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 Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:51 pm
 Clotho roused from her sleep slowly, in a dream-like state. She became painfully aware of the excruciating pain pulsing throughout her body, especially in a few select spots, coming to her consciousness. She groaned quietly, unable to open her eyes anymore. Though she doubted opening her eyes much more would do her any good. Her vision was blurry and she could hardly see anyway. What had happened? Wait...
Durion...
Eyes closing, Clotho allowed a wave of pain and mild fear to pass through her. Her throat was dry and she could taste dried blood on her lips. Was it hers, or his? She wanted some water. The rain...She couldn't smell the rain. Had it ended? Ah, it had ended. Of course. She didn't feel water on her anymore, nor hear the sound of it crashing down on the ground and trees around her. The smell of the rain...
The scent of an unfamiliar creature entered her nose. It wasn't lion, thankfully. She also smelled the musty scent of a cave.
...Where was she?
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Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:14 pm
Kurai yawned, tail swaying now and then as he worked. He was stripping leaves from the thick stems of a healing herb. It was easy for him. He'd been doing such things for a long time. He hadn't exactly decided at birth that he wanted to grow up and be a medic, but hey, he was now. And he was darn good at it. Probably the best that he knew of.
Then again, he had the tendency to get a bit cocky when it came to his work.
Yawning again (he had been up all night looking after the leopardess he found, and it had taken quite a while to move her to his cave), he placed the newly-stripped leaves amongst the rest of the pile of leaves. They would be good for something. But it wasn't the leaves he had been after.
It was the stems.
Taking all the stems and lining them up side-by-side in half of a flat, hollowed rock, Kurai began kneading them with his paws. The juices came out easily and begin to fill the rock to the brim. The smell tickled the maned wolf's nose and he wrinkled his snout, snorting the scent out.
A soft groan snapped him out of his work and he looked to the leopardess who was lying not too far away. He padded over to her, glancing her up and down attentively. She was awake, it seemed. Well, she wasn't exactly supposed to be awake. She needed more rest. But he couldn't make her go back to sleep. What's done was done.
"You're alright, lady." Kurai said comfortingly, expression placid. "Go back to sleep, huh?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 10:46 am
Clotho's lips parted as she sucked in a rattling breath, eyes unable to open though they just were a moment ago. It hurt to breathe and she winced, but even the wincing caused her pain. There was no escape from it. Even as she lay still, the pain was still present.
The leopardess let out a small groan, frustrated by the endless waves of pain pulsing through her. She was powerless in that situation. And she had been powerless when those injuries had been given to her. What had she done wrong? She'd just told the truth to Durion...Hadn't she? Hadn't she told the truth?
What had she done wrong?
The calm, boyish-sounding voice to the left of her took her away from her confused thoughts. She swallowed dryly, lips curling from the effort.
Go back to sleep, he said? How could she when there was such pain keeping her awake? It was impossible.
Clotho shook her head by the smallest margin possible. It was all she could manage from the weakness in her muscles.
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Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 11:24 am
Kurai raised an eyebrow at the leopardess's gesture. He sighed and walked away from her to return to his medicine-making. He still had several steps to go through before his remedy was complete. Once it was, it would take most of the pain from the girl's mind. She wouldn't be able to feel much, but she wouldn't be numb, either. It had taken months of training for Kurai to perfect his technique for that remedy. It had paid off in the end. But he hadn't planned on the girl waking up before he was done. Now he'd have to struggle making the remedy while listening to the girl's pained groans.
How distracting...
"Well, don't sleep." Kurai slurred loudly, tail wagging to the side every now and then as he worked. He tore his claws along a few thick leaves and mixed the shreds into the juice. He fished a wooden bowl full of red powder off the shelf with his teeth and dumped a flush of it into the mix. The medicine swirled, colors mixing, and turned a deep purple color.
Kurai frowned.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
"...Wait, I forgot the..." Kurai mumbled to himself, fishing around in his ingredients. When he got so caught up in his work, it was easy for him to forget about his patient. It didn't even occur to him that the leopardess may be thirsty or hungry. Then again, she probably wouldn't be able to eat or drink anything anyway considering how pained she was...
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Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 11:54 am
The pink and white leopardess listened to the clatter and rustling the male was making. She strained her swollen ears to hear what he was saying and doing. From the sounds of things, he was moving wood an rocks around...And there was the sound of scraping leaves. What was he doing? No, more importantly...
...What was he?
Clotho took in a small, steady breath through her nose to try and pinpoint the male's scent. He was unlike anything she'd ever smelled. She was completely clueless as to his species. How odd...Clotho had seen many creatures who had either traveled into by choice or gotten lost in the jungle she called home. Not once had she ever smelled a creature like this. But she would never dream of asking him. That would've been rude.
Swallowing dryly again, chest rising and falling with trembling breaths, Clotho tried to speak. It was difficult, but she managed to get a few words out, despite the piercing pain it caused her voice.
"Where am I?" she asked.
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Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 10:31 pm
Having completely forgotten that the leopardess was even awake, Kurai was startled at the sound of her rasping voice. His paws fumbled during his mixing and he splashed some of his medicine out of its container.
Kurai closed his eyes, sighing heavily as he tried to keep hold of his patience. He shook the liquid from his paws, droplets splattering across the rock floor. He glanced over his shoulder at the leopardess, eying her wounded body. Her voice certainly hadn't sounded good. It was obvious that there was some inner damage. Well, more work for him...Then again, it was his choice to take that patient on. He couldn't just leave her to die now that he'd come that far. He was nearly complete with the pain-killer. But then that left a whole other portion of time preparing the healing medicines...Which would take a while. And if she had inner damage...
Curses...
"This is my temporary workplace, lady." Kurai answered, not bothering to turn around as he busied himself once more with his work. "You're in a cave."
Maybe she wanted water? Well, he'd get her some in a minute. Just after he added a few more things to that medicine...
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Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 10:38 pm
Clotho's mouth was terribly dry and her throat ached for water. If only she could find her voice again to tell the male so...But her words were like claws to the inside of her neck. It was impossible to speak unless she had some water to drink.
It was obvious that the male was trying to help if her had taken the trouble of moving her location to some place safe and out of the bad weather, but then, why was he taking so long to aid her? To take away the pain? To offer her food and drink?
Clotho's closed eyes winced at her ungrateful thoughts. She should've been happy to even receive the slightest bit of help, given her current situation. But she was just so hurt and thirsty...
The leopardess tried to speak once more, but the only sound that came out was a dry, raspy breath.
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Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 10:58 pm
"Okay, just a sec, just a sec," Kurai murmured, mixing the last bits of his remedy together. The colors swirled together and blended into a deep green color.
Kurai nodded, satisfied with the look. It was just right. And the perfect consistency, too. Tail wagging once in his satisfaction, Kurai gripped the flat, hollowed rock in his teeth, balancing it carefully, and brought it over to the leopardess. He placed it down slowly at her side and checked her over once. Her rasping breaths were enough to tell him that she had suffered damage to her throat and she was thirsty. Leaving the girl for a moment, he rushed back to his work space to collect some water in the vat he kept. It was positioned in a place that gathered a lot of rain water that leaked through the roof. It was pretty convenient. Kurai was quick to notice little things like that. Such things always came in handy to him in the future.
Kurai tilted the vat and poured some water into another rock container. He then carried that over to the leopardess. He nudged it near her mouth and tilted it, allowing small streams of water to flow into her open mouth bit by bit. There was no speech during the drinking.
After she had finished, Kurai busied himself with dipping his paws into the medicine he had taken pains to make, and smearing the goo into the girl's wounds delicately. It would take a while, he thought; there were a lot of wounds. But eh, he had nothing better to do. And he had come that far anyway. Why quit?
"So, what happened to you?" Kurai asked, trying to strike up a conversation with the barely-able-to-speak leopardess. But perhaps he spoke only to fill his own silence, figuring she wouldn't reply anyway.
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Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 9:06 am
At the first small taste and feel of cool water being poured into her mouth, Clotho began to drink it as quickly as she could; as quickly as her mouth and body would allow. It chilled and wet her dry, aching mouth and the water soothed her cracking throat. It eased her pain and filled her with a strong sense of being quenched. She was satisfied after emptying the small bowl of water.
Clotho swallowed and opened her eyes a bit, water having filled her with a small amount of energy to at least do that. Her vision was still blurry and her eyes wouldn't open all the way. But she could make out a blur of white and silver to the right of her. Still, she could not understand the shape of the creature, nor what he was exactly. But perhaps in time, she would. She tried to ease her curiosity with those thoughts.
The sudden feeling of an icy-cold substance being smeared into her wounds was both shocking and relaxing at the same time. Whatever it was was numbing the pain and pulsing heat her wounds were producing. She was relieved at that.
"I..." she started. But could not speak anymore.
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Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:05 pm
Kurai raised an eyebrow, face relaxed as he continued to spread the gooey substance over the open wounds of the leopardess. He didn't wince or look disgusted at the feeling of warm, bleeding flesh against his paw as he rubbed. In fact, he looked very comfortable in his work. Almost as if he enjoyed the idea that he was healing his patient.
Upon closer inspection (which was an easy feat considering how close Kurai was to the body of the leopardess), Kurai began to see just what had attacked the girl merely by examining the types of wounds she had. He decided that since leopards didn't play with their food (well, beat it around) and cheetahs didn't have such large claws, it was a lion who had attacked her.
Even after soundly deciding that, it didn't help ease the wolf's curiosity of why the event had taken place. But the girl was so torn up and hurt that it was impossible for her to speak. Well, in time she would heal...And then she'd be able to tell him. He just had to take one step at a time. The first step was getting this crap off of his paws and onto the wounds of the female. It was becoming tedious to him, but it had to be done. He was almost through, anyway.
"Looks like a lion got you, huh?" Kurai said lazily. He began to yawn and directed his face away from the female in politeness. Licking his muzzle, he turned back and spread the last bits of paste on female's neck wounds. "Well, whatever happened, it's over, right?" he said. "You're safe in here." With that, the wolf collected his medicine bowl from the ground and carried it back to his work station, where he began preparing his next medicine. The girl would be healed in no time.
Kurai smirked.
He was just that good.
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Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:12 pm
How the male had guessed it was a lion who had attacked her, Clotho didn't know. But even the word "lion" brought upon vivid, painful memories to her. Irritated, Clotho tried to suppress them into her head. When that didn't work, she tried to replace them. She began thinking about her two older sisters and peeling fruit in the Undergrove.
Perhaps when she was well again, she would leave on a journey. Perhaps she would go out and meet new, kind people and share with them their fortunes. Yes, traveling did sound nice...Maybe she would find some jewels to adorn herself with. Shining, golden jewels and rubies and sapphires...She'd always wanted some for her own. Thinking about the precious gems always calmed Clotho down. Face wincing slightly, a smile eased itself onto her face. Yes, she would go on a journey...Meet people and find herself some jewelry.
She would never see Durion again, in her thoughts or before her personally.
You're safe in here.
Clotho's face relaxed into a look of true peace. Her body was numb and cool to all pain as a result of the male's medicine. Thinking of all her happy thoughts, Clotho drifted off into a deep sleep.
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