He knew even the slightest movement would cause pain to shoot through her entire body. And as much as Oliver didn't want her to suffer any more than she is going through at the moment, she needed to replenish her energy. She was losing too much blood, and that was getting dangerous as each minute ticked by. The grateful smile that had appeared on her lips somehow gave Oliver hope that this was all going to work out well. She was strong. She could get through this.
Nodding grimly as she told him what to do, Oliver rolled up his sleeves and started to poise himself to get things over and done with as soon as possible. Sir Sigfried had moved closer to help hold the young woman's shoulder down and keep the arrow steady as Oliver deftly broke most of the shaft off. Without a word, Oliver hitched her top up to find the knife on her belt, trying to be as discreet and respectful as he could when his hand grazed her midsection. He handed the knife to Lot who immediately placed it over the burning fire, letting it heat up as she had instructed.
Oliver gathered half of the white moss and prepared to put it around the shaft on the wound. "I thought you should know that what hit you was a hunting arrow. Sharp, hard and serrated. It will not be easy taking it out," he said, hoping this knowledge would help her prepare more for what was coming. Oliver had been hit by an arrow before on his leg, and he remembered screaming like a kid when they pushed it out the other side of his leg instead of pulling it back out. He couldn't help the silent curse that he had escaped him as he kicked himself for being so careless as to let lose an arrow without seeing his target. He should have known better.
As soon as the knife was glowing hot and ready, Lot handed it back to Oliver. "Why am I not so confident about this?" he remarked. He tried to make conversation to hopefully lighten the mood. His own worry and panic was starting to get the better of him, and he knew he needed to stay focus and concentrate to get this task done, with the young woman emerging alive and well in the end.
She had known it would get nasty and she had tried to brace herself for the pain, but that didn’t help Yassia much as they now took hold of the arrow to break of its shaft. It was a good thing one man was holding her shoulder down, because if not she would have reared up in sheer agony and maybe would have caused the arrow to push itself even deeper into her shoulder. Now that would so not be good…
Yassia had bit her lip so hard she now tasted blood, but she couldn’t help the painstricken hiss that escaped her the moment the shaft was broken. For a moment she felt dizzy again, but she forced it back with all her might. If she could not stand through this, she would have even more difficulty with the next step. And that couldn’t be! She was maybe not a warrior and used to feel pain, but she had suffered so much already, had gone through so many ordeals that a simple arrow now would not be her undoing. If anything, she was simply too stubborn to let that happen!
The pain had momentarily numbed all other sensations, so Yassia was a little surprised to find, she hadn’t even noticed the young man taking her knife from it’s sheath on her belt. Well, that also meant he hadn’t lingered there long, which was only fortunate. If anything, he seemed to be honorable, like his companions as well. Not once they had given any comment about having shot a woman or anything like that you might even expect from a bunch of men like them, obviously on a hunting trip. On the contrary, those who were not occupied with saving her immediately, didn’t even seem to take too much notice of her. It reassured Yassia deeply, as it made focusing on her injury all the easier if she did not have to look out for her integrity constantly as well.
Yassia puckered up her face as she heard the man’s even halfway sheepish explanation. Sharp and serrated?! Just her luck apparently! “Ugh, well thanks a lot!” she grumbled, still panting heavily. “When you come you come in style eh?” But she was in no mood now to blame him, that would come later. For now that little jibe would have to do. She took another deep breath of preparation, and then explained: “That is why you have to cut it out… with the flaming knife. It…” she had to gulp a wave of sudden nausea down, “Like this it will cut easier through flesh and it will also cauterize the wound. Scrape the flesh from the barbs if you have to, but rather cut it out than push it through.” Bravely said though the sheer mentioning of scraping flesh made her stomach very queasy. It would hurt enough whithout that. And it would leave nasty scar, depending on how well he worked. But now was not the time to be vain.
The timing seemed perfect. Just as Yassia deemed the white moss must have had enough time to stop the majority of the bloodflow, the other man returned with the knife. Once out of the fire the white-hot color slowly turned to yellow and then to a light orange. Yassia knew that only a very distinctive color of the blade would make it still hot enough to cut with a good effect, but not causing too much internal damage.
”Keep it ready”, she whispered hoarsly, suddenly shivering. It was one thing to inflict this on a patient, it was completely other thing to knowingly be doing this to yourself. “When I say ‘now’ make first a cut to the right and then to the left, as close to the arrowhead as you can get… wait…wait…” the knife turned just the right shade of orange. “NOW!” Yassia’s hand dug into the leafy ground in preparation.
