Tales of the Forgotten: Prelude

Kindness goes far even to those who are unknown.

July 21st, 2017 5:28 P.M.

Ivory Rapids, Sayona

I stood in the water, listening to the waterfall and rain pitter patter against the small lake below. I saw lightning strike far off in the distance before hearing the thunder clap two seconds later as it shook the sand beneath my feet in the water. “Do you really think it wise to stand in the water like that Robert?” I heard Zeke ask me above the wind, rain, and waterfall. I chuckled and shook my head.

“If anything I did was wise I think my life would be boring. Don’t you agree?” I asked as I turned to him as he shook his head in disappointment. I had stashed my new robe and other items in a nearby cave we had found earlier today to seek shelter from the storm. I had always loved the rain and the sound of thunder and the sight of lightning, so it wasn’t a surprise to see me outside during a thunderstorm or any storm for that matter.

Lightning struck the ground a couple meters away from Zeke, nearly making him jump out of his skin at the sound. I smiled at him as he looked absolutely terrified as he looked between me and where the lightning struck. “It can’t hurt you anyways Zeke, so why are you scared?” I reminded him as he tried to respond.

He simply faded back into my mind as I laughed and started to walk out of the lake and towards the waterfall. “What are you doing now Robert?” He asked as I ignored him. I walked near the waterfall and closed my eyes as I found peace in its sound. “That’s all? No jumping in, no doing anything crazy?” He prodded as I shook my head.

“You seem to deem me crazy, is that correct?”

“No but I believe you’re as mad as a hatter.” He snickered at his joke as I sighed and opened my eyes. It started to rain harder to the point it could now be called a downpour, creating a deafening sound in conjunction with the waterfall.

Off in the distance lightning struck the ground but what I saw put me off as I watched a griffin walking with its head down as if it were sulking. Something seemed off about the image as it continued to walk on in the distance, not even looking up once. I kept the thought in my mind as I went back to the cave we had camped out in and got dressed before packing up my stuff. When I walked out of the cave I could still see the griffin in the distance walking.

I put my hood over my head and started to jog towards them. As I got closer and closer to the griffin I could tell that it was clearly a female, but what pained me was seeing that she was hurt. There was a large gash along her left flank and several other cuts along her body. Her left wing was contorted and broken along with several feathers missing from both her wings. She also had a limp in her front left claw as she walked on, not noticing me.

I followed closely behind her for a couple minutes before calling out to her. “Miss!? Are you alright?!” She jumped a little at my voice as she did a 180 to face me. I could clearly tell that she was scared not only in the reaction but by the look on her face. I held my hands up to show no threat as I spoke, “Those wounds look pretty bad miss, mind if I take a look? I can-”

“No! Get away from me! Your with the rest of them!” She screeched as she turned to run only ending up tripping over herself and landing on her left wing, eliciting a pained yelp from her. I ran over to her and set my bag down, quickly sifting through it as I grabbed a dry cloth that was quickly drenched by the rain.

“Ma’am, I don’t know who ‘the rest of them’ are but I can’t stand here and let you be miserable.” I said as I dabbed the cloth on her wounds. The cloth was quickly coated in blood as I touched it to the large gash on her flank. Shit, I’ve got to get her someplace dry I thought to myself as I tied the cloth to my scabbard. I went to her other side and put my arms underneath her right side and hefted her up as best I could, straining with the weight.

She went to protest but I shook my head, “Whether you want my help or not ma’am, you’re getting it. Whoever did this to you can wait for a later date, right now we need to get you someplace dry and I know exactly where to go.”

“W-who are you?” she asked. I didn’t reply to her as I started to walk towards the cave I had seen her from. “Why are you helping me?” I smiled and let out a giggle.

“If I knew why I did anything I might not be where I am today, maybe someplace better or someplace worse. Who knows?” I replied as she tried to smile but laid her head into my arm as I carried her.

It didn’t take long to get back to the cave but luckily for me the fire I had left burning was still burning. “Alright I’m going to set you down now, try not to move a lot.” I informed her as she woke up from her little nap.

Now that I could see her face I could tell that she wasn’t exactly your run of the mill run away. What clearly gave this away was the permanent fur dye used at the base of her forehead, the symbol was that of the Lunarclaw tribe in the northern part of Sayona. I heard a great many things about them and not any of them being pleasant including but not limited to the way they treated the females of their tribe. She looked up at me with eyes that held a broken soul in them.

I felt anger rise into my chest but I quickly reminded myself of the reason I brought her here, to give her the medical attention she needs. I set her down next to the fire as I pulled my hood off and sat my bag down. Her eyes went wide as she finally saw me and her beak opened slightly in astonishment. “Your a…”

“Yes, I am. The only of my kind here on Equus I’m afraid.” I unpacked a few cloths, two rolls of medical tape, a couple rolls of gauze, and a few gauze pads from my bag and placed them next to the firepit. I rustled around the inside of the bag for a bit before I found a small metal rod and placed the end of it into the fire. I turned back to my bag and pulled out a bottle of rubbing alcohol I had purchased back when I was at Awrada almost a year ago now.

“Alright, this may sting a little.” I warned her as I put some rubbing alcohol onto one of the cloths and started to dab the cloth on the smaller wounds. She grimaced but didn’t jerk away from the stinging. I grabbed a couple clean rags and handed them to her, “You may want to bite down on these, I’m going to cauterize the large gash on your flank. Do you trust me?” I asked as she looked wide eyed at me. I pointed to her wound and it was still bleeding a lot, “If we don’t then you will run the risk of exsanguination and I don’t think you want to die, at least not today do you?”

“No! I don’t! I trust you!” She exclaimed wide eyed as I held back a laugh at her lie. From the way her voice wavered it told me that she didn’t truly trust me but she didn’t want to die. I nodded and used a cloth to grab the metal rod from the fire and held it in my right hand as I picked up the rubbing alcohol bottle and poured a little into the wound to further clean it as I heard her yelp in pain, biting down hard into the cloths I had given her.

“That was the easy part, now I need you to stay still. This is going to hurt a lot.” I placed the heated tip of the iron rod at the top of the gash where she quickly jerked away and whined. I shook my head and pinned her leg as I continued to cauterize the wound. I felt her try to jerk away from it several times, making me accidently burn her more than intended. After I was finished I tossed the metal rod aside and grabbed the last clean cloth and doused it in alcohol before cleaning the wound once again and applying the gauze padding afterwards.

She was breathing heavily as she let the cloth drop from her mouth and I could clearly tell that she had been crying through the procedure. The tears matted her fur heavily against her underlying skin as I bundled up all the soiled cloths and laid them outside on a rock for them to clean under the downpour. When I came back in I noticed she had moved closer to the fire and had laid her head down on her front paws with her right side facing it.

“Miss?” I said aloud as she lifted her head up wearily to look at me. “Mind if I take a look at your wing as well?” I asked as she turned and looked back at her wings, she was able to stretch her right wing out fully but her left one she quickly winced as she tried to extend it. She turned back to me and looked down before nodding.

I grabbed one of the gauze rolls I had taken out and put it next to me as I extended her wing out. She didn’t fight it but I could feel her tense as I extended it outwards. I proceeded to wrap the wing using a figure 8 wrap after I was done doing that I asked her to stand up so that I could finish wrapping the wing. She didn’t argue as she stood up and I used the second gauze roll to wrap the wing close to her body.

“Now see, that wasn’t so bad was it?”

“Says the wingless human.” she retorted as I held my tongue, I knew she wasn’t exactly in the happiest of moods with what I had done. Who would be happy with getting a wound cauterized and their broken wing wrapped all in a single day? I know I wouldn’t.

“You should get some rest, you’re not going to be flying anytime soon with your wing in its current condition and you need to let that wound heal properly. I’m going to go wash the cloths we used in the meantime.” I got up and put my hood on over my head and exited the small cave.