!Camp out!--Avianna, Open

[Cernunnos Wilde]

"If you don't, then I'll make my cave crumble. I know the right stones, the wrong stones and the stones that hold the whole thing together. Consider yourself lucky: usually I kill my neighbors on-sight, but I've decided to let you live this long because you're pretty -- pretty young." He said, saving himself the twisted embarrassment that might have come from vocalizing the real reason he had not shot her when he first laid eyes on her, "And it would be a shame to have your life ripped away from you just yet. But like I said, I've killed before and I can do it again, just as easily."

He couldn't help but grin as he heard the girl curse and flinch and he knew it was from the wound he had inflicted upon her, for he was biting back a string of very creative curses that were forming in his mind in the wake of the dull throbbing pain in his hip. He was bleeding too and he wanted to go back to his cave and tend to it...before he made certain that she would not sleep a wink that night.

"And I'm not a bird, Ellie Mae." He added, for good measure.

[Ava Lynch]

"Fine." she said, dropping her bow to the ground from the hand she held it with. Her teeth slowly unclenched as she began to let go of her shoulder with her other hand, now sticky with blood. The smell reeked and it still stung, but she knew she was calming down and once she was in a proper state of mind she knew she could heal it. But right now her hand was shaking and she still had a flame of rage burning in her stomach.

Did he say? No, she misheard. He though she was a pitiful young girl still. "Oh, don't spare me on account of my age. I'd rather I died fighting than be saved as a little helpless girl." she said dryly. Everywhere she went, people asked her what she was doing-living the life she lived. Where was her family, her home, her to-be husband... It made her sick. It made her want to puke. It made her want to rip their guts out. Everyone thought, because of her looks, she should be in some palace surrounded by servants being catered to all day and night. Yuck.

Dispite her distaste in how the bird viewed her, Ava smirked when he asked her not to call him a bird. Hypocrite. she thought, "I'll stop calling you a bird, birdboy, when you stop calling me Ellie Mae." she shrugged, "And I guess, so far with what I've seen, that's not going to be any time soon."

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[Cernunnos Wilde]

At her words, Cernunnos had had enough. Who did she think he was? A common numpty? He was giving her a chance he wouldn't have given other people in a million years -- the chance to make peace, at least for the time being. And what did she do? Shoved it straight back in his face.

"Fine then! I won't!" He snarled, knocking an arrow to his bowstring, pulling it back to his ear and firing before a second thought crossed his mind. His arrow landed with a satisfying thrack! straight in the center of her thigh.

About a second later, Cernunnos realized what he had done, but he didn't feel too remorseful about it. Good riddance. She was annoying and didn't know when to shut her mouth. She had been extremely attractive, but she wasn't worth it.

"It'll be right between your eyes next time, if you don't die of infection first. Now goodnight, Ellie Mae." He finished, giving her an extravagant and melodramatic bow before departing, flapping his wings and disappearing into the sky above.

[Ava Lynch]

She hadn't expected the arrow at all. Ava didn't usually not expect things. In the marketplace, shopping she always was alert for pickpockets. In the forest she was always alert for bandits. But this, this she did not expect. It was like slow motion, the intense pain, her involuntary falling to the ground. She didn't even hear him say goodbye. She held both her hands around the arrow in her leg, not sure what to do. Her shoulder was completely forgotten, though it still dripped with blood. Her leg was all her mind could think about.

After about ten minutes of prodding and wincing and unbelievable pain, she slowly began to drag herself towards the back of her cave with her things, leaving a trail of blood. She finally got the courage to take it out, so she gripped the end and pulled. She tried to hold it back but she let out a scream of pain, echoing in her ears and around her cave. She felt wet tears forming around her eyes and her hands shaking like crazy. Even more blood poured from the wound and she had to use her only blanket to press down, trying to get the blood out.

Even through the pain and her... unfortunate scream, she did not let herself sob, or make any crying sounds. There was one thing she was not going to do, if she was going to die-it would not be crying like a baby. She'd take as much pride as she could hold on to in her grave. Her hands were shaking, her eyes watering and her lip quivering, but she was not and would not let herself cry.

Hours passed and she couldn't stop. She was getting cold but her only blanket (which was small enough in the first place) was covering her bleeding wound. Her shoulder had dried, still with smudged blood in a dripping pattern. She had been trying for hours but she couldn't recall the entire incantation for the healing spell, and even if she could she didn't have the strength or the concentration to preform it. Her eyes drooped and her muscles ached, but she couldn't go to sleep. If she did, she'd bleed out and die before she could awake. If Ava was anything, she was a survivor, and let she be damned if she let a little utter exhaustion kill her now. So she did all she could do, and hold on.

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[Cernunnos Wilde]

When he returned to his cave, Cerunnos immediately cleaned out his wound, dressed and bound it. Then he set about roasting a large mushroom over his fire and devouring it. This down, he lay in front of his fire absent-mindedly strumming his lute until he sprayed himself out on the blanket, fluffing out his wings, so they covered his entire body. He always slept on his stomach, so as not to damage his glorious wings. Letting out a peaceful sigh, he rubbed his cheek into the bundled-clothe that served as a pillow and waited for sleep to take him.

But sleep didn't come. Cerunnos readjusted his body over and over, trying to get comfortable, but he wasn't in physical discomfort at all: it was something that only seldom visited him that kept him awake this time. Guilt was coursing through him, keeping him awake and it wasn't only denying him of sleep: it was getting much worse. He couldn't even lay there without feeling horrible.

He sat up, his thoughts racing back to what he had done earlier. He tried telling himself that it was entirely her fault. Usually, with other people, this tactic worked wonders, but not this time. He couldn't push her from his mind and he certainly couldn't do anything, but feel like pure scum. He sighed, pulling himself to his feet, knowing what he had to do.

After gathering some supplies, he flew off the ledge of his cave and landed outside her...his basement. From there, he proceeded with caution as he gently gripped her by the arm.

"C'mon Ellie Mae, let me see the damage." He said, in a weary voice.

[Ava Lynch]

Avianna leaned away from him when he approached her, like a feral cat backing away from an approaching child. But when he gripped her arm she didn't bother pulling away when he took her arm. Like she could actually fight back if she even wanted to. His wound was already bound and cleaned, hers was barely even close to the path of healing.

"Why are you here?" she asked rather tentatively, her voice quiet with a bit of a shake to it."You come to admire your handy work?" she asked, her eyes not fearful but more cautious. Was he here to kill her, clean out her things so he could get his damn cave back? Or did he just want to see her in misery?

Her eyes flickered from him to her leg, which was still covered by the bloody blanket. She slowly removed it, revealing the bloody wound. Much of the blood around her wound was dry, but some was still wet. She couldn't help but wince at the sight and she turned back to the banshee, the sight just making the pain worse. She gave a short sigh, "There, happy? Or do you want to shoot me a couple more times to make sure I don't have any more blood left?" she asked, not bothering to hide the current hatred towards him show.

Ava wasn't usually sick around blood, she dealt with blood all the time, she killed animals for a living how could she not? But her own blood was different. Ava sometimes liked to fool herself that she was able to take on anything that came her way, anything that threatened her she could escape-or anything she got herself into she could get herself out. Her own blood, her own wounds-they showed she was human. Ava didn't like being proved wrong by anyone, let alone her own stupid, irresponsible actions.

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[Cernunnos Wilde]

"Well, if you put it that way, I can leave." The banshee snapped, his arms immediately crossing over his chest as he glared at the girl. "Now let me see, ingrate!" Without asking for permission, his fingers scrabbled for her coverings in what he guessed was the region of her thigh, but she beat him to it, revealing her thigh for all the world to see...all the world being at that point, just him.

Cernunnos drew in a sharp breath as he laid eyes on the bloody hole. The wound he had inflicted on her. He had dealt some nasty, scarring blows in the past. He had killed many times, but this still shocked him. Right, well, the damn feelings weren't going to leave him alone and he wasn't going to get any sleep until he set her straight on the path to healing.

"Shut up! And hold still!" He commanded, bending over her leg and peering into the wound. It was filthy and he was going to have to wash it before he could do anything with it. He cast around for a bucket of water and locating one, retrieved it and dampened a rag with its contents.

"This is going to sting." He informed her, his voice void of emotion. "Oh, and it's freezing-cold." And with that, he set about washing away the blood from her thigh, taking care not] to notice what nice thighs she had. After he had finished, he said, "Where is the arrow? I think a bit of the head is still trapped inside the flesh."

[Ava Lynch]

Avianna watched as the bird scrambled for a bucket, her eyes watching him and wondering what the hell he was doing. When he came with the pail, her question had been answered, but an entirely new one arose. So he was going to clean her wound, but why? Was this a common thing for him, to shoot someone then come down later to heal them? Or did this relate to the whole age thing again. The fact she was young. Ava didn't protest this time. It seemed a few other factors had come into play over that last bit that really changed her perspective on the whole situation.

Then the cold rag came and her muscles tightened fiercely. She managed to keep her injured leg still, but she clenched her teeth and tightened her hands into fists. When he was done she gave a sigh of relief, able to relax her body once more.

Then he said it. She sighed and turned her head to face him with a grim expression on her face. This was not going to be pleasant, was it? "The arrow is right here." she said quietly, picking it up and handing it to him. She turned away to face the wall, she just didn't want to look at the damn arrow. The stupid arrow... "Is it broken?" she asked, her voice not angry or scared-but accepting. Her way of life lead her to this, now it was time for the sweet consequences.

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[Cernunnos Wilde]

He snatched up the arrow and inspected the head and sure enough, there was a sizeable chunk missing. If the chip had stayed in one piece, then it would be easier to remove, but if it had shattered within the wound, he...they would be up all night removing it and Cernunnos really wanted to sleep.

What he had to do next wasn't something he was looking forward to, but it had to be done, but he figured he might as well warn her before he took the plunge, quite literally.

"It's broken." He confirmed. "I'm going to have to fish around inside the wound and pull it out, okay? It's probably going to hurt like a hammered bitch imitating a capella boy bands."

[Ava Lynch]

Avianna nodded, her heart beginning to race in attempt to prepare for such a pain. "Right, Yeah, just... Just try not to paralyse my leg. I kinda need that to-you know. Walk." her voice unable to hide just a trickle of fear that have overflowed from the tidal wave that had just overcome her. She glanced from her leg to the banshee, and she realized she didn't even know his name.

That kind of disturbed her, she had always tried to know what she could about her enemies, and names were a big one that usually weren't that tough to get. So here she was, sitting in this cave, a hole in her thigh and a complete stranger sitting beside her that had not only given her the wound, but was about to stick his fingers in it to find pieces of an arrow. She had no idea how this situation could get worse. Maybe if a giant bear came in and ate them both. That'd be pretty bad.

So, to make best of a bad situation, she grabbed the bloody remains of her blanket and held on. At least this time she might have something to take out the pain on instead of her own, empty fists with nails digging into her skin. "Okay. Get it over with." she said, her throat dry now.

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[Cernunnos Wilde]

Cernunnos wanted to reach into the the gaping wound in her leg just as much as he imagined she wanted his fingers there, but the alternative was probably a delayed-by-a-few-miserable-days death from infection. He still didn't exactly feel sorry for shooting her smack-dab in the center of her leg -- after all deserved it: did she really think she could mock him like she did without paying the consequences? -- but it was rather messy now.

After she gave the go--ahead, he plunged the very tips of his forefinger and thumb into the nasty, warm bloody wound and resisted with all his might not to yank his hand away and go flying away, screaming like a small child. As the wound was mercifully small, he felt the arrow shard right away and yanked it out without further ado. Holding it up to the flickering light of the fire. Blood dropped from it, but the arrow shard itself was intact.

"It's out." He said, discovering that he was shaking violently and drenched in sweat. "How bad is the pain?"

[Ava Lynch]

As soon as his fingers touched her flesh she felt hot pain radiating from her leg. Her body and uninjured limbed lurched in the unexpected intensity of it and she gave a slight grunt as she tried to keep herself still. Her hands tightened onto the blanket she was holding as if it was her lifeline, and her teeth were pressed tighter together tighter than an arm attached to the body.

After what seemed like an hour, he finally took it out and the pain slowly ebbed away so it wasn't quite as intense as before when he had his fingers in there, but it was still pretty bad, and it had started bleeding again more heavily.

Then he asked how bad the pain was, she scoffed and said with a very shaky, but still pretty sarcastic voice, "Oh, I don't know, probably as much as getting shot in the leg then having fingers pushed in the wound." she turned her face away from the banshee to stare at the wall again. "But." she said, as if she was forcing it out of her, "Thank you."

Ava wasn't usually the one to give sincere thanks. She took what she could get and waved goodbye, and even the wave was a gift from her. Giving thanks just seemed to be too polite for Ava, and Ava wasn't the most polite person in the world. So Ava was forcing the words from her mouth, mostly because she concluded that pulling out a chip of an arrow head from a wound with bare hands deserved a teensy bit of recognition. Just a little, bitty bit.

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[Cernunnos Wilde]

The banshee drew several long, shaking breaths, holding himself steady with one hand, the palm of which was pressed against the rocky floor of his basement. Now that he thought about it, he seemed more wrecked the actual patient. Shaking his head and screwing his focus to the sticking point, he rolled his eyes in response to her sarcastic comment.

"Could have been worse," He snapped, before he could stop himself, "There could have been nudity on both our parts. That is to say, there could have been parts." He snickered at his own genius for a moment.

"You're welcome." He said, without hesitation. Just because he was an outlaw didn't mean he had to be a complete heathen. He was still a prince, even if not in name. He had manners and class, even if he was a complete asshole.

Suddenly, Cernunnos got an idea. It was kept in a small pouch kept hidden at the back of his cave under a few stones. He had bought it off a stranger, pungent traveling peddler for quite the pretty stolen penny for when his all his fingers were broken after an unfortunate incident with a pirate. He 'practiced' a lot with pirates. He couldn't remember much of what happened, but he did remember that it worked.

"Don't move. I'll be right back." He ordered, as if she had the power to pack up and run away. Picking himself and flapping into the air, he retrieved the nameless substance and flew back to her side within a few short minutes.

"This will take the pain away." He said, pulling out the long-necked, roughly-cut, but still elegant pipe that the merchant insisted that he needed when he had bought the...stuff. He remembered smoking with it, even though smoking was a nasty, smelly, commoner habit in which he never engaged. Still, last time, it had been acceptable, as it had made the pain go away.

"You're going to have to smoke it." He added, unnecessary, as he packed a few generous pinches of the ground leaves and lighting it with a kindling splinter from the fire.

"Here," He said, holding out the pipe full of what he would later know as marijuana to his charge.

[Ava Lynch]

Ava rolled his eyes at the joke, privately thinking it was a little funny-but was honestly in too much pain to care for stupid jokes. She then watched as he left the cave, proclaiming he'd be back. Why would he even want to come back, if I could leave I sure as hell would not be coming back... she grumbled in her head.

After he was gone she sat up and began to place the blanket back on her wound, this time folding it nicely and wrapping it around the wound neatly. It may now still hurt, but the chance of her actually dying was now significantly minimized. She tied the blanket rather loosely and began to pick at the dried blood around her shoulder wound.

By the time he had returned he was carrying some sort of pipe. She watched him approach with eyes that clearly read, what the hell are you doing with that thing?. "That is going to take my pain away?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Though she rarely accepted anything from strangers other than money and things she had bought, she didn't really have a choice in the matter. Her leg felt like it had gone through a meat grinder and she'd have to accept something, anything to drive it away. So, cautiously she took the pipe, looking to over quickly.

Ava herself had never smoked anything in her life, she hadn't even had much experience with alcohol either. She mostly just didn't care to swallow smoke, or act like an idiot drunk on beer. She knew people who let secrets go when they were out of it, and Ava didn't want that to happen to her, not after taking so much care in her life to keep herself a secret.

When she figured she didn't care if it was poisoned or not, she took a huge inhalation, immediately dropping the pipe to cough into her arm. The smoke filled her entire throat and even went up her noise, creating almost a pinching sensation. It stung her throat like the smoke in a forest fire she had been caught in two years ago. She spluttered over her arm and turned to him with narrowed eyes, "What-" cough "-the hell-" cough "-is that?" she croaked through her coughing.

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[Cernunnos Wilde]

"If you'd rather not, I won't force it on you. I can just put it all back." The banshee shot back, testily. He knew she would smoke it. He had when he had been going through the finger incident.

"I don't rightly know." He said, a little thoughtfully, as he rinsed out the rag and washed the fresh blood 'caused by the 'surgery' away from her thigh. "I bought it off a traveling merchant when my hand was practically crushed from a bad fight with a pirate. He said if I smoked it, I wouldn't feel the pain. I don't really remember how it made things better, but I don't remember any pain, so..." He shrugged non-commitally. He had already established that the stuff wasn't poisonous and while smoking was rather disgusting, in his opinion, it's not like he had a better idea.

He left her side for a minute go and root around in her things, which so much as a grunt asking for permission. He returned a moment later with an old rag, which looked clean enough, before he started binding the wound.

"Hope this wasn't a a glamorous ballgown for high society gatherings." He commented, as he tore it in one place to make it fit around her thigh.

Finally, his work done, he sat back on his haunches and watched her with the pipe. It didn't seem possible, but breathing in the smoke from her made him crave to taste the stuff again. Not that he'd want to again after this, mind, but he really wanted a taste right now and was that so wrong? Besides, maybe the stuff worked on nerves too: heaven only knew his senses were shocked after a medical encounter like that.

"Hand it over," He ordered, reaching for it, "My nerves are shot."