She studied the new giant, tilting her head a little. What a big tail they had! What was it, some sort of big dog? The word she wanted rose to her mind like a bubble floating to the surface, and she knew they were a wolf. A hurt wolf, judging by that shoulder and the tired look in their eyes, the slow way they sat down to speak with her. Maybe they got into a bad fight like the burned giant she encountered a while ago, the one named Vazi.
Personally she didn't see the point in fighting, if it made one so outrageously hurt. But without fighting, she would have no one to practice her healing magic on, so she disregarded the notion for the moment.
"Arkrael," She said with her spiderweb raspy voice, testing out the word. It was dignified, and she liked it. A smart, elegant name for a polite and rational wolf. "I'm Cayenne. It's nice to meet you." She peered at the shoulder rather pointedly and without subtlety and said, "I can help with that, if you'd like. Looks recent. Should hurt a lot."
Cayenne ruffled through her bag and muttered, "I have a lot of Tamusen and Iceberry leaves, but I don't think you'd want any Dormire, unless you have other wounds I don't see right now," She peered up at Arkrael. "Were you protecting someone too?"
@Arkrael
Cayenne watched the wolf sit down slowly, noting things in her head. Tired, probably muscle fatigue, either caused by physical or magical exertion; she didn't have the expertise to tell yet. She could see some smaller gashes along her side that were mostly hidden by her fur, along with the obvious one in her shoulder, but that was all she could tell. The wolf probably had some bruises, but other than behavior cues that favored the area, Cayenne couldn't pinpoint it on sight.
She pulled out some of the leaves, using more red ones than blue this time, and started to chew it, letting the soft pulp make her tongue go numb as she listened to Arkrael. "I take it she's over there, then? Where you keep looking?" She said, putting the pulp into her mixing acorn, which had a small layer down at the bottom of this nice, sweetly sticky substance she found protected by insects she found a while back. It was clean, and it would keep the substance sticky so that her leaves would stay on the wound longer and would remain so longer than just the pulp. Eventually the stuff by itself would dry out and crack after the second day; with smaller cuts, this was desirable, but with bigger wounds it was problematic. She mixed the honey colored sticky mass with the pulp, making this warm amber colored goop.
She eyed the gash. She'd probably have to go get more, but that was fine. It was really close by.
Cayenne climbed on top of the wolf's paw for better access to the big wound and started covering it with her goop. "This will make it feel cool and numb, and then I'll put leaves on top so it doesn't get dirty." She said softly. "So....is she okay? Emotionally? I imagine being in the middle of a fight would be terrifying."
She paused. "We can go to her, if you're worried."
Arkrael gave a curt nod in answer to her first question. If anything the cub was probably still asleep. Her gaze pulled away from the direction of her den and looked to Cayenne when she had stepped up to her paw. "Emotionally I'm not so sure..." She commented softly as she mused over how the goop felt upon her wound. She had expected it to sting and hurt, but just as Cayenne had explained it had cooled and numbed instead. She was mildly relieved by this as she most certainly done feeling pain at the moment. "She hasn't said much. Has only given me her name and she rarely moved from the spot she's curled up in unless I have brought her food," she sighed heavily pinning her ears back against her heAd. She had been worried about the cub, but she would push her too much. She needed to know more about her. If she had a home, or a family back in Orion, or if she had simply been passing through Orin when Vazi had caught her. It was all just a big mess and she knew soon she would have to look to others for assistance. She would not be able to take him on plus anyone he may think to use.
"If you wouldn't mind checking her out shortly, that would be wonderful. Maybe she'll feel more relaxed with someone her size," it was a small tease mostly directed at herself. She knew Vazi must have been frighteningly huge to the cub he had attack and she was only half the size he was. Hell her ears reach to just the bottom of his neck. She ruffled her tail a moment before turning her focus back go Cayenne. "If you need help with finding any...leaves or such you may need to replenish for what you're using in me let me know. It may take me a bit to find the right ones, but I'm sure I could sniff them out," she offered a kind smile to the little gembound as her tail gave a light wag. It was the least she could do to help Cayenne for her own generosity.
Words: 365
@Cayenne
Cayenne listened, slowly covering the wound, and when it was done, she took some large broad leaves from her pack that she had washed before and placed them on the sticky mass. They stayed there very nicely, even when tugged. "After your wound starts to become itchy, go to a river or a lake and wash all of this off as gently as you can. It will have scabbed over by then. Unfortunately it'll leave a really big scar."
She hadn't had the chance to deal with trauma yet, which excited her in a knowledge-seeking way. As she grew older, more and more words bubbled up in her mind like puzzle pieces fitting a long and elaborate jigsaw, words like terrified, shock, catatonia, and so on. She knew what the words meant, but she had yet to see it in person.
"Well, you shoulder is done. We can go and see her now, if you like, and I can see her first, before tending to the smaller cuts on your side. Whatever you'd prefer, Arkrael."
She paused again, thinking over the supply she'd collected and what she'd already used. "I'll take you up on your offer if I need something for your cub that I don't have. Maybe something that soothes." She thought a little while, as she made more amber goop. "There's a plant not far from here, that when burned, creates a sweet smelling smoke that relaxes you when you breathe it. I didn't grab more than two or three leaves because I don't have a way to burn them easily. It has big leaves with pointy edges, like teeth, almost, and it has yellow berries."
@Arkrael
"Thank you," She said, both in response to the offer to climb her fur and when she said she'd get some of the soothing plant. Cayenne climbed up to Arkrael's back without a second of hesitation, like it was second nature. She liked that the wolf wasn't so tall as Amalthea and Clover, and that she had longer fur, so it was easier to grip. In less than four seconds she was securely resting between the wolf's shoulder blades, fidgeting with her pack so that it sat between her legs. She didn't want to crush what was inside.
"So what is your cub's name, if I may ask?" She asked behind Arkrael's ear, looking over the leaves on the wound from the new angle, satisfied that it was secure. "How old are they? How were they hurt?"
Cayenne wondered if the cub belonged to the wolf, or that it was just a cub they had found. What did they look like? Were they really small, like her? The thought that they might be younger than her was intriguing; she felt like it was just recently that she had awoken out of her shell under the All Mother and Dove had found her, back when she didn't know anything. The passage of time was funny that way, she mused.
@Arkrael
![[Image: tumblr_n9b7psowQp1ti466ao1_500.gif]](https://38.media.tumblr.com/b8a0ab5b1f47ae041ada8705de58e68b/tumblr_n9b7psowQp1ti466ao1_500.gif)
