[PRP] Not like that (Eigyr x Glaurung)

[Dulcea]

She knew she had permission to enter the castle for her studies, and yet day after day she found herself frozen at the base of the mountain. She'd come up with yet another excuse for why her endeavors should wait, this time she thought to visit the market and see how her family's shops were getting on. But she hadn't done that yet either. Instead she sat staring wistfully up the path, her paws tracing a recipe she'd meant to try in the dirt. The itching sickness had begun to spread amongst the Toka cubs of her province as well, which meant it wouldn't be long before parents started to blame each other and it potentially could skip over into another province, and then another. She had done her best to quarantine those patients she knew of in their homes and had spread the word to the other scholars she knew, but cubs were unpredictable and sometimes even their parents could not keep them contained. Fortunately it hadn't seemed to be fatal to any degree, a little fever damage was the worst effect she'd seen come of it and that was a particularly bad case. Still, she wanted to find some way to cut its progression and give some relief to the nervous parents. She had ideas, she just needed to test them out.  

[Lithiasaur]

Glaurung was humming to himself as he traveled his way down from the castle dens. He lived there now, again, because his den in Mkoani had been rather... invaded... by an unwelcomed leopard. Now he felt it was safer in the castle, where the leopard would not dare to go if he did come back to the pride.

He was protected there, and the King himself had agreed that staying in the servants quarters would be best for the Druid. And the King did not much like Druids.

Not that Glaurung really knew why he was called one.

He considered himself as Toka as anyone else, and he was loyal to the pride. Why, then, that the pride he thought to protect and serve in turn thought he was part of a people they generally despised was lost on him. But he would try to prove himself. At the moment, he was studying to be an apothecary, a healer with potions and tinctures, and he was very proud of his progress so far.

Progress being a very generous term.

"Hello!" he said, seeing the lioness on the path ahead and padding toward her, he stepped in her recipe before he saw it, leaping backwards when he saw her scribbles. "Oh! I'm.. I'm sorry."  

[Dulcea]

She almost hadn't noticed until she heard him apologize, her mind adrift with all the possible combinations she'd need to test. "Oh," she said softly, looking down at the smeared mess, "Well, it's alright. It probably wouldn't have worked anyway." She forced a smile, looking him over. Not totally familiar, but a little all at the same time. The sort she'd likely seen in passing, perhaps out gathering ingredients? "I don't have anyone to test them on either," she admitted, "It's mostly wishful thinking." Realizing it sounded a little odd she added, "Medicines, that is."  

[Lithiasaur]

Dulcea

Glaurung looked very guilty, ears drooping on his head as he looked down at the messed up recipe. A lion's paw was probably not what the recipe called for. He looked at her helplessly, trying to be quick and think up a good way to make it up to her.

He was not a quick thinker, however, and he failed.

"I'm very sorry, I mean. I really am. What were you making to try and test on someone? You can test on me!" That seemed like a good trade off. He was a very simple lion, motivated to do good and branded an enemy for no reason that he could understand.

He was a Druid by the pride perception alone, and he was working every day to prove himself as Toka as all the others. As his siblings.

"I'm trying to learn about medicine! With uhm. Plants and things. I haven't made anything particularly useful though. As far as I can tell. Maybe I would make a better test subject than tester."  

[Dulcea]

Her ears perked up at the offer. He must have felt really bad about it to offer something like that, or maybe he just didn't know what all it would entail. "Well," she said as she tried to think of a response that was both enough disclosure and not enough to scare him off, "You could try a few of the ones I already have worked up. They might make you sick, but they shouldn't kill you." Shouldn't was the operative word in this case. She'd tested many of them in small quantities herself but never in a proper dosage. And if he wasn't sick it would really only tell her about side effects. But that would be good information to have if she were to offer them to patients. "You have to start somewhere," she added, "I followed so many healers around when I was little, they told me enough recipes to make my head spin. I still use some of them today."  

[Lithiasaur]

Dulcea

Glaurung watched her for a moment, trying to think if she was serious and if he should be scared. He imagined it was a yes to both but he had offered and he was a lion of his word. He would do what was necessary.

He smiled and nodded his head.

"I look forward to helping you out, then! It's my start, I think. Well. My second start? Anyway, I'm sure I'll learn something!" And if not it would still be an experience for him.

Definitely not something he had ever thought he'd get into. But hey, there had to be worse things out there than being made sick on purpose, right?