The Day the Sky Fell: Tennibrook's Perspective

[CallieO]

Tennibrook doesn't remember what she was doing the moment the sky fell. All she can remember is the immediate aftermath. Blood, dripping down her forehead and touching her lips. Her desk in her Dethsiris office falling on top of her, pinning her, scattering paperwork every which way. Sharp pain in her chest. Trouble breathing. Voices screaming outside and inside the castle. A sharp sound from the horn outside, the call of emergency. The vixen struggles to retain consciousness. Hoping that someone will find her soon.

Adarok_Rowell had many acquaintances, but few genuine friends in Nanthalion--Tenni being one of those few. While Ada had been outside when the blast happened, the wolven had been saved from the worst of it by his sturdy constitution...But his mind immediately had gone to Tennibrook, and those in Dethsiris. Heedless of his injuries, the wolven had made a desperate run for Deth, and once he'd arrived had put his nose to use, trying to track the scent of anything, or anyone familiar. Catching Tenni's scent, he'd begun to track it around the area, calling out as he started to get closer to the source. "Nnnrhh...Tenni, are you there?! Where are you?!" The concerned cry of the wolven was quite loud. Blood dripped from his maw, and his mythril armor had debris on it from where he'd been flung into his house.

Tenni can't hear Adarok; he's so far away. She hears people scrambling around the castle, but can't raise her voice to get their attention. The vixen feels so weak. She probably has a concussion. She tries to lift the desk off of herself, but can't get her arms to cooperate with her. So the Paladin of The Lady does the only thing she *can* do: She prays. She closes her eyes, blinking the blood out of them, and prays to The Lady that someone, somewhere, would realize she's in trouble and come to her aid.

Adarok_Rowell growls as he doesn't hear anything in response...so he just keeps sniffing, keeps searching. Many people scattered about, but he wasn't fleeing. He'd honed in on that scent, and kept following it. Perhaps it was divine Providence that allowed him to follow it, in spite of everything else. Perhaps not. What WAS certain was that, after more frantic searching, sniffing, and tracking...There was a voice. "....oh thank the gods." Immediately, the wolven began hauling the desk off of Tenni's body, trying to free her from underneath it. If he was successful in doing so, he'd very gingerly try and pick Tenni up in his arms. "I was so worried...Healer, right. We need to find one straight away..."

Tenni suddenly feels a large weight being lifted off of her chest, but somehow, it doesn't improve her ability to breathe by all that much. She opens her eyes as she's lifted up, her head lolling slightly upside-down and the blood, which is coming from her forehead, beginning to drip down onto the floor beneath her. The paladin cleric smiles beatifically at Adarok, but what she says next might shake the wolven to his very core: "Father?"

<+Adarok_Rowell> "Oh no...No no no." He gently cradles her head with one hand, keeping her tucked in the arm as he goes out into the hallway, carrying her. "HEALER! I NEED A HEALER! LADY TENNIBROOK IS HURT!" Even amidst the clamour, somebody should help, surely? But just in case, he moves around as fast as he can manage while being careful to support her head, looking for a healer...Or anyone who could help. "...stay with me Tenni, stay with me... Gaea, The Lady, whoever, if you're listening....Help her, please. Nnnrgh.."

There *is* a tremendous clamour in the house, but at hearing someone is hurt, a human healer named Meredith turns and stops. She looks a little banged up herself; there's some bruises on her arms, but she's determined to do her best. "Bring her over here," she says to Adarok, leading him into a storage room where they're already bringing in people for triage. She sets her on a cot, and casts Discern Ailment, gasping at the amount of damage. "By the goddess," she says. "I'm glad you got to her when you did. I've gotta stop the internal bleeding."

<+Adarok_Rowell> "You...You can save her, right?" The wolven looks somewhat helplessly at Meredith. He had some physical strength, it was true...But in situations like these, he felt entirely powerless. Once he's helped lay her down on the cot, he slowly takes a seat, gently grasping one of Tennibrook's hands between his two, squeezing them softly. "...If I can...Help at all, let me know. But if I can't, can I...wait here with her for a bit?" He coughs again,clearly injured himself, but...adarok was extremely stubborn, if little else.

"I can save her if I work quickly," Meredith says, "but I can't do it alone." She taps the house pin she has on her breast. "I need an emergency surgery team to triage, immediately." She turns to Adarok. "And yes, you can stay with her. But I need you to give me a little space. I think she can use all the prayer she can get."

Adarok_Rowell nods, and does indeed move back and out of the way. He puts his hands together, clasping them tightly as he...begins to pray.

Several healers from the Great Dome come pouring into the room and start working on Tennibrook, making incisions into her chest, working on relieving the internal bleeding. By this time, thankfully, Tenni has slipped into blissful unconsciousness, but right now there's no telling whether she'll wake up again in this life.

Adarok_Rowell isn't used to seeing all this--isn't used to seeing the proud, reliable knight in such a weak state. This whole situation was horrible beyond words. Maybe if he'd gotten there sooner, or....But it was pointless to speculate. All he could do was keep his hands clasped in prayer as he prayer to Gaea and The Lady both, asking for Tenni's recovery.

Meredith and the surgical team work long and hard to control the internal bleeding and then repair the damage, using both nonmagical and magical means. About half an hour into the surgery, Tenni's heart stops, and one of the more inexperienced healers, Daria, notices it first. "Her heart stopped. Her heart stopped!" she exclaims. Meredith is the senior healer on the team. "All right. Start chest compressions."

<+Adarok_Rowell> "Come on, Tenni...You're strong enough to get through this. I believe in you..." It all seemed like a dream. He'd just been minding his own business when all of this happened. But...How did everything go so wrong, so quickly...? There wasn't much to do but to put his trust in the healers, but...It felt like it wasn't enough. All he could offer were encouragements, hopes, and prayers, for now. But...perhaps that was what she needed.

Daria works on the chest compressions, and things go from bad to worse. "Meredith... she's not breathing." "Okay. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. We've got to keep her alive until her blood regenerates from the healing spell." Tennibrook is in deep unconsciousness right now, and can't hear the efforts they're making to save her life.

In her mind's eye, Tennibrook is standing in a field of sunflowers, under a warm summer sun. Four people stand there, only two of whom she recognizes. There's her mother and father, both of them looking much younger than she remembers. Actually, her mother's appearance hadn't changed really all that much, though she'd been about 900 years old when she'd died, she still has the appearance of what a 40-year-old human might. But her father-- her father had been 85 years old when he died, but now looks to be in his 20s. The two vulpines next to them, Tennibrook doesn't recognize.

Adarok_Rowell was ignorant as to what Tenni saw in her mind's eye, but...Instead, the wolven focused on the happy times that he'd had with Tenni. The many moments of friendship, camaraderie, and passion they'd shared. His mind flashes back to the day that she helped outfit him with his current armor and hammer--the armor that had, in all likelihood, helped to save HIS life from ending abruptly. Her radiant smile, her strong sense of right and justice...and her dedication to The Lady and others. Ada blinked through teary eyes as his fingernails dug into the backs of his hands from them clenching together so quickly...

Tennibrook opens her mouth to speak, but she finds that words won't come. "I know," her mother Jessie tells her. "When you first get here, you can't speak. It helps you listen." Tennibrook points to the two vulpines standing next to her parents, as if to ask who they are. It's her father Henry who speaks, and he says with a smile, "Your brother and sister. Toby and Mia." "I named them," Jessie says, "when I got here." Tennibrook's brother and sister had died in infancy from the same plague that had nearly cost Tenni her own life, both of them passing before their Naming Day. "Dear sister," Toby says, reaching forward to embrace Tenni. "We are so proud of the woman you have become." "A High Priestess. A Warmaster. And a beloved friend to so many," Mia says. She, too, embraces Tenni, and Toby, in a group hug between the siblings. "You have to go now," Toby continues, "but we'll see you again, one day, and we'll all be happy together."

Tennibrook takes her first breath by herself in some time, and her heart begins to beat on its own. "She's coming back," Meredith says. "I've stopped the bleeding!"

<+Adarok_Rowell> "Oh, thank the gods!" Adarok stands up, a bit beside himself. He hastily wipes away the tears from his face and, while he doesn't want to hover above Meredith or Tenni, clearly has a very vested interest in trying to see how she's doing. He was tall, at the very least, so that likely helped. "Ehe...I knew that she could pull through. Didn't...Doubt it for a second." He coughs once. "...Meredith, you...well, all of you are...Incredible. I, uhm...owe each of you a debt for saving the life of my friend."

"We're not out of the woods yet," Meredith says, "but things are looking up. Now to do something about those broken ribs." Tennibrook's eyes flutter open. "Toby?" she asks in a raspy voice. "Mia?" "Shit," Meredith says. "We've got to put her back to sleep." Meredith casts her Sleep spell.

<+Adarok_Rowell> "Toby and Mia...? Not sure I've heard about them before..." he frowns, thoughtful.

Meredith shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine," she says as she continues her work, at a rapid but less hurried pace now that the immediate danger has passed. "I don't know Tennibrook. We've never met." Tennibrook sleeps on, her mind clear now, thinking of nothing.

<+Adarok_Rowell> "Ah, really...? I had assumed everyone around here did. Well...I'm doubly grateful to you then, in that case."

Tennibrook is in surgery for another two hours, but the dramatic part is over. "All she needs now is rest," Meredith says. "Will you stay with her for me, Adarok? Call me if she wakes up."

Adarok_Rowell nods once. "Of course, will do." He moves to sit down next to Tenni, and gingerly takes her hand in his again--his brow furrowing in concern as he softly rubs his fingers against the back of it. They weren't out of the woods, to be sure...But at the very least, there was hope.