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 Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:00 pm
 It had been a cloudy day, dull and overcast, rather like Marcor's recent mood. But now it was sunset, with the sun sinking into sight finally. It breached the lower edge of the clouds and sent blinding rays into his eyes. He squinted, pausing in his travels. He thought of turning aside, to avoid the brilliant light, but just then he caught sight of the clouds above him. Tipping his head back, he gazed in wonder. The clouds were on fire. Lit in fiery oranges, reds, yellows, and pinks, with the sinking sun altering the angle swiftly beneath them, it made it look as if a slow flame galloped across the underside of the cloudcover, consuming it without heat or noise, a silent wonder.
Now, Marcor might be the quiet, muscled type that many might assume had very little brains or imagination, but his quiet demeanor covered a deep and sincere love of beauty and natural loveliness. Not for him the decorated belles of some prides. He did not care for man's metals in strings around the throat, nor for him the odd not-hides draped over supple bodies. No, it was things like this that moved him. Something so fleeting, so rare, so wonderful, all he could do was stare in wonder while it lasted.
The color reached behind him, and he tipped his head back, back back, and began instinctively stepping backwards as well, attempting to engulf it all within his sight, to keep every vibrant color in his vision. He'd walked backward ten or twelve paces, heavy wide paws easily navigating the unseen and uneven ground, when something small leapt out of the ground right between his front paws with a high pitched and loud, "HEY!"
Before he could register what it was, caught unawares with his eyes on the clouds above, Marcor could not be blamed for leapting backwards convulsively. His momentum was such that it carried him quite a distance from the indignant meercat, half out of the ground. But even as he finally realized what had popped out of the ground, he slammed backwards into....
"YEEOWCH!"
He couldn't help the bellow of pain as his hind end connected with the backside of one of the oddest creatures of the roguelands. The equally alarmed, though not quite so pained, porcupine gave a grunting bleat of distress, raised its quills further, and backed towards Marcor menacingly. He had spun around by now of course, and was presented with the dangerous side of the squat animal. Dismayed, confused, and befuddled by pain, he leaned backwards in alarm, lowering his haunches towards the ground. This of course instantly dug the quills in his hindquarters deeper, with resulted in a further roar of pain and an automatic launching forward. He managed to save himself from getting more quills in the face, but ouly just.
With quills in his hind end as well as along his neck and right shoulder, he gave up the fight that had never began and hightailed it away from the mad zone of porcupine dens and meercat holes. Half-maddened with pain, he merely ran as if for his life, soon exhausting himself. Eventually he slowed, panting and shaking with shock. He couldn't sit, and he couldn't flop on his uninjured side for fear of jolting the ones in his backside. Defeated and still too much in pain to feel mortified, he began the tricky task of yanking the barbed quiills out of his shoulder with the opposite paw. It was impossible to turn and grab them in his jaws due to the ones in his neck. It didn't bleed much when he did get one or two out, but oh, how it hurt! Moaning and miserable, he managed to flatten himself, belly down, onto the ground, and there he lay panting and at a loss of what to do. Drat that meercat!
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 5:45 pm
 Sadara had been napping the heat of the day away in a comfortable tea tree, not to far off the ground, but far enough not to have to worry overly about being disturbed. That is until the large male came and roosted under her sanctuary. She was about to tell him to move on when she heard him moan and saw him fighting with something that obviously hurt.
She went still, suddenly cold. Had he been hit by the loud stick that had hurt so many of her Pride? Made them fall for no reason and not move again. Gods above, please do not let the two-legs be anywhere near. It wasn't until he flopped down onto his belly that she noticed he had quills sticking out of him in tender places.
" Ohh..." she heard herself saying, as she uncurled from the tree and glided down it gracefully, " You've managed to get hit by a porcupine. Don't brush at the quills like that, it will just make them latch on tighter."
The pale leopardess glided up to him, sitting down in front of his nose so he could see her clearly, " I know how to help, if you will let me? My cub hood friend is a healer. He taught me how to take care of minor scrapes and such. These quills are nasty business, and they can get infected if not taken out properly."
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 6:08 pm
By the time someone appeared, he was half out of his mind with pain. It wasn't the killing sort of pain that made him fear for his life, but it was the blinding kind that was like aprickly burr between the toes. It wiped nearly everything else from his brain, such that though he might normally have brushed off the leopardess and her offer to help. He gazed up at her gratefully and swallowed carefully, since doing so jostled the barbs in his neck.
"I am at your mercy," he said quietly, afraid to move his jaw or head very much. Of course, right now what concerned him most was those so close to his face. It hadn't yet occurred to him that the ones in his hindquarters needed to be removed as well... which would mean allowing a female very close indeed. Should he have been in his right mind, the very idea would have made him squirm and pin his ears in refusal. It wasn't that he was afraid of females... oh no, hot he! But his past made him wary of letting females too close, both physically as well as emotionally.
Good thing for him that he was so distracted by the pain, and so happy at the offer of help that he didn't stop to consider just how intimate such a procedure would have to be. "Just tell me what you want me to do."
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 6:49 pm
Sadara gave him an understanding smile, " You can start by you telling me your name. I am Sadara." She kept her voice gentle and calm, knowing how very dangerous a male could be when uncertain and in pain, a male rogue lion more so.
She made no move to touch him as she lowered herself onto her belly, her pale eyes inspecting the quills on his neck first, trying to gage how far they had gotten in past his fur. Lucky for him he had a very full and handsome mane, and that had helped shield him some.
" May I touch your neck? I promise I will be very careful and won't hurt you on purpose. I need to see how deep some of these are before I can start to remove them."
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 9:12 pm
He dropped his jaw slightly, tongue curving into a trough as he panted lightly. It was getting harder to concentrate beyond the acknowledgement of the pain, but he knew it was important to follow her instructions, whatever she told him to do. She knew better than him, and at this point he was completely willing to take her on her word. "My name is Marcor," he answered between pants. Normally he'd have given a solemn greeting in measured respect to her introduction, but not today, to be sure.
He held himself very still as she leaned nearer to inspect the quills, mind whirling and focusing on the oddest things. Within his mind, he was adamant that moving was a bad thing when she was trying to help him, but he also was visually mesmerized by her pale spots, a random pattern scattered across her hide so near. His enlarged pupils ran across her fur, over and over, finding and tracing a wriggly circular pattern along her shoulder. Some tiny, almost nonexistent part of him was screaming in the back of his mind that he shouldn't let her so near, that if she touched them, he'd hurt worse, but it was an easy voice to ignore amidst the shrilling pain of the quills.
When she asked him the question, for a moment it was nonsensical to him, but he tuned in enough to understand that she wouldn't do anything without his permission. He wasn't entirely aware that this was because he could do terrible damage to her, should he lash out or otherwise react physically to what she did. But her question reassured him further that she could be trusted. As reply, he carefully turned his head away from her and leaned towards her, exposing his neck more and presenting his be-quilled shoulder.
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Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 1:22 pm
She gave him a encouraging smile, and narrowed her eyes as she sniffed along one of the quills, nosing it very, very, carefully. Yes, it was embedded pretty deeply. Just pulling the quills out was not going to be an option. Sadara was going to need a few things before she could really tend to these wounds. Luckily, however, for Marcor, she still carried drop seed with her.
Liahu had cautioned her to keep it near for the occasional pain she might still get in her leg, and certainly after her cubs had been born it had been a true life savor. Not for the first time she sent a silent thank you to her cub hood friend.
" These are pretty deep Marcor. I will need to gather a few things so I can get them out without really hurting you. Most of them I can find around here, but I do have something with me already that you can chew now and it will help ease the pain. Give me a second."
She rose gracefully to her feet and stretched up on her hind legs to reach the branch she had been laying on. Her paw found her little carry pouch and she nosed it open, pulling out the bright red seed pods. Turning back to the lion she offered them to him flat on her paw.
"Here, you should be able to eat three of these, you are much larger than I am. Chew them till they are pulpy and then spit out the pulp. They taste pretty bitter, but I promise they will help."
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 2:00 pm
He hadn't been expecting to be told to chew on something. For a moment he stared at the seeds lying in her paw. Chewing them would help... how? He transferred his gaze from the seeds to her, his expression astonishingly vulnerable for any who were familiar to him. But he had agreed to let her help him, and if she said this would help, who was he to deny it? Unable to stifle the deep breath of trepidation, he leaned down and licked the seeds from her paw.
Sure enough, they were the bitterest thing he'd ever tasted. The herbal flavor was foreign on his tongue, causing him to make a rather ridiculous face of disgust. Still, he was no wimp, and doggedly continued to try to catch them between his teeth to mash them up. Muzzily he reminded himself to not swallow them, but he found himself having to swallow much saliva, which left a bitter trail down his throat. Ugh, what horrible stuff... but he had to admit, very quickly he was feeling more relaxed. His muscles loosened, and the urgent need to hold still began to slip away.
All mashed, he observed dreamily, realizing there wasn't much to catch between his teeth anymore. What was he supposed to do now? There was something... oh yes. Dutifully, he spit out the pulp, sticking out his tongue and wrinkling his lips back. Bleh. Why had he agreed to put those in his mouth? Lids half-lowered, he swung his head to look for the leopardess who was helping him, though the motion made the quills scrape and rattle against each other. "Where did you go?"
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 6:25 pm
Sadara had known that chewing the drop seeds would take the male a fair bit of time and their bitter taste would keep him distracted enough that he'd not notice her gone until she was back. She'd been right.
It had only taken her a few moments to find the featherfew and the devil's claw. The featherfew, with its happy yellow feather like roots she could use to fight infection from the quills, and the devil's claw, with its tiny hooks on the ripe fruit, the leopardess would use to control the male's pain topically.
" I am here Marcor," she whispered to him softly, placing a paw on his huge one gently, " I had to gather a few herbs to help me." She lifted her pale eyes to look into his green ones honestly, " This is going to hurt, even with the drop seed. I am so sorry."
She laid the herbs out and began to mash up the devil's claw fruit in her paws, working it into a pulpy mess, dying her white fur a deep purple. " Do you think you can lay down on your side for me, so I can reach your neck easily Marcor?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 7:13 pm
Loopy, but certain he should be alarmed about something, he gave a great sigh when she laid her paw on his. Her voice was soothing, and in his blurry state, he willingly let it help him relax. She wouldn't be talking so nice and soft if things weren't going to okay, right?
Without replying, he did as she asked, kind of just shifting his weight to his uninjured side and easing back to lay down fully. His neck and shoulder bristled like an army of two legs with sticks brandished. He grunted as the quills in his haunches caught on each other and his tail, pulling at his skin and sending another wave of urgency through him, though he was again rather fuzzy on what the problem actually was.
She warned him of the pain, but when he turned his eyes to her, all he could think was that the purple was a pretty color on her paws, a deeper echo of the cool spots all over her. He smiled stupidly up at her and shrugged, making the quills rattle again. "S'okay," he slurred. "I'm strong." What he meant, of course, was that he was tough enough to handle the pain. However, and she set to work, pain did indeed sear through his bloodstream, hot and burning like liquid fire.
He sucked in a deep breath and let loose a deep growl, curling his lips back and baring his teeth. Despite this aggressive reaction, he remained laying down, and did not turn towards her with those teeth. Instead, he gritted his jaw and flexed the claws out of one paw, as if grasping something. Even in his drugged state, he knew clearly that hurting this soft-spoken female was wrong, and would solve nothing of his pain.
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Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:52 pm
Sadara really hated to hurt him, he seemed like he could be a very nice male when he wasn't in so much pain. The very fact that he didn't rip her open with the very formidable set of teeth he was showing was at least some proof of that.
Getting her teeth around the first quill, she pulled as firmly and as quickly as she could, bringing it out quickly like Liahu had shown her, then rubbing the purple mush over it immediately to stop some of the sting. She moved on to the next as fast as she could, until she got all the ones out of his face, and had smeared the purple colored herb over his muzzle and neck till it looked like he had been rolling in a patch of berries. It brought a smile to her muzzle despite the dire situation that he was in.
" Why don't you rest a bit before we move down on to you flank? I know it hurts, even with the drop seed. I can risk giving you a little more if you think you need it." There was a deep not of concern in her voice, and she placed her purple stained paw along his check, pushing back some of his mane to look into his eyes.
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Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:24 pm
All he could do was lay there and pant. The pain had seemed unending, and still left him with flaring points of brightness in his eyes. Moisture leaked just slightly from his eyes, though his fierce expression made it clear that they were not tears, merely further expression of the pain. His teeth were still clenched together, despite the fact that she no longer was pulling the quills out. He sucked a deep breath through his teeth, then let it hiss back out the same way. Bad enough on his neck and shoulder, but how would he endure them being removed from a more delicate spot.
Despite the drug, the sensations had cleared most of the fog from his mind, and he was once more acutely aware of the situation, of what was wrong and what needed to be done. The question was, did he wish to blur his mind once more for the sake of the pain? He knew now that in the end it wouldn't help overly much. The affect of the seed was minimal and short lived before the kind of shock removing the quills gave him. Still, his neck and shoulder were slowly beginning to ebb, the roar of pain reducing to a deep throb. Perhaps he could endure it without the dulling affect.
Without releasing his jaw muscles, he shook his head, pleased to no longer hear and feel the rattle of quills as he did so. If he hadn't already had proof of how difficult the creatures were to get ahold of, he'd have vowed then and there to kill every single one he came across. Under the circumstances, though, it seemed wiser to give them a wide, wide berth, and advise others likewise. Sucking another large breath in, he tossed his head back towards the remaining quills in indication she should continue. The indignity of it wasn't even an issue at the moment. He just wanted them OUT!
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:07 pm
"All right, no drop seed now, but when I get them all out, you'll take some, then rest under this tree while I go find us something to eat."
With out waiting for a reply or argument, Sadara went straight to work. She grabbed each quill, twisted and pulled, then smeared that purple past over where it had been. The leopardess worked quickly and with skill, till she got all the quills out. Of course by then the male looked more purple then blue and she was stained up to her elbows in the color.
"That is the last of them, but you won't be traveling for a few days. I doubt your leg will hold you, or your neck be able to turn once the swelling sets in. We'll have to use this tree for shelter. Lucky for you its by this good solid tree that fell over."
She eyed the wood, then nodded. " All right, drop seed for you, and work for me." She held out her paw and the seeds in on it for him to take.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 10:59 am
Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to bear the pain as they were removed. His vision swam and his whole body shtrilled with alarm. He dug his claws into the earth to keep from lashing out irrationally. She was helping, she was helping, she was helping... he kept chanting it in his mind, a constant reminder that the pain was not her fault, even though she was inflicting it. The tip of his tail lashed, but only the tip. Otherwise, his hind end held extremely still. He nearly swallowed his tongue trying to contain roars of outrage and pain. Such sounds would not only sully his masculinity, in his own eyes, but more importantly they could attract predators who might sense his weakened state. What kind of lion would he be if he not only got himself into this trouble, then forced this female through the indignity of removing the quills, only to leave her alone to face hungry opportunists?
He managed to keep it all inside, though his whole body vibrated with pain, even after she stopped pulling them out. He nodded mute agreement to take the drop seeds from her, jaw flexed. it was quite an effort to unclench it in order to accept the medication. He chewed determinedly, though his eyes were hazed and defocused. Obediently he spit out the remains, then lay his head down, whole body tensed against the continuing pain. It was a great relief when he realized his mind was drifting and his muscles were relaxing. By the time she'd left, he was completely unaware, passed out beneath the pain and drug.
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