tangled clumps. Her blue eyes stared at the man carrying her. For the most part, she was limp. Her tail twitched, and her ears turned about on her head. The attempts at breathing had ceased making gurgling noisy and become grotesque, meaty sighs.Â
As the sun cooked her through, she appeared no better or worse. She appeared to be in a kind of half-conscious stasis, her fingertips resting against Thal's chest the only gesture she had made. Until, very slowly and out of nowhere, her back curled forward and her head lifted, sitting herself up in Thal's arms and laying her head against him.
Red ears swiveled in momentary confusion as the girl's weight shifted in his arms, and he adjusted his grip a bit to accommodate her new position. "Hey little lady," his eyes wrinkled in a confused smile. "You awake now? That's good, I guess. Won't be long til we get to a healer who can patch you right up."
The woman lifted one hand and pressed them into the wound at her throat. She made a strange, coughing sound and shivered.
"Yup, they'll fix that for sure." He didn't really want to look at that gruesome slash any longer than necessary. He'd been deliberately trying not to think about what kind of situation could have led to a young girl - she couldn't be more than a teenager - being injured so. It made his tail curl. "See there, just ahead!" The shapes he'd picked out on the horizon had coalesced into visible, man-made structures, the foremost of which seemed to be a wooden awning. A number of dusty, yellow chocobos lazed about beneath and around it.
Pulling her hand from the wound on her neck -- she'd inserted her fingers two-knuckles-deep in her own throat -- the woman pushed her head against Thal's neck. Her tail curled up around his arm.
Bare feet plodding along the dusty path, Thal approached the settlement with the only hope that it was actually large enough to contain a healer. While conjurers were a dime a dozen in the Shroud - though he'd always tended to avoid them - he wasn't sure what it would be like out in the desert. "Don't go exerting yourself too much," he spoke to the girl, lifting his head a bit so her own settled into the crook of his neck more comfortably.
As he approached the chocobos, he became aware of another scent that seemed to be wafting from the area beyond. It was an old smell, rotten but not like the ocean, and there was a sharp tanginess to it entirely foreign to Thal. It stung at his nose and made him wrinkle his face up in distaste. "Sure hope their healing is better than their cleaning," he chuckled to himself, and a few steps later he realized that the path he walked split, with one branch dipping down sharply.
Of course. A place that smelled like a corpse would be a hole in the ground. The concept of it left him uneasy, but he pressed on for the sake of the girl he carried. Why an entire town would want to submerge itself beneath the surface  was beyond him; he'd spent as much time as he possibly good above ground for the past five years.
The chocobokeep gave him an odd look as he passed - not surprised, but... sympathetic? The expression confused Thal, but there wasn't time to waste in figuring it out. Instead he followed the path down into what was clearly an established town of some sort. It opened out into a courtyard - at least they could see the sky from here - and was fringed by a number of stalls and larger buildings built into the cliffs.
As he wandered across the courtyard, eyeing the buildings and finally settling on one to approach, he shifted his grip on the girl and glanced down at her. "Still with me, kiddo?"
The woman didn't answer, or even attempt to. Her chest had begun to swell subtly with breath, though she still made strange sounds each time. She leaned her head back and looked up at Thal. By happenstance, the motion put her wound on display.
The man grimaced and shifted his arm against the girl's head so that her neck wasn't... hanging open like that. Really, that could not be a good thing. His pace took him through the door of one of the buildings then, and he silently mourned the loss of the sky for a few seconds before glancing around.
A woman stood behind a counter some yalms in front of him, and she lifted her eyes in greeting.
"Hey there, miss! My little friend here got into a bit of trouble and could do for some healing. Uh... heh, well more than a bit. Anyone around here who can help?" He shrugged his shoulders a bit helplessly, though careful not to jostle the girl in his arms.
"How long does she have? Our hospice is unfortunately full at the moment."
That statement took Thal off guard, and for several seconds he just blinked.
The woman didn't even react to that. She remained mostly limp in Thal's arms, though she did stubbornly shift her position to look at him, once again showing off the vicious garrote wound on her throat. The flayed skin opened up with the motion, showing the whites of her ligaments and a crooked, cracked hyoid bone against the tattered cartilage of her larynx.
At this, the receptionist blanched, eyes widening. Her professional demeanor fell away as she said very slowly. "She. Should. Not. Be able to move her head." She blinked three times, and then seemed to lapse back into her helpful, cheerful tone as a self-defense mechanism, and empty smile pulling at her cheeks. "Maybe I'll just go ask someone about... something."
The woman in Thal's arm ducked her head forward when the wound was noticed, hiding much of the gash behind her jaw, but it didn't do any good at this point. Her tail curled tighter around Thal's arm.
"Uh... alrighty then! I'll just.. wait here, I guess?" Swiveling one ear, he dropped his blue eyes towards the girl in his arms, wincing. "... Well, what does she know about neck wounds, huh? You're gonna be fine."
The woman in Thal's arms pressed herself up against him, but remained silent.
A few seconds later, not long at all, a Hyur garbed in black robes emerged from the inner hall of the hospice. The receptionist was behind him, as though hiding, and whispering fervent but inaudible words. As the man saw the pair, he stopped in his tracks, and then observed, "I recognize this girl." And then to Thal, "Please sit her down. We don't have any open beds but I'll take a quick look. What's happened to her?"
The red-haired miqo'te half-turned one way, then the other, and finally crossed to a corner where there was a small bench, like to accommodate waiting visitors. Or something. Thal didn't really question it. He did give the man a sideways look, however. "Recognize her? Eh, that's doesn't really... Hm." He shook his tail and knelt to set the girl down on the bench. "I don't know exactly what happened. Found her washed up on a beach like this. Couldn't exactly leave her, y'know? So you're a healer?"
"She used to volunteer at the church. You carried her here all the way from...? There are no beaches nearby!" The man crouched in front of where she'd been set down. The woman gave the black-clothed man an empty look, without recognition and a bit of fear. Despite this the man proceeded to take her head in both hands and push it back, gazing in to the wound. He had only been looking at it for a half second before he snapped his hands away and stood tall. "By the Twelve!"
The woman curled her head down to hide the wound, turning her face away. Her ears fell down on her head.
"Well, I dunno. Maybe it was a lake or something... But hey, that doesn't much matter. She needs healing help, so if you can give it, that'd be appreciated." Thal leaned his head back slightly away from the man as he swore in apparent disbelief.
The man looked first at the receptionist, then at Thal, and then back to the green-haired woman. "This girl cannot possibly be alive."
"Hah, well she's moving, so she definitely is. I know it's a pretty big scratch, but..." He shrugged at that, and then gave the man an impatient frown. "Look, she doesn't have all day. If you're going to help her, do it."
Shifting anxiously in the seat, the woman cast her eyes towards Thal again, the only time she had a look of recognition at all.
The black-robed man eyed Thal for a moment, and then shook his head. "Don't worry. This is, sadly, not the first time that one of Drybone's dead has refused to go quietly into the ground." His eyes went to the receptionist. "We should burn it. We'll dig a grave and put oil-"
The chair the green-haired woman had been sitting in clattered to the floor when she bolted for the door. She did this clumsily, weakly, barely able to move, but managed to get out of the building in mere seconds. Only to fall into the dirt when her legs failed her.
Thal jerked back at the sudden movement, blue eyes blinking rapidly. A moment later, he was pushing past the robed man and the receptionist, hurtling after where his nose told him the girl had ran. How she'd managed to run, he wasn't going to ponder just yet.
Her burst through the door and hurried to where she lay in the dirt, bending down. "What are you doing, kiddo? You're gonna hurt yourself," he spoke quickly, tail swishing behind him as he set his hands on her shoulders, to lift her. "I'm thinking there's a misunderstanding here, so don't worry."
The woman squirmed in the dirt, trying to get her footing once more, to continue getting away. When Thal's hands fell over her, however, she stopped, letting herself be moved by him.
Right behind Thal, the man in the black robes appeared in the doorway. "Sir, please keep your distance from it! Don't worry. It can't get away here."
Scooping his arms beneath her, Thal lifted the girl with ease, her fragile weight next to nothing in his grip. At the words behind him, he turned and frowned. "What're you talking about? First off - she's a she, not an it. And second... what?" His ears gave a baffled shake.
"Sir, that woman is undead." He lifted his hands in placation. "I know it is disturbing, but trust us, she died long ago. We've handled situations like this one before. We are very capable of destroying it."
The man's words unnerved Thal in more ways than just worry for the girl. They made his bones itch. His ears shifted to point behind him as he took a few steps back. "Yyyeah... I didn't come here for you to, uh, "destroy" the kid." Mouth twisting, he continued backing up a ways. "So... I'll just be on my way, I think. Nice meeting you."
As the woman in Thal's arms curled up closer to him, the man in black robes rushed down the steps. "Please, that girl deserves to be buried at the church where she worked for so long. Her body deserves rest. I don't think you understand what it is that you hold."
Blue eyes shifted left, then right, then back towards the black-robed man. The smell in this pit of a town was suddenly overpowering, choking his senses like earth and worms. "Yeah... I'm just gonna go. See ya!" He spun around then, holding the girl to his chest, and picked up his pace, angling towards the ramp he'd entered through.
"Wait! Are you mad?" The black-robed man chased him for a handful of steps, and then shouted out, pointing. "Someone stop that man! He's harboring an aberration!" The response did not take long, since there was an Immortal Flames office just across the square.
Laying his ears flat against his head, Thal turned his hurried walk into an all-out run for the ramp.
The woman in his hands curled up against him and vocalized a haggard groan. He put one arm around his neck, but didn't hold any of her own weight. Behind them there was a distant clatter of armored pursuers.
A number of townsfolk fell back with frightened looks as he ran past them, but Thal didn't really pay them much mind. He took the ramp without losing a beat, legs hauling himself and his lightweight charge up towards the surface. The clanging thud of metal and leather and heavy foot beats continued behind him, and as he crested the top of the ramp, he forced his own legs to extend their stride.
The pursuit was disorganized. The call had been so sudden that the chasers hadn't had any organization. There were no chocobo involved. Just heaving, overheated soldiers in full armor. And unlike Thal, they tired.
Thal ran south from the town, or as best he could estimate as south, breaking from the road almost immediately. He didn't stop, even when the pounding and shouts from his pursuers faded and gave way to the ambient sounds of desert. He would run all the way back to the lake Megiddo had first found him at, unless the girl in his arms stopped him.
She didn't. She remained tense the entire way, as though they were still being pursued, though her groaning ceased. She lay a hand over her neck, pressing down on the flesh about the wound on her throat, sealing it. She breathed.
When his feet hit the shallow water, Thal finally slowed, first to a light trot, then a walk, and finally, as he approached the rocky plateau jutting up from the center of the lake, to a complete stop. He didn't really know why he came back to the water, but the liquid was soothing to his feet and helped him ignore the way he had begun to feel each individual joint in his toes, and the way his muscles twitched along calves and thighs to hold him steady.
Dropping his gaze to the girl in his arms, he frowned in silence for several seconds. There really wasn't any denying it now, he thought. At least... for certain things. Damn that old man.
It was a half-hearted damning, though. Not like he could really blame Megiddo for all this. Swishing his tail and trying not to think of how he could feel each vertebrae sliding against one another, Thal forced a smile at the girl. "Well, that didn't go exactly as planned. You're... looking a little better though, so there's that."
The woman took several long, deep breaths. She then intoned an indiscernible series of croaking syllables, her lips moving to try and form words. She ceased after a few moments, however, a frustrated look on her face.
His brow wrinkled. "Not all better, though." He hummed to himself for a few seconds, looking up and around at the lazy toads that croaked nearby, and then back down to her. "I'll admit, not really sure what to do now. I'm thinking taking you to any other healer is just going to get the same kind of unhelpful reaction." He twitched one ear and stepped along the rocks, finding one he could sit down upon. Settling onto its surface and letting his feet dangle into the water, he shifted the girl until she was more resting in his lap than he was holding her.
A thought occurred to him then. "... Huh. Hey, do you know how to pull on aether?"
She nestled in comfortably on his lap, sitting up and remaining against his chest. Keeping one hand over the wound on her throat so she could breathe, she shrugged, and looked up at him with a curious expression. Her ears shifted against him, all salty, sandy fur.
"Mm..." He felt her shrug more than saw it, along with the tickling of her sandy ears. "Eh, it was a thought. Not sure how else to help you, but if you don't know... well. You don't seem to be getting worse, so maybe if we just wait?" He tilted his head, glancing up towards the sky, which was lit with fire to the west and darkening to the east. "... And clean ya up a bit, miss sandy-pants."
Her blue eyes left the man to look down at her legs. She certainly wans't wearing pants. The burnt-and-torn red remains of what had once possibly been a dress were more just string tangled up around her body than any kind of clothing. She tightened her hand around her throat and tried to speak again. "I... d..." She groaned.
The miqo'te blinked in surprise, snapping his gaze down to the top of her head. "What was that? Don't hurt yourself, okay?"
She shook her head. "I... died?"
Red ears shifted at that. "Hrm." Bringing one hand behind his head, he offered a lopsided smile to her hair. "Well now, it's not all bad."
Her head fell against his chest again and she made an unhappy sound, pouting.
"I'm serious!" He laughed despite himself. Not like the kid needed anything more to worry about. "You hardly notice it."
She grunted out a number of syllables that sounded not only unconvinced, but bitterly so. Then she just pouted again and kicked one leg.
This drew a grimace from him, and something unsettled shifted in his gut - something that made him keenly aware of the way his organs sat atop one another, tucked within his abdomen, between his ribs. Her worked his jaw side to side. "Don't believe me, huh? Can't say I blame you." There just wasn't any ignoring it anymore, was there? The Keepers, the old man, that healer who wasn't a healer... Thal shut his eyes for a long moment, but when he opened them, he smiled. "Well just look at me. Going on five years now, and it isn't a thing to worry about."
"I.. ne..." She began, but then stopped, and kicked one leg in frustration, unable to express whatever it was she wanted to day. After a pause, she angrilly ripped a large swath of cloth from the once-dress she was wearing. Not that this could have made it cover any less of her.
"Hey now, don't get mad. Tearing up your clothes isn't gonna change anything." He moved his hands over her's to keep them still for a moment. "Best to just accept it and move on. Enjoy life." He snorted a laugh.
She smacked his hands away from hers and proceeded to tie the torn piece of cloth around her neck, closing off the wound beneath her jaw. At least, mostly.
Holding up his own hands in surrender, Thal watched the girl expectantly.
Once the cloth was in place, the woman put her hands on either side of her neck. Then she tried very hard to speak. "I... ne...ver... live..."
"Eh?" His tail twitched across the stone as he tried to piece together the syllables. A sigh escaped him then. "I don't know what got to you so young like this, kid. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"N-!" He hit his chest with one tiny fist, the blow exceptionally weak. Then she put her hands back on her neck. "Never!"
"Hey, it's not a license to go hitting people, so stop that." His reprimand was gentle, though, in proportion to the weakness of the blow. He barely felt it. Brow lowering, both in concern and confusion, he tilted his head. "I'm not sure what you're trying to say, kid. Maybe you should just rest up for a bit? I'm sure your head's a bit jumbled. I know mine was."
This pulled another groan of frustration from her, but then she cuddled up against him again. "Don't... want. Dead."
"Yeah," Thal muttered, holding onto her and shifting on the rock he sat upon until he could lean his back up against more rock. "Just rest a bit, alright? You'll think clearer when the sun's up."
She huffed unhappily, but pulled her legs up against her chest -- putting even more weight on Thal -- and curling her tail around her ankles.
Thal took her shifting around in stride, waiting until she seemed to have settled into a comfortable position before he moved an arm around to steady her. Something about it felt entirely natural, and he leaned his head back until his blue eyes were looking up towards the stars.
The woman was silent, breathing calmly and carefully. Her eyes rested on the water for a very long time. Then she looked up at Thal's chin and said with great effort. "Thanks... Dad."
The quiet voice brought a slight furrow to his brow - confusion, and pity. Unseen by the girl, his mouth twisted, and then he lightly patted her arm. "We'll talk tomorrow."
She dropped her gaze again, but didn't close her eyes.
Every so often he wondered if the girl was what Megiddo had wanted to show him, and if so why, but these thoughts were shrugged off for the moment as far too heavy. Though his limbs did not tire from walking or carrying, he grew weary of mysteries.
The old man was just very strange. But hey, so were they all.
He'd found what looked like a road after a few hours of wandering and so took to following it. It would be another hour until he could just make out shapes on the horizon that seemed less natural. The sun glared lower to the west and was beginning to color things in orange hues. The near-sunset light seemed to emphasize the dark gashes in the girl's body when he looked down at her. But at least she didn't seem to have gotten worse.
The girl's tattered body shone with salt from the evaporated seawater, sand still stuck to the insides of her arms and legs. Her green hair swung long behind her in tangled clumps. Her blue eyes stared at the man carrying her. For the most part, she was limp. Her tail twitched, and her ears turned about on her head. The attempts at breathing had ceased making gurgling noisy and become grotesque, meaty sighs.Â
As the sun cooked her through, she appeared no better or worse. She appeared to be in a kind of half-conscious stasis, her fingertips resting against Thal's chest the only gesture she had made. Until, very slowly and out of nowhere, her back curled forward and her head lifted, sitting herself up in Thal's arms and laying her head against him.
Red ears swiveled in momentary confusion as the girl's weight shifted in his arms, and he adjusted his grip a bit to accommodate her new position. "Hey little lady," his eyes wrinkled in a confused smile. "You awake now? That's good, I guess. Won't be long til we get to a healer who can patch you right up."
The woman lifted one hand and pressed them into the wound at her throat. She made a strange, coughing sound and shivered.
"Yup, they'll fix that for sure." He didn't really want to look at that gruesome slash any longer than necessary. He'd been deliberately trying not to think about what kind of situation could have led to a young girl - she couldn't be more than a teenager - being injured so. It made his tail curl. "See there, just ahead!" The shapes he'd picked out on the horizon had coalesced into visible, man-made structures, the foremost of which seemed to be a wooden awning. A number of dusty, yellow chocobos lazed about beneath and around it.
Pulling her hand from the wound on her neck -- she'd inserted her fingers two-knuckles-deep in her own throat -- the woman pushed her head against Thal's neck. Her tail curled up around his arm.
Bare feet plodding along the dusty path, Thal approached the settlement with the only hope that it was actually large enough to contain a healer. While conjurers were a dime a dozen in the Shroud - though he'd always tended to avoid them - he wasn't sure what it would be like out in the desert. "Don't go exerting yourself too much," he spoke to the girl, lifting his head a bit so her own settled into the crook of his neck more comfortably.
As he approached the chocobos, he became aware of another scent that seemed to be wafting from the area beyond. It was an old smell, rotten but not like the ocean, and there was a sharp tanginess to it entirely foreign to Thal. It stung at his nose and made him wrinkle his face up in distaste. "Sure hope their healing is better than their cleaning," he chuckled to himself, and a few steps later he realized that the path he walked split, with one branch dipping down sharply.
Of course. A place that smelled like a corpse would be a hole in the ground. The concept of it left him uneasy, but he pressed on for the sake of the girl he carried. Why an entire town would want to submerge itself beneath the surface  was beyond him; he'd spent as much time as he possibly good above ground for the past five years.
The chocobokeep gave him an odd look as he passed - not surprised, but... sympathetic? The expression confused Thal, but there wasn't time to waste in figuring it out. Instead he followed the path down into what was clearly an established town of some sort. It opened out into a courtyard - at least they could see the sky from here - and was fringed by a number of stalls and larger buildings built into the cliffs.
As he wandered across the courtyard, eyeing the buildings and finally settling on one to approach, he shifted his grip on the girl and glanced down at her. "Still with me, kiddo?"
The woman didn't answer, or even attempt to. Her chest had begun to swell subtly with breath, though she still made strange sounds each time. She leaned her head back and looked up at Thal. By happenstance, the motion put her wound on display.
The man grimaced and shifted his arm against the girl's head so that her neck wasn't... hanging open like that. Really, that could not be a good thing. His pace took him through the door of one of the buildings then, and he silently mourned the loss of the sky for a few seconds before glancing around.
A woman stood behind a counter some yalms in front of him, and she lifted her eyes in greeting.
"Hey there, miss! My little friend here got into a bit of trouble and could do for some healing. Uh... heh, well more than a bit. Anyone around here who can help?" He shrugged his shoulders a bit helplessly, though careful not to jostle the girl in his arms.
"How long does she have? Our hospice is unfortunately full at the moment."
That statement took Thal off guard, and for several seconds he just blinked.
The woman didn't even react to that. She remained mostly limp in Thal's arms, though she did stubbornly shift her position to look at him, once again showing off the vicious garrote wound on her throat. The flayed skin opened up with the motion, showing the whites of her ligaments and a crooked, cracked hyoid bone against the tattered cartilage of her larynx.
At this, the receptionist blanched, eyes widening. Her professional demeanor fell away as she said very slowly. "She. Should. Not. Be able to move her head." She blinked three times, and then seemed to lapse back into her helpful, cheerful tone as a self-defense mechanism, and empty smile pulling at her cheeks. "Maybe I'll just go ask someone about... something."
The woman in Thal's arm ducked her head forward when the wound was noticed, hiding much of the gash behind her jaw, but it didn't do any good at this point. Her tail curled tighter around Thal's arm.
"Uh... alrighty then! I'll just.. wait here, I guess?" Swiveling one ear, he dropped his blue eyes towards the girl in his arms, wincing. "... Well, what does she know about neck wounds, huh? You're gonna be fine."
The woman in Thal's arms pressed herself up against him, but remained silent.
A few seconds later, not long at all, a Hyur garbed in black robes emerged from the inner hall of the hospice. The receptionist was behind him, as though hiding, and whispering fervent but inaudible words. As the man saw the pair, he stopped in his tracks, and then observed, "I recognize this girl." And then to Thal, "Please sit her down. We don't have any open beds but I'll take a quick look. What's happened to her?"
The red-haired miqo'te half-turned one way, then the other, and finally crossed to a corner where there was a small bench, like to accommodate waiting visitors. Or something. Thal didn't really question it. He did give the man a sideways look, however. "Recognize her? Eh, that's doesn't really... Hm." He shook his tail and knelt to set the girl down on the bench. "I don't know exactly what happened. Found her washed up on a beach like this. Couldn't exactly leave her, y'know? So you're a healer?"
"She used to volunteer at the church. You carried her here all the way from...? There are no beaches nearby!" The man crouched in front of where she'd been set down. The woman gave the black-clothed man an empty look, without recognition and a bit of fear. Despite this the man proceeded to take her head in both hands and push it back, gazing in to the wound. He had only been looking at it for a half second before he snapped his hands away and stood tall. "By the Twelve!"
The woman curled her head down to hide the wound, turning her face away. Her ears fell down on her head.
"Well, I dunno. Maybe it was a lake or something... But hey, that doesn't much matter. She needs healing help, so if you can give it, that'd be appreciated." Thal leaned his head back slightly away from the man as he swore in apparent disbelief.
The man looked first at the receptionist, then at Thal, and then back to the green-haired woman. "This girl cannot possibly be alive."
"Hah, well she's moving, so she definitely is. I know it's a pretty big scratch, but..." He shrugged at that, and then gave the man an impatient frown. "Look, she doesn't have all day. If you're going to help her, do it."
Shifting anxiously in the seat, the woman cast her eyes towards Thal again, the only time she had a look of recognition at all.
The black-robed man eyed Thal for a moment, and then shook his head. "Don't worry. This is, sadly, not the first time that one of Drybone's dead has refused to go quietly into the ground." His eyes went to the receptionist. "We should burn it. We'll dig a grave and put oil-"
The chair the green-haired woman had been sitting in clattered to the floor when she bolted for the door. She did this clumsily, weakly, barely able to move, but managed to get out of the building in mere seconds. Only to fall into the dirt when her legs failed her.
Thal jerked back at the sudden movement, blue eyes blinking rapidly. A moment later, he was pushing past the robed man and the receptionist, hurtling after where his nose told him the girl had ran. How she'd managed to run, he wasn't going to ponder just yet.
Her burst through the door and hurried to where she lay in the dirt, bending down. "What are you doing, kiddo? You're gonna hurt yourself," he spoke quickly, tail swishing behind him as he set his hands on her shoulders, to lift her. "I'm thinking there's a misunderstanding here, so don't worry."
The woman squirmed in the dirt, trying to get her footing once more, to continue getting away. When Thal's hands fell over her, however, she stopped, letting herself be moved by him.
Right behind Thal, the man in the black robes appeared in the doorway. "Sir, please keep your distance from it! Don't worry. It can't get away here."
Scooping his arms beneath her, Thal lifted the girl with ease, her fragile weight next to nothing in his grip. At the words behind him, he turned and frowned. "What're you talking about? First off - she's a she, not an it. And second... what?" His ears gave a baffled shake.
"Sir, that woman is undead." He lifted his hands in placation. "I know it is disturbing, but trust us, she died long ago. We've handled situations like this one before. We are very capable of destroying it."
The man's words unnerved Thal in more ways than just worry for the girl. They made his bones itch. His ears shifted to point behind him as he took a few steps back. "Yyyeah... I didn't come here for you to, uh, "destroy" the kid." Mouth twisting, he continued backing up a ways. "So... I'll just be on my way, I think. Nice meeting you."
As the woman in Thal's arms curled up closer to him, the man in black robes rushed down the steps. "Please, that girl deserves to be buried at the church where she worked for so long. Her body deserves rest. I don't think you understand what it is that you hold."
Blue eyes shifted left, then right, then back towards the black-robed man. The smell in this pit of a town was suddenly overpowering, choking his senses like earth and worms. "Yeah... I'm just gonna go. See ya!" He spun around then, holding the girl to his chest, and picked up his pace, angling towards the ramp he'd entered through.
"Wait! Are you mad?" The black-robed man chased him for a handful of steps, and then shouted out, pointing. "Someone stop that man! He's harboring an aberration!" The response did not take long, since there was an Immortal Flames office just across the square.
Laying his ears flat against his head, Thal turned his hurried walk into an all-out run for the ramp.
The woman in his hands curled up against him and vocalized a haggard groan. He put one arm around his neck, but didn't hold any of her own weight. Behind them there was a distant clatter of armored pursuers.
A number of townsfolk fell back with frightened looks as he ran past them, but Thal didn't really pay them much mind. He took the ramp without losing a beat, legs hauling himself and his lightweight charge up towards the surface. The clanging thud of metal and leather and heavy foot beats continued behind him, and as he crested the top of the ramp, he forced his own legs to extend their stride.
The pursuit was disorganized. The call had been so sudden that the chasers hadn't had any organization. There were no chocobo involved. Just heaving, overheated soldiers in full armor. And unlike Thal, they tired.
Thal ran south from the town, or as best he could estimate as south, breaking from the road almost immediately. He didn't stop, even when the pounding and shouts from his pursuers faded and gave way to the ambient sounds of desert. He would run all the way back to the lake Megiddo had first found him at, unless the girl in his arms stopped him.
She didn't. She remained tense the entire way, as though they were still being pursued, though her groaning ceased. She lay a hand over her neck, pressing down on the flesh about the wound on her throat, sealing it. She breathed.
When his feet hit the shallow water, Thal finally slowed, first to a light trot, then a walk, and finally, as he approached the rocky plateau jutting up from the center of the lake, to a complete stop. He didn't really know why he came back to the water, but the liquid was soothing to his feet and helped him ignore the way he had begun to feel each individual joint in his toes, and the way his muscles twitched along calves and thighs to hold him steady.
Dropping his gaze to the girl in his arms, he frowned in silence for several seconds. There really wasn't any denying it now, he thought. At least... for certain things. Damn that old man.
It was a half-hearted damning, though. Not like he could really blame Megiddo for all this. Swishing his tail and trying not to think of how he could feel each vertebrae sliding against one another, Thal forced a smile at the girl. "Well, that didn't go exactly as planned. You're... looking a little better though, so there's that."
The woman took several long, deep breaths. She then intoned an indiscernible series of croaking syllables, her lips moving to try and form words. She ceased after a few moments, however, a frustrated look on her face.
His brow wrinkled. "Not all better, though." He hummed to himself for a few seconds, looking up and around at the lazy toads that croaked nearby, and then back down to her. "I'll admit, not really sure what to do now. I'm thinking taking you to any other healer is just going to get the same kind of unhelpful reaction." He twitched one ear and stepped along the rocks, finding one he could sit down upon. Settling onto its surface and letting his feet dangle into the water, he shifted the girl until she was more resting in his lap than he was holding her.
A thought occurred to him then. "... Huh. Hey, do you know how to pull on aether?"
She nestled in comfortably on his lap, sitting up and remaining against his chest. Keeping one hand over the wound on her throat so she could breathe, she shrugged, and looked up at him with a curious expression. Her ears shifted against him, all salty, sandy fur.
"Mm..." He felt her shrug more than saw it, along with the tickling of her sandy ears. "Eh, it was a thought. Not sure how else to help you, but if you don't know... well. You don't seem to be getting worse, so maybe if we just wait?" He tilted his head, glancing up towards the sky, which was lit with fire to the west and darkening to the east. "... And clean ya up a bit, miss sandy-pants."
Her blue eyes left the man to look down at her legs. She certainly wans't wearing pants. The burnt-and-torn red remains of what had once possibly been a dress were more just string tangled up around her body than any kind of clothing. She tightened her hand around her throat and tried to speak again. "I... d..." She groaned.
The miqo'te blinked in surprise, snapping his gaze down to the top of her head. "What was that? Don't hurt yourself, okay?"
She shook her head. "I... died?"
Red ears shifted at that. "Hrm." Bringing one hand behind his head, he offered a lopsided smile to her hair. "Well now, it's not all bad."
Her head fell against his chest again and she made an unhappy sound, pouting.
"I'm serious!" He laughed despite himself. Not like the kid needed anything more to worry about. "You hardly notice it."
She grunted out a number of syllables that sounded not only unconvinced, but bitterly so. Then she just pouted again and kicked one leg.
This drew a grimace from him, and something unsettled shifted in his gut - something that made him keenly aware of the way his organs sat atop one another, tucked within his abdomen, between his ribs. Her worked his jaw side to side. "Don't believe me, huh? Can't say I blame you." There just wasn't any ignoring it anymore, was there? The Keepers, the old man, that healer who wasn't a healer... Thal shut his eyes for a long moment, but when he opened them, he smiled. "Well just look at me. Going on five years now, and it isn't a thing to worry about."
"I.. ne..." She began, but then stopped, and kicked one leg in frustration, unable to express whatever it was she wanted to day. After a pause, she angrilly ripped a large swath of cloth from the once-dress she was wearing. Not that this could have made it cover any less of her.
"Hey now, don't get mad. Tearing up your clothes isn't gonna change anything." He moved his hands over her's to keep them still for a moment. "Best to just accept it and move on. Enjoy life." He snorted a laugh.
She smacked his hands away from hers and proceeded to tie the torn piece of cloth around her neck, closing off the wound beneath her jaw. At least, mostly.
Holding up his own hands in surrender, Thal watched the girl expectantly.
Once the cloth was in place, the woman put her hands on either side of her neck. Then she tried very hard to speak. "I... ne...ver... live..."
"Eh?" His tail twitched across the stone as he tried to piece together the syllables. A sigh escaped him then. "I don't know what got to you so young like this, kid. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"N-!" He hit his chest with one tiny fist, the blow exceptionally weak. Then she put her hands back on her neck. "Never!"
"Hey, it's not a license to go hitting people, so stop that." His reprimand was gentle, though, in proportion to the weakness of the blow. He barely felt it. Brow lowering, both in concern and confusion, he tilted his head. "I'm not sure what you're trying to say, kid. Maybe you should just rest up for a bit? I'm sure your head's a bit jumbled. I know mine was."
This pulled another groan of frustration from her, but then she cuddled up against him again. "Don't... want. Dead."
"Yeah," Thal muttered, holding onto her and shifting on the rock he sat upon until he could lean his back up against more rock. "Just rest a bit, alright? You'll think clearer when the sun's up."
She huffed unhappily, but pulled her legs up against her chest -- putting even more weight on Thal -- and curling her tail around her ankles.
Thal took her shifting around in stride, waiting until she seemed to have settled into a comfortable position before he moved an arm around to steady her. Something about it felt entirely natural, and he leaned his head back until his blue eyes were looking up towards the stars.
The woman was silent, breathing calmly and carefully. Her eyes rested on the water for a very long time. Then she looked up at Thal's chin and said with great effort. "Thanks... Dad."
The quiet voice brought a slight furrow to his brow - confusion, and pity. Unseen by the girl, his mouth twisted, and then he lightly patted her arm. "We'll talk tomorrow."
She dropped her gaze again, but didn't close her eyes.
![[Image: AntiThalSig.png]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/179079766/AntiThalSig.png)
"Song dogs barking at the break of dawn, lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm; and these streets, quiet as a sleeping army, send their battered dreams to heaven."
Hipparion Tribe (Sagolii)Â - Â Antimony Jhanhi's Wiki
