ORIGIN

Luna would get a few moment's blissful rest before the peace of Pegasus was broken by a short, shrill scream from somewhere quite close by. It wasn't a Greater Gembound scream, but the perhaps recognizable squeal of a small prey animal in pain--a large rat, maybe, or one of Pegasus's rabbits.

Then a voice, drifting in and out on the wind. The words were refined and rapid-fire, thoughtful, but whether it was someone with an audience or a monologue by a madman there could be no saying without approach. "Heart rate increasing. Bile--no, no, I do not think that is a good idea, not yet! Wait, and watch--patience, my friend. There--yes--stuttering. They die, you know, if pressed too far. So! This will calm it."

Should Luna at any point approach she'd see the mantled wings and back of a large, dark brown vulture: a shaggy heap of feathers hunched over... whatever he was doing. The squealing had long since stopped.

"...There! Rate decreasing, you see-? And--you see?--the pupils? And magically speaking--yes, yes. I see it now--look, its systems are all slowing. Cellular, that is!"

Doctor danced left and right with brief hops, peering down at the Wind Hopper on the stone before him. Its face was a smear of green fluids, and a gourd--dried, hollowed out and serving as a jug--was half-filled with more of the same. "It is a sedative, then. As we suspected!" The big bird had excitement in his tone.

The feathered head that swung toward Luna fixed on her with an expression that suggested it were blinking in surprise--though there was nothing visible behind the gleaming luster of his goggles. But at once he hopped aside, sweeping one wing in a brief gesture toward his experiment.

Said experiment was the wind hopper splayed on its back atop a rock. Whatever other injuries it might have had were unclear given its now unconscious state: limp, eyes closed, breathing slowed somewhat. The green goop around its lax mouth clearly came from a nearby gourd, and smelled both sharp and herbal.

"Hello, hello! -I haven't disturbed? I hope? Not my intent--not my plan! I am Doctor, and I am working, you see," the vulture explained, cheerfully polite. "Advancing medicine! Forging forward with science!" For a moment he paused, tilting his head, his enthusiasm fading into something like confusion. Then he shook himself (with a brief indistinct mutter) and looked at Luna again. "If you are interested, I would be glad to discuss!" Then he was peering over her, looking perhaps a little too intently. "Fascinating!" he murmured.

The vulture brightened, wholly unaware of any hesitation on Luna's end. No--enthusiasm pervaded his words as he responded, the fidgeting of taloned feet further indication of his professional excitement. "Ahh, it would be so lovely to discuss with a colleague!" he practically chirped, though what exact criteria he was drawing upon to declare his guest a "colleague" was not immediately clear.

Either way, he at once hopped away again, shuffling around the Wind Hopper, gesturing with beak and feathers and the occasional point of a talon as he gushed about his topic. "As I do not know which words you mean, I will gladly explain them all! Medicine is the treatment of wounds, of injuries and sickness! Advancing it means to forge forward and gain new knowledge! It is progress," he added, feathers ruffled up a bit with pride. "Science is the field and the process! It can be unpleasant, of course," he admitted, glancing at the Hopper. "And most of my subjects, of course, are Lessers. While some things can only be tested on creatures such as you and I, the ethics gets... ahh... foggy." A pause, another staring off at nothing, and he ruffled up again. "Pain! Can be a terrible thing," he explained.

Feet scuffed around the stone, beak gently and briefly prodding at the Hopper. It did not stir. "If there were internal wounds, or a bone that required splinting--well! It can be painful! But some plants, some herbs--ahh! Do you see?" He stared up at Luna again, goggles gleaming like giant, glassy bug eyes. "A deep sleep, unconsciousness, unawareness of the treatment to restore health! A mercy, a deep slumber as the bone is set or the organs repaired!" Then he fell still, silent, staring expectantly at Luna with what almost seemed like hope.

Hope, maybe, that he'd found someone to share his craft. Or maybe he was just very excited at his find.

Doctor listened, head tilting this way, then that, his own energy frenetic. Wings ruffled, feet shuffled this way and that; the feathers of his tail fanned and closed. His beak moved, open and shut, open and shut, as if all of whatever drove him was simply too much to contain.

"Ahh... Ethics, yes, like morals! Yes!" he exclaimed, at last, when Luna's words and questions had been voiced. He paused, then, thinking, that head tilting sideways again. His goggles gleamed sickly green with the dimmed reflection of the trees as he froze up. At length he shook his head, bursting back into movement. "Certainly, morality is a subjective thing, yes? Mine are not yours, and some of the creatures of the caves," he added, mind shooting back to the Forge--whom even he had left to their devices-- "well. They have their own. Or none at all! I will now explain what I believe!" That so certainly declared, he ruffled himself, stood stiffly upright, and launched right into it. "I have seen Greaters with terrible wounds! Certainly one Lesser's suffering is still suffering," and a wing gestured to it, "But, ahh--one must eat. And should this mean I find my answers, and you are so wounded tomorrow, or next cycle--well, I now know how to treat it! One wounded, to ensure that all of those later can be treated--it is worth it, yes? That is the cost of progress. A scientist must test, explore options; to know how to fix a broken bone, I must break a bone and try a method! It works... or it does not; and now I know for next time. Hmm?" he beamed, sure of himself and his logic.

"As for the chrysalis, yes! Sleep is a little chrysalis; a chrysalis is a very large sleep. A magic slumber," he clarified, with another sweep of a wing in gesture, "and capable of inflicting changes a regular sleep cannot--as far as I'm aware," he added, suddenly slowing.

The thought had occurred to him; could minor mutations occur during a regular sleep-? And now, lost in that thought, he fell briefly (maybe blessedly) silent.

He listened in attentive silence--yet the constant shuffle of a talon or ruffle of a wing, though subtle, betrayed his constant frenetic energy. He was invested; he was involved. He was interested in everything Luna had to say, so much so that he found it difficult not to interject with another excited point.

When she had finished, he straightened, and past the rigidity of the beak it almost looked as though he were beaming. "Excellent questions!" he cried. "I begin with the first, yes-? I value Greater lives more highly," and it was half a question, half a correction. He was assuming that Luna had simply stumbled on her words a bit. "Now, as to why?" He turned, pacing around the motionless rabbit on the rock. "I must give that question consideration. Well--I suppose that those who can speak, think, they are our allies, yes-? And these poor creatures, well." A taloned foot reached out, gently prodding a flaccid, pale-furred belly. "They are food. That is not to say one cannot experiment with a Greater's treatments, of course! Now, I do not advocate inflicting, ahh, unnecessary pain, and perhaps here it is best to answer your next question first--on progress!" He paused, shuffling to fully face Luna, calling on his magic.

"For one thing, my magic allows me to see the micro-fields inside of your body." That was not, of course, a proper name. Gut biome, maybe. But 'fields'--well, he imagined them akin to Pegasus's sprawling grasslands and forests. "The life sparkling within us all, too small to see with the eye alone. But! Seeing is not understanding! Having inspected the Lessers I eat, before I eat them--but after I use my magic--I have learned to correlate ill health with infection, strong health with a balanced field of internal life--it is fascinating! Truly fascinating." He leaned in, feathers fluffed up with excitement. "Through these methods I have learned to set a broken bone without the need for a chrysalis," and ahh, that had come with trial and error. "The appearance and function of some internal organs... and the symptoms of their dysfunction! The treatment of burns and wounds, and infection--infection is sinister," he went on, now pacing again, a tut-tut click of his beak accompanying a grimly shaking head. "Even a minor wound can be fatal without the proper cleansing, treatment! It--ahh, oh, I do not want to bore you with too many details. There are many things I have learned and it would take weeks to explain them all in detail." He stopped, turning to Luna again, once more brightening. "But! At least with the chrysalis, I can show you an answer."

Doctor paused, leaning his head down and lifting up a long-taloned foot (those claws were huge, hooked, and wicked--but he was delicate with their use). Carefully, he pulled down the goggles a little, to display strange button-shaped 'eyes' of his gemstone beneath. There were no true eyes to be seen. "A little mishap some time back," he explained. "The stone, for whatever reason--guided, I think, by another creature's magic--exchanged my eyes for these. The goggles give me sight again. Of a sort." He pulled them carefully back on, tugging them into place, and settled to peer happily at Luna. (Oh, an audience! -A companion!)

"So! Tell me--what do you think? If you have not considered your morality before--perhaps do so now? I would so love to hear, to listen, to your thoughts on it! Your process, your conclusions-!" He had a hopeful tone as he settled in, as though he wanted nothing more than to hear Luna return his speeches in kind.