Amazon stumbled. Everything was spinning from the effort it took to move, but she continued forward, determined to keep going. Her breathing was harsh and labored from the effort and her movements slow and painful. But she had more to see! Envy was so busy with the Sinful Seven that they didn't have time to carry her around the caves right now. So she was determined to go herself.

However, she couldn't. She just couldn't. Things had gotten bad, very bad, and her recovery spell was no longer effective in healing the scales around her gem. They were red and puffy and quite obviously infected at this point, but Amazon didn't care. The pain had become commonplace and she barely noticed.

The thing she did notice, however, was the blurring vision. Earlier it had just been occasional blacking or vision problems but now it was constant. Things were harder to see which made travelling a lot harder and everything a lot scarier. She wanted to see the caves. She wanted to see everything before she died! She couldn't do that if she was like this.

She tried to push herself forward, she really did, but it was too much. She couldn't breath, her heart was racing. She sunk to the ground, her legs giving way beneath her. She simply lay on her stomach in the middle of the tunnel, gasping for breath.

@Doctor

He was hopping through the tunnel--he still hadn't yet learned to fly--upon spotting her. This was his first venture from Eridanus, and he hadn't known what to expect, but he had most certainly not expected to find a lizard lying here gasping.

Had it been travelling? Or did lizards simply--breathe this way, in general?

Curious, he hopped closer, his head tilting this way and that to give his good eye an angle to see. He blinked, and clattered closer on long talons.

"Hello," he began, circling it with his head tilted. Was it able to speak..? Some seemed able, some didn't, and he wasn't sure of my rhyme or reason behind it yet other than the fact that dead ones most definitely did not speak. He added, almost hopefully, "Are you hurt?"

He'd found himself able to help those who were harmed, and it was a fascinating learning experience that drew him rather strongly. Still, he didn't hold out much hope; it didn't look harmed at all in any way that he could see.

@Amazon

Amazon saw the bird approaching but made no move to get out of the way. If it wanted to eat her it would have a bad time getting her down with all the spikes and, even if it did, it'd probably be better then this miserable existance. However, it seemed to have no plans of the sort and seemed rather interested.

That was a little frustrating, though. She didn't appreciate being the subject of observation, especially in this embaressing state, but she didn't have the energy to tell the baby off. She barely had the strength to breathe properly. "Hurt? Yes." How did he not notice the puffy, infected scales? It was on the top of her head. Perhaps he was dumb. She knew some dumb creatures. Perhaps it was the level of her sickness that was making her so bad tempered, but she did her best not to show her frustration. "I'm sick," was all else she managed to get out at the moment.

@Doctor

The vulture clacked closer, and peered over the lizard more closely.

His main impression had first been, and still was, that she was pretty. Aesthetically pleasing. She had warm brown scales covering her body, of a pleasant variety of shades from yellow to deeper browns. Many were thorned, in a symmetrical or rather, flowingly organized array of points. Her eyes were round and shone with a pinpoint prick of reflected light, and matched the color of her stone. This was a shining little tower atop her head.

He knew where his stone was; he'd seen it in his reflection in one of Eridanus' rivers, though it had been difficult to spot. He'd seen another Gembound with a gem atop their forehead, like this one's, though. It made him wonder if, perhaps, something had gone wrong with his own.

Only after close, intense study did he finally spot the infected scales, and even then only because of how different they looked. Had the lizard been made up entirely of them, he'd never have known it was strange.

"You have some scales different, on your head," he said at last. "Is there something wrong with them? Or with the pointy ones?" he added curiously, tilting his head and point-hooked beak to peer over at those, too.

Then, as an afterthought, he spoke again. "I'm Doctor." As a doctor, maybe he could help. Or that was his thought, at least.

@Amazon

She shifted a bit uncomfortably as the bird got closer and she almost scoffed at his question. But she had to remind herself that this bird was obviously very young, perhaps new hatched. He did not know much and would not recognize bad scales, probably. She wondered if he had even met another reptile in his life.

"Yes, they are infected." She raised a claw instinctively and felt at the scales, wincing a bit at the pain her delicate touch caused. How far she had fallen, indeed, unable to touch her own skin without them hurting. She sighed and laid her arm back down again. "It is my sickness."

As he introduced himself, she looked up at him quizzically. "Doctor? Like you are a doctor or that's your name?" She shrugged, not really caring either way. She doubted any Doctor would be able to save her. "I'm Amazon."

@Doctor

"Hello," he replied, his voice perhaps soothingly calm. He was curious about this creature, and about her sickness, too. "Both, I suppose. One from the other. I've found that I do have the ability to make things sick, or--cure them." While his voice still sounded quite young, his words were carefully-considered. What luck, though! To happen upon her here. For me, perhaps, and for her as well, if I am lucky.
He drew as close as Amazon would allow, eyeing the damaged scales. Her illness? He couldn't see much. But then, he wasn't all that familiar with how scales worked. Or how anything worked, for that matter; his experience was limited. This was a good chance to learn. "This is what scales look like, when sick? Have you tried magic to help? Or--anything at all?"

@Amazon

She frowned at the curious tone of the vulture's voice. Her sickness wasn't something to gawk at but she considered, if he really was a doctor, maybe she could get some kind of treatment from him, or at least teach him something. After all, what else was there to do?

If she wanted to feel full of life again, she needed to act like she was, at the very least. She sighed and resigned herself to talking about it. "Yeah. I think. It's what my scales look like when they get infected. Not sure about anyone else." The effort of speaking so much took her breath away and she was left gasping for air. She took a few seconds to breathe before she continued speaking. "Yeah, I had a spell. Doesn't work anymore."

@Doctor

The vulture tilted his head this way and that, eyeing the scales. A thought occurred to him--but he didn't know how much it might help. It might, at the very least, relieve some pain if it were the scales themselves being problematic.

Then again, he had no idea how deeply the stone descended.

He debated for a moment--but if Amazon spoke truly, she'd been sick for a very long time, now. What could it hurt, to try?

"Hmm. May I try something?" he offered, his tone polite but questioning. His single good eye fixed on the lizard, darkly intent in his focus, and his wings stayed folded neatly at his back as he sat back, more upright, and had he been human in another world he'd have looked precisely like a scientist crossing his hands behind his waist.

@Amazon

At the question, Amazon gave him a quizzical glance. He had said he was a doctor...take away pain or inflict it. Was he going to try a spell on her? She wasn't too comfortable with magic herself, but perhaps he was better at it, even if he was younger. Still, she was unsure.

"What are you going to try?" Would it make her sick if it failed? Would it make her condition worse? But then she realized that a child this young could not possibly know any advanced magic that would be anything worse then what she'd already experienced. She sighed. "You know what? Forget it. Try away."

@Doctor

Now, Doctor had practiced some with his magic. He'd learned a few things--not a lot, but a few. And one of those things was the fact that he could carry, and utilize, bacteria through magical means.

As a vulture, one of the bacteria he'd run into the most was one that lived in decaying flesh.

If Amazon's scales were infected, perhaps these might eat away what was bad--and then could be stopped before killing what was good. He wasn't sure if it might hurt--or how much--but she was clearly already in pain. It was worth a try, at least, and if it failed, they'd both learn something.

He sent out his magicka, as soon as she had given her permission--a thin cloud, thinner than it could have been, of the bacteria. He urged it to go to work at once, to consume what was ill and leave healthy behind.

"I have magic that can destroy what it sick, or dead," he answered kindly as he worked. His dark eye remained fixed intently on the scales, though where the light hit that eye, it was warm with concern and attention. "I am thinking that destroying what's damaged might leave healthy behind. If it's sick, it will get rid of the sickness."

He wasn't aware, of course, that it'd come from her stone, and would eventually just sicken all over again--perhaps not even grow back to begin with. Heck, he wasn't sure it would work at all. But he wanted to try--to help, and to learn--and he'd do his best at it.

@Amazon