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Memory Solo (713). Mouse gets sick.

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Do You Really Think So? [Southern Gauthrel]

52 Ymiden, Arc 713

On her hands and knees, Mouse stared at the puddle of fresh bile. Tinted pink, the bite on her tongue bled lightly. Her thin arms quivered. Sweat trickled over paled skin, then she heaved in another forceful dry retch. Nothing but a froth of saliva slid past her chapped lips.

She slowly blinked, and found herself on her feet in the next trill. Ugnakros, one of her master's many sons and a powerful Lotharro hunter, dragged her by a rough grip on her arm. Surroundings blurred, as he pulled her away from the main hall and into an adjacent room.

"Mouse - - sick?" he asked in the Haltunga, of which she barely understood still.

Mouse shook her head no. She whimpered when his grip tightened around her elbow.

"Yes. - - sick - - - stupid - -Mouse ." He lifted the slave up into the crook of his arm and rested her over his shoulder. Ugnakros left the room with her.

After a determined walk through the fortress estate, which the other slaves kept their gazes away from looking at the two, they reached the medic hall. Ugnakros dropped Mouse onto one of the cloth cots, then shouted at a nearby medic. A stout Lothar with a thick beard of red color waddled over with a kit of bandages and other such things. Mouse sat up, but the Lothar forced her to lay back down with a hand to her shoulder.
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While the medic poked and prodded and asked questions she didn't fully understand, Mouse watched the morning light dapple over the ceiling. The wide room had tall windows that let a great deal of light in, and a faint breeze that drifted over the fortress walls from the southern winds. Mouse felt her fever lessen and her stomach settle.

She tried to speak in the Haltunga, "No sick."

Ugnakros said, "Stay." He left her with the medic.

The medic undressed her from the slave's dress, and continued the examination. It wasn't the first time she'd met this medic though. She avoided looking at him or speaking to him, regardless. He was not a slave, but a free Lothar. It didn't matter that he knew common enough to ask her questions, she shook her head and repeated, "I'm not sick... feel fine. Bad food?"

He mumbled under his beard, then put her dress back on, and left the hall.

Mouse found herself alone, or thought so, until she stood from the cot and looked to see a Lotharro boy of about fifteen arcs who sat, reading, near the door. She stared at him for a moment, then returned to sit on the cot. For the meantime, she'd have to make do with watching the sunlight dance above her. She felt another wave of nausea, the stale copper taste of her mouth grew potent as she swallowed it down.


Ugnakros returned, with the medic, and another Lothar. The third man, she didn't know but she recognized him. He didn't look like the other Lotharro in the fortress. Those who whispered about him, often disappeared too. She'd known a few slaves who'd tried to gossip about him after his arrival in early Ymiden. They were gone within the next trials, never seen or heard from again.

This mysterious Lotharro wore a polished beast's skull over his head, hiding most of his features from view, except dark eyes with black paint coated around them. His lips were painted black in the slap of a handprint where the palm crossed over them, the shape of his fingers stretched to his stubbled jawline. He was sinewy and gaunt, yet not slender. His neck stuck out in a hunched bony spine that stretched his tanned leathery skin taut. He wore silks of black and red, overlapped around him like scarves. Gilded bands around his wrists and ankles caught the light in shines, and long strings of bones and shells hung from his neck. On what parts of his body could be seen, small tattoos of many symbols covered him.

Mouse instinctively moved away when he approached her. She shook her head, eyes round and breath held.

The shaman grabbed onto her ankle and forced her back down to lay on the cot. Ugnakros stood across the way with the medic, as the two observed in murmured conversation of the Haltunga tongue.

She closed her eyes tight, no longer looking at the frightening mystic who set his monstrously clawed hands over her stomach. His hands felt cold, then very hot. Mouse squirmed, and barely restrained herself from trying to push him away. She didn't like whatever he was doing. It felt as if he'd drove his hands through her guts and grabbed at something that even Ugnakros in his most heated throes couldn't get to. Tears welled in Mouse's eyes. She tried to defend against it. No use. The shaman reached into her soul and felt around.

Mouse shook, and then felt a gap of emptiness left behind when the mage took away his hands. She opened her watery eyes and peered at her stomach. It looked fine, even if she expected to see her guts laid out on the cot around her.

The shaman said something in a gravely rasp to the other two men.

Ugnakros let out a bellow. The medic returned to the cot and pressed a hand against Mouse's forehead. Mouse froze, unsure if she had done something wrong and expectant of something far rougher than the check for a fever. At the door, the young Lotharro lad set down his book and hurried out of the hall.

Between the shaman and Ugnakros, a flurry of words were exchanged. Then the shaman bowed lowly, a rattle of the bones around his neck, and he stalked in a swift departure as well. Ugnakros pointed after him and the medic soon followed.

Mouse stared at Ugnakros. Had she done something wrong? Would he beat her? Ugnakros didn't hit her with switches or smack her across the face anymore, but he still found ways to be rough when she upset him. The woman didn't try to sit up again, even though she wanted to. He stood beside her, then set a hand over her stomach where the mage had touched her.

What had the shaman done?!

"Ugnakros," she whispered his name and her voice shook as much as her body did.

"Mouse." He returned in common, then he lifted her up into his arms and hugged her close against his broad, muscular body.

The young woman didn't ease in the hold. Confusion suffocated her thoughts. She shivered, and held back any chance of more crying. Mouse forced herself to keep breathing. She didn't understand why Ugnakros held her so tightly, when all that had happened was whatever the mage had done to her. She didn't understand why the medic and others had been made to leave. She didn't understand why Ugnakros petted her hair or kissed at her cheek. She didn't understand why she'd thrown up and why she felt better now. She didn't understand any of it.

"- - Ugnakros - - - - Mouse - - - good - - - father - - - - Mouse - - - - ha! Ha ha!" said Ugnakros in a flurry of words that she didn't understand, or were spoken so quickly that she lost track of the Lotharro language.

He picked her up from the cot, but didn't throw her over his shoulder. Instead, he gathered her in a cradled position. He walked over to a nearby window, then set her on the open sill. Ugnakros kissed at her neck with his twisted, scarred lips. His jagged nose from multiple breaks brushed against her. He pointed out at the town settled around the fortress and said, " - - - out - - - Mouse - - - - - - free."

Mouse looked at him quickly, eyes wide. Did he say free? What had he said?! She grabbed at his hand, her thin fingers wrapped around his calloused thumb. She squeaked, "Free? Mouse?"

No master had ever said such words to her before. She didn't let go of his hand as he tried to pull it away.

" - - - - free - - - father - - - Ugnakros - - - - free! Ha!" responded Ugnakros.

"Common?" she pleaded for him to change language so she might understand.

His grisly face contorted in a frown. He said in slow words, "I speak father. Free Mouse. Make mother."

Mouse stared at him. She nearly fell out the window while the world rushed past her. Instead, Ugnakros gathered her back in his arms to catch her. The brunette gasped, breath short, and then her vision blacked out as she fainted.

When she returned, Ugnakros stared down at her. For the first time... in a long, long time... the tiniest of smiles dared to show on Mouse. Smothered by his kiss, she relaxed in acceptance. Ugnakros took hold of her, and against the floor of the medic hall, celebrated the newfound discovery of his child-to-be. Mouse stared past his shoulder, at the morning light dappled on the ceiling, and thought about only one thing...
Mouse, free.
word count: 1523
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Re: Do You Really Think So? [Southern Gauthrel]

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Mouse

Points

10/10

Knowledge

Discipline: Holding still.
Discipline: Not giving in to fear.
Discipline: Making yourself be quiet when you want to get hysterical.
Discipline: Not pushing unwanted touch away.
Endurance: A mage invading your soul.
Endurance: Sudden intense nausea.

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Comments: So Mouse was with child? That's interesting. It brings up all sorts of questions, such as what happened to the kid... Well I guess it's obvious Ugknaros kept the kid, if she didn't throw it out a window or something.

I look forward to learning about more developments in Mouse's past.

word count: 101
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