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 Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:39 pm
"Raphy! Raphy come here! Quick!" Gemma's voice sounded almost pleading as she rested beneath the trees to the side of the lake in her own personal little paradise that her parents had created for their family. Nose was tucked immediately downward to an injured sparrow that lay in the grass twitching and her golden eyes were completely filled with tears. Her big brother would know what to do! He was who she ran to, anyway, if not her daddy. But she didn't know where Zaphiro was at the moment and besides, Raphael was just as small as her and she was sort of on a mini 'independence' streak.
"RAPHY!" she called again, tail twitching in frustration. He wasn't fast enough!
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 12:16 pm
"I'm coming, Gemma, I'm coming! Are you ok? Did you hurt yourself?"
In a flurry of blue and gold, the colt all but tumbled down the inblined bank of grass to where his sister lay, so anxious to make sure that everything was fine that he wasn't really paying attention to where he stepped. However, with a bit of slithering he managed to make it over to Gemma without falling or bumping into anything, an impressive feat considering the large amount of trees around. "What is it, what're you yelling for?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 12:19 pm
There he was! "Raphy!" she said again, scrambling to her little feet and making her way to her older brother, tears now freely falling down, "The sparrow! It's hurt! I don't know what to do!" She turned her head toward the little twitching animal on the ground and gulped. The girl was a bleeding heart and it was obvious that the sight of such a little thing in so much pain tore at her. "Can you fix it? Please? Please, Raphy?"
He'd know what to do. He had to. He was her big brother, wasn't he?
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 12:29 pm
...Somehow, Raphael was not surprised. Every time, it was the same story; she'd call for help, he'd get worried and race over, and the reason was alwys some small creature. On the one hand, he was glad his sister was ok, but on the other...
"Gemma, you GOTTA stop doing that, ok?" Worn out from his frantic scramble, the colt allowed himself to collapse into a sitting position, eyeing the sparrow with a truly skeptical look before turning back to his sister with a sigh. "'Member, you're only supposed to make something sound that urgent if it IS that urgent. I thought you were hurt!"
While Raphael was hardly an anti-animal Soquili, he placed much less importance on the daily doings of injured animals than their sister; this was not the first time they'd had this talk, nor, he knew, would it be the last. "If it's a animal, you have to SAY so when you're calling or else I'll be worried about you!"
So saying, Raphael gave Gemma a solemn nod, then, having gotten his breath back, pulled himself to his feet to give her a nuzzle. "I'm glad you're not hurt, though, and I guess I can look at your bird."
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 12:37 pm
No, it most definitely wouldn't be the last time. The little foal had no problem putting herself in danger to help a creature (as was made obvious when she'd braved a thicket of thorns to get a hurt rabbit and bring it to her momma...and ended up cutting up herself pretty badly in the process) but it was just how she was and she couldn't help it! She sat quietly beside her brother, listening to his words.
Huff.
"It is urgent, Raphy," she insisted as he nuzzled into her and closed her eyes, "It's goin' to die if we don't help it. I don't want it to die. I don't want anything to die. Life's too fun!" She sniffled and watched him stand up again, golden eyes still bright with tears.
Oh, she was probably the bane of Raph's existence sometimes. "Thank you," she whimpered when he said he'd look at the bird. The sparrow had fallen from its nest and broke a wing and was still having spasms - probably suffering from something worse than that inside that wasn't detectable.
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 12:56 pm
"Well, you could at least SAY it's a bird that's hurt."
However, Raphael knew he was fighting a losing battle; no matter what he said, Gemma would continue on as she was. He'd huff about it, but even now he knew how this'd end. The same way it always did, with him helping her out.
Walking over to the bird, Raphael looked down at it; personally, he thought it looked about to die, but if he voiced THAT thought then he'd just set Gemma off more. So instead, he lowered his head down, touching the bird's wing gently with the tip of his horn. "You know, YOU shoulda had a horn, what with how many things you need healing, Gemma." Then he was closing his eyes, focusing all of his attention into the very tricky process of healing. He had a horn alright, but his wasn't as fast or as strong as Ae's and DEFINITELY not as good as their mother's. But it managed.
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:02 pm
"That takes too much time," she answered as if it were the most obvious answer in the entire world. Which it really was. At least to Gemma - who seemed to think a bit different from the rest of the world on such things. And of course Raphy would always end up helping his sister. Gemma was just that endearing!
"I should have, yes," she huffed. Sore spot, indeed. She was the only one in the family other than her father to be without a horn and it made for a very sad Gemma. But she didn't ever voice it, really. The jealousy she felt. Wasn't a becoming emotion.
Anxiously, the little wind watched her brother try and heal the bird, tail flicking behind her almost furiously. She knew better than to be loud during this!
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:12 pm
Other than a snort, Raphael made no reply to his sister's words; healing wasn't something that a unicorn's horn just DID, otherwise it'd be no good as a weapon cause it'd heal even as it hurt! No, the process required a lot of focus, and young as he was that was a hard thing to accomplish.
But something was happening; he could feel a warmth radiating out from his horn, enveloping the bird and himself as well. Feeling that, the ali allowed himself a grin; it was working!
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:15 pm
The bird's bones began to heal with that warmth and the spasming lessened severely - but it would take a bit more before it completely stopped and let out a small chirp. Gemma was practically bouncing at the change in the bird and as soon as it was completely healed she dove at her brother and just started nuzzling at him quite affectionately.
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you," Gemma exclaimed over and over again as her wings fluttered quite happily. The bird, of course, afraid that it'd get squished simply flew away. Golden eyes caught sight of the bird flitting off and she stopped her affection and pouted.
"They always leave."
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:26 pm
"Yeah, yeah." Though he tried to be the tough, unconcerned guy, Raphael couldn't help but grin a bit proudly at the results of his handiwork; besides, it was always nice to know he'd succeded at an undertaking. Though he wasn't quite as demonstrative as his sister, he didn't pull away from her energetic nuzzlings either, a sign that he, at least, had no problems with this.
Though he had to comment on the bird. "Well, what do you expect, Gemma? You're bouncing and leaping all over, you could squish it and kill it with one step! No wonder they leave, they don't want to get hurt again!" If there was one word that could describe his sister, after all...it'd be 'energetic'.
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:38 pm
"But it didn't even say thank you!" Nothing ever did - well, except for Zevach. He'd been gruff, but he'd warmed up. Somewhat. If one could call that warm, anyway. "It's okay, though. It's okay. So that's all that matters, right? Going to live. Thanks to you. Isn't it a great feeling?" Her eyes had stopped their tear production, at least, and she seemed back to normal. Easily changing moods, for the win!
She paused, then. Zevach. Back on that little foal she'd helped. Who on earth would have hurt a FOAL that way? Stepping back she looked uncertainly at her brother, "Raphy...Somethin' happened the other day."
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:43 pm
Patiently, Raphael shook his head at his sister. "That's cause birds can't talk, Gemma...well, not that sort of bird, anyway." That birds of some type could talk was never in doubt; after all, their father had for a familiar a large hawk who LOVED to lecture the kids, much to Raphael's chagrin. Crazy bird. "But yeah, I guess it's nice. And it's good practice, too, for if I ever DO need to heal you after one of your crazy escapades."
He was grinning as he spoke; now that the trouble was over, he was more than willing to bask in his victory. Or he was, that is, until Gemma's somber face and serious statement made him frown. "What SORT of something?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:52 pm
Oh. Yes. The bird. Bane of Gemma's existence, though she was very polite to it in hopes that it would shut up. Even Gemma had her limits, thank you very much. Her mother seemed to like the bird though.
"Well...I..." she paused and tried to figure out how to explain it. "I smelled blood so I followed the trail like I usually do 'n' I came up to a stream. There was a colt just my age and he was really really badly hurt and had blood all over him and was shivering like mad. And I had to help him, Raphy, I just had to. He was really kinda...I don't know what word to use. Uhm. He wasn't mean but he wasn't nice. Kind of...tough. Maybe that's the word. But somethin' hurt him bad, Raphy. Why would someone hurt a kid like us?" she didn't understand why anyone hurt anyone, actually, but the fact of the matter was she had been faced with the very real situation of a child, just like herself, hurt. And someone had done it to him.
"I took him to momma and she healed him up but..." she blinked owlishly at her brother. "I don't understand."
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 2:02 pm
As he listened, Raphael's smile gradually curved downwards into a frown as Gemma related her somewhat strange experience. And not the least among his worries was the fact that she hadn't even told him yet!
"Gemma, you have to be CAREFUL when you're out by yourself, ok?" First and foremost, he was anxious about what could have happened to her, off with a strange 'tough kid'. "You should have got me or Ae or something, cause not all other kids are nice. He coulda HURT you!" And that would have been a depressing occurance. But having settled that...
"Well, it's like Papa's told us; sometimes people are just mean and bad just cause they LIKE being mean and bad. That's why we have to be smart and stuff when we're out on our own."
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 6:28 pm
"I was being careful!" she insisted, fluttering her wings a bit. How come everyone told her to be careful? She was! And if trouble got to her she could fly away. Sort of. Kind of. Maybe. Okay, so she didn't like to admit her weaknesses. "And he didn't hurt me, did he? Someone hurt him. Besides, he wasn't one of those things that papa told us about. He was...normal? No wings, no horns, nothing!"
Of course she wouldn't have admitted that it was dark and she couldn't see him at first. Hienna had already scolded her for going around after dark and following blood trails without so much of a hint of light. But Gemma was Gemma and what were you going to do?
"I don't understand why," she said, defeated, "But Zevach's okay now. I hope he doesn't get hurt again. But still..."
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