Limp Right Over(Kavala please)

[Wystern]

Timestamp: 24th of Winter. Midday.

"You are an outsider, and so we owe you nothing," these were the exact words of one of the Opal Clan's healers replied to Wystern when asked if someone could actually fix his legs by "other" means. Truth was, they owed him nothing, and moreover, he owed them his life, and his legs, broken that they may be. Ahna had gotten him back to walking state, what more could he ask for? Just the one thing he never saw as being so important until it was taken away. Movement. It was slightly pitiful to see him now, regardless of how well he could take care of himself. A man that needs a cane is exactly that - weak. Such things should be left to the old rather than the young, for they have the better experience to content themselves with, but wisdom like that Wystern was lacking.

Another run, scratch that, hobble to the Reimancers' tent for water just went by, the never ending need for hydration pressed on. Wys already found out the hard way how difficult it was for him to walk without the cane, and he couldn't get all his speed for more than maybe five steps. His mind was divided as to what to do next. He knew that Syliras could offer a healer, but it's a couple of weeks away, at best. And it was separated by Glassbeaks, and all manners of unhealthy things, and top of that all, the lack of a horse. It would only take maybe a week to get through the Sea of Grass, he could survive in Bronze Woods no problem, and in that area he immediately gains all his privileges, the authority and the status. Assuming he makes it without any problems from the predators...or storms.

Sadly, he knew he wouldn't be coming to Syliras until it was done, even if all that was left in the city was to just go to Stallion and get hammered. He shivered, part from the wind, part from the thought of getting nowhere. Confused and cold the status-less Knight was and the day didn't feel any warmer as it went on. There are just so many mixed feelings. He was aggravated for the way the Drykas treated him, it was getting under his skin, but at the same time, Wystern just couldn't get angry at them, especially not when without them he would be dead. So Wys just gripped the handle of the cane until his knuckles turned white and kept walking somewhere, anywhere, just for exercise. Lost in thought he ran into somebody and fell on his butt.

Calmly and quietly the cripple swore to himself, knowing full well that it was his fault for not looking where he was going. A silly grin appeared on his face when he looked up, showing a little surprise to see a Konti in this middle of nowhere. "Ah, I'm sorry, that was my fault. Not entirely in one place," he said chuckling slightly.

[Kavala]

She'd came for a moment, just a stolen slice in time, to both see her family and experience the life she'd left behind. Kavala hadn't seen Endrykas truly since she'd left for Mura. She'd visited once to buy horses, but her family Pavilion hadn't been in residence at the time so the city itself had seemed impersonal.

It wasn't so this time. The Denusk Pavilion was in residence alogn with all its supporting pavilions. And now, oddly enough, her pavilion was pitched alongside her families, visiting, flying the flag of Sanctuary which was her new symbol.

But it didn't mean that she rested easy beside her own family. Separate but together, Kavala had meant to visit and reconnect. Now though, once here, she'd decided she was less a part of the place than she ever had been. Standing in her fur cloak, dressed to the hilt for the winter chill of the grass, Kavala observed the goings on of the city and felt even more a stranger.

She was dwelling on it, lost in her own thoughts, even as someone with an unsteady gait plowed into her and fell down. At first Kavala thought it was an attack and stepped back, crouching, her hands falling to her blades for instant defense. And even as he apologized and she realized what was going on, she added her own apologies in as well.

"No. I was not paying attention either. I'm sorry. Do you need help? I can't help but notice your... limp and your cane. Has a healer looked at you?" She added, not wanting to be rude, but always straight speaking even if it meant prying into someone else's life. As he fell, she stared, not meaning too. Something was wrong with his legs, something significant, as if the injury was old but ill healed. She frowned, wonderingly. Her urge to heal, no, her compulsion, wasn't kicking in so there was no fresh wound. It made her wonder what happened to him.

[Wystern]

"Well, this is embarrassing," the Knight swore to himself when he noticed the Konti staring. His face got a little red to accompany the empty-headed smile, which made it even more awkward for the moment. Perhaps he was overreacting, Wys just had a soft spot for women, and it could be a great idea to watch where he was going. Running blind was never a good idea, metaphorically speaking. Wys then noticed that by a wild instinct, his left hand was clutching the sheath at a drawing angle.

"Yes...no," Wys blurted out not quite expecting those questions from someone he just ran into. They say that unexpected answers to be honest. Wys said that unexpected answer were confused. Wys grunted he got up, shaking a bit, his left leg was becoming significantly stronger than the right, evidently to reduce the stress and cope.

"Sorry. Yes, a healer looked at me, but she was not completely able to recover my leg. And I must say she did all she could, the poor girl nearly worked herself to death trying to save them. Me left leg is fine; unfortunately, my right leg is...yeah. They initially said that I wouldn't be able to to heal at all," he confessed with a clam tone, not entirely sure why. Possibly because he couldn't deny the Konti.

"I'm still grateful for what the Drykas have to me, had they not, I would have been a dead man in the grasslands. I'm Wys, by the way," he smiled, trying to erase the look on his face, "and these are these are the injuries of a man who has seen a storm in the Sea of Grass." He said the last bit with a tint of sadness, thinking about the horse he lost, and the pain he felt.

[Kavala]

Kavala looked thoughtfully at his leg. Wys seemed awkward, almost embarrassed, as he spoke with her. She studied him quietly, uncertain what to make of him. He wasn't Drykas, that much was for certain. And though he had the air of someone foreign about him, he was a bit more humble than the arrogant or overconfident adventurers that generally came to Endrykas guided to either trade or see the legendary moving city for themselves.

"It was not my purpose to make you feel uncomfortable by my questions. I just asked because I was curious. I am a healer of animals and a breeder of horses and it seems odd with the Opal Pavilion so close that your leg would still be so badly injured. They have considerable skill." Kavala was puzzled. They had Rak'keli healers there, even Opal Order folks. There was no way a man as badly injured as Wys seemed to have been should have walked away limping.

There was only two reasons for it. One was certainly that they had treated him like an outsider and done only what was necessary for him because they did not trust him. Kavala trusted the Opal Pavilion, so she wasn't certain what he'd done to be turned away from healing, but it must have been something considerable.

The other aspect could have been that he was lying. Kavala searched his face, but she had no way of knowing if he was indeed telling the truth or not.

"What are you doing in Endrykas. You obviously aren't from here. Perhaps the fact that you are a stranger is the reason your not walking as well as you should be if the Opal Pavilion did indeed see to your wounds. Or did they refuse you?" She asked bluntly. If he told her the truth and it felt like the truth to her, she'd offer to help him. If he evaded her questions, she'd leave well enough alone and walk away.

[Wystern]

Wystern frowned when the words of Opal Pavilion passed from the Konti's lips. She hit the nail right on the head, why is he limping when the Opal guys and gals are so close? Oh that's right, the Drykas are weird like that. Outsiders are outsiders. Maybe Wys had some Drykas roots? Yeah, right, and pigs fly. Could it be that his parents never told him? Admittedly, yes, but everything concerning that subject was very unlikely, and it does not matter. Wystern wasn't a Drykas by any standards, he didn't even like horses, they were just an unfortunate necessity.

The simple truth is that they had no business healing a member of foreign military. Leave him alive, walking even, just to show civilization, the rest is up to Wys himself. No more, no less. They just didn't care enough, none of them did. Wys was far away from Syliras, without a method of transportation. He would either just leave without getting healed, or get onto some caravan that leaves for wherever and then come whatever may. As soon as he would realize that all his options are used up.

Regardless of how much skill the healers had, he was not allowed the audience with them. Wys was refused many times, and sneaking isn't easy with a limp. Not that he even knew where to sneak into, he wasn't even told where the marked healers were at. Such time would be wasted on an outsider because there are thousands of people here that have priority over the Knight. One more thing to add to the things he hated about Endrykas: no status. That symbol on him didn't mean squat here.

"I got caught in a storm and got messed up, bad. My memory is hazy about the whole thing, I just remember that I got picked up, slammed against something twice and then I wake up, my own sword is ran through me, I am nailed to some animal that wasn't my horse, and my legs are broken in many places," he said with a deep sigh and looked the Konti straight in the eyes. Wys didn't blink, he didn't even move, and his hands were gripping the cane so tight that the wood creaked. He was almost uncomfortable, this woman's eyes were nearly as difficult to look into as his master's, not to mention how unpleasant it was to mention the experience. However, the present company did have an interesting trait. Healers are wonderful, or so he heard.

"They found me and brought me here with several bad breaks and a stab wound. The girl that was looking over me at the time is fairly skilled, but I'm more of a practice dummy for her. She is marked actually, single mark on the right palm, managed to keep my legs from infecting, set the left one right, but the right was too much for her. Perhaps she wasn't skilled enough, perhaps she was told not to, who knows?" he continued, not skipping a beat, not breaking the eye contact, not raising the voice. Wystern's gaze was still as sharp as it was back in Syliras; but he wasn't trying to stare her down, it just came to him, something he picked up in the trade.

"Bottom line is that they know perfectly well of my injury, and they refuse to fix it because there are more pressing matters to be taken care of and injured people with actual status. Because they do not care about a broken man in the middle of nowhere," Wys uttered with a blank look, standing still. His mouth twitched into a slight smile, "Would you?"

[Kavala]

Kavala listened quietly while Wys told his story. She couldn't share how much she disliked human males, her experiences with them, and why it was dangerous to talk to strangers like him. But she couldn't lie to him either.

"I would. But only after the horses and other livestock were seen too. I am more of a healer of animals than people. But I can tell your breaks healed badly, so much so that they will never be whole again, at least in your one leg. The other one will bother you a great deal as well, probably the whole of your life when the weather changes. I could look at them if you'd like. Rak'keli has gifted me with two marks which means I can fix breaks, but the power will only respond to them if they are actually still broken at the time." She said thoughtfully. "It might be possible to rebreak them , but it would not be a pleasant experience for you. We'd have to use my pavilion though you'd suffer greatly." Kavala stressed, looking pained even at the thought.

"Your quality of life would be better though. Now, I think, you have none at all." The Konti said softly, thoughtfully.

[Wystern]

The Knight's ears twitched a little when the Konti mentioned her two marks. That is a first, this is about as good as it gets before Syliras. She was an animal healer, but there it was, a cure and a solution. These thoughts just keep on jumping in his head. A gifted healer...of animals. This was being brought up to him on a silver platter and he was now indecisive about the affair. It was almost as funny as it was sad. And then the words of re-breaking left her lips.

It took Wystern a a lot of will to not just make a grimace, and even then his face twitched slightly. The man finally broke eye contact, at the thought of what he had just heard. It wasn't the pain that scared him, no, it was the fact that if this would all go South he would be stuck in Endrykas even longer, with more recovery and more injuries. Wys had to build up the strength once already, all that effort spent; and now it was all hanging in front of him, dangling on a piece of string, and that string was made of concern for his ability to still carry the title. Will Wystern even see Syliras ever again if he accepts the offer? He won't see it the way he was now, leaving Endrykas as he is was just plain silly talk.

"Your quality of life would be better though. Now, I think, you have none at all," the Konti finished. The words rang over and over and over in Wystern's head. Not a lot of people talked to him like that and now that this was uttered... she was completely right. Wys doesn't live, he just survives. The question was laid out in front of him, a few moments passed since anyone spoke. The Knight took a deep breath and looked up. Fine, no guts, no grit, no glory.

"If it means I will walk, what would you have me do? And don't worry about my discomfort; so long as you don't have to nail me to the table," he chuckled awkwardly. "Where do you want me to go?"

[Kavala]

Kavala looked thoughtful. Her father and brother would kill her, but it must be done. "You need to come to my pavilion then. But don't... be obvious about it. I am unmarried and that would potentially harm my family and their reputation if I had a Syliran unescorted in my home that is not my relative." She said, gesturing slightly in the direction she was headed already. Walking slowly, she moved with him yet remained somewhat distant. As he walked, she studied his limbs and how he moved, trying to understand the extent of the injuries.

A small four person pavilion sat on the fringes of what looked like a larger family gathering. It flew a flag that depicted a circle of horses which was the Denusk Pavilion's crest. Above that a white pendant flew with a stylized version of Rak'keli's mark signifying a healer in residence. Kavala lead him into it and bid him to sit down on a pallet she had by the doorway. "Disrobe from the waist down. I need to see what i'm doing. I'll be back in a minute. I'll need to go get my father's sledge hammer which we use to drive down pavilion stakes." With that, she left for a minute, giving him privacy to disrobe and find one of the many blankets on the pallet to wrap around himself for modesty.

When she returned, she dragged a huge hammer with her. She let it rest beside him and leaned on the handle. "I'll have to rebreak the bones to reset them correctly. The best way that needs to happen is for me to shatter the entire broken section into tiny pieces in order to reknit the entire thing better than it was before any breaks." The healer said, looking thoughtful. It was a distasteful action, but she'd do it.

"Tell me when you are ready." She added, giving him a chance to back out or balk.

[Wystern]

Wytern tilted his head with a confused look and an equally confused smile when the healer uttered the words about the reputation damage. He never did mention that he is with the Knights, would that really be such a disgrace? His lips almost parted when he wanted to say something, but simply nodded as the answer. Perhaps she agreed because she didn't know, so would it mean that he is deceiving the present company? Or could it be that she just didn't want to seem like a woman of a loose character? Maybe a combination of both, or neither, it is a difficult situation to judge. Best kept secrets best be kept secret.

"I'm sorry, it's a disgrace to have a Syliran Knight over, silly reputations," the man mumbled to himself in a quiet sarcasm while trying to keep up with the girl. His face picked up a poker face on the way to her pavilion, with heavy thoughts beginning to cloud his mind as he finally realized what he is about to be doing. It wasn't that he is about to get his legs broken, or healed. Could there be a reason why the Drykas didn't let him get entirely healed? One came to mind, the simple bit where he was a part of a rival military organization. Syliras was on neutral terms with Endrykas, and nobody had any alliances, which explained his treatment here. Maybe they didn't want him healed at all? Would he have to pretend to be wounded longer? Damn charades. Furthermore, assuming that what the healer was about to do is treason, would she get executed for the betrayal that she didn't even know she committed? Are Drykas actually that brutal? If yes, then that death would be on Wystern's hands.

They quickly arrived to the place, and Wys felt watched like the stranger he is. "Act natural, pretend that you are where you have to be, do not let the stress show on the face," Wys told himself over and over, trying his best to keep a blank visage.

"Ooooh, that's lovely," he said whilst staring at the pendant and quickly moving on. The mark of the Healer Goddess was reassuring Wys that the girl really didn't lie. Was he jumping to conclusions again when she just told him to follow like a little blind boy? He didn't even ask to see the mark, but then again, it would be rude. Wys was taught to never go back on his instinct. So far, his instinct was wrong several painful times over.

Then the Konti told him to strip from the waist down and left. That particular order made Wys blush a little, snapping him out of the thought process so he just stood and stared at the empty space where she was a few seconds ago. He wasn't too eager to comply, but what had to be done, had to be done. He took off his cloak, untied Ararna from his belt, and his trousers fell to the ground when the belt got loose. "Well great, now I'm broken and naked," he whispered to himself. Talking to himself helped him think, let him concentrate on the task at hand, and the task right now may be called deceit. Deceit and letting the anxiety overcome him.

"Are you really doing it, Wystern?" he felt someone say in a soft voice.

"I don't have a choice," Wys whispered to the katana. The Knight was almost positive it was all just in his head, that familiar voice always brought a sense of doubt in times of stress.

"You know she may take the fall for you," the voice pursued.

"And I also know the Drykas don't execute their own. I think. I just want to get home, Ararna," he replied and took off his shoes. He had a slight difficulty pulling the pants off his right leg. The sword began to say something, but it was overcame with footsteps from outside the tent and something heavy being dragged. The Konti entered with a hammer that seemed to be a big bigger than her.

Even when she said that she would have to wreck his legs with it, a smirk Wouldn't leave Wystern's face. She looked a little funny holding something that big compared to her stature. Wys closed his eyes for a moment and threw a quick prayer to Tyveth. "So, you want to tell me your name before you wreck my legs?" he asked with a smile that defied the fear any sane man would have and extended his legs, gripping the pallet hard.

[Kavala]

Kavala never said he was a knight. She had no idea. She was judging his origins as Syliran by his accent and his means of dress, which were neither Drykas nor anything else she easily recognized BUT Syliran.

"I didn't know you were a knight. I was referring to the fact that I am unmarried and you are a non-related male. Your means of dress and accent pinpoint you are more from Sylira than Cyphrus. You've no pavi accent. Endyrkas does not overly welcome strangers so I find it odd you are here. Almost no one actually finds this city that isn't Drykas or somehow married into a pavilion or friends of the Drykas. You seem alone." She said, not accusing him, but trying to sooth his words.

It was a little disconcerting to him that he constantly mumbled to himself, and she wondered what he was saying. After the first bit, she hadn't overheard him at all.

"Kavala. Kavala Denusk of the Denusk Pavilion, Sapphire Clan." She said, then left the hammer standing upright and got a length of rope. She knelt at his head and gently took one of his wrists. Carefully binding it, she reached it back over his head and fastened it to a tent pole which was already driven securely into the ground. "I'm binding you because if I start breaking your legs, the pain might drive you crazy and you could hurt me inadvertently. I also can't have you moving. At all. I need to break them precisely." She said. Then calmly, she took the other wrist if he allowed her and bound it behind his head to a tent stake as well. She kicked back the furs on the floor at his feet and pulled two stakes from her back pocket and used the big hammer to drive them into the floor at his feet. She repeated the process with his legs, binding him naked and spread eagle on the floor of her tent. For modesty, she draped a cloth across his reproductive organs, not comfortable with them showing at all.

She took a firm grasp on the hammer, raised it over her head, and brought it down harshly on his worst leg. The poorly knit bone shattered under her blow, but she didn't stop there. She brought the hammer up and struck his leg again, four more times, until the femur was all but in tiny pieces. Then, she moved to the second leg, her eyes a bit wild, and swung again, bringing the hammer down to shatter the twisted leg there. Two blows came right after before she was satisfied enough to stop. She put the hammer down and stared down at him, blinking, the oddest expression on her face. It was almost pleasure. Her eyes were lit like there was some sort of joy behind what she did. He couldn't know that in order to do it, she'd superimposed the face of the men who'd captured her almost a year ago over his. She knew them intimately from the repeated times they'd used her body without her willingness. Breaking him in the way she had was almost a revenge against them because he was male, human, and wore the same smirk they had.

Kavala stood over him the longest time, letting the compulsion to heal him wash over her until it was almost painful. She couldn't fight it, couldn't resist it, and felt herself fall to her knees beside his bound form. She laid her hands upon his limbs, now completely useless, and began her work.