thoughtsofafeverishmind

[thoughtsofafeverishmind]

Bethany Adams - Soulbound

PP. 77/78

Lyr stooped down beside him and examined the wound, then blanched. "Great gods, Kai, why haven´t you stopped the bleeding? Your allergy is certainly mild enough." "No energy left." He lost focus, using the power he´d gained from Arlyn to search inside himself. "Think it nicked my stomach, maybe a kidney. Missed heart. Can´t just seal outer layer." Lyr´s jaw clenched. "I´ll give you energy. Your healing gift is mild, but surely -" "Won´t be enough." Kai´s eyes slipped closed. He tried to open them again, but it was too much effort. "Not enough personal reserves to convert it. If Arlyn knew..." "Knew what?" "Energy that passes along a taenac, a soulbond, is more useable. Something in the link," Lyr answered for him. "But it takes a great deal of training to learn how to transfer power that way." Her gaze filled with resolve. "I can try." "Just go," Kai whispered. "Please. All of this is my fault. I´ll not..." His voice trailed off as he struggled for air. Each pant seared his side like a brand, and he heard Arlyn gasp with the echo of it. "Please." "No." He forced his eyes open and focused on her face. Frowning, she shook her head. "If anything or anyone is going to kill you, it´ll be me." He smiled at her words. A blessed bit of numbness spread through him, and his hand dropped to his side. The cloth went lax against his wound. "I fear not." Lyr placed a hand on her shoulder. "Arlyn - " "No!" Arlyn grabbed Kai´s arm. Then the world exploded.

Lyr´s groan reverberated against the cold floor as consciousness slammed into him. Had there been an earthquake? It took a few heartbeats to realize that a hand, and not the earth, shook his body. He twisted, trying to see over his shoulder, and caught sight of his mother, eyes wide and face drawn. What had happened? The last he´d seen her -. Arlyn. Kai. The injury. Lyr shoved himself up to sitting and looked around. How had he gotten to his daughters bedroom? An armspan away, Arlyn slumped over Kai, both of them unconscious.

[thoughtsofafeverishmind]

R.K. Thorne - Mage slave

PP. 330/331

Suddenly, he remembered how weak they´d gotten after they´d healed the boy. Maybe there was a way he could use Sorin´s foolishness to his advantage. As she took his hand and heaved him up, he did in fact see stars and dizziness swam through him. It did not take much pretending to allow himself to fall back to the ground like a sack of potatoes and pretend to pass out. "Damn it," she swore. "By all that is good and holy. Sorin, look what you´ve done."

...

Many curses from Miara later, she and Sorin had managed to get a comatose Aven onto the horse and tied such that he wouldn´t fall off. Pretending he was unconscious throughout the process might have been one of the hardest things he´d ever done, requiring him to ignore both the awkward, painful positioning and nearly being dropped a time or two.

P. 335

And then suddenly - the outpour stopped. Stopped so fast, that he had emptied nearly all the energy in him at that horrible little spot in her shoulder - he felt his chest grow cold, then suddenly icy. The world whirled and went dark.

P.341

She stroked Cora´s nose and mane and stole a stroke of Aven´s hair and cheek out of Sorin´s sight. He was still out cold.

P.344

She and Sorin ate as they rode, trudging on even though they needed to stop. Aven, strangely, did not stir. She hadn´t thought Sorin had hit him that hard. Perhaps it was also just the fatigue of the journey. Hopefully, they could rouse him before they arrived - she didn´t want to explain an unconscious Akarian to the Masters. Damn Sorin.

P.422

He couldn´t remember Daes leaving or even passing out, but it must have happened at some point. Even now, he felt himself teetering on the edge of consciousness, wether it was from pain, the lack of sleep, the mental exhaustion. One more quick jerk, and perhaps he could have the shirt on - He felt himself fall to the ground and into darkness.

"He has his father´s eyes." A man´s voice. Cold stone pressed against Aven´s cheek. His body lay uncomfortably sprawled on it´s side. He kept his eyes closed, hoping to hide that he´d awoken.

[thoughtsofafeverishmind]

Whump Story 2: Fog

I held his hand firmly in mine and pulled him along. His fingers were cold as ice and his breathing was laboured. Even though he tripped over stones and uneven ground, I didn´t slow down. The air was so foggy, sounds came from impossible directions. The flatland was terrifiying under these conditions. No, under no circumstances could we stop. Not after what had happened. Not after what the others had seen. Gods, please let him push through until we are save. Worried I glanced back at him. The color of his face was ashen. He had pressed a hand on the wound in his side, his other hand was holding mine. He looked up.

„Miri... Miri, I can´t go any further...“ he gasped and my heart tightened.

„It isn´t that far anymore, you can do it.“ I lied and pulled him closer to put his arm around my neck.

Suddenly I heard dogs barking through the fog, my heart sank. Haku groaned as I forced him into a quicker pace.

„We are almost there. You´re gonna be okay. We are almost there.“ I repeated again and again, almost chanting.

Far away there were shapes of trees suddenly emerging from the fog like giant pillars. I almost started crying with relief.

„Do you see that, Haku? We only need to make it to the woods. They won´t follow us into the woods.“

He lifted his head wearily.

„Can´t see it. Everything´s spinning...“ he mumbled, then his legs gave out.

He almost dragged me with him, but I stubbornly struggled against his weight to keep him upright.

„Hang in there, Haku. Don´t do this to me! We are almost there, please!“ I begged him, supporting his weight as much as I could.

The trees seemed so far away and our progress was so painfully slow. The barking got louder. When I was almost certain to feel the breath of one of the dogs on my legs, I saw the first shadowlike tree passing us out of the corner of my eye. Relief flooded my brain, but I still kept on dragging Haku further into the forest. I only stopped when the trees stood so dense and the roots were reaching so high, that there was no getting onward. Exhausted I sank to my knees and tried to listen closely, if the barking was still getting closer, but it was dead quiet. Next to me Haku suddenly went limp and fell forward. I only barely prevented him from landing face first in the mud.  He was out cold. I lifted his hand off the wound and started concentrating on the torn vessels, the wounded flesh. Healing was like sewing. When you do it right and neat and tidy, everything will hold and turn out fine. Slowly I joined  the cells bit by bit. I didn´t know how long I was sitting there, immersed in my work. Hours, probably, because only when I had neatly closed the skin over the muscle and finally started to come back to the world, I realized how sick I felt and how dizzy. My hands were shaking and cold sweat was covering my forehead. Haku still wasn´t stirring and so I layed down next to him and closed my eyes.

I awoke with Hakus arms around me. He was shaking. We both were shaking. My breath formed little clouds as it came over my lips. We had to make it to the hut or we would freeze to death. My hands were stiff as I freed myself from Hakus arms and started vilontly shaking him by the shoulders: „Haku! Haku, wake up! We need to go! We can´t stay here!“

He whispered something incomprehensible, but didn´t open his eyes. Desperate, I raise my hand and  slapped him across the face.

„Wake up! We will freeze to death if we stay here!“

He blinked confused.

„Miri? Where are we? What happened? Why aren´t we in the village?“

„You´ve got all the way to the hut to freshen up your memory. Stand up!“

I pulled him up and he came stumbling to his feet. I too felt a little unsteady, but it couldn´t be helped. Swaying I stood there for a few seconds and tried to get my bearings. Now that it was dark it was hard to tell where we had come from. Trembling I closed my eyes. When Haku had collapsed his feet had pointed in the direction from where we had come. So if we kept slightly to the left now, we should more or less stumple across the clearing on which the hut was standing.

„Miri? Aren´t you feeling well? You´re kind of pale.“ Confused I looked up at him. He was standing right in front of me, starring at my face with a concerned frown.

„You healed me, didn´t you?“

„Yes, that´s why I fell asleep next to you. We need to go that way.“ I said and pulled him in the direction I had calculated. Again his hand was in mine, but this time it was me who was cold. The deeper we went into the forest, the thinner the fog got. We hopped from moonlight patch to moonlight patch. The path seemed much longer than when I had walked it in the daylight and a few times I seriously doubted we were still on the right track. But we had no choice. There was no way back. We would either find the hut or die here in the woods. I had almost made peace with the second option when we suddenly stepped out on a clearing. In front of me the outlines of the hut shone in the moonlight. A small lamp was twinkling invitingly in one of the windows. Thank the gods, we had made it. Reliefed I squeezed Hakus hand. My breath was still turning into small white clouds when it left my lips. Fascinated I watched them until they desolved into the air. Suddenly I felt very light, as if I was also about to float into the air like the clouds. Instead the hut tilted to the side and Haku lifted me up into his arms.I met his worried frown with a dazed smile, which only deepened his concern. He was so cute.

„No, you´re definetly not alright.“ he stated, „ I think you´re in shock from overusing your powers.“

In shock? Me? Why? I was totally fine. A little dizzy maybe. As he carried me across the clearing to the hut I felt like riding a boat across big waves. I blinked and smiled again. The thought amused me. My lips started to tingle. Maybe I wasn´t alright after all. Sighing I closed my eyes. Healing Haku and then hiking through the woods was too much for me it seemed. My head sank against his chest. The last thing I consciously percieved was Haku quickening his pace. Then there was only nothingness.

[thoughtsofafeverishmind]

Whump story 1: The woods

Breathing hard she stumbled to the side, catching herself last second on a tree trunk.  She didn´t know for how long she was already walking, dragging the lifeless body of her friend behind her.  She had barely noticed it getting dark.       The moons dim light was just enough to see where she was going.  She had to stop several times to check if Mari was still breathing. Every shallow breath of her send a shiver of fear through Kyls body. How could picking mushrooms go so wrong?

Unnoticed they had ventured deeper and deeper into the forest, realizing too late that neither of them had memorized their way back. And then they appeared. A pack of giant beasts, their fur the color of bone and claws and teeth like daggers. Even now she could barely believe they were still  alive. The ground had suddenly crumbled beneath her and she had fallen into a cave between the tree roots. She had tried to pull Mari down with her, but one of the beasts had gotten her leg and didn´t want to let go.  Another beast had taken a bite out of Kyls arm.  She could still feel it´s teeth sink into her flesh. Then suddenly everything had turned white and when she came to, Mari and she were laying in the root cave. The beasts were gone and her arm hurt like hell. She had tried to wake Mari up, but to no avail. Maris leg was torn to shreds and Kara was sure that only a tendon was keeping her foot from falling of completely. The thought made her sick.                                                                           

Even now she tried to avoid the sight of the blood soaked bandage, that once was her jacket. She didn´t think the foot could be saved.  A new rivulet of blood made it´s way down her elbow. Her shawl wasn´t a good bandage. It didn´t keep the blood in. Luckily she could still feel her fingers. She hoped that was a good sign. Once again she had to lay Mari on the ground to catch her breath.  As she straightened her back, the world blurred before her eyes and she suddenly felt very light.

Damn it.

If she didn´t make it out of this forest soon, they would both die here and whatever had saved them from the beasts would have done so for nothing. She took a deep breath and looked over her shoulder in the direction in which she dragged Mari. She could barely make out anything except the shadows of the trees, but what was that? When she looked really hard, wasn´t that a faint orange glow between those two trees in the distance. Orange like a lantern light. She didn´t know how far away it was, but that didn´t matter. Determined she lifted Mari´s upper body off the ground and dragged her onward. With every pull she felt warm blood flowing down her arm, but she refused to rest again. The looks she threw over her shoulder were showing her, the light was getting closer bit by bit. Other lights were joining until she realized, that was the light of her village, cheering her on. She tripped over roots and rocks, hidden by moss, but still kept on going. Almost there. Her head swam, her heartbeat rang unbelievably loud in her ears. And then, from one second to the next, she was outside.

Without any halt she stumbled over the forests edge onto the road and fell to her knees.  A sob came over her lips as she looked around with tears in her eyes. There in the distance she saw the ligth of torches. Someone must have organized a search party.  She wanted to call out to them, but her voice had left her. Her arm was throbbing painfully.  She looked down at Mari, laying pale and waxen as a corpse in her arms. Was she breathing?  Desperate she looked over to the torches. Were they coming closer?  Yes!                                              Slowly at first, but then picking up speed. She heard shouts.  Kono was the first to make it to them.  He dropped his torch and started talking to her.  His words didn´t make any sense.  He touched Maris face, more people came, more hands. They took Mari out of her arms and the missing weight left her empty behind.  Hands touched her shoulder.  People talked to her, but turned their attention to Mari once they realized she wouldn´t answer.

Yes, help her, please, it can´t be too late.

Dazed she watched the small group of people forming around Maris still body.     The earth was pulsing, or was that her heartbeat? Somewhat far away she noticed Kono suddenly kneeling in front of her and staring wide eyed at the wound on her arm.  She tried to tell him to go help Mari, her arm wasn´t even hurting anymore, but no sound came over her lips. Kono put a hand on her good shoulder and started talking again, more frantic this time. She tried to listen, but dizziness washed over her once more and the world floated away. She didn´t try to hold on to it this time.  She had done enough. Far away she heard voices getting louder as Kono´s chest came closer, but the blackness that pulled her down soon erased all sound.

.........................................

Note from author: This is the first time I´m 1. posting one of my stories and 2. in english. Please be kind :)