[FINISHED] Collective Roleplay - Festival of Frost: The Cave

Published Jan 25, 2023, 2:21:48 AM UTC | Last updated Feb 14, 2023, 7:41:01 PM | Total Chapters 8

Story Summary

As required by the Festival of Frost event hosted by DracoStryx ARPG, two of us partnered for the Roleplay section of the event.

This work gathers our entries throughout the weeks we participated in.

6ftDemon 6ftDemon Eulas Eulas

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Chapter 5: The Cave

⚠️ TW: This chapter contains a medical wound cauterization procedure. Description of the scene is mild, but slightly gore. Reader is advised. ⚠️


The three dragons accelerated through the snow, Mortifer gaining space between the first two as the injury he suffered was slowing him down. "This is bad…" thought the gryph heavily breathing. Every step was getting harder to make. If his condition wasn’t already bad enough, Mortifer also realized that his energy had been partially drained from the ice breath blow he made earlier and his inner heat was having a hard time stabilizing within him.

 

"Come on Onlooker! We're nearly there!" tried to cheer up Victor a little ahead

 

The small corva looked back at his friend with sadness, he knew this was all his fault and guilt was invading his mind. He had lost his joyful spirit, the hopping had stopped and no chirping could be heard from his beak. Although it was a worrying state for a stryx like him who could find the slightest strand of happiness in the worse times, it was probably better this way for now while the rhakos was still chasing them.

 

When the entrance of the cave appeared in her sight, the silken corva looked behind to make sure the other two stryxes weren't losing her in this awful weather. "It's only a matter of time before he appears again, we have to hurry. He might even be hiding right by our sides and we wouldn’t even know." she thought. The monster was indeed a known entity of this area, the villagers knew he liked to hide within the snow and hunted lost souls when bad weather was rising…

 

"Snowstorms… his favourite." mumbled the silken corva

"We have only a few wings left to walk before we'll be safe.", she said while backtracking her footsteps to go help the gryph speed up 

 

A sudden close by howl made them all widen their eyes and Victor dove under Mortifer's left wing while the silken corva was helping with the right side. All three accelerated in the direction of the cave, nearly holding their breath in anticipation of the few meters left to walk.

- Eulas (340)

Mortifer grunted as Victor attempted to help carry him, despite his smaller size. The three continued as fast as they could, Mortifer beginning to lose feeling in his extremities due to both the cold and blood loss.

 

"Almost there big guy, hang on just a bit longer." the silken corva tried to reassure herself more than the gryph. The mine entrance was within sight now, but they could tell the rhakos was gaining on them. Footsteps could be heard crashing through the bare underbrush nearby. Mortifer braced for impact, subconsciously covering Victor with his wing. The silken corva by his side quickly leapt into action, the snarling face of the albino rhakos appearing through the storm, ice shards imbedded into the right side from Mortifer's ice blast. His bright red eyes shone like a hellish beacon.


Upon seeing Mortifer's wounded state the rhakos lunged, but the silken corva was one step ahead. With swiftness she grabbed the staff holding the torch and bashed the incoming rhakos over the head with it, sending sparks flying down his bare head and neck.
The rhakos screeched in agony, hot coals melting his skin where they made contact. The silken corva stood between the rhakos and the other two, eyes staring daggers at the squealing runner. The rhakos seemed to pause for a moment, considering his options, then retreated into the forest with a howl.

 

"Come on, we're pretty much there." the silken corva said, hauling the now nearly unconscious gryph, with assistance from Victor, towards the mine entrance.

- 6-ft-Demon (255)

They finally reached the safety of the cave and Mortifer crashed hardly on the ground, his mind drifting away as he fully lost consciousness. Although the rhakos could still comeback and enter the mine whenever, this place allowed them to defend a single side which was much better than the possibility of being snapped from anywhere with zero visibility.

 

The silken corva - deeply worried for the gryph - was about to forget the second little stryx… that is until Victor started whining and struggling under the weight and dampness of his friend's left wing. She hastily came to his aid and lifted the feathers to free the poor dragon.

 

“Woah…” exclaimed Victor while twisting and shaking vigorously his body to remove a bit of water from himself. Although it was pretty dark inside, his eyes turned around and adjusted themselves enough to look at Mortifer's body laying on the cold stones. "It… smells like iron…" he thought while noting the presence of crimson marks staining the floor close to his chest.

 

“Is he going to be okay?” asked the small corva

 

“Yes, but he'll need a lot of rest”, responded the stranger as she went deeper into the mine. While the silken stryx returned, Victor assessed the new material she brought back: a bag full of herbs, some wood and a steel rod.

 

“What are those for? Also who are you?”, he questioned while tilting his head

 

"My name is Cym. I am a nomad healer and this material is medical material. Although it might take a while to prepare, since my fire staff broke when I hit Shard and I need fire to treat your friend's wound. It is quite deep and still bleeding so it will be a necessary procedure… that beast is unforgivable.", she answered

 

At the same time, a howl was heard in the distance. Victor shivered and looked at the wood.

 

"I-… I can probably try something, but I can’t promise it'll work…", he said shyly

 

Cym slightly tilted her head and with a small swift wing move, invited Victor to try whatever he wanted with the pile of wood at her feet. The little corva approached while rummaging his breath and cough slightly.

 

cof… cof…

 

Some black dust came out of Victor's beak. He tried to concentrate a bit more and, with a bigger charge, managed to expire a few flames that brushed the wood. "This won't do… it's not enough." thought the small stryx while getting nervous.

 

"Take your time. Sit down, inspire and expire slowly. Make peace within yourself, concentrate only on your breathing and the feelings it creates within your body… from your lungs, to your throat, the warmth that embraces your heart and the power that submerge your mind." said calmly Cym

 

Victor closed his eyes and followed each instruction as they were said. It might've taken a good five minutes of silence afterwards, but the small stryx opened his eyes widely and managed to blow much bigger flames onto the wood. As the smoke was dissipating, both corvas watched the wood lit in fire.

 

"Congratulations! With time, you'll have no issue controlling this wonderful power." said the silken stryx while taking the steel rod to place it on the fire.

 

"What are you actually going to do?" asked Victor while watching the rod getting bright red

 

"Cauterizing… Your friend is unconscious, therefore he will not react. If you do not wish to watch, I suggest you turn around." answered Cym strictly

 

"Caute-… what?" replied the small corva

 

This word wasn’t in Victor's vocabulary yet… unfortunately for him that day, he learned what it meant in a rather graphic way.

- Eulas (613)

Cym approached Mortifer with the red-hot steel, struggling to turn him onto his side to expose the wound on his chest. Victor, still confused, helped her roll the gryph over. His wound was raw and angry, plentiful red ooze dripping from it. Victor began to feel sick looking at it, so he turned his attentions towards Cym.


The silken corva began to brace herself, positioning the rod over the wound. Victor suddenly knew what was happening, but it was too late to protest.

 

"Sorry big guy, but it's for your own good." Cym inhaled sharply before pressing the hot end of the rod against the inside of the wound to help stop the bleeding. As soon as the rod made contact, Mortifer's unconscious body reacted with twitches and heavy breathing, followed by the occasional pained grunt from the gryph. Victor refused to watch, trying to focus on anything but what was happening to his friend. He knew deep down it would help and that Cym was right, it was for his own good, but still, the sound of sizzling flesh was sickening.


After a few moments of Cym carefully burning parts of the wound, the bloodflow had mostly stopped.

 

"Alright, that will do for now." Cym noted, placing the rod down and grabbing her bag of herbs, which also contained some bandages. Victor braved a look at the scene, grateful that Cym was now blocking most of the horrendous view as she treated the now-cauterized wound and wrapped it in bandages.

 

"Victor, are you well enough to help me wrap his bandages?" Cym asked the still slightly-sickened corva, who nodded sheepishly. He approached cautiously, the smell of iron mingling with the smell of burnt flesh.

 

"Here, you go behind him and wrap this over his back, then I'll roll him back over so we can get it around his chest fully." Cym instructed, tossing the end of a bandage at Victor over Mortifer's back.

- 6-ft-Demon (324)

Victor picked up the extremity of the bandage and both corvas synchronized themselves to wrap as best as they could the huge gryph's wound. Once the task was done, they both pushed Mortifer back on his belly so that he would lay in a more natural position.

 

"Are we done?" asked the small stryx

 

In the slight light left from the fire still burning behind them, Cym looked at Victor to realize he was trembling, probably from the combo of cold air, soaking feathers and traumatizing recent events. "This poor little one seemed to have had no break today…" thought the silken corva.

 

"Yes, we are. I will prepare some brew with my herbs, it would be good for you to drink some. The medicinal vertus of it will help you relax and get some well deserved rest." she answered while walking up to the cave's entrance with her bag.

 

Cym took out a small pot from the pouch and filled it with snow: this would be enough for the three of them once Mortifer would wake up. She cameback inside and walked next to Victor, who had not moved an inch… he was definitely exhausted and still overwhelmed by his friend's condition.

 

"This is-… this is all my fault…" said Victor with tremors in his voice

 

As Cym put the pot on the fire to melt the snow, the small corva started sobbing and she slowly approach his side. At the same time, a grunt from the gryph was heard: he was slowly waking up.

 

"Your friend will be alright. Gryphs are mighty creatures and such injuries are nothing to them. I'm sure the reason you're here is a good one and if you're the one who initiated such journey, you must have a brave and nice heart. Your friend does too, otherwise he wouldn’t have followed you here. He will not blame you for this." tried to reassure Cym

- Eulas (321)

Victor looked up at Cym, suddenly remembering the reason they'd come all this way. The windhound's collar barrel was still fastened around his neck, but he hadn't noticed it in the midst of the chaos.

 

"The windhounds...they're missing this." Victor tapped the barrel with his wing talon. Cym huffed, amused at the response.

"What, that thing? They have plenty of supplies, I'm sure they can do without that one for now." Cym reassured. Victor sighed, relief setting in. Things were going to be ok.

 

A sharp hiss broke the tension in the air. Victor looked over to Mortifer, who had finally sat upright and was prodding at the bandages over his wound. He seemed discontented.

 

"Onlooker, you're ok!" Victor exclaimed, running over to prance around Mortifer's proximity. The gryph eyed Cym cautiously, but soon realized who she was and relaxed a bit.

 

"Don't mess with your bandages, they're protecting the wound." Cym instructed. Mortifer grunted in response but left the bandages around his chest alone. Victor was much happier now, but they weren't quite safe yet.

 

"We need to get back to the village soon, I'm sure Shard will be back for more at some point, and he avoids the village. It's like a death wish for him, he'd be trapped there if he entered." Cym said, receiving puzzled looks from both other stryx.

 

"Shard...?" Victor asked.

 

"The rhakos. The locals call him Shard, or sometimes White Devil." Cym responded. Victor shuddered at the mention of the rhakos.

 

"We'll just have to wait out this storm. It's easier to move safely in clear weather." Cym gestured to the mouth of the cave, the storm outside seeming to have lightened slightly.

 

"Will you be able to make it, Onlooker?" Victor asked Mortifer, looking up at him with an expression of concern.

 

"I'll be fine. Let's just wait out this storm, as she said, and then we can be off." Mortifer hesitated on referring to Cym, realizing he didn't know her name yet.

 

"Her name's Cym. She helped heal you!" Victor happily exclaimed.

- 6-ft-Demon (342)

...

Total: 1871 words

 

———————————————————————————————————————————————

 

MORTIFER

LITERATURE: (1871: rounding up to 1900 / 100) * 3   = 57

EVENT [FoF]: +4                                                                = 61

BUDDY BONUS: +4                                                          = 65

FLOCKMATE: +2                                                               = 67

PERSONAL: +3                                                                 = 70

-----------

TOTAL AP                                                                         = 70AP 

 

VICTOR

LITERATURE: (1871: rounding up to 1900 / 100) * 3   = 57

EVENT [FoF]: +4                                                                = 61

BUDDY BONUS: +4                                                          = 65

FLOCKMATE: +2                                                               = 67

PERSONAL: +3                                                                 = 70

-----------

TOTAL AP                                                                         = 70AP 

 

SHARD

LITERATURE: (283: rounding up to 300 / 100) * 3     = 9

EVENT [FoF]: +4                                                               = 13

BUDDY BONUS: +4                                                         = 17

FLOCKMATE: +2                                                              = 19

PERSONAL: +3                                                                = 21

-----------

TOTAL AP                                                                        = 21AP 

 

CYM

LITERATURE: (1871: rounding up to 1900 / 100) * 3   = 57

EVENT [FoF]: +4                                                                = 61

BUDDY BONUS: +4                                                          = 65

FLOCKMATE: +2                                                               = 67

PERSONAL: +3                                                                 = 70

-----------

TOTAL AP                                                                         = 70AP 

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