Lifeline - Tales of Arcadia Insert (Female reader)

CHAPTER 2: Desperate Measures

In the dim cave you settled in, you gather everything you have for healing, hoping that it will be enough to heal the hippogriff you rescued. Meanwhile, said creature is under a sleeping potion which saved you the trouble of bringing a struggling hybrid and to also keep it from further injury.

"Well, you must be the Nomad Vigilante."

You recall what that brute called you and now you're worried about your own safety, if an unfamiliar hunter recognized you and word has been roaming around about your existence, then it seems that more obstacles will be coming your way.

"I never realized meddling with the outlaws would get me this much attention" you sigh, obviously not appreciating the recognition. You never really considered freeing captured magical creatures and ambushing their captors' camps your actual career. You just so happen to run into a bunch of people who terrorize the innocent, and every time you do, you can never turn a blind eye. Since, theoretically, a lot of people now know who you are, it will be harder to enter villages while keeping a low profile. Truth be told, you were not fond of your prior experience as a celebrity among your people, and it sure will be worse regarding this one.

Suddenly, you hear a noise and see the hippogriff has woken up, when it saw you, it starts squirming around and whining, its voice suggests it's dehydrated. You slowly crawl over to it and try to comfort it and reassure that they're safe. Your attempt to calm it down fails and it continues to struggle, you couldn't make it go to sleep again because you ran out of sleeping potions and you need every single piece of herbs you have left to aid the animal.

After your failed attempt at calming it down, you used a paralysis spell on the hippogriff's head and legs to prevent it from attacking you. You finally had the chance to remove the binds and treat the cut on its leg and bandaged it's dislocated wing similar to an arm sling. You watched its chest move up and down in a fast pace, probably due to your presence. There's no doubt that it still doesn't trust you and is frightened of the thought of what you'll do next. Usually, when you have proven to the hippogriff that you intend no hostility towards it, it would calm down for at least a little. But then again, for all you know, the hippogriff might have been traumatized from its encounter with humans and lost the ability to have any trust to such species. Considering that you look like one and you inhibited it from moving, you see that it's only natural that it's also afraid of you, still though, you can't help but think that something's different with this one.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." you reassure it one last time before telling it that you'll be giving them food and water once you're finish with the treatment. You slowly move your hand to touch and pet its belly as a form of comfort but suddenly, the hippogriff flinches then screeches at you, it made you jump back and you noticed its breathing pick up pace. You found yourself in its eye, as you stare at it back, you can see tears and emotions flow through it; there's anger, and even more fear mixed with it. You further observe it and think of any reason why it suddenly became defensive, that when you realized... that this situation is worse than you thought.

THREE DAYS LATER

[Note from the author: the timeline of the story revolves around the 1600s so my depiction of Arcadia is almost entirely different from what you know today since it's still in its early stages of development]

The sounds of crickets and the rustling of leaves fill the silence of the night as you tread lightly across the streets of a small town, in which you learned is called Arcadia. It isn't much but it utilizes everything it needs to keep the town and its people alive, a school situated by the center of Arcadia, a well enough supplied market square, a clinic a few blocks from the town square, and more.