After the storm
The trouble with resting, with healing, was that it gave one way too much time to think. Mia found that she did not care to think on things for overly long. However, so many encouraged her to do so... and it was all a part of being a person too right? There was still oh so much to process over the last few days. She had no doubt, not a single one, that Elysium would come. They were a family, a pack, much as she knew some disliked the term. But it still felt the most apt, since they did not feel at all like the Priory did.They all knew the risks of it all, so too did she. They had all chosen to come just the same.
She would be forever grateful they did. There was a lot she still needed to do, to say.
She found herself looking over their campsite and exhaling out. So many got hurt though. Not just physically... but mentally as well. Nobody had expected that from someone they had rescued, someone many had befriended. Miona had seemed so... nice. A bright spot in a dreary landscape. How many times had they shared a patrol, and simply bantered back and forth? She had liked MIona. It was... rare to see such brightness on the battlefront. So when the dagger came, when the spell was activated... it had been so unexpected. It still hurt if she thought about it too long. To know that, in the end... they had been simply fodder to Miona. Ingredients for a higher power. She had seemed so sincere, she had smelled right. And even in the moment she had felt the dagger pierce her back... that smell hasn't changed. She never smelled wrong. Why? What kind of creature was Jormag, to keep turning people this way? How did you protect yourself if you never saw or heard it coming?
It could have been a lot worse. Thank goodness for the healers, thank goodness too for Kowella, for Harpp. Harpp who had so selflessly thrown himself over her, trying to protect her from further harm. ...This too, she had reminded herself at the medics tent when they had first worked upon her back. Even now, it tried to twitch from time to time in ways it should not. The healers told her though this would pass. She was lucky, it had not severed her spine or punctured anything vital. But she needed to rest, recover her sap. She had asked what it had looked like, back there, but there were no mirrors here. All that she knew was that it had left a scar, as well as the initial electric charge. But the extent she did not know. She was afraid to ask. Could have been far worse though.
Her pack was so, so good to her though. A warm top and hat, her backpack, Shae had even lent her an axe and promised to help craft a new staff. And yet, despite it all... she felt so vulnerable. As though some protection, some certainty, had been taken away from her. While she was awake, she found herself ensuring she was close to those she knew. She was trying hard to interact with the ones she didn't... but it was tough. She liked people, she still did. But it was hard to know who to trust out here. What if there ended up being another... like Miona? But that was a terrible way to think. She judged people by their actions, not others. She could not view everyone like a potential betrayal. She did not like thinking like that, and refused it. Potential friends, allies. It... might get her hurt again to think like that. No, it... definitely would. But the alternative was not a path she wnated for herself. She refused to let Miona take that away from her.
...Had someone told Fredrik yet?
Mia found herself, when allowed, sleeping closer to Harpp, to Kowella. Sleep was... fitful sometimes, Dreams liked to carry memories of pain. Being close to the two asura she cherished helped. They would be okay. She would be okay. They had all been through worse. She had been born in worse. But together... they would be okay. Ah, right, she still needed to tell Harpp her answer. His student... she hoped he remembered saying that. It made her proud, somehow. She wanted to do more... but everyone was right. Keeping well, healing.. simply being here and alive would be enough. Even if it didn't feel like it. When resting, she could sometimes feel the nature spirits around them. They felt much the same. But, like her, they needed to heal as well. And when the time came, everyone would work together to make this right.