Cartouche (Nightbird)

[Nighty the foamy squirrel]

OTHAL NIGHTBIRD
FF9900= Actions
009900= Speech
003380= Thoughts
0066FF= Other speech

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The adrenaline coursing through me felt amazing, my whole body dedicating itself to running at the man with full force, my vision a dark red around the edges, either that was my pneumonia or I was hallucinating, either way it kinda added to the awesomeness of the feeling. Though seriously what was it about Amity that made me so protective? The only other person I got like that around was Eileen and that was for obvious reasons. She was my sister, I was meant to, but why Amity... Anyway, I start to prepare my mind for the jump, my eyes scanning his body for a target area. His gut looking like a pretty promising area but his neck would cause him to fall back, I again switch my gaze between the two areas, finally picking which one as I just get to where the girl is standing. My mind screaming at me to jump before I am thrown off balance and I quickly fall to the side, rolling twice with how fast I had forced my body and stopping by the table.

I groan slightly as pain and a slight shock comes across my body from my landing, my vision still a bit off as I look towards the area where I was pushed and I see the girl, who gave me the meat leave, was it her? Now why would she push me? She was having an argument and got hit too? My head trails through possibilities of how I got here until my eyes catch on to something shining in the mans hand, and my eyes widen a tad bit where I lay. Was that a knife? Why did he have a knife? I fling my hand to my side, finding it jammed between me and the floor. Oh yeah I had fallen hadn't I? "Seriously how do you forget yourself falling over?" I sigh at my own stupidity and get up slowly, rolling my body over again and placing both my hands on the floor, pushing up and getting on my hands and knees before slowly getting up as anyone else would. Except with a coughing fit at the end.

After about 5 minutes of me coughing I weakly look back at the man with the knife, my hand again subconsciously goes to my side pocket, then my back noticing it wasn't there, then my forehead, smacking myself as my bag isn't there either. Of course I already knew that but the one time I needed it, I didn't have it. "What is your name?" I hear the man ask and my reply comes delayed, my body shifting back into one where I was prepared to both fend off a small attack, I wasn't strong enough for other ones, and run, running was probably better, but then I would leave Amity... No, I wasn't going to. "My name is Othal Nightbird..." My voice Now extremely hoarse from my running "...And I don't care if you have a knife, you won't use it, I know you won't" I could tell he was trying to scare me, and yes normally it was easy, but I had to prove it wasn't working.

The man approaches closer, but my stance nor stare doesn't change, he was doing this to intimidate me, it was obvious. I remember Amity was in the room and I quickly glanced to her, she seemed fine but that was aside the point, no one should've touched Amity, especially not this hulking waste of a man, wow did I just say that? Anyway, I smirk and narrow my eyes at him, almost as if testing before saying, scanning him as he stood near enough in front of me with the knife held firmly in his hand now "If you hadn't hurt Amity, I wouldn't be doing this, I ho----" My raspy voice is cut off with a huge, gasping intake of air, my whole body body tensing up as I feel something pierce my stomach. My hands going straight to the source of the pain to feel the mans hand force a handle into my body, my eyes focusing on the smirking man as he whispered to me "Won't do it huh?" He then slides the knife out has I fall to my knees.

The man walks out of the room, slamming the door behind him as I stare at my stomach, putting my hands around the wound the best I could only to watch blood seep through my fingers, I couldn't even cry it was that painful, I was just stuck. Staring at my wound whilst my head switches off. I didn't know what to do, I had never been stabbed before... The blood begins to stain my already somewhat dirty top as my head starts to swim a little, hadn't lost too much blood yet and it couldn't have hit anything important, cause it wasn't bleeding fast enough, well, to me. My eyes themselves sway a bit but my body is still rigid, transfixed on the wound my body now held. I knew Amity was in the room, and I needed her to help, and quickly, but I couldn't get myself to speak, or do anything. Why couldn't I do anything!? All I could do was watch the blood seep through my fingers more and more, my breathing starting to jam and catch as my strength quickly deteriorates.

I lose my balance as my leg strength, or what little remained completely vanishes and I fall on my side. My vision wurring until my right arm collides with the floor and causes me to land on my back. My cloth, which already needed a clean starting to stain with the blood that flowed out of my fingers. Laying on my back probably wasn't the best idea, it will get me all bloody, and my rag on left hand bloody. Well it would make it more of a tribute wouldn't it, cause my granddad did die from a bleed out. I pick up my thoughts again, forbidding them from drifting from the situation as I find a small voice, forcing out a raspy, painful "Amity..." You'd expect any normal 12 year old to be screaming in pain by now, but I just couldn't, I needed to, but I couldn't... I had no idea where Amity was any more though, I didn't hear her come over, and I can't see her. Then again the only thing I was looking at was my wound, and I couldn't look anywhere else so... That probably wasn't an option.

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[Sarella]

A great scream runs out of Amity's mouth as her UNcle leaves the room and she catches sight of the blood Through everything, sheet was never able to takebelittle glance at blood. Her stomach churns as she stares, dumbfounded, at othal's wound. She fights an invisible force to Othal, and sits next to him, staring at the growing circle of dark red. She begins to mutter, unsure what to do. Then, out of complete desperation, she tears off his cloth from his wrist, folds it in half and puts it on the spot.

It took three seconds for it to be soaked. She groans, shaking her hands-on the air. There was nothing in the room to help, and she knew nothing about aiding people like this. Running to the back door, she fumbles with the doorknob, unsure which way the look was supposed to be turned. Throwing open the door, she yells to Othal she will be right back before sprinting away. Her face was terrified, pale and sweaty. Her entire body shook, but people made room as she ran back through the crowd.

Three minutes, and she is crying and groaning as she wonders how long someone could live. She opens the door with enough force to throw it off it's hinges, and finds aisling working. Hood, this was who she needed. She explains in a few words, and very soon she is trying to keep up with her older sister. amity stops a peacekeeper, that begins to walk towards the shop, and then rejoins her sister. Aisling takes a shortcut through a small tomato field and they arrive at the house, ten minutes from the time amity left. Both are scared, but the difference was in their manner. Guess which one was crying, and guesses which one was in a hurry to get things done.

Othal is passed out, and Aiisling checks if he Is breathing. Quickly, she pulls up his shirt and amity slides it off. Then, using the thick towel brought,Ailing pushes the found sides together slightly and pushes a towel on top. Amity is told to put her finger between his ribs. Aisling begins to rub his legs, and amity his arms, keeping him warm. Amity quietly leans towards his face, finally calming down, and gives him a peck on the cheek. "Please wake up," she says, "A peacekeeper is coming." She can't help the shiver running down her spine and Into her leg.

[Nighty the foamy squirrel]

OTHAL NIGHTBIRD
FF9900= Actions
009900= Speech
003380= Thoughts
0066FF= Other speech

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I hear a faded scream from somewhere behind my head, if I could call that a place really. Blood still pouring from my wound as my head feels lighter and lighter, now this is where I needed help. I could see the blood running off my hands and onto the my top, staining it as it continued on it's path, eventually running off my top and onto the floor. My arms slowly losing their grip on the wound and eventually just laying on their sides just below the wound, leaving it wide open. Black starting to fade into my vision from the sides as my eyes roll a little, the pain numbing slightly but still, it hurt, a lot. "So, what have we learned today, to not try and challenge someone with a knife" I rely the message to myself in my head. Hoping it would allow my to focus on something.

I don't notice Amity coming up to me, but I feel her ripping something off my left wrist, and my mind clicks. MY CLOTH! I NEED THAT! However I feel pressure come onto my stomach and I quickly get get what she is trying to do, but still my cloth. That thing meant a lot to me and it better not be too bloody. I feel the pressure come off but I assume my cloth was still there. My head... As dull as it was right now trying to get my hands to move it but my depleted energy forbids me to even move my hand closer despite it's proximity to the actual wound. I eventually give up and my head finally lays back, the strain on my neck and my dizziness/lightheadedness started to take affect on hoe my stare at my wound was going. I let my head drift to the side a little, staring at the window that let most of the light into this room before I hear a shout, it sounded like Amity, then a door closing. She... She didn't just leave me did she?

I groan a little as blood continued to run from my stomach, a little weaker than before but still going on pretty strong. Maybe he had hit something? That wouldn't have been good, not at all. The black in vision had faded again as well which didn't help but the energy to panic, as with the energy with most things, was gone. I suddenly begin feeling tired as well which didn't help, I knew I shouldn't sleep also, but Amity was gone... She had said something before hand but I couldn't quite hear it, maybe she was getting help? I hope she was. If not well... I whimper a little at that thought alone, not yet, I can't. Despite the fact I was still trying to hang on to consciousness the black eventually fades over and my eyes shut, my body losing any tensity it hadn't already lost. My mind going blank and my sense of touch was gone. I needed to Amity to hurry, or maybe I had reached my end, murdered in front of Amity... That was the last think I wanted to happen.

My consciousness stays dead through the next series of events, leading me to have no idea that I am being treated on by Amity's sister and herself. I don't feel my top being taken off me despite the movement they had to man handle me to do, not in a bad way, but yeah... Plus the blood not stopping despite the towel and the sealing of the wound, though it does slow it down to trickle through the fine gap that the squeezing left. My breathing weak and catchy however as the girl/woman checks and the rubbing of the arms and legs maintain the heat that was still in my body. Then something happens, Amity leaning down to kiss my cheek and ask me to wake up, then say a peacekeeper was coming would have normally sprung me back up, got me walking and acting as if nothing happened to get the Peacekeeper away, then make me faint again cause she kissed me, but unfortunately that wasn't the case... I know I needed to get up, somewhere in my subconscious was screaming at me to. Though my body fails to respond. Laying there being treated by Amity and her sister and hanging on for my very life.

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[Sarella]

The peacekeeper arrives with two others, and Amity edges her way to a far corner, reluctantly leaving Othal. Ailing begins to quickly explain the situation, and two of the peacekeepers, a man and woman, break the locked door to find her uncle. The last approaches Othal, and slowly kneels down beside him. His bright blue eyes take in the scene, before he very carefully lifts Othal, no difficulty. As he walks out the door, two female screams are heard from somewhere in the building, and Amity and Aisling follow the man.

"Let me get this straight. Your uncle, who hates you, because he hates your father, stabbed your friend in spite?" he inquires. Aisling nods her head for Amity. Within a few minutes they are at the healer. Behind them, Amity's uncle is led by two peacekeepers, Common and her mother screaming a little ways behind. Amity turns her head before the door closes, to see her uncle not led, but dragged by them. She catches a deadly glare from Common.

[Nighty the foamy squirrel]

OTHAL NIGHTBIRD
FF9900= Actions
009900= Speech
003380= Thoughts
0066FF= Other speech

[/colour][/center]

I'm still out of it by the time the Peacekeepers come in, though conscious was kinda fading in and out now, faint noises where coming from, the sound of a door being smashed on and someone, seemingly rapidly talking but I can't make out what she is saying. All energy from my body was gone and I couldn't do anything aside just lay in the exact spot I was left in, blood still coming from my wound, weaker sure, but still coming out, and my cloth was getting completely drenched in it probably. I feel, which is a surprise that I actually felt it though it was highly dulled, something nudge my hand. Though that when I fade out again, my mind going blank as everything that was making noise fades out. All I could think of was Amity even in my state though, she needed to be okay.

I slowly slip back in as I feel like I am levitating, my hand rolling off my body and dangling down from my new elevated position as my blooded cloth falls from my body and onto the floor, just drifting a little as I get carried out into the cloudy outside, light changing what I can see from black to a lot of patterns that seemed float around the blackness that covered my eyes, faint screaming and shouting can be heard but it fades out as the the person... Or thing, you never know that was carrying me walks towards the nearest medical area, which was a small distance away from here. It was good in District 11 for that, everything was a reasonable distance from everything. I slowly begin to slip out again, though this time I put up a bit more fight, the bleeding was most likely staining whatever or whoever's clothes or... other things, maybe a stretcher? Though it had slowed down enough for my body to begin to cope with it. Which was good, how long I could last like this was questionable.

The question pops into my head of was Amity near me? I wanted her near me... I wanted to know she was okay, I wanted to know she wasn't hurt as well. Was that too clingy though? Maybe I was being a bit clingy with her. Then my body jerks violently, causing me to wake up a little bit more and a small groan escapes me, though my eyes stay shut. Well that was probably better, my thoughts where most likely heading up to a road I did not want to go down again, it was getting close to that time of year... I had been thinking about it for ages, if I got reaped, if she got reaped, if we both got reaped. Though I just started to force it out of my mind, now was really not the time to think about that.

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[Sarella]

Amity picks up his cloth and squeezes blood out of it, disgusted but upset at the same time. Her eyes move towards his face, worn and pale. A hard breath escapes her lips, even as she watches the healer getting to work. She was fast, Aisling following orders beside her. The peacekeeper who had brought Othal stood watch over the scene, glancing at Amity every few seconds, as though waiting for her to faint. She definantly felt it. Her knees were weak, and her breathing was short, she was dizzy. Those other two peacekeepers had taken her uncle somewhere Common and her aunt had not wanted him to go. Was he going to be killed? Whipped? Avoxed?

Amity stoops down beside Othal and watches his face, making herself not notice the busy work a few inches away. Her head comes towards his again, and she rests it on the table. She takes hold of his hand and wishes for his life, her uncle included. He may be a greedy, terrible man, but he was family and everyone deserved forgiveness, right? Could she forgive him for this? Was it even right to do so? She thinks of her mother, gone from hunger. She forgave that man a million times for not helping them, and then she died because of it. Should she follows her example, or should she dash it away?

It was one thing when it was her own life, another when it was her friend's. He could beat her, insult her, murder her if he wante,d but he could not touch her family, or her friends, when she did manage to make them. She would not let him be the cause of her siblings being her only friends, but she could not let herself defy her mother's wishes. Forgiveness is the most precious thing in our cruel, cruel world, but punishment is the only way to enforce innocence. Did that not make sense?

Her uncle, in a sense, killed her mother, an ally with the hunger. An eye for an eye, let him die for her death. Let Common and Amity's aunt feel the pain she felt at her mothers death, the silence, the sadness, the emptiness. But did she really want to put her cousin through such misery? She stares into Othal's eyes, tears forming again. He could die.

Then Aisling and the woman stand up, an dAmity looks up at them. "We've stitched him up, come get us if he wakes up, he should be okay. Lost a lot of blood, but not so much he can't reproduce it after a few days here," the healer says, and walks away. Amity finds a way to grin, though she was still sad. He would survive this, she knew. He would wake up and they would be okay. Aisling sets a chicken breast next to Othal on the table, and Amity knows when he wakes up that'll be the first thing she gives him. There was one thing she would not wait to say. The thing she had finally realized, but never thought someone so young could feel so intensely. It had taken her a year to discover this.

"Othal Nightbird, I love you."

~End of Thread~