Closed A hunting we will go..(Azira)

[Erade]

Despite what Erade previously thought, moving was no easier than just standing there with the stag. She was proud they were able to bring down such big prey let alone find him but this stag was heavy!

They had walk a bit of ways in the new customary silence, Erade frowned at the thought of walking all the way back to Wind Reach in complete silence. No point in trying to get Azira to talk unless she wants to she sighed dejectedly.

As if she read her mind the huntress spoke up actually making Erade jump little. She had that serious tone again and for good reason. She explained what she had seen in the clearing and that it could mean landslides. Surprisingly the landslides part didnt worry the yasi it was the 'loop around and find non steep land' part that did. The branch was starting to dig into her shoulder despite changing shoulders and Erade was unsure if they could make it to Wind Reach let alone a detour to home.

"Okay detour it is but umm.. Azira.. Have you noticed how quiet it is all of a sudden?" the previous chills returned and a foreboding feeling ran down her spine.

[Azira]

   

The Yasi was right, it was completely silent. Gone were the usual sounds of squirrels moving about in the trees and the twittering of the birds. Even the wind had  died down so that there were no sounds except the sound of their feet. It was an ominous sign and Azira tried to pick up the pace but she remembered that her companion could hardly manage as it was. The danger was great and she was starting to panic.

She glanced back at the girl as she spoke. "Right Erade listen to me because this is very important. If a groundquake happens and you feel the earth shift beneath you, drop the stag and move so that it'll slide down ahead of you. Don't hesitate! The carcass won't matter that much if you get caught in a slide and end up under it. I won't be able to pull it off you," she explained. She wasn't trying to frighten the girl or anything, she was trying to ensure her safety. She had to know how to get out of a situation like that safely.

The ground seemed to be trembling ever so slightly and the huntress tried to rush her instructions in case what she feared took place. "The most important thing you have to do is-" her words stuck in her throat as the worst happened. It all happened so fast that she hardly had time to react herself. The shaking increased dramatically. Stones loosened and bounced down the incline. Then the world shifted, her footing becoming unsteady beneath her.

Dropping her prize, she scrambled a little bit higher than it and crouched above it, yelling, "Curl into a ball!" before complying with her own orders. Just in time too as she half slid, half tumbled down the slope with a load of soil and rocks. She had no idea which way was up and which way was down as the world whirled around her in confusion, the light blotted out by the earth falling with her. When she finally came to a stop, the ground still trembling, she found a dirt piling up on her and she struggled to claw her way out as it continued to fall on top of her.

Panicking, the huntress dug frantically, determined not to be buried alive. Her fingers scraped against small stones and clods of earth until she had formed a hole for he to stick her head out of to breathe. The quake seemed to be over thankfully so hopefully no more dirt would be piled on top of her. Gasping, she looked around for her young companion.

"Erade!"

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[Erade]

The creepy eerie silence had both Inartans on their toes. The animals were always the first to know something was wrong and clearly something was wrong. Azira tried to walk a bit faster but Erade just couldn't keep up. Her body wasn't conditioned to carry such heavy loads.

The Avora further explained what to do in case of a landslide, drop the stag and move out of its way so it doesn't pin one under it. Easy enough to remember right? She was going to say something else when the ground starting shaking.

It started out slightly but then just as quickly it rumbled and shook everything. Erade managed to remember Azira's instructions about the stag, dropping it but in the panic forgot to move out of the way. The stag's antlers caught on the yasi's bryda as it rushed passed her, dragging her down the slide of the mountain.

Azira had shouted something but Erade didn't hear her pass the loud roar of moving dirt, debris and rocks. The teen couldn't help but scream, she furiously tried to dislodge the antler from her clothes but the position Erade was sliding down on prevented her from twisting so to reach it.

The stag finally ripped through her bryda when a large rock bounced over her and hit it, taking it further down. A slight breath of relief from avoiding the rock but it was all too soon when in an ill fated moment of deja vu, Erade's ankle twisted on an uprooted tree. A sharp pain lanced up her leg but was short lived when she hit her head on something else.

The landslide was done and half buried her under dirt and mud leaving only her top half revealed. Erade managed to get out a pained cry, hoping Azira heard her then everything went black.

[Azira]

   

A pained cry was her only answer then silence. She listened intently, not even daring to move in case she missed a sound but it was still silent. 

"Erade!" she cried again but she got no answer. Digging her dirty and bleeding fingers into the earth, she scratched and scraped her way out of her prison until she was able to drag herself out of the hole she'd made. Pulling herself out, she winced at the pains in her legs and did a quick check to make sure that nothing was broken. There didn't seem to be any real damage just some bruises and scratches from the slide but she'd ache tomorrow.

Turning her attention back to the world around her, Azira glanced around searching for any sign of her companion. She spotted the Yasi half buried not far off, the deer carcass beside her, mostly covered by the earth. The huntress hurried over to check on the girl. She seemed to be unconscious. Her body looked small and fragile, having taken more damage than her own, with bloody scrapes and  the shadows of bruises seeming to cover a lot of the skin that was visible.

She used her fingers to pull the soil away from her, biting her lip to stop herself from crying out both from pain and from fear. She was so worried that the girl had been seriously injured, she remembered the screams, hysterical, terrified, pained. Her terrified mind was conjuring up images of broken bones and internal bleeding. She was expecting to find the worst when she dug the girl out.

The teen grabbed the girl under the arms and hauled her upwards, trying not to do anymore damage than what had already been done. When Erade's legs emerged, her ripped bryda and scraped legs came into view. Lying her done, Azira leaned over her and felt the girl's arms and legs for broken bones before moving onto her ribs. Her probing fingers didn't find anything that felt like a breakage but she couldn't be sure.

Shaking the girl and slapping her cheeks, she tried to rouse her. "Erade! Erade! Wake up! Come on you have to wake up!" the Avora pleaded.

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[Erade]

Despite being unconscious, Erade could feel herself being dug out and then tugged on. A few chimes later she felt hands wandering over her, especially her ankle, followed by sharp slaps across her face. She could barely make out someone yelling at her as well.

"Azira...?" the yasi was slowly coming to, still slightly disoriented from the bump on her head. "What.. happened?"

She didn't really need to ask as her head was starting to clear up, "Had the weirdest dream... We were hunting and we brought down this huge stag then as we were taking it back Semele started to laugh. I went sliding down a mountain side and hurt my ankle..." Erade frowned if it was all a dream why was her ankle throbbing so.

The yasi tried to sit up but did so too quickly and the world around her started to spin. It was a good thing she didn't have anything in her stomach because it probably wouldn't have been in there much longer. Erade held her head in her hands until things stopped spinning. Pulling her hands away from her head, she noticed a dark stain on her right hand. Realizing what it was, she paled some and wiped it on what was left of her bryda.

She took that moment to look around. It hadn't been a dream it was all real, there had been a landslide and Erade and Azira had got caught in it. There was dirt everywhere and a few trees that had been uprooted in the great slide. Next to her was the stag and it was looking pretty ragged which Erade probably didn't look too far off from as well.

The teen looked over to Azira, to see how she had faired the slide. Other than a little dirt caked and her fingers cut and bleeding, her friend seemed to had made it out better. The yasi was glad and smiled a big grin. "That was crazy wasn't it?" chuckling slightly trying to lighten the tense mood and for once hide how scared she truly was feeling. She had thought she was going to die.

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[Azira]

   

The Yasi murmured her name and Azira flooded with relief. She managed to wake her up and the girl still seemed to be in possession of her senses. There were stories of people who lost all their memories or went funny in the head after a hard knock but that didn't seem the case with Erade. She seemed to be recovering her senses quickly enough and at least she recognised Azira; it was a good sign.

The teen began to explain about the groundquake but Earde interrupted her to tell about the "dream" she'd had. So maybe she'd been wrong about the girl having returned to her senses but at least she was in one piece. Sort of. She was bleeding from somewhere because there was blood on her hand and she'd mentioned about her ankle being hurt too.

Azira was just about to start examining her ankle when the youth sat up, swaying a little. Placing her hands on her shoulders to try to steady her, she wondered whether the girl was really right in the head. They could have died and here she was making light of the situation.

"For gods' sake, Erade! We could have been killed, do you not realise that?" she shrieked, shaking the girl's shoulder, her fingers digging into the flesh. The Avora shook her head in disbelief and let her go. Rising somewhat unsteadily to her feet, she looked down on the girl.

"Do you think you can walk or do you need help?"

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[Erade]

Erade should have known better than to joke around Azira and paid for it with the older girl digging her nails into her shoulders and promptly shaking her, all while yelling at her. The yasi could understand where the huntress was coming from and probably deserved that. They had been lucky, really lucky. If they both had gotten buried there was no one out here to save them and even worse they both can be dying a slow death now. It was thanks to Azira willing to tell the teen what to do during a landslide even if she might have forgotten the last bit in panic.

"Do you think you can walk or do you need help?"

Erade was unsure how to answer that but the best way to find out was to try. She steady herself and pushed off on her hands. The yasi managed to get up on her feet but her hurt ankle shot another lancing pain through her leg anytime she put pressure on it. It didnt seem broken but Erade was no healer and could only guess. The yasi did know it hurt like hell and the answer to Azira's question, there is no way she could walk by herself.

"No, it doesn't look like I can walk or at least by myself." Erade said while grimacing. Neither one of them was going to enjoy this trip back home. Looking up into the sky, Erade guessed they had a better of 4 bells left before Syna's rays were replaced with that of Leth's. She didn't know about the huntress but she had no tent or any supplies qualified as camping out.

At one point Erade was seriously excited for this hunting trip. To the point of losing sleep over it the closer it got to the date Azira had appointed as such. Clearly the yasi had delusional thoughts of what the hunting trip might entitle. Of course there would be the possibility of running into trouble but her idea of trouble was nothing this serious. Erade was beginning to wonder if willing that archery contest and winning this boon was really worth all this trouble.

"Can you help me find my backpack? It appeared to have slipped off in the landslide."

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[Azira]

   

The huntress made sure that she could walk unaided herself before she offered to support Erade. The Avora was somewhat shaky but she was fairly certain that she could lead the Yasi back up to the city, perhaps with the aid of a stick. Searching through the debris of the landslide, she found a long piece of wood, probably part of a branch, along with her bow which was still miraculously in one piece. A little further rooting turned up the girl's pack which she brought back to her.

Returning to the girl, Azira handed her the walking stick and then moved to the girl's left side. "Right you use the stick to put your weight on on one side and I'll support your other side," she explained, draping Erade's arm around her neck and moving an arm to support her companion's back. Hopefully this arrangement would work.

"If this arrangement doesn't work, let me know. If it's too much for your ankle then we'll stop and I'll try to do something with it, to secure it. I don't think it's broken but we'll have a fair idea after you've started walking." She took a step forward and tried to direct the Yasi forward too.

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[Erade]

The stick helped and with Azira's helping as well the pain in her ankle was a dull throb. Azira seemed right about her foot not being broken. The yasi could still move her foot just not without a lot of pain. Of which she tried to do as little as possible, putting most of her weight on the stick and just letting the huntress steer her. Even though Azira looked fine, Erade was unsure if she was hiding or masking any pain or injuries she might have so the stick had to be the one to do all the work.

Erade felt bad, that day at the archery ranges she had promise not to be a burden today and from the moment they started that's all she's been. Grimacing at the thought, she kept quiet though. No point in apologizing right now, wont help the situation any further and besides her head was starting to throb as well. For once in her life, she didn't mind the silence nor made any intention of bringing up a conversation. The teen just wanted both of them to get back to Wind Reach in one piece. But it wouldn't last long, after all Erade was well.. Erade.

After about half of bell travel through the forest, Erade needed to take a small break or something. "Azira can we stop for a few ticks or something?" Looking down at her ankle, it was swollen and her whole foot was starting to turn a faint reddish purple color of fresh bruising. That couldn't be a very good sign. She mentally rummaged through her mind for any information that might prove to be useful that she had read before. Only thing that came to mind was ashwagandha or the winter cherry. The berries should be ripe by now and once crushed could be turned into a poultice spread on a wrap and should help with the swelling. Only problem was finding the small shrub and would it be worth mentioning to Azira.

Well the worse that could happen is Azira say no and they would continue on their way. "Hey.. Um its just an idea but my foot is pretty swollen but I was thinking if we could find some winter cherriers we could crush them and put on to help.."

[Azira]

   

The pair walked in silence. Erade managed better than Azira would have expected. She seemed reluctant to put too much weight on the huntress, using the stick instead, but she managed to move at a fairly reasonable pace for about half a bell. Then the Avora could see the strain on the girl's face, could hear her breathing becoming more laboured. The girl was in pure agony when she called for a break. The teen wondered how long she'd been in that much pain before she gave in.

As the Yasi sat down, Azira noted the swelling and the unpleasant colour of the girl's ankle. They'd have to get her back to the city soon. She needed her ankle seen to by a healer but they were still a good bell away from Wind Reach assuming they continued at such a good pace as before. Looking at the ankle though, she wasn't betting on it.

"Right fine, I'll look for some. Tell me what they look like and where the best place to look for them are," she ordered the Yasi, hovering over her. The huntress had heard of winter cherries, she was fairly sure, but she knew nothing about them. How was she supposed to find them? 

As she waited for Erade's answer, it began to rain. Not to heavily but enough to make the huntress pull her katinu tighter. She hadn't even noticed the grey clouds overhead, brooding over their heads. This couldn't be good. They'd have to hurry or they risked being soaked through or breaking their necks by sliding in mud.

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