Piece by Stitches

by Beckon

With most of their troops either out on patrol or resting, it left the campsite looking a little empty and barren; for a moment, she considered convincing herself that it was really just the two of them here.

"We haven't been in battle for three years now, I guess I've just gotten a little weak to the pain."

A small chuckle passed from under her breath at his remark and she watched as he removed the last plate of armor that had been covering most of his body. The slightly rolled material of his right sleeve was discolored; the large rip down one side of it gave a reason for why that was as such. He moved to peel off the dark-green tunic underneath as best he could without further irritating the evident wound, but she caught his slight pained expression when such motive failed. A slightly dirtied-white shirt still dressed his form beneath the darker tunic and, although the sleeves of it were missing, it was better than completely stripping in the middle of the camp.

Once the tunic had been removed, he briefly folded and tossed it over a nearby supply crate before his attention seemed to shift to the given wound. A crude-looking gash tore its way down the side of his right arm, splitting down the shape of his bicep. Bright red streams had stained almost a full path down to his elbow and across his forearm, eventually dripping off the tips of his fingers; creating a rather colorful splash pattern in the ground beneath him.

She didn't know how much blood he had already lost from the injury, the ride back to camp had been rather elongated due to some of the other injured soldiers. But... if they didn't get it fixed soon, it would be a few drops too many.

"Well, why don't you let me be the judge of that." Calill spoke, ushering him over to where she was seated on a small collection of crates. It wasn't exactly the best place to be practicing medicine, but it was as close as they could get when they were a short distance from the previous battlefield. Hands reached out to inspect the wound as soon as he seated himself at her side, with all the blood though, she couldn't exactly get a decent look at the injury.

Fingers moved to take the rag she had already soaked ahead of time with water and pressed it lightly at the wound, trying to keep her touch light as she dabbed away at the blood. It seemed like every time she managed to clean away just enough to inspect the gash, more blood bubbled out of from the torn flesh and forced her to clean it away just as well. Changing her tactics slightly, she moved the flat of her thumb in a soft circular motion over the length of the wound, watching as the thin material of the rag quickly fell to the thicker spill of blood; the once white material eventually stained itself red to match. It seemed to take a few minutes before she peeked the rag aside once again; trying to get in a quick look at the wound before it turned into another bleeding mess.

The gash itself was the length of his upper arm, the skin peeled open to reveal the slight throbbing of the torn muscle underneath as well; a ring of red was already encircling the wound to show how the swelling was setting in. It was accompanied by a brief taint of dark purple from fresh bruising just now showing up as well. It certainty wasn't a wound she was expecting to see but it could've been worse she supposed.

A brief sigh escaped through her lips as she dabbed at the wound once more, cleaning away more blood that attempted to bubble out of the flesh. "I don't think this has anything to do with personal pain tolerance, General… this is a nasty looking wound; it's deep too, which I think is the real problem here."

"Great." the single word left him as a brief mutter, his open tone was a shared expression of minor irritation but mostly exhaustion. His other hand pushed through his slightly damp bangs before it moved to cup the back of his neck. "The one of few times I choose not to keep a healer on staff."

"The other factions were in trouble, they needed the assistance." she reminded, cleaning the wound one more time before she tossed the dirtied rag aside. "You sent them help without hesitation, I think that means something. Now, it would be different if we didn't bring any healers to begin with… that would be more like a sign of idiocy."

He had to chuckle briefly at her comment and watched as she moved to retrieve a fresher cloth from a small bag behind her. "What's your diagnosis?"

"On this? Well… I think it speaks for itself." she started as fingers rummaged through the small bag behind her and pulled out a loose bottle of medicine; she used it to soak the second rag. Fingertips lightly touched at the shredded skin once more, just barely pulling at one of the peeling sides. "It's deep, way too deep to ignore. A healer would have no problem fixing it, but if we're going to do a hands on approach, it's going to take more than just potion to help this." Despite her own words though, she moved to cover the wound with the medicine-soaked cloth, feeling the brief way his skin seemed to shudder under the burn of the liquid. She noted that he turned his head away briefly, more than liking taking in the full effect of the medicine and needing a moment to recollect himself. "I thought about keeping it wrapped up until we regroup with our healers but… with it being this deep, it'll just keep bleeding all over the place and it will get worse- trust me."

The medicine burned more than he had anticipated and left him needing a few short minutes to ease the slight buzzing in the back of his head. He had considered that same option that she mentioned, but there was no telling when they would be regrouping with their healers again. "I think I know where this is going then."

"Good, then I don't have to break it to you." she spoke, giving out a light sigh of relief. "If it helps though, I'm actually fairly skilled with a needle and thread."

"Do I want to know how?"

"I own a tavern. People get drunk, they get angry and they throw the first thing that's in their hands." she remarked. "Glass makes for a nasty weapon."

He had witnessed only a few short conflicts before and was fairly surprised at how someone could just pick up a bottle and throw it without hesitation; he had seen a few people take a nasty hit from bottles like that as well. Kieran got hit once before, he had a glass break right in his face... of course, he didn't really seem to acknowledge the strike at first. It took him asking where all the blood had come from before the pieces came together. So he had no problem with believing every word of her statement.

Finally managing to clear his head, he watched as she finally released his arm from her rather tight hold; the impressions where her fingertips had partly pressed into his skin still lingered behind. "I should have a stitching kit in my tent, give me a few minutes to go get it."

She was about to offer to find it instead considering the situation, but she watched as he pushed himself to his feet and started down the camp before she could get a word in.

Well, he'd have an easier time finding it anyways… not to mention, she probably shouldn't be seen inside of the General's tent anyways. Not again anyways.

At least she wasn't expecting this day to be all that great when she got up this morning, so it couldn't possibly fall much further than it had already. Although the late afternoon battle certainly didn't help that prospect either. With most of their troops either out on patrol or resting, it left the campsite looking a little empty and barren; for a moment, she considered convincing herself that it was really just the two of them here.

That would've been too perfect though, wouldn't it?

Moving to deal with the small bag behind her, she shifted lightly through the different bottles of healing potions. She wasn't the best person to be taking care of the medical supplies, but since their healers had been sent off, they left their medicine behind just in case something like this happened. She only faintly remembered where they said they had placed the bag and when the blue-haired General showed up with blood running down his arm, she figured no one else had quite as much knowledge as she did. After running a tavern for close to four years now, she had seen her share of fights and brawls that ended in terrible ways. Somehow she always got stuck having to put people back together, then again that's what a host was supposed to do, right? It gave her enough experience to where she didn't bother with the feel of someone else's blood on her fingertips, she didn't wince at open wounds and she had gotten over being disgusted by the overall ordeal. It was something, maybe a small useful trait.

One minute she's scorching the battlefield and burning people alive.

The next minute, she's doing what little she can to keep their injuries from getting worse, holding them over until a healer could reach them.

The soft crunching of the ground signaled his return and she felt the careful way he tossed the small kit into her lap.

He moved to take the seat next to her once more, feeling the brief dizziness from the short walk starting to set in. Maybe he had lost more blood than he thought, or maybe the pain from the medicine had yet to let him go. "You think you have the patience to tend to this?" he questioned just now noticing that the wound on his arm had split once more and was bleeding out.

"Look around you, is there anything else for me to do here?" Calill replied as fingers reached back to grab one of the discarded rags before she pressed it against the gash once more. His hand moved to take the cloth in his own hold to let her get back to work. She shifted her attention to the small case he had given her and slowly lifted the slightly cracked lid; there were a few needles of different sizes and she found herself a little worried for why someone would need the ones of larger calibers. There was plenty of suture threads though and she grabbed the one she thought would suit the injury best. "I mean, unless you want me to just stop in the middle of it and go for a walk or something."

"That's quite alright, I think I'd prefer to get it all done in one sitting." he chuckled lightly as he moved to clean the injury out before discarding the cloth once more. He doubted the bleeding would stop any time soon, but this was about as close as it was going to get to that. "Let's get this over with before I change my mind and get you to cauterize it instead."

Hmm… she hadn't considered that but seeing as that method tended to increase the risk of infection and also damage the tissue surrounding the wound, it would only cause more work for the healers. This was the safer route even though it would make for a much longer task- and a more painful one for that matter. Most of her patrons who were in need of stitches were far too drunk to even notice the needle being pulled through the skin, well either too drunk or passed out.

Fingers moved to situate the thick thread into the curved needle as she tried to measure out how much she would need for a gash like this. She was used to glass shards cutting people, not silver lance tips so this might be a little more difficult than she first thought.

"Are you ready?" it was probably stupid to ask but it wouldn't hurt.

"Yeah, believe it or not this wouldn't be the first time I've had to get stitches." he assured, feeling the way her fingers moved to pinch the bottom of the wound together.

"Rough childhood?"

"A terrible older sister."

She chuckled lightly at his words, knowing well who he was speaking of and why he would mention her; the two worked well enough on the battlefield and in their line of duty, but those few instances that allowed them to drop their guard found the usual sibling relationship. Keeping the lower portion of the wound pinched tightly closed, she angled the needle as best she could before she pushed it through the skin. She had managed to get a better control of her stomach whenever watching the needle force its way through flesh, which was good although it made her first few attempts absolutely horrific. Watching as the thread was quick to follow though was still something she needed to work on. Fingers worked to tie a small knot at the end of it before she moved back to the other side, starting over on the second stitch.

"I'm not a professional by any means… so there's a good chance this will scar." she started, figuring a light conversation might help to offset the pain. "I mean, if we get it to a healer in time though, it might be salvageable."

It was a bit difficult to not concentrate on the irritating pull of skin whenever the needle pushed through; it was only the second stitch and it already felt like his arm was on fire. It wasn't as painful as the medicine had been but... still, it was only the second stitch. "Don't worry about it, I think it might be better if I gained a few more anyways." Geoffrey remarked.

"Well they always say that a good General should have a few marks of battle, right? I suppose a few more scars would say something about you." she nodded, tying off the second stitch before starting again on the third. She wasn't a fan of scars at all and the thought of them being against his skin... not really a happy thought. "How did you get this anyways?"

"Lucky hit. I took a brief strike from a sword that managed to cut the strap off my armor and when I was distracted, a second knight came in for the hit. I'm actually a little surprised this is all that happened."

She nodded lightly at his answer all while trying to remember to keep the stitches tight and straight as best she could. "Stroke of luck for him, not so much for you."

"I thought the same thing."

Fingers remained steady as she finished off the tenth stitch and kept going somewhat strong; for a moment, she wondered if she was making the stitches too small though or too close together seeing as she was only about a quarter of the way up the wound. But if she made ones more spaced out, she questioned if it would make them too easy to tear or rip open. Pulling the needle through once more, she watched as his hand clenched slightly before it slowly released. He was managing to keep the pain under control enough to keep it from disrupting her work, which she had to admit his sense of self-control was better than most. It was better than cursing at the stitches like some other people did… when they were sober of course.

"Tell me if you need a break or something." she started, completing another small set of stitches. "These can be annoying and painful when they're for wounds like this. Smaller ones aren't really much of a hassle… although a collection of them in one place can be, especially when there's very little space between them."

"Like I said, I'd prefer to get this done in one sitting." he reminded, feeling the slight pause she took to reposition the needle between her fingers. "What's the worse injuries you've had to deal with though?"

Oh, that one was going to take her awhile to figure out.

A soft hum left her lips in thought as she had to go through years of run ins and brawls that she found herself stuck tending to. "Well, there was this one case where a guy got his head split clean open, I mean it was almost from one ear to the other right across the back too. Ugh, there was blood everywhere and everyone thought he was dead for a moment, absolutely terrible- it also took me the whole night to get the blood out of the floor. Anyways, I had to fix what I could or else the guy probably would've died- and it was like there were no healers in the town that night either. And then, another case, this group of men got into it one night and there were fingers that had to be sewn back on, and a piece of a ear that got cut off, I think I used up the rest of my thread that night. And then, this one time, these two women were yelling at each other and one of them broken a bottle on the counter and struck the other one with it. It cut her arm up pretty back and it went across her chest, that was a bad one too." she took a moment to catch her breath and tied off yet another stitch; her counting was a little off but it might've been number twenty-three now. "It's those nights that are few and far between that get me in the most trouble, I'm always afraid it's going to give my tavern a bad name, you know?"

"With all the business you get there though, I highly doubt anyone's going to stop going just because of a few incidents." he remarked.

"Hmm, well with you and the rest of the Royal Knights there from time to time, I think it's become somewhat of a popular spot." she replied. "A lot of people respect you guys… and a lot of the women fawn over you too- even Marcia and Astrid from time to time. I think I see more customers when you guys are around."

"Yeah… I've noticed that too." he chuckled briefly, using the new topic to take his mind off of the stitches. They were getting progressively worse, only by small intervals though, which left them sometimes feeling more annoying than anything else. "Whenever I have to go round up everyone, you always seem to have a full house."

It seemed like whenever someone noticed that the Knights had dropped in again, the whole tavern immediately flooded with all sorts of patrons afterwards. Everyone always wanted to hear the same stories over and over again, they wanted to hear about the battles and all the close calls. It was always entertaining to see how fascinated people could be over things that would seem horrible any other way... The place was bound to be packed all over again when this war ended. Maybe she should consider investing in a larger building?

"Now you know." she smiled. "Although, I couldn't help but notice that you're not always there with them…"

"To be honest, I'm not much of a drinker. I go from time to time, but I don't always drink when I'm there." he admitted, glancing down briefly to examine her progress. For the most part, the wound was closing up decently enough and it was easy to note how much concentration she was putting into the process. In all honesty, she was the last person he would have ever imagined being able to do stitches- or offer to do them. She wasn't afraid to set a field on fire but getting her hands physically dirty was another matter she usually tried to avoid, and yet she didn't seem to bother with the blood bubbling around her fingertips. Despite the burning sensation of pain that ran down to his fingertips now, he had to admit she was doing a better job than he had first imagined. "You've noticed though."

She pushed her lips together for a moment at the realization of being caught before she gave another short smile to recover. "Well, you know, when the rest of the Royal Knights are there, it's a bit difficult to not notice their General is missing from their party."

"I see."

He sounded like he didn't believe her… which she guessed he had good reasons to.

"Now, you mentioned before this wouldn't be the first time you've had stitches." she started, hoping to shift their conversation into another direction. "Care to elaborate a bit?"

A light chuckle escaped him before he moved to turn his sight elsewhere to let her get back to her work. "Uh, well Castle Delbray wasn't exactly the easiest place to grow up in. There were a lot of stairs, which Lucia and I used to push each other down all the time until we figured out that some one could actually die from that. And then there was the forest outside, which we turned to and pushed each other into ravines instead. There were rocks at the bottom of one and I kept pushing Lucia into it until she almost cracked her head open that last time. She finally got irritated enough and pushed me into the nearby river, where I busted open the back of my head instead on a sharp rock."

"Oh goodness."

"And one time I got kicked by a horse, which was really my own fault, but I had to get part of my side stitched back together." he continued. "The rest basically came from battle wounds or practice injuries."

"Well I can say for certain that I have never needed a needle and thread going through my skin." she remarked. "And after having to practice this kind of art… it's not exactly something I would ever want to have to get. It looks terribly painful, which I'm sure it is."

"I don't think you need my confirmation of that."

Most of the time, usually when treating people in the tavern, she had a kind of numbing ointment handy to use before administering the needle and thread. She didn't have any of it on hand though, which meant he was just dealing with the raw pain of it. Which could not have been easy. He had a lot more self-control than she thought then. Lucky enough though, she was almost done with the wound.

"How much longer do you think these battles will go on?" she questioned, hoping yet another turn in the conversation would help to distract the both of them.

"Either until our weapons run out or until one side is completely killed." he asked easily enough, before he held this look as though he should've thought his answer out first. "It'll last however long it has to until we get to the end of this. Begnion's breaking apart as we speak, it won't hold on for much longer… however even with the country split, its forces still outnumber ours. But we're not trying to fight a two-sided war here, I think that'll give us the advantage we need."

"Not to mention, having a World Class Sage on your side certainly gives you a step in the right direction." she quickly added, an artful kind of twist in her tone.

He shared a brief chuckle with her and glanced down at her progress once more. "How could I forget?"

"Exactly, how could you?" she teased. "Although having a level-headed General on our side does help some too."

"I try. I know my skills aren't quite up to your level though."

She gave into her own laugh and tried to finish off what was left of the wound as carefully as she could… although she was tempted to rush it just a bit so it could be over with. "You're a charmer, aren't you General?"

"Not sure if I'd consider myself that but… if you want to label me as one, I won't complain."

Played yourself into that one too, didn't you girl?

She kept a brief smile on her lips as she tied off the last bundle of stitches before she snapped off the remaining pieces of thread. Overall, they didn't look that bad. Not her best piece of work but certainly not her worse either… hopefully they were strong enough to not break or leave a scar behind. He seemed perfectly content with the idea of such, but she just preferred if nothing remained of this wound afterwards. Keeping the stitches partly covered with one hand, she reached back to grab one of the discarded rags from before and gingerly cleaned the blood away from the stitches- mindful of her touch around the more noticeable swelling now. She slowly moved to clean off the rest of his arm where the blood had partly dried after spilling down to his fingertips; following the curve of his forearm down to his wrist before she closed his fingers around the bundled rag. "I think that should be it. How badly does it hurt?"

"Probably about as much as you would think." he answered, watching as her fingers slipped through his own for a moment before she pulled them away, taking the bloodied rag with them. "Doesn't look bad though. You weren't kidding about being pretty handy with this kind of stuff."

"Like I said, I've had plenty of practice." she mused, constantly going back to look over her stitched work. One hand moved behind her to shuffle rather blindly through the medical bag once more; fingers fumbling through the mess of bottles before she found what she was looking for. "My bandaging skills could still use some work though."

"Here, let me-" he had started, offering to take the bundled material from her hand before she pulled it out of his reach.

"I started fixing this wound, at least let me finish my work." she insisted, watching as he seemed to take a moment before he decided to let her have it her way. Unrolling the bandages from their tight bundles, she folded one of the end pieces and laid it over the top of the stitches; pinning it down with a few fingers, she moved to carefully wrap the rest of the material around with her other hand. Wrapping it once completely around the first strip, she slowly started downward to cover the injury in gradual layers. She kept each layer as tight as she could without completely constricting the skin below, making sure that the bandage would hopefully stay on long enough until they ran into a healer again; although she supposed she could just redo it if it unraveled or got dirty somehow. He stayed completely still for her, occasionally adjusting his arm whenever she needed to follow underneath it. "Well I have to admit, this is one of my better looking bandages."

"Just think, if you worked a little more on your medical skills, we could probably get you to double as a healer."

"I don't know, I don't think World Class Fire Sage would mix well with healing." she remarked, using the rest of the roll to cover every stitch before she tied it off at the end. Running her hand slowly down the bandage for one last check, she figured it was the best she could do on such short notice. "I'll put it into consideration, but we'll have to see how this turns out first."

"So far, so good though." he remarked as he slowly removed his arm from her grasp, taking the chance to overlook the work himself. While her bandaging probably could've used work, it was sure as hell better than anything he could've done one handed. For the most part, it felt like his entire arm had turned numb from the pain alone and he wasn't entirely sure if he could feel his fingertips or not... but the wound was taken care of. That was the important part. "Thank you. You didn't have to-"

"Yes I did." she interrupted. "We can't have our General walking around with blood shooting out of his arm, now can we? Now then, you should probably get some rest and sleep off these stitches. You're not exactly looking all that well right now."

He shook his head and chuckled lightly before he moved to get to his feet. "Alright, alright, I guess I'll follow your orders for once."

"Don't give me too much power now, I'll get used to it." she mused as she pushed herself to her feet just as well, one hand moving to smooth out the wrinkles in her dress. "Try not to lie on it though and don't move that arm all too often or you'll irritate the stitching. Also-" at any other time, she would've considered someone interrupting her to be rude and immature... but even she couldn't help but to stop as his lips brushed against her own for a brief moment; lingering just long enough to seemingly silence her.

"I know the drill." he assured her. "I'll see you in a few hours, Lady Calill."

"Right... I'll see you then, General."