That Damn Role Player

With a delicate touch, Nauloera set the small gem to rest in its fitting and began the careful process of placing the prongs which would hold it securely in place. She had been working on this elegant piece of jewelry for days and hoped to gift it to her sister, Yaaneisa, for the upcoming Moon Celebration. She counted herself very lucky to have found the moon opal in the creek while she was hunting some of the more ordinary crystals that tended to wash up on its banks.

“Nauloera!”

Nauloera jumped at the sudden interruption, sending the ring skittering across her worktable and dislodging the gem from its setting.

“Yaaneisa! Don’t burst in so suddenly like that!” She scrambled to recover the gem and stuff it and the ring under a polishing cloth on her work table hoping her sister hadn’t seen it.

“Sorry, but the hunting party is back and it’s our turn to help butcher.” She laughed and beckoned her sister to follow. “Leave those silly rocks and let’s go.”

“Gems!” Nauloera grumbled as she rose and followed her sister from the small set of rooms they shared. “They are not rocks, they are gems.”

Yaaneisa grinned and shrugged, black waves of hair falling around her light blue, impish face. “Rocks, gems, all just solid dirt.”

Nauloera smiled at the playful tease. “You’re just impatient to go stare at the hunters as they strip of their tunics sweaty from the exertions of the hunt.”

Yaaneisa’s cheeks darkened and she shrugged again. “I’m just looking forward to fresh meat for dinner tonight.”

Nauloera chuckled. This was an argument that went on between them quite frequently. Yaaneisa would tease her about her rocks, and Nauloera would tease her in return about her flirtatious ways. She knew her sister wanted a mate. Wanted the happiness they had both seen on the faces of their parents as they grew up. Nauloera hoped she would find it someday, but also hoped her headstrong sister would not rush into a mating that wasn’t suitable for her.

They exited their small dwelling into the central courtyard of the city of Anlenor. Several draenei also hurried to meet the hunters as they used one of their mighty elekks to drag a newly slain clefthoof bull to the area reserved for preparing the beasts. Anlenor was small compared to other draenei cities, so one of the enormous clefthoofs, larger again by half than the huge, gray elekks, would feed the city for several days.

She sighed as they were each handed the large carving knives and set to helping skin the huge animal. Several of the hunters were issuing orders and giving directions as they got started on the task. Nauloera chuckled as Yaaneisa smiled coyly at some of the handsomer males. “Only you could find a way to flirt while skinning a clefthoof,” she whispered to her younger sister.

“You should try it,” Yaaneisa whispered back as she smiled at another male. He smiled in return and inclined his head gently at her. “It’s fun.”

Nauloera glanced at the hunter and chuckled at her sister. “That one is Ivrandor. He would be a good choice. He’s very kind and quite good with the hunting beasts.”

Yaaneisa sighed and went back to her task, carefully beginning the process if cutting the meat from the bones of the clefthoof. “Do you think so? He is quite handsome. And he’s always been very nice to me.”

Nauloera noticed Ivrandor approaching them and smiled wickedly. “Here’s your chance to find out.”

Yaaneisa looked at her sister puzzled for a moment before glancing over her shoulder at the approaching hunter. So startled was she, that she lost her concentration on the slab of meat she was cutting and the knife slipped, cutting a large gash in her hand and arm. She dropped the blade and cried out in pain as blue blood began welling from the wound and running onto the ground.

Nauloera dropped her own knife and quickly drew her sash from her waist and wrapped it around the wound. “Healer!” She called, looking around for the healer that tended the wounded in Anlenor.

Seeing what happened, Ivrandor rushed over to them and offered his own sash to combine with the one quickly soaking with Yaaneisa’s blood. “Anchorite Aloor isn’t here right now. One of the hunting party was injured and couldn’t be brought back into town until Aloor had tended him.”

Nauloera cursed quietly, tightly wrapping the second sash around the wound. She tried frantically to hold the wound closed but could tell by the amount of blood still soaking through that an artery had been cut. Yaaneisa grew paler and began to sway on her hooves as shock set in over her. Nauloera and Ivrandor helped her sit down and Nauloera could feel tears welling in her eyes. She felt helpless, she did not know what to do, and she knew full well that if the bleeding wasn’t quelled soon, her sister could die. She ran her hand up her sisters arm, trying to find the artery hoping to pinch it off. Ivrandor seemed to be trying to do the same thing.

In helplessness and sorrow, tears streaming down her face, Nauloera wrapped both hands around the wounded arm and cried out, “Somebody do something!”

She would recall later that she felt the warmth flow into her and through her before she saw the golden glow envelop her hands and then travel slowly up her sister’s arm. She felt the power as it used her for a channel and suddenly knew how to direct it. With hardly a thought she sent it flowing into Yaaneisa’s arm and could feel torn tissues mending. She could feel the wound closing, the blood ceasing to flow freely. When she finally felt the warmth fade, she carefully peeled back the blood soaked cloth to reveal an arm and hand bloodied, but whole. With a cry of relief she clutched Yaaneisa to her and held her for several moments, crying onto her shoulder.

Yaaneisa gently hugged her in return, her strength still spent.

Ivrandor stared at them in wonder at what he’d just seen. “You have the healing gift,” he said in a whisper.
I did eventually finish that ring for Yaaneisa. Just before I left to go to the Temple of Karabor. When Aloor returned later that day and heard the tale of what I had done, he insisted that I travel there as soon as possible. Three days later found myself and all of my belongings packed onto the back of a waiting elekk being escorted to our most holy temple to train in the ways of the Light. I watched my sister, weeping gently as I left, and wanted nothing more than to stay with her in our quiet little city laughing over rocks and her flirting with the males. As great a blessing as this was, I would have given it up in a heartbeat to have joy, rather than tears of sorrow, be the last expression I ever saw on my sister’s face.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 10:09 am and is filed under IC: Nauloera, In Character.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.