Orion was a city of dust and rubble. Whatever world had once been there, full of bustling inhabitants, had deteriorated long ago. Silence reigned foremost in their absence, a state pierced only occasionally by the Gembounds that crawled amongst dilapidated buildings; their noises, however loud, would never be enough to fill the void left by a disappeared populace they'd never known and whose broken lives could scarcely be understood. Nonetheless, as these new denizens often did, an attempt was made to push back the blanket of death draped over the premises. A shrill whistle rose through the air, twisting along to some tune apparent to its owner alone. The jaunty melody rang in stark contrast to gray and gloomy surroundings, its cheerful disposition a challenge issued to the sights it clashed against.

As of late, concerns of a literary nature had gnawed at East's stomach, answers to many questions sought and rarely obtained in full. Following the esoteric writings of the deceased didn't tend to lead to satisfaction, and frequently he'd found himself starved and scrounging for a morsel of reliable detail from a heaping pile of rumors and speculation. Fortunately as a being of flesh and bone, physical needs regularly demanded attention and provided a break from more mentally taxing endeavors. Therefore, this visit was not to mourn over lives lost in the arena or commune with an unseen voice who dangled tantalizing information like bait, but to quell a more tangible hunger. Birds of prey thrived on hunting, and he appreciated the daily distraction flying over his old territory brought.

Suspended a fair distance above ground, the most one might have noticed of the bird besides the song carried in his wake was a dark shape whisking overhead, flapping wings rendering him a tattered scrap of black cloth against the twinkling quartz-studded ceiling. While he didn't mind a casual stroll, cruising by air remained the safest way to travel in a place where roaming packs of rats were a hazard to smaller predators. Any dangers in possession of their own means of flight would be engaging him in the domain that came most naturally to his kind, and he was confident agility and precise blows by talons and steel knuckles alike would suffice in deterring those keen to sate their own nagging appetites.

Cresting a spire of stone in his path, his present tune reached its end. As he swooped down, preparing another from memory to take its place, a sharp crack and gruesome grinding sound interrupted his mental soundtrack. Feathers rustled, and he fluttered back to perch on the crumbling monument he'd passed. Wide yellow eyes glared over sprawling ruins, vision and hearing straining in tandem to pinpoint the source of alarm.

Had the disturbance faded away, East might've continued onward, rattled but willing to dismiss the moment as a poor soul having met an unfortunate demise. That possibility vanished once it echoed out again—not one, not two, but three times more, the space between the repetitions increasing with each instance. His head swiveled to track the sound, and soon enough his feet followed suit, tail feathers swishing behind him. After gradually narrowing the location down, he launched into motion, wings fanned out to catch the breeze.

Talons eventually landed on gravel beside what must've been the culprit: a sack of furry flesh lay shivering, blood smearing its grizzled pelt. The echoing gray stared into emptiness, its gaze glazed over by pain, and the same unmistakable sound of breaking bone emitted from its mouth. Ordinarily an eerie threat best avoided when heard, this lone creature appeared too weak to cause any real harm. This especially became clear as he determined the reason for its prone position; a massive, gleaming chunk of quartz stood where a hind leg should've been. Yet another victim of the cave's most unexpected murderer of small critters. If the rat had any friends, they'd long since ditched it, no doubt spooked by the sudden assault from above.

"A real rough deal you've got there," East mused, wincing at the scene before him. While this could have counted as a free meal, the idea of striking down a being desperately clinging to life was more repulsive than not. He planted a foot against the quartz's rugged surface and pushed. The true extent of the damage done was revealed, and it must've been terrible for how still the rat remained even once liberated from that which had anchored it in place. Crimson matting fur obscured most details, so he brushed a talon gently over the injury to properly assess it, keeping in mind the fear trembling in the vulnerable body beneath that sharp touch.

Surely the issue should've been obvious to him. After all, there were only so many ways a leg could lose function after a significant weight dropped upon it from on high. But apparently it wasn't so simple as staring down at that limp, twisted mess that used to be a leg and saying it was broken. Any average Gembound could understand such. The problem was discerning how when no clear sign of the breakage was making itself clear under scrutiny. No bone jutted out from skin to relate the grim tale. All remained hidden under fur soaked red from the lacerations its own struggling beneath stone had caused.

"Hold still," he murmured while contemplating, an unnecessary order incapable of being processed by a creature who constantly mimicked without actual grasp of speech. Using experience obtained from postmortem dissections, his talon traced where the leg's underlying structure ought to be, trying to feel out any major discrepancies. With a sudden intake of breath, it was jerked away.

Three fractures he'd counted in quick succession along the femur, each encounter a point where flesh had abruptly dipped as he trod his touch over it. No wonder the echoing gray couldn't move. Its leg had been effectively hacked apart. What use was an intact knee, of course, when everything above it was in pieces. Good luck walking again in that sorry state.

Maybe a pity execution was truly the best option. There was no chance of a fulfilling life after that grievous of an injury. Having studied well how its kind operated, East knew the rat would find no sympathy if it somehow succeeded in crawling back to its pack. Cannibalism would be the inevitable solution its friends and family would leap to, full bellies valued over preserving weakness in their ranks.

No, it couldn't return to them like this, but maybe later on. He had the knowledge for situations of this grisly sort. While no Gembound in need, the help would be good practice to prepare for worse scenarios later down the road.

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me
It'd been a handful of days since Vivilene woke up.

Nothing particularly of note had happened in that time. She talked to some other people, she managed to repair her saddlebag with some swiftly-grown vines-- (it wouldn't last; but it was good enough until she could find some decent twine) --and re-supplied said bags with a nice range of herbs, both found clinging to the sides of buildings around Orion, and some grown herself. She'd rested and gradually stretched out her aching limbs to prepare for travelling the caves again. She hadn't eaten very much; a few berries and flowers, and she was hungry and, for the most part, unwilling to hunt.

"For the most part" being the key words, of course, because if you get anyone hungry enough-- gentle-natured, empathetic mostly-vegetarians included --they will do whatever they have to in order to get a decent meal in their belly.

And as if being punished with thoughts of finding ways to skin and eat a cave deer, a shrill, prolonging whistle reverberated off the walls of Orion. Vivilene stayed in her shelter-- a smooth, two-story buiding that was innocuously placed between several others of its ilk. This one in particular had its staircase crumpled and caved in on itself, which was good for Vivilene, who did not have to worry about what was upstairs. She avoided the door and windows as she settled into a corner and waited.

A shatter. A crack. Another, another, another.

And then, silence.

With wide eyes, the hybrid's cervine legs slowly unfurled from underneath her. Had something gotten hurt? Was the whistling-thing responsible for it? She pushed herself up and creeped out of the doorway, looking around. She could hear the soft rustling of wings and a distant, not-quite-audible voice. She looked up and saw nothing but the star-studded ceiling and spiralling buildings that yawned towards it.

Okay, she thought. Someone might be hurt. I have to find them. She set off, hooves noisily clip-clopping on the cave floor, for the source of the voice. It didn't take very long-- she rounded a corner and found a bird, black like oil and crouched like a living shadow over a dappled grey rat.

A lesser, Vivilene realized-- one of the ones that can't talk. Everyone said it was important you eat only the ones that can't talk, but the black bird didn't seem to be eating, really. He was telling the roan rat to stay still, he seemed to be inspecting its leg, which was matted with shiny red blood.

His friend, maybe...? Pride had a lesser friend; a little rabbit who was very soft and comforting to spend time with. Pride would try to save her if she got hurt, too. When Vivilene quietly came a little closer though, she could tell that the echo rat was in bad condition. She knew, she thought, what would have to be done to save it. The real question is if it would survive the procedure.

Her voice came soft and distant, like a drop of water hitting a lake. "You'll have to... amuputate," she said. "Cut the leg off."

The hybrid approached slowly, ears flicking against a thick swath of hair. "Is it your... friend? Companion?" She asked. "What happened to it?"


"girl you know you gotta watch your health"


@East

Intense focus as that which East directed at the unexpected, barely breathing rat had shrunk his awareness to a narrowed spotlight around what could eventually become a makeshift operating theatre. As he pondered the best method to save this unfortunate creature, his beak clacked, the sharp sound emphasizing gut-deep dissatisfaction at the few ghastly ones available. When a soft stranger's voice wormed into his mind, it rang a chilling echo of a conclusion he'd begun reaching, and a sigh escaped him at confirmation of the most likely option.

"That's the right call," he accepted grudgingly, slumping in place. Once the presence of another was processed as more than his own internal musing, further speech directed at him, unreadable yellow eyes turned to regard her approach. While not the most common of shapes, the partial humanoid nature of the one whose hooves traversed the rubble jogged loose an old memory of being scooped up by delicate but clawed hands. Such gentle aid was just enough to dull the keen edge of suspicion typically harbored against the unknown.

"No, my history with this fellow goes as far as a couple heartbeats ago," he said with a shake of his head. "Just had the luck of catching their distress call before they gave up the ghost entirely. Must've ran afoul of our charming ceiling decor." This last bit was stated with sarcasm layered on heavily. His beak swung to point out the bloodthirsty chunk of quartz he'd rolled back from the Lesser's pulverized leg.

"You're right about the amputation. The problem would be the bleeding. I'd need something to cut off the flow, otherwise any hacking apart will drain them dryer than dust. Way worse than this dye job." Talons waved over the bloodied pelt to illustrate.

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me
Vivilene didn't question why this bird wanted to save what seemed like a completely random Lesser. She could have spent days standing around and speculating, but it wouldn't dismiss the fact that the echoing rat was quickly dying, and someone wanted it to live.

Only briefly did her eyes cast upwards to check the ceiling-- check that more chunks of quartz wouldn't come crashing down --and she turned towards a patch of dirt, long legs crouching down. "Can you cut it? I have magic that can, ahh... wash it, and disinfect it, and sew everything back up," she said. She took a very deep breath and touched the soil.

Her magic poured into it; not a lot. That was just how magic was, sometimes. A pale, green vine began to grow out of the soil and crawl up the nearby building. Vivilene took it-- it didn't have to be too long --and invited herself to the opposite side of the black bird, hunched over the rat.

It was difficult to see where, exactly, a crumpled mess of a limb ended and healthy body began. Vivilene highballed it; she tied the vine tight around the very joint of the rat's leg, held the tie in place with one hand while the other took a small stick from her bag, and tied the stick to the vine to twist it even tighter like a touquinet. This should stop more gunk from pumping out of the bloodied mass of broken bone, at least.

She could use the same vine to weave the wound shut, at least. Vivilene's eyes flicked up to East again, ears flicking. "You have to do it quickly," she said, and for once, her voice was sure and certain. The rat didn't have long. There wasn't time to overworry when there was an emergency afoot. "I can stop the bleeding after."


"girl you know you gotta watch your health"


@East

"Can I cut?"

Despite being for all intents and purposes a hawk, East in that moment did his best impression of a parrot. Dark humor saturated his tongue, but the present circumstances held back a self-loathing chuckle that could've soured an already grim atmosphere. Whether by beak or talons, damage seemed the activity he'd been made for. Too bad his brain hated shaking hands with the concept unless it was an absolute necessity like managing his carnivorous diet. At least cycles ago, a somewhat cleaner method of destruction had been acquired, an add-on to a weapon commissioned for self-defense. He flexed his ring-adorned back talon, and rasping metal announced the slide of steel claws over his own—much better for slicing through flesh.

"Yeah, I think this should do the trick."

The urgency of the situation silenced the bird henceforth as Vivilene and him both did their respective parts in this operation. After observing her speedy actions, sure-footed and speaking of reasonable experience, he hovered a single of his steel talons over where the first of the leg's breakage points had been sensed. East inhaled deeply in preparation for the worst outcome, much as it appeared negated, and brought the impromptu surgical implement down.

Scraping against Orion's stone structures hadn't been sufficient in maintaining the talons at their sharpest. That much was clear from the way meat already squished resisted the steel pressing into it. It hadn't presented a problem before, not many encounters requiring more force than his natural ones could apply. Here, though, the complication made a mess of careful work. Determination allowed the blunter than expected point to eventually saw through, yet a ragged edge was left behind. He winced at the sight, none too enthused by the world reminding him again that a predator wasn't meant to be gentle.

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me
She stared at him for a beat.

If the situation were much less dire, it might have occured to Vivilene to laugh politely and move on, but as it was she just stared at East in a pitiful, bewildered silence before her eyes darted towards the steel talon. She shifted on the spot, her tail flicking against the stone like a moonlit featherduster.

"Okay," she said softly. She kept the vine held tight as steel was pressed to flesh, though the proceeding cut was far less clean than she would have liked. When Vivilene said cut, she meant, cut-- this was more akin to... sawing.

Bile rose in her throat and she forced it down. "Okay," the hybrid repeated softly.

She snapped the vine in half and discarded the twig (without a thought-- this was more important for now) to hold the vine to the rat's flesh. A little, shaking breath and a burst of magic and the greenery seemed to come to life: a little green snake threading itself through sinew and pulling the skin back together. It was difficult to see with the outpouring of blood that came out-- but Vivilene was fairly certain she'd managed to do it.

The hybrid took Attikias's waterskin from her bag and washed off the fresh blood to get a better look at the handiwork. It looked... okay. As okay as a freshly-amputated injury could be, of course. She wasn't even certain if the rat was alive or not at this point, but she'd make the generous assumption that it was.

Vivilene's gaze flicked up to East again. "Ahh... if you give me a moment, I can disfinect it," she said. "And, ahh, preserve the vine-- but it'll still have to be watched while it recovers." Abandoning it now would certainly prove fatal.


"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@East

His task done, poorly at that, most East could do at this point onward was simply watch, company to a better set of hands and their Lesser patient. Even addled by pain already, he doubted the rat had taken too kindly to his hacksaw application of a claw, another agony heaped on screaming nerves. Eyes flickered over the furry body and kept close attendance of the barely visible shudder of its chest. At least the breaths were evening out and not diminishing entirely now that the worst aspect of the operation had passed. Mending remained, and magic would handle that. Considering the pathetic showing of the mundane he was responsible for, it'd be necessary for doing the heavy lifting in medical aid he obviously couldn't.

It was a curious sight to witness a literal creeping vine. A puppet on the end of an invisible string, it stirred and slithered as if its will belonged to itself and not the guiding thoughts of another being. The plant burrowed in and out of flesh before finally stilling as a completed stitch. So far it held back the crimson tides pressing against it, and he wondered how long this barrier would need to last before joined flesh fully grew back together.

"Um, yes, if you don't mind." Infection he understood, an awful festering sight. If allowed to take root, these efforts would be for naught, blown away by the settling in of rot. "I can take care of the recovery. Find them somewhere safe to rest up. Unless moving them is, ah, too strenuous for their condition?"

@Vivilene

i need someone to look into my eyes and tell me

Vivilene had to think about it for a moment.

It should be fine, in theory– the rat would need rest and that much was obvious, but now that the most gruesome part was over with, there wasn’t much risk of further injury when the rat was moved. That was, of course, unless there were injuries that had been missed. The leg had soaked up all of their attention– maybe they’d missed something else?

”Can you… check it?” Vivilene said, uncertain how, exactly, to word her concerns. Her mind was already on her next spell. ”All over, in case there’s more wrong with it.”

Preserving the stitches seemed the most important, so that’s where Vivilene started. She could feel sweat beginning to bead on her forehead as the magic flooded through her fingers and into the vine woven in through flesh. Without thinking, Vivilene opened her mouth and began to breathe heavier like a dog laying on the porch as she inspected each stitch for potential tears or bits where her magic hadn't reached.

It looked good, though-- it almost looked a little greener and healthier than when she started. Her fingers barely touched the rat's matted coat as her head angled this way and that, but she couldn't see anything wrong with her work. At least, for now: and now was good enough.

"If there's nothing else, ahh... if there's no other wounds it should be okay to move it to a safer place," she said at last. "It does need rest, though."

She glanced up at East. "I just have to disinfect it, now."


"girl you know you gotta watch your health"



@East

There were times to be more effective and elegant of a communicator, to flourish words like a spread of cards. In the middle of an emergency wasn't one of those instances, and so East kept the smart talk to an absolute minimum. "Can do," he remarked at the request to give the rodent a more in-depth examination. Allowing the weight of his gemstone to tip his head forward into a nod, he abandoned the role of bystander. Quick sidesteps and a duck beneath Vivilene's working arms brought him around to the other side of their patient's flank, and a beak bent down as he hunched for a better glimpse at its bloodied pelt. Maybe some smaller afflictions had escaped notice, hidden under matted hair.

Though the cave lights were dim, they revealed the truth of the matter. Divots of exposed flesh shone through fur. A match for the rat's jutting incisors, these were puncture marks. Trapped and frightened, the desperate struggle for freedom must have included nipping at hindquarters, never succeeding at reaching far enough to gnaw away at the exact spot where the destroyed leg resided.

"That won't be the only spot you'll need to disinfect. They've been biting themselves. Nasty business with those fangs."

@Vivilene