[PRP] Steps forward (Etansi & Soui)

[Hattaki]

Small drips of red followed the path of the small girl that was wandering slowly down the hallway towards the healers, spattering when they hit the stone floor and leaving a trail in her wake. Turns and turns she'd learned how to cook with Ma Loa and done so daily, how she'd managed to wound herself was both confusing and downright insulting. Really it had been because she'd reached out to stop the knife from falling towards a candidate and... missed. Instead of landing on one of her fellow candidate's feet it had sliced a path down from her elbow to the palm of a hand with a deep cut between two of her fingers when she'd managed to get it to stop traveling downward.

Much to her annoyance and disgust the girl who's foot she'd saved had screamed and fainted on the spot, carried out to the healers quickly, so Etansi knew that she would meet up with her down there and the desire to smack her was great. Taking a deep breath as she stopped a few feet from the entrance and glared at it with all her might. Inside her heart was hammering because she'd never been to one of these before, never had to and still wouldn't have if the kitchen workers hadn't insisted and yelled at her when she'd stammered out a refusal. Who were they to tell if she could handle losing some blood or not? It really did hurt though and she was feeling a little loopy just looking down at the trails of blood that were still actively running out of her arm.

Giving a groan of distrust the small teenager resigned herself to going in, there was more blood flowing than she'd expected and there wasn't a lot of her to lose blood from in the first place. Despite having begun eating much more than she ever had she couldn't keep any weight on her body, which could have been partly to do with her inability to slow down and stop moving. To slow down and stop moving was dangerous to her, something could get her, something could happen to... No, she needed to learn not to think like that. Swallowing hard she pushed the door open with her right hand walked through the entrance with a hesitant expression.

Off to the side wall, laying on a bed with two friends by her side was the candidate that had fainted, but none of them paid her any mind as she walked in and Etansi was more than happy to return that favor of silence. It wasn't as if she had made any real friends since she'd come here and she hadn't really wanted to... not until Khamaith had spoken to her and suggested that she should try. So it was of no consequence to her if these stupid girls didn't become friends of hers, who dropped a knife?

Casting about Etansi looked for anyone, anyone that she could find with a spare set of hands that might help her. She probably needed stitches but she would suffice for something to press against it to make it stop bleeding. "H... hello?" she offered up in her raspy voice, still looking about for any single healer that stood out who wasn't working on someone.

houllow

 

[houllow]

Soui had thought a lot of her daily routine would chance since becoming a candidate and, while it was true, she was happily surprised to find that not too much was different. Chores would always be chores, lessons remained the same, and to her delight the little teen was allowed to work with the healers more often than not for her simple tasks. They were all thing she'd done before, minus being allowed to assist in actual healer capacity, but that was okay. Rolling bandages, doing inventory - all things she enjoyed in any capacity. Today had been rather uneventful, minus the random noise that came when a young girl was brought in; Soui didn't understand all the fuss from someone who'd just fainted, and she was about to ask the group gathered around to be silent when she heard someone calling.

"Yes, what can I - oh shards." The little candidate new better than to curse or swear or anything of that sort, but the sheer sight of the injured figure coming in made her forget to keep her calm for that brief moment in time. "What did you do? Please, sit down and I'll get something for you right away." Her tone was remarkably calm despite the words coming from her mouth and how she was sputtering about. The adult healers were off in their own business, and Soui needed to make sure everything was okay before she went off to get someone. "Here, press this on your wound and keep your arm elevated above your heart, please." Soui had come back with a clean cloth and held it to the mass of blood, unsure of what exactly this wound was going to be looking like.

If it was super bad then she'd obviously go and get an adult, but maybe it would be something simple and she could help. Would she be overstepping her bounds as a candidate now, to act as a healer? It didn't really matter in any degree since Soui wasn't going to stand by and let someone be injured while she could help. "What happened to you?"

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

Startled didn't even begin to cover how Etansi felt after the outburst came from the smallest healer she'd ever seen, not that she'd seen many, but the girl was just barely larger than she was! Two dark eyes widened a little bit and her heart began to hammer in her chest, thinking that she was a fool for having listened and come here, that she was a fool for trusting anyone to take care of her when she'd been the only one that had ever successfully done so in all her few turns, it took sheer strength of will and a memory of her utter embarrassment not long before to keep her rooted to the spot. Swallowing against the dryness creeping down her throat from her mouth, the tiny dark girl could only manage to nod her head dumbly in response to the other girl's command to sit down but she didn't move from the spot she'd frozen in, unable to overcome her own almost feral instincts to run away, that maybe she'd been wrong to try and save that girl.

A heavy press against her arm brought Etansi from her thoughts and she gave an instant hiss in response to the pain that shot through her arm and up to her shoulder, she was some sort of fool to have risked herself for another. But it wasn't this girl's fault, it was the foolish girl that had dropped the knife in the first place, so the little girl did what she was told and lifted her arm up above her heart, moving to sit down on the closest chair so that she could put it up higher and not topple over from the woozy feeling that made black edge at her vision. She'd lost a lot of blood in the past from scars that were mostly centered around her torso and shoulders and kept well hidden by her clothing, but now this would show on her hand and arm forever.

"Girl dropped a knife, tried to keep her from being hurt." Etansi rasped, her eyes lifting to look up at the little brunette before her. "Is that... bad?"

Based on everything that she'd learned up until coming to Western doing things for others was wrong when it meant that you might hurt yourself or put yourself out, so this was new territory for her completely and it left Etansi uncertain as the girl's voice calmed down to level again and some of the concern seemed to bleed from it. Or maybe it was still there, she wasn't sure, currently she was trying to make herself as small as possible while still keeping her arm above her heart so the blood began to twist towards her shoulder instead of her hand. "Not really fast enough. Stupid." Slowly she spread the two fingers apart where the knife had finally come to a stop and pain shot through her, but at least it was something that she was used to, pain she could deal with. Being watched over and fretted over by another girl close to her age was something that she wasn't used to at all.

houllow