Haven in the Woods

[Ander Valman]

Ander drifted through a watery landscape; a vast, blurry grayness that stretched on with continued nothingness. After a few moments, he noticed that there was something else ... something ahead that was different from the rest of the grayness surrounding him.

Ander had no idea he was unconcious. His mind had fled his physical form long before it had hit the floor. The only outward sign that he was still alive was the occasional moan, and his all-too-shallow breathing.

Ander struggled through the drab grayness, trying to make his body move within the limits he was comfortable with. He felt slow and awkward, as one always did when in a nightmare and being chased by something faster than the mind can comprehend. He waded on, forcing his way through the thickening air, towards that little spot in the distance. He pushed on for what seemed a long time, although time seemed to have no meaning for him. Gradually, the spot grew closer. A house came clear; his parents' house! His sisters were in the garden, chasing each other around. Ander was so delighted to see them that he didn't even register that his parents' house had never had a garden.

He opened his mouth to shout, to greet them, to tell them he was back to be with them again, but he couldn't seem to get enough air. The grayness almost seemed to be smothering him.



Ander's physical form suddenly took a deep, shuddering breath, then another. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes, and a long, loud moan escaped between clenched teeth. He began to shiver.

[Illilli]

Hearing the sobbing shudder and feeling the shakes from Ander made Illilli's mind up...

"Oh no, he's chilling it all goes into the tub... Now." Illilli hoped there was nothing that would take damage from the water in his pockets but that could be dealt with later.

Illilli carefully stepped backwards down onto the steps in the infloor tub. Water wooshed up and over into the drains set along the sides as her none too small body and wings displaced the tepid water. She was very careful as she turned him around and sat him on the step making certain that his head stayed above the water. More water splashed over the sides of the tub as she performed that maneuver.

"Now for some suds... we can use that to protect his, and our modesty, a bit..." She began working the brick of lavender scented soap over his clothing until a thin layer of bubbles and enough soap was in the water to cloud it into murkyness.

"When we take him out of the tub we can tie his shirt around like a loincloth almost...."

She turned to run more hot water into the tub and asked, "Well, I guess we should strip him... we can clean both his clothes and him easier that way... Think you can manage his clothes if I hold him?"

[Geldenwing]

Gelden watched Illilli carefully level the boy into the tub, then use the lavender soap to cloud the water. She was still shifting nervously, and jolted as if she'd been poked by a pin when Illilli asked her to strip him.

"Uh, yeah...yeah, I can do that..."

The tub was more of a basin, very deep and much too deep for her to be able to declothe the boy from the outside. With a huff and a puff, she slip herself into the water with him, hoping that her soggy clothes could handle being wet also. Once in the water, she took a moment and splash and scrub her own face with her hands, to rub off all the dirt and grime, then focused on her own arm. She was quick and efficient, as if this was a practiced routine, and within moments her skin was as glittery as ever. Finally, she dunked her head, then came up, scrubbing her hair furiously until she knew all the muck was out. If not for Ander, she would've gotten out and even shook herself dry. It was an odd, animal-like ritual dating back to her ancestry.

From this angle it would be oodles easier to clean his chest and legs, anyway. Gelden resigned herself and banished her embarrassment. What must be done should be done quickly.

Once clean, instead of hopping out again, she swished over to Ander and tugged up his shirt, anticipating Illilli helping with his arms.

"You know, he might already have a loincloth. I'll just leave that on instead."

[Ander Valman]

As he was lowered into the water, Ander's physical self slowly ceased shivering. His breathing remained shallow, and now had a small rasp to it as his throat closed ever so slightly due to the spiderling poison.

Ander did have a pair of dirty, dusty underwear on under his clothes, and his skin was covered in dirt. Having been on his own in the woods for nearly two weeks had done nothing good for his hygiene.



Ander pushed against the invisible barrier holding him away from his family. It gave against his push, but the going was slow.
If only I could just appear over there... he thought.
Before the thought had even finished, suddenly Ander was in the midst of his sisters. They continued running around, as if he wasn't even there. Ander, however, hardly noticed this. He turned slowly, still feeling as if he were in a dream, and looked towards the spot where he had been until a moment before.
Something about this isn't right. I can't move like that, unless... Magic? But, what is all the gray around the house? Why can't I see anything else?
He turned back to look at the house, and all thoughts of right or wrong flew from his head as his mother exited the front door. He moved towards her, pushing as hard as he could against the resistance he still felt. She too didn't seem to notice him, but looked to the girls and spoke. No sound issued forth from her mouth, but a small gust of air ruffled through Ander's hair.
Am I a ghost? Why can't they see me? What is going on here?
A doorway suddenly appeared out of the grayness, and Ander felt a great urge to go into it. Beyond was nothing, a darkness blacker than any night he had spent in the woods over the last two weeks.
One last glimpse of my family before I die... ? Is that what this is?
Feeling resigned to his fate, Ander moved towards the door, finding none of the resistance he had felt previous. Several feet from the doorway, he stopped one last time and turned to look at his family. His father was in the yard too, his arm around Ander's mother and a smile on his face. He had never looked this happy until now, since Ander had left. Ander nodded once, his heart nearly breaking.
I was what held them back. I was their disappointment, he thought sadly.
At last, he turned back toward the doorway.



Ander's physical self took one last intake of breath, which slipped out between cold lips in a low moan. His body went slack, and there was no breath forthcoming.

[Illilli]

"Oh no!" Illilli gasped when she heard what was basically a death rattle issue from Ander's lips.

"This is not good Geld... The spiders couldn't have caused all this on their own... Its like he gave up or something... We got most of the poison washed out..." Illilli sniffed.

In a moment of un-characteristic frustration and rage Illilli thumped his chest solidly several times with her large hands.

"We didn't wash you so you could be a pretty corpse! Get back here now Dammit!" Illilli meant business as she usually tried to avoid swearing if at all possible. Since she had visited Shim and Marn her vocabulary had grown somewhat in that direction.

"Geld, I don't know what to do... I've never watched someone die like this before." she sniffled again and started hauling Ander out of the tub and laid him flat on the floor. The young man's body looked skinny and frail from privation.

The crystals that made up the roof and much of the walls shimmered as the glowvines reacted to the death of what they already considered an inhabitant. Some leaves wilted in grief that so soon as they had regained some people to live in the cavern they had lost one already.

"Now Dammit..." Illilli slapped Ander and then curled up in a ball with her wings wrapped around herself, rocking a bit.

[Geldenwing]

Gelden didn't understand what was happening, why Illilli suddenly seemed to distressed and hauled the boy out of the water to begin hitting his chest. She'd never seen human death before, only severe injuries. But she understood that death was very final, and that at its core, it meant the person would be going away. Forever.

When Illilli lamented that she'd never seen someone die, Gelden jerked as though stabbed with a pin, and scrambled from the water. She knelt next to the young man's body, then laid her head on his chest, listening for anything, even the smallest whisper of breath or a thump of a heartbeat. But there was nothing. Her eyes watered as she realized he was already gone.

She raised her head, staring down at the body before them as tears slid down her cheeks. She hated those spiders for what they'd done. Illilli might be right, but there were many different kinds of spiders. Some where even the newborns had enough venom to...he was so young, and he was her friend. And he'd gone away. Where had he gone? Couldn't he come back, just for a while?

"Ander, please come back."

She brushed the dampened hair on his head gently, a mother's touch for a lost child. Her hand was shaking as she tried to stay strong for Illilli. Gelden's maternal instincts had kicked in; it wouldn't do to lose her own mind when someone else was so fragile.

"Please? You're much too y-young to die. When you're dead, how can you see the p-pretty flowers grow?"

Her breathing hitched as sobs built within her throat, but she refused to give in to them yet. Not until she knew for sure. And even then, Illilli had to be taken care of. No, sobs wouldn't help at all right now.

"Ander, come home for a while. I promise I'll take care of you if you'll come home."

Her tears dripped onto an already-wet body. She didn't think Ander would be coming back.

[Ander Valman]

Ander had already taken a small step towards the blackened doorway before the presence in front of him registered. He slowly looked up ...

... into his own face! A memory seemed to stir in his head, a bubble rising to the water's surface, but not breaking.

He looked at himself, narrowing his eyes in confusion and suspicion. This was no mirror or reflective surface. This was another him, barring his way to the doorway through which he so badly wished to go. The pulling towards it was becoming unbearable. Still the memory floated in the back of his mind, trying to push forward.

An odd sensation ran through his chest, followed by several more. Ander looked down, running a hand across his chest before realizing that the sensation would normally have been pain. He frowned at this thought.

What did I mean by 'normally'? He looked back up at his other self, noticing something in the eyes that caused him fear. He was too young to really know, but something in the eyes reminded him of a man many people had called mad. This man had sat in the town square pouring sand from one container to another for weeks on end before vanishing. There was madness in the eyes of his other self.

This memory finally burst the bubble of the first stirring memory. Images rushed past. A mirror. His own face. Pain in his arm. A child. A tiny dragon.

Ander looked down to his arm as realization dawned. I'm dying. The spiders poisoned me. The same resigned feeling welled up again as the pull towards the doorway became stronger. He looked back up at his other self, demanding, "Get out of my way. I'm going through there." He took a step forward.

The other Ander took a step forward, extending one arm, hand palm out. In a voice rife with contempt, the double said, "As much as you may have, I have not yet given up on us. This doorway is closed to you!"

With a flick of his wrist, Ander's other self sent Ander flying backwards. He landed hard in the midst of his family. His mother finally seemed to see him, and looked down. Her mouth moved, but another's voice came out of it.

"Ander, come home for a while. I promise I'll take care of you if you'll come home."

Ander's physical body suddenly arched as if falling, then gasped a long, ragged breath. His eyes flew open and looked wildly around, finally locking with Gelden's before they rolled back into his head and he lapsed back into unconsciousness.

[Illilli]

"Oh great Goddess he's alive!" Illilli exclaimed and then ran out to the bar to snag her bedroll.

Returning with the somewhat clean, well cleaner than his, roll she bundled him up where he lay to insulate him from the cool of the floor. Illilli did not want him to chill again. When Ander was bundled up on top of the roll she grabbed the corners near his head and slowly dragged the roll out of the bathroom and near the tiny remains of the fire.

The last of the mint tea burbled quietly in the little pot as settled him as best as she could.

"Geldenwing, with those ragged clothes I didn't see how starved he was... I think I had better hunt something. At least this wonderful place has such clean water."

She was a little nervous as she had never hunted at night and never in this form. Food was necessary. She was practically out of anything but some meager scrapes of flour in its waxed packet and the fresh mint hastily grabbed on the way to the cave. She and Gelden might be ok till morning but the boy needed something as soon as possible.

Fumbling into her leathers at the entrance to the cavern she called back to Geldenwing, "I'll be back as soon as I can and I'll see if I can find some nettles and burdock. The Burdock will help purify his blood. The nettles are just good for anyone, they don't sting once you cook 'em." The book her grandmother had tutored her in and sent with her was gonna come in handy now...

"Is there anything you need while I'm out hun? I definatly think we are going to be here a long while. It already feels like home despite all this worry."

[Geldenwing]

Gelden's tears of relief spilled over when Ander arched his back, met her eyes for a brief moment, and then collapsed back into unconciousness - regular, human unconciousness. She sniffled and sat, crossing her legs, then pulled his head into her lap and touched her forehead to his. She'd made a promise, and she took those very seriously. She would now consider him her responsibility.

She leaned back with another sniffle and left her hands on both sides of his face, gently stroking his cheeks, offering his body comfort. Illilli's relief and immediate movement relieved her of the burden of trying to stay together. And now the woman would go out hunting!

"Yes, if you happen upon nuts and berries, could you bring those too? I could make us some nutcakes."

She eyed the lean body stretched out before her. Illilli was right; he was starved-thin.

"We need to pack him full of something, but we'll have to be careful. I'll bet a stew would stay in him, and give him back some of what his body's lost..."

She sighed, content to let Illilli take over for now. Until the boy woke up again, she would sit here, waiting patiently. She wanted him to know he was safe the moment his eyes opened.

"Be safe, Illilli. Be careful."

[Ander Valman]

Ander drifted in the darkness of unconciousness, in the midst of a healing, dreamless sleep. The world rotated and flew through space as he slept.

On occasion, he would open his eyes and be fed. Sometimes it was by a child, sometimes by a woman. On occasion it was his mother or one of his sisters. Once, it was by his other self.

Delirium raged through him, making him incoherent at best. His body slowly rejected the spider poison and, fueled, began to heal and gain necessary rest.

Ander would awaken, weak, tired and ravenous, on the second morning after he had been bitten.


((You two can post for two days worth of actions. Anything you do to him I'll probably agree with, so long as he doesn't die... again. He gets noticeably better as the two days go by. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.))

[Illilli]

(ooc: gonna try to be a bit more ontime now that receital is over...)

At night, deer are easier to hunt, particularly from the air. She plummeted into a clearing, knocking down a small yearling doe and slit its throat. The boy needed meat, and she needed something she could carry home easily

However, deer are not easy to skin and prepare in the dark, with a small knife and little to no light. Illilli did manage to disembowl and debone most of the meat and package it neatly into the skin after a couple tedious hours. Luckily she had plenty of practice processing kills and managed not to poke too many large holes in the skin or cut herself in the darkness of the night. She saved a few of the leg bones for broth making and burried the offal and the remaining bones at the base of a tree with a prayer of thanks.

She could not fly back with such a weight so she took advantage of the somewhat short walk back to the cavern to gather a few things. She happened across some burdock and walked into a patch of some more mint and was able to get a few handfulls of the fragrant stuff... They would help the burdock go down a bit easier.

As a sleepy new mom bumbles around caring for a new born late in the night, Illilli spread the meat package out on the sink counter and began cutting the meat into strips that could be dried over the fire after starting a light venison and burdock broth in the little pot.

"Gonna have to get a bigger pot I think..." she mumbled after returning from outside with saplings to drape the meat strips over.

Some strips of bark from the willow saplings she had brought in tied up the freshly washed herbs and hung them from ancient hooks over the fireplace. It just seemed like the right place to keep drying herbs to her. She also stretched out the hide to begin curing it.

The mint wafted out its mild scent.

Illilli made one last trip out that night to drag in an old rotted chunk of log for the fire, leaving bits of bark here and there on the only partially glowvine cleared floor. She tried to wash up as best as she could in the sink before curling up on the bare floor in a corner behind the bar. She slept deeply until she woke around late morning.

Once she had awoken, nibbled some of the dried meat and washed again in the sink, as the floor was far from clean, she went out and brought Geldenwing a nice supply of firewood made up of old dropped limbs found in the forest near the cavern.

"I'm going to go see about some of those nuts and berries for you now... And maybe some cat-tails... I can weave some baskets from the leaves and the roots are kinda nice when they are baked."

Illilli unloaded everything she had left in her backpack except for her herb guide and placed it onto one of the deserted shelves behind the bar. She was very careful to keep her bobbin loom and lace making string clear of any dust.

The only nuts she was able to find that morning were a few handfuls of acorns she scrounged up from around an oak that showed the traces of large boar having already cleaned most of the nuts out. She thinked she remembered that acorns could be bitter if not bleached in the sun. She hoped they would be good enough for Geldenwing's nut cakes.

She was a bit more lucky finding a large and wicked looking blackberry briar. She got a few scratches but managed to fill almost half her pack with the tart seedy fruit. She gathered some of the leaves for tea as well.

Cat-tails were much easier to find. She pulled a nice armload of them up out of a small pond that was nearly choked out with the tall plants. She bundled them up and flew carefully back to the cavern. She figured if she kept practicing, she might be able to handle heavier loads eventually, for now though, this load was about all she could handle, particularly since it was bulky.

She returned home laden with these foods and materials around the evening-tide mealtime.

"I've got some nuts and berries... I hope the are good enough for your yummy cakes. How's the patient?"

[Geldenwing]

Gelden remained motionless for a while after Illilli left the first time, but it was clear that the boy wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. And so the small fae gently set his head on the floor, then walked about the cavern, gathering any useable cloth she could find. The old rags and towels were much too deteriorated, though, and she finally had to go into the bedrooms on her search. Here, she sorted through old comforters and pillows. Everything was rotted through; there wasn't a useful piece of cloth anywhere.

Gelden wondered just how long this place had sat in ruins. She had no idea how long she'd slept in the forest, how long she'd been away. But by the level of decay and infestation in some of the linens she found, it'd been far longer than she dared to think.

She had to admit that Ander was stuck with the cold, hard floor for now. But soon, very soon, she and Illilli would need to get some fresh linens in this place.

Gelden came out of the room in time to see Illilli return from the first foray. She watched as the dragon lady made a makeshift stew, then took some across the floor, settled Ander into her lap, and spooned the stew into his mouth. He swallowed out of reflex, and she was happy to see he kept doing so. It had to be a good sign, it just had to.

Illilli went to sleep, then, and Gelden finished with the stew. She would try to feed him again in a few hours. Now she was concerned with the chills settling through his body. All through the night, and into the morning, she rocked him slowly, humming and talking just under her breath. Sometimes she regaled him with tales of her life in this place, before - a man with red eyes who proved himself friend, a shy princess with a healing gift, a dragoness with a soft temper...

When morning came and Illilli woke again, Gelden had run out of stories for the night. When the other woman left again, she stood and walked, loosening her sore body from the long night's vigil. It was time for more stew.

As she refilled the bowl and began the process of feeding him again, she started into stories about her husband, long dead and gone. She explained that she knew he was dead because of the charm on her neck, how it sat dull and vacant against her skin. She told him about her children, how quick they'd grown, how she'd named them both after friends who'd left. And she thanked him for staying.

Illilli came back with nutcake materials, then, and Gelden looked up and up at the dragon lady to answer the question.

"He only gets the shakes every now and then, and he's not sweating so much, and his fever's not burning hot like it was before. Plus the stew's stayed down, all of it."

Gelden knew nothing about healing, but it seemed to her that these clues all meant the boy was feeling better. She waited for Illilli's assessment of her report.

[Illilli]

"He is certainly looking better." Illilli informed Geldenwing.

She looks over at the fresh batch of stew cooking in the too tiny pot and sighs.

"Good thing we can change size, else we'd not be able to keep ourselves and him fed using my poor little traveling pot." she snatched up a piece of the now dried venison jerky.

"I think I had better go cut some pine branches..." Illilli mused a bit more.

"If you lay them facing the same way, and lay them over each other with the butt end down..." She gestured mimicing placing the bushy needled end laying over the treeward end.

"They can make a nice fragrant temporary matress. I know I don't want to sleep on the floor again. And maybe some rushes over top to make it a little less lumpy..."

She looked over at Ander and sighed.

"I'm going to bring some in for the poor boy first though..."

Illilli set off for the next two hours carrying in a half dozen armloads, first of pine and then of sweet rushes found near the pond she gathered the cattails from.

She soon had a squarish nest-like mattress built up near the fireplace. She carefully moved Ander, who was quite thin and easy for her to lift despite the recent recovery. He was definatly on the mend though as his color was good and his breathing deep and even. She made certain that the ground sheet of the bedroll she had given up to sheild him from the cold of the stone floor was neatly smoothed over the matress before she finished tucking him in.

She spent most of the remaining afternoon building a similar nest in the corner behind the bar making certain to pad it well with rushes as she did not have any other blankets.

She nibbled on the bland cattail roots and another piece of the jerked venison as she started playing with the cattail leaves. Slowly after about a half an hour she had a very simple, boring looking, yet sturdy small basket woven up.

"Ya know Geldenwing, I wonder if a start of the glowvine would sell well in that horrid magic hating town. Its not like its an actively Magic plant... just nicely decorative..."
She sighed and looked over at Geldenwing and then at Ander with a slight bit of worry in her eyes.

"We are gonna have to find some way to fix this place up if we are going to be staying here... I'd like to stay... It feels right. Like I am meant to be here..."

She starts making another small basket to match the first.

[Geldenwing]

While Illilli toiled away with the makeshift mattress and then baskets, Gelden watched her charge closely, noting that he was still shivering. Although the cavern wasn't freezing, it was cold enough that without some sort of cover, even she felt the chill. Plus there were those dirty clothes...

"The moment he's awake, we gotta get him into some clean clothes."

She looked at the much taller woman and raised her eyebrows in unison. Unlike so many others, Gelden lacked the ability to raise only one at a time. She'd never perfected that particular muscle movement. It took time and concentration, which translated to boredom.

"Don't you think, Lily? I mean, this stuff's so old, and lookit his pants legs..."

Here she grabbed one of his feet and tugged around the bottom cuff so that Illilli could have a clear view of the frayed and dirty edges. This boy had been walking for some time.

"And blankets. We need to get blankets. Maybe we can steal some from town...'cause I got no money."

The little fae drooped in her own perceived guilt. She didn't like admitting that she was less than suitable as a financial companion. She was used to making her own way, and stealing what she needed in her diminutive form. She wasn't one for moral qualms.

"Doncha think?"

[Ander Valman]

Ander slowly awakened. He had been almost aware of people talking around him as he had struggled up from sleep, but upon waking could remember nothing. There had been a jerk on his leg too, but that was forgotten as his eyes blinked open, staring up at the rocky ceiling. He frowned slightly at the odd, glowing vines criss-crossing the ceiling, wondering where he was and how he had gotten here.

It slowly came back to him. His arm was tingling and itchy, reminding him of the spiders. He remembered a badger; a little girl with wings; a miniature dragon that could change shape and size...

Ander frowned. Could it all have been a dream, brought on by the spider poison? It seemed to him that the memories of the winged-girl and dragon-girl were before being bit by the spiders, but he also recalled being very tired then. He had been walking for days, with little to eat and little sleep. The woods had been his only refuge, after his mother had sent him away...

The hurt hit him again, clenching his heart as he remembered what he had done to his father. Ander's eyes closed tight, a tear leaking from under his left eyelid. The tear tracked down his dirty face, leaving a clean trail from his eye to his ear. He held in a sniffle, thinking it unmanly, but brought his right hand across his face to wipe the tear away.

The smell of pine assailed him as his arm brushed past his nose, making his nose wrinkle. The smell caused a tickle in his nose, and suddenly he sneezed.