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[dohaeras]

bkstrts & psls.

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[callmeadar]

You need to sit. [For once, Adar had not taken them to Aemond's room, but instead to his across the way. In many ways it was the same, the decor mostly provided by the castle. There was a line of apples sitting along the back of the dresser, quite a bit of weaponry hung on handmade racks on the walls, and below them a number of herbs and bottles. He sits Aemond in the most comfortable chair he has before setting about getting water and little jars and fresh cloth.]

I told you I would tend to you and that includes your pretty face, vanimelda. [And he is back before Aemond could hope to get far, anyway, perching on a stool he has pulled over.] Let me see it.

[dohaeras]

[ He sits obediently, arms in his lap. The vanimelda calms him ... but he flinches away from having his face touched, eye wide with fear. ]

[callmeadar]

[As calm as a horse master with a skittish colt, Adar waits and tries again, his movements are slow and measured so as not to startle him.] Shh. It is just me. You trust me.

[The cloth he has picked is soft and bright white, and now damp with water to wash away the first layer of muck on the claw mark. For not the first time, he misses the better connection he once had with matters of life. He could heal him with herbs, that knowledge never would fade, but better elves, kinder elves would be able to set him to rights within the hour.]

I do not think it will scar. [He puts together a quick paste, a mix of herbs in a jar and smears some of it over the wound.] And this will help it heal cleanly.

Now, I must see to your arm. [You precious, pretty boy.]

[dohaeras]

[ His breathing is shallow and ragged but he remains still (for the most part) as his face is treated, pale in a way that underlines his eyes with shadows. Once his scratch is tended to some of the shock lets go and he speaks quietly, shoulders sagging in relief as he extends his clawed arm. ]

I thought they would take my eye.

[ As an explanation and apology for ... his entire response, ever since. ]

[callmeadar]

It will not happen again. [Because you're taking the dragon or him wherever you need to go now, if you like it or not. The look on his face says as much as he carefully pulls fabric free from his arm, rolling it or ripping it as needed. There were always more clothes, he had only two arms. He sets to staunching the bleeding and cleaning the wound.]

I should have accompanied you in the first place.

[dohaeras]

No, I ... I have never fought monsters. Only men. I wasn't prepared.

[ He winces as his sleeve is pulled off. Aemond shrugs off the rest of his tunic, slumping forward. ]

This was not your fault.

[callmeadar]

There are a great many more monsters in the world then there are men. [And objectively speaking, one was carefully plucking thread out of his wound as they spoke.]

That doesn't make it less true that I should have. If I had been unable to come you could have lost more than your remaining eye or a hand. [And though there was no overt show of emotion about that possibility, he does look troubled if you know him well enough–and Aemond certainly did.]

[dohaeras]

It's not a long road between us and the castle, I left Vhagar behind as she was interested in some lizard-folk ...

[ His grits his teeth against the pain but it's far easier to bear in an arm than on his face, so he only hisses in pain now and then. His gaze tracks to Adar; Aemond places a hand on the uruk's knee. ]

You cannot always be by my side, nor should you feel the need to be. I was dim-witted for thinking I could walk home as though this were King's Landing.

[callmeadar]

The monsters in your world are easily seen or human in nature. There was no way for you to understand without seeing. It is dark, I should have been there. It costs me nothing but time, and of that I have an infinite amount.

[Humans were so fragile, even when they had a dragon at their beck and call.] Anyone would have been overwhelmed by so many. [He runs a cool cloth over the wound, to clear off the blood and make sure he has not missed further debris.]

[dohaeras]

I should not be so feeble as to require a guard.

[ His pride smarts at it. ]

... Much as I am grateful for your protection.

[callmeadar]

[Adar does look up then, his head tilts slightly to the side as his hand compresses the wet cloth over the wound.]

It is not an insult for people to care about you, Aemond. It is a gift, to know someone wishes to be at your side, someone would come for you.

No one ever came for me.

[dohaeras]

[ Quietened as his wound is tended to, he waits for Adar to continue before speaking softly. ]

I would have.

[callmeadar]

I know.

[And he does, though he knows full well that Aemond wouldn't have survived such an attempt, the thought was a little warming.] So do not act so affronted when I would do the same, alright?

[Adar scoops more of that herbal paste out of his little jar and smoothes it into the wound before getting a new, dry strip of cloth and beginning to wrap up his arm.]

It will probably take until tomorrow evening, but that should fix it without much fuss. I will change the bandages in the morning and check.

[dohaeras]

[ Hissing as the paste is spread and the arm bandaged, he scoots forward on his seat to rest his forehead on Adar's shoulder, bad arm resting in his and his good one resting on a knee. Tired from the adrenaline rush of nearly being eaten. ]

Their faces were like fish, yet none I have ever seen. I think they were dead men once, but ... [ He sighs, not wanting to dwell on the terror. ] I'll keep my arm out of a bath but I need one. Could you please collect my sword ... from where it fell?

[callmeadar]

I will get it shortly.

[It wasn't like it would take him more than a couple of minutes on his own.] I am going to get the servants to bring you some food. And some tea. [Because he was in shock, and he needs something soothing.]

Then I will grab your sword and be right back. [He presses a kiss to Aemond's temple, stroking the silver hair back behind his ear.]

[dohaeras]

Thank you, I ... Thank you, Adar.

[ For saving him, he means, but also being around in the aftermath and not critiquing his skill with the blade or his foolishness in wandering home alone through the wilderlands. Aemond kisses him briefly, then lets him go.

When servants call him for his bath in another room he goes mechanically and sinks low in the water until it covers him to his nose, silent and still with his arms folded and legs drawn up. ]

[callmeadar]

[Adar is gone and returned in the span of no more than ten minutes, including all the fussing he did in the kitchen and finding and quickly cleaning Aemond's sword and then himself. He washes his hands and face and changes out of the mucky clothes he wore in the fight, settling for some loose britches and a tunic that is loosely belted at the waist with a black woven cord.

He is barefoot when he comes in to check on Aemond, sword in hand so he can see that it is whole and intact.]

It was right where it was left, undisturbed. [Not that there was much that could disturb it given the crispy state of the riverbank.]

[dohaeras]

Thank you.

[ More thanks than he has given anyone else in months, all in one evening. The crackle of the hearth is louder than Aemond, who has removed his eye-patch in order to get his hair wet. He nods to Adar to come in, though he thinks himself poor company. ]

Come, sit with me while I stew. I want to ask you something, about yourself. It's personal, so feel free to say no.

[callmeadar]

[The sword is set by the door on a chair and Adar comes in fully, closing it behind him before moving to sit by the tub. He doesn't bother to bring a chair, he is tall enough to comfortably kneel there and be seen above the edge more than enough.]

There is nothing you cannot ask. [If he would answer was... sometimes more complicated, but mostly he held no secrets so important he could not share them in this realm between realms.]

[dohaeras]

You say you were an elf they made into an uruk, but that your children are orcs. If they began as you but are ... different, were they made into monsters like those by the river?

[ He asks it quietly so as not to give offence, but he does wonder. ]

[callmeadar]

They are Uruks too, but they look different so I used the word the elves call them. [They cannot hear him, and so no offence would be caused. Not that they were ever offended by their father, whom they loved more than life.]

They are not undead, if that is what you mean. [He rests his chin on the smooth edge of the bath, looking at nothing in particular, just the ripples of the water and across to the other wall.]

If you are asking if you would find them monsterous, then probably. Nothing came out of Angband that wasn't. Not me, not them, not Ancalagon whom you so admire the tales of.

They burn in the sun, their bodies are deformed. But their hearts beat the same as anyone else, they have names, desires, thoughts. [He may be being generous on that last count, but he doesn't think so.] They are of my flesh, and others like me.

[dohaeras]

You are not monstrous. [ He feels like a boy again, seeing with eyes no one else does. ] Everything you do for me is kind and patient, that's not the nature of a beast.

[ Tipping his head closer on the edge of the bath, he idly swirls the water and thinks of how badly 'deformed' the children of his lover might be. ]

Are they born that way?

[callmeadar]

That I contain multitudes does not mean I am not monsterous, my love, it means that I am complex. I am at once that which was, and that which I became. The mould I was forced into through fire and pain.

[He can talk about it, but he has a sort of distant look about him, as if his mind roams elsewhere even while it rattles off the measure of things.]

Some more than others. To make the first orcs, we were captured. Or perhaps he tried to make them from clay first and could not make them spirits to function on their own... I do not know, but they took us. Many of us, elves they had ensnared through battles or raids and used us for things no elf had been before. I don't mean they just made us–we were experimented with first, changed to our very core. Many died, and a few lived. I was one of them. It is why my blood is black. It was not always so.

[dohaeras]

[ He listens, fascinated. Being spooked by some rogue monsters on the way home feels incredibly foolish when compared to years of torture. ]

I care very much for you.

[ It is the only thing he can think to say, apologising for something he could never have stopped happening feels wrong. ]

[callmeadar]

[His gaze refocuses and he turns just enough to look at Aemond. There is a small smile on his lips, but it is tighter than usual.]

I know, and I care about you. [That is why he wants Aemond to be safe.]

For a long time, I couldn't remember who I had been before I was dragged through those iron gates. It was like it was pulled from me and shut away in a very small, tight box.