Dated to just after the creation of Chaos Forge!

kethri !

Well, this was unfortunate.

Kethri had made herself at home in the furthest corner of Draco, having flown in with burn wounds and a bleeding gash after disappearing for a few hours, saying she'd be back. And she was, right on time. And injured.

She was shaking as she tried to apply the burn salve she'd concocted, made from the innards of a plant she called 'Spinebrush' for the purple spikes on it's outside, but the innards were like cool water on her skin. But the pressure of actually applying it, what with how shaky her claws were, was agony. Her talons simply got in the way, with how curved they were. It was impossible to not graze her wounds, but she was too prideful to outright ask for help.

Exhaling again, she wiped sweat from her feathers and set the snapped off leaves down, finally huddling against the wall watching herself bleed, the wound only just starting to scab over. It hurt like a branding iron, and she felt tears prick her eyes, hence why she was stubbornly facing away from everyone. It hurt even more to show weakness like this. And like Hell was she going to admit anything to Vargas unless he noticed or was told. Or she was forced to tell.

She was strong, she was smart, and she wasn't going to cry!

@Doctor

Doctor did not notice the owl enter--her flight was silent, her little lair at the farthest corner of the cave. He himself was working with a new creature: a six-legged Tree Rabbit he'd procured from Pegasus. This one's neck was broken, and it likely didn't have long left to live--a few hours, at the most; but he had infected it and was checking it over.

This was just a baseline test--a check to see if they were similar in their bacterial makeup and resistances to the rats and mice he was so familiar with. This one seemed the same, at least; his magicka flickered up to check it over, and it was only then--looking through the lens of flourishing, white-to-his-eye bacterial life--that he noticed the distant form of Kethri.

Her bacterial activity was rather off the charts, infection warring with damage, and he paused to stare at her in the distance. She hadn't come to him--so he didn't want to interfere; so he hesitated, waiting, watching her from afar to see if she needed aid. She should know where he was, at least... but perhaps he'd go to her, if she didn't come to him within the next few minutes, first.

@Kethri

kethri !

Kethri hissed in frustration as she tried and failed to avoid her own talons, the sharp ends grazing the wounds and causing agonizing amounts of pain, almost enough to make her cry out, and more than enough to make tears blue her vision. She ruffled her feathers and shakily picked up the leaves, knowing she couldn't do this with both of her claws as injured as they were. She just hoped they'd heal up completely and grow feathers again. She couldn't stand to have a visible reminder of her failure.

She limped around the edge of the cave and approached Doctor, shaking with shame and pain, every selfish, prideful part of her shouting that she was weak for even coming over here.

"... Doctor," she said, pushing the plants forward, "I-I need..."

Just that word was hard to think about. 'Help'. She'd been perfectly fine helping herself before now, and she didn't include when she and Doctor first met. That was kidnapping and not entirely of her will. Or at least that's what she convinced herself.

"... I need... assistance," she ground out, "I-I was injured. I thought I could care for my wounds myself."

But Kethri couldn't. And it made her feel so weak. Her feet were huddled under her soft belly feathers, afraid to even show the scorched flesh and the ribbons of skin and bloodied feathers on the one leg, where teeth had grabbed and torn, where fire had cracked the keratin of her talons, weakening them. At least her wings were intact. At least she was alive.

@Doctor

Ahh, and now the owl was addressing him. Doctor straightened, listening attentively.

Her stammering should have been a warning, her trembling another, but Doctor--despite peering with his single eye--could see nothing of her wounds. They were too well-hidden by her own feathers, fluffed down in shame, and he hesitated as he responded. "What do you need aid with?" he asked, head tilting.

His eye studied her, uncertain--but her tone, her demeanor, told him that something was indeed very, very wrong.

@Kethri

gore

kethri !

Kethri gritted her beak and lifted her feathers up, showing crack skin and scabbing flesh, bleeding and pus starting to well up. It was disgusting and smelled sweet, like infection had already set in. That disgusting creature's mouth had to be a breeding site for bacteria, it was no wonder.

"A spell backfired and burned up my feet," she said, "Then a c-creature practically made of flesh and teeth attacked me an-and got my foot."

She was so near to crying as she pushed the leaves forward, taken all the way from Eridanus. Spinebrush, an herb she'd discovered to be extremely hydrating judging on how often various insects drank from it, so she thought it would be good for burns, and it certainly was. What gel she'd managed to get on her feet was working it's magic, soothing the constant heat and easing the pain a bit.

"Th-this is spinebrush," she said, "It's non-toxic, I checked, and has healing properties. So far it's been cooling the heat from the burns and easing the pain, and I suspect it'll help everything heal faster. I just... need someone to apply it."

"... Could you?", she finally got out, trying so hard not to cry from it. She was exhausted and hurt and humiliated in a million ways, and she just wanted to curl up or run away and never return. She hated it.

@Doctor

Could he apply it? He studied the herb, somewhat confused, head tilting this way and that so as to allow his single good eye access.

"Ahh--the fluids from this plant, or the herb itself? Do you want it wrapped?" he asked, hoping for clarification. It wasn't an herb he'd seen before, and he studied it, too, and--both out of genuine curiosity, and a polite attempt to distract the owl from her pain--he asked about it. "Tell me about this, then--did you yourself name it? How did you find out about each property? How was the cooling tested, the healing; how did you find out it was non-toxic? -I will cleanse the place first, if I can, but do tell," he added, his chipper demeanor somewhat dampened by tense concern.

He focused for a beat, magicka flaring out and, to his surprise, he found that what flooded from him was a fairly powerful magical cleanse. "This should purge infection, at least--certainly something that should be done prior to bandaging... Have you cleaned it?" he went on. "In my, err, studies, wounds heal much better if you remove the damaged parts first. But that will hurt," he added, wincing a little at the prospect.

@Kethri

kethri !

"The fluids from the plant," she said.

Kethri fluffed her feathers and rifled through them, pointing to a healed burn wound on her chest, "Burned myself here. I've been watching animal behaviors and I found a specific herd of deer that lives further from the river and nearer to the edge of Eridanus, and they had learned to crack open these plants and eat them. That's how I found out how hydrating they were and that they were non-toxic, and tested it on myself to gauge the properties."

She pushed through her feathers some more and pointed to a second burn wound, less healed, "This was my control and how I found out that it sped up healing. Cool water stops the burning of wounds so I only treated it with cold water, but I treated the other with the Spinebrush and noted the effects. It was as good if not better at soothing the wound, though it doesn't evaporate as fast, meaning it has the cooling effect for longer. I named it myself."

Kethri shifted and looked down at her gnarled feet, flexing them gently and watching the skin crack, wincing, "I'm better at hurting things than healing them, but at least this doesn't require magic to be useful, unlike your spells."

The owl shook her head when asked about cleaning it, "I was only able to dunk them in a river briefly before I came here. I didn't want to be late."

Kethri's neck feathers rose at the prospect of hurting herself more, but a vulture would probably be better at picking dead tissue out than she would be, so she awkwardly sat on her rump and stuck out her legs, "I did what I could to care for the wounds. Unfortunately not much. The use of my claws has been severely hindered for obvious reason."

"I think wrapping my toes and feet would be best to protect them as I walk, but leave my legs open except for the wound here," she said, pointing to the bleeding gash running down her leg, leaving it much weaker than the other, "It needs to be wrapped."

Putting bandages on burns only lead to the bandages sticking and causing more pain, and if they were left to heal on their own, it was the best choice. If only she had that cleansing spell, then maybe she'd be able to deal with this herself. The only errors she could have in that case would be accidentally touching her wounds. The infection had been the most worrying thing.

@Doctor

"Interesting! Yes, I see--very clever," Doctor exclaimed, peering closely at the wounds. In his enthusiasm at this new knowledge, he forgot to be, well, empathetic in any way. Perhaps it didn't matter.

"You know, burns are something I cannot create! Well, not with fire. Perhaps we should arrange experiments, yes? -Oh, not on you. On Lessers," he explained. It'd be interesting, he thought, to try with debriding the flesh, or leaving it on; with treating it, as Kethri had, with various methods. "You have certainly laid the groundwork!"

She didn't outright agree to having the burnt portions removed, and perhaps that didn't matter--they'd have to test it, as he'd said, to know if it even made a difference. For now, however, he did what she asked. It was a little awkward--it necessitated puncturing the herb, slathering its contents onto the backs of his talons and attempting to smear this onto Kethri's wounds. His talons were massive, several inches long and the delicate work was never easy, and so his focus--head leaned down, single eye almost unblinking--was intense and silent.

When he'd finished (to whatever extent Kethri would allow) he rocked back, thinking aloud. "And now we disinfect it again, so that anything on my talons does not make you sick... I wonder if the burns do lasting damage. Further decay, or degredation, under the surface-? We can see as time passes. Now, do I wrap the wounds with the same herb? I have nothing else here," Doctor added, with a glance around. He had nothing so pleasant as bandages; he was only a bird using skulls as water bowls, after all.

Another surge of magicka prickled for the wound, trying to drive off any further bacteria that Doctor might've inadvertently reintroduced. Then he examined the spinebrush.

He'd followed her example of slathering on the gel, but he hoped that he had done it right; if he'd made a mistake with her new method, he was sure that she'd correct him.

@Kethri

kethri !

Kethri's feathers fluffed as she thought, "Yes... perhaps that's a good idea. I know I'm not the only one with fire magic here, I think that the creature that awoke upon our arrival had a type of it, though a much darker variation. But burns are the hardest to treat with the effect they have on tissue, so studying it further and experimenting with Spinebrush would be a good step to take."

She watched carefully as he slathered on the substance ("As thick as possible, the more that's in contact with the wounds, the better."), trying not to wince or twitch, but it was difficult. The liquid did, however, absolutely grant her immediate relief, making her sigh and flex her claws. The wounds wouldn't dry out and it would assist in movement too, allowing things to stretch without causing so much pain.

"They most likely will," she said, "I've noticed that fire tends to kill flesh and it makes it harder for the body to heal it. Unlike a claw or bite wound, which leaves living cells that can better combat infection and pull itself together. Burns leave a gaping section of dead skin and tissue, and I theorize that it means that the body also has to expel the dead tissue, heal itself, and expel infection. So it takes longer and leaves the wound exposed for longer."

Kethri flexed a talon and hissed gently at the stinging, stretching pain. But her claws were functional.

"Perhaps we use the hollowed out sections of the plant and slip them over my toes," she said, reaching out a foot to grab a few empty fronds, slicing off the tip and painstakingly sliding them over her talons, the insides soft on her burns, and still moist from what they'd held. She nodded and flexed her toe, the frond resting on where her foot mostly made contact with the ground.

"This will do," she said, "And this might be a good idea with wounds like this too. Specifically ones on toes. It keeps the wound safe and clean, while also keeping it moist."

Kethri pulled over a few more and started to do the same, a bit thankful that Doctor wasn't fretting or anything. She needed aid, not pity. It was a good thing Doctor had been here and not someone like V-Chaos-Two. She may have just swiped at the idiot's nose by now if they'd even dared to ask if Kethri was alright.

"Thank you," she said after a moment, "I honestly dread the day you leave. Your company is one of the best I've had, it'll be a shame to see you go."

She looked away and paused in her makeshift bandaging, hoping Doctor didn't make a fuss.

@Doctor

Doctor mostly listened--he offered an occasional shift of a talon or beak in aid, where it seemed needed, but otherwise left Kethri to her own seemingly quite capable self-bandaging. Her remark about his departure sparked equal conversation--nothing like pity or sympathy, but bright and honest answers.

"Ahh, I was thinking about that! You see, it was meant to provide a steady influx of subjects, but in the end all I only ever received a few for healing and one or two to test upon. Not many injured, you see." He paused, thinking, head tilting to get a better angle to view Kethri's foot as she slipped another fibrous herb sheathe atop a toe. "Return to Tunnel P seems far less... appealing with Pegasus beside us, too. Open air! Forest, and grass. I hadn't flown like that for as long as I can remember!" A sigh, half-wistful, half-thoughtful. "I don't yet know where I will go but I was thinking perhaps there, instead," Doctor went on--and, as an afterthought, "-it would certainly be easier to grow herbs there.

@Kethri