build this ship to wreck

[Cy Ogden]

Cy raised an eyebrow when Elayne laughed at Holly's instruction to squeeze his hand. Something about that sounded more like a threat than amusement--and then when Holly put the needle through Elayne's skin, the pressure on his hand more than matched it. He hissed through his teeth, but the sound he made wasn't enough to cover Elayne's slurred curse.

Much to his own surprise, Cy found himself laughing. After all the swearing he'd done on the way here, it was only fair that she finish it off with a good one of her own.

The rest of the process was a bit of a blur--he held her hand even when it went limp, did as Ainsley instructed and dabbed the woman's forehead with a cool cloth, and generally watched over the shipwrecked woman.

Still, she must have been exhausted, because she hardly stirred when he was finally allowed to scoop her off the work table and bring her to a nicer bed in a different room. The women shooed him out for long enough to cut her free of her torn and dirty clothes and put her in a clean nightgown instead. He returned to find her looking nearly peaceful, with the quilt pulled up to her chin. The Sigferth sisters left him to watch over her without an argument. He wished he'd brought something to keep himself busy--until Holly brought him some busy work, tearing rags into bandages. Sometime in the evening, Axel came and laid at Cy's feet, and Holly brought them some stew for dinner.

He'd picked her up in the early morning, but Elayne slept until the sun began to rise on the next day. As the sun set, Axel jumped up to sleep at the foot of the bed, curled around Elayne's feet. Cy, too, fell asleep, unceremoniously slumped in the wooden chair next to Elayne's bed, snoring softly from the unnatural angle.

[Elayne Ayres]

The last thing she remembered, after feeling the needle pierce her skin, was Cy laughing. Elayne had drifted in and out for a few more seconds afterwards, but she couldn't recall any of it. It was nothing but blackness and then a sound sleep, perhaps the deepest slumber she had had in quite awhile. Amazing drugs could do that to you.

Eventually, she would begin to stir. It was a slow process- she'd woken up for a moment before falling back asleep, then her mind became aware of something warm by her feet. With each passing second, she started to climb out of the darkness despite its surprising warmth, and those blues finally fluttered open. Elayne didn't register where she was, and because of that, she was waking up far faster than she should have as panic hit her.

Sitting up too quickly, she cringed and accidently nudged Axel. The dog lifted his head to look at her, and she blinked in confusion. Oh, right, she vaguely remembered a dog. "I'm sorry," she murmured to the animal before slowly sitting up a little more. And that was when she heard the light snoring, drawing her attention over to the man in the chair beside her. Cy, she reminded herself. That was his name, which prompted her to remember where she was. Well, she knew she was on Aldsage, and that was the extent of it.

Elayne drew the covers away to find that she was in a nightgown and that her wound was bandaged. There had been a woman- a pretty blonde- and she was trying to remember her name yet her mind was still in a bit of a fog. How long had she been out for, and had he been waiting here the whole time? She was watching him, unsure if she should wake him or not, and whether she should try getting up.

Not willing to disturb him, even if his slumber looked rather uncomfortable, Elayne swung her legs over the edge of the bed to try and stand. Only, as always, she was pushing herself too quickly and her knees buckled beneath her, sending her back down to the mattress. She was weaker than she thought and grumbled in annoyance.

She spotted some of the cloth he had apparently been tearing up, she assumed for bandages, and grabbed for a strip within her reach. With a gentle sigh, she tossed it at him where it fluttered down to land on his face. Elayne bit her lip to stop from laughing, feeling bad for a moment...but she needed answers.

[Cy Ogden]

Cy was dreaming of his farm, where his cow had given birth to twin calves. One of the calves was pink, for some reason…

When the fabric landed on his face, his next breath in sucked the fabric into his mouth, waking him. He sat up sharply, his legs kicking wildly and hands flying to his face to remove the intrusion.

"Wha--huh?!"

He coughed hard as he regained his breath, looking around as he tried to get his bearings. Why was he in the--oh. The shipwreck. Elayne. He shut down to his usual silent demeanor abruptly, shooting the offending strip of fabric aside with a scowl. His face softened, though, as he turned to the woman who was watching him, clearly amused. He didn't exactly like the idea that she'd been laughing at him, but it was a relief to see her sitting up and looking lucid. She'd been knocking on death's door the day before. He'd been afraid she wouldn't make it even this far.

"Feeling better, eh?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow at her. "Or just trying to get rid of me?"

[Elayne Ayres]

Oh dear, she hadn't meant to startle him that much! Though, she should have known better than to somewhat abruptly awaken someone from a deep slumber. Even still, she had to stifle the laugh that escaped her throat, still only looking half apologetic.

And just as quickly as that energy had come, it was dissipating, and she had to support herself up with a hand on the bed. "I'm...I'm sorry," she managed to get out, even if her voice sounded hoarse from lack of use. "I couldn't easily get up, so..." Elayne lazily gestured with her other hand before pinching the bridge of her nose. Well, she had been feeling better a second ago, but naturally, she was already trying to overdo it.

Still, his words made her grin tiredly. "If I didn't thank you during my delirium, please accept my thanks now." She could only remember snippets of what happened after she was knocked from the ship, and couldn't recall what she had and hadn't said between then and now. Those blue eyes glanced around her. "Where am I?"

[Cy Ogden]

Cy laughed gently at her apology, raising his hands to negate her words. "I'm just glad you're alright."

Seeing her smile, though, did his heart good. He'd been terrified, frankly, that she wasn't going to make it. If he'd been too late...The thought made him sick. No one deserved that kind of miserable death.

But here she was, safe and dry, even laughing. It felt good to know he'd contributed to that.

"I think I might have told you this yesterday, but I'll say again--there's nothing to thank me for. We're Sigferth, this is what we do. It's who we are." He shook his head. He wasn't explaining it well at all, but he didn't know how to convey the vast weight of responsibility that fell on their clan. It was a way of life that not many understood, either on this island or in the wider world beyond its shores.

Her question, at least, was something he could answer properly. "This is an infirmary. Two of the Sigferth sisters run it, Holly and Ainsley. I dunno if you recall, but you're on Aldsage, in Sigferth Clan territory. Sigferth is all farmers and healers. 'S the safest place on the island, really. Any other clan…" He grimaced. "They wouldn't have treated you as well."

[Elayne Ayres]

Despite living through it, Elayne actually couldn't believe she managed to stay alive. Well, were it not for Cy, she might not have made it through the day. She recalled the raging waters, the shouts of the crew, before it was nothing but cold darkness and the vague sounds of the beach. She glanced down at her hands as if she could still feel the sand against her skin. She hated sand, it was such a nuisance.

"Sigferth. The clan of healers." Elayne was just reiterating things to herself. Although she was awake and even laughing, she still didn't feel entirely alert. It was because she was weak, and normally that would make her nervous. She knew where she was but that didn't mean she could trust where she was- her savior or not. A part of her actually felt a little guilty to think that about him, albeit briefly.

She'd heard of Aldsage. Many people thought they were a myth, others dared to never set foot upon its shores because of the blood-thirsty, warmongering clansmen. Elayne tilted her head a little to regard the one in front of her, and he looked anything but that. There was something gentle about him.

'Any other clan...they wouldn't have treated you as well.' Oddly enough, she grinned a little at that. "Well, I suppose that's a bit of comfort, yeah? That you got stuck with me instead." She was mainly speaking out loud to herself. "I was on a ship leaving Teronna when there was a storm..." Squinting lightly, she tried to remember what had happened. "The last thing I remember was going overboard. Then you...here and there." A soft chuckle, she admitted she hadn't been completely aware of everything. "I suppose it's not so easy to just...leave this island, is there? Not that I know where to even go..."

[Cy Ogden]

Teronna, eh? He'd heard of it at least, knew it was a land with a king, or...was it a queen? Both? Whatever, some people who lived in a great big house and bossed everyone else around. Seemed a bit silly to him, making everyone listen to some puffed-up, overweight, spoiled old man just because he said he was in charge. At least here the elders had a good say in the decisions that were made, and there were always plenty of Sigferth family members to choose as leaders. It wasn't just because--choosing an heir was a big deal. He wasn't going to say all that to her, of course. She probably thought their land was just as strange.

"Yah, no. That's not so simple, I'm 'fraid. We've got fishin' boats, of course, but nothing' big enou' to get you to the other lands safely. Every once in a while one o' the traders coming through will stop and buy medicines from us, but that won't be till midsummer at least." He shook his head at Axel, who was trying to sneak his way farther up the bed to nuzzle against Elayne's hand. The dog whimpered and nudged her hand with is nose anyway. His owner sighed and rolled his eyes. Some friend he was, already more fond of the new woman than his master.

That made him wonder, though...was there some friend or family who would be missing Elayne? This was going to be a serious delay for her, trying to get off Aldsage. People didn't come and go from this island freely, seeing as they were busy enough trying to protect the homes they had without trying to adventure off to other lands. But if her family, perhaps a husband or children, were expecting her and she didn't show up, her whole ship never arrived...they were sure to think she was dead.

"Was someone waitin' for you where you were goin'?"

[Elayne Ayres]

Cy's inner thoughts about the monarch were not wrong and were very much valid. She had respected the queen before her death- no, her murder- but Allarick was a whole other breed. And he was dangerous. So many people like her feared for their lives every day, and she was almost ashamed to have managed to escape it.

'...but that won't be till midsummer at least.'

"Oh," she said quietly. It would be difficult to tell if that had bothered her or not. In truth, Elayne really did not know because where was she even going anyway? What kind of new life was she hoping to find out there on the big, perilous ocean? But these thoughts were broken with the nudge of her hand, and bright eyes turned to find Axel. She smiled gently at the dog, filtering fingers into his fur for pets and scritches behind the ears. She had been kept nice and warm because of him and was quite thankful.

With Cy's question, her demeanor changed- her posture slackened and her gaze averted down to her lap. "No," she finally answered him after a moment. "Because I didn't really know where I was going..." Elayne drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly before blue eyes rose back up to his face. "I was...actually running for my life."

Maybe she shouldn't have said that. She shouldn't have said any of it, really, and yet, it was difficult to feel worried right now. Perhaps she was still a little delusional.

[Cy Ogden]

Cy nearly laughed as Axel got what he'd wanted. Sly mutt, he was. Still, liking dogs was always a sign in a person's favor if you asked Cy.

His question must have bothered her, though, because she practically wilted before his eyes. She must have a lover or some--

No.

Cy's brows rose. No?

"I was...actually running for my life."

Perhaps that should have concerned Cy more than it did. There was any number of reasons someone might want this woman dead. She could be a murderer for all he knew. A criminal. But his reaction was only a shrug and a bit of a grunt. Did it matter who she had been before she washed up on that beach?

"In that case… Seems like windin' up here might not be so bad, hm?" he suggested, shifting to sit more comfortably in the chair and leaning his elbows onto his knees.

"No one would think to come looking for you among the heathens, I'd wager." He grinned, briefly. He didn't think everyone on this island was a heathen, but one particular clan certainly earned the title.

"Only thing you might not like is the fact you wound up with the local recluse 'stead of someone better." He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, trying to keep himself from making faces about that bit. "See, rule around Sigferth is we don't turn away anyone who needs healing. Doesn't matter who you are or what you've done, if you need us, we're here. Since I found you, I brought you in. Since I brought you in, that makes you my responsibility. I've got a farm out past the edge of town, plenty of space for you there. You'd have your own room 'n everything. You can stay as long as you need. I won't ask about your past if you don't want to talk about it, neither. That shite doesn't matter here. "

He paused. "Course, you don't have to stay with me. If you'd rather, I'd bet Holly 'n Ainsley could help you find someone with room. I won't stop you from goin' wherever you please. But you're welcome if you want."

[Elayne Ayres]

Was it a good thing that she washed up here? Despite what she had currently seen of Aldsage, she had heard the stories, and Cy himself said any other clan wouldn't have been so welcoming if she had wound up in their territory. The rest of the world viewed the Aldsagens as barbarians, yet it was a little too difficult to imagine this man before her as such a thing. He was anything but a barbarian from what she could tell. Lovely singing voice, too.

Wait, did he actually sing? She was remembering flashes of that night and it was only making her more confused.

'No one would think to come looking for you among the heathens, I'd wager.'

Elayne softly grinned at that. "I suppose they wouldn't," she replied. Her thumb subtly rubbed at her ring finger where her wedding band had once been. In a fit of tears and anger, she had chucked it overboard into the raging sea. Call it a sudden and violent divorce, not that Victor likely thought twice about her after she was forced to flee. Still, it hurt. It cut her deep, even with all the problems and distance that had developed between them.

If he had wanted to divorce her, there were several easier ways of doing so. That fuck head.

"Local recluse?" Elayne questioned with a lift of a brow, tone laced with soft amusement. As he continued, explaining how she was his responsibility because he found her, she couldn't contain the laugh that escaped her throat. "Oh gods, I'm so sorry for that..." Her words had been murmured, commenting but also not wishing to interrupt him. Regardless, her expression softened at the mention of the farm and his kind offer.

She didn't want to burden him, yet at the same time, Elayne wasn't entirely sure she'd want to stay with a stranger. Not that she knew Cy well or anything, but he was the only one she had honestly met. And the blonde healer, apparently, but she had been a little out of it by then.

'I won't ask about your past if you don't want to talk about it, neither. That shite doesn't matter here.'

The smile that curled her mouth was soft and sincere then. It definitely sounded like the Sigferth were a good people- she really had been lucky to wash up on this particular beach.

"So long as I can earn my keep. I have some skills in healing, however, should you need help with the farm...I could learn." Elayne wasn't making any promises, but she was in fact a quick learner. Whatever was needed.

[Cy Ogden]

It really was good to see her looking more relaxed, smiling even. He hadn't realized how panicked he was after finding her, but apparently, he'd gotten attached to her the same way he had to Axel. He always did have a thing for picking up strays. He figured this wasn't much different; a living thing who needed a place to stay and someone to keep an eye out for them. People might not do that for him, but that didn't mean he couldn't.

Cy's brows jumped. She was a healer herself? How ironic. A good fit, though--she'd be right at home among a people of healers and herbalists. He could understand wanting to earn her keep, too. Being idle never felt right to him either.

"Sure, tha' shouldn't be a problem. There's plenty of simple tasks that need done, feeding the cows, refilling their water, weeding the garden, all that. And if you're interested in more than that you can always learn as we go. 'S far as healing, you should find a warm welcome among the others. Holly, the one who helped you, she does the emergency stuff--she's a feckin' creep and likes the rush. Good at what she does, 'course, but still. She's got a death wish of her own if you ask me. There's a few older women who do the little things, children with the sniffles and that. 'S bound to be someone who'd be happy to have an extra set of hands aroun. We get patients from all over the island, plus people trade for medicine."

He wasn't too sure who would need her, or how the others would react to a true outsider hanging around, but most of the people ought to be okay. Just a few of the more rigid elders they might have to avoid. Worst case he'd have an extra hand around the farm, and that couldn't hurt. Axel clearly wouldn't mind, given the way his tail was wagging away. The cows would probably be happy to have a bit more company too, provided that Elayne didn't mind scratching under their chins and behind their ears where they couldn't reach.

[Elayne Ayres]

Elayne would be a liar if she didn't admit that she was still a bit wary of Aldsage. Even if this clan in particular seemed nice enough, it was hard to ignore the stories she had heard of this island. Perhaps that was rude, considering the help she had already received, but trust was a difficult thing to achieve these days with her.

That's what happens when those you thought loved you turn against you. She turned her right hand over to examine the new scar across her palm in remembrance of it all.

Her smile faltered only a little bit, but it still remained genuine. It had certainly been fortunate that she wound up on the shores of a clan of healers, and yet she feared that she would not be able to help much in that regard as she once had. Not only was she unsure about their take on gramarye, she still felt the tremors in that one hand every so often. Elayne wondered if she'd even be able to do simple stitches anymore.

"I'll help wherever I am able," she said simply. "I owe you first, I think, so...to the farm it is, then." She was trying to make light of her situation now (meaning, she was trying to ignore it), and inched a little further to the edge of the bed. She already wanted to leave, but the very second she attempted to stand, she knew it was a dumb idea.

Grumbling when her knees shook, she lowered herself back down. Healers made the worse patients, they say. "I suppose I should wait to thank Holly, of course." That was a poor excuse to hide her weakened state, but it was also a fact. The woman had saved her life as well, after all.

[Cy Ogden]

Cy was half out of his chair, too, when he saw her try to stand, but his new houseguest seemed to realize her limits and made it safely back onto the bed without him intervening. He sat back down a bit more slowly than he ought to, perhaps, still watching her warily. Her excuse of waiting to thank Holly didn't fool him, but he didn't want to call her on her bluff.

"A good idea, that. Holly's a good friend to have around here. Her and her sister, Ainsley, they're granddaughters of our clan leader, Willow Sigferth. Neither one's too interested in inheriting, o'course, but still, the name's enough to carry some weight as is." He was talking too much; he realized too late. He hadn't talked this much to anyone in months. Hell, a year, maybe. But she didn't know anything, of course he had to explain, didn't he?

A familiar uneasiness seeped into his gut, making him feel ill. Echoes of his past reminded him that he was boring, unwanted. He was the worst person this poor refugee could have gotten as her companion. She'd be better off with Holly, for example, no matter how over-the-top and pushy the blonde could be. At least Holly would be able to introduce her to more people, make her feel welcome. And Holly's youngest Aunt, Lavender, she'd have plenty to tell Elayne about why she should stay far, far away from the backward man who could only talk to cows. Elayne'd be happier in town, wouldn't she? Surrounded by more women and children, talk, and laughter? Should he try and get Holly to offer her a room?

He was getting carried away again, worrying about what a woman he hadn't spoken to in a decade would have to say about his life now. He hadn't changed, much, since then--he just knew to talk less. But there was nothing to say he couldn't at least be a good host for this newcomer, was there? It'd probably be nice to have a relaxed host who didn't expect her to keep up a pleasant conversation all the time. And he wouldn't think her questions or confusion dumb, no matter how ignorant, because he was stupid himself. It could be good. He could be good.

"Anyway, er, d'you want me to bring you anything? Holly can keep you busy tearing bandages. too, but I could probably scrounge up some paper and ink if you'd like to write or draw, or somethin? You might be spending a few days right where you're sittin."

[Elayne Ayres]

"Sigferth," she repeated the name to herself quietly, in order to burn it to memory. It was the name of the clan, she recalled, from what he had mentioned earlier, so it was also a family name. A family and clan of healers. If Elayne believed in any sort of miracles, she might have believed this was fate.

If Cy thought he was talking too much, she didn't think so. After all, she knew nothing of this place, only what rumors she had once heard about Aldsage. On top of that, he was keeping her company, although she wondered if she was keeping him from his own work. Truly, she didn't need to be babysat.

'You might be spending a few days right where you're sittin'.'

She fixed him with a particular look, one that was accompanied by a small smirk that was almost daring. Cy didn't know her, so he didn't know just how stubborn Elayne could be, and he was perhaps going to find out. Healers made the worst patients, too, as they say. "I give it another day, maybe two," she gently challenged. "But I am fine, thank you. I also do not wish to keep you if you have things to tend to, even if you have been pleasant company in a strange, new place."