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They've left him alone in his cell.
He can't really be said to be lucid but he has very acute instincts for when there's someone and when he's alone - it's the last of his senses to depart him - and he's alone.
And then suddenly he isn't.
kobold and post-Angband Maedhros
The person is still around when he wakes up. Having a person around stresses him but not being around him stresses her, and not being useful to him stresses her, so he shouldn't say anything.
He tests whether he's healed enough skin to move. Nope.
He should eat something, it'd help him heal, but he doesn't want to.
lurkingkobold
She sleeps in, some, but she's still awake not very long after he is. Good morning, she sends, as she fixes the fire. I'm probably going to spend most of the day out - do you have any preference for what kind of fur your blanket is made from, I assume you're going to need one, I can't keep the fire going like this all winter - but I'll check back in every couple hours, is there anything you want before I go?
lurkingkobold
Okay.
She finishes off the soup and cleans the bowl, goes to check on the supplies she's keeping in another chamber of the cave, then comes back in and checks on the water basin. I need to refill this soon, but it might startle you when I do - I'm not sure how noisy it is when I teleport the water in. Should I wait?
lurkingkobold
Maybe. There's never been someone on this side to hear it before, so I'm not sure. We should be okay for a couple days if you need that to get to a point where flinching isn't painful or something, though.
lurkingkobold
All right. I'll go do that now, then, it'll only take a few seconds to start, and she disappears.
After the promised few seconds the sound of churning water comes from the basin; it's not very loud but it is pretty sudden. After a few minutes it stops, just as abruptly as it started.
lurkingkobold
She pops back in a minute later. Sun's not up yet, I'm going to wait a while before I go out again.
Okay.
Things are currently - better than they'll get if he messes anything up. Not tolerable. He tries to send her appreciation.
lurkingkobold
...
She sends a wordless acknowledement, and then goes still, her thoughts careful but not guarded. Something's wrong, she caught that; she doesn't know what it is, she doesn't know if it's something she can fix at all. She's still doing better than leaving him, she thinks - she flinches away from the thought, aware that he's probably watching, but it's still a reassuring touchstone. Beside the point, though; there's a long way between 'better than that' and 'actually good enough'. So, what might the problem be... basics, food, water, warmth, safety, companionship... she still doesn't quite believe that he doesn't need to eat. She'll bring that up again later. Water, warmth, sorted out as well as she can. Safety... they talked about that a little, but she can certainly go into more detail about it... if that would even help, which it probably wouldn't, if he thinks she's just lying. That might not be one she can fix; at very least probably not anytime soon.
She can ask, though. Is there anything I can do that will help you feel safer?
I do not think so, no.
Maybe a way to teleport somewhere definitely fatal but you said you tried that and ended up in Angband.
lurkingkobold
Sigh. Yeah. Don't want to, it'd involve more... thinking about what I was doing, which is why that's not the impulse that grabbed me. But I have hunting spells that'd work.
lurkingkobold
I know you don't believe that this is real, but I know it is.
But. Yes. If that's what you need.
If this is real, then I am not currently a prisoner and want a way to prevent it from ever happening again.
lurkingkobold
Right. I...
She takes a deep breath, lets it out, shakily, takes another.
Okay. What kind of trigger do you want.
lurkingkobold
She's gone for nearly three hours. If he's paying attention, he may notice the quiet sounds of things appearing in a nearby cave.
When she does reappear, she's accompanied by a furry brown animal skin larger than she is, which she carefully wrestles over to the other side of the fire and spreads out to dry.