Why was this cat being so suspicious? They were only trying to get help! Then again, maybe he could tell about Crack somehow. Now that was a real reason to be distrustful. But they had to explain that it wasn't Caliante's fault Crack was an evil jerk! "Stop," Scorch croaked. He coughed and tried again, this time louder and clearer. "Stop!"

Now that he was sure he could speak clearly, the floodgates were open. "It isn't Caliante's fault, I promise! She's a really really really nice bat and she'd never do something so horrible so please please please don't hurt her because she didn't do anything wrong and if you hurt her you hurt Salvation as well and Salvation's super nice and he has plant magic too not that the type of magic makes him superior over Caliante but you get the point they're both super nice and I love them oh and also there's a Rusty but I haven't met him but I'm sure Rusty's perfectly nice as well! It's just Crack that's not nice but if you hurt Crack then you're also hurting Rusty and Caliante and Salvation who are all good people so that's bad, so don't do it okay?"

His rambling might have gone on for quite a while longer, except now Mongo was talking. At first he nodded along emphatically, but that soon faded to confusion. Wasn't Crack the one who'd taken in the plague? Or maybe Caliante had did it originally, and Crack had twisted that perfectly good, heroic purpose into something sinister. Which totally seemed like a thing Crack would do. So he started nodding along again.

Oh, but poor Caliante looked so scared! That wasn't good, no, not at all. Remembering the pretty glowing variety of moss in Polaris, he closed his eyes and concentrated fiercely on that image, trying to grow some. When he opened his eyes again, a patch of moss had started spreading over the branch Caliante and the kitty were on. It wasn't quite as glowy as the moss in Polaris - in fact, it looked very ordinary - but he still thought it was rather pretty.

@Rift

Rift listened to their protests with narrowed eyes, glaring from one to the other. He wasn't quite sure what to believe. He didn't trust the bat, not one bit, but perhaps there was truth in there somewhere. They all seemed, wholeheartedly, to believe that they were not evil. But whatever the owl was saying, he had no idea what they were talking about. The bat, apparently called Caliante, was a perfectly okay person and someone else had given them the plague. But all evidence showed that Caliante carried it! It was so confusing that Rift put it off as the ramblings of a sick baby.

He looked over Mongo, glaring at the bristling fur for a moment. He didn't at all believe whatever bull story he had come up with. Obviously, the bat carried the plague and they had obviously infected the owl. Why were they trying to fool him? "So you've come for my aid, then." He finished for him. He was fine with curing it, but he wasn't okay with having a vector of the sickness invading his forest. He had had enough of cleaning up what that damned horse had left behind. He had only recently finished clearing out the rest of the mucus left behind and the animals that had been infected by it. He didn't need another outbreak.

And the moss growing at his feet was the final bit of proof that he needed to know that the bird, at least, was okay. Rift had a firm, strange belief that anyone that could use plant magic could not be evil. This, of course, was very dangerous thinking, but so far he had been proven right.

He hopped down from his branch and focused magic in his paw. He stepped up towards Scorch, his gaze gentler then it had been before. The tips of his toes began to glow a pale blueish-green color and he raised it, claws sheathed, and pressed it gently against Scorch's stomach. The magic flowed from his body, a cleansing aura that transferred to the baby owl, hopefully ridding him of the disease that Rift hated so much.

Once the spell was complete, he turned back to the bat, his eyes hardening. "Okay, I've helped your friend. What should I do about you?"

Caliante breathed out a sigh of relief. Even if she was still bound by the tree, at least Scorch was safe. Whatever horrors she had unintentionally passed to her friend were gone now. Hopefully. And for now.

But that thought came with another idea. The cat could cure the plauge, right? He could cure it right out of Scorch. So perhaps he could take it from her ask well! She felt something stir in the back of her mind and wondered if it was Crack fighting back against her request. But the others seemed to have a good hold on it and she felt no trouble with her control.

"Cure me too," she cried out. "Please! I don't want the plague, either!"

"Caliante." "Salvation." "Rusty." "Crack." "Tarragon." "Ripple."

@Mongo

A deep breath.

Aggression would not get them far. But he had never been one for soft words and negotiations. He took on the world head-on, ramming them with his horns.

He looked to Scorch when the owl coughed, worry roiling in his chest. But surely the cat wouldn't let a Gemling suffer. From what he'd heard, after all, the cat was supposed to be kind and caring.

Mongo was quite glad for his skull, as it hid his rolled eye as the owlet began to ramble. Thankfully, it seemed, that didn't put off the puma, as he stepped forward and healed the Gemling with a tangible feeling of Magic.

@Scorch
@Umbra
@Rift

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Scorch blinked. "Wow," he gasped. "Your toes glow!" And when he talked he could feel that the unpleasant sensation in his chest was gone. "And you cured me!" Just like Mongo had said he would! And it was so fast! Just some magic and boom, the disease was gone. That was amazing!

"Yeah! Cure Caliante too! Then she won't get sick if something goes wrong and Crack won't be able to do bad things with the disease anymore! I'm imagining its face right now and I bet it's hilarious! And then Caliante and Rusty and Salvation and I can laugh at it without fear of disease! Wouldn't that be amazing?"

@Rift

Rift looked from the owl to the bat with surprise at her demand. He hadn't really expected them to beg him to cure them too. After all, a bearer of the plague would not want it taken, right?

But he didn't need to be told twice. He had planned on curing it anyways - now that he had the bat bound, he could do whatever he wanted. He wasn't a murderer though and he wasn't a creep. He would cure it, just like they asked.

He hopped back up the tree and hung above the bat again. He reached down, his toes glowing again, but stumbled as he went. The spell sputtered for a moment and by the time he had activated it again, it had already sunk in. He pulled away, not satisfied with his work. It probably wouldn't cure it completely, but it was something, at least.

Caliante watched with relief as the plague in Scorch was cured. They were already feeling better too. But as the cat turned to her, she felt a push against her insides and a distant cry from the inner world. A pressure pressed against her consciousness and she knew what it was. Crack was trying to take control.

She squeezed her eyes shut as loud screaming filled her ears, a dark yelling and protests, grunts of effort and the sound of what could only be described as mountains crumbling. She felt a bump against her chest and the darkness in her stomach, the disgusting bile that always threatened to burst free, lessened. It didn't go away, but now it was weak, almost as if she had awoken from her slumber with the plague almost dead.

She opened her eyes and looked up, shocked at the cat who was now above her. "Do it again! It's working!"

She looked down at Mongo and Scorch, her eyes flashing with fear. "Crack's trying to take control, but the plague is going away! It won't be able to hurt anyone anymore soon."

"Caliante." "Salvation." "Rusty." "Crack." "Tarragon." "Ripple."

@Mongo @Scorch

Mongo snorted at Scorch's obvious amazement - the little owl was going to be amazed by everything, wasn't he? Well, he would have fun, at least. However, to his relief, the little owl was healed. And then, of course, he began to ramble about the bat and their many alternate personalities.

'Dammit.'

The puma, at least, didn't seem to pay much attention to its ramblings, and approached the bat, touching it with their magic. If Caliante was to be believed, then it hadn't taken away most of the plague, but it was beginning to work.

So he sat back, and watched.

@Scorch @Umbra @Rift

Speech. Thought.

Completely oblivious to whatever Mongo was feeling about his rambling, Scorch cheered. "Ha! Take that, Crack! How does that feel, eh? That's right, you won't be able to hurt anyone with that plague ever again! Woohoo! Go Rift and Caliante and Salvation and Rusty! You can totally do it!" He waved his wings around for emphasis, hopping up and down.

@Rift @Umbra @Mongo