Call of the Waylanders

XLIV. Does Josie Die?

Josie fell to the ground, her eyes as wide as saucers. As she fell, she clutched the arrow that was now sticking out from her chest, but her strength left her immediately and she was unable to pull it out. Jordan, being a hero, stood there, staring at her body, for a few moments before he realized that he needed to get her to a witch as quickly as he could. Hadn't he heard a new command--if anyone was to be hit by a Scorch Knight's weapon, they had to be taken care of as soon as possible? That sounded right to him. 

Jordan lifted his partner's limp body into his arms, then ran off the balcony that the archers had been standing on. He dashed behind a tent and saw two Wayland Rangers leaning against a flimsy wall.

"You!" he shouted to them. Their masks turned attentively to him.

"Are you two archers?" he asked. The two made flicking motions with their hands in reply, and bows snapped out from their arms. They must have been attached somehow, for portability and dramatic effect.

"Good. I need you to cover for me while I go and get my partner taken care of." To establish his point, Jordan tapped the arrow in Josie's side. The Rangers seemed to understand, and they ran behind Jordan and onto the balcony. Jordan was then able to proceed with getting Josie to a witch or warlock so the arrow could be taken out.

Jordan knew that there was a medical tent about eighty feet to the left of where he was standing right now. He ran like a bat out of hell--according to the new command all fighters had been given, a Scorch Knight's weapon,  given time, would burn through its victim, the fire crawling towards the core, which soon melted. Josie was shot in the chest right above the core, so Jordan knew he needed to run to the tent quickly. He even traced the Mark of Agility with the words Excitant Flavum so he could run even faster. Thanks to his determination, he was able to reach the tent in seconds.

He ran in through the door with a bursting amount of gusto, then cried out to the numerous witches and warlocks inside, "Can someone save my partner, please?!" the magicians all turned towards him and gasped, then one warlock realized that it would do no good to stare at such a serious injury and grabbed Josie out of Jordan's hands, setting her down on a bed and promptly going to work.

"The wound is fatal, but I can save the core. We can let her regenerate herself. That's the good news; the bad news is: you're going to need to leave the tent. I say it's bad news because I see your concern with your 'partner.' Please, exit the premises," the warlock explained.

"Why would I need to leave? She's just regenerating," Jordan protested.

"Because, Ranger, she's regenerating. First, she will be an empty skeleton, then she will be a skinless organism, then she will be naked until we can get her clothes back on. Us witches and warlocks are licensed to see that process, but you are not. Please exit the premises." After hearing that viable explanation, Jordan left the tent, but before that, he sneaked a glance at Josie.

She was quickly decomposing--Jordan watched the skin on her face wrinkle up and turn grey, then disappear, leaving her skull. How attractive, Jordan joked in his mind, a smug smile on his face despite what he had just witnessed. The magicians pressured him to exit, and he obeyed, although he wondered why he had to exit at that very moment. It took a few hours to a day for a body to be ready for regeneration, didn't it? Perhaps Jordan was wrong and bodies regenerated soon after decomposition, but that didn't sound correct to him.

Jordan thought about how he might have wanted run back and go return to his arching with the others, but he chose to sit down next to the tent instead, contemplating life.

Jordan wondered how he had easily recovered from the shock of watching the love of his life take a fatal wound right in front of his eyes. Perhaps it had been the fact that he knew she was going to be alright, and she would be regenerating soon. The relief of knowing her core hadn't been reached by the Scorch Knight's arrow was a good candidate for restoring his normal personality, even if he couldn't shake the sight of Josie's lifeless eyes from his mind. 

Of course, Jordan had to think of the cause of the fatal wound. That Scorch Knight's arrow, or rather, all new Scorch weapons, were a stroke of genius. To make a weapon that burned its victim from the inside and melted their core was extremely convenient. One wouldn't even have to make sure their victim's core was destroyed--the wound from the weapon would do it just fine. Jordan felt the urge to steal a few of those arrows--that was a thing he could do, as long as he was sneaky enough.

After a few minutes of thinking, Jordan knew he probably should check on the other archers that had been arching with him on the balcony. He stood up and began to jog over to his companions. 

After a quick eighty feet(to the right this time, one should know), Jordan found the other archers--but not in the spot he wanted them in.

"What happened?" Jordan asked, gaping at the arrow-covered balcony.

"You see," one of the Waylanders Jordan had asked to arch in his place began to explain, "the Scorch Archers began to fire enormous amounts of arrows at us, just to make sure that the Ranger you took to safety's core was destroyed, and probably also to kill the rest of us. The others thank you for bringing us onto the balcony, for our quick thinking allowed for us to construct a magic shield just in time. If Chi and I hadn't been right here, we would have all been dead."

"Thank you, Waylanders," Jordan thanked. He drew his bowedge and began to fire arrows along with the others.

As he looked down at the battlefield, he found another familiar shape, but this one wasn't Sari.

No, that one looked more like Lion, if one could believe Jordan could see that well at such a distance.