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 Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:13 pm
She had decided against bringing an edible gift since she had quite some way to travel and didn't wish to hurry. Catching something on the way was a possibility, but she had found a nice selection of early herbs that would probably be a more appropriate gift for this particular apothecary.
Craneberry was flying to visit Drywood, a male she had known since she was very young and who was right up there on a pedestal next to Auntie Lichen. She knew he wasn't quite like others, but for a long time he had been the only apothecary she'd known so his quirks only seemed natural to her. As far as she knew back then every apothecary out there had a huge snake and behaved like him. She had later learned that wasn't the case, but Drywood was Drywood, and he was supposed to be like that.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:00 pm
The Apothecary in question was so far unaware that he was about to receive yet another visitor. He could have been out hunting right now, but despite his bouts of restless energy that had already made him clean out the hollow (something of an accomplishment, considering how meticulously clean he usually kept it, that it could actually get even cleaner) and mix about twice as much powdered medicine as he actually needed for the coming month, he somehow felt too tired to do some actual hunting. Which had led him to do some "cleaning out" of his potential experiment subjects as well. A couple of Mus that he had caught in the wild and deemed a little bit too wild to be truly useful had met a swift and effective end, and were now laid out before him, sorted by colour from brightest to darkest. They did look delicious, and the Apothecary knew that he really ought to eat something, but every time he tried to pick one up in his beak, the thought almost made him nauseous. Tails had eaten plenty only a night or two back, and didn't want any either, even though he tried offering them to her. Drywood sighed, and begun rearranging the dead rodents according to size, taking great care to have each creature lined up exactly like the other.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:43 pm
Craneberry smiled as she started to recognise the landmarks near Drywood's territory. Over there were those intertwined trees, and she could see a familiar birch with its oddly shaped tree fungus. Below her was that big mossy rock, but she didn't fly close enough to identify the different kinds of moss. She picked up her pace, excited to be there soon. With a jubilant hoot she landed in one of the trees Drywood's territory, barely avoiding crushing the contents of the bag she was holding. She didn't perch in his tree of course, since that would be rude. And more importantly: it might upset Tails if she was in a mood.
"Uncle Drywood," she called, "It's me. Are you busy?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:56 pm
Drywood straightened up with a surprised little "Oh!" ear tufts perking up considerably at the unexpected call. Up until now, he had thought that he would rather be left alone for a while, but the owner of this voice was different.
For starters, she was the only Sentinel in all of Noctua who habitually called him "uncle." Only too happy to forget everything else for a moment, the Apothecary found himself excitedly hopping towards the exit to receive his guest, even as he answered her call:
"Craneberry, my dear! How good to hear your voice. Do come on over, won't you?"
Tails, who had been watching her Master playing with his food, lifted her head and flicked her tongue at the sudden shift of his mood.
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Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 9:34 am
Craneberry didn't need to be asked twice and had soon settled on a branch in the dead tree that was Drywood's home. She remembered when she had first landed in this tree, and how excited she had been. Both thrilled to meet a real Apothecary and incredibly proud to have managed to fly there herself. It had been quite an accomplishment for a fledgling after all. She had visited him several times after that first trip with Lichen, and he was one of the Apothecaries that had helped her learn the trade.
"Good to see you," she chirped cheerfully, placing her bag of herbs beside her, "I picked up a few fresh herbs on the way. There might be something you need perhaps? I just hope I didn't crush the fragile ones on the way..."
She was excited to be there, but not excited enough to forget her post flight preening and stretching. The warm season was much better for her wings than the cold, but she didn't dare to slack off with her stretching exercises.
"So," she said when she had finished and was ready for some conversation, "Is anything exciting happening in your parts of the woods?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 9:34 pm
The change was instant. From having been excitedly cooing over Craneberry's arrival and the fresh herbs (to the point where he couldn't seem to stand still), Drywood suddenly froze in mid-motion as he was trying to peek into the bag. Ear tufts slowly beginning to droop as that sense of heaviness came over him again, he forced himself to keep smiling and gave himself a quick preen in a feeble attempt to hide his discomfort.
"Exciting? Hummm... Well, I do suppose that when one lives so far out on the edge, anything that actually happens can be considered exciting, is it not so?" He turned away and hopped back towards the opening of his hollow, smile faltering at the edges as he continued in a somewhat subdued tone, filled with nervous little cracks:
"Then I dare say I have had quite a bit of excitement recently, yes. Unexpected visits. And such. But do come in, my dear, you must be exhausted. I have cleaned out my stock of Mus and was just about to have a bite, but it would seem as though I don't quite have the appetite for it just now. I'd be delighted to offer you some."
Tails' blunt nose peeked out of the hollow. The Serpe already knew who this visitor was from the voice and the way its claws scraped against the hard, dry wood, but she had made something of a habit of greeting this one by appearing in plain sight. Sometimes there was a treat or a nice compliment in it for her troubles, and Tails had found that she was not entirely immune to such flattery.
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Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:57 pm
Craneberry might not be the most observant of Sentinels when it came to the inner workings of others, and Drywood was notoriously hard to read, but it was painfully obvious that something had rattled him. For a fleeting moment she wondered if there was something bad in her bag, then she made the connection to the visits he suddenly started to talk about. He was just not like himself tonight. She gave him a worried glance, but followed him inside without further questions. He'd tell her, right? If he didn't... No, he would.
"A bit to eat would be nice," she said before she noticed the Serpe and changing the pitch of her voice into a coo, "Did someone just shed? You look very shiny tonight Tails."
Longtail was another welcome sight, but right now she was just a temporary distraction. He better start talking soon, because Craneberry still possessed the talent of asking a lot of questions, repeatedly, until she got an answer.
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Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 3:29 pm
Longtail acknowledged the compliment by settling her head down on her coils, and watched Craneberry as if carefully considering the words behind her black, reptilian eyes. After a moment that could be considered as a hesitation, she flicked her tongue and replied, "Well-come."
Then she turned away and slithered off toward Drywood's sleeping-spot, feeling she had done quite enough socializing for one night. Especially since she wasn't interested in pushing for any treats this time. Still, she would be available if anyone felt the need to preen her or anything, and she made that clear by hanging one massive loop over the edge of the bedding.
Drywood, on the other hand, felt restless even as he offered up the fresh Mus to his former student. "Be my guest, my dear," he cooed through a forced smile, trying but failing to purge his mind of looming troubles to be able to fully enjoy her company, the way he usually did. The momentary distraction that her appearance had given him had been too lovely not to try to recapture.
"How are your parents? Well, I hope? So, what brings you to these parts of Noctua, my dear?" He had to admit, even to himself, that he sounded like he was babbling rather aimlessly, and tried to hide it by smiling even wider.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 11:15 am
Craneberry smiled fondly as she watched Tails settle down again. She had grown to realise why Drywood appreciated the reptile so much, and had learned to love her little quirks. Sure, the Serpe could be a bit moody and cranky at times, but if you knew how to deal with her she always came around. And despite the fact that she could probably kill a small Sentinel if she wanted, Craneberry found her quite harmless. She had even started to consider looking up a good Serpe keeper and perhaps get her own.
She gratefully picked out one of the plump culls without too much prompting and since she had a Mus halfway down her throat when Drywood started to bombard her with questions she could not answer right away.
"Ah, yes, they're fine," she said after swallowing, coughing and trying to compose herself again, "But they keep bringing a lot of food for me when they visit. I guess I'll be their little fledgling forever..."
She didn't mind too much, and she had been able to trade the skins and some left overs for useful things like the bag she carried now. In the eyes of the clan she was an adult now, but in the eyes of her parents... Well, it might just be one of those things that you have to get used to.
"Actually," she continued, "I came for some of your medicine. I've almost run out and my own blend is simply not as good. I don't know if the quality of the herbs are different or if it's your superior way of measuring..."
She trailed off, glancing at the visible part of Tails. She wondered if all Serpe could be taught to measure like that, but she had a feeling she'd have to find her own way. With only a few seasons as an apothecary she couldn't expect to have fine-tuned all her techniques.
"But never mind that," she continued abruptly, "I can tell something is bothering you, so you might as well tell me what it is."
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:42 pm
Drywood straightened up, even his ear tufts rising slightly at the praise for his work, and his wide smile became more natural for a moment.
"Well, as I always say, for an Apothecary, the correct measurements are the wings and eyes of the..." His tirade was cut short by her abrupt interruption, and ended in a choked little whimper. For a brief moment he remained frozen in place, beak hanging open, smile still in place, but then he realised that the gig was up, and it was almost with pleasure that he finally let the facade drop.
He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and sank down until his sleeked feathers made him look almost sickly thin. His face collapsed in much the same way. The wide smile evaporated, his beak sank until his suddenly quite dull eyes were watching the floor.
He looked like a scolded fledgling, and perhaps due to the straight-forward, no-nonsense way that Craneberry had spoken to him, he rather felt like one, too - but in a good way, however strange that was.
"I... I... I'm rather at a loss," he admitted with a sigh. "I foolishly allowed myself to pretend that... well, that it wouldn't happen to me, but... well... it did. Didn't it?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:54 pm
Watching Drywood deflate was both mesmerizing and more than a little bit frightening. She had never seen him in such a state and was almost afraid he would break if she pushed him too hard at this point. But his answer didn't actually tell her much more than what she had already suspected. Something was very wrong.
"We can talk about the medicine later," she said gently, "But you're confusing me. What... what happened to you?"
A thousand different scenarios flew through her head, each worse than the last. Had he been injured in some way? An accident while working perhaps? Or... Oh, please say he didn't kill anyone. Apothecaries had to deal with less death than Medics, but there were still the risk that a patient could die. All apothecaries would eventually have to deal with the fact that their elderly clients just happened to die from natural causes. A more sinister possibility was patients dying from an error of the apothecary. They were only Sentinels, not gods, and mistakes did happen. But to Drywood? Please, no.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:18 pm
The gentleness of the younger Apothecary's tone brought him back to himself a little bit, and he glanced up at her, realising that his latest statement hadn't exactly made a lot of sense. Still, his eyes were full of worry, his feathers still sleeked and his face remarkably unsmiling as he shuffled his feet and searched for the right words.
"It's... I..." he swallowed, frowning in concentration. He realised that to most Sentinels, things like these must come much more easy. At least if the survival of the species was anything to go by. It was a difficult thing for him to do, to admit what he was about to say to another Sentinel, let alone one that he appreciated, but...
"It appears as though... I am expected to be mated. Soon. And... I... don't know what to do." He glanced up at Craneberry again, awaiting her reaction with a slight sense of dread. "I really have no idea."
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:50 pm
Craneberry couldn't quite hide her relief when her worst fears turned out to be no more than imagination. A mate? That was it? She supposed it'd be a bit harder to a Chestnut since he'd need to find another Chestnut. When she thought about it she couldn't recall ever seeing or meeting another one. Drywood had always been one of a kind. It didn't occur to her that his mate was already picked out and waiting in the woodworks.
"Thank Noctus," she said, and then realised how heartless it must have sounded, "I'm sorry, but I just imagined something worse, some kind of accident. Not that this isn't bad, but... what makes it so bad? Do you need help finding someone?"
A mate might actually be good for him, she mused. If only he could find someone nice, someone who wouldn't bother him about his experiments and who could perhaps help him out with the things he weren't as good at. But she supposed those kind of girls didn't exactly grow in trees.
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 4:02 am
Drywood tilted his head in confusion at her relief, but understood her reasoning as she explained it. Not that his current predicament wasn't equal to having to deal with an accident, to his own mind. He let out a slow breath in a quiet hum, and studied his own talons again, as they begun scraping restlessly against the hard wood floor.
"No, no... she has already been selected for me. This is the way of the Minor types, I should have been expecting... should have been preparing... But I don't even..." He halted himself, and looked up at his young associate, inspecting her almost as if for the first time. Clearing his throat, he straightened up a little. A brand new consideration had struck him, and the only thing that kept him hesitant to act on it was his own shyness, and personal pride. However, the stakes here were just too great, and the reality of the situation simply too imminent, for him to keep clinging to notions such as those.
Besides, he did trust Craneberry. Not many Sentinels that he knew seemed to accept, and even like, him as unconcernedly as she did.
"Say, Miss Craneberry... You are female. Might I ask you for a consultation?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 1:19 am
Already selected for him? Well... in her opinion it was a bit weird, but at least it solved the problem of chasing single Chestnut females. That would have been a bother. She didn't know much about the minor types, and had mostly assumed that they were much like regular Sentinels, only fewer. But apparently there was a lot she didn't know about their traditions.
"Is she... nice?" she asked, starting to suspect that part of Drywood's distress perhaps stemmed from being set up with someone horrible. Oh, she better not try to mess with him just because she was going to be his mate! But she didn't voice any death threats against the female just yet, because Drywood was looking at her very intensely, almost making her feel uncomfortable.
"Say, Miss Craneberry... You are female. Might I ask you for a consultation?"
"Yees..." she said, briefly wondering if this whole business had knocked something loose in his head, "I am a female. You know that. Err... What kind of consultation?"
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