Chapter 24:
Bedside and Broomstick
Escrya was unconscious for the better part of the day, and when she came to she almost wished she hadn’t.
She hurt.
She hurt in ways she didn’t realize a person or monster could hurt.
Hearing her groan, a delicate and soothing hand wiped at her brow.
“Shh, dearheart, you’re alright. Or you will be.”
Her eyes fluttered open to find that she was in the infirmary of the Academy, with Ophelia and a stocky human woman she didn’t know hovering over her.
“O-Ophelia, what-”
She trailed off though as the Flutterby wiped away a single tear.
“As much as I love her, Nina can be unbearably cruel. I am so sorry for all of this.”
But to her surprise Escrya barked out a rough laugh, though she winced at the stinging pain in her split lip.
“Don’t be! If this is what it takes, if this is the cost I must pay... I will, I will do it again if I have to.”
She spoke with vehemence, but ended up groaning again as her body rejected the notion of moving just yet.
“Maybe not right away though?” She said plaintively.
Ophelia sniffled, but smiled wanly down at the earnest Amazon.
“You don’t have anything to prove. Not to me, and not to Nina, not anymore. But never mind all of that, focus on getting better.”
She leaned down and her scent filled the Amazon’s nostrils as she kissed her on the forehead, but as the Flutterby was about to pull away, she thought better of it, her lips drifting down to plant a gentle and loving kiss on the uninjured side of Escrya’s lips.
Ophelia’s lavender eyes stared long into her icy blues, until, with yet one more kiss on her lips, she spoke again.
“Get some rest.” She repeated in an intimate whisper.
The awestruck Amazon nodded dumbly as the medic behind Ophelia smirked.
With the caring moment over, the Flutterby fussed with her pillow for a few seconds before smiling down at her.
“I’m sure the others will check on you when they’re done with their lessons.”
With that she left with the medic, leaving Escrya somewhat bemused.
“Thank you, Brooke, for your help with this.” Ophelia said when they were in the hallway of the medical ward of the academy.
“Don’t worry about it, it’s good hands on experience for you.”
Ophelia let out a very unlady-like snort.
“Not the experience I would have chosen! Warriors are so stubborn!”
Brooke shrugged.
“That’s the job. As an Aegis medic you’ll spend most of you days patching up people too stubborn to get out of the way before they get hurt. Kind of like your friend in there.”
The Flutterby smiled weakly, thinking much the same: she spent a great deal of her time these days tending to Milly’s bruises from Nina’s training, not to mention her master’s cuts and scrapes from bailing off of the obstacle course with alarming frequency.
As she rounded the corner she tensed up at the sight of a familiar red figure coming inside.
“Hey Ophelia, is Escrya okay?”
The giant’s nonchalance struck a nerve with the Flutterby though, her expression aghast.
“Is she- you beat her within an inch of her life!”
Nina frowned at the Flutterby’s indignation, but shrugged in the face of it.
“Really, just an inch? I was trying for closer.”
At her side, Brooke opened her mouth to speak her mind, but Ophelia’s hand settled on her wrist warningly as she got control of her own temper.
Nina didn’t miss the exchange, and she rolled her eyes at the sight.
“Kay, both of you, with me, right now. Where is Escrya?”
“What?”
“Amazon, really pale blue eyes, great tits? Where are you keeping her?”
Brooke’s look turned cautious.
“If you intend to hurt one of my patients I warn you-”
“You warn nothing.” Nina snapped, causing the windows in the hall to rattle slightly; “Now shut up and take me to my friend.”
A calming voice sounded behind her as Volka came in then, a frown on her face.
“Go easy Nina, terrorizing the innocent isn’t very becoming, especially in a place of medicine and healing.”
The Gigas turned and again rolled her eyes.
“She was pissing me off, that’s not innocent. Now, why aren’t we with Escrya yet?”
Brooke and Ophelia, seeing no point in arguing with her any further, and much reassured by the Valkyrie’s presence, did as she said and led them back into Escrya’s room.
The Amazon was dozing, but woke with a start when Nina stomped on the floor, cracking one of the tiles sharply beneath her bare foot.
“Hey Escrya, no hard feelings right?” She asked blandly.
“Never.” Escrya responded immediately, smiling crookedly with one side of her mouth.
“Good, it would be kinda awkward to eat you out if you were nursing a grudge.”
“Nina!”
Even as Ophelia spoke, so did Volka, nearly a perfect match for the Flutterby’s scandalized tone.
When the elegant woman looked to the Valkyrie in exasperation she merely shrugged.
“What? You do that a lot, the indignant-name-saying thing.”
Ophelia rolled her eyes.
“Forgive me for having class! And forgive me for finding unnecessary violence deplorable!”
Nina’s hand rose into the air and she spoke seriously.
“I forgive you. Point is: she and me? We’re cool. So you need to figure out how to be as well.”
“Of course we are uh, ‘cool’! And the violence was very necessary!”” Escrya sat up as best she could, Ophelia fretting over her all the while; “She needed to know that I would stand against any threat to her bond-mate, and now she does.”
“Sure do.” Nina said with a nod; “So can we put this silliness behind us, because Ophelia, it would be really awkward to lick-”
“I get it, Nina.” The Flutterby cut her off sharply before she could finish.
Brooke watched the exchange with pursed lips, saying nothing.
Seeing that Ophelia was still upset, Nina drew in a slightly unsteady breath, shocking them all as she wiped away a bit of moisture from her eye before clearing her throat.
“I’m not a monster babe. Okay, I am, but you don’t need to be afraid of me.”
The budding medic’s eyes softened as she plainly saw the vulnerability in Nina’s posture.
“Dearheart, I’ve never been afraid of you! I just thought… I thought this was a bit much, I mean, look at her!”
She waved at the bruises on Escrya’s face as well as her other injuries.
Nina set her hammed down beside the bed and hopped on top of it to get a better look.
“Broken bones?” She demanded.
It took the Flutterby a second to realize it was a question.
“Um, none.”
“Internal bleeding?”
“No…”
“Ruptured organs? Brain damage?”
“You know there isn’t.” Ophelia said with realization in her voice.
Nina patted Escrya on the arm with surprising fondness; a smile had slowly spread across the Amazon’s face after each question.
“Working with flesh is much like working with steel. You have to know how far it will bend, how much heat it can take, how hard you can hit it without breaking it.” She looked at Ophelia again; “Just like a weapon, warriors must be tempered, or they will break when the time comes that they are truly tested. This is what I am doing with Milly, and this is what I was doing earlier today with this one, just sort of… all at once. She’s had more training so she can take a lot more than Milly can.”
Unbeknownst to the three of them, Volka and Brooke had left the room so they could talk.
“I love you Ophelia, you are my bond-sister and I will do anything and everything to protect you.” Once again raw emotion was in her voice as she looked away from the Flutterby; “But in the hall before… I hate the thought of you despising me for doing what I must.”
There was a long silence between them, Escrya watching them worriedly as Nina wiped at her eyes again.
Finally Ophelia broke the silence with a sob, wrapping the tiny girl in her arms and kissing her on the side of her head again and again.
“I love you too dearheart, I could never despise you! I’m so sorry if I made you feel that way.”
They held each other for some time, Escrya quickly sitting up in bed and wrapping her arms around them as well to assure them that she really was well.
Their embrace lasted for some time, and when it ended everything was alright between them.
__________
Far away from the little dramas of Nameless’s family, melting piles of snow decorated the woods as the warmth of spring filled the massive wilderness surrounding the Saenga village, the warmer climate in the lowlands allowed them to break free of winter’s embrace long before the civilized lands to the west would.
Adrian tugged his worn uniform shirt absently before scratching at the beard that had grown in since he first met Olena and the Amazons. He strode with purpose past the many huts, people and Amazons alike watching him as he walked.
Alcaia had summoned him to the center of the village: one of her scouts had finally returned, and she wasn’t alone.
He arrived to see a small crowd had gathered to welcome the lone warrior home, as well as greet the monster girl that accompanied her.
Standing before Alcaia was a Minotaur dressed in a loincloth and little else, and this was no domesticated dairy cow: she held the same wild edge that the Saenga Amazons had, though she had kind eyes as she took in the arrival of the worn Aegis technician.
Her rich chocolate coloured hair looked as if it had never known the use of scissors, and was done up in thick braids down her back. While colourful patterns were painted across her sun-bronzed skin and her black and white hide with brilliant dies made from wildflowers.
She nodded her horned head in respect to him before turning back to Alcaia, having no trouble matching the warleader’s intense gaze.
Evidently they had been waiting on him, and now that he was there she got straight to the point.
“I am called Helga. My herd and I were travelling north when we found them. Are you with the Aegis?”
Though she spoke evenly, her tail swished behind her, betraying some anxiety.
“I am.” Adrian nodded in puzzlement; “Who did you find?”
She smiled with apparent relief before explaining.
“A small group of lizard girls, and a strange man with glasses. Also this really big worm thing, she called herself a… Jubby? I have never seen anything like her before.”
Alcaia’s eyes widened.
“This sounds like the Troglodytes that our Valkyrja-datta encountered in his adventure! Where are they now?” She demanded.
Helga’s tail began to swish again as she turned to the animated warleader.
“In the grasslands, north and east of here. The Jubby does not move so well out of the Sansee, I doubt she could make it to the edge of the woods in the days since I left them. I came looking for help, as from what little we gathered, someone attacked them with lost technology.”
She spoke with no small amount of fear, but it was heavily tinged with indignation.
Adrian was doing everything he could to stay patient: this, whatever it was, this was what they had been waiting so long for. His injuries had healed, but his grief was as raw as it ever was, unhelped by the few occasions he had coupled with Olena since their first time together.
Fortunately Alcaia had arrived at the same conclusion, turning to face her people.
“No way is this a coincidence, they must have run afoul of the men who wronged us! Sisters, our time for vengeance is at hand!” At her words there was a resounding cry, but she did not join in as she turned to face Hila, her third behind Myrina; “I want sixty warriors ready to leave within the hour! But for the Vohan, we travel light.”
“As you say, Warleader.”
The warrior nodded her head, equally unaffected by the enthusiasm of the younger Amazons as she went to see to the practical needs of the war-party.
Their reaction was apparently more than she was expecting, and now Helga seemed uncertain, looking with wide eyes towards Adrian in her confusion.
But he didn’t bother filling her in, as he was just as worked up as the Amazons were; his fists were balled up at his side while his imagination had his hands already around the throats of the people that killed Cheri.
Olena came into the center of the village at the sudden noise and activity, rubbing one knuckle in her eye as she blithely watched Amazons running to and fro in preparation.
“I’ve missed something.” She observed calmly.
Adrian whirled to face her, an almost manic smile on his face.
The sudden news after weeks- months, of inactivity had him buzzing with excitement, tinged with no small amount of blood-lust.
“We have them Olena! We have a lead!”
She lifted one eyebrow at him, then pulled out her familiar bone needle and stepped towards him.
“Blood of the vengeful. I can do all sorts of things with that.”
His enthusiasm evaporated as she drew closer and he shook his head vehemently and lifted one hand to wag his finger at her.
“You are not stabbing me again!”
“Tch, wuss.”
She rolled her eyes at him, but the needle disappeared into her shawl.
Helga watched the exchange, her confusion having only mounted.
“What is happening Aegis?” She asked with great trepidation; “I sought only to find aid for the injured under the care of my herd, not to start a war.”
“It was they who started this!” A nearby Amazon declared with bloodlust in her eyes.
Just as Adrian had though, the young warrior’s excitement vanished as Olena now looked to her with needle in hand.
The Aegis scratched at his itchy face and nodded his agreement with the Amazon’s sentiment, but the Witch’s oft times unnerving behaviour had a calming effect and he faced the Minotaur.
“I’m sorry, I’ll explain everything, just as soon as we are underway.”
“You are not coming, Aegis.” Alcaia said suddenly from behind him; “Forgive me, but you will only slow us down.”
“Then someone is going to need to stake me to the ground!” He snapped.
Alcaia’s eyes narrowed at his harsh tone and a tense silence descended on them and those around them.
Olena yawned loudly.
“Stop with all of this. His leg is healed, he won’t slow anything. Unless you think I will slow you down as well?”
The surprised warleader looked to the blithe witch as she absently took up a broom leaning against the side of a nearby hut.
“No Elda, but surely…”
She trailed off as Olena tested the heft of the household item, picking a few broken pieces of straw from its end as she twisted it around in her hands.
“With the amount of energy in the air around here I could get there before any of you.” She mumbled.
Once the Witch she was satisfied with the state of the broom, her needle emerged again and she smirked at Adrian.
Puzzled, but knowing exactly what she was after, he sighed and rolled up his sleeve.
“Joined the Aegis only to become a Witch’s pin-cushion.” He groused.
Her needle pierced his forearm so quickly he didn’t have time to flinch.
“Don’t forget fuck-buddy.”
She worked his blood all along the haft of the broom while Alcaia, Helga and several other Amazons watched.
All his life, Adrian believed that it was a myth that Witch’s could fly.
Mere minutes after she stabbed him, he learned otherwise.