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

Day 29 - Not allowed to die

CW: injury, blood, dehumanisation, passing out, suffocation / asphyxiation

AN: woooo last prompt (I am tired). This took double the time of the other ones because I'm not amazing at writing, but I wanted to do something special for the last one, so here's a three-in-one for y'all! Enjoy!

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Emery

"Why won't you just die anyways?" the soldier complains. Emery grins, a carefully crafted blank stare in her eyes. Internally, she tries to remember who the person even is in the first place. Eventually, she lands on one of the gatekeepers— always running his mouth, barely knows what the word quiet means, always complaining.

She raises her knife. "Do you want to be unable to gossip anymore?" she questions in a sing-song voice.

Just before she can get the killing blow, though, someone else sweeps in. Emery barely dodges out of the way, the sword that the other person presumably owned slicing a long wound over her chest. She gasps in a breath, stars dancing in her vision for a moment before focusing on her new attacker. They wear a long cloak, and if they weren't trying to kill her Emery would be at least a little impressed because how are they not tripping?

Then again, they could just be magicking the end of the cloak to not do that. Emery wouldn't know— she doesn't have it in her to do that, as far as she knows.

She breathes for a moment, cutting short when the attacker almost stabs her in the face. She deflects it, but the motion jars her arm a bit and she winces anyways. She walks back a half-step.

"Aww," the new person says, "is the little mundane scared?" Emery feels shivers go down her spine at the words, even though she doesn't particularly know why.

"No," she says instead, "Uhm, can I go now? My friends're waiting for me, y'know."

The person laughs, volume growing as they manage to stab Emery in the arm. "Aww, it's not as if you are going to die," they say, "That would be a terrible scenario. I would simply like a new plaything, is all. Your kind is pretty cute."

Emery just hisses back.

The person approaches her again. Emery instinctively steps back.

"It would really be a shame if I had to kill you. You would be a brilliant pet."

Emery turns around, hoping to leave.

If there was one thing that she should remember, though,

it's that you never turn your back to the enemy.

Emery lets out a surprised shriek as her wrists are handcuffed together, behind her back. it doesn't even take a look for her to realise that they're made of metal.

"Interesting," the person says, "I didn't even have to kill you. That's a good thing."

Emery struggles for a moment. Not really having any ideas, she hits the cuffs against the back of her head in a futile attempt to get rid of them.

"Now, now," the person says, "I can't have you killing yourself here. May I remind you that your friends would never allow you to do so?"

Emery feels something under her nose, and her body starts to get heavier.

She really wishes her friends were here.

She is passed out.

Calixto

Calixto gasps heavily, limbs sprawled out over the ground. It stares up at the sky. It's so blue that it makes its eyes hurt.

It turns away.