A medical emergency

[fadingworld]

A deep navy cloak hides his features and the more ornate tunic the courtesan usually wears to greet his clients. Mal hunches his shoulders and slides through the crowds hoping to avoid notice. He keeps his head down until he reaches the home of the doctor and wraps smartly on the door. "Open up," he calls in a voice that expects to be listened to.

How much time did he have? He could not have a client bleeding out. Not this one. Not one who had come to him for help, to be treated privately.

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[mandragoraspiritus]

"Can you walk on your own?" Regis asks. If needed he would absolutely carry Mal but it would be better, for both of them, if Mal could make it on his own.

"After I have seen you safely to the cabin, I must..." He made a gesture at himself, at all the blood. As Mal had said, he needed to wash it off. "After, I can attend your injuries."

He stands slowly but not unsteadily. In form he's human again and yet everything about him where he stands naked and drenched in blood screams that he's not. He absolutely is not. On his belly, where claws had cut deep into his abdomen mere moments ago, there is no sign of injury.

[fadingworld]

“I can walk,” Mal says. He is not one hundred percent sure that he can but he is going to. Slowly, he pushes himself to his feet, planting his feet apart till he steadies.

He looks at Regis stomach area. “Another useful skill, this fast healing.”

[mandragoraspiritus]

"We heal quickly," he agrees as they start walking in a slow and careful pace, Regis staying constantly aware of Mal and how he's faring. If he can walk the distance.

"But it isn't without limits. I have been injured badly enough more than once that it had incapacitated me. That chort could have managed to do just that."

[fadingworld]

"So that is what it was called," Mal says with a shudder. His face grows paler as they walk. "I would be dead without you." He glances across. "I am grateful you are such a good fighter and that....beast did not get lucky."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis shakes his head. "I am not a fighter. In more ways than one I am quite the coward." He smiles bleakly. "But any animal can be pressed to fight. When it is cornered or when its mate is threatened."

He watches the paleness of Mal's skin, wondering more and more if he should lift and carry Mal, despite the blood. The chort's and... Mal's. "I should have been there. I put you in danger."

[fadingworld]

Mal won't let him carry him, he'll walk while he can. "You didn't know it was out there," Mal points out very gently. "You were there when I needed you, do not blame yourself."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"I more than anyone should know what can dwell in the woods." In his defense, there had been so signs of monsters the last time he had been in the area. What had caused the chort to come there? They were territorial from what he had understood. Had something driven it from it's own territory?

[fadingworld]

Mal makes a noise of disagreement, "You were not clairvoyant last time I checked." His pace is slowing but he looks grimly determined to make it back over the last small bit.


"It's okay." He smiles across. "I may get a scar out of this." And he would be a little less perfect. That is appealing.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Yes, that is quite likely," Regis says grimly. He hasn't seen the extent of the injury, of course, but with that much blood and what eh knows of a chort's claws, of the damage they had done to him, he is more than a little concerned. "I will do what I can to make them as small as possible."

[fadingworld]

Mal waves his free hand dismissively. "Don't worry." He knows he should be reacting but it's hard to think straight. It is a relief to see the cabin. Mal's knees almost buckle when they reach the door.

"Go, clean up. I'll simply sit on a bench till you are back and rest."

[mandragoraspiritus]

It very much is relief to see the cabin and see Mal seated to rest.

Regis nods. "I will be quick. Call out if you need me."

There is a stream, just a stone's throw from the cabin. That's where Regis goes, wading out into the cold waters to submerge himself, scrubbing a his skin and letting the stream carry the blood away.

When he returns there is still some rivulets of tinted water running over his skin, some spots he'd missed, but he looks and feels much better.

[fadingworld]

Mal shuts his eyes when Regis leaves and slumps down a little. Oh it is relief to simple sit and let the world spin a little. In the quiet of the cabin listening out for Regis, what happened starts to hit home and his fingers start to tremble.

He opens his eyes when Regis makes it back, it had seemed like a lifetime. "That looks better," he says softly.

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis responds with a bleak half smile. He goes to his pack where he pulls out a spare tunic that he pulls on, to be at least somewhat dressed before he goes to attend Mal.

He holds out his hands, the first touch he's volunteered since it all happened. "Come. Let us get you to a bed so I can take a look at you."

[fadingworld]

Mal shows absolutely no hesitation in giving his hand to Regis to be pulled up. The other, he refuses to move from side.

"My hand isn't trembling because I am scared of you." Mal feels he needs to explain it so Regis doesn't misinterpret it. "I think, it is reaction to the injury."'

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Yes, I would say that it is," Regis agrees, leading him to a bed and helping him lay down. "You have suffered quite the shock, both to your mind and body. Some shaking is the least to expect."

He lays a hand on Mal's over the wound, ever so lightly, not putting any more pressure down. Then he takes it and lifts it. "Though I would not blame you, if you trembled because of me," he continues more quietly, somberly. "It is one thing to know about something, another to experience it."

[fadingworld]

"I could never tremble in fear because of you," Mal says with a noise of pain. "I knew it was you. I knew you were trying to save me." He turns his head so he track some of Regis' movements.

"It was intense to witness but you went to such lengths for me."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Having fetched a knife, Regis sets to cut Mal's shirt away from him. He doesn't want him to move more than absolutely needed before he knows the extent of his injuries.

HE pauses, though, to look down at Mal with some disbelief. "How could I not?" He had said it, hadn't he? Any animal can be pushed to fight, if cornered, or... To protect his mate.

[fadingworld]

Mal has to smile a tiny bit. Regis' reaction warms him and he hopes will put his own reactions into context. "Then you must see how I can accept what I saw so easily. You are my partner, I accept all of you."

[mandragoraspiritus]

He blinks down, a little owlishly as if he's surprised. He knows he would go to great lengths for Mal's sake and finds nothing strange in that. But he's a vampire and the attachments they form grow so strong and so deep. Perhaps he gives too little credit but he hadn't considered that something like it might be true for a human as well. Oh, true, he has the likes of Geralt and Cirilla and Yennefer to compare with, but they aren't normal humans. Geralt so mutated by the witcher mutagens that other humans no longer considers him one of them, and Cirilla and Yennefer so steeped in magic to be something else entirely.

But Mal? Mal is neither of those things. And yet...

"Oh, dear heart..." He murmurs softly, laying a hand to Mal's cheek for a moment before he must resume the work.

[fadingworld]

Mal smiles leaning in to the touch. It's worth the pain he's experiencing to have Regis understand the depth of his feelings and his acceptance.

"I love you," he whispers.

[mandragoraspiritus]

There is still a side to Regis that dearly hopes that Mal won't end up regretting giving his heart so fully. He smiles back, not without a degree of wistfulness but also with warmth. "And I you," he replies, leaning down for just one brief, sweet kiss. But there is work to be done, that has to be done.

"I will give you something for the pain as quickly as I can," he tells Mal, "but I must make sure that there is nothing that needs attention lest your life is at immediate risk." Thankfully the bleeding isn't heavy enough to risk Mal bleeding out, and he can't smell any stench of ruptured intestines or something such. "Try to bear with me."

[fadingworld]

Mal feels warmth spread through him at that reply. He cant truly say he's not head it in his life. It will make any pain from this process bearable. "Do not worry, I can endure a fair amount of pain." There is a happy smile on his face that is not going anywhere for long.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"That may be so, but I do not wish you to endure more than you have to," Regis grumbles somewhat. Indeed, it isn't painless, what he does, examining the wounds and the torso as a whole, fearing internal bleeds. His findings gives relief, though.

"It seems your ribs bore the brunt of the impact. The tears in your skin are not as bad as they could have been, but yes, they will leave scars. You also have some cracked ribs, but again we are lucky. It does not feel like they are out of place."

[fadingworld]

Mal remains stoic through the process, bearing it as best as possible. He breathes a sigh of relief that he's got off pretty lightly. "That is good," he murmurs. "He chased me and swipped…" he swallows, "I guess I didn't get the full impact of the claws. Your wound looks ...looked deeper."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"They were," Regis replies solemnly. "Be glad that you did not catch a full blow from that beast. It is capable of far worse than this. Had I not ended things quickly, it could have torn even me limb from limb."

A clean shirt from Mal's pack is sacrificed to act as a temporary compress, folded up neatly and laid against the wound. "Here, keep the pressure on it as well as you can while I see to medicines." A strong tea of willow bark and valerian root to take the edge off the pain, then boneset, yarrow and sage to help wash out the wound before stitching and dressing.