“Julaa, I’m glad I found you - I’m not sure we should be here,” Tez called, trailing off as she emerged from the wooded path The woman’s furred face scrunched in agony, her arms crossed tightly across her body as she rocked in silent horror. Tez instinctively dropped into a crouch, years of experience in the forest on display. Slowly she crept toward her friend, one hand outstretched, her silver skin dappled in the filtered sunlight. “Julaa?”
Julaa only curled her limbs tighter into herself, rocking against the tree at her back. An unending muttering fell from her lips, hardly pausing her litany to breathe. Tez fought a retch at the sight of fresh blood damp around the tender nubs that remained of her traumatized antlers. Her free hand groped for the medallion at her neck and felt the answering calmness rush through her body. Her fingers tingled as she crept forward, less than an arm’s length away now. Fresh abrasions ran from Julaa’s shoulders to elbow, disturbing the fur patterns - deep scratches, Tez suspected, assessing her friend with forced detachment. She could not see the woman’s face, cradled in her arms.
“Julaa, don’t be afraid,” Tez said calmly as she closed the distance between them. She knelt before her friend and took a breath before cautiously reaching out, hovering her hands just above the woman’s shoulders. She said a silent prayer and closed her eyes, touching her fingers to Julaa’s furred skin.
A blinding, searing pain throbs through her, emanating from her brow. A cry rips from her throat as rough hands tear at her tunic, knives slicing her skin like the flesh of an overripe fruit. Blood runs sticky through her fur, the copper tang burning her nostrils. There is so much yelling, the voices of her kinsmen crying out, the sounds of fighting, but she is held captive. She screams as she is hauled to her feet by her antlers, her head shaken roughly in her captor’s hands. Distant above her she hears something snap in awful finality, her skull rending in two, rivulets of blood running down her face. Her jaw crumbles pathetically under the force of a heavy punch, teeth clamping down on the soft flesh of her tongue. She chokes as blood floods her mouth, struggling to breathe. The fire fills the air with its acrid smoke, feeding indiscriminately on lapruni bodies and wooden huts alike. Another snap above her and she is dropped to the loamy ground, facing her burning village. Screams burn her ears, her tribemates crying out for mercy, begging for their lives as she bleeds in the dirt, watching the flames rage against her family until the blood hazes her vision.
With a pained cry Tez tore herself from the carnage, snapping her eyes open only to meet Julaa’s sunken gaze. Julaa’s mouth was slack in silent horror, the muttering stopped only by her muted scream. Tez slowly brought her right hand to the woman’s brow, her skin emanating a cold blue light as she stroked the tender flesh. A deep gash abraded the translucent skin over the bone spur on her left temple, the skin knitting together reluctantly under her ministration. Julaa trembled violently at the touch, muscles taut with fear but paralyzed. Her terror-filled gaze captured Tez in their unblinking stare, the horrors of the attack playing clearly in her eyes. The druid softly moved Julaa into her embrace, her hands working over the new injuries, mending with the cold blue light cast from her fingers as she cradled her friend to her chest.
A familiar wave of power crested within her, steady as the quiet earth below them, and all at once Julaa collapsed against her body, unable to take more sensation. Tez’s hands moved over her body as best as she could manage, stemming the blood and urging her skin to heal. Julaa’s breath deepened in her unconsciousness, a sign of healing Tez was grateful for, and she sighed as the healing spell dissipated from her fingers. “I’m sorry,” she murmured in a chant under her breath, stroking the short tuft of hair at Julaa’s crown.