The Adventures And Mishaps of a Half-Plant Apothecary - Febuwhump 2024

Day 21 - Unresponsive

CW: fire, mild gaslighting, implied violence

AN: this doesn't really fit because the unresponsiveness only happens at the start but idc

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"Mama?" Emery calls, dangling her feet off the edge of her wagon. "Are we there yet?"

No response.

Emery huffs, lying down onto her back and staring up at the top of the wagon. "How 'bout now?" she calls again, after a second of waiting.

"It's 'about' not ' 'bout'."

She groans, rolling over and grabbing her plush mouse, Minute, holding it tight to her chest. She'd only gotten it recently, after her Papa had snagged it off a shop a few weeks ago, but she already loved him. "I'm bored," she announces.

"Well," her mother calls back because of course correcting her is the only thing she is able to do, "Being bored is good sometime—"

"We're under attack!"

Emery flinches, glancing around to figure out who in the world said that. After a quick study of her wagon, she finds nothing, and instead peeks outside, just to see a small group of soldiers, maybe five to six, standing outside, weapons drawn.

Emery, understandably, screams.

One of the soldier's eyes snap to her, and they say something in a language she doesn't understand. One other person turns to her, and the pair instantly start running towards her wagon, what she now recognises as torches in their hands. As they approach her, one of them strikes a flint and steel and lights it.

Emery clutches Minute to her chest tightly – wouldn't want him to get burnt – and slips off the other side of the wagon, where she thinks they wouldn't look.

Surprise, surprise, they look there.

Emery finds herself face to face with a soldier. They have a gruff face, unobscured by a helmet of any sort, and are at least five heads higher than her.

"Hey, kiddo," the soldier starts, but Emery cuts in.

"Whaddaya want?" she asks, face scrunching in a way that she thinks is aggressive.

The soldier chuckles. "To get you away from your parents, of course," they say.

"Why don't you want me to stay with Mama and Papa?"

"Sweetie," And Emery does not like the way they say that, "Your Mama and Papa are bad people. You know that, right?"

Emery steps away. "No they're not," she says, "Mama and Papa love me."

The soldier tilts his head, as if confused. "They don't love other people."

"Yeah they do?" Emery says, also a little bewildered. "They love my brother, and the cook, and—"

"Yes, but other than your servants?"

"They're not our servants! Papa said that people who have servants are bad!"

The soldier sighs, turning to the side, where Emery now realises that the other soldier, who she almost forgot about, has made their way over to her, and is now blocking her path back. Twisting around, she sees that her wagon, and some of the other ones out front, are fully on fire.

"Wha—" Emery begins to say, but before anything can happen a gag is shoved in her mouth.

"Sorry," the soldier says, a very not-sorry smirk on their face, "Just couldn't get to you."

"So can I knock them out now?" The other soldier, an impatient frown on their face.

The soldier nods.

Emery feels a sudden hit to her forehead, then nothing.