K'ile awoke tied to the rack. It was familiar, like the rack he'd tied Thalen to so many times back in the tribe. But this one was a sex rack. He could tell by the rack's gentle but firm hold on his limbs and the heat of the air.
***
Thal made the trip back to the hole in the ground that was a town in silence. He spoke to the girl - K'aijeen, he kept having to remind himself - when they neared, telling her to stay far from any guards, out of sight, and that he would come back to get her once he'd gotten K'ile taken care of. Then he trudged towards the ramp that would lead into the settlement. The Tia's weight kept his steps slower, though he didn't tire from carrying the other man. At the bottom of the ramp, he paused a moment, not sure what he'd do if they tried to chase him out again, but then just shook his head with a dry chuckle and walked on. He headed straight for the building he'd met the black-robed man in.
The building was full of the smell of death, almost completely overwhelming the stink of the dying. Beneath that was a hideous haze of antiseptics. The same receptionist was present, and she recognized Thal as soon as she stepped in, going rigid and alert in an instant. "Oh, no! Not another one!"
"What?" Thal looked up, squinting a bit as he stepped inside while his eyes adjusted to dimmer light. He shifted K'ile's weight draped over his shoulder. "Oh! Heh. No. I promise this guy's still alive." He shrugged the shoulder not burdened by the Tia and gave a half-hearted, apologetic smile. "Sorry about earlier. I was... well. Y'know." One ear twitched. "But, uh, don't suppose you could help my friend out? He took a nasty hit to the head."
Almost before Thal was done talking, the receptionist had fled from her desk and run down a hallway, shouting, "He's back! He brought another one!" as though she hadn't even heard him talking.
An instant later, the black-robed man appeared from down the hallway, alert like he expected to find a blood-covered Voidsent in the room.
"I swear, he's alive!" He hefted K'ile a bit, as though that demonstrated the Tia's continued liveliness. "Just out cold. Uh. Spare some help?"
The man and the receptionist behind him both stood frozen for an absolutely, just, rude amount of time, before the man in black gestured towards the empty surface of a nearby table. "The beds are full."
The receptionist grabbed his arm, "But-!" He hushed her quickly, however.
With an expression that spoke of a shrug he couldn't wholly make while carrying the Tia, Thal stepped over and dumped the man out across the table. He rolled his shoulder once he was free of the weight, worked his jaw at the pull of tendon fiber and the way the ball of his joint shifted against the ends of his shoulder and arm bones. "Just had a bit of a tussle. Wasn't really sure where else to take him, but... uh. You people kind of look like healers."
As soon as the Tia's back hit the table, his body curled forward and his legs curled up, and his hissed rather roughly, "Azeyma burn you through! Augh!"
The man in black sent the receptionist after something for the pain.
Frowning, Thal pushed his fingers through his bangs. "Yea, damn the guy who's getting you help. Great idea."
K'ile just growled again, and groaned, and clutched at the back of his head. He closed his eyes and hissed. "Just a dead body with snark."
"And feelings," Thal muttered, turning blue eyes on the robed man. "He'll be okay?"
The robed man took a dark bottle from the receptionist, the latter of whom kept as far away as she could. Carrying the bottle towards the Tia, the man in the black robe looked Thal over, "Are you going to be okay? You're heinously wounded." He then turned towards K'ile and put a hand to his head. "Hold still."
"Ow!" The Tia bristled. "Who the heck are YOU now, Hyur?"
"Someone who can help. Hold still."
"Yeah, listen to the guy who knows what he's talking about," Thal tossed a smirk down at the Tia, though he wasn't really feeling it. To the robed man's question he blinked and then shrugged. "I feel fine. Just a few scratches."
"Your definition of 'scratches' troubles me." The black-robed man frowned. "Look at yourself!"
"Eh?" Lifting his arms slightly to either side, Thal glanced downward. Both brows lifted at the sight of blackened, blistered tissue carving a smear across his side and along his ribs. Recognizing it as where he'd felt numbness, he glanced towards his arms and saw numerous similar marks, though on a smaller scale. He let out a breath that attempted to be a laugh. "Well... it doesn't hurt. I'll be fine. Just make sure he keeps living."
"It likely does not hurt because of the severity of the wounds! You must be looked at immediately." The black-robed man was adamant, then stooping to push some of K'ile's hair out of the way and see his wound.
K'ile provided, very helpfully, "He doesn't feel it because he's undead!"
"Hey!" Thal did his best to look offended - it wasn't all that hard, given the situation, though it came out more annoyed. "Don't just go calling people that." He looked to the robed man. "I guess you can patch me up if you want. Don't really like the sight of it now that I noticed."
The black-robe man had looked, for a moment, like he was about to proclaim Thal a voidsent and have him burned, just like he'd threatened to do with the girl. But after a moment, he just narrowed his eyes in suspicion, and then nodded towards the receptionist.
She flinched. "But, what if he-... Very well. I'll be right back."
Thal just shrugged at that, lifting his arms to rest his hands behind his head. He hoped the girl - no, K'aijeen - wouldn't get too anxious if this took a while. The last thing they needed was her coming down here and making another scene. Blue eyes drifted down towards the Tia on the table. "Y'know, if I still knew you, I get the feeling I'd be a bit upset about you hating me so much."
"If you were still who you were you'd help me get rid of that girl." K'ile tried to sit up, but stopped half-way, cringing in pain. When he tried to lie down, however, the robed man pushed him fully upright and continued to clean the wound on his head.
Thal grimaced at that. "Maybe. I still don't know what all is going on. Would rather not make such a hasty decision." Which was funny, considering how he usually acted, but for once in his remembered life he felt like a little deliberation was in order.
Squinting with one eye up at Thal, K'ile said. "Okay, let me put it this way. The girl is evil. She's been a menace for years, summoning Voidsent and abusing us. She's supposed to be dead. And if you can't guess why you're around, then you really haven't changed. THINK about it."
"Hey, it's not like I asked for--" He caught himself, flashed an awkward grin towards the robed man and shrugged at him with an expression that said, 'family - what're you gonna do?' After a moment, he just let out a heavy sigh, but the action made him aware of air moving down his esophagus, how the muscles in the back of his mouth tightened to allow passage. He could even feel his lungs sitting against his ribcage, his diaphragm relaxing.
Thal swung his arms in some frustration. Megiddo's oblique suggestion returned to him, and paired with what this Tia said... well, there wasn't much else it could be. And yet... "She's a kid. I'm having a hard time thinking evil's possible."
"That's because you don't know her!"
The receptionist returned with bandages and alcohol. And swabs. And very sharp-looking instruments. And a look of reluctance and disgust. She obviously didn't want to do this.
K'ile went on. "Look, she summoned a monster when she was just a 'kid'. I've still got the scar on my leg from that day. And now she's a full-grown monster herself!"
The black-robed man muttered as he worked. "If the woman is still around perhaps we should dispatch some men to search for and apprehend her."
"Yes!" K'ile agreed immediately. "Do that. Definitely."
One of Thal's ears twitched, along with his tail. "Don't bother," he spoke suddenly. "I told her to run." It was a lie, but he wasn't going to put the girl's fate in strangers' hands, evil or not.
The man in black balked, "Why are-"
But K'ile growled more emphatically. "WHY are you protecting her?"
"Maybe because killing a little girl without damn well understanding things beyond a shadow of a doubt isn't how I want to operate?" The words came out a bit snappier than he'd intended. "Look at it from where I'm standing, friend. Some psycho attacks us out of nowhere saying the little girl I rescued is actually evil and destroying lives?"
"She's undead! And she's creating more of you!" K'ile's tail shivered.
"See? To an outsider, that just sounds like crazy talk." Thal shrugged. "Not saying that it is, but... you can't blame me for wanting to take a moment and think things over." He didn't seem to have noticed the return of the receptionist.
The receptionist began work on Thal's body with hushed muttering. She seemed afraid to touch him.
"I can!" The Tia continued to glare at him. "Because in the meantime, you were walking her right back to the tribe! You're letting her walk you back there so she can use you."
Thal tossed his hands up in the air, nearly whacking the receptionist. He started at her, having only just then realized her presence and that she was messing with his wounds. Giving her an awkward look, he tried to keep still; at least it didn't hurt. "Okay, look, I don't know what, who, or where your tribe is. She was sad and sick and wanted to go home. No reasonable guy with any kind of heart is gonna say no to that." He rolled his eyes. "Home. That's all she said. And like I said, I don't know anything about it."
"She isn't welcome at the tribe anymore. Neither are you." K'ile's eyes narrowed, and his tone was sharp. "If either of you showed up now it would be nothing but trouble for everyone. You think it's annoying when I try to have at you alone? Wait until I have ten hunters with me."
"Not planning on going where I'm not welcome," Thal muttered. He let out a sigh and then silently apologized to the receptionist for moving while she tried to work. This was why he'd never gone looking, never asked questions, never even thought about it.
"You're not welcome anywhere. Don't you get it?" The look K'ile gave him was absolutely loathsome. "You cannot be."
The taller man let out a sharp laugh at that, ribs shaking under the receptionist's hands. "Boy, you sure do know how to make a guy feel good." He set his eyes to a far wall for a few seconds and then, when his thoughts settled, shook his head. "I wish I remembered you." Another pause. "I'll be on my way once the nice lady's done with me. You don't have to see me again. Just pretend I don't exist. Neither of us exist. And go on back to your life."
K'ile sat, glaring at Thal, in silence.
The black-robed man stood from where he'd been working on K'ile's head and walked over to stand in front of Thal. His attention was on the receptionist, however. He put one hand over her shaking hands. "Please let me finish." At this, she paused, and then handed over the work to the man, and stepped away.
The man in black bent to continue tending Thal's wounds. As he worked he said, "So you know, the world is not meant for those who have died. They belong in another place. They are better off there."
His tail hanging still down by one leg, Thal turned his head to watch K'ile on the table. "Yeah, I think we can all agree on that."
"So... if this woman you speak of is not... alive..." The man did not look at Thal as he worked. "Then she cannot be happy unless she is returned to where she should be. Released."
Letting out a slow breath, Thal hummed to himself, features somber. "Probably not."
"You should think about letting us take care of it."
"We'll see," Thal said after a moment. "Just get him back on his feet. You done down there?" He glanced down at his side.
The man in black stood and backed away, having bandaged the worst of Thal's burns. "I suppose."
"Right then." He shook his arms out, twisted at the waist, testing. There was still an annoying numbness all along his side and at points down his shoulders and arms, but the healer seemed satisfied. Sort of. He got the feeling it didn't really matter in the end.
"I'll just get out of your hair, I guess." He turned away from K'ile, towards the door.
The Tia and the man in black both watched Thal silently, as though waiting for him to leave.
Lifting his hand as though to wave farewell, Thal trudged towards and out the door.
Shortly after Thal left, K'ile tried to stand. "I need to go after him."
"Don't." The man in black looked over his shoulder. "I'll see if I can have him followed this time."
Thal paused a few steps out of the building, looking up out of the hole in the ground. Then he just sighed, shrugged to himself, and headed up the ramp. He hoped the girl--K'aijeen hadn't wandered off.
***
Thal made the trip back to the hole in the ground that was a town in silence. He spoke to the girl - K'aijeen, he kept having to remind himself - when they neared, telling her to stay far from any guards, out of sight, and that he would come back to get her once he'd gotten K'ile taken care of. Then he trudged towards the ramp that would lead into the settlement. The Tia's weight kept his steps slower, though he didn't tire from carrying the other man. At the bottom of the ramp, he paused a moment, not sure what he'd do if they tried to chase him out again, but then just shook his head with a dry chuckle and walked on. He headed straight for the building he'd met the black-robed man in.
The building was full of the smell of death, almost completely overwhelming the stink of the dying. Beneath that was a hideous haze of antiseptics. The same receptionist was present, and she recognized Thal as soon as she stepped in, going rigid and alert in an instant. "Oh, no! Not another one!"
"What?" Thal looked up, squinting a bit as he stepped inside while his eyes adjusted to dimmer light. He shifted K'ile's weight draped over his shoulder. "Oh! Heh. No. I promise this guy's still alive." He shrugged the shoulder not burdened by the Tia and gave a half-hearted, apologetic smile. "Sorry about earlier. I was... well. Y'know." One ear twitched. "But, uh, don't suppose you could help my friend out? He took a nasty hit to the head."
Almost before Thal was done talking, the receptionist had fled from her desk and run down a hallway, shouting, "He's back! He brought another one!" as though she hadn't even heard him talking.
An instant later, the black-robed man appeared from down the hallway, alert like he expected to find a blood-covered Voidsent in the room.
"I swear, he's alive!" He hefted K'ile a bit, as though that demonstrated the Tia's continued liveliness. "Just out cold. Uh. Spare some help?"
The man and the receptionist behind him both stood frozen for an absolutely, just, rude amount of time, before the man in black gestured towards the empty surface of a nearby table. "The beds are full."
The receptionist grabbed his arm, "But-!" He hushed her quickly, however.
With an expression that spoke of a shrug he couldn't wholly make while carrying the Tia, Thal stepped over and dumped the man out across the table. He rolled his shoulder once he was free of the weight, worked his jaw at the pull of tendon fiber and the way the ball of his joint shifted against the ends of his shoulder and arm bones. "Just had a bit of a tussle. Wasn't really sure where else to take him, but... uh. You people kind of look like healers."
As soon as the Tia's back hit the table, his body curled forward and his legs curled up, and his hissed rather roughly, "Azeyma burn you through! Augh!"
The man in black sent the receptionist after something for the pain.
Frowning, Thal pushed his fingers through his bangs. "Yea, damn the guy who's getting you help. Great idea."
K'ile just growled again, and groaned, and clutched at the back of his head. He closed his eyes and hissed. "Just a dead body with snark."
"And feelings," Thal muttered, turning blue eyes on the robed man. "He'll be okay?"
The robed man took a dark bottle from the receptionist, the latter of whom kept as far away as she could. Carrying the bottle towards the Tia, the man in the black robe looked Thal over, "Are you going to be okay? You're heinously wounded." He then turned towards K'ile and put a hand to his head. "Hold still."
"Ow!" The Tia bristled. "Who the heck are YOU now, Hyur?"
"Someone who can help. Hold still."
"Yeah, listen to the guy who knows what he's talking about," Thal tossed a smirk down at the Tia, though he wasn't really feeling it. To the robed man's question he blinked and then shrugged. "I feel fine. Just a few scratches."
"Your definition of 'scratches' troubles me." The black-robed man frowned. "Look at yourself!"
"Eh?" Lifting his arms slightly to either side, Thal glanced downward. Both brows lifted at the sight of blackened, blistered tissue carving a smear across his side and along his ribs. Recognizing it as where he'd felt numbness, he glanced towards his arms and saw numerous similar marks, though on a smaller scale. He let out a breath that attempted to be a laugh. "Well... it doesn't hurt. I'll be fine. Just make sure he keeps living."
"It likely does not hurt because of the severity of the wounds! You must be looked at immediately." The black-robed man was adamant, then stooping to push some of K'ile's hair out of the way and see his wound.
K'ile provided, very helpfully, "He doesn't feel it because he's undead!"
"Hey!" Thal did his best to look offended - it wasn't all that hard, given the situation, though it came out more annoyed. "Don't just go calling people that." He looked to the robed man. "I guess you can patch me up if you want. Don't really like the sight of it now that I noticed."
The black-robe man had looked, for a moment, like he was about to proclaim Thal a voidsent and have him burned, just like he'd threatened to do with the girl. But after a moment, he just narrowed his eyes in suspicion, and then nodded towards the receptionist.
She flinched. "But, what if he-... Very well. I'll be right back."
Thal just shrugged at that, lifting his arms to rest his hands behind his head. He hoped the girl - no, K'aijeen - wouldn't get too anxious if this took a while. The last thing they needed was her coming down here and making another scene. Blue eyes drifted down towards the Tia on the table. "Y'know, if I still knew you, I get the feeling I'd be a bit upset about you hating me so much."
"If you were still who you were you'd help me get rid of that girl." K'ile tried to sit up, but stopped half-way, cringing in pain. When he tried to lie down, however, the robed man pushed him fully upright and continued to clean the wound on his head.
Thal grimaced at that. "Maybe. I still don't know what all is going on. Would rather not make such a hasty decision." Which was funny, considering how he usually acted, but for once in his remembered life he felt like a little deliberation was in order.
Squinting with one eye up at Thal, K'ile said. "Okay, let me put it this way. The girl is evil. She's been a menace for years, summoning Voidsent and abusing us. She's supposed to be dead. And if you can't guess why you're around, then you really haven't changed. THINK about it."
"Hey, it's not like I asked for--" He caught himself, flashed an awkward grin towards the robed man and shrugged at him with an expression that said, 'family - what're you gonna do?' After a moment, he just let out a heavy sigh, but the action made him aware of air moving down his esophagus, how the muscles in the back of his mouth tightened to allow passage. He could even feel his lungs sitting against his ribcage, his diaphragm relaxing.
Thal swung his arms in some frustration. Megiddo's oblique suggestion returned to him, and paired with what this Tia said... well, there wasn't much else it could be. And yet... "She's a kid. I'm having a hard time thinking evil's possible."
"That's because you don't know her!"
The receptionist returned with bandages and alcohol. And swabs. And very sharp-looking instruments. And a look of reluctance and disgust. She obviously didn't want to do this.
K'ile went on. "Look, she summoned a monster when she was just a 'kid'. I've still got the scar on my leg from that day. And now she's a full-grown monster herself!"
The black-robed man muttered as he worked. "If the woman is still around perhaps we should dispatch some men to search for and apprehend her."
"Yes!" K'ile agreed immediately. "Do that. Definitely."
One of Thal's ears twitched, along with his tail. "Don't bother," he spoke suddenly. "I told her to run." It was a lie, but he wasn't going to put the girl's fate in strangers' hands, evil or not.
The man in black balked, "Why are-"
But K'ile growled more emphatically. "WHY are you protecting her?"
"Maybe because killing a little girl without damn well understanding things beyond a shadow of a doubt isn't how I want to operate?" The words came out a bit snappier than he'd intended. "Look at it from where I'm standing, friend. Some psycho attacks us out of nowhere saying the little girl I rescued is actually evil and destroying lives?"
"She's undead! And she's creating more of you!" K'ile's tail shivered.
"See? To an outsider, that just sounds like crazy talk." Thal shrugged. "Not saying that it is, but... you can't blame me for wanting to take a moment and think things over." He didn't seem to have noticed the return of the receptionist.
The receptionist began work on Thal's body with hushed muttering. She seemed afraid to touch him.
"I can!" The Tia continued to glare at him. "Because in the meantime, you were walking her right back to the tribe! You're letting her walk you back there so she can use you."
Thal tossed his hands up in the air, nearly whacking the receptionist. He started at her, having only just then realized her presence and that she was messing with his wounds. Giving her an awkward look, he tried to keep still; at least it didn't hurt. "Okay, look, I don't know what, who, or where your tribe is. She was sad and sick and wanted to go home. No reasonable guy with any kind of heart is gonna say no to that." He rolled his eyes. "Home. That's all she said. And like I said, I don't know anything about it."
"She isn't welcome at the tribe anymore. Neither are you." K'ile's eyes narrowed, and his tone was sharp. "If either of you showed up now it would be nothing but trouble for everyone. You think it's annoying when I try to have at you alone? Wait until I have ten hunters with me."
"Not planning on going where I'm not welcome," Thal muttered. He let out a sigh and then silently apologized to the receptionist for moving while she tried to work. This was why he'd never gone looking, never asked questions, never even thought about it.
"You're not welcome anywhere. Don't you get it?" The look K'ile gave him was absolutely loathsome. "You cannot be."
The taller man let out a sharp laugh at that, ribs shaking under the receptionist's hands. "Boy, you sure do know how to make a guy feel good." He set his eyes to a far wall for a few seconds and then, when his thoughts settled, shook his head. "I wish I remembered you." Another pause. "I'll be on my way once the nice lady's done with me. You don't have to see me again. Just pretend I don't exist. Neither of us exist. And go on back to your life."
K'ile sat, glaring at Thal, in silence.
The black-robed man stood from where he'd been working on K'ile's head and walked over to stand in front of Thal. His attention was on the receptionist, however. He put one hand over her shaking hands. "Please let me finish." At this, she paused, and then handed over the work to the man, and stepped away.
The man in black bent to continue tending Thal's wounds. As he worked he said, "So you know, the world is not meant for those who have died. They belong in another place. They are better off there."
His tail hanging still down by one leg, Thal turned his head to watch K'ile on the table. "Yeah, I think we can all agree on that."
"So... if this woman you speak of is not... alive..." The man did not look at Thal as he worked. "Then she cannot be happy unless she is returned to where she should be. Released."
Letting out a slow breath, Thal hummed to himself, features somber. "Probably not."
"You should think about letting us take care of it."
"We'll see," Thal said after a moment. "Just get him back on his feet. You done down there?" He glanced down at his side.
The man in black stood and backed away, having bandaged the worst of Thal's burns. "I suppose."
"Right then." He shook his arms out, twisted at the waist, testing. There was still an annoying numbness all along his side and at points down his shoulders and arms, but the healer seemed satisfied. Sort of. He got the feeling it didn't really matter in the end.
"I'll just get out of your hair, I guess." He turned away from K'ile, towards the door.
The Tia and the man in black both watched Thal silently, as though waiting for him to leave.
Lifting his hand as though to wave farewell, Thal trudged towards and out the door.
Shortly after Thal left, K'ile tried to stand. "I need to go after him."
"Don't." The man in black looked over his shoulder. "I'll see if I can have him followed this time."
Thal paused a few steps out of the building, looking up out of the hole in the ground. Then he just sighed, shrugged to himself, and headed up the ramp. He hoped the girl--K'aijeen hadn't wandered off.
![[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
