After A Hard Days Work

Naraca didn't look at Kariline when she greeted him and sat down. He just looked downward towards the blanket that now covered just his legs. He felt rested, better overall compared to before. Well...No he felt sick, groggy, and his leg hurt as well as his hand from carrying a boulder sized lacirma with one hand. He was tired, dazed, disoriented. However he didn't feel any of that as he was able to push it all aside perfectly. Now there was just a numbness. He didn't remember anything that happened, nor the dreams he had.
A quick flash of being on his knees just a few hours ago however seemed to shove itself in his mind.
She asked how he was doing.
Naraca looked up for a moment and saw her. She looked tired, slight bags under her eye's. He must have been out for a while. His eye's carried a faint look of disgust, but underneath a lot of a thought by the narrow gaze he gave as he looked downward.
"Fine" He replied to her dryly and quietly before clearing his throat.
She turned to face him, but he didn't make eye contact, his eye's stayed down. Yes...Yes that's right, he was pushed aside when he tried to help. Pushed aside when he was trying to stand strong despite being near death himself. He remembered now, it didn't take long at all for that to come back again.

"I'm so sorry Naraca"

Now Kariline looked away from him, her voice more sorrowful now. He looked up slightly and saw a tear stream down her cheek. His face didn't change when he saw this. His eye's shifted from the chair to her and how she was sitting. She was sore, she had been sitting in that thing for a while, he could tell just by looking at her.
He lifted his hand up and gently placed on the back of her neck. Making a circular motion with his palm on just below the back of her neck. He then placed the tips of his fingers in the muscles of the back of her neck and began to rub her neck firmly to alleviate the pain in her neck and back. The controlled strength in his hand and fingers he knew would help her out right now.
"It's okay..." He told her simply and feeling some pity for her. It was almost natural for him to want to remove pain from her. So he'd continued to rub and massage her neck with his one hand while the other rested on his leg.

He had suddenly heard a loud boom then saw a petite little girl spring up. Quincy was here as well. By looking in her direction he also saw Talen.
Quincy went beside the bed and wrapped her arms around Naraca's neck and pulled him in, his hand slipping away from Kariline. He let out a small, quiet breath from the sudden pull but quickly felt some relief from the pressure. It certainly felt good on his own neck that was about as stiff as a rock.
She then updated him on Kihia. He must have just been resting now. He did have a lot of injuries, and of course there was his arm...

Talen walked up after, said he hoped Naraca was feeling better. He looked up at Talen as he approached and nodded his head.
"I'm fine...What about him?" He asked, tipping his head back and pointing his chin to Kihia's bed. He couldn't see the boy from here, the curtains covered everything, even any sign of a shadow.

Kihia laid there as the Nurse barraged him with a series of questions, which for the most part he was ignoring. He heard people talking just beyond the curtains that were surrounding his bed, That must be the rest of my team… are they the ones who took me back here…? Kihia then noticed the nurse had sighed and gave up asking questions, she turned around and walked back outside of the curtains. Now is my chance… He summoned his remaining strength to lean forward, and turned so his feet could once again touch the floor, Must… get to… my room… He begun to stand up when he heard, “What are you thinking get back in your bed now!” Kihia froze and glared at the nurse for a moment, he then returned his focus to what he was doing and continued trying to stand up. “I told you to lay back down!” She then thrust her arm forward as it transformed into a giant rabbit arm and forced him back onto his bed.

This is so humiliating… Kihia couldn’t move, the impact was executed in a way that it didn’t aggravate his injuries, but it did create a lot of noise. “Doctor Neos, we need an enchantment on Kihia’s bed ASAP!” Kihia’s right eyebrow twitched, This is going a bit too far… He then saw an enchantment form around him as an older doctor walked within the curtains. He had a frown on his face, “Kihia Avoa, you have to stay in bed and recover your strength even before you think of getting up and walking around!”

---

The doctor nodded at Kihia to cement that fact and then walked out of the curtains and sighed, He is certainly a handful when it comes to receiving medical treatment… Doctor Neos then turned to see the rest of Team Serpent soul sitting around Naraca. He looked down at his medical report for Kihia and shook his head, and walked over to them, “Kihia is awake although not entirely in a pleasant mood, you all can go see him if you want, just make sure not to try and excite him any further, his body his extremely weak… as for why… we don’t know ourselves yet. As you are part of his team, I will let you have a look at the medical report for you can have an idea what is going on.” Doctor Neos handed them the medical report, after a moment he nodded at them and then walked off to tend to other patients.

Doctor Neos wrote:

Medical Report on Kihia Avoa

Kihia has sustained Forty Nine different puncture wounds, they are all varying in size pertaining to the area of his body they were located. The strangest part of this is the fact, they all were in a pattern all in line on the same body part, but what concerns me is the fact there is evidence to suggest this isn’t the first time these injuries were inflicted upon his body, these injuries have scar tissue around them suggesting that they have been inflicted many times before, as to the exact count, that I cannot determine. On top of all of this, all of Kihia’s Muscles seem to be shot from overexertion; this isn’t that bad, as the damage will heal naturally trusting he is well rested. However as for Kihia’s right shoulder and lack of his right arm, all I can deduce is the fact that injury has been there for many years. What remains of the evidence of how the arm was cut off show that it was a clean cut, almost surgical in nature, but considered the possible healing magics there should have been no reason for his arm to have been amputated. On top of this, his body seems to accept the ice arm as part of itself, since there are no signs of damage on his skin that one could get from constantly being in contact with a very cold material. This suggests, that along with his magic, his body had been trained to endure such hardships, how can one be able to sustain these kinds of injuries and come back from it like it was nothing is truly Remarkable… but since Kihia is unwilling to answer any questions, all the answers to his condition remain unanswered…

At first, when he didn't acknowledge her, Kariline felt heart broken. Like her whole world crashed around her. She already was guilt ridden, did he have to make it any worse. A lump grew in her throat as he gave her a simple, 'Fine' as a response. He hated her, this was all her fault and he really hated her now. Her eyes filled with tears and she was about to leave when she felt his touch on the back of her neck.
What was he doing?
Massaging her?
What was this for, where did this come from. Why?

It felt good though, this simple touch, and he told her it would be okay. Kariline let her tears fall anyways, but this time, she wasn't sad or angry, she was full of happiness. He was going to be okay, and from the sounds just a few feet away, they were ALL going to be okay.
She took Naraca's hand and let it touch her cheek, they were rough and ragged, but the touch still soothed her.

Doctor Neo's, the Lamia Scale physician, left Kihia's tent. He seemed a bit frazzled, but that was probably because Kihia gave him a ridiculously hard time. That wizard....
He brought out the report and said they could go seem him, which was a relief. She wasn't going to try to get Naraca out of bed... so she had another idea.

Kariline pulled back Kihia's curtain all the way. The poor wizard completely immobilized. she giggled and then began to walk around Naraca's bed. He wasn't hooked up to any instruments, so that was good.
She barreled down and got a grip on his bed. The bed itself had wheels, but the man on top of the bed weighed as much as a house already, so she knew it would be difficult.

Pushing with everything she had, Kariline managed to move Naraca's bed closer to Kihia so the two idiots could speak to each other. However she was tired and plopped down in a chair. "You guys wear me out." She said with a giggle," Im glad your all okay though."

Quincy followed up as the doctor came out and handed them a report. After everyone had their go at reading it she took it for herself so she can look at it. Though to her dismay she totally forgotten one detail about herself. She couldn't read more than a few words past what were simple like foodstuffs and prices. Whenever she needed something read she just asked someone near her and never bothered to learn on her own. She held the report out for someone else to grab before she went over to basically hug Kihia but only pressing her face against his chest with a light whisper "Sorry for throwing you and barging into your room."

Talen was happy to here that to hear that Naraca was feeling better, he looked beat to hell, but he was a tough person, and the summoner knew that it would take a lot more to finish of the veteran. As Talen looked to Naraca, he heard a commotion coming from Kihia's bed. Turning, Talen saw a flustered looking doctor leave the curtains around the bed. He walked up to the Serpent Soul members and told them about Kihia's injuries. Doctor Neos said that Kihia had been severely injured, but was recovering quickly. Before leaving the doctor handed the group a clipboard that had all of his notes on Kihia's condition.

After Quincy had finished reading over the doctor's report, Talen glanced over it and saw just how bad off Kihia was. Talen put the chart down and walked over beside Kihia and smiled down on his teammate. "Sorry about barging into your room Kihia," Talen said, "But we were just worried about you." Talen paused before continuing, not sure how to word his first question. "According to the doctor you were really banged up on your last mission, what exactly happened?" Talen knew that Naraca would not be happy that he was asking about it again, but Talen figured that there was nothing wrong with just asking about their mission in general.

A deep breath came in, and then out of Naraca's lungs. A long exhale from his lips that was a sign of him relaxing as the mission was over, and they were safe now. It was a short but meaningful moment he shared with Kariline before the attention had to go to Kihia. Which was what he was waiting for. He could hear the commotion from behind the curtains that covered the man inside. The boy was anxious, it would be a good guess to say that he just wanted to fix his arm. That or he was still adjusting from the recent, massive combat high.
The doctor who was tending to him came to them and told them of the boy's current condition.
After a quick explanation the medical report was passed around, Naraca took a hold of it after Talen looked over it.

He sat up more so he was hunched over as he looked down at the notepad, unaware of Kariline moving around to attempt the task of moving him as well as the bed he was sitting on.
He turned his head to her and smiled as he did. He could get up anytime he wanted now, all the pains he felt were easily ignorable and superficial.
Yet he let her do it and he turned his head back to the notepad.

The boy had 49 puncture wounds? That amount was frightful and only peeked Naraca's interest. He recalled some holes on Kihia's body as he carried him, but certainly not to the extend of 49 wounds. How deep were they? He wasn't bleeding so they couldn't have been too bad. The scar tissue though...Yes that must have been what helped. So that was what the armor did to him if he used it, it attached itself like that.
The report then went on to a topic that he hesitated to read. His arm, and the details of the injury. Naraca's eye's shifted away from it for a moment, yet he was indeed curious. So with a small pang of guilt he read on.
He hasn't had his right arm for quite sometime now. and he has been using an ice make arm for all this time. He could only speculate on why the arm was cut off, but last he checked people didn't surgically cut off there own arms for fun. This was some kinda trauma the boy had, a trauma connected to a very deep, long lasting wound on his soul and memory he likely didn't care to relive too often.

Naraca's bed was beside Kihia's now, and he was able to look down and over the boy with ease. He could see the irritation on his face as much as the embarrassment of the state he was in. Now everyone knew about his arm, a secret he obviously didn't want out.

Talen asked the question of what happened in the mission. Naraca didn't object, the mission details he was fine with explaining, it was the details of why Kihia had only one arm that he would be defensive for the boy about.
"A lot happened in the mission" Naraca replied to Talen despite the question being for Kihia.
"But you've probably guessed it but he didn't loose his arm in the mission, it's been there for a long time." He explained, putting the report down on an end table beside him.
He looked towards Kihia and was sure to make eye contact.
"You say only what you wanna say. If you don't wanna talk about your arm then we'll drop the subject all together. It's up to you" He said seriously. Looking out for the privacy of the boy's past. He didn't want him to feel like he was being put on the spot. His arm was secret he want to show anyone, so when it came to that kinda stuff, if he didn't wanna say anything then to Naraca that was perfectly fine. Yet if he did wanna say something, they were here to listen.

Kihia laid there in his bed very annoyed, he couldn’t even lift his left arm from the enchantment, This is such a bother… this is the exact reason I don’t bother with hospitals and infirmaries… Kihia heard movement on the other side of the curtains What now… Suddenly he saw Kariline pull back his curtains revealing the rest of the team sitting around Naraca, Kihia grimaced and attempted to avert his eyes. His body was heavily bandaged from the neck down, the wrapping was a lot stiffer than what he was use to so he wasn’t that successful with this. He laid there as Quincy came up and gave him a gentle hug and apologizing for barging into his room and… throwing him? Kihia had no idea what she meant when she said she threw him but he let that thought fade away.

When he heard Talens question he tightened his jaw and held his tongue for a moment unsure on what to say, he then heard Naraca speak up generalizing what occurred in the mission, and then looked at him and told him to talk if he wanted to. Kihia tightened his left hand and quietly said, “It has been fifteen years… I have been without my right arm for fifteen years… and for my current injuries… you needn’t worry about them… this isn’t the first… nor will it be the last if I am to keep my vow…”

Exhausted, Kariline flopped herself in a chair next to Naraca's bed, and just as she did that, she closed her eyes and thought about her friends. Whatever was she to do with them...?
"According to the doctor you were really banged up on your last mission, what exactly happened?"
She peeked through one eye and then finally sat up. That was the true question. Why were they here? Why did Kihia only have one arm?
She thought about the past, and the last time she tried to pressure Kihia into answers.
She wanted to take this as delicately as possible.

It would be best if Naraca and Talen and Quinn all handled this, they were better at words and feelings than she could ever be. She was rude, pushy, and not to mention loud...
Kariline just laid her head into her palm and let her mind run over the events.
She began to get more and more angry with herself. Why couldn't she let people in? Why couldn't she be nice to people??

“It has been fifteen years… I have been without my right arm for fifteen years… and for my current injuries… you needn’t worry about them… this isn’t the first… nor will it be the last if I am to keep my vow…”

With that, Kari stood up instantly as a wave of determination flooded over her. She was going to start being more of a people person. She had to, for the people she cared about.
Kari just walked over to Kihia's bed and gently wrapped her arms around his shoulders and neck. Her hair draped over her face but you could hear the soft sobs from her crying.
" Kihia, i don't know why you were hiding this from us, or anyone.. and i don't want to know either. We are alike you and I... hiding our true selves from the people we care about.." She spoke softly taking a few seconds in between each sentence..

She pulled away slightly so that he could see her smiling face, " But i came to realize lately, that no matter how hard you try, your true self appears to those you love. Your true self being the one on the inside." Kari laid her hand across her heart and looked around to see everyone, " We see the person you are on the inside, we all share your pain and your guilt... Kihia, there is no need to hide any longer... Because instead of hiding from us, your really hiding from yourself.. All of us already accept you for who you are.."

Kari gave him a bright smile as her tears ran down her cheeks. She looked down and softly ran her fingers around his hand and interlocked them with hers. The warmth of his palm made her feel better and she hoped it worked for him as well.

Quincy looked down as they talked about Kihias injury. She peered over to talen who asked about the job. Quincy waited for the others to finish talking "If you guys want to know what happened I could tell you...." She moved over to sit on the floor cross legged at the foot of both the beds.

"Alright so what happened was we went out on this job, when we got there Kihia pushed me onto a shield and threw me down the mountain. Being me I got mad and took my frustration out on the nearest door, which I ended punching down. I ended taking down 20 or so people when we got there. Then I saw these two fighting and looking for the lacrima while I started fighting them to expunge my fury. Then The whole place became covered in ice. Then I saw Kihia in this huge ice armor just running people down. Then me and Naraca found the Lacrima and we grabbed Kihia and we got out of there. Though I over exhausted myself with my magic..." She said at last finishing her story.