All's Well That Ends Well [Aurelia]

[Aras|Ofelia]

Arm still throbbing, Aras gingerly raised himself up in a half-sitting position (made rather awkward by the fact that he only had the use of one arm) when Aurelia finally eased the pressure on his wrist and chest. “You know, if you’re going to insult my mother and then tell me to go and die, at least pronounce it right.” Her expression softened, the corners of her lips turning upwards in a faint smile.

His chuckle was weak but genuine. “I’m afraid my pronunciation is awful even when I’m not under duress.”

Her fingers were running through his hair. He unconsciously raised a hand to her face, where a trickle of blood, originating from a red gash on her cheek, was congealing in the cool air. His fingers brushed her skin. “Damn. Did I give you that?”

Aurelia was back to business once again. He bit his lip, forcing himself to make no sound save for a few sharp hisses of breath, as she wound bandages about his arm and took care of the rest of his wounds: his forearms sported several bloody but mostly shallow cuts from the hawk’s attack. Casting his gaze around for something to focus on to take his mind off the pain—no, the pile of dead animals was not going to help, nor were the far-flung blood splatters—his eyes settled on Aurelia. Her eyebrows were knit in concentration and an oddly comforting degree of concern. Lips pressed in a thin line, she bore her own injuries without complaint, directing her attention at his instead.

When she tried to swab at the scratches on his face, however, he flinched away from her. The memory of the hawk diving at his eyes was too recent; Aras could not suppress the instinct to shy away from anything that came straight for his face. Still, Aurelia managed her task with moderate success, and she finished up without further incident.

He waved away the offered cigarette and shook his head at her question. “I don’t know if I can get back on my own,” he said honestly. This was no time for false machismo; not only was he unfamiliar with the territory, but he was also uncertain of his ability to reach his car without collapsing. That, and he would have to drive back to the clinic as well. His eyes fell on the mess that was Aurelia’s hand. “You should take care of that.”

Another glance at the surrounding carnage. “Sorry. That hawk had me completely off guard.” Why had they not been forewarned? Even something so small and seemingly inconsequential was worth mentioning, as he had just aptly proved. Aras shook his head, then stopped immediately when the whole world seemed to shake with it. “How are you planning to clean all this up?”

”NO!”

Melissa had returned. She looked pale and shaken, but she moved resolutely towards them.

“She’s neutral,” Aras said quickly before Aurelia could draw the wrong conclusion. Aurelia pulling her machete on the girl was something he—and Melissa, no doubt—wanted very much to avoid.

She was standing beside them now, muttering what sounded like apologies. “It’s not your fault,” Aras told her. He didn’t exactly sound convincing, but then again, he was probably too enervated to manage anything that was barely above a mumble.

Though she didn’t quite look up to it, they needed Melissa’s help. Aurelia was able to take care of his wounds, but in his current state, he couldn’t do the same for her. “Melissa, can you help Aurelia?” he asked softly, motioning at his partner’s mangled hand.

[DesperateDark]

“Damn. Did I give you that?” Aras had raised a hand to her cheek, brushing the skin just under the gash that he had caused by the wide arrow. It was almost all she could do to just let him and not bite his finger; Aurelia admitted that she often got snappy when things were placed near her face. But it was a reassuring gesture, and she forced herself to relax and not remove his finger via her teeth. "Yeah, you did. But it's a few hairs off the side of your head for a bit of skin off my cheek, so we're even." The cut itself had gotten worse since she had gotten it; transformations back and forth seemed to make injuries worse.

At least he admitted that he wasn't sure he could get back on his own, because if he said otherwise, he'd have a hard time convincing her so. Aurelia had no idea how she would get him back to his car, but once there, she would take care of the rest. Though she mostly drove Reyes' motorcycle, she also knew how to drive a car. Aras then motioned to her hand, and the pain returned once she was no longer distracted by other things. The bite spanned her thumb, pointer and middle finger and though she could still move them, it now hurt.

“How are you planning to clean all this up?” Aras was looking the pile of corpses in the corner now, and she glanced up at the heap as well. Aurelia knew she wasn't going to eat again for several weeks after this, but her komodo eyed the mass. Despite how distasteful her job was, it was still her job and she was getting paid for it--in a sense, she was being paid to have a meal.

Before she was about to give him a vague answer covered in sugar, she heard a loud "NO!" and looked up to see the blond woman had returned. Caught slightly off guard, she nearly took out her machete if not for Aras telling her quickly that this woman was a neutral. The woman herself looked as if she was about to hurl, and had turned pale as a sheet. She was probably not used to such carnage.

Aras was trying to reassure her, so Aurelia could safely conclude that they knew each other. However, the man was doing a poor job at easing the blonds' worries; he sounded as if he was about to faint, his voice was thin and weak. “Melissa, can you help Aurelia?” Aras then motioned to her own hand, and she looked down at it once again. Though she doubted the new arrival was up to it, since her palm probably needed the same stitches as her brow now. Well, at least Aras cared, and the thought was somewhat comforting.

"No, it's fine, I'll handle it." The last thing she needed was the woman to vomit on her hand while she was treating it. Though working with one hand was difficult, she managed to take out the alcohol once again, but poured some directly on the cut instead of using cotton. Of course, it went without saying that a string of curses, including the two Vietnamese ones Aras had uttered earlier, slipped from her mouth. The bandaging job was sloppy, but it'd hold for the time being until they got back to the clinic.

All the while, her talisman was telling her to look after herself better, and not other people. But this was wholly ignored; her basic mommy instinct ran strong in her. Aurelia was, after all, the third oldest of eight children. She had spent most of her earlier life--up until she was seventeen, more or less--taking care of all her siblings and her parents, along with the farm animals, since that was the traditional role of the oldest sister.

"Name's Aurelia," she stood up and shook the girl's hand, her own hand caked in blood from the recent carnage. "Can you two wait while I clean this up? I don't think it'll take too long, but you two can head to the clinic without me if you insist."

[Melissa|Tristan]

Trying desperately not to look at the carnage everywhere, Melissa decided to focus instead on Aras and the woman whom Aras had identified as Aurelia. It took a great effort of willpower not to shift when the woman reached to pull something off herself; doubtless a weapon to attack her with. Mel’s skin itched as her cheetah urged her to change, to assume the form where no sane person would attack them. As it was, she resisted admirably, calmed somewhat by Aras’ voice. He sounded so weak, and she didn’t want to upset him. Winkles creased her forehead, and she bit her lower lip in anxiety on his behalf. Aras’s attempts at reassurance did nothing to relieve her fears; they made them worse. She tried to relax by taking deep breaths, but the smell of blood (among other things) was almost overwhelming. So long as she breathed through her mouth the sickly sweet scent of the blood wasn’t as noticeable, so that’s what she did.

Now that her stomach was a little more settled, Mel was able to focus on what Aras was saying. Turning her attention to Aurelia’s sliced and bleeding hand, Mel started to reach for it, but before she’d really moved the smallish woman had already started pouring a liquid on her hand. No, it's fine, I'll handle it. Forgetting that she was supposed to be breathing through her mouth, Mel caught a whiff of alcohol and sneezed into her hand. Sorry. It seemed like she was apologizing a lot lately.

Aurelia’s bandaging wasn’t very neat, and as much as Mel didn’t like blood, she felt obligated to help. Will you at least let me rewrap your hand? No offense, but I think it’s not going to last very long. She reached out with gentle hands, cautiously moving towards Aurelia’s injury. Mel was exceptionally gentle with the sliced and bloody hand, taking great care not to pull at the skin. When Mel had finished re-wrapping the whole hand, she backed off again.

Aurelia shook her hand and introduced herself, and Mel couldn’t help but flinch at the blood and other unknown substances that covered her good hand. Swallowing and managing a small smile, Mel resisted the urge to wipe her hand off immediately afterwards. I’m Melissa. She knelt down beside Aras to get a better view of his injuries. How long is ‘not very long’? You both need treatment ASAP. He’s lost a lot of blood. The worried expression was back, as she touched his hand gently. His fingers are cold. I think he might be going into shock. Knowing the feeling only too well herself, Melissa also knew that talking helped. Except there wasn’t really anything they could comfortably talk about.

Her cheetah voicing it's suspicions wasn't helping matters either. She was going to pull a knife on you for sure. Either that or a gun! When it got no response from her, it continued on it's rampage, poking her every couple seconds to make sure she was paying attention. You would have let her too, idiot. We should be hightailing it outta here, but no, you can't leave them because they're 'hurt'! The poking continued. Come on! They can take care of themselves! If we get caught here with them it'll be Vicky all over again . . . Mel rolled her eyes and admitted that maybe it did have a point there, but Aras wasn't in any condition to be walking, and Aurelia wasn't in any condition to help him. Plus, there was no way she could just walk away from this and forget what she'd seen here. It just wasn't possible.

[DesperateDark]

Aurelia watched warily as the woman, Melissa, insisted upon rewrapping her hand, but held out her hand without any more protest. "How long is ‘not very long’? You both need treatment ASAP. He’s lost a lot of blood." A worried expression returned to Melissa’s face and she reached out to take Aras’ hand gently in her own. "His fingers are cold. I think he might be going into shock."

Aurelia didn’t bother to reply to her first question, because then she would go “Not very long.” and then Melissa would ask “How long is not very long.” and it would go back and forth like that until one of them relented or Aras died from blood loss. Aurelia really had no idea how to answer the question anyways; this was four bodies at once. She never got rid of four bodies at once before. Aurelia won’t be eating for weeks afterwards, at best.

At the suggestion of Aras going into shock, Aurelia leaned down gently until her cheek was mere centimetres from his face. She listened for a minute before pulling away, taking the wrist of his good arm gently and checking the pulse, before inspecting his fingernails (or rather the skin underneath). Finally, she pulled away from the man and turned to Melissa. “No, he isn’t going into shock, don’t worry about it.”

The Vietnamese woman got back up and walked over to the pile of bodies. It was time to clean up; she couldn’t stall it any more. “If you’re afraid of gore, turn away, kids.”

She worked on the heads first. There was no way she could eat all their heads and cough them up later on; yes, she needed to cough up the fur and nails and large bones later. Using her machete, she chopped off the heads of the lynx, the serval and the hawk before throwing the dismembered appendages aside.

The scales came first; they looked like tattoos but grew out into the bone reinforced plates. In roughly a minute, she had turned into a komodo dragon; tail and teeth and all. Taking one last glance over her shoulder to the two other people in the clearing, she turned to the bloody pile and began to gruesome work.

Aurelia sat back quietly in her mind and let the komodo instinct take over; it was easier on the mind that way. The hyena went down first without much problem, followed by the lynx. The serval and the hawk were a bit more gross to both see and listen to. They crunched as her komodo forced the two bloody animals down her throat. The crunching was the sound of the bones breaking, probably. It was nothing she wasn’t used to, but it was a bit gruesome none the less.

It was done. Blood and gore covered her face like a macabre mask for Jack the Ripper’s ball or something. No, it was not delicious, but it didn’t taste bad to her. Raw meat wasn’t as horrible as everybody thought it was.

[Aras|Ofelia]

He felt not a small amount of relief when neither Aurelia nor Melissa made any move to attack each other. They were all on edge right now, and it would have been all too easy for the situation to turn ugly. Well, even uglier than it already was.

He could barely feel Melissa's fingers on his hand. Aras didn't think he was going into shock, but then again, his perception might be rather skewed by the fact that he'd just lost a decent amount of blood. Aurelia took it upon herself to check for symptoms. He kept his breathing steady as she leaned close. The proximity was comforting; with Aurelia on one side and Melissa on the other, he could almost feel safe. At least, he would have had he not been in rather dire need of medical attention at the moment.

But then Aurelia had adopted her businesslike attitude once more, going about the task of cleaning up the enormous mess. The decapitations were gruesome (why was she cutting off the heads anyway?), but her transformation was, in a way, fascinating. A komodo dragon--a rare talisman, but undoubtedly useful for its...

Perhaps it was because the vulture had been thinking the same thing a few minutes before, or perhaps it was because the right neurons happened to fire off at the correct times, but Aras immediately caught on to what Aurelia intended to do. He blanched, his already-pale visage losing a few more shades of color. Melissa was probably going to throw a fit at the sight of him, but that wasn't his primary concern at the moment.

Quickly turning to Melissa, he grabbed her arm and pulled himself to his feet. The movement was too hurried; he had to clutch at her shoulder while the forest spun around him for several seconds so he wouldn't end up falling flat on his face. "Let's go," he said urgently. "Aurelia, when you're, ah, done..." An uncomfortable pause. "Get to the clinic as quickly as you can, all right?"

He used the hand on Melissa's shoulder to simultaneously push her along and use her for support. Maybe he could stomach the idea--and the sight--of Aurelia munching on a pile of dead shifters, but he had little doubt that Melissa would be able to without suffering severe mental trauma. He at least had the vulture's scavenger instincts to help dull the shock. She did not.

They managed to get far enough away that they were not subject to the sight of Aurelia's late-afternoon snacking, but the accompanying sounds were unavoidable. Aras bore the repulsive crunching of what could only be bones with admirable equanimity--it was just like when the Lammergeier broke bones against rocks, he told himself--but he wasn't sure how Melissa would react once she realized the cause of those noises.

[Melissa|Tristan]

Aurelia's check of Aras reassured Mel, but she knew that even if he wasn't in shock there was no way that he was alright either. He was paler than he should healthily be, and his hand was really, really cold. Mel's own hands were usually warm, but she knew what a normal person's temperature should be at, and Aras was way below that. However, if Aurelia said that he wasn't going into shock then Mel would believe her, and trust that she knew what she was doing.

The cheetah was slightly irritated at the ungratefulness of the short woman. She sure didn't seem to appreciate our wrap job. Mel's guess was that Aurelia wasn't really one to waste words, especially considering the time and place they were in. It was understandable, and they just needed to have patience.

If you’re afraid of gore, turn away, kids. Since she didn't know exactly what Aurelia was going to do, Mel's curiousity almost got the better of her. That is, until Aras's face became almost as white as a sheet. Aras. Aras are you okay? Her hand gripped his a little tighter as she spoke softly to him; she didn't want to distract Aurelia from whatever it was she was doing. Mel looked askance at Aras on what to do next. He was staring after Aurelia, which in turn made Mel look too, and wish she could vomit again. After cutting off the heads of the dead bodies, Aurelia started shifting into some sort of lizardy thing. The scales looked cool at first, then grotesque as her whole body became flexible and sinewy.

That's about as much as she got to see before Aras used her to pull himself into a standing position. To help him, she splayed her legs a little; because he weighed more than her she needed to balance in order to support him. His surprisingly strong grip remained on her shoulder, pressing into the spot where her injury from the bear had been only days earlier. It was still tender, so she winced, but it had healed over enough that it wouldn't re-open again. Aras clung to her shoulder as he swayed unsteadily, and Melissa reached out to gently hold his good shoulder with one hand, and his side with the other in order to support him.

Hearing him mumble, Let's go. in that tone sent warning alarms off in Mel's head, and she decided to trust him again and listen. It was ironic that she'd wanted to leave the clearing so badly but her conscience wouldn't let her, and now he was the one yanking her away from it. Mel didn't know why she was so reluctant to leave Aurelia there -it was obvious that the danger was gone now- but she allowed Aras to push/use her for support. They were out of sight, and she had shifted her body so that Aras was more supported by her -she took a fair bit of his weight so that he didn't have to- when there was a sickening crunching noise coming from behind them. Mel paused and squeezed her eyes shut for a second to master her stomach before continuing. The only part she wasn't able to stop were the telltale feelings as her body started trembling.

[DesperateDark]

The komodo dragon sat by the river, basking in the warm sunlight that filtered through the treetops. Aurelia's job was done, and after a meal that consisted of a hyena, a lynx, a serval and a hawk, she was very tempted to go along with it and just take a nap in the sun so she wouldn't die of rotten meat poisoning. Aras and Melissa had already disappeared among the trees; probably to avoid the sight of her swallowing a pile of shifters that were, at one point, human.

Thankfully, something or another worked when she shifted back into a human, but she looked the same way she had before she ate all four shifters. Aurelia certainly felt as if she had eaten all that, but she didn't look like it; her stomach was still flat. Maybe her meals shrunk or whatever, but she had to be at least a bit grateful for it.

Aurelia took the hawk's head and examined it for a minute before throwing it in the river, doing the same with the serval's head. Once the fish were done with them, people would probably just take them as a bird's skull and the skull of an unfortunate housecat. However, the hyena and lynx were a different situation. She couldn't do much with them, but people rarely visited these deeper parts of the forest. Aurelia finally settled on placing them under a bush and covering them up with a hefty amount of dirt and leaves to hide them until they decomposed or somebody else found them.

Satisfied with her work at last, she cantered off in the direction that Aras and Melissa went. They couldn't have gone very far because of Aras' injuries and his near inability to keep upright. Despite knowing that he wasn't and not wanting to think of him that way, Aurelia was sorely tempted to believe that Aras was an idiot. He shot her, got attacked my a hawk and mauled by a hyena, and though they had no idea the hawk was coming, he could have at least done something to incapacitate it before it knocked him out of the tree. Her thoughts were only fuelled by her komodo's burn towards the man.

By the time the other two came into view, she had already uttered several curses under her breath. Aurelia debated whether to join up with them, or walk back to the clinic on her own. She wasn't too injured to not be able to make it back alright; other then her hand and her cheek, everything would more or less heal on their own.

She veered to the left, heading in a slightly longer but different path then the others. They were probably going to get there before she was, since she was taking a farther rout and she just ate. It took about half an hour to limp back to civilization, but when she got to the whitewash clinic, she found herself extremely pissed at the fact that Melissa and Aras had yet to arrive.

It was safe to say that more then just the nurses freaked out when they saw she was covered in blood. The few patients in the waiting room completely lost it at the sight of her, and Aurelia reckoned she probably made that kid over there cry as well. But no matter what the nurses and doctors told her or tried to do, she insisted they wait until Aras and Melissa arrived.

[Aras|Ofelia]

Melissa had stopped, shivering, when the realization hit her. If he hadn't thought so already, one look at her horrified expression would have been enough to tell Aras that she had no business in this unrepentantly psychotic world into which she had inadvertently wandered.

"Keep walking," he said even as he quelled the urge to grimace at a particularly nasty-sounding crunch. No, this was worse than breaking bones against rocks. Perhaps the name 'Ossifrage' should have been given to the komodo instead. (His talisman huffed indignantly at the idea.)

He gave Melissa another light push to get her walking again. Best that they get out of earshot as quickly as they could. Though she was valiantly trying to keep her cool, she had already seen more than enough. The only reason she had not bolted straight away was so she could help him; that much was clear.

After the initial hurry to get away from the carnage in the clearing, the going was slow. Aras felt uncomfortably lightheaded, and his vision was definitely going blurry at the edges. It was really quite unwise to be moving around this much in his current state, but there was no way Melissa would have been able to carry him as he had her. That, and he would have chosen to pass out before he would have let her. Pride was a wearisome thing sometimes.

He lost track of the time it took to get to his car. An hour? Two? The going could not have been said to be smooth; they had stopped frequently when dizziness threatened to make him keel over, and the terrain seemed to be twice as rugged as it had been on the way into the forest. Nevertheless, they made it without any major mishaps.

With the tacit agreement that Melissa should drive, Aras sank gratefully into the passenger's seat. The trip to the clinic did not take long. Instilled with an understandable sense of exigence, Melissa probably broke more than a few speed limit laws in her haste. The blaring of a few car horns followed them on their way there.

When they finally staggered into the clinic, Aurelia was already there, blood-covered and scowling. It was positively embarrassing how she managed to arrive before they did, considering the extent of the clean-up job she had had to carry out. Aras opened his mouth to say something to justify their tardiness, then shut it when he realized it was due to the influence of his talisman that he felt so defensive right now. On the other hand, he himself was more than ready to just give up and collapse onto the nearest surface--which, unfortunately, happened to be the floor.

Luckily, he was saved from doing so by a rush of nurses and a stretcher produced from God-knew-where. He didn't even need the Sandman to pay him a visit before he was blissfully out cold.


((Aaand he's out. Let me know how you guys want to continue this.))

[Melissa|Tristan]

((OOC: Sorry it's so long. I kinda rambled for parts of it.))

It was impossible to keep the frightened expression from taking over her features. The shaking also proved impossible to stop, though they did become less violent after a minute or so. What was wrong with these people? They’re just like us. The reminder from her talisman did little to quell the rising bile in Mel’s throat. Aras’ urging voice and push forced Melissa to turn her attention back to her job, and she moved quickly to shift her weight even further beneath Aras’s. She’d already slung his good arm over her shoulder, so she was now able to support a good portion of his weight.

The further away the sounds of crunching and slurping were, the less nauseous she felt. Somehow she was able not to throw up again, to control her revolting stomach until the sickening noises had disappeared behind them, muffled by the trees. With a sideways glance at Aras Mel felt a wave of panic rising inside her. He was much too pale, and the sweaty sheen on his face told her that they needed to hurry. Pausing for only a minute, she found a clean spot on her shirt and used it to gently dab the beads off his face, wishing she’d brought water with her. Aras sure looked as though he could use some, and she knew that it would make supporting him much easier if she was hydrated. Telling herself to suck it up, Melissa forced herself to push on.

Time seemed to drag on slower and slower in the greenness that surrounded them on all sides. The sky was impossible to see through the thick treetops above them. There was a slight feeling of claustrophobia as she realized that the dense trees hemmed them in on all sides. Everything looked the same, but Mel was able to find her way thanks to her talisman’s sense of direction. The forest seemed to go on forever, and with no ending in sight Mel started to feel hopeless. She needed to keep going for Aras’ sake, but it was becoming more and more difficult to convince herself of that as time went on.

Debating whether or not to shift and carry Aras that way, she became slightly distracted. Her cheetah form outweighed her human form by about 20 pounds or so. Not a lot, but maybe enough to carry him on her back until they got to town. Considering asking his permission, she was deciding how to word her request when her toe caught on a tree root, tripping her. Aras didn’t hit the ground, thankfully, but it did shake some awareness into Melissa.

She’d been so close to giving up and waiting for Aurelia, but now the faint smell of car exhaust reached her nostrils, and it pushed her on. They were so, so close. Besides, giving up wasn’t something that she was in the habit of doing, and she sure as heck wasn’t about to start now. They pushed forward until a car came into sight. It was parked and vacant, and she resisted the urge to swear with some difficulty. That is, until Aras pressed the keys into her hand.

She wasn’t what you’d call a perfect driver. Give her a motorcycle and she would do fine; she was used to riding her own Honda. On the other hand, she’d never gotten much experience driving a car, and only had her G2 because she’d felt that she simply hadn’t needed it. There had been no car to drive at home, and she certainly didn’t have one now. Knowing that Aras was in no condition to drive however, she didn’t complain and helped him settle gently into his seat before running around the front of the car and sliding into her own seat. Pulling out in the direction of the clinic, Mel pushed the car to almost twice the speed limit, and hoped that Aurelia could find her own way there, because they didn’t have time to wait for her.

Pulling around the final corner with screeching tires, the car stopped in a flurry of smoke and the smell of burned rubber. After jumping out her own side, Mel raced around and carefully pulled Aras out of his seat. The automatic doors opened as they approached, and Mel almost groaned upon seeing that Aurelia was already there, blood still covering much of her body. Feeling Aras sagging alarmingly, Mel did her best to hold him up as the nurses rushed in a stretcher and pulled him away just as his eyes closed. Another set of nurses pulled in a stretcher for Aurelia, whisking her away to look at her hand.

Unsure of what to do, Mel paced exhaustedly for almost an hour, unwilling to let herself rest until she knew that they were both okay. Immediately after being told that she collapsed into a chair and napped for another hour, when she remembered that she’d forgotten her backpack at the clearing. Knowing that she shouldn’t return home in case Vicky was there, Mel left the clinic and headed in that direction anyways, too tired to really care at the moment. Once she’d unlocked the door using the spare key, Mel locked it behind her and collapsed into her bed fully clothed, not even pausing to take her shoes off.

[DesperateDark]

Aurelia paced the white floor of the clinic, arms crossed and mouth creased into a grimace. She still reeked of the metallic scent of blood, and she was splashed form head to toe in it. It looked like she had just taken a shower in cherry kool-aid, and that was not nice. But first and foremost: where the heck was Aras and Melissa? It had been more then half an hour, and although she could probably predict why they were being delayed, she wasn't a fortune teller and couldn't tell if they were just late, or dead. Well, Melissa probably wasn't dead because she wasn't injured, but Aras might as well be.

Her frown deepened as the minutes continued to tick by. The nurses continued to pester her about getting her hand and cuts checked out, but she continued to refuse until she saw Aras and Melissa, either alive or dead. And of course, just as the nurses were going to forcibly drag her out of the main lobby and help her cuts, Melissa burst in through the glass doors, supporting Aras on her shoulder.

That was when pretty much all hell broke loose. Aras wasn't dead, but looked just about next to it. He leaned heavily on Melissa, pale and looking as if he wouldn't be able to keep up and conscious for more then a few minutes. The nurses shifted their attention to him instantaneously and brought out a stretcher for him before he crumpled. Of course, they didn't forget about her either. She didn't get why they needed a stretcher for her when she had already proven that she could walk fine and wasn't on the verge of collapsing any time soon.

Yes, Aurelia knew she was weird for getting angry in a situation like this, but she felt more then a bit pissed off. She simply stormed into the room the doctors pointed her to; another sterile whitewashed room with medical equipment. They said she would need stitches and everything else, and it was a bit embarrassing to have some of the doctors recognize her from the stitches-on-her-brow incident from earlier in the week.

By this point, Aurelia had pretty much given up and only repeated to herself that she was probably never going to see Aras, Melissa or any of these people again.

[Aras|Ofelia]

((Are we done here? ))