This was another place where ti lost all aning, but unlike the glorious stretching of ti that ca with mind bogglingly good sex, this was just... it was sothing I wouldn’t wish on anyone, ever.
My head was aching and swimming at the sa ti, my arms were like lead yet they were trembling like a leaf in a storm, my stomach had already expelled all of its contents yet I was still here, heaving and coughing...
It was just horrendous, and it seemingly had no end... until, of course, it finally began to subside a little, and the mont it began to do that Dama imdiately turned away from the corpse of the Dogkin as a precaution.
"Feeling better..? Well... are you feeling less like absolute shit and more like you have one hell of a hangover?"
Her voice was sowhat tender, and the way she was patting my back as I breathed heavily was definitely... not sothing she usually did, but very much appreciated in this mont of ti.
"I... If there are... hangovers like this... I don’t ever want to touch a bottle again..."
Dama snickered at that and rubbed my back so more before saying "They do in fact exist, but the bottles you need to touch to get this way... well, it’s pure alcohol, and that shit is nasty. Only ever had it one ti and I nearly caught myself on fire~!"
The absurdity of her statent helped distract , sothing that my logical and relatively ’smart’ brain was telling since it was a sort of psychological trick that worked in all sorts of ’manic’ areas... like after you just killed soone.
"That stuff tastes horrendous. Burns all the tastebuds off your tongue, numbs your throat... Goddesses above, I thought I was slling colors and might never be able to taste things again! Spit it all out after the first little bit slid down my gullet... straight into the campfire. Fun thing about alcohol... it burns very, very easily."
When she kept going I found myself thinking more about the sort of scene that must have played out instead of what I had just done, and it helped soothe a little as I asked "That... bad..?", to which she pat my back again and just grinned at .
"Worse. Horrible stuff, high proof alcohol. I think it does better at sterilizing wounds and scaring away all the dirty shit rather than being sothing you ingest. Ever since I’ve kept myself to beers and wines primarily, but it’s been long enough that I find myself missing the stronger stuff. Nothing that potent though."
I took a few more deep, calming breaths before pushing myself back and sitting on my haunches, fighting the headache and screwing my eyes shut as everything spun again; it took a mont to rember that magic existed, and when I did I flushed my system with it and imdiately felt better.
"Thank you... I uh... think I might be... fine..."
Cocking her brow and just staring at for a few monts, Dama’s eyes flicked over towards the body behind before she said "Uh huh. Y’know, I said that on my first kill too. Proceeded to hurl again when I saw it. So... if you do turn around, keep yourself around. I doubt you got anything left to hurl, but better safe than sorry."
Fixing her with a bit of a glare, I took another few breaths before I slowly turned myself around, trying to ntally prepare myself for what I already knew was there; it worked, to a degree, and I only gagged when I saw the kneeling corpse of the Dogkin.
Blood had pooled around her, spilling from the hole in her chest and trickling down my spear as she leaned on it; a chill crept over again as I noticed her eyes, so before it could get worse I got to my feet - sowhat unsteadily - and began to... deal with the body.
By that I ant I just gently pushed her head back and pushed her eyelids down, hoping that they would stay in place before I wrapped my shaking hand around the haft of my spear; covering my hand in mana to cleanse the blood, I pushed the body back and retrieved my weapon, only to cringe when I put too much force into it.
She knocked against the ground and just laid there, though before I could do or think anything Dama just quipped "It’s alright, she won’t feel that knock on her head...", causing my anger to flare up a little and burn away everything else.
When I spun to glare at her she was just smirking at , though it softened as she said "You’ve done better than I thought you would.", a hint of morose pride tinging her voice as she nodded at .
"Better than I had done, though that might be because it’s just you and here rather than and a whole squad of idiots. They wouldn’t let hear the end of it for a week at least, and each of ’em was fucking insufferable about it."
My anger faded as fast as it had arrived, replaced by a bit of confusion as I asked "They... were insufferable about this?", the disbelief more than evident in my tone; her grin returned as she gave an answer, distracting so more so that she could start rummaging through the Dogkin’s belongings.
"Sure as hell weren’t supportive... at least in a nice, helpful way. I was a greenhorn, fresh out of the Academy, and they were all hardened by the war already. Ca in as an Aide to their Sergeant, had to fight beside them against a surprise attack... The fight itself was easy, but the aftermath? Not so much.
Much like you I just couldn’t really grasp the severity of what I had done. The whole idea of snuffing soone’s life early never has sat right with , but ever since I’ve co to accept that it’s either their’s ending early or mine.
I grappled with it for a bit, was sick just like you - even worse cause it was in the rain, plus it was a cold damn day - and overall felt like shit. They imdiately used that as fuel to try and prove that the Academy was horrible and I wasn’t prepared... Whole lotta shit considering they’re dead and I’m here, but oh well. Aha~!"
Holding up a piece of paper, Dama grinned at and left that story there, letting it occupy my imdiate thoughts all while she gradually buried the body while reading the paper out loud, giving multiple things to focus on that wasn’t the corpse of the Dogkin I just killed.
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