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 Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:23 am
 " Well, that was anticlimactic." Bitter End said, glancing briefly back on the strange hulking structure they left behind with Never Idle. " Time to move on, I suppose." With a significant follow me look, End lead the way to continue their search.
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:23 am
Sleepless trudged along behind her, too sulky to protest. Her ankles still hurt - she was pretty sure some of the bites were still bleeding, and when she had wanted to look for some yarrow, or burdock, Bitter End had declared she was just making names up now.
So she hated everything right now, and she hated Bitter End most of all.
Small wonder it was, then, that none of the cheery birdsong penetrated her gloom - till the low sound of a…whimpering? A whimpering bird? Caught her ear.
”Did you hear that?” she said, already starting to follow the sound.
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:26 am
She had not heard a thing, being quite caught up in her own headspace as usual, but didn't feel honest enough to admit so. "Is that Yarrow, or is that Burdock?" She sneered, but turned to trot with her - it wasn't hard since she was wounded and slow. "You'd better not be wasting our time."
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:27 am
Sleepless completely ignored her, a skill she was improving at all the time.
The forlorn little cries were growing louder - though scarcely - and finally she tracked it down to the base of a tree, where the weakest flutter of a wing caught her eye.
”Oh, it is a bird,” she said, brushing leaves away till the dazed bird was laid bare. Its right wing was bloodstained, the red slowly spreading ever more along its pale plumage.
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:27 am
End stooped to view it, eyes softening for an instant before they hardened, viciously, and she shook her head.
"Such is the cruelty of the Motherfather. These innocents put into the swamp only to be put down, to realise the insignificance of their little lives. Shall you sing one more, little bird? I fear to give you the answer."
She shook her head again, dramatically.
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:30 am
It was amazing how easy it was to tune out a voice once you’d gotten used to the frequency.
She peered at the bird, feeling the beat in the heaving breast, tracing the source of the spreading blood. She was in her element, really - it felt almost like she was at home again, in her isolated little abode, surrounded by specimens and herbs and markers as she worked meticulously on one of her test subj - ah, patients.
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:31 am
"Stay your hoof, Sleepless," she announced critically, clearly swinging well into her monologue. "for how could it that your touch that knows to kill would know to heal? It is far too easy for beings like us to destroy than to preserve, to take than to give. But oh, to give! If one could feel joy in giving." End paused to lick her lips and watch the bird's thudding chest. "It is but a selfish impulse. No one is selfless. Not you, little bird, and nor me."
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:31 am
Okay, so it wasn’t that easy to tune her all out.
Sleepless rolled her eyes, delicately nosing through each feather on the stricken right wing. If she could just trace it to the source and find the offending quill, there was a decent chance that…ah hah!
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:32 am
"Farewell little bird," She bit off her words, "I say your last rites. Your pathetic life - of food, of song, of sex - comes to its bitter end. Farewell, and may you fare better if the cruel Motherfather -"
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:33 am
“It’s not going to die,” she interrupted.
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:33 am
Bitter End was somewhat disappointed.
"Oh." She said tartly, now that her eulogy was wasted. "Well, what's wrong with it? It looks pretty bloody."
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:33 am
It’s just a broken blood feather,” she said, picking through the fluff, ”Well, not ‘just’, it can be pretty dangerous, but the bird doesn’t seem to have lost too much blood. Yet, anyway. It’ll probably be fine if I can just get the quill out.”
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:35 am
"Lucky bird." She noted wryly, watching a patch of blood spread in little feathery tendrils. "So now what? Are you gonna do something?"
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:35 am
”Oh boy,” she huffed, surveying the ground, ”This isn’t going to be easy, but...here - you hold it down. Gently, mind.”
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Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 11:37 am
Doing something wasn't exactly in Bitter End's skills, but since she was already out of her element, she relented. Carefully she lifted a hoof and pressed down on its still-shaking tummy, mildly terrified that she would accidentally squish the blood out of it. It felt somewhat fruity in heft and volume.
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