Lunacy (Ari, Curtis, Luna & Sven)

[PIME2]

DATE & TIME : 6th june
WEATHER CONDITIONS : Raining
CHARACTERS INVOLVED : Baldr, Scratchet, Ari, Curtis, Luna & Sven
PREVIOUS THREADS ? Holding The Fort

He was far enough in now. He could hear the fighting nearby, just outside the forest in fact. He moved to the edge, making sure that the humans of both his side and the enemy side didn’t see him.

“Dragons,” He shouted in dragonese, “Luna’s dragon is injured in the forest by the battle, is safe but needs aid. Get Luna.” he walked further into the forest with that and found a position ready for what was to come.

“So, you’re going to do it then?” Rags asked.

“I must,” Baldr muttered, “She’s here…I can’t fail Hrothgar…”

“Maybe…” Rags seemed not so sure about it, “But do you want to?”

“Want doesn’t come into it, if I don’t…she’ll have to become leader…and I can’t let that happen.”


[May 24th]

“Baldr,” a man shouted at him. Baldr turned to the man, “Hrothgar want’s to see you.”

Baldr looked at him confused, they were finishing off the preperations for going off to Berk right then and would be leaving the next day. Baldr nodded and walked to Hrothgar’s home, where he’d been lying the past week. He was ill from a poison that had been infected in his last battle.

When Baldr entered he saw his master and uncle, he could see that Hrothgar was in better health now than he had been earlier, but this was only because they were able to treat the effects, eventually he was going to die.

“Come closer, Baldr. I need to talk to you about something and I don’t want prying ears to hear,” he obeyed. “Before you go, go to find my daughter, there’s something I need to tell you. It’s something that’s been kept a secret for so long, even from you…my daughter…she’s…”[/i][/color]

Before got a chance to finishe the sentence, Baldr interrupted, “I know, Uncle.” [/i][/color]

“How?”

“I could see the signs…signs which I could never understand no one else could see.” [/i][/color]

“Well,”[/i][/color] Hrothgar said, “You know our predicament then…We can’t…I can’t let her become leader. I want you to be leader.”[/i][/color]

“What would you have me do?”[/i][/color] Baldr asked.

Hrothgar paused for a moment, “Make sure she cannot be found, or at least not found in time…”[/i][/color]

Baldr shivered. He knew what his uncle meant, and it took him a few seconds before he finally said, “As you wish…”

[Luna Heiler & Ayer]

The day had been crazy. Luna had only been awake for a few hours and already the had expierenced more emotionally than she did in a typical week.  Letting Curtis go to fight had made her feel like her heart was being crushed, and the whole idea of the Hysterians being here... she just couldnt get over it. Luckily, she had plenty of distraction with all the healing there was to do. After the battle broke out it didnt take long for the ingured to start flooding in, humans and dragons alike came in generously decorated with blood and bruises and there was plenty for the healers to do. 

Meanwhile, The inceassant drizzle was beginning to evolve into a steady downpour, soaking the battlefeild. Luna took a moment she had between paitents and looked out over the isle. she paced to the edge of the tent, standing under the edge the covering. Water fell rapidly in unison only an arm's length from her face. The sky was dreary and gray, casting a negitive hue over the feild. 

Luna's eyes cast sight to where she had seen Curtis dissapear hours before with a promise to return and a plea for her safety. In reality, she was far more concerned for him than he should be about her. To the girl's dismay, she couldnt see that far for the gloom and dark. Luna leaned against a tent post as She sent up another prayer to the gods for his safety. 

As she stood there idely, a farmiliar form scuttled toward her in the ground

[red]"Snip? What are you doing here?!"[/red]

The young healer waited for her dragon to scamper in and shake off the water from her scales before asking the small violet dragon the same question again. Snip replied

[purple]"It's Snatcher! I heard he was injured and he needed help! You have to help him Luna! It might be bad!"[/purple]

Luna's eyes widened. Her dragon! She couldn't loose Snatcher, she had raised that dragon from a hatchling, she wasn't about to let it die. She had to go after the dragon and save him. The girl looked around frantically, unsure of how to act. Since she didn't know how bad the damage would be she grabbed from a  bundle of dragon herbs from a cache of leaves nearby. She didn't think to inform anyone of her sudden departure from the area before darting off into the speedily with determination to rescue her dragon.

Luna ran through the darkening storm in the dense forest.Thunder rolled more frequently and lightning flashed constantly. It was nearly impossible to see at long range, a serious disadvantage for a person searching for one little terrible terror while trying to avoid hurting herself while running through the woods. Snip must have stayed behind because Luna hadn't seen the dragon since her departure from the healing encampment.

A while passed and the young healer was still on the mission to find Snatcher. She was cold, wet and trembling from the rain and and wind and she was tired from running about nonstop. She swerved and rounded a sharp turn. She slipped in a bank of mud and landed with a thud on her side. She let out a cry as she landed. She had twisted her ankle. This was bad. She heaved herself to her feet again. Now in addition to her chill, fatigue and wetness her legs were muddy and she was in pain. But She still didn't have her dragon and she was resolved to find him. 

As Luna attempted to run along again, she found it rather challenging and uncomfortable with a twisted ankle, but she slowly managed. 

A few minutes went by and she was still on the hunt when she heard a farmiliar dragonese cry for help.  Snatcher! She called back through the storm in dragon tongue

[red]"SNATCHER! It's Luna! I'm coming! Where are you?![/red]

She only got urgent cries in return. She fled to where the noise had come from, searching for the little brown dragon. Then she saw him... In a heap on the ground.

  Luna stared bewildered for a moment, still not sure what was going on. She called out his name as she rushed towards the downed dragon. When he didn't reply or make any movement Luna became severely concerned.  

She crashed to her knees before him and laid a cold, trembling hand upon his scales. The dragon's body was cold and his limbs were limp and heavy. Dead. A tear slid down her face as she ran her wet fingers over the body. How had this happened? There wasnt anyone even out here. 

Then she noticed the knife through the head of the dead dragon. Blood was coming from the wounds in rivulets. She curiously looked over the hilt. Her heart almost leaped out of her chest as she noticed this was her knife. The one her father had given her, the one from hysteria,  the one she kept around for no reason. That knife had killed her dragon. Luna was to confused to even think now. How could this be? There were too many questions, the healer didn't know what to do. She cast aside the blade in confused anger, she didn't want to deal with that now. There seemed to be no reasonable answers to her questions. 

Turning her attention back to Snatcher, Luna grabbed up the dead dragon gently and then elevated herself to her feet. She turned around soberly to bring the body back to the encampment. She would bury him there. 

She turned from where she had been and A long crack of lightning flashed. Before her stood a man she painfully recognized.  And there she froze. She lucidly recognized him. Her cousin. All the sudden Luna felt trapped. There was no thing or person confining her, but the way the man was looking at her made her uneasy. He was looking right at her too. 

She stared blankly with eyes wide and staring, wet ginger-blonde hair fell from behind an ear and hung partially in her face as she looked on, motionless. She didn't know what to think or feel or do. She hadn't yet come into contact with an acutely familiar face today, and it was painful. She was scared. None of the hysterians were supposed to see her. She contemplated with horror that she had just completely blown the cover she had been burying her true identity under for five years. Now there was No way out.  She gulped and took a deep breath. She tried to look him in the eye as she said simply

[red]"Badlr. It's been awhile..."[/red]
 



{{ Bold = normal speech;Italics= Dragonese speech }}

{{ OOC: FINALLY A POST! Have fun }}

[PIME2]

Snatcher didn’t know that he was to be the dragon of Luna’s that was injured. When he heard the messaged, he assumed Snip was the injured one and flew towards the forest, wanting to make sure things weren’t too bad.

Baldr saw a dragon fly towards the forest, a small terrible terror. He smiled, looks like he has a bite.

The dragon flew down and started calling out, “Snip! Snip! Where are you?”

“I’m over here,” Baldr quietly shouted (I know that’s badly worded…but it’s the best way I could think of saying it) in dragonese the way he guessed this snip would sound. Luckily Snatcher ignored the few inaccuracies for her injuries. He blindly scampered in the direction of the voice.

As passed the tree that Baldr was hiding behind, he suddenly realised something was wrong. He wasn’t from Berk. Before he had a chance to form any form of defence, baldr pounced on him and pinned him down. Baldr heard the hiss and pushed the dragon’s head so it pointed away from him as the flames shot out. He moved so that he moved his knee so that his right hand was free (as his left was holding snatcher’s head).

He pulled out the knife he’d got from Furgus and placed it on the dragon, “Sorry, but I do need better bait…and live bait will be too problematic.”[/i][/color]


He heard from a distance running. Was this Luna, he poked his head out to see who was coming and smiled. He hid back again and made a cry noise.

“SNATCHER! It's Luna! I'm coming! Where are you?!” she replied, and Baldr called out in response.

He heard the foot falls come towards the dragon; he then slowly walked around the tree he was hiding behind so that she didn’t see him. He watched her as she looked at dragon, and he felt something tug at him.

“You sure you want to do this? You sure what you did was the right move.” He tried to ignore Rags, it wasn’t a matter of want…even if she was…

She picked up and threw her knife aside, then picked up her dragon and stood up. As she turned the gods seemed to have been in a humorous mood since lighting struck the moment she saw him.

“Hello, ‘Luna’,” He smiled, “What a great name you could have chosen.”

[Luna Heiler & Ayer]

Luna's stomach felt like leaped into her throat as Baldr commenting on her choice of name. Her heart beat like a drum inside her chest. Her hands trembled as she looked up at him an attempted to form a sentence 

[red]"Oh. Um... You think so? Well I uh... Kinda, you see..."[/red]

Thunder boomed in the distance as she stuttered along. Luna awkwardly shifted the deadweight in her arms. She wasn't sure how to act. She realized this was the end of her life on Berk. She knew Baldr was a fiercely loyal Hysterian, and knowing his civil duty, would take her back to her homeland. She was too upset to do anything. The tears wouldn't come and her tongue seemed afraid to move. She stared up at him motionless as raindrops hit her face . What would become of her life now?

She was starting to wonder when her cousin was going to start dragging her back to the Hysterian camp in all triumph when Luna's mind made connections. Snatcher dead, her knife, Baldr. Thunder rolled. They were all part of the same equation and it was shaping up to worse and worse sums. She glanced at her dead dragon, to her knife cast on the ground and then back to Baldr, a look of hatred on her face. Confused, Her voice faltered as she managed to utter a few words.

[red]"You...You killed my dragon! Why? I don't... YOU MONSTER! What is this?! You only want me! I... And you... and that knife, HOW?"[/red]

She didn't know what was going on, but something was more suspicious than it should be and Luna wanted some kind of answer.

[PIME2]

“But of course,” Baldr said, “Luna. I don’t think I’d have thought up as fitting a name. It was after all the suffix you’d gone with just before you ran away. The Lunatic. It’s a redundant suffix though, everyone in our family are lunatics...although we are both very different kind of madmen to our forefathers.

“I always knew you weren’t the same, that you hated our rage against dragons. The reason you wanted to learn dragonese had been so you could understand them better, but not for their destruction, but love. We all knew you were different, I was the only one who could see how. Your father saw something else. He saw you as weak, he was afraid of you becoming leader because he thought you would cause the downfall of the clan. It’s why they were glad when you ran away.”

He felt wrong for saying all this, but he had to say it now. It was his only chance. “I didn’t see that weakness in the same way he did. What I saw was a girl who was in a world that she was not meant for. 30 years ago you’d have been happy I think...I don’t see that girl now, I don’t see a girl. In these last five years you’ve grown so much from how I remember you, I don’t think your mother would recognise you.”

He saw her face change then, and he knew his time for talk was getting short, “You don’t need to do this, Baldr!” I do though.

As she started to talk, he felt something in his chest...butterflies. That look of hatred hurt him. But he did deserve it.

“I’m sorry, cousin,” he found the words hard to say, looking down at her feet, “When I made that message I had no idea if it would get to you, or how you’d take the message. I knew it was possible that your dragon was with you so you wouldn’t fall for my trap. I didn’t know at the time that you had two. But once your dragon came I knew you would come, or at least Luna would come, but I couldn’t exactly leave him alive. He would have warned you or tried to stop me.”

“I got the knife from a spy of mine that I had got here to find out if you were here. He was killed by an assassin, but before he died, he told me where I could find you,” he felt himself crying slightly, although it wasn’t noticeable with the rain, “he told me where the hooligans had been keeping you hidden all this time and so I ran off to find where they were holding you but...” his voice froze, he had to say it. He looked up at Luna, “I didn’t to you in time.” the stage crew member call Thor chose this as the perfect moment to strike the lighting again.
He pulled out his sword, “I’m so sorry, the chief says I must do this...so I must.”

[Luna Heiler & Ayer]

[red]"W-what do you mean, Baldr?"[/red]

Luna asked After the man before her spoke about her names and the way her Hysterian suffix echoed a characteristic of their family In reply to her first set of utterances. He started speaking again, and Luna listened intently. Honestly, it was hard to hear of her Hysterian differences and shortcomings again and the sharply painful knowledge of her father's happiness at her disappearance was heart-wrenching.

Baldr paused before starting to speak again. Luna was silent as he did so. He went on about how he recognized her difference in a more positive way than a negative, unlike her father. She didn't know how to feel about that, honestly. He mentioned how her appearance had changed and she nodded soberly, her face only still mildly angry.

Her cousin stopped speaking and he seemed to be finished. The healer was paralyzed with fear, standing like a fearful statue in the larger man's presence. Again, she wondered what his dely was. He literally had the rest of her life to speak to her, why wasn't he brining her away? In a way, it was like torture the way he seemed to be dangling freedom before her face. Though he wasn't physically restraining her, it was clear there was an almost phycological Barrier between her and her old life, and Baldr stood on that line. 

Then he spoke again, this time in reply to her second questions. Luna looked him straight in the eye. He briefly expained how he had gotten her here and how he had obtained her knife. She didn't move. His facial expressions turned a bit softer. Strange for such a strong man. He mentioned the chief. Her father. At first she was confused about his almost apologetic statement, then she saw him drawing his Sword. Her eyes widened and she gasped. She realized his intentions quickly, and she immediately fled across the phycological bound. He wasn't here to take her, he was here to kill her.

She had involuntary dropped the body of her dead dragon as she fled away. Her feet moved speedily and her sore ankle throbbed. Lightning crashed and buckets of rain washed over the girl as she ran from her death. But it didn't take long for her feet to find another bank of mud to slide into. She slipped from her feet with a yell as her body fell to the wet ground. The sound of a pair of chasing feet came closer. She couldn't see anything, she couldn't think or move. All she could muster was a blood-curtling scream.

[red]"NOOOO!!!!!!"[/red]

[PIME2]

He watched for a moment as the girl started to run before giving chase, droping his sword and grabbing the knife. He knew it was only right for him to use the knife. She hadn’t gone more than fifteen yards before her footing slipped and she yelled as she fell to the floor.

As he quickly walked towards her, he readied himself. As he slashed downwards at her, she shot out scream that shot though him. He the blade hadn’t penetrated deep, but he had cut across from the centre of her back down to her right hip.

“Finish the job,” he heard his uncle’s voice say, “end her now.” He knelt down and placed his right hand on her shoulder so she couldn’t get back up. Not that she really could as it was; it was obvious she was in too much pain from the fall, the ankle and the cut for her to be able to stand now.

He placed the point of her knife on Luna’s back, this was it then. Normally this would be the point that Rags would try and be the voice of his conscience. And this is the thing, that’s what Baldr sees Rags as. His conscience. He knew Rags was dead and that the person he talks to is a figment of is imagination. But Rags wasn’t talking now, Baldr was alone with his uncle. His devil.

He could hear Luna crying. She knew she was going to die. The sound pulled at him again as he remembered all the times he’d heard Luna crying in Hysteria, how sad she’d been all her childhood.

“Come on,” his uncle said, agatatted, “Stop stalling, people will have heard that scream. And if not the fighters, then the dragons will have.”

He was right, and Baldr knew it. Now was the only time he’d have. His uncle told him to do this. “So now’s the time to do it!”

“No!” he threw the knife away and turned, sitting down next to Luna. “I can’t...I won’t! Not for you, my chief, and not for anyone.” He knew he was crying badly now, “You’ve always been someone I cared for, you ever realise that? I was happy for you when you escaped. You didn’t fit in Hysteria, you needed freedom.”

There’d always been a reason he’d seen her as different from everyone else, the reason he’d been able to see what she was like was because...because he was just the same. He hadn’t fitted into this hysteria, the one that had come into existence when the current chief had come into power. The only reason he did fit in was because he learnt how to. He trained himself so he could fit in.

It was then he heard the flapping of wings. A dragon was coming. He didn’t have time to run...not like he would have anyway, leaving luna as she was now would be wrong. It looked like he’d have to talk his way out of this one.

[OOC: Scratchet’s turn. Let’s go though idea of what I’ll do in my next post, once Scratchet lands, Baldr will ask her to take Luna back and give her snatcher’s body too, saying that he heard the scream and got there too late. Then I though you should go take Luna to Sven in this post, meaning that once I’ve done my next baldr post you can do your Sven post.)

[Scratchet]

Scratchet had been hard at work along with other dragons in the fight. Where some dragons were fighting in the field, the Deadly Nadder had been helping Luna bring in any wounded Vikings. Not only was it raining, having to constantly land in the blood and mud had rendered Scratchet to be a irritable, because before she could even have the time to clean herself, she would be sent off again to collect more people.

It was this way amongst the 'ambulance' dragons a tactic was formed to use huge sheets to help carry more than one Viking at a time, and not having to land if there were any on-the-field medics about.

It had been several minutes now that Scratchet at been at the medical camp, where dragons were slowly bringing in other wounded dragons that were big enough to be carried. They were slowly accumulating, and the turquoise Nadder began to be concerned. Where was Luna?

Trotting around the camp, she found no one except incapable assitants. She had almost upturned a tent by poking her head inside one, before being shooed away by assistants. Scratchet stopped. Luna obviously wasn't here, and if she kept searching she would break her promise of not bothering the humans.

Taking to the air once more, Scratchet scanned the hordes of Vikings fighting each other, with her fellow dragons amongst them. Scratchet sighed a little as she observed. The battle almost seemed pointless. Dragons would often fight, but mostly for territories or mates, a worthwhile cause for one's survival. This... This was nothing.

Gliding lazily, with no Luna in sight, she grew a little bored. She was about to go down and collect some more Vikings when, over the sound of clashing metal and cries of men...

She heart a blood-curtling scream. It made Scratchet's pupils reduce to slits, along with a stomach cringing moment. Twisting her head in the direction of the noise, she began to flap her wings furiously. It was away from the war. It wasn't the scream of a Viking. It only made sense. Luna was in trouble.

Gliding over the forest at speed, she landed, spotting a trail of bloody, muddy footprints that seemed to run away from her. There was a body of a Terrible Terror not far away. But Luna was in trouble, so quickly followed the trail, until she found her.

She was on the floor. She could see red. There was a man beside her. She could smell the blood. Her crest of horns flared, along with the golden-yellow spikes along her tail. Hissing, she raised her wings menacingly. She saw no-one else in sight; he must have done this.

As she charged him, her steps faltered slightly as she noticed he was unarmed, the smell of blood too potent on Luna to be able to smell the knife hidden behind the thick vegetation and heavy rain. She gave a warning volley of spikes, just before where the duo were. He'd better clear off, or else.

---

Time to convince Scratchet that Baldr is a 'good guy'!

[PIME2]

He watched as the dragon landed and went into a snarling mode when it saw the two of us. It fired near him. It was obviously that that was a warning shot and that the next shot wouldn’t be. “I’m on your side!”[/b][/i] Baldr exclaimed in dragonese, “I was passing through and thought to help the hooligans. I just found Luna like this; we need to get her back to your side.”[/b][/i]

He hoped his defence was good enough, fortunately it was. He went to pick her up and took her over to the dragon, “I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you, truly I am. One day I’ll explain everything, I promise.”[/b]

He placed her on the dragon’s back and then ran quickly over to the terrible Terror, and placed that with Luna. He moved to her again, “I swear on the safety of my son that I will make sure that you will never have problems from us, you will never have to be afraid for your life or your security here ever again. You never have to some back…unless you ever want to come back.”[/b]

He then pulled away from the two of them and then said, “I still have things I need to do down here. Get Luna medical attention.”[/b][/i]

As the dragon flew off, Baldr walked over to where he knew the knife was. He picked it up and twisted it around his fingers for a few seconds and smiled. He would be able to follow through with his promise…it was one he would follow through with anyway though. There is only one think Baldr truly cared for, and that was his family. His father, his wife, his son…and Luna.

He slotted the knife on his person and started to run back towards where the battlefield was, pulling out the horn as he ran. Once he got to the edge of the forest, he placed the horn to his mouth and blew. The first blowing had been to signal the plan was going ahead, the second was to tell his spies to go for the village, and this third one was to tell his side to fall back.

As his side started to fall back, he walked into the battle field and started shouting, “Dragons! Tell your allies that we have found out all we need and apologize for the mix up.”[/b][/i] Not what they would have said, but he couldn’t really thing of the correct line to say, “We do expect you to take care of anyone who falls behind and our fallen.”[/b][/i]

He then turned and started to run with the other fighters. He needed to get to the boats before they decided to leave without him.

“You did the right thing,”[/b][/i] Rags said as they ran.

Baldr sighed, “I could have done it sooner.”[/b][/i]

[Luna Heiler & Ayer]

After falling to the ground, everything became far worse than she had ever imagined. 

She had slipped of a bank of mud and fallen halfway onto a mess of thorns. They pierced her skin all over the left side of her body, ripping through cloth and channeling many rivulets of crimson liquid to the surface and sticking painfully into her flesh. Her midsection, where her ribs were, had struck down upon a rock the size of her hand with her fingers spread. She knew that would cause a serious bruise to form on her ribcage. Already she was in excruciating Pain. 

Luna hadn't even realized she was crying until she heard the sound of her own sobs. She heard the heavy footsteps of her cousin stop before her, she was positively terrified. The was caught like a fly in that web of thorns, unable to move. Now she was going to die. Baldr had the perfect opportunity and now he desired to murder her. She felt a searing pain shoot through her body as a blade sliced cleanly through the soft flesh on her back. She felt the cut got from the place between her neck and shoulder on the left side, down her back and then wrapping around her waist and moving to her right hip, going through a portion of the tender skin on her stomach. It cut right through her clothes and sliced cleanly and fairly deep into her pale flesh. He took the knife, her knife, out of her when he reached the place close to her branding burns on her right hip. 

As the warm blood oozed from her wounds, Luna moaned mournfully. She had never felt pain like this in her life. Every inch of her body hurt. She heard Baldr grunt and poise himself to strike her again. He positioned the blade to slide it downward into her back and Luna knew well this would be fatal. She felt him hold her down by her shoulder, for a moment Luna actually attempted to struggle but found it impossible, she hadn't the strength, and therefore lacked the ability. 

As her cousin seemed to hesitate for a moment the girl rallied enough strength to lift her head and look around at him. The look on her bloody face begging him to spare her life. He glanced into her eyes for only a second, but in that moment an ocean of emotion churned between the pair. 

Baldr cast aside the blade in his hand as he lower himself closer to her. Then he began speaking to her, she was confused by what he said as he spoke. Someone he cared for? Glad for her when she escaped? Luna? How could this be? 

Overwhelmed and overcome by any and every emotion imaginable and the amount of questions she had that would never be answered, all Luna could do was stare at him.

She layer there motionless for another moment. Was so going to die anyways? Every breath hurt because of the injury on her ribs and since the rock was still lodged there, it only made it worse. 

The thorns and briars seemed to be embedding themselves deeper into her flesh every moment, luckily only a couple had fallen into her face, by the feeling of it. 

The ankle she had fallen on and twisted twice now was swollen hard like a stone, throbbing and red it was. 

And perhaps most painfully of all was the slice that penetrated her skin from her shoulders and wrapped around her hip. Blood leaked and flowed everywhere. The rain, rather than wash away the blood, simply accomplished covering her in it. Hopefully the mud that had splashed into the gash would be cleaned our

Her clothes were torn, exposing her to the elements and failing to provide any warmth especially since they were soaked wet from the rain. Each cold drop of water that fell on her deathly pale skin contributed to her shivering. She was so cold and there was nothing she could do to change that. 

The girl saw her cousin look around and then rise to his feet before walking away. For a horrifying moment she thought he was going to leave her there for death to find, but then she saw what he was approaching. A dragon had landed. It was a turquoise deadly nadder and it took Luna only a second to recognize her as Scratchet. Luna prayed to the gods that Baldr would give her over to the dragon so she could return to the healing camp and be treated, for she was in dire need. Thankfully, that seemed to be Badlr's intent. 

Luna gasped in pain as her cousin maneuvered her around to make her easier to lift. He put his arms under her and she cringed as he put pressure on her body to lift and carry her. He spoke to her as he carried her. Luna listened and tried to remember everything he said, for he seemed as if he truly meant it. As he set her in the cloth held in the dragon's maw, Luna looked him in the eye and managed a 

[red]"Goodbye, Baldr"[/red]

Scratchet took off with Luna in tow and Left him standing there and Luna wondered what would become of him and Hysteria as she left her old life behind.

As the dragon flew her to where the healers were, Luna Only got worse. She swayed gently to and fro in the bloody cloth, and very soon she felt herself lowered to the ground and set upon it. 

Fine raindrops hit her face as she felt the prescence of people close in on her once again. By now her vision was blurring and breathing was an effort in itself. She realized how gruesome she must look. Pale as death, covered in blood, thorns, cuts and bruises, making no movement other than her violent shivering and wearing tattered clothes. Her senses were so over whelmed she didn't know what she was doing or what was happening to her. She could barely see or hear all she could feel was pain. And then Luna realized that despite all odds, she was about to die. And in that moment she realized there was one person she had to be with before that happened. She gathered every bit of strength she had left contained in her body and wheezed and moaned out one name.

[red]"Curtis...Curtis......Curtis....Curtis..."[/red]

 Then she felt her body become engulfed in darkness and all she heard and felt was the slow beating of her own heart. 

[Sven & Hermes]

Sven was incredibly busy. Despite the battle being only a few hours in, the amount of injured and wounded was reaching incredible levels. Just keeping the levels of people tended to down was so stressful, he almost forgot about the gore. Despite this, he now had several Vikings who had died in his care. It had deeply traumatised him, sending him into all sorts of fits. Most of the dead were already past the point of no return; but it didn't make Sven any more relaxed.

He had just finished wrapping the stub of a Viking's arm, making the agitated man rest. He heard a clattering of scales outside, recognising the unique noise, and with nothing more to do for now, he went outside to greet Hermes in the rain.

Sven had already been in and out the rain several times since the war started, so his mess of blonde hair wasn't as vibrant, and plastered to the sides of his face. All his clothes were soaking, so the only way to stay warm was by staying in the tents and keeping busy. Hermes didn't look best pleased.

"Man! There was a sneaky little bugger who ripped out some of my secondaries! What a loon!" Hermes complained, expanding her wing slightly to reveal a gaping hole in the lower region of her left wing. Sven twisted his lips. It reminded him of that terrible time only weeks before when Hermes had a nasty incident involving Nightrode the Toxichell.

"You can still fly, right?"
"Are you kidding? I can fly with my eyes closed!" Sven's face went blank. She knew what he meant, but her strange messed up humour wasn't welcome right now with the young man. "Okay, alright, I'm fine. Any more and I might have some stability difficulties, but yeah I'm okay." She confessed at the sight of his death glare.

"Emuurgunnceeeeee!!!" A muffled voice rang from above. It was that Turquoise Deadly Nadder again. Though she had a reputation as a trickster in the village, she had proven herself to be quite adept at bringing in injured Vikings safety. She landed with a large splosh, splattering mud everywhere onto nearby healers.

Outside of the splash zone, Sven found it slightly amusing, briefly lifting his spirits at the dragon's antics. Hermes, however, had a more serious face.

"Wasn't her sheet white before...?" She asked. With that, Sven looked, and frowned. The bottom of the sheet was a dark red. The colour made his stomach churn. What did she find?

Sven marched forwards, Hermes close behind. "What have you..." Scratchet had set the sheet down on the floor, revealing it's contents. Sven's face changed from a stern face to a look of horror, jaw opening slightly.

"LUNA!" Knees buckling, Sven sank to the floor by Luna. "Nonononononono.... NO!" He said under his breath. He heard a murmur escape her lips, but it was so frail that Sven couldn't make anything of it. Looking around, there were others surrounding at the scene, onlooking absent-mindedly. This added anger to Sven's current state, suddenly taken by such a blow. "G-get A-Ari! NOW!" He cried with some urgency, his voice rapidly breaking as tears began to well in his eyes. Sweeping the crowds, Hermes had already cleared off. Insensitive dragon.

Returning his gaze back to Luna, he felt petrified. She wasn't moving, unconscious. Suddenly, as if he had been hit with an electrical shock, he quickly leant over her corpse, checking for signs of life. She was still breathing, and still had a pulse... though it could hardly be called good. Sven couldn't dawdle now. He had the role of a healer; he would do anything he could to make her chances of survival any better

Fellow assistants handed him cloths to wipe and clean the wounds before the head healer arrived. One girl suggested to move her to a bench to make the job easier. Sven bitterly agreed, not wanting to leave her unattended for too long. Everyone took an edge of the sheet and shimmied over to an empty bench. As soon as she was placed, Sven immediately began to tend to her again, cleaning her wounds. Most of the worst injuries were from behind.

Scrunching up his face at the sight, it definitely wasn't good. She had a nasty slice from behind, from the dead center of her back, all the way to her hip. Sven parted the torn clothing away to make less obstruction, exposing her bare back. Someone not far away ordered some sort of shelter over them. Sven didn't notice the rain stopping as a sheet was hung above them with spare poles.

It was whilst he was wiping away the caked in grime and grit that he noticed at her hip, the slash seemed to have cut through some sort of runic symbol... It was hard to tell what the symbol was because of the wound, but he knew one thing for certain - it was a brand mark, and it wasn't fresh. His eyebrows furrowed as he dabbed away at the wound, wondering what it was. Was she an outcast from somewhere? Was she once a criminal? During Sven's travels, branding was often used as punishment or a mark to show someone wasn't to be trusted.

Blood kept oozing out. It wasn't good at all. He hoped dearly Ari would come soon. He couldn't even begin to imagine how he would react if she died. One loved one had been enough for Sven. The thought made him think about Curtis. There was no way he would let him suffer the same fate as him... This made Sven even more determined to fight for Luna's life.

---

As soon as Hermes had seen Luna's body, and remembering what Sven had told Curtis the other day, she had immediately fled. Luna was a godsend to Hermes. Without her, she probably would have been denied her gift of flight for the rest of her days. She would find this 'Curtis-boy' and bring him back. She knew he had a white dragon. She hadn't seen him flying about, so it made the search so much easier. That is, of course, if she could find them. She saw no white against the browns, greys and reds below. Hermes noticed that the Hysterian warriors were slowly fleeing, with a lot of front-line Hairy Hooligans chasing after them. Shakily flying in a helix, she spotted a flash of white further back. Flapping her wings, having to use more force than usual to stay aloft, she hurried to where Curtis was. She swooped down and caught him by the shoulders, hoisting him up into the air.

"We need you. This is urgent." She growled before Curtis could make a comment. Hoisting him to her back, it made flying a little easier, despite having a lot of misplaced scales. She didn't want to say what the problem was; otherwise she thought Curtis would probably become a lot harder to deliver him. The camp came into sight, and Hermes began to descend. She landed on the slick mud, slipping slightly as the viscous surface took her weight badly. Balancing out, she quickly made her way towards the makeshift tent where Luna lay.

[PIME2]

(Since Asther hasn’t replied to Deadlines, I never uploaded the thought proses that got to this point, so I might as well just explain what he thinks. He knows that the two children of the hysteria leader are the same ages of Sven and Curtis [the elder one died years before] so he thinks that one of them could be the heir. Oh and he think that Luna is a spy, but I already mentioned that one.)

Ari had heard the horn, he knew what it meant. But he also knew that his work was far from over. Just because there would be no more casualties didn’t meant they weren’t still going to come in. He finished off the man he’d been working on and looked out to see who he was going to be given next.

He didn’t like it when he had to work with armatures, because they all were. They were competent enough to do what needed to be done but only just. As he started working on the next person, his mind travelled back to other things.

Who was it? Was it Curtis? He fits the age and he and Luna were close enough for her to have found out by now…But he didn’t fit the character of someone running away from their homeland. Sven fitted that perfectly, and he’d only just turned up out of the blue. He fitted almost perfectly into the role.

It was then a helper ran up to him, “Ari, someone’s been badly injured and requires your expertise.”

“Take over for me on this man, who is it?” he asked agitatedly as he swapped places.

“Luna,” he turned away and quickly walked in the direction of where the man had pointed. Luna? What was she doing that she could get injured? He hadn’t seen her for a while…had she gone to find her boss? Had he double crossed her?

He got to the two of them and looked at them. Sven had done quite a bit of work on her already. “I’ll take over.” He started to work on the girl. Whatever was the truth, he couldn’t let her die. He had no proof yet, so he had to fix her. It wasn’t long until he saw it.

ᚻᛚ

HL Hel...I didn’t see that come.

[fric2626]

Curtis looked down at the battlefield from his small encampment on a hill. Slity stood beside him looking for targets and firing out ice bolts every now and then. Curtis watched the area closely. "Last one bud." He pulled the lever back and placed the last crossbow arrow into the dock. He lined it up with a hystarians and fired it. He fired a little low but it still with the hystarians leg and that was good enough of a shot to make the attacker slowly run away limping. Curtis smiled abit, he didn't know how long this battle would continue on for but he was starting to get worried about Luna.

He placed the crossbow onto a hook by the quiver on his back so it stayed hanging from his back. He hasn't needed to use with sword any time, but the arrow that grazed the lower part of his arm was going to leave a mark. he hadn't been bleeding badly so it wasn't needed to get looked at, otherwise he would of made his way to the camp to get it looked at.

Curtis heard the flapping of wings close to him, he figure it was just another dragon going by to another part of the battle or back to the camps. when he heard something land behind him he got up quickly and looked at the dragon. He knew it was svens dragon and before he could say anything the dragon hoisted him onto its back and took off. Slity took off and followed the dragon.

When Hermes landed Curtis slid off, if the dragon brought him here it had to be about Luna and it couldn't be good. He followed the dragon quickly and slity followed behind closely. When they got over to Luna Curtiss jaw dropped in both shock and fear.

"My god! what happened to her!?" Curtis just about yelled.

slity sat down and looked at Luna, his emotion was basically mimicking Curtis. his mouth was opened just the slightest obviously shocked Aswell. His eyes were a little bit wider then normal. Curtis looked at Luna.

"Is she knocked out or not cause I can't tell." He was a little bit mixed with emotions, it was mostly fear and shock, but there was uncertainty and curiosity in there on how she got this way. Curtis just waited.

[Sven & Hermes]

Every time Sven tried to clean the gaping wound, more sticky red liquid would seep out. This needed to be stitched up quick- but the young Dragonologist wasn't experienced with such things, and even through the urgence, something held him back from sticking a needle and thread into Luna's back.

Luckily, Ari burst through into the tent, telling Sven to step aside whilst he took control. Sven gratefully did so, allowing the master to work a lot quicker and efficiently that Sven was doing. He watched, biting his lower lip perhaps a little too hard - desperately hoping Ari would be able to keep Luna intact. After a short moment, Ari also noticed the strange mark, and Sven saw his face contort with shock, as if he knew what happened.

"What is it?" Sven asked quietly after gulping down some cold air. Before he could get an answer he heard someone behind him enter the tent - it was Curtis and his white dragon. Hermes wasn't far behind, poking her head under the fabric moments later, there was no more room for her in the shelter.

The two individuals had the same expression, petrified at the scene. Sven frowned, unable to make any sort of move to greet Curtis. It was only natural that he was here. He was glad that Hermes hadn't abandoned him - she had done the right thing. Sven nodded in thanks to Hermes. He couldn't really say anything else.

"She's... She's still alive at least." Sven finally announced after a moment's silence, responding to Curtis' question. "From her injuries it looks like she was... attacked." Sven shook his head, his voice reducing to a low, almost inaudible mumble: "But why did she venture away from the medical camp?" Sven hadn't heard about the rumour of Luna's 'dragon' being injured, because he was working more around the Vikings than with the dragons. Dragons were tough, and hard to kill.

Sven looked back to Curtis again, still sullen. He was definitely distraught about Luna's outcome. The dragonologist came over to him and put a hand on his wet shoulder, as if he was trying to be comforting.

"She really needs your presence right now, Curtis." Sven finally said, looking right into Curtis's blue eyes.

[Ari]

As he worked his mind whorled though all his ideas, he noted Sven noticing his surprise and was glad that Curtis had turned up to distracted him, he didn’t want to explain it to explain while Luna was still like this. She was saveable.

He was still shocked that Luna had been the heir; he’d expected all this fuss over a man, but not a girl…not Luna. She wasn’t leader material; Sven would be a better leader than her. He smiled to himself, there had only been one thing he’d remembered from his correspondence with Hysteria, which was that they were to name their first children after the parents, if it had been Sven or Curtis they’d be Hrothgar, but since it’s Luna…

“Sven, He said, keeping work on the girl, “can you make sure Curtis and I aren’t listening to us, I need to talk to him on his own.” As Sven reacted, Ari knew that his patient was out of the danger, now he just needed to clean the rest up. He had to talk to Curtis though, work out what to do.

“I’m going to talk to you about something, but first I need one answer, and I need you to be honest to me.” Ari paused for a moment as he finished a stitch, “How much do you know about Luna’s past?...How much do you know about Ashaere?”