[PRP] Healing

[Kimaria]

He stared.

And stared.

His whole body was very still, his sides unmoving as he held his breathe and stared at her through his glass-blue eyes. Had he got this right? Their pride was ruled by a diseased queen? What did they do? Purposely infect their heirs? Had they tried to infect Eione only to find her resistant and discarded her for a more sickly ruler?

"Understand the pride's suffering?" He repeated after a moment, taking a step back without even thinking of it. "Wait. Hang on a minute. This place is plagued? This place where I've been kept?" It was clear that panic was starting to set in, his eyes wild, the fur on his shoulders bristling. "If that's the case, I need to go now. I don't want to get sick!" And he continued to back up, turning his head this way and that as if trying to seek the best way out of the lands - and his predicament.  

[Kimaria]

His wound? Forget his wound. He had more important things to worry about, like this plague and potential contamination. And...and not being able to leave! What would the lions do if he tried? Would they restrain him? Put him under guard until he conceded? Or would they just kill him and be done with it?

He shook his head, clearly distressed.

"But I can't stay." He pleaded. "I've only got my hunting wound. Nothing else. You know I haven't. If you're immune then I probably haven't caught anything. I'm not sick." But even as he said it he began to feel woozy and he snapped his teeth in frustration. His mind was playing tricks on him and it was probably just the walk, anyway.

"What if you just turned a blind eye and let me go?" He knew - even as he spoke - that he was wasting his breath. "Eione. Please."  

[Kimaria]

"But you're a healer." He replied then, sinking his claws into the soft earth beneath him as if afraid that the whole world might slip out from under his paws. "Can't you...you cure this? This plague?" What was the point of healing if there was no way to get rid of the ailment.

But then again...hadn't she said that the queen was expected to be diseased? Perhaps their intention wasn't to cure, but to spread it amongst their people to keep it flourishing. To keep the people trapped here. Perhaps there was a darker side behind all of this. A shadowy trickery behind the smiles and the kindness.

He sat suddenly, looking utterly miserable. "I'm going to die, aren't I?"  

[Kimaria]

He shook his head, trying to absorb this information. So he might not die straight away. That's what she was saying. He had to hope for a few years or that he was one of the rare lucky ones who weren't affected. Later he'd think about how it must be for Eione to live surrounded by death, but right then and there the only thing he could think of was how his whole life had suddenly come to an abrupt halt. He'd never been a lucky lion. The plague would get him and he'd go down fast. He just knew it.

"I think that's a slim chance, don't you?" He replied after a long moment.

"Eione...what would you do if I tried to escape?"  

[Kimaria]

"Well, that's that then." He replied shortly. Every last bit of his good mood had drained away leaving him with a dark, cold feeling in his chest. His wound throbbed, too, the dull ache reaching his head and forcing him to squint his eyes in an attempt to lessen it. "At least I won't have to come up with a story to tell my brothers..."

About the scar, that was.

He forced himself up onto his paws, swaying unsteadily as he turned to head back. He was tired now and in no mood for walking. And now, on the wind, he could smell the rot. The disease. He felt it infusing the lining of his lungs, filling him up inside with its wretchedness. How could he not have noticed it before?

Or was that in his mind, too?

Probably.

"Let's go back." He replied, his voice short and sharp. "I don't want to be out here." Perhaps he could just curl up in his den and sleep. Maybe when he woke his would all have been some terrible nightmare.