Laura's body was wracked in extreme pain, bruises and cuts pulsing as blood rushed to fix and clot the open wounds. A low guttural noise kept sounding, disturbing her from any rest and she realized it was her own groans of suffering. Her head throbbed, body ached, and it took everything to blearily open one eye, realizing after a few moments that the other was swollen shut and wouldn't be opening any time soon. It was only after a couple slow, painful blinks that a figure began to take shape almost above her. A figure made up of shadows, and with growing awareness she started to feel more of the pain, but also the shifting underneath herself as none other than Krobus strode quickly, arms under her body. She meekly raised a hand and touched the side of his face in disbelief, fingers moving through shadowy nothing for almost an inch before making contact with what felt like cold rock. Her hand jerked away in surprise, causing het joints and muscle to flare with painful protest. His deep set white eyes glanced at her and she blinked again.
"Krobus?" she tried to ask, but it came out as a faint raspy semblance of the word. He nodded grimly, an expression that she was only barely able to make out after years of knowing the solitary shadow brute.
Questions whirred in her mind as she woke more and more. Where was she now? Still in the cave? How had Krobus found her? Why? Did Jas and Shane escape in time? Was Jas alright? Was Shane alright? For a brief moment, she realized that Maybe Krobus had turned against her, that maybe he and Olc could have been working together from the beginning. Struggling was entirely fruitless but she began to try to kick out in vain anyways, one part of her leg feeling entirely numb but the other she could feel the tired attempt to get away but he quickly made to hold tighter when she trashed and spoke.
"Laura, please. I am not hurting you and I will not hurt you. Don't move too much, we are almost there." his eyes meeting hers briefly before going back to their thousand yard stare straight ahead, moving quicker now.
"How? …. Why?" was all she was able to squeak out before coughing violently, desperately wanting to howl in pain at the tremors it caused but she wasn't sure how quiet they needed to be while still within the bowels of the mine.
"I... well... Olc was my brother. You may have noticed we both are more... sentient than other things that dwell here. I felt his life leave him over time, and was able to find you down here because of it." she wanted him to address the second part of her inquiry, but at his confession she thought better of it. She had killed his brother, and whether they were close or not it was still his family. A small twinge of that fear came back, wondering if this may be an act of revenge with this "saving".
"I'm sorry." she wheezed out sincerely and Krobus only nodded slightly, that stare suddenly looking a bit more sad.
Now, they neared a dead end, something she only knew by how he slowed to a halt and kicked at the wall a couple times, forming a quick pattern. A blinding flash of light swallowed them. The world was still hazy, and it once again took time to adjust her eyes to her new surroundings, the Wizard's Tower. She could almost make out the wizard's expression too, and saw him nod to Krobus, who moved to lay her down on the worn wood floor. Rasmodius stepped over to her side and bent down, hand stroking his beard in thoughtful wonder as he stared the lower half of her body.
"Laura... you are in bad shape." he noted, and she almost wheezed out a laugh but instead sent herself again into a fit of coughing. "My magic can not heal, but it can turn an affliction into something else. Does this make sense?" she nodded. "Your right leg is... still attached but... I believe it is best we remove it."
Strangely, she only nodded again to him, with all that had gone on lately, and the fact she was even still alive- the loss of a limb seemed like she was getting off easy for what had happened. It might be the blood loss, but she felt perfectly calm about the situation. Rasmodius noticed this too, and his brow furrowed in concern, but he kept on anyways.
"I would like to move damage from the main body to limb."
Laura nodded once more, reluctant to try and speak again for fear of another fit. At her acceptance the wizard seemed to hurry as though worried she'd change her mind. Snapping his fingers, an old looking blade appeared in his hands, the hilt wrapped in what looked like thin blue string and the blade seeming dull and rusty. She cringed, but instead of sawing through her flesh as she initially thought he began to cut off her pant leg the knife slicing through the jean like it was warm butter. Lifting her head, she could only catch a glimpse of the mangled limb, covered in blood. She would have tried to keep looking had it not been for a cold hand on her forehead pushing her back down. Looking up, she saw Krobus again who shook his head solemnly to her.
"You will not want to look." he stated, and that's all she really needed to hear as she closed her eyes and drifted back into sleep.
Shane jolted awake, sweat dripping even in the crisp morning air, the sun barely peaking out over the edge of the horizon.
"Shane." Krobus said, causing him to flinch in surprise at the sound of his name, but he regained his composure quickly to whirl around and face the brute.
"Krobus!" he growled out angrily, immediately grabbing the bars of the sewer with a white knuckled grip. "Where the fuck were you?! I need to get back into the mines, I have to fi-"
"She's with Rasmodius." and before much else could be said, Shane was off running. There wasn't time, in his opinion, to listen to the rest of what that thing might have had to say. He needed to be there with Laura, to get her to Harvey and insure she'd get the help she needed. For a quick second though he turned his head to look back at the figure still standing in the mouth of the sewers watching him.
What could have happened... he wondered to himself, turning forward to concentrate on his footing as he ran up the stairs and out to the tower looming in the distance.
It had to be his adrenaline that pushed him so far so fast, especially after their journey and the very short night of sleep he'd had but he arrived at the base of the tower quickly, running up the steps and making to bang on the door. Before his fist could even make contact though the door opened at a steady pace. He felt as though he'd surely make contact with the face of the opener- but no body was there to take the impact. Stumbling forward, he borderline collapsed into the room but steadied himself as he looked to the ground to see Laura laying there, a pillow under her head and thin blanket over her body. Gritting his teeth and trying to keep the cotton mouth at bay he strode forward to kneel down next to the small woman.
"Laura..." he murmured, tracing his fingers behind her ear, pushing stray hairs back.
"She is fine. Safe. But there needed to be a hard choice made and it saved her life." he heard, and turned his head to see the wizard.
"What do you mean?" he borderline snarled, fear snaking through him.
"We removed her leg."
Shane's eyes widened to saucers and he looked back at Laura in bewilderment. Hesitating at first, he ripped the blanket from her body and gaped as he saw her left leg was missing just above the knee down wrapped heavily in white bandages. He whirled, standing up quick, his hands balling into fists and taking a hard step forward before whirling back away, tears stinging at the corner's of his eyes.
"What the fuck..." Shane uttered behind gritted teeth. He rationalized with himself that she was alive, and may have been more explosive had it not been for her shifting at the new cold meeting her from the loss of the blanket. And he blamed himself more anyways. He recovered Laura, cringing as she straightened the blanket over her legs.
"You will soon take her to the doctor. Inform him you got a call to pick her up, that she is stable and he can decide what is best to move forward with."
"How the fuck am I supposed to explain this?" Shane demanded, whirling again on the wizard, but his voice stayed in a lower octave worried to wake up Laura who he knew needed her rest.
"Small avalanche. Leg crushed under boulder." the wizard said simply, his eyes daring Shane to keep the tone up. Shane decided play it safe and keep comments to himself, and looked back at Laura.
"You should probably take her now before a town meeting is mobilized. Everyone already knows about Jas."
"Figures." he muttered, seeing how it was already a couple hours past dawn word would have traveled fast already. "Hey Laura." he whispered, scooping his hands under her back and legs to lift her up as gently as he could, as though she were a china doll.
"There is a wheelchair at the bottom of the stairs." and with a nod, Shane left the tower and headed off pushing the wheelchair with a still sleeping Laura sitting in it, her lap and legs covered in the thin blanket from the wizard. He was glad for it, knowing that without it he'd be staring down at her gone appendage maybe even more than at the path in front of them.
It's good. You thought you'd be doing body recovery. She's only missing a small piece of her body. He reminded himself, but the guilt still taunted at him, unforgiving and cruel. Thoughts of her barely peaking over the ledge insisting he leave her danced in his mind's eye, the increasingly loud cacophony of buzzing mixed in with her shouts growing more urgent. Even still, he regretted not staying though staying may have been a much worse outcome. Thing was, he'd never know and so the guilt would eat at him whether he liked it or not. Especially since he'd been such a dick when Jas was originally taken.I don't deserve her. He thought ruefully, surging forward a little faster.
A strong hand took hers, a clean and fresh scent mixing with a masculine musk, instinctively by the touch, Laura gripped whoever touched her, willing her eyes to open and see who it was. It didn't smell like Shane but... her eyes opened into thin light sensitive slits, and could have seen that mustache from miles away.
"Harvey." she rasped out, smiling faintly at him.
"Laura, hey- do you feel okay?" his voice was cautious and sad, and she knew he wasn't sure if he should broach the leg topic or not.
"Yeah, feels like I've got a big weight lifted off!" she announced, smiling a little more for his sake. She was never one to push people, or try to make them uncomfortable. Someone else's discomfort almost always made her feel weird too and so addressing an elephant would normalize it faster in her opinion. Harvey only let out a deep breath, giving her a thin lipped smile that didn't meet his sad eyes.
"You could say that." he said, a light pity chuckle as he pressed a finger into her wrist, nodding his head briefly.
"Well, Laura. I'm just very glad to see you're home safe. We all... and I mean... I really missed you when you were on your trip. And when you didn't come home? It was a frightful time for me and... all of us. I tried to keep the rumor mill at bay but..."
"I understand perfectly." she said, wanting to stop him from rambling. Her head still ached under the harsh clinic light and her left ankle itched an itch she couldn't ever get to again. But she suffered another smile for him anyways, which he met with his own more sincere one.
"It's only been the day, Maru and I are taking shifts to monitor your health for at least the next two days. Jas went home with Shane... in case you wondered. She was very dazed when she woke and I told him it would be best if she were somewhere familiar with him and Marnie and that you'd follow along later." Laura felt a tinge of sadness, and felt selfish for feeling it. She'd absolutely been hoping to wake up to Shane asleep in a corner chair, awaiting her wake. But it was very reasonable he'd go home, Jas was why they'd gone into the mines, and Jas had been in there because of her.
"You've actually suffered a good bit of damage. It weirdly seems like it was nearly all in your leg but you still had a couple ribs broken and it did put a small hole in your right lung. Doctors at that other hospital sure aren't much good but... we'll keep you here for a while and monitor you, make sure you're in tip top shape because I'm sure you're very eager to get back to the farm." he said, silence filling the air briefly. "Linus has been doing very well trying to keep it up to your standards." he said quickly, and she smiled at him.
"I'm lucky in lots of ways aren't I?" she asked. Harvey simply nodded, smiling back at her and finally pulling his hand away from hers as he realized he still clutched it a light blush dusty his cheeks that Laura was barely sure she even saw.