Snippet #1515737

Leander ran as fast as her aching side would allow her, which truthfully wasn’t nearly as fast as on a normal day. Her blood was still soaking into the cloak fragment, and the injury pulled every time she moved the corresponding leg, which as it turned out was fairly often. The young woman gritted her teeth together to keep from making any noise as the pain lanced through her torso. It felt suspiciously like being burned by hot metal, and she knew she was going to need some form of treatment.

Shades caught up with her, and at first she didn’t see the shaft of an arrow sticking out of the crook of his arm, because the injury was on his other side. Eventually, the two of them managed to duck behind a building, and stood leaning against the siding. Lee was panting, not from the exertion but the pain, but now that she got a better look at him, it seemed that Shades was even worse off than she was.

“Get it out of me, get it out!” His tone was frantic, and she with great reluctance pushed herself off the rather comfortable (all things considered) wall and moved to get a look at what he was talking about. She caught sight of the projectile protruding from his arm and bit her lip. Damn, that really didn’t look good. “Please... I don’t know if there is any way to take it out, but every time I move I feel it stabbing further in,” Oh, well that was lovely, wasn’t it?

Normally, she would question the wisdom of removing it, because however much it hurt right now, Leander was not a trained medical professional and they did not have the supplies here to make removing it safe, especially since that would only cause him to bleed more. Still, however bad it looked, she was almost certain it had not hit some kind of artery, which meant he wouldn’t die… but that was assuming treatment. Still, there was no way it was a good idea to let the thing drive itself further in, regardless of anything else. Plus, even though he was doing his best to look like he wasn’t all that concerned, his words betrayed him, and she knew it wouldn’t be good to risk him trying to pull it out himself.

She chanced a glance at Shades’s expression and frowned. His eyes were glazing over. That was never good, was it? “All right, chill for a second here Shades. I’m going to pull it out, but I need you to relax your arm as much as possible. Tensing up will only make it more painful,” she explained in her usual modulated tones. Like when someone sticks you with a needle, only more lethal. “This is going to hurt,” she warned him, not really wanting to give him false hope but also trying not to freak him out any more than necessary.

Hopefully the fact that she still managed to sound rational, coherent, and calm would be of some assistance. How she was managing that, she couldn’t say for sure, but Leander wasn’t the sort of person that panicked often. Quite the opposite; usually people complained that she didn’t feel enough, as though logic were a sign of emotional stuntedness. In her case, it probably was, but it was serving her well right now, and she wasn’t about to question it. She didn’t even hear him inquire as to how she was doing, which was fortunate, because she might have laughed, and that would perhaps have been inappropriate for the gravity of the situation.

As fast as she could while still being careful, she gripped the shaft of the arrow as close to the wound as she dared and tugged. Luckily, the head was no barbed, and after the initial resistance, it came out clearly, along with a profusion of Shades’s blood. Damn, now I need something to bandage him with… Her eyes fell on the brilliantly-red scarf about her neck, and she sighed inwardly. She really did like it, but right now, it didn’t matter. Tugging it off, she made sure it was clean of all hair and such before wrapping it tightly around his arm. It was probably cleaner than anything else around here, including his shirt, which had been her first choice until she noted that it was covered in someone’s blood.

Tying the red fabric off in a secure knot, she went back to applying pressure to her own wound in enough time to give Shades a cocky smile that would not give away how shaky she felt at the moment. The Professor chose that moment to show up half-astride a horse, and Leander backed up a few paces. She’d had a bad accident with a horse when she was sixteen, and though she’d been a damn good rider before that, she now refused to be within ten feet of one if she could avoid it.

Before any of them could say anything about the addition of the third to the group, though, they heard a voice urging them to work their way back to the place they’d just come from. Leander instinctively bristled; she didn’t take well to orders, but one look at Shades was enough to convince her that this might be the best idea for now. These people probably had access to real medical care, or at least whatever passed for it around here, and she knew if she didn’t convince him to go, Shades was unlikely to do so on his own. She might dislike being told what to do, but she figured him for outright paranoid around government types. “Come on, Shades. We need to get that arm of yours looked at, and I don’t much fancy fighting Captain Stabby over there.” Oh yeah; he needed a new name all right.

"You are to follow Lieutenant Reshma here, she will take you to the barracks in the North tower. You'll stay there tonight." Leander tried really, really hard not to make a smart remark. She succeeded partially, but she couldn’t resist an internal snipe. Oh will we now, you high-and-mighty pompous- she shook her head. This was not important right now.

“Yes, okay, fine,” she said aloud, resisting the urge to throw him a mocking salute. Were his eyes… orange? She brushed the thought aside. Half the people here looked weird, and that was hardly the point right now. “But my friend here needs to get treated for his injury.” Technically, she wasn’t doing all that well herself, either, but figured that clean water and some bandages would be sufficient in her case. And some sleep, because she was seriously tired right now.