Lawman has put and End to my Runnin' // [Orville Day 2]
Mar 8, 2022 16:51:04 GMT -5
Post by Baby Wessex d9b [earthling] on Mar 8, 2022 16:51:04 GMT -5
Orville woke very suddenly in a pile of sweat-soaked and blood-stained metal mech. The suit made a terrible clang when he sat bolt upright. For one awful, dream-soaked moment he thought the suit was holding hims hostage, a prison within a prison, each piece of metal squeezing his very soft flesh until the pressure became too much and he burst --
He coughed, or belched, air and fluids escaping.
Heaving in deep breaths of rancid mist, Orville got to his feet. He took one step forward right into his overflowing Junk Trunk Hatch and sent the contents skittering around the cell. "That's great," he muttered, heart rate slowing.
Nothing like a good clean up to calm the nerves.
He went to pickup the unspooled roll of bandages and paused. Did he really want to walk around with a quill sticking out of his chest? He could feel his heart working sluggishly around it, a drip drip of blood slowly filling his left lung. Drowning in his own blood also seemed like a terrible way to go.
Not for the first time he wondered what he could have done to convince someone to stay by his side. Maybe if he'd smiled a little more? He backed himself into a corner of a cell. Maybe if he'd said 'please' and 'thank you' at the table? He riped off a strip of bandages. Maybe if he'd actually taken a vow of silence so no one had known how different he was? He braced.
In the same motion he yanked the quill free and stuffed bandages where it was.
His heart galloped, his lung made a sickly squelch and the world dimmed.
When his vision cleared he moved slowly. More than anything else the lions had inflicted upon him, this made him feel weak. He gathered the rest of his things into piles based on usefulness and then considered another nap.
But something kept bothering him. Something he'd seen between the lion's spikes.
Turn Back.
The sign had been swinging above the lion pack but he'd only just now registered it in his memories.
And that voice that echoed endlessly: strong neck.
He hadn't ever listened before. Why start now?
Every step was a bit clunky and he kept his cannon arm raised. How exactly he'd launched the round earlier escaped him. Maybe it just fired when needed. He could live with that amount of uncertainty. Into the shadows he went, retracing his path by the smell of meat. Not the rancid bones that guarded the prison cells. Fresh meat. That's where he'd seen the sign.
That's where he found the treasure.
[Orville heals, organizes, explores, claims the Chopsaw (axe) from the Den Wealth]
[Title lyrics by Styx]
[Title lyrics by Styx]