Tales of Madness and Death
Setting:
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<----> Camp Willow - Infirmary - Main Room <---->
This building is fair size, and is filled with chairs and couches. It is used as a waiting room, for the patients whom are in the recovery. A small fireplace is set up on one of the walls, and a stack of dry wood is set next to it. The hardwood floor of the room is kept swept, and clean. A small fountain of water, that has been channeled from the outside is used to drink out of. A door on the wall leads to the Recovery room, and the other leads to a storage room, where different items are stored.
Characters:
Ayita, a healer
Aldak, a weapons trainer
Raisa, a cook
Survivors, victims of an attack
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<----> Tales of Madness and Death<---->
==
[[[The_Great_Ones_Aren%27t_Here|Part One]]][Part Three]
Ayita rushed to the Infirmary in a hurry - hot on the heels of one of the younger healers. She may be a Camp Willow otter, but she was Redwall born and raised; violence and war leave a bitter taste at the back of her throat, set her knees to shaking, and rattle her to the core. And if what she's been told is true... The otter shoulders the door open, eyes wide. It isn't hard to find the beasts in question - a young mouse, about her age, an old otter maid, and a squirrel... All in severe states of injury and distress. The young mouse clutches at the smock of one of the healers, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Wha' /happened/?" Ayita whispers, pulling up at the bedside, already snatching bandages from the shelves as she goes.
Bursting through the door comes Aldak, dragging an injured trainee by the arm. The old otter stops short as he enters, gazing wide-eyed in august consternation at the hubbub inside. "What is this foul madness?" He cries, casting about for Ayita and pushing his trainee forward towards one of the cots or beds or whatever they keep in here. "Miss, where did this wretched darkness pour forth upon our village?" The young mouse nearly shrieks in panic. "Down the river! Our village down the river!" He sobs, shrinking onto his knees.
Ayita is too focused to spin around at the new source of madness. "Please calm down!" The otter pleads, bracing her paws against his shoulders and trying to push him back towards the cot. The other two are being tended to, though they exist in similar states of disarray. "Y'safe, y'safe now - please, lay back..." She tries to speak in the most soothing manner possible while trying to wrestle him (as well as assist with the other two injured beasts) into cots. "We 'ave t'stop that bleeding, okay? It's okay..."
Raisa is not a healer, she knows some on healing as well as some on a couple herbs but she would not be the best beast to go to if your seriously injuried. She pokes her head in quietly to see what is going on. She stays out of the healers way and else's way.
"They came like DEMONS," the young mouse cries, throwing his paws up to clutch at Ayita's tunic. "They killed- EVERYONE!" As Aldak pushes his charge into a cot, he settles back into the background, away from the healers, watching them, listening to the cries of the wounded. "So now the dark times have come," he murmurs softly to himself, leaning on his staff, "and night falls over our beloved Camp Willow."
"Sssssssh -" Ayita whispers, placating. Her mouth is dry; the desperate fear driving the blood from her face, even as she continues to try and get him to settle down. "We'll 'elp you, just... Just /please/ -" She nods to one of the healers behind him, who steps forward to help her get the mouse into the cot. "Get me somethin' t'clean these wounds out with." In a quieter voice, she mutters: "An' something to calm them all down." Raisa and Aldak earn only sideways glances - she has strong feelings regarding idle paws in the infirm, but this is one of those situations where the task at paw is much more important than snapping at bystanders. The ottermaid, crying softly, is the most subdued, and she lays a paw against her shoulder. "Please lay back, we're tryin' t'help."
Raisa steps the rest of the way inside "Should I bring in some soup in a little while? I did make some simple mushroom soup and we have bread"
"You can't help me!" The mouse shouts, pushing Ayita back, his bloody paws leaving red prints everywhere he touches. "No one can! They're coming here next, I'm telling you! They're coming! They're coming!" His eyes wild, he leaps up and makes a dash for the door, desperate in his mania. His feet, unsteady from loss of blood, fail him, and he tumbles forward, straight at Raisa, his bloody palms outstretched as he tries to latch onto her for support.
"Miss it is /not/ th' time for - No!" Why do they always run from her? Ayita stretches an arm out, misses him, and can only watch in horror as he goes careening towards Raisa. She dashes after him, and reaches out to help haul him upright. "I need those 'erbs /NOW/!" She shouts, and the helpers scatter.
Raisa gasps, she would move but she doesn't wish to see anyone fall to the floor. She helps to catch the falling beast and if needed help them back to a cot where they can get better help.
"Gerroffame!" The mouse protests, his paws slick with blood as he pushes the two ottermaids away, his puny arms flailing. "I gotta get outta here! I gotta run! You /all/ gotta run! They're coming, coming! They'll kill us a-" His shouting is cut abruptly short as Aldak, unnoticed, steps briskly forward and raps him a good one on the head with his staff. "Sometimes the stream does not know which track is best followed, and our paws must guide it towards the proper path," he offers as an explanation.
Until now, the otter has kept her fury under wraps; but now she steps forward, a paw, already bloodied by the contact with the mouse pointing at Aldak, death in her eyes. "You touch another one of my patients, an' I will take a switch to y'grizzled behind so fast y'won't be able to sit for a /month/!" Ayita growls, bending to scoop the unconscious mouse from the ground. Granted, he is now much easier to handle, but that's what the herbs are for! "Now you two - 'elp or get out!" The other two victims are struggling in varied states of horrified disarray, sliding and fighting the healers as they try to steady the distraught beasts.
Raisa is unsure how to help right now, but she is willing to help "What can I do to help? Can I get something maybe or find someone?"
"I /have/ helped," Aldak replies, with an outstretched finger pointing at the mouse, but apparently Ayita isn't buying what he's selling.
"Hold 'is head up -" Ayita growls, nodding towards Raisa, as she settles the mouse onto the cot. "- Because I need t'check /that/ now." She works quickly, and efficiently, switching her attention between the three beasts in the cots, a wet rag cleaning the wounds, flushing the dirt out, peeling off the caked layers of dried blood. "I need that salve!" She calls, anxiously, towards the storage room.
Raisa nods as she goes to carefully do as she is told and she is very careful with helping out holding his head up. She says very still and even quiet as to better help the healers.
The mouse, for his part, stirs listlessly in Ayita's paws, already starting to fight back towards his manic consciousness. His eyeballs roll wildly in their sockets. "Where did these beasts come from?" Aldak asks again, ignoring the admonition to help.
There are no 'thank you's in the infirmary - it is a hectic place, especially with an emergency like this. She may be as friendly faced as any otter - and certainly much more polite and soft spoken than most - but this is her domain. Ayita is a machine when it comes to her work; uncompromising and harsh. Finally, someone brings her the smelling herbs, and she pushes the rag towards the panicked mouse as he starts to stir into fitful wakefulness. "I don't know - that's not m'job." The healer grumps back at Aldak shooting a glance over to the otter jill on the bed beside them. Still just shaking with soft, shocked sob.
When the smelling herbs are pushed in front of his nose, the mouse roars spluttering back into life like an old motor. Dizzy and confused, he promptly leaps out of the cot and trips onto the floor, still leaking small amounts of blood everywhere he goes. As he scrambles forward on bloody paws and knees, Aldak's foot comes to rest on his head, stopping his motion towards the door. "The flower cannot see where its petals may fall, or where its seed may spread. Restrain your panic, lest you sow it throughout our camp."
"Did you dolts bring me th'wrong stuff?!" Ayita demands, giving the rag an experimental sniff. Because that certainly wasn't what she meant when she said to bring something to 'calm him down'. "I need restraints." She finally relents, pushing one of the bumbling trainees aside to get this done right, for a change. She rushes back to help haul the mouse back towards the cot as the binds are run out. "They came in the middle of the night..." The voice comes from one of the other victims; a heartbroken whisper, small and frail - shattered glass, ground to dust. It's the aging ottermaid. "They killed everyone, they burned our homes...There's nothing left. They were..." She buries her face in her paws, muffling her voice. "/Madness/ and death."
Raisa listens as the beasts talk and frowns as news gets to her ears of what happen "Where was this...where is it happen?"
As he's bound to the cot, the mouse finally starts to relent, his manic energy waning from exhaustion and lack of blood. "They're... they're coming," he murmurs, struggling against his bonds. "They're coming..." "Where?" Aldak repeats, turning to the calmer, more stable ottermaid. "Where did this happen? Where did they come from? Who are they?"
"We don't /know/!" She sobs as Ayita tends to the mellowing mouse, a paw against his forehead to stabilize him against the cot. The injured otter pulls the sheets to her chest, fabric balling into tight wads in the rush of emotion. "Our village it's - it... It was... down river. A few miles - we..." Her voice is lost to a fresh wave of despair, tilting listlessly and losing her grasp of the present. "We can't stay here." She warns, suddenly afraid once more. "They won't stop."
"Who are they? What do they look like?" Aldak presses, his questioning intense as he leans on his staff. "You are safe here. We have faced vermin before, and the willow does not bow to the Wind; we merely sway and bend with his fury."
Raisa listens as well as she still helps best she can while she is in the infirm.
"They were... Big. Crazy - they spoke in some language I..." Her eyes wide, swimming in tears, turn towards Aldak. "I ran - they cut down my brother and went into his home but I..." The waves of guilt crash against her, dragging her down beneath the swells of emotion. "My nephew - he was so young. They're gone, they're all gone - they killed everyone!" She is descending fast, and Ayita doesn't hesitate. "Away - question them later." She pushes her way between Aldak and her charge, and isn't messing around - the rag is placed by the otter's muzzle, and her eyes roll upwards in her skull. With a sigh, she relaxes into the cot, and Ayita pulls the sheets up over her. The squirrel passed out already. "Tend to them." She grumbles, stepping away to wipe her bloodied paws against her smock. "Aldak, we need t'see the Skipper."
They are coming…
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