Beaugro ~Memories~

[Redsparrow]

Her hiss or purr or whatever the noise was, was not helping her case. It made him think of her more as an animal but regardless Ren kept his back to her as he grabbed a pitcher of water and poured fluid into two glasses. "So it is Anita then." He commented after her rant.

Turning back to face her. "Shame I hear your sister is more attractive in both cat and human form." A cruel half smile slipped over her lips. He pulled up a seat and sat about 5 feet away form her. Drinking deeply at first from the cup in his right hand, the other resting in his left. He watched her reaction.

"Water?" He offered the cup to her, knowing she was unable to take it from him. He said intending to interrupt any comment she was about to give."Oh but you can't." He eyed the ice cuffs. "Those must be awful cold, if you want I can melt them."

[1.21 gigawatts]

Anita Belle Gunthner
Anita watched the boy as he grabbed a pitch and filled two cups. She ignored his comment and continued to watch him as he turned. Deciding she would be there for a while, Anita leaned back I her chair and rested her right ankle on her left knee.

With his next comment about her sister, Anita simply raised an eyebrow. Yes her sister was attractive but she didn't let that bother her. She loved her sister and respected her. She wasn't one for jealousy.

"Oh I am sorry. Did you want to meet her? Would your other twenty-seven lovers not be jealous?" Anita wasn't usually one for sarcastic comebacks but something about the boy brought it out of her. He was making it so easy too.

With him offering the water to her, Anita only looked down at the liquid. She wasn't about to take something from an elemental, let alone that one. His feeble attempt to mock her using the cuffs and water made Anita chuckle.

"They are normal cuffs smart one."she pointed out lifting her hands to prove her point. Marion had chosen to place the regular cuffs on her instead of the magical slavery ones and had even said his ice trick wouldn't work in the hot room. He had never replaced the cuffs on her hands.

"Though if you want to try and heat them up, knock yourself out." She really didn't care if he did or not. She knew she wasn't going to escape at that point and she also didn't need the cuffs removed to kill the boy.

[Redsparrow]

"Id rather meet her alive verses dead, yes. But more importantly I may be able to persuade my father to let me keep a souvenir from this trip. Shame it may have to be you and not her." He lead back into his chair and cocked his head sidewise looking at the locks. A quick blast of heat at the joint and they would fall off.

He noticed her look at the fluid. "You think I am going to poison you?" He laughed. "I offer this because rations are strict for even me, better to drink and eat now when it is offered without strings attached." A noise outside of the tent reminded him of how little time he did have to be with her. He thought about the slave camps and for a moment worried about her treatment. Slaves were guarded, and these guards didn't value them as human lives. Bad things went down on dark nights, especially to smart mouthed individuals.

Not waiting for her reply he stood and walked to her. Kneeling down next to her he reached out and placed a hand over her cuffs, his fingers found the seams quickly and applied the needed heat to weaken the joints. After doing so he slide a finger in between the cuff and her skin. "A quick flick in the right place and.." The cuffs gave way and fell to the ground. "There."

"As for my lovers, unlike animals, Elementals do not have harems. Besides women are a terrible waste of energy to keep around, better to enjoy them on your own time." With that he offered her the glass of water. And eyed the room for any kind of food.

[1.21 gigawatts]

Anita Belle Gunthner
Anita rolled her eyes as the boy continued to speak. Was he really trying to get on her nerves by using her sister? It was never going to work. Although if he started mocking her, Marion might have come back to a dead boy.

Looking at the boy as he explained he was genuinely offering the water to her, Anita blinked a couple times and looked at him confused. He had shown so much hatred towards her previously, so why the sudden change of heart?

Before she could speak, the boy approached her, making her heart race a little.what was he doing? Wait. He was actually removing the cuffs? By that time, the boy had really confused Anita.

His fingers against her skin sent a chill down her spine. She didn't like him even near her, let alone touching her.

When the cuffs fell off, Anita, by instinct, quickly moved her foot and caught them before they could make a noise on the ground. She may have been distracted by the boy's change in heart but was still alert to know there were people right outside the tent that could hear.

Anita gently placed the cuffs on the floor and continued her eye contact with the boy. She huffed when he explained the nature of elementals. "And unlike animals, shifters do not have harems either thank you very much," she explained before slowly taking the cup of water from the boy. "Seems like we can all learn something."

Looking into the liquid, Anita pondered whether or not to drink from it. It smelled alright. And her nose had yet to fail her. She stuck her tongue in the glass and lapped up a little bit of water to test it. It tasted like normal waters well.

Deciding it was safe enough to drink, Anita took a sip like a human before realizing just how thirsty she really was. The water was gone within seconds. Looking into the cup, Anita realized she was all out of water. She bit her lip while she set the cup on a small table.

Anita cleared her throat. "Um."she began softly. "Thank you." Maybe this elemental wasn't all that bad. His first impression wasn't the best but she guessed neither was hers.

"My name is Anita." She said, holding out her hand for a shake. She hoped she could start over with the boy. She knew they would never be friends, being a shifter and an elemental, but thought it would make the trip a little less stressful to have one less person who wanted to kill her.

[Redsparrow]

"Just call me Ren." He reached his hand out and shook Anita's, he then turned away and started looking for food. After some rummaging he was able to find half a loaf of bread and a small wedge of cheese. Carefully Ren cut two slices off the bread and split the cheese into half. Before placing the loaf and half the cheese block back. He cut the cheese into half again and placed it on the bread. Walking back to Anita he offered a slice of each to her.

If she had been closer to his age, he would have teased her. Asked for a kiss or something in exchange for the food, but she was far to young for him. Besides it was that kind of behavior that he worried about. She was to young to be a captive of war. Perhaps that is why Marion had brought them here.

[1.21 gigawatts]

Anita Belle Gunthner
When Ren shook her hand, Anita watched him with curiosity. He seemed very relaxed about their whole meeting now. And wondered what was going through his head at that moment.

She continued to watch him as he searched the room for something, eventually retrieving food from some cabinets. A noise outside the ten caused Anita's head to swivel. Nothing entered in the moment she sat frozen, staring at the entrance.

Her attention was grabbed once more when Ren returned with food. "The best would be rabbit stew but I suppose this will do." She teased, grabbing the food from his hands. If there was one thing that was true in that messed up world was that Anita genuinely loved the meal, rabbit stew. With the right vegetation mixed in with rich rabbit meat and a few berries on the side, Anita couldn't resist.

It was like she hadn't eaten in days she was so hungry. She managed to control herself a little more with the food than the water though and set the half that wasn't eaten on the table by her cup. "Thank you." Anita said quietly again.

[Redsparrow]

Ren leaned back against the wall and watched Anita. He wondered what she was thinking and weather or not she would try and attack him. He didn't think she would at this point, but you never knew.

Movement all around the them made him tense. There were things he wanted to ask her about, but he didn't dare in this environment. Anyone could walk in at any time, and she could be taken away. The last thing he needed was her telling all the other slaves that he was extremely nice or curious about their lives.

To many in the army treated him poorly, the last thing he needed was to be known as sympathetic to newly captured slaves. Ren the prince who like slaves... He was already known to be to nice to Reza and Elwin. But if anyone did say anything he would just tell them that Anita was royalty and needed to be kept in good condition. Hence the food and water.

"Don't mention it." He replied to her thanks, he wasn't joking. Please don't mention it, he thought. "You should finish that before anyone comes back." He pointed to the food and flinched a little at the noises outside. For a moment he could have sworn he heard Marion's voice only a few feet away.

[Oriel]

Few of the men in the infirmary bore marks from that day's fighting. The lightly injured had long since been either sent back to their units or reassigned to light duty while they recovered. Those who remained within the arched hall included the soldiers most at risk for infection. Marion knelt to inspect one man who had been mauled during the battle for the garrison. A great raking gash in the belly had nearly killed him, but he slept easily now. Finally rid of the infection that had followed.

"Two others are still fevered, Marion."

He recognized the soft voice at his elbow, standing in time to see his assistant walk toward a pair of cots at the far end of the room. Although Owen Russell was not an elemental healer and just out of training, Marion still found him competent and calm enough to be trusted with the most sensitive cases.

Another man, face sunken with illness, looked up at him from one of the cots and attempted a smile.

“General. I was hoping not to see you again.“

“Hope a bit more this time, Corporal Aren,” Marion answered lightly. “For both our sakes. Owen, hold him. I’ll make it as quick as I can.”

No two treatments ever felt the same. This time his element cooperated enough to allow him to find the worst of the infection, isolate it, and then attempt to destroy the corruption within the body. He’d been told that it felt like a surgeon’s knife opening the wounds all over again.

All Marion knew was the phantom sensation of ooze against his skin, followed by a blistering pain in his neck when his concentration finally broke. He turned to the second patient before he had more of a chance to regret the action. This time the disease rasped like stone in his awareness, ripping at him wherever he sought to dislodge it. No matter how he approached it or attempted to isolate the infection it always seemed to have spread just beyond his elemental barriers.

It was Owen who finally shook him out of his trance.

“You were gone near half a candlemark,” his assistant said with reproach.

Too much more of an effort and he wouldn’t have had the energy to try again in the evening. Marion stretched, winced, and settled again on the balls of his feet.

“I’ll manage. Just make sure they both have enough water to drink.”

Burning out or fighting infections, whatever he did, was made easier when his patients had enough fresh water in their systems for him to sense the problems areas. He hoped that Anita and Ren hadn’t fought during his absence, but none of his other responsibilities would wait even while he was attempting to shield the feline princess from worse treatment in the camp.

It turned out he needn’t have worried. Ren and Anita stood apart in his quarters, both made awkward by having been left alone with each other.

[Hello again.] Marion spoke formally in the feline tongue that he’d insisted Ren practice, but swiftly enough that he doubted the prince would be able to pick up the rest of his words. [I’ll find a way to free you, but you may have to be patient. There are few safe moments here. And try not to look surprised --]

He looked askance at Ren for Anita's benefit.

[He knows a little of the language.]

[1.21 gigawatts]

Anita Belle Gunthner
Hearing Ren suggest she should finish her food, Anita looked at the entrance and realized what he was getting at. "Oh. Yeah." She said, picking up the food again.

The moment she swallowed the last bite of food, Marion returned to the building. When the language of her people escaped his lips, Anita was shocked. How did he know her language? She guessed since Ren had known about her family that they had been doing extensive research on the tribes.

[Hello.] With Marion's next words, Anita's breath caught in her throat. She tried not to show any emotion towards what he just said, but her mind raced with possibilities. [Where is my family?] Anita asked, hoping for an answer.

[Oriel]

[Uncaptured, as far as I know.]

She did not need to hear that most of the adult shifters were killed rather than taken prisoner. Darius took only the biddable as slaves, which meant that either the young or the fearful survived while the rebels did not.

[I'm sorry.] He said impulsively. [I wish there was better news.]

Marion crossed the small room to sit at the foot of his bed, aware all at once of the fatigue that followed healing. He still needed to think of a way to get Anita out of the camp without endangering the other soldiers. Darius would never believe that she'd escaped without help, much less from him.

"Ren, there's a group of water pitchers just outside in the infirmary. Could you go and get one for me, please? It doesn't have to be full."

Although there was a pond close by the garrison, it felt better to have some in the room when he was trying to think.