Pieces, Part 1 (~1800 words)
Elihu is back, like an old friend, as well as a few others you might remember. Bec said Elihu's dialogue was "funny" and "interesting," so I guess we'll take what we can get.
And here we go again! Expect more, more frequently. Maybe.
1: Pieces
“Are you going to torture me today, or should I come back?” Elihu quipped sarcastically from his perch. His arms and legs were bound tight as he hung from the ceiling of an Ala cell. The Ala had been asking lots of questions, and getting no answers, Elihu had made certain of that. And they still won’t get any, he grit his teeth in determination. Unless they developed some new, unheard of form of torture.
His cell was dark and dingy, dirty metal walls stained with blood. There were numerous devices for torture scattered throughout the room, including a whip, branding irons, and even a large steam-powered device that looked like it was both a rack and a drill. Efficient, saves space to put them together into one machine, Elihu thought, looking the dangerous device over. I’ll have to keep that in mind: one machine, multiple purposes. Kinda like my guns...ah, my guns.
They lay so close but just out of reach. The Ala had stripped Elihu down to his pants, taking anything that even resembled a weapon from him and piled all his belongings nearby. Now they lay, in a huddled mess, on a blood-stained wooden table. The table, like the rest of the cell, was a derelict chunk of rubble, a wonder it was still intact. Elihu jolted back and forth a little, his arms bound at the wrists above him, his feet securely tied beneath him. This put him about six inches off the ground, his back and chest fully exposed, their scar-ridden flesh spattered with a fresh dose of sweat and blood.
They’d whipped him at first, that much was pretty much standard for any form of Ala torture. Elihu had endured it wordlessly, his wincing hardly noticeable with each crack of the whip. This had only encouraged the captors, who had proceeded to beat him until he bled. But they didn’t get any satisfaction out of it, Elihu smiled half-heartedly, trying to ignore his throbbing back. And they won’t get any satisfaction out of any of this. I’ve been through all this before, more times then I can count.
It still hurts though, he added, watching curiously as his Ala torturer re-entered the room, this time carrying a long, serrated knife. He looked up at Elihu wordlessly, then grinned, the well-polished knife reflecting what little light was in the dark cell.
“You are a tough one to crack, Orion,” the Ala spoke in the Orion tongue, twisting the knife back in forth in front of Elihu’s face. “But believe me, we’ll get something out of you.”
“I sure hope not,” Elihu responded, ignoring the knife and grinning right back at the Ala torturer. “Then you’d have nothing left to do with me, and then I’d be made dead. Is that even something you can say? ‘Made dead’? Oh well, you get the point.”
Elihu’s mirth caught the torturer off guard, and for a moment confusion crossed his stern feature. He cocked his head, long blonde locks of hair rustling across his shoulder as he did. “Cheerful, huh? I don’t see that very often. I’ll be sure and give you some special treatment before I cut your heart out. You’re a nobody, you hear me? You’ll die like the rest of them?”
“Oh really? Well, I’m a Graj-damn legend! I’m already immortal!” He paused, then he rolled his eyes sheepishly. “Wow, that sounded a lot better in my head.”
The guard snorted, pushing the knife close to Elihu’s neck. Elihu didn’t so much as flinch, the feel of cold steel pressing hard against his skin. “You sure talk a lot, Orion. I’m going to enjoy cutting out your tongue. Maybe I’ll even do that first this time. Makes the screams so much more...carnal.”
“Well, if you torture as badly as you speak Orion, I have nothing to fear.” Elihu retorted. The guard could only stare, completely confused.
“You speak it badly, that’s what I’m trying to say,” Elihu explained, growing weary of the torturer’s apparent slowness. “You speak Orion horribly, and in so doing I assume you torture badly too. See, the joke totally sucks if I have to explain it. Can we just get on with this before it’s too late?”
The guard blinked, but his face wasn’t lacking intelligence. He knows what I’m saying, he’s just ignoring me, Elihu snorted. I’m feeding him some of the best lines he’ll ever hear on this job, and he’s just going to cut me up like everybody else. This is really a grievous loss.
As if to prove his point, the Ala suddenly bashed Elihu across the face with the butt of the knife. Elihu felt his nose break in two places, accompanied by a horrible cracking sound.
Ow. Very ow.
He coughed and tried to blow the blood from his nose, which only resulted in it dribbling down his face. The half-Ala spat, trying to keep the blood from his lips. Last thing I need is a mouth full of blood and snot, he coughed, his vision slowly clearing. I like being able to breath when they do this.
The Ala was looking Elihu over gleefully, admiring his blow. Elihu spat, then rose his head. He suddenly grinned again, despite the fact that his face was now covered in blood. This must be quite the horrific sight.
“Really? The nose? What the hell is wrong with you? You don’t break the nose first, then when I cave and give you information it sounds all nasally and I have to repeat it like twenty times. Ah, wait, not there either!”
The butt of the knife was only an inch from his forehead when the Ala stopped, mid swing. He eyed Elihu, the expression on his face one Elihu would later describe as “priceless.” His eyes were wide, unable to reason with himself as to why he’d stopped mid-swing with his knife only an inch from smashing Elihu’s head. The dark-haired prisoner sighed, rolling his eyes in over-exaggeration.
“You don’t hit me in the head you idiot, makes my brains all foggy. How am I supposed to tell you about how we ambushed your Ala squad if I can’t think straight? Go for the chest or back first, or maybe cut up an ankle or shoulder tendon. Hit me in the head, you might as well kiss your information goodbye. Just saying.”
The Ala took a step back, complete confusion washing over him like rainwater. He stared at Elihu in shock and, from what Elihu could read, a sense of awe.
“Who...who are you? You aren’t like the other Orion. Have I heard of you? Are you...one of-”
“Well, that’s a very interesting story-” Elihu began, his voice swelling as best it could with a broken nose.
Elihu was cut off mid sentence by a terrific scream. The Ala, who until a moment ago had been standing a few feet from Elihu, now had a good foot and a half of a sword blade erupting from his chest. The Ala could only stare in shock as the blade held firm, piercing him through entirely. A moment past, and as fast as it had penetrated, the sword retracted. The Ala only stood a second before falling in a bloody pile on the floor.
“...a story you will now never hear, I guess.” Elihu spoke disgustedly. “You know, you always kill them right when things are about to get interesting, Gabriel. I never know their reaction to finding out who I actually am.”
The dark-haired Ala warrior wiped off his sword-blade with the bottom piece of the dead torturer’s cloak, ignoring Elihu’s sarcastic comments. His face was stern, as was usual for the hardened fighter, the wrinkles and crises on his aged face set in a tense frown. It took him only a second before his sword was clean, and a second more to slice quickly through Elihu’s bonds.
Elihu fell to the floor with a thud, coughing up blood from his painfully broken nose. He grabbed at it with his hand, resulting in a wincing pain that seared up into his eye sockets. Ok, grabbing it is bad, he thought, now carefully holding his cracked nose as he rose to his feet. We’ll just...be gentle with it. Treat it like a women.
Gabriel was standing directly above Elihu as he stood, causing the half-Orion to start in surprise. Gabriel looked Elihu up and down quickly before shaking his head.
“You really need to learn to not get captured.”
“And you need to not stand directly in front of people as they are getting to their feet. You almost gave me a damn heart attack!”
Gabriel said nothing, he just stared at Elihu’s face. Elihu would have snorted, had it not resulted in an eruption of blood and pain. Nothing ever phases him, that guy. You’d think he just picked me up for a night on the town or something.
“Do you want me to heal that?” Gabriel asked, not having to point for Elihu to know what he was talking about. Elihu shrugged.
“Well, you know, I love not being able to see clearly and have gross nose-blood running down the front of my body, but-”
“Fine,” Gabriel turned to leave. Elihu reached out and grabbed the man’s dark grey coat, a staple of Gabriel’s wardrobe.
“Oh, give me a break. Grow a sense of humor, will you? Yes, I want it healed. Now, actually, would be ideal.”
Gabriel snorted, causing Elihu to again think about how that was something he couldn’t do, then reached out and gently touched the younger man’s nose. He moved his hand to Fiea, one of the few signs Elihu actually knew. Why learn something you’ll never use? He considered as Gabriel’s fingertips glowed a gentle blue. Wisps of El, like trails in a flowing river, gently curled around Elihu’s nose and up his nostrals. There was a painful jolt, this time Elihu did wince in pain, and then the excess El retracted. Elihu felt the blood flow stop, and was able to reach up and cautiously give his nose a quick grab.
“It’ll be fine, hurry up and get your clothes on.” Gabriel motioned, eyeing the cell door with anticipation. “We’ve needed you these past few days; your capture has set me back a great deal of time.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Elihu hissed as he used the dead Ala’s cloak to wipe off his chest and face. “Next time I’ll try and get captured less. Or, maybe I’ll just ask them nicely to not haul me off and torture me. I’m sure they’d just send me right back to you, and maybe even give me a parting gift! Do you like cheese? I’ll request some for you next time.”
“Shut up and get dressed,” Gabriel responded in a rare moment of exasperation. “I don’t have all day to listen to your incessant blathering.”
Ass, Elihu thought, eyeing the old Ala over with a sense of respite as he put on his wadded clothes. Like I owe him anything; I’ve saved him as often as he’s saved me. Well, nearly as often.
And here we go again! Expect more, more frequently. Maybe.
1: Pieces
“Are you going to torture me today, or should I come back?” Elihu quipped sarcastically from his perch. His arms and legs were bound tight as he hung from the ceiling of an Ala cell. The Ala had been asking lots of questions, and getting no answers, Elihu had made certain of that. And they still won’t get any, he grit his teeth in determination. Unless they developed some new, unheard of form of torture.
His cell was dark and dingy, dirty metal walls stained with blood. There were numerous devices for torture scattered throughout the room, including a whip, branding irons, and even a large steam-powered device that looked like it was both a rack and a drill. Efficient, saves space to put them together into one machine, Elihu thought, looking the dangerous device over. I’ll have to keep that in mind: one machine, multiple purposes. Kinda like my guns...ah, my guns.
They lay so close but just out of reach. The Ala had stripped Elihu down to his pants, taking anything that even resembled a weapon from him and piled all his belongings nearby. Now they lay, in a huddled mess, on a blood-stained wooden table. The table, like the rest of the cell, was a derelict chunk of rubble, a wonder it was still intact. Elihu jolted back and forth a little, his arms bound at the wrists above him, his feet securely tied beneath him. This put him about six inches off the ground, his back and chest fully exposed, their scar-ridden flesh spattered with a fresh dose of sweat and blood.
They’d whipped him at first, that much was pretty much standard for any form of Ala torture. Elihu had endured it wordlessly, his wincing hardly noticeable with each crack of the whip. This had only encouraged the captors, who had proceeded to beat him until he bled. But they didn’t get any satisfaction out of it, Elihu smiled half-heartedly, trying to ignore his throbbing back. And they won’t get any satisfaction out of any of this. I’ve been through all this before, more times then I can count.
It still hurts though, he added, watching curiously as his Ala torturer re-entered the room, this time carrying a long, serrated knife. He looked up at Elihu wordlessly, then grinned, the well-polished knife reflecting what little light was in the dark cell.
“You are a tough one to crack, Orion,” the Ala spoke in the Orion tongue, twisting the knife back in forth in front of Elihu’s face. “But believe me, we’ll get something out of you.”
“I sure hope not,” Elihu responded, ignoring the knife and grinning right back at the Ala torturer. “Then you’d have nothing left to do with me, and then I’d be made dead. Is that even something you can say? ‘Made dead’? Oh well, you get the point.”
Elihu’s mirth caught the torturer off guard, and for a moment confusion crossed his stern feature. He cocked his head, long blonde locks of hair rustling across his shoulder as he did. “Cheerful, huh? I don’t see that very often. I’ll be sure and give you some special treatment before I cut your heart out. You’re a nobody, you hear me? You’ll die like the rest of them?”
“Oh really? Well, I’m a Graj-damn legend! I’m already immortal!” He paused, then he rolled his eyes sheepishly. “Wow, that sounded a lot better in my head.”
The guard snorted, pushing the knife close to Elihu’s neck. Elihu didn’t so much as flinch, the feel of cold steel pressing hard against his skin. “You sure talk a lot, Orion. I’m going to enjoy cutting out your tongue. Maybe I’ll even do that first this time. Makes the screams so much more...carnal.”
“Well, if you torture as badly as you speak Orion, I have nothing to fear.” Elihu retorted. The guard could only stare, completely confused.
“You speak it badly, that’s what I’m trying to say,” Elihu explained, growing weary of the torturer’s apparent slowness. “You speak Orion horribly, and in so doing I assume you torture badly too. See, the joke totally sucks if I have to explain it. Can we just get on with this before it’s too late?”
The guard blinked, but his face wasn’t lacking intelligence. He knows what I’m saying, he’s just ignoring me, Elihu snorted. I’m feeding him some of the best lines he’ll ever hear on this job, and he’s just going to cut me up like everybody else. This is really a grievous loss.
As if to prove his point, the Ala suddenly bashed Elihu across the face with the butt of the knife. Elihu felt his nose break in two places, accompanied by a horrible cracking sound.
Ow. Very ow.
He coughed and tried to blow the blood from his nose, which only resulted in it dribbling down his face. The half-Ala spat, trying to keep the blood from his lips. Last thing I need is a mouth full of blood and snot, he coughed, his vision slowly clearing. I like being able to breath when they do this.
The Ala was looking Elihu over gleefully, admiring his blow. Elihu spat, then rose his head. He suddenly grinned again, despite the fact that his face was now covered in blood. This must be quite the horrific sight.
“Really? The nose? What the hell is wrong with you? You don’t break the nose first, then when I cave and give you information it sounds all nasally and I have to repeat it like twenty times. Ah, wait, not there either!”
The butt of the knife was only an inch from his forehead when the Ala stopped, mid swing. He eyed Elihu, the expression on his face one Elihu would later describe as “priceless.” His eyes were wide, unable to reason with himself as to why he’d stopped mid-swing with his knife only an inch from smashing Elihu’s head. The dark-haired prisoner sighed, rolling his eyes in over-exaggeration.
“You don’t hit me in the head you idiot, makes my brains all foggy. How am I supposed to tell you about how we ambushed your Ala squad if I can’t think straight? Go for the chest or back first, or maybe cut up an ankle or shoulder tendon. Hit me in the head, you might as well kiss your information goodbye. Just saying.”
The Ala took a step back, complete confusion washing over him like rainwater. He stared at Elihu in shock and, from what Elihu could read, a sense of awe.
“Who...who are you? You aren’t like the other Orion. Have I heard of you? Are you...one of-”
“Well, that’s a very interesting story-” Elihu began, his voice swelling as best it could with a broken nose.
Elihu was cut off mid sentence by a terrific scream. The Ala, who until a moment ago had been standing a few feet from Elihu, now had a good foot and a half of a sword blade erupting from his chest. The Ala could only stare in shock as the blade held firm, piercing him through entirely. A moment past, and as fast as it had penetrated, the sword retracted. The Ala only stood a second before falling in a bloody pile on the floor.
“...a story you will now never hear, I guess.” Elihu spoke disgustedly. “You know, you always kill them right when things are about to get interesting, Gabriel. I never know their reaction to finding out who I actually am.”
The dark-haired Ala warrior wiped off his sword-blade with the bottom piece of the dead torturer’s cloak, ignoring Elihu’s sarcastic comments. His face was stern, as was usual for the hardened fighter, the wrinkles and crises on his aged face set in a tense frown. It took him only a second before his sword was clean, and a second more to slice quickly through Elihu’s bonds.
Elihu fell to the floor with a thud, coughing up blood from his painfully broken nose. He grabbed at it with his hand, resulting in a wincing pain that seared up into his eye sockets. Ok, grabbing it is bad, he thought, now carefully holding his cracked nose as he rose to his feet. We’ll just...be gentle with it. Treat it like a women.
Gabriel was standing directly above Elihu as he stood, causing the half-Orion to start in surprise. Gabriel looked Elihu up and down quickly before shaking his head.
“You really need to learn to not get captured.”
“And you need to not stand directly in front of people as they are getting to their feet. You almost gave me a damn heart attack!”
Gabriel said nothing, he just stared at Elihu’s face. Elihu would have snorted, had it not resulted in an eruption of blood and pain. Nothing ever phases him, that guy. You’d think he just picked me up for a night on the town or something.
“Do you want me to heal that?” Gabriel asked, not having to point for Elihu to know what he was talking about. Elihu shrugged.
“Well, you know, I love not being able to see clearly and have gross nose-blood running down the front of my body, but-”
“Fine,” Gabriel turned to leave. Elihu reached out and grabbed the man’s dark grey coat, a staple of Gabriel’s wardrobe.
“Oh, give me a break. Grow a sense of humor, will you? Yes, I want it healed. Now, actually, would be ideal.”
Gabriel snorted, causing Elihu to again think about how that was something he couldn’t do, then reached out and gently touched the younger man’s nose. He moved his hand to Fiea, one of the few signs Elihu actually knew. Why learn something you’ll never use? He considered as Gabriel’s fingertips glowed a gentle blue. Wisps of El, like trails in a flowing river, gently curled around Elihu’s nose and up his nostrals. There was a painful jolt, this time Elihu did wince in pain, and then the excess El retracted. Elihu felt the blood flow stop, and was able to reach up and cautiously give his nose a quick grab.
“It’ll be fine, hurry up and get your clothes on.” Gabriel motioned, eyeing the cell door with anticipation. “We’ve needed you these past few days; your capture has set me back a great deal of time.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Elihu hissed as he used the dead Ala’s cloak to wipe off his chest and face. “Next time I’ll try and get captured less. Or, maybe I’ll just ask them nicely to not haul me off and torture me. I’m sure they’d just send me right back to you, and maybe even give me a parting gift! Do you like cheese? I’ll request some for you next time.”
“Shut up and get dressed,” Gabriel responded in a rare moment of exasperation. “I don’t have all day to listen to your incessant blathering.”
Ass, Elihu thought, eyeing the old Ala over with a sense of respite as he put on his wadded clothes. Like I owe him anything; I’ve saved him as often as he’s saved me. Well, nearly as often.