Blood splattering the wall. Dripping down towards the floor.
Don't blame me, boy. Blame her. This is her fault.
Running after a young girl with long black hair, stretching out his hand for her. It's covered in blood.
Iliz!
Arrosh awoke with a gasp, water clogging his airways as he attempted in vain to breathe. The coughing intake that came from him didn't do as much as needed. His body lurched and he vomited the liquid out. The air that came felt rasping and thin, but it was took it in greedily despite the residual coughs that racked him.
He clenched his fists and rested his head against the sand. The sand? Arrosh picked his head up, confirming his fear. No. He was on sand. He should be on the ship. It wasn't possible. What did that mean? Last he knew, they had found that maid, Fesh, hiding in the ship due to her brother. What had happened? This was bad. Very bad.
The young man sat back on his haunches and tried to look about. He was on a beach and most definitely in Calormen. The trees on the edge of the beach were not of Archenland, but natives to his homeland. Scattered all over the beach were scraps of splintered wood and people lying about or attempting to get up. What had happened? Arrosh shook his head, trying to clear it. Pain danced behind his eyes and a warm liquid to fall into them. He brushed his eyes as best he could, being covered in sand, and his fingers came back tipped in blood. He felt horribly weak. Nearly drowning probably made that happen to a person.
They must have crashed the ship. Arrosh could feel his heart sink at the thought before it picked up again as another occurred to him. Who survived? Who hadn't? He stood, wavering and scanning the people on the beach. Where was Queen Aravis? Corin? If they died, the king would surely kill him as well. There would be no hope in saving his sister at the very least.
There! The only other mop of black hair on that ship moved from across the small beach as the owner choked out the sea water. In a sluggish run, the young man picked his way around the splintered wood and bodies over to her. Oh, thank Tash, at least she was alive.
"Are you quite alright, sister?" The title felt odd on his tongue, almost wrong as his mind still refused accept that he had another one, but the relief of seeing her alive eased the feeling the word left. It helped he knew how desperately she desired him to give it to her. Her eyes said it all. He would use that. He had to.
"Yes," Aravis managed to say, sitting up and breathing hard, "Yes, I'll be fine." She pointed out across the beach, "Please, go find out if there are any other survivors."
Arrosh nodded and went off to search through the bodies. "Stay here."He looked around at the surrounding area, there was no immediate evidence of civilization. "You should be safe enough here but give a shout if you see anyone coming."
Scanning the beach, he saw there were 8 people in total with only one, Miss Fesh by the looks of it, actually moving across the beach. There should have been more, due to the fact that there had been at least a dozen crew members on the ship.
Trotting up to the first, he saw it was a dead crew member. Impaled by a spear-like shaft of wood in the neck. Arrosh felt his stomach churn and turned away. He was accustomed to seeing bodies. Bodies starved to death, bodies hanged, bodies of the old, bodies of the ones far too young, bodies of the murdered even. But not bodies like that. It must have been a dreadful death.
The next three were dead crew men as well, bloated with water and eyes open in the stare of death. These were easier, he felt nothing for them. They were dead, that was all.
He moved on, aiming for what he saw was a person's barefoot peeking out from behind a large piece of wreckage. It shifted, the heel digging into the sand and now he could hear the sounds of gagging. Picking his pace up to a trot, Arrosh rounded the wreckage to see Prince Corin now bent over and gasping for air. He was alive. Good. They needed someone like him. Not to mention, the king would probably also kill him if his twin brother didn't make it back either.
"Are you quite alright, master?" Arrosh came forward, trying to see if anything was wounded on the man. His clothes were ripped in a few places, but from what could be seen there was no readily obvious signs of a wound.
"Well, I'll admit to having had better days." Corin replied heavily and turned over to stretch out for air, "But I could be worse. I'm not wounded. Keep looking for survivors, please."
Arrosh nodded and started to move on, "Her majesty, is over yonder, on the far side of the beach." He gestured to where she was before continuing on. Picking up speed, his gait came to a jog as he saw Fesh frantically waving him over. What was the matter?
Aravis breathed heavily as she propped herself up on the beach, remembering what had happened and regaining what strength the water had stolen from her. She could see her brother searching through the bodies, her heart squeezing in agony every time he moved on without hesitation. Those that were beyond help.
She had been below decks and in her quarters, briefing Fesh on her duties as a temporary lady's maid, when it had happened. The call to abandon ship and Corin bursting through the door to drag them out if need be. All that happened after was a blur once they were on deck. Water had come from all directions. Above as the rain lashed out its fury and below with the sea crashing over the sides. Her eyesight had been reduced to nothing as she screwed her eyes shut against the wind. She found herself crammed into a small boat, unable to comprehend what was going on. They should have gone through the desert. They-
"Your majesty?" The soft, quiet squeak of Zeepijeet came from behind a rather large piece of wreckage
Aravis looked up from her musing and smiled, "Oh, Zeep, I'm so glad you are alive!" She stopped to compose herself before continuing, "Are you hurt?"
"No, your majesty." The mouse gave a wry smile, "Just a touch wet."
Arrosh jogged across the soft sand with ease now that his head had cleared, accustomed to its ways, over to Fesh. Once she had seen he was coming she had rushed away and crouched over something - or someone rather. It was the young brother.
Coming up to them, Arrosh tried to see what was wrong with the man. Fesh obscured most of the view but he could see his face was twisted in pain. Probably not as gently as he could have, Arrosh pushed the maid away, saying, "Where is he hurt?"
Her face was blank as she sat back in the hot sand, energy spent after beckoning to him, "He saved my life. He, he saved my life. Please. Help. My brother." There would not be any help from the shocked girl. How she had managed to do what she had was a surprise, her cheek was cut and there was a tear on the arm of her dress that had blood on it.
The boy turned his attention to the knight, none of her injuries seemed as severe as whatever his may be, "Don't worry, man. We'll have you right as the Tisroc, may he live forever, in his palace. After all, the saying goes, 'Those who worry…" He paused his speech as he found the wound - or one of them at the least. "Those who worry forever have the sun darkened in their eyes or some nonsense like that. After his wife died, my father was not all that fond of wise sayings." He was babbling now, maybe it would distract the man. After all, the man's leg had a piece of the ship, nearly three fingers thick, sticking out of his lower didn't seem to go all the way through, but that didn't mean that it hadn't done any damage.
The young man groaned; teeth set against the pain. Arrosh watched, he had seen something similar happen in one of the work sights he had worked in. The other man had lost his leg, eventually. Doomed to the life of a beggar. The thick splinter of wood was going to have to come out. It was after that that was the problem. The knight could bleed to death. It'd need to be wrapped. With what?
"By Tash, you are out with the Lady of Luck." The boy muttered, his hand going through his hair as he looked about. That was it! He got up, went to one of the bodies and stripped it of a shirt. Coming back, he squatted down, "As the wise proverb goes, 'A man in good health has nothing to complain of but a man with spike in his leg has every right to shriek.' This is going to hurt." He gripped the oversized splinter and put his other hand on the bloodied leg. Hopefully this was the right thing to do.
"Aravis!" Cor made his way towards her, stumbling due to the soft sand and the weak member of the ship's crew he was helping, "Are you quite alright?" It had taken a bit of time to make it to her as he had been scanning the beach for survivors. It seemed that it had only been the four of them and the maid, Fesh. Wait, five survivors. That was Zeepijeet if he wasn't mistaken. Standing whole and alert by her queen. With a bow of the head, she acknowledged him.
Aravis nodded, the knot between her brows relaxing as he got to them, "Yes, I'm not hurt." Gesturing to where Arrosh had just darted back behind a large piece of the ship, obscuring him from view. "What is he doing?"
Cor helped the older, grizzled man down onto the sand, and sat on his haunches, looking back, "He's combing the beach for others last I knew. Speaking of which," He stood, stretching out aches he didn't know it was possible to have, "Now that I know you're unhurt and with a capable warrior, I will join him." A quick scan of the area showed they were in a cove of some sort, no view of any inhabitants around, and -
"What in the blazes was that?" Cor spun around as a sound that couldn't be human split the air.
"It came from where the young man went, your majesties." Zeepijeet hopped from foot to foot, her sensitive mouse ears picking up more than the humans' could.
The sound of feet pounding across the sand and of Corin's voice came towards them, "What's going on?" He rounded the large section of wreckage, fists at the ready, "Is there danger?"
"No outside danger, sire." Arrosh answered before nodding to the man next to him, "Merely an injury that needed to be tended to."
"You saved his life?" Aravis came at a slower pace, having given the wreckage a wide berth for better viewing purposes before plunging headlong into the unknown.
"Etnos has not claimed the end of his days as of yet but we will have to wait and see what will be." Arrosh stood and looked down at his hands, once more in his short life he found himself covered in another man's blood. Oh, how different the circumstances were. Memories of blood from the last man swam before his eyes and his stomach curled in on itself. What a fool he had been! A fool destined for death. Not before he could save his baby sister if he could help it. "If someone will stay with him and the gir- Miss Fesh. I will finish searching for survivors."
Corin had come to crouch over Morri, inspecting the wound, "I learned a bit of this sort of thing in my training. In case there was an instance in a fight or battle where assistance was needed immediately and no help could be got. I will see what more I can do." His face crinkled into a frown as he looked the man over, "It looks like his arm is broken as well."
Aravis went to Fesh, taking a seat beside her and began to speak to her in soothing tones. The curly, blonde girl had begun to stare vacantly ahead again. Maybe she had hit her head and was addled by it. Arrosh couldn't tell. Never had he seen a person like that. Mayhaps the queen could help her. He definitely couldn't. Calormen wasn't a place or people who were kind to those who were soft in the head. More often than not, they were thought of as cursed. Hopefully, for the girl's sake, it wasn't a permanent problem.
There wasn't much of the beach left to search before the sand met with the water and a grassy embankment that seemed to lead up to the rest of the mainland. Sparse trees ran along the ridge above. One could only hope that there were no nearby villagers. People did not often take well to foreigners who were not obviously wealthy and unable to immediately benefit them through some form of trade or gold.
Up and down the beach he went. There were more than he had thought on first glance. There seemed to be most of the crew on the shores - all dead. They must have crashed close by if that was the case. Even the captain, a kindly, grizzled man with a long brown beard was found, or half of him at least. Where his lower half had gone was beyond what Arrosh could guess.A shudder went through him at the thought.
"Help, please." The soft, hoarse whisper came from what Arrosh would have sworn was a pile of rubbish. "Help."
Coming closer to it, he saw through the cracks of the pile a man. It was Sir Orran.
A/N: We're almost past where we left off from before I decided to do an overhaul! Can't wait to get into some newer chapters for you all! :D Hope everyone is enjoying it so far. :)