What's This? (Social/Private)

Early morning light flooded through the spaces between leaves in the forest canopy, dappling the area below. The spots could have easily hidden the lights following the mage that wandered between the trunks if one were to look from above. The girl herself would have been far from hidden even without the general flashiness of her appearance. Neru tucked a few strands of escaping hair behind her ear, taking a quick survey of the area around her. It seemed as good a spot as any: quiet, with a fallen tree off to the side that provided a nice place to sit. A soft smile rose to her features, one that only showed itself when music became involved. She seated herself, lifting the flute she'd been thumbing absently, checking it over for any differences since she'd set out.

It was an old piece, something Neru had possessed since she was a little more than five years old. It held no abilities other than the notes it could ring when played correctly. It was these very notes that Neru always wanted to hear, whether she played them or another did. Lifting the instrument to her lips, she started into a simple lullaby, her eyes drifting half closed as sound filled the air, the light orbs that drifted about her gentle shades of green and blue. Her peace of mind did not last long, however. A sharp squeal cut through the music like a knife through soft cheese, and Neru jerked the flute away from her lips in alarm. She scanned her surroundings, her eyes wide with surprise. It'd sounded to her like the squeal of an animal in pain. It was something she'd rather not think about, but if there was a creature that needed her help, it was her place to provide it.

Tucking the flute safely into her belt, Neru got to her feet and followed the sound, her footfalls gentle on the dead leaves. It didn't take her long to find her quarry, given the noise it made and the soft light it emanated as she drew closer.

Twisted in the leaves of a fern was a fairy. It reminded her immediately of a butterfly, given the shape of its clear wings were almost identical to the insect's. It wore a black top and skirt, white hair splaying out against the green of the leaves. All in all, it was a striking creature, despite being about the size of Neru's hand. The most striking part about it, however, was the red that stained its skin and wings, oozing from wounds on both its back and legs. "Oh..." A slight gasp escaped Neru's mouth, and the pained cries of the creature came to a stop. It opened its eyes, violet gaze shining. It made no sound, but watched her, its breath coming in quick pants.

Kneeling down, Neru quickly reached out, drawing her light spheres in with her fingers and settling the barest of touches against the fairy's hand. It seemed to recognize her lack of menace and made no move to escape her touch. The spell worked quietly, healing some of the wounds and pausing the bleeding enough that both Neru and the fairy let out little sighs of relief. At least, she'd thought it was a sigh of relief. With the small exhale, the fairy closed its eyes, body going limp. It appeared unconscious.

A sudden jolt of brown color took over the orbs both around her hand and in the air, betraying Neru's fear. "Hello?" she asked, scared to touch it once more, but fearing that perhaps the injuries were worse than she'd thought. She looked up, glancing around as if help would appear. She couldn't use Gentle Light again for a little while, and if this thing didn't have long...

Wincing inwardly, Neru made a decision. She'd heard that there was an expert on creatures in the guild, by the name of E. Or, she supposed it could be a nickname. She was by no means sure if he could help, but it was the only option she could think of right at this moment. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a handkerchief, spreading it out on one of her hands. She lifted the fairy as gentle as her movement would allow with the other and settled it on the handkerchief. Adjusting so that the creature was settled safely across all ten fingers, Neru carefully scrambled to her feet, turning and making her way for the guild.

The journey seemed to take hours, even days when people in the town began to get in her way. Once to the guild itself, she slipped in the door behind an entering mage, refusing to pause even for a quick apology. "E?" she called nervously, unsure of what the mage looked like. She'd only heard the name by mouth, after all. Neru could only hope that her little escapade wasn't in vain.

Hm?

The man of science heard his name muttered. He had just walked out of the restroom and was heading back to his lab. Well, it wasn’t really a lab it was just his room. It was also a complete mess since he always kept lab materials all over the place. But for now he was in the hall.

Evi was rarely called upon by anybody. He just stayed in his room most of the day to do research, occasionally going into the surrounding are outside of Hargeon to get some sunlight and fieldwork in. He really hated the city in between. It was too loud and it made Mr. Elwood grateful he had a room farthest away from the cities noise.

The scholarly NEET looked over to where he thought he heard his name get said. It was a girl. It was a pink haired girl. It was a well-endowed pink haired girl. She was extremely attractive. Her eyes were also extremely captivating. Evi wasn’t capable of dealing with this. He decided to make an escape to avoid talking to a girl he definitely couldn’t talk to. No, this was a tactical retreat, to prepare for whatever the girl wanted. Yes, a good time period of preparation would be seven years time; that seemed suitable. It didn’t too long either.

Evi’s face was entirely flustered. He was red as a beat and his eyes were screaming with panic. He looked like a fourteen year old who was being confronted by the cute girl in school. Then the observational man noticed something. Her eyes were filled with fear, or at least concern. Evi looked down as he noticed red droplets dripping from her hands. What was in her hand? If the girl’s hand was injured the handkerchief would be more tightly pressed against it. But the way she held the cloth and her hands position were as if she were holding something. A specimen she wanted to know about perhaps?

E’s curiosity had been peeked, and once his curiosity had been peeked there would be no stopping him. The researcher walked over to the girl and immediately looked to see what was in her hand. His eyes widened with fascination. For a moment it was like E had seen insects crawling for the first time, or had just realized what he could do to them with a magnifying glass. The girl had become irrelevant, as if she wasn’t even there. This was far more interesting. It was a Fairy. A being so rare their existence is commonly believed to be nothing more than myth or legend. They were real but even documented accounts of their existence were typically old and information was lost to time or to translation. Upon closer inspection E noticed the injuries. Both the legs were torn up badly and covered in blood. Based on the size of the fairy E tried to narrow down quickly what in the area could have caused the injuries. These injuries in and of themselves would not be fatal if the bleeding was stopped but E wanted to be sure if he needed to have an antidote on hand in order to save the fairy. Quite frankly, even if it died E could just dissect it and get plenty of knowledge but a living fairy could give him far more information in the long run so he focused on trying to keep it alive. The wounds were either lacerations or cutting wounds so it could be determined that it wasn’t a spider or insect bite. Perhaps a fight with a preying mantis? That seemed unlikely as the mantis would have eaten it by now or destroyed the wings. Same goes for dragonflies they would be destroyed this creature by now. Most likely case was a bird caught it by the legs and it was somehow able to jar itself free. If this was the correct case the fairy could be saved.

E held out his hand. “Hand it over,” he said. It was cold and heartless but E wasn’t concerned with the girl’s feelings. Besides, if she went to a stranger she didn’t know she most certainly had no choice but to do so. Evi Elwood had determined the situation through observation and there was no need to go into details. He had the means of keeping this creature alive.

Many of the room's occupants paid no notice to her call, simply continuing on with their business as if she hadn't spoken at all. Neru supposed that helped in a way by rooting out who it was she wasn't looking for. All people reacted to the sound of their name, even if only mentally. Plus, in a guild as big as this, there was no reason to ignore the sound of one's name. Thus, when a dainty man with a thick head of white hair paused, Neru immediately turned in his direction.

He seemed unreactive for a moment, then he flushed a shade of red that Neru hadn't known humans could flush. He looked like he thought she was some sort of ghost. She knew she couldn't be that scary; Neru wasn't all that threatening of a person. The pink hair never went far to help her fear factor, after all. However, now wasn't the time for somebody to be nervous about her. Her eyes slipped down to the fairy, checking that its chest still rose and fell with breath. Had her healing helped at all? Or was it going to die in her hands, far from anybody it had ever known?

Encompassed as she was with worries for the fairy, Neru barely noticed E's approach. In fact, by the time she glanced up again, he was right in front of her, all indications that he'd been nervous at all gone. It made part of her wonder if she'd imagined them. His new expression had a... a hunger to it that disturbed her slightly. This was the correct person, yes? An expert on creatures of all sorts? After a few moments, he thrust his hand out expectantly, ordering her to hand him the fairy. Her eyes darted from that hand to his face, contemplating, despite the desperation of the situation. Should she trust him? What if he was one of those collectors, the ones who killed things as trophies? Would he even know how to heal it?

None of this inner turmoil has previously shown on her face, but when she turned her eyes to his for the final time, an air of danger was there. "You are to heal," she insisted, a few of her lights staining red for a few seconds. It betrayed what Neru might do if she found him doing otherwise. Even with that anger, the gentleness with which she settled the fairy in his hand was unparalleled. Settling the creature into one of her hands once more, she reached out with the other to arrange his fingers correctly, not wanting any specific part of the fairy to be jostled. When that was done, she transferred both it and the cloth to his hand. Her breath caught in her chest with fear that she might hurt it more than it already was.

When it was no longer in her possession, she dropped her hands to her side, ignoring the blood that stained her fingers through the cloth. "I'm providing what help I can," Neru stated, leaving no room for him to deny her. "I do have some healing experience. A spell as well, in a short while. I've already used it once, though the bleeding seems to have started up again since then." Part of her supposed that she could be nicer, but at this moment all she cared about was the fairy's welfare. Any injured feelings along the way were nothing more than side effects. He certainly didn't seem like a dangerous person, this "E" character, but one may never know. Uncertain characters were part of the reason she wished to improve her healing. One day she woudn't need the assisstance of a stranger should she come across another injured creature. Neru would be able to deal with it herself. Until then, she could only hope she hadn't come across the little fairy too late. Only the skies knew how many of the little beings were left, and her tardiness had better not the be cause of its life being lost.

Evi’s face flushed red as a beat. SHE’S TOUCHING ME! Evi’s mind raced when the woman grabbed his hand and started repositioning his fingers. What was a short moment felt like an eternity as Evi’s mind eternally panicked and his body froze with a sense of fear and confusion from the soft touch of a woman’s hand. Evi was still frozen and cherry red after the fairy was placed in his hands and in his possession. It was a miracle Evi didn’t start flailing in his panic and actually stood still. If he didn’t all his unintentional tough talk would have been for naught and this woman probably would have hated him for possibly killing the fairy. Fortunately though, he didn’t and the girls words about helping finally got him back into reality, instead of panicking about human contact with a female. Although the sunflowers poking out of his head were a clear sign of his panic, as he used his magic without realizing.

The overall goal was pretty obvious and fairly straight forward. Stop the bleeding with a coagulate, disinfect the wounds with alcohol, and find some way to bandage it. A splint would probably be good for the left leg, which Mr. Elwood wasn’t sure was broken or not and he couldn’t heal that. “I-I’ll be f-fine,” Evi stuttered to tell the girl, his stammering making him seem less trustworthy. From the books he had read, Fairies were creatures of nature and there were theories that they healed faster in its presence. With those words though, Evi turned around and walked towards the stairs to head to the dorms at a rapid pace, and in succession, his room. Evi had everything he needed in his mess of a room. Once Evi got to his room he opened the door quickly and walked in.

The room was a mess of papers with specimens both botanical and anthropological in pots or jars all over shelves. The bed in the corner of the room wasn’t made with the sheets strewn out. Next to the bed was a nightstand with a single drawer In another corner was a bookshelf with all of his previous research materials and some more specimens. Evi went to this book shelf and grabbed one of the specimens, a moss and placed it on a messy table in the center of the room, after which Evi tossed whatever papers and notebooks were there on the floor and gently placed the fairy on the table next to the moss. Evi went to his nightstand and opened the drawer and pulled out a jar of powder, a bag that had gauze in it, and a bottle of alcohol.

Evi immediately opened the jar upon returning to the table and scooped a large hand full of the powder, dropping it completely on the legs. Evi then took some gauze and applied light pressure on the powder to push it into the wound. The powder was a coagulate that would stop any bleeding while he wrapped the wounds up. After a moment, Evi wiped the powder off and reached for the rubbing alcohol, opened it up and poured some on a fresh strip of gauze. Evi then wrapped the gauze around one of the legs, and repeated the process with the other leg. The fairy wouldn’t be happy but it would live so it couldn’t complain. Evi went back to the nightstand and pulled out some small bandages he used when dealing with small animals he was experimenting with, typically to take care of mice and rats he wanted to stay alive. Evi came back and removed the alcohol gauze before carefully wrapping the legs one at a time with the bandages and completing the basic first aid.

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word count: 626

When she finally managed to rip her eyes from the fairy to look at E, to check that he fully understood the situation, Neru was not expecting to see sunflowers popping out of his head. Gaze narrowing in an obvious expression of confusion, the light mage held her tongue, seeing no point in stating the obvious. After all, she had little balls of light following her most places. It wasn't far off to assume that others had some... interesting side-effects of their magic as well.

He seemed to study the fairy for a moment, during which she waited patiently, her hands coming to clasp together behind her back. If he was adverse to her touch, she'd do her best to avoid contact unless it was needed. E seemed to decide something after a moment, giving her a stammered affirmative that watered the small tendrils of doubt in her mind. Her fingers wrang together behind her back, itching with worry. Quietly, she followed E when he made his way towards the stairs, ignoring the glances of the other guild members with practiced ease. It was clear within moments that they were headed to his dorm. Despite herself, she stopped at the door, her years at the orphanage pushing at her to not enter a room that wasn't her own.

Narrowing her eyes and internally reprimanding herself, Neru stepped inside, keeping sure not to touch anything. Though, with the state of the room, one might find that a bit difficult to do. She followed E to the desk, jumping out of the way in shock when a mess of papers were brushed to the floor. Part of her itched to clean it up; she'd always been a neat person, and looking at this made her want to organize every single page until everything was in a nice place. Swallowing the urge, she stepped up behind him, peering over his shoulder to keep an eye on what was being done. Her hands remained behind her back, careful not to touch the other mage again. If she was responsible for his messing up (and possibly hurting the fairy), she'd never forgive herself.

"Is it going to live? Do you know what might've happened? Is there anything I can do to help?" The questions sprang past her lips unbidden and without any permission of her own. Her eyes never left the fairy. It looked so... miniscule all bandaged up like that, dredging whatever protective instincts she had right up to the surface. Whatever had hurt that fairy had better not come within her vision. She'd have little mercy.

Forgetting her promise to herself that she'd not attempt to bother him, Neru turned her gaze around the room, attention sliding once more to its messy state. "Wouldn't you be able to find things in here more easily if it was cleaned up a bit?" she asked. "I could even help, if you want. I'm used to cleaning." That, and given that he was helping her with the fairy, wouldn't it be a bit of thanks?