howlingplayground | A King AU... again

A King AU... again

It figures. It just figures. The one time he goes out without Josh, Kevin gets stabbed through the side. They're relatively sure that nothing important was damaged, but the knights can't touch him. One's already lost a glove to Kevin's power, and who knows when they'll be able to get to Josh.

"Your Highness, we need to keep moving -" Sir Julian says, scowling as they come upon a village.

"We keep moving and he's going to bleed to death," the heavily helmeted Lady Sooraya points out. "Perhaps this village has a healer?" She suggests, looking around.

Julian snorts. "Healer or not, how are they -"

Kevin falls off his horse, stopping all talking. One of the other knights, smaller than the other two jumps down. "I'm alright." He tries to reassure.

"Julian!" The knight on the ground snaps. "Ride ahead into the village. See if they have someone." He nods and knees his horse heading toward the village. "Sooraya, get over to that house and see if they have a cart. Buy it if you have to." She snaps out orders, her metal gloves holding Kevin still. "Stay still, Your Highness. We'll get you somewhere safe."

He swallows and nods. He knows his side is bleeding again. He knows that he's been losing blood pretty steadily since they had been attacked by the small troupe of bandits. He closes his eyes, only to have his shoulder shaken. "Don't you dare pass out on me." She snaps at him.

"Not trying to." He whispers, as he fights to keep his eyes open. "J, ride for Josh. Soo and Julian got me."

"Not yet. I'm going to get you to a healer first." She says, stubbornly. "Besides, the King will have our heads if we let you die. I like my head." She looks up as someone approaches. "Stand and explain yourself." She says, getting to her feet and resting a hand on her sword.

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Jubes nods. "Take the knife and put it in the fire." She says. She takes the scissors, and with Julian's help, strip the prince of his armor, and then cut him out of the clothes - clothes can be replaced, the heir to the throne not so much.

Once revealed, the pair of wounds - one on his front and one on his back, look much worse. Jubes hisses in a breath, trying to hold some of the blood in his body by shoving his sweat-stained tunic into the wound.

"If we cauterize it, Joshua is -"

"I'm open to better ideas. The bandages won't work." She glances at their unwilling hostess. "What do you think?"

Angela does her best to at least give the poor prince a little privacy here. She's got her eyes turned out the nearest window as they strip him of his armor and cut him out of his clothing, not looking back again until they begin to talk of cauterizing the wound.

When she glances back she can't help but look and oh, how she winces. She can definitely see the front wound, not so much the back one but that's enough to have her stomach twisting. She looks up when she feels eyes on her, her cheeks flushing some at being caught here looking at the poor prince. Then she snaps to attention and sort of gestures with her hands animatedly.

"I understand you'd rather not have me touch him but I don't think you've got too much choice. If his powers are whatever or you just don't like the idea of a commoner -- well, whatever it is but I'll take the blame for whatever happens!"

Where is this confidence coming from? Probably from the fact that she doesn't want to stand and watch someone die if she can help.

"If nothing else I ought to be able to stop the bleeding."

She's already rolling up her sleeves here. Either they would let her or she'd have to just ... maybe dodge them and put her hand against his forehead? Just anywhere on his body honestly. That sounds like a good plan.

This might be a situation of her getting into a whole lot of trouble for her own stupid decisions. It wouldn't be the first time that happened of course.

Something passes between the two knights. Jubes doesn't stop holding the clothing on his wound. She looks at Julian, her eyes hard.

Julian sighs. "Miss, it's not that we don't want a commoner touching him. That's ridiculous." He takes off his helmet, dark hair falling into his face. "Miss, he could kill you and we won't put him through that."

Jubes looks at the girl. "Nor will we take you from your grandparents." She says softly. "We... when we became his knights, we swore an oath. To not let him kill, except in self-defense."

... Oh. Angela's shoulders fall at that, the hardened expression falling too. They definitely wouldn't lie about something like that, right? No, she can't imagine they would lie and deny the prince any treatment she could give.

"I'm sorry then. I ... personally I don't mind the risk but I get it."

It sounds dumb maybe but Angela is just the kind of person that puts herself at risk for people. Some say it's because she doesn't have a brain in her head but...

She chews her lip a moment. "Well ... you could sew up the wounds but I'm not sure that would be any better than cauterizing them, would it? Certainly not less painful." She perks then though, "We do have some things for pain -- mostly for my grandparents' aches and pains."

Jubes sighs. "The stitches won't hold." She says. "The material will just dissolve." She murmurs. "You said you have a healing ability?" She asks. So does Josh, and Josh is immune to the Prince.

"Josh -"

"On his way, your Highness." Jubes murmurs, smoothing a gauntleted hand gently over his head.

Julian catches on to what she's saying. "You thinking maybe with Josh?" He asks.

Jubes nods. "Would you be willing to work with the Royal Healer?" Jubes asks, nodding to the knife in the fire.

Angela is quick to nod at that.

"Of course. Anything to help."

She might not be friends with the prince or any such but she's not one to sit and watch others be hurt or suffer or anything like that.

"Is it something like combining our powers together? I've done that before."

On smaller projects with the healer in the nearest town. Her healing potency wasn't predictable but sometimes that little bit was enough.

Julian nods. "That's what I'm thinking. We know..." He breaks off at a quick headshake from Jubes. "Well, we know things. Josh would be amenable."

"So, we just have to keep him alive until then." Jubes says grimly.

"Mimsy... get... Josh." Kevin mumbles on the bed.

"I'm sure Soo will bring Mimsy back too." Jubes says, just holding his hand.

In about half an hour, a huge black Rottweiler comes bounding up the front drive and stops, looking at the older people on the porch. Behind her comes Sooraya, the knight, and a man in a heavy cloak, his face hidden. They get off their horses, and Sooraya bows to the older couple. "Where is the Prince?"

What a dog! Angela's grandmother seems a touch intimidated but her grandfather doesn't at least. He gestures a little testily at the front door. "Hoggin' up my Angela's room, that's where."

That seems to snap her grandmother out of what fear the dog brings out in her as she huffs. "Go on in, we'll see to your horses." Horses she likes, huge dogs not so much. All the other horses she's already gathered up near the side of the house, under shade where they can graze to their heart's content.

Angel must hear the voices because she trots out in time to open the door. She's not much use to the poor prince in her bed so she might as well let people in. "Come in, come in, I --"

Oh! The dog! For a moment Angela blinks at him and then she beams! "I think he might be waiting on you particularly. Come on~."

Mimsy stops, looks at the girl, but then barks and bounds over to Kevin, nosing his hand. She licks his metal fingers and whines.

A man walks in behind the dog. He's completely covered from head to toe. "Jubes." He says, grabbing her attention immediately. She twists and gets to her feet. "Julian." The other knight looks away from the window. "Out." He jerks his head. The hood moves a bit, showing a flash of gold behind the hood.

Once Jubes and Julian have left them alone in the room, he pulls the hood back, revealing a golden haired, golden skinned man. "Can you heal or are you an herbalist?" He asks, looking at Angela with bright blue eyes.

He certainly is an eye-catching man, isn't he. Angela blinks a time or two but then is quick to start once he questions her. She's equally quick to talk to, both knowing time is of the essence and simple nerves to some degree.

"I can heal! It's a little unreliable sometimes but I work really well with others. Um ... if our chemistry is right I'm really good so -- I'm an herbalist too!"

At least a little. Here she offers her hands out to him, not quite pleading but definitely ready to help. Folks sensitive to magic might feel something dampening her magic. With the right people her magic mixes, mingles and what dampens it for others peeled away. Then she's honestly impressive in what she can do for those people ... but just them. She terms it 'chemistry' and maybe it is like some form of magical chemistry? She sure doesn't know.

Josh nods. "Good. Do you need to be touching someone for it to work, or can you touch me, and work it through me?" He asks, because everyone's healing works a little different and he's no want to put her in danger, if he can prevent it.

"Move, Mimsy." He says, nudging the dog out of the way. Gently, he touches the Prince's head. "I told you not to go." He mutters in Kevin's ear, making the Prince mutter something unintelligible.

"Mm, it can work through someone else. Are you a healer too? It'll work with your magic, I promise."

Since he's touching the Prince's head she reaches to take his other hand. Angel is the sort of person who inevitably helps others and it's little wonder her magic works in kind. Whatever healing Josh does or doesn't have it blends well at least.

He nods. He's a healer, and had been Kevin's boyfriend for a couple years. He's not sure her magic will work on Kevin - his own doesn't, merely keeps him from being hurt - but they have to try something because Prince Kevin cannot die, because of a bandit's blade.

He tsks at the wounds on Kevin's body and shakes his head. His idiot of an ex-boyfriend, now dear friend, is not going to die because of this, but he has lost a lot of blood and Josh can feel the infection beginning. "Alright, here we -" He stops, when Kevin's eyes shoot open. "Sleep, Kevin." He says, gently. "We'll be alright." Josh promises.

But Kevin's green eyes latch onto Angela, fever-bright and not quite lucid. His one bare hand reaches out. Josh goes to grab his wrist, but doesn't move quite fast enough. "Look out!" Josh hisses.

"Angel." Kevin whispers.

The time spent waiting definitely hasn't helped the wounds. She'd thought a few times about circumventing the knights but she also like being alive a whole lot too. She didn't know how touching the prince would hurt her so it was more a few of the knights than him but she'd been rolling it around in her head most of the evening.

She's got one of Josh's hands in her own, nibbling on her lower lip in what feels like anticipation. Either this would work really well or it might just be a dud and she wasn't quite sure what she would do if it was the latter. They might be relative strangers but Angela had seen death more than once in her life ... she wasn't keen on seeing it again with anybody.

The moment of anticipation turns to tension, a hissed command and a hand grabbing onto her wrist. She blinks down at it and it takes a moment to realize it's the prince's hand. Then she blinks several more times before she makes a quick "oh!" and then abandons Josh's hand to lay over Kevin's one against her wrist.

The sigh of relief she gives is deep. She almost wants to droop where she stands, laughing a little at how weak her knees feel all of a sudden.

"What was all the fuss about? Gosh, you all should have let me do this a good hour ago!"

She closes her eyes, tilts her head and tries to focus on this skin to skin connection with the prince. There is something of a tingle where they touch but otherwise she's as hail and hearty as ever -- maybe more so as she can feel their magic mingling between them.

"I'll have to hold onto him for a bit but it feels like we're pretty well in sync He's got some pretty strong magic though."

She can feel it even through this small bit of skin to skin contact. Whatever they were so frightened of does seem fairly powerful, she's got to admit. And she's a country bumpkin without any formal magic training.

Strong magic, she says. Kevin has killed people accidentally, just by touching them. Strong magic, she says, standing there, completely unharmed by their Prince who can touch so few, that he locks himself away. Strong magic, she says as he watches the wound close, slowly.

She... Hell, this is bad. Josh is quiet and lets her work, and when she is as done as she can be - the wound isn't fully healed, but Kevin will be able to get home.

"You will have to come with us." Josh says, when she's finished. He pulls over a chair for her. "Kevin will want to thank you, as will the King." The Queen died when Kevin was a boy, and the King, having his heir, never remarried.

It's healed enough and that's what matters. With a sigh Angela practically collapses into the chair, though not before she gently lays Kevin's arm back on the bed itself. If they let her rest she could probably heal him up the rest of the way to be honest. She's never done such a good job at healing anyone before and she's kind of proud of herself, okay.

When Josh mentions all the talk of thanks a flush grows on her face even as she smiles. "It's not that big of a deal. I mean ... I don't mind coming with you but it wasn't any problem."

She's just glad the poor prince isn't going to die in her bed. Glance over to him she takes note that he even looks better. The healing must have tackled the infection setting in first and that was why the wound wasn't fully healed.

She considers a moment and then leans a little to actually feel his forehead with her wrist. He certainly seems a lot cooler!

Josh sighs. Then, he puts his hand on hers and gently pulls it off of Kevin. "What I'm about to tell you cannot leave this room. Not even the knights can know, do you understand?" Josh asks, looking at his former lover.

"The Prince's power is deep, uncontrollable and something that no one understands." He begins, sitting on the bed next to Kevin, Mimsy coming over to nudge Kevin's hand again. "There are three, now four, who are unaffected by it. Me, Mimsy, a noblewoman, and now you. Everyone else, Kevin can and has killed, with just a touch."

... Oh. Oh. Angela's brow knits a bit as Josh begins explaining. Then it smoothes out as she seems to put the dots together finally. It didn't kill just people apparently though she's not wholly sure why it would affect stitches or bandaging the way it did.

She falls silent a moment, watching Mimsy nose at Kevin's hand. Then she bites at her lower lip, looking sad herself as she considers the way that must affect the prince's life.

"How lonely."

Before her grandparents had taken her in she hadn't had anyone and that was a lonely enough feeling. Having people but no way to touch them ...

Josh's lips quirk. Yes, many people thought that. The wizards of the kingdom - one who keeps Kevin's secrets - have made a ring he can wear that shuts down his powers, but only Josh, Kevin, the wizard, and Lady Jubes know that. Everyone else just assumed that he had a weird quirk about wearing gloves everywhere - again, thank you wizards for making fabrics that the Prince could wear!

"You see now, why I am asking you to come with us." He says, gently. "Not only can you touch him, but your healing power works, where mine does not." He has no problem admitting that. He knows how desperate it is to have a healer that can work with Kevin.

"I cannot say how long you will be gone. I can say that I can make the case for your grandparents to come too, as I assume they are your only family?"

Angela is quick to nod as Josh speaks. Oh she can definitely understand why now. She wasn't about to deny a man in this sort of situation one of the few people he could apparently touch and interact with! She knew the barest amount of him, more rumors than anything, but no one deserved to be unable to have some type of touch. Not to mention someone who could heal him -- she had watched bandages dissolve against him after all!

When Josh mentions her grandparents she brightens back up. "Mm, they are. They took me in when I was a child." She doesn't delve into how technically they aren't blood related, just good people who found a runaway slave in the woods and pitied her.

She perks her brows then. "Do you need me right away? I don't mind, it's not like I have that much but it might be easier to convince them if I can send for them later." She makes a little face there, a forceful sort of frown. "My grandfather is a stubborn old man so he may take some working on." Mostly by her grandmother of course.

Edited 2024-04-14 18:23 (UTC)

Josh nods. "I cannot say the Kevin will take to you, that he will be kind, but he's a good man." He wants her to have a realistic thought of what she's getting into. "And the court is full of vipers that will not like you." They don't like him, and he's been Court Healer since he and Kevin were teenagers. But, he doesn't give a damn. He was Kevin's lover until he met his husband, and is now his dear friend, for a man that can't count on too many people.

"How soon do you want to leave?" He asks. "Once Kevin is on his feet, we'll have to leave."

"You talk too much." Kevin whispers, weakly from the bed. Mimsy woofs and puts her front legs on the bed, licking his face. "Where...?" He's not sure where he is.

Angela blinks a few times at Josh's warning. She'd never been to court and she had certainly never been to the seat of the kingdom or anything like that. She had been in places where the people were like vipers and thought surely court couldn't be as bad as the slave traders. Maybe.

Still she smiles at the man. He's just trying to warn her up front. He has a good heart if nothing else and for that she is immensely thankful. "Don't worry, I'll do my best. If it gets to be too much I promise I won't just vanish without saying something to any of you."

That said she looks back to the bed a moment as she muses. "I supposed if my healing can keep up with him it would be better if I went now, yes? There's plenty of bandits around here ... but I guess I don't need to say that. We're just far enough from the capital where --"

Ah she's cut off. She glanced back Josh's way but now her eyes turn to the bed again and more over to Mimsy. She considers whether she ought to pull the dog back but decides it's probably for the best she be as hands off as possible until the prince can decide how he feels about her. Or until she's needed.

It's still a sweet enough thing to see how enthusiastic the dog is so forgive her for smiling over it. She does look to Josh though. "Should I leave you alone with him?" They're obviously good friends after all, she doesn't want to intrude.

"Yes." Kevin says, pushing his dog away from his face.

"No, that's not necessary." Josh says at exactly the same time. He stands. "Now that Kevin is awake, we should prepare to leave. I'll tell the knights." He puts a hand on Angela's shoulder. "Thank you, for your help. Please prepare to leave."

"Josh." Kevin growls, only to be completely ignored. He huffs out a break and falls back against the bed, luckily none of the clothing shifted under him.

For a moment Angela stands like she's not quite sure she ought to stick around. It's her room though and if she wants to get a few things gathered up, well.

That's exactly what she begins doing. She goes to a chest near the foot of the bed so she can rifle through it for a bag, then to the dresser to begin packing things away. She doesn't have much frankly -- a few dresses, a few tunics and pants. Her grandparents aren't rich and she's definitely never been able to bring in a huge amount of money. Maybe that would change with this? If she earned anything she could always send it back to her grandparents.

She plops her back on the chair she had been sitting in so she can move to gather a few other things too. She does take a moment though to look to Kevin and address him as she works. Par usual there's a gentle little smile on her face. "Sorry, I'll be done in just a moment. Then I can leave until your knights come back -- well, leave until we all go anyhow, I guess."

She'll have to go tell her grandparents what was going on too.

"It's fine." Kevin pushes himself up on the bed, holding an arm across his guts. The remnants of his shirt fall away from a well defined chest. He stops Mimsy from jumping up on the bed.

"We'll be leaving shortly, if you've a horse to ride. If not, you'll ride with Josh." Josh being the healer. He's not arguing about her coming at least.

"Mimsy, sit." He orders the dog who whimpers and sits next to him, her paw on his leg as he swings his legs over the side of the bed. "I'm sorry we intruded and that Josh seems to think that separating you from family is a good idea."

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