Alessia's Great Hunt - 01

It had been weeks by now, that the 'Pyre of the North' had appeared. Alessia soon after had been ordered to assist, and so little after ended up face to face with the creature. Well… not directly, but close enough still so she could see the burning monstrosity… and the brave hunter fighting it!

"How in the world am I supposed to fight THAT?!", Aly had mumbled to herself, musing if she could heal the very corruption that had turned the fella, for a second, but… "NAH! There were already plenty of tries like that, weren't there?", She had mused, thinking back to her time at Academy, sighing defeated like that.

"WELP! Guess I'll better leave the battlefield and instead head out to help those fellas who can actually fight this thing!", The doe looked back to the path of smoldering flames the creature had left, before adding with a subtle gulp, "And all those poor souls hurt in its wake!" 

[Alessia = 161]

Peregrine had run himself ragged catching up to the harried Pyre, getting out ahead of it, finding the chain, and dragging it to a location he could stretch it, fortified on both ends, across the creature’s path. It hadn’t even worked that well, but at least the slag from the metal had tripped it up. It didn’t seem to like metal at all.

He’d managed to raise his head to watch the thing topple from a distance, but as it continued on its way north, swaying slightly, fireballs flying out before it, the bleeding berserker laid his head back down and waited for reality to hurt less.

[Peregrine = 107]

The 'Saintess' had searched the freshest part of the monsters' path for anyone in need of help… but most of them being mages themselves, just hurried her along, telling her 'she should make better use of her powers'.

SO… Alessia had searched on a little longer, until… "ARE YOU CRAZY!", The doe burst out before she could think, as she found a severely wounded buck lying on the ground. The goat was badly beaten up and… well, more importantly: "Hey… you still with me big boy: let me fix you up~"

[Alessia = 91]

Bleerily, tiredly, painfully, Peregrine opened his eyes. As the blurriness cleared away he saw a pale doe looking down at him on the rocks, questioning. He didn't catch the first thing she said; the only thought turning through his mind like a bird on a spit was If I'm in this bad shape stranded out here away from the monster it's good that blob dragged me out here from out of the thick of things.

"Eh? Still here...no, 'mfine. Jus' bruises n' dings...'n tired." Then again maybe she just meant cleaning out any of a myuriad of small wounds; she wasn't necessarily a mage.

Then the thought occurred to him- if he could be quickly patched up, he could get back into the battle, and look what he'd been able to do there this time! A parched smile cracked his lips like a burning new day through striated clouds. "Well, I could use some help, actually, thank you." The bovid coughed; a rasping sound, and grimaced.

[Peregrine = 166]

Unable to quite resist, also in a try to perk her newly found patient up a little, Alessia commented teasingly: "Well… I guess I'll take that as a 'yes' to the being crazy part?" She snorted amusedly like that, somewhat relieved that the guy seemed at least still well enough to talk?

"Very well!", Alessia declared like that, explaining in the strict tone she'd give a child patient, after being done looking him over, "You're lucky big guy… I'll be easily able to fix you back up, but I'll have to ask you to hold still!"

Cleaning his wounds up as best as possible, the doe thus huffed triumphantly, before putting her snout against his chest. The fella's body soon started to glow in a weak light, as her magic started coursing through his body, like a soothing wave of warmth, his wounds slowly starting to heal back up as if on their own.

[Alessia = 154]

Something about the patient fought her magic, or maybe something in the air. It was more difficult to heal him than it should have been.

Nonetheless, bit by bit, cuts and scrapes began to heal and life returned to the battered man’s bones. It burned, the healing, sizzling against his chest in an unfamiliar manner. He simply attributed it to being a different healer than any he knew, with unfamiliar magic.

“Thank you,” Peregrine declared at the end, standing up carefully. “Thanks to you I can concoct and enact another plan against the menace.”

[Peregrine = 94]

Keeping going despite the weird… resistance - as it sure was her last goal to break her promise of fixing him up - the doe kept going unblinking. Maybe it was even somewhat of stubbornness, not wanting to give up against this… inexplicable resistance.

Huffing a little more exhausted as she had expected as such, Alessia inspected her limbs somewhat confusedly for a sec, as if expecting some 'faults' on herself, that might explain the… magical error.

Looking at the fella at his words, the doe huffed triumphantly in the end though… she flashed him a somewhat uncertain smile. "Happy you feel all better again, but . . . while I could tag along if you'd really want… my healing magic sadly doesn't cover recovering stamina, too."

[Alessia = 127]

Peregrine stared into the distance, watching the light pour through smoke-sodden skies. “Perhaps I have done enough. It’s time I leave this battle to the mages, for now. I don’t wish to slow you down from helping others recover and I have nothing left to give for now.

“I’m Peregrine, by the way. Glad you spotted me.”

[Peregrine = 57]

"A pleasure~ my name is Alessia… the Saintess, by the noble's insistence…", The doe introduced herself… adding the last part in a grumpy, somewhat disapproving tone.

Shaking her head subtly though, as if to get herself back into reality, the female followed the goat's gaze… only seconds later excitedly asking: "Oh? What did you get up to? The best I could hope to manage would be . . . well, undoing all work anybody before my interference did, I guess? But mages like you, actually fighting monsters, like those giant corrupted, to protect the ones that can't protect themselves… you guys are so cool~"

She ended up almost swooning, regarding the thought, almost somewhat sounding like some kind of a fan-girl.

[Alessia = 121]

Peregrine looked peeved. “I’m no mage. I used entirely mundane means to trip the monster. Similarly even if you can’t magically battle the Corrupted there are many ways you can contribute, such as this. And the less magic you use in the process, the less likely you are to turn into one of those.” He nodded gravely in the direction of the beast.

“For now we fight monsters mainly with mystical power and generate more of them in the process. I wish to prove that won’t be necessary forever.

Peregrine stared down at a healed cut. “Keep using your power to augment normal medicine. You’ll need less of it that way.”

[Peregrine = 111]

The doe raised a brow a little skeptical at his declaration of 'not being a mage'… but his further words to the topic on how to fight Corrupted, literally made her yaws drop. Alessia's reaction to that clarification even made it almost seem as if she had just received an actual epiphany!

His last words made her even more excited still, her eyes almost sparkling as she looked at the rugged goat, looking even more fan-girl-like like that.

"OH. MY. GOD! You are my new hero Perigin!", Alessia declared like that, thoroughly butchering his name in the progress, "I never thought about the possibility of fighting those things in any other ways but the . . . well, conventional one, I guess?"

At her words towards his last suggestion, the doe smiled at Peregrine proudly declaring: "HAH! I can do you one better, I am even already working on a plan like that! Regarding the medicine I mean~ . . . although… I guess it is still more in the planning phase?" She added the last bit somewhat hesitantly, with a sheepish grin.

[Alessia = 183]

Flattered smugness and irked aggravation warred on his face in equal measure. On the one hand he liked his virtue to be applauded. Especially for a mage to come around to his way of thinking! On the other hand he hated the attention, the awkwardly intent consideration of his being, the girly shrieking of ecstasy and praise. In truth he wasn’t used to it and had no idea what to do or feel about it.

“Well. Just because things always have been done one way doesn’t mean they must always be done that way,” he settled on, twitching and preachy. “It’s our world for the making, not the other way around.”

[Peregrine = 111]

Tilting her head somewhat confusedly at the males' unsaid reaction to her amazement, her eyes still seemed to sparkle, as the female nodded in agreement. Excitedly affirming his assessment, Alessia confirmed: "YES! Exactly! You can't stick with old customs forever!"

Nodding in confirmation once more, like that… the smell of burnt… well, everything, brought her back to reality. Looking back at the Pyre slowly vanishing on the horizon, Alessia like that huffed decidedly, before -along with another, subtle shake of her head- declaring, more composed: "So… you done going after it? Wanna tag along, checking whatever chaos the big guy might have left?"

[Alessia = 103]

“I think I could at least help look for survivors,” Peregrine said, standing up shakily. “Yes. Another pair of eyes to survey the rubble may at least help, even if I have little strength yet.”

Exhausted, the golden bovine plodded down off of the rocks and onto the charred ground, coughing. With his sparkling green telekinesis, he wrapped the fallen mask back around his face to provide even a little protection from the haze.

“Ready.”

[Peregrine = 75]

Alessia watched the fella curiously… or more the mask to be exact, before nodding in agreement. "Sounds good to me!", The doe confirmed, giving their surroundings a last, quick look.

The Pyre was vanishing in one direction, its flames painting the horizon red and orange, almost like a way early sunrise… from the wrong direction to boot. In the other direction meanwhile: a smoldering path of destruction... fire and coal, smelling of smoke and blood!

"Okay… let's do this!", The female declared like that, with a decisive nod, almost as if to encourage herself too, as she embarked on her support mission on her very first Great Hunt.

[Alessia = 108]

The pair plodded forward through the ashen landscape, picking through it for those in need of aid. Fires smoldered wherever there was still fresh fuel, except here and there where successful firebreaks had held it back around farmsteads, livestock, and homes.

Mostly, the land was devoid of unprotected nonmages, warned well in advance of the monster’s advance. But those who had stayed to protect property or support battlemages, as well as the mages themselves, were still here in the ember-strewn wasteland.

“There,” Peregrine called, bobbing his head in the direction of a group of mages huddling beneath a force field surrounded by fire. “When that’s burnt out around them, they look in need of aid.”

[Peregrine = 115]

Scanning the area herself, as she went along, Alessia was shocked at seeing all those fresh traces of the chaos a Corrupted could leave behind. Way back when they had paraded her about, after some attacks of other corrupted monsters… but it was never when the traces of the beasts were still this fresh!

Getting herself back into reality, the doe nodded, confirming the plan with another nod, as if to encourage herself too. "Agreed!"

As such, the newly formed team proceeded to work their way through as much of the scorched and smoldering path the creature left as only physically possible. 

All the while, during their joint effort, the buck's experience clearly showed, as his eyes seemed clearly sharper than hers, regarding any buried victims or such. During all that, the doe's admiration for Peregrine only grew even more . . . although she did try to hold her excitement back, this time around, as the fella didn't seem too fond of those . . . bursts of admiration, after all.

[Alessia = 172]

He had to admit, Alessia the Saintess, her gift was useful, and her medical knowledge good. Now. Someday medical advancements would surely replace the need for medical magic with enough effort, but for now, gifts like hers were worth the risks, used carefully. She definitely had talent.

He had…skills, but they were in the killing of things, not the prevention of death, so every time they found someone, he simply let her handle it, aside from keeping watch.

[Peregrine = 78]

Their wordless arrangement worked perfectly well for a good while… there finally came the time that Alessia did finally hit her limit!

"DAW… blast it! Out of juice…", The doe commented as such, as she was done with her latest patient, referring to magic power, adding after a short explanation, "WELL… you know what that means…!"

Instead of giving Peregrine any time to respond though, the doe instead fell back to her own telekinesis, looking like warm light enveloping her 'target', to pull a roll of bandages out of her backpack [which somewhat resembled a horse's saddle bags].

Pulling a bit of the fabric tight, like you might snap a curled-up whip, she grinned at her newfound companion evilly, declaring: "Time to get your first aid course gone, big boy~"

[Alessia = 130]

There was no harm in learning a bit of first aid from a professional. Anyway, if he wanted to show people how to use less magic he ought to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. So, tiredly, he did as instructed, helping sanitize, cauterize, dry, and clean-

And the burn patients.

There were trample patients, smoke inhalation patients, building collapse patients and weapon accident patients, but almost everyone was a burn patient if they needed medical attention at all. Clean, clean injuries, pre cauterized and wet and raw. What did one even do with that? Where he was from was moist and simply not that fire-prone, and he had never fought a flaming monster before.

“What do we do for this?”

[Peregrine = 124]

"Oh? Mister no magic doesn't know of these?", Alessia couldn't resist subtly teasing, getting out some potions for disinfecting and improving healing… as well as a bottle of water, explaining as she worked, "First you carefully clean it with plenty water. Then we dry it off a little with clean gauze… now we get our ointments to help it heal up and carefully wrap it up in bandages."

Lacking proper pain medication, or she rather had been unable to get any of that stuff on the fly, before having to head out, she for last gave her older patients a big sip of strong alcohol. At last, getting another victim who hadn't got hurt as bad to assist, giving them small bottles with Aloe, explaining to apply some of that later on, when bandages needed swapping- "… and make well and sure they keep it elevated and later don't mess with any blisters or such, EVER!"

Thus working as long as only possible, till her supplies were fully used up… as well as her stamina being as used up as her magic power, she finally uttered an exhausted gasp. Having tried teaching her new companion every second they got during that, Alessia finally gasped exhausted.

"WELP! Sorry Perigin!", She declared as such, still messing the name up, as she hadn't been corrected the first time, "… but I am afraid that's classes over for today…"

[Alessia = 235]

Peregrine was so exhausted he still didn’t correct her when she botched his name. He nodded, looked at a spot covered patch of grass that had avoided burning, took two steps over to it, laid down, and fell asleep in the midst of the makeshift hospital.

They’d done what they could. Others would have to pick up where they left off.

Still, despite the pain of his entire tired body, he felt satisfaction over what he’d done to the Pyre and the fact he’d been still useful even after that.

[Peregrine = 90]

Tilting her head musingly for a sec, the doe in the end uttered an amused snort. Walking over to the batch of grass, Alessia flopped down there pretty much the same way as her companion had done.

Snorting amusedly like that, the doe Saintess declared very much exhausted herself, uttering as she too started to doze off: "YEAH… guess we did all we could for now didn't we?"

[Alessia = 68]

“Mmhm,” Peregrine manages as he exited consciousness like a rock thrown off a cliff exits the sky.

[Peregrine = 17]