Survival And Pain
Summary: Jarek wakes to the sound of screaming. Survival instinct takes over after he comes to terms with his situation.
Date: 01/01/2014
Related: The Long Road South
Jarek 


May 1st — Drake Mountains, Southwest of Spikka


A scream, that's the first thing Jarek remembers hearing. Immediately after that it's almost pure black silence. The scream had been going on before he even woke up, of that he's sure since it's echoing in his head and causing daggers to strike at his ears. Groggy and disoriented, the knight slowly begins to realize he's not all there… almost literally. He can't feel his left arm at all and his left eye won't open. He rubs at it and searing pain obliterates all thought for several minutes, subsiding into a dull simmer that constantly burns at the edge of his impaired vision.

It is that vision that finally focuses enough that he can see, he's… in a drake nest. An old one, abandoned by the looks of it. His armor is almost pitch blackened now in several places… most noticeably his left. Fuzzy memories begin to flood back into his mind, a scream of panic and then the horses…

Another shake of his head to try and clear the mists of confusion, and that he can't feel his left really starts to nag at his thoughts so he shifts best he can to look. The sight he's met with nearly causes the battle hardened knight to blanch, of all the things he's seen… when it happens to your own flesh it's never the same. Charred black, his whole left arm is completely destroyed. Whatever heat had done this to him cauterized the wound that worked to his shoulder and he could feel the heat of the burn seeping into him along his back and across part of his chest.

The pain finally hits and it blinds Jarek for several more minutes. Paralyzed by the excruciating silent scream causing sensation that floods his mind so completely, the Saimhann begins to rock back and forth slightly trying to just breathe through it. It doesn't work as well as one always hopes it will but Jarek can't just sit here… he's lost and has to figure out where he is and how to get back. Right eye opening again he begins to explore his surroundings visually.

The nest is typical of smaller drakes, and the cave it's in must have once been rather active by the signs on the walls and floor. Bones, gouges and scratch marks, and old scales litter the forty by sixty or so septagonal room Jarek's now in. A small shaft of light to his left gives him some clues to how he got here. A hole in the roof of the cave where he'd fallen, and it slowly begins to come back to him. The thoughts spark the pain again and he suppresses them as best he can. He's wounded, severely, and needs to get help. His armor is locked in place and seems dead. “Wonderful, yet another fucking suit destroyed. I'm a waste of money for the house… I know, they'll not care and want me protected.” a pause and his voice becomes sarcastically grim, “Lot of fuckin' good that did my arm. Oh, and that's another expense for a cybernetic.” he shakes his head, it not occurring to him that his voice didn't actually work when he'd tried to speak.

Forcing his armor motors free, Jarek is able to use his one good arm to push himself to standing using the wall for support. He eyes the hole and then lets out a sigh, finding it difficult to breathe in the process. With the roof a good story and a half up, there's no way Jarek would be able to climb that with both hands let alone one. No time to gripe about it, the heir turns around and looks deeper into the nest before taking one step.

CRACK!

On the floor is the remnants of his helmet and it explains a few extra thing for him… like, how he's not going to have mechanical assistance to survive this. He's not an idiot in the field and this is his home territory, he knows what he needs to do… it's just not the easiest done when said.

Jarek puts one foot in front of the other and just keeps going, the entrance to the nest will be ground level for the smaller drakes just learning to fly. When he gets to just past midway across the floor he espies the think filaments of daylight that tell him he's on the right path, slow and steady he goes until he reaches a pile of bones and notices one of the them is the larger leg bone of horse and he picks it up to use as a crutch. It isn't the best but it will do for now, at least that's how he's rationalizing it. At this point, anything that makes him feel like he's doing something right is enough to make him more confident and help his personal morale skyrocket from underneath rock bottom.

What seems like days, and is closer to about an hour for the wounded knight, pass for Jarek before he finally makes it to the entrance of the cave and his stomach growls threateningly. Not having eaten much, the last real food being the beef jerky shared with Brienne the Six knows how long ago, Jarek's next thought is on water and survival instinct kicks in. Taking a moment to use a scrap of his belt to tie his ruined left arm to his body so it doesn't flap around uselessly or get caught, Jarek emerges from the cave and is instantly blind when his right eye slams shut against the bright of the day.

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