p class="MsoNormal"Hurrying into the main hall Farica didn't have time to be overwhelmed by the number of injured already filling the large room. Bodies were littered on the ground, on tables, in fact anywhere where there was space to lie a casualty down. The sound of people screaming and crying was echoing around the hall, it was sound that hammered its way into your brain and stayed there for the rest of your life. The vomit inducing smell had already begun to build despite there not even being time for wounds to be infected yet. The mixture of blood and dirt made the polished stone surface unbearably slippy and Vanora had to fight to stay on her feet while avoiding colliding with broken bodies. Fighting becoming overwhelmed by her senses Farica decided it was best to just start and methodically make her way round the room and so she pulled up her skirts and stepped into the chaos./p
p class="MsoNormal"After half an hour of solid patients her blouse was soaked in blood, cursing at the fact she had chosen to wear a white one she continued stitching up the wound in front of her. Reaching for the bowl with the herbal salve she only half noticed a woman striding towards her. It wasn't until the woman's mustard skirts were directly in her eye line that she looked up. Resisting the urge to sigh at the interruption that she really didn't need, she glanced upwards. To her surprise it wasn't what Farica had expected at all, instead of being a noble lady badgering her with questions and requests like she had just dealt with previously, it was a severe looking woman whose serious face was framed by her long dirty curly blonde hair thrown half up and whose muscular physique was paired with rolled up sleeves revealing her already bloody hands. Not even giving Farica time to enquire, the lady grabbed the spare medical kit from Farica's feet./p
p class="MsoNormal"'I have been practising medicine all my life, I am good at what I do and you need help. Right now you need to trust me and let me start on other patients.' Raising her eyebrows as if to dare Farica to challenge her, the lady looked her dead in the eye./p
p class="MsoNormal"Knowing that she needed to make a split second decision, Farica trusted her gut. The woman conveyed a solid confidence that Farica was impressed by. Her hands were bloody so it was obvious that with or without Farica's permission this lady was going to treat the injured and Farica knew without even looking round the room that there were too many injured for just one medic to handle. Nodding her head, Farica pointed./p
p class="MsoNormal"'You start on the left and work your way up, I will keep working on this right hand side and we will meet in middle.' Turning back to her patient Farica didn't even wait for a reply. She also didn't notice the young girl following her mother and entering the fray without so much as flinching at the sights before her./p
p class="MsoNormal"Meanwhile on the other side of the Fort Marie's heart was pounding so hard she thought it was going to break out of her chest. Ducking past another attacker she sprinted up the stairs. Not wanting to let Tania down she surged forward along the battlement wall, barking out orders to soldiers who were not yet fully aware of situation going on below. Gripping the sword that she had grabbed off a fallen soldier she focused on getting to the bell tower. She had to raise the alarm, she had to let the rest of the settlement know that they were under attack and she prayed that the Knights were within hearing distance of the bell and would return./p
p class="MsoNormal"Finally at the top she slammed through the door, knocking the surprised guard out of the way and launched herself at the bell. Ringing the bell as hard as she could, she barely had time to catch her breath before starting her next objective. Guinevere and Valentina. Despite not liking either woman, Marie knew that Tania was right that they had to be found. There was obviously a reason that the queen hadn't appeared, Marie just had to figure out what that reason was and make sure she wasn't in trouble./p
p class="MsoNormal"Looking down below, Marie had a perfect view of how the attack was unfolding. Spotting Fenwic at the head of rouge woads attacking, Marie barely suppressed her rage. Seeing that he was heading straight for Tania, she wished that she could be down there helping and fighting by her side. Fires had been started in the houses surrounding the main area of the fight and it was roaring onwards with little resistance. Seeing Tania stop, Marie screamed for her to keep moving until following her line of sight and realising why. Her heart sunk. Of all days for something like this to happen, today was not it. What if she never got round to telling Galahad what she felt? Did she even want to tell him? These were things that she may now never know or experience. Normally she liked a good fight but this one was damn inconvenient as for the first time in a long time Marie felt like she had something to lose. Glancing to the horizon she hoped to spot the knights riding from out of the trees, but they weren't. There was no one there. They were on their own, and it was all going to come down to Tania./p
p class="MsoNormal"Planning a way through the melee below Marie started running towards a back kitchen exit that led inside to the main hall and the rest of the castle. Her progress was constantly halted by the crowds of panicking citizens all trying to reach the safety of inside the castle, as well as the odd attackers who had broken off from the main fighting group. Just as she was within meters of the door she heard a scream. Spinning around she saw a young woman similar to her in age being cornered by three of the rouge woads. The woman's light butterscotch blonde hair was plastered across her freckled face as she desperately tried to claw at the hands that were around her throat. Without a seconds thought Marie charged at the men. Like usual she didn't have a plan, just to get between them and their target. Slicing open the back of the first attacker crippling him instantly, she blocked the following strikes from the remaining two doing everything she could to protect the woman. After what felt like an age her arms were starting to feel heavy from the weight and strength of the blows and a wound to her stomach was bleeding profusely. Stumbling backwards she knew that she couldn't keep it up much longer and started to accept the inevitable. Pushing the woman into the house behind them, Marie yelled for the woman to block the doors and hide. Turning one more time, having decided that if she was going to go down she was going to go down fighting till the end, she let out a string of profanities before charging at them one more time./p
p class="MsoNormal"Feeling her strength slowly leaving her and each parry becoming harder and harder to block, she finally was kicked to the ground causing her to inhale dust and dirt. Trying to cough it up but to no avail, she could only watch as one woad stepped over her and forced his way into the house while the other prepared himself for the final swing of his blade to end her. Despite being barely conscious she felt him grab a fistful of hair and pull her head up towards him and she knew that this was when she was finally going to meet the Gods./p
p class="MsoNormal"After half an hour of solid patients her blouse was soaked in blood, cursing at the fact she had chosen to wear a white one she continued stitching up the wound in front of her. Reaching for the bowl with the herbal salve she only half noticed a woman striding towards her. It wasn't until the woman's mustard skirts were directly in her eye line that she looked up. Resisting the urge to sigh at the interruption that she really didn't need, she glanced upwards. To her surprise it wasn't what Farica had expected at all, instead of being a noble lady badgering her with questions and requests like she had just dealt with previously, it was a severe looking woman whose serious face was framed by her long dirty curly blonde hair thrown half up and whose muscular physique was paired with rolled up sleeves revealing her already bloody hands. Not even giving Farica time to enquire, the lady grabbed the spare medical kit from Farica's feet./p
p class="MsoNormal"'I have been practising medicine all my life, I am good at what I do and you need help. Right now you need to trust me and let me start on other patients.' Raising her eyebrows as if to dare Farica to challenge her, the lady looked her dead in the eye./p
p class="MsoNormal"Knowing that she needed to make a split second decision, Farica trusted her gut. The woman conveyed a solid confidence that Farica was impressed by. Her hands were bloody so it was obvious that with or without Farica's permission this lady was going to treat the injured and Farica knew without even looking round the room that there were too many injured for just one medic to handle. Nodding her head, Farica pointed./p
p class="MsoNormal"'You start on the left and work your way up, I will keep working on this right hand side and we will meet in middle.' Turning back to her patient Farica didn't even wait for a reply. She also didn't notice the young girl following her mother and entering the fray without so much as flinching at the sights before her./p
p class="MsoNormal"Meanwhile on the other side of the Fort Marie's heart was pounding so hard she thought it was going to break out of her chest. Ducking past another attacker she sprinted up the stairs. Not wanting to let Tania down she surged forward along the battlement wall, barking out orders to soldiers who were not yet fully aware of situation going on below. Gripping the sword that she had grabbed off a fallen soldier she focused on getting to the bell tower. She had to raise the alarm, she had to let the rest of the settlement know that they were under attack and she prayed that the Knights were within hearing distance of the bell and would return./p
p class="MsoNormal"Finally at the top she slammed through the door, knocking the surprised guard out of the way and launched herself at the bell. Ringing the bell as hard as she could, she barely had time to catch her breath before starting her next objective. Guinevere and Valentina. Despite not liking either woman, Marie knew that Tania was right that they had to be found. There was obviously a reason that the queen hadn't appeared, Marie just had to figure out what that reason was and make sure she wasn't in trouble./p
p class="MsoNormal"Looking down below, Marie had a perfect view of how the attack was unfolding. Spotting Fenwic at the head of rouge woads attacking, Marie barely suppressed her rage. Seeing that he was heading straight for Tania, she wished that she could be down there helping and fighting by her side. Fires had been started in the houses surrounding the main area of the fight and it was roaring onwards with little resistance. Seeing Tania stop, Marie screamed for her to keep moving until following her line of sight and realising why. Her heart sunk. Of all days for something like this to happen, today was not it. What if she never got round to telling Galahad what she felt? Did she even want to tell him? These were things that she may now never know or experience. Normally she liked a good fight but this one was damn inconvenient as for the first time in a long time Marie felt like she had something to lose. Glancing to the horizon she hoped to spot the knights riding from out of the trees, but they weren't. There was no one there. They were on their own, and it was all going to come down to Tania./p
p class="MsoNormal"Planning a way through the melee below Marie started running towards a back kitchen exit that led inside to the main hall and the rest of the castle. Her progress was constantly halted by the crowds of panicking citizens all trying to reach the safety of inside the castle, as well as the odd attackers who had broken off from the main fighting group. Just as she was within meters of the door she heard a scream. Spinning around she saw a young woman similar to her in age being cornered by three of the rouge woads. The woman's light butterscotch blonde hair was plastered across her freckled face as she desperately tried to claw at the hands that were around her throat. Without a seconds thought Marie charged at the men. Like usual she didn't have a plan, just to get between them and their target. Slicing open the back of the first attacker crippling him instantly, she blocked the following strikes from the remaining two doing everything she could to protect the woman. After what felt like an age her arms were starting to feel heavy from the weight and strength of the blows and a wound to her stomach was bleeding profusely. Stumbling backwards she knew that she couldn't keep it up much longer and started to accept the inevitable. Pushing the woman into the house behind them, Marie yelled for the woman to block the doors and hide. Turning one more time, having decided that if she was going to go down she was going to go down fighting till the end, she let out a string of profanities before charging at them one more time./p
p class="MsoNormal"Feeling her strength slowly leaving her and each parry becoming harder and harder to block, she finally was kicked to the ground causing her to inhale dust and dirt. Trying to cough it up but to no avail, she could only watch as one woad stepped over her and forced his way into the house while the other prepared himself for the final swing of his blade to end her. Despite being barely conscious she felt him grab a fistful of hair and pull her head up towards him and she knew that this was when she was finally going to meet the Gods./p