Ivor couldn't help but stare.
Evie (was that her name? He couldn't really remember. It sounded right, though) was sitting on the ground, looking a bit like she was about to go to sleep. Dazed, a little tired, her eyes glassy as her head lolled on her neck to meet his eyes, which was not the right expression to have when the world was being destroyed around you.
That wasn't the worst thing about this girl, though. That would probably be her leg.
Evie's leg had blisters and burns on the bits of skin that hadn't been torn on her leg, which was basically just bloody muscle with some burned, blistered, raw bloody red skin at this point. And Ivor was pretty sure he could see bone poking through some of that. He could barely look at it without wanting to vomit, and yet his eyes were still fixed on her leg because he couldn't stop staring at it.
"Oh... hi Ivor..." Evie's head drooped to the side rather sharply, almost looking like her skull was about to just pop off of her shoulders from the weight of her head. "How're you?"
"The-" Ivor was unsure whether to slap his hand to his face or shout at Evie. Except that Evie looked a little like she had a concussion and had her brain rattling around inside her head. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to shout at her, then.
So he just did the quick equivalent of a facepalm.
"Fine. Your leg's not doing well." His voice came out rather terse as he watched her dazed expression for a reaction- a proper reaction, mind you, not just staring aimlessly in his direction.
Evie's eyes blinked so slowly it took a moment for Ivor to realize what she was doing. Honestly, for a second he thought she was drifting off to sleep. "No, guess not..."
He glanced around, before quickly kneeling next to her and fumbling around in the potion bag he'd managed to scavenge from his lab before everything had gone to hell, before that monster had been born because of some stupid kids poking around in something they didn't understand, while swearing quietly under his breath because good god how did this kid end up with a leg that looked like it'd gone through a meat grinder and then thrown off a cliff?
A few moments and his fingers tightened on a bottle with a faintly glowing, pale green liquid that looked as if wisps of emerald smoke were emitting from it.
"Right," he muttered, glancing up at Evie as he stuck the cork between his teeth and jerked it out, the wisps of smoke beginning to spit green sparks in warning. He estimated about... ten seconds before the power of the gunpowder he'd mixed in faded and just left a normal healing potion.
Unfortunately, the state Evie's leg was in, a normal healing potion wasn't going to do jack crap against this damage.
"This might sting a bit," he muttered, through the cork in his teeth because who had the time to spit it out and then warn her, he already only had six seconds left before the effects faded.
Evie hadn't even finished processing his words when Ivor was dumping the potion on her leg, dragging the bottle through the air and trying to splash an equal amount of the stuff on her leg because let's face it, with gunpowder mixed in to make the results more powerful, you don't want any of that stuff just leaving residue on a limb that's basically a mass of crushed muscle.
Instantly, the liquid started fizzing like a soda, little sparks and wisps of smoke beginning to emit off of Evie's leg as her head lolled so that she could make eye contact with him, amber eyes glazed over and looking for all intents and purposes like real amber. "'Kay."
And then her skin, muscle, and even her bone began to bubble.
Ivor spit the cork out and let it bounce off into the grass before he glanced through his bag, trying to ignore the way damaged skin began to bubble and try to pull together over crushed (and slightly burned) muscle, bone slithering back into the depths of her human leg because let's face it... it looked really gross.
Potion of Poison, that was an acid, uh... makeshift protein drink, two or three Potions of Harming, and oh look, a Potion of Leaping and a Potion of Speed. Hm.
Oh, there it was.
"This should help the concussion," he muttered, holding the bottle out to her after pretty much clawing out the cork and glancing at the sky. Thankfully the Wither- no, could it really be called a Wither anymore? The- the- the Witherstorm (there, that sounds accurate?) didn't seem very interested in either of them, instead drifting closer to the temple.
Evie blinked slowly at it, taking the bottle with rather clumsy fingers. He had to hold onto the bottom to make sure she just didn't drop the thing. "Oh... should it?"
"Yes, yes, now drink it and let's go," he growled, tapping his fingers incessantly on his bag.
The portal, the portal, need to get to the portal.
Evie tilted the green liquid for a moment, face tightening.
This may have been due to the fact that charred skin was starting to resemble actual skin, not to mention her leg no longer looked like a broken water pipe that had burst, before being crushed in a grinder and then ripped apart by a pack of rabid wolves. Which was good, but he could hear the clicking of bones being fixed, a sound almost like a wet sponge being squeezed as muscles began to repair themselves.
Even past that, she looked as if she were considering the merit of drinking a potion from someone she barely knew.
Honestly he... really couldn't blame her.
Apparently she decided that she had nothing to lose, because she lifted the bottle and swallowed the potion, although it looked as though it took tremendous effort to do through the concussion and the pain probably going through her leg.
A second of nothing happening, come on, come on-
The moment a flash of light entered Evie's eyes, the potionologist was grabbing her arm because okay, he wasn't going to leave a kid to die and hauling her to her suddenly-functioning feet, skin finally solidifying into a scarred mass of a leg. At least it wasn't resembling a slab of meat anymore. "Alright, get moving," he snapped at her, already starting to tow her along towards the temple.
"I- sorry!" Evie yelped, wincing a little as she put weight on her leg and it twinged angrily.
Ivor didn't reply, simply continued yanking the kid along. (She really wasn't that hard to drag, especially since she seemed to be following him.) A few moments later, he was running into the temple-
Petra burst through the door, sprinting in the other direction- and then actually skidding to a full halt upon spotting Evie. Her eyes widened, jaw dropping open. "Evie?!"
"Petra!" Evie exclaims, eyes widening in relief-
- and then Ivor was abruptly being shoved back a few steps, his arm releasing from its grip on Evie's automatically as Petra locked him with a glare that was seething with fury, teeth gritting angrily.
"Let go of her!"
Evie's eyes widened as she raised her hands and flailed them around a little bit in protest. "No no no, Petra, he helped me out-" she paused, before glancing at Ivor and then back at Petra rather sheepishly. "Um, I mean, I'm pretty sure. Might be wrong, 'cause my brain was all concussed and whatnot, but he helped fix my leg." She paused before knocking on her head. "And said concussion."
Petra's expression changed from utter rage to a sort of confused... anger. (What? At least it wasn't utter rage anymore.)
Now, if Ivor was patient and this was a different situation, he could've stood there watching Petra's face change, but it wasn't, and he wasn't, so he abruptly took off running for the temple.
Just need to get to the portal.
Petra hesitated, glancing back at the running Ivor, before grabbing Evie's hand and giving her a look- one that was a mix of worry and relief and who knows what else because holy Notch this girl was alive somehow. "C'mon- we gotta get out of here before that- that monster gets out of hand."
"Uh- yes. Yes. Okay. That sounds- yeah." Evie winced as a grating roar resonated through the air, before Petra was nearly yanking the girl off her feet and sprinting in the direction that she knew that temple was- she'd spotted it once while exploring but hadn't gone any closer because she'd been on a deadline and she'd needed to grab that one tiny bit of glistering melon before her buyer got impatient and started asking other people.
And then they were running.
Despite Evie occasionally tripping, Petra was relieved to find that it was MUCH easier to run when the girl wasn't concussed and dazed from said concussion. (Although really, that could be said about anybody.) Even when the world around them was being torn apart.
Eventually, the deafening, persistent roar of the Witherstorm died down, replaced with dead silence.
Usually there would've been parrots or little birds making noises... but Petra was willing to bet most of them got sucked into that monster when it had been born, when it had started ripping the world to pieces.
"Petra, I think-"
Evie didn't get to finish that sentence before Petra was dropping her hand and then spinning around and automatically crushing the (shorter, but then again most people with the exception of Axel were shorter than Petra) girl to her chest in the tightest, most bone-breaking hug she'd ever given anyone, and that included Jesse. The words transferred straight into a startled gasp.
"How the hell are you alright?!" Petra could feel heat building up behind her eyes as she tightened her grip. This may have been tears.
Damn, don't cry.
"I'm fine, I'm fine I'm fine, Petra-" Evie gave a weirded-out laugh, giving Petra an awkward pat on the back. "Seriously, it's okay, I'm, uh..." She paused, before resuming speaking. Petra could practically hear the sheepish amusement in her voice. "I'm not dead yet."
"Yeah, I got that, but how?!" Petra shoved Evie back roughly, making Evie yelp and laugh a little in surprise, amber eyes blinking rapidly at her. "You were- your leg was-"
Evie glanced down at her torn pant leg, fingers tugging at the ripped edges of her pants. "Ah... yeah. Um, Ivor gave me a potion to fix it."
Her eyes gravitated to the sky, which was a deep, splotchy mess of colors like purple and pink and a touch of orange as the sun began to creep above the horizon. "Also a potion to fix the concussion."
Petra blinked.
Blinked again.
"... what?"
Evie gave a really awkward shrug, rubbing her fingers through her rumply dark hair. It was especially disheveled from all the running, never mind it being very wavy normally. "Yeah, uh... I'm pretty sure because he yanked me to my feet the second my brain stopped being all fuzzy and started running for the temple." She glanced back down at her leg, which looked like a rather large mass of scar tissue at this point. "Doesn't mean this thing doesn't feel all weird and numb and fuzzy." And she shifted the scarred, ruined, somehow-still-functioning leg.
Petra released Evie's shoulders with a relieved sigh, absentmindedly rubbing her arm. "Well... that's..." She wanted to say something, but abruptly realized that she didn't actually have anything to say besides 'good'. Which was a tremendous understatement.
So she finally just shrugged.
Yes, Petra. Excellent use of words. You could write a novel.
Before Petra could actually say anything else, her gloved hand rubbed the inside of her elbow.
Instantly dark spots burst through her vision, a violent jolt of pain going through her entire arm and almost numbing it from the tips of her fingers to her shoulder. She couldn't help repressing a yelp in surprise, instead hissing like an angry teakettle.
"Petra?" Evie blinked, looking startled, before her surprise changed to worry. "Uh... are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm- I think I'm fine," Petra muttered, shifting out of Evie's reach before the other girl could take her by the shoulders and check her over, because judging by how Evie had awkwardly reached up to help her, that was what Evie was attempting to do. Glancing down at the arm she'd just been rubbing, she experimentally pressed down on the crook of her elbow again.
"-tra? Petra!"
When the dizzying array of dark splots had faded from Petra's vision, she found her back pressed into the rough bark of a tree, shivering almost painfully. Evie was standing with her hands sort of up in surrender while also attempting to reach for Petra, which resulted in her looking rather awkward with her hands hovering above Petra. "What- why did-" her eyes flickered to where Petra's hand was resting lightly on the crook of her left elbow.
"Alright, move your hand."
Petra blinked at the way Evie's voice had suddenly become... well, not much more bossy. Just enough to take her aback for a moment. "I- my hand?"
"Yeah. You didn't start the weird nonsense until when your arm was on your elbow. Off off off." Evie made frantic little shooing motions with her hand, Petra automatically shifting her palm off of the sleeve as Evie reached out, and (making as little contact with Petra as possible) tugged it up.
Instantly, the air in Petra's lungs were clamped inside, swirling around in a mess as her eyes widened.
There was a little splotch of purple in the crook of her elbow. It looked a little like a bruise, but normal bruises didn't have a tinge of blue that was almost like a blue version of the Witherstorm's eyes right in the center, a dot of black right at the very center. Normal bruises didn't have flecks of red and pink and purple dotted everywhere within a cesspool, almost in a controlled way. Normal bruises didn't have an overall shade of disgusting yellow over it.
This was Wither Sickness.
Except this one, tiny spot that Petra had just contracted was already dozens of times worse than when she accidentally contracted it in the Nether once or twice.
"Petra..."
Petra's eyes gravitated from the tiny purple bruise-like spot, flecked with angry red and pink specks and tinged with an ugly shade of yellow you'd see on bathroom tile in the crook of her elbow to Evie's frightened amber eyes.
"What happened?"
A/N: Uhf. Dunno if this is really good but here, have a chapter :3
So as you might've seen from some of my other stories, I'm in my senior year of high school, and planning to apply to art school. And to do so, I have to get my portfolio ready. As of right now... I have little to nothing I'd be comfortable with showing colleges when I apply; not to mention that these art schools are REALLY high level. (Except for one but I still want to take that one really seriously.) I'm also working on Fata Morgana (formerly known as Phantasmagoria) and a few other projects.
I'm... not ready at all, so from now until sometime around early December, I will probably rarely surface on here. (Not that I've been doing that recently, sorry! I've been busy.) When I DO come on, updates will be very sporadic. Please don't be surprised if I don't reappear on here until after that early December deadline- I am going to be snowed under with portfolio preparation, not to mention my last year of high school.
But thank you for following my dumb stories; I am... really glad to see that some people enjoy them.
Responses to reviews!
ScreechingLunar: (laughs) Yep, next chapter (whenever I actually ever get to it) is going to be... fun. Aiden's not gonna be too pleased.
EnderKitty68: Yep, her leg got crushed. Don't worry! It's better now! Probably... going to have problems with that leg for the rest of her life but hey she can walk.
Smile4the-World: Oh-o, yeah, he's going to be pretty mad at her. Not to mention she just feels horrible about it herself. But yes, Ivor was helpful. He did create a monster that's trying to eat the world but he's not a terrible person.
NoItsBecky: What, keeping my characters alive and happy with no injuries? I've been failing that job since day 1, Becky xD
x.X. A.L. X.x