STRANGERS IN THE WOODS|| Nora & Tad
Nora didn't want to go home, it was empty and sad if she was being honest. She also didn't want to go to the bar, the other night where she'd become a singing sensation was proof of that. She'd tried going shopping, sales people weren't supposed to talk, but after belting a few choruses out and disrupting it, she ended up buying a few pieces of jewelry she had nothing to do with and ducking out of the store. So here she was. Walking along the forest with her bottle of jack. Her one true friend. The woods were always nice to visit. People avoided them because of Ashkent's "dangerous" tendencies, but they flourished with beauty she'd never really stopped to contemplate before. Beauty, oh no.. she could feel a song coming. Her mouth forced itself open and she could feel the build up of her vocal chords when she heard the snap of a twig near her. "Hello?" The song had changed to a Pink Floyd song. "Hello, Hello. Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me."
Tad had been itching to go outside again without worrying about evil snowmen (and regular snow) for what felt like months. Even though the snow was still melting in certain places, he was finally free to enjoy the outdoors again, and it wasn't too cold to be out and about at night. He'd been enjoying his little hike, listening to the nocturnal noises of all the creatures- if his feet carried him that way, he thought it would be nice to go check the river and see if the wild frogs were out and about- but as luck would have it, he ran into another person instead. Through the slight moonlight, he saw a small bottle clutched in the hand of a short person and paused, wondering if he should try to avoid them or not, when they called out to him. In song. That sounded like it was being ripped from their vocal chords. Maybe they were really drunk and needed help getting home. Or maybe they just really liked outside, like he did. He carefully stepped towards them, fingers pulling nervously at his coat sleeves. "Hello, I can hear you just fine. Why-" the words 'are you singing like that' were hastily stopped. "What are you doing out here so late?"
Nora swallowed back the music. Curse this town. She’d thought being old was bad with her achy bones and going memory but this had to be worse. “I’m just enjoying a walk.” Nora managed to croak out. Every bit of her wanted to sing those words, but she’d managed to refrain from it. That self-control didn’t last for long. “It’s a nice night, for a walk in the moonlight. It’s a nice night to look up at the stars.” She coughed at least trying to get the song to change. “What about you?” A mellowed filled her voice. “Don’t you know it’s dangerous out here? Unsafe out here?” She needed to get to the bottom of this singing problem asap. Taking a quick drink from her bottle, Nora offered her empty hand. “I’m Nora Pine. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Still musical, but she thought that introduction could have passed for a colorful greeting and not an attempt at a serenade. Good, she was getting better at this. Her eyes hovered over the person in front of her. He didn’t look scary or intimidating, then again Nora wasn’t one to fear anything.
Tad adjusted his gloves before he reached out to shake her hand, smiling brightly. "Tad Jones. Hello, Nora, it's a pleasure to meet you too! I'm taking a walk as well, but without the drink and singing. Are you having fun out here?" Where had he heard that name before? Hadn't she been a candidate for mayor at some point? He wanted to assume she was drunk from the stilted way she was making all that noise, but the bottle didn't look anywhere near empty, and she didn't seem to have any impaired motor function. This was a curious situation. "If you're what I find in the woods at night, I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dangerous. I like your-" he motioned to his throat- "You're switching songs a lot, though."
No, Nora was not having fun out here. There weren’t supposed to be people out here. All the people were supposed to be inside their little homes fearing their little lives. Not walking in the woods at night. Who did that. She took another drink of her jack. It occurred to her that this Tad Jones fellow didn’t smell human. Her sense of smell being different was something Nora was still slowly getting used to. All her life she’d always had a great sense of smell, when she was younger she learned everyone couldn’t smell fear. Still, even after that, it’d never occurred to her that people also couldn’t smell major differences like her. This Tad Jones figure smelled damp.. Almost like a pond. “Thanks.” The word was belted out in a strong Whitney Houston tone. ‘Fuck me.’ Nora thought as she coughed “I can’t help it. I can’t stop singing.” Another song tore from her lips. “Help! I need somebody, Help! Not just anybody.” She shoved the bottle to her mouth, drowning out the music as she took another gulp. As her hands fell down they bumped against the jewelry she didn’t want in her pocket. Pulling out a necklace with a leaf on it, Nora looked at Tad. “Do you want a necklace? It’s” Another song forced its way out “Freeeeee free for you.”
"You... Oh!" Tad felt silly for not thinking that she might be cursed, blinking one eye shut at the powerful, rising note. Were her vocal chords holding up okay under all that strain? "Can I help? Do you know a way to make the singing stop?" A small part of him lit up in warning when she offered him the necklace, reminding him that accepting things from strangers in the woods was how trouble started, but he dismissed it. After all, she was suffering form a curse herself, so she probably wouldn't give a cursed item away. Right? He held out his hand for the necklace, still slightly hesitant, and tried not to flinch too hard at the volume of her voice. "That's very kind, thank you." The bushes rustled off to the side, the noise nearly lost with Nora's singing.
Nora ‘s shoulders rose in a shrug. “Who knows.” She sang out. “Maybe I’ll be stuck like this forever.” The worst thing about this music thing was it showed too much emotion. That last song was a slow ballad, obviously meant to show the pain of the singer. Nora wasn’t one for showing anyone her pain, much less having any pain. Nora delicately plopped the piece of jewelry in Tad’s hand. “I think it’ll look good with your hair.” She sang. She really had no clue what that meant, but that was a compliment she’d heard people give before and she was passing off her unwanted jewelry on someone. She was about to say something else when something struck her in the knee. “OOOOOW” Her cry for pain ended up sounding like the start to a nineties rock anthem. “What was th-“ Her question was lost when she saw Tad’s face. “I just saw a face I can’t forget the time and place where we just met, he’s just the boy for me and I want all the world to see we’ve met.” Then she smiled at him.
"Forever!" That was a scary thought, but it was stamped out by a rush of warmth when Tad heard her compliment; it came out of nowhere and took him completely by surprise. It would look good with his hair... somehow, he had no idea why, but it made him beam and drop his gaze to the necklace in his hand. "I wish I could give you something in return, but I don't think I have anything but lint on my person right now." The words were hardly out of his mouth before he was flinching back, startled out of the haze by a tiny stick- an arrow?- sprouted from her leg. Was she bleeding? Was she going to be okay? How did one fix an arrow wound? Immediately, his hands started to shake, and his voice did the same as he started to babble. "Oh my god, are you okay? Where did that come from- what are you singing about?" He peered around frantically, but he couldn't see any which direction it had come from, nor any attacker in the dull moonlight.
Tad wanted to give her something in return! Oh, that made her so happy! Now he was asking if she was okay, he was so attentive and caring. Tad Jones, Nora kept beaming at him. "So he said what's the problem Nora? What's the problem I don't know! Well, maybe I'm in love." Nora didn't bother getting the arrow out of her knee as she straightened to her feet to get a better luck. "Love! Think about every time I think about it can't stop thinking about it." There was a bit of her that was shouting at her. A little part that said 'Don't be stupid, Nora, you just met him. This isn't love. "How much longer will it take to cure this cause I can't ignore it if it's love" She threw her hands up "Love! Makes me want to turn around and face me but I don't know nothing 'bout love." How could a stranger be so kind, so worried about where they were being attacked from. Nora didn't care about that now. All she cared was Tad Jones and her were standing together in the moonlight. Nothing could be more romantic.
Tad thought it was safe to say he'd never experienced someone acting in this particular way towards him. Nora was acting strange in a different way than she had been a few moments ago, and she was going to injure herself even more if she kept moving around on that knee. He didn't feel warm anymore, just anxious and slightly sick. "I think I'm going to call an ambulance," he told her, fishing his phone out of his pocket and pulling his gloves off. The phone's touch screen was a constant annoyance because it couldn't sense his fingers through the material of his gloves, so whenever he wanted to use it, he had to take them off. And, as he found out upon unlocking the device, it had no service, probably due to them being in the middle of the woods. Tad bit his lip, sniffled once, and stowed it back in his pocket. "Okay. There's no service. Do you know which way the nearest road is? We could go back to my house and call one from there, but it's pretty far for someone with an injury." He had a bad feeling about all this.
Go back to Tad's house? Tad wanted to take her home? All the love welling inside of her was enough to eject any form of pain from her body. The small bit of her, that retained logic, reminded her that she had an arrow in her knee and he was trying to get her help. That logic part also helped fuel this new found feeling of love. How kindly he cared for her, a stranger he just met! "I'm coming over!" Nora sang loudly, almost jumping with excitement. She wobbled forward towards Tad who'd looked at his phone. She should put her number in there so he could always reach her. Nora reached forward and grabbed his hand, it was kind of slimy feeling. Maybe he was just nervous around her, Nora knew she was an intimidating and fear inducing creature so that was okay. "Take me h-" The song didn't get to finish, her bottle of jack feel to the ground as a tingling sensation started spreading through the hand that was touching Tad's. "What's happening?" Nora managed to ask, right before she collapsed on the ground, unable to control her body.
How could someone with an arrow wound and a singing curse be so fast and light on their feet? Tad didn't even see Nora coming, just the bare skin of her hands pressing over his, and then it was too late to try to get away or warn her back. Now it was confirmed that bad things were definitely happening tonight. "Shit! I'm so sorry!" His stupid bare hands glinted wetly, but instead of putting his gloves back on, he tried to catch her and at least make it so she didn't fall onto the arrow wound. Unfortunately, he wasn't used to how slick he was, and she fell out of his grasp. Right. The gloves went back on and the trembling spread throughout his entire body. How was he going to help her if she was paralyzed? He couldn't leave her alone like this in the woods at night to go call for help, but he didn't know if he could move her on his own. He dropped to his knees beside her. "It's just because you touched my skin. It's covered in a toxic mucus that, um, paralyzes whoever comes in contact with me. As you're probably experiencing. But it shouldn't hurt! And it'll only last about fifteen or twenty minutes! It definitely won't kill you, unless you're allergic. But I don't think you are, I don't see any hives." His voice was steadily rising in pitch and speed. "Nora, please, which way is the road?"
Nora laid motionless, staring up at the moon light. It drifted down on her so peacefully, she could hear Tad speaking and was able to understand everything, but she still couldn't respond. He was so concerned about her, and sorry. Tad would never want to hurt her, she knew that to be true. He'd tried to catch her fall and everything. Tad was a gentleman. He was so precious to her already. She wanted to stroke his face and tell him it was okay, she couldn't blame him for having toxic mucus on his skin. Those things happened! That's the kind of thing Ashkent Creek was all about. He was asking her where to go, but she couldn't move her mouth and tongue to answer. She wanted to tell him he didn't have to worry. She was happy just staying here in the moonlight with him, and to keep holding her hand. In her mind she started to sing 'And I, will always love you, will always love you.'
Right. Of course she wouldn't be able to talk to him. "Okay. It's okay. It's okay! I can just..." he trailed off, knowing that removing the arrow himself and binding her leg was the only option. But he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. "Right. I'm going to take- the ... it- out. I think I have to bind it up. And then I'll see if I can move you. If I can, I'll take you back to my place, and if not, we can just wait for the toxin to wear off." As he spoke, he shrugged out of his jacket and one of his shirts, ripping it into smaller pieces that could easily be tied around a gushing, painful, horrendous wound. 'You're a doctor,' Tad told himself sternly as he took a deep breath and tried not to feel faint. He wasn't actually the kind of doctor that was useful, but he was the only one here. He was all she had. He gently arranged her so she was laying flat on her back, and finally looked at the arrow like he was looking at a spider on the wall, seeing what position it was in without staring long enough to get panicked and lose his nerve. It was now or never. He grasped the shaft with both hands and yanked. It came loose surprisingly easy, and he tossed it aside like it was burning hot in his hands. A soft mantra of "shit, shit, shit," fell from his mouth as he fumbled for the ripped shirt, tying it firmly around the wound and layering it as much as he could. The world was spinning around him. There was blood all over his gloves. His eyes flew to Nora's face, to make sure she was still alive and breathing, but she was just a blur. Maybe just for a moment, she'd be okay? He breathed out and slid back from her, hands falling from her side as he dropped to the ground. It was a nice, firm place to put his head when the world wouldn't stop turning.
Nora liked the sound of Tad's voice. His voice was so reassuring to her. When he said it was okay, Nora believed she was okay. Why would Tad lie to her? He was only the love of her life. She'd never been in love before, but she knew what it was because her fathers had been so in love. Honestly, she'd never really believed in it despite seeing it. Now that she was feeling it, it filled her with such joy. Every time Tad's face came into her field of vision her heart would beat faster and butterflies would dance in her stomach. He'd decided he would take the arrow out of her leg, and she knew if that's what he thought then it was the right choice. Tad only wanted to take care of her and take her home after all. Pain shot through her body as the wound was being touched, but she didn't make a sound. It's not like she could have, but it was okay. Tad's touch made it better, not in a way of getting rid of her pain, but just knowing that he was there for her and would take care of her. Everything was going to be okay. She'd kiss him thank you later.
Tad waited a good minute or two before it was safe to lift himself up off the ground, considering himself lucky he didn't full-on faint like he used to in medical school. Resolutely not looking at her leg, he picked himself up, making sure he could stand on his own. Next, he picked Nora up by her arms and hoisted her over his shoulder like she was an oversized doll. He giggled, only a little hysterically, thanking his lucky stars that Nora was a tiny person and not too much for him to carry on his own. That was how they made their way back to his house, arriving there just as the toxin was wearing off. An ambulance was called, and he felt like he could breathe again. "I'll visit you in the hospital," he assured his new friend as she was loaded into the vehicle, having every intention of doing just that. "I promise."
