The Systems Challenge

As Sonya crashed into the ground, tree branches whipping past, Elin feels sharp pains as her clothing is torn from the branches as they cut into her. One leaving a deep gash on her right shoulder. Then as Sonya lands, Elin was even more surprised as she was thrown from Sonya's back and hear a loud snapping sound as she landed on a rock, pain flaring up her left leg.

Whether she blacked out for any amount of time or not, she couldn't be sure. What she was certain of was that the mountainous forest around her seemed oddly peaceful, though she still felt a little disoriented as she lifted her head from off the rock. Yet, it didn't take her long before she remembered what happened to her leg.

As she makes any movement when she regains her bearings, pain continued to flare up in her leg, making Elin wonder if her leg was broken. Which would mean she'd need to take care of that before she did almost anything else. If only so she could move in whichever direction she needed to.

Though, before she did that, she looked back to where Sonya had landed, digging up a good amount of earth with her. Elin couldn't tell if Sonya was conscious or not, but her wings looked like they were in tatters, blood seeping out, almost turning her wings a bright red. Heather wasn't on Sonya's back either, though Elmo looked like he'd barely held on himself.

Not seeing any reason to see if anyone else would come down to help them or if she'd be able to see where Heather went, Elin turned to her leg and clenched her teeth as she whispered her best healing spell. If only so she could walk over and check on Elmo and Sonya before looking around for Heather to make sure she was alright.

As she felt her magic flow out of her and into her leg, she felt a mixture of relief and increased pan as everything that was wrong with her leg corrected itself. In addition to that, she felt her other wounds healing as well, including all the smaller scratches from the trees as well as the gash along her shoulder. Almost making what happened to her to be nothing more than what might have been just a bad hallucination, aside from what she condition she could still see Sonya was in, not to mention the tears in the dress she was wearing.

As Elin stood up, she realized that the rock she'd been thrown against was a little higher up than she had expected, so it took her a minute to slide to the ground. Which took only a minute to make sure that she didn't create more problems with just jumping down. Not to mention how she felt that Sonya had gotten the worst of the crash landing. That there shouldn't be anything worse to deal with.

However, as she reached bottom of the rock, she saw Heather. Heather had clearly been thrown from Sonya's back as well, but where she landed, there wasn't a rock. Instead there was a tree that was big enough that it had been sturdy enough to mostly withstand the impact Heather's body made when the tree stopped her from flying through the air. If that was all that had happened, Elin wouldn't have bothered to think about it that much. However, while the tree had been broken from the impact, Elin could also see that Heather had slammed into it, driving a branch of the tree through her chest, leaving her hanging a couple feet above the ground.

When Elin approached Heather, she saw Heather's eyes had glazed over. While she could see that Heather had been killed, she still checked her vitals, hoping that she might have been mistaken. Elin couldn't even glance over at Sonya, certain that if she did, she wouldn't be able to do anything to help Heather, despite her not knowing what else she could do other than getting Heather down from being impaled on the branch.

Elin saw the branch was almost as long as her arm, and knew that she couldn't pull Heather off of it directly. The only other option she could see about getting Heather down right away was to break the branch. Yet, with it covered in Heather's blood, Elin wasn't sure she really wanted to grip it to actually break it, but it wasn't like she could think of any other options.

Elin was about to turn and see if maybe she could find someone else to help, wishing she could do something to get Heather back, when she suddenly remembered about that spell she'd gotten. Not only would it bring Heather back, but she knew she'd keep Sonya from getting heartbroken at the news. Only, she had to get it cast soon after the person died or it wouldn't have any effect. Which meant she didn't have time to look for anyone else.

While she could cast the spell right then, she had a feeling that Heather's injuries would only have her a die a moment later, making her use of the spell completely useless.

So, pushing her own revulsion down at gripping the blood-covered branch, Elin jumped up and grabbed it, close to where Heather was and tried to get the branch to break by bouncing her weight on it. Yet, when that didn't work and her hands slipped off, Elin looked at it and had another idea.

If she used Sacred Flame, she was confident that she'd be able to break the branch, and if Heather got a little singed from it, she doubted it would make healing her any harder. Though, she hoped it wouldn't damage Heather's clothing any further, since from the looks of it, it was almost torn to shreds and if she hadn't been sitting in front of her, Elin had a feeling that her own clothing would be in a similar shape.

Yet, Elin still stepped back herself, just in case she might get caught in the range the spell would have before focusing her entire attention on the branch.

"Holy Fire!" Elin called out, partly wondering if she was already too late to help Heather out.

When the flame reached the branch, it turned it to ash in moments and Elin quickly rushed over to catch Heather as she fell, nearly knocking Elin down as well. Though, she managed to avoid that by letting Heather's body continue to move towards the ground before dragging her away from the tree as the flames from her spell quickly engulfed the rest of the tree.

Not giving the tree any further thought, Elin even ignored the blood flowing out of the hole in Heather's chest. Instead, she put her hands over the hole, briefly wondering why she was so squeamish about Heather's blood on the tree branch while touching her blood here didn't bother her at all.

"Heal," Elin said, hoping that there wouldn't be any other problems. As she couldn't think what she'd do if something else affected her efforts to save Heather and bring her back.

Yet, despite her fears, she felt the hole in Heather's chest close up quickly, leaving the blood that had come out of her body from it as the old sign that it had been there. Elin felt like closing her eyes and taking a rest, but she knew that if she could save Heather right then, that taking a rest would also prevent her from brining Heather back to life.

Pushing her fatigue to the side, Elin took a deep breath and said as clearly as she could, "Restore Life."

Regardless of what she'd expected to happen, Elin suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe as a massive amount of her mp was suddenly pulled out of her. While she had expected that, she hadn't expected the effect it would have on her. Causing her vision to blur as she tried to fight against the fatigue as it made a renewed effort against her.

A moment later Elin felt her vision go dark. It wasn't because she gave into the fatigue, but rather it overwhelmed her to the point that it wasn't until she started to wake up, her head resting one Heather's chest, that she realized she'd lost the fight with her fatigue. Yet, from her position, she could hear Heather's heart beating. Meaning that Heather was alive again!

Elin wanted to scream for joy, but before she could, she suddenly realized that Heather was asleep, making Elin wonder if bringing her back to life had also worn Heather out. Or if it was from something else altogether.

As Elin lifted herself from Heather's chest, she suddenly realized that there was a fire nearby with Elmo tending it. While she wasn't going to complain, she couldn't help but wonder exactly how long she'd been out.

The sky was still bright and it didn't look like much time had passed, but since the shadows were facing the other direction from what she remembered before she'd brought Heather back, she couldn't help but feel like she'd been out for hours.

"How long have you been there?" Elin asked, conflicted if she should help Heather over to be closer to the fire or if she should stay with her.

Elmo looked up from the fire, clearly startled. "Oh, uh, not long, I guess," Elmo said, looking a little confused.

Elin nodded absently, not sure if she should press the issue further or not. She wasn't sure why it would have taken Elmo so long to get around to starting a fire and why he might not have put a blanket over her and Heather. Though, a moment later she realized they didn't have a blanket. All their supplies was back at their campsite, which was probably about a days walk, one way.

"Is Sonya okay?" Elin asked, looking back at where she could see Sonya still laying where she'd landed.

With how much pain her foot had been in before the crash, Elin wondered if Sonya was going to be alright. Especially since they still have about twenty more days before her condition ended that kept her from getting healed.

"If she is, she's not saying," Elmo replied quietly. "What I'd like to know is if anyone else is alright."

"What do you mean?" Elin asked, feeling like she wasn't going to like what Elmo was about to say.

Sighing, Elmo replied, "It's just that after we crashed, what happened to the bear? Did Kim make it out? Was there anything else that happened that might have us in danger here or did everything work out?"

Elin didn't like the thoughts that Elmo's questions raised. Yet, she couldn't deny the points he had. Nor was it something that she felt that she would be able to find out quickly. Not with the condition she currently was in.