Two Kind Hands

A 45-post collection

Challenge #03915-J263: Two Kind Hands

They HATED the damn teufs with a passion!

They were shocked when they awakened in a medic tent, bandaged heavily after thinking they had died during that rock-fall, surrounded by teuf medics who'd worked hard to save them and their entire band from dying of the injuries.

Note -- Yes I know that's a derogatory term used by those who hate hellkin. It's how the person views the individuals, sadly. -- Fighting Fit

They should be dead. The avalanche had crashed down on them and that hefty, bruising end should have been the last of it. Emryn didn't expect to wake up at all, and if they did, they expected a lot more pain than this. They expected rocks under their back and at least a Kobold gnawing on a limb.

There was a bed. Soft and comfortable and scented with herbs. Sheets that smelled of sunshine. A curtain between them and the rest of the world. A simple ceiling. The smell of healing balm and the itch of splints and bandages.

Alive. Aching and mildly uncomfortable, but a vast improvement on expectations.

Emryn tried to give voice to a prayer of thanks, and found the ability lacking. Their voice was weak and breathing deeply was painful. They fell to panting and gasping. Still better than a death by crushing and suffocation.

That's what they were wont to believe until they saw what had rescued them.

The Cleric wore the sunrise symbol of the Dawn Lord, but that was not Emryn focussed on. What gained Emryn's attention were the horns on their head, the ruddy hue of their skin, and the claws on their hand. A Hellkin! Corrupting a Cleric's sanctified robes.

"Fucking teuf," Emryn spat, and coughed so hard their ribs. "Get away from me! Don't you dare get your corruption on me!"

"My the lightbringer forgive you," said the devilborn. "I take it you have an objection to people of colour."

"I have an object--" cough cough gasp. "An objection... to filthy Hellkin stealing... air from decent people."

"I see," said the fiend. "I will find someone you will be amenable to."

Thank the gods that beast left. Emryn could relax. They could sleep. The next figure over their bed was a half-Elf with a frown on their nearly-perfect features.

"You're an idiot," said the halfbred.

"And you're a mutt," said Emryn. "At least you're miles better than the damn dirty teuf."

"Say that word again and lose an eye," threatened the mutt.

"What?"

"You're in a village full of Hellkin, dipshit. They busted their tails digging you all out of that pass and spent half of everything they had just to keep you alive. I can't heal a fucking mosquito bite, but you'd rather get treatment from me than the best healer in the entire valley."

"Devilborn only want to kill. They're not..." cough cough, "...gonna eat my blood."

The halfbred said the most insulting words that Emryn had ever heard, "They would never want your blood. Not so much as one drop."

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Prompts remaining: 82 Submit a Prompt!
[Ask a question (http://www.internutter.org/bb/category/4/comments-feedback)!

Challenge #03890-J238: Between a Rock and...

A human child hidden in a small cubby made of stone throws fireballs at the powerful wizard and hir friends. The child is calmed, the ones there are not the hunters. When they come out, everyone sees what they're protecting. Skinny, frightened, other children, some wearing chains, who've been on the run far too long. -- Anon Guest

It looked like a small crack between the stones of the pass, with just enough room nearby for a band of travellers to stop

Read more »

Challenge #03887-J235: Kind Hands of Faith

In the center of the town, a huge Temple of Helping Hands. An Academy of Magic is within the town, and children are brought to the temple starting at the age of 5 for baptism and to learn the ways of the Helping Hands. And who is it this entire rare town worships? The living god known as Wraithvine. His words are their codes of life itself. -- Anon Guest

These are the commandments of Wraithvine the Wanderer, so that we may

Read more »

Challenge #03882-J230: Help When Needed

A Havenworld, a resort planet very popular with the extremely rich, an Alliance world, is opening its doors to thousands of homeless Deregger refugees. The Deregger CEO's laugh, thinking the Alliance wealthy are about sue the CRC into oblivion. They're shocked when the wealthy in the Alliance offer funds to help those in need. -- The New Guy

An incontrovertible law of the space-traveling universe is: Always answer a distress call, for the distress in question may one day be yours. Even

Read more »

Challenge #03879-J227: Ill Met by Stormlight

They met with a family at the inn. The children were coughing with colds, and the parents were tired, trying to get their children to nap. -- Anon Guest

Hellkin deal with the animosity they face in several ways. The most eloquent way of putting it was oft repeated between the elder and the younger ones.

"There's two ways to go when the world hates you for being alive. You either be worse than what they say you are, or try yourself

Read more »

Challenge #03869-J217: Enlightened Self-Interest

Even elves can catch a cold. Wraithvine comes down with a bad case of the sniffles. -- Anon Guest

[AN: This hits different now that I'm in the process of fighting one of them off]

One of the undeniable rules of the world is thus: Elves do not sleep. Well. The adult ones do not. As an Elf grows to physical maturity, they learn and adapt to a discipline of meditation that puts them into a peaceful reverie. It connects them to

Read more »

Challenge #03840-J188: Foundling Families

A dying human with a kind heart had been given a Wishing Stone. Clutched in the elderly hand, they made their wish. All children, especially infants, in their world abandoned in middens, abandoned in the forests, or otherwise left to die in would vanish from the place that would otherwise be their deathbeds, and reappear in a place there they could be safe and grow up cared for. That final wish, cost them their final breath, but they died peacefully knowing many

Read more »

Challenge #03788-J135: Children Born in Fall...

What is the worst two times to travel? Late Fall and Early Spring. It was cold, the ground was soaked, sometimes half-frozen, there were icy puddles, it rained unexpectedly and the rain was icy cold, the wind was cold and often damp, it was miserable. Yet through this mess they still slogged, carrying their burdens. As the two young infants whimpered, Gikka and the young apprentice each also carrying an infant in their arms, it wouldn't be long now before they got

Read more »

Challenge #03725-J072: Seeds of Hope

How do you define power? Is it the ability to hold someone's life in your hands? Is it the amount of magic you have? Or is it how physically strong and fast you are? Is it your intelligence and how much you know? No, I don't think so. Power is, and is not, all of those things. But more to the point, it is about being able to reach out, even a little bit, and help others in need. Remember, the smallest

Read more »

Challenge #03714-J061: Change a Life, Change the World

Wraithvine to the pickpocket. "What are you doing?"

The pickpocket to Wraithvine. "I'm hungry."

Gikka, smiling. "We have a cure for that." -- Anon Guest

Some precautions are very wise to heed. Never eat a Kobold's cooking without knowing exactly what went into it. Never call a Hellkin 'teuf' if you want to live the day. And never, ever try to pick a pocket of a Wizard.

Scram was finding this out, looking to get one of the sweet buns

Read more »

Challenge #03705-J052: Little Help

Some kids, with their parent's permission, start the Helping Hands Club. They're out to help anyone they can, however they can, within reason. -- The New Guy

They met in Tal's Mum's gazebo, where the shade was plentiful and the area to do plans in was large. Tal had a knack for making hir plans larger than they needed to be.

Ann's Da was in charge of the tools and materials for the simpler plans, and he helped with a lot of

Read more »

Challenge #03662-J009: Gentle Corrections

Two travelers: a massive bugbear, and a small half-fae. The bugbear, a priest of the Church of Wraithvine, soothing, kind, soft-spoken; the half-fae, fierce, a warrior, and the bugbear's protector. Unfortunately, people get them mixed up all the time, much to their detriment. -- Fighting Fit

[AN: I have, in the world of Alfarell, fae-kin: people who came from, or are related to people who came from the Plane of Magic, also known as Nanogh. So that means I can make up

Read more »

Challenge #03650-I362: Follow Their Lead

A group of Deregger rescues have recently been released from therapy. It took a while, there was a lot of pain to work through. They go to Respite Station to live, and find the owner, or whoever runs the place, to ask if they can work here.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03549-i260-time-enough-and-care -- The New Guy

Two kind hands, it is said, can change the world around them. Hands aren't even necessary, but it does make the saying that much snappier.

Read more »

Challenge #03630-I342: And Two Hands For You

A person finds Wraithvine and friends. They present hir with boots made especially for long, hard, wearing, with spells embedded in the boots to boost longevity of the materials, though they were well made to be proofed even against mud and water. Also new clothes also made for centuries of wearing, and a brand new heavy winter clothing. The same person made clothing and new footwear for hir friends, and even a little winter jacket for Lilbit, though was unsure how to

Read more »

Challenge #03625-I337: Small Acts of Mercy

A drunk person stumbles out into the street and grabs and kisses Wraithvine before passing out from the drink. They are very apologetic for their behavior in the morning. -- Anon Guest

The morning after the night before. Where ev'ry hair on your body is sore...

Such words had never been truer for Luane Emberguard, waking up to the very concept that fingernails could ache. Where the memories of the previous evening were vague, fragmentary, and always regrettable.

Someone poured liquid into

Read more »