We Were Younger...

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


Verily, the life of an Angelii was a most serious calling. Moreover, the pay was lousy. On the bright side, you tended to get into the cool clubs at discount prices and, though discipline was strict to the point that flogging was considered acceptable, there were no rules against fraternisation.


Unfortunately for Elincia, Kaida was not the type who praised her pupils a lot. Largely since she had the attitude of a dour drill sergeant. So she watched impassively, giving her charge time as she went about the task of turning the tiger into an ice statue. For the time being Elincia seemed enthusiastic, but then she was thinking of cool armour and powers.


This was natural since she was a teenager in Eldorai terms. Many new recruits, who unlike her had not been sheltered and lied to by their parents, joined the Angelii with the same idealised notions. Alas, the reality was often more grim and harsh. The large stone wall at the Citadel, upon which the names of every dead Angelii was inscribed, was a testament to that.


In any case, Kaida gave Elincia a curt nod when the tiger had been frozen solid. "Good," she remarked. This counted as praise in her opinion. Though her tone lacked inflection. "With enough training, this'll be something you can accomplish without touch by manipulating moisture via thought alone. But contrary to what holovids may tell you, fancy powers don't make you invincible. Anyone can use a blaster and it only takes one lucky shot. Idiots who think they can death charge across a battlefield waving a fancy sword and not get gunned down because of their Sciia are asking to be shot."


Yes, Kaida, we know you don't like the Jedi Art of War on Geonosis. Moving on, she decided it was time to be mean. While the Seraph spoke, things turned...fun. Well, probably not for poor Elincia. Once again it was turning absurdly cold. But this time the sense of creeping coldness was focused upon her. After all, Elincia had probably gotten very wet since it had been raining the last half an hour or so.


It was this moisture that Kaida was manipulating now with all the skill of a cryomancy mistress. Elincia would probably start to feel a lot colder right now. Of course, the cold itself would not bother a cryomancer much, but the moisture very rapidly acquired a solid shape, crystallising into ice. Heavy, dense ice crystals would wrap around her arms and legs, making it very difficult to move as the point was to paralyse motion.


"Of course, you must be prepared to face the same technique." Ice would grow thick upon her legs, creeping up her whole body. "Free yourself. You can shatter the ice." Cold steam escaped Kaida's mouth as she spoke, her face was pallid and her eyes an ethereal blue. Ice rapidly advanced upon Elincia's body, seeking to encase her. Kaida, you're such a queen. How comes you have such a nice girlfriend?

 

[Elincia Alanis]

Still waiting for a praise from the woman with a big fire in her eyes out of excitement as she thought she was going to get one, what she expected didn't happen and the ice lady didn't match her excitement, not at all. She could only see a small nod and hear only one word. Oh the things she wanted to hear... All has been collected and thrown to the garbage right now, so what did Elincia do? What she did the best, she made a snarky comment about her reaction. But, the fact that what she did and thought it was her best work, would be a child's play for her, so she wouldn't get impressed that easily. But for a young adult, logic always didn't make sense. "Yay!" She said with a sarcastic voice, putting her hands up in the air, faking excitement or more like trying to imitate the ice lady. "You did it! Even though you are only with your powers you managed to freeze a tiger's gross insides and its full body. Great job. No?" She sighed out of her own thoughts, one could say she was being a child, but being kept away from all the dangers of the galaxy would do it to one. She knew she doomed herself more by saying those, according to what happened last time, yet she said her piece anyway.

"So, what next?" She asked, realizing that the she started to get colder and colder, or was that the weather, as the disturbing silence continued. This had to be bad, right? Yeah, it had to be. The last time the weather got this cold, she was about the be eaten by a tiger, now she wouldn't imagine what horrors were waiting for her. And the fact that she said those words weren't helping to this situation either. She needed to keep that mouth shut sometimes, she thought. The cold, indeed, wasn't effective that much for a cryomancer, yet there were many things to accomplish with ice other than being cold and all, and she knew that the ice lady wouldn't try to freeze her to death. So, she was curious. Wa... wait a minute. There was something wrong. The water got colder and colder in the sense of freezing, and creating ice crystals. She tried to move herself to get rid of this, yet she couldn't move her arms. She wanted to move backwards, but ice lady was indeed one step forward from her. She couldn't move a single inch. The inability to walk started to make her panicky, as she tried her hardest to move even one finger to get away from this situation. No, there was nothing, not even a single finger was moving. "Come on.." She said as she continued to shake herself in order to get rid of the ice. Hands and legs first, the ice started to spread to her whole body slowly. She couldn't use her hands, she couldn't move. She was getting slowly out of options. Trying to save herself from the ice with desperation, she must've looked bad in front of her. Then, she heard her voice again. There... was a slight smile? Or was she seeing things? Oh no... "The same... technique?" She asked, there was a little shake in her voice. She WAS going to freeze her. The only way to escape this ice prison was her power, however she was as clueless as a little child about what to do.

"You... you don't really..." consider freezing me are you? What a stupid question that would be to ask, of course she would. She was that kind of teacher after all. "I don't know how to do that!" Tick, tock, tick, tock. Time was running out. "You just taught me how to create ice, now you want me to break it?" She continued to try to move herself, if only she could move only one finger she would have hope that she could escape from this. "What, do I need to imagine myself not freezing now?" The ice slowly moved towards her chest area, not stopping a bit. Facepalm. Shut your mouth, Elincia. She was going to learn how to shut her mouth the hard way someday, wasn't she?

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


It was probably accurate to say that Kaida was not much of a teacher. At least not the sort of teacher who liked patiently explaining things! Elincia had to understand the effect of her power and how it could be used against her. Simple cold would not hurt a cryomancer, but being frozen would still paralyse her. Besides, like every being she needed to breathe. Being a lovely ice statue got in the way.


So it seemed logical to Kaida to freeze her and tell her to save herself. After all, if the girl was not able to cope and ended up being in real danger, the Seraph would free her herself. It did seemingly not enter Kaida's mind that things might go better if she explained things a bit more! "Envisage the ice shattering," Kaida emphasised the last word. "Our will creates it. Equally it can unmake it into liquid. Channel the Sciia through your being and free yourself. All it takes is a push."


Tick, tock, tick, tock. The layers of ice were quickly advancing up Elincia's body, spreading over her chest area. Breathing was not impossible, but would be more difficult. By now her limbs would be completely covered. Indeed, her legs would have been so thoroughly encased that it would feel like they had been fused together, making movement impossible. Likewise her arms would have been encased up to her shoulders. Ice-encased fingers would be stuck together. Elincia would have to channel her power like an icebreaker to break and melt the ice.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

Breathe, breathe. Don't panic. She repeated and repeated to herself as the ice continued to spread through every inch of her body. She couldn't feel her fingers or feet anymore, and if it continued that way she was about to turn into an ice sculpture real soon. The ice already on her throat and still moving upwards, at that point it was very difficult to breathe or move. Hearing the ice lady speak again, she just sighed. "Well I would push if I could move." She said struggling, at that moment she could only move her head so if it could be called a struggle at all.. Yet the woman was right, if she could create it, then she could destroy it as well. So, instead of being a little child who questions everything, this time she decided to give it a try. She closed her eyes and focused on the power inside her, and took a deep breath before she couldn't have one from the fast freezing thing. "Okay. I am going to give it a try." You don't need to say everything else because she clearly sees you trying it. But in her mind it was her way of saying "I am doing it because I want to, not because of you." . Anyways, she continued focusing on the ice that was surrounding her, which was already around her mouth. She tried to say something but only unintelligible sounds could be heard from this. Now, her "I want to say everything" tool was out of the way, she could concentrate before the ice got everything else. Here we go.

Come on... Break... Just break...

Nothing was happening, and the ice was fast. She was in the state of panic since she was about to become a statute, yet she couldn't relieve her stress because she wasn't able to talk since it was frozen solid. That would be a good break from the rebellious teen for ice lady, since she knew sometimes she talked a lot. She just hoped she wasn't doing a funny face or something, that would look pretty bad. If she was going to become a statue she would be the best statue ever with the beauty and all. But today she didn't feel like it. She could feel the ice moving with all the concentration she had, possibly doing something right she continued to imagine the ice breaking and freeing her body. The ice continued to become faster and faster, shaking, small cracks started to appear on the surface, slowly getting larger in the area. She tried to say something to inspire herself, like "Come on.", but of course to the outside world it could be heard as "Hmmpf hmph". Not very inspiring, if someone heard that. The ice continued to grow and grow as it arrived to her nose area. Was that the strength of the ice or her own weakness she didn't know, yet the best effort she could do only managed to crack the surface of the ice. Tick, tock, tick, tock... Her power seemed to become weaker and weaker as she couldn't breathe, and seconds later the ice covered her whole body and she stood motionless. Cracks continued to appear, from here and there from her concentration. Now, thinking about keeping her mouth shut, she wasn't expecting something like this. But, what you find is what you get, they said.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


The ice lady remained impassive, watching Elincia's efforts. A nicer teacher would've tried to establish more of a rapport with her student, but Kaida wasn't like that. She had the mind set of a dour soldier. Angelii didn't have what Jedi would call a 'master-apprentice' relationship.


So she observed, ready to help if it was really needed and Elincia's life turned out to be in serious danger. The swept across the elf's body. Kaida could see cracks appearing in the ice, but it had swallowed the elf's whole body, including her face.


This was the moment Kaida decided to act. After all, it would suck if Elincia died because she could not breathe. So the cryomancer drew upon her Sciia and focused her power upon the ice covering Elincia's face. Her icy fingers curved, then the ice was shattered, freeing up Elincia's face so that she could breathe. However, the young elf would have to do the rest!

 

[Elincia Alanis]

Becoming a ice statue and having no room to breathe or do anything, she felt like her strength was slowly fading. The cold wasn't a bother yet the lack of oxygen indeed was. Even though she looked perfectly fine in the ice, her eyes full open and all, yet she was slowly dying, out of breath and out of moves to do something about it. Well, that wasn't the way she wanted to go, to say the least. Her vision started to get blurry as the seconds passed by, then completely got dark. That was indeed a big trauma yet a big lesson for the girl, seeing how you could die in a second and all those ambitions and wished disappear over the need to live. Tick, tock, tick, tock... Her time was running out. The voice of the rain was getting all silent... Was she ready for that?... Yet as she prepared herself to die, suddenly, she could feel the wind touching her face again, she could feel her head spinning all around for the lack of breath and her vision coming back, slowly returning to the scene. The sudden return of oxygen made her gasp and cough as she tried to breathe, she filled her lungs with a big breath of fresh air, it was the best gift that she could ask right now. The thoughts of being a knight in a shining armor? Nah, she was happy to be alive. She realized that she could take her training more seriously from now on. She looked at the ice lady still gasping for air, didn't say anything but from her eyes that could be understood as a "Thank you.". Yet still, her whole body was covered in ice except her face, so she had to deal with that. She closed her eyes and concentrated more on the ice, now the cracks got bigger and bigger since she was fully concentrating, slowly breaking and dropping to the ground piece by piece.

In a few moments, the ice completely broke from her body and dropped to the ground, creating a little ice castle around her. And with the effect of staying motionless for a while, her legs suddenly stopped working and she fell to the ground, breathing very fast but as a good news, she finally got rid of the ice covered all over her. However, as expected, she fell down on the ice particles she just got rid of, so, they cut several pieces of her skin like sharp knifes cutting. She groaned out of pain, but nothing more. She deserved this, didn't she? In a world like this, she was too careless. As she finally caught her breath, she looked up at the woman with an expression that was almost blank. So many things to say, yet she wouldn't dare. "I think I got my lesson, Seraph Taldir." She said, in such a monotone voice that didn't even sound sincere at all. No "Ice lady", no ice puns. She directly talked with her with the title now, out of respect and a bit of the fear of pissing her off again. In that moment, she thought that she could finally understand why the woman was this cold towards the outside. The uncertainty of everything, death all around, the thought of the possibility to die every second, that would make a person create a shell of protection around themselves. A shell that would keep them always alarmed in danger, a shell that would not be broken that easily by other people. A shell necessary to survive in this cruel world. Maybe she would need to create that shell sometime later too, if she could stay alive until that moment.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


Bom. Elincia was freed from the ice, which broke away from her body and dropped to the ground. In time it would melt and turn back to liquid, but for the time being it was cold enough to sustain the ice. Elincia slumped to the ground and pieces of ice cut into her skin like sharp knives.


Then the young Eldorai spoke and to Kaida's surprise she addressed her with her title. A change seemed to have taken place in her attitude. "I am mean to you and will continue to be so," Kaida said bluntly. It was always good when the drill sergeant acknowledged that she was a queen.


"There are reasons for that. In an actual battle, there are no do overs, no timeouts, no heroines. If you're not well-trained, alert and relentless enough, you die. If you're undisciplined, you die. Most importantly, you endanger your battle sisters and get them killed. This training will help keep you from leaving your first battle in a body bag." As cold as Kaida was, she did care about her Angelii, though she seldom showed it. She'd also seen many of them perish.


She approached Elincia, snow crunching beneath her combat boots. "Where are you hurt? I can teach you the basic skills of healing your injuries." Emphasis on basic, since Kaida did not major in healing, but enough for Elincia to perform basic first aid through the use of space magic.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

Well, she was cold, she had a bit attitude, and she was difficult around people, she thought, yet one of the possitive things about her was she was honest to her, very bluntly even. She looked at her as the Seraph continued to speak, she didn't lose eye contact to show that she respected her and was listening. The thing she learned was, her current attitude wasn't helping and would be problematic for her if she continued to act like a rebellious teen she was, so she adapted to the situation, and changed according to that, trying to get on her good side, which was a difficult thing to do since the start of their relationship wasn't that of a good start. The act was indeed a difficult thing to keep on, since it was directly the opposite of her, but she was dealing with a high rank Elf right now, and continuing with her previous behaviour would be bad name for her. She was amazed how tactical she was thinking right now, since she was usually the do things and ask later type. Anyway, continuing on with the story, she talked still sitting on the ground trying not to think the bleeding arms. "I got it..." She said simply to her. The woman, no matter how cold she was, had a deep care for her soldiers, it seemed. And that was something the girl was very unfamiliar with, and couldn't understand why. If she cared, she would show it in her own opinion. Being cold against everyone would create a shell around you, that would push other people away from you. But being only new here and seeing that everyone respected the woman, she realized she only knew little about the real world and not the world her parents created for her to live. "I'll try not to disappoint..." You? No, her act would be so obvious if she said that. "Them." Even though she was only new, she already started to get to know about her powers. And she was still alive, that was a big plus.

Then, she held her head up as she saw the ice lady was coming towards her. Well, here we go for another training where I am going to have a big percentage of chance to die, she thought to herself. Yet instead, she asked to teach about a much less dangerous technique. Well, healing was better than hurting, right? At least for her sake. And she got to taste the feeling that the healing the ice lady did before, it would be totally a breathe of fresh air for her. And with glowy eyes! She nodded, then talked, trying to act cool and not excited by the fact that she was going to learn something cool. "The technique with glowy eyes?!" Failing miserably. "Uhh... I mean... I would like that." Well, trying to collect the situation wouldn't help now, so she proceeded with the next answer she had. "My arms are bleeding, and I think I have an open wound on my left knee." Stating the obvious, she was. But it was her way to say, you clearly see where I am hurt. But she knew that she gotta keep up the act, right? It was all for greater good. Besides, maybe she would understand her better if she obeyed her words for now, then would get a chance to be more free to act like herself. Gotta know the ice lady more first though, she thought.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


"Yes," Kaida said flatly. Truly, she was totally fun at parties. "Show me your arm." And so she took Elincia's bleeding right arm, holding it so that the elf could see. Kaida's fingers were very cold. Ripples could be felt resonating as the Seraph drew upon her Sciia. She could see that small pieces of the ice remained embedded.


"Listen carefully. I'm not repeating myself. All things are energy. Human, Eldorai, Sciia, all life runs through channels of energy. Understand this. You must deliberately channel your Sciia through you. Focus your attention upon your injury. It must be the focal point of all your attention. Concentrate enough, and you will see it down to the smallest celluar level. Then call upon your Sciia and will it to flow through you. Constricting blood vessels will stem the flow of blood. See the ice pieces inside your injury and will them to turn to moisture, pour energy into the wound to make it close. The feeling of pain will decrease, then the injury will be sealed."


Kaida sometimes stopped her wounds from bleeding by freezing them. Once she'd used an ice spike to exctract a bullet. Insane? Yep. The Seraph would lend a portion of her strength to help Elincia. However, it would be more like a nudge to push her into a right direction since the young Angelii had to find her own way.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

Well, speaking of trying to get on her good side, no one said it was going to be easy. So, she let the "Yes" go for now, surely the woman wasn't that impressed with those things since it would be a common thing for her, being an experienced leader. So, she extended her arm a bit, then started to talk. "Here you..." As she was about to finish her sentence the woman reached for her arm and pulled it towards herself, which hurt like hell and she let out a deep sigh. Clearly, she wanted to say something rebellious out of pain right now, but she could stop herself by biting her lips, rather forcefully not to open her mouth since she knew herself very much. It was a very difficult thing for a personality like hers. Anyway, at least it was still better than ice growing on her body. So, she just completed her sentence and stopped immediately. "Go." Anyway, she could endure pain, she repeated this to herself in a loop in order not to think about the bloody arm of hers that she could directly see the ice particles hanging around. What a "pain" to see. Puns. Her mind was a nightmare sometimes.

Anyway, continuing on, she listened the woman as the ice lady instructed things. It was like the "Sciia for Dummies 101" class, and she hated classes and lectures very much, if it wasn't that obvious already. "Of all the elves around I had to be the one to have the power..." She said, in a very low voice but she wasn't sure if the woman heard it or not. The sudden change of behaviour must've been obvious for the ice lady yet it was a natural thing to do, as someone wise said once, if you can't beat them, you join them. And she was good at adapting to situation, being kept away from her village and trying to act like everything was normal increased her ability to adapt in a very large number. As she continued to think, she felt a cold feeling around her body, instead of hurting it was giving her strength now though, and she felt like she would connect to this strength, and experience the same feeling that she has felt before when she was able to use her powers. Now she decided to help her!

She focused on the feeling flying through her body as the Seraph instructed, finally stopped asking "How" since she wouldn't get an answer from her. She just left the things to her imagination, it worked on the events that she lived in this short span very much. So, her whole body was shivering with this cold feeling as she focused more and more on the energy. The wound was extraordinarily painful for a few seconds, the heat meeting the cold she felt like the wound was being ripped away from her body, but after the painful seconds, she started to feel more and more calm with the pain and then it completely disappeared, her eyes being closed for those long seconds, as she finally opened them, she would see that her wounds were slowly closing. But the ground was full of blood, so she must've failed a bit, she thought. She would be surprised with herself if she did it perfectly though. And she totally missed the glowy eye thing because she kept them close. What an opportunity to waste! Just about to say something, she puked immediately as she opened her mouth, couldn't control. Very gross! Finally having a chance, she looked up not to see the puke and blood mixing together. "Was that supposed to happen?" She said trying to breathe, her head was spinning a bit.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


The complaint did not escape Kaida! After all, elf ears were very sensitive and actually had a practical use beyond being the object of sexual fetishes. "Quite complaining and be glad you have ice instead of something generic like fire," Kaida snarked. It was an unspoken rule that there was a strong rivalry between cryomancers and pyromancers. Both had powers that cancelled the other out and thought they were better.


Then she was quiet, stoic and stuff while Elincia made her first tentative efforts at elemental healing. Kaida was quite good at looking stoic, rigid and cold. The young recruit was slowly closing the wound and ending the feeling of pain, then she puked. Gross!


Naturally Kaida's armour did not emerge unscathed! That was even more gross. The Seraph looked very annoyed! "No, you'll get over it, and get a thicker stomach," she said frostily. Water summoned by her power washed the puke away. She tossed the recruit a towel. "Clean up and mend your other wounds."

 

[Elincia Alanis]

Well, that was indeed not a good way to stay on her good side. Now, with her puke on her armor, she knew that she got several minus points for relationship with the ice lady. And the expression on her face proved this right. And also the woman heard her little rant about the powers, and of course, it wasn't going so well for the poor Elincia since she managed to offend the lady and grossed her out with the puke. Oh, and she didn't like fire that much anyway. The voice of something burning was making her a bit disturbed. Probably because of her powers, since she always felt weak around fire. That was why whenever it was snowing, unlike the other villagers she loved to spend time in the cold. So she wanted to collect this situation. "I didn't mean it like that. I mean, ice is cool... I am just... you know... new to this stuff and I am struggling a bit... And I just like to complain about things that I can't do... It's a habit of mine." Probably she didn't need to say the last sentence, but anyway. If she wanted to be known she wanted to be known as herself. Also, it was her best behaviour, around the Seraph she made sure that she was behaving right after this little time they spent together. She caught the towel that has been thrown towards her and cleaned herself as instructed. And I have quite the stomach. I was the one that cleaned our barn. It can get pretty messy there." Now she started to talk too much. "I guess... I broke something while I was trying to fix another. " Then she continued. "But... I know... it was gross. I am sorry for the armor."

Then, she proceeded on the wound on her knee, there was a ice shard stuck there. Well, the adrenaline must've concealed the pain it would bring. So, before trying to mend the wound, she had to get rid of that ice shard first. She held the not sharp side of the ice hanging from the other side of her knee, then started to pull it, with each pull her breaths started to get quicker and quicker. She almost let out a shout out of pain yet she managed to stop it. The sharp side of the ice slowly got inside her knee. "That's... one... stubborn... shard........." She said as she continued to pull it in order not to think about the pain, then as the ice shard was finally out of her body, she let out a relaxed sigh. "Oh kark... oh kark... okay... okay..." She stopped talking to the woman, and was now talking to herself, then proceeded with the space magic healing. From the last experience, she would be much faster to concentrate on her wound now. And she concentrated, the wound slowly closed itself, her pale skin color slowly returning and she felt much better. There was still something wrong with her head though, probably from bloodloss. She has lost a lot, in such a short time after all. "I think it's... good to go?" She asked to the woman, the ice lady would sense the change of her tone. It seemed like she was pushing herself to talk, the words were floating around instead of being clearly said.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


Admittedly staying on Kaida's good side was not that easy, since she was, let's be honest, difficult to get along. So far Elincia had been scolded a bit, but also received what counted as praise from the Seraph!


Regardless, the shift in tone did not escape the officer after Elincia freed herself from the ice shard embedded inside her left knee and closed the wound. Bloodloss appeared to have affected the young recruit's mental faculties a bit, judging by the effort required for her to speak. Enough blood loss could make you dizzy and confused. Losing two to three pints mucked you up.


She suspected that Elincia probably had a nicked artery or vein in the arm or leg. This was a rather unpleasant experience. Well, this spurred Kaida into action. As harsh as the Angelii were, they weren't uncaring or stupid. So she quickly picked up the recruit and got to her feet, craddling her. She was surprisingly gentle doing this. Or rather as gentle you coud be when you were wearing full armour and generally as cuddly as a krayt dragon.


"Try and stay awake. You lost a lot of blood. I'm taking you to the medbay. Training's over for today," she declared, then quickly began to make her way out of the forest back to base. Her tone indicated something like actual concern for the recruit.

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

A single pair of redheads had been out enjoying some free time away from base. One young human, one a particularly trollish Eldorai. Elayne and Galina had decided to go hunting together. A bet may have been made of who would get the kill with the least amount of shots. A bet which was made far more interesting given Galina had selected her favorite weapon, a bow and arrow. Nothing special, just an ordinary bow, ordinary arrows, and Elayne had her bolter. It seemed an easy bet to make. One Elayne didn't believe she could lose. Oh, how wrong she had been.

"Just wow ... wow.. That's not even fair." Elayne said as the human redhead slung her bow back onto her shoulder and lifted a feline like creature onto her shoulder, clearly dead with an arrow still protruding from it's eye socket.

"What? That's completely normal." Galina said nonchalantly.

"Nothing about that is normal. Incredible but not in any way normal." The Eldorai seemed a bit stunned.

"The stuff on Kaeshana was bigger and meaner... Faster. Had to be faster to survive. Ten years of practice on top of life and death situations, makes that normal." The young human replied with a shrug.

"Point. I just cannot believe you got that thing with one shot .... One freaking arrow, before I could even get my bolter out of it's holster."

"You know this means you gotta pay up when we get back to base."

"Yeah ... yeah. Rub it in.."

"With great pleasure." Galina smirked.

Oddly enough Galina spotted a familiar blonde not too far in the distance, appearing to be carrying someone. She hadn't expected to see the Seraph out and about. And Elayne, for her part was already heading towards the pair, to see what was up. It wasn't normal for Kaida to be carrying anyone unless they were badly injured. Galina wasn't far behind.

"Need any help?" Elayne asked worriedly as she looked to Elincia.

[member="Kaida Taldir"] | [member="Elincia Alanis"]

 

[Elincia Alanis]

The next few seconds passed so quickly as her head still continuing to spin very fastly, the ice lady said the training was finished. She didn't understand why, since she was okay! Or was she? The importance of the situation could be understood much clearer even though she thought she was okay, as the Seraph picked up Elincia from ground, which doubled the pain she felt and she felt like she was floating, not being able to step on the ground as strong as she would like and, it seemed like she could only stand on the ground with the Seraph's help. They moved towards the end of the woods, or more like the ice lady carried her around towards the medbay. Well, no matter how she acted cold around, she indeed cared for the recruits, as it seemed and it was enough for Elincia to consider the ice lady as a good person. A bit... difficult to talk without thinking, a bit cold but good anyway. Well, one could say she was acting like a child from her rebellious nature sometimes too, and the thing she would say for them would be to mind their own businesses. So, she wouldn't judge that much. Besides, like before she still thought she would need to be like this in order to train her soldiers much efficiently. The only reason why Elincia was like that was she didn't like to listen. But it was probably her not so there head thinking right now, and when she was okay again she would be the same rebellious Elincia. If only she could think like that when she wasn't in danger! Anyway, minutes, which was like hours for the girl, later, she saw a blurry image of somewhere familiar. Blinking a lot, it was difficult to see indeed.

As they continued moving forward, she felt another presence nearby, or more like she heard a sound that she didn't hear before, she could say. So, holding up her head in order to look, it was definitely an another elf, and one... human maybe? She couldn't tell, well if she was, Elincia didn't know that they were taking humans here. However, her head couldn't stay high any longer and she was looking at the ground again. Anyway, as the red-head elf asked... something that she wouldn't hear that clearly with a lot of interferences in her mind, but she heard something about a help. So she tried her best to hold her head high again to look at her. The redhead would see the blank look that was directed to her, and would understand there was definitely something wrong going on here. "Oh I am just perfect... Thank you..." She didn't know how it sounded, or if she could speak clearly even, there were a lot of cuts here and there in her speech since she was pushing herself to speak. Also, she might've sounded drunk a bit right now, with her behaviour and the tone of her voice mixed with a farmer accent. Well, things weren't going very well for her, were they? Anyway, her head fell down again, and she was slightly sleepy.

[member="Kaida Taldir"] [member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"], [member="Elincia Alanis"]


Kaida sort of cared. Well, a little bit. And so it came to pass that she came across Galina and Elayne when she was making her way back to the village with an only somewhat coherent Elincia.


Elayne was a competent soldier, but also a very annoying troll who seemed hellbent on giving her superior more excuses to punish her. Galina was the only human in Kaida's Company and had been assigned to it by her powerful mummies to give her a dose of military life. Also because she wanted to liberate her homeworld from a cabal of despotic space wizards. Complicated? Yep, definitely.


Judging by the bow and the feline creature slung upon her shoulder, they'd been hunting. That was good Angelii activity. Last time Kaida had been testing a weapon on Voss by shooting a big spider, a Jedi got squeamish and complained.


She acknowledged Elayne with a nod. The redhead was a Talon, which was the Angelii equivalent of a Sergeant. "New recruit. You can help carry her. She got injured during training." That sort of thing wasn't uncommon. Her eyes scrutinised Galina's catch and the arrow sticking out of its eye socket. "Beat Saedaris at hunting?"

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

"Oh yes recruit, you look and sound completely fine ..." The sarcasm couldn't be missed in the Eldorai's tone. She stepped in beside Kaida and helped to shift some of the weight from the Seraph to ease the burden. The girl certainly didn't look well to her. They just needed to get her back to the medical bay to get her looked over.

Galina looked to the new girl and then to Taldir as she looked over her kill. The redhead human was just beaming, "Yes, not that it was particularly hard. Saedaris couldn't even get her bolter out of its holster before I had it down and dead. Rather amusing to see how much it irritated her." She also had noticed how the new recruit didn't look all that well. "How she get hurt, Seraph?" Galina had to ask.

"Hey!" Elayne protested. "How you are that freakishly good with that sharpened stick thrower, I'll never understand. It's unnatural." She might have been slightly annoyed at just how easily she'd been beaten by the teenager.

"You know Saedaris, if you practiced more with that whole bolter thing .... you might be able to actually kill something before I do. With a primitive weapon - a sharpened stick thrower as you so quaintly put it." Trolling, seemed Galina was learning. After all, she had a great example with Elayne there. For a change Saedaris said nothing in reply. Though If looks could have kill Galina would be dead ten times over.

[member="Kaida Taldir"] | [member="Elincia Alanis"]

 

[Elincia Alanis]

Elincia didn't look very good, at all. Her already pale skin turned even paler as she was continuously losing the remaning energy she had. She would be happy and answer according to that if she was fully awake to the redhead's sarcastic answer, a mind similar to her rebellious mind. Today was nothing but a cold shower, literally, for her, after all and a change of scenery was indeed a good thing. However, since she was in half conscious state she just looked at her and rolled her eyes, if they could talk they would say "How funny." in a sarcastic way, however, they didn't have that ability. Anyway, she saw that the elf moved closer to them, and she felt like she was floating even more as the elf took her by the other arm. "Elincia. My name." She said with a weak tone, as they continued to talk about her as the "recruit." She had a name. Then she listened the banter between the three, even though she could only hear it like a diver trying to hear the outside, she predicted that the human did something impressive. However, it didn't interest Elincia at all, being all weak, standing there listening some people that she didn't even know and all that.

"Congratulations, you did great..." She said sarcastically, the voice was a bit higher than before yet still weak, then she continued. "And please don't mind me, I'll be slowly dying here, you know. All good." She said grumpily, and yeah, even though being half conscious, she was still a rebel at heart. Oh, and of course today wasn't the best day of her life, because of the fact that she was very close to near to death situations more than once so she would be a bit grumpy normally. Anyway, she started to realize that the real world indeed, didn't care about you at all and continued to function as it would. So this whole thing was a little lesson for her too.

[member="Kaida Taldir"] [member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


"You're not going to die, so stop whining," Kaida said bluntly and thoroughly tactlessly. Significant bloodloss was no reason to be less of a queen! "I froze her. She hurt herself while trying to escape," she added in response to Galina's question. As the young firemane would by now know from personal experience, Kaida considered freezing recruits a valid teaching method. She didn't chime into Galina's and Elayne's banter because had other things on her mind right now. Maybe she'd be a troll and let Galina instruct Angelii in archery. Totally not just to annoy some.


Anyhow, they quickly emerged from the forest and returned to the village. It was one of many smaller satellite settlements of New Santaissa that dotted Tygara's northern continent. There was no permanent Angelii presence, but militia and soldiers from the regular army. Healers were quick to appear to take Elincia into their care. A small Ashiran chapel doubled as a healing room.

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

Elincia certainly seemed to be getting worse not better. For Galina's part she wasn't going to be able to offer too much help. Not with her still carrying her kill on her shoulder. "Ah, so the usual." Galina said softly. Though to be fair when Kaida had tried to encase her in ice, she hadn't completely succeeded. She just got hurt in several other unpleasant ways. Her left hand and forearm still had the scars from her blaster exploding in her hand.

Elayne shook her head, a slight smile forming on her lips. "You'll be fine, kiddo. We've got some of the best healers in the galaxy, so trust me ... You're going to be fine." She said to Elincia, helping to keep more weight off the girls feet and keep her moving, while trying to be as reassuring as possible. "And we call all the new folks recruit. That little human over there, also a recruit. Though her name's Galina. We still call her recruit or call her by her last name, Kerrigan. Just how it is." She gave a slight shrug, "The base isn't far now. We'll get you there and get you patched up."

[member="Kaida Taldir"] | [member="Elincia Alanis"]