Please, Don't Be The End

Sam could not quite believe he'd made it when he saw the temple rise up before him. The walk there had been blissfully quiet except for his own whines of pain and the soft breathing of the raccoon in his arms (that he sometimes stopped just to listen for for a moment, to make sure Remi was still there). Avoiding the shrine, he hobbled past it and got to the infirmary doors before suddenly everything in him felt heavy, stiff. The amount of fluid he'd lost, clear liquid pouring out making his clothes dark and his mind foggy...it was getting to be too much. Sam dropped to his knees but determinedly kept hold of Remi, crying out as they hit the stone. "Isla! I-Isla! Please!" He yelled before leaning forward, cradling Remi in his arms and trying not to scream again from the panic, the pain and the guilt he felt. "R-R-Remi might d-die!!" SAMUEL How could a night so frozen Be so scalding hot? How can a morning this mild Be so raw?

It had been a whole five minutes since the last emergency, and Isla was still cleaning down from it. The snow, the cold, the illness and the accidents... Deepfrost was not a kind time for healers. So it would not be Isla, at first, who ran to greet Samuel, but rather one of the nurses. At the mere sight of him it was assumed (naturally) that he was the patient, and the nurse disappeared quickly once more only to return with a couple of others. They would attempt to get Sam onto his feet or at least into one of the chairs - it was while they tried to coax him off the floor that Isla would appear, striding into the waiting area on quiet feet with a calm expression on her face that was undoubtedly practiced and perfected over years. Whatever she felt on the inside was carefully packed away - she'd heard Sam's words, though, loud and clear. "Where is he?" she asked quickly, not thinking to look at the matted furball in his arms. "What happened?" ISLA Hush now, I'm here

Sam feebly tried to resist the arms pulling him up to his feet, worried they would make him drop Remi (and more childishly knowing they were not Isla, so not who he wanted). But he was too weak to fight them off for long and let himself be dragged over to the chair, determinedly holding onto the raccoon in his arms. Wordlessly, he looked up as Isla came in and lifted his head, holding out Remi just a little so Isla could see how hurt he was, how much red was matted onto his fur. "...A...a.a..a...b-bear." He managed to say as an explanation, fresh tears running down his cheeks. He didn't even notice them, too busy staring down at Remi with a heavy heart. The wound in his side was really beginning to hurt now his adrenaline was fading, and he made a cringing face of pain. "I..I-I hurt too, but...Remi is more. Important. Please." He didn't even really know what he was begging her to do, other than to make it all better somehow. SAMUEL How could a night so frozen Be so scalding hot? How can a morning this mild Be so raw?

"A bear," Isla repeated, her eyes widening just a fraction as Sam held out the furball, and she glanced between them blankly for a couple of seconds. Finally it clicked that he meant that Remi was the raccoon, and the medic quickly had to wrestle back her surprise so she could act. Hearing Sam out, she nodded to him and leant down before the small creature in his arms, her face giving nothing away even as she moved the fur and examined the severe injuries that lay beneath... that were caked in dirt. "I need to look at him properly," she said quietly. "He might need surgery, depending on how deep those wounds go. As a... as a human, preferably. I'm not a veterinarian. Sam, I'll need to take him please." Meeting the Ascended's eyes, Isla frowned. "He needs help, and so do you. May I?" She held out her arms for the Attuned. ISLA Hush now, I'm here

Sam nodded and let Isla take Remi. She was the only person he would trust enough to do so, her calm nature landing her next to Jigano in his mind for figures of stability and authority. He knew Remi's condition was serious but the word 'surgery' still made him close his eyes tight shut in a moment of panic. "..M-maybe if you ask..H-he might...be a human again. Maybe." Sam suggested. He had told Remi to transform into something smaller to be carried and it had worked. He didn't know if the Attuned was conscious enough to hear Isla, but it was worth a try. "Tr-treat him first. I can...heal. B-because I'm Ascended. It just hurts first. Now. C-can I come with you? I don't want t-to..." Miss Remi dying sounded awful, but it was about what he meant. He tried to get up to his feet to follow but his legs gave out and he slammed back down into the chair. With a exasperated noise of pain and exhaustion he sunk down and put his head in his hands. SAMUEL How could a night so frozen Be so scalding hot? How can a morning this mild Be so raw?

Isla's lips parted to tell Samuel it would probably be better if he wasn't here for what she might have to do, but at the same time she didn't have the seconds needed to argue with him. She nodded and moved as if to lead them through into the operating room she had set up, but when she turned the Ascended had sunk back against the chair. Nodding curtly to the nurses, she trusted them to patch him up as best they could while she dealt with the more urgent matter of... keeping Remi alive. She called out orders as she walked, for tools and medicines and anything she could think of without knowing the extent of his injuries. The furry body in her arms was small and fragile, and it looked even more so as she set Remi down on the operating table. "Okay," she said, nodding in thanks as the equipment she needed was brought in. "Remi, if you can hear me I need you to shift back. You're in a lot of trouble - I don't know how much, and I can't do anything to help you unless I know what I'm looking at." ISLA Hush now, I'm here

R E M I Not unconscious no, but clinging precariously to the border. Each time Remi allowed his mind the freedom to swim towards the surface, pain etched into every fibre of his being. He was sure that Sam was being as gentle with him as the man could, but each step and turn the ascended made only jostled Remi's small body, allowing limbs that were far more mobile in this form to twist and bounce. Focusing hard on not allowing his body to lash out at the man holding it, Remi had receded into the dark and murky parts of his mind, thinking of Ludo and wondering if the god was laughing or frustrated. Had the bear been one of his? No...Remi didn't think so. If it had, the god would be here now, cradling him towards his death rather than Sam. As the air temperature changed and more voices rang out around him, Remi's head thundered with pain and he had to stop himself from sinking fully into the blackness that promised a respite from all of his hurt and agony. Feeling himself handed off, Remi whiskers twitched slightly, small hands opening and closing reflexively as Isla cradled him, and then set him down on the operating table. Appearing all but boneless, Remi strained to hear Isla's words as if through a great and blustery gulf, catching only shift and trouble. But that about summed it up after all. Not bothering to open his eyes, Remi tried to feel around the contours of his mind, feeling like his mental self was both numb and bound by pain. Everything was in a haze, and the wellspring of his power seemed a distant and intangible thing. Still he pushed towards it with every ounce of strength he had: balling his small clawed hands into fists, Remi began to contort and grow in a manner far from the normally elegant and swift shifts both the medic and the bookmaker would have seen from him. His wounds grew and bled, trading black and grey fur for bruised and bloody skin and all but shredded clothing. With a yell that seemed to shake his entire body with its effort, the man they both knew eventually appeared on the bed, his head and shoulders lifting off of the table and causing fresh blood to pour from his sides. Collapsing back and panting, Remi squeezed his eyes shut. "Sss—" He tried, but his lips and tongue wouldn't form the word. Forcing bloodshot green eyes open to stare up at Isla, the alchemist tried again ."Ssss—mm—" He managed eventually through grit teeth.

It took a lot to shake Isla, but the sight of Remi's painstaking transformation was enough to cause her to break character and wince, though even as he shifted and screamed her eyes were already scanning the wounds that appeared. A quick flutter of lashes and she was seeing much more than just skin deep, examining and analysing and - by the Voice this was bad - even swearing under her breath (cursing was not something she indulged in, normally). "Sam," she finished for him, her hands already busy with a clear liquid and a syringe that didn't quite look like it belonged in a place like Caido. Luckily she had a friend who could create items out of thin air; today that ability would likely save Remi's life. If Isla was lucky. "Sam is here in the infirmary, Remi. Sam is safe. This will take the pain away and it will make you drowsy," she said, already injecting the medicine into a vein in his arm. Drowsy would be enough while she figured out exactly what was wrong, staunched the bleeding and cleaned the muck out of his injuries. Without being able to give the medicine time to work in full, Isla set about doing just that. ISLA Hush now, I'm here

R E M I Sam is safe. Remi's body relaxed, tensed and taunt muscles sinking into the hard bed beneath him and allowing it to hold him up. That Sam had brought him to the infirmary, that he was now under Isla's care and that he was likely being tended to as well did as much for Remi's frayed mind as Isla's injection did for his wounded body. "Tha...nn..k.....y..ou...." He managed sleepily, trying to keep his eyes open but instead feeling the world shifting around him and growing fuzzy at the edges. Still, Remi tried on a stupid smile for his medic and friend, succeeding mostly in cracking open his lip as he looked dizzily upwards. It was a strange sensation knowing that he was being touched by not really feeling it. What marvelous friends you must have to make you such things he might have said if he at all had the capacity to do so. Instead he merely tried to control the way his body still instinctively flinched and spasmed beneath her fingers as she went about cleaning out his wounds. "Promi...sd... more.....'citing.." Remi mumbled stupidly, his head lolling to the side as his eyes—large and childishly impassive now—tried to focus on the medic.

"Thank me when you're walking out of here," Isla murmured to Remi with a kind smile, not able to let herself see him too much as her friend, lest it make her hand unsteady (or worse, risk panicking her mind). "Try not to talk too much, alright? I need you to keep as still as you can for me." As she spoke she was already cleaning out the lacerations with an antiseptic that - thank goodness - Remi would barely feel as a sting, packing them with gauze before swiftly moving on. In truth he needed a real magical healer to reverse the extent of the damage he had suffered, but Isla was it right now. What she was about to do wouldn't be pretty, and it would leave Remi a mess of scar tissue and stitches. But he'd be alive. "Okay. Some of these are surface level and I'll be able to suture them without need of anything else. But others..." Isla sighed, having known this was coming from the mere sight of him in Sam's arm. "You're going to have to take a nap for a little bit, Remi. But you'll feel better when you wake up. Do you trust me?" ISLA Hush now, I'm here

R E M I She told him not to speak, and somewhere in the weird and dark depths of their friendship, he thought that there was probably a joke or an innuendo about what had happened last time they were together and what was occurring now, but Remi's mind was in no position to try and make it. A nap? That sounded far too candy-coated for his liking, especially come from Isla, and though his face was anything but expressive at the moment (especially still covered in blood and dirt), he looked worried. But as she asked whether or not he trusted her, Remi nodded immediately despite the pain. "Al...ays..." He said, wishing that he could take her hand and tell her not to worry.

Isla smiled down at the alchemist, nodding to him and glanced down at the mess of gauze that currently made up his abdomen. "Good," she said softly, starting to fill another syringe, though he wouldn't need very much to knock him out after the first dose of medicine. "Goodnight then, Remi. Sleep well." Slipping the needle into his veins without further preamble, Isla would prepare him for an operation complex and dangerous enough in Northaven, let alone a place like this. The medic worked tirelessly through the night. And tireless was intended in a literal sense - Isla didn't need to stop for food or rest or water, and she was as precise with her last stitch as she was with her first. Still, the work took hours, and when the other healers had come to check on her the first time she had asked that they make sure Samuel was taken care of and placed in one of the rooms. Not that she knew how injured he was, not with her priority under the knife at present. But finally it was over. And Remi was still breathing, somehow. She made sure he was settled on a bunk to sleep off the rest of the medicine, before stepping out to find Sam. It was easy enough to locate where he was staying, and Isla knocked gently before opening the door. "Is it alright if I come in?" The healer looked haggard, still smudged and marked with drying blood, her clothes wrinkled and her hands fidgeting. ISLA Hush now, I'm here

Sam sat motionless except for the occasional shaking of his tears, staring down at the ground and letting his mind swim with feelings of guilt and thoughts of Remi's face when he was laying bleeding out on the forest floor. He was certain he was now on the precipice of Remi's death, in the time he'd talk about later as the moments before his world sank back to darkness after a brief period of hope. Nurses came to get him into bed, stitched up his side and placed bandages on his face; he could feel the flesh moving at a quick speed, blending itself back together. He would be weak for a few days, but would heal quicker than he could have hoped if he was not Ascended. For once, he felt grateful for his condition. He'd settled into an odd drift, not-quite-sleep, when Isla entered. Sam immediately sit up, cringing from the pain in his side but not moving back down. "Yes. P-please. Is Remi alright? C-Can I see him?" His voice was frantic, his hands tightening in the sheets. SAMUEL How could a night so frozen Be so scalding hot? How can a morning this mild Be so raw?

"Hey, careful. Don't move too quickly, okay?" Isla crossed the room to the bed, frowning as Sam winced and guessing that the nurses hadn't thought to give him anything for the pain because he was Ascended. Isla kicked herself for not thinking to tell them (in all fairness, though, she had been a little preoccupied). She pulled up a chair next to the bed, smiling to the bookmaker. "He's alright," she confirmed. "Well. As alright as he can be. I managed to close and stitch his injuries, and he's sleeping off the sedative right now. He'll survive, which is more than I could say a few hours ago." Isla tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, looking Sam over. "You can see him soon, I promise. I wanted to make sure you were okay, first. And to hear what happened out there. All I know is that there was a bear." ISLA Hush now, I'm here