The Tattooed Woman Pt. 07

"THANK THE GODS! I thought I was going to lose you Tallis!"

The Dark Elf managed a pained smile but her voice was weak, "Well, if I thought you were going to strip off your clothes and kiss me like that, I might have gotten myself shot earlier. Er... Not that I'm complaining mind, but why are you slicing up your leggings?"

"I'm making a travois, to drag you away from here, I needed something to tie the wood."

Tallis gave the girl a confused frown as she glanced at the several dead men sprawled about the clearing, "What's wrong with their leggings?"

Lily blushed, "I-I don't like touching the dead, it gives me the shivers, especially the ones I killed. I was frightened their shades would be angry with me."

Tallis coughed and a trickle of blood appeared on her lips as she reached up and stroked Lily's face with a wistfully happy sigh and grinned, "You'll never make a Dark Elf with such sensibilities, we'd have had the gold fillings from their teeth if need be, and to hell with their shades. But I'm glad to see you, Lily, truly."

The Sunkissed held the Dark Elf gently for a while before easing back. Her eyes were wet with tears and her voice was hoarse, "I-I'd better get back to work."

Tallis groaned in pain as she shifted, "Do you know what happened to the others?"

"I do not, but your Captain is too cany a fighter to have been overcome by a pack of human brigands. She'll have fought herself out of that trap, I'm sure of it."

Tallis desperately wanted to believe the Sunkissed Elf, but she was in pain and hurting, and she felt herself shuddering in misery, "B-but what if they're gone, what if we're all that's left?"

Lily gripped her by the hand and leaned close, "Then you won't be alone. For I'll not leave you, Tallis, I swear it."

The Dark Elf sniffed and brushed away tears as she made to master herself and dismiss her fears, "I do not deserve such kindness."

Lily laughed, a silver sound that seemed to fend away at least some of the shadows and cold, "No! Indeed, you do not, and I shall call you to pay this debt one day, you can be sure of it! For I fancy seeing you out of that dark mail, and in a bright gown of golden Sunkissed satin and I'll not have you die a welcher."

"T'is a debt then, one that I would be churlish to leave unpaid."

"Aye! Now help me get you onto this thing and don't bloody die. For I'd hate to have wasted a good pair of breeches on a corpse."

Tallis managed a chuckle even as she hissed in pain as she crawled onto the travois. "D-Dark Elven silk would be superior to Sunkissed satin methinks. W...," she gritted her teeth, "would a gown of black silk not do?"

"No, it's golden satin or nothing!"

"N-now that last sounds an intriguing prospect at the very least."

"Typical Dark Elven strumpet. Now hush, for I doubt I'll have breath to drag you and chatter at the same time."