“I’ll take care of it, don’t you worry anymore.”

Rania Okano smiled sweetly at the young courtesan. She was a petite woman, with a slender build and exotic red hair. The colour of her green eyes reminiscent of Rania’s own, although the sorrow she saw in them was something entirely unknown to the young Paladin. She was standing by her friend’s bedside – another young woman – who’d been attacked and suffered grave injuries. Nothing Rania wasn’t able to fix of course, but the shock had still set her back and put her into a state of grief and fear. The eastern city of Hosenka wasn’t too far from Dahlia and its local Aldenwald, a horrifying, monster-ridden place that harboured werewolves, vampires, occults and who knew what else. On occasion those beasts found a path all the way down to Hosenka, where they attacked the unsuspecting citizens.

Hosenka – unlike Dahlia City – wasn’t host to a local mage’s guild and therefore reliant on passerby mages and mercenaries to assist them with such matters and today it was Rania’s pleasure to get rid of the werewolf problem that had recently occured in this part of the town. She felt nothing but pity for the woman who had been harmed, but while she might bear scars for the rest of her life at least she would live. With her trusty hierophant staff in hand, Rania bid the two ladies farewell and entered the streets of the town. The night is dark and full of terrors, she thought to herself, and a bleak smile spread into her lips. Rania headed for the woodlands surrounding the city, outside of the walls where people often gathered for more privacy, and to enjoy the beauty of nature. Hosenka was usually a safe place, but as with everything there were exceptions.

It was a quiet night, and after the gruesome events earlier today had taken place so abruptly, the streets had emptied significantly and Rania was very much on her own. She didn’t mind that much though, and almost allowed herself the guilty pleasure of enjoying the solitude after being in such a busy place for so long. It wasn’t a bad thing to be surrounded by people so much, but the woman simply wasn’t used to it and appreciated the quiet hour she had to herself, although that wouldn’t last very long. Rania lifted her staff up into the air to create a small ball of light to guide her way. It was too dark without it and through the thicket she could hardly see the road in front of her. Not much longer until Rania’s nose picked up on the scent of blood; the stench of death clung to the air and it was only a short hop for her to step into the scene where the attack had taken place.

It was still quiet in the realm, but not silent. She could hear crickets and cicadas, and even an owl. To Rania this meant that the predators were gone or dead, that the threat had disappeared and when she stepped into the forest clearing and illuminated the area with her light magic, the woman was surprised to find a person sitting against a tree, wordlessly resting among the werewolf carcasses. He was massive, perhaps the largest person she’d ever met and for a moment there Rania wondered if this man was what was left of the pack, but his injuries told a different story. Hesitant at first, Rania eventually stepped closer and sent the ball of light to hover above him so she could have a better look. A heavy weapon lay at his side, drenched in the blood of the beasts. Carefully crouching down, Rania tilted her head sideways to get a better look.

“Will you let me heal your wounds?”

Ragnar was laying in darkness, completely void of all of his senses but his sense of self while he lay there. He knew that he must be dead, or very close at this point and that his life would be done. He wondered if this is what the afterlife was like, or if it would be like what other tribes said with feasting halls with endless food, drink, and women or if it would be the hot neverending battleground of his Lord, Zalambur's realm. Ragnar didn't notice the warm light on his skin until his sense of touch started to come back, but once it started the pain started to come back as well.

As Ragnar slowly opened his eyes, blood still flowing down a cut in his skull that most likely would have killed a normal man. As the blood flowed around his one open eye he looked on the light that came out of the darkness. It took his eyes a moment to adjust to this, and he tried to lift his arms to cover his eyes from the light but he realized that he could not lift either of them. As his eyes got used to the light he looked down at his arms and he quickly realized why he was unable to move his arms. On his right arm, he was missing a rather large part of his bicep, it appeared to have been removed by a pair of claws of some kind based on the triangle shape of the wound that went down to the bone. On his left arm, he could see bite marks on his forearm and shoulder, and he could see the bone sticking out of his forearm. He could only imagine that his shoulder wasn't looking much better.

Ragnar then heard the request to have his wounds healed, and the one eye that could stay open slowly closed. Ragnar had never been this tired before, maybe it was the massive amount of blood loss, the damage that was done to his body or he simply ran out of gas in the tank he simply couldn't keep his eyes open. As he tried to take a breath to speak he felt a sharp pain in his chest and he knew what that meant as well. Broken Ribs. How many were the real question? Ragnar could not open up his eyes to look before he started to breathe more shallow to get the words out " Please do... I have got nothing left." Ragnar didn't know that his chest was covered in cuts from the claws of the werewolves around him, some of which going deep into his tissue and are still bleeding heavily. Ragnar clearly had far more blood in his body than most but at some point even that would run out.

Ragnar thought for a moment about how he even got here and his memories slowly started to come back to him through the fog of pain. He remembers taking a job in this city to make some money while he waited for his Loan Shark to finally get back to him so that he could pay her back. Apparently, some werewolves had come into town and were hunting people down and killing them, and of course, Ragnar took that job because he assumed that the werewolves couldn't be that many. He eventually tracked one down using his smell and they ran him into the forest. What Ragnar didn't realize was that it was a complete ambush and that was when Ragnar fought. He wasn't sure what happened during that fight as he had burned through all of his mana reserves using the power of his club and what little magic he had to dodge as many of the attacks as he could there was simply too many to dodge.

Before Ragnar could think more deeply about this he felt the darkness of shock and pain come over him as his head started to slump down as his body started to go limp. Ragnar tried his best to stay awake and focused on the material world before he slipped back into that darkness.

Rania’s hand reached into the sky, gently poking the bright orb of light to increase its range. Swiftly, the magical construction illuminated the entire area and when the Paladin was able to see the severity of his wounds, she stifled a sigh. He was falling in and out of consciousness and the blood loss was immense; after taking into consideration the number of dead werewolves that surrounded them, the woman’s emerald eyes fell on the club at his side. Brute strength was a terrifying thing, and even in a world of magic, miracles and the impossible it remained a reliable force and weapon for many. When he spoke his first words in response to her question, the voice Rania heard sent a shiver down her spine. Even though the fight had clearly been a victory, his victory, he sounded defeated. It was honestly a depressing thing to witness.

“I’ll get to work then, try not to fall asleep.”

Rania rolled the club aside to make space for herself; the weapon was heavy, much too heavy for her to lift it. He had a large cut in his skull, several chunks and pieces of flesh had been bitten or torn out from his body and by how deformed his torso seemed to be, Rania could only take a wild guess at how many ribs he’d broken during the fight. “What’s your name?” Usually not the type for smalltalk, the Paladin thought it might be a good way to keep the giant awake (and alive, for that matter) while she let her magic do its trick. Rania placed her hands around the cut, and watched with eager eyes as golden light radiated from her fingertips, spread into the wound and closed it up slowly, until it was entirely mended.

Rania had stopped the bleeding, but chances were he still felt light-headed. “I’m Rania,” the woman finally introduced herself, regardless of whether he’d chosen to speak at all or not. “They sent me to take care of the werewolf issue at hand, but it seems you got here way before me. I suppose I’ll have to thank you for that by returning the favour," she said, and her voice had a soft, bright sound to it. The Paladin was known for her sunny disposition, even in spite of the rather grim circumstances she found herself in. She stepped around him and placed two fingers under his chin, lifting up his head to take a proper look at his eye. “Careful now, this might feel a bit odd,” she warned before sending a ray of light through his head. It would allow for his mind to clear up, and for his second eye to become functional again.

“And, how is it? Feeling any better yet?”

The Paladin took a step backwards, kneeling down in front of the man to get a proper look at his physique. His chest was rising and lowering slowly, and every breath he took seemed to feel heavy. She pitied him for the pain he must be experiencing, but at the very least Rania would be able to ease it slowly, and step by step. Then again, fixing him in his entirety would take a long time, but fortunately Rania was quite an enduring young woman. When Rania tilted her head to the side, strands of obsidian hair would fall into her face, neatly aligning with her emerald gaze.

And if he opened his eyes again, she would flash him a charming smile.

As Ragnar lay there, his mind slowly trying to start back up he heard the voice again telling him to stay awake. He felt his arms and torso  slowly go numb from shock and blood loss and he most likely knew that if something wasn't done in the next couple of minutes that he would die. He would have more time if he had most of his blood, at this point pooling around him and mixing with the blood of the dead or dying werewolves around him. He still listened to the voice through the fog even though it sounds very far away and fuzzy through the haze of his mind. She said something about a name, but outside of that he didn't catch anything. Ragnar attempted to move his hands but he could feel them refuse to move, he most likely had the tendons ripped apart in the battle or shredded by the wolves.  He felt the searing pain on his face and the warm rush of his blood slowly start to fade and at first he was sure that it was the signs that he had finally ran out of blood and was going to die but he kept breathing and his consciousness slowly started to come back to him.

Ragnar could then start to hear the women who was saving him, she said her name was Rania. Why did Ragnar feel like he knew that name from somewhere, he attempted to reach deeper into his mind but it was simply filled with fog of confusion and pain and he was stopped at some point from thinking much more. Ragnar slowly started to fade back into unconsciousness, unable to hear her explanation of why she was here, and he felt a hand on his chin. What survival instincts that Ragnar had left pulled his mind out of the blackness enough to attempt to fight back this person who touched him. Even with this shot of adrenaline going through him again, Ragnar could not move his body still and he was still to her touch.

Ragnar then felt both relief and a massive wave of pain come over him as he exhaled a breath of pain. He could feel the cloud over his mind start to lift, clearly the damage done to his brain during the fight was getting repaired but he did realize something else. Now that his brain was working correctly again, his mind was capable of dealing with the pain again, the fog of confusion was simply replaced with a cloud of pain.  He still felt like he was better off then he was before but it wasn't a great experience to deal with.

Ragnar opened up both of his eyes, his one bad eye still not able to see but Rania could clearly see that it was bloodshot, like he had popped a blood vessel in his entire eye, and the eye was not focusing on her body at all while his other eye's pupil was contracting to try and take in less light from the surroundings. As the healing spell started to take effect, the blood started to flow back from Ragnar's iris towards the back of his eye. Once Ragnar's eye was completely clear it started to function again correctly as the pupil started to contract to take in less light.

This was the first time that Ragnar got a look at his healer in the face he saw was stunning. Obsidian black hair hung over a soft face  that had ethereal beauty to it with emerald green eyes that looked at him with pain in her eyes. Was she worried about him? As Ragnar looked at her, he started to wonder why she was here as he had not heard what she had said earlier. Was she someone brought here by happen stance or was she here hunting these wolves too. Ragnar took a breath through his nose, in addition to the smell of dead werewolves, blood, and sweat he did smell her as well. She smelled like a normal human, so she was not a werewolf, though she did smell very nice though how much of that was in comparison to what was around him Ragnar did not know.

As he looked at her, Ragnar tried to smile back at her but a deep breath caused him to wince in pain instead as he said. " My name is Ragnar, thank you for your help. " He then started to looking around, his eyes searching for more targets and enemies as he now realized that he was very vulnerable right now. This lasted for only a few moments before he realized that there was no one left in these woods but them and the birds and other forest animals. There was no threats here that he needed to worry about and his body started to relax more.

Well, this is going to take a while.

Rania was doing a decent job with her healing spells, but the Paladin quickly realized that fixing Ragnar would take much longer. He seemed unhappy with the bright light, but of course the woman couldn’t help that – she was a light mage after all. Instead of worrying about his discomfort further, as she was sure that he was experiencing plenty of that regardless of what she did, Rania then took a step backwards to examine this piece of work. He wasn’t very talkative, although she doubted it had anything to do with her. If anything, Rania wouldn’t be surprised if the man could hardly keep up with most of what was happening here right now and because of this, the woman decided to take her time with him.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Ragnar.” Her smile widened when he responded and introduced himself at last; it was sparse, but better than nothing. To Rania he didn’t look like someone who had much left to live for, but at the same time it seemed that he didn’t want to die – not yet. Furthermore, he thanked her for her assistance which was a sign of good manners. The Paladin wasn’t a very judgemental woman, even though she had noticed that he didn’t look very knightly. His appearance was reminiscent of that of a warrior or mercenary, and somehow she felt as though she had seen his face before somewhere, in spite of not being able to put a finger on it.

“I won’t be able to heal all of you in just one night,” said the woman, gently pulling out a strand of her own black hair and tugging it behind her ear. Her emerald eyes were still scanning him, wondering where to continue next to make the coming night as comfortable as possible for him. Eventually, the decision fell on his ribcage and torso and if anything required healing and a dose of painkillers, it for sure was that area of his body. “I’ll do it step by step, and since I can’t move you I’ll have to return with utensils from the city in the morning.” It didn’t matter if he wasn’t listening at this point, but she still felt the need to explain the procedure to him. In the end, there was no way for her to get him into the city or the hospital and the villagers were still staying out of the woods due to the ongoing werewolf threats that were still popping up here and there; the woman dearly hoped that this area of the woods was safe now.

Rania stood up and took a step backwards. She grasped her golden staff tightly and swung it into the air, where it radiated a golden light that would take on the shape of a stream. The stream of magic gently floated around Ragnar and embraced him, healing the majority of the wounds he’d suffered with a focus on his broken ribs and what remained of his concussion. It would also buff his endurance, allowing him to make it through the night – with discomfort of course, but at the very least he’d live to see another sunrise. The Paladin uttered a sigh the moment she’d finished casting the spell. She kneeled down again and placed her hands against his side, and much to her delight it seemed that the ribs were all more or less back in order now. “See, you shouldn’t have any more troubles breathing for now.” She gave him another smile and stood up again. “I’ll return in a few hours and bring you something to eat.” Rania hoped that by that time he could speak properly again.

The woman did exactly as she’d promised – Rania left shortly after and returned to Hosenka, where she would rest for a few hours before preparing a meal and packing some additional utensils she thought she might need for the giant. She then stopped by the hospital room of the woman who had been attacked by the werewolves to assure her that the threat had been taken care of before she returned into the woods, where Ragnar was still resting against the tree. “Good morning,” she said and gave him a bright smile. “How are you feeling today, Ragnar?”

As Ragnar looked at Rania he could not help but noticed that she was some kind of healer, though if she was just a normal healer or something like him as a Paladin was something he could not tell. She did not seem to have any identifying marks of a religious order but neither did Ragnar to be fair. Though he did doubt that she followed a god like Ragnar did, as the god he worshipped had been made very illegal. Once she spoke to him again, he was going to respond but he could not get it out due to his ribs still being broken. As he listened to what she had to say, he was only mildly worried about being left here for the night as he wasn't sure if more wild animals would come to try and bother him while he was laying here. As that thought crossed his mind he looked to see his club slightly away from him and was about to reach for it before he realized that his arms were still shot and there was nothing that could be done in his case.

Ragnar sighed internally as he realized that he was going to be completely at this women's mercy, something that Ragnar was not a fan of no matter who the person was. Ragnar then watched her walk back and cast a healing spell on him. It was extremely bright, clearly, she was a user of light-based magic, but as the magic flowed over him he felt his ribs snapping back into place and healing, some of them with a pop and a crack was they moved his muscle and skin to get back into the location where they should be. As this happened Ragnar could feel his lung start to fill with the amount of oxygen that his body was used to as he took a deep breath, filling them back up fully for the first time in what felt like forever. When she put her hand on his side, she would feel that Ragnar exactly had he looked, made of all muscle as her fingers looked to make sure the ribs were back in place.

" Thank you for your help, and yes. I am able to breathe much easier now. I will hopefully see you in a few hours then. " As Ragnar said this he leaned his head back against the tree and fell asleep almost instantly as his breathing slowed down to deep sleep. Ragnar was exhausted from the amount of pain he had been put under and even with the pain gone his mind was tapped out and he needed the rest.

Ragnar would only awake twice in the night as forest scavengers had come to eat some of the bodies of the werewolves around him, though they never bothered Ragnar as he was still clearly alive enough that they didn't want to risk getting hurt when there were easier meals all around him. Once daylight came over the horizon Ragnar did wake up naturally again and he could hear Rania coming down the way before he could smell her and he was almost surprised to see her come back to see him and handle it. Ragnar was completely prepared to drag his ass all the way back to town to get his own healing if it was required.

Ragnar smiled back at her, even if it was more of a smirk then a real smile, before saying " I am feeling well-rested. Had a couple of visitors in the night that seemed to enjoy the easy meals I left them, but they seemed to be nice enough guests all things considered. So do you help all people in need or am I a special case here? " Ragnar looked at her again, this time in the light and his eyes were adjusted fully as he finally got a good look at her whole body and he noted the clothes she was wearing didn't seem like most of the clothes he had seen others were but he came recently down here so maybe that is the clothing style of the area.

After Rania returned to Ragnar’s side, the Paladin noticed a somewhat bittersweet look on his blood-smeared face; unable to help herself, the woman smiled apologetically at the giant and shrugged her shoulders. Of course she knew the warrior-type that he was – his kind rarely accepted help, and when they did it was only because they were left with no other choice. Rania respected their concept of pride and honor, but this was no time to dwell on such things as there was still plenty of work to do. A look around revealed rotting corpses of werewolves, some of which had been partially snacked on and both the sight and the smell were gruesome. “You are not a special case by any means,” the woman responded and arched a brow at Ragnar. She gave him a crooked smirk before placing down all that she had brought along with her to roll up her sleeves.

“I’m a nurse, and you are by far not the worst case I have had.” Turning around, Rania was now facing the bodies surrounding her and with her staff in hand, she lifted her arms up into the sky and closed her eyes. “It’s nothing I can’t fix, so just take it easy.” The Paladin was rather confident in her abilities, not because she was arrogant but because she knew what she was capable of. Her magical skills had improved significantly over the past months and it was mostly due to joining a guild and suddenly having a wider range of people to tend to that the healer had been able to get a lot of experience in the field she specialized in.

The woman quietly whispered an incantation and shortly after, several bright beams of golden light would fall from the heavens and onto the slain beasts. Slowly, their bodies were set on blaze and eventually disintegrated into nothing but dusk to be swept away by the next late summer’s breeze. “Much better,” she murmured more to herself than to him, and took a deep breath. Rania turned around and prepared a washcloth and a bowl she filled with water. The woman stepped closer and took his chin in between her fingers, turning his face towards her so she could get a proper look.

Without much additional conversation, she began wiping off the dirt and blood so she could get a proper look at his appearance. Much to her surprise, cleaning him did little to soothe the terrifying aura he emitted. “That’s odd,” she said and tilted her head to the side. Strands of black hair fell into her face, and her emerald eyes scanned every detail of his features. “You look to be a brute, but you are quite well-spoken. And somehow I can’t help but think that I have seen your face somewhere before. But surely I would have remembered running into a man of your size.” Rania squinted and turned his face towards the sunlight. As Rania spoke, every word she said was laced with genuine curiosity, and not a hint of judgement. It was due to her earnest and forgiving nature that the gentle-hearted woman paid little attention to bounty posters and such, which is why she didn’t remember seeing his face on one, despite that being the case.

"Who are you exactly, Ragnar?"

Regardless of whether he responded to her straight-foward question or not, Rania would then turn her attention towards his right arm and begin healing it the same way she’d done previously – by casting light magic spells onto it until his broken bones were mended, and flesh had regrown into place. The healer then offered him some water and a large chunk of dried meat to chew on, assuming that he was probably thirsty and starving at this point.

Ragnar could not help but feel both not surprised and also slightly hurt that he wasn't special enough that she would save him, but the more he thought about this he more he realized that was a new feeling to him. Why did he feel hurt by this woman saying that he wasn't a special case? As Ragnar thought about this for a moment, he had to focus back on what she was saying. He would have to do some self-reflection about that later. Ragnar did laugh out loud when he heard that he was not the worst case she had treated and he could not help but saying " Then I take it you have brought people back from the dead then if I am not the worst case you have brought back from the steps of Death Himself. "

As he said this he saw magical circles appear around her feet, and his mind went to two separate places. One that his comment was that she was going to kill him, or at least try, though looking at her it was hard to tell if she could take him. Though if she could turn her healing skills into damaging skills then Ragnar would be dead in the water. Or that she was trying to do something else that Ragnar didn't fully understand yet and as the beams of light struck the bodies and turned them into ash. Ragnar relaxed slightly as he knew that at least at this moment he would not be murdered by this woman.

Ragnar allowed himself to be handled by this woman as his face was cleaned off the blood and dirt from his face, all of it dried so should come off fairly easy all things considered through the dirt would not come out easily. Under the dirt, she would find the skin that was very tanned as if the person had spent a very long time in the sun. As Ragnar listened to what Rania had to say, he could not help but realize that she had not seemly put two and two together that he was a rather wanted man but he would have to wait to let her know who he was until after he was healed in case she did decide that she wanted to fight him and he had to make a break for it.

Ragnar wasn't about to fight and possibly kill the person who had just healed him from near death to functional unless it was beyond required to do so. Though the moment he listened to the tone of her words rather than the words themselves, he noticed that there didn't seem to be any judgment or wanting verification of something. As she asked him the final question he simply did not answer for a moment as his arms were healed fully, the broken bones snapping back into place and the skin regenerating and falling also back into place. Ragnar moved his arms slightly to verify they worked properly and when they did he nodded to himself.

He was then offered some food and water, which Ragnar happily took. Even though he had only been out here for less than a day he was still very hungry, it took a lot of food to keep Ragnar moving through the day. As he ate the food and drank the water he answered Rania's question as clearly as he could. " My name is Ragnar " The Red" Asgeir. I have a minor bounty back in town for some activities I did back in the north for the Mining Barons up there. Either way, most brutes don't make it long where I come from without being smart. I happen to be smart in combat and are capable of speaking well enough to make myself understood. I am in this town working with Daeva Eye's own Kurisa. I owe her some favors for helping me out, and this was one of the things that I decided to take on as a way of helping her city. Turns out there was a far few more werewolves then I thought, must have come down here from the north or something. Only ever saw this many in the north anyway. "

Ragnar stood up at this point, holding the dry meat in his mouth and the water in his hand, and started to stretch his arms, back, and legs various snaps and pops happening across his arms, spine, neck, and knees as he did this as he tried to loosen up his muscles for the day to come as he normally doesn't lay in a single spot for that long and after the healing, he was sure that he would have some issues if he didn't stretch.  

" I assume you took on this job as a kindness to someone who was hurt by the attacks or something. You seem like the type to risk your life to do that kind of thing. " Ragnar said as he was stretching out his back, bending himself backward to try and stretch himself out as much as possible. Clearly Ragnar was not very flexible and couldn't do very much due to the sheer amount of muscle mass on his body but he was still fairly flexible for someone of his size.