The Nexus

If the situation was any worse, Noctis would already be dead.

The elf looked like hell, plain and simple. Her white curls, braided back, were beginning to fly out from all of the running, fighting, and tumbling she had been doing. She had been having a bad day before; now, it was a dire situation.

Thankfully, she had had the luck of stumbling upon a cave in her mad dash to escape the bandits pursuing her. She was a fighter, no doubt, but she was in no condition to take on more than two or three. There was a gap in her armor, on her right side, and blood was seeping out of a deep gash, slowly but surely. She didn't know where she was, she didn't know how to get back to where she had been, but this was not the time to worry about it.

She slipped into the relatively narrow opening of the cave, pressed back against the wall. Her bow, held tightly in one hand while the other held an arrow notched, and partially pulled back, shook slightly. Once she was satisfied that the bandits had not seen her enter the cave, she took a step, and promptly stumbled over, falling to her hands and knees for a moment. She pressed against her side wound and examined her now-red fingers, hissing. This was not good.

She dragged herself to sit with her back against the cave wall, wincing as she slowly breathed in, and out. Her side was on fire, beyond the normal pain of a simple gash; the blade that had pierced her flesh had likely been laced with something, which was just another problem on her list of things to deal with. Biting her lip, she began the painful process of tugging her off her chestplate. She struggled with the side straps for a moment before she just huffed, and tugged it up over her head, pulling her hair completely out of her braid in the process. The curls bounced and fell to her mid-back, shorter strands covering her ears. The wound was worse than she had anticipated, and she sighed, head pressed back against the stone wall.

Digo didn't know of any bandits in the area. He had been traveling with Signe in search of food. He'd had luck with some berries and a few roots. He would have to go back out again later, but Loi needed the rest. He slipped off the large creature, he'd been riding bareback and without any reins. "Find yourself food." He patted Loi and too his bags to the small cave he had agreed to meet Signe at. Hopefully she'd had better luck than him.

He would have just stood outside, but he noticed blood leading into the cave. He frowned, put the food down and slipped a stone dagger from his waistband. "Who is there?" The mouth of the cave was small and he wasn't sure he could fit. If it was something he needed to fight, he preferred to stay out in the open. He'd be at a disadvantage squishing himself into such close quarters. Loi didn't seem concerned and continued to graze nearby.

One would think that having a strange bond with animals might help you lure one in for hunting; one was wrong. Signe hadn't any luck in catching even the small game in the area. She sighed and prepared to meet Digo empty handed. The shaman-in-training was likely the worst plains-woman in history. She had no bonded pet despite possessing the Affinity and her divination of the Way was a struggle at best. The People needed talented warriors, gatherers, hunters and she was none of these things. Hand to hand combat was the only thing she excelled in, but once you placed a weapon in her hand, she was lost.

Signe could see Loi just ahead, he was a hard animal to miss, but Digo was not in view. Coming around the way, she patted the deer on it's flank to say hi and hoped the animal wasn't going to snap at her. "Digo?" She called, just now seeing him before the cave.

Noctis jerked overhead up as she heard hooves. The gruff voice that soon called out made her skin crawl. Things were made worse by one simple fact: Noctis could not reply.

She grabbed her bow with a pained expression, gritting her teeth and hissing as she pulled an arrow to the string, waiting. Knowing that she was defenseless right now up close, ranged was her own defense. She waited, pained breathing echoing slightly in the cozy cave. A female voice was soon heard, and she hissed again. Just perfect.

Loi turned and nibbled at Signe, but didn't bite. He was far too distracted with the grass nearby to do her any harm. Digo could definitely hear something in there but he was far too big to fit into the cave. He turned to Signe, "Someone is in there." He pointed to the blood, "But they won't answer me. I think they're hurt." He moved out of the way, and gestured to Signe, "You'll fit." It was obvious by his stance that he wanted her to go in there and check it out.

Signe stared at Digo for a long moment, as if waiting for him to tell her that he didn't really want her to go alone into a dark cave where something might attack her. That was obviously not coming because she wasn't going to tell Digo she was afraid to do what he asked, because he was not and wouldn't understand. Blinking, she turned away from him and looked into the cave where Noctis was hidden. She wished now, more than before, she had a companion animal to send in before her.

"Hello?" Signe called as she crept into the cave's mouth. She was not particularly looking forward to something jumping out of the darkness at her, but she continued on as expected.

Dragging in a pained breath, Noctis forced herself to stand again. Blood oozed and dripped from her side, adding to the trail as she moved into the furthest corner of the cave, feet silent on the stone. The only audible noise was her pained breathing, and the sound of her bowstring being pulled back as the female voice called out. While she didn't sound overly threatening, that didn't mean a thing.

Digo wasn't afraid at all, and he would have gone in...if his oversized body would fit. He crossed his arms and waited at the entrance with a stern frown on his face. Before Signe could get too far in, he reached out and grabbed her arm, and offered her the bone dagger off of his belt.

"Here. In case." He didn't want Signe to get hurt, but he was assuming that she could take care of herself. He crossed his arms then, and just stared into the darkness, as if that would will whatever was inside to come out.

She tried really hard to hide her distaste of the weapon. She held it awkwardly and nodded to Digo in thanks. Swallowing, Signe continued into the dark cave moving as silently as she could. She wasn't as quiet as Noctis, but she wasn't as loud as a normal human may have been.

Holding the knife aloft, she advanced toward the hidden elf, calling once again. "Speak if you are able; I don't mean you harm." Well that might have been a lie considering she had no idea what was back here.

Noctis eyed the woman through the darkness. She normally would have said nothing.. but with the amount of blood she had lost, her options were rapidly diminishing. After a moment more of thought, she relaxed the bowstring, and, using the end of her bow, tapped the rock wall beside her, to make her presence known. She kept the arrow notched, ready, but slowly and surely moved out to where Signe could catch a glimpse of the wounded elf. She held up a hand after a moment, to show she meant no harm, and hoped the blood on her hand didn't detract from that. The metal cuff on her wrist caught what little light there was, shining briefly.

Digo heard Signe's voice, and then nothing. "Signe? What is it?" Not that he was worried about her, he figured she could take care of herself, but he had a bad feeling about the whole situation. There wasn't much he could do though, especially from outside the cave, but it wasn't like he could go in. He couldn't even send Loi to scout, the elk was even bigger than Digo!

"A woman," Signe said, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the cave as she looked Noctis over. "She's wounded, Digo." The smell of blood was heavy here and Signe wrinkled her nose, advancing no further. She held up her hands to Noctis.

"Come out so we might help you," she said, while backing out of the cave. It was suspicious to find a woman in armor here and wounded, but she wasn't above helping someone in need, if she could. This woman didn't have to look of their enemy, she didn't think.

Noctis hesitated. If Signe was referring to the elves, she was in for a surprise. Noctis knew what they were; but she had no choice. Trust them, or bleed to death.

The elf slowly, painfully, followed Signe out into the light. She grabbed her chest plate as she moved. Her breath becoming quite labored. Once in the sunlight, she dropped her armor, and before long, dropped to her knees, one hand still pressed to her side, where blood still oozed out steadily.

Unfortunately for her, a gust of wind blew then. Her curls flew back, which revealed the point of her ears. Before she could even try to stand again, she collapsed, essentially faceplanting into the dirt, bow loosely falling from her hand.

Digo grunted when Signe said it was a woman, "Bring her out." It turned out that he didn't have to order Signe to do that, because the odd woman was stumbling out all on her own. When the wind picked up and revealed that she was an elf, Digo reached for his dagger. Of course, he'd already given it to Signe so there was nothing to finish the job with Noctis.

"Finish her and let's go." Digo held no love for the elves, and he didn't particularly care if this one died either.

Signe walked out before Noctis and just stood looking at her. She wasn't the brightest woman, but she could tell the elf needed their help. Digo was ready to kill her right then and there, but Signe was young and naive. All the stories about the elves her elders had told her, yet she saw no harm the creatures did to them now.

Stupidly, she crouched down and checked Noctis' vitals. "She'll just die on her own, won't she?"

Noctis might have been dying, this was true. But when she woke, and heard them, she wasn't about to lay there and die, right then. She forced herself to her elbows, then pushed herself back, away from them, using her legs to push herself through the dirt until her back was against a rock. Rather than reach for her weapons.. she just held up her hands, praying that somehow, they just let her be, even id they refused to help her.

Digo shrugged, "Maybe." He didn't seem concerned about the elf woman. He had heard the same stories and had it driven into his head. "If you get too close she'll kill you and steal your things." He clearly had a low opinion of elves.

"We should leave her, look for some game elsewhere." If Signe wanted to help the woman, she was definitely going to have to do some convincing, because Digo was already moving towards Loi.

Signe looked back at the elf and frowned. It was clearly still conscious and was probably listening to them talking about her death. Part of Signe was really curious about why the things were so scary. She couldn't sense any real animosity from it until Digo said they should kill it.

"You're right," she conceded. The elf would likely die soon anyway if the amount of blood she was leaking was any indication. She turned away from it reluctantly to follow Digo, but in moments the woods were alive with noise. Bandits, likely the ones who had put Noctis in this state, were coming out of the wood works, surrounding them.

Noctis knew she probably would die, especially if they were leaving her, but at least it wouldn't be from their doing. Her ears gave a mighty twitch as the woods suddenly burst to life. She struggled to get to her feet, bloody hand snatching up her bow from the dirt.

Immediately, she notched an arrow and pulled the string back. Digo would likely assume she was aiming at one of them; after all, she was the very monster under the bed for his people, was she not? If either of them looked back at elf, the tip of her arrow was pointed at the encroaching bandits.

Digo was close enough to Loi that he was able to grab his axe when the woods filled with noise. He whirled around and held his axe at a ready position. He didn't want to defend the elf, but he wasn't getting a choice. To give her up meant to give themselves up too.

"You do not want to make enemies of us. Go now, and we will not kill you all." He didn't really look as if he were able to back up that threat, alone and with two women...one of them injured. Loi had moved closer to Digo's side, any normal animal would have been afraid of all the noise and fled, but Digo had good control of his mount.