standing on the shore (nils, paisely)

Henrik inhaled heavily and suddenly, a monstrous breath overtaking his entire body. He tasted blood. His body was cold, wet. Every muscle ached, and cuts stung all over his body.

Shit, he thought, where the fuck are we?

Over here, he heard Rian say. It's Nils, he needs help.

Henrik sat up, jerking at the pain in his abdomen. He pushed through it, opening his eyes to take in his surroundings. He recognized the shore from times before when he and Nils had traveled through to escape from people attacking them. This time they had washed up, or maybe been left to die, on the shores of Nadar Isle.

He looked around, seeing Rian sniffing Nils, who was passed out in the grass with his daemon close to him. Henrik jumped up, running over to him. He knelt next to him, putting his hand on his chest. It was moving and he was breathing.

Thank god, he thought, relieved. This could be a lot worse. We've ended up in a great spot to hide in. He looked around, mapping the best route. We won't be comfortable, but this might be the safest place in Amelia for us right now.

He looked down at his younger brother. "Nils?" he tried, hoping for a response. He was very much prepared to carry his brother as needed, but he was worried -- just because his brother was breathing, that didn't guarantee that he was alright.

Nils' eyes fluttered open slowly. What...where...? He felt...wet, and cold, and--Holy fucking shit ow, ow, ow..! Memories started to flood back. There had been a clio...then a second, and a third. And he tried to fight back, he tried, but they just overwhelmed him so quickly. And Henri was fighting too, but also trying to help him, and somehow they ended up getting to the ocean...

They had, by some miracle, washed up on an island. Nils didn't know which one, nor did he really care. He was just amazed to be alive. Henri was kneeling over him, looking worried.

"Henri?" he groaned weakly. He tried to sit up but was immediately wracked with sharp, severe pain. "Ahhhh...! Fuck." He fell back. He was hurt bad, he was pretty sure he was bleeding from somewhere. His clothes were stained in someone's blood, anyways. "I c-can't get up...I'm sorry."

He always ended up being dead weight in situations like these. He'd never been as strong as Henri.

Though Nils couldn't get up, Henrik was beyond relieved that he was conscious and speaking.

"Hey shh," he said, assessing the best way to pick him up from here. "You're fine, you're okay, I've got you."

He put pressure on a few spots to check where Nils flinched, ultimately coming to the conclusion that this was not going to be pleasant by any means for either of them. Both of them were badly hurt, but they needed to get in the woods so they could be hidden better. Henrik had no idea who was after them at this point.

"Okay Nils, I need you to be calm. I'm gonna pick you up and it's gonna hurt really bad. But you can get through it, okay?"

He looked to Rian, gesturing them to check out Tanith. Rian would have to help him, which Henrik felt bad about since he knew Rian was hurt as well. This was rough -- but nothing was as bad as the shit they'd gone through before. This was always better than that.

Tanith, at least, was able to get on her feet, albeit shakily. She didn't have any major wounds herself, but she was undoubtedly feeling all of Nils' pain. Sorry, Tanith. It's my fault you're hurting like this, he said to her.

Hey, stop apologizing, we're in this together, she replied.

"Okay. Okay," he said to Henri, breathing heavily. He reached up and managed to get his arm around Henri's shoulder. He took a huge deep breath to prepare himself for what was about to happen. With some great effort he struggled to his feet with Henri's help. "Ah, fuck. Fuuuck. Okay." It fucking hurt just to breathe, let alone move in any way. He leaned heavily against his brother, feeling terrible because he knew Henri was hurt too and leaning against him was probably making it worse.

"D-do you know...where we are?" he asked in between ragged breaths. Talking hurt, but it also might distract him from the pain. He still didn't especially care where they were. He should, he knew, but as long as they were away from the people after them, he was okay with it.

The past week had been a relaxing one for Paisley and Chevron. They'd taken a small vacation from their overloridian duties, and had gone on a backpacking trip through the dense jungle that filled the Eastern border of Nadar.

Though the ground was think with plant life, the duo had an easy time manuevering through the undergrowth. For one, they were both small and lithe, and were able to crawl under and through things if necessary. For another, Paisley held the ability to make think tangles of branches and thorns bend out of her way if she and her daemon needed. What would have taken another clio ages, took Paisley and Chevron minutes. The only cuts on her body were from scrambling over the rocky coast that lined Nadar, which she was currently doing.

The small sand cat raced ahead of his clio, jumping from ragged boulder to ragged boulder. Paisley took her time, breathing in the salty air that blew in from the ocean. She loved coming out here, and did it as often as her job as overloridian would allow. Though she was outgoing, she couldn't help but love the peace of seclusion every so often. It was nice to get away from all the hustle and bustle and not have to worry about responsibility.

She bent to sit down on one of the less sharp boulders, when she heard Chevron call for her. She looked up and over-- he was about ten feet ahead of her, over a pile of the rocks.

Paisley! Chevron said, his voice alarmed. There are some clio over here!

The sound of his voice alerted Paisley that something was wrong, and she hurriedly scrambled over the rock faces to catch a glimpse of what Chevron was seeing.

Two men were stumbling in the sand, down on the smoother part of the coast. They didn't look too good. It seemed like they were both leaning on each other, trying to stay upright on the beach. When one of the clio fell, Paisley made up her mind to go help them.

"Hello?" she called down of the pile of rocks, as she scrambled towards them. "Hello! Do you need help?" As she got closer, she could see how bloodied and bruised the two were. Alarms rang in her head.

Henrik winced as he felt his brother's weight against him, but worked to keep a straight face so as not to make his brother feel worse about needing his help. Not once in his life had Henrik regretted helping his brother, and while this was incredibly painful now, never would he even think of leaving him behind.

"We're on Nadar Isle," he started to explain to his brother, right as he heard a voice in the distance calling to them.

Oh no, he thought as he heard the clio asking if they needed help. Interacting with others was always risky. In Henrik's experience, clio very rarely were innocent -- and even when they were, horrible things happened to them because of Henrik and his brother. This girl seemed nice (though many clio who had "seemed nice" and almost killed them), but helping them could potentially put her life in danger.

Then again, it could also save his life and Nils'.

Looking over at Nils, both of them stumbling and bleeding for the thousandth time, Henrik was too exhausted to fight this help. Right as he looked over to the woman to ask for her help, he fell to the ground. His body had given out on him. He had failed his brother, and he had failed himself.

Nils tensed when he heard a woman's voice calling out to them. He had learned the hard way not to trust strange clio, no matter how friendly or helpful they seemed to be. He had gotten himself and his brother into too many bad situations by trusting nice-looking clio with friendly looks on their faces. Had he been in any state to, he would have bolted.

"We should--" he started to say to Henri, when all of the sudden his brother collapsed. Nils somehow managed to catch himself and keep his footing, despite immense pain in his entire body and the surprise of it. "Oh shit! Henri!"

He managed to ease himself into a kneeling position next to Henri, his ribs throbbing. "Henri, hey, are you okay?" he asked frantically, even though he knew as soon as he said it that "are you okay" was possibly the stupidest question ever to ask just then. He just didn't know what else to say, or do. He was always terrible in situations like these. He'd be long dead without his brother.

His heart started beating faster when he saw the woman who had called out to them before running over to them. With no way to run at this point, it was looking like they had no choice but to trust her.

"Oh my goodness!" Paisley all but screamed as she approached the two men. Both of them looked like they had been beaten within inches of their lives. Their canine daemons didn't look much better off, straggling off behind their clio.

A million things rushed through Paisley's head, the first being how am I ever going to get them help? They were miles from civilization, and even with her Nadar eilemaiden they would still have to trek what had taken her days to do. They would never make it.

"What happened?" she asked frantically as she dropped to her knees beside the man who had collapsed into the damp sand. Both of them were soaked, their clothes and skin bloodied and dripping with salt water and sand. She looked to the man that was still standing, demanding an explanation. He didn't look much better off than the one on the ground, but she was hoping he was still capable of talking.

Paisley, without waiting for an answer, ripped off her shirt and started using it to wipe the blood off the fallen man. Large cuts loomed under the cakey mess that was on his skin. What the hell had happened here?

While Paisley tended to the men, Chevron spun in circles around them. Something or someone had done this, and whatever it was, it wasn't getting Paisley.

"Oh my goodness!" Paisley all but screamed as she approached the two men. Both of them looked like they had been beaten within inches of their lives. Their canine daemons didn't look much better off, straggling off behind their clio.

A million things rushed through Paisley's head, the first being how am I ever going to get them help? They were miles from civilization, and even with her Nadar eilemaiden they would still have to trek what had taken her days to do. They would never make it.

"What happened?" she asked frantically as she dropped to her knees beside the man who had collapsed into the damp sand. Both of them were soaked, their clothes and skin bloodied and dripping with salt water and sand. She looked to the man that was still standing, demanding an explanation. He didn't look much better off than the one on the ground, but she was hoping he was still capable of talking.

Paisley, without waiting for an answer, ripped off her shirt and started using it to wipe the blood off the fallen man. Large cuts loomed under the cakey mess that was on his skin. What the hell had happened here?

While Paisley tended to the men, Chevron spun in circles around them. Something or someone had done this, and whatever it was, it wasn't getting Paisley.

Henrik moaned from the pain that shot all throughout his body. He felt so bad possibly bringing this girl into this. If someone was after them and they saw her -- unless she was an extremely experienced fighter, she'd be done for, and so would they.

"We need to get..." he winced as the girl continued to wipe off the blood from his body. He needed her to know the urgency, he needed Nils to do everything he could do to help her get them out of there, since Henrik himself was seemingly useless at this point.

He inhaled deeply, forcing himself to turn and sit up. He looked to the girl, teeth clenched. "We need to get out of here," he managed to say, turning this time to Nils. "You have...to help her. You can do this." He coughed, blood coming from his mouth. He'd had a lot of experience with adrenaline helping him get out of tough situations where he knew his brother's life was at stake. He hoped that Nils might have the same experience, or that the three of them could at least find some way to be covered by the nearby trees for safety.

Nils looked at Henri fearfully. Could he do this? He still felt like he was being stabbed every time he took a breath, and he was starting to feel lightheaded. But...he was alive, and he was able to stand, and the woman who had shown up was actually helping them and not trying to finish the job. Okay. Okay. Things were not completely hopeless. Henri had gotten them out of worse before. Maybe he really could do this.

"Okay, can you help me get him up?" he asked the woman. There would be time for explanations and introductions later. For now he was thinking that, with her help, he could probably at least get Henri back up--

Not probably, DEFINITELY, Tanith encouraged.

--and from there the three of them could, er, somehow get to the jungle? One thing at a time.

Paisley didn't think that moving the man was the smartest thing in the world, but the urgency in their voices told her that it needed to be done. She tucked her shirt into her shorts and stood, trying to decide what the best way to get him up.

An idea popped into her head. "Just wait one second!" she told the pair as she dashed to the treeline. She waved her hands a little bit over the ground and then ran back, a tightly woven stretcher made of vines trailing through the sand behind her.

"He doesn't need to walk if we can just get him onto this!" she told the standing man (although she wasn't sure how long she'd be able to think of him as the standing man--he looked like he was about to join his partner on the ground at any minute).

Hurry up, Chevron insisted. He knew carrying the man's weight through her eilemaiden would be no problem for Paisley, but something was happening here, and he wanted his clio to be out of sight as soon as possible.

Thankfully, the still-standing man helped Paisley get the other onto the stretcher. Both men groaned in pain. It didn't seem like a good idea for standing man to walk the fifty feet or so to the jungle brush.

"Let me get him over there, and then I'll come back for you," Paisley told standing guy. She was pretty sure she could have carried them both at once, but the stretcher she had made was too small for both of their bodies.

Henrik groaned as he was put on the makeshift stretcher. He was starting to fade in and out of consciousness, his eyes working to force themselves shut though he was putting up a good fight. He looked from the girl to his brother, who he was so proud of for fighting through all this.

As he started to lose track of what was going on around him, his eyes slowly closed themselves, and all he could hear were waves crashing in the distance.

(he'll wake up in a bit, you all can keep going -- all he was doing was grunting and junk, so until I have him wake up, he'll just be unconscious)

Even though the woman had assured Nils that she would be back for him, he didn't like being left alone on the beach so he started to slowly limp after her. Each step was like fire throughout his body, but the thought of someone else showing up while he was by himself kept him going. The woman and Henri were already out of sight, but Tanith managed to follow their trail into the jungle.

By the time he got to them, the woman was trying to ease Henri off the makeshift stretcher. His eyes were closed and he wasn't moving. Nils felt a coldness in the pit of his stomach. "Is he gonna be okay?" he asked the woman worriedly. With a lot of effort and a gasp of pain he knelt down next to them. "How can I help him?"

Paisley was in a small clearing she had created, the newly unconscious man lying on the stretcher, when she heard a lot of noise coming from behind her. She whirled around, vines rising off the ground as she did.

A huge wave of relief washed over her when she saw it was Standing Man. The vines dropped to the ground, and Paisley continued to tend to the other guy as SM stumbled over.

Standing Man wrote: "Is he gonna be okay? How can I help him?"

Paisley wasn't a doctor, but she was pretty sure that he would be okay. "He probably just passed out from the pain," she said. "I'm sure he'll be fine..."

She wiped more blood away. "You don't happen to be Ughdarras, do you?" she asked, hoping that the man could supply a little water to help wash this guy off.

Nils let out a sigh of relief. He seriously had no idea what he would do if Henri wasn't going to be alright. As long as Henri was okay, they could get by. Life wasn't great, or even good, but it was liveable.

Paisley wrote:You don't happen to be Ughdarras, do you?

"No," Nils replied, looking down and feeling more useless than ever. "Adhbhar. Sorry..."

He tried to get himself into a more comfortable sitting position, but only managed to make everything hurt worse. If he hurt this bad, he couldn't imagine what Henri must have felt if it made him pass out. "Ah..! Wh-what's your name?" he asked the woman in between deep breaths, trying to distract himself.

"Paisley," she said, absentmindedly. She was focusing on her work, trying to clean off the man as best as possible so she could try to decide what would be the best way to take care of his wounds. She flicked her hand, and the front part of the stretcher rose, elevating the man into more of a sitting position so that she could more easily slide his shirt off.

His body was covered in lacerations, slices cascading down his (beautiful, chiseled) chest. He was a mess.

After the stretcher sat back down on the ground, Paisley turned to look at SM. "I'm going to help you guys as much as possible, but you need to tell me if there is any danger here. What the hell happened?"

"Th-there might be. I don't think there is anymore, though," Nils replied, clutching his abdomen and grimacing. He tried to focus on Paisley tending to Henri. "We got attacked. I think we got away."

The gang who attacked them probably assumed they had drowned in the ocean. Hopefully, anyways. You could never know for sure, not with these guys. They were persistent, and if Nils was being completely honest with himself, they would probably succeed in their mission to kill the brothers one day. That, or try to drag the brothers back into their twisted world. Nils thought back and wondered what he had done to deserve this kind of life.

Attacked.

Paisley decided she would wait until the men were better to ask about why they had been attacked and who had done it. Chevron was still circling them, so just in case the attackers will still after them, Paisley would know.

"I forgot to ask," Paisley said, "What is your name?" The man on the ground was mostly clean now, so she turned to look at SM.

"Oh, um," Nils hesitated. Should he tell her his real name? Even though she was helping them, he couldn't shake all of his distrust after years of learning over and over again not to trust anyone but Henri. Well...it should be okay, at least, to give first names for now. "It's Nicholas. People usually call me Nils though."

By "people" he meant "Henri." The people he had grown up around--the captors and their associates--had always called him "Nick", which he always hated. Or maybe he just hated it because it was them.

"And he's Henrik," he added. Still holding his abdomen, he felt a weird bump on his ribcage. Broken rib, he thought, wincing. That explained why it hurt to breathe.

Standing Man had a name. Nils. She liked it. "Well, I wish I could say it was nice to meet you, Nils," Paisley said, trying to smile.

She watched him feel his side and wince. "Are you okay?" she asked, reaching over to put her hand over his. "We should probably clean you up, too." She was surprised he hadn't keeled over as well, with all the lacerations that covered his body. It hurt to look at him.

Now that Paisley was able to get a good look at Nils, she thought the pair looked like brothers. Besides the cuts and bruises all over their bodies, they both had the same crazy, curly hair.

"We should probably clean you up, too."

"Um...if you say so," Nils replied, still surprised by her kindness. He didn't think anyone had ever been this kind to them before, unless they had some ulterior motive. He hoped that wasn't the case with Paisley. She just seemed so nice.

He looked over at Henri, who was still unconscious. Part of him wanted his brother to wake up, but the other part knew it would be better for him to sleep through the worst of the pain.

Paisley took her time with Nils, trying to clean him up as carefully as possible so that she didn't hurt him anymore than was necessary.

She left the brothers only for a moment to walk a little into the jungle and twist some plants to collect some of their water. She brought it back and let's Nils drink--he looked really thirsty.

"I have to ask," Paisley said to Nils who was drinking readily from the make shift cup shed crafted out of a log, "is there a reason someone did this to you?"

The whole time she had been helping the men she was focused on just making sure they were okay, but now that she's had a chance to think for a minute, it could be that they were the ones that instigated whatever fight had left them like this.

It felt strange having someone tend to him like this. He didn't say anything while she cleaned his wounds, and mumbled a "thanks" when she brought him water, despite being very grateful. He wondered why she was doing so much for them. Could people really be this nice on their own, for no reason?

When she asked him why they had been attacked, he looked away. "I don't know," he lied, though he never was a good liar. "Must have been random, I guess."

He didn't think he could ever bring himself to tell anyone what they had been through. He barely even talked about it with Henri, unless he had to for some reason. Plus, if it got out to the rest of Nadar Isle who they really were and where they'd come from, they'd be in even more danger.

"So you're not some escaped criminals from Adhbhar?" Paisley asked him, trying to lighten the mood. She could tell he wasn't being entirely truthful, but her instincts told her that they weren't dangerous.

"I guess what I'm trying to ask is, do I need to worry about them coming to get us right now? Does my daemon need to keep circling us like some sort of hawk, or can he chill over here with us?"