Completed Into the Beyond, Part I

[Aladari Coolwater]

78th of Fall, 516
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"Ya whore! Git back 'ere! I ain't done wit you!"

Aladari didn't turn around. She didn't look back. She didn't even blink. She just kept running. It was all she could do. The impact of her feet hitting the ground reverberated back up into her body, ringing in time with her racing heart. Her head pulsed, and her eyes stung from the flying dirt. But nothing stung as badly as the knife wound gaping in her arm.

Since three days ago, she had had a fantastic opportunity. She had been able to gather fish from the shore, instead of working for them. Earning Mizas had never been easier. She had dreamed of continuing the work, perhaps creating an icebox to save them so that she would never have to fish again, unless she wanted to. And then this had happened.

She had been selling them today- the third day- when he had come up. His face was gnarled, his teeth sharp and crooked, and his skin pale. He had growled at her in a voice low and husky. "What ya tryin' ta play 'ere?" She had responded innocenly, for she truly didn't know, but he filled her in soon enough. "My brother, e's sick. Got sick off yer fishes, I think. An' now you've tha nerve ta be out 'ere again? You think this is a joke? You tryin' ta get kilt?"

Aladari shook her head, her eyes wide. Her mouth opened and closed, but she didn't know what to say. Before she could decide, he struck. The knife came out of nowhere. It was buried in her arm, and though she could see it she could feel nothing. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard Tar howling. She could hear the man yelling something obscene, and passerby cheering.

That was the last thing she remembered, before she ran.

Somehow, the knife had dislodged itself, allowing the blood to flow freely down her arm. Her shirt was stained, as well as spots of red on her pants. Tar was nowhere to be found, but she couldn't stop to think about it if she wanted to live.

When finally her feet ached so bad, her lungs burned so wildly, and her head spun so quickly, she could go no further. Aladari whipped around a corner and collapsed in the dirt road, igboring the burn of the dirt on her wounds. She gasped for breath through her tight throat, struggling to get air to her foggy head. Even sitting still, her mind was silent, making it impossible to reason or make sense except for the single, repetitive thought that seemed glued in her brain.

This can't be happening. All this time, I've been fine. And now...how could this be happening? How?

Word Count462

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[Aladari Coolwater]

78th og Fall 516
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Aladari could hear them shouting, laughing, taunting her. She held her tears and her breath, hoping that she could stay silent enough, and it amplified their sounds.

The footsteps ran past her, kicking up rotting leaves and dust. She coughed involuntarily, then gasped in fear. She held her breath again, waiting for the sound of the feet turning around, heading for her, but none came.

She was alone.

Aladari wanted to stand on her feet and go home, but her legs wouldn't support her. She was left crumpled on the ground with a shaking body and a clouded mind. Instead she sat on the ground, hopeless, afraid, and alone.

She hadn't felt the pain in her arm previously. Nothing hurt when you were running for your life. But now reality bit into her, hard. She sobbed openly, leaning back against a rough, dirty wall with her head thrown back. The tears ran down her cheeks and pooled by her lips, overflowing onto the ground within ticks.

She couldn't tell how many chimes she sat there, nor could she say how many people passed her by, but it was many. No one blinked to look at the girl trapped in an alley. She was just some whore who got into the wrong side of the work, or some druggie, stripped of her addiction. It was none of their business. It didn't matter to them.

Soon enough, Syna escaped the sky, leaving Aladari shivering. The wind picked up, brushing against her wounds and burning them, and chilling her. She knew she couldn't wait much longer if she wanted to survive, no matter how little she wanted to move.

She pushed one hand against the wall, ignoring the cutting edge of it in her palm. She heaved herself up to her shaking feet, wheezing out a few crooked breaths. Her thoughts battered her from the inside. Why? How? After all this time, why? She brushed them aside, focusing herself on the task at hand. One foot, then the other, forward step by step.

Word Count340

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[Aladari Coolwater]

78th Fall 516
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She must have looked drunken, swaying as she was. But it was no strange sight in Sunberth, especially not by the bay, and no one turned their heads. In fact, it was likely because she looked so drunken that she made it home safely; everyone knew drunkards had no coin worth stealing.

At last, she yanked the loose door open and stumbled across the threshold. She was met first with silence and darkness, the color of sorrow. She bowed her head and closed the door behind her with a sad, familiar screek. She moved forward one step, waiting for the sound. And then it came. The miraculous, joyous sound of a disgruntled dog. Aladari broke into a smile which mixed tears and laughter. She knelt to the floor in the dark, cradling her dog's head in her hands when he rushed over with half-hearted warning barks.

"Tar. I thought you didn't make it. I thought I was alone." She burrowed her nose into his fur, breathing in the musky scent of dog. It was faintly mixed with the smell of blood, and the thought brought more tears pouring down.

"Tar. I can't do this. I can't do it by myself." Her lib wobbled as she spoke. She had thought herself so grown-up, so mature. She had her own home, her own job, all by herself. But today, she had been reduced to little more than a child in ticks. Sadly, she thought, it was likely that she was just a child all along.

"This can't be home." She sputtered. "Home is warm, and safe, and it's filled with people who love us. This...this isn't home." As she spoke, her words grew in volume and in certainty. She had ignored the hazards of living away for too long. It was not worth it.

It was time to go home.

Aladari rose to her feet, no longer shaking like a leaf in the wind, but standing firm. She walked over to the bed and ripped off the blanket, eliciting a frustrated meow from the cat lying there. Without missing a beat, she began folding the blanket into a nice square, and then placed it on the end of the bed. She did the same with her fishing net, tucking it into a tight fold. Then, she moved over to the kitchen counter, where she removed all of her items in a flurry. Her eyes flashed with a determination so deep that her irises reflected nothing but black in the low-light.

"We're leaving, Tar. I can't stand it anymore. We're finally leaving."

Word Count429

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[Aladari Coolwater]

78th Fall 516
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Aladari packed her things with a fury, stuffing things into her backpack and desperately trying to wrap others up in her blanket, the way she had seen Tent City residents do. It was much more difficult than they made it seem. She hadn't realized just how many possessions she owned until then, when she had to fit them in such a small space.

Her soft grunts and groans of frustration mixed with the gasps and sniffles of pain from her wounds were the only sounds in the increasingly empty house. Even the animals, who usually griped and growled at each other, were silent. They simply sat and watched.

Once she had done all she could, Aladari tossed the last few items into her bed and turned around to face the dark room. She ran her hands over the dried blood on her arm nervously as she thought. It was all fine enough to say she was leaving, but finding a reasonable way out was another thing entirely. Who could she trust to carry her out to safety? She had already proven that no one could be trusted here.

Aladari looked down at the crumbs of blood in her palm. First things first, she supposed. Making certain that her Mizas were secure on her waistband, she made her way to the door.

"I'll be back." She assured the mutt before shutting the door. I couldn't leave you.

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Petrious' wasn't so far from her home. Perhaps not even as far as she might have liked. The place smelled like death and decay, and gave off a feeling of cold unease. She had volunteered with Petrious just last season, helping with the bodies of the cursed. The mere memory of it made her shiver. She had seen the almost careless actions of the "Doctor", and hesitated to go to him, even now, but knew that he was one of the few unbiased people in the city. He would help her, as long as she had coin. That was the important part.

It wasn't hard to convince the doctor to help her, after flashing a pouch of Mizas at him. He sat her down on an old, rotting wooden bench and knelt next to her readily. He took her arm and examined it, turning it over and around in the dim light. His muffled breathing through the mask was a haunting sound, but his touch was strangely reassuring.

"Knife wound." It should've been a question, but Petrious didn't wait for an answer. Instead, he stood up and moved swiftly to a tray of tools. They glimmered in the dim light, undisturbed by the evident age of them. Petrious held up one long, sharp probe for her to see. When he saw the look on her face and the violent flash of her eyes, something like a laugh coughed from his mask.

"It won't hurt." He promised.

Word Count482

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[Aladari Coolwater]

78th Fall 516
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Petching liar!

Petrious scraped and dug into her wound, liberating the dirt and a new flow of blood. As it left her body, Aladari winced, closing her eyes against the growing dizziness. Faintly, she could hear Petrious speaking.

"Alright, lass. Now hold tight. This one might sting."

She was hardly prepared for the pain, as ticks after he spoke, Petrious plunged a wad of herbs into the wound, sopping in an antiseptic of some kind. The violent burning sent her howling, but only for a moment. Then, her head slumped over, her eyes rolled back, and her mind went blissfully blank.

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Aladari awoke on the same bench, her hair dangling onto the ground beneath her. Confused and lost, she tried to sit up and see her surroundings, but found that the world swayed around her when she did so.

"Aye, what do you think you're doing?" Petrious scolded, pushing her back down. "You lost a lot a blood, lass. You ain't going nowhere for awhile."

Going nowhere...where was I going? She thought. And then, through the fog, it came to her. She pulled herself upright again, gritting her teeth as if that would steady her. "'Ow long?" She asked.

"No more than three days or so."

Aladaris head snapped up, and she hissed at the pain. "No, no, I needa leave now. I 'ave to git out a 'ere. I-"

"Make some enemies, lassie?" Petrious smirked under his mask. "That's too bad. I already said, you ain't going anywhere if you wanna make it out with your arm in tact."

Aladari shook her head, but it lead to her whole body shaking, and she eventually had to lower herself back to the bench. The petch did they give me? "No. You don' un'erstan'. I gotta go. Now."

The doctor's look was strange when he turned to face her. Though she couldn't see his mouth, his eyes were filled with pity. He dried his hands on a towel silently, thinking. "I heard there's Wind Eagles coming in for trade down by the dock." He finally said. "Jus' a few days from now. If you get some supplies to tend your wounds, you can make it somewhere safe...I think." Petrious dropped the cloth onto a tabletop, not looking at the Vantha when he whispered, "Good luck, lassie." And then he was gone, tending to another.

Word Count396

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[Rufio]

G R A D E

xp

Running +1
Observation +2
Stealth +1
Endurance +1
Rhetoric +1
Organization +1
Persuasion +2


lores

When a bad deal comes back to bite you
Stealth: Hold your breath to stay silent
Medicine: Adrenaline abates pain for a while
Sunberth: No one stops to help
Endurance: One foot in front of the other
Drunks have no coin worth stealing
Homes are warm & safe places
Sunberth: The Clinic
Doctor Petrious: One of the few unbiased people in Sunberth
Doctor Petrious: Will help those with the coin
Persuasion: Showing your mizas
Medicine: Antiseptic stings
Persuasion: With stubbornness


penalties

When Aldari's wound heals it will leave behind a faint scar on her arm that will fade gradually with the seasons.

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