Collision Course(Pan/Malakhi/Faolan)

[jarahamee]

It had been an ordinary, misty evening in the forest. The birds were singing, trees rustled in the wind, and those still out enjoyed a cool nightfall. It was ordinary at least, until, out of nowhere, a soft explosion, strangely distant, then dark splotches of blood and gore rained down from the sky, followed by a sprinkling of metal fragments and some mechanical-looking paneling. One might imagine the smell of smoke, but if there was any time to consider any of these matters, it was rudely interrupted by the massive thing that plummeted to earth mere seconds later, amid a terrible crash and an awful burning smell; a mixture of something like hair and plastic. 

The trees it landed on both buckled and pierced the massive body of the fallen creature; the force of the fall created a deep crater. The body of the beast was at least the size of a truck, if not larger. Pieces of...flesh and burning metal continued to rain down. The feathered wings of the thing appeared to be entirely shattered and laid bare around them. The smell of smoke and oil became stronger. Then things took on an odd silence. Nothing moved. 

[NightshadeVII]

The last person one might expect to see in the mountains, was exactly the person was now hiking through them. A young woman, petite of build, and... a fair bit below average height. Even so, what she lacked in height, she made up for in volume, hair volume to be exact. Large bouncy curls framed her heart shaped face, falling softly against her shoulders and bouncing as she walked. Boots kicked rocks, sending them bouncing through the landscape in degrading arcs. A harsh breeze almost knocked her off balance, but the young woman just laughed, half blinded by her own hair as she clutched her jacket, preventing it from being ripped off her and flying away, getting lost on the wind.
She loved this.
For as much of an extrovert that she was, sometimes she needed peace and quiet. To sort things out she didn’t want to bother others with. Because she knew that she couldn’t bother them with it, she had to sort this out.

The cool night air embraced Pandora’s form, but her tranquility was soon broken. Hearing a distant explosion, her head snapped up and her eyes widened. With a surprised shriek, that echoed through the otherwise empty area, Pan jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a falling piece of... flesh. Oh god. The sour taste of bile welled up in her throat, threatening to spill over. Lips quivered. Knees buckled slightly.
But then realization hit. That... it had to have come from somewhere. Or someone. Someone was hurt out there. Not far from where she stood, she could hear the sound of trees snapping under pressure, like bones breaking, fragile and dry. Without even thinking, the witch set off, her legs carrying her with surprising speed that she easily maintained. Right now, fatigue wouldn’t bother her, her mind already a mess of what if’s and what when’s. What would she do, if there was multiple hurt people? What if someone had died? What about when she got help? Would she be able to leave them-
Thoughts fell short as she skidded to a halt in a small, new clearing, in it more lumps of metal and... flesh, say scattered about, like awful, oversized rose petals, staining the ground.

“Chimére...”, she muttered breathless, “oh, by the high sorceress...”
Carefully, she began her approach, placing his feet with care so as to avoid stepping on anything that would make noise, dreading that she might wake the creature. It’s wings... they were so horribly broken.
Gently she ran her hands through its fur, flinching as they came away wet and red with blood.
“You poor thing... it’s alright...”, she muttered, placing a hand on its paw, as if to hold it, “I’m gonna help you, don’t worry...”
Then she set to work, unbuckling the box from where it was strapped to her hip, hoping it would be cooperative, before she reached down into it. She needed something to stop the bleeding. Something big, the bandages she had wouldn’t do. Her blind rummage continued and she pulled out a roll of duct tape, before reaching down again. Please, something useful. Finally after second that seemed way too long, she pulled out a blanket. It would have to do.
Folding the blanket once, she placed it over one of the larger of the chimera’s wound, the one that seemed worst. Pressing gently, she held her breath they again, silently begging that it wouldn’t wake. Then she continued working on her make shift bandage, using the duct tape as a means of keeping the blanket in place, and hopefully slow the bleeding. She really, really hoped it would work. Even if she had never met a creature like this, she had studied them, back home years ago, along with other creatures, like multiple species of fae, goblins, even the odd makara.
Lost in thought, she snapped back to reality as she realized her grip had loosened.
Just a little more.

Finally satisfied with her handiwork, but worried that it wouldn’t last, Pandora fished out her phone. Bloodied hands shook as she dialed the first person that came to mind.
“Faolan?! Faolan, I’m so sorry, but I-“, the witch stopped, gulping down air, “I need your help. I was out hiking and something- something crashed in the woods. I think it’s a chimera, I’m not sure- but it’s hurt. Badly.”
A quick glance up at the creature told her it was still unconscious, chest heaving as is struggled to get air into its lungs. It was in agony. Before she could stop herself, she placed her hand on it’s paw again, stroking it gently, soothing.
“It’s alive, but just barely- please Faolan, please help me-“, she choked down tears, “I don’t know what to do-“
Another shuddering breath, she had to focus.
“I’m by the main hiking trail, in the mountains, there’s wreckage to follow... please...”

[jarahamee]

The abdomen of the massive creature had been pierced, the contents straining to pour out of the rupture with every heaving breath. The pungent smell of bowel and innards filled the air around them, creating a thick, hot fog. The breaths the creature took sounded wet, and a moderate blood trickle poured out of its flaring nostrils. The legs twitched, and then, it took an especially shuddering deep breath, before making a terrible, ear-piercing cry.

The lion-like head raised as it thrashed upwards, wrenching the tree embedded in its side. Blood poured out, its steam mingling with the smoke that billowed from its massive, trembling jaws. The right eye was the wrong color, the left shone a bright, maniac yellow. The goat head's neck hung at an unnatural angle, the tongue hanging out. Was it dead? Was it simply damaged? One of the horns was broken and blood spurted from the end of it.

The snake at the end of its tail dragged. Still unconscious, or dead.

Now that it was sitting up, Pan had a better idea of its size; it was easily as large of a small elephant. The front foreleg seemed to still be working, but the rest was inert, dragging. Near-lifeless. The creature's tongue lolled out, agonized and half-conscious, and then it made a horrible, strangled cry.

[qhostqrowls]

Faolan breezed into the break room, nodding at the other medical staff scattered throughout the room. He only had a few minutes, and could be called back at any time, so he made a beeline for the coffee machine, sliding a mug beneath it and watching as it spluttered out much needed caffeine.

As he waited, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out, Pandora, the screen read, and he swiped the green call icon, already drawing breath to ask her to call later, he was at work-
Before she’d even begun speaking, it was clear she was in distress. The witch was blurting out something about - a chimera - injured, in the woods - main hiking trail- Faolan stood immediately, fumbling for his pager as his eyes glanced over who was currently working, printed neatly on the chart pinned to the wall. There were no other surgeons in the break room and he exited as quickly as he had entered, glancing both ways down the stark corridors. Of course, the one time the halls weren’t crowded was when he needed help.

“Okay, stay calm, Pandora. Stay clear of the chimera. Stay on the phone if you can.” His tone was professional and starkly calm, with a faint undertone of urgency. He knew Pandora. She was likely all over the creature, which weren’t known to be all that friendly on the best of days.
“Can you list the injuries you can see? Where is it hurt?”

There was a sudden screech in the background of the call and Faolan winced at the volume, biting back a curse.
”Fu - That sounded very close. Seriously, move back if you haven’t already, keep at least 10 meters between you and it. You don’t know if or when it will lash out.” 

Dr.Dziban was the only gold surgeon currently working on the same ward as Faolan. He paged the man hurriedly, detailing what he knew in a clipped, efficient tone and already moving to meet him. He would know what to do...hopefully, as Faolan definitely did not.
The coffee sat cooling where he had left it.

[NightshadeVII]

“Okay, stay calm, Pandora.” The sound of Faolan’s voice made Pandora breathe a sigh of relief. He sounded so calm, probably what came with being a doctor. He was used to urgent situations like these, he knew what to do and how to do it. She took another breath, trying to calm down as well, needing to calm down. she couldn’t help Faolan if she wasn’t calm, if she didn’t focus.
“Stay clear of the chimera. Stay on the phone if you can.” Faolan continued, making Pandora realize she’s already made her first mistake.
“Can you list the injuries you can see? Where is it hurt?”

Pandora drew breath to speak, but was cut short, as the chimera moved, trying to sit up. Watching in horror, she barely noticed how one of its heads dangled. Instead she saw the blood, running red from it mouth, down across its fur. The sight filled her mouth with a bitter taste, her throat knotting up almost immediately. Stumbling back, she let out a surprised whimper.

”Fu - That sounded very close. Seriously, move back if you haven’t already, keep at least 10 meters between you and it. You don’t know if or when it will lash out.” 

Nodding uselessly, mostly to herself, Pandora quickly backed away, almost stumbling over her own feet in the process. Her heart was in her throat, beating quickly, frantically, like a birds might. Then she remembered what Faolan had asked of her. The wounds, of course, the wounds. She took a deep breath. What wounds did it have? Dove blue eyes returned to the chimera, studying it.
“It’s... there’s a wound on its stomach, like it’s been pierced by something...”, she squinted a bit, trying to make sense of the mess of blood and fur she saw, “there’s a tree going through its side... one of its horns are broken, bleeding...”, she gasped without sound, a hand twitching up to cover her mouth, but never completing the action, “it’s bleeding from the mouth. One of it’s heads is just... hanging there, the goat one... I think it’s wings are broken.”
For a moment, she held her breath, wondering if it would lash out, but then again, it didn’t seem entirely conscious, probably confused and slowed by the pain.
“Anything I can do from here?”, she asked without even thinking.

[jarahamee]

The beast tried to rise to its feet, and seemed to notice it was entangled. For whatever reason, it seemed as if it did not realize it was torn and broken. The movement was weak, half-hearted. Hesitant. It looked almost like it wanted to lay down again.

The beast pawed at the tree that had entrapped it feebly, thick, dark blood oozing into the area around it. The goat head stirred, if only a little, and made a terrible bleating sound, gurgling, thick with blood. The lion seemed to notice her, blearily, and growled half-heartedly.

Get away, it seemed to say with piercing red eyes staring through her body. Go away, leave me, I am still strong. I can fight.

A flicker of flame appeared between the lion's jaws; a threat of the danger that she could pose. Her mane was not as large as a male, but it showed close to her body. Her lips curled slowly away from her impressive teeth, and her broken wings fluttered.

-----

Elsewhere, the pager appeared to have been noticed, and Faolan was called on his cell phone, quickly.

A harsh, crackling voice;

"This is Dr. Bin Dziban. You paged me twice. Is something wrong?"

He sounded as if he expected an emergency: What he didn't expect was that it was yet to arrive in the medical facility, and there were certain questions about safety and feasibility about how it would fit indoors. After listening to Faolan explain the circumstance, he took only a few seconds to think before returning with his considerations;

"We will need some agents to accompany us, on the non-medical aspects, and a very large transportation vehicle. On the medical side, we will need some seals to prevent any further blood loss, and some very large catheters to get fluids and restore pressure. Depending on how much they bled they may need a transfusion. Or euthanasia, if it is bad enough."

Malakhi sounded calm, almost cold, but there was a determination in his voice. He knew what they needed; it was a matter of a very short timeline they had to get this all accomplished. He considered; it was hard to assess how bad things were without seeing them for himself, but from the sound of it, it was actually quite serious. A lot of surgical intervention if the department decided to go forward. Chimeras were intelligent, but not intelligent enough to speak for themselves most of the time.

Perhaps they could bring someone who could speak to beasts to help them calm it down. But they had to hurry.

"I'll call the staff."

[qhostqrowls]

The doctor filed away what Pandora said as he navigated the corridors, relieved at the accuracy and detail of her report. It made it a lot easier to transfer the information to Malaki.

“Anything I can do from here?” Pandora piped up.
“No.” Faolan said immediately, tone sharp in his stress. “Do not approach it. It's still dangerous, okay? Please stay back, Pan. There's nothing you can do.” His phone buzzed again, the call from Dr. Bin Diziban.
“Excuse me for a second, but stay on the phone if possible, please,” he addressed the witch before switching to talk to the other surgeon.

He listened to Malaki with an intent concentration, near running down the corridors as the more experienced doctor talked. The others assertive tone was relieving - he knew what he was doing.

“Yes, Dr.Dziban. Was all he said in reply, to let the man know he had heard and understand. He kept the thought that euthanasia was a likely option to himself. They still had to try, and the chimera deserved their full effort, broken neck or not. They could only assess thr situation at the scene which option would be kinder.

He rounded the next corner and saw Malaki ahead. Faolan nodded as greeting when he caught the older doctors eye, approaching in a professionally hurried manner. He was concerned for both Pandora and the chimera, but kept his emotions to himself.
He paused for little more then a second before speaking, voice level. “Who will be taking this?”

He did not deal with non-humanoids, most often. He was slowly branching out, under supervision, but seeing as he was still relatively new to the WDSA hospital, he kept to what he knew. Malaki, as a gold badge surgeon, would take this case and with it would choose whether or not Faolan joined the ER team who would work on the chimera. Faolan trusted the others expertise - if he wasn't selected, it was because another surgeon was the animals best chance.

His thoughts flickered to Pandora and his brow furrowed in concern. She was too empathetic and impulsive for her own good, and he could only hope she would stay safe. The chimera was injured, but it was also still a chimera

[NightshadeVII]

Pan felt her breath quickening as she waited for Faolan to reply, hoping that he’d tell her what to do, or just to do something. She wanted to do something. Didn’t want to be useless again when someone was hurting.
“No.”, came Faolan’s answer, quick and decisive “Do not approach it. It's still dangerous, okay? Please stay back, Pan. There's nothing you can do.”
Before she could stop herself, Pandora uttered an almost squeaking sound in a mix protest and confusion, perhaps she had wanted it to be words, perhaps she had wanted to tell Faolan, that she still could help, that she could do something, anything if he told her. Or at least she’d try her best. But that’s where she stopped again. Last time she had tried her best. She had made things worse. Either way, she didn’t get the chance to try and speak again, as Faolan’s voice sounded from the phone a second time.
“Excuse me for a second, but stay on the phone if possible, please,”
Pandora nodded, more to herself than anyone else, already clutching the now silent phone against her chest, as her knuckles slowly turned white.

As the chimera looked at Pandora again, the young witch felt her heart rise up, getting stuck in her throat. Staying there. Beating hard and heavy. It made her nauseous, made her lips tremble and her knees just slightly weak. That was when she realized, she had no means of defending herself.
The chimera’s eyes remained fixed on her, staring her down harshly. Under those powerful eyes, she felt smaller than ever before, save for a few exceptions.
Then, as she saw the flicker of flame coming to life in the lioness’s jaws, she tried to swallow the lump that had been slowly building in her throat and remembered what Faolan had told her.
Stay back.
Reacting quickly, but moving slowly, Pandora began to back away, trying her best to avoid sudden movements. Her knees bent and she kept her gaze low, wanting to appear as non-threatening as possible. Still she focused on her steps, focused on counting them, mouthing the numbers without saying them outloud. Three steps away, four steps away. Moving away.
Finally, she snuk a glance up at the chimera, dove blue eyes widen and uncertain, both scared of and respecting the creature.

“It’s alright, I promise”, she tried, holding her palms out as if to prove that she was harmless, posing no threat to the massive chimera, “I won’t hurt you, alright? I would never hurt you... you’re going to get help, okay? I have friends who can help you.”
She spoke both in a desperate attempt to calm the chimera, but also in order to keep herself calm as well. It didn’t work as well as she thought it would have. Actually it didn’t work at all. Her heart was still beating away in her chest, at a pace she felt she couldn’t catch up to. Until Faolan and arrived, and hopefully not alone, Pandora couldn’t do anything other than try not to anger the wounded chimera. Still she clutched the phone, hoping that Faolan would call back soon and tell her that he was on his way.

[jarahamee]

A small entourage of triage emergency technicians joined Faolan, carrying their bags and cases of emergency supplies. The size and weight was estimated; there was no way they would be able to get a creature that big on the scale in this situation. Paperwork was pulled; they would need to identify it as registered or unregistered later. Was it a free creature or did it have an owner? The triage nurse walked in stride with Faolan.

“I think we know about what we need. Waiting on the surgeon and his crew.”

As if summoned, Dr. Bin Dziban appeared at the end of the hallway. He was a small, thin man who seemed to be in his late 30’s or early 40’s (likely the latter), with grey-tinged darkish skin and deep dark circles under his eyes, half-hidden by his circular glasses perched on his angular nose. His gait was off; courtesy of his hoof-like artificial leg, and he walked with the support of a cane. He was already dressed in seafoam-colored scrubs and carried a small bag of his own on his shoulder, and moved with the purposeful power of a shark swimming towards fresh meat. The two technicians who flanked him wore tense expressions and carried large bags of surgical equipment, one might assume.

His black, fathomless eyes seemed to gaze through Faolan, as if measuring up his talent, and then he twisted his thin lips into a grimace-like smile.

“Dr. Malakhi Bin Dziban. The mobile unit is this way.”

He left no room for any further commentary, though he likely expected Faolan to speak as they walked. There was no time for hesitation or waiting. The moment was now.


The massive body trembled, then pushed itself into a more sternal position, sitting farther upright with more effort. And then, it thrashed. A quick movement, like a convulsion, flipping its body in a sharp c-shape, ripping the tree’s sharp branches from its breast as it moved. A crash; bits of wood, dirt and dust flew up in the air to mix with the smoke and dust that had already been saturating the environment around them. The pain had finally registered; it made an earsplitting shriek, but at least the head had moved away from her and towards its own chest.

The large being seemed unaware of what harm it might be doing to the rest of its body, allowing body parts to be crushed under its thrashing form. It then stopped, suddenly, and lay still again, still breathing. Perhaps, afraid of moving again.
The tail lashed limply at Pan, and crackling flames came from its mouth, lighting some of the dry shrubbery. An effortless puff that may have started a forest fire.