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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 6, 2008 18:20:49 GMT -5
Dengoro trudged along the riverbank towards the east curtain wall with the air of a beast stranded in a desert. He'd been training the entire day, for over twelve hours, and now he stumbled along towards where he would be doing some running along the curtain wall with the evening sun beating against his back so hard it felt like it was pushing his body for him.
To put it bluntly, the skunk didn't make it. Having worn himself to complete exhaustion, he fell onto one knee, tried to regain himself and failed, collapsed onto his chest, attempted to get up again, and again failed. With all of the energy depleted from his body, he would have fallen asleep right then if he weren't so uncomfortable. As it was, though, Dengoro felt like he was weighted to the ground. Nothing was even slightly audible to him then.
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Post by briala on Apr 6, 2008 18:28:30 GMT -5
Briala whooped with excitement as a glimmer of the river shone through the trees like a beacon. She hadn't been sure that she was going in the right direction, and she was totally not in the mood to be lost. She had been training pretty hard, and was eager to go swimming in the cool river. She bounded forward and, only pausing to shrug off her weapons, dived in, twisting and turning in the clear river. She surfaced some minutes later, shaking her head to dislodge any water that was in her ears, then struck out for the shore. She wasn't really supposed to be swimming now--running, actually. She just figured nobody would mind if she took a little break.
Apparently, someone else had the same train of thought; she saw someone collapsed near the bank in an uncomfortable-looking position. Briala raised an eyebrow, then went to go investigate. She vaulted out of the water, paused to shake off any excess water, then jogged to the other beast. All the while yelling, "Hello! What are you doing here?"
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 6, 2008 18:32:29 GMT -5
Dengoro rolled over to see what appeared to be a soaking wet otter running at him. He would have recoiled in fright if it weren't for his exhaustion. Nonetheless, the sight of Briala was enough to give him enough of a jolt to respond verbally, even if his speech was rather delayed by her sudden, surprising presence. "I... Uh... I'm trying to get up."
It sounded too much like he was gravely injured or some ridiculous idea like that, so the skunk decided to revise it when she was close enough to him for the both of them to identify one another. "Briala, it looks like one of us is better at training for long-distance running... Yeah..."
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Post by briala on Apr 6, 2008 18:43:59 GMT -5
It took a minute for Briala to understand, but eventually she did. "Oh...need any help?" She now recognized Dengoro, and wondered if he would accept her help. In the small chance that he would, she held out a hand to help him up off the ground. "How long have you been training?" she asked curiously. She had never trained for more than a few hours at once, never long enough for her to all-out collapse.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 7, 2008 18:07:16 GMT -5
"I dunno... Since half past seven..." The skunk hadn't even eaten within that time frame, not that he was used to eating that much. He got himself up onto his elbows and knees, panting heavily, and eventually put one paw over where he knew his heart lay under his ribs. "I feel so exhausted, my heart is just... I can't even breathe..." Sure enough, his respiration was erratic at best. Breathing hurt almost as badly as not breathing.
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Post by briala on Apr 7, 2008 18:54:04 GMT -5
"That's almost 12 hours!" Briala blurted out, sounding shocked. Despite a not-so-friendly history between them, she felt bad for the skunk. She gave her plan about half a second of thought, but decided there was really no reason why she shouldn't help.
She drew half a loaf of bread that was supposed to be her snack and handed it to him, along with her canteen of fresh water. "Here, take these." She sat down on the ground next to Dengoro, cautioning him, "Don't take those too fast! Drink in small sips, and take small bites. Otherwise, you'll get sick." She spoke in a matter of fact tone. "Don't forget to breathe too," she added, seeing him gasping for air.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 7, 2008 19:02:17 GMT -5
Dengoro forcibly rolled himself onto his side then up to a wide-legged sitting posture, still panting heavily. He barely had the energy to extend his paws to take the bread and water from Briala. "Thanks, I..." Speech was still a difficulty for him at the time. After all, breathing was, so talking deserved a place on the list. "I don't think I could eat that much anyway."
He had completely ignored his searing thirst until he realized he was holding a canteen. His mouth was so unbelievably dry that he wasn't even having to actually swallow anymore; even the residual mucus-like residue from his saliva had evaporated. The skunk fumbled to remove the canteen's cap and, upon managing to do so, tipped a tantalizingly small but more than sufficient amount into his mouth. The feeling of water again was both a relief and a shock, and he lowered it quickly. "I haven't had a drink all day," Dengoro gasped.
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Post by briala on Apr 7, 2008 19:09:42 GMT -5
Briala sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose between her paw. "You need to take better care of yourself, m'dear," she said in a slightly muffled, formal tone. "Doing all that training with no water should have killed you." She sat cross-legged, with her elbows on her knees and her chin on her clasped together paws. "In my opinion, you should stop your training thing now. You know, quit while you're ahead." She glanced over at his exhausted condition, then remarked, "And by ahead, I mean still alive."
Briala knew she should probably start her running again, but she couldn't just leave a poor injured beast collapsed by the river. She carefully cultivated her argument in her mind while Dengoro recovered--her argument for her captain, when he found she was really, really late.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 7, 2008 19:14:18 GMT -5
Dengoro didn't even try the bread, setting it down on the canteen, which was now on the ground with its cap mercifully reattached, and then falling onto his back to look up at the evening sky... And give his burning muscles a break. He couldn't even feel his footpaws anymore, and they couldn't have been faring well. "I'm never training in these heavy boots ever again. My socks feel so wet right now."
It wasn't out of bad ventilation, either. The skunk felt terrified at the idea of taking off all the cloth, leather and metal to see what had happened to himself. "I'd better untie these..."
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Post by briala on Apr 7, 2008 19:19:34 GMT -5
Once again, Briala felt like hitting Dengoro over the head. She probably would have, if he weren't already half-dead. Instead, she sighed and closed her eyes, feeling uncomfortably like a mother lecturing her child. "You're not supposed to wear boots when you run so much! And you need to stretch a bit, or your muscles are going to freeze up, and you won't be able to move at all for a week," she added, still with her eyes closed.
She glanced at him and saw he was looking at his boots. She waited a moment, then said helpfully, "Do you need help with your shoes?" A bit of an odd question Briala, but oddly fitting. She didn't move to help though; if he wanted to try to regain any of his long-lost dignity, she would let him. However, she didn't know how he would be able to lift the heavy boots off his probably mangled feet.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 7, 2008 19:27:14 GMT -5
Dengoro decided to try giving the stretching a shot and rose up to try and untie his boots. He failed woefully in bending that far and collapsed again on his back, still panting noticeably. This was a hopeless situation for all involved, in his mind, but at least the concept of dignity hadn't been really worked into him. "They're boots, Briala... Not shoes... Shoes I might be able to take off. Or train in. These things, I can't... They're too loose all the time and now I can't take them off."
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Post by briala on Apr 10, 2008 19:20:08 GMT -5
"Well, excuse me then," Briala said in a patient voice; surprisingly well for her current mood. Which was annoyed, since Dengoro seemed bent on sending himself to an early grave. She watched him struggle for a few moments, then sighed. "Mind if I help you with your boots?" Without waiting for an answer, she knelt by Dengoro's left foot and began to pick at the shoelace, quickly unwinding the knot with her deft paws.
"Any particular reason you're literally running yourself to death?" she asked in a conversational tone, beginning to ease the boot of his foot. It came off suddenly, sending her falling backwards and holding onto the boot. "Oof!" she gasped as the heavy boot landed on her stomach. She gasped again when she saw the mess of blood that was Dengoro's foot. "Lordy Lou..." she breathed, absently setting the boot on the ground next to her.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 10, 2008 19:25:36 GMT -5
Once he got a flash of crimson burned into his retinas from looking up and over at his bare footpaw which apparently had soaked his sock through to the point of it sticking to the inside of his boot, Dengoro fell back and covered his eyes with a paw. He still couldn't bear to see himself bleeding, mainly out of what it tended to be accompanied with. Don't worry, he's not here, except your... Your footpaw looks like a few dozen bricks landed on it.
It didn't do much to help how faint he was feeling already. The skunk couldn't even bear to look at Briala after what he'd seen of his foot. Now that it was exposed freely to the air, though, his footpaw had been taken from a strong and constant ache to myriad stabs of random pain and a completely unbearable burning sensation which covered every wounded area on it. "I can't look at that anymore..."
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Post by briala on Apr 10, 2008 19:36:50 GMT -5
Briala felt a stab of pity for Dengoro. She had been hurt really badly very, very few times, but she found that luckily, she wasn't very squeamish. However, her low tolerance for pain often made her pass out when it got too bad, so that might have had something to do with it.
She began to dig through her bag, which had scant medical supplies. She pulled out a long roll of white bandage, then began to wrap it around his foot, silently hoping she had enough for both feet. "It's okay, you won't have to look," she said soothingly as Dengoro flinched. She inwardly thanked herself for thinking of bringing the bandage with her. She didn't get hurt often, but after arriving at the fort, she had taken to carrying it with her always. Something about having a gash in your leg without having anything to wrap it with...She shook her head slightly; that was in the past now, and thus not important. She found that she had finished this foot, and, taking a deep breath, worked to untie the other boot. "How you feeling?" she asked Dengoro; he had been kind of quiet.
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Post by Linx Exotic on Apr 10, 2008 19:43:37 GMT -5
The skunk had, at some point during the bandaging process, passed out. He came to shortly before Briala spoke, disoriented and unsure of his general setting. "What... What's going..." Then he realized all that had happened, and closed his eyes again. "I think I just fainted, Briala."
Substantially embarrassed by his show of weakness, the skunk put his other paw over his face as well. Perhaps he could just get her to ignore what he'd just did, and... Even if he had a subject to change to, that couldn't possibly work. Any hope of dignity had been blasted out of the air. What's she doing down there? It's... Ow! Stop it!
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