⋅⋅⊱༻ ODD WOMAN'S HOUSE ༺⊰⋅⋅

The construction is pretty solid, the walls made out of rock and mud are thick, trapping the warmth from the fireplace inside. The interior is simple, it has a main living room with an old kind of torn sofa and a low table, the floor and walls are decorated with carpets that lost their colors. There are only two other wooden doors, the house didn’t look that big from outside, so it probably only has three rooms total.

⋅⋅⊱༻༺⊰⋅⋅

The moment Clematia steps into the space, she feels her muscles relax, and something inside her stop being so alert; finally a shelter to hide in from the malevolent eyes of the pirates.. not that they crossed paths with them, the fog made it hard to see very far, but she kept seeing them pop out from the corner of her eyes. Mito on the other hand seemed wary, and she understands why he feels that way, but they can't go around yelling "WIITCH!" and pointing fingers at every odd woman they find…

Yohei does his best to maneuver Cyrus's dead weight inside, he lowers himself to put him down—

“—Not there.” Clematia turns to the woman with a pleasant smile. “May we please put him on the sofa? If you don't mind.”

“Of course... You can also use the bed... It's empty...”

The woman opens one of the doors, revealing a bedroom inside with an old queen size bed that looks like it would collapse under the slightest pressure. Next to it is a wooden chair and a small nightstand.

"Oh that would be perfect! Thank you! Thank you for your generosity!" She bows to her and wastes no time to head into the room, sending them a ‘follow me’ look.

"let's get iiin~"

Konran and Yohei finally drag him to the room, laying him down on the bed as the mattress and bed frame produce an awful creaking noise under his weight, they almost feel sorry for the thing, but despite the dramatic act, it seems to hold.

Their host only follows them inside to light some candles, then heads out into the living room once more.

Cyrus lays as limp and motionless as a mannequin…

"boy he's a deep sleeper!" Konran says as she finally flops his legs onto the mattress and dusts her hands, then rests them on her hips as she looks down proudly at a job well done.

Yohei watches as Cyrus’ chest barely rises and falls, the movement almost too minute to see.....He's dead.. is he dead? Does this count as "safe" even if he's alive? Did he already mess up? Vargas didn't specify what "safely" stands up for...

Clematia puts down her pack by the foot of the bed and stands over Cyrus, scanning him from head to toe.

"..His face has gained back some color, at least.”

She then bends down and hovers over him a little.

sniff sniff

"..He reeks of alcohol but there is something else in there, it's fish, but somehow nastier?.."

Konran hovers over him from the other side of the bed.

Sniffsniffsniffsniffsnifffffff

“mm yeeh definitely fish! Also sweat, blood, fear and sea salt!"

Well, there are some splatters of blood on the front of his coat, hopefully not his.

Yohei flops on the floor, exhausted, and throws his head back to rest on the wall behind him.

"…... You can fix him up right?"

He's so tired… the cleaning, the beating, the dodging, then the ROWING (terrible) and then carrying Cyrus, not to mention the sleepless night he had before departing.. he might just doze off here and now on the floor, although he hates the thought of closing his eyes in this creepy woman's house.

"....I'm not a professional, but I'll try.... and you should wear something or you'll catch a cold."

Her tone had gone cold and serious the moment she started diagnosing Cyrus, she's watched and assisted mrs Evanthe in tending to the ill and injured in the village, but she never treated anything serious herself.

"..Oh.. yeah." He’s in his undershirt, all that exercice and adrenaline must have kept him warm. He turns sluggishly to fish his change of clothes from his pack.. he had somehow lost his coat in the chaos of it all, he packed another one but… Siiigh it was a really nice coat.

"We heard them talk about scars, let’s look for them.” She looks up at Konran. “We should also change him into something more comfortable while we're at it."

"cool!!"

"....... Well would you help me." ‘Why is she just standing there looking at me?’ She moves to unbutton his coat.

It looks expensive, a single button is probably worth more than Clematia's monthly pay. ‘freaking nobles’. "Can you lift his back off a bit so I can slide- slowly— be careful." ‘Konran I swear-’

"How slow??" She's not good at taking instructions nor being careful... This is so difficult...! Even setting the explosions off was easier!

"Just hold him still like that." She slides the coat off his arms and back and then his shirt and undershirt, not without a fair bit of difficulty.

…!

"... There is blood on the back of his undershirt..! ...let’s turn him around."

"Okay!" She flips him over gently. "By the way, why's Mito not helping?!"

"?! Excuse me I don't have the infinite stamina you do."

…

He ends up feeling self conscious and getting up anyway, he also wants to check up on Cyrus's state......... ooh. oh……

Cyrus's back is decorated with long thin slits, blood, and colorful bruises.

.........They whipped him... Mito is done for. He is soooo done. He should never have let him off alone with the pirates, there is no way he's getting away with this.

They also can't help but notice healing scars that don't look too old either, as if they were just recently closed. They look clawed..?

"oh I remember where that came from!" Konran's almost reading his back like a map...

Clematia's expression turns grim. "Don't tell me the whole time we were cleaning he was getting tortured....."

“…..”

Konran takes note of their reactions, and while she doesn't find Cyrus's condition to be that strange, she feels like she'll get scolded if she doesn't say something too..

"awwwwwweee that's too bad!"

“Poor fellow... alright, we'll need to clean the wounds up first." It seems the revelation only added to her deteriorating morale... “Yohei can you please ask the nice lady for a bucket of water and a clean cloth?”

"Sure."

He doesn't want to argue with her now that she's in this mood, so he peeks out of the room and asks the woman sitting on the sofa. He really doesn't want to get closer to her than necessary…

The woman stands up, still holding her child close as she opens the second door, which apparently leads to a broken bathroom of sorts... She soon comes out with an empty bucket in hand.

"We don't have water... but there's a well outside... a bit farther up the path…"

"Oh, alright, thank you."

He grabs the bucket with a nod and trots tiredly outside. To be honest she's not that bad, that was rude of him.

"where ya going Mito?!"

"Getting some water, wanna come with?"

"yeah!!"

She hops out of the bedroom and stands alongside him.

"weeeee"

He smiles at her enthusiasm.

"Good job back there by the way, that was insane! I can't believe you took down their whole ship! Serves them right!"

"Hm?? Oh the boombooms? I’ve always wanted to see fireworks!!"

Clematia stays behind, she lays down gauze, a pot of honey and various herbs neatly on the nightstand, then plops on the chair. She can't do much before cleaning the wounds first, and she still hasn't pinpointed what the nasty fishy smell is…

A while later, the woman from earlier appears on the door frame, gently knocking on the open door to make her presence known.

"The neighbours... are nice..."

She holds a bucket of warm water...

"Oh! Thank you so much!"

There is genuine relief in her voice as she grabs the bucket and sets it on the chair, then she starts carefully cleaning the wounds.

⋅⋅⊱༻ • Clematia roll for wound cleaning ༺⊰⋅⋅

Roll Request: [d20]

Dice results: “ 11 ”

The first pass of wet cloth wipes most of the blood off, making it easier to determine how deep the wounds are. Thankfully it looks like the damage is superficial.

Aah… this is part of her job, but it doesn’t mean she’s used to blood and open wounds yet, it’s making her feel queasy.

It doesn’t help that she has to clean the slits a bit deeper now, she’s glad Cyrus is unconscious, this would’ve hurt for sure.

It takes some time and concentration, but Clematia finally fully cleans all the wounds… not that the bleeding has stopped yet, red is sluggishly oosing from the slits like lava from cracked earth.

She drops the reddened cloth into the discolored water, and grabs the pot on the night stand. The smell of the honey is sweet, flowery and spicy at the same time. She smears it onto the exposed flesh with disgust.

⋅⋅⊱༻ • Clematia roll for honey effect ༺⊰⋅⋅

Roll Request: [d20]

Dice results: “ 5 ”

Well now that the worst part is done, all she has to do is lay some herbs onto the wounds and bandage it all up, whew, she really hopes they don’t get injured like this again.

Cyrus on the other hand, slowly gains back consciousness and feeling, and is becoming more and more aware of this burning sensation, and then there is this weird prickly texture on his bACK— SOMETHING’S TOUCH—

Out of pure reflex and panic, he suddenly jolts up and grabs whatever creature above him by the face, shoving against the wall.

Clematia barely noticed him waking up and didn't get time to react, all she registers is a white blinding pain where her head hit the stone wall and now she’s looking at the stones instead of Cyru’s back... he's still grabbing her, fingers digging wherever they caught, has he not recognised her yet..?!

"GGETT YYUR HHAND OOMFFF!!!"

Her nails find their way to his hand and CLAW.

"Whoa-"

He quickly retracts his hand and stumbles a little backwards, his head spinning and his breathing uneven... Where is this?! Who was- Why was she touching his back?! Did she do anyth- Wait why is miss Briony-.. oh OH he messed up horribly.

"IT’S ME you idiot!!" He never heard her voice this high pitched before, she doesn’t move from where she is for a moment, holding her face with a shaky hand and raising the other defensively, her eyes are wide as she looks at him.

"I- yes of course-"

He looks utterly confused and takes a few more steps back, the stinging pain in his arm from her clawing sobering him up further yet the confusion remained.. he didn't know it was her! He didn’t know it was anyone, he just felt- damn it- Argh why does she look so scared?!

"Are you- are you alright?"

Her eyes had watered a bit from the pain, and fear let way to anger, she was tending to his wounds and this is what she gets?! She doesn’t say anything and just stares daggers at him.

The silence felt heavy, and the guilt heavier as he finally understood the situation, his shocked face softening into an apologetic and anxious expression.

"Sigh listen I'm sorry I-"

Cyrus doesn’t get to finish his sentence as the sound of wood quickly knocking on wood got louder and Yohei comes rushing through the door, sweeping the room with his eyes for any danger.

"Clematia!! Cyrus?! What’s wrong??" He looks between them once, and a scowl forms on his face as he steps into the room... toward Cyrus.

Cyrus turns his head to Mito, sweating since earlier as he furrows his brows from the frustration of it all.

Yohei grabs him roughly by the arm.

"Explain."

To that, Cyrus grabs Mito's wrist, grip tightening by the second as he glares down at him.

"Don't touch me with your filthy hands."

"Mito wait! It’s not what it looks like." ‘Well it is but it wasn’t intentional-’ She finally gets off her spot against the wall and walks to them, a bit unsteady, wiping her eyes with shaky hands.

Seeing Clematia cry really didn't sit right with Yohei, so he doesn’t back off and looks at her instead, still waiting for an explanation.

"He- I think I startled him—I, siiigh just let go already."

She gets to them and puts a hand on each, trying to push them off each other.

"oh we brought back water by the way!! But guess you resurrected him before that!" Konran drops the bucket down by the door.

Yohei yields easily to her push, the anger didn't fully leave his expression yet but he no longer looked like he wanted to punch Cyrus... He looks at her face searching for any damage.

Cyrus’s eyes on the other hand don't leave Mito's. Now he's just pissed off, he only woke up a few seconds ago and now he has to deal with all of this. And the worst part is that it's practically all his fault.

"anyways, I'm hungry, can you guys stop being grumpy so we can get a few numsies to eat?"

".......….Actually, yes Konran we need to eat. Cyrus I'm sorry, I didn't know what happened." Hunger makes people angry, they should eat.

Cyrus only scowls at Mito and dusts his arm, as if patting away some sort of filth, it's only then that he finally notices something...

"Where's my shirt?"

His panic RISES AGAIN—

"haha nakey-"

Glare

"my apologies."

"..You should wrap up your bandages before wearing anything." Clematia instructs coldly.

“Alright..”

She had gathered her senses but she was in a sour mood, she doesn't even notify him of the herbs that dropped off his back, or ask about the fish smell like she wanted to do before... her face hurts.. a lot.. she can feel a headache building up and she's tired. She goes to sit on the sofa in the living room.

Cyrus looks back at Konran and Mito, waiting for them to head out as well so he can get some privacy.

Mito thought he’s looking at him because he wants help wrapping his bandages, so he stays.

Konran just, stares back.

"......"

‘Oh who am I kidding? They both share one braincell...’ "Can you please get out?"

"O-oh!" Mito gets out, a bit awkward.

"okaaaaay~"

She follows after him and Cyrus closes the door behind them.

On the sofa sits both the woman with her child in her arms and Briony.

"miss do you have food?" Konran asks.

"Aaahh actually we brought our own!” Mito answers quickly. “We'd be grateful if we could use your fire for some tea though." The whole house looked... poor, empty. He'd feel guilty for taking any of her food.

Clematia was just sitting quietly, her hands drew circles on her cheeks as she tried to sooth the skin with an ointment.

"We've got wood... There is a small fire pit by the steps outside… Would that be alright..?"

"Yep that would be perfect! Thank you!" Thinking back on it, he almost went at it with Cyrus in what’s likely her bedroom, that was so rude..

"Let me.. get it for you then..."

She stands up, always cradling her baby as she gets out from the front door, her steps making her look like she's in a trance...

Such a generous woman, even though she has nothing... Mito feels bad for thinking of her badly before, she was the one supposed to be scared of them, not the other way around... He turns to check on Briony, she’s still quiet. He is a bit hesitant to push her buttons when she's like this.. has he ever seen her like this?

The woman soon comes back, holding some firewood under one of her arms.

"Here you... go..."

"yaaaaaay~"

In the other room, Cyrus just noticed the herbs on the ground and is once again drowning in his own misery.

.

.

.

⋅⋅⊱༻To be continued༺⊰⋅⋅