Chapter Seven, On the Mountainside

The raiders scurried off, hopping on their jetbikes running them over the mound of snow that had been blocking their exit.

"Serves those louts right. What's your name kid?"
The spearman was tying up the Wyrm's remains; his companion was still up on the ledge. She was using a radio, presumably to call for transportation or a medical evacuation.
"Alicea, Liuetenant of the Imperial Army; I have an important message for the citizens of Gasca."
"The Ga-Vok you mean?" Before Alicea could ask how he knew the spearman continued, "Their general came up into the mountains about a week ago. It's caused quite the uproar."
"What's she doing up there?"

The archer had disapeared.
"Probably bandaging up Knickes, poor kid and on his first hunt too."
"Why would you hunt somthing like this? Is it really worth the risk?"
"Yep, male of this age is probably worth a couple million all said and done. Shame though, we'd hoped it was a female from the way it was travelling."

Alicea watched the man as he prepared the corpse, tying it up tightly enough that it looke a fraction of its true size. He'd even bound its wounds to prevent the loss of more, what she assumed to be valuable, blood. Aurou had always told her stories of how heroes fought powerful beasts and then took the head back to chieftans and thee were feasts and beautiful princesses; this just seemed to take all the glory out of slaying so powerful a beast. It felt to professional, to ordinary. An adversary this dangerous deserved better. But it was not her place to judge these people, especially not since they had undertaken the risk willingly.

"Lifter inbound Ross; mind giving me a hand with Knickes? I want to be careful moving him in this condition."
"Kid, you wanna hop up there and give her a hand?"
Alicea climbed up the ledge. She didn't really have any experience climbing, but a little careful magic gave her a simple ladder. At the top she saw that the boy's wounds were worse than she'd realised. There was a lot of blood. Worse still it smelled like the barbs may have been poisoned.
"Do Frost Wyrm's have poisoned tails?"
"No, but it miht have brushed against some bad mushrooms. Do you think it's bad?"
The girl was probably not much older than she was; but she looked worn. Probably something about the mountains, made everyone look more rough than they really were.
"If it's just mushrooms he should be fine; the blood could handle that. Are there any poisonous animals it could be?"
She shook her head.
"Then it's just a wound. I can speed up the healing a bit; do you have any Fyrg's Wort?"
"Who's Fyrg and why would I have his wart?"
"Drat, what's the Nieldic name. Uhm, Jafier's Ivy?"
"I have bandages, Thaw Out(tm), and a pack of antiseptics."
"I've never heard of those; how about alchohol, do you have that?"
Another negative, Alicea was starting to get really frustrated about the general lack of medical knowledge.
"Fine, stand back." She jammed a finger into one of the lad's wounds and ignored his howls and the girl's protests as she traced out a pattern around the damaged area. A flash of light faded to reveal the wounds mended.
"I hate doing that." Alicea muttered as she wiped her fingers off on the boy's discarded leather jerkin.

The girl was clearly about to say something but was interupted. Alicea looked up to the third roar of the morning, that of the large aircraft hovering over the ledge. It was easily as big as a house, with four seperate propeller cages. The cockpit was on the front-top of the ship, and there were two men inside.
"Lifter's here, run the cable down so we can haul up the prize." Yelled Ross from below. The girl ran over and opened a hatch on the vehicle's back and threw down a steel cable before walking around and signaling the pilot. She heard a winch kicking into action and saw the frost wyrm dragged up onto the ledge and then into the bay of the lifter.
Ross followed it up the ledge, keeping it from snagging or taking any noticeable damege. He picked up Knickes, who was still in shock despite, and likely because of, his recent healing and caried him into a compartment under the cockpit. The girl motioned for her to follow, caliing something incomprehensible over the roar of the engines.
Alicea chose to accept the invitation.