~Sweet Tea and Recovery~

[Guest]

"Okay, move him in! Quickly, but carefully; he's still comatose, and we can't be sure of his vitals until he's fully in place with our equipment again. Get him on the gurney, quickly! Don't waste time." Paramedics moved quickly, unloading the mastadonic man from the ambulance, as a small pinkette climbed out from the back, trailing closely with the man on the stretcher. "Egil, if you don't wake up from this, I friggin' swear, I will RAM MY FIST so far down your throat! YOU'LL HAVE TO COME BACK TO THE HOSPITAL AGAIN, BOY, IF YOU DON'T WAKE UP TODAY!!" The paramedics noticed the one-sided exchange, but didn't react, as it had been going on since the pair of Lokhyn arrived on the shores of Aerugo, aboard a longship, which soon departed, sailing away by the rest of the crew. Since then, the two had been traveling in ambulances from southern Aerugo to Northern Aerugo, from there to the Amestrian-Aerugese border, where a South City ambulance picked them up, and from there to Central, until finally they'd arrived at North City, where he was to be placed into the hospital's CC Unit, having been rushed through two countries with an ungodly amount of injuries. Many were treated immediately as upon his arriving in Aerugo, and he was placed under medical care there, before being transferred to North City upon recovering well enough to make the journey.

But here he was, having been comatose for the entire week or two of both Aerugese medical care, and travel by ambulance. Valdís, of course, had gone with him, allowing two of Einherjar's younger siblings and her godmother, the remaining crew of the ship, to take Thunderbutt home. She moved quickly with the paramedics, and soon he was properly moved into a hospital bed, where she sat in a chair next to him, worry poorly masked on her face. "Remember, you stupid idiot; if you die here, I'll go to Asgard myself just to pimpslap you to death a few thousand times for being such a stupid idiot. I mean, seriously, dude, the old man already kicked it, it's not like we need his oldest son to go with him."

His heart monitor still faintly beeped now and again, as his powerful blood-shoving muscle refused valiantly to go kicking and screaming into the night. Soon, however, a doctor came in to tell Valdís the news she didn't quite want to hear; "Ms. Raghild, we're going to have to ask you to step into the waiting room; Mr. Egil has a visitor." Spoken again by a Cretan translator, so she could understand, she nodded, reluctantly, and left, as an old man entered the room...

[Guest]

He shuffled in, his pink slippers leading the way as was customary. No matter what doorway he stepped into he did so with his right foot, and tapped twice with it before letting the other foot enter. A habit he always did with everything. Entering doorways, turning, and even before taking a sip of tea he would tap that foot. Though it wasn't the main concern of people of what he did with his feet. As always, people looked towards his hands.

Within those hands he held a large branch of strong mahogany. It was from the limb of Jessica, his 50 year old tree. One that he had planted when he was merely a boy. A boy at the age of 24, about to send himself off to the army. After leaving the army, he had dug up that old tree and replanted it in Xing. After that, he repeated the process by replanting it in Briggs. That is where the big old tree had laid its roots. Moving nowhere without it being killed first. The only way for someone to keep apart of it is removing a piece of itself for others to carry. Just as Peach was.

Mr. Tousen Alexander Peach said nothing. He didn't even look at his oldest friend. Einherjar Egil. That old man with a tapping right foot sat in that chair and pulled out a knife. That old man carved and cleaned that limb. The one that the misinformed giant had pulled off in their last encounter.

As he slid the trolley to the table, he looked up when the door opened and Ein came in. His healthy shape shadowed his frail self, though Peach knew a time when he was almost just as strong. " Oh, good day Ein. How are...." Mr. Peach opened his eyes from his tired beaming and absorbed in the frame some more. Ein was holding a perfectly strong piece of... " You ripped off Jessica's limb!!" He quickly shuffled to Ein's side, trying to take the branch from the misinformed man. "It'll take her another twenty years to patch up that spot, let alone grown a new one!"

Yes, misinformed was the word to always describe Einherjar. He was neither stupid, nor smart, nor cowardly, or even quiet. He simply viewed things his way, and sometimes those ways would get him in trouble. None that would hurt others....physically. He would always put himself into harms way in order to help his friends and family, even though it would hurt them to see him go. A man who's values were misinformed to the feelings of others.

Hours passed and the nurses came back to relieve Mr. Peach. Only to find him whittling away, his face determined and quiet. they decided to leave him be. For that look was not a man grieving, but a man waiting. Soon, long after the night shift had taken their leave and the bugs outside lay silent for the witching hour, Mr. Peach started to speak. " My name's Freddrick Anderson Peachcakke, and I'm a Chimera. Einherjar."

As he started with that, he talked about his life. His fairly standard childhood until he caused the death of his friends, being the only one alive. He joined the army and met a lovely girl running a shop. She was lovely and looked similar to Reila. He had gone searching for a rare winter flower to confess his love, given the romantic he was. He spotted Drachman troops and when he came back and warned the men which were at the shop, his love poisoned him. Briggs was able to fend them back, but he was sent off to be tested on. He was created into a chimerea of a blue tiger species. After his abilities were strong enough, he fled to Xing, learned about tea and the culture. Then came back to face his fears at Briggs. He set up shop where the old one was and even named it after his beloved's place too.

Where he met Reila, the granddaughter he never had, and a friend he never got to meet until now. Mr. Peach told all of this to the unconscious man. Whether or not he heard it didn't matter. What mattered is if he heard this.

Mr. Pea-no. Freddrick placed another notch in the limb that was not only shaping to be a staff, but a strong one filled with a sense of balance. " I was at briggs when they invaded a second time. I told myself that it wouldn't happen again. That I wouldn't leave anyone behind. Like that car crash, Like briggs and like Xing. There was an explosion in a level that the Drachmans took over while I was trying to get one to safety. I had to hide under a pile of soldiers to not get killed..." Tears started falling on the staff, but his hands worked like a madman. " I don't know what allegiance they were, grey or blue, their blood looked all the same to me."

Freddrick gripped the carving knife so hard that a trickle of blood started to pour on his pantsuit. " I couldn't turn into it. I've been hiding it for so long that I failed what I went there to do. Einherjar. Wake up..."

Mr. Freddrick Anderson Peachcakke of Briggs opened his eyes fully for the first time. Showing slitting silver cat eyes brimming with anger and frustration.

" They took our Rei of sunshine."

[Guest]

As a certain pinkette left the room, a new visitor entered, bearing the distressing news correlated to another pinkette, equally close to the heart of Einherjar Egil. Speaking of the large Lokhyn, he was yet unmoving, wrapped up like a mummy in bandages and casts, supported by a large hospital bed and some arm and leg restraints, should he wake. As he lie there, sleeping, he lived a nightmare, the most vivid nightmare ever lived in his life.

It was dark. Everything was dark, there was a darkness everywhere, it was so surreal, though, because at the same time, he had to constantly shield his eyes from the intensity of the blackened light, and it was strange. He felt so light, light as a feather. Around him, voices spoke, muffled by an ever-present wind. Overlaid in front of him was an enormous man's face, the face of Vasco Allende, caricatured and grinning demonically, bearing a massive hourglass in his hands. Siegfried limped towards him, and he looked to his dead father in amazement. Was he... Was he still alive? No, his father had died. but... Had he too died, then? If so, why was Allende here? Then he saw it, breaking him from these thoughts. Allende dropped the hourglass, and the sands of time gushed in a tidal wave, much to the laughter of the Esparian's disembodied head. Einherjar and his father ran, but no matter where he looked, there was fire. Fire swam in circles around him, forming into dragons as volcanoes burst from the ground like sped up plants, forming spastic ally, ever taller, until finally, they would erupt, sending molten stone and ash down, throwing the two Lokhyn men into a spot between a rock and a hard place; fiery death, or suffocation in the sand. But then there was nothing, nothing but the two and a third presence, Allende again. Allende charged at Siegfried and the two engaged in combat, but when Einherjar went to move, he couldn't. But... But why not?

He was encased, encased in steel bars. And then, breaking from the battle, which Siegfried was losing ever more horribly, he saw violently flashing memories, Siegfried's body exploding at the impact of that cannonball again and again. "NOOOOOOOOOO!!! he shouted, but to no avail; his voice went unheard. "STOOOOOOP IIIIIT, STOP IT, STOP IT, NO, MAKE IT STOP!! FAAAAAAAAAAATHEEEEEEER!!" Then, his hopes soared sky-high; Thor and the valkyries descended from the skies above, and they landed in the midst of combat, the combatants seemingly unaware.

Good... Thor was going to rescue his father, and he would be freed and they would return home with a round of ale. But no. It never worked that way. Instead, Thor kicked his defenseless father to his knees and struck his face over and over again. No... No, that shouldn't be happening. The Valkyries then took his father by the limbs and pulled him apart, into bloody pieces, as he screamed on. The Gods... they'd... They'd abandoned him. He grabbed his cage's bars, violently tearing at them, he had to get away, HAD TO GET AWAY.

Then, he heard her voice, sweet as honey in his moment of need. Turning, bloodshot, teary eyes looked upon Reila, who was in the cage with him, trapped as he was, and that was when realization struck him; they were both imprisoned, and helpless, because he was a fool. A fool who left in his family's time of need. But... How did he even mean that statement? His family needed him to win the war for Gelemort, for Lokhyn independence and respect... Yet his family, his family in Briggs... No, he'd left in peace-time. There was no way anything happened while he was gone, he couldn't have been gone but too long.

Then, from the dark depths of the cell, he saw behind Reila a huge hooded figure. "Don't be scared, Einy... Don't be scared..." And as he moved, he realized with utter horror the ever worsening condition he was i; within his cell was another cell, one enveloping him in claustrophobic hands, as the figure brought down his blade, pink and red intertwining. His screams and pleas went still unheard. They were in a line, now. Mr. Peach, Valdis, his brothers, his sister, his granddaughter, even Wolfgang, Akito, Lily and Luke, Dietrich, Dunstan; anyone he'd ever met, ever. Each in a line, awaiting execution, as the demonic voice of the hooded man mocked him, taunted him. "This is your fault, Egil. They are all dying because of you. Enjoy the show, Egil. It's put on just for you. They're all dying to be a part of it." As he finished the killing of everyone he'd ever known and loved, he approached the massive man in his cage, crying and not making any words known to man, curled up into the fetal position, a truly broken man. "You have nothing, Egil. You never did! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA! YOU LOST EVERYTHING! I'd put you out of your own misery, but no. You... You are doomed to live ten thousand eternities here, dying of the guilt, the guilt of killing every one of your friends."

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!! I DIDN'T KILL ANYONE, YOU DID YOU MONST-" But then he was standing in a plane of blank whiteness, free, but surrounded by the same bloody corpses, but with one difference; he bore a massive sword in his hand, and it was coated crimson in blood. His hands, too, were scarlet. And his clothes, and he even tasted the blood... And in his confusion, all he could do was shake his head and cry... Until... He awakened, paralyzed by fear, but ears open.

As he woke, he heard Mr. peach, his close friend, explain to him many truths. His life story, first, which Einy took in with deep sincerity. Then he started speaking of Briggs...

His nightmare... There had been a war at Briggs in his absence. How... How long had it been? How many... How many were gone? Gone forever from this life, to the great halls of Valhalla to enjoy a life fit for the fallen soldier?

And as he stated the last sentence, Einy regained full ability to move, and he used it. Oh, yes, he used it. Immediately, he shot up, eyes widened in mortal terror, ignoring the intense, insane agony of his ruthless self-mutilating attempt to sit. Doctors rushed in and tried to restrain him, as he'd crumpled the iron restraints with ease. He swatted them away, however, with a grunt of pain. Every movement was a lifetime in the depths of Hell, but it was well worth it to look Peach in the eyes. "Doctors, no, really. I... I'm fine..." His voice was soft, a rumble of thunder in the grand finale of nature's worst. He stared Peach straight in the eyes, his normally warm eyes deprived of their former luster.

"Took... Her? Who...? When...? Reila..."

[Shula Brighton]

{BUMP}

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