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Post by The Jenn on Jul 31, 2008 0:20:54 GMT -5
Felaria returned about twenty minutes later with a bowl of warm, cooling water and a few clean rags. She stopped in the doorway when she saw that he was awake and propped up. There was something on his face... it looked like half a pair of glasses, except it didn't look broken. She didn't know the word for it, but it somehow only added to his beat-up attractiveness. She hadn't thought that was possible at this point. Yum.
"Good to see that you've graduated from unconscious sack of human to awake and aware," she finally drawled after she'd had her fill of looking at him, a grin in place. She entered the room and put the bowl on the small table, holding the rags in one hand and reaching out to lightly tap the glass of the monocle with the other. Personal space? What was that? "Mind telling me what you call the little thinger on your face?" she asked curiously, moving in for a better look.
After a cursory glance, taking in the unbelievable shade of his eyes along with it - how did eyes even come in that color? - she pulled back and dunked one of the rags in the water. "You got a pretty good smack-job on your head. Lean around so I can git to it, would ya?" She paused, wringing out the water from the rag. "Oh yeah. My name's Felaria. Told ya I'd give it to ya eventually." The grin returned and she leaned forward to tend to his head, whether he accommodated her by positioning himself or not.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jul 31, 2008 0:34:20 GMT -5
Harold was speechless. Never in his life had he been treated in such a manner, and never in his life had he heard such a bizarre vocabulary. This was completely out of his element. He was also completely taken aback at the lack of personal space.
"It's a monocle," He said as he watched her dipped the rags in water. Now he didn't quite understand the sudden command that she gave him until he was reminded by the pounding of his head. He leaned forward so she could theoretically reach.
Oh! So she did have a name. Well, that was nice to know. At least he could still be a gentlemen and introduce himself. Of course it was less dignified than he was used to, but there was no point in trying to impress her when he was covered in mud and had been dragged back to wherever this was.
"My name's Harold. Where exactly am I?"
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 31, 2008 0:46:54 GMT -5
"Monocle. Huh." She tried the word out on her tongue, wondering where it came from. It sounded pretty funny. His name sounded a lot better to her ears and she ignored his question for a moment to try it out as well. "Harold. Harold and his monocle." She laughed and shook her head. "Funny when you put it like that. And you're in the swamp, boyo. No gettin' around that."
She cleared his hair back away from the little egg-shaped lump and gingerly touched it with the cloth. It would probably hurt like a bitch at the slightest contact but she needed to wipe the blood off and make sure it was clean. "Trust me when I say you don't want the kinda stuff that'll get into this if I don't clean it," she told him sympathetically, dabbing at it again before rinsing the cloth. It would take a little while to coax some of the dried blood away. At least his scalp was clean of slime. From the shoulders down, though, his mane would need a good wash after she bandaged his head. The prospect made her tail curl happily.
"To be a little more helpful, you're a ways into Golfam now, maybe a few miles through the marsh and the muck. I wouldn't try to get out without a guide if I was you. The swamp likes to... eat people, specially in our neck of the woods." She smirked. Some of the residents could stick to their little shantytowns in the safer bits. She and her granddaddy liked the security and the privacy.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jul 31, 2008 1:02:56 GMT -5
This was surreal even for him. Going from the Court of Clubs to some place in the middle of swamp. He never really expected to end up in a place where the Esterberry in him cringed at the lack of grammar and people didn't know what monocles were.
He got over it fast when Felaria put the damp rag on his wound. He cringed from the contact, but bit down on his lip so he wouldn't actually protest. Wonderful. It could have been so much worse though.
"Golfram..." he said quietly. And he was in a backwater place that was difficult to get escape from. At least no one had tried to eat him alive or anything like that. "Didn't think I'd end up here after leaving the courts." This was the last place in all the regions that he expected to end up in. He was at a lost.
Damn it his head hurt. Thinking straight wasn't going to happen. That stupid bastard couldn't have just poisoned him, no, he had to smack him over the head with something! Harold squeezed his eyes shut and did his best not to curse.
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Post by The Jenn on Jul 31, 2008 7:36:22 GMT -5
Felaria paused in her ministrations as soon as he mentioned the Courts. Something in her eyes gleamed and she leaned closer, the very thought of a former Court member in their house making her excited. Granddaddy would have a field day with this one! It would wipe the grumbles right off his face, especially if she could get some useful information from him before she headed out to make her way. Granted, she was sure the Club and Heart Courts were different things altogether, but it would still give her a leg-up.
Her teeth gnashed together quietly in excitement as she thought, continuing to clean the head wound. If the slime had gotten up there, she would have been a lot more worried. As it was, if she washed it good and got it bandaged quick, everything would probably be fine. Watching him squeeze his eyes shut like that and bite his lip was incredibly cute. She had the strangest urge to lick him. She'd never been this close to a human before.
"Funny you should mention the Courts," she said in an offhanded tone once she began to wrap his head in clean linens. It wouldn't obscure his vision in either eye. "I was jus' on my way there when I saw you hangin' like bait from that tree. Rat-bait." She laughed and shook her head. "Seems ta've worked. Anyway, you hungry at all?"
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jul 31, 2008 19:51:35 GMT -5
She was going to Courts? The Court of Hearts no less? Harold wasn't quite sure how to react to that, and was thankful for the distraction of food. Struggling to sit up further he nodded. "Food would be nice."
His head was still ringing. At least she had taken care of it. Oh right. His manners. "I'm terribly sorry I forgot my manners. Thank you for saving me. I honestly thought I was going to die out there." He shouldn't could his chickens before they hatched. He was in the middle of nowhere with a complete stranger.
It was better than being with his "friends" though. He refrained from sighing. Harold had to show his gratitude and hopefully the rumors about people in Golfram weren't true. He really did enjoy being alive, and she was going through quite a bit of trouble to keep him that way. It's not like he could get away if he was in trouble. This was a whole new level of bad.
Well... he was getting a change of pace from the courts, that was true. Maybe he could find himself after this... whole ordeal.
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Post by The Jenn on Aug 4, 2008 13:21:32 GMT -5
Felaria laughed in delight as he remembered his pretty manners, leaning back and grinning. "Well, if'n you're gonna be like that when you talk, Granddaddy shouldn't have any problem lettin' me fix that busted head o'yours." Head injuries were always tricky and it looked as though he'd gotten a bit of a beating besides from the bruises she'd glimpsed on his torso. The time it would take to make sure he was well and safe to travel had initially made her granddaddy squawk when she announced her intent, but the man was her find and he would do what she wanted with him. This bit of information would just make it a little bit easier to calm him down.
"I think we've got some gator stew in the icebox that I can heat up some. One of our cousins has a spell like that for ice." She grinned, proud of the fact that their home had a form of refrigeration. It may have been slightly more common closer to the border, but in the backwater it was almost unheard of. "Jus' give me a second an' I'll be back."
She left and about half an hour later returned, bowl of soup steaming and a smug smirk on her muzzle. As she'd hoped, a brief explanation of what Harold had told her appeased the fat older rat and he'd even encouraged her to get the man some food. It would be wise, cultivating a connection like the human could be. She agreed, but almost more important was making sure that pretty head of his didn't get any more blows. "Gotcher vittles right here," she told him in an almost sing-song drawl.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Aug 10, 2008 22:32:48 GMT -5
What? Had all that head trauma done something to his head so he couldn't understand... anything this girl was saying, or was it just a painfully heavy accent that lacked grammar. Before the Esterberry could even bother asking she had left the room.
And she didn't come back for a half and hour. Harold was left to his own devices in the middle of nowhere. With a small sigh he leaned back on the bed. This really wasn't making much sense. Middle of nowhere. Golfram. A rather cute rat girl was talking to him... sort of. At least the haze of jumbled thoughts was preventing him from falling asleep.
The Esterberry perked up when Felaria reappeared. Though he was confused by the vittles comment. Gator...stew. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about eating such a concoction. Harold hesitated when she offered him the dish. After a few moments of struggling he managed to the sitting position where he could actually eat something.
He hesitated when he was offered the dish. He gave a small "Thank you" before dipping his soup in the mixture. It didn't look like any soup he was used to having. He took a quick bite of it, trying not to let the taste linger on his tongue.
He whimpered as his eyes began watering. "Hot..." he whimpered. Harold was obviously a wimp when it came to spice.
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Post by The Jenn on Aug 13, 2008 23:11:00 GMT -5
Felaria watched him struggle to a sitting position with a bit of a frown, part of her wanting to help him sit up and another part of her smacking it down and telling her not to be a silly chit. He could do it on his own or he could ask for help. Either way she couldn't tear her eyes off of him and was glad he gave more attention to the soup than to her expression. It was alert and interested, maybe a little too interested. Her granddaddy probably wouldn't be happy at that face and the thought made her roll her eyes at her own head spoiling things.
When he whimpered and sucked in air to try and ease the burn, she leaned over and gave him a curious look. "I didn't leave it on that long, boyo, an' I let it cool a little. What's the matter?" All of their food had heavy spicing, partly because that was just the regional taste and partly to conceal anything that might be a little 'off' about the ingredients. If you put enough salt and spices on anything, you could make it halfway palatable. It was lucky for Harold that they did in fact have some means of refrigeration.
"Lemme just grab you somethin' t'drink, then, since I feel like an idjit for not doin' it before." She resisted the urge to tug on her ear in self-annoyance. Drink with the food, girl, drink with the food. He's not so pretty that you should be losing your head.
...oh yes he is. She snorted at herself and went to get him some clean water in a tall ceramic mug.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Aug 13, 2008 23:34:51 GMT -5
"No, Spicy," Harold corrected as he fanned his mouth with his free hand. He was used to bland food, or food that had been spiced up with various mild herbs. Spicy had never been in his vocabulary, let alone his palette. He tried to suck in more air to cool off his mouth as he watched Felaria disappeared from the room.
She was obviously a nice teenage girl, not that bad to look at. Which was generally why he thought that he was either hallucinating or dead. Were most Golfram residents supposed to be.... hideous monsters.... and things like that? Then again all Esterberries were supposed to be complete and utter pricks. He proved that wrong half of the time.
He took several deep breaths and took another bite to see if he could manage. He choked down the bit of meat that he had put in his mouth. This was going to be a long and painful meal.
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