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Divy padded slowly to the dens where patients were kept. She was moving slowly today, as the disease had flared up a little recently, giving her aching joints and a mild fever, but not enough to keep her from her duties. If everyone witha minor complaint took the day off, they'd be constantly short-handed in the healer's conclave! No, it was much better to put out the effort and merely take it slow and easy. At least then, something would get done, even if it wouldn't be as much as usual.

She had several long-term or repeat patients to check in on. Most, of course, were lions. There was almost always someone on death's door, but thankfully those tended to be housed elsewhere, or in their own dens. Divy was a firm believer in letting each individual meet their end in whatever manner was feasible. Her half-brother had chosen to go off on his own to die, after saying goodbyes. Others chose to stay deeply drugged and unaware as night fell on their lives. Divy personally preferred the idea of being at home, surrounded by her loved ones. She couldn't bear the idea of crossing death's threshold alone.

She shivered, shrugging her shoulders to free herself from such morbid thoughts. No, today was not a day for spending among the dying. Instead, she was coming to treat the very much alive. What this meant was that she had to be prepared for much complaining and grousing, along with some stories of misspent youth or romantic endeavors. For some reason, it seemed like sickness tended to make many patients very talkative. Today, though, she anticipated another interesting time with her most interesting patient.

He was a little mite of a thing, all black and blue by nature rather than bruising, and full of such personality! He wasn't even a member of the pride, merely ended up here when he became injured. Sasta had come in several days ago, carrying the small but compact body of the honey badger. It seemed that her son had stumbled upon the injured creature by sheer luck. His name was Ewo, and he'd been unconscious when Sasta had found him. He'd woken as Divy had examined him for what was wrong. One clear injury had been a few broken bones in one paw. His defocused gaze had revealed another serious injury in the form of a concussion. He'd been through the ringer, but was quite amenable to explaining how he'd come to be in such a state.

"It was a family feud, miss," he had begun animatedly, once the initial danger of concussion had passed. She'd absently corrected him that she was a ma'am as she continued to examine his small body. He'd rolled with it, not a bit fazed by the correction. "Pardon me, ma'am! It was a feud, and a right serious one at that!" He'd shaken his head ruefully, but froze mid-shake, wincing.

"Best not to move your head too much for a day or so," she advised him, cupping one paw to his head in ginger sympathy. "You'll have one fierce headache for a time before it gets better."

He accepted that with good grace, and moved on with his story. "T'was between a long-time resident family of impala and a newer family of rabbits, you see." He waved his uninjured paw, making his whole body wiggle. She steadied him patiently, making interested noises as she removed some wrappings from his broken paw. "You see, them rabbits had been doing what rabbits do... they were digging holes and making babies and digging more holes." He shrugged carefully, taking care not to jostle his head this time, she was pleased to note. "Pretty much what you'd expect out of rabbits, really. Or meerkats, for that matter," he added ruminatively before continuing with his story.

"Well, those impala, they weren't too thrilled about all those holes across their prime grazing territory. Truth be told, they had a big wide area to roam, and the rabbits were keeping to one little hill. But there just was no reasoning with them hooved beasties!" He made as if to shake his head again, but stopped himself before he'd done more than turn slightly to the side. He gave a great sigh of mild exasperation, then shrugged it off again easily. "They were high and mighty, insisting their desires were foremost in the area, and that they demanded the rabbit family pack up and move out, or fill in at least half of those holes!"

He'd sat up a little then and gave Divy an indignant look. Caught by surprise, she'd stopped re-wrapping his paw and blinked at him. "Ma'am, do you know why rabbits dig so many holes for their dens?"

She gave it some thought and hazarded an answer. "Because they need so many dens?" It was well known that rabbits bred fast, often, and prolifically. It made sense to her that they'd want many more dens very swiftly.

Ewo slapped his healthy paw on the ground beside him. "'Side that, there's a very important reason! Them's got no real physical defenses, especially from such insidious predators as snakes... why, bless them, those rabbits need all the holes as escape routes in case of emergencies!" He waved his paw, leaning back again though his face was contorted in outrage and dismay. "Just imagine, them with all those babies, having to hurry them little ones out holes t'save them from some mean ole serpent! And those impalas, making so bold as to tell them to sign their babies' death warrants by closing up those exits!"

He was getting rather worked up now, and she tried to soothe him a little, offering him a drink of water. Moving about was going to be quite a difficult thing for him until that paw healed enough to bear weight without endangering the healing bones. "Why thanky, ma'am. All this talking has me a mite thirsty in truth!" He'd accepted several sips of water from a shallow gourd bowl and obligingly leaned back again into the pile of furs they'd propped him against.

"I couldn't have them bullying these poor rabbits, you see ma'am," he continued with much more calm. "So I went to confront them dastardly grazers. Do you know what they did when I told them to leave them critters be?" He snorted and raised his broken paw. "They told me to go threaten something more my own size, and leave this to the 'big boys'." He grumbled mightily, looking so comical to Divy that she was hard put not to giggle as she sat back to finish listening to his tale. "When I refused, they decided to teach me a 'lesson', which apparently meant trampling me like they wanted to trample those poor bunnies!" He gave another disgruntled snort. "I gave as good as I got, I can tell you! Them impalas are gonna be nursing some awfully sore ankles for the next week!"

He had looked so very satisfied and apparently felt justified for his injuries that she couldn't help admiring his courage and moxy aloud. He'd preened a little, but then quite seriously asked if someone could go make sure that the rabbits were unharmed. She'd assured him she would make sure Sasta went back out to look for them and even offer them a safer home within the borders if they so chose. That had contented Ewo enough that he'd settled down and agreed to nap for a bit. Heavens, that creature could snore! He'd fallen right asleep then and there, leaving a very amused and touched Divy to go on about her rounds.

Oh yes, looking after this little patient was going to be interesting indeed!