Trisha clenched her teeth and shut her eyes tightly. Before Tommy could bite too deeply, she lifted her feet off the floor, at the same time attempting to send a wave of her own will into him. The sudden shift in weight, with the wet floor on the smooth stone underneath, caused them to tumble over.
His hands loosened their grip just enough for Trisha to scramble away. In the small confines of the bathroom though, she hit her head against the counter. Her vision swam and she stumbled to the door. Tommy was also regaining his footing.
He reached out to grab her again, but Trisha forced herself forward, frantically avoiding his reach. She rolled through the doorway, slamming it shut behind her just as the impact of Tommy's body against it rang out.
Laborious breathing could be heard on either side of the door. Tommy inside the bathroom with ragged harsh inconsistent breaths, and Trisha outside trembling with the shallow gasps of fear.
She crawled to the wall and sat up against it, her hand was on her neck and she stared at the door. As soon as her fingers covered her neck she was flushed with pain. Light red blood seeped from between her fingers.
Her knees came up to her chest, and she sat quietly, making herself as small as possible. Despite the door in-between, Trisha's eyes settled unfocused on her husband.
Tommy was pressing his body against the other side, repeatedly knocking into the door trying to open it. Every time he did, Trisha would flinch. Finally though, after a few minutes, she began to get up.
Her hand was still on her neck, and her mind had not yet caught up with her body. She took one shaky step towards the door.
The knocking on the other side had ceased, and the heavy breathing that had been present before was no longer audible. Trisha too held her breath, listening for anything, anything that could explain what was going on.
She reached a hand out to the door. Only a few inches remained between, she was about to touch it when in that moment another sharp bang occurred.
Trisha immediately retracted her hand, almost losing her balance as she stumbled back. She leaned against the wall for a moment, eyes wide and heart pounding. Her mind was a scrambled mess. Everything had occurred too quickly for her to comprehend.
She had tried to reach out to her husband, but she felt nothing on the other side of the door.
Her feet once again moved before her mind could catch up. Her pale form running out of the house Tahmel and her had built together many years before.
She ran out to the street and looked around wildly, her hand was still on her neck. By this point her hand had become stained red with her own blood.
There were not many people out at this time - it was still too early. However, the people who were out saw Trisha and stared in confusion. They could feel that her entire aura was in disarray.
"Trisha?"
"What's going on?"
"Are you okay?"
"Trisha what happened?"
All of the people who had reached out mentally to try and talk with her, were only responded to with feelings of dismay and confusion. They could not make sense of it. They quickly made to approach to calm the young woman.
A large hand appeared then and rested on Trisha's shoulder. She immediately dropped to her knees and tumbled away. Her heart had almost lurched out of her chest at the sudden contact.
"Trisha… what's wrong? Quickly come with me." Behind her stood a very large and burly earth attuned man named Pride.
If Noone had been there he would have recognized him immediately, this was the man who had wrestled with him on numerous occasions, after a round of drinks. Strapped to the man's chest and back were two large crates containing jars of soup. He had been approached by Porose a day before to help him deliver soup around, so Porose could focus his attention on making it. Pride had agreed immediately.
Although he may seem rambunctious and simple-minded, when sober he was a proud but reliable man. Although certainly not the most-clever individual in Tapestry, he was a very secure and a sturdy person. When Trisha saw the Jars of soup strapped to him, her mind cleared a bit.
"Please, take me to Porose quickly." Pride was swift to respond, helping her to her feet.
At first she was unsteady, using Pride for support. But after a moment she remained standing.
"Okay Trisha, follow me, let's get you out of the street." He eyed her neck and saw the blood that was on her hand which had been dripping down to her blouse.
Pride had been en route to deliver soup and check in on her and Tahmel at the behest of Porose. But while he was a little way's away, he had seen her dash out of the house and followed behind her quickly.
Pride took a glance back at the house but refrained on asking about Tommy. He had no clue what was going on but… he had a bitter feeling in his stomach. Whatever happened, Pride was sure it was nothing good.
He looked back at Trisha… a palpable aura of fear surrounded her. Through the link of Common Heritage, it was even starting to affect him.
Eventually they rounded the corner to an alley and Pride opened a door for Trisha. She immediately went inside, calling out for Porose.
"Trisha?" Porose appeared from one of the side rooms, in his arms were numerous ingredients. On the floor of the main room were now a number of pots boiling, creating a hot oily feeling in the kitchen.
When Porose saw Trisha holding onto her bloody neck, he dropped all the ingredients he was holding and approached her.
"Trisha." He looked at Pride who was behind her. "What is going on?" before pride could respond though Porose continued. "Quickly, go into the storage room and grab high grade healing ointment. We need to stop the bleeding first." He motioned to one of the rooms closest to them.
Pride nodded, quickly finding it on the shelves.
Many of the people in Tapestry were not used to the sight of blood. Especially not blood in such an extreme situation. There were healers in Tapestry who had seen worse, but all the wounds were things that occurred because of work injuries. And of these, the majority of the injured were miners.
Porose could not understand how Trisha came to be injured in such a place.
He grabbed a cloth from his apron that was still clean and poured a large amount of healing ointment onto it. He was unsure what he was going to see when he asked Trisha to move her hand, but he wanted to be able to heal it immediately before she lost any more blood.
"Trisha. Trisha look at me." She looked at Porose, her neck was throbbing and now that most of the adrenaline had passed, she was in immense pain and her head was foggy. "Trisha, I need you to move your hand. I am going to put this on, okay?"
"Okay," her voice was hoarse with pain. She took a deep breath and felt slightly nauseous.
Finally, she looked right at Porose and removed her hand from her neck. All of the pressure she had been supplying was immediately released, and the blood began to flow out of the wound. It took Porose less than a second to apply the cloth, keeping pressure on it and forcing the ointment into the wound.
In that second though, he had clearly seen it. There was a bite mark on her neck.