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"Yeah, yeah, that's the one!" Shiv was excited enough that she spoke a little too loudly, eliciting a suspicious glare from Blue Tommy. Shiv winced and lowered her voice. "I remember now. He was my favorite. I wish I worked for him, not Boar-back. Hook was…a gentleman." She snickered. "I've never met anybody else who knew that story too."
Tanrial chuckled quietly, “Yeah well, I’ve pretty old. I mean, I may not look it but I am. You hear quite a few stories when you’ve been around for a while.”
Shiv tilted her head, letting her bandaged arm drop to her side. "Wait….how old are you?"
Tanrial shrugged, looking down and drawing small circles on the ground, "Last I remember it was somewhere over four hundred."
"Woah." Shiv sat back, her eyes wide. "You….you really are magic. Does that mean….you were around before?" She waved her hand at their surroundings. "Before all the bad stuff happened, I mean?"
Tanrial hummed her agreement and nodded, "Don't remind me. Every time someone does it just me feel even older."
"Sorry." Shiv seemed to be struggling to grasp this turn of events. "I just…I never met anybody who remembers that far back. What kinda bandits did you have in those days? Were they much like us?"
Tanrial shrugged and thought for a moment, "I mean… not really. There weren't groups like yours but there were criminals and groups of people who didn't do great things to people and stuff."
"Oh. Okay." Shiv nodded. "I guess I've heard of places out west that don't have bandits, like in the old days, but I never really thought it could be possible. I've never left this area." She looked down. "Boar-back says….he doesn't want anybody who don't wanna be a bandit to work for him. He says if we don't like this life, we gotta leave–unless we're really useful, like you are. But there's nowhere to go. If we try to go east, we'll be killed by the other bandit tribes. We can't find honest work anywhere because we dunno how to do anything but fight and steal. And if we go out west…." She shuddered. "I heard there are monsters out west that eat people."
Tanrial tilted her head and leaned forward curiously, "Monsters? What kind of monsters?"
"Well, y'know. Pretty sure they're around here too, but there aren't as many of 'em. I think they're called forest monsters or wood beasts or somethin'…..they look like animals, but they can turn into humans, and some of 'em can use fire, and they sometimes like to eat humans. Right? You must have met one before, if you travel around….?"
"Ohhh, wait yeah! We've met quite a few actually. I have a couple friends who are forest beats that live not too far from here. And ya know, we've met a couple not so nice ones, too."
Shiv's mouth dropped open and her shoulders went slack with amazement. "Yer the coolest person alive, Tanrial. You can do magic, you're four hundred years old, and you can make friends with monsters. And you're really smart, and brave, and nice, and……" She ran out of descriptive words and huffed self-consciously. "I think you should be in charge here," she whispered. "You're way better than Boar-back."
Tanrial’s eyes widened and she quickly shook her head, waving her hands in front of her as if waving off the statement, “Me? No way, I have enough on my plate and I’m going to be leaving soon.”
Shiv looked disappointed. "Oh….right." She rubbed her bandaged arm. "I guess you probably wouldn't want to be a bandit anyway, wouldya? You don't seem like somebody who likes to kill people and steal their stuff…."
She sighed softly and rubbed at her forehead, “Look, I like you, you’re pretty cool and I’ve met a couple other people who are cool, too. But… hey, I’m sure you could lead this group, turn it around and make it better.”
"Me!?" She drew back in surprise. "I….I could never! N-nobody would listen to me! I–"
She was cut off suddenly by shouts from outside the shed. There was movement from the trees, and loud rustling. It seemed the raiding party had returned.
"I gotta go," Shiv said quickly, backing away. "You'll have to treat the wounded next. I'd be in the way."
“Why don’t you stay and help me?” Tanrial suggested, starting to organise some stuff from her bag, “It’ll be a good lesson.”
Shiv paused hopefully. "…You really think so?" She wavered for a minute, then darted back inside. "Okay! I'll do whatever you need me to!"
The bandits were trailing closer–some carrying the spoils of war, others dragging injured companions. The latter headed towards the medical shed, and it looked like they'd have to form a line to wait their turn, judging by how many were wounded.
Tanrial grimaced a little at the sight of them, and at how many their were, "I'm definitely going to be needing your help, I'll probably pass out after this."
"Okay. Just tell me how to help, and I'll do it."
The first bandit to stagger in had a bleeding head wound which he was determinedly blotting with his wadded up jacket. He sat down just before he lost his balance and laid on his good side rather abruptly, looking a little spaced out. Shiv winced. "Uh-oh. Sometimes people act funny after they been hit on the head."
Tanrial scrunched her nose up a little and then sighed, "First things first we need to clean the wound, could you fetch me some clean water… or as clean as you can find, please?" She asked, moving closer to the wounded male.
"Kay." Shiv squeezed past then and dashed outside, disappearing into the evening shadows. The man with the head wound eyed Tanrial dazedly, letting his hand drop limply from his head. "Doesn't hurt too bad," he mumbled. "You shoulda seen the other guy."
Tanrial sighed, "It doesn't matter how bad it hurts and you shouldn't compare your pain to other peoples. Head wounds bleed more then the rest of the body so hopefully yours isn't as bad is it looks."
"Yeah, okay, uh-huh," he agreed, although it wasn't entirely clear if he'd really registered what she'd said. "I unnerstand perfectly, Doc. Don't compare your blood to th' rest of your body, cuz it's just as bad as it looks."
Shiv returned, carrying a pail of water. "Here, I found some, and I can get more when you need it."
Tanrial nodded her thanks to Shiv. Picking up a small rag, she placed it into the water, ringing out the excess liquid before gently applying the cloth to the wound. Once the rag was bloodied she cleaned it as best she could in the bucket and repeating until she could see the injury.
Luckily, the wound turned out to be relatively small and shallow, although there were signs of very bad bruising and scraping all around the cut itself. Besides that injury, the bandit had several others on his face and forearms, but they were all minor in comparison.
Tanrial didn't think that small cut needed any magic to be used. It would be a waste to use it on something so small. She opted just for some stitches to seal the wound up, making sure to be careful around the bruising.
The man barely seemed to notice what she was doing. After a while of mumbling incoherently to himself, his eyes drifted shut and he finally lapsed into unconsciousness.
Shiv watched intently, chewing her nails. "What are you gonna do if he's acting weird when he wakes up?"
Tanrial sighed, scratching at her head, "Well… I'll give him something for it.. hopefully he's fine when he wakes up, the blood loss is probably just getting to him."