Moments: Turbulance
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I trust you all remember Alstromerea and Navvi? Well, we're gonna expand on them a little bit, while also adding her sister and his brother to the mix… what could go wrong?
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The humid rains of Nazmir were unforgiving as Alstromerea trudged through the muck and sludgy water to reach the Flight Master in Gloom's Hollow. Her sister, Cryzanth, was slung over her shoulders, head bleeding, eyes half-lidded and rolling.
"Stay awake, Cryzanth." Alstromerea snapped, hitching her sister's body up again, ignoring the protest of her muscles as they shook against her stubbornness. She had to at least make it to the flight master. Anything that happened after that was truly left up to chance. She just hoped Navvi was where he said he'd be when she and her sister arrived in Dazar'Alor. Gloom's Hollow came into view and Alstromerea nearly burst into tears of relief at the sight of a large, intimidating looking pterrodax perched near one of the Zandalari guards.
"Dazar'Alor." Alstromerea said, using her free hand to rummage in her satchel for some silver. "As fast as he can take me and my sister." The Flight Master looked at her, his beady eyes focusing on the small goblin and her sister, before stopping at the bleeding that didn't seem to want to stop on her head.
"She be poisoned?" He asked as he took the amount from her hand and tightened the saddle on his Pterrodax.
"Yes. I have a friend whose brother is an herbalist. I need to take her to them as soon as possible." He nodded, helping to settle the injured goblin onto the saddle first, before helping her to gain a foot hold as well.
"Man'alah!" He said, tapping the creature's beak. "Be gone, to Dazar!" The takeoff was jarring as the creature spread its wings and flapped them quickly, shooting them into the sky and veering off South towards the Zandalari city of gold. Alstromerea tightened the grip on her sister's body, watching her nervously as she shifted with the movement of the flying reptile, her eyes now closed and face slack.
She'd tried healing her sister, of course. Whatever had infected her sister's body, it was merely absorbing the healing effects of her spells, leaving the blood to continue to flow and her sister's skin to become paler and paler. Alstromerea was an alchemist, but had no potions, and knew little about the herbs native to this continent in terms of creating any kind of clotting agent, or antidote for whatever had caused her sister's wound in the first place.
The rain pelted Alstromerea's back as she walked along the edges of the swampy mire, avoiding the crocolisks and saurid's biting at carcasses imbedded in the muck, ravenously searching for the source of their next meal. She hadn't seen her sister in at least three days, and based off the scout's reports, she'd been spotted last in Nazmir, assisting a few Zandalari guards and Orc ambassadors with clearing out Blood Troll encampments in Northern Nazmir. Since the Horde had taken up arms to attempt to gain the trust of the Sea-faring trolls, many of Azeroth and the Horde's finest had made it a point to go through Nazmir, where it seemed a majority of the threat was looming.
Brushing her hand across her forehead where beads of sweat were beginning to formulate, she focused her gaze ahead of her, squinting to try to get a better look at what lie ahead of her. She squinted harder when something glinting caught her eye, surprising to see considering the sun was nearly completely shielded by heavy dark clouds. Curious, she drew closer, her body tensed and guarded as she approached the glinting object. She gasped in horror when she came close enough to identify the chipped metal spikes of an Orgrimmar grunt's armor. What was left of the Orc was hardly recognizable, and without even checking his neck, Alstromerea knew he was dead. She scanned the area in horror as a picture of gore came to life before her eyes. Panic began to settle in her belly, as she considered that this might be the same group her sister had been traveling in, when she spotted a tuft of dirty tan fur covering a distinctly green arm.
The little priest ran as fast as she could, praying to the Light that her sister still lived, and quickly turned her sister onto her back, and nearly cried out in relief to see the shaman was still breathing, albeit shallowly. She pressed her hands gently to her chest, willing the light into her very veins, healing the broken tissue, caressing the broken bones, before-
It disappeared. As if sucked into a void, something endless and hungry, her healing was struck from her fingers and lost in her sister's body, not to be used to help the goblin heal.
"No…. no!" Alstromerea tried again, but the same sensation, of her healing being pulled into a void before disappearing completely repeated, and she was left shaking as she watched the blood pool beneath her sister's head.
The Pterrodax jolted a bit as it hit a wind current over Dazar'Alor, and pulled her from her memories. She ran two fingers over her sister's neck, feeling for a pulse, willing the Pterrodax to move quicker.
Not soon enough, the creature landed, nearly shuffling her off its back in the process, and she quickly scrambled to get her sister off it's back. The Flight master came over, looking concerned.
"Do you need assistance?" He asked, his eyes wary. She shook her head, wrapping her sister's arm around her shoulder.
"Thanks, but I gotta' friend nearby whose gonna help." She explained, moving quickly. Her sister's breathing was ragged and beginning to sound faded, and Alstromerea strained herself to try to move faster, when she nearly ran straight into her friend, and object of her affections, Navvi. The tall troll sidestepped the little priest, a mischevious glint in his eye that faded to concern when he saw the blood covering her usually neatly kept robes. His eyes settled on the mail-wearing goblin haphazardly thrown around her shoulders.
"Who dis?" He asked her, moving aside the tanned leather covering of his household. Alstromerea stepped inside past him, walking over to one of the spare flat cots and gingerly placing her sister upon it. Finally relieved of her sister's weight, she turned her full attention to Navvi.
"It's my sister." She explained, quickly stripping the gloves off of her hands and tearing the bag off her back and rummaging about in it. "I need bandages, and potions, is your brother around? I know he's…. it's hard for him to see me, but I could really use someone with his expertise. I don't know what hit her." Navvi knelt down beside the cot, probing the little goblin's head gingerly and frowning.
"You found her like dis?" He asked, scanning her body for more wounds. Alstromerea nodded.
"Her whole unit was dead when I arrived. I'm surprised she survived."
"Whateva da poison be, it not be as effective in creatures such as yaselves… dat, or da batch ah poison was small enough ta just barely affect her. But, make no mistake, she be dyin' quick."
"I can't lose my sister, Navvi." Alstromerea said, in a voice so small it was almost a whisper. "I've lost…. I've lost so much. I can't lose her too." Navvi nodded, and turned just as the leather was pulled aside and a second troll walked in, herbs of all kinds in his arms, as if the god's had sent him just for this purpose. He looked at Alstromerea accusingly, before his eyes settled on the injured goblin's paling form.
"What's dis?" He asked, setting the herbs gently on the table. The rain began to come down harder. "Ya brought more outsidas to our home?"
"She be dyin, brutha." Navvi said, standing. Alstromerea noticed only a few differences in the two. Both stood straight and tall, like most of the Zandalari. Navvi's brother had a slightly more pronounced chin, and broader cheekbones, and his eyes were narrower, though she suspected they were this way because he was scrutinizing their situation. His skin was the exact same shade of marine blue, but his hair was dark blue like the depths of the sea, different from his brother's moss colored locks. "Ya know ya can heal her. Don't be makin' me beg now."
"Nazmir?" The brother asked, hesistantly moving closer to the shaman's unmoving body. "Ya know most dat go to Nazmir don't come back. She's lucky she been alive at all."
"Yes, but I did find her, and she needs help." Alstromerea bit out impatiently. "My healing is ineffective. Something inside her seems to be… sucking out my healing." She described earnestly. The brother turned his piercing gaze towards her, before nodding curtly.
"It be an old blood magic." He said, waving a hand over Cryzanth's body slowly. A totem materialized beside him, exuding a gentle calming aura that Alstromerea recognized almost immediately.
"You're a shaman too?" She blurted out, unable to stop herself. The brother quirked an eyebrow at her, looking her up and down curiously.
"You do not look like a shaman." He said smirking. "Whatchu know about da voodoo?" Alstromerea's cheeks heated up but she lifted her chin up and crossed her arms.
"Not me. She emphasized. "My sister." She said, nodding towards the patient in question. Navvi's brother turned his attention back to the shaman, who's breathing seemed to ease slightly with the presence of the totem near her.
"Ah, it be makin' sense den." He said under his breath, just barely audible to Alstromerea and Navvi. "She respond betta to da elemental healing. The cooling praise of watah. Your Light won't bless a wound like dis. This wound feeds off such energies." Alstromerea cringed slightly.
"We best be leavin my brutha to it then." Navvi said gently, placing a hand on Alstromerea's head gently. "He'll take care of her, don'tcha worry now."
"Bah, get out before I change me mind." He told Navvi grumpily. The druid and priest turned heel, leaving the two shaman in the room alone. He carefully lifted off the wolf's head helm she wore and set it off to the side, revealing her matted indigo locks, splayed about messily or pasted to her face with blood. Her lids were painted a smoky charcoal color that was smudged, and her lips, though painted blue, were beginning to wither with what appeared to be dehydration. He lifted the water flask from his side and pressed the opening to her lips, slowly sliding the water down her throat. She did not respond, but then again, he hadn't really expected her to. He stood and reached for his herb bowl on the table, as well as his crushing bowl and cleansed water from the Loa's temple.
He crushed sea stalk and anchor weed, just a touch of siren's pollen and thickened it with the blessed water. Mixing such a concoction required concentration, and delicate patience, as even the slightest slip of the hand, too much or two little of any herb, could kill the person administered to. This goblin seemed to have somewhat of a natural immunity, but it would only delay the inevitable. The blood trolls only did one of two things. Kidnapped for sacrifices, or killed on sight. Based off what he'd overhead of Navvi and Alstromerea's conversation, she'd been intended to be the latter. He dabbed a bit of the paste onto the wound in her head, and more into the wound at her side and on her arm, before setting down the bowl and hovering his hands over her body. He began to channel the elements soothing waters to cover her body, slowly allowing the paste to absorb into her skin, to neutralize the poison and allow her blood to clot again.
As he allowed this process to occur, he focused on healing the smaller, more negligible things. Scrapes, bruises, a cracked rib and fractured ankle. The antidote would have to work itself out, but he could help to mend the rest so that it had less work to do. The pasty susbstance he'd created had already permeated her skin, and her breathing began to quicken, an effect of the Siren's pollen. He reached for her wrist, intending to feel for her pulse to ensure it was moving as it should be, when she suddenly bolted upright, her eyes wheeling around wildly as she observed her surroundings in panic.
Her eyes stopped dead on the troll before her and she yelped, scrambling back and falling off the cot onto the floor. Her eyes were wide and dilated, and for an instant, No'cuun nearly took her for an animal, so savage she appeared, on all fours, her back arched like a cat whose heckles were raised, muscles tense.
"It be alright." No'cuun said, holding up his hands gently, as if trying to calm a scared nightsaber cub. "I just be healin' ya. Ya been in pretty bad shape." Cryzanth's eyes darted towards the door and back quickly, the breaths coming from her body in pants. She didn't relax her muscles.
"Who are you?" She asked, so flatly it nearly wasn't a question.
"I am No'cuun, brotha of Navvi." He said, brushing a strand of dark blue hair from his face. "Ya sista brought ya here ta be healed. Her magics not be workin' on ya." Cryzanth seemed to relax slightly at the sound of her sister's name, but remained backed into the corner of the room, just a foot or so from the edge of the cot where she'd fallen off.
"We're in Dazar'Alor?" She asked. Nocuun nodded.
"Yes, we be in da grand city." He replied. "Ya be weakened by da blood magic. Can ya trust me an' come back to da cot please." Cryzanth hesitated. Her eyes darted to the golden totem at his side and narrowed her eyes, before slowly crawling back over to the cot, her eyes never leaving his face.
"How long was I out?" She asked. No'cuun shrugged.
"I do not know. Ya gonna have ta ask ya sista dat one." He said, patting the cot impatiently. Cryzanth grimaced, but climbed upon the cot anyway, seething as she laid back on it.
"Now, try ta relax, I not gon' try ta hurt ya." He focused again on utilizing the healing properties of the water to cleanse her body of any remaining blood poison, as well as coaxing the tissue to repair itself. She was watching him with her violet Hawk-like eyes, and for once, No'cuun felt the impatient gaze of someone who didn't trust him, rather than the other way around. He chuckled under his breath.
"What's so funny?" She asked gruffly.
"It be nothin' of importance." He said dismissively. "Ya sista will be pleased to know ya lucid."
"She shouldn't have even been in Nazmir." The goblin replied darkly. "She could have gotten killed. Stronger men than her were slaughtered by those blood trolls… it was all so fast…" Her eyes finally left him and seemed to stare into nothingness for a few moments. He saw her cringe and wondered what she was envisioning. She groaned and reached over her side to the larger wound. It had mostly healed, but it still looked tender to the touch.
"This feels ironic or somethin'." She grumbled. "I'm usually the one healin' people. Not the other way around."
"One must be open ta all possibilities of life." No'cuun said vaguely, moving his hands away from her body and gently pulling her to a sitting position. "Ta include bein' da prey ratha den da predator." Cryzanth sat, silently contemplating this as he finished his inspection of her.
"You'll be needin' some bandages, Navvi might have some extra lyin' around here somewhere." No'cuun said. "But mostly, ya just be needin' rest. Blood poison draws from your very essenses, and can take a few days ta recova from."
"Alright, Thanks, I guess." Cryzanth said, pushing at her matted hair and looking over sheepishly. "I think I need to take a walk outside." No'cuun raised an eyebrow questioningly, as she hopped off of the cot, and unbuckled the bulky belt and skirt ensemble she wore. No'cuun's face heated up at the blatant disregard for privacy when he realized she was wearing leather breeches beneath her mail lined skirt, and she unlatched her shoulder pauldrons before stepping out directly into the pouring rain.
He watched, partially fascinated, partially in disbelief, as she raised her hands high, as if calling for more rain to fall, and it did seem to fall harder, and the blood that had been dried began to run down her body in rivulets, falling onto the cobblestone temple pathways, as the rains did their best to cleanse her of the proof of her injuries. She stood in the rain for several minutes, not seeming to care that her clothes were soaked, or that her body was wracked with trembling. Her face was turned upwards, facing the torrential downpour head on, with a contented smile on her face.
She turned to face him again and he was struck by how vibrant her eyes were against the stormy grey clouds and paled colors around her. She was watching him carefully, as if unsure of how she should proceed, when her name was called from just west.
"Cryzanth!" Her violet eyes tore away from his and she was overrun by her sister, who was hugging her like there was no tomorrow, near sobbing and making a scene just outside their home. Navvi came behind his brother, clapping him on the shoulder amicably.
"Dey be pretty exuberant, eh brutha?" He asked No'cuun. The shaman turned to his brother suspiciously.
"Ya best be gettin' them inside, before I hafta make a potion for da sniffles too." No'cuun replied. Navvi laughed heartily and shook his head at his disgruntled older brother.
"Ah, No'cuun, I knew dey'd grow on ya." Nocuun turned slightly to catch Cryzanth's gaze once more. He blinked.
"Mmph." He grunted, turning away and walking towards his personal store-room, Cryzanth watching his retreat with a sharpened gaze.
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Is this the beginning of something wonderful? I think so! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and in the future I'd love to cover more of these two. But I think the next time I do a goblin-troll couple, it will likely be Fleurishka and Taz. Because they're precious. Lol. Thanks for reading, and come back soon!