Vitalus

Chapter 1: Discovery

A small, round head poked through a creaking door with its big guilty brown eyes peering around at the empty night time street.

They belonged to a child who was well into the years of her classification but not enough to emerge into her teenage phase just yet. The girl, while adventurous, displayed some degree of regret over her latest excursion once she quickly set foot on the shanty shack's elaborately crafted porch and hopped off of its stoop onto the dry cobbled street. A cloud of dust formed when her shoes clumsily thudded with the road causing her to cough a little, waving off the rest away from her face. It didn't take long for it to dissipate so she took her rare opportunity to brush off her clothes in the crisp summer air the best she could. Her efforts were in vain, however, for she was so coated in the drifting grime that no patting now or washing of her clothes later could wring out the years of accumulated miscellaneous mystery crud.

This pale girl was dressed in a simple dingy A-line mint coat and an off-white dress layered under it. Her light brown hair was in a sloppy loose bun that was so messy it bluntly stated to the world she couldn't have been bothered to deal with it since she apparently had much better things to do. Generally she didn't differ much from the typical tyke aside from her slightly outdated outfit; but any person from a remotely developed walk of life would be inclined to ponder why her caretakers allowed her to run amuck in such an uncouth manner.

This would be assuming they could get past the fact that she held near and dear a rather….hazardous contraption, to say the least.

In the child's arms she gripped a large water gun of sorts which, sure, is harmless enough when used for just that purpose. But this particular water gun was modified in such a way that it had three peculiar jars fashioned into an end where the water could collect. Each one was stained a different color: a dull green, a muted blue and a dim gold. All three of these soft hues glowed ominously in their caked glass prisons while thin puddles of substance sloshed around occasionally inside with her movements. The water gun itself was held backwards to its original design so that its suction mechanism would be exposed. But instead of seeing just that, it was covered by an incredibly large attached syringe that would scare even the bravest of vaccination patients.

The child, hugging this object a little more tightly, walked cautiously on towards the ruins of civic buildings with nothing but a strip of canopy-less moonlit sky to guide her. She reached the midpoint of the town marked by the well and glanced around with a sense of innocent awe where others would express moderate apprehension.

She never knew in her short span of life thus far about the decaying historic landmark. The buildings were small but grand in design; and if you could muscle your way into a few, there were untold troves of treasures to be found amongst the unsalvageable junk. The girl found this aspect to be particularly worth any consequences that lay in wait for sneaking out to see it all especially when she observed a very ornate vase and even some broken jewelry in the house she had recently emerged from. The child dared not take anything with her though. She realized that going back to whence she came, she'd already have enough trouble keeping her mouth shut about everything she had seen. Put that with her forgetful nature, (Etro forbid she drop a priceless ring where someone would find it) she just couldn't risk arguing with physical evidence. So of that she wouldn't have a relic to show for her fieldtrip. But even so, just seeing the place was worth more than all the rings or vases the town may have had squirreled away.

The girl frowned a little almost discontented when she saw the dark sky but curious thoughts passed her mind every time her gaze was drawn to the bright full moon. Minutes passed on her musings and the girl had to shake her head a bit to break her temporary trance the moon put her in and made a note to herself that she shouldn't linger too long as not to raise concern of her absence where she resided.

Really, she found it oh so very hard to tear herself away from the wondrous place. Ideally she would scour the treasure of every establishment but the chore of getting in did not even remotely make it a feasible option, not to mention the time it'd take to search it all. Thus she settled for sightseeing down the street. At least she could mentally make a log of sites to explore if, nay, when she came back again.

Making her way slowly past the civic buildings her eye still trailed after it longingly. But when she looked forward toward the other half of town's residences and at the gate, a heap a few feet away from it caught her eye. Thanks to the moonlight, her eyes adjusted and could focus enough to recognize what it was.

She stiffened at the sight when she realized it was yet another person lying on the ground in some kind of puddle, likely "asleep" from her past understanding. Immediately, her mind was torn between split initial reactions.

'Items!' was the only thing her subconscious shrieked.

'Don't do it-!' urged the deeper reluctance that was only recently instilled in her.

Regardless of these two battling ways of thinking, the girl found herself walking toward the stranger to at least get a better look at them. She walked up a few inches and knelt next to the body. She found a man lying on his stomach with the side of his face resting on the ground. His messy hair, however, hid much of his face so she couldn't get much from his profile as was.

She stared down at him tense not from fearing him but from trying to make up her mind about her next course of action as she clutched her water gun even tighter than she already did.

'Come on! Those items aren't going to gather themselves!'

'But mother said not to! Not unless it's an emergency!"

'Preparation! It's preparation! Just one more harvest wouldn't hurt.'

'Walk away! Harvesting is wrong! Mother told you it's wrong!'

'How could something you were taught your whole life be wrong? Take the items.'

Her thoughts went on and off like this for five long minutes. She knew deep in her heart she didn't want to take any items from whoever this man was but her fingers instinctively fumbled with her water gun. Before she knew it, she had the point of her needle aiming straight for the guy's neck since the rest of him was covered by the very robust materials of his clothing. It was nearly there when she heard a voice address her.

"Squirt? What, what, what are doing?" inquired an irritated voice from behind the girl causing her jump with a squeak subsequently halting her actions and trains of girl whirled around in shock at this new but familiar presence.

There stood a peer maybe four years older than the girl amd seemed incredibly tall for her age in comparison. Her hair too was on the messy side as well and pulled into a low bun that was so hastily fashioned that it was a wonder if she could eventually get the band she used to bunch it together out again. She too wore a coat but it was a shade of dark grey and much more slim than flared, falling half way down the thigh at its hem. The white dress she wore under could hardly be seen but a layer of thin cloth that extended from it peaked from beneath it followed the same slim trend coming just below the knee at its own hem.

"Don't scare me like that!" she huffed, setting her tool down relieved on her lap.

"Sorry, Squirt." The older youth responded, cocking her head and crossing her arms. "But you still didn't tell me what you're doing up here." she scorned walking towards the child. "What were you thinking coming up here? If mother found out about this juicy piece of blackmail, you'll get in big, big trouble missy. Heck, I'll get in trouble too just for knowing you came up here alone, and possibly more for coming up myself! Don't you ever learn from my mistakes? Do you even realize how strict she really -!" she stopped immediately once she stood next to the girl. "-is….?"

The adolescent glanced down and fell silent when she saw just what the girl knelt next to.

"Who's this?" the girl asked pointing down at the blonde man lying on the ground obliviously next to the two girls. All the child could do was shrug and look away a bit embarrassed.

"I dunno." She responded, looking down at her water gun, which did not go unnoticed by the teen. "I just found him lying here and came over to get a closer look." The teen widened her eyes when a thought occurred to her from seeing the man and the distressed expression of the girl.

"You didn't...harvest him, did you?" she asked with some hesitation not wanting the question to be confirmed that she did.

"Huh?" the girl asked distracted before it sank in what was inquired. "Oh, no. I didn't. But I admit, I almost did." She added, tracing her finger on the tool. The child was met with a gentle sigh and the teen's face had relaxed briefly into an expression of understanding that the girl did not quite get an opportunity to take in. They didn't always get along but she saw where the child was coming since she had experienced the same difficulties once upon a time. They both had a long, hard time breaking the habit they were raised with and that was largely why they had to be so open and persistent with each other.

Even if it meant admonishment on more than five occasions.

A hoot from a lone owl helped turn their focus from the fading possibility that never came to pass to the object that narrowly initiated it. The two pairs of eyes shortly returned the bleeding unconscious man before them and they looked to each other wondering what to do next.

The teen kneeled down to the girl's level in a curious manner, mainly due to how different he appeared. The young girl only sat by quietly as the teen gently turned the blond man over carefully so that he was now lying on his back and she could more clearly see how he ended up as he was.

For a moment, the teen got uncharacteristically distracted by the young man she had just turned over. Both girls could now got a full view of his face and frankly if they were trying to hide their engrossed expressions, it failed miserably. He was a slightly closer to their age bracket than they initially expected but they could still tell that he was some years their senior. Only when the teen remembered what their mother told them about being professional did the teen put aside her initial thoughts and notice the sweat that had formed on his face. Seeing the stain on his white shirt above the bullet wounds the adolescent put two and two together as a thought occurred to her. She put two fingers to his jugular and her eyes widened with surprise when she confirmed her hunch.

"W-what's wrong?" the girl asked when she saw the adolescent's shocked face grow paler than she already was.

"He's still alive! Barely so, but still there!" the teen blurted, turning back to the girl. Then she became exasperated when she thought back to how the girl found him. "Wait a sec…" she began to panic, "You almost harvested someone who was still alive?! Dear Etro did you almost blunder, kid!"

Thinking quickly, the teen took the water gun from the girl and held it so the needle faced upward. She unscrewed the green jar and set the rest of the tool down.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know!" the girl defended just as flustered standing back out of the teen's way as she propped the man up a little with one arm. She carefully took it and poured the last traces of its contents into his mouth. The substance seemed to help a little, for when she checked the initially weak pulse again it was a slightly stronger than before. However it was only enough to hold him over since his injuries needed desperate work.

"That's why mother makes us stop the habit! Or if you do she urges us to at least check!" the teen face-palmed.

"Fine, okay, I'll check! But since he's okay, what do we do now?!" The girl diverted, when she looked back at the blond sharpshooter who remained motionless. "We can't just leave him here!"

"I realize!" the teen snapped, looking up at the sky to clear her head. The child remained silent allowing the elder of the two to get her thoughts together and figure out what to do next. "But there's nothing else we can do for him here. We don't have any more potions and that's the only thing that might help him at this point."

"What about my ether? Or even the phoenix down? One of them has to work!" the girl insisted, moving to unscrew the gold jar but was stopped by the teen.

"It doesn't work that way. It won't do anything for him that will help his wounds. You'll just waste the goods." The teen's eyes finally fell on the gun that was near the man. "Is that his?"

"I think so-?" The girl responded.

The teen grabbed up the firearm swiftly and emptied it of its rounds as to avoid incident in what she was about to attempt. The girl was perplexed by this action.

"Wait, what are you doing? I thought you said we couldn't do anything!" girl inquired with confusion.

Grasping the gun tightly in one hand, the adolescent hoisted the young man up, hooking his arm around her neck, grasping the wrist with the free one.

"I said we couldn't help him here." She corrected. "And remember, even if we did have the potions his wounds might need work that an item can't fix. I know a little first aid, but I'm no miracle worker." She then flashed the child a knowing, reassuring smile. "We're out of options, but mother would know what to do, now wouldn't she?"


Author's Note

Another chapter done and posted. This was quite a pain to write too, but easier than the first. And to think it was supposed to be part of the Prologue? O.o

Still, I hope you enjoyed it. Things should pick up easier from here.

Reviews are always welcome. Do you like it or hate it? Is the description sufficient or am I rambling? xD Feel free to let me know!