Life rarely cooperates with our desires.

[homeless_pard]

Who: Khemrys, assorted
When: Six months into dating Jason.
What: Her first trip home since her arrival.

She recalled the last thing her friends had said, Beryl had told her to enjoy the date, Nathaniel had whistled teasingly and said she looked good, and that was what she had to remember them by as ran pelted down from above in yet another round of fall storms.

The date had been fun, honestly, to a point. Jason had approved of her outfit, she could tell by the curve of his smile and the fact he kept sneaking glances at her as he drove. And well he should, in Beryl's words, she'd adopted some corsetry into her date dresses, and lighter skirts, but still soft and touchable, and her boots laced well and high up the legs visible through various slits in peeks and moments.

A dancing dress, mayhap, for the newer dances they still were teaching at the Circus. There was a club in the next city over Jason wanted to 'research' but no reason not to mix dating with business so they'd set out early to see a museum and the take a meal...

...that had been the plan anyway.

"You should come in out of the rain, lady," a voice murmured behind her.

She shifted slightly, water creasing off the oiled hood of the cape she wore, "in a moment," she sighed. "Do not worry for me."

The scholar she'd been traveling with sighed, "worry is warranted when you look like a tragic illustration in the doorway, lady."

"I miss my home and friends," she sighed. "Allow me that."

"Still?"

"And should such as matter be forgotten in a mere two years?" she countered, a small thread of anger warming her against the damp chill.

"No, never," he sighed, "but you've a life to live of your own as well...here." With...new friends.

Ah yes, the lonely scholar. She'd no doubt laugh later about such, but she'd landed in an old keep where a single man rattled around, taking rubbings and analyzing pre-chaos war history but...he'd jumped at the chance to potentially locate functional gates when she couldn't get the one she arrived through to open again.

And my she had been quite angry when the stone arch in the garden of the ruins had refused to let her return to the museum she'd been taken from. Three months of trying and research before she'd determined it would be necessary to travel to the one she KNEW led to the park on Jason's world.

The only problem being she hadn't exactly been able to draw a map upon her first journey there. And while her companion was actually delighted by her ability toy shapeshift and had many theories about her, essentially, breaking her own bloodline restrictions with her nascent healing abilities, well, it was not best for others in Arvon to know of her ability.

It slowed things, monthly, when they dared not travel in settled lands. Of a certainty her healing ability set them in good stead for travel goods, clothing and food ere easy to trade for health, but it also added complications of people wishing her to stay.

For all Jason's world confused her many days even yet, she had forgotten the burden of expectation every person seemed to have in her own world.

It was exhausting.

Much like the Scholar Nenniv's hopeful attentions.

It made it much easier to stand in the rain outside the small cottage that had been granted them for an evening after she'd healed a harvest injury. Easier to stand and remember those she wished to return to; her own high lord, her friends, her companion in stillwork, and Jason...

Thankfully the rain passed by morning and they were traveling again, they'd been walking the edges of the wastes, hoping to chance upon the route she recalled from her flight, and thankfully they had traced it, they were near two years from her arrival now but the land was finally growing hilly and rocky again. She last remembered scrambling up these stones on four exhausted, feet, and while her two now were no less sore from travel, they at least were shod in abused boots and not bleeding. "There's a path I believe ne-" the call died in her throat as she turned back to spy a dark horse wandering up to the stones below, the rider upon it looking up at her and waving the scholar over to speak.

No.

No.

She didn't need to hear Nenniv's scream to run in order to start moving. However the word had spread didn't matter now, the Hunter had come to check the rumors, and again escape would be found in running...

...she tore up the path, boots skidding and sliding, a sole splitting entire on a sharper stone, but it mattered not if she could reach the cave.

He tried to stop her, how not? The dart gun she'd feared in the Hunt was raised behind her, she could hear darts ping and ricochet around her, stone chips flying from the metal shafts...thankfully the one that finally caught her, tip grounded in her shoulderblade, spun her into the crevasse where her way home lay.

Thank all the Powers honestly, she gasped, fingers, slamming against unyielding stone for a brief moment before she was falling through and down upon the piled stones of a world that smelled far different from the old, misty winds of Arvon.

She was...just going to rest a bit honestly. Darts were...far from a joke yes. Idly as she closed her eyes she wondered how long it had been in this world rather than her own...

Comments

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

Hey, she trusted him to know what to say on his end, or say no if he couldn't get away! "See you soon," she noted, hanging up. "Nat's on his way, make more tea?" she chuckled.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

Jason held on to her for another moment; the touch was comforting to him even if he knew his energy was probably making her skin crawl. "There's a pot up here somewhere," he said distantly.

Looking for the pot would take his eyes off Khemrys, and he didn't want to do that as Requiem and Lillian were handling that wound on her shoulder.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

Eh, she'd dealt with worse being one of the safe people for her cousin when he was a new shifter! "Yessss, up there and you know where. She won't disappear, just get water on boy."

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

"She already did, once," he muttered, but he dragged himself away in search of the teapot.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

"No mystical weird rocks here," she pointed out. "You decorated a chunk of it yourself," she chuckled softly. "Comfortable, not magic."

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

He was setting the things out for tea, still watching anxiously. His heart wasn't even into banter at the moment, and he barely registered when Nathaniel could be heard running up the stairs.

Nat came in breathlessly, staring wide-eyed at Khemrys. "She's really back? What's happening?" He could feel Jason's energy across the room and he moved quickly, pulling the smaller man into a hug...but still positioned so he could see her.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

Beryl shifted to...finishing up the tea making now that Jason was in hand yes. "I have no idea."

"I found her at the rocks," Requiem noted over his shoulder.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

"The same ones?" Nathaniel was moving his hands soothingly over Jason's back.

Jason nodded against him. "She had a pack with her like she was trying to get home. She's been shot with something..."

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

"Yes," Requiem admitted. "Likely it was the gate she knew worked." Logically anyway.

"Tch, she'll be in a sling a while I'm afraid, she doesn't need screws but she needs to take it easy on the shoulder to let the cracks heal, Lillian decided after she finally got the dart free. "I doubt she'll lack for aides here." That was dry teasing?

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

Definitely not. There wasn't much that was going to drag Jason from the apartment any time soon.

He pulled free from Nathaniel, but kept close enough for that reassuring touch. "Cracks...in the bone?" That was going to take awhile for her to heal..."Will she be ok laying on it? Should we try to find pillows or something..."

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

"I have some sealant that dissolves as things heal, usually to patch delicate bones so they heal right with us but it will be best if she sleeps on her stomach or propped up yes."

"I think she has some stuff downstairs, maybe a sling in her med stuff? I can check," Beryl offered.

"Please do."

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

Nathaniel touched Jason's back lightly. "We can get some pillows from upstairs to get her more upright in bed. And we can prop the mattress with the couch cushions."

Something helpful to do. That was good. Even if it meant leaving the sight of her for a few minutes.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

"Anything from my bed can be sacrificed as well," Requiem noted simply. Comfort was rather lost on him sometimes anyway. "Lay out something comfortable for her as well? We'll wake her up in a moment, once the stitching is done."

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

Jason nodded and moved quickly: he didn't want to be out of the room long, especially if they were going to try to wake her. He left nothing behind as he scoured the rooms, taking anything that could help keep her comfortably positioned in bed. He eyed a chemise that already lay on the bed: she'd slept in it the night before she'd disappeared and he couldn't bring himself to wash her scent from it, but it would be better for her to have something clean.

He dug through the drawers until he found one that was more softly worn than the others and laid it at the foot of the bed before rushing back to the main room.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

"No, I don't think she'll lack for aides at all," Lillian chuckled. "You've had a guard on the shop for months, naturally, but most the Rodere will want to cycle through. I'll make sure they bring food hmmm?" Like proper visitors!

"That may be best, Thomas is getting groceries but..." Requiem shrugged slightly.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

...but unless Nathaniel spends more time in the apartment they couldn't guarantee the groceries would be well used.

Jason was back to hovering close by, glancing at the work the two had done and worriedly looking for any response from Khemrys.

Nathaniel shrugged at Requiem. He didn't blame Jason for being anxious, since most of them had worried that she'd never make her way back through the gate again. And worried about how Jason was taking that.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

"I can throw stuff in a crockpot at least?" Beryl offered, "and will." Hundred percent?

"Alright, Jason, smelling salts time I believe," Lillian noted, passing the small packet to him. "I assume you want to do the honors?"

Requiem snorted, amused, but get a hand on Khemrys's back in case she jumped.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

He eyed the packet, his own nose already wrinkling. "Just...hold it under her nose?" Because pouring smelling salts into someone's nose is Not good, no.

He was crouched down close to her face as he gently fanned the packet under her nose.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

"...yes, how else would you use it?" Lillian blinked.

They did their job? Khemrys winced and slitted an eye open, trying not to gag, "ugh."

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

It was so good to hear her voice, even a disgusted sound like that. Jason's face nearly instantaneously transformed as he saw her eye wink open, a private smile that still held worry, but was still not something he let out around others very often.

"Hey," he said softly.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

"My lord," she smiled, cracking the other eye open. Oh...oh my. "I hurt." And apparently sounded inane at the moment.

"You were shot," Requiem noted.

"Ah...yes. I hope Nenniv escaped..."

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

She was...oddly calm. Still, seeing her eyes open did a lot to soothe him. His fingers came up to brush at her cheek. "Can you tell us what happened?"

She probably would prefer to be upright before launching into a tale, but he wasn't thinking clearly.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

"...may I sit up?" she asked, tilting her cheek slightly into his touch.

"Yes, we had to cut your dress though, you may want to change..." Requiem noted, shifting his hand so she could ease upright, wincing.

"And you get a sling!" Beryl announced, coming back up the stairs.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[jasonpschuyler]

"Can you manage or do you want a blanket to cover up with?" Jason asked, rising from his crouch with his hands out in case she needed to brace herself.

Re: Some ties are honored, some are severed.

[homeless_pard]

Oh yes, that hurt a lot more when she started moving yes. She did not recommend being shot, no, not at all. "...a blanket," she decided. She'd figure out changing...later.

Granted she was figuring out she was on the table now and that was also a problem.

"You hit your head when you came through this time," Requiem winced.

"...oh, that explains it." The fuzzy, disconnected logic!