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Reality Fault

Realms: Taps Logs

Alligator Skin

It's the wee hours of the morning when the storm finally breaks -- and it does so with a vengeance. Many people are awakened by a crack of thunder that shakes both the vessels. Later, the watchmen will report the lightning strike associated with it had skated across the water between the barge and the paddleboat. In the various wagons, Mary in particular awakens disoriented and frightened, while Suraksha starts awake, but isn't particularly worried; Joe usually handles these things easily enough. She curls up under her blankets and sighs softly. She's warm and cozy... but gosh, she'd sure feel warmer and cozier if she could be cuddling Roy just now! She smiles faintly in the darkness, wondering sleepily if he's thinking of her right now too. It's a pleasant thought.

The storm has wind as well as rain and lightning, although Joe and Del and Ohkwari do their jobs excellently as always. Mary, though, comes awake with a frightened shriek, and there's a pulse of water that rocks the boats in a stomach-churning way. Elsewhere, Suraksha sighs as the barge lurches -- she'd better get up and see if they need her help. She sits up, tugging on a long tunic, and ties her hair back into a long ponytail as she patters out of her wagon. She looks around to see what's up, walking carefully along the heaving deck.

Roy is also on deck on the Proud Mary. The surge of water woke him and the Water Tap king is clinging to the front rail of the big paddleboat as he tries to calm his Lady. On the other vessel, Mary is hiding under her bunk and sobbing, the water under the barge surging and rocking in waves as it reacts to the storm and the frightened child.

Suraksha doesn't realize the cause of the river's disturbance -- she's quite busy, once Ohkwari yells to her, running from wagon to wagon and helping check the water-soaked ropes. She doesn't even really see Roy, she's so busy. She works her way down one side of the ship, Ohkwari on the other, making sure three weeks of travel and weather haven't weakened any of the lashings. They seem secure as she looks along them. She sighs in relief as she scrambles up onto the top of the last, heaviest wagon -- the one on the far end of the barge. She glances around, wiping rainwater and wet hair out of her face before she goes back to checking the lashings. Even with night vision it's hard to see in the middle of a storm. Roy, though, finds himself struggling against natural forces and Mary's fright. It's not so much that the girl is so much more energized than normal as that her fear is very childlike and powerful.

As Sura is up on the wagon, there are several claps of ear-shaking thunder that make Mary scream with fright despite Sabrina's desperate attempts to soothe the skittish child. Suraksha flinches a bit at the thunder -- it's astonishingly loud -- and is mostly just relieved the lightning isn't striking next to them. She goes back to running her hands lightly over the ropes, checking for possible frays on edges. Roy's eyes have found Suraksha in the gloom, recognizing the way she moves even in the dark.

There's another lightning strike and another peal of thunder that causes Mary to clap her hands over her ears and sob -- and the wave that results is too much even for the nimble Suraksha. She's almost flattened by the peal of thunder, so close this time that the sound and air pressure are painful. The small woman shakes her head groggily after the last snarling echoes have died, once more grabbing the taut rope she's checking -- and with a shocked, sick feeling inside she feels it tear and instantly unravel under one hand, the wet strands ripping apart so fast it feels like they're running from her touch. The sharp crack of the break registers only a fraction of a second later -- and by then the rope is whipping out like a lash, flinging her wide of the barge and out over the water. She tries to cling on as a short, furious scream rips from her -- but the wet rope is slick, and she feels it slip from her fingers at the same time as the bellowing thunder drowns her out.

The river slaps her entire body with shocking cold before she can think to catch her breath -- she's choking on it, swirling madly through rushing water and freezing and it's too cold to think or even remember which way is up or down... then she kicks hard, and her head breaks the surface. She gasps, choking and floundering for a moment as she tries to pull herself together.

The thunder and slapping water cover the snap of rope and the scream of the woman as she's thrown free of the barge. Roy's eyes, however, don't miss it. He screams across the water that she's gone overboard -- then, because no one hears him, he makes the impetuous decision to dive after her himself. He trusts no one else as much in the water, after all. People are rushing around and shouting back and forth on the barge, but it seems to be mostly urgency in checking all the wagons -- especially the one rocking back and forth more loosely now one of the long restraining ropes has been broken. Everyone's attention is on that, not on the river itself. In the bunk wagon Sabrina has started to get the child calmed down. Mary is still sobbing, but she is no longer screaming. It is still dangerous and unstable out on deck, but it is simply the lashing of the storm causing the problems now -- not an untrained, powerful young Tap.

Suraksha rakes wet strands of hair out of her face and looks around her, taking a wave in the face for her efforts. She coughs and chokes, shaking her head and making sure she's kicking to stay above water before she tries looking around again. The storm has the river unsettled and the visibility is still near nil. Suraksha can't see the barge. All she can really see around her is water: muddy river water and seething rainwater. Suraksha is suddenly very worried -- this is definitely not good! She's not sure anyone saw or heard her, either. She's going to have to save herself. She glances around again, wondering if she dares change shape out here -- the tiger could certainly swim easier than this dinky little human form. She winces as a huge branch flashes past her, the wet black twiggy parts like hands clawing at the air. Better do the tiger -- if something like that hit her, it'd be all over! Naga can drown just as well as any other air-breather, after all. She's going to be stuck in that form until she finds the barge, too, dammit -- her clothing won't survive this.

Roy can't quite orient himself to start with. The water is too chaotic and he's fighting another Tap's unsettled talent, but there's a momentary lull -- enough that he is able to feel through his Lady where there's a living person close by. Part of him is simply desperate to get to her, another is thinking that she'll perhaps realize he's not going anywhere if he saves her life. He fights against the river to go in the direction he can tell his lady-love is -- and in a momentary lull Suraksha sees him: a dark shape against the momentary lightning-flash of the Mary's hull in the storm.

Suraksha blinks in shock at the sight of someone else in the water -- damnation! She hopes it's someone big and strong like Ohkwari, but she's afraid it might be someone fragile and small, like her, who also got knocked off the barge and is in desperate need of help. She takes a deep breath and starts kicking towards them -- then feels a cold chill inside her that has nothing to do with the water. She yells and waves, trying to alert the person to the looming black shape of another bit of river detritus whirling swiftly toward them.

Roy catches sight of Suraksha shouting and waving and has a surge of happiness that she's coherent enough in the cold, crazy water to recognize him. His concentration is off from worry and relief; he doesn't feel the downed tree in the water until it clocks him on the back of the head. He has just enough time to think, [Fuck!] before his eyes roll back in his head and he goes limp. Drowning is the very last way in the world the king of Baton Rouge would have expected to die. The tree swirls on past him, his limp body catching in the roots. Some distance away, Suraksha goes silent, kicking up higher in the water -- did it hit...? She swears in sudden fury as she realizes the other person is going to drown! The tiger form rips effortlessly through her sodden tunic, and with a burst of power she churns through the water and dives, scrabbling out with huge paws as she prays she's in time. [Come on, come on... let me find you, whoever you are!]

Suraksha surfaces several heartbeats later, spluttering and battling panic; where is the other person?! She's almost shocked to see the body draped half over the tree roots, but she recovers fast -- she lashes out powerfully, swimming with all her might and latching claws into the soggy wood. The tree jogs and swings at the sudden addition of her weight, but before the body can slip away she has her teeth in the wet shirt. With a startled snort she realizes who it is she's holding, but she doesn't slow down -- she tosses her head and gets his body up higher on the trunk, then braces herself with one foreleg on each side of him to hold him in place. Sinking her claws into the wood again, she glances around grimly, wondering if she can push the tree back to one of the boats... where are the damn things, anyway? What's Roy doing in the river? Wasn't Jacko supposed to be keeping him safe?! Her irritation is mostly fueled by fear for her unconscious beloved, and she does her best to keep them both -- or at least him -- draped across the big floating tree.

Roy's concentration was keeping the river a little bit under control, and it's obvious just how much as soon as he's unconscious. The river that had been held at least a little in check by the king's Tapping abilities surges as if let go from behind a dam. The boats are nowhere in sight and it's all the tiger can do to keep herself and her beloved on the top half of the tree. Suraksha snarls in fury at the river and gives up on finding the boats. She concentrates just on clinging grimly to the tree, keeping Roy safe... and with whatever energy she has left, she tries to kick away anything that comes close, to keep them from hitting anything else in this blinding, disorienting torrent of water. She has time for one bleakly amused thought: [I think I may hate water after this!] and then she has no time for anything else but her fierce focus on keeping them both alive.

The blow to Roy's head was severe enough to keep him out for several hours, so it's not until a watery dawn arrives that Suraksha is given her first clear sight of the shore. She's a little battered and a little bruised from several pieces of floating wood that swirled out of nowhere in the night, and an encounter with a large and unfriendly sand bar. Suraksha sighs tiredly, resting her chin for a moment on one forearm, since she's leery of squishing Roy accidentally in this form. Morning. Shore. Rest. Wearily she starts kicking towards the closest shore, nudging the tree along slowly in the direction she wants to go.

Suraksha is a very muddy, soggy, droopy tiger at this point. Even her spat swearing at the tree is half-hearted as she wearily tries to push it to the muddy bank. She's so exhausted that her brain only has room for one idea: must get Roy to shore. From the bank, she looks small and pitiful compared to the river and the enormous tree. Her exhaustion has stopped her from realizing the reason the trunk isn't going closer to shore any more is because she's managed to jam it across a narrow little niche in the shoreline. That tiredness has also kept her from seeing the big bull alligator which, at sight of the tiredly kicking tiger, slides down the muddy bank and into the river. It moves silently through the water, just the tips of its nostrils and its eyes above the surface.

Fortunately, it's not only the gator that's been watching the uneasy river. Just as Suraksha is starting to consider just biting the damn tree to get it to behave, there's a flash of gray and a long flexible... thing... of some sort reaches out to scoop Roy off the branch! The tiger has just enough time to register something startling has happened -- and then she realizes there's something coming in fast and hard from the water -- with a lot of teeth! Suraksha is agape with shock at whatever took Roy, but as the muddy water suddenly froths up and something lunges fast at her, she instinctively goes straight up into the branches of the big floating tree. She scrambles a bit as it shifts and rolls in the water, snarling and slapping a wide-clawed paw at the -- is it a gator? -dammit, she hates water! Got to get to shore, dammit!

The gator misses her and that infuriates the big reptile. It snaps and scrabbles at the floating tree, trying to make the big cat fall off into the water. It looks especially chilling in the water blackened from the tree's tannic acid. Suraksha gives a short, frustrated roar -- she's got to get to shore, dammit, this refugee monster is in her way! -and slashes her claws across the massive skull from the side, trying to blind it -- or at least drive it away long enough for her to make the leap to the small sandy shore. She's quite sure she's going to get a good solid smack in, when she feels something almost snake-like wrap around her middle and lift her into the air like a kitten that has fallen into a rainbarrel.

Suraksha gives a startled grunt as the air is abruptly squeezed out of her middle -- then she starts hastily kicking with her hind legs to try and wriggle free. What the hell is this thing?! It can't be another Naga! There's a gentle voice in her head that says, "Careful!" and there's an impression of big gray sails flapping before she's set down carefully beside a sprawled Roy.

Suraksha can't help the startled squeak as something speaks to her -- but at sight of Roy she nearly goes limp with relief. He's safe! A few quick snuffs and nudges, and she sighs wearily in relief again: he's also alive. She turns to thank their benefactor... and goes silent, her startled gaze traveling slowly upwards. It's... huge! It's... her voice is breathless with shock, "He-le-p'hant?!"

The enormous beast curls its trunk to its forehead and trumpets out a startling sound that makes the unconscious king stir and groan. Suraksha snarls startledly, jumping back and crouching protectively over Roy for an instant before she remembers the immense animal helped rescue Roy. She straightens a bit then, tilting her head in wide-eyed astonishment as she stares... then she suddenly remembers the alligator and whirls, snarling again as her gaze rakes suspiciously over the black water. The tip of the animal's trunk reaches out to touch Suraksha and she hears the voice again saying, "You're hurt."

Suraksha jumps slightly at the unexpected touch and voice, glancing over her shoulder. Her ears are pricked forward in astonishment and her whiskers almost vibrate as she enunciates carefully, "Hyu ss'beak?!" She blinks as the words register, glancing down at herself, "Am? Uh-oh."

The strange, prehensile appendage is carefully touching her; Suraksha realizes she's being smelled as well as touched, "It is more that I think at you..." The elephant gently prods a place on her side.

Suraksha winces and yowls softly in startled pain, "Yowww!" She flinches away, then winces again -- she knows that sensation, unfortunately. It's at least a cracked rib; she's lucky it didn't pierce anything inside her when she was lifted. She sighs -- carefully -- then rumbles unhappily, "Mus' s'hweep, ea'd mea'd. Hea'whing harrd."

Moments later Roy is starting to push himself up onto his elbows a bit, wondering just where he is and why he feels so soggy. There's a sudden flash of gray and then an impression of thrashing, struggling scales and mud -- and then there's a hearty crunch as the elephant flips the big gator through the air and cracks it against a heavy granite boulder. The trunk reaches out to brush Suraksha, [Is that enough food?]

Suraksha brightens, her eyes lighting up, "Oooh! Hank 'oo!" She pounces on the stunned gator with a happy snarl, claws extended as she flips it easily onto its back with one blow, then slashes down the belly. In very little time she's chowing down with fierce intensity, her muzzle and front paws bloody. She deliberately stuffs herself, knowing this is likely to be the last serious meal she can find for a while; humans get really hinky about finding their livestock eaten.

Roy blinks slowly at the ravening tiger and then turns his head with a wince to look at the enormous creature above them. He thinks he knows what it is, but he's never in his life seen a living creature so huge! He pushes himself to a fully sitting position, then with as much dignity as he can, he turns to one side and vomits up what feels like a gallon of river water, head swimming as he thinks, [Ain't had this much excitement since I was a boy... what the fuck is that thing?]

Suraksha looks up startledly at the unexpected noise -- then beams a delightedly wide, unwittingly gory tiger smile that shows far too many bloody teeth, her tail lashing in excited relief, "Roy! Hi! He-le-p'hant goo'!" Roy blinks at Suraksha's bloody grin, not awake enough to decipher her toothy words. Instead he just nods and slowly sinks back to the ground, unconscious again. Suraksha tilts her head worriedly at him until she sees his side rise and fall again with a breath. Then she hastily goes back to devouring as much gator as she can. The more energy she can pull in, the faster she can heal -- and that's all to the better, after all.

Suraksha finally sighs and steps away from the carcass, moving to the water's edge to wash herself off a bit; tongue baths only go so far, in her experience. She comes limping back soon thereafter, wet but much less muddy, and tilts her head thoughtfully at the elephant. She decides to experiment -- she steps forward and leans tiredly against one massive foreleg, if the elephant will let her, and thinks, [Can you hear me too?] She sincerely hopes so, since her vocabulary is sorely truncated in this form, and she doesn't dare change shape back to human yet.

The long, flexible trunk moves down to rest on her head, and Sura hears in her mind, [Yes. That's much nicer. Your teeth make it hard to understand you in this form.]

Suraksha chuckles, flopping slowly down next to the elephant on the side next to Roy, and murmurs in her mind, [It's actually the tongue and lips -- they don't shape the sounds as well as a human's do.] She rubs her big head absently against the elephant's leg, purring as she adds, [My name is Sura, and that's Roy. We fell off our boats in the storm last night. What's your name? Where are you from? Where's your family?] She adds very sincerely, [Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help! I think you saved our lives.]

The elephant shifts her weight to accommodate the tiger leaning against her and lowers her massive head to examine the human on the ground. [I do not like the alligators. They make it hard to drink. You may call me Gajara. I believe I had another name, but that is what my mahout called me.]

Suraksha bounces lightly to her feet -- or rather, she starts to and then grunts and winces from the pain. She rises more carefully, flicking her tail up so it coils slightly about the elephant's trunk, and pads over to crouch next to Roy, [Gajara? Then thank you again, Gajara, for your help. Where's your mahout? That's your human handler, right?] She sniffs carefully at Roy, exquisitely cautious as she checks his head for damage, then glances up at the elephant and gives a tiger grin, [You like flowers, then?] She goes back to sniffing carefully at Roy as she adds, [Sura is short for Suraksha.] She knows 'gajara' means 'wreath of flowers' in her tongue.

Roy seems to have some small damage and possibly a concussion. Gajara watches her do so and says, [Yes, my human trainer. He liked flowers and would weave garlands for me. Is the human going to live?]

Suraksha growls grimly, [Yes, if I have anything to say about it.] She can't help a concussion, but she'll check carefully for any broken limbs or other damage she can actually assist -- if necessary she'll risk the change to assist him. It's partway through that examination that she looks up suddenly, her whiskers drooping slightly in sympathy, ['Liked'? Oh... I'm so sorry, Gajara. Did he die?]

Gajara reaches out with her trunk to carefully prod Roy, [I have not seen him in a very long time. He is dead, yes.]

Suraksha sighs, sitting down tiredly next to Roy, [I am sorry. Being alone without family is not good.] She looks down at Roy thoughtfully... then stretches out next to him. [Gajara, I'm exhausted. If you are not too tired, would you mind keeping watch for a bit while I sleep, and Roy recovers?]

The elephant looks at them both, then carefully moves so Roy is lying in the shade cast by her not-inconsiderable body. [It is a good thing to rest after trauma.] She says this with the tone of someone who knows this by hard experience.

Suraksha gently wraps her big, velvety paws around Roy as carefully as she can, resting her broad, striped head next to his. She rumbles sleepily, [Yup. Thank you again, Gajara,] as she drifts off.

After a couple of hours of unconsciousness, Roy drifts up out of his injured sleep and blinks around groggily. The time that has passed is a topsy-turvy collage of images: water, gator, pain, mud, tiger. Suraksha is, if anything, even more wrapped around Roy by now. Like a kitten, she's butted up against him and unwittingly drawn him close enough to lie on her. Her breathing is a soft purr, and she's cozy and warm in the chilly, wet morning air. The king of Baton Rouge raises his head and blinks groggily, resting one hand on the big cat that seems to have wrapped half-around him. He cranes his head back and squints at the enormous gray creature over him.

Suraksha purrs a bit more deeply, rubbing her head slightly against the hand, but her eyes don't open. Roy mutters, "Might be a dream... not sure if that's good 'er bad." Suraksha doesn't wake up; she's sleeping the sleep of the just! -or at least of the wounded and recuperating. Roy relaxes again, drifting back into unconsciousness, and doesn't wake for several more hours. When he does finally struggle up to full wakefulness, his entire body is aching like an abscessed tooth, and he tries to get himself out from under the tiger, muttering, "Damn well hope you're ma cherie."

Suraksha doesn't open her eyes from where her whiskery chin is resting on Roy's chest, but the chuff of laughter gives her away as she rumbles, "Hyoo haf mo'hr dh'igerrs?"

Roy snorts and then growls as he moves and finds a lot of bruises he was trying to ignore, "Nah. Gotta leopard, though. Anna jaguar... ow, fuck!"

Suraksha lifts her head hastily, "Sorree!" She carefully disentangles herself from Roy, wincing slightly as she too finds far more damage than she'd like on her body. She limps out from under Gajara, stretching cautiously and hissing with pain when her ribs creak. After that she leans against the elephant, asking, [Could you touch Roy so we can speak easily together, please, Gajara?] She adds curiously to Roy, "Chah-gwah's new?"

Roy peers up at the elephant and says, "Yeah... just 'fore I came up here. Li'l cub. Issat a fuckin' elephant?" As he asks the question, Gajara rests her trunk on him and says, [You should both eat soon.]

Suraksha nods to Roy, "Aya, he-leh-hant." To Gajara she adds, [Can he hear me through you, or would you have to repeat my words to him?] The elephant replies, [He won't be able to hear you.]

Suraksha sighs thoughtfully. [All right. May I ask you to tell him the following then, please?] She gives Roy a condensed version of how Gajara and they are speaking, followed by what happened while he was unconscious, as well as how he got that way, concluding with, [I don't dare change shape back, because I've no clothes and it will likely knock me out. But we do need to start downriver soon -- we have to catch up with our boats.] She speaks slowly, so it's easy for the elephant to transfer the words to Roy, and she leans against the big elephant, absently rubbing against her. She's very grateful for Gajara's assistance.

Roy blinks slowly as the elephant talks to him directly and says slowly, "Waaaall... I ain't too concerned about you bein' nekkid. But I don't think either one of us is walkin' too far."

Suraksha gives Roy a perplexed look, then passes to him through the elephant, [Do you want to stay here, and I'll skulk down by the road in tiger form until I find someone? Our people will be frantic with worry, I'm afraid. I don't want to leave them any longer than we must.]

Gajara translates that and then says, [How far will you need to go? I should stay under cover as much as possible. Men tend to want to hunt me or capture me, but I can carry you.]

Suraksha blinks up at the elephant startledly... then gets a very thoughtful look, [Gajara... you didn't say. Where is your family? Do you have any?] She pauses, then adds softly, [Do you want one?]

Gajara shifts her body carefully, [I do not remember my actual family. And the people with whom I traveled before are... gone.]

Suraksha rubs her chin gently against the elephant's chest, [What happened, dear?]

The elephant's story comes out in slow stages and chunks. She doesn't remember all of her life, although she has a chunk of memory of being "normal." She remembers working in either a caravan or a circus, and that's where she learned a lot of the "tricks" she now uses to get by on her own. Later she was captured with her mahout and being used by some humans she thinks might have been bandits. Suraksha listens silently, letting Gajara take her time and make sure they can both hear her. The big tiger has settled so Roy can lean against her if he wants, and she herself is resting so part of her touches the elephant all the time.

Some time later the elephant was struck by lightning, which hurt her badly and killed her mahout. Before she could really recover or grieve she was put back to work and beaten to keep her going. During that time was when she realized she was now different... and she had no desire to be working with such cruel people. Suraksha murmurs softly, [Oh, Gajara... I'm so sorry. Do you not want to be around humans any more, then, because of that?]

Gajara says, [I like humans. It was the ban... bandits? Is that the word? That is what I did not like.]

Suraksha nods as she murmurs quietly, [Bandits, yes.] She's silent for a bit, then she tilts her head to study the elephant again, [Do you like it here, alone? Or would you like a family again?] She adds thoughtfully, [Did you like the traveling?]

Gajara's thoughts are laced with longing and loneliness, [Elephants are not meant to be alone. I think.]

Suraksha wraps a big, velvety paw around Gajara's foreleg, murmuring quietly, [No, dear, I think they are among the most social animals I've ever heard of.] She sighs softly, then smiles as she asks, [Gajara, I have a family that travels back and forth all the time, and Roy has a family that lives in one place. I cannot speak for Roy, but if you were tired of traveling he might be willing to have you join his family? And if you enjoy the traveling, I assure you my family would welcome you with open arms! Would you like that?]

Gajara doesn't have to think very long before she says, [I would like very much to not be alone any more.]

Suraksha makes a happy chuffing noise, sitting up on her hind legs and rubbing her chin along the elephant's leathery side, [Wonderful! This will help us both, too -- you will have humans with you so other humans will not think you can be hunted and captured, and your strength and size will help us in our travels!] She has to settle back fairly quickly, since her side still aches, but she adds thoughtfully, [So... we can get going as soon as... hmm. I can't ride on you in this form -- I might fall off if I fell asleep again. Can you update Roy while I try to figure out how we can best arrange things here?]

Gajara relays the information to Roy and the king says, "'Course she can't ride an elephant like that. But I can hold 'er as she rides if she's human. Ain't like I ain't took care of 'er b'fore."

Suraksha blinks startledly at Roy, then considers for a bit. Finally she says through Gajara, [You're willing to hold me on -- to effectively carry me in your lap, while Gajara carries us towards the boats? If you are, umm... may I borrow your shirt, please? I lost all my clothing in the river when I changed.] There's a hint of embarrassment in her back-tilted ears and the sheepish droop of her whiskers.

Roy tries a rakish grin, but it turns into a grimace, "Much as I like ya nekkid, I'll give ya m'shirt." He starts to strip it off, revealing a patchwork of bruises and scrapes.

Suraksha sighs in relief, wrapping a careful paw around Roy as she rubs her head against him and rumbles, "Hank'oo, loh'fer." She thinks a moment, then adds carefully to both of them, through Gajara, [I'm likely going to collapse soon after changing, although I'll try to get into place before I fall over. If anyone seems alarmed at sight of you, Gajara, just turn so they can see Roy. He can tell them we're all together, and that we're all from Corbett's Cross-Continental Caravan, and we got lost in the storm.]

To Roy she adds unhappily, [I'm so sorry you got so banged up, sweet man! I tried my best to protect you... but I'm not so good with water as you.] She can't resist the fiercely spat, "Hay'dt wah'da!" before she adds ruefully, [It's likely my people will send Joe down the roads on a fast horse to search for us... and send slower, more thorough searching along the river banks. Keep an eye out for him, please, Roy, all right?] She has no idea how Roy's folks will react, so she doesn't plan for them. She knows only that her godsmother will do her best to find both missing people -- since one is a client she's supposed to be protecting, and the other is her godsdaughter.

It takes a little while for Roy to get his shirt off. After that they have to think a bit to figure out how to get them both up on Gajara's back. Eventually they work out the elephant kneeling first, and she explains to Roy how to mount up on her back and how to load Suraksha up before changing. After a few swear words and some pain, Roy is able to mount up on the elephant's neck fairly well and then settles down with the tiger's head in his lap to let her change back. Suraksha is very careful, not wishing to even accidentally claw the elephant. She's almost tiptoeing, and she can't help a few unhappy warbles as she watches her lover's pain in moving -- she feels guilty for not protecting him better. Once Roy is settled she eases into place, takes a deep breath... then changes, focusing as hard as she can on staying alert and awake.

Suraksha manages to stay awake, though she's not got enough energy to do much else once she does. Roy leans over and whispers in her ear, "Gotcha, cherie." There's a little pained mischief in his voice as he says, "Gotta say, picked th' wrong guy t' let court'cha if ya hate water, though..."

Suraksha made a slightly dingy looking tiger, after the night of aggravation in the river. As a human, however, she looks a right mess! Her hair is tangled, with a few leaves and twigs in it. Her body is liberally smeared with streaks of dried mud, and under that are some incredible bruises and some dried blood -- with the worst spiraling around her side where her ribs are cracked. There's more blood under her fingernails, and smudges of exhaustion under her eyes, and she moves very, very slowly to help pull on the shirt. She has to pause a few times, her face going white when her body twinges hard at movement... and at Roy's whisper about having her, she throws him an incredibly grateful look! His following comment makes her chuff a soft laugh -- which causes her to gasp and tighten up for a second -- and then whisper carefully, "J-just hate water when... when it's trying to kill us, lover..."

Roy carefully helps her on with the shirt, being incredibly gentle with her and rolling up the cuffs so her delicate hands peek out, "Yeah, that ain't fun, gotta say. I think we gotta get li'l Mary some trainin'. Might... ah... might be best to send her overland." He negligently picks some of the leaves out of her hair.

Suraksha relaxes very carefully back into Roy's arms, whispering softly, "Gonna worry- oohh... 'bout that later, 'kay?" She strokes one small hand along the elephant's head, adding, "Ready when you are, Gajara. Don't be surprised if I go unconscious, yes? Roy's got me, and you've got both of us."

Roy holds onto Suraksha carefully as the elephant gets to her feet and starts off. With them both on her back, Gajara says, [I will take us along the riverbank if your people are in boats. They will be looking for you along the bank. The road comes close to the river a little way downstream from here, so we will be able to hear any horses.] She thinks a moment and then adds, [I will hear them, at least.]

Suraksha is starting to get a little blurry, but she mumbles, "Gon' be able to get to th' road in time for us to call to 'em?"

Gajara's mental voice sounds amused, [They will hear me.]

Suraksha just nods tiredly, "All right..." She reaches up to gently touch Roy's unshaven cheek with her fingertips, adding softly, "Sorry I didn't do better, lover."

Roy kisses her fingertips and murmurs, "Now hush, girlie. You saved my hide." Suraksha smiles tiredly at Roy, lines of pain around her eyes... then she just sighs and relaxes. It only takes about five minutes -- and then she's overwhelmed by exhaustion, going slowly limp in Roy's arms. Roy looks down at the bedraggled and unconscious body in his arms and whispers to her sleeping form, heart catching in his throat at the seeming fragility of her, "My turn now, cherie. Rest." He's careful not to hold her too tightly as they start their journey.

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Last modified: 2010-Aug-28 20:29:49

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