Asriel Dreemurr

Well... shit. Double shit, in fact. First he was turned down on his perfectly... insane... idea, why was the option that put him at the greatest possible risk of physical harm the one that came to mind for him first? He wasn't trying to die... was he? More... importantly than yet another layer of this steadily building mental breakdown he was going to have in the near future was the fact that Peaches was hurt much worse than he'd initially expected judging by Citron's worry and how the Wyvern was barely able to hold still. He did what he could to listen for the moment, his head steadily throbbing less and less as he recovered from his most recent introduction to the ground. And after he shrugged off his traveling pack, reintroducing it to the ground in the process, he felt a little better. Less weight, less pain, an easier time standing, an easier time thinking and paying attention to them commenting on performing surgery. "Well, it's probably not the same," Edrick said, slowly picking through his words as he knelt, then sat, on the ground beside his pack and got to digging through it, "but I've had a few pointy sticks dug out of me. I... think I can help." He was a little distracted with his fishing through that bag, and eventually found what he was looking for. First out came a whetstone that was very, very well used judging by the concave sides. The second was a beaten up wooden box, which he opened to reveal a trio of very well looked after knives. He had been doing a good bit of the cooking since he'd joined them, and the knives were one of a number of things he brought from his home. "But uh... probably shouldn't... be the one doing any work here." It wasn't exactly pleasant, but Edrick had to accept that right now there wasn't very much he could really do to help. Just hold still, try not to get hurt any more, and let the... actually qualified people do what needed to be done. Whatever was happening in the house he probably couldn't help with at this point. Link was already too far ahead for him to catch, and this... this just had to go without him for right now.

As it happened, faced with what looked like an impossible feat of strength on the part of the man they were chasing, the man who it seemed for all the world was kidnapping their friend, Edrick had decided to try the impossible himself. How many times had this group of theirs overcome nonsense beyond nonsense in order to achieve some kind of victory here? If this bastard was strong enough to throw a wyvern, why couldn't he be strong enough to catch her? He owed Peaches that much at least, she was hurt worse than he was or at least he believed she was. He could do this. He could help- And then he received two important reminders. The first was that the people around him cared about him, delivered in the form of Link diving on him from behind and taking him to the ground before he could be smashed by several hundred pounds of flying lizard. The second was that he was hurt... a whole lot worse than he was giving himself credit for. Oh he could hear his mother and sister chiding him now about going off and trying to get into another fight when he should have been resting and letting one of them heal him! So while Link got up off his back he spent a few more moments there laying facedown in the dirt, dazed from the pain and meekly bleeding in the street while he tried to remember how to move. An assortment of noises and voices helped wake him from this temporary stupor he'd found himself in, and while the world spun around him he slowly got up to his hands and knees, bright blonde hair already dirty again from the day's excitement and starting to look a little closer to that black it had been when the others met. Come to think of it, Penelope still hadn't tried to get him to properly wash it yet. Advantages of getting hurt, he thought as he waited until the ground stopped spinning before his eyes and he could make out voices properly again. “You’ve done so well-- You just… I just need you to stop, and stay still. I need you to be okay.” That was Citron... and it didn't sound like Peaches was doing all that well. He could... maybe help tend to her again after this, but there were other things that needed- "She's a wyvern, she'll handle it." That was the new boy... Raju? Raykee? One of those, he couldn't remember right now. But that boy also had a Wyvern... and now he had an idea on how he could help continue the fight. He wasn't catching a horse on foot, he'd tried that for years now and had plenty of proof that wouldn't work, but if he was flying? "H-hey," he managed to all but cough out as he made his way towards the two riders, one arm clutching at his freshly re-bloodied chest and the other holding the lance he'd been using to keep himself up, "I don't think I can help here, and I can't catch Gaston on foot, so... can one of you fly me after him and drop me like a rock on his horse?"

Things moved fast, a little faster than Edrick had been prepared to deal with. He was expecting the man to do the sensible thing and surrender when he was caught between an armed man and a Wyvern, and yet... well even if this Gaston figure wasn't much of a noble he was certainly tasty in a fight. A shot to the Wyvern's chest, a headbutt to the underside of her jaw, and apparently he had help from somewhere. Someone throwing kitchen knives after them before the "noble" started running. Well at least this was something he could act on! Before Link had even finished shouting for him he was running. Boot-clad feet pounding against the ground as all the complications of the past week melted away from his mind. The fresh wounds on his chest? He might as well not have had them. The stress over being far from home? He forgot it in the moment. Questions about his faith and his place in it? None of that mattered in the face of what was happening right now. He'd been too slow to keep a thief from stealing Elba off his farm. He was not going to be too slow to stop Catriona being kidnapped. "Rapscallion, huh?!" He shouted afterwards as he bolted down the street after the maroon-clad bastard. "I guess you're as bad at judging character as you are with language!" He didn't think that was going to do much, but even the slightest distraction one way or another was hopefully enough for him. And as soon as he managed to get in reach of the older man? Well then he was just going to keep things simple. No stabbing, no sweeping, nothing with the lance at all actually. He just planned to run up and tackle him to the ground.

Edrick really wasn't feeling all that good by this point. Sure he was going to refuse at any point that he could that he was feeling off, but his two compatriots in "Team Country" could probably tell he was feeling tired and sluggish. He should have been resting, but with one of their number being missing it only seemed appropriate to go along and look for her. Especially considering Catriona was the ultimate reason for all of them coming together like this. So he was sluggish in his responses to the questions they asked him as he stopped at the top of more stairs to breathe and catch himself. Yeah, Citron, excessive was the word for it. If the boy could get some adrenalin pumping then maybe things would be different, but that was neither here nor there. "Right... opening doors... no keys. If Cat's actually okay and we wake her up in the middle of her nap or something y'all know she's gonna be pissed, right?" At least his words weren't slurring. Much. And when the noise of Alois actually smashing open a door with his shoulder rang out he stood up a lot straighter. Yeah. Yeah that certainly woke him up. But his hopes were dashed when they looked in and found that no, Catriona was not laying in there, and doubly no she was not now awake and angry with them for having woken her up like this. Though at Alois's suggestion the farmboy nodded and heavily stomped his way back out into the hall on the third floor. "Okay. One lockpicking coming right up." Except he didn't have picks. Unless his shoulder counted as a pick. And then he stopped as he heard the sound of someone breathing. Just enough hesitation that Alois kicked the door down before he could get himself back together. Maybe he was hurt worse than he thought he was. Either way, the room also seemed to be open at the moment. Well if Catriona wasn't here then where- what was that? A quick look out the window showed him what Citron had seen, and while she was yelling he was running back across the floor to the master bedroom. No time to explain, just go. Feet beating the wooden floor hard enough that the others could probably hear him running all the way on the ground floor. He tried to tear open the first window he reached, and when it refused to budge he considered breaking it- only to notice that there was a simple latch to open it up. Just this once, don't be like Link he thought to himself as he first dropped his lance out the window and then dropped himself out to land on the outside stairs. He landed hard, and he felt his bandages slipping on his chest under his... badly torn shirt. Ruined, really. Not a concern now! Grabbing his lance in one hand and flipping it around to have the tip back up, he got back to running after the man. And somewhere along the line his fine, noble shirt finally gave out. The shredded fabric tore under all of this and left him running after the man in naught but his boots, trousers, and the bandages over his now freshly bleeding wound. "Come back here!" He shouted out in a voice that was starting to grow hoarse between the strenuous activity and lack of drink and blood, but even so he ran after the figure with the sack over his shoulder. The boy didn't register that he had help in stopping this one until he heard the telltale whistle of wings on the air, and caught sight of Peaches swooping in ahead of him and trying to pen the figure in from the front. Well, time to run up and try to get this one from behind. A bit of that madness he felt take him when he fought started to seep in, but he restrained himself from simply striking. Even so, it seeped into his tone this time. A desperate worry and anger that promised he was on the verge of making some truly foolish decisions. "Alright. If you've got my friend in that sack, let her go. Hell if you've got anybody in that sack, let 'em go you Krampus-wannabe!"

Edrick managed a bit of a snort in response to the others' responses to his thoughts on the name, but really he couldn't be any kind of angry right now. By this point he thought of Alois as one of the better friends he'd made in this group, and Citron had already proven easy enough for him to get along with. As much as he thought "Team Country" was silly, he did feel very comfortable around these two. Which was why he gave a bit of a complaint to them as the three of them separated from Link and got to working further upstairs. "You know..." he started to say as he poked his head into the ajar door just past the office, and stopped in place for a moment as he saw all the animal heads. He also briefly spied the other door on the far side, and now wondered if the owner of the house was on this floor or if Link had been the one to open it. "Okay, guess he hunts. Uh, anyways," he picked up as he took a few longer strides to catch up to the other two, "it's pretty lucky we decided to come out here... I don't think Link would've been okay on his own for very long here." Either way, there was another door to check while they were on their way to the stairs. And as he opened it, he was hit in the face by the setting sun and the view of the village in the dying light of the day. He stood there long enough to appreciate both how long it had taken them to get this far today... and also how much had happened in so little time. It hadn't even been a full week since they were at the Shrine... And he turned to catch up to the others as he heard the sound of them ascending stairs. Much like the others, the many paintings of horses caught his attention. Unlike the others, he quietly took note of the differences in their patterns and breeds as they went along. "Is it really that weird for someone to like horses?" He said aloud, clearly a little distracted in the moment, but the discussion of the layout of the floor was enough to pull him out of it. "Well everyone needs to sleep somewhere so these are probably mostly bedrooms. He did say he had space for all of us so..." Edrick was still trying to piece together the issue of this "nobleman" offering them a place to stay while Link thought he had it out for the Princess. Especially when, to Edrick, the man just seemed harmless. "Hey!" He called out when he noticed Alois had found another stairwell leading up. "Maybe we should check the other rooms on this floor before we go further up." Not that his suggestion held all that much weight when he was moving to follow the boy and gesturing for Citron to follow. They couldn't just split up at this point.

Edrick once again had to use his lance to steady himself in place while he listened to Link going on about what he knew and how he was sure Catriona wasn't somewhere that they could get to simply. The first thing that came to his mind was why they wouldn't just ask to see her, especially when the man had previously offered to let them stay in his house instead of all cramming into Alois's. All of this came across as even more of the old soldier's paranoia, and none of it sat very well with him. But he didn't exactly get the chance to voice his concerns, between still being just a bit slow from the bloodloss and the sudden reminder that he'd... left the door open when he entered the office in the form of Citron coming through the door. "Shoved a child in a- what?" Well now Edrick was just generally confused, and starting to come around to Link's point of view on the subject. All this skulking around still sat poorly with him, but maybe there was a good reason for it... "Well, buddy system is it? Guess Ladle Lady and I will tag in and you two can tag out then. Just, first, I'm not gonna ask why the two of you are already up here. Just, the asshole of the house, have you seen him yet?" And there was Alois to come along and ask the question Edrick had been meaning to, and get an answer from Link that once again had him... well confused was the best way to put it. That aside, well it wasn't the worst thing in the world to be part of- "well, Team Country it is." That. And Edrick had to stifle a laugh in response to Alois's choice of words. "Really. 'Team Country' is what you're going with?" That was a pretty necessary mood elevator, especially because of the silliness, and now the boy was feeling a little better. So on he went into the halls they'd been pointed to and got to looking around. "I gotta wonder though... why didn't we just ask the house's owner where Catriona is?"

For his part, Edrick was equal parts surprised and disappointed to learn that this was a remarkably normal office. It reminded him a bit of the Cleric's office at the church in his home town, though it was much less religiously ornamented. And as the thought came to him he took a moment to shake the thoughts from his head, almost tipping over in the process when the dizziness caught up with him. Maybe he'd just been away from home too long and if he went back things would go back to normal? But then... no, he'd sworn to stick this out with the others at this point and couldn't back out now. "No time to explain," and now Link was just about in front of him before he'd even completely gotten a hold on what was happening in the here and now. "I came in the door with you and I've been with you the whole time, got it?" Thankfully Edrick was still delirious enough to just nod along with that idea and not quite process that they'd be lying about this. Then again even if he did process it he probably would have accepted it was better than having to explain why there was a broken window. Even if it was transparent. Though at the mention of Catriona- "Well then why aren't we going upstairs?!" The boy didn't seem especially bothered by the voices and footsteps coming up the stairs after them. If anything he seemed all the more worried about not getting caught up with the elder of the princesses now! But Link was distracted by the pup. Well, one way or the other it was time to get going and do what they were supposed to do. So, somewhat unsteady on his feet still, Edrick got himself going towards the door through which Link had entered the office and made to open it and see if he could find stairs leading up to where the princess was.

Edrick wasn't in much of a mindset to pay attention to the insistence that he stay down in the parlor when the tiny menace was on the loose, not to mention how running up the stairs reminded him quite quickly that he had lost a lot of blood. His head started to throb, stars danced across his vision, and his hearing became muffled and indistinct as he raced up the stairs after Rohns. Thankfully, the pup had stopped at a door and was presently trying to get his way under it. "There you are you little bastard!" He exclaimed as he reached out and snagged the pup by the scruff, which startled the little menace enough that he wasn't quite able to bite the farmboy in return for that. Not that he Rohns didn't start trying to immediately once the shock of the moment wore off, and now Edrick was stood there with a wiggling, snapping pup in his hand caught between keeping himself from being bit and keeping his balance while he stopped and tried to recover his faculties. "What... what the hell were you even thinking running off?" He only got more yapping and growling in response, leading to the boy letting out a groan, before looking at the door in front of them. "Well... we did come here to look for Catriona," he reasoned to himself and then looked back at the wolf pup. "I'm gonna put you back down. Don't bite me and don't run off." If the wolf understood him, he was sure Rohns didn't care. But at least when he put the wolf down he seemed less interested in running off than he was in biting at his boot. That was... an improvement. And with one hand free now, the other keeping his lance held where he could manage it, he reached out to see if the door was locked and to open it if it was not.

"Hello, hello, welcome to Lord Gaston's most uh—what was that word—humdrum house, dear guests!" Well Edrick wouldn't have used the word "humdrum" here, but at least this somewhat portly man seemed reasonably friendly! And... maybe a little familiar, where had he seen him before? Well that could wait for later. "What can I do you for—I mean, do for you?" "Well, like I was sayin' when I was knockin'-" And before Edrick could actually get the rest of his explanation out, a familiar menace presented himself and bolted up into the house. The boy swore under his breath in his native tongue, and a little after the portly man turned around to try and pursue the wolf pup. But... he was briefly distracted by the way the enormous parlor was decorated. All polished wood, rugs in confusing patterns, hunting scenes. It wasn't quite the same, the subject matter was different for one, but it brought him back to the few times in his life he'd accompanied his father to one of the capitals. Thankfully he kept himself going in spite of the nostalgia, and without bothering to try and do much figuring out as to the meaning of any of these designs throughout the room he went after Rohns. "Scuzati-ma!" He called out as he went ahead and took advantage of the fact that he was considerably thinner than this portly fellow and got to bolting his way up the stairs and weaved around him. The faster he caught that tiny menace, the faster they could get back to actually catching up with Catriona. And ideally not making an enemy out of someone in this town.

"So, Ed-boy, what do you think?" Well that was certainly one way for Ciela to close her plan as she expressed it to him, and truth be told it made a good amount of sense to him. He... vaguely remembered Catriona going off with someone who was not the Mayor which meant that she had probably gone with some other noble. Though... now that he thought about it he could very much see the Crown Princess being content to settle into something about as simple as one of these houses. If anything from what he had seen she seemed to want to escape all of the responsibilities placed on her head. But... well that was neither here nor there. Either way he was plenty sure that the person she had gone with was not the type to have one of these simpler houses. "First," he began as he turned to look at her, "don't call me 'Ed-boy.' I'm not a boy anymore, and when I was I beat up some of the other boys in town when they called me that." It really was a nickname he didn't like. "Second... well yeah that sounds like as good a plan as any. The guy she went with definitely...seemed like the noble type, fancy words and all that. So... yeah, fancy house seems like what to look for." And from there the pair set off. The boy was glad to see things apparently getting back to normal as buildings, stalls, and everything else were put back together after the chaos. Though... the way the villagers looked at him. Well it was depressingly familiar to him. He got it enough from a few of his own friends, the way they seemed guarded around him because of who he was. Like they expected him to turn on them after all they had gone through together. "Hey Ciel-" he had been just about to ask her opinion on the matter when the two of them came upon... well the incredibly garish house. Yeah... yeah this, "I think we found the place." That more or less distracted him from where his mind was going, so he went ahead and got himself down out of the saddle to get a look at the place. His eyes shot briefly to the stable and the horses in it, but he quickly realized that neither of them were Elba. No... no that would have been too easy. "May as well-" and then he caught something coming at them quickly. His immediate reaction was to ready his lance and then- "Rohns?" He relaxed as he noticed the tiny menace approaching them quickly with apparent intent, and he decided to squat himself down to get a better look at the creature. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Link?" When the little thing looked up towards the window, which Edrick now saw was broken, and began making a few little whining noises which reminded the boy of some of the dogs from his home town, he sighed. "Oh. I see. Alright let's go see if he got himself in any trouble." For his part he really didn't think that Catriona was in any real danger here, which was why where the last man to come to the house had apparently broken in he took a more civil approach. "Hello?" He called as he first tried to open the door, and upon finding it locked began heavily striking it with the base of his fist. "Hello there? We're Catriona's friends!"

Edrick had been just about to refuse the healing from Ciela, more than half-convinced in his mind that it would instead lead to him being smote then and there by The Goddess, but the familiar warmth and tingling of healing magic at work. And he did not, in fact, catch fire as a result of it. Well... at least he wasn't in quite so much pain anymore. Which wasn't as much of a blessing as he would like because he now had very little to distract himself from the exhaustion and dizziness. Well either way he'd made a commitment to go after Link, "You know, Edrick, I do also need to talk about something very important to Cat, so why don't we go together?" And it seemed he wasn't going to be going alone either. "I'll let you ride on Remy too, I guess. Maybe we can catch up to Link this way." Oh poor Remy. Well, at least he didn't need to bring his backpack with him so that could stay at Alois's house while the two of them rode off. It'd probably help a little bit. So he grabbed his lance, as Ciela's interruption had reminded him he'd almost forgotten it, and was just about ready to step unsteadily outside. "Do not go too fast, Edrick is still not at his best," as much as he was planning on insisting they ride as quickly as possible after Link, Edrick was more than a little glad to hear that Penelope was concerned about him. And thankfully he was looking away from her because those words had him blushing. Which he absolutely did not want either her or Alois to see. Speaking of, after a moment spent just out the door to discreetly shoot the local boy a rude gesture as a final word on the short-lived lizard discussion, it was time to get moving. "Alright, Ciela, we should probably get moving as quickly as possible so... I dunno let's figure out how we're gonna fit up here." A quick moment spent to let Remy sniff at his hand and get reacquainted with him, and the boy was clambering his way up into the saddle. He wasn't exactly graceful about it, especially considering how he almost fell out in the other direction, but he got his way up there and seemed reasonably comfortable. And considering he was going to be the passenger here, he pulled himself forward on the saddle to make space for Ciela to climb up.

Edrick wasn't really feeling his best at the moment. Between the source of his crisis of faith having been less than a day ago and the savaging his body had taken fighting that stone dragon, he was honestly surprised he was staying up and keeping things together. But he was, and for now that was the most of what was going to matter. Even if he was occasionally nodding off for a minute or two while the rest of them were waiting for Mene and the Mayor to come back in and comment on something or other. When he did manage to fall asleep for those few minutes he awoke with a start some few moments later, convinced that he had dreamed something prophetic but unable to really convey anything to the group. How was he supposed to describe what a "Wheatley Crab" was when he barely understood it himself? Maybe he was just going a little crazy with two exceedingly long days following each other so closely. He barely even registered that Abdul was leaving, seeing him off with a wave of his hand that seemed distracted. And truth be told it was distracted with how he was drifting in and out of consciousness. What snapped him back to the moment was twofold: Link's departure from the house, and Penelope's question about who exactly Citron was. "Princess, I don't think-" and before he could offer objection their newest companion was offering an explanation. An explanation that just had him missing home all the more, a dour expression crossing his face. At least he could be thankful that the pain of his injuries was a good enough explanation for why he was in such poor spirits in the event that anyone questioned him. Not that he... really expected any of them to believe that in the event that he was questioned. They knew how he was with getting hurt, so he knew, or suspected, that he was going to be asked poignantly why he was in such a bad mood at the moment. And truth be told, he didn't have an easy answer to that question if it did come up. "I think you've got the monopoly on stone dragons," he said at length once the explanation was done and Alois responded in his characteristic sarcastic fashion. "But, since we're full up and someone should go after him, I think I'll get to following Link," the boy said as he got himself to his feet and then spent a moment scratching at his injuries through the bandage over his chest. And unless anybody happened to stop him, that was his plan. Walk himself right out of the house and head after his mentor to see what was happening with the elder Princess.

"I'm more than enough to guard this little book worm myself." Thanks for the vote of confidence! Edrick thought, almost managing to sputter that thought out in some indignant shouting! Almost. The fact that he was playing chicken with the sand man wasn't doing him any favors when it came to comprehensible responses of any sort. It also made making out what Penelope said to him immediately afterwards a little more difficult. Something about knocking out his... "Or rather I'll order Alois to do it." Well that cleared up the confusion fairly quickly, and meant that when he forced himself back up into a seated position he affixed both the princess and the boy with an expression that was hurt. And not just because he felt like he had reopened a wound in his chest with all that moving around. The actual physical pain did help though! "Come on guys, I can-" he had to put a hand down and stop himself falling over again, though now he was leaning slightly to the left, "I can guard you like this. Really! Is this even close to the worst I've been hurt since I started traveling with you?" He could certainly think of a few other cases where he'd at least come close to being just as badly hurt. "And hey, I didn't need to be carried anywhere this time! So really, I can help keep this place secure, right, Link?" Looking over at the Soldier was... probably not good for his case as that tipped his balance and he fell over onto his side again. Though more gently this time. "I'll just... guard this bed!"

Edrick's overall awareness of the situation was best described as tentative over the past several minutes. However much stubbornness he had in his body, along with not a little fear of what his dreams might bring him, was finally being overcome by bodily exhaustion. Or at least it was making headway, because while he lay there in Alois's bed he once again found it difficult to tell whether he was really in this small house in Histia or... somewhere else. It was never really clear. Sometimes he saw his own room back in the rugged stone house on the banks of the Lanti that he had grown up in, sometimes he saw the high vaulted ceilings of a cathedral wherein a statue of the Maid of the Sun smiled peacefully down upon the congregation, and a hundred other places he had been danced before him. The grey skies overhead pouring ice and snow down upon him while he lay wrapped in blankets, stretches of sky broken by pines in the rocky foothills of the Dran mountains, and of course the pale sunrise above an all too familiar graveyard. But all the same his dancing between the present and his memories remained largely peaceful, enough that a worried mind was slowly lulling itself to sleep while the others discussed important issues around him. Once again he took to muttering softly in his native tongue, though no words came out distinctly, as he drifted on the edges of a dream. "...They are trained assassins. Please allow me to handle guarding Catriona, and keep Gunther close enough to protect you should anything happen.” Well, hearing Link's voice was more than enough reason for him to wake up and take notice of the situation, which led to a delirious wave of his hand as he looked around and realised that Catriona wasn't with them. Which, with what little he knew and the soldier's apparent worry about her safety, meant only one thing. "A-alright. I can- I can help with guard duty." He certainly sounded confident, as confident as an exhausted boy bordering on the feverish from bloodloss could sound anyways. Which, considering how this was becoming the norm for Edrick, was remarkably so. Though about the time he swung his legs over the side of the bed and just ended up sending himself flopping over in the other direction on the bed was where that confidence came out as decidedly ill-placed. "Just gimme a few minutes!" At least he managed to retain his enthusiasm.