Editing Leopard Chao Changes His Spots
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Chao laughed, high and cracked. The beastmen had ambushed his band by a rill, taking the horses first to force the fight. It had been a massacre, but Chao was a survivor; a belly cut to kill a big brute, a faked slip in its viscera to land under it and a technique to slow his breathing he'd learned from a traveling Varangian, and here he was, alive. | Chao laughed, high and cracked. The beastmen had ambushed his band by a rill, taking the horses first to force the fight. It had been a massacre, but Chao was a survivor; a belly cut to kill a big brute, a faked slip in its viscera to land under it and a technique to slow his breathing he'd learned from a traveling Varangian, and here he was, alive. | ||
− | He tore off his shirt, soaked from the day's gore, and set to his next task. There were men fallen by, Flying Spears and Marukani, and he | + | He tore off his shirt, soaked from the day's gore, and set to his next task. There were men fallen by, Flying Spears and Marukani, and if Chao couldn't save them he could at least give them a proper funeral. |
He took one man's coat, though, mostly clean; the dead have their dignity, but there's no sense freezing. | He took one man's coat, though, mostly clean; the dead have their dignity, but there's no sense freezing. | ||
− | Chao laid the men out. He fished | + | Chao laid the men out, side-by-side. He fished the smoothest stones he could from the water, and placed one on each corpse's chest, to weight down their P'o souls until the dawn. It was long, tiring work and it took Chao some time to realize that the weak groan he heard was not his own. On hands and knees, the mercenary bent his ear to every mouth, but man after man lay cold. Only as he reached Rabbit Wen did he hear life's wheezy rattle. |
− | Rolling the thaumaturge onto his side, Chao sifted | + | Rolling the thaumaturge onto his side, Chao sifted the man's pack to find the healer's tools; blood-staunching compresses, wound-cleansing unguents, alchemical foulness that Chao couldn't name. But he had seen it all before, in long years soldiering, and he put that experience to use. |
− | + | Blood covered his hands by the time he was done, and when he heard a trumpet sound from far off, he was too tired to recognize it. Wen stirred, though, and sat up. Chao smiled at him, to spite the carnage. "It's always the worst soldiers who survive." | |
Wen touched his bandaged stomach. "You left lumps in me, captain. Did you give no thought to where my spleen should sit?" | Wen touched his bandaged stomach. "You left lumps in me, captain. Did you give no thought to where my spleen should sit?" | ||
− | "I might have given you another man's in addition to your own. In the dark, I wasn't sure." | + | "I might have given you another man's in addition to your own. In the dark, I wasn't sure." The two men laughed, until Wen clutched his side and groaned. |
"Did we lose the rest, then, captain?" | "Did we lose the rest, then, captain?" | ||
− | "Aye." Chao pointed to a fallen Marukani rider. "Clearfield | + | "Aye." Chao pointed to a fallen Marukani rider. "I heard Clearfield give his death rattle while I was working on you. He might have lived, but I had to choose between you two." |
"They came on us quick, captain." | "They came on us quick, captain." | ||
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"There's enough of both here to do for us, captain, all the way to [[Nexus]]." | "There's enough of both here to do for us, captain, all the way to [[Nexus]]." | ||
− | Leopard Chao flexed his right hand. A year before one of the [[Mask of Winters]]' [[Crumbling Pillar|deathknights]] had crushed it past mortal healing. There was adamant in place of some bone, now, but the work was so seamless that Chao couldn't feel it. "They saved people, Wen. They were making a better world." | + | Leopard Chao flexed his right hand. A year before one of the [[Mask of Winters]]' [[Crumbling Pillar|deathknights]] had crushed it past mortal healing. There was adamant in place of some of the bone, now, but the work was so seamless that Chao couldn't feel it. "They saved people, Wen. They were making a better world." |
"Captain?" | "Captain?" |